nursery and jane's bedroom decorating complete!

In case you aren't sick of me and my projects yet... I have more!

Here's the thing - we're getting such a great response to our BEST GIVEAWAY EVER - seriously? Click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about which means you are basically a crazy person. OK, so because we're getting such a great response from everybody to the Surface Inspired Wall Decal Giveaway, I'm thinking that I'm obviously not the only one out there who's (1) decorating a nursery or (2) looking for ways to pretty up a room for CHEAP-O.

So, this week, I had two "empty corner" projects I wanted to finish up... Dear Lord, there's nothing worse than an empty corner!! :p

(1) The empty wall corner in the nursery behind the rocking chair
(2) Jane's empty corner behind her swinging chair

Priority went to Jane's room, well, because... um. She's here. So for some reason because Jane is actually out in the world vs. the baby in my belly who has another 15 (likely 17 should I be so lucky...) weeks until he/she joins us, she should therefore get first dibs on filling her empty corner. I know this is something she cries about every night. It may, in fact, be the reason for her few nights of crappy sleep this week. If she's anything like her Mommy that empty corner was too much to bear. :p BTW, nevermind. I'm not saying a thing. What I will say is that I'm not tired right now... hint, hint. I'm not even trusting "knock on wood" with what I was about to say so you get my drift, right? (If, again, you have no idea what I'm talking about, refer to: I'm a Sucker post from Monday).

So, Jane loves horses. I love horses. I will say that I have ridden horses for the last 20 years. I phrase it that way because it is my love. I miss it everyday more than anyone could ever imagine. Fact is, riding is tres expensive and, along with skydiving and roller coasters, apparently doesn't mesh with pregnancy. And it's been four years since I've truly been immersed in horses. My fantastical husband, surprised me this year on our anniversary with an hour long private ride at a local stable that was probably the best gift he's ever given me. Enter: My amazing, beautiful daughter. Who, currently (who knows if it will last) is head over heels for horses and it makes my heart happy. I know that's corny but you know what I mean - when you see a personality trait or mannerism or feature or anything of yourself in your children, it makes you glow. So, Jane and I are at the local horse farm at least 2-3 times a week... just visiting. :) She's fallen in love with a white draft horse, Amos, who she says is "my horsey" and "I'm going to ride him all day in the summer when the leaves come on the trees". When she sees him she gets the shakes - pure excitement - and talks about him randomly, in conversation, all the time... like three year old's do. You know, like she wakes up in the morning four days after seeing Amos and the first thing she says to me is "Amos smiled at me mommy, he's so CRAZY".

So, that was a long story to basically say that - I wanted to fill her corner with Amos. And this is something everyone can do. Find something your babe loves - your dog, your cat, you (ha), playgrounds, dolls, anything. Take pictures of a bunch of them and put them on a wall. Voila. It's cheap - if you visit Michaels in the right week when frames are 40% off (which is pretty near always) - and it's thoughtful and, if your child is anything like mine, seeing her face LIGHT UP when she walked into her room was worth the 15 minutes of photo-taking in the freezing cold and hour it took for me to buy the frames and put the photos in there.

Here's my finished product:

Total cost: $75 - for frames and photo processing. Response: Priceless. She talked about Amos the whole way home and how she wanted to go see Amos in her room before dinner - she didn't even take her jacket off. Straight from the garage to Amos. Worth. Every. Dollar. And. Minute. Plus, here's the bonus. If, next year (please Lord no), she loves bicycles (?) then it's a $15 switch of photos and I'm back in the BEST-MOMMY-IN-THE-WORLD book for another 15 seconds. :p

Ok, so onto project numero deuce... Filling the blank corner (shown left and eating away at my soul) in the nursery.

I had an idea with Jane's nursery about using pages from one of my favourite children's books as artwork. Unfortunately, it didn't work out in Jane's first room as the book I wanted to use, Robert Munch's "I Love You Forever" didn't have the right colour scheme and y'all know I'm a Monica when it comes to coordination.

