by Amy | May 6, 2013 | Blog, Crafts, The Art of Gathering, The Art of Projects
I’m so excited to be showing you some highlights for a baby shower I threw yesterday. Not only was it fun, it was super special because it was a shower for…not one…but two babies! Yes, that’s right, twins!
The best part of any shower {for me at least} is picking the theme. And boy, did I go threw a long brainstorming session before choosing a theme for yesterday’s get-together. I mean, how often do you get to celebrate two babies at once? To make things even more exciting my friend Kim is expecting one of each. A boy and a girl!
After lots of list making, and learning that the nurseries will be decorated in a jungle/monkey theme I decided on “Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.” Okay, okay…enough of the chit-chat. Here’s the highlights.
I started with these custom invitations:
Then my awesome-amazing-wonderful friend Emily helped me create a fun afternoon full of monkey business.
1. This was our killer dessert table. I made this Go Bananas banner with scrapbooking paper. The letters were made in Microsoft Word. I drew a gray circle and added each letter within a text box. I printed them from home, cut them out and taped them to the banner.
2. During the shower we split into two teams for a Banana-Grams face off. Each team had to make as many baby themed words as possible in 4 minutes. The team with the fewest letters leftover wins.
3. Emily prepared all the food. We tried to keep the non-dessert foods healthy, so she prepared chicken salad and veggie trays. I hung some quick and easy tissue paper pom poms from my light fixture for a little pazazz.
4. On the dessert side we put together a banana split bar. Complete with all the fixings.
5. Emily made this amazing monkey bread. I’ll be honest. It tasted like I was eating magic.
Guests spent time writing notes to the parents-to-be on diapers…to lighten the mood of those late-night changings. I was so pumped when i found these Luvs with monkeys on them.
Our second game was created by yours truly. On one side was a list of 25 famous pairs. Guests had to fill in the missing half. They ranged from Milk and {Cookies} to Ginger Rogers and {Fred Astaire}. The second list included 10 celebrities. Guests had to choose five that are actually twins. {Did you know that Vin Diesel is a twin?}
It was such a fun day! I cannot thank my partner in crime enough. Isn’t Em just adorable? She’s the best.
Hope you got some good ideas!
Amy
PS–This party is partying at these linky parties.
by Amy | May 3, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
Please, oh please tell me you’ve seen the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes.” It’s a 90’s classic. And you know how I feel about the 90’s. {FIY I love the 90’s.}
For those of you poor suckers who haven’t seen it, I’ll give you a brief…very brief overview. And a tip: Go rent it. It’ll only cost you a dollar.
Iggie Threadgood is a rough and tumble tom-boy living in Alabama in the 1920’s and 30’s. She isn’t ladylike and she has no desire to be. She is courageous and mighty and adventurous. Whenever she does something really brave {like rescuing her BFF from an abusive husband} she yells “Tawanda!” Or “Tawanda, the amazing Amazon woman.” I don’t know the backstory on that, but that’s just what she says. Later in the movie a present day Cathy Bates yells Tawanda while she rams her car into a punks vehicle at the grocery store and when she tears down a wall in her house.
Tawanda!
It’s a very hear-me-roar phrase.
Anyway. As you can see from the photo, I’ve started another project. As I alluded to in my post about the chair and the Gliffy program. This is my biggest undertaking to date. And I’m totally in charge. Which is fun, but stressful and challenging all at once. Ready?
I’m renovating my 2nd floor. What does that entail? Lemme tell you. Removing two walls, expanding the guest room closet, framing a master closet, refinishing hardwood floors, learning to texture plaster, framing a new master closet, framing a new wall…and of course painting and finishes.
I told you it was big. But don’t freak out. I’ve enlisted help. I’ve hired a professional to help me get the big wall down. He’s coming May 11th. And somehow I’ve suckered lots of friends into helping get walls out, carpet up, and debris to the dump. Man, I’m blessed.
The prep is well underway. My sweet, darling, lovely friend Emily has been husbandless this week. Her sweetie was off doing some training. So she volunteered to hang out with me…Tawanda style. Together we’ve ripped out a closet wall and removed nearly all of the carpeting that needs to go. I really should mention that we took that crappy closet wall out mostly with roundhouse kicks. Yep, because we are that awesome.
