Comfort, a canvas and a blog designer

 
scarf: discovery   cardigan, tee and shoes: old navy    leggings: jcpenney

While it'd be nice if I felt like a I had super cute outfit every day, the truth is that leggings, a long tee and a cardigan seem to win at least a few days a week.  I can only imagine as I get closer to the end that comfort will continue to win!

I shared awhile ago that I loved this canvas of an ultrasound picture and had been looking for a more affordable version as some of the ones I found were $40 or $50 for a small canvas.  Thankfully Lauren found this site for me and I waited until they had 50% off (which seems to be often) and ordered this:

Easy Canvas Prints

I LOVE it.  I edited and added the text before I uploaded the pictures since that wasn't an option on the site.   It's hard to tell in the picture, but the edges of the canvas are a minty green color.  I plan on ordering another canvas from there with a newborn picture in July!

Today I'm exited to introduce you to another sweet blogger.  Laura loves photography, her husband and her hamster!  Plus she is a talented blog designer.  I love the blogs she has designed and even better she is extremely affordable.  It's funny that she says she isn't a fashion blogger because her staple outfit is colored skinny jeans, a striped top and a scarf - which pretty much sums up the typical "blogger" outfit to me!  Plus she is giving one of you a custom blog design too!


Hi, I'm Laura and I blog over at Girl in Flight!

Whenever I'm asked if I want to do a guest-post I get the blogging version of stage fright. I sort of nod wordlessly at my computer screen before being like, "Yeah, I'll do it!". What will I write? I'm rubbish at fashion, I have about 0.1% of the fashion sense of an amoeba. I look at bloggers like Katie and think, "I want to be beautiful and fashionable!" before putting on my staple of coloured skinny jeans, a stripy top, a cardigan and a scarf. See?

Albeit the cardigan was missing, but hey, it was our hottest day in the UK a whole 19c! (That's about 66F!). Knowing our weather that will be the hottest day this year so I was pretty excited to only be wearing one layer!

When I'm not worrying about being a total fashion disaster, I spend my time hanging out with my lovely husband, Simon, our very, very old hamster Hercules and our two adorable rabbits Sophie and Rory. When they get bored of me (thankfully, not often!) I design blogs and take lots and lots of photographs!

This is my favourite self-portrait of us, mostly because I fell out of the tree right after it was taken!

So, for my give away I am offering one reader of For Lauren and Lauren a free custom blog design from my Etsy shop Sophie&Rory (any guess who it was named after?!). The winner will receive a custom blog design complete to their specifications with any additional add-ons. And if you just can't wait to see if you won, all readers of For Lauren and Lauren are entitled to a 10% discount when using the code FORLAUREN.

Thank you reading and thank you to Katie for being such a sweetheart and having me over! Good luck!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you Laura for your post and sweet giveaway!

Bathroom Redo

 

Last month I fixed up our main bathroom.  Years ago I painted it a wine, maroon color and never really loved it.  I'm not quite sure why it's taken me so long to repaint it, but I'm glad I waited until after Addilyn was born, because it's the bathroom she takes baths in and the one she'll use as she gets older.  So it was fun to make it personalized to her.

The stripes on the wall were actually pretty easy and I finished it all in one weekend.  The blue paint one day, and the stripes the next day.  The biggest tip I found online was to peel your painters tape off the stripes before the paint it totally dry.  I really didn't have much to touch up which was nice!

The shower curtain and knobs were from Target.  I found the mirror at Hobby Lobby for $40 and the hand towel knob for $6.  The wire basket I think was from Ross and I added the chalkboard sign.  I shared the DIY towel hook tutorial here. 

I love how the canvases turned out.  They were really easy! 

Put your stickers on the canvas and make sure to press them down well. 

Paint over the entire canvas and let it dry.  Pull off the stickers and that's it!

For the center one I painted the whole canvas, then used modge podge to put the picture on.  
And here's a few before and after pictures.  It is SO much better!

How many canvases is too many?

I couldn't count off the top of my head how many canvases we have in our house.  I love taking pictures, having pictures taken of our family and putting them around our house.  I have always loved decorating, and I especially love decorating with pictures of my kids and our family.  I recently got a chance to review a canvas from Canvas Press and I was not disappointed!  We had family pictures taken last Spring, and they've slowly replaced our family pictures from the year before.  I love this picture of the four of us (although now kind of wishing I picked this picture of our new puppy!)  I guess I'll have to order another one!

I picked black and white because I wasn't sure where I was going to hang it in our house and wanted it to fit in any room I hung it.  I'm still not sure it'll stay on our mantle but I like it for now!  I love the thickness of the canvas.  It's thicker than any other I've ordered and I like that.  It could easily be hung on a nail on the wall or put on a shelf.  I think some day I'll use all our canvases I've replaced over the last few years to make a gallery wall going up our stairs.  What do you do with canvases that you've replaced with updated pictures?

I've ordered canvases from multiple places, as I'm always trying to find quality canvases that aren't crazy expensive.  I'll be adding Canvas Press to my list and will use them again! 

High 5 for planning

tank top: old navy   sweater: kohls   pants & wedges: target

1. This looks practically identical to an outfit I just posted.  Maroon pants and polka dots.  These may be the only pair of non maternity pants that are still comfortable so I intend to wear them often.  
You can believe that before I knew what we were having I was already busy pinning ideas and planning for our baby girl or boy.  So my next four things are things that I am loving for our baby!
2. After making my elephant stuffed animal and elephant canvas, I just ordered this fabric to make a crib skirt.  Then I may have reached my elephant limit.  

