Nursery Decor....

The other day while blog surfing I came across some different ideas for decorating a nursery and I thought I should share about our nursery. We decorate our nursery for our first son, but it has endured a second and I can totally imagine it shifting with a baby girl ( I am not announcing anything, I just know what I would do to make it girly.)

The first thing we did was PAINT! When we moved into our house this room was Lavender.... precious, but not for my son. I painted the walls Sweet Pea Green and then we tore up the floor (it was a lovely thick carpet in Teal). We installed (well mostly my husband) laminate wood flooring to match our crib and then re-did all the trim.

I had an idea of what I wanted the tree to look like, but I totally lacked the confidence and know-how to actually paint it on our wall, so, I hired my husband's cousin who paints and she painted our beautiful tree complete with our birdies. I absolutely LOVE how our tree turned out.

Next I put up vinyl lettering above the closet. My sister had this poem in her nursery and I loved it:

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow, for babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow.... So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

I made the pillow cover for the rocking chair and the skirt under the crib (which is reversible to match the pillow). Framed some little baby feet and our nursery was good to go. Hope this inspires you to do something fun with your nursery! Tell me what fun things you have done (or wish to do) with your nursery, I would LOVE to hear your ideas!

Linking up HERE.

Egg Rolls

I found the recipe here
This recipe will make 50-100 small egg rolls or the rolls I made were pretty big so it only made about 35.

1-2 packages spring roll skins
2 packages vermicelli (or Muong Bean Thread noodles) noodles (6 ounces total)

2-3 pounds meat (I used 2 rolls sausage, cooked)
1 head of cabbage, shredded finely (or use 1 10-ounce package of pre-cut cabbage)

4 whole eggs

3 egg whites (save the egg yolks for sealing the egg rolls)

1/2 pound carrots, shredded finely (or use the 10-ounce bag of shredded matchstick carrots)

1/2 onion, finely chopped

Put the vermicelli noodles in a large bowl and pour hot water over noodles and let soak for 15-20 minutes (if using boiling water, soak for 10 minutes) If it soaks too long the noodles will be mushy. Once soaked, drain very well and chop noodles up a bit into 2-3 inch pieces (not too short).

Mix all the above ingredients (cooked noodles, cooked meat, cooked cabbage, whole eggs, egg whites, carrots and onion) in a large bowl. Hand mixing works best. Then add:

1/2 tablespoons salt

¼ cup oyster sauce

4-5 tablespoons black soy sauce (I have trouble finding this so I just use normal soy sauce)

1 tablespoon black pepper


Mix together.
Pull apart spring roll pastry wraps. These were the ones that I found at Macey's in the Asian food isle toward the floor.



The spring roll skins work best when soaked (for 5 seconds) in water. I used a plate with water in it and rubbed the water around the edges. It is most important that the edges are wet so they don’t crack when you roll them up.
Fill each wrap with 3-4 TB of egg mixture (for medium sized rolls).


Heat canola or vegetable oil (I always use canola oil) 1/3 full in pot. I would suggest using a Fry Daddy. Heat the oil to about 375 degrees. Fry egg rolls until golden brown and cooked through. Constantly turn the egg rolls so they don’t overcook on one side. Drain on crumpled paper towels and enjoy.

I did try to bake some so they weren’t so greasy. I found it worked best when I brushed each with oil and bake at 415 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Flip over halfway through the cooking time. Make sure the rolls aren’t touching or they will stick together.

These were a really big hit with my family and friends. They did require quite a bit of time, but I had my husbands' help that made the work fun and the time go by quicker.

Pay What You Want Prints....

Hey I came across this link from another blog this morning and thought I would pass it on. The artist, is having a Pay What You Want Sale on her prints, she has some beautiful prints that would be really great for Mother's Day. Check it out HERE.

DIY Plate Stands

Plate stands are super popular right now and I have seen so many different styles and types, but here is my take on it. A month or so ago I ran across about 12 brass candlesticks at the D.I. They were dirty and didn't match each other, but I knew I could use them. I also found a mismatched assortment of glass plates.


This really was an easy project (a little time consuming because I did have to wait for the glue and paint to dry).
I thoroughly washed the plates and candlesticks and then used E6000 to glue them together. This was my first time using this glue, but I LOVE it and I can't wait to use it on more projects. Beware it does stick a little bit.

The candlesticks I found were metal and they actually came unscrewed into different sections, so I took them apart and mix and matched them to make taller sticks and used the E6000 to glue them together. Then I glued the candlesticks to the plates. Let it set. Primed the whole thing. Then I painted. I used a red paint, blue paint, white paint, hammered metal spray paint and I left one entirely glass.  I did spray a clear coat over the top, but I still wouldn't actually eat off of these. I did serve cupcakes from them, but they had papers on them. Here is the finished product.

I linked up HERE, go check out some of the other great ideas!

Faux Metal Wall Art

I love the look of Metal Wall Art, unfortunately I have a few problems with it the first being the price and second how heavy it can be. A few months ago I had an idea pop into my head to make my own using toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls. I started saving them and then started to experiment. The glass for this frame had been broken, but I had kept it around (I knew there was something to do with it).

1. choose your frame and cut your toilet paper tubes to be the same width as your frame.

2. Start laying out your design. I just kinda did whatever and the design made itself, but you could easily mimic a pattern you liked. I used a pencil to help me curl the strips of cardboard and then simply hot glued them together. (you could use other glue, but I liked how fast it dried, I am not very patient)

 Here is a side view before I painted it.

 And a close up (sorry so blurry) but you can see the seam were it had been glued.

 Once I had my design created I hot glued it into the frame and then I spray painted it with a black hammered metal spray paint. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS PAINT! It covered the flaws and the hammered look made it totally look like metal.

And here is the finished product. Luckily, it is light because my 3 year old was trying to put something up on this shelf to hide it from his brother and knocked everything onto his head, but no damage was done to him or to the wall art.