buckley journal

My son Mason who is 3 years old (almost 4), wanted to be Optimus Prime for Halloween. He has been watching Transformers Rescue Bots for a few years now, so I knew I wanted to make the Rescue Bots version. I have made his last two Halloween costumes and I was really excited to make this one! So I sat down to do some research on it and Googled "DIY Optimus Prime costume" and a bunch of images popped up that seemed really hard to do and also really hard to trick-or-treat in looking quite boxy and hard to move in, so I just used them as inspiration and came up with my own version aka t he EASY version! Supplies: 2 cereal boxes (I used large Cheerios boxes) 1 additional cereal box to be cut up 2 small boxes (I used Keurig k-cup boxes that I had laying around) Duct tape: red, blue, metallic silver (I found mine on Amazon) 2 empty paper towel rolls Cotton balls Black construction paper Gray paint (I mixed black and white togeth...

Ballerina Bun I have been searching and searching for an easy way to do a big ballerina bun on the top of my head and I've found a way!!! And it was free! Here's how it turned out on me. The top looks like a big messy donut. I love the way it turned out and it seems very secure. I put 2 bobby pins in it just to make sure it won't go any where. It was hard to get my hair started in the roll, but I kept tucking it into the sock and rolling and eventually it started working. Also, I used a brown knee high sock I had in my drawer so it matched my hair color. I found if I used a white sock, I could see the sock through my hair. Gel Manicure For about two months now I've been giving myself gel manicures using the SensatioNail kit. I picked mine up at Walmart for $50. Let me tell you that it is AWESOME! The picture below doesn't do it justice. It's soooo pretty. I've found that it lasts a week without chipping or peeling which is fantastical! E...

I was inspired by this DIY mobile . I didn't take step-by-step photos of how I made it, sorry, so I'll try and explain it as best I can. To create Mason's mobile: I copied owls and trees off of the DwellStudio Owls pattern online and made them into a Photoshop file. (see below for printable version) Then I printed the file on card stock (I didn't want to use regular paper because I wanted some thickness to the pattern). Then I cut the shapes out and I had my patterns! I then took the felt I had bought from Giant Dwarf on Etsy.com and placed my patterns onto the felt and cut around the pattern to create the pieces for the trees and owls. Felt colors I ordered: Peacock, cinnamon, chestnut, moss, glacier, dove, almond, mushroom I ordered way more then I needed, so I would say 1 per color should be fine. Then when I got them in the mail, I matched up the colors using photos of the DS owl pattern I found online. You can just use photos of my mobile!...

We hung our DIY book ledges last night and we LOVE them! We used THIS plan to build them. Right now we have only a few books, but after the baby shower we should have alot more books. Instead of cards, we asked guests to bring a book! :) The banner above the ledges says R E A D. It's from THIS blog. I printed them and cut them out and hung them using some clothspins, string, and tacs we already own. I like it so much, I might do another banner some where else in the room. The corner where the window is is where we plan to put the glider. We can picture us reading books to Mason there! We also hung a mirror that my Mom gave me that was my Grandma's and I spray painted it gray (it was gold) and put the dresser/changing table in the room. The dresser is going to be painted white. The left corner in the above photo is where we plan to put a garbage pail (ignore the dresser drawer that's in the way). I like THIS one from IKE...

Today I painted some blue stripes floor to ceiling in the nursery. This was inspired by this photo: Here is how it turned out: (sorry for the horrible photos, my camera isn't that great) I think it turned out good, but not great. The bottom stripe is crooked, but that's ok because the crib will hide it and the edges aren't as crisp as I'd like, but overall I am satisfied! I used a Disney paint from Home Depot called "Pooh's Favorite Things". I thought the name was adorable (it's the bottom one in the photo) Here's a closer look: I got a quart of it and I have over half left over for other projects which is nice and it only cost me $14! How To: To figure out how to paint stripes on the wall, I used THIS blog post from Young House Love as a reference. Then I set out making my measurements on the wall. First, I found the center of the wall and marked it, then I found where the crib would be (it's 54...