DIY Crib Rail Teething Cover

Well, I walked into Will's room the other day to find him standing up in his crib... big boy!  While I was trying to get a picture of him, he bent down and started chomping on his crib rail... AHH!  

Emery never chewed on the crib!  I looked over to the side rail and damage was already done...

I quickly googled "DIY Crib Rail Teething Cover" and came across this super easy tutorial using fleece!  I love that it cost me less than $2 total to make and is washable and custom to our crib!  I had some padding laying around the house so I stuck that underneath my fleece to make it even softer for our boy.  He seems to love it :)

Testing it out :)

Kitchen Overhaul!

We knew we wanted to update our kitchen before Will was born, but man we had no clue how long the process would take... we are grateful we started when we did!  The first step was going to different slab yards and finding the type of granite or marble that we wanted.  We found Bianco Andes, which is technically a marble, but it's a hard marble that is more forgiving and won't etch as easily as other soft ones.  Our kitchen required us to buy two slabs, so that is why we went ahead and replaced the master bath vanity and downstairs bathroom vanity with our extras.

Here is the slab:

Emery and I made several trips to the slab yard to help layout all the cuts:

Once we ordered the marble, Kyle set off adding bead board to the sides of our cabinets (with the help of Curtis!).  It really does add so much and we are so glad he did that.  Next, Kyle took off our old countertops, ready for installation of marble!  

Here is a before picture showing our old countertops:

And installation day of marble!

Cutting the stovetop hole:

After the new countertops were installed, we took off all the doors to prepare for our cabinet painter to come.  She picked up all the doors and sprayed them in her shop, then hand painted the bases.  It was a LONG process dealing with her free spirit but we are grateful for the outcome!  Here are some before pics:


Also, if you noticed the wires hanging from the upper cabinets, Kyle and my Dad wired under cabinet lighting before the backsplash was installed!  We haven't installed the actual lights yet but that should be a quick project to complete soon.

While the cabinet painter was spraying the doors in her shop, we hired Enrique (a friend of our marble countertop installer) to do our beveled subway tile backsplash.   Here is after a couple hours of him laying tile the first day:

And completed!

And without further ado, here are the after pictures of the kitchen!

For the desk we opted for a bead board backsplash just to make it a little different.

And a true before and after of how the kitchen started when we moved in to what it looks like now!  New appliances, faucets, wall paint, cabinet paint, tile backsplash, marble countertops, oil rubbed bronze lighting and cabinet hardware... WOW!  We are excited to call this room DONE!

Emery's Bathroom Overhaul

This post is so overdue as we completed this project months ago, but I still wanted to document it on the blog!  After we finished Emery's big girl room the next room on our list to focus on was her bathroom.  It was a dingy beige color with yellowish trim and just needed some loving.  When we first moved into the house we replaced the vinyl in here with tile so that helped it be bare able until we could concentrate on it!

We decided to first paint it a light green/grey color (thanks Molly for letting us use your same nursery color!), repaint all the trim white, and then got busy on replacing the lighting.  The current lighting was a large straight across light with 6 huge bulbs that made the room so hot!  So once we found 2 smaller fixtures, Kyle wired everything perfectly and then got busy framing out the mirror!

Here is a mid-progress shot of the paint color and his wiring work:

He's becoming a pro at electrical projects these days!

And once he finished the framing of the mirror-- so happy with how it came out and the height it adds to the room.

Light fixtures up and we are good to go!

And then we added some decorations in her shower/toilet area as well.

And this room is DONE!

Emery's 3rd Birthday Mermaid Party!

Emery turned 3 on March 8th, and we had THE BEST day celebrating!  This was definitely the first year where she was so excited for her party and asked us everyday how many more days we had until her birthday.  Emery wanted a mermaid themed party (sparked from her love of Ariel of course) so off I went crafting-- I tell you this was an EASY theme to do and I just loved all the bright colors we had all around the house.

For the invitation, I made a scaled turquoise background and then put the mermaid tail on top to frame the text.  Once I printed them all out, I made a template that covered everything but the mermaid tail and used spray adhesive to hold on some sparkly white glitter.  Then I used left over ribbon I had around the house to make a cute little belt/bow on the waist of the mermaid.

For the goody bags this year I really wanted the girls to get use out of everything they were given.  I decided to make hair bows made out of glitter wired ribbon and then hot glued a starfish in the middle.

Inside the goody bag was a take n' toss sippy cup for them to use during the party, that had their first initial on them (cut out of vinyl from my silhouette machine).  We had no spills the whole party because of it... score!  Also inside the bag was a MERMAID SKIRT!  

Since we had only 6 girls total, I found the perfect tutorial to follow and after getting all the girls measurements I got sewing!  I only needed 1 yard of the lycra scale fabric, so that combined with the tulle (which was super cheap) made the skirts only around $5 to make!  

TOTALLY worth it for the fun they had running around being beautiful mermaids...

Merrin, Emery, Nora, Samantha and Katherine:

Hailey wasn't feeling the photo shoot but the other girls were eating it up... even little Katherine on the end was holding her own with the big girls-- hilarious!  They all kept their skirts on the entire party and now they have a new dress up item at home... SCORE!

For an activity, we had a painting area set up on the kitchen table for all the girls to paint their own sea shells.  This was a huge hit and held their attention for a long time!  To make it easier for the girls, I washed and cut up clear egg cartons to hold the paints for them... worked like a charm!

Another activity I had set up was "musical shells" game.  I cut large shell shapes out of glitter foam paper along with one silver circle (the pearl).  When the mermaid music stopped whoever was on the pearl got to go dig in the treasure chest.  I basically stopped the music anytime someone new came to the pearl as they all couldn't wait to dig in the sand and find their treasures.

Once again, I chose food options that could for the most part be made a day ahead of time and that didn't need to be warm during the party.  I just love incorporating the theme into food, it's so fun.  I designed and printed out all the toppers and table and food signs a couple days before the party and it was nice to have those extra details in there too!  Peanut butter & jelly, chicken salad, jello, fruit, chips, cupcakes and candy... can't get much easier than that!

The "Octo-Pops" (chocolate covered marshmallows) were a hit with the girls!  We crushed up graham crackers for the bottom of the plate to look like sand, so cute!

Before we knew it, it was time to sing Happy Birthday to Emery!  Since Jeneane and Curtis were here the weekend before she made and brought up a fake cake (styrofoam covered in fondont) plus toppers to the cake that she had homemade as well.  To say I was blown away was an understatement... talk about talented!  Thank you again so much Jeneane!!

Blowing out her candles:

We then opened presents and Emery loved everything she got.  Her cutest reaction was to a necklace that Hailey gave her... she kept holding her neck saying "a necklace just for me?!".  Adorable!

After presents we turned on some girly dance music and watched the girls go to town.  All of them were having a blast dancing, swimming on the ground like mermaids and jumping.  They had a blast jumping out from behind the tablecloth backdrop that Jeneane and I made (layer 3 tablecloths, cut into strips and braid... instant cute backdrop that cost you $3 to make!)

So grateful for Emery and what a blessing she has been to Kyle and I.  It has been so fun to watch her come out of her shell this year, form some best friendships, and be so excited to turn one year older.  Happy 3rd Birthday, Emery, we love you!

And just for kicks here are pictures recapping her 1 year Birthday Party and 2 year Birthday Party!  Growing up too fast!