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...