Featured Friend Friday #4

Hi there, I'm Liz from Sugarplum Creations! When Kelli asked me to be her next Featured Friend I felt honored. And also unworthy. Kelli is a Crafting, Baking, and Bloggy Goddess, wouldn't y'all say?

Anyway, I am a stay at home Mama to three little girls {and another little princess on the way!}. And wife to Jeremy, my childhood sweetheart. We all live waaaay out in the country on twenty acres of land that we share with our dog {a hound}, cat, and some baby chicks and pheasants. We just completed a nearly year-long process of building our dream home, and are so happy to be moved in and semi-settled.

I signed up for a blogger account several years ago, but my poor blog sat neglected until my third daughter was born, two years ago. In all honesty, I wasn't really sure what a blog was for! I quickly found it to be a way to connect with other fabulous ladies for encouragement, support, and wonderful craft and home ideas, as well as a fantastic journal of sorts for my growing family.

In between homeschooling, my girls and I love to find spare moments for photography, shopping {you saw that coming, right? A house full of girls?}, creating snacks in the kitchen:

Crafting:

and jewelry making:

As if our days weren't full enough, I just opened my Etsy shop back up. At one time I had it stocked full of special gifts for babies and children, but have since switched over to photography ~ a passion I've had for years, and have just recently begun to make time for again. I love capturing moments and freezing them in time. I think it's so important to snap pictures daily. An otherwise ordinary grocery shopping trip deserves documentation too! :) Life's everyday moments are so special, yet often overlooked.

Thanks for reading, and please, stop by Sugarplum Creations and Sugarplum Dreams! And Kelli, thanks so much for having me! You're the greatest!!

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Liz is an awesome momma with some really cute little girlies! I would love to join them for a mani/pedi day:) Head over to Sugarplum Creations and leave some comment love for Liz and don't forget to check out her Etsy shop too!

Paper Mache Easter Eggs: Non-Wreath Door Decor

Paper Mache! A bunch of you smart people guessed correctly that we were working on a paper mache project from my Crafty Sneak Peek yesterday!

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We started our project with some old newspapers, glue, and a giant plastic Easter egg that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. That was the only thing I could think of to use as a mold for our paper mache eggs, so I used a 40% off coupon and got it and two smaller eggs for around $12. Henry helped me tear up the strips of newspaper, then all three boys got their hands {and the rest of their bodies} dirty helping me cover the giant plastic Easter egg with the strips of newspaper coated in a mixture of water and glue. We put on about three layers of newsprint, then they got bored and ran off:)

After the newsprint layers were dry, I added a layer of torn up white printer paper....that way I could just glitter right over the white paper without painting, but the white paper also makes painting a little easier too.

After drying for two days, Jason carefully cut all the way around the egg with a blade and popped the two paper mache egg halves off the plastic egg. Now it was time to pretty up my eggs:) I got out some Martha Stewart glitter, glue, a foam brush, and a few pieces of wax paper to catch the excess glitter.

I poured the glue onto the egg, spread it around with a foam brush,and then sprinkled on the glitter as evenly as possible. I worked section by section and let each color dry well so that when I was shaking off the excess glitter the colors didn't mix.

After the eggs were pretty well coated with glitter I took them outside and sprayed them down with a clear coat to protect it from moisture and to keep the glitter from getting on everything!

After the clear coat was dry, I used my hot glue gun to add some decorative rick rack between the different colors of glitter.

The last thing I did was poke a small hole through the top of the egg to add a piece of ribbon for hanging. I tied a bow at the top of the ribbon and then tied a double knot at the end of the ribbon inside the egg to keep it in place.

And here they are fun and sparkly hanging on my front door!

I love that they are different than a normal wreath and I love that my kids actually got to help me make them...they just didn't get to help with the glitter part {it was messy enough without them helping}!

How do you decorate for Easter?

Wordless Wednesday: Crafty Sneak Peek

Master Bedroom Redo: Halfway There

In June of this year, we will have been in our house for 7 years. And for the most part our house has stayed pretty much the same. We have added new pieces of furniture here and there. Jason made a few built-ins to make life with three kiddos a little more organized. Most of the rooms in our house have stayed the same colors that we painted when we first moved in....partly because we love the colors we choose and partly because our ten foot ceilings make repainting a major affair. 

However, as we get closer to the anniversary of our moving in I think I am starting to get the "7 Year Itch"! I have more than a few projects on my mind {including a playroom makeover, under stair storage, and a breakfast nook bench} BUT the major thing that I really want to redo right now is our master bedroom. Maybe it's because we just recently rearranged some furniture and added an armoire to our bedroom, or maybe it' because our old bedding was getting tired...either way, last week I set out to make a few changes in our master bedroom.

Before:

The before is not too terrible. I really like the color of our walls and the bedding was a great match....kind of neutral with just the right shade of turquoise in it. However, you can tell that our bedding has seen better days, and after at least four years of rough and tumble boys who think mommy and daddy's bed is a trampoline....it really needed to go. My dilemma when picking out new bedding was the fact that I knew Jason didn't want to repaint, and I really wanted to change up the color palette a little bit.

After:

After finding this black and white bedding at Target, I decided that maybe adding in a little red was just the right way to change up the color in our room. I also worked on removing as much of the brown and tan colors as possible {like the lampshade}. I think the contrast between the walls and the bedding is too strong, so I still need to find some pillows to help incorporate the wall color onto the bed....and I think I need to add a little bit of red to the wall too. All in all I think I am off to a good start, but I am keeping all my packaging and receipts just in case I change my mind:)

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So what do you think?!? Good change, or not so great?

I would love some suggestions on other ways to change up the room or specific fabrics or bedding that you think might look great in this space.

A Very Boy Spring Break

Henry and Grant were on Spring Break last week. We have a big family vacation planned for August, so we didn't do a big trip for Spring Break....but we did spend two days of fun exploring not far from home. If I wasn't sure before, this trip definitely confirmed that I am majorly outnumbered by boys! Lets just say that the only girly part of our whole trip was the hour I got to spend in Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma!

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We started our trip with a short drive to Mobile, Alabama to explore downtown. While I attempted to take some cute shots of the boys, they ran around chasing the poor squirrels.

 After seeing Bienville Square and the fountain, we headed to A&M Peanut Shop. This place has been around forever and I remember going to get fresh roasted peanuts when I was little. We let the boys look around and pick out a few sweets and we got a big bag of peanuts to share.

 We walked a little bit further through downtown and sat down to eat our warm peanuts...and feed a few to the birds and squirrels too:)

 We explore the recreated Fort Conde and the boys had a blast pretending to be trapped in the fort prison.

 We left downtown and went to a Five Rivers, a Delta Resource Center. We saw a ton of {gross and slimy} animals that live in the local wetland areas, and we even got to pet a skunk! Did you know that a skunks 'sprayer' can be removed?!? It's a good think because I don't think I would have been touch a skunk if not:)

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After the nature preserve we went to Historic Blakely State Park. Inside the park is a preserved Civil War battlefield complete with Union and Confederate trenches and fortifications. The boys had a blast running around the old barracks while Jason and I read the history about the area.

 After exploring the battlefield, we went down to the waterfront and walked along a boardwalk over the marsh.

 The next day we got up bright and early and headed to the USS Alabama. We spent about three hours looking in every nook and cranny of the battleship from the engine room to the steering room. We climbed up and down at least 100 flights of steps and we even got to go inside of a submarine!

We had a great trip, but I'm pretty sure I earned myself a girl's day of pampering...and maybe even a pedicure:)