Push Pin Project - eat your heart out Martha Stewart

Despite her criminal tendencies, I love me some Martha Stewart, especially her line of crafting tools and embellishments at Michael's. Over the last few years I've been stock piling button stickers from her line. I  literally bought a pack every time I went into the store in fear that they would one day run out and my life would end. At some point I snapped out of this nutso behavior, and stopped buying once I had acquired 15-20 packs. Not something I'm proud of, but I want to give you a peak through the small window into my craft-supply-hoarding tendencies. ;)


I hung a bulletin board over the baby's book shelves for future pictures and artwork, and I wanted to spice up the board in some way. I decided to make push pins out of the beloved button stickers - and fortunately, the project took a matter of 10 minutes.


Directions: (take notes, it's complicated.)


1. Take two matching stickers and stick them together so it's a double sided button with no sticky side.
2. Pull out the glue gun.
3. Put a small dab of glue on a normal push pin and smooshed that bad boy to the stickers.
4. Voila - button push pins!

Leimabean Disaster

As many of you know, the baby picked up the name "Leimabean" pretty early on in the pregnancy. Honestly, I was pretty pleased to find a fun nickname out of our tricky last name. Once the nickname stuck, I knew that there would be some sort of craft project involving Lima beans for the nursery. 

First,  I tried cooking frozen Lima beans to see what they would look/feel like once they cooled/dried. Not pretty. Not craft project worthy. They would probably have grown mold on them by day 5. 

I then went on the hunt for dried Lima beans. Giant didn't have them. Safeway didn't have them. I thought for sure Whole Foods would have them, but no luck. FINALLY I found some at My Organic Market. I brought them home, pulled out my blue spray paint and drop cloth and went to town. 

I decided that the blue beans would be a cute "vase filler" for a few stalks of bamboo - and the project would take no time at all to pull together. Winner.

I bought my stalks, bought my vase and set up in the kitchen for what I thought would be a super easy project. I filled the vase halfway with the blue Lima beans, "planted" the bamboo and then filled the rest of the space with beans and water. It looked awesome and I checked the project off my list.

A few hours later I was admiring my work, and noticed that the paint was starting to chip off some of the beans. A tad frustrated, I figured that would happen a little bit since I didn't put a sealant on the paint. Oh well, still looked cute. I put the vase up in the nursery.

The next day I went into the nursery and found a bunch of blue Lima beans on the floor. At first I thought "Fraaaaaank" - b/c he's nosey, and has been especially curious of the baby's new room and toys. Then I looked at the vase and it was like all of the Lima beans had channeled the Incredible Hulk. The beans were growing and expanding and busting out of their blue shells.  I was so confused, and then this college graduate had the lightbulb moment she should have had 3 days before - I was working with REAL beans that were used by 99.9% of the population for FOOD in soups and stews and normal recipes. When you add water to dried beans they are going to SOAK UP the water and expand. 

Luckily I found a compromise - once I hacked the bamboo to freedom, the second round of this project consisted of re-filling the vase with marbles, and then putting that vase in a larger vase of DRY blue Lima beans. Not my brightest moment.

Flying Franks

Of all of the baby gear you pick up and acquire over your pregnancy, the one item I was most excited about getting (aside from the baby!) was the mobile. And I knew just the person for the job when the time came to mobile-up the nursery - miss Helen Greenstein. Helen has an awesome online business - Eleni Creative - where she creates and works with all things felt (think ornaments, capes, mobiles, stuffed animals, etc.). 

I knew there was only one felty animal that could fly above our baby's crib... it had to be flying Franks! Check out the six-pack of felty Franks below... 

The dog. The myth. The legend.

Crayola Craftin'

A few people have asked about the colored pencil project above the changing table. This was one of the easiest DIY projects that I've done over the years - and was inspired by a West Elm print I had ripped out of a catalog many years ago. The print was simple - a collection of colored pencils - I loved the bright colors and knew that I'd be able to recreate on the cheap.  I also have a slight obsession with new school supplies - think fresh boxes of markers and crayons with perfectly pointy tips - so adding some Crayola to the nursery was a no-brainer.

