Baby Birth Announcements

Classic Birth Announcement

I don't know this baby nor do I know the owner of this company BUT I really enjoy the little cards they make and have decided to order some birth announcements from them. The place is called Pinhole Press and I found it through another blog I keep up with ( I think they may be friends). Anyway, for Arielle, I dropped the ball on the birth announcements and actually got some folks angry because they found out I had the baby through the grapevine instead of from me and felt really hurt that they weren't told, called or something! So this time, I will try not to be a lazy bum and actually be proactive; one of the things I will do in my free time between now and the first contraction will be to print out labels so that as soon as the little one makes her debut, I can snap a shot, upload it and get my cards made. Sound ambitious..yes maybe but I did say 'Try'.

I guess people like to do things online these days through some form of social media but I actually really love paper, card stock and such. Theres something really nice about actually getting your mail and having something meaningful in the pile of junk (and checks of course), I search for it like a squirrel looking for nuts in a pile of leaves. So as much as people continue to send Evites for parties, post birth announcements on Facebook etc..I will continue to favor the tactile. My impending birth is making me both excited and nervous at once, I really look forward to the change but am right now feeling like I need a break with the two people who keep me going before that number become three. I just realized a few days ago that I only have 3 free weekends of the 7 remaining before my due date and one of them is actually memorial day weekend! I am now frantically looking for a quick getaway for the three of us for the 4-day weekend but everything is booked..I am sure theres got to be some piece of land covered in sand, adjacent to water that hasn't been commercialized and sold off to the highest bidder. I literally want some relaxation without any crowds (because really I shouldn't be allowed to be seen in public let alone in a bathing suit right now) and just some quiet with the smell of ocean. Is that too much to ask?

'I Think I Canvas Hamper' HACK

My 'Land Of Nod' I think I Canvas Hamper hack.

After the unfortunate demise of my daughters plastic laundry bin (long story..), we have been making due with piles and a hanging laundry bag to put all her dirty clothing in and for me to get them down to the basement where I do the laundry. It not only got to be annoying but also, its teaching her a bad habit..throwing her clothes on the floor because she couldn't reach where the bag hung. Although  I am still working on getting her putting her toys away but at least she was really into putting her clothing in a hamper at bath time and putting her shoes in her room in a nice neat line in the corner, and I saw that all starting to change.

It was partially my fault as well because I haven't been able to put away the laundry fast enough so she sees laundry piles in every room; me, being a 'good example' hasn't been so great. Anyway, after looking for some simple hampers and not really finding what I wanted, I gave in and decided I needed something..anything, I also needed one our new little one as well. So the project began..

I found one at PB kids which I almost ordered embroidered with their names but they got mediocre reviews,  then I found one I liked at Restoration Hardware but it seemed too rugged and it was $79, its a bit expensive at least for Laundry hamper, so I then found these beige (plain) canvas hampers at the Land of Nod for $16.95 and decided it may be fun to try to personalize them with some stencils and paint. It initially began as just wanting to put a standard stencil letter for each one but my lovely husband suggested actually spelling their names out on the hampers as well, sort of like the RH hampers. 

Land of Nod's I think I Canvas Hamper

Restoration Hardware's Salvaged Tarp Laundry Hamper

Process: 

Homemade stencil

We found 4" stencils at Michael's to spell their names out and I decided to make my own stencils for the bigger letters because they didn't have anything I liked or anything big enough at Michael's. I printed the letter on card stock and cut it out with an X-acto knife.

We decided to use a matte grey spray paint and some masking tape to basically try to achieve a slightly uneven, 'standard issue' type effect on each bag. 

Stencils from Michael's

Firstly we taped all the letters together spaced as tight as I wanted them to read, then taped them to a piece of scrap paper to keep the spray paint form getting all over the rest of the bag. At this point we discovered the text was a bit to big and wouldn't fit on the bag as 'Arielle' so since we call her 'Arie' quite a bit we cropped it to say 'Arie'. 

We then taped the entire template to the bag, laid it  down and just sprayed it. 

We did run into some problems because the bags weren't able to be completely flattened due to built in piping (good for making it stand up and bad for trying to mount a stencil).

Stencil after we sprayed the first hamper

Stencil taped to the hamper

Hamper after removing the stencil

I was a bit shocked by the result initially, the flatter the bag is, the more control you will have over the spread of the spray paint, the better (neater) it would have looked but once I got over the initial result, I actually liked the imperfections. It took about 20 minutes to dry and then we filpped it and did the other side with a big 'A'. We also made one for the baby but I won't show this until we have actually officially named her and shared the name with our family and everyone (currently only the three of us know what it is). Obviously, if we stick to the name we have, then she has a cool hamper but as of now you can see that it begins with the letter 'E', if we change it, we can always toss the hamper!

Finished 

International Day

International day in at my nieces elementary school in was this past weekend and pretty fun. My sister had to represent the entire continent of Africa, we served Nigerian food (jollof rice, efo, meat-pies, fish stew, nigerian salad) though and displayed items from as many other countries as we could. The funny part of the day was that I had agreed to do the fashion show, not myself but to dress a bunch of little kids in some of the dresses from my little store to publicize it to the mothers in the audience. The problem was we only had three kids within the size range that I stock which is 6months -4T. So basically we had a lineup that consisted of a rambunctious 2 year old Peruvian girl, Arielle (whose 3+), my niece (whose 5), my other niece (whose 8) and two of her friends who are even bigger than her. The kids did ok but a lot of the outfits looked too uncoordinated and apparently my husband found it tough to photgraph kids on a stage. In the end we all had fun. Arielle cried when we left ( she does this alot when she has to leave).