Project: stockings

Tis the season for projects upon projects!

We didn't opt for a fireplace when we built our house -- wanting to save a few grand and do it later -- which is totally fine.... Except for when Santa tries to come... Then what do we do with our stockings?!

So I thought I'd make a place to hang them. But I wanted it to be a fun Christmassy plaque. 

The finished product:

So I started out with a plain piece of MDF (about 9 inches tall & 24 inches long) which was left over from our bench project. I painted it white using left over paint from our house being built and while the paint dried, I typed up the phrase "and the stockings were hung..." And flipped through all the different text options. I finally settled on "American typewriter - light" (on our Mac btw) and printed the phrase landscape so it could fit decently on the page.

I don't have a great freehand when it comes to painting so I printed off the phrase and taped it to the board. 

I then traced the letters with a sharpie, going over each letter about 3 times. 

I then peeled off the tape & paper to reveal my "imprinting". 

It actually turned out perfectly. Light enough to not be hard to cover up, yet dark enough that I could still tell where to trace. 

I decided to paint the "stockings" gold, to kinda pop out a bit more. So I started with that. 

Gold metallic paint $1.87 at Hobby Lobby (really, why go anywhere else??)

Then I pulled some black paint up from the basement (again left over from when we built our house) and painted the rest of the words black. 

Next I secured the knobs. You don't even have to ask... Yes Hobby Lobby!! $3.99 on sale 50% off. :)

Lastly I attached 4 command strips for picture frames. 

Super cheap at Walmart -- I think like $1.50? Micah picked them up for me so not positive but they were very cheap. 

I attached the 4 along the top, figuring it would hold all the weight anyway. 

Once they were all on, I smooshed them onto the wall, then removed the plaque and waited an hour to put back up (per the command strips instructions). 

Then finally the finished product!

I love how quick and easy this was and how the colors I chose don't take away from the fun bright stockings. 

merry crafting!

Xoxo Mandi 

O Christmas Tree(s)!!

Christmas is here!! I'm so excited, this is seriously my favorite time of the year. I get to let my true kiddish side out and it's perfectly acceptable because it's Christmas. Ah it's amaze-balls. Or should I say amaze-bells bahahahaha!

So part of my lovely childhood involved live Christmas trees (not holiday trees, Christmas trees. Ugh.). When I lived in Washington, my family always bought & cut down 2 real Christmas trees -- one for us kids to decorate/destroy with our clay gingerbread people & macaroni noodle ornaments, and one for my parent's "classy" ornaments that if I touched I was in trouble. 

Since our first year together, Micah and I have always wanted to get a live tree but have never gotten around to it. Total fail. 

This year, I was perusing the lovely Facebook "Herriman 24/7" page and saw a listing for this 11 foot gorgeous Christmas tree... That this family had grown for 8 frikken years then realized it was too big for their house! Crazy! So they were selling it plus their tree stand for only $40. Yahtzee! Micah and I grabbed our friend Austin's trailer and bought it. 

Then with the help of our neighbor Tyler, they set it up!

Micah is under there somewhere bolting it into the base haha. 

That sucker is huge!! I'm sooo happy! 

So while Micah was framing in our bench (see my last post about our kitchen nook) I set out to decorate our beast. 

It took three 200 bulb strings of lights, 75 gold balls, 24 red balls, & several red bells/holly berry bushels to decorate. 

(and a few moments of extreme discomfort getting stabbed by the needles)

but she's done!

I went to Hobby Lobby (of course) for all of the balls & red clusters, all for around $40 and found the lights at Target (another of course) for $13 per strand. Not nearly as bad as I was expecting!

I have a few more things I'm wanting to add on (ribbons) but my arms aren't quite ready for another stabbing session. 

Here she is for now!

Yes that is my runner at the base pretending to be a tree skirt. ;)

I love it! Best Christmas tree yet!

Our standard fake tree with my "childish" ornaments is in my craft room now.  

I bet your Christmas tree doesn't have a macaroni noodle bell with an awkward picture of the 6 year old you wearing terrible maroon corduroy overalls on it now does it? Didn't think so. 

We also put a Christmas tree in Livi's room just because she needed it. Of course. It's one I bought for myself the Christmas I met Micah (I was really mature and "needed" a pink Christmas tree in my bedroom). 

I couldn't resist the nake baby bum picture! Too stinkin cute.

I blame Pinterest. Happily haha. 

Xoxo Mandi 

Project: Kitchen Nook

I have to start this out by just saying how amazing Micah is. Seriously. He built this entire kitchen bench in 3 days, working around helping take care of Olive so I could have a girls date with my friend Ashley, & also prepping for a work conference in Reno. Best husband right here. 

So when we built our house we opted to not have the built-in nook in our kitchen done by our contractor because it was going to cost around $500.  Well then the procrastination/other purchases took over & the bench became a sort of "we'll get to it later" thing. I offered to host a baby shower for my good friend Lindsey on December 7th and realized... I want a kitchen table & bench for that! Haha I'm such a nice demanding wifey. ;)

Here's the finished product:

Pretty perfect.  :)

Here's how we did it. 

After some quick measurements Micah went to work. 

And stole some wood from the new construction homes next door (they didn't mind). 

So here's the before picture:

Don't mind my baby shower decor that I started putting up already. ;)

He framed in the basics with some 2x4's. 

Placed in the support

Added particle board to the sides

I then helped Micah screw the sides into the wall, directly onto the studs. 