I bought a cheap white shadow box at JoAnn's, picked a background color from the scrapbook paper section and bought a big box of Crayola colored pencils (which I used my 40% off coupon on :) ) I fueled up the glue gun, decided on the order of the pencils and carefully glued them down with the label up. I knew my unsteady hand would not be able to line them up perfectly in a square, so I decided to have the crayons lay a bit askew. I think the entire project cost less than $10 and it adds a fun layer of color to the wall.

Leimabean's Nursery

Ta-Da!! Mission accomplished. I finished the nursery before the Bean made his big appearance. (Insert major sigh of relief).

I'm so happy with how the nursery came together. The vision I had in my mind shifted and morphed over the last 8 months, but the final product is just right. I wanted a space that felt calm and soothing, yet really happy and cheerful. Over time I was able to find the right pieces to fit the small space, and I was able to wield my glue gun a few times to make some special "DIY" projects that add a really personal touch.

Believe me, I know a newborn does not need a room with all of these bells & whistles. He will not appreciate the specific shade of gray on the walls. He will not care that I had glue gun burns from securing colored pencils into a shadow box. But I figure, A.J. and I will be hanging out in there a lot - at all hours of the day and night - and I wanted the space to be a place that all three of us would enjoy. Besides, it was fun pouring love into the room where my little man will sleep and grow and wiggle and laugh (and maybe cry on occasion ;) ) A true labor of love.

I'm going to break the posts down into a few entries, because I feel a novel coming on, but here are a few pics from the Leimabean's new digs. More about the details to come soon... 

The reading nook. The tuffets are from Land of Nod, and I stole the book shelving idea from Pinterest. (God bless Pinterest!) 

I picked up the Alphabet at Trohv in Baltimore, the dog print was a postcard for a Doggie Daycare that I picked up last year (!!!), and the other two prints were cards I received throughout the pregnancy. The little booties were handmade by A.J.'s grandmother over 50 years ago! 

The colored pencil project was super easy (I'll post directions soon),  the yellow Wellies were a favorite shower gift that I couldn't keep in the box, the giraffe print I found on Etsy and the rest of the frames wait anxiously for pics of our little man. Everything is center a bit high to hopefully avoid tiny hands reaching up and yanking things down during diaper changes. A girl can dream.

We needed a LITTLE side table to put near the chair, and this Urban Outfitters piece does the trick. The bamboo is planted in marbles and blue Lima Beans (funny story about them later.)

For those wondering, we're just 2.5 weeks away from my due date...02/03/12. I'm super excited to meet the little guy, but have been staying pretty comfortable, and I think the babe is pretty comfortable as well. I have a feeling we'll be by-passing 2/3....

Yarn Ball Magic. Hold onto your seats.

This is a two part post about yarn. Yawn city, I know.


Part I:
A few months ago my friend Jackie and I took a knitting class. The week before we tried a hippy-mom-yoga class. We were in a "let's try this..." mode. We took the class at JoAnn Fabrics, and we were the two youngest class members by at least 30 years. Shocking.


I learned a few things that night:
1) Knitting is hard
2) You don't want your needle to slip out of your hands or else all hell breaks loose
3) I'm not a knitter


Jackie on the other hand may be whipping up a complete afghan for her baby right now as I type... she totally got the hang of it! I came home and put my new yellow yarn in the "yarn box". This box has been around since college when I went through a "crochet stage" with my friend Ann. That stage lasted a little longer and I was good enough that Christmas that year was fondly referred to as "Megs gives everyone a scarf" Xmas. Sad to say, my skills got rusty and all of the yarn has been sitting in a box for years.


Part II:
I was recently in my favorite Baltimore shop (Trohv, formerly known as Red Tree) and saw these cute yarn balls. I immediately thought that they would be perfect for the "nook" in our living room. (The nook is the bane of my existence. It's a nice architectural touch in theory, but I have not figured one decent thing to put in there since we moved in almost two years ago.)

After admiring Trohv's $14.50/piece yarn balls for about 5 minutes it finally came to me - I could make something similar on the cheap. (The Oprah a-HA moment was a little bit delayed, but I blame that on the Leimabean sucking brain cells on a daily basis.)


Spotting the Trohv yarn balls was going to solve two problems for me:
1.  I would use up the dusty yarn box supply that had been taunting me from the craft room
2. I would finally have something to put in the d*mn living room nook.


Here's what I did:
Step 1: Load up on Styrofoam balls in different sizes. You could make the yarn balls from scratch, but I figured I would be winding yarn until the cows came home. This is a cheap, time-saving trick.

