Aedan's First Birthday - An Overview

So it has been forever! Like...six months forever. But I am finally getting around to recapping the first birthday of my son Aedan. Better late than never, eh?

His first birthday was a great success overall, but I can definitely agree that I overstretched myself with lofty ambitions and as usual, life's interruptions never help much. 

Leading up to his birthday was my own, and I threw a very small dinner gathering with my mom and a close friend with a young baby as well as my son and husband. I decorated a little bit and we had a nice dinner, shared some laughter and margaritas and ice cream cake! Then I set to work finishing as many last minute home improvement tasks that needed to be finished before I invited people into my home for my son's birthday party. Namely, laying nearly 900 sq ft of flooring single-handedly while cleaning and caring for an energetic almost-one year old. Oye, what an exhausting undertaking THAT was; but it got done! After much encouragement, my husband helped by finishing up the painting of the bathroom and my son's room. After these things were done, I was finally able to fully concentrate on the ACTUAL party planning tasks.

Since my son's birthday fell before the actual party date, I threw a tiny little get together with my mom and husband so we could open all of the gifts we got him and have a little cake smash without the distraction of having to host a party at the same time. 

Aedan's birthday presents!

We had fun, but I learned never to attempt a cake smash with a very very tired one year old. It turns into a melt-down; fast. He still looked ridiculously cute in his cake smash costume though!

Mama's lil Chippendale!

 Yes; that is a Chippendale costume! I was trying to think of a creative way to costume a little boy that didn't involve too many clothes that would become covered in icing and cake. Little girls are easier in that respect. Adorable headbands, fluffy tutus, tiaras; it's easy to dress up little ladies without actually dressing them up. Boys on the other hand? Not so much. And then it struck me; costume without a lot of clothes? And you can see where the inspiration came from! So I fashioned a DIY bowtie and collar and some cute white cuffs and I took a pair of his old jeans and frayed them into cut-offs in the drying. I'll post a write-up of how I created the props soon!

My messy attempt at cake decorating!

I made my own tiny cakes for the occasions. I used a small ceramic bowl to get the shape and size, since I didn't have any small pie tins or cake molds. I simply cut parchment paper to fit into the dish and filled it with a small amount of batter. I had just enough batter to make two two-layer cakes out of one boxed cake mix. Yeah, I cheated and used box mix and a can of icing. I had to cheat somewhere! I used strawberry jam as a filling. He enjoyed his cakes!

A few days later, we had his party! His party was a jungle safari theme and I went NUTS creating the decor for it. 

Zebra cupcakes, giraffe cupcakes and my sad little lopsided cake!

 For food, we had fried chicken, homemade baked ziti, homemade mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes (with bacon, sour cream and marshmallows), cheese, fruit and veggie platters, chips, mini fajitas and mini corn dogs, homemade stromboli plus the homemade cupcakes and cream puffs! A lot more people RSVP'd than actually showed up, so I was left with a TON of food that was uneaten. Live and learn, I suppose! 

My 'magic tree' creation

 I was really inspired by the movie 'Jumanji' starring Robin Williams. I loved the idea of making my house look like it had a jungle growing inside of it, so I created a giant tree centerpiece in the middle of the room using a previously existing support beam. It was a very exhausting labor of love but the effect was amazing. I joking called it my 'magical tree' because of how the leaves moved in the breeze. I'll be posting a write-up about the tree's creation soon!

Livingstone's Lunch Hut

I also wanted to incorporate the idea of an African hut into the room decor, so I fashioned a little grass hut roof out of some very basic materials and suspended it over the kitchen island where the food was served. Welcome to Livingstone's Lunch Hut! I'll make a tutorial on how to make a grass hut soon!

Caution - Party Animals Ahead

Of course, it's the little details that really bring a theme together, so I used some creativity and created a few signs to hang around the area. The concept was pretty simple and easy to execute; cardboard, scissors and a Sharpie marker with the help of some inspiration images found on the internet.

Personalized water bottles!

Another simple detail was personalized water bottle labels. They were super simple to design using some free animal clip art I found online. They were attached using packing tape to make them laminated and waterproof and came out super cute! I also made matching 2"x2" square stickers to decorate the drinking cups for the party so everything matched!

Party goers heading off into the African sunset!

