Thrifty Project Challenge: Mirror Frame Upcycle

About 2-3 times per month I find myself at the local thrift store, perusing the aisles for a thrifty project. A while back I found this old mirror frame - snagged it for a whopping $3.50.

The old mirror frame was MDF and the black backing was the standard backing board that helps keep the mirror in place. It was really big - 4 feet tall by 2 1/2 feet wide.

I had a few ideas that I bounced around with on Pinterest - would it be a command center, a calendar, a menu board, an epic picture frame? I finally decided on a menu board. I cook all of our meals at home but almost daily I find myself at a loss for what to cook tonight. Planning ahead for the week keeps me on task and I've been able to reduce our grocery store visits to about once a week; sometimes only once every two weeks!

I hadn't played around with chalk paint before so after giving this dusty old frame a good wipe down I gave it a layer of Walmart brand Chalk paint in Parisian Gray. I know, Annie Sloan is the typical favorite when it comes to chalk paint but I decided that I was up for the challenge of keeping this a low budget project and seeing how the less expensive stuff turns out.

My local Wal-Mart carries an inexpensive chalk paint so I picked up a bottle of Parisian Gray and clear wax to seal it. I gave the frame a couple lights coats of the gray, allowed it to dry (chalk paint dries very quickly) and I decided on a whim to give it a quick brushing of standard black latex paint that I had laying around from a previous project. I focused on antiquing the edges and design on the top and I quickly wiped most of the excess black paint off. This gave the frame a really aged stonelike look. Because of the incredibly low investment that I had in the mirror frame I decided to use what I had on hand, albeit unconventional for chalk paint projects. I was actually really pleased with the outcome!

To create the chalk board I used Valspar chalk board paint, which I purchased at Lowe's. They have it available in spray paint or liquid paint form and I chose the liquid paint because I can think of a few more projects that I could use it for. This took about 6 layers to create a thick, smooth layer that is perfect for writing with chalk.

For a super thrifty find and about $20 in paint supplies - I don't think it turned out half bad!

2015 Wrap Up

Hi everyone! I am checking in at the midway point of my trip to Germany. If you've been following along on instagram, you've seen a ton of posts on some of the awesome sights that we have visited. By the way, you don't need to have an instagram account to see the pictures, so do go on and check them out!

Whether you've been following along with me for the last *almost* 4 years or have jumped in just recently, fret not - in the new year I'll be sure to "re-introduce" myself as it's been a long time since I've really done it officially. A lot changes when you start a blog in the month before you expect your first child, when 4 years later you find yourself with two daughters that are pre-school and toddler age. And a blog that has grown and maintained over that whole time and all you really needed was somewhere to write out your thoughts in a somewhat coherent manner! Anyways, I digress. Back to 2015.

Here's a round up of my 9 most popular posts of 2015 from Instagram -

1. I finally made Monte Cristo waffles. So good, but fair warning - the raspberry preserves are not easy (read: impossible) to clean off your waffle iron. Lesson learned. 2. Though I've been a babywearing mama from the beginning with Penny, just a few months ago I dove into the world of woven wraps. My dear friend That Mama Gretchen and I took a mama's night out and took MommyCon Seattle by storm. I fell in love with Cassiope Wovens and was positive that one way or another, I would be leaving MommyCon with a wrap. I took a chance, entered in Cassiope Woven's giveaway and I was the extremely lucky winner of a limited edition MommyCon exclusive wrap. Woo hoo! That's what you heard if you were at the announcement of the giveaway - I wooped with careless abandon. So here you see my Ruby and I in our first wrap job. 3. Here is an old fashioned, no calories spared pound cake made from no less than 10 eggs from my own chickens. I started keeping a small flock of backyard chickens right before Ruby's birth in 2014 and have been so in love with the delicious eggs these girls provide. This photo reminds me that not only should I make this again, and that I need to share this recipe with you, but also that I should at some point make a post about how my flock of 5 increased to a flock of 9 over the summer. Ooops. 4.  2015 was a year of a ton of work travel for my husband, and one time while he was out of town I treated myself to an avocado mask after I *thought* the girls were asleep. I heard Penny call for me, so I came up to comfort her. I forgot about the mask and she FREAKED out. She had no idea who I was, and I had to convince her that I am mama and not some random person. 5. This is the view from Zugspitze, the tallest peak in Germany. More pictures are on instagram, but I do promise you that I will give you the full details once we come home.  6. I have so much love for my husband, but there is very little more that tugs on my heart strings than when I see him wear our girls. One of our family traditions (which has been a tradition from his family of origin) is visiting family bible camp in the Okanagan mountains in British Columbia. This picture is from family camp this year while agate hunting.  7. Cloth diaper reviews & giveaways are still going strong on the blog! 8. Another babywearing daddy shot! 9. Sharing recipes is another favorite on the blog, and this past summer I shared my ever favorite summer recipe - lime cilantro chicken tacos.

