A Week of Boy Wall Art - Part 4: Paper Boat + Initial

Boat & Initial 4th Birthday Present


Another one of my cousins has a little boy who just turned 4.  His name starts with a J and I know they spend a lot of time up north at various cottages so I figured that boats would be a good image to use in a gift for him.

I kept the frame & background a simple white to make the colourful letter & boat the focus.  The boat is made from layers of coloured card stock with the sails & flag at the top all lifting outward slightly so the paper fans out and shows all the colours captured from the pattern on the 'J'.

Let's take a Cookie Break... Testing a Mrs. Fields Recipe

I've been on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie for at least a year.  Last week DH sent me this link to a video about the secrets behind the yummy-ness of Mrs. Fields cookies.  Apparently, the key is to use cold butter, refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes and bake them low and slow (300° for 20-22min).


I couldn't wait to try the recipe and made my first batch the night after I saw the video.   I must have put too much butter in (I almost always cut the block of butter according to the markings on the wrapper which isn't terribly exact!) because they spread way too much and although crispy around the edges, after eating two my jaw hurt because they were so chewy (not in the good way).


After thinking about my disappointing results I had to try it again.  This time I wanted to compare the difference between using the Mrs. Fields secrets and how I would normally bake cookies (room temp butter, batter left on the counter, 350° oven).  Truthfully, I wasn't convinced their way would be better but needed to know for sure.

A Week of Boy Wall Art - Part 3: Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh Welcome Baby Gift

One of our employees, actually one of our favourite employees, had a baby boy named Isaiah a couple weeks ago.  Before the baby came, he had proudly shown me the nursery he and his girlfriend created with a Winnie the Pooh theme and I didn't remember seeing much on the walls.

Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of character/cartoon themes but Winnie the Pooh, if it's done well, can be beautifully classic and that was my inspiration for their gift.

I love how this turned out!

A Week of Boy Wall Art - Part 2: Little Bees

Little Bees for Cole

My cousin and his wife had a beautiful baby boy, named Cole, and have decorated his room in dark wood and a bumble bee theme. This is what I made them for a baby shower gift.

A Week of Boy Wall Art - Part 1: Felt Transportation Wall Art

When I was putting together my little monkey's room I found it difficult to find anything that I wanted to put on the walls.  Boy wall art is very limited (in my opinion) so I designed my own to fit the theme & colour scheme.

Mason's Room

In the last while, I've been working on a number of projects for little boy birthdays, shower and 'welcome baby' gifts.  I love giving wall art as a gift because it can be individualized, it's versatile and (if it's done well) can be very thoughtful.  Plus, who doesn't want something beautiful for their walls!?

Where have I been for a month?!

I can't believe how fast the last month has flown by.  We've been SO busy.  We've had three different birthdays in the last two weeks.  I've made a rehearsal dinner cake, wedding cake and birthday cake.  We sold an investment house we owned in the Beaches (Toronto) and oh.... I've gone back to work (more on that in a different post)!

I have pictures of two of the three cakes.  Here is the rehearsal dinner cake:

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The birthday cake:

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Pretty Initial Wall Art

I've been busy over the last week!  Between refinishing a table & chairs (which is becoming a chore rather than something fun because I keep running into snags...) and four different wall art projects I've barely had time to take pictures along the way let alone tell you about it :)

I promised myself that I would get some, hopefully all, of them posted over the next week.

Here's the first one, a pretty initial for Avery's room.

I was inspired by this - it's made with quarters and I LOVE it: 

justinesmith.net

I thought about replicating it with the letter A for an 'art wall' that I'm working on in her room.  Unfortunately, lack of time got the upper hand and I resorted to creating something sparkly and simple instead.  I also thought the block letter might be a little too modern for her very pretty room that has a slightly vintage feel to it.