Step 2: Buy fun yarn in different colors/textures. (or deplete your yarn box supply)

Step 3: Start winding. The Styrofoam is sticky so you don't need glue. You just stick the end of the yarn on the Styrofoam, start turning and then tuck in your finished end when you've sufficiently covered the surface.

Step 4: Sit back and enjoy your yarn ball magic. The best part is once I started winding, the entire project took less than an hour. My kind of project.


I know it's a bit kitschy looking, but for the time being I love it and imagine how broke I would be if I had to stock up on Trohv yarn balls? 

And for kicks, here's a fun pic of Frank resting his head on the top step.

Shower Power

Hi guys. It's been a while. Again I'm here with a non-Frank post, but I had to share some fun pics from a fun party I helped throw for a fun mom-to-be.

One of my dearest friends Jessie had a baby last week (hi Jake!) so this post is dedicated to the 8lb. hunk-a-hunk-a-burning love.

I remember the day J told me she was pregnant, I instantly started brainstorming ideas for her shower.  We have always shared similar feelings about wedding and baby showers. Lots of food? Good. Lots of dessert? Great. Two hours of watching-the-pregnant-girl-open-onsies? Not so much.  I knew exactly the type of party to throw for Jessie.

Since I live in MD, and J lives in Richmond, the logistics of throwing a RIC shower were a little tricky. Luckily, J's good friend Ryan was up for the challenge of planning a "destination" shower with me, and fortunately, her good friend Cody opened up her fabulous newly-renovated Fan home for the party.

I wish I had taken a picture of the car trunk. Here's a visual: two bags of white candles, three bags of candle holders, candle sticks, votive holders. One overflowing bag of candy. Three folding tables. 18 folding chairs. 1 white dog riding shot-gun.

It was a great night shared with some wonderful women. We were so happy to celebrate Jessie and the soon-to-be Jacob Henry in style.

Here are some pics:

The money shot. Check out Cody's fabulous chandelier! Thanks to the space, we were able to have a seated dinner for 18.

We asked guests to bring their gifts unwrapped. We had them on display in the dining room so guests could see the goods.

What better favor then a candy bar? The chocolate dipped Jumbo marshmallows were a hit. I was concerned they would go stale quickly, but they were fresh in tupperware for at least 3 days after the shower.

This was Ryan's awesome idea. We created a tree for everyone to sign with their thumb prints. A fun alternative to a guest book, and a cute piece of artwork for the baby's room. There are many versions of the tree below many layers of paint, but that's our little secret.

Blue tissue paper flowers on top of chinese take out boxes. Thanks to the labels they served as name cards and favor boxes.

A non-Frank post. God forbid.

Thought some of you might enjoy a few random shots from the last few months that don't include a 16lb. white dog.

Random item #1:

A.J. and Chris ran the Gettysburg North-South marathon on May 1st. They both did amazing. Anyone that runs 26.2 miles is amazing to me. I don't care if it took you 10 days. I don't care if you did it on your hands and knees. The course was a beast, but they both survived. My camera wasn't keeping up with my artistic intentions, (yes, that's a total excuse for me not knowing what setting to use) so excuse the blurry pics.

The crowd was a little different in Gettysburg compared to the crowd at my marathon in Chicago. Slightly fewer people.

View from the spectator lot.

Random item #2:

I was in charge of Mother's Day desserts. My mom was having a cookout. I was flipping through my beloved Hello Cupcake! book and thought these were perfect. They were super easy to make, but a little expensive since you need 2-3 cups of white and yellow jelly bellys. Make sure you know where to get your beans before hand. I had to scramble and make 4 calls to various candy stores before I found a place that sold them by color. Tip: assemble the corn-boats when you arrive at your final destination. If you don't, the boats will tip over in the car, despite your verbally demanding that they stay in place. And if your husband is driving, you will become increasingly more frustrated that he does not understand the importance of driving at a snails-pace to save the cupcakes. True story. It's not pretty.

Random item #3:

If you want to impress someone, buy them flowers from Costco. It never fails that I find the most beautiful roses at Costco. Two dozen = $15. Unbeatable.

Random item #4:
We spent the evening with our favorite midget last night. J&J's pool opened for Memorial Day and it was so much fun watching Coop reacquaint himself with the water. Such a little man.