Happy Easter

March swept on by like nobody's business, don't you think? Here is a little picture post of our Easter. Like always, I didn't pull out the camera for everything.


In his basket, Luke received a Thomas the Train shirt and shorts, a bubble blowing gun, a Lightning McQueen sticker book(he calls him Ka-Chow), foam alphabet and numbers for the bath and peeps which he called ducks. The picture he didn't look to excited about it, but Chris had just started a show and so Luke would not look at the camera. Luke's grandpa and grandma Miller gave him a new Lightning McQueen car and Mader and he loved playing with those. In between conference sessions Luke, his dad and grandpa went for a walk. If you look closely, you can see him holding his new Mader truck. He loves his cars.

Coffee Filter Wreath

I usually don't make or hang wreaths except at Christmas time. I've just seen so many fantastic ones in the blog world lately I'd hate not to give them a try. This one I worked on last week and gave to Christina for our birthday. I saw someone use coffee filters as a heart center on a wreath here so I thought why not do a whole wreath using them. Did you know you can buy them in brown? Not being a coffee drinker I was unaware. Before my office at work had it's fancy coffee making machine they just used white filters.

I started by folding the filters in half, then in half again and smooshed it together a little and then hot glued it to the wreath. I started on the outside and worked my way inward. It took me two evenings (after Luke was to bed) to complete. I'd recommend wrapping the wreath first with fabric strips or ribbon because the Styrofoam did not like the hot glue very much.


I was so excited to see a tutorial on how to make some really cute paper flowers on a site I frequent: Little Birdie Secrets. I got out my trusty Cricut and lucky for me I had a cartridge that had a flower in the dimensions they suggested. Yippee!! The flowers were just the thing to give this wreath an added touch cuz I thought it was a bit boring before.

I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt. I'm going to make another for myself after my blisters heal from the glue gun burns. I got two this time - ouch!

Mommy's makeup

Most weekday mornings Luke is up at the crack of dawn watching me get ready for work. Some days he'll sit on our bed and eye me from a distance while drinking a sippy cup of milk and other times he's in the bathroom standing on the toilet seat cover wanting to go through my makeup bag. I tell him that it's mommy's makeup and it's for girls, but I do find it cute when he gets a hold of my foundation sponge and pats his cheeks. Chris doesn't find it as cute.

One evening last week when I got home from work Luke was watching Cars with his dad, but followed me around while I was putting things away. I sat at the computer for a moment in the front bedroom and than got up and went down the hall to our room to sort and file some papers. Luke stayed in that room happily talking and than all went quiet. I called to him a few times and then figured he went back to the movie with his dad. I'd say 5 or 10 minutes went by and then Luke came in with this stuck on his finger sayings "mommy more".

The tube was hallowed out and his face and hands were covered. My first thoughts were, "What else has been covered in lipstick besides Luke?!?!" I knew where he got it so I went straight to the front bedroom to find the disaster, but there wasn't one. Just one small hand print on my fleece jacket and a few smudges on the desk. That was it - what a relief!

Later that evening I did find a small line of lipstick in the carpet. Thanks to the trusty Internet I found a product (Goo Gone) that took it right out. Another relief. All I can think is that Luke ate the lipstick since his clothes nor anything else was covered in plum (the shade name). Hopefully the makeup thing is a phase he'll grow out of, but now I know not to leave any lipstick tubes out in plain sight. Lip gloss is okay since he can't unscrew the wand yet.

Luke let me take pictures before I washed him down - got to capture the moment!

Lightening up and other projects

I'm working on lightening up our front room. The major obstacle is our large dark green couch. Instead of putting a slip cover over it I thought it would be easier to find or make light colored throw pillows. I found some great fabric at JoAnns. I think it goes rather well with the couch and should brighten it up nicely.

Things I have planned for the front room: Re-paint the front room to a lighter shade of yellow. Build wood mantel for fireplace (already re-painted it back to white) Sew pillows Find fun knick-knacks to pull everything together.

If I didn't have enough to do during my evening and weekend time I ran into another idea for a bed headboard using a interior door which would be less construction than the Knockoff Wood one I had originally wanted to do. Christina and I headed down to Seattle to Second Use and found ourselves a door for $25 each. We had to cut off a panel to make it the right measurement for a queen size bed. We need to use a router for the 4x4's and my brother wasn't home to help with that so it's been pushed to another day to complete and paint. Here is a picture of the door cut to size. Forgot to pull out the camera for the before. Oh well.

The Reveal

I finally found the camera so I could take pictures of Luke's complete shelves. Like I said before....they turned out fantastic. I can't wait to build more stuff!

The striped canvas totes I actually found at the Dollar Tree. (I love that place.)

Another angle of the room.

I used some of the left over wood for an art display. I modge podged fun paper to clothes pins and glued them to the boards.

Updates coming soon

I did finish the bookshelves and they look fantastic! Sadly, I can't find the camera. Chris tells me it's in a drawer in our computer desk, but I've gone through it several times and only found the case. Let's hope it didn't grow legs and run off someplace where it gets used more often.

Anyway, I'm adding some things to dress up the walls in Luke's room this weekend above those shelves. Once I find that camera (or resort to cell phone pics) I'll post the big reveal. Sorry to keep everyone waiting. Hope you've all checked out the knockoff wood sight and have become inspired like me.

Knockoff Wood inspiration

I've always wanted a bookshelf in Luke's room, but I couldn't find any that were a good buy. There are those at Target or Walmart, but I've had those before and wanted something a little more durable. One of my "do it yourself" sites listed on the right is Knockoff Wood and this gal has everything you need down to the size of the nails for building your own furniture. It is amazing! I found these bookshelves that she built that are a knockoff from Potterybarn and thought to myself...I could make those.

Off to Home Depot we went to purchase our materials from the list off the website.

Luke is always a big helper.

This is my brother Dave. He's is a framer/builder by trade and he helped me with my shelves. Plus he has a nail gun which made things go a lot faster, but it still took the whole afternoon on Saturday.

We made two of these bad boys and they turned out fantastic! All they need now is paint.

Once I have them completely done and in Luke's room I'll take a picture. These are going to be one of those items of furniture we'll have for quite a long time. My next woodworking project will be the Farmhouse bed. I don't think it will be for awhile, but it's in my sights of things to accomplish!