Symstagram

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1. new kicks; 2. Dougal; 3. a school project; 4. a wizard with a chocolate cow; 5. Krispy Kreme; 6. a cat girl (or maybe a fox girl?); 7-11. new Lalaloopsies; 12. gummi bear necklace

Lazy Afternoon Links

Baby carrot. #tinybuttonsblog

a baby carrot waiting for the Easter Bunny

This post has inspired me to step up my floral arranging game.

Probably the best food blog on the whole internet, hands down forever and ever amen.

I got 15/16 Paul Rudds, how many can you get?

Remember when I used to paint my nails every week? Work and a new baby have put an end to that, so until I have more free time I’m living vicariously through Kelly Anne, who always has the cutest nails ever.

Speaking of cutest ever, these ice cream brooches are calling my name.

Alicia from Within Color is a finalist in the AE “Project Live Your Life” contest, vote for her here.

Twice the Gwen outfit posts on Tiny Buttons this week! regular and pajama, plus a 20% of code for Freja Toys.

Special Easter Weekend Links!

Some Easter basket/bag ideas 1 2 3

A far braver woman than I, Jenna attempts to dye eggs.

… and two very different posts about Peeps from Sometimes Sweet and Icebark.

Little Saplings

Gwen eying her new hedgehog teether from @littlesaplings #littlesaplingtoys #tinybuttonsblog

Gwen loves her wooden hedgehog teether from Little Sapling Toys (by which I mean she loves bonking me with it, haha). They have dozens of cleverly shaped teethers as well as tons of other toys (I’m especially coveting these alphabet blocks, hint hint to my family, Gwen does have a birthday coming up in less than eight months), and today on Tiny Buttons you can get 10% off your order from Little Saplings!

Baby DIY: Padded Polka Dot Picnic Blanket

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I got the idea for this project from this polka dot picnic blanket on Radical Possibility; this is my own baby version!

Polka Dot Baby Picnic Blanket

Supplies:
• waterproof sheet protector, similar to this
• acrylic or fabric paint
• plastic cups
• unwanted pencils

1. Before you begin painting, wash and dry your waterproof sheet protector/future baby picnic blanket according the manufacturer’s washing instructions.

2. Mix up your paint colours in the plastic cups. I wanted pastels so I mixed white in with the pink, yellow and turquoise, but you could leave your colours bright.

3. Dip the eraser end of the pencils in the paint, begin dotting away! Mine is quilted, and using the quilting lines to keep things evenly spaced, I did a pattern with rows of pink & yellow dots alternating with rows of pink & turquoise dots. You could also do just a border of dots, or random dots all over! It’s up to you.

You only need a small amount of paint for each dot, if you over dip and get too much paint on the pencil eraser just wipe the sides on the edge of the cup. Don’t worry if your dots aren’t perfect circles, your blanket will still look cute!

4. Once you’ve finished dotting, let the paint dry completely, and then set it by putting the blanket in the dryer for 20 minutes on high heat (or whatever the instructions for your fabric paint say). I used acrylic paint because that was what I had on hand, and I’ve since washed & dried the blanket and the polka dots have held up nicely.

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Right now I use mine inside- Gwen tends to roll over and spit up, and this padded blanket is much more absorbent than her regular receiving blankets, and the waterproof back makes sure no nasty fluids soak through to the carpet. Later in the spring and summer I’ll use it outside to keep her from getting wet and/or muddy.

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Weekended

What I Did…

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Finally did (and photographed!) a baby DIY I’ve been planing for a while now. Look for a post later this week!

Making the switch from pram to regular stroller. Also one last hurrah for the baby bear suit. #tinybuttonsblog

Switched the seat on Gwen’s stroller from the bassinet to the regular seat. We also dressed her in the baby bear suit for a final hurrah; the weather is starting to get too warm for fur and she’s almost outgrown it. It’s perfect timing, really.

Went through my boxes of pre-pregnancy clothes and tried everything on to see what fits and what is going back into storage, rediscovering dozens of tank tops I’d forgotten I owned in the process.

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Varnished the dining room table and chairs. I just need to pick a fabric and recover the cushions with it and they’ll be done.

What I Made…

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This is going to sound super lame and gross but I made a new friend! I’ve known Angela online for a few years but just met her in real life this weekend. We hung out on Friday night and pretty much all day Saturday, and it was great because her favourite things are the same as my favourite things: babies, dogs, and making goo-goo faces at babies and dogs. On Saturday night she had to leave to go home to Boston but mayyyyyyyybeeeeeeeeeeeeee she’ll come back to Vancouver to be a grad student at the university here.