By far the BEST part of the decor was created by my mother and brother! Using a white twin-sized flat sheet that only cost $5 at Walmart and a few different colors of spray paint, they created the amazing backdrop for birthday photos! It really made you feel like you were on a safari!

I also made a pinata for his birthday that we never ended up using! Overall, the day was fun filled and everyone had a great time. I loved creating all the decorations and I was pleased by what I achieved on a limited budget of time AND money. Plus my son had fun, which is all that ever really matters!

Happy birthday baby boy!

XOXO

Jenny

Getting my swagger back...

Oh my goodness life has been so crazy! It's been MONTHS since I posted anything. I will definitely be getting back into the swing of things as I am moving forward along a new track in life and finally getting a better handle on the new 'me'.

Since December, I've suddenly found myself back at home with my parents as a single mother, so it's been a crazy adjustment period and I am finally settling in all the way and moving forward with a number of projects I had planned, as well as finally writing up the LONG overdue birthday party recap and to-dos!

Much love to all! See you soon!

Jenny

Busy Holiday Season!

I've been busy getting ready for Christmas these days! Thanksgiving was nice; all the food came out great which had me pretty pleased with myself. Historically, I've always managed to muff up one dish, be it potatoes or gravy or some other integral part of the meal, so I was pretty excited that it all came out well!

My son's itty bitty feast!! For perspective, the circles are 2 in cupcake toppers, Aww, tiny food!

Now we are moving on to Christmas! I finally got the trees up and decorated. My son has his own personal 3 ft tree in his bedroom as his nightlight for Christmas and I finished the tree in the living room last night. It took me forever and I nearly died putting the star on. Maybe not 'nearly died' but more like 'almost seriously injured myself while taking out the entire tree that took 6 hours to decorate by myself because the chair nearly tipped over while putting the star on the tree which would have made me want to die' which is basically the same thing, right?

Pretty, right? Blood, sweat and tears, I tell ya!

I've got a few DIY crafty things on my plate this Christmas plus we are going to be playing with our Elf on the Shelf, which has me pretty excited.

And I STILL have to do the write-up for Aedan's birthday party which was all the way back in October. I know it will be a pretty lengthy post so I'm sort of putting it off a bit. I was so burned out after the party because it took SO much energy out of me, but I promise I'll get the post up before next year's party. (I like to give myself realistic deadlines.)

Hope everyone is getting gearing up for Christmas!

XOXO Jenny

Jingle Bell Elf Shoes Tutorial

Hi everyone!

Bear with me, I've never written a tutorial before, and I didn't take any progress shots, so I'll try to explain everything as well as possible so that you too can create some adorable elf shoes for your little one this holiday season!

The inspiration came this Halloween...my son was going to be a garden gnome for Halloween and I wanted some cute little boots to make the costume, but I wasn't going to buy an expensive pair of shoes just for a costume. That's when I remembered this tutorial at Brown Paper Packages. It wasn't -exactly- what I was looking for, but I knew I could make it work for me so I set off on crafting my creation.

Here's what you'll need for this project and a shot of the finished product:

A pair of socks, plain duct tape, black duct tape, black electrical tape, 2 small jingle bells, 2 zip ties, aluminum foil and card board become fun little curly toe elf shoes

You'll have to sacrifice a pair of socks for this project; I used a pair of knee high white socks to make these for my one-year old son. I put the socks on OVER his pant leg so that the boots were a bit looser and easier to cut off. After I put the socks on, I traced a pair of his walking shoes onto cardboard and cut out the shape to use as a 'sole' for the boot, to give it some shape. I taped the cardboard pieces to the bottom of his sock covered feet and began the process of making the base form of the shoe.

To help speed up the process, since toddlers don't like to sit still for too long, I set up everything I needed and pre-cut lengths of plain duct tape, attaching them to the seat of a chair next to where we were working. Once we were all set up, I started taping around his foot, ankle and calf. Wrap it slow and loose and take your time to avoid too many crazy wrinkles. I imagined it like making a cast, just tight enough to support the form, but loose enough to be comfortable. For the little ones, remember to hold his foot in a bent position so that you don't end up with shoes that are made for pointed toes, especially when they are sitting down while you work. You can see in the image my shoes still look as though he was slightly pointing his toes, but I wasn't too worried since he wouldn't be walking around in them.