However, with my beautiful, neutral, blue nursery, I had lots of potential! I dropped by the local Chapters store to check out some of the books they had in stock that would make for good artwork - some of the pictures in children's books are fantastic! Anyways, I had no idea what book I was going to use but, obviously, I'd like something with sentimental value. Unfortunately, "I Love You Forever" lost again because the writing and the photos were on separate pages and I really wanted to have some nice quotes along with a nice picture, cause I'm anal crazy like that. Enter: "Guess How Much I Love You". I bought the hardcover book as the pages were sized about 9" by 11" and I wanted to do larger frames. What I did NOT do was buy the book at the store... Never buy a book at the store, unless you enjoy paying significantly more (Chapters online price $14.44, store price $19.99). That's five bucks baby - that's like two king sized chocolate bars! :p

I picked up three large, matted, frames from Michaels - again, 40% off, so they were only $10.19 each - SCORE - significantly cheaper than Walmart FYI which is surprising. And Voila. A wall filled beautifully, creatively and meaningfully for under $50. I finished the other wall off with a frame I already had, in dark wood to complement the dark wood of the rocker, that will house the new baby's newborn photos once he/she arrives and we get said photos taken. :p

Here's THAT finished product:

Oh. I also picked up a side table from Homesense for $40. AND, apparently bird houses are really popular right now (no idea what you're truly supposed to do with them) but I thought the sweet yellow one pictured above would make a great book holder while filling the DREADED open space under my side table and it was only $12.99!

So, there. My grand tally on the nursery was $450 - including paint, window treatments, a rocking chair, bedding, storage, a side table and fantastic artwork/decals on all four walls. Which may seem like a lot, but when you consider that a bedding set alone from Sears can cost $200 or more, it's pretty fan-freakin'-tastic. Obviously, I already owned the most expensive pieces - the crib and the changetable. But, you can easily find a nice crib and changetable on kijiji for a great price if you're a first-timer. And don't let colour ever hold you back. Spray paint is the best thing ever created. Addictive good.

All done. I have no more decorating to do. Whatever shall I do with my time and money! :p

NOW CLOSED: BEST GIVEAWAY: Surface Inspired - Adorable Decals for Adorable Kids

PLEASE NOTE: CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED

I don't do a lot of giveaways - I tried it before, it wasn't for me. I prefer to blabber and not have to worry about what marketing is going to think about my post. I'm in marketing, I know what they thing - it's never good enough! :p ha ha ha.

BUT, I LOVE to share great products. I LOVE to support great companies, with GREAT customer service. And, in the world where options are a plenty, I LOVE to make your decision easier for you.

Enter: SURFACE INSPIRED WALL DECALS - here's a link to their online store.

I have been a fan on this company's products for a year now - ever since we first decided to redecorate our last house (right before we put it up for sale - FAIL).

I found a photo of one of their cherry blossom trees on their shop and based my entire re-do of Jane's bedroom around it. Here's the finished product:

Of course, then we up and moved a month later which only broke my heart because I had to leave this room behind. Love how elegant and sophisticated it was but still childish.

And, can I say the most important part... EASY. The decals come ready-to-go - you simply tape it where you want it on the wall, peel off the backing, and start scraping. This decal literally took me, say two-three hours in total to do - can you imagine how long it would take to paint! Surface Inspired provides great, simple to understand (mommy brain proof, trust me) instructions on how to apply, including a video on their site.

I have to point this out because I made the mistake of ordering from a different wall decal shop when we moved into the new house... big mistake. When you're a Mom, and you have barely any free time to yourself, when you spend two hours trying to figure out how the heck to get the wall decal from the paper, to the sticky paper, and then from the sticky paper to the wall - without destroying the wall decal, your wall or your sanity, you're not a happy customer. I immediately threw that decal in the garbage out of frustration, demanded a refund and emailed Thomas at Surface Inspired. I love him. Great customer services wins me every time, no fail.

I placed two orders... One for the nursery, which you saw on Monday and one for Jane's room, which you saw yesterday - I fell in love with the Birch Tree decal at first sight. The best thing is that you can completely customize the orientation so that it fits the layout of your room AND the colors so that it coordinates with your room's other decor. WOOT WOOT! Extra benefit - Surface Inspired are experts - I remember with Jane's first decal, I asked them their opinion on a few things and let them decide in the end - they were spot on!