What I Ate…
Friessssss omg. I don’t have pictures but I am not exaggerating when I say I had french fries four times in three days. Three of those times they had cheese on them and the other time half of them were actually onion rings. Haha no wonder I don’t fit into all my pre-pregnancy clothes yet!

Lazy Afternoon Links: Extra Lazy Edition

WHOOPS, I forgot to make a links post this week. Let me see what I can come up with at the last minute here…

Fuzzy wuzzy was a puppy

Meg of Radical Possibility‘s adorable illustrated cocktail recipes (1 & 2).

I’m officially obsessed with getting Gwen’s this wooden cloud activity gym.

These cute bandana bibs are the bandana-est.

Apparently tea towel calendars are a thing I’m into now.

A few of my favourite blogs, Project Pack A Lunch, Stop Drop and Blog (I’ve known Jenna online for like, a DECADE), Mer Mag

AS ALWAYS don’t forget to check out What Gwen Wore on Tiny Buttons this week!

Mess-Making

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I meant to post yesterday but Dreamhost was down for most of the afternoon, which gave me a perfect excuse for not doing anything. Of course, not doing anything meant doing LOTS of things, as so far I’ve spent each day this week alternating between painting to my dining set, working on banners and baby things. Everything else has pretty much fallen by the wayside- there’s laundry in the dryer waiting to be folded and hampers full of dirty clothes and linens that need to be washed, both sinks and the whole kitchen counter are full-slash-covered in dirty dishes. I left the vacuum cleaner out for days and didn’t actually use it until this morning, and I definitely skipped having a shower yesterday

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Please note all the clumps of black dog hair on the carpet.

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The jolly Jumper is great for keeping Gwen occupied while I work. I pop her in and she bounces and wiggles around while I throw a quick coat of paint on the furniture. I’m actually almost finished that project, I finally got nice coverage with the paint. I need to let the paint cure for a couple of days and then it just needs a couple of coats of polyurethane and it’ll be done!

A piece of advice for anyone thinking about painting furniture red: DON’T. Red paint is the most annoying thing in the world, and I knew that because not once but twice I lived with goth idiots who wanted to paint rooms red and after days of painting ended up with the crappiest, patchiest looking paint jobs! You need to do about fifty million coats to make it look good, and it’s SO TEDIOUS. My table and chairs took eight coats. EIGHT. Plus the three coats of primer lol. Ugh so annoying. Obviously spraypainting would have been easier and faster, but as I mentioned before I can’t do it outside right now and I don’t feel comfortable doing it in the house with the baby.

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Jump!

Out With the Old

It’s finally starting to look like spring outside (by which I mean we’re having freakishly mercurial weather, so very Vancouver) and since I’m caught up on Etsy orders (not just caught up but AHEAD, I can’t believe it) I decided to spend this weekend on a little spring decluttering. I sold a bunch of furniture on craigslist and some unwanted giftcards on CardSwap, came up with a plan to utilize some furniture I already have in more useful ways*, and most fun of all I FINALLY started refinishing the dining room table and chairs. Well, SORT OF fun, since cleaning and sanding and priming are a drag, but I’m very much looking forward to the end result!

The dining room set is the Fusion from Ikea, which I got secondhand (and free!) from Sym’s dad. It’s an older version- the current set is the black-brown/espresso colour that matches a lot of other pieces from Ikea (and other places), but the one I have was a lighter colour that didn’t match ANYTHING. I decided to paint it red to match my little mushroom table; it’s almost the same shape, and I already had the paint!

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sanding-priming-painting!

The last piece of furniture I refinished was Gwen’s cradle last fall, and compared to that with all the spindly bars and details, this dining set is a breeze! Most of the furniture painting tutorials I’ve read online have said to use a brush, but idk, I’ve personally had better results with a mini foam roller. Spray painting would probably be the easiest of all but the weather isn’t stable enough to do it outside yet and I don’t feel comfortable doing it in the house with the baby.

*It’s a multi-part plan involving a lot of bookshelves:
1. Move the short bookcase from the north end of the hallway to the south end.
2. Paint the daycare toy storage cupboards and move them from the dining room to Sym’s room.
3. Move the big bookcase from Sym’s room into the hallway’s north end where the short bookcase used to be and move Taylor’s comic books into it.
4. Move the bookcase that used to house Taylor’s comic books out of the office and mount it horizontally in the dining room as a fauxdenza.