Keep wrapping the foot until you have it all covered and then add some more layers over the first ones. You want a good amount of tape so that the shoe will retain it's shape once removed. I think I ended up with three or four layers once I was finished, and the shoe was stiff and kept it's shape very well. To remove the form, I carefully slid a scissor down over his shin, at which point I was -very- glad I had formed the shape over his pants. It gave me a nice buffer zone so the scissors never once even came close to his skin. I would suggest eliciting some help for this part. The last thing you need while operating scissors in such close proximity to curious one-year is accidents. My husband was kind enough to keep my son entertained and watch for any stray little fingers that wanted to explore the action! I didn't worry about cutting it down as far as I wanted, I just cut it till it was loose enough to pull off his foot.

Once the shoes were off, I cut the opening down past the ankle area so that they would be easy to slip back on. That night, after my son was sleeping, I was able to start the finishing touches. I knew I wanted to make the shoes into curly toe shoes, so I would need a nice base to form the shape out of. I thought of using paper, but I knew it wouldn't be easy to get the exact form I needed, plus I wanted it to be tough enough to withstand my child's kicking, tugging and play. I ended up using tin foil and it worked out EXCELLENT! I pulled a piece about 2.5 feet long from the box, and holding the shoe between my knees with the toe pointing up, I loosely folded the foil so that one end was under the shoe and the opposite end on top and started gradually scrunching and molding the foil into the desired shape, essentially wrapping the toe of the shoe in foil. Be careful not to scrunch the toe area too hard or you will push the shoe out of shape and make it difficult to put back on. You just want it scrunched tight to the shoe surface so that it clings. I molded and pushed until toe of the shoe was taking on the right shape. The foil worked well because it didn't bounce back and I could always squeeze it harder to get rid of bulges and wrinkles. After working it into the right shape, I used that shoe as a model to work on the second shoe so that each shoe had the same size, angle and curl. Make sure you keep comparing the two shoes and squishing and modeling until they match. I used some more plain duct tape to secure the foil to the base. I did not cover the foil with a base coat of plain tape because I didn't want it to get bulking or have wrinkles.

Meanwhile, take two jingle bells and string them onto small zip ties. Zip the tie closed around the bell loop and begin to curl the plastic tail into shape. Don't cut it, you want a nice long tail to use to affix the bell to the shoe. Once you have it laying right, use a strip of plain duct tape to secure the tail of the zip tie along the curl of the toe at the front of the shoe. Now you can start adding the final layer of tape. This layer is the aesthetic layer, so take your time and make sure you don't get too many crazy wrinkles. I started with the curly toe and I knew that duct tape would be too wide and difficult to wrap around the curve without a ton of wrinkles, so I elected to use electrical tape for the toe of the shoe. Electrical tape forms really nicely around shapes and once cured, sticks like crazy, so I wrapped around the whole curly toe, making sure that all the foil was covered. Then I started covering the shoe with black duct tape. I started at the top, covering the cuff of the sock and making sure the tops of the shoes were both at the same height and making a nice finished edge at the top. Slowly work your way down the shoe, wrapping the edge of the tape over the opening that runs down the shoe. As you work, slide your fingers into the shoe and keep pressing the interior into shape so that the shoe doesn't get smaller and tighter. Push the toe out, push the heel back, keep forming and squeezing and molding the shoe as you cover it with black tape. Cut small pieces to cover any plain duct tape that remains. You don't want too many layers of black tape, just one layer to cover the base. (One thing that helped was that I was seriously running low on black duct tape, so I was very judicious in my use of it!)

Once you are satisfied that the shoe is completely covered, the last thing you can do is add a black tape 'tab' to one side of the opening of the shoe. I didn't want my shoes to lace, so I chose to simply secure them in place on the day of with an additional strip of tape, The tab made it possible to do this while ensuring that I did not get tape residue on my son's pants or legs. When putting the shoe on, I pulled the sides together till snug, laying the tab over the outside and securing in place with my LAST TWO PIECES of black duct tape! Talk about fortuitous!