Our biggest helper is her dog Ellie. {Panda has been hiding in the basement. She doesn’t like dogs or loud noises…it’s been a rough week for her.}
So, things are good. You know it’s been a productive week when trash day looks like this:
I’m calling this demolition therapy. You like? Oh, and I should mention one more thing. I’m on a timeline. My family will be up to PraCan to visit June 8th…so all the work {yes all} needs to be completed by then. Tell me one thing. Amy I totally crazy, or just a little?
Have a great weekend. I hope yours includes less carpet glue remover than mine will.
xoxo Amy
by Amy | May 2, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects
This is it! It’s not perfect. Not by a long shot. But I did it and it’s finished. I reupholstered this chair. I learned a few things…and I had a good time doing it. Such a good time, I just might tackle that other chair that is begging for a redo. But that will have to wait until the fall.
Just to remind you…here is the before and after. I’m pretty pleased. It’s not falling apart. It’s fully covered {with fabric from this millennium, no less.} And it’s sooo much more comfortable that it was before. Coming soon…a big long post on how I did it.
Amy
by Amy | Apr 30, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
Remember when I told you about my recent project overlap? Well…both are done. Yes, I am a certified Project Finisher. {I think we should have T-shirts made for all of us who are…} Today I’m showing off my beautiful built-in cabinets. Last week I painted the inside of the cabinets a lovely, poppy teal. I love the added color!
You may know that I’m a bit of a scaredy-cat when it comes to bold color. Inside my house I tend to stick with white, white and more white. Only off set by light subtle neutrals. But this is my summer of adventure, so I went bold. The inside of cabinets is the perfect place for a bold touch. It’s a small space and since it’s enclosed the darkness will help tone it down a bit.
Getting the job done was pretty easy. I primed with the best primer ever: Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Zinsser. You can read my rave about it here. Then I painted. To be honest, the toughest, most time consuming part was taping off all the glass. Remember to use these tips if you take a project like this on yourself.
Now, you wanna know something awesome? Who am I kidding? Of course you do. I painted all the color using only a sample carton from Sherwin-Williams. Which means this makeover only cost me $6!! {Since I had tape and primer on hand.}
If you love the color…it’s SW’s “Intense Teal.”
Now, you really want to see a change? Let’s compare the way the dining room looked when we first moved in….and the way it looks now. It’s so extreme! I simply love it.
Tomorrow I’ll show you how my chair turned out!
by Amy | Apr 29, 2013 | Blog, Devotional, The Art of Faith
I teach the high school Sunday school class at my church. For the past few months we’ve been going through the book of Revelation. A task that was pretty intimidating for me as a leader…since the book itself isn’t exactly a summer beach read. My co-leader, Ben, just finished our last lesson yesterday. A few weeks back, though, I taught a lesson on Chapters 15 and 16. I hadn’t known exactly what to say, or what portion of the text to focus on. But as I studied the words the Holy Spirit took hold of my heart and showed me what to zero in on: Responding to bad times.
If you ask me there is no book of the Bible that describes worse days than Revelation. As my Dad would say, “Sounds like a bad day at the office.”
There are plagues and beasts and wars all over the place. If you haven’t read it in a while, I’ll refresh you. After a short bit the believers are taken away from the Earth, leaving those who have not put their faith in Jesus. Time goes on and things really take a turn. Angels line up with bowls of wrath…ready to be dumped on the world. Yeah, not a good day at the office.
So the wrath starts coming. Boils break out on the skin, salt water turns to blood, fresh water turns to blood, the sun’s heat is unmasked from the Earth making things hot and dangerous.
From the text it seems obvious what is happening. God is working. He is making known His greatness. He is bringing the justice He has long promised. In my mind, the natural thing to do would be submit under the wrath. Acknowledge the Lord and repent. If I didn’t believe in God…you bet your burnt buns that’d get my attention.
But that is not the reaction we see in Revelation. Chapter 16 tells us that the people blaspheme His name. They refuse to repent. Others curse the name of the Lord.
I can just imagine the world…going to hell in a hand basket years from now. Technology that we’ve never dreamed of is in the works, science has come leaps and bounds. And between the two…science and technology, the people of the Earth can explain away everything that is happening. They can blame the water on red algae, the heat on weather patterns. They take these awful hardships with an even stonier heart.
