Diaper Cake

I know a few ladies having babies soon. The boys recently finished with size 1 diapers, and I had a few remaining, and so I used them to makes three diaper cakes.

I cut apart a box from an Amazon delivery and wrapped it with some wrapping paper that I had from Christmas. It was blue, and so it fit the bill for an It's a Boy diaper cake. 

I rolled the diapers individually and wrapped them with rubber band. Then took a larger rubber bad and surrounded a bunch of them together.  Then I placed a smaller piece of wrapped cardboard on top and added a smaller grouping of diapers.

I covered up the rubber bands with some ribbon and added some forks and spoons around the bottom. Then topped off the cake with some blue Easter grass and a Wubbanub monkey pacifier.

The other cakes were topped off with a stuffed monkey and a set of teething keys. They are one of my boys favorite toys, and so I thought the new little guys would like them too.

Laundry Room Beadboard Drop Ceiling

Spring is in the air, and that means that Rob is going stir crazy to start some sort of project.  We have the basic run of the mill laundry room. It has the ever so beautiful florescent box light fixture. This hasn't worked in over a year, because we wanted to replace it at some point instead of buying more florescent tubes to fix it. We just had our old floor lamp in there until this week.  The pictures are done with our phones mostly because it was easier for us in the time we had to take them.

Rob came up with an idea of how to update the lovely drop ceiling already in there. We knew we couldn't do a normal ceiling due to all the pipes that run above it to our three bathrooms and laundry room. And with the amount of water issues and leaks that we have in our home it was a good idea to keep it like the drop ceiling we already have.  Rob got out his pad and pencil and drew a design he thought he wanted to work on. 

First we took out the existing light fixture, ceiling tiles and metal brackets.  

The next step was framing out the new ceiling, and that way the bead board ceiling would have something to rest on.  Rob placed 1 x 6 pre-primed pine around the edges of the ceiling. This was basically in the same spot at the original drop ceiling.   Please obviously excuse the cords and pipes.  This is obviously why we needed a drop ceiling to remain in this room.

Here you can see around the edges of the ceiling where Rob has the 1 x 6 pieces in place. 

We needed a place to put our router due to the location it needed to be in. Instead of having it on the shelf or shelves we are installing later, Rob chose to hide them up on the ceiling. He used bolts to attach a piece of leftover wood to serve as a shelf inside the ceiling.

The sheets of beadboard were purchased from Lowe's along with the foam they are lined with to help with lessening the noise from the washer and dryer. Then he placed the pieces in their frame just as you would a typical drop ceiling. This just looks nicer than those 80's looking panels we had before.  Here is a view from below. You can see he added a bit of trim modeling around the edges of the beadboard that had not been painted yet in this picture.

He bought this light from Lowe's for $40.  It is so much better than our former light fixture. The light it provides for this window less space is great.

Here is some detailed information on how Rob went about assembling and building the ceiling:

We started by ripping 2 x 4's in half (you could use 2 x 2's) and screwing them to the wall 3/4" above where we wanted the ceiling to be.  While taking the old drop ceiling down I took a pencil and traced the bottom of the bracket around the room.  After I hung the 2 x 4 I ripped off 3/4" of the 1 x 6 pre-primed pine boards (this gets routed and then tacked back on later).  I screwed them to the 2 x2  using 2 inch drywall screws around the parameter and also placed a eye hook on the part of the board facing the floor joists so that I could add some wire to attach them to the joists later for extra strength (though it didn't need it). 

I attached each of the pine pieces to each other using the Kreg system pocket screws.  I then made the center section roughly the same size as the each of the four quadrants. When I cut the wood for that I also ripped 3/4" off of each side. I then hung that from the floor joists using eye hooks and 55 lbs strength steel wire that your would use for picture hanging. I then measured off the middle of each wall and attached a piece of wood from the center section to the wall (again ripping off 3/4" off of each) attaching to each using pocket screws and hanging with eye hooks. 

I then cut 32 x 48" to fit up in the opening after gluing ridged green foam to the back (to insulate sound) I placed it in the opening.  The 3/4" pieces that i ripped off earlier I routed a profile on the wood we used a Roman Ogee profile.  I cut them to fit the inside edges mitered for 45 and tacked them in.  This is mainly what the bead board sits on.  The idea being that if I need to access whats above the panel I just pop off the routed piece and the panel drops out.  The light in the center with its medallion hold the center bead board up.  

