DIY Puppy Art

One of my sons is obsessed with puppies!  He has always loved them and I was in the mood for a new project so I decided to make him a custom piece for his room. 

 I started with 4 pieces of cheap pine which I put 2 coats of black stain on.  I wasn't sure what I was going for but I knew the black stain wasn't enough so I pulled out the acrylic paints.

  I put off white, blue and brown on a paper plate with a bit of water.  Using a paper towel, I began rubbing the wet paint right on to the stained wood.  I used one color at a time.  I kept adding more and more paint and it became weathered looking.  I wiped it on and smeared it off with the paper towel.  I made sure to stay going with the grain of the wood.  

Mocha Madness!

I wanted to try a new twist on chocolate cake for my coffee loving friends.  So I experimented a bit and according to my husband, this is the best tasting cake I've ever made!  And it was SUPER easy to do!

To get the mocha flavor, I used a box of chocolate fudge cake mix and substituted the water for vanilla flavored coffee that I brewed at home.  Before I added the coffee to the other ingredients I made sure it was room temperature.  I wasn't sure if it would work hot or not.  After the cake was baked, I soaked more coffee right on to the cake with a basting brush.  

I also made regular chocolate buttercream and added quite a bit of room temperature coffee right to it.  I cut back a little on the milk and continued adding coffee and powdered sugar and cocoa until the flavor and consistency were perfect.

Keely's Big Girl Room Make Over; Part 2!

The biggest change in my daughter's Big Girl room is her new bed!  I got SO lucky and scored this super heavy, iron bed from the 1920's on Craigslist for $50!  And my husband's BFF even picked it up and delivered it to our house for us!  It was white and in great condition.  I spray painted it hot pink.  Inspiration for her room came from two rooms in particular, which I saw on pinterest.  They gave me amazing ideas and I was able to translate them on an extremely small budget.  Check out the other rooms here and here for some incredible ideas!

We also moved Keely's bookshelves (which she's had since birth, a Target purchase.) to the same wall as her headboard.  I was lucky that she decided to keep her pink walls, which meant I didn't have to paint!  We also kept her name on her wall that I painted years ago.  We found the bedding at Home Goods for $40.  Keely picked it out.  It's totally different than what I was thinking of getting but it's her room and she liked it so I went with it.

Even though I did little bits and pieces over several weeks, the day the bed went in the room was a big deal!  I decided to keep her out of the room while I set up the bed and bookshelves.  We brought her in with her eyes closed and had her open them on the count of 3.  She loved it!

Keely's Big Girl Bedroom Makeover!

I am in the process of making over my 7 year old daughter's bedroom so that it is more "Big Girl".  She loves to read so I wanted her to have a cozy spot to relax while she dives into her books.  

  

Here's what I did...