diy mama

lifestyle blog sharing diy, family, travel, organization & disney tips

A Beautiful Mess

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Let’s DIY

Let's_DIY_1

I decided to try a new series out this year called Let’s DIY! It’s a spin off of my Friday Finds series I had last year where I featured some of my favorite projects I’d seen the past week. This year I’m gearing it towards DIY projects that I think are inspiring and fresh!

These were my favorite five from this past week!

  1. Watercolor Stationary by Paper &  Stitch
  2. Leather Keychain by Homey Oh My!
  3. Dyed Favor Bags by Paper & Stitch
  4. Moon Phase Wall Hanging by Almost Perfect
  5. Layered Foam Wall Art by A Beautiful Mess

Jeffrey came home from work yesterday and said ‘I’m calling this weekend ‘Improve Yourself Weekend.’ What are you going to do to improve yourself this weekend?’ Which I thought was kind of funny because I LOVE that idea and had already deemed the entire week ‘Improve Yourself Week’ by learning Light Room, Photoshop, Google Analytics, AdSense and working out! I’m kinda wanting to run out to the craft store when he gets home to buy all the supplies for ALL of these crafts!

I’m really interested in making generic favor gift bags saying things like ‘hello’, ‘yay’ and ‘i love you’ to have on hand for easy wrapping! What DIY project are you excited to get started on this weekend? Any of the above spark an interest?

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Friday Finds: Creative Summer

One of my favorite things about blogging is following other bloggers for inspiration. Inspiration on craft projects, home decor, recipes and their every day life. I use Feedly to follow my favorite blogs and realized that I’ve only been checking in on them once/week. I follow a lot of them on Instagram, so I’ll see snippets of what they’re working on throughout the week, but I’ve lost touch of reading all the posts that I’d like. I decided that I wanted to showcase 5 finds per week that I’ve come across in the past week. I’ll do my best to not repeat the same bloggers but sometimes they have such awesome ideas that I’ll have to share them with you!

5.22 findss

This week’s finds were very inspirational to me in the way of creating and looking forward to summer.

  1. The giant painting by Maurice Gollota was spotted on Design Files. I have a massive canvas that I’ve entitled ‘Procrastination’ because it has been partially finished for at least 3  years…and has hung in a prominent space of my home for that amount of time! I NEED to finish it and I was drooling over the colors in this piece. I really love the pastels mixed with the neons and think I’ll take that route with my painting.
  2. In LOVE with this simple leather notebook Mandi made at Vintage Revivals. So much so that I bought a Cricut Explore!! I KNOW! I’m still giddy about it! I sold my Cricut at our yard sale this past weekend and promptly bought the Explore to make decorations for my sister’s Sprinkle! IT. IS. AMAZING. If you’ve not looked into all the awesome features, just go here.
  3. I’m not sure you feel this way but I just want to say ‘awwwwe!’ to this sweet pom pom throw by Ash at Sugar & Cloth. I love the colors and I love the thought of having a light weight throw for summer nights out on the deck to keep the dew off. I have to make it.
  4. These dreamy pergola curtains, found on A Beautiful Mess, are the inspiration for my newest outdoor diy project. I currently have sheer outdoor curtains that are constantly flapping everywhere because of our harsh winds. This tutorial, by Laura, uses a thicker fabric, drapery weights and stationary grommets to hold the curtain in place. I’m excited because I’ll get to buy a new tool–grommet punch!
  5. Cutest cakes ever came from a mistake! Kelly, at Studio DIY, was so clever to make a failed cake attempt into these popsicle shaped cakes. I thought these guys looked adorable especially with their decorated popsicle sticks!

Anyone else feeling inspired to get creative? Maybe just hungry for cake…or popsicles? Anyone have plans for Memorial Day weekend?! I’ll be (finally) celebrating my Mom for Mother’s Day, celebrating my sister and brother on their new baby and cheering on Dario Franchitti at the Indy 500! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Shelly

 

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What’s Going On?

Currently, I’m in the middle of 4 projects, so I don’t have a weekly DiY post for you all this week. I’ve also been really focusing on enjoying nature, my baby and myself this week. I’ve unplugged and it’s going way better than expected! I’ve really taken advantage of this nice weather to show Sophie the birds, bugs and flowers and watch all the kids skateboarding, playing tennis and basketball at the park. My brain is still going 100 miles/minute at the end of the night though. It helps me to just write a ton of it down (even if it’s silly stuff that I already know like ‘clean kitchen tomorrow, throw in load of laundry’).

Last night’s ramblings encouraged me to post about ‘what’s going on’ in my life right now. I am excited about doing these kinda posts every few months to let you guys in on the cool happenings I find on the internets, let my family know what I’m doing while the lil bean naps and also for myself. I know I’ll be a big blog some day in the (hopefully not so) far future and I am making a promise to always share these kind of posts. I feel it helps us relate to one another and hopefully makes communication easier for us!

what's going on

First up, A Beautiful Mess launched their Blog Life e-course, of which, I just bought last night as my Mother’s Day Gift and will be starting on as soon as I post this! I also took their Use Your Stash $8 quick course on using scrap booking supplies. I have SO many and it’s my lease favorite thing to organize so I’ve decided to use at least half of it and keep my stash at that amount from now on. Some of the items that she discussed made me actually want to go out and buy them though b/c I’d never heard of them (3×4 cards and small embellishments like wood veneer shapes and buttons!) I’d say it was a great $8 spent because it motivated me to get 5 more pages done in Soph’s smash book!

smash

I’ve also been attempting to get through a 5k program at the Y. Thankfully, I have some neighbor girlies that help motivate me to go at 5a, otherwise, no lbs would be lost. I just want to get to a point where I don’t feel achy from everyday movement. I also don’t want to feel bad about my body when I’m pushing Soph in public saying ‘here’s why I’m big…this isn’t the real me.’ That’s just an excuse and I know she’s not the reason I’m not in the body I’m comfortable with. ‘People’ (who are these ‘people’?) say that it takes 9mo to make a baby so it will take 9mo to get back to your normal body. For some, it takes less, I feel for most, it takes more and I’m learning to be ok with that.

girls on walk

I’m also very excited for this weekend because it will be my first Mother’s Day! I’m not sure what my daughter (husband) has planned for me but we have the entire weekend to ourselves to do (or not do) as we please! Fingers crossed for breakfast in bed! We’re supposed to get nice weather, so I’m thinking some good park & deck time will be logged. Hopefully at least nicer than last weekend when we had a tree planted in our park for Soph. She was not happy.

tree planting

Yes, I’m the dork that gets this excited about planting trees (especially when they’re free!) Our park district lets you choose where and what type of tree will be planted and watch it grow along with your little ones. We chose a Fiesta Red Maple tree and had it planted in the neighborhood park in hopes it’ll provide a ton of shade for future picnics.

So that’s about all I’m up to in my little area of the universe! Oh, I also helped my sister move into their new house and I’m super excited for their new life there! Who else got the Blog Life course?! What’s your favorite thing to do for Mother’s Day? I’m pretty excited about keeping it chill and enjoying time with my family. I hope that never changes.

Shelly

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