Diaper Cake Tutorial

My sister in laws baby shower is this weekend, I am so excited! I am finishing up all the details and will be cooking up a storm on Friday. The thing I love about diaper cakes is not only is every part of the cake useful for a new Mom, it also makes a cute decor, or a fun centerpiece. I have seen diaper cake tutorials around, I never actually used one, just went on my own, so I will share my super simple one. Sorry my photos are HORRIBLE!! To all of you photographers out there, please bear with me, I suck at photography, and really need to get better. My other problem is that I do a lot of my projects at night when my baby is asleep, so I have zero natural light. That mixed with my warm color scheme, does not make my house very photo friendly.
The supplies I used:
A cake stand (I just got this one for $2 at my local bakery supply store)
ONE- 15 ounce bottle of baby lotion
ONE- 3.5 ounce bottle of baby shampoo
80- Diapers
80- Rubber Bands
Ribbon
6 skewers
Embellishments/gifts

First, roll all your diapers. I flip them over and roll from bum to top, I like use the cute characters for color, if you prefer white, or are going to completely cover your layers with ribbon, it won't matter how you roll them.
Tie your rubber band around each diaper. I tie all mine in the same spot, so it is easier to cover them with ribbon. I use the size as my marker for consistency.
Once all of your diapers are rolled, you can start building your first layer. I placed the baby lotion in the center of the cake stand and then place diapers around it. I used 45 diapers for my bottom layer. Once I had all the diapers placed, I tied a small blue ribbon around them to keep them stable and in place.
I then built my second layer the same way around the top of the baby lotion bottle. Once I had both layers built and placed, I CAREFULLY secured the layers together using a skewer. I gently placed the skewer's blunt end through both layers, then clipped off the excess.
You can get as creative with your cake as you'd like, putting in extra surprises throughout it. I found this tiny tee that I know my brother will be super stoked about, so I decided to put it inside the cake.
I wrapped it around the baby lotion bottle, then placed my baby shampoo bottle inside it for my final layer.
I added my final layer and put in another skewer. I then covered the rubber bands with a larger ribbon.
I added a couple cute rubber duckies and a fun letter "E" as finishing touches on my cake. The letter "E" was white and I spray painted it a dark gray to go with the nursery theme (it almost looks brown in this photo, again my HORRID photography skills). If you want you can get fabric or ribbon and cover the diaper layers completely to make it look more like a real cake. Personally, I like the fun color the characters add. I hope my SIL like it!
Stay tuned next week for the details of the shower, hopefully I can get some decent photos, but we are having it at night, so I may be doomed!

Master Bedroom ideas

It's Friday, and I have lots of things that need to be worked on for my Friday Freebie posts. I have had sick kiddos,though, and it seems to make crafting impossible! Instead, we've been snuggled in my bed watching lots of Max & Ruby episodes. Spending an extended period of time in the boudoir got me thinking that I need to mix things up a bit in there. I like our bed linens, have a sufficient number of pillows, and I like our bedroom furniture; but I'm having issues with my accessories and decor. I'm just not sure how to decorate the wall behind our bed.

I could go with a classic look~ three pictures in a row...




I love food, so anything involving plates catches my eye...





There's always room for one more frame...



A monogram would be simple and sweet...



Mirrors are pretty and add extra light to a room.



Using natural elements is an option...



And book cases would be great for storing all of our books...




You see the difficulty one can have when deciding how to decorate that darn wall.

What Do You Do With Kitchen Rags?: Tidy Tips

As I stated in a previous post, the month of January gives me the itch to organize, so you are getting lots of tidy tips this month. We have also been having flashes of 40 degree days, which makes me ready for some spring cleaning! A few years ago, I live with a bunch of fun girls, most of which are still my friends today, and one is now a nurse. I remember her saying to wash your kitchen and bathroom rags separate, I don't remember the exact reason why, just that it could lead to some sort of weird health thing. Lovely explanation I am giving you. That has always just stuck with me and I have actually gone away from using rags in the bathroom all together, I usually just use paper towels. My kitchen rags, however, get stinky fast with all of the time they are wet, and I didn't have a place to store them. That is where this guy came in.....
Since I store my bags my own way (you can read about that here), I decided to use my plastic bag holder for my kitchen rags instead. It has worked really well, and here are the reasons I love it. First, it is open, so the rags can dry out fully, which makes them less likely to smell. Sorry my picture is so ugly, the lighting in the laundry closet is horrible.
Second, it hangs on my wall until it is full and then I can just pull it off and dump the rags directly into the washing machine. So simple.
I always wash my kitchen rags with either vinegar or baking soda (not together though!) to help get rid of that funky smell. I have found though kitchen rags just don't have a super long life, so I buy the cheap ones and rotate every couple months. What do you do with your kitchen rags??

One Dollar Wednesday... Valentine Pennant Banner

I LOVE Valentine's Day, but what girl doesn't? I've been itching to get some Valentine Dollar Store crafts done! I came up with a fun Valentine's pennant banner that I put together thanks to Dollar Tree.

I found this cute Valentine gift bag, and knew immediately what I would use it for.



I cut it to pieces using my trusty paper cutter.





I used one of the letters and a bowl to make a pattern.






I always have extra fabric on hand, and knew this red/white gingham would work perfectly. I traced and cut out 8 gingham pennants, and 4 white pennants.






I used one pennant on the bottom, one on the top, and sandwiched my white one in between. Pinned them together, and sewed all the way around the outside~ about 1/4 inch seam allowance.



Then I cut little slits all the way around each pennant. I wanted them to look a little raggedy, so I spritzed them with water and tossed them in the dryer.



Next I sewed each letter to a "pennant sandwich" with a zig-zag stitch.



