Burlap Monogram Wreath

I planned to make a burlap monogrammed wreath to hang on the front door for Emmie's shower, but unfortunately the wooden monogram didn't arrive on time.  I went ahead and made the wreath anyways and plan on mailing it to Emmie to use in Eliza Blair's nursery.  

I followed the tutorial from this blog and it was pretty easy to make. Because of my endless supply of burlap (which is actually sadly starting to dwindle) I only had to buy a few items.  I bought a styrofoam wreath form, straight pins, ribbon and the wooden monogram, which I purchased off of etsy. 

I started by wrapping the styrofoam wreath in burlap, then I cut 4 inch x 4 inch squares of burlap for the burlap "bubbles".  

Next I folded each square corner to corner and then folded the other two corners in and pinned it to the wreath.  

I continued the folding and pinning process and a few episodes of Keeping up with the Kardashians later, I was done. As you can tell from the above picture, Buford was intrigued by this project. I'm pleased with the way it turned out! I bought an extra wreath form and am planning on making one for our front door for the fall.

Emmie's Baby Shower

Last Sunday, Catherine, Leigh and I hosted a baby shower for Emmie Park. Emmie is married to James' fraternity brother and former roommate, Alex. In October, Alex & Emmie will have a sweet baby girl and become a family of three.  Little Eliza Blair will be the first baby in our close group of friends and something tells me she is going to be spoiled rotten. I mean how can you resist sweet baby girl outfits and accessories?

Adorable little outfits

My favorite of the bunch. Love the baby chevron print

Can you guess how many clothes pins?

Baby Park Punch

Measure the bump game

From left to right me, Leigh, Emmie and Catherine

Congrats Alex & Emmie! Can't wait for Eliza Blair to make her entrance into the world!

Jashley's Couples Shower

Last weekend we hosted a couples shower for our good friends Jason Perry & Ashley Miller (Jashley).  Jason is one of James' fraternity brothers, and he and Ashley have become wonderful "couples friends" of ours over the last few years.  We are so excited for their wedding this October! Together with Jason & Ashley's friends, Laura & Kyle, we hosted a fun back yard bbq to celebrate their upcoming big day. 

We could not have asked for better weather for an outdoor event in the middle of August. We had planned on renting 2 large fans to keep the back deck comfortable for our guests, but we only ended up renting one, thanks to the weather.  To keep things simple and easy, we had the party catered by Fox Brothers barbecue.  We dipped into my never-ending supply of burlap to make a few small touches, including a burlap matted frame of the invitation and burlap wrapped mason jars for the drinks. 

Laura has a mason jar beverage dispenser, which worked perfectly with our theme.  We ended up making a punch and named it "Perry Punch".

Remember this post about my monogrammed beverage buckets? Well, when I ordered our acrylic monogram stickers, I went ahead and ordered an extra one, knowing that we would likely host a shower for Jason & Ashley.  We had Jason & Ashley's beverage bucket on display at the shower and it took Ashley a second to realize it was their monogram. I guess our monograms are only one letter apart from being identical...

The spread

Drink Table

Mini Strawberry Shortcake Deserts

...and brownie bites

And finally a picture of the hosts with the bride and groom-to be. 

Guest Bedroom Headboard

Remember my $25 Goodwill find? Well, we are done refinishing the headboard and the bedroom is finally complete and put together at this point. We started by sanding down the entire head & footboard and then primed it.  

Next, James made a few changes to the headboard.  He added extra wood onto the legs to make it taller and added piece of wood across the middle to make it more structurally sound.

Then I painted the head and footboard Bennington Gray by Benjamin Moore. I prefer the lightened up look to the previous wood finish.

Finished product  

Next, I will be making an upholstered headboard with nailhead trim for our other guest room.  You could say I've been a bit headboard happy lately...

No-Sew Curtains

The third bedroom has been at the top of our to-do list lately, and this past weekend was no different. Once the bedroom was painted I turned my focus to this monstrosity:

                                       

This unit was existing in our third bedroom when James purchased the house and it serves as great storage, which is why we haven't torn it down.  While it does provide a good place to put things, I have been wanting to cover it up so that I wouldn't have to keep it neat and organized all the time.  The other annoying thing about the shelving unit is that as soon as you walk through the door, the left side of the unit is directly in front of you--not the greatest first impression or the most welcoming entry. When brainstorming about curtains, I knew I wanted a curtain that could cover the front of the unit and continue around the side with no gaps in between.  Since I knew I was going to be making the curtains myself, I just needed to find some hardware that would accomplish this look.

Ikea sells some curtain hardware that has an attachable bendable piece that can literally bend however you need it to.  Which was exactly what we needed in order to continue the rod around the corner of the unit. Figuring out the pieces you need can be a little overwhelming since they are all sold separately. I would highly recommend drawing out your measurements on a diagram to bring with you. Thankfully James, the handy analytical one, was with me and was able to figure it all out.  The hardware we purchased is shown below. 

Meet my new friend Bendy

Because I was planning on making no-sew curtains, we also bought 3 packs of clip on curtain rings. I had James mount the hardware while I put together the rods.

As you can see, with the connector piece, the rod will continue around as one continuous piece to hide the side of the unit.

Once we got all of the hardware up it was time to tackle the making of the no-sew curtains.  I went down to Forsyth Fabrics and came home with 7.5 yards of this brown and white cane print fabric.

When measuring out how much fabric was needed to cover the unit I first measured the height (88") and then added 2 inches to the measurement. Each panel was standard fabric width of 54".  In order to create a straight edge or seam, you have to fold each side in by one inch and adhere the stitch witchery, or hem tape. Before ironing on the hem tape, I folded the fabric over and ironed it to make a crease.  Once I had a straight edge, I ironed over the hem tape to fuse the fabric together creating finished edges on all four edges.  Keep in mind, I was planning on hanging these curtains with the clip on curtain rings, so I did not have to leave room for a rod at the top.  

All in all, the project took the better part of the afternoon, but I was really pleased with the way they turned out.  

View from the hallway looking into the room

Curtains opened

Curtains closed to hide all of the clutter