The shoes worked awesome for Halloween. Unlike his usual shoes, he was not able to kick or scuff them off, despite kicking his feet the entire time to hear the jingle bell! He loved his jingle shoes and so did every one we met on Halloween. When we got home, we were able to simply slide the boot off his foot and I have them saved to use around Christmas time! Because the form for the sole was about a shoe size larger than his current shoe size, the shoes ended up being very roomy around his feet and I know they'll still fit in the next two months! It was a quick, easy and satisfying DIY project and I hope they tutorial was easy to understand and thorough enough! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section!

How to take great Christmas pictures of your toddler!

Christmas is coming up sooner than we'd like to acknowledge and that means time for holiday pictures and Christmas card photos! One of the most difficult aspects of this for me this year was learning how to get what I needed out of my one-year-old son. It's an awkward age to attempt things like photo sessions, but over the last few months, I'd like to think I learned a few helpful tips and tricks on mastering the art of photographing a subject that often cannot be reasoned with. And since it is the spirit of giving, I thought I's share!

Making Christmas photos fun for all!

1.) Know and respect your child's routine and schedule.  No child will ever enjoy a photo session when they are tired, cranky, hungry or wet. You've already lost the battle before you even step on the field. The best time for me was always, hands down, right after eating lunch after an afternoon nap. We wake up, we eat some lunch, we have some snacks, we drink some juice and then we change into our outfit when we change our diaper. Now he's awake, energetic, full and ready to have some fun with you!

You'd never know his shirt is on backwards!

2.) Get as much ready as you can BEFORE you even think about bringing a child into the mix. Do you want a backdrop in your photo? Do you want props, decor or a theme? Do you have a specific outfit you want your child to wear? Get EVERYTHING ready while your child is happily distracted with play, sleep or food. Never try to set things up while your are getting your child into the photo. It will become frustrating for both of you. It doesn't have to be anything crazy and you'd be surprised what you can turn into a precious photo. A black bed sheet works as an awesome backdrop (I even used duct tape to attach it to my island). An old grass skirt turned into a pile of 'hay' for our autumn shoot. A small blue baby blanket became a blue background for our Easter pictures. Some pink acrylic paint became a pink bunny nose and a dry erase marker became a make-up stick for the moustache for our birthday pictures. Use what you have in new and creative ways and you'll be surprised what you can come up with. Always think (and shoot) on your feet. An impromptu photo session in a field would have been much less visually appealing because of my toddler's graphic comic tee. So I real quick put his shirt on backwards. No more graphics and it took less than 10 seconds!

A fun sun flare gave this picture it's wow-factor!

 3.) Light, light and more light! I don't have a fancy camera...not many people do. But in order to get good shots, I turn every light in my house on, take the curtains off the windows and move a lamp without a lamp shade right in front of my set-up. Take photos outside and play with the light. Put the sun behind him, in front of him, shoot under the dappled sun of a tree or next to the reflected light of a pool of water. The light is your friend when your shooting photos.

Cute kid, but total creeper in the background!

 4.) Always pay attention to the background of your pictures! When not using a controlled environment or a back drop, always pay close attention to the back ground of your photos. You have NO idea how many cute snapshots I have that are completely unusable because of the background. Either my house was trashed, or I didn't realise just how close my son was sitting next to some doggie doo or there was a giant electrical wire hanging across the pristine blue sky. Always be mindful of what is AROUND your subject and not just the subject.

Tiny flowers make for tiny props and adorable photos!

5.) I cannot stress it enough; PROPS! When working with young subjects who are easily distracted, play on their natural curiosity and wonder with props! I wanted some cute photos to use for our Christmas card. My son wanted to crawl after the dog. How'd I keep him engaged? Red glittery Christmas ornaments (the unbreakable plastic ones, fyi.) He'd never played with the ornaments, so I plopped him into the set-up and before he decided to escape, I put a shiny bright red bulb in each hand and had his attention for a solid fifteen minutes, which is more than enough time to score the perfect shot! If you are outside, hand your child a leaf, stick or flower and watch the exploration and wonder through your camera's view screen. A plastic Easter egg, a stuffed animal, a tiny pumpkin or a fun costume prop can all be fun attention grabbers that compliment your theme.

As well as making for a cute shot, that pumpkin kept him from escaping!

6.) Corral your little mover! Toddlers are eager to move! Crawling, scooting and walking are a lot more fun than sitting still, especially in front of the camera, so make it -easier- to stay in one place by making visual and physical boundaries. A faux pine lighted garland looped around in a circle made it hard for my little guy to crawl away. A pumpkin placed between his legs made it harder for him to stand up or roll away. Take head shots and close-up portraits while he's sitting in his high chair.