I finished it off by sewing all the letters to a classic white bias tape.




I just LOVE how it turned out!



Opinions, please?

We are constantly amazed at all of the fabulous bloggers out there. You guys are cooking, crafting, and creating so many inspiring things and we LOVE IT! We are considering doing something new on Tuesdays here at A lil bird told me..., and we need you input and opinions. Since you are all so talented we want to feature you on Tuesdays!! Tuesdays would be guest post day, where you can talk a bit about yourself, your blog, or share a fun tutorial. What do you think? Would any of you be interested in guest posting here? Let us know what you think, if we should or should not, we would love to hear what you think!!!

Lazy Post

It's been a rough weekend at my house, working all weekend, sick hubby, and I am pretty sure those top teeth are going to poke through really soon for baby M. The results are a lazy post, so sorry. Remember the green dresser? Remember how I also told you I would show you the rest of the nursery and never did? Well here you go, sorta. Since I am in a lazy mood, you get to see it by clicking over to one of my absolute FAVORITE websites, Ohdeedoh. I was SO EXCITED/lucky that they featured the nursery. I love the entire Apartment Therapy empire, but Ohdeedoh, is my fave because of their kid theme. I was really lucky, I had a vision for the nursery, but am not artistic at all. Thankfully, I married someone who is, and he did most of the work (painting, building furniture, etc.) on the room. It is a large room, which is nice, but kind of a weird layout with it opening to the bathroom. We got the crib for free, the bookshelf on sale for $45, the changing table on sale for $35, and the rocker we paid full price I think around $150, but I think we did pretty well to furnish the room for so cheap. Without further adieu, you can check out the nursery HERE, mainly cause I am lazy and didn't want to upload the pictures. :) What do you think??

Stylish Blog Awards

We are blushing because Maryanne over at Scrappy Gifts gave us our first awards!! Thanks so much, it really means a lot. Be sure to check our her fabulous blog, we LOVE it!!



Rules for accepting this award are:
1. Link back to the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass it along to 7 other stylishly and trendy bloggers.
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their award.


So here are 7 things about me/us~
  1. There are a couple authors of this blog. Mostly Karen & SueAnn, sometimes Steph too!
  2. Karen is addicted to Hot Tamales.
  3. She also LOVES to exercise, but hates to eat right.
  4. She has a HUGE stash of vintage sheets that she can't wait to get crafty with them.
  5. SueAnn is not a fan of movies or TV. Her husband hates it. :)
  6. She loves to eat all kinds of different foods. Sushi is her favorite, but she also loves Greek, Indian, and Brazilian, just to name a few.
  7. She loves the pink grapefruit scent from Bath & Body Works.

7 Stylish and Trendy Bloggers (YOU get both awards!!!)
  1. Hunny Bee Blog
  2. Diva Baby Bows
  3. An Oasis in the Desert
  4. Lizard & Ladybug
  5. Envy My Cooking
  6. Consider The Lilies
  7. Liv's Favs

Friday Freebie

My hubby and I were cleaning out the garage last weekend, and we almost threw out this little table. It was just a roadside rescue that I had been putting off working on. The truth is I thought it needed a lot of work, and didn't know if it was worth it.

I told myself to spend just an hour on it, and see what I came up with. So here it is in the beginning...I know, why did I even bother rescuing it from the roadside, right?



The side view...don't you love how I'm outside in just socks. Classy!



Out to The Spray Paint Place for a quick spray primer and paint.



When it was all dry I roughed it up a little with my this. (remember, I only had an hour to spend on this little project)



Then I painted on some brown acrylic paint, and wiped off the excess.



Lastly I added a quick coat of spray poly.

Here's my little table all finished.








Doesn't it look cute?!? It's found a perfect spot in my living room.

Five Minute, Five Dollar Cake Stand

A couple years ago Karen had given me a cake stand she had made and I LOVED IT! Unfortunately, due to a mishap at a family party, the cake stand met an untimely fate. I have been on the hunt for a replacement going to several places, HomeGoods, Kohls, GYGI, Target, but I just didn't want to pay $20. My husband had the brilliant idea saying "Why don't you just make one, Karen made you that other one, and it would be way cheaper." Well, yes that would be the smart thing to do. I took a trip to Tai Pan Trading and found this large ceramic charger plate for $3.97 and the small rice bowl for $$1.50, much more in my paper thin budget.I applied some E6000 to the bottom of my plate and bowl...
Centered the bowl on the bottom of the plate and let it dry overnight....
Now I have a lovely cake stand! In this photo it kind of looks crooked, but I promise it is straight in real life.
I think it turned out well for $5 and 5 minutes.

One Dollar Wednesday... Coat Hooks

Are you lucky like me? Lucky enough to live near a Michael's craft store? Well, I was pleased as punch to find these fun hooks at Michael's the other day, in the Dollar Section no less. I knew immediately I would use them for One Dollar Wednesday :). Wouldn't you know it, they even still had each one of my children's first initial.



See this lovely coat hook thingy that we've been using FOR YEARS... well, I don't really decorate in primitives any longer, so it's time for it to find a new use...maybe my purse collection.



I really wanted to get something up on this wall, that's just inside my back door.



It's in the laundry room, that needs to be redone sooo badly...




Yikes!



Well, now I have a jumping off point right! So anyway, I started by tracing the letters onto scrapbook paper...



(here are the papers I used for this project)



A quick coat of Mod Podge, and I slapped those papers onto my letters.



I let them dry, and sanded/filed around the edges...




A top layer of Mod Podge, and a little more drying time.

Here they are all finished...



I laid them on these boards that I had in the garage, just to get some ideas, and really like the look. What do you think?