A book theme birthday party for a 7 year old

 

This past weekend, we celebrated with family the birthday of my middle guy. He is a an avid reader and wanted to do a book theme party. I totally hopped on board for it and even though it was a quick little party we put together, I think it might have been one of my favorite ones!

 

 

 

Many book were harmed in the making of this party...it hurt a little but it was for a good cause.

 

 

 

This pull string piñata was made from a cheerio box, the perfect shape for a "book".

 

And family were good sports and dressed up as characters too!

 

This was the birthday boy: Big Nate

 

 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

 

 

Eloise

 

The Great Gatsby

 

 

Olivia and Where's Waldo

 

 

Amelia Bedelia and the Mad Hatter

 

 

Daisy and Gatsby 

 

 

The Pigeon and Tin Man

 

Daniel Boone and the Little Red Hen

 

 

The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf

 

Happy 7th Birthday, Jackson!

 

 

 

 

Pin It

Decorative Throw Pillows

I sure do go in blogging spurts. It seems like I am on for awhile and then off for awhile. My middle will be starting kindergarten in the Fall, so I have been trying to enjoy every little bit that I have with him still as a "baby" at home.

Recently, we took a plunge and bought a new sectional for our living room. I wasn't too keen on getting a sectional, but I wanted it to still be something wipe-able like we had, and to match better than our previous couches did. My husband picked out the sectional, and then I decorated it with some "new" to us pillows.

I used previous pillows I had here, as well as three larger ones that my sister in law passed on to us. I picked up a sheet at the thrift store and a pillowcase, but everything else I had, I used here. I think this entire project cost me out of pocket 5 dollars at the very most because of using my resources and supplies.

I got a couple of ideas off of pinterest: Make it and Love It for the gathered pillow, an idea similar to this pillow at E Tells Tales, saw some great ideas with monogram and burlap too, but then after that, each one, I kind of made up as I went along. I wanted texture, ruffles, buttons, burlap, linen and paint. I did freezer paper stencil directly on the burlap, and vintage lace trim.

(Recognize the bird from my sister's bridal shower?)

(The T is freezer paper stenciled onto linen)

(Vintage lace trim, a rufflle pillow and a burlap pillow with two types of burlap ribbon and buttons sewn on)

On the back, I did the envelope type pillow cover, so they are also easy to remove and wash.

I love how they all coordinate together and make up something that reflects who we are as a family. (The ottoman is the one my husband and father in law built, my how our living room has changed!)

I love how the pillows are all different but still coordinate together. It seems like such a true reflection of our family.

Next up is my bedroom pillows! I spent a little more on the fabric for these, but I can not wait to get them all made up! 

Pin It Pin It

Painted Bedroom Furniture

We were given our bedroom furniture as hand me downs when we got married, but because we have a different size mattress, the headboard (a full) never worked with our bed. We purchased the Ikea Frame years ago but then the furniture never really meshed with the feel of the room. Plus, because nothing really matched, and we go in spurts with keeping our room nice, it just hasnt been top priority.

Now that there's some order in our room again (it feels like it took two years to adjust to having a 5th person in our home), it was time to finally paint our bedroom furniture to make it ours. We put it off for a long time because of sanding everything, but I came across something from Kilz that we used for our "stained" furniture that was oil based. (It was sold at both home depot and lowes)

My husband is a whiz with a spray can and so instead of messing with painting it and worrying about brush strokes, we sanded down the spots needing sanding, primed everything with the spray paint  version of this primer and then sprayed on the latex paint with our paint sprayer, which resulted in a beautiful pained smooth pottery barn type finish.

 

As with anything, the result you get is what you put in. It definitely took him a lot of prep work to get this nice of a finish but he did amazing. We were both sick all weekend, so I helped here and there but was pretty much a baby sitting outside watching.

And how cool is he? He even took pictures of the process (without being asked!)

This was a before shot.





Sanded the water spots down with steel wool and fine grit sandpaper.





Then primed everything:









Then painted. This was a two day process. It took two coats of primer and two coats of paint.










(Random chandelier shot, picked it up at a thrift store for 10 dollars, and I love how it hangs above our handmade desk!)

I just love the results.




I still need to do something with the curtains in our room, I would like to make something for the tops of the furniture (table runners), I need to recover the lamp shade, and we need a new duvet set and a couple other things here and there, but it is so nice to finally have a unifying theme in our bedroom.  It makes me want to keep my room from being the catch all room in the house!

Pin It Pin It