We currently live in a rental house. We are moving in just a few months, and it will not be the last time. I wanted a way to measure Natalie as she grows, but we obviously can't just pick a wall to mark her heights. I have seen a few different big measuring sticks on Pinterest, so I decided to make my own. This is what I ended up with!
I strategically started this project while Randy (my little brother) was in town so he could help me! I bought a .75"x7.25"x6' plank of pine (it cost about $15). We sanded the edges, then Randy stained the wood.
After the stain was dry, I set to work drawing the lines. How do you like my make-shift T-square? I drew them in pencil, then traced them with a black Sharpie marker.
I bought some 2" stencils and used those to trace the numbers in pencil. Then I used black paint to paint in the numbers. I finished it off by spraying several coats of polyurethane.
I nailed picture hangers into the back, and hung it 6" from the ground. There you go!
This post doesn't really need much explanation. I found a link on Pinterest for edible finger paints not too long ago. Isn't that a great idea? It turns out that I didn't have to worry about the edible part, because Natalie didn't even think about eating it. Instead of using Koolaid, I just used the food coloring that I had bought for Natalie's birthday cake. So, without further ado, here is a story in pictures of Natalie's first painting (done on March 3, 2014 - she was almost 15 months old).
Here we are on March 1st and Natalie is currently 14.5 months old. I'm sorry to say that it has taken me nearly 3 months to finally sit down and edit all of her first birthday party pictures... BUT, I've finally done it, and here they are!
I don't really know where the idea came from, but I wanted to do Natalie's party in sunset colors. I know that's not really a theme... Colors can be a theme, right?? ;) On November 2, 2013, we took Natalie to the park and I took these pictures in honor of her upcoming birthday. She was about a week shy of 11 months old in these.
I knew that I had to make a party invitation myself if I wanted it to look right, so I set out on Photoshop and created this:
Before I actually get to the party photos, I have to say that Pinterest is awesome and I got a lot of my ideas from there. I'll post links at the end of this post for anyone who's interested.
So here are two different angles of the room. I think it turned out really great!
Here is the Polaroid Gallery Wall. Let me say right now that it was SO DIFFICULT to pick out only 40 of my favorite Natalie pictures out of the hundreds that I took during her first year.
The Happy Birthday Banner.
The fabric garland! I just love how it adds color to the room!
The table area. I think this turned out quite well, don't you?
Natalie's smash cake. Don't be too critical of my cake decorating skills. ha!! I know it doesn't look professional, but it's still cute, right? ;) I used three 4" cake pans for this cute little thing.
I do think that the cupcakes came out well, though. We had both strawberry and vanilla cake. (Natalie's cake was vanilla.)
Just a close up of the photo on display:
A family photo before the festivities began!
Natalie's Grandma (Travis' mom) was able to fly out and join us for the party. We were so glad that she could make it! (We sure did miss the rest of our family... It can be hard living far from home.)
The birthday girl!
Here are a couple of pictures of us with Natalie and her cake. These both came from my phone.
A picture while we were singing happy birthday! Also from my phone.
Here is the video of us singing happy birthday to her! Natalie loved it and smiled almost the whole time.
We took off Natalie's clothes before the smashing of the cake because we assumed she would be getting messy. We assumed incorrectly! This little girl was very cautious and careful with her cake eating. She mostly just picked at it with her finger.
This picture (from my phone) shows her grabbing the only big piece that she went for. There was no smearing the cake on her face. No stuffing a handful into her mouth. She mostly just picked at it, tried a couple bites from her fingers, and even fed the cake to her Mama.
Sweet girl! Her party was a success! She had fun opening her presents and running around. I think my favorite memory from the day will be the big smile that she got when we all started singing to her. We sure do love our girl!
Here are the links to a couple of the websites I got ideas from:
I saw lots of pictures of fabric garlands online, but I didn't make mine the same way any of the tutorials say to. I bought a yard each of 5 different fabrics, cut slits about 2 inches apart in the ends, and then ripped the fabric all the way down to the other end! Then I just tied one end in a knot around the twine. Easy!
Thanks again to everyone who made it out to help us celebrate!
