Personalized Gift

When a family member or close friend has a baby, I love giving a personalized gift.  So when that bundle of joy is born I always ask two questions: 1. What are the colors in the nursery? and 2. What are the baby's stats?  After these two questions are answered I then create a personalized picture for the baby's room.

Start with the program Office Word and use adding text boxes to create the areas for each stat.

I like to change up the font style with each line and the color (using colors that will coordinate with the baby's room of course!)

Review the final product and I would suggest printing on a thick card stock.

Once printed, I go to Michaels or Hobby Lobby and pick up a frame that will go with the nursery as well.

Then simply frame and gift wrap!! :) This cute one is for my cousin who just had the most adorable baby boy!

I have done a few of these for friends and family- I love how they look in a nursery.  Personalizing the colors, information, and frame style really create a unique baby gift!!

Pantry Love

When the husband is the away the wife will..... ORGANIZE!! Usually I complete my small house projects with my husband not even noticing.  This project however was an overhaul on the pantry- an area he is very familiar with- so he was going to notice.  I selected two days when I knew he would be on business, and I thought it would be a fun surprise!!

So first I must say that I am lucky to have a very large pantry.  When we originally moved in I attempted to organize with a few plastic jars but the inevitable happened- where everything just got stuffed on the shelves with no organization.  This caused me to buy items we already had and randomly find items that were past their prime!  After some inspiration from Pinterest, I finally had a plan to tackle our pantry.

So here is what our pantry looked like before.  See those sad few plastic jars trying to look organized.

Start by clearing off everything on the shelves.  Then I selected a fun green for the back stencil.  Tip: cut your selected stencil to the exact size to fit the area you are stenciling- it makes the process so much easier! 

Here is the completed stencil for the pantry.  Looks great from afar...

But up close... yes there are mess up spots- but remember food items and baskets will be in front of it, so don't stress about imperfections- it is after all just a pantry!:)

The reason this was a project for when the hubby was gone...  I left the kitchen looking crazy after I stenciled and I went to bed!

Then woke up the next morning remembering the mess I left and the task still at hand!

I purchased wire baskets from both HomeGoods and World Market.  They all came with burlap inserts but I took those out so I could easily see what items were in each.

Here are my original plastic jars from Walmart- but with a fun label they look so much better!

Love that each basket is labeled and items have a home!

FINAL PRODUCT!!! Stencil- check, organized baskets-check, labeled containers-chek, pantry love-check!

A good friend of mine uses her Menu board every week.  After talking to her, I thought I would give one a try.  I do hate the daily- "what's for dinner?" thought.  So I created an easy one with scrapbook paper and I frame that I can write on with dry erase marker.  My goal... sit down on Sundays and plan out my meals for the week- then grocery shop accordingly.

Our refrigerator is not magnetic so I decided to hang it in the pantry close to my recipe books!

Week 1- here's to sticking to the Menu!!

I must say- when you have a project that has been something you have been wanting to do for a long time, it is such a GREAT feeling to finally complete it! Let's see if the hubby notices this project! ;)