In case you missed the last two day's posts, here are the two decals I went with for the new house:

The Birch Tree Decal in the nursery (using the colors brown, yellow, lime tree green & light brown) :

And the Contemporary Cherry Blossom Branch in Jane's room (colors - dark grey, white and lilac):

Time wise, obviously, the birch tree took the longest - with that said, as big as it is and as many leaves as there are, it probably only took me 4-5 hours in total (done over a few days) to complete it. Maybe. Each decal comes with a guide, down the to leaf, that shows you where you can place every element for optimal appearance. I follow this guide to the leaf. :p BUT, the decals are easily removed as well. They peel right off. When I moved out of the old house, I asked Thomas to provide me with instructions for removal for the new home owners, just in case. I assumed, because it's so sturdy and durable and basically part of the wall, that it would require some intense elbow grease to remove. Turns out, you just peel it off! HA! If it's a cooler time of year, you can run a hair dryer over it for a second or two and then peel it off. See, told ya, easy peasy!

Ok, if I haven't sold you enough. Here's the deal.... You want one? I told you it was BIG AND FABULOUS!

Surface Inspired is offering one MOmMy bRaIn reader ANY WALL DECAL OF HER CHOICE! That's right. ANY WALL DECAL! That's up to $100 in value baby!

Here's what you have to do to enter:

(1) Check out the Surface Inspired website and comment on this post letting me know which decal you would LOVE to win if you are the lucky gal (or guy, for that matter).
(2) Like MOmMy bRaIn on Facebook by clicking here and hitting the "like" button on my page.
(3) Like Surface Inspired on Facebook by clicking here and hitting the "like" button on their page.

That's it. Pretty easy for the BEST GIVEAWAY EVER!

Want more entries??? Here's how to qualify for a few extra entries - for each item you check off your list below, enter a separate comment on the post:

• Follow MOmMy bRaIn on Twitter
• Follow Surface Inspired on Twitter
• Share the giveaway on your Facebook page
• Tweet daily about the giveaway using the TWEET below (copy and paste)- one comment per tweet per day please:
• Fantastic Giveaway! Enter to win an adorable wall decal for your kid's room from @surfaceinspired and @MommyBrain2! www.mommybrain.ca

I will draw for the winner in two weeks - on April 18th so get the word out and share, share, share!

jane's room

Does the fact that I'm posting two days in a row all about my children's rooms make me a total narcissist? Like, you're sitting at home dying to know "how has Jen decorated her kid's rooms". I guess, the fact that I write daily about nonsense in my life and actually think people will tune in to read it makes me seem narcissistic... but those who have been with me a while, or who "know" me, know that that's not why I do it. I blog because otherwise I'd probably be divorced because Dan doesn't want to listen to me as much as I want to talk. :p ha ha ha.

In case you don't follow me on Facebook, which is insanity because everyone should (ha ha ha), the other day, we're on our way home from work so, of course, I'm blabbering non-stop about my day and this and that. Jane pipes up from the back seat: "Mommy, be quiet. No more talking all the time!". Priceless. Says it all right there.

Anyways, since I've never shared the little trouble-maker's new room with you, I thought it was about time. A little because I shared the nursery yesterday and am thinking, in the interest of fair treatment to my children, Jane should get equal voice. :p More because it has to do with our BEST GIVEAWAY EVER - coming tomorrow!

Here's my "baby's" room...

Like the nursery, yesterday, this whole room was started with a fabric - the polkadot fabric on the headboard. Found it. Loved it. Had to use it. I love polkadots on everything - clothes, decor, you can't go wrong. Unless you put it on your a**. Polkadots on your a** (via pants obviously) ain't good. So, like anyone who is moving into a new house, I was on an HGTV craze when I picked out this fabric. And, specifically, Sarah Richardson loves upholstered headboards and so. do. i. But, they are expensive. And I. have. no. money. :) So. I did it myself. I found a wooden headboard at the local thrift shop for $15.99. I bought the fabric for $40 ($20/yard), some 2" thick foam for $19.99 and some batting from walmart for $9.99. I glued the foam and batting onto the wooden headboard with spray glue (found at Home Depot for like $5) and used a staple gun to staple the fabric on the back of the headboard. VOILA! It's soft (which is great for head-bump prevention) and it's fantastically cute! And, unlike similar $300-$400 versions, this cost me under $100. WOOT WOOT!

