Twine Letters!

A few weeks ago, we made these fun
twine letters at a craft night with friends!

We picked up cardboard letters at Hobby Lobby, and then basically just wrapped them in twine, hot gluing every so often on the back of the letter to make sure the twine stays in place. (we all know I love any craft that uses hot glue) This was a fun simple craft, other than the corners and turns which were a bit tricky. :)

Painted Wood Sign!

After falling in love with the idea for this sign over on Pinterest, I looked everywhere for one to hang in our bedroom. Since they were all way more than I was willing to pay, I got to work planning my own version.

It was so quick and easy, I don't even have pics to show the progress. Basically, I picked up a thin square pine board at Lowes for $4, and cut it down a little to make it the size I wanted and rectangle. I used black acrylic paint to paint the board. I thought about stenciling the letters on, but wanted the painted look, so I ended up just tracing my own letters on and then painting them with a good old paint brush and offwhite paint by hand. I was going to put a clear top coat on to protect it, but since I'm not to worried about it getting worn, and I was in a hurry, I skipped that step. :)

I LOVE how it turned out, it is exactly what I was picturing in my head. I'm still considering distressing the edges a little bit. What do you think?

Ta Da! Here is my finished wall art for less that $5. Not perfect by any means, but perfect for us!

Olivia the Pig Birthday Party!

For Nora's 2nd birthday in Feb. we had an Olivia party. Nora loves the Olivia books and movies, and after she was Olivia for Halloween, we knew we had to plan that for her birthday!

Here are a few of the fun decorations we made for the party!

Here are the water bottle labels we made for this party! I love making these, they are such an easy touch to add. These ones are just computer paper printed with Happy Birthday Nora and a picture of Olivia on them. Then I just cut them out, and put them on the bottles with packing tape.

We had lots of red and white (Olivia colors), but I loved these red and white striped straws I picked up on clearance after Christmas; apparently they were candy cane. :)

Dessert area was more red and white. I love making cakes, but for this party we opted for make-your-own brownie sundaes and cupcakes.

It's hard to see in the pictures, but we made little cupcake toppers of Olivia characters.

I made these yummy reindeer noses for the party too. Let me tell you, they were NOT as easy as everyone says they are to make! It took me three failed batches before I learned the tricks!

Red and white decorations were easy this time of year since Nora's birthday falls right before Valentine's day. One of my favorite red touches, was putting red licorice in collin's glasses around the house. Yum!

And even thought this isn't a great picture, we sewed these cute paper garlands to hang up!

And of course pictures of the birthday girl up on the fridge!

Here's Nora enjoying her birthday lunch with dad!

Getting good at blowing out her candles!

She was very spoiled by family and friends, and loved opening her presents!

Along with little Olivia boxes and stickers for all the kids, we laminated activity placemats so they could color them with dry erase markers.

Nora had a great birthday, and we are so happy we could have friends and family over to celebrate her turning 2!