Eight Months

She's ten months old now, so I guess that means I should probably do an 8 month update! I'm so behind... I should have known this was inevitable!

Six Years.

Friday was our 6 year anniversary! We don't usually make a big deal about it, but we usually try and do something nice around this time. This year, it felt like we were celebrating for a week! It was kind of awesome! 

Part I - I had planned a date night last Sunday to go out to dinner and a movie because with residency starting and not knowing Zach's schedule, I wanted to make sure we at least did something before he got busy. Auntie Jenn and Brian came over to watch Em (there were only minor tears this time) and we went out to celebrate at Melrose Grill in downtown Renton for dinner. Melrose Grill is a delicious steak place and it did not disappoint! A little spendy, but we were celebrating! We both got the Ribeye and it was so good. Probably the best steak I've ever had. We split a bottle of wine and even got dessert. So fancy! It had been so long since we'd been out to a really nice dinner. Such a treat. Then we went to see 22 Jump Street and it was hilarious. I loved it. CT and Jonah Hill definitely have the Bromance thing down. :)

Part II - Zach had planned to go the Mariners game on Friday night (our actual anniversary) so my Mom came over to watch Em and got her Emerson fix. :) It had been forever since we'd been to a game and it also happened to be Fireworks Night! I'm not a baseball fan at all but I do like to go to a game every once and a while. It was fun sitting out in the bleacher seats, people watching, eating greasy ballpark food and after the game (they won!), watching the fireworks! It was nice that we got to see some fireworks too, since we will probably be at home on 4th of July with Em in bed. Haha. Or maybe we'll get adventurous and see how long she can last out and about... TBD... :) It was such a great night! 

So much fun celebrating how far we've come over the past 10 years of knowing each other. I love the life we have grown together and our little family. Here's to many many more years of love, fun, and most importantly, laughter! :) I love you mister.

Emerson's Weekly Photo Project

Hey guys! You may have noticed that in my Monthly Emerson posts there are weekly/monthly photos at the beginning of each. And, if you follow me on Instagram you probably notice my weekly and monthly photos of Miss Emerson too (#weeklyemerson and #monthlyemerson). I decided to organize them all in one place on the blog too (in case you can't get enough). It's just so much fun to see how she has changed over the weeks and months. Check out the new page here (you also can find a link on the main blog page - see below).

And here's some more of my favorites!

DIY: Instagram Collage Prints

Hey guys! Wow it has been a crazy month in the Kane household! We crammed all our travel for the year into the past four weeks before Zach starts residency TOMORROW!! We had such a great time on our travels - camping on Lake Cushman, medical school graduation in Arizona, family reunion in Bend - but let me just say that this Mama is exhausted. With a capital E.

I just wanted to share a little project that is one of my favorites and is so easy to make (and cheap too!) 

Last fall I was itching to get all my Instagram photos on display. But there are so many! What to do? What to do? I saw this post and this post on Pinterest and was relieved there was an easy (and cheap!) way to make a collage in Picasa that you could order straight from Costco. 

First, I figured out how many pictures I wanted on each collage. I liked the look of the inspiration that was six photos across and nine photos down. With the photos about 2x2 inches, that meant that my collage needed to be 20x30. 

In Picasa, I selected the photos I wanted to include in the collage and then hit the button on the top left "Create Photo Collage" (it looks like a little mountain scape photo with a plus sign in the top left corner). From there I adjusted the grid spacing between photos and the overall size of the collage. When I had it just right, I hit "Create Collage".

To order the prints, I used Costco Photo Center online. You can order 16x20 prints for $5.99 each(!). I uploaded the collage and ordered just like a regular photo. So easy and a good price for so many photos!

I got three of these IKEA frames in white for only $3.99 each. Total cost for all three frames and prints was about $27 ($9 each). Not bad! 

I love these so much. They are so fun to look at - every time I take a look I see a new photo I haven't noticed in a while and it brings back a great memory. Emerson loves them too. She loves seeing all the different pictures - always something to look at!

PS. If you want to see more of my photos, find me on Instagram (@mykane). I'm kind of obsessed. :)

Upholstered Gray Chair... Finally Done!

Well, almost two years after I purchased this chair, it's finally finished. Stick-a-fork-in-it finished. Wait, you say. Didn't you already finish this chair (ala this post)? Well, yes. Yes, I did. Almost... We finished everything but the detail on the front of the arms and around the back along the edge. 

