Weekend Flyer

After having Collette, hobbies just faded. She became my full time hobby! It took me awhile to even miss flying; I've been so busy. I'm not sure what reawakened my desire to fly but I'm so glad it has. Flying is a very freeing hobby but sometimes for someone like me... perfectionist and worrier, the stresses of it can overtake the joy. I think that's why it was so easy for me to stray from it, but I've decided that I've done all this work to attain it and I'm going to put it to use! 

Since I'm so rusty my dad offered to do some retraining with me, it's a relief to have someone to go flying with who truly loves flying and loves being the know it all teacher hehe sorry dad but you know it's true! If it weren't for my dad I wouldn't be half the pilot I am. He likes to quiz me on all things aviation, bugs me to fly when I haven't flown... Annoying , yes but also most helpful. 

Pattern work (landing and taking off over and over for practice): As a mama I say Yucka to this, boring yet rewarding flying. I love to see the sites of flying, visit new places, pattern work offers neither. But it's a necessary evil especially to someone who's rusty. So today this is pretty much all me and pops did. 

Patten work also is radio work if your at a controlled airport. The radio frightened me at first. I remember finishing my lesson and the instructor saying "next time I'm not saying a word it's all you", I dreaded that next lesson more than getting my wisdom teeth out. But the day came and I faced it as prepared as I could be and made it through, reluctantly. Now when I talk on the radio I do it with confidence and that just comes with time. If your just starting out don't worry about making a mistake even the seasoned pilots do. With my initial radio call I always stated "student pilot" so as to say "hey you, give me a break I'm trying to learn here and fly this plane at the same time". Can you sense a little frustration? Tower folk *sideways squinty eyed stare*. Sometimes I hear others on the radio, butchering things; & I feel for them. it's embarrassing but just know not everyone is laughing and judging you, granted probably lots are but we've all been there!

Well maybe next time I'll get out of Chino and have some better pictures to share, until then✌️.

French Provincial Dresser Make Over

French Provincial has always caught my eye. Especially in white. We had bought a small dresser for Collette's room as the first addition to her nursery. A year later I decided I wanted a larger dresser with a matching nightstand. So I found and bought both off of craigslist in great shape. They are slightly different but with the same hardware and paint it will look matching!

 

 

You see many variations of these dressers on Pinterest. Most are just painted but still have the old hardware. I love the shape of the dresser and nightstand but have never been fond of the hardware. Luckily I have access to a professional painter, I told him that I wanted a high gloss white and all the holes from the original hardware filled in so I could install new. He did a great job. The dresser looked amazing, and completely transformed.

 

This is the hardware I had picked out before even starting the dresser. I hope it looks as good as I pictured it.

 

The pulls were easy to find. I thought I would use these on the 6 drawers on the dresser and the 2 drawers on the nightstand. After receiving them, they looked great for the dresser but way too large for the nightstand. So I decided to do the same knobs as I did on the dresser for the nightstand.

 

  Here is the finished project. Ah, I love this big dresser. It works great for a changing table and after that phase it will still be a staple piece in Collette's room for many years to come. The nightstand matches great and looks very dainty/girly in her room. The dresser also came with a mirror so we had it painted too but are storing it until we need it. The white gloss paint and new hardware gave this furniture a new life.

 

Collette's Birthday Party

Collettes Winter ONE-derland party was so much fun. My mom and I had a blast decorating the night before and we had lots of Christmas decor that fit right in.

 

Collette's baby book served as the guest book. It's a picture book you can fully customize. I found Mixbook recently and have already made 3 different picture books and a calendar! It's basically digital scrapbooking and every one has come out cuter than the last, as I get more familiar with the capabilities. You Add in your own text including all baby book must haves (1st tooth, words, ect.). I did her pictures in chronological order and I left the last page blank so guests were able to write her a sweet happy birthday note to read when she's older. It was made from the website Mixbook,I usually start a project and order when they have a 50% off sale which is often!   

 

 

 

The favor ornaments were hung on a tree I had as a Christmas decoration and the jar favors lined up on the same table. The tutorial for these is here.

 

The cake was done at a nearby bakery called Pila's Pantry, and tasted great! The cake topper was ordered off of Etsy from ModernBlooms. I love how the topper came out, and its a great keepsake.

 

The ONE banner was also ordered on Etsy from LaCremeBoutique. Initially I had planned on hanging it on Collette's highchair but since it was too big, we used it as a backdrop.

 

 

Collette's onsie said Birthday girl on a pink "sash", I wish I had a better picture of it! From Madibethcreations.

