Circus Party

My son's circus birthday party was so much fun to plan.  Thanks to my endless searching online and at the dollar store, making things ourselves, and borrowing what we could from friends, we only spent about $100!

I wish I had been able to get some pictures before the kids started to arrive but it was a crazy day.  Luckily I do have a bunch of pics from during the party! Enjoy!

I absolutely loved making the invitations and signs! There are so many cute circusy fonts you can download for free! I got most of my fonts here, just search "circus" or "carnival".

 "Welcome to the Circus!"                                     I got the idea for these signs from some things I saw on Pinterest.                                                The banner is just made out of some old poster board that had been used on one side. 

The goodie bags are dollar store bags (10 for a buck) with labels that I made glued on the front.                                  
                                                                                      Each party guest got a bag, a clown nose (I don't know how, but I don't have a singe picture of any kids wearing the clown noses!), a horn and unlimited tickets (also from dollar store) to use to play games.

The kids won a piece of candy at each carnival game so the bags were used to hold all their loot!

This was our "big top".  I bought a red and white striped table cloth roll from Oriental Trading that had so many uses for this party!

The balance beam along with the other fun stuff under the tent I was able to borrow from someone who runs a gymnastics class.

The cake! This may be one of my favorite thing from the party. I found these adorable free printables to top off the cake.  Notice how the ball on the seal's nose is really a lolly pop? I just can't get enough of this!

Corn dogs for lunch worked out well and we absolutely had to have cotton candy!

                             GAMES!

          I got some temporary circus tatoos from Oriental Trading that were a hit!

And of course we couldn't have a circus without peanuts!

 My husband downloaded a couple circus/carnival like albums that really helped create a fun circus atmosphere! The music was definitely my favorite part of the party!

I can't wait until his next birthday party! There are so many fun themes to choose from!

-Chloe

Easy Airplane Art for Little Boys Room

My little guy's room was feeling bare with a big wall of nothingness next to his bed. Like most of my design dilemmas I start by asking myself "what can I buy to fill this space?".  I don't know why it takes me so long to start thinking "what can I MAKE to fill this space?". Once I was in the "making" mindset it didn't take long for me to come up with this

All three canvases were completed start to finish in less than a day and cost next to nothing to make!

First I looked online for airplane silhouettes (although you could do anything, trucks, robots, etc.). when I decided on three I liked I enlarged them to the size I wanted (it doesn't matter if they are blurry or pixelated) and printed them.

The pictures I chose were fairly intricate so scissors would not have worked. Luckily I got a nice set of
 X-acto knives and a cutting mat for mother's day that I love to use any chance I get!


I painted a couple coats of white in the area I was planning on putting the plane then left the canvases to dry. Next, I set the silhouette cutout on the canvas and went over it again with the white paint. This ensures that the colored paint won't bleed underneath the paper stencil. When that was dry I just painted over the entire canvas, one blue, one grey, and one red (2 or 3 coats depending on the paint color).

As soon as I finished the last coat of paint I peeled off the paper airplane stencils. It was a little hard to get off in places and I had to use a knife to cut or scrape it from the canvas.

And that's it! Wasn't it easy? I think I'll try to get white frames for them eventually but I'm not in any rush. I think they look pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

-Chloe If you like my style be sure to check out my etsy shop for handmade decor!

1/2 Bath Makeover

Let me start by just saying that bathroom makeovers are super fun. Not quite as fun as a kitchen makeover, but close.

I think one reason they are so fun is that they can be simple and still have professional looking results. By making just a few changes we now have a bathroom I adore and one I'm not afraid to let gusts use (unless my 3 year old has just been in there, in which case guest may want to just hold it).





 In this post I will go through all the steps we took to get to where we are now. But first we need to start at the beginning, the orangey oak and laminate counter beginning...




















First things first, something needed to be done about that vanity cabinet. Since I am obsessed with white cabinets wherever they may be, you could not convince me that it should be any other color than white.  The handles and pulls are from Target (seriously, Target has the prettiest, cheapest options you'll find) and I LOVE them!

Next on our list was the walls. A pretty aqua blue and some beadboard wainscoting was exactly what I needed. My husband put up the bead board and moulding and I got to paint.

How about the hand towel and toilet paper holders? Again, Target. Seriously, go to Target for this stuff!










It was about at this point in the reno (with counter ripped out and no lights) that I was 38 weeks pregnant, at my dr. appointment trying to convince my doctor that "I get that I am dilated to a 5 and fully effaced, but I HAVE to have one more week to get my bathroom remodel done before this baby comes!".  Needless to say, I didn't get that extra week. Amelia came and we were so blissfully in love with our tiny girl we didn't care that the house was torn apart. Home from the hospital and it was back to work!

Finally off to Home Depot to get the big stuff. The countertop, faucet, mirror,  and light fixture.

 If your vanity is a standard size (chances are it is) there is no need for a custom (and expensive) vanity top.  Both Home Depot and Lowe's carry them with faucet holes already drilled (you'll need to pay attention to the holes when picking out your faucet) and they come with the sink basin attached. You can choose from granite or solid surface, I'm a solid surface kind of girl. All you need to do is run some caulk along the top of your vanity and set the top in place, easy peasy.


The old countertop came up higher along the wall than the new one and the wall was pretty badly damaged.  It took a lot of spackling and sanding to get it smooth. My husband thought I was crazy for even trying, he thought we needed a pro for sure but he now admits it looks fabulous! well, he doesn't actually say "fabulous" but you get my point.

Just need to hang the mirror and install the light fixture (left that for the hubs to do) and voila! A brand new bathroom!

I forgot to mention hanging the little cabinet. Found it for a few bucks at a yard sale. It was covered in black scuff marks I thought I would never get off but at last I tried a Magic Eraser! Those things really are magic! The cabinet works perfectly in the space and I am just glad I didn't have to repaint it.

Do you have any tips on getting the most bang for your buck when trying to beautify a bathroom? Tell me about it!

-Chloe

Baby Girl's First Birthday

Here is what I did for my daughter's first birthday party. Hopefully it can be a source of inspiration.

I bought this set of printables on Esty at Belva June. She has so many adorable printables! I am just in love with how everything turned out.

For the banner I just added doilies and ribbon (When in doubt, add more bows!).

I folded some light blue card stock to make this hanging decoration for above the table

I made a ton of tissue paper pom-poms to hang from the ceiling. I ordered the tissue paper from amazon because I needed really big pieces to make really big pom-poms (they are much bigger than they seem in the pictures) along with smaller pom-poms. You can learn to make these here from Martha. The bonus with these is that they are now hanging in my daughter's room above her crib and they look adorable!

The cup cake toppers and wrappers looked darling with the pink icing and pearl sprinkles.