Pinterest inspired bookcase....

Hello fellow bloggers/blog readers...

It's been awhile since I have blogged, but this is totally blog worthy! I go through spurts of the famous "pinning addiction" and here lately I have been finding GREAT things everyday!

Since we are changing things up a bit in our living room {went from a sofa to a sectional, HUGE recliner to a cute sitting chair with lamp and removed the TV buffet and mounted it above the mantel}, I needed to figure out what to put in the corner when the TV used to sit. I found several custom pieces that were TO DIE FOR but I would be the one dying if I spent that much money on them!!

I turned to Pinterest to find an alternative idea and found this...

Needless to say... I fell in instant LOVE with the idea and knew that's exactly what I wanted!!

So I read all about how to do it here.

I went to Joann's Fabric & Crafts and picked up 10 crates (that is the amount I needed for the size of my area) in the raw, unfinished wood. They looked like this:

They were $11.99 each, but I used one coupon for 40% off one item and one 20% off coupon for my entire order (you can get one too for signing up for their email/text list!!). My total with tax was just a little over $100 for all of them!!

I started staining when I got home!! {was way to excited to wait for this project!!}

My all time FAV stain color & brand!!!

Old nasty brush and rag for allllll those cracks and creases....

It took awhile, but this is the finished product:

What do y'all think??? Now I need to find some FAB junk to fill 'em up!!

Falling in love....

In my recent adventures with this new business I've created, I have ran across many, many things that get my mind to racing! Racing for ideas and items needed wanted to complete all the ideas that keep floating in my head!!

I am in LOVE with bunting banners lately! I mean seriously... can they be any more vintage??

I thought it was only appropriate to include a bazillion pics from the most AwEsOmE place on earth.. no not Disney World... Why Pinterest of course!!

OK... enough with the bunting OVERload!! I want to make every.single.one. Seriously, I think I need therapy :)

To find all these wonderful ideas and much more, Please feel free to check out my "Bunting LOVE" Pinterest board HERE!

Holy Lego! Wyatt's turning 7!!!

It's happening... my "baby" is turning 7!! He is lover of a lot of things and Lego's are near the top of his list, so naturally, I planned a Lego themed birthday party this year :)

His actual birthday is December 21st, so since it's so close to Christmas, he has never really had a great turnout. {poor kid only had 2 friends come last year} This year I was determined for him to have a good party!! So I decided to have it a week and a half early :) This plan = SUCCESS!!!

First I need to say how I'm a L.O.V.E.R. of Pinterest and I owe 100% credit to all of the amazing ideas and bloggers I found there!! You can follow my boards and see just how easy-peezy this party was to put together.

I won't go into super detail on how I made everything, you can get that from Pinterest. However, I will break it down for ya :)

Decorations:
I bought a pinnate flag from The Dollar Tree in primary colors and a ton of streamers and hung them on the drapes. (which I still need to blog about how and just exactly WHAT my drapes are made from!) I printed Lego men and cute them out and then used my tape runner to attach them to the flags.

I also draped the streamers in the kitchen above the party table, had balloons all over the floor and had the mailbox decorated so the house was party ready!

Games:
We played 3 games. I printed a list of the games so we could keep track of each players score. I gave prizes for 1st place and runner-up. 1st place prize consisted of a gumball machine filled with gumballs and a small Lego package. Runner-up prizes were just the small Lego packages alone.

Game #1: Lego Toss

This was a crowd favorite!! Super easy.. all you need is poster board in 4 colors. Cut into strips and taped together to make a ring. Each player gets 5 Lego's to "toss" and you add up their points. We had them stand behind a line so it wasn't too easy.



Game #2: Guess How Many Lego's Are In The Jar

There were some pretty funny guesses on this! Anywhere from 3 Lego's to over 1,000 Lego's :) The correct guess would have been 177 Lego's, but the 1st place winner guessed 170!! VERY close!!

Game #3: Pin The Face On The Minifigure

A small twist to the classic game "pin the tail on the donkey", this game was fun and so cute! Kudos's to my daughter for free handing the cutouts for the Lego figures body and arms! She is Excellent in art!! Thanks Abby!!
For this game, each child was blindfolded, spinned and headed in the right direction to place their minifig face on the body. I had precut head shapes and let each child make a face of their choice along with their name on the back. Then just used a little tape. Closest to correct placement wins!

Thanks again to Abby for saving the day and letting us use her scarf, since I forgot to pick up a blindfold!! The final result was a hoot!!

Congrats to Addison for coming in 1st place on this game!!

After games, we opened presents.. 

Lots and Lots of presents!!! Wyatt is so blessed to have such great friends!!

I saved the sugar for the end of the party (then sent them home to run off the extra energy they gained at the party) super awesome, I know!!

Here is a pic of the party table:

I think cupcakes are so much easier than cake for youngsters, not to mention I can make them and save on the cost of ordering a cute cake!!

For the cupcakes:

I started by buying a Lego brick silicone mold from Ebay. (I got it in a lot auction with a minifig mold which I made crayons for the goodie bags.) I bought the melt able colored chocolate tabs from Hobby Lobby and just melted them down into the mold and made the Lego yummies! I used the "FunFettie" cake mix and baked them in red, blue and yellow papers I also found at Hobby Lobby, which I used a 40% coupon on and scored them for less than $2!! A little white icing and a roll in some colored sprinkles.. top with a Lego brick chocolate and there you have it! So cute and YUM!

I served the premade ice cream cups, so we had to have spoons! I made the napkin rings from a Lego logo {say that 3 times fast!} I found on google. Added a strip of crepe paper and there ya have it!

For the drinks:

I am big on no sugar added "juice" so I always have a stocked pantry of REAL 100% juice Capri Sun. I found this great printable from Pinterest. It will take you to a wonderful blog!! They are actually for the juice boxes, but it worked just fine for the pouches too!! I then printed and cut out little Lego man heads and taped them onto the straws. You can find that printable here.

All of the kids, and even the adults, loved the party table!! I kept hearing "Did you know we can EAT these too!!" So much fun!

"Happy Birthday to YOU" was sang and everyone dug in to the goodies.... (by the way.. the "green Lego board" under the cake stand is actually popping shipping stuff painted green with spray paint! Another awesome tip from pinterest!!)

Goodie Bags:

These were so much fun to make! I bought them in a set from the wonderful HL (using a 40% coupon of course) and just used my circle cutter and scrapbook paper for the rounds. I attached them using 3-D dots so they stuck out a little. I didn't get a pic of the contents of the bags (I know, I know, SHAME on me!!) but they were filled with the following contents:

• Printable Coloring Book
• Lego Minifig Crayons made with the silicone mold I purchased on Ebay
• Lego stickers
• Silly straw
• Lego brick candy from the candy store in the mall

All in all, it was a GREAT party!!

Happy Birthday Wyatt Ryan Maker!!!

We LOVE you so much!!!!!

*** I owe a HUGE thanks to my amazing hubby for all his help with the party!! He was game score keeper, picture taker, and clean up man for the day!! Thanks babe!!

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