 

 

Collette, to my surprise didn't even try to take her hat off ! The cake was a perfect distraction. Her hat was so cute, and just the right proportion for her head. After searching for a while and looking over many Etsy shops I finally found it on Kutie Bow Tuties. I told you I had an Etsy obsession:)  

Collette's First Birthday - Party Favors

Since Collette's birthday falls in December I thought it would be cute to do party favors in theme of the season. 2 years ago Anthropologie came out with mason jar "snow globes" and my mom and I made our own and they came out great. So after seeing some pink bottle brush trees on Etsy I had my inspiration. 

I found some little jars online at TomKat Studio, ordered the trees from Loveitshabby on Etsy and made a stop at Michaels. Initially I thought we would just do the jars but after recalculating our guest list a final time I came up 8 favors short. So while at michaels I found these empty glass ornaments and thought it would be perfect! My mom came over to help, we thought we'd just start them and ended up getting them all done in no time.

All you need is some "snow" glitter. Martha Stewarts is more expensive but after using it I thougt the bigger glitter flakes and color were prettier. I used a little jewel it glue for adhering the trees to the glass ornaments and jars, some ribbon/twine or any decorative touch you'd like! I also used a little jewel charm tied to the ribbon for some extra sparkle. The needle nose pliers were used because the trees.. even being only 3" were a little too big for the jars. They fit but it looked squashed so we used the pliers to separate them from the wood base, cut the trees wire a little bit and then reattached them to the wood base. It was an easy fix. The trees fit much better after. 

The trees were a little tricky getting into the ornaments. The wood base barely fit through the glass opening. First I straightened the tree, I applied the glue to the wood base, then carefully pushed the base through the opening, I used the pliers to lower the tree into the ornament and place on the bottom. I pressed on the tree until the glue squished out around the wood base and then in went the glitter. I used 2 bottles of glitter for 20 favors but I like a full look, you could get away with using less.

They turned out so cute. I made little tags and attached them to give the favors a personalized touch. I actually ended up "favoring" ... (too cheesy? Lol) the ornaments, the more I thought about it the more I liked them. Every year when we decorate our tree we will be reminded of Collette's first birthday. That year filled with firsts for all of us and the fun party where family and friends celebrated together.I hope it's the same for our guests.

Finishing Up The Trailer

The cabinet doors are finally back on. We decided to reuse the old hinges. We spray painted them with the same bronze spray paint. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above the dinette I decided to do something a little more custom. I removed the mirrors with the gold flowers from the cabinet doors.  I started by braking the mirror and then I cleaned all the edges with a razor blade. It was fairly easy and not too time consuming. I found these graphics on Etsy from Vintageretroantique. Then I used Printmoz and had them printed on backlit film the exact size I needed and then siliconed them in place with a piece of glass in front of them. The clear silicone worked perfect. The graphics were around $15 and I think I had them printed for around $48, the glass was $12. I'm happy with how they turned out. Sometimes your vision doesn't come to life quite like you wanted but thankfully I didn't have that on this project! I still need to take a picture with the lights on in the cabinets at night. It is such a pretty glow and gives off just enough light.

 

 

 

We cleaned the floors and laid down the vinyl peel and stick which we got from Lowes for a very reasonable price. The floors are Antique Woodland Oak. We also used a glue prior to laying the peel and stick plank after reading some reviews about it not adhering well since the camper is subjected to extreme heat and cold.

 

 

 

 

We love this key/mail holder. After our first trip, asking ...where did you put the keys a million times we knew it was a necessity. This one is great because it hold both our cellphones too. I also ordered this from Etsy by Masterworks888. << I have an obsession with Etsy if you havn't caught on to that yet.

 

 

 

We had some trouble with the metal bar that holds all the spices in the kitchen as you can see. We have finally installed that but not at the time of the pics. We also mounted a small TV. It has a built in DVD player on the side and works great!

 

 

 

I ordered the table and legs from ebay. The table came in damaged so the company gave it to us for free and we were able to salvage it. Beats spending $100+.

 

 

The bathroom still needs some updates, I really wanted to install a new toilet when we were doing the flooring but we decided it could wait.

 

 

 

The Before and After Pics

 

 

 

 

As you can see we have yet to recover the sofa/dinette so I'm hiding most of the sofa under a Pendleton wool blanket lol. We don't plan on doing those until next year but I can hardly wait, I already have all the fabrics picked out! Before our first trip we also put up all the old window coverings (not in the pictures above). We plan on replacing them with night shades... my parents new trailer has them and i'm jealous. They are excellent. Keep an eye out for my post when I redo the valances. Another day another DIY project.

 

 

This is our baby CC on our first camping trip with the trailer redone. It was a really nice trip, well ok the first night we barely slept and had to drive the baby around from 1am-3am since she wouldn't stop crying and we were afraid the whole camp site would hate us! But the second night....not a peep and it finished the trip off on a high note!