Once those were in place, we pulled a sheet into our construction zone aka kitchen and I went to town painting the bench. 

And myself. 

Once those were set to dry, I painted the trim pieces. I wanted to paint these separately so that I could use the roller on the particle board without having to fight the edges on the trim. 

I laid them all out flat and just used the roller on all of them. Super simple, took maybe 5 minutes for 2 coats. 

I turned them on their sides and carefully rollered them again. 

Once the sides of the bench had dried we secured the actual bench bones to the floor. Sorry hardwood, we kinda murdered you under there. It was tough work, trying to perfectly align the bench and keep it level. I pretty much sat on the floor and either pushed or pulled as hard as I could on the wood while Micah screwed them down. 

Micah then nailed the trimming into place, using "finish nails" or Brad nails so that the head would be less visible. 

Time for the finishing touches! 

Micah cut the MDF (top actual seat portion) to the right lengths painted them. 

We put the pieces onto the bench, lined them up, & screwed them in place. 

Micah went around the whole bench at this point & added calking to all of the nail & screw heads, as well as the edges of the trimming that needed it. 

Lastly we decorated! Pillows are from Target, deer platter & candles from Target, I made the runner, table from Downeast, and chairs from Ikea. 

I'm so so so happy with how this turned out!! It's so nice to have an actual table to use! Thank you Pinterest for yet another home project completed. 

xoxo Mandi 

Providence Hall Boutique

Soooo busy lately!

Ok... Let's start with the craziest of all..

I decided to start up a shop called Mini, Mama, & Co. Surprise on the name, right? ;) I wanted to start out a company making baby stuff that I actually wanted, mommy stuff that was comfortable & practical, and home decor that wasn't crazy expensive but was cute & trendy. 

My first crafty adventure was making table runners. I saw a really cute simple table runner sell for like $20 on this Facebook page called Herriman 24/7 (kinda like a local KSL website) but the runners all sold out before I could snatch one. Then randomly the next day or so I went to hobby lobby & saw the same fabric as the runner on 24/7. 

Light bulb!

I went hunting, bought some red chevron duck print canvas (thicker material, won't wear & tear as much) and also a cute mistletoe printed burlap. Love. 

I bought enough fabric to make 3 runners so I went to work. At first each runner took like 1 1/2 hours to make! Kill me! But over time I got more efficient, better at it, and much quicker so that each only took me about 30 minutes. 

I sold all 3 in one day. No joke! So back to hobby lobby I went!

That morning Olive had her 4 month shots (so tragic) and when I was leaving I had the distinct thought to go to hobby lobby... Since I was already dressed & out and about I decided to go. Poor sad Livi fell asleep on the way after screaming her face off.

While I was in the store I ran into a woman buying fabric & we got to chatting. She loved my fabric, thought the runner was darling & wanted one! I was dying! So when she came to pick it up from me, she started telling me about this upcoming boutique, that I should totally do it. Super intrigued, I called up providence hall charter school(where she said it would be held) and decided to take a giant leap of faith & do it! Crazy that if I hadn't gone to hobby lobby I wouldn't have bumped into her, sold a runner to her, and decided to really even start this amazingly scary yet ridiculously fun adventure! Her name was Hazel, and I am so grateful to her! xoxoxo 

So I started out small, making headbands for girls, bow ties for little guys, 

frames for bows,

Nursing covers for moms,

make up bags,

little tiny banners my friend Sheridan made for me,

and Christmas table runners (which really started it all). 

I genuinely had no idea what to expect before I walked into this boutique but was just kinda going on faith & hope that people would want my stuff & that it would be profitable not just a fun adventure. 

I prepped by grabbing some plain wooden letters (again hobby lobby is my drug...) and spelling out "mini mama co" with them, gluing and glittering them to death, and hanging them on a twine. 

And made my own business cards. ;)

I used an app called "a beautiful mess" for those. Love that app. 

So Friday afternoon Micah and I drove over to the school, set up my booth, and hung out with my headband model, Livi. In between manning the booth & eating Wendy's frosties, I wandered through the gym, scoping out my competition & also seeing if there was anything I felt like buying. 

One way cute little booth caught my eye. They named it Keep Onn, a super fun button earring boutique & an organic hippy-esque bath scrub boutique. I got to talking to the girls there quite a bit & ended up buying some fun button earrings. Before the boutique ended we traded supplies, my bow ties/adult hair bows for earrings & lavender body scrub. Worked for me!

On Friday night after theboutique ended we raced over to my parent's house & dropped off Livi with my brother Johnny to babysit for us while we went to see Catching Fire with Jess & Dan. 

Catching fire was pretty legit. Better than the first "hunger games". I had seen it just 2 days before with Maegan for a free premiere showing but since I kinda loved it I was totally fine with seeing it again.  :)

Throughout the weekend boutique I had a lot of familiar faces come by & keep me company which was really nice since Micah was on Olive duty... And she was not super happy towards the end. 

Overall I was profitable, but didn't sell all of my stuff. The whole boutique wasn't as busy as I expected either, and when I spoke with the other booth operators they said it was a slower year than last.  Kind of a bummer.

On a positive note though, I've sold almost all of my table runners on KSL/Facbook's Herriman 24/7 page.  Woo! And I've never thought of this little "business adventure" of mine as being a crazy money maker... just a really fun hobby that I love that apparently other people do too haha.

I can now officially say that I have done something I never thought in a million years that I would do: enter a boutique and sell my own handmade products. :) pretty proud moment for me.

xoxo Mandi