As much as I wish this was true, being a Christian does not mean your life will be sheltered from trouble. There is no easy fix for hardship. Difficult, draining, even tragic moments will crop up in this life and there is nothing we can do to stop all of them from happening. What we can do is control our view of trying times. We can allow tragedy to turn our attention back toward the Lord. Let it soften our hearts. We can trust that evil, awful thing that happen in this life are not always created by God…but they can always be used to glorify Him.
At then end of a day full of hardships we have a few choices to make. The first is whether we choose to grip on tight to the trouble, own it and make it our own…or whether we will turn the hardship over to God with open hands. Knowing that He can spin even the darkest of moments into an opportunity to show His glory.
The second choice kind of wraps its tendrils around the first. We chose how to respond. With anger, lack of faith, and curses toward God, like the folks in Rev. 16…or with a grateful heart and a submissive spirit, allowing even natural disasters to cause us to wonder at the hands of God. If we believe the latter, we can take heart, knowing that we serve a God who is just and merciful to those who love Him. Because at the end of it all, at the end of Revelation, the plagues, the beasts, the hardships…they all had to happen to bring about a greater end: a restored world where nothing will ever separate those who love God from Him again. An Earth where we dwell together with our Savior and hardships no longer exist.
Amy
by Amy | Apr 27, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Design, The Art of Gathering
You know I love a good party. I love going to them. I love throwing them. I love helping others throw them, plan them, decorate them. Parties are the best. And a good party starts with a good invitation.
Soon I’ll be adding a design section to amyallender.com. Which is very exciting because I’ve been designing for friends for quite a while now. In the mean time check out these recent designs churned out by the one and only Amy Allender. Maybe you’ll get a little inspiration for your next get together.
If you’d like me to design something special for you drop me a note!
by Amy | Apr 26, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects
Have you heard of Gliffy? I hadn’t until just about a year ago. And, let me tell you…it changed the way I rearrange my furniture. It changed the way we moved in to our house.
Intrigued?
Gliffy is a free program online. It’s basically draft paper that you can draw your house plans into. They have graphics for furniture, walls, windows, etc. So you can virtually rearrange things before you do any heavy lifting. Because we’ve all be there before…you think it’ll fit just perfectly…only to heave-ho and learn that the dresser is just an inch wider than the nook you had in mind.
Bummer.
Ever since our very first move Derek and I have kept a careful log of the dimensions of our furniture. That way when we arrived at our new home we could measure our rooms and decide where things would fit. When the movers showed up we’d be ready with a plan.
Gliffy takes that awesome logic a step further. It’s all saved on your computer. Well, the Internet. So it’s never at risk of being lost.
I haven’t visited my Gliffy worksheets for a long time. But all that is changing. My next type of separation therapy is on the horizon:
Destruction Therapy.
When we moved in we knew we wanted to renovate our second floor. Friends, it’s happening. May is a make-it-happen month. Hopefully by June things will look more like this: {Minus the fact that the guest room will still be there.} Still not 100% committed on where the new closet will be. The bottom line is that the wall will be gone and my furniture will fit more comfortably.
by Amy | Apr 25, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
My parents like to have a dog in the house. I never remember a time when we didn’t have a dog. In fact, usually they chose to overlap our dogs. As one was on its way out we bought a puppy. It eased the transition and kept our home at ease.
Projects are like puppies in my eyes.
This is how it usually plays out for me. As one thing is wrapping up, another thing starts. So here’s where I’m at today. The upholstery thing is wrapping up {and should be done at the end of this week.} Meanwhile another small project has started.
First, the chair. Impressive, right?
I just need to add cover pieces to the arms to cover the nails there and sew the seat cushion cover.
Second, I’m going to paint the inside of our built in cabinets. They’ve already gone through a pretty impressive makeover {which you might remember}, but I am really fed up with that ugly pinkish-brown. I want my collection of white wares to pop.
So today I taped. Tonight I upholster. Tomorrow I paint. {And I’ll buy one more yard of fabric. I’m just shy. Bummer!!}
Don’t you love adventures?
Amy