Obviously, I went with another wall decal to draw attention to the "signature wall" in Jane's room as well. I had bought a similar tree version of this decal for Jane's last room (which we re-decorated last April just before deciding to put the house up for sale a month later... grrr). Love how simple and pretty it is and that it fits perfectly across the top of her headboard. PLUS, it's a very inexpensive way to fill a wall! AND, it's not permanent which is fantastic for someone like me who could easily find a new fabric to love next month and decide to re-do the entire house. :p

So, once the headboard was done, it was just a matter of finding a simple, pattern-free duvet set in one of the colors from the polkadot fabric- which I did, at Homesense (the best place in the world) for $79.99. I went with a pale lilac and choose a similar color for the walls of the room. 

The little footstool at the foot of her bed is a necessity. Right now, we don't have the bed on a frame to keep it as low as possible. But, it's still a bit high for Jane to easily get up. I picked up the footstool for $3.99 at a thrift store and bought the fabric, a Joel Dewberry design (he's amazing, if you search Etsy for his fabrics you'll find instant inspiration) for $5 for a 1/2 yard. I sprayed the bottom, wooden part, with Heirloom White spray paint as it was originally dark wood color and didn't match Jane's white furniture. 

On the other side of the room, I've hung a mirror low so that she can check out how fabulous she looks before she goes to school - very important for a young lady. :p Above, I've hung three of the Etsy-knock-offs that I did earlier for "You are my sunshine". I am thinking, now that I've taken to designing my own items, that I will update these with MOmMy bRaIn DEsiGN originals when I get a bit more time. 

I found this hanging chair from IKEA while perusing PINTEREST one night and had to have it. We've obviously got it hung as low as possible right now so that it still "swings" but Jane can get in and out on her own easily - she currently calls it her "see-saw" and loves to read in it. Hung next to it was a crazy mommy project from years ago - click here to see. 

I kept a frame with newborn photos of Jane in her room because - fact is, once they grow up, the newborn photos start to disappear in favour of new ones. Since I've been preggers and talking about "babies" more often, Jane likes to look at those pictures and talks about how she was a baby and had "bobbies and nunnies sometimes". Too cute. 

Other than that, her room is one big window which I love. But, thank God for blackout curtains. :) Here's the monogram I was chatting about yesterday that I put on her bedroom door. Love it. Whoever comes out this July will have a coordinating one in the matching colors for his/her room on the door. I should get one for the master bedroom that says "where the magic happens" ha ha ha. Or, better, "Jen's room" - that's more accurate. :p You can order a similar one from A Lasting Expression on Etsy - great seller, easy to apply, easy to customize! 

Okee dokes.

That's all folks. Not sure if you have any idea what tomorrow's giveaway will be but, you have to check back! It's seriously fantastic - or, at least, I think so because I am such a big fan.

the nursery

I finally finished the nursery. PHEW and THANK GOD. Not because I was in a rush - I have plenty of time, I realize - but I hate having "things to do", I'm a do it now type of girl for most things (except diets and exercise, that I will put off "until Monday" for the rest of my life).

So why did I need to finish the nursery so soon? ONE REASON... BIG, FANTASTIC, FABULOUS GIVEAWAY that I'm so excited for it's ridiculous because I am such a BIG FAN of these products, to the point that I've never received anything free or any of that nonsense but I just wanted to share the product with you because I love it so much! That's big! Most bloggers that do giveaways do so because they love the free-crap. I love free crap too. But, what I like more??? Supporting fantastic companies and sharing awesome products with other Moms!

You know I love to do everything Ryan Seacrest style... so, you'll have to wait. Until Wednesday. You can guess what my big fantastic giveaway is but you'll have to check back in TWO DAYS to enter it. So there! :p tee hee hee. Mainly because I want to show you the nursery and Jane's room and tell you all that I saved money on by doing myself and, because I like to blabber, this would be the LONGEST post ever if I did that PLUS told you about this fabulous product.

