Catarina Maeve Turns TWO!

I know it is cliche and all parents say it, but where did the time go? Wasn't it just yesterday that I brought my tiny 6lb 7oz infant home from the hospital? Now she is a full blown, walking, talking little PERSON. Craziness, I tell you, craziness!

For her birthday we decided to go with a Butterfly and Flowers theme since they are both things she likes and it was easy to find items for decor. I did some digging on Etsy and found a gorgeous invitation from Belle Announcements. Liv was great to work with and I'm so happy with the way they turned out!

I wanted to keep things simple with the menu this year so I made almost everything the night before with my awesome sister-in-law. The day of the party we just had to assemble the sandwiches and finish decorating the cake. 

The Menu

Turkey and Italian Sandwiches on Ciabatta Bread

Homemade Potato Salad

Asian Style Coleslaw

Green Chile Cheesecake with Tortilla Chips

A Fruit Platter with Cream Cheese Fruit Dip

Butter Cake with Buttercream Frosting

I also kept the decorations simple. I made a few banners to hang throughout the house and I displayed monthly pictures from Rini's 2nd year in our sunroom. I grabbed some coordinating fabric from the clearance section at Wal-mart and made a runner for the food table and the gift table. A photo from each month of her second year was hung on bandanna banners behind the present table. 

The Food Table 

Yellow Cake with Buttercream Frosting and Chocolate Chips

DIY Bandanna Banners with Monthly Photos hanging above the gift table

Mommy and the Birthday Girl

The Best Family Photo of the day. Toddlers hate pictures!

Opening your presents in a diaper is entirely appropriate at 2

Mini Makeover - DIY Firepit

Our backyard is still in a pretty untouched state from when we bought the house. We have a rickety old shed that is a major eyesore and a functional but super ugly chain link fence. We also have a random slab of concrete in one of the back corners of the yard that is about 48" x 50". We have no idea what the concrete was put there for or why. Charlie seems to think it held a Jesus statue or an overgrown souped up birdbath/fountain. I'm still undecided.

See? Super ugly and no form or function. After a brainstorming session we decided it would be the perfect base for a fire pit. At first we were thinking of getting a pre made metal fire pit. We did a little research and quickly realized that most of the options in our price range were ugly, too small or both. A metal fire pit also wouldn't really camouflage the beat up, cracked surface of the concrete. 

We decided to use cement patio blocks to construct the fire pit right on top of the slab. That way we could cover up the majority of the surface area and also customize the shape. A trip to Lowe's and a $120 later we were the proud owners of a trunk full of rocks. The rest of this project was super simple to complete. Charlie laid out the first layer of blocks to figure out how big we wanted the fire pit and then we stacked the top 2 layers. 20 minutes later and it was done. 

We had our first fire on Memorial Day weekend and I am officially obsessed with burning things. Such a quick and easy project with super fun results!

Our House - The Bathroom

Our little 1950's ranch came with a vintage pink and black bathroom, complete with pink wallpaper. We are on a tight budget and a full on bathroom remodel was definitely not happening. We decided to try and make the bathroom looks as good as possible without doing any major changes. Ripping down the wallpaper, painting the walls, removing the shower doors and adding some curtains and artwork have definitely enhanced the space. 

Down the road we plan on re-tiling the floor with a similar vintage style basket weave tile in white and black. We hope to have the tile walls and tub reglazed in white. A new mirror, updated lighting, a storage cabinet over the toilet and a new sink are also on the agenda. 

Here is a shot of the bathroom on the day we closed. We got to work right away removing the wallpaper only to reveal bright pink paint underneath! 

Here is the bathroom as it looks today. I made the curtain from fabric that I found at wal-mart of all places. It was super affordable at about $8/yd. I love that it compliments the pink tile but is also a more modern print. We removed the shower doors and hung a shower curtain that we used in one of our old apartments, it worked out perfectly and was free. In an effort to neutralize the pink as much as possible we painted the walls bright white. Just the addition of the white paint has brightened the space tremendously.

This is a simple DIY print I made to hang next to the vanity mirror. I downloaded some free clip art of a toothbrush and added some text in a nice font. Voila, instant artwork. The mat in the frame was originally white so I painted it with hot pink craft paint to match. I'm a big believer of using what you have on hand! 

Thanks for taking a peek into our bathroom. I will share updates as we continue to make improvements.

Our House - The Living Room

In December we bought out first home, a 1950's Ranch in desperate need of TLC. The previous owner was a 90 year old lady who had not updated anything since the 70's. There was dark paneling, wallpaper, harvest gold appliances, nasty carpet and the list of offenses goes on and on. While the interior of our house was far from our "dream house" we love our neighborhood and the location we are in. You can change ugly but you can't change your lot. We are slowly but surely putting our own stamp on the house on a extremely small budget.

Living Room

This picture portrays the 70's-tastic decor that was going on when we first toured the house. Nasty yellow/pea green carpet, dark paneling and brick on the back wall, white washed paneling on the remaining walls, wooden couches with floral upholstery and frilly lacy old lady curains. Pure awesomeness.

This picture was taken on the day we closed. It gives you a better idea of the space we were working with. 

Here is the living room as it looks today. It is still a work in progress but we are getting there. So far we've removed the inoperable wood stove, ripped up the nasty carpet, painted the paneling, painted the brick hearth and started patching the ceiling. 

To Do

• Finish patching the ceiling and repaint
• Paint all the trim white
• New window treatments (roman shades possibly?)
• Find end tables for the couch
• Make throw pillows
• Artwork
• Get a bigger TV and mount it on the wall
• Replace front door

Pinterest Inspiration: Nightstand Play Kitchen

I have an unhealthy obsession with Pinterest. It is a great source of inspiration and ideas but also a GIANT time suck. For Christmas Charlie and I decided to make a homemade play kitchen for Rini using ideas I found on Pinterest. It was a relatively easy project just time consuming.

This is the nightstand we used, a $4 Goodwill special that had definitely seen better days. I used a lot of supplies I already had to keep costs low. The paint was leftover from painting the living room in our apartment. The burner covers are old CDs. The hinges for the oven are the original door hinges just reattached on the bottom. The fabric is from an old curtain. I cut it to size and stapled it to the underside of the nightstand.

The items I bought for this project were:

• A wooden letter J ($2) - I painted it with silver metallic paint and attached it upside down to look like a faucet
• A metal mixing bowl for the sink ($3)
• Wooden knobs ($3 for a package of various sizes) - I painted them silver to look like cooktop and faucet knobs
• A nickel cabinet pull for the stove handle ($6)
• Ribbed non adhesive shelf liner ($5 for the roll) - stapled into the cut out on the door to look like the viewing window on a stove

I'm in love with the finished product (and Rini thinks it's pretty cool too!)