Here is a look at the finished ceiling after a few days of work.  Next up for us is painting the walls, adding new storage solutions and a new floor. This may take us a few weeks (or months) but we will get it done. 

Thanks for stopping by! We look forward to sharing more of this space with you.

Free Teacher Appreciation Week Printable

Teacher Appreciation week  is coming up May 5-9th. I created this printable on PicMonkey to share with you.  Click on the link above the image to print one to give to your child's favorite teacher.

Teacher Printable

You could even frame it for them to display in their classroom. I had a lot of leftover frames that were not getting any use, and so I decided to place the printable in one of them. You could always get a frame from the Dollar Tree too.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy your day.

Spring Teacher Gift

I always try and send a little something into Wynn's preschool teachers for various holidays or seasons. I created this gift for them for about under $15 for two of them.

I grabbed these adorable gardening gloves, seeds and flower pots from the Target gardening section. I may have to go back and get one of these sets of gloves for myself.  I added a burlap flower that was from the Michaels dollar section. It already had a clip on it, and so it can be easily removed and used for other purposes.

 I've had these little plant markers for a while. I purchased them in a package at Michaels. I just wrote a simple message on them for the teachers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hair Accessories Storage

I have been drowning a sea of little girl hair accessories. Wynn has accumulated so many barrettes, bows, headbands and hair ties and they are everywhere. I had pinned several tutorials from great bloggers on making a headband holder out of oatmeal containers. I thought I was going to get on the bandwagon and make one. But, then I realized that Wynn would probably never put them back on there, and it may be difficult for her to use that kind of organizer so young.  This way the items will not fall off either.

I purchased these acrylic containers from Amazon.

I filled the containers up very quickly. Headbands easily fit into the largest container. The medium container is designated for small clips and pony tail holders. The smallest was the perfect size for her bracelets and watches.

I once again used my Silhouette Cameo to create some vinyl stickers for her containers. I placed a large "W" and some bows onto the containers. They seemed like they need a little something more, and so then I added the paper flowers to the two smaller containers.  

Thanks so much for stopping by! We've had these a few weeks now and Wynn has been keeping her items in the containers pretty well considering she is four. 

Burlap Egg Craft & Spring Mantel

I apparently cannot get enough of the burlap canvases at Michaels. I made this simple project for my spring mantel at my girls craft night. I went with the same concept of my burlap monogram. It was fun and easy to do.

I layered a piece of scrapbook paper and a doily using spray adhesive. Then I cut out a circle shape from a moss mat I purchased from Hobby Lobby. I topped that off with a blue robin's egg. I am making one of these for each of Wynn's teachers for Easter too. 


It looks cute with my Easter decorations on my mantel this spring. I have my Easter Printable I shared up there along with my Spring Wreath I shared last year. I paired my new Egg Burlap piece with a wooden bunny from the Etsy Shop by Amy at  While Wearing Heels. I love it!

It is finally beginning to feel like spring here in Maryland, and so this mantel finally feels appropriate. Hopefully we are done with the snow. Enjoy your day!

PBK Inspired Bunny Garland

I saw an adorable bunny garland on the PBK site a few weeks ago.  I made my own banner for my china cabinet in the dining area.  

I cut out the bunny shapes on my Silhouette Cameo using some scrapbook paper that I purchased from Jo-Ann Fabrics in a large pad form.  

I used some pom pom yarn that I had already and cut the small poms off to make the bunny tails. Then I used it attach the bunny shapes to in order to hang it across my cabinet. Which I might add is full of wine, martini and other types of glasses that I have not used in a year. :)

I really love the patterns that were available in this pad of scrapbook paper. It is hard to tell in the picture, but they have some gold foil in some of the bunnies.

This was an easy project to put together, and Wynn even helped me glue all the bunny tails on.  Here is my inspiration from PBK. I love the shapes of their bunnies too. They are really cute, however this is definitely something you can make on your own in no time.  If you do not have a Silhouette you could always trace a cookie cutter if you have one around for Easter too.

Pottery Barn Kids

Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy your day.