Teething became an adorable photo op!

7.) Embrace your toddler's traits. Toddlers love to move, explore, test boundaries and play with new things. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Photos of a little guy wandering through a field, smirking because he's doing what you told him not to or 'running away' from you show off your child's spirit far better than any staged and restrictive setting ever could.

This was the last...of 53 shots.

8.) Shoot for quantity, not quality. The benefit of a digital world is that you are no longer restricted by the 20 or so photos available on a roll of film, so go click-crazy! Once you start a photo session, do not stop clicking the shutter button, even if your toddler is tearing down the back drop or running away from the scene. Shoot, shoot and then shoot some more! You'll be able to weed out the usable shots during the editing process later and the more shots you have, the higher your chances of finding that 'diamond in the rough' shot. So don't worry about your final money-shot while your shooting, just worry about getting as many shots as you can while you have the opportunity. You'll be surprised what you come up with after the fact.

(Hint: Without photo editing, his make-up would still be blue!)

9.) Photoshop is your friend!! Never, ever, ever leave a photo raw. Even if you don't have Photoshop, there are hundreds of free programs available on the internet that mimic the abilities of Photoshop and even simple programs can help make your picture that much better. A simple crop can turn your photo from blah to BAM in 10 seconds or less. Even something as simple as a red-eye removal can turn a previously painful photo into something worth framing. A simple level balance, color correction or brightness modification can make your point-and-shoot photo look like a studio print. And if you are shooting with a theme, go crazy with it! Filters, actions and textures can accent your photo greatly! I've had so many photos I thought were ruined because there was spit running down my son's chin of his hair was in his eyes. A little bit of cloning can eliminate those little distractions and turn your shot back into a perfect shot.

Alas...the elusive money-shot!!

10.) Don't be afraid to let loose and have fun! If it's not fun for you, it's not going to be fun for him, plain and simple. Get crazy, go loopy and move around! Your child is trying to crawl away? A quick tickle or a silly noise will distract him and bring his attention back to you. He's not looking at the camera? Whoop, cheer, sing, yell and make silly faces. He keeps looking at the ground? Get down even lower and shoot up toward his face. He's crawling away? Go after him, and shoot the whole process! And never ever be afraid to call it quits when you, he or both of you are getting frustrated. You can always try again later and it's a lot easier to step back, re-evaluate and re-approach than get into a battle of wills with your toddler. You'll always lose, I promise.

Our Christmas cards...a success!

Practice makes perfect and if you have fun taking photos this Christmas, you'll end up with happier shots in the end. These are just a few fun little tricks I've picked up over the last year and with these tips, perseverance, a positive attitude and some preemptive planning, the fates will align and give you those Christmas card worthy shots without losing half your gift budget in a studio session!

What a busy autumn season!!

I have been so busy since I last wrote, hence the radio silence! Between finishing up last minute home improvements, to celebrating three birthdays, a wedding anniversary, throwing a birthday party and celebrating Halloween, I have TONS of updates to work through as well as a few tutorials.

We have finally finished laying the flooring in our main living space. I'm so glad that job is over! Never AGAIN!! Word to the wise...do not attempt to lay roughly 600 sq ft of vinyl tile flooring by yourself while caring for a toddler. It's not fun. I promise!

The next big project was Aedan's First Birthday party! That deserves a post all it's own though! ;)

Till later!

Infant Water Play

I have seen a number of posts about infant water play floating around so I decided to give it a try with my 7 month old son, Aedan. Today was in the 80s so it was a perfect day for this! It's super simple, very cheap and he had a blast!

I used a bunch of stuff I already had laying around the house and was able to set up our station on my incredibly tiny front entry way porch. You don't need a lot of room; I had just barely enough space to spread out two bath towels for us to sit on. Here's the set-up:

 

Bowl, bags of colored water, clear plastic cups, a sponge, the lid to a storage container, some dried pasta and rice and a few towels.

 Pretty simple, right? This is also great if you are entertaining company that happens to have small children. Not a single one of these items is 'baby' related and was still child safe, with supervision. (My son did try to eat an elbow noodle or two, but with some distraction and redirection, we avoided some major temper tantrums.)

