Be mine?

I was inspired by Aesthetic Outburst's 20 Day Handmade Valentine Giveaway, and especially by this one, made for Day 13:

I decided to make some little gifts for my co-workers tomorrow. Here's what I made:

 

 

I also loved this little badge:

So I made Selby and I each one to wear tomorrow:

Aesthetic Outburst is one of my all-time favourite blogs, and I think everyone should check her out! She's incredibly creative, and a terrific mom to boot!

Isn't everything she made beautiful?!?!?

Lame.

Okay, so as I tried to buy a vacuum from overstock.com, it wouldn't let me input the coupon code. So I contacted support, and they said it doesn't apply to international orders. LAME! Perhaps marketing people should check into where the owner of the blog resides before they offer this code. Ah well, my US readers can still use the code.

However, I am highly disappointed!!!!!!! Nuts!!!!!!

Overstock.com discount

How serendipitous is it that Overstock.com contacted me to see if I wanted to offer readers of my blog a discount just when my vacuum cleaner broke? It's going to cost a couple of hundred bucks to fix it, and it's not a particularly awesome vacuum in the first place, so I think I might splurge for a refurbished Dyson.

If you get a refurbished one, it's considerably cheaper than a brand new one. And really, most refurbished products are just because someone decided to return it, and they can't just turn around and sell it as new.

This one looks good to me!

Dyson All-Floors Vacuum

So, you probably know Overstock, right? They sell pretty much everything, from vacuum cleaners to lighting to area rugs to bedding and everything in between.

If I had infinity dollars, here's what I'd get:

Hand-tufted rug

I'd put that rug in my kitchen.

This duvet cover

I'd put that duvet cover on my bed.

This light

I'd put that light in my hallway to replace the ugly boob lights in my hallway.

Anyway, Overstock.com is offering you 10% off your purchase. Use the code 121745, which is good for 10% off Overstock products (excluding movies, books, and electronics).  This discount code never expires, however, it can only be used once per email address.

All the ideas and opinions expressed are my own. No monetary compensation was received for doing this post, however, I was provided with a discount code.

Joanna's Hair Tutorial

Joanna always has the best hair tutorials!

She doesn't do them very often, but when she does, they're awesome! When I saw her tutorial for the messy side ponytail this morning, I had to try it!

Here's her version:

Here's my version:

Bathroom Redesign

I was tired of the poopy colour in my downstairs bathroom.

 

 

Ick. Not sure what the previous owners were thinking with that one.

See? Poop.

Anyway. I decided to redo it this weekend.

The colour is Sea Glass by Martha Stewart.

The front towel is from Anthropologie, and the red one is from Ikea. The two sweet little birds were crosstitched by my cousin when she was about 14.

And now....

ddddaaadaaadaaaaDAAAAAAAAAAA!

Book thatched wall!

I got the idea from the fabulous Aunt Peaches, whose wall is totally rockin'. Case in point:

I used one of my favourite books, I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak.

I coloured the edge of the book with red sharpie.

Hook from Anthro.

The lamp's from Ikea.

Love it!

Blog Redesign

I've been thinking for awhile that I wanted to redesign my blog because the original one was really just a stop-gap measure when I first got the blog.

So it was rather serendipitous that pugly pixel posted about her free blogger layout at Powered by Pastries called Strawberry Shortcake. It fixed a couple of things that annoyed me about the other one, specifically that the photos overlapped with the right sidebar.

And THEN I found another cool tool on pugly pixel's website, the stripe generator! Who else loves stripes!?! Everyone loves stripes!!! And then I found a link on the stripe website to a tartan maker! So I decided to make a little simple banner.

Also, don't you love that font?! It's called Strangelove, and I've seen it around, and decided to bite the bullet, and buy it. I think I'm going to use it on everything now.

Anyway, I am digging my new layout!

(Though I need to fix that little white gap between the header and the stripe on the right side. It's bugging me.)

Abigail's Baby Shower

I've been a busy lady planning and creating a baby shower for my best friend Sarah's baby Abigail. Abigail was born in November, but with Christmas, we decided to hold off for the shower until January 30th. It's hard to believe my little baby girl, whom I call my neice, is already two months old!

Since many people had already given them gifts, we decided to have a library themed baby shower. Then we asked each person to bring a cherished children's book for Abby's library. Abigail's parents are both teachers too, so we definitely all have a love of literature!

I got the idea for the shower from a book club bridal shower, actually, that I found on Creature Comforts, one of my favourite blogs. Ez was right about this site: tonnes of downloads and printables for ANY kind of party, not just weddings!

From here.

For Abigail's shower, I made a lot of the stuff for the party. Let's see if I can do a run down.

I made the kraft paper table runner. I sewed pink grosgrain ribbon under a crocheted trim and yellow grosgrain on top. This runner was inspired by one I saw on 100 Layer Cake:

From here.

I made this circular bunting. I cut the circles out on my Cricut, out of yellow and pink papers. I also cut some out from a children's book, The Shy Little Kitten.

I used another table runner as a counter protector for our craft project. Everyone got to decorate a quilt square! (Thanks Mom for helping me cut out all those squares!)

I made chili maple caramel popcorn and put it in pink bags and closed them with yellow masking tape.

The biggest project of all was the favour. I made about 40 bookmarks, where I drew and did watercolours of a bunch of different children's books.

 

I used mini wooden alphabet blocks instead of tassles. I just drilled a hole in them and threaded the ribbon through.

The Richard Scarry one is the one I chose to take home as my favour.

Next up: photos of my mom & dad's anniversay party from way back in December!