I finally got my act together and decided to go with some nail head trim. The original had some wood detailing on the front of the arms, but it was damaged and irreparable. The arms are too curved and unique in shape to try and recreate the wood piece myself, so nail heads it was! I'd done nail head trim before on our Queen Headboard (post forthcoming) with individual brads I got from Lowe's. I had seen this nailhead trim at JoAnn's which looked much easier to use since all the brads were connected. Um, no brainer! And with a 50% off coupon on my JoAnn's app (it is my goal to never pay full price for anything at JoAnn's or Michaels!) it was a great deal. 

The trim has actual nails every five brads so there is much less time spent nailing and the brads are also evenly spaced, which makes it much much easier and faster to put on the chair. It's also somewhat bendable, which helped for the front arm detail. I just molded it to the shape I wanted and made sure to nail in the brads where they would stay put. Easy peasy. 

If you look closely, you can see the difference between the trim and the brads that you actually nail in, but not unless you look really closely, which no one probably will. :)

I'm glad I finally finished this bad boy! Such a handsome chair (for my handsome husband). Good to know there is another alternative out there besides having to nail in 100 individual brads!

See this post for a DIY in pictures of how we reupholstered the chair and this post on how we picked the fabric.

DIY: Teacher Appreciation Gift

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week! This year was the first year (obviously) that Emerson has had a teacher. We love Em's daycare and her teachers are so great. They love her so much (and we love them)! They are the most caring teachers and take such good care of Em and the other kiddos. 

To show our appreciation, I whipped up these quick and easy little gifts for them. They probably cost around $3 each and are pretty darn cute.

Supplies:

- Patterned metal buckets ($1 from Target)

- Hershey's Kisses and Hugs (I used two packs for all three)

- Scrapbook paper

- Tape

- Stick of some kind (I used shish kabob skewers that I had on hand)

- Pack of flower seeds

I just traced Emerson's hand on some colored patterned paper and cut out about five of each color. I taped the hands together with double sided tape. I then cut a circle out of coordinating paper and taped that on, as well as the skewer. After pouring in the kisses and hugs, I just popped in the skewers. The candy held the flowers upright. And that's it! 

The teachers thought they were great (I mean, who wouldn't want a bucket full of chocolate???) and they are such a quick and easy way to show some love!

Did you make anything fun for Teacher Appreciation Week? I'd love to hear!

My First Mother's Day

The past week has been quite busy around the Kane household... My birthday, Mother's Day and Teacher Appreciation Week! I had a great Birthday and Mother's Day and definitely got spoiled by my hubby and the little stinker. The hubby got me a piece of art that I had really been wanting (for my bday) and then a spa day complete with facial and massage (for mother's day). Spoiled. Too bad I couldn't schedule the spa day until the end of June because we are jam packed with events every weekend until Zach starts residency mid-June! Oh well, it will be great whenever it is! 

At daycare, they had a "Moms and Muffins" breakfast Friday morning. It was so cute! Em and I did a little DIY art project and then got our picture taken - so sweet. I love our daycare!

I also got breakfast in bed for Mother's Day! Eggs Benedict, coffee, and orange juice and a sweet homemade card (Emerson even "signed" it!). So sweet and I felt very loved this whole week. We had both sides of our families over to celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday. Unfortunately, Em was running a fever and has a little cold... she was a little clingy to me the whole day and was definitely more fussy than her usual cheerful self.  Zach took her to the doctor this morning (weird, right?) and she has some fluid behind her eardrum, most likely because of her cold. :( Poor thing. Still has a little fever and if it still hasn't broken by Wednesday, back to the doctor we go. Thankfully, she was acting more like her normal self today with Daddy - some giggles and smiles, but more snugly than her usual busy body self. I don't like it when my baby is sick!

My first Mother's Day was awesome and I definitely have a greater appreciation for my own mother (and mother-in-law) now. I don't think you can fully understand until you are a mother yourself, the sacrifice and love that your own mother has for you. It's pretty amazing and I have so much respect for such awesome women! I love you Mama! Love you Nae!

How was your Mother's Day? Do anything exciting or fun? I hope it was filled with lots of yummy good, some good sleep and as little poopy diapers as possible! :)