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3. I love how this closet is organized and love the tree wall decal: 

source                                                                       source

4. I think the idea of turning an ultrasound into a canvas is so neat, and want this light green color in the nursery. 

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5. And I am also excited for baby showers, which means baby shower invitations.  I recently found the company tiny prints, which has all things baby and kids.  Meaning I will be checking it out for birth announcements too! There are so many cute options, but I think these are two of my favorite invitations: 

elephant invite                                                                              owl invite

Speaking of baby showers, that means registering! Chris and I are planning on starting this weekend and I am a little overwhelmed!  Feel free to tell me your favorite few things that I should register for!
Hope you have a great weekend!!

Looking forward to . . .

sweater: old navy    pants: target    boots: dsw   necklace:  c/o curated by kelly

Wearing comfy sweaters like this one.  I finally got out my fall/winter clothes and am excited it is finally fall weather.  

Taking Addilyn swimming.  Chris' aunt has an indoor pool and I am thinking we should take Addilyn swimming in it soon. All she needs is some baby swimming accessories and some cute swimwear and she'll be ready.  Thankfully I found her a little bikini at Target a month or so ago for only $2.50 that she needs to wear! 

Trick or treating.  And eating any candy that I steal from my niece and nephews.  I'm not positive if we will even go trick or treating because it's supposed to rain, but Addi will be in costume and I will be eating someone's candy.  Have you seen a cuter cow? 

Getting more canvases for our house.  I recently got this canvas from Easy Canvas Prints, which is the same place I bought the ultrasound one when I was pregnant.  I love how they both look on the wall in Addilyn's room.  I finally got around to picking out which newborn pictures to use for canvases to hang in our living room and I am so excited to get them.  They always have the best deals and turn out great!

My birthday.  Saturday is my birthday and Chris and I are planning on going on our first real date without Addilyn.  Excited to spend some alone time with Chris, but also to celebrate my birthday this weekend as a family of three!

photo canvas and a mini diy

I was so in love with our newborn pictures that it took me forever to decide which ones I wanted printed on canvases.  Which I guess is a good problem to have right? 
I finally picked which ones but it took me so long to decide which sizes to get.  Tell me I am not alone in letting things sit in a cart online for days and then change your mind and have the news ones sit for days and on and on for too long? 
Chris eventually just made me order them because I was asking him way too many times what he thought.  I originally thought about making my own as I've seen many good looking diy canvases, but figured after buying the canvases and the prints I would still be spending a decent amount of money and I'd rather spend a little more and have them look really good since they'd be hanging in our living room. Plus I knew I'd be ridiculously upset if I managed to mess something up.  
I ordered these from easy canvas prints, were I also got this one and this one from.  They always have really good coupons and deals.  Each of these 16 x 16 prints were only $20 (but then $20 each for shipping), which was a lot cheaper than other places.  And they look awesome!
I wanted to hang the canvases with something like these wooden knobs from pottery barn but did not want to pay $24 each.  

So I went to home depot and found these wooden stair post tops.  They were only $5 each and we just used deck finish to paint them.  (And forgot to take a picture first but I'm sure you can imagine them looking lighter wood color can't you?) 

I just used mounting tap to hang up the knobs and then hung up the canvases with a nail.  So they aren't really hung by the rope.  Tricky, huh?  

I absolutely love how it turned out.  And Addilyn actually loves it too.  We've tried at least five times and each time I hold her up to them she smiles, laughs and talks to them.  

Addilyn's gift to daddy

I usually have a hard time choosing a good present for Chris and never know what to get him that, especially a gift that isn't super expensive.  I was really excited to give him a gift "from" Addilyn this year.  And this one was free and may have made him shed a few sentimental tears.  (Which to my happiness isn't hard to do when it involves him thinking or talking about Addilyn). 

After making our little mistletoe craft I wanted to do something else with footprints.  I'm a little sad I didn't think of these gifts sooner because I think they would've made great grandmother gifts too. 

I saw a few similar prints like this on etsy but decided to make one on a canvas that I already had.  I used fabric paint for the writing so that I could do it a little neater than if I used a paintbrush.  

I love how it turned out and Chris loved it too and is excited about hanging it in his office.  And now I kind of want to put Addilyn's footprint on everything.  
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! If you're like me you don't even love looking at your Christmas tree anymore because you're sad that it is all over.  I plan on going through and sharing some (or lots) of our pictures from the last week tomorrow.  

Love ready

heart: diy   flannel shirt: old navy   jeans: target   boots: zulily 

We've never been a big celebrator of Valentine's day in the past.  But thanks to more time at home and pinterest I now love decorating and acknowledging Valentine's day.  Having a baby to do things with makes it more fun too! 

1. Heart sweater.  Now I've seen some pretty cheap cute heart sweaters, but when I made mine two years ago I could not find one.  I made mine for less than $10 (check out the easy tutorial here).  Of course this summer I found one at Old Navy for less than $5 and justified needing another heart sweater.  

2. Decorations. I love my Valentine's decorations that I made last year and may be a little overboard adding this heart felt garland.  Super cheap.  Super easy.  

Cut out hearts and sew together.  Easy, easy. 

3. Footprints. After making these I want will happily find any reason to put Addilyn's footprint on anything.  I'm pretty sure I'll do some footprint project on a canvas for every holiday this year.  
Happy February!