Chalkboard Teapot

Can you believe that I've been living in England (aka the land of tea) for more than two years, and until this weekend didn't have a teapot? For the amount of tea that I drink, and how often I host people at my house, that's ridiculous. Luckily, I found this beauty at my local thrift shop for only £5! What a steal! 

It's a great size--it can probably fit four cups--but it was a little boring, so I turned to Pinterest for some inspiration. To the surprise of no one, I fell in love with this chalkboard paint version. I can't help it. I may have a problem.

This is such an easy project that anyone can do it! It really takes no skill and no time. I'm a big fan of those kinds of projects lately. All you need is a plain teapot and some chalkboard paint meant for ceramics. I'm still using this pot that I bought nearly two years ago--a little goes a long way.    

Adorable, right? I made a template for my tea bag using scrap paper, taped it on the pot and traced around it with the paint. Once I had my outline, I painted a little circle at the top of the bag, and then filled in the rest. I added a string and painted around the rim, mimicking my inspiration photo.

I followed the instructions on the paint jar and, after 24 hours of drying, I baked my teapot in the oven at 300F for 35 minutes. Then I rubbed a piece of chalk over the paint to cure it. That's an important step because it prevents the chalk from leaving permanent marks. I missed it when I made my cheese plate, and honestly, it drives me crazy.

That's it! With a few minutes of time and a couple of bucks, I've now got the cutest teapot in the land!

Love chalkboard paint projects as much as I do? Check out some of my other ones:
Cheese Platters
Making Tea Time Pretty
Easy Upgrade
Baby, It's Cold Outside                                                                                                                                                                              

DIY Nursery Mobile

A million years ago I shared Zahara's nursery with you. My favorite thing about the room, aside from all the bright colors, is that most of the decorations are homemade. From the fabric mobile, to the cardboard "Z," to the Ikea-hacked bookshelves, I love that Zahara is surrounded by things made by the people who love her.

The mobile was a really simple project. It took me a while to do it, but only because I waited until after Zahara was born to begin. All told, you could probably complete this project in a couple of hours if you aren't trying to keep a tiny human alive. 

I found my original inspiration from Pinterest, of course. I tweaked the design to better fit my needs though. I made the ribbons shorter to accommodate the fun string ball I found for a couple of bucks at a thrift store. Dan was the one who recommended (and then implemented) hanging the mobile below the ball using dental floss. So smart!

Here's what you'll need to make you're own mobile:

• Fabric
• Ribbon
• Embroidery hoop (discard the part with the screw)
• Paint
• Hot glue gun
• Heat'n Bond (I used this one)
• Iron
• Sewing machine or needle and thread

The first thing I did was paint my embroidery hoop using some purple shiny paint leftover from this project. To paint all the way around the circle, I used needle-nosed pliers to hold the hoop as I painted. I propped it up against the top of a cardboard box to dry.

I wanted my mobile to have six ribbon strings with four fabric circles on each one, for a total of 24 finished circles. That meant I needed enough fabric to make 48 circles, so that each had a front and a back.

I traced 24 circles onto the paper side of the Heat'n Bond using a drinking glass as my template, and cut each circle out. 

I ironed one Heat'n Bond circle onto the wrong side of my fabric. Then I cut the excess fabric to leave a bonded circle. This was one half of my first circle.

I used the drinking glass again to trace and cut another circle from the same fabric. This was the other half of my circle. Repeat for a total of 24 circles.

24 circles: 1 side is plain fabric, the other side is fabric and Heat'n Bond

Next, I cut six equal strips of ribbon, leaving enough extra to attach to the embroidery hoop. I pined the circles where I thought they looked best--roughly symmetrical with the bottoms all aligned.

Once the circles were pinned where I wanted them, I peeled the backing off the Heat'n Bond and ironed the two pieces of the circle together with the ribbon between them. I added a couple stitches to the middle of each circle to keep them in place. I used a sewing machine, but you could hand sew this.

The last step was attaching the ribbon to the embroidery hoop with a hot glue gun. I just made a little loop and glued the ribbon to itself.

It sounds more complicated than it was. It is a pretty easy project that makes a huge impact. I love it, and more importantly, so does Zahara! She loves looking at the bright colors and the way the fabric moves.

She's Up!

Well, that's it. My world will never be the same again. Zahara is not only crawling, but now she's pulling on furniture to stand by herself. She will be walking before I know it. I'm not sure I'm ready for this!

P.S. If you're reading this on Feedly, the video doesn't seem to show up. Click here to view it.

Things I Love: Speculoos Spread

You know when you try something for the first time and it's love at first bite? That's what happened to me with Speculoos spread. I'd never heard of it before Rachel brought it to my Pancake Day celebration. What is it you ask? Pure heaven. It's a cookie butter with the consistency of Nutella and a sweet gingerbread flavor.

[source]

I've loved the speculoos cookie for a long time. It's often served in cafes with tea or coffee; and on Delta airlines flights. I learned that speculoos is the generic name for the cookie, and the brand name that I am most familiar with is Biscoff made by Lotus. Did you know that these cookies have been made in a small town in Belgium since 1932? And, they've been offered as an in-flight treat since 1984?

