DIY Lamp

We bought a very plain, cheap lamp from Target and used some stencils from one of my favorite books Printing By Hand and walla! A very cute, unique lamp. It was super easy and took no time at all.

And I love how it looks

It was pretty easy, at cheap.

1. Buy lamp/lamp shade, acrylic pain (spray paint would be a lot easier) and sticky wall (or contact) paper.

2. Draw stencils of whatever you want onto the sticky paper and cut it out

3. Place on lamp shade

4. Paint or spray paint evenly,

5. Let dry (keep paper on)

6. Pain lamp base. I mixed a variety of browns to get the wood "feel". I used acrylic and it worked fine.

7. Paint the shade another one or couple coats to spread evenly

Annnnd.... thats about it. Wait for it to dry, pull the stencils off and you've got an awesome lamp!

Sleepy Beauty

orrrrr "sleeping handsome" I suppose.

Regardless, check out these pictures I took of Levi sleeping in his big boy room

I snuck in his room late one night and took these in the pitch black (which is a little more challenging then you'd think). So the light is coming from my speedlight on my camera. He didnt wake up, which amazed me, and I got some great shots.

The best part about the whole thing is that Levi loves two bears which are very very special to both me, and my husband. I always wanted Levi to have a special animal or blanket but it never really happened. Then, as he got older he found a love for these two bears, Teddy and Fuzzy.

The special part is that Fuzzy was actually Steves as a little boy and Teddy.... well, you guess it, was mine :)

So he had Teddy in the front....

and Fuzzy in the back

Fabrics for Levis Bed

I am very very picky about fabrics. And living in Alaska, its hard to find good fabric (without paying a fortune) so I started browsing on etsy months ago. I finally found the perfect collection for Levis duvet cover (coming soon).

And the base of his bed(also coming soon) is going to be the wood grain fabric but a dark brown version.

DIY Bird Mobile

So, in addition to my leaf mobiles above the dresser, I wanted to add something above Levis bed. After all, every nursery just needs something over the bed.... right?

Am I even allowed to call his room a nursery.... what is the word for a toddler room? hmmm

Anyways I made this little mobile to hang above his bed

It was actually pretty easy. I traced some silhouettes that I wanted to use on fabric, cut them out, sewed along the lines and turned them inside out and stuffed them. I will say though, on a few, I didnt turn them rightside out. It was hard to get all the details and I kind of liked the look of the unfinished edge.

Then, I used a hot glue gun to attach the string. I could have sewn it but didnt think about that till after. I added a little flower to hide all the glue.

Then I attached the string to the "wreath". I bought this at Jo Annes for under $4. I then tied for strings to the stop and attached them to a hook that we placed in the ceiling.

Pretty simple

DIY Earthy Whimsical Mobile

So because we decided to do a forest theme I wanted to do some things with leaves and lots of browns, cremes, greens and even a little yellow. Because we cant paint, I wanted to add flare and something unique and I thought that some fun mobiles would be perfect!

I took an idea from a wonderful tutorial from one of my very favorite websites Young House Love from here and then obviously changed it up a bit since pink flowers were just not going to cut it.

Heres what became of my project

Above Levis dresser/changing table

Now, it is a lot harder to create some what of an "orb" with wire. The best way I found was to wrap it in a circle (as big as you want) 4 or 5 times and tie it. I did this twice, then tied the centers together and kind of starting fanning out each wire as I went. Hope that makes sense.

I am so happy with how they turned out! Even my serious, very particular (in other words, picky) husband was impressed and wants me to make more for our room! It is simple yet adds enough to really change the look of the area! And Levi (almost 2) loves it. He talks about the "leafs" and how they are "flying" all the time. So so so cute!

Levi's moving out

Of our room! (not our house, silly)

Well, after much discussion, we decided it was time to move Levi into his own room. He is almost 2 and I thought it would really be better for him and his sleep. Now he typically sleeps 4-5 hours in there and then comes to our bed (which is perfect for us) and now he has everything in his own room and his own space. I love it!

We are still big advocates of cosleeping, obviously, because we've been doing it for close to 2 years but now Levi was showing interest in sleeping in his own bed so we thought it was a good opportunity.

I will be showing progress pictures and all of the little crafts we will be doing! Hope you will be inspired and find some fun ideas for your home also!

A New Year

So its already February (valentines day, to be exact) and we have had a pretty great start off to the year. I feel like Im busy and going non stop but then when people ask what Im up to, Im at a loss for words..... So I suppose Ill try to summarize it (and make up some excuses as to why I havent been blogging).

Well, Steve and I started this year with a lot of goals and really focused on God and our future and what He has planned for us next. We began the Daniels Fast in January and although we completed the 21 day fast, we continued on because we didn't feel quite done yet. Now although we are still doing most of the fast, we went on a nice date and ate some sugar (still vegan) and also had a tiny treat today for Valentines.

Im not really sure when we'll feel like we're ready to be done. I think we might continue using the food list as a guide line but add some things back into our diet (mainly bread) but trying to keep some things to a minimum (sugar, processed foods). But one thing is for sure, we are definitely going to try to continue reading and praying daily like we are now. I am feel SO much better and I am seeing a big difference in Steve. Its so wonderful.

Also, Levi is HUGE and growing so fast and we have some big, exciting things coming up BUT I will share more in the next few posts. I am OCD and like to have separate posts for separate topics, so bare with me! I promise, it'll be worth it.