so proud

first, a short video of henry’s new talent, smackin’ his lips. it’s just too cute not to share.

second, LOOK WHO IS WALKING. sorry to shout, but what?!

he’s not, like, walking walking, but he is soooo close! just in the last couple weeks he started to be brave and take maybe one or two steps, and recently he’s gotten so good and going from one person to another. he just has to stop lunging at the end. the most recent development is him taking a few steps on his own from one thing to another, with no prompting from us. someone is getting brave! and we are so proud.

{justine}

happy mother’s day

happy mother’s day to all the moms out there. this is my very first one (of the rest of my life) and i can’t even begin to describe how special this day is. i’ve wanted to be a mom my whole life and this past year i became one. being a mom is hands down the best experience of my entire life. yes, it’s hard. yes, babies cry. a lot. yes, there’s lots of poop. a lot. yes, you sacrifice. a lot. but it’s all worth it. to see their face. to hear their voice. to feel their (slobbery) kisses. to hear their laugh. you can never quite know what it’s like to be a mom, to feel that full-body-heart-is-going-to-burst-all-encompassing love, until you are one. it’s indescribable. it’s amazing. thank you henry james, for making me a mom (omg i just teared up a little writing that). and thank you to my mom, for i truly now understand what a job you had (have), and how well you’ve done it.

{justine}

spring pinterest challenge {gold striped votives}

i did it! i finished my pinterest challenge project just in time. i had no time to even think about it over the weekend, and still had to figure out what pin to get inspired by sunday  night. i really wanted to do one related to henry’s first birthday party, as we’re moving soon and once we do i will have so many house-related projects i don’t know when i’ll have a free moment to think of anything else….but guys, he turns one next month, and like, i have to throw a birthday party for him (which i’ve never done). i need to get on this. but i didn’t have time to go to the store for supplies, so i decided to use supplies i had at home and revamp a few votive holders that i had recently spared from the trash when their coating started peeling. the victims before:

(i had already started taking off the film, but it had started peeling on it’s own before…the green hadn’t as much, and were a pain to remove. lots of scraping.)

and the after:

here’s how i did it.

my pinspiration was a recent pin of gold and white striped cans-turned-bud vases:

{image from pinterest; original source: two delighted – super cute blog btw!}

my supplies:

cleaner, primer, gold spraypaint, frog tape, votive, cutting mat (and a rotary cutter and ruler not pictured).

first i prepped the votives. i scraped all the colored film off (starting off with ready-to-use, plain candle holders would cut the time for this project in half at the least, making it super fast) then i used the cleaner and rinsed with water and air dried.

next, i cut strips of painters tape into varying widths for my striped designs on a cutting mat with my rotary cutter and a ruler to ensure straight lines. i applied them to the votives, carefully eyeballing the spacing, and rubbed hard on the tape to help get crisp lines. because my votives were tapered, thicker tape lines creased a little on the bottom when stuck, creating a slightly less than straight line – a straight side or thin tape lines solve that.

to prevent spray paint from getting inside (it is flammable), i sprayed them upside-down and taped the bottom (because i didn’t want gold on the bottom since it might rub off) or had a bag taped in the inside.

to help the gold paint adhere i did a quick, thin coat of primer spray paint. once dried, and henry was down for his nap, i did about three light coats of the gold spray paint. a couple minutes later i carefully pulled the tape off and let dry for a bit.

i’m glad i decided not to throw these away. now i have modern and glam votive holders.

or even small bud vases.

this one is currently prettying up the bathroom.

simple and small but a big impact. i can’t seem to get enough of gold these days (though i’m sure that won’t always be the case). the paint adhered well the the glass – though i wouldn’t put it in the dishwasher and risk it – so i think i may need to add design to some other vases i have lying around.

as always, thank you to katie and sherry and their guest hosts for another pinterest challenge. it gave me the push to do something that i wouldn’t have gotten around to. who knows how long the chipped votives would have sat around for in my new house before being thrown away. now i can’t wait to find a place for them!

did you participate in the spring pinterest challenge too? let me know what you did!

{justine}

weekend recap

this past weekend ryan’s mom was in town visiting, so we hit up ikea (so much great stuff there right now…i need my new house to put things in!), the zoo, and a great italian place for dinner, and of course she got her share of henry cuddles in and watched him practice walking (i think he made it up to five quick steps!).

sunday i met up with my mom’s side of the family to make droby, a family slovak recipe of potato sausage, that my grandpa used to make. we made a double batch since it’s so much work, and there was several people to split it between. it was epic – 40 pounds of potatoes (that were peeled for an hour straight between four people) + 8 pounds of bacon + pork shoulder + onions. it all had to be ground together and mixed, then stuffed into casings (plus cooking). leave it to the men on hand to turn the hand crank grinder into electric with the help of a drill – probably saved us hours and bicep muscles.

that night henry had his leftover pasta, and let’s just say while he loved (like can’t stop laughing loved) making a huge mess, and it was adorable, he won’t be having spaghetti often because no thanks on the clean-up.

(all pictures unedited, as much as it pains me, since i’m trying to squeeze in a quick pinterest challenge project due wednesday).

did you have a good one? can you believe it’s may already?

{justine}