So, here she is... The nursery. :)

This is my "signature wall"... every room needs a good wow-factor. Originally, we had the builders paint the room a pale grey colour that was neutral. So, when we got preggers and decided we wouldn't find out the sex, I thought this colour would still be a great neutral - thankfully, because I really don't love painting. The starting point for the entire room, however, was the curtain fabric (shown to the right). I bought it on Etsy over the summer because I was in love with it and wanted to use it in my guest room to cover pillows. Well, that didn't work out. So I had to find a place to use it because I loved it so much. Enter: Neutral nursery. Yes, I'm aware that the main accent colour of the nursery is blue - but blue is the new yellow if you ask pottery barn. Which I didn't as I didn't care because, like I said, the fabric NEEDED a home. When I decided to use the fabric as the curtains, then came decision number two - what to do with the signature wall. Since I wanted a bit more colour in the room, without having to paint it entirely, I went with a grey-blue accent wall and, then, because it's my favourite way to decorate a large blank space - I found a decal that was fantastic. Ummm. Hmmm.

So, here's where I saved money first - custom, one-of-a-kind curtains. Ready-made, decent quality, decorative curtains are typically $50/panel. Custom curtains in the fabric of your choice - like $100/panel. I've never made curtains before. Who cares, you can do anything, you're a Mom. And, you have google. So, I bought the fabric for $9 US on Etsy. THEN, because I rock, I bought a package of two blackout panels from Walmart for $19.99 because, not only did I want beautiful one-of-a-kind curtains, but I wanted them to block the light from the room too. Woot woot! So, for $39.98 + say $5 for thread for my sewing machine, I made two rectangular panels that I hung with drapery clips on a standard rod. Bellissima! I have to admit, when I set out to make the curtains, I envisioned - as with all my crazy mommy projects - disaster and wasted hours. This was SO MUCH easier than I ever imagined. As long as you measure right and cut straight, you're good to go baby! As my favourite HGTV gal Sarah Richardson says "fabric is a great jumping off point". Here, here sister. I also had enough fabric leftover to make a pillow cover for the rocking chair!

Oh, and on that topic... the rocking chair. Another save. It's a 1970's classic lay-z-boy rocker. THE most comfortable chair ever created. I found it at a used furniture shop for $12.99. I bought the pale torquoise fabric at the local fabric shop for $40 (2 yards) and took the chair apart and recovered it myself. THIS was a project all right - I had bloody fingers, knuckles, everything. But I love it. It's not perfect - you might see a rare staple here and there if you looked really closely. But I love it and it does look great. Double plus, it's comfortable. It's like the lululemon of rocking chairs... for $52.99. Win.

Save #3 - the artwork over the changetable. This was from a previous crazy mommy project seen here. The artwork itself cost me nothing but time. The frames, I got on sale from Homesense's clearance dept and Michaels - probably cost me $40 total.

A non-save that I'm happy with was the wooden gardening bins/crates I picked up from Homesense to use as baskets for the shelving on the changetable. They match the light torquoise accents of the room perfectly and I love the shabby chic finish on them. They weren't too $$, about $5-$7 a piece, which is probably cheaper than they charge for baskets at this point... but I like them way better.

My last two items to point out - completely due to pride - are the mirror, which I picked up for $5 at a garage sale last summer and was totally worth it. I love how it shows the reflection of the trees. Also, it's placed at a height so that when there's a bouncing infant in that crib, he/she can enjoy watching giggly reflections. :)

And, the dust ruffle. What is a dust ruffle, you may ask - likely not, since you're Moms - but I had to explain it to my hubby like a hundred times... the crib skirt. So, because of how busy the rest of the room was - the curtains, the pillow on the chair, the decal, I wanted to keep the crib bedding really simple - no big patterns, colors, etc. This is hard to come by in a dust ruffle. So, I made one. Yes, you can bow down to me anytime now (obviously joking). It was easy peasy again. I just measured the base of my crib and started cutting and sewing. I found a greyish brown polkadot patterned fabric at the local fabric shop that I loved (the local fabric shop can be a blessing and a curse - I find myself finding fabrics first and then having to come up with a place to use them). Anyways, the big savings was that, to order in a plain beige or white crib skirt, would have cost me $80 + taxes. I made this dust ruffle - in the fabric of my choice - for $25 + time. WIN.

So, there she is. What are your thoughts? I think it's pretty neutral, despite being a lot of blue - I think it's more serene than boy-ish. Plus, I really like that, if it is two girls for us, we don't have two pinky-purple rooms. There's a difference. I still have to put up some photo frames on the wall behind the chair of newborn shots once the little 'un arrives and I also have to pick up one of these monograms for his/her door as I have one already for Jane that coordinates with the colors of her room from A Lasting Expression shop on Etsy. Love them. So classic.

