A Nautical 1st Birthday

Our real reason for heading south the weekend we stopped by College Station was to celebrate the first birthday of our friends' son.  C & C planned a beautiful red, white and blue nautical theme party for their son who was born just days before the 4th of July.  C utilized Etsy, DIY projects and some ideas from Pinterest to put together a great outdoor pool party at their house.

C's mother in law made a beautiful boat cake for all of the guests to enjoy while the birthday boy enjoyed his own smash cake made by his mother.

One of the projects that I helped with were the utensil packages.  C saw an idea on Pinterest that was perfect for this nautical party!  The silverware was wrapped in red, white and blue napkins and then tied together with a lifesaver.

So cute!  And I enjoyed having the lifesaver to pop in my mouth after eating from the delicious food spread.

Another project that Chris and I were tasked to put together were the red, white and blue fruit kebabs.  We used strawberries, blueberries and marshmellows to keep with the color theme.

Such a fun party and of course added a little bit more to the baby fever!

Have you used any ideas from the web when hosting a party?

30 Before 30: College Station

Another one off the list!  This past weekend we headed to Houston to celebrate the first birthday of our friends' son.  Since Chris and I both have vacation time to burn we decided to take off on Friday and head out early to make a quick stop over to my old stomping grounds, College Station home of Texas A&M.

The last time we were there was in 2009 when we went to a couple of weddings in CS, but I haven't been on campus since 2005 and Chris has never had the chance to actually walk around.  Wow, what a difference a couple of years make!  Our first stop was the Memorial Student Center, or MSC, and that place sure has changed! It looks so nice on the inside, and I'm glad to see that they still kept the student living room and my favorite part - the wood carvings of A&M's history.

We made a quick stop into the bookstore, which is now a Barnes and Noble.

Loved seeing t-shirts that incorporated the Aggies' new home in the SEC.  On the other hand seeing shirts for the class of 2016 made me feel really old!

After the MSC, we checked out Kyle Field home of Aggie football and then walked over to the new Blue Bell park for baseball.

With the heat beating down on us, I decided to skip walking over to Mays Business school which is where I spent the majority of my junior and senior years.  After making our way through all of the construction (both on campus and down University), we enjoyed an early lunch at Freebirds on Northgate.

I really wanted to add my name to the bricks, but I didn't have a marker or pen with me.

On the way out of town we made one last side trip to taste some wine at Messina Hof.

 I haven't been to the winery since my graduation weekend and was happy to learn that they have opened another location down in Fredericksburg.  

It was a short trip, but I'm so glad I was able to see some of the changes to campus and share some of my college memories with Chris.

Pinterest Challenge: Chalkboard Menu

I've been wanting to make something with chalkboard paint for some time now and thanks to Young House Love and Bower Power, I finally got that last little push to tackle another pinterest project.

I've found several inspiration pictures out there utilizing chalkboard paint and decided on a menu for the kitchen in hopes of getting back into meal planning.

From Heather at WhipperBerry

After a trip to Michael's, I was ready to go with my project supplies: frame, paint, roller and chalk.  The letters were left over from my map project (that I also used for some gallery wall art).

I kicked it off with a little spray paint action on the black frame to turn it white and then tested out the two shades of chalkboard paint that I picked up.

Chris and I love blue, so I was really hoping I would like the blue paint but it was a little too light against the white frame.  Black it is!  I rolled on the first coat and let it dry for an hour before adding on another layer.

I'm not sure if it was the roller or the early morning outdoor conditions, but I opted to add the next couple of layers with a sponge brush instead.

After layer 2 or 3

While I waited for those coats to dry (I ended up doing 4 coats on the glass), I started on the letters.

The original plan was to paint the wood letters white and then attach them to the actual chalkboard painted glass, but after some thought I decided to change it. Gotta love a mid project switch!  I wanted as much area as possible to write on the chalkboard and the letters would be taking up some prime real estate.  I played around with putting the letters on the actual frame instead and loved it.  Of course, the white letters on a white frame were a little hard to read so I added two coats of blue paint from the craft bag (can't wait to have my supplies organized!).  A little tacky glue later and the letters were good to go.

The bottle says to allow the chalkboard paint to cure for at least 24 hours before conditioning it, so it was time to play the waiting game. I really wanted to finish the project before we headed out of town, but I decided it was better to be safe than sorry so the paint sat there for 3 days while we partied it up in Houston for our friends' son's first birthday.

Sunday afternoon was time to condition the paint, but I probably could have done a few more passes before writing on it.

And one shot in the kitchen.

All in all I really like how it turned out and can't wait to hang it in our kitchen!

Have you completed any pinterest projects lately? 

Left Over Art

With so many supplies left over from the map project, I decided to make use of some and fill a couple of frames for our future gallery wall.

In order to spell out "Oh the places we'll go" I needed 2 packages of letters with the majority of the letters going unused. Thankfully there was one "L" left, so I picked up a bottle of red paint and made quick work of  the letters L-O-V-E.

Since moving to Texas, I've always associated those letters in red with the statue in my home town of Philly.  This little frame of art reminds me of home and also Chris as he had it tattooed on his arm right before our wedding.

With the red paint on my mind and some left over card stock from cutting out the states, I decided to honor another home town - my dad's birth place of Trinidad and Tobago.

I've always been proud of my father and his heritage.  It was so exciting to share the experience of visiting my dad's roots with Chris and I'm glad we'll have a little reminder of that heritage in our future house.

Do you try and make the most of any left over materials from your projects?

No More Work!

For my dad that is.  Yesterday we took dad out to brunch to celebrate his upcoming retirement.  My dad has worked since he came to this country, starting as a taxi driver up in New York while he was in college.

We headed over to Blue Mesa which was the scene of our rehearsal dinner before our wedding.  No one in the family (except for one happy hour for me) had been back since that weekend, so it was fun to remember that special time.

Thanks to mom who had the smarts to make reservations, we were seated quickly after arriving.  That place was packed!  After enjoying the mimsoas and brunch buffet I can understand why it's so popular.

For the many years he has put into work, I hope he can enjoy this well deserved time off!

Five For Friday

1. You used some of your day off to go with me to have my car checked out.
2. You actually liked the idea of a very bold bed set that I thought would be cool for our guest room.
3. The look on your face when I jumped out from the laundry room was classic!
4. You always let me taste some of your food.
5. You're really excited about Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter this weekend, more so because you read the book.

One of my favorite engagement pics from Lynn Michelle

Painting Basics

It seems like forever ago that I mentioned mom and I were going to take on a home project that involved painting, but she finally got the ball rolling after a little prompting from her kids.

The cost of painting supplies can really add up when you're starting with nothing, but after a trip to home depot and lowe's we were satisfied that we had covered the basics.

Starting out with a bunch of paint chips, mom narrowed it down to four.  Chris surprised her by picking up some samples and we put them up on the wall to get a better idea of how they would look in the powder room.

Chris and I are more into cooler, impact colors, but mom ended up with the warm beige color on the far left.  It definitely fits her style more. 

We took down/covered what we could (with the exception of the light since the powder room has no windows) and were ready to get our paint on.  It was actually really exciting as we've never painted any rooms in either of the houses we've lived in.

Loved that edger!

I can't wait to do a before and after of the room, but we're still waiting on the replacement light fixture.  All in all I think we did a great job as beginners.  Mom does agree that she could have gone a shade or two darker in the room, but is very happy with the change.  She's already excited to go bolder in the next room we paint.

What was your first painting experience like?