Quiet Book

So, I've been wanting to find a good pattern for a Quiet Book and I was searching online and found this awesome blog: {How to Make a Quiet Book}! This lady is taking us through a step by step process to making a quiet book with all these awesome pages. It's awesome and I'm totally becoming a follower.

One other site I found with instructions was {How to Make an LDS Quiet Book} from the Idea Door.
I really like their idea for the cover - how it just buttons shut.
Future Project!

Finished Nursery Letters

To see the origin of this post, click {here}.
Well, I've had these up on the wall for a long time, but our paint needs to be touched up, so I've been waiting to post this finished product. But, I don't know when I'm going to get around to it, and these pictures are pretty good, so here they are! To hang them on the wall, we found out that they sell those teeth (that are on the back of a lot of picture frames) in a package with 1/2 inch nails included. These worked perfectly, but our letters are 3/4 inch thick. If you got thinner letters, I don't know what you'd do. So, my husband put the teeth on the backs of all the letters. He first stuck a tack in where he wanted the nail to go and then nailed them on. He did this because I was so worried about those nails ruining the front of the letters. But they didn't. Some of them called for two teeth just so they'd hang level. And then he hung them on the wall. This was by far the hardest part of the whole project! He ended up drawing a line on the wall and then measured how far down the teeth were from the top of the letter. Then he put nails in the wall the same distance below the line so they'd all hang in a straight line. It would totally be easier to hang the letters at different levels, but for some reason I wanted them straight. Sorry hun! If I were to do it again, I'd trace the letters on a piece of paper, mark where the nails went, tape the paper to the wall, and nail through the paper. Then just take the paper off the wall. That would have been WAY easier!! But, we did it the hard way. And I think they look awesome. However, they do look a little bare on the wall all by themselves. I'm trying to decide if I should put a shelf below them with little boy things on it, or if I should hang pictures around it. Don't know what to do. But, I'm sure I'll come up with something! Next time I have a baby, I'm really going to try to get all this nursery stuff done ahead of time! It's way easier before they come...

Kids Artwork Display

I saw this idea on {Ohdeedoh}. I don't really like the look of kids artwork on display because, let's face it, it looks messy. Well, all you have to do aparently is frame it in a cute way. I love these animal cut-outs that show their fingerpainting art! The one in the middle is just a frame of a finger painting, but the ones next to it are mats (or why not just paper?) cut in the shape of animals and it makes that finger painting look awesome, doesn't it? I'd just hang these up in their rooms. It might be fun to do them in other shapes too, like sailboats or flowers or really anything. Then, you just switch out the artwork as they make it. Great idea!

Bracket Ideas

So, if you haven't already noticed, I'm an organized freak show. I love things that make anything more organized than it already is. This is such a great idea from Martha, again. {Here} is the article for this one. And {here} is the article for this one. Can you imagine a drawer so nice!?

Play Kitchens

I adore this playroom! I love it so much! It is so cute. I love the red retro kitchen. I would have loved this when I was a little girl! Potterybarn has such good things. But they are quite a pretty penny, aren't they? On the cheaper side, {The Land of Nod} has a shopping center and a white kitchen and {Target} has a pink retro kitchen But neither of them have that beautiful red one. I guess most kids wouldn't know the difference, though.

On an entire other note, Kirsten from {KirstenCan} made her kids a {play kitchen}. After giving her old one to a thrift store, her child asked when they were getting it back...uh oh. This is the result: It's really cute, huh...she did a great job.
And the great thing is she tells us all how she did it.

Here's another homemade one from {Ohdeedoh} It's pretty cute. And Dawn tells us how to make this one, too.

This one I found on {Daisy Pink Cupcake}. I wish I knew where it was from but I can't find it. Maybe you could make one to look like this. It's really cute. And the table and chairs are cute with it, huh.

And one more idea: This homemade kitchen looks awesome!

Lid Solution

That {Martha} has great ideas. My pan lids are always falling out of my cabinets because I don't know how to store them. Just ask Martha. This is such a great idea.

Stripe Quilt

I was browsing Potterybarn Kids and I came across this cute Dr. Suess bedroom. What caught my attention was the quilt. It looks really easy to make. Just stripes of fabric sewn in a row.

I'm thinking they sewed all the stripes together, then lined it with the backing, then top stitched where the different colors meet, so they'd have tubes. Then they filled those tubes with batting and hemmed the edges...that's probably how they got that pillow effect where each stripe bulges a little. It's fun.
The rest of these quilts are a little bit different, in that they don't have the pillowed effect, but I wanted to remember the types of fabric they used in those bold stripes. They look really cute!

 I love airplane rooms for little boys! They're so cute.

Word Book

Love this idea from {Party Perfect}! She is making her own word book for her son. I totally want to do this. It looks so easy. Just snap pictures with scrabble letters in them or beside them and put it together! Or I guess you could just print off letters, too. That way they see lowercase as well. Then they're pictures the kids are familiar with, too. I LOVE THIS IDEA! The only thing I'd want to do is make it into a cardboard book so it wouldn't get destroyed. Is there anyone who knows how to do this? It seems like I remember seeing cardboard "books" unmade at the scrapbooking store. I'll check there. To be continued...

Small Space Storage Solution

Martha's got some gems! I think this is a great storage idea when you're out of space in a bathroom, or a laundry room, or a closet, or anywhere for that matter. {here} is where I found this one. and {here} is where this one's from. But both ideas come from Martha. I guess the only thing you have to worry about is making sure it looks good, because it will be visible. Awesome idea, though, and it seems really easy, too!

Cook Book Rack

So, I was watching Divine Design, as I usually do, and in this stunning kitchen Candice Olson created, she used a bookshelf like those bookshelves I mentioned {here}. I think it's a great idea for cookbooks! Especially when you have a lot of them, like almost everyone does. It looks so great. And speaking of great...Check out the rest of this kitchen!!
I have always wanted a desk like this in my kitchen. I think the kitchen is a great place for the family computer, because there are always people around to supervise. And don't you love that metal chair? Probably not comfy, but looks awesome! She does such a good job! Love the use of two different woods for the cabinets. pictures courtesy of {pointclickhome}.

Birthday Cakes

This is such an awesome find!! Parenting gave us {61 birthday cakes} with pictures and step-by-step instructions on how to make them. They are so amazing! I really think I might make this Shark one for my husband for his birthday!
Don't you LOVE this purse?? And this buldozer!!??
And what little princess wouldn't want this castle at her party?? Oh my gosh! Love it! There are so many cute ones! Check it out.

ABC's

This is a cute idea from Black Eiffel. I think it looks like a great idea for a way to teach your kids letters, and spelling, and how to read, etc. And it looks super cute, too! The designer, Camille Soulayro, is French, so that's why it's in French. But, I think it would be easy enough to convert this little gem into English! It doesn't look that hard to make. You'd get a large peice of fabric, sew pockets to the front after stitching "Vowels" and "Consonants" to them, then stich hard velcro to it in a few rows. Then attach the whole thing to a board. Then, just make the letters with soft velcro on the back. I love the pockets for Vowels and Consonants. And you'd probably want a few of each letter... I think it's so cute. Future project!!

Favor Cake

Like this party idea from Navy and Lavender. Wouldn't it make a cute and functional party decoration?

Cool Clock Idea

This is from Dutch by Design. What an awesome idea! You can buy just a clock mechanism at any craft store...and frames just about anywhere. Then fabric to match the room and voila!

How to Organize a Craft Room!

Nicole Balch has some great and inexpensive ways to keep A LOT of things organized in her {studio}. I especially love her use of these inexpensive closet organizers!


Everything has a place, and it still looks so glamorous!