Check back tomorrow to see Jane's room and, oh, um, maybe on Wednesday for the BEST GIVEAWAY EVER! :p

a nursery project

So, any of you who had the pleasure of accompanying me through my journey as a mommy of one, probably know that I like projects. Well, clarify... I get myself into things, that I end up screwing up, or ends up being way more than I wanted to take on, that I have to finish because I've, no doubt, invested time and/or money and, somehow, they usually don't turn out too bad. Or, maybe, the ones that are complete messes, I throw out before it reaches the final stages so I never truly fail at anything. :p

Anyways. I was snooping the net last night, like I do every night because, like a lot of moms, once my child is asleep - I relax - and then five minutes later I get the jitters and need to be doing something and grab my computer so that I can multitask watching tv with finding new and exciting ways to spend my time and/or money (as discussed above). There's a blog I check regularly that posts neat things for babes and just neat things in general, Posh Little, and I found this gorgeous nursery - well, gorgeous to me. Everyone's style is different. I like more grown-up kids rooms vs. baby-ish rooms if that makes any sense to anyone except the little mouse running his wheel in my head.

Aside from falling in love with the changetable... ONLY a mom-to-be could fall head over heels in love with a CHANGETABLE - like spent over an hour last night trying to find a way for me to get it here in good ol' atlantic canada (FAIL). Oh, added to the fact that I already have a changetable that's in near-perfect condition - of course, I rationalized in my head that I would sell said changetable on kijiji and use the proceeds to pay for my new changetable which was all a waste of time cause I couldn't find it anyways! (Insert whimpering and pouting lip here).

I also loved the idea of the random, quirky, artwork that this creative Mom had hung over the changetable. Coincidentally, filling the space above my changetable in the new baby's nursery has been something I've been giving some thought too. I was just going to hang a long mirror, landscape, above it but that's what I did with Jane's old nursery and, I have to say, looking red-eyed into the reflection at 3am during a bum-change at the person I'd become, I quickly realized that maybe a mirror wasn't the brightest idea I'd ever had.

Here's what I did... I went on Etsy.com - one of my most favourite places in the world to waste time and/or money. I went into the Children area, and then went into Children's Art. Then, I found things I liked. Then, I saved myself money and wasted an amazingly ridiculous amount of time, by making my own versions of several things I liked. You don't have to tell me how horrible a person I am for copying other people's ideas and creative vision... cause I'm too cheap to care. :p But seriously, with some help from photoshop, googling clipart and what not, I created some seriously cool pics to hang. I had them printed, matte, in several different sizes today at costco and now they are framed and ready to go. All in 24 hours baby!

Here's some of my knock offs...


I also found these two cute messages for Jane's (soon to be "the kid's") bathroom that I have to say are two of my favourites...
Time well wasted if you ask me! Woot Woot! Now, to find another project... ;)

Crazy Mommy Project

So, I found the time to make "Cakeballs" which from now on, I'm taking Katie's advice, and calling them Cake Truffles. They were pretty easy.

Here's what I did in a completely unorganized, poorly-described explanation...

I bought two boxes of Chocolate Fudge cake mix and one can (jar, container? what would you call it?) of vanilla icing, one of chocolate icing. The recipe says to use a food processor but I don't have one. So, I cooked all the cake as directed and used my hands to break it up into tiny pieces after it had cooled... although it totally wouldn't surprise anyone if I tried to do this with fresh-out-of-the-oven cake, would it? All I had to do was take broken up peices of cake and rub them between my hands and it made this fine cake powder - well not powder really, tiny bits (I should write a cookbook - my descriptions are fabulous). I did one box of cake mix with vanilla icing and the other with chocolate icing (the chocolate-chocolate combo is my fav by far). Using my hands, I made them into little 2inch-ish balls. Then I put them in the freezer for a couple of hours. This was by far the easy part. And, at this point, I was thinking - this is NOTHING, I can do this! Mistake.

I don't know why I thought coating them would be easy. Obviously I didn't think of the logistics of it all in my head when planning this out. I bought two packages of white chocolate chips, shortening, food colouring and sprinkles. I wanted to do a bunch of colours but realized that I didn't have enough chocolate chips so I went with green and red. I put a stainless steel bowl over a smaller sauce pot with boiling water in it and kept it over medium heat on the stove (I don't have a double boiler). First I added about 2 tbsp of shortening, maybe a little more, and then once that melted, I added one bag of chocolate chips, then the food colouring... make sure you stir soon as you add the chips so they don't burn.

