DIY 1/2 Birthday!

I have been so busy I neglected my blogging time.

But this week  was Piper's Half Birthday!  I wanted to show you how we celebrated. Everything is an easy DIY project. First off I love the cute half birthday onies on Etsy, but they are a little to pricy for me. With the help of my local craft store I was able to make a cute onsie for $3.45!  I found mine at Micheals and used a 40% off online coupon.

                                             
                                         Tulip Iron On Transfer Sheets Glitter


Next I printed off the word Half and traced it onto the glitter sheet. The sheet is so thin you can see through it enough to trace any image you place underneath.  After I finished tracing I used an exacto knife to cut it out. I picked out a longsleeve onise that we alreay owned to iron on the image. No need to waste money. It turned out pretty cute, and it was fun to take photographs of Piper in her Half Birthday shirt.

 I also baked a Funfetti Cake for my husband and I to enjoy after I snapped a pic of Piper next to it. I cut the cake in half  stacked and frosted it with the Funfetti icing & sprinkles pack.

 Easy 1/2 Birthday Fun!

Oh Baby, It's Valentine's Day!

Valentine’s Day is different this year.  I am a SAHM so money and time are limited to spend on my husband. But you should always try to find time for each other and celebrate together. So this Valentine’s Day we are having a French themed night. I love a theme and my husband loves to cook together. My husband and I scoured Pinterest for easy yet appealing dinner and dessert options. We found Chicken au Champagne for dinner, the selling point the recipe calls for champagne. For dessert French Choux Chantilly- also known as cream puffs.

Here are the links for both:

Chicken-au-champagne

Cream Puffs

While we are cooking we will have a glass of something and listen to a Pandora station. You can search for anything on Pandora; we are going to listen to French music to go with our dinner and dessert theme.  There are also some fun movies set in France for kids and adults.

Mom and Dad only:

·         French Kiss

·         Amélie

If you are having the kids join in the fun:

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Ratatouille

I hope your Valentine’s Day is magnifique !

Rock-a-bye Baby

What should a baby wear to sleep? It seems like a silly question, but with all the sleeping rules I was frantic to figure something out. Piper was born in October and it did not get cold for a few months, so here’s my monthly rundown of what we used:

October (newborn) 

We swaddled for as long as we could but she has always been an “active” sleeper and was busting out of the swaddle blankets by the end of the first month.  If you are going to use them the Velcro ones like this saved the day, especially when we were feeding in the middle of the night. I registered for some swaddle muslin blankets that I used as light blankets now. Who needs to struggle to wrap their baby back up? I was never any good at origami.    

swaddle

November – December (2-3 months)

I switched to a sleeping sack, I used one made out of cotton with no sleeves, and dressed her in a long sleeve onesie and socks.

sleeveless sleep sack

December-January (3-4 months)

 The temperature finally dropped so I found these super cute fleece footed sleepers. They sell them at Target and Walmart for $7-$12, and the sizing is pretty spot-on. We also invested in a long sleeve fleece sleep sack, for extra cold nights. The sleep sacks have come in handy because Piper has started to roll over at night, and the sleep sacks seem to impede the rolling over more that the footed fleece sleepers.  Under the sleep sack I dress her in a short sleeve onesie and socks. 

                                               

    footed sleeper options                              fleece sleep sack

I hope this helped, sweet dreams everybody.

Rug Rat 2

Well this post took a long time. I switched up my design and the materials I used.

So here are the list of items:

  v  Foam roller

  v  White high gloss house paint

  v  Paint tray

  v  Masking Tape

 

taping

all finished ready for paint

                                 

I taped off my pattern and then tried to paint it with the craft paint I bought, but that soaked into the carpet. So I looked at some other peoples painted carpet tutorials online and they were using house paint so I gave it a go. I decided to just use one coat I did not want much of a contrast between the original sisal color and the white paint.

The masking tape worked well and the paint did not bleed underneath. Here is the finished product. All it needs now is a layer of scotch guard.

Rug Rat

So, I am going to start a project. What took little effort in the past, like running to the grocery store or doing a DIY, now takes forever. Anyway, this is a before picture of my supplies and the rug. I am trying to spruce up an old sisal rug that needs a face lift. 

    

        

Holiday, Celebrate!

After having my daughter Piper this past October, the holidays came fast and furious.  Celebrating with a new baby was fun, but anxiety producing. Halloween was a nice holiday to start with since there is no prep involved. Piper wore a black cat onesie and took pictures by a pumpkin, that was all mom and dad could handle. Piper was only about three weeks old so even bringing her around other people was a mental hurdle I had to get over. I love pediatricians but they really scare the crap out of you at the beginning about not bringing your little one out of the house at all. So, here is our lovely Halloween photo.

Our Black Cat

Thanksgiving was more fun since my daughter was older and I was almost at the magical six weeks mark. Honestly, Thanksgiving gave me something else to focus on besides my sixth week checkup that I googled about incessantly.   Thanksgiving also falls around, if not on, my anniversary, so this month we also had our first date night out. It was the strangest feeling, like you have misplaced something but then keep remembering, “No she is safe and being taken care of.” Up until that point we had been doing date nights in. Usually it involved a theme because I love a theme. I think it comes from all my years of teaching preschool. Anyway I will share a few of my favorite date night ideas in a later post. So all in all the month of November was fun and I felt like I was getting the hang of this mom thing.

Christmas Tree Farm

December was by far the fastest moving month.  By this time Piper had learned to smile, laugh, and babble, along with rolling onto her side.  To keep the cost of Christmas down my husband and I exchanged stockings. Each year we have a monetary limit and a theme. This is a cute website that gives a lot of good ideas about new family traditions, including the themed Christmas stockings. http://mothersniche.com.

 I hope your holidays were fun and that you’re off to a great new year!

About Me

Welcome to my little experiment.

I am a first time mom who has transitioned into staying at home. I never loved cooking, organizing, or anything deemed domestic. Having my daughter made me want to try and pull off super mom. Since this is my first go at it, I am also trying to stay positive when things don’t go as planned or aren’t perfect.  If you are wondering about the dayglow part, the word dayglow brings to mind happiness, so this is me trying to be happy staying at home and being a mom and wife.  I hope you stop by and join me on my journey to becoming a happy, satisfied new mom.