And finally, if you need any more reading beyond what I've shared above, here's a few of my favorite blog posts this year too.

• Love salmon? I do too. Here's two ways that I absolutely love to cook it. 
• Visiting zoos and aquariums is kind of my thing. We did quite a bit of travel in 2015 and I absolutely loved the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. 
• Babywearing takes me everywhere - even the pool!
• I got a little crafty this year and did a bit of a Pinterest copy. Do you have a child in your life that loves model cars? This model car photo frame is so easy!
• With a team of friends, I sewed over 160 cloth menstrual pads for girls in developing countries. 
• On that same thread - why are cloth menstrual pads awesome?

Thanks for sticking along with me this year!

Don't miss out on the chance to win $20 PayPal from me as a New Year gift!

A Fairy-Dinosaur Party

Yet another post that has been a few months in the making! The girls celebrated their birthdays in March, and I'm just now getting around to filling you all in on the details. Whoops!

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Penny and Ruby shared their birthday celebrations again this year. Last year we held off on Penny's birthday celebration because we weren't quite sure when Ruby would be born (she was born a week after Penny's 2nd birthday), then we rolled together a "meet the baby" with Penny's party. We decided to keep the tradition going and celebrated them together again this year.

To give myself a few months of preparation I asked Penny (who would be turning 3) what kind of party she would like. She thought about this and very seriously responded that she wanted a fairy party with a "sharp tooth" birthday cake. We had watched the original Land Before Time and she was also quite in love with Dinosaur Train, so it made sense that this would be combined with the overall obsession with all things princessy that has lasted the last 9 months or so. And thus, the idea behind the fairy-dinosaur birthday party was born.

I wanted the party to be a memorable one for Penny and her friends. Alas, I'm not terribly crafty thanks to the wonders of Pinterest I was able to pull off a budget-friendly themed party by thrifting and asking around for most of our items.

First, I have to show you this.

Isn't she adorable? I talked to Carly when I was planning the party and she came up with this little cutie. I had a clay cake topper made for Penny's first birthday as well, so I guess this will be our first birthday tradition in our family. Carly's shop is full of different cake topper ideas. Once I found the little dino that I liked, she got the colors down and added the adorable touches like the little hair bow (which actually ended up being very similar to the hair bows that Penny and Ruby wore at their party) and even the little eyelashes for the final girly touch. There's a special shelf in my Sister Room that I have in mind to display these special treasures. Be sure to check out her shop for a handmade cake topper!

No party is complete in my mind without delicious food, so I made sure that our menu was catered towards toddler appetites, keeping a minimum on sticky fingers and messes as well as having a dinosaur theme.

On the menu - 

• Watermelon T-rex heads
• Stegasaurus eggs (deviled eggs with a twist)
• T-rex teeth (cheese triangles)
• Pteranadon wings (chicken wings)
• Corpolite (meatballs)
• Bronto Chow (veggie platter)
• Chips and Lava (chips and salsa)
• Primordial ooze cups - instead of traditional cake, I made dirt cups and added gummy dinosaurs on top. My husband made this awesome platter!

You've probably seen something similar floating around on Pinterest, but it's truly not that hard to make. Just make sure that the models that you use are solid and not hollow.

I also made this awesome paper birthday banner, which is the pinnacle of my craftiness but it came out really well! I learned a lot from making this one, so I think I'll try my hand at it again for different seasons or events.

The only other decoration that I used were thrifted dinosaur models, which I added tutus and wings to. A little bit of frilly pink lace, hand cut wings and hot glue did the trick.

Ok, I've talked about food (check), decorations (check), now for the fun, right? The weather was forcasted as an unseasonably warm 65 degrees, so I decided that we'd have a dinosaur egg hunt. It was about 3 weeks before Easter, so sourcing the eggs wasn't hard. We hid over 200 eggs in the yard and with almost 2 dozen toddlers in attendance, it wasn't a very long egg hunt at all!

My mom also painted a cute mural inspired by the shark birthday party that we were invited to last summer.

We ended with a little birthday song and more fun time with friends.

Can't wait to see what next year's theme is!

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Disclosure: I received product in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.