Then came the part where I was like "What the heck do I do now?" - how the heck do I get these round truffles (:p), iced evenly and then back on the sheet without big finger marks in them? So, I stabbed them with a fork and dipped them in the coating chocolate, keeping one side icing-free and then carefully maneuvered them onto the baking sheet so the non-iced part was on the bottom. In order to make the sprinkles stick, I had to "sprinkle" every two-truffles or the icing would dry. I also kept a few white chocolate chips that I melted with almost equal amounts of shortening (so it's more watery) that I used to drizzle white chocolate on top of some of them for variety. Once I figured out the best way to ice them, it was pretty easy.

Anyways, I made them 4 days in advance and kept them in the freezer until we left for the party - when they were thawed they were super soft and I liked the denser consistency that they had when they were frozen.

Two boxes of cake mix made about 40 cakeballs but I think next time I'll make them smaller...

Don't forget to enter our Baby's First Phone Call Giveaway... only two days left!

Crazy Mommy Project

I scammed this idea from Posh Little's Holiday Gift Guide which has some great ideas for toys and gifts for babes of all ages.

I saw this super cute painting (on the left) and I thought it would look fabulous in Jane's new playroom! However, I cannot rationalize spending $75 US for it when I thought I could do a similar re-make myself... hence, another Crazy Mommy Project. As with all CMP, mid-way through this one, actually almost at the beginning, I thought "what the heck have I gotten myself into here?"... but I had already bought the canvas and was committed at that point.

So, here's what I did.

(1) Bought a 20x20" canvas from Michaels (Regularly $24.99 but was 40% off plus I got another 15% off because of a Saturday special)
(2) Found paints I had laying around from previous CMPs
(3) Using Microsoft Word, found some fonts I liked that were similar to those in the original painting, set the font sizes to 400-700, varying sizes, and printed them.
(4) Cut out the letters and placed them on my canvas as I wanted them arranged and then traced them with a pencil.
(5) Started painting! Choose a bunch of colours I liked and selected which letters would be those colours and voila!

It took me probably two weeks to finish it all because I only took an hour or less a day to do it... as I said, almost immediately, I was thinking this was a bad idea! But I liked the finished product and am not too embarrassed to put it up on my wall! :p

I'm likely totally in the wrong for knocking off someone else's idea... but I'm broke, cheap and not willing to pay $35 shipping for Canadians (now that's definitely in the wrong)!

Next CMP, CAKEBALLS!

PS - Don't forget to check out our Baby's First Phone Call Giveaway!

Update: Click here to download the publisher files for each letter - actual font and size that I used to make my painting. If any letters are missing, it's because I couldn't find the font I wanted so I drew them by hand (e.g. P). If you don't have publisher, click "contact me" at the top of this page and I'll sent you the size and font info if you want.

Crazy Mommy Project

Yesterday, I took advantage of my hubby being off to do a crazy Mommy project. I always find these homemade things on Etsy or the web, think "hey, I can do that!", make a crazy Mommy attempt and, although it usually doesn't turn out as expected, sometimes it works out OK! I call it a "crazy" Mommy project because, midway through, I usually start thinking I was friggin' crazy to start the project and to actually think I could do it... and sometimes the results are just crazy! :p

So, I saw these Snugglepants on Etsy and thought they were so cute. Coincidentally I had a Gap crazy stripe wool sweater that I was never going to wear again - horizontal stripes are not my friend. I googled "how to make sweater pants" and found a bunch of different instructions on how to do it. I had to make a few adjustments because I don't have a sewing machine (I sewed by hand, which took forever) and I didn't have elastic to make the waistband but the end result was super cute and not half bad for a crazy Mommy effort!

Wanted to pass this little project along as it only took a few hours (less if you're smart enough to have a sewing machine) and now Janey-poo has some super fun, super warm lounging pants to hang out in once the Winter cold sets in. I have an old pink cashmere sweater that I'm going to try and do the same with... so soft!

Perhaps, from now on, I'll post my Crazy Mommy Projects online for you to try yourself or, more often than not, laugh at!

Jen :)