Craft Obsession: PEEPS Toppers

Looking for an easy, last minute gift idea to give to friends for Easter? This might be it. The girls at eighteen25 have a free download - - a PEEPS topper. So cute! I made a bunch of them today for my little girl to give to her little friends. Doesn't take much time at all.

Thank you eighteen25! You can download it here.

Yard Sale Treasure Map

For those of you who love yard sales you have to go to this site here. The yard sale treasure map. An amazing idea. They compile all of the yard sales from craigslist and put it on a map. Just type in your area and voila. A yard sale addicts dream.

Nursery Room Reveal

We finally have our daughter's nursery almost finished (just waiting to put in baseboards and putting up a chandelier). Although, she just turned 2 so we'll soon be transitioning to a toddler room soon. We painted the walls a light pink and then had brown and cream accents throughout the room.

Here's the before:

And the after:

This was before my thrift store obsession. If I had to do it over again, I'd find a cute little crib and refinish it and I'd sew my daughters bed set.

I did: cross stitch the piece on the top shelf, was given the vintage Madame Alexander Doll (I know you're jealous), bought cheap fabric bins and tied ribbons around them (that I use to put her clothes, shoes, misc. items in), bought her curtains on clearance, found the bed set on ebay, made the bow holder out of an old frame, bought her book shelf from a thrift store, bought the rug on sale, made her hanging name on the wall, put in the hardwood flooring ourselves, and bought the frames on sale.

I love walking in this room, but most of all love seeing my beautiful, little girl in it.

linking to: Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Making the World Cuter Monday, Make your Monday, Just Something I whipped up Monday, Skip To My Lou, The Persimmon Perch, Metamorphosis Monday, The DIY Showoff, It's So Very Cheri, Today's Creative Blog, Toot your Horn Tuesday, Talented Tuesday, The Boardwalk Bragfest, Tea Rose Home, Life in the Pitts, Show and Share @ Just a Girl, Blue Criket Design, Fingerprints on the Fridge, A Soft Place to Land, Strut Your Stuff Thursday, Get Your Craft on Thursday, Transformation Thursday, Remodelholic, Romantique Home, Tatertots and Jello, Creative Cats, Fun to Craft, The Shabby Nest, Kojo Designs, Funky Junk Interiors, A Few of my Favorite Things, Check me out Saturday

Personal Family History Obsession: Blog Book

I used to be a journal writing freak. I'd write in my journal almost every single week. I still have one, but because of life, I don't get to it as often as I should. I also used to be a scrapbooker, but I think it just became too overwhelming for me. When I started my family blog, I thought that that was a perfect way to document our family history. A perfect combination of the two. I'm now a blogging freak. And thank goodness for Blurb BookSmart. They're able to "slurp" up all of your blog posts and put it into a book (you can have them arrange it for you or you do it yourself - - I did it myself). Amazing!

I just received the one I made for the past year and I love it! So does my little munchkin.

For some reason, I skipped 2008 so now I'm in the middle of working on that book (might be because there are a million trillion pictures due to the munchkin being born).

Do you put your blog in a book? What program do you use?

Refurbishing Obsession: Coffee Table

Found this coffee table on my favorite list in the world - Craig's (my hubby's least favorite, I think). Hopefully I'll be able to show off the finished product by the end of next week. That spot in front of my two slipcovered couches is looking mighty bare.

Craft Obsession: Pinch Proof Shirt

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Have any plans? Corned Beef and Cabbage in the oven? Hope you haven't been pinched. I only have one pair of scrubs that have green on it, so that's what I wore this morning. This little girl below will definitely not be pinched. Well, maybe. I mean, look at those cheeks! Who can't resist pinching those?

Anyway, I figured this little munchkin needed a festive shirt to wear. So last minute, I cut up an old pair of Christmas pjs that I had laying around and made this shirt (actually didn't sew it on, just ironed using wonder-under. For some reason my sewing machine wasn't cooperating) and matching p.j. bottoms using my tutorial here. The shirt had paint stains that I needed to cover up somehow. This was the perfect opportunity. I saw this idea on Lulu's Tiles. Very cute! Have a great day!!!

Cooking Obsession: Chicken Parmesan Alfredo

This next recipe is one of our favorites. I've been making it for years now and my husband still loves it. I found it on the back of the Ragu Classic Alfredo jar. We have made changes to it. Ours is below. Yum.

