A Thick Slice of Diaper Cake

I'm back with more baby shower decorating fun!

 

The venue where we are holding my sister-in-law's shower oddly doesn't allow us to bring in even a crumb of our own food. And they won't make us a cake either. And since my mother-in-law and I feel that a cake is an integral part of a shower, we took it upon ourselves to make one.

 

Hang on, didn't I say that we can't make our own cake and bring it in? Yes. But we didn't use food. The entire cake is made out of diapers. This obviously means that we can not serve it to our guests but that's ok because there will still be plenty of dessert on the menu (obviously supplied by the hall). And the best part is that my sister-on-law can take it home with her and put all the diapers to good use! I didn't count them all but there's roughly 80 of them in there.

 

We rolled each diaper and wrapped it with an elastic band like so:

 

 

 

A million 80-ish of these later, we had enough to make 3 solid layers. Below is a photo of the middle layer which has 23 diapers (I know because I counted in the photo, ha!). We grouped them in a circular shape and tied the perimeter with white curling ribbon.

 

 

We then covered the curling ribbon on each layer with a cute "it's a girl" ribbon from Michael's and fastened it with clear tape on the inside.

 

 

 

Then we topped it off with a pretty pink bow (notice the ombre? Also from Michael's) and sat it atop of a large round aluminium tray from the local dollar store. And ta-daaaaaaaaaaaa!

 

Easy as pie cake! I'm serious though. This is the easiest cake to make. And I also file it under fool-proof baby shower DIYs.

 

I can't wait for Mom and Baby to see it on Saturday!

Diaper Flowers

This weekend I am helping throw a baby shower for my sister-in-law. Let me tell you, she makes cute babies. I am over the moon in love with my one-month-and-one-day old niece. It's so bad that I have no more storage space on my phone due to all the photos I take of her. They call me crazy paparazzi aunt. I may have to start looking into a 12 step program soon. 

 

So when my mother-in-law asked me to co-plan a shower, I started jumping up and down and clapping. I mean, I had already stashed so many cute baby-related ideas in my head (and on my baby pinterest board) for when Hubs and I are ready to make a kiddo of our own. And since I couldn't exactly decorate my niece's nursery, I was eager to DIY some smaller projects for this shower.

 

One of the tasks I volunteered myself for was centrepieces. I wanted them to be really hands-on and personal instead of big-box-store-ish. A while back, I had seen a huge bouquet of diapers online and saved the photo as a potential gift idea.

 

 

 

This was the inspiration for my centrepieces. I scaled it back a bit by only using 6 diapers per arrangement. Here's the step-by-step:

 

1. Roll each diaper onto wooden skewer like so. (I used size 1s but any would work)

 

 

2. Add tissue paper on the bottom by poking the skewer through two square-sized sheets and sliding it up to the base of the diaper flower. Tie with curly ribbon.

3. Make lots. I made 6 roses for 5 centrepieces = 30. This lasted 2 afternoons because my hands would start feeling crampy after a while.

 

 

4. Grab vases. I used plastic outdoor drinking glasses from the dollar store but had to weigh them down with some rocks because the arrangement was too top-heavy. With curling ribbon, tie together your 6 diaper roses bouquet-style and stick 'em in!

 

 

That's all there is to it! Oh, and if you are planning on doing this yourself, remember to only use clean diapers.

 

I will be sure to post pictures after the weekend of the complete shower recap for your amusement.

 

xoxo, E

 

 

 

 

 

 

Floating And Gloating

I have a mini obsession with floating shelves. Ok, maybe it's more major than mini. There's just something about their airy feel and how they allow the attention to focus on the trinkets instead of brackets.

Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upsidedown we put 3 floating shelves in our master bathroom. Let me start off by showing you what the bathroom used to look like pre-us. I saved this photo off of the MLS listing when we were still house hunters.

Cute, huh? Not so much. Since this bathroom is right off our master bedroom, we painted the walls a cheery SW Aloe hue to play with the bedroom's light seafoam colouring. Bye bye boring light blue! I also had the painters take down the builder grade mirror so that I can replace it with a pretty silver-framed one.

But anyway, back to the shelves. My go-to store is usually Ikea for most decor items. Sadly, they didn't have the dimensions I needed for the over-the-toilet space. Home Depot to the rescue! (Again.) Hubs and I found these babies and they screamed perfection. We bought 3 (on sale for $9.99 at the time) after seeing this awesome bathroom makeover post at 320 Sycamore.  After some serious measuring and using our own screws and anchors due to some less-than-favourable reviews, here they are in all their triplet glory.

As pretty as they were on their own, they were there to serve a function: storage. I had visions of pretty wicker baskets but sadly they all seemed too wide for these 10.2" deep shelves. This time, Ikea didn't disappoint. We picked up 3 of these CD storage boxes for $9.99 each (funny how they cost just as much as the shelves) and they fit perfectly.

Here's a pic of the fully-decorated wall:

The top shelf has 2 of the Kvarnvik bins (I like pronouncing Ikea names). Sorry about the angled photo. In real life, they don't look like they are going to slide right off. Everything is actually nice and level.

The middle shelf (my favourite) has a cheap-o thrift store vase, 3 mason jars wrapped with lace (left over from my wedding, which I recycled from a friend's wedding), a chrome-y owl from Walmart, and a picture frame containing a fun first-thing-to-read-in-the-morning inspirational quote from The Help.  

The bottom shelf has a stand-up mirror from Ikea that is great for makeup application, another Kvarnvik (Kvarnvik, Kvarnvik) box, and a pretty tea cup that I got as a favour from a friend's bridal shower. (Note: I often put my iPhone in the teacup while I shower and listen to music. It works wonders for sound amplification!)

And in interest of full disclosure, I took a pic of the contents in each box. Just in case you were dying to know what we (I) keep inside. The top two house perfumes and makeup while the bottom shelf one stores my love of nail polish.  Turns out Hubs didn't need the extra storage space. Yay more for me!! Don't you love the cute checkered pattern on the inside? Oh how I love Ikea.

And last but not least, here's a closeup of the mason jars from the middle shelf. Here live our floss picks, cotton pads, and q-tips. 



And that's all folks! In the future, I may lean up a frame on the bottom or middle shelf. If so, you know I will blog all about it!

xoxo, E