Aedan started out pretty simple by exploring a clear plastic cup. It was great to reinforce manipulation of objects and he even got to explore a bit of pouring and dumping, which is great!

Next I introduced the sponge. At first he was leery of the new texture but eventually he got into it, splashing the water with the sponge.

He enjoyed making sounds by first hitting a cup against the side of the glass bowl, and then striking the cups against one another. Another great reinforcement of object manipulation!

Next I introduced a bag of colored water. Simply some food coloring and water in a ziplock bag reinforced with some duct tape. This is where he really started to let loose! Once he got a good grasp on the bag, he really enjoyed the sensation of smacking the bag against things. He started off splashing the water with the bag. Here, he discovered the tray of pasta and rice and used his bag to splash and then swipe across the tray, moving all the pasta and rice to one side.

He got to explore the stick used to blow bubbles for a little while. Eventually it ended up in his mouth, so we moved on to something else pretty quick.

He showed quite an affinity for the bags of water, especially the dark blue one.

We revisited the sponge, along with some big splashing!!

Fast forward a bit; he eventually got bored with the bags, so first we poured the blue bag into the bowl of water and let the bag of yellow water float intact. We practiced stirring the water and watched as the bag circled around and around. Shortly after that, we broke the yellow bag and slowly poured it into the blue water, to make green! Then we got out the fountain from our bath time toys and played in the sprays of green water.

Inevitably, he wanted to explore on his belly, so I let him roll over and I set the tray down in front of him with some water on it. He eventually crawled onto it, laid in the water and played with his cups until he grew tired. Then, it was time for a nap.

Overall, the experience was a really great enrichment activity that kept him actively engaged for almost 45 minutes, which is really awesome for a 7 month old. We were able to explore a LOT of different things: sitting, reaching, grabbing, object manipulation, filling and pouring, textures, water splashing, early color recognition and color mixing. Plus we kept cool on a hot summer day!!

XOXO
Jenny

Finally finished my painting!

The house was totally clean and I had no pressing matters at hand so I -finally- stole away the time to finish a canvas I have been working on for EVER! I kid you not; I painted the background back in March!!

I was able to finish up the sketch last night so first thing this morning I DIY'd some transfer paper by rubbing the back of my sketch with baby powder and was able to transfer the writing onto my canvas. In between soothing my incredibly cranky son (he's cutting his fifth tooth and NOT happy about it) I made myself paint and I didn't stop until it was done!!

It took my the entire day and my paint and brushes dried out 5 times while I abandoned the project to tend to the needs of my son, but by evening's end, it was finished!!

I present....a hand-painted canvas subway-art! Enjoy!

 

XOXO, Jenny

Seeeeds!

I've been busy trying to plant seeds, among a million other things. I'm a bit behind, butI wasn't even sure if I'dhave a place to garden until not long ago, so that put quite a delay on things. But the seeds are planted none the less and some are even sprouting!!

I have one more tray to plant tonight, only because I couldn't help myself from buying more when I went to the store with my mom on Mother's Day. So I had to buy a whole new tray to plant the 12 packets of seeds I bought! I have other seeds that will be sown directly outside, so they'll have to wait just a week or so more until I get over to the new house to turn over some garden beds and transplant my old hostas!

I went crazy with perennial flower seeds and seeds for autumn decor items like pumpkins and corn stalks and Indian corn, and just a few veggies for a garden bed. I'm super excited about the pumpkins though...fall is my favorite season!!

<3 Jenny

Crazy days!

We've been pretty busy around these parts lately. My mind has been racing like crazy with all the details of owning a home again. We've made a few purchases recently; new lighting for the kitchen, an electric fireplace for a mantel piece I want to build, and also a new door!

We're putting in a door off the kitchen/dining room to the back yard, which will be really great for summer entertaining. Next on the list of to-do's is to build a front and a back porch, then I'll be able to put in my landscaping. I started two flats of seeds yesterday, perennial flowers and veggies for the garden!

I also found a super cheap pond liner and filter/pump. I'm excited to put in a water feature. It will really round out the outdoor experience.

I really have to get around to picking out paint colors, but it is hard to concentrate with my thoughts and ideas running in so many different directions!

XOXO
Jenny