DIY Cake Smash

I'm a little behind in posting but last weekend was Kayleigh's birthday party! The weekend prior my friend and I started the day with garage sales then finished with a cake smash for Kayleigh! If you google cake smashes it seems like it can be very difficult and overwhelming to get those perfect shots but it actually isn't that hard! For the location I temporally rearranged the living room so we could set up on a wall that gets great natural light. Then I used blue painter's tape to tape up a plain white twin size sheet.

 

The candy decorations were actually the genius idea of my friend. She picked up some styrofoam balls, small cake boards and tissue paper. We just wrapped the styrofoam balls and cake boards in the tissue paper and Viola! Instant candy!

 

For the cake we just used a small 8 inch cake pan, cream cheese icing and blue and yellow sprinkles (they looked green when mixed). I actually wanted rainbow sprinkles but last minute I realized I completely forgot to buy some so we made due with what we had.

Here is a side by side comparison to show what my straight-out-of-the-camera photos looked like. This is one of the reasons I love shooting in RAW. I just opened it up in Lightroom and edited the exposure and sharpness a bit, then used Photoshop to get lighten the wrinkles in the sheet. I also used the Coffee Shop action, Lustrous Pop, to brighten the colors a bit.

Kayleigh wasn't much into eating the cake. When we first set her down, she was all like "Uh... you are letting me make a mess... Are you sure? I'm not going to get in trouble?"

We eventually had to help her along and soon she was squishing cake between her hands. 

Little chubby baby hands covered in cake. Is there anything more precious? 

All the preparation and set up and we were all done in less than 15 minutes. Kay had a ton of fun, even if she didn't care to eat the cake.

Kayleigh's Nursery Tour

I have FINALLY gotten Kay's nursery finished!! It only took me almost a year from start to finish but I blame that on having such a little cutie distracting me the last eight months.

Kayleigh's room is actually the smallest room in the house coming in at 9ft x 8ft. The fact that her room was pretty tiny gave me a bit of a headache on how to place everything but I love the end product - it's nice and cozy and has everything we need!

The rocking chair is also where I take Kayleigh's weekly photos. I bought it off craigslist for $60 and it is so comfortable!!

The sign above her crib is my favorite thing! I had it planned out before Kayleigh was born but didn't get around to making it until she was about 4 months old.
(Unfortunately it doesn't photograph well. It says, "You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14")

The bookcase was built by Charlie out of scrap we had laying around. We need to add a shelf to the right side but right now it is a good place to keep the ottoman when its not in use.

Her dresser was free from a friend's parents. We put it in the closet with her changing pad on top to save on floor space. We really need more storage for her clothes since the dresser is filled to the brim. 

The top draw has all her cloth diapers, socks, and tights. The middle two are filled with clothes and the bottom has clothes she is too small for. We also have dresses and jackets hanging in the closet on either side.

If you want a little more detail about some items in the room and get an idea on how the room actually is, I will be posting a video tour soon as well!

Source List:
Paint: Silver Drop by Behr color matched to Glidden
Crib: Baby Mod Parklane
Mobile: Machooka Handmade
Rug: Ross Dress for Less 
Chair: Craigslist find
Shelves: Ikea Lack
Curtains: Printed Fabric is from Joann and the Sheer is from Walmart
Brass Owl Hook: Hobby Lobby
Owl Pillow: Sass & Peril
Changing Pad Cover: Babies R Us
Colorful Owl Sign & Hook: Gordman's
White Baskets: Walmart

Babyproofing

Kayleigh has been crawling for almost two months now and we are still getting around to baby-proofing but I wanting to show what we have done so far.

Our first big thing was getting rid of our glass and metal accident-waiting-to-happen entertainment console.

Between trying to crawl into it, almost whacking her head on the glass corners and pulling every cord she could find we were running ourselves ragged. You pull Kayleigh away and set her down but before you could grab a toy to distract her she had already made a beeline back towards it. That little bugger is quick, let me tell ya.
We were able to unload the console on craigslist for $80 pretty quick to two college kids who just got their first apartment. They were so excited it was still available!

I'd been searching for a while for some sort of dresser or entertainment center that had closed storage but hadn't found anything I liked. We had to pull some old furniture out of storage and decided we like new dresser better than the one we had in out bedroom so we switch them. During this Charlie decided to measure the old dresser and lo and behold it fit perfectly.

So we took a few drawers out to make room for out blu-ray player and sound system and put our computer tower in the middle cabinet (we opened the back so it gets plenty of air) and now it is 99% baby proof!

 (The 1% is because Kay sometimes tries to play with the volume knob on the sound system)

Now all the cords are hidden in the back and we have plenty of room for storage that the wiggles can't get into.

Then we have out Evenflo baby gate.

We originally had a cheap wood one but it broke a month before Kayleigh started crawling and hadn't gotten around to buying a new one. Then one day my younger sister was helping her boyfriend's parents clear out their storage and saw they had a perfectly good working baby gate that they were just going to throw away!

It's really neat, actually. The gate has a wireless remote to latch and unlatch it so if you are carrying a child you won't have to put them down just to open it! Just press the button, wait a second, and open and close the gate - it will automatically re-latch itself. The only bad part is when the batteries start to run out it will randomly go through it's 'start up' phase, which consists of unlatching and re-latching about 10 times, during which the baby can easily open the gate and reap havoc on unprotected areas. (Why, no, this hasn't happened to me... Why are you looking at me like that... I swear!)

We still have to find some sort of a solution for the bookcase and coffee table. Right now we just distract Kay as much as possible and we are also trying to teach her 'no' but that's going as well as you probably think is it!

Ribbon Bows

The other day my friend came over and since we were bored we heading over to Joann Fabrics and bought ribbon to make bows for Kayleigh!

(The big one we dubbed the "Go Big or Go Home" bow. It's huge!)

I never realized how simple they were to make! Just ribbon, alligator clips and hot glue is all the basics you need to get started.

When looking around on pinterest for ideas I came across the most amazing way to keep the bow from slipping out of Kayleigh's hair - No-slip drawer liners!!

I don't know why I didn't think of that!

I am loving the bows and they stay in her hair longer than headbands since she doesn't realize they are there. (But once she does she pulls it right off)

I'm going to be making a video tutorial for the simplest ones soon. My cousin wants me to make her some for her daughter so I though it was a great opportunity.

Nursery Sign

When we first learned I was pregnant with Kayleigh I knew I wanted to make a wooden sign to hang above the crib. It took some time narrowing down what I wanted it to say and what colors to use (we didn't know if Kay was going to be a boy or a girl) but I wanted it finished before I gave birth. Yeah, that didn't happen.

4 months after she was born I finally finished it!



It's taken from Psalm 139:14, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." It's actually pretty popular verse for a child's room but I love it so much.

Now to just finish the curtains and crib skirt and the nursery is complete (which hopefully will get done sometime before her first birthday haha!) Then I can actually to a nursery tour!

(and it anyone is wondering, I have heavy duty hangers on the back plus her crib is scooted away from the wall - mainly because she always somehow manages to her to arm stuck between the crib and wall but also in case the sign falls)