I'm not a big fan of traditional gingerbread cookies or ginger snaps; I find them too spicy. These cookies, and this spread, are the right balance of spicy and sweet. It has a nice caramel flavor that goes perfectly with...well, anything, really.

Good news for my American friends. These European-style cookies and this delicious spread are available in the States! Here's a website that will help you track them down.

I know it seems like it, but I'm not receiving any compensation from this overly-enthusiastic review. However, if the Lotus company stumbles upon this post and would like for me to become a taster for their products, please feel free to get in touch. 

Pancake Day

Yesterday I celebrated a British Holiday I had never heard of a few years ago--Pancake Day. Every year, on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, Brits stuff their faces with crepes (which they call pancakes, and it drives Dan mad!). What's the connection? From Wikipedia:

Pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foods such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent.

So what's involved in Pancake Day? Well, for me, it just involved making and then eating a ton of crepes! My mummy friends (and Nick) each brought over toppings and we dug in. We had Nutella and bananas; cookie dough ice cream; blueberries; lemon curd; broccoli, leek and cheese bechemel; and Speculoos spread (more on that tomorrow). I may have over-cooked though. I planned on five crepes per person and there were six of us. I had a ton leftover at the end, but I'm certainly not complaining!

Of course I didn't take any pictures of the fillings, or us eating the pancakes. I did capture some funny pictures of the babies though. The babies range in age from almost three months to eight months. We tried to get a group shot, with mixed success. Zahara was crying, Tom was pulling hair and eating faces, and Genevive was just trying to sit up. Though pictures aren't perfect, they are certainly memorable.

Tom going for Tilly's face

Taking a break from the ladies

Topsy turvy

At one point, I volunteered to stay in the living room with the babies while everyone else went into the kitchen to grab more pancakes. It was crazy watching six babies all at once! Thankfully, only Zahara and Tom were on the move. People came back just in time to keep Zoey from grabbing the TV cords. It looks like baby-proofing the living room just got moved higher on my to-do list.

Thanks to my British friends for introducing me to this fun celebration! As you know, any holiday that involves lots of food is a holiday I can get behind :)

Dear Zahara: 8 Months

Dear Zahara,

Happy 8 month birthday! What a great month this was. I know I keep saying it, but each month you are getting to be more fun! I think this is my favorite age so far now that we can really interact. You love clapping along to music, though you haven't quite perfected the technique. We also play peek-a-boo. You pull the scarf off your head or mine, and your expression of pure delight is often the highlight of my day.

You are a crawling wiz now. You especially love crawling to the cat bed, though we keep telling you that's not for you. You understand the word "no," even if you don't always listen. Not only are you crawling, but you can pull up to stand. So far, you've only used my hands to pull up, but it's only a matter of time before you're using the couch and table. Once you're standing, you take a few steps, making mummy and daddy worried that you'll be walking soon!

You talk non-stop now. No real words yet, but daddy was extra excited to hear you say dada. You sure have a lot to say! I guess you take after your mummy :)

Mealtimes are fun. We eat breakfast and lunch together most days. You definitely prefer big pieces of food to purees. We regularly eat egg whites; carrot sticks; cheese; and bread and butter. You absolutely loved chicken and salmon. You basically eat anything that mummy and daddy eat too. So far you haven't shown a strong disliking to anything. That's our girl!

This month we also tried our first babysitting experience. It was not successful. Our friend Lena generously agreed to watch you one evening so we could go to our friend Deanna's birthday party. Deanna lives just around the corner and we only planned on staying out for a couple of hours at most. You were already asleep when Lena came, so we thought it would be easy. Unfortunately, you had other ideas. Ten minutes after we left, you were up and very unhappy. Lena couldn't get you to calm back down, so after an hour we came back. It turns out that you were teething and had a cold. No wonder you were so unhappy!

Luckily, you are generally happy, even when you're not feeling well. You get cuter and cuter by the minute. Thanks for being such a joy! We love you!

400th Post!

I can't believe it, but we've reached another blog milestone--400 posts! To say that my life has changed since the 300th post would be a huge understatement. I can't even remember what life was like before Zahara! Now, more than ever, I'm so happy to have a place of my own to document what's happening in my life. With our time in England winding down and Zahara growing up at lightening speed, this blog is a memory time capsule. Who knows what the future of this blog holds, but for now, I love it and I hope you do too.

As we always do on these milestone posts, let's look at some of my blog stats.

• Number of posts: 400!
• Total page hits: 43,444 (as of February 20, 2014)
• Number of labels: 27--"Travels" has the most posts with 100
• Number of pages: 3: Home; Travel Archives; My Pregnancy
• Most popular post: Shabby Chic Nightstands with 1,284 page views
• Most comments:  Baby Pool with 23 comments
• Top referal sites: Google, Facebook; Pinterest, and Young House Love
• Countries visited/blogged about: 24, plus Scotland and Wales

Once again, I want to know more about you. Can you check a few boxes for me? I'll love you forever.



Seriously, thanks so much for reading. Here's to the next 400 posts!

See my other blog milestones:
100 Posts
200 Posts
300 Posts