Chicken Parmesan Alfredo

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

1 egg, beaten

1 box of stuffing (unbaked)

1 jar of Alfredo Sauce (or you can make your own)

1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

1 medium tomato, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dip chicken in egg, then into the unbaked stuffing, coating well.
2. In 13x9 in. baking dish, arrange chicken. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes.
3. Pour sauce over chicken; top with cheese, then tomato. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Serve with remaining sauce, heated, and sprinkle, if desired, with grated parmesan cheese.

Quick and easy! Enjoy!

***We usually make this without the mozz. cheese and tomato (just cause I'm lazy) and it still is delicious!!!

To Slip Cover or Not To Slip Cover? - - that's the question

About a year ago, I started following this blog here. Life in the Fun Lane. I quickly fell in love with Holly's white walls, dark wood floors, and her white slipcovered furniture. Yes . . . the slipcovers are white and she has a child. Loved her style. My style began to change at that time too. Although, we were renting, planning on moving soon, and had not a clue to where we'd be. Fast forward 6 months and we were checking out homes to buy. I scoured Craigslist like there was no tomorrow. All I wanted were some white slipcovered couches. And I didn't want to pay the crazy prices for them, either. One day I found the loveseat (IKEA Ektorp series). I was ecstatic. Lucky for us, we have wonderful family who stored it for us until we moved. About 2 weeks later, I was on again. I then found the couch. It was meant to be. Oh, my sweet hubby. I think he thought I was crazy. . . and everyone else for that matter.

Of course. I hear it all the time. "White couches? You have a child? So unpractical."

Well, here's what I think. White slipcovers get a bad rap. We dress our children in white clothing so why not our furniture? What do we do when our child spills sphaghetti on his/her shirt? We take it off, bleach it, and wash it. White is the only color that can be bleached. So why not white slipcovers? I love mine.

Check out Holly's post here about living with white.

Although I didn't make these slipcovers, I'm planning to make slipcovers for 2 wingback chairs I found . . . off of Craigslist. Here's a tutorial on making slipcovers from Sew, Mama, Sew.

Favorite Obsessions

Hung out at this place this weekend with my two favorite obsessions. What did you do?

DIY Obsession: Hardwood Floors

Okay. So, I'm being featured today on an amazing blog.

My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia.

I'm so stinkin excited. Just ask my hubby. I was so giddy when I found out.

I found her blog a few months ago while blog hopping. After seeing her post on her kitchen cabinets (one of my next projects), I was in love with her blog and couldn't stop checking out her jaw dropping transformations. Check out her French Guestroom here. And not only is she gorgeous, but she's as sweet as can be. I'm the first one being featured on her "feature friday" and can't wait to see who is next! Thank you Kristin!

So, I guess there's not a better time than now, then to post about our hardwood floor DIY project. I'd been waiting a while to post until we completely finished everything (still waiting to complete two more rooms and I wanted to get the baseboards up - - anyone know of where to buy baseboards for cheap?), but can't wait any longer.

We love the look of hardwood floors and did our research. We wanted to do it as cheap as possible but of course good quality floors. We found an amazing deal at Simple Floors. They had a deal the week after Thanksgiving where they'd give you 10% cashback. We'd probably never see anything like this again, so we couldn't pass it up!

Due to our limited expenses, we had to do it ourselves. We'd decided to do it during my husband's 2 week Christmas break. But between going to Vegas and SLC during the break for Christmas to visit family, we'd only be able to do the whole house on a weekend. HaHa! My sweet hubby said that he and his friends/family would be able to do it all one Saturday. I just smiled and nodded. Oh sweet hubby.

One Thursday and Friday night my hubby and I did the demolition. Can I tell you how much I can't stand tack boards? Our backs were dying the next day. Where was our cute little girl? Oh, probably being hypnotized by that screen in the family room and running around on the cement floor. Poor girl.

That Saturday was the big day. We definitely couldn't have done it without 3 amazing family members. They were awesome (and so were their wives for letting them spend all day . . . right before Christmas . . . all day . . . did I mention all day? installing the floors) I was actually a little bummed that I had to work, but someone's gotta save lives I guess. I really wanted to help. They were able to get our family room, foyer, and both hallways finished. It looked beautiful! I love my floors.

A few days in January, my hubby and I put the floors in the guest bedroom and our daughters room (pictures coming soon!).

We were able to save thousands of dollars by doing this ourselves. Of course it took a lot of time and energy, but you can do it! It's definitely worth it. Oh . . . and I'm still loving my green walls (it's pretty funny to see people's reactions . . . "oh, it's . . . green" , "was this painted like this when you moved in?")

What DIY project are you working on?