DIY Painted Twine Garland

I'm not crafty y'all. Not at all.

But Emmett's first birthday party is coming up (my baby boy will be ONE in 11 days!), and I'm trying to plan a Pin-worthy party for like no money, so I decided to craft.

I've been eyeing Confetti System's gorgeous tassel garlands for years now, so when I found these babies on Pinterest the other day, I decided it was time to make my own.

Inspiration garland taken from theminimalist.com.au

I invited my friend (and super-crafter) Rachel over on Saturday to help me, and I love how they turned out! Here's how we did it:

We made the tassels out of regular (and cheap!) garden twine from Ace Hardware by cutting tons of twine into similar lengths, bunching them together, and wrapping the top bits in more twine. We left one piece of twine in a loop over the top to hang them.

I had some leftover sea blue/turqoise paint from our kitchen remodel, so we used that rather than trying to dye the twine. We painted each strand, leaving a few inches at the top just like the yellow inspiration garland. I left the tassels outside over night to dry, and then pulled them apart and reshaped them in the morning.

To hang them, I strung them on a long piece of twine, tying a knot around each tassel so they don't slide around, and hung them in the playroom/dining room/hallway/living room under our Happy Birthday banner!

Before re-shaping the twine. Ignore the mess on the floor. This room is multipurpose.

And a couple of close-ups of the finished garland:

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with them (and myself for being so creative!). I might even hang them somewhere in the house permanently after the birthday party is over. 

I still can't believe my baby boy is about to be a year old. I remember the day we brought him home from the hospital like it was just yesterday. I sure do love that little guy!

Is This Really Happening??

Today, we packed up and put away all of Emmett's bottles.

He won't take a bottle while I'm at work anymore, but he loves anything with a straw, so we've moved to little sippy cups with straws for his milk and water.

He really doesn't drink any milk while I'm at work any more, so I've stopped pumping altogether. I'd love to say that the transition has been freeing for me after 11+ months of pumping a couple of times a day, but my job is so busy right now that I don't even notice really.

When I'm home, Emmett wants to nurse non-stop. He's definitely having some major separation anxiety (so am I, but what else is new), so I think that wanting to nurse all the time is his way of holding on to me when I am around. Poor little guy. I'm not sure when we'll start trying to wean him, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be difficult.

Playing in the car on my lunch break today. These little rolled jeans are killing me! So cute!

Baby boy is doing so many new things lately! He started clapping like crazy this weekend- anytime he hears clapping on the tv, or someone around him claps, or he hears the word "clap", he starts clapping with the biggest smile on his face. I also taught him how to give me a high-five!

A few weeks ago my mother-in-law got Emmett to start saying "up" when he wanted to be picked up. He did it for a week or so, then never would say it again. Instead he would grunt and yell and make hilarious faces until we picked him up. But this weekend he started saying "up" again! It's so funny to hear him say little words, especially when he says them at the appropriate times.

He's soooo close to walking too! It's so nuts. He's been walking around our coffee table and pushing his toys around on his feet for weeks, but he hates it when we hold his hands and try to make him walk. He's finally coming around though! He's standing up on his own and starting to take a couple of steps at a time to get to the nearest piece of furniture, and today he even let me hold one hand while he walked to his daddy! It's so fun!! I can't wait till he's walking all over the place.

The last couple of weeks I've started to notice that the baby in him is starting to disappear, and he's starting to do so many little boy things. It's so much fun! He's growing up y'all, and I'm ready for it. I loved him as a tiny baby, but he's so much fun as a (tiny) little boy too!

Keepin' It Real {2}

I am linking up with Corinna over at Track 8 this morning for the second installment of Keepin' It Real Mondays! I'm so excited about this new link up!

Yesterday Emmett woke up at 5:15. A!M! After an especially grueling night-of-many-wake-ups, I was really hoping to at least make it to the 6 a.m. mark before he started hollerin' at me. I let out a big annoyed sigh just to make sure my husband noticed the depth of my sacrifice, threw on some shorts, and began my day.

Just so you don't feel too sorry for me, let me explain that normally on the weekends Ray gets up with Emmett to let me sleep in, since I'm always up at least twice with Emmett in the night.  But yesterday was Father's Day, so I let him sleep.

We planned to go to the 9 a.m Mass, which is always fun since Emmett usually naps at 9:30ish, but I knew we were especially in for it because of that early wake up. The poor little guy is cutting yet another tooth, and was obviously exhausted, so he pretty much yelled at me non-stop until I put him down for a nap. At 7:30 a.m.

Tired boy, but happy in his chair, as always!

So sleeeeepy!

 Mornings like that are tough. Really tough. And I can't say I handle them well. I get frustrated and exhausted and although I do my best not to show it or take it out on my sweet baby boy, inside I'm a wreck. My husband, on the other hand, is patient and gentle and never loses his cool. He's such a good dad to Emmett, and he helps me to stay calm and makes me a better mama, every day. We are lucky to have him.

Giving me attitude at Father's Day brunch. Cheeky boy.

Did I mention I managed to let my daredevil son fall head-first off our bed the other morning?

P.S: This may be cheating, but I'm also linking up with Mary Beth at Annapolis & Company!