Moon Bed Photo Prop

My sister Danielle is having a baby boy. I'm hosting the baby shower and I'm pretty excited. It's a football theme so I photoshopped some smoking awesome invitations and I'm going to tackle this party (cause...football theme...get it?).

Anyway.

This is what the invitation looks like. Minus the personal info in case you're a creeper.

It was a pain getting it to print correctly...I did a 4 x 6 image but apparently "normal" digital photos don't actually capture a properly proportioned 4 x 6 image, so sections were being cropped off. I had to fuss with it and print it three different times before I finally got it perfect.

I offered to take baby pictures for my sister. I am not a professional photographer, but I have a nice camera and I can crochet baby hats and other props, so....I'm pretty sure they'll be at least decent.

I told her if she wants professional photos my feelings won't be hurt, but she can have my photos too.

I found the moon bed photo prop online. One of my friends posted a picture of her baby on FB and the bed was amazing. And it didn't look too hard to make. So I googled it and found a tutorial.

http://ym-photography.blogspot.de/2013/05/diy-moon-prop-tutorial-by-ym.html?m=1

This thing sells for over $200 in an Etsy shop...and for even more through different vendors.

We had this huge board of MDF left over from one of our other projects. It was just sitting in the garage...waiting to be turned into a moon. We just had to buy a $3 2x4 board an we were ready.

We cut the MDF board down with the table saw (I told J we really need to get a circular saw someday...it was a  huge board to be cutting with a table saw, but luckily we didn't need an exact cut).

We followed the tutorial to trace and cut out a circle.

Then Jacob helped draw the moon shape. This was hard because you need room for the baby to lay in it, so it couldn't be a perfect circle.

J cut the shapes with the jigsaw. That man has talent. I cannot cut a straight line but he did an awesome job.

We cut down a 2 x 4 into the small pieces we needed. And then I sanded them all down - I didn't want a splinter going into the little baby. I'll put a blanket on it, but still, I can see a splinter working its way through a blanket.

I lined them up and measured and traced the outline. I numbered all of the pieces.

J pre-drilled holes on the traced squares; that made it really easy to see where he needed to drill.

Then I flipped the board over to the outside and went through and drilled holes to countersink the screws.

We got into a good rhythm - I held on the block of wood so he could drill the holes and then drill in the screw. It was easier to lay the block of wood standing straight up with the moon board on top and have J drill down.

Trying to make sure the two moons were matched up was a little tricky, but we did it. I traced the 2x4 blocks again and we repeated the drilling and countersinking.

Then we added supports on the bottom.

It sat unpainted for a week. I finally got around to painting it last weekend, but with all of the baby shower prep work I did, I was too tired to blog.

If I could do anything differently, I would pre-paint the pieces before putting it together. It was not easy.

Yellow is such a hard color to pick. It can look vastly different depending on the light source. I'm not unhappy with this color, but I'm not thrilled with it either.

I can't wait for her little baby to be here. But we haven't had the baby shower yet, so...I need to be careful what I wish for. The baby shower is in two weeks and I haven't been doing much else - planning, creating, purchasing, painting, yard work...

Rainbow Chip Cake

Katelyn loooooooooves the Rainbow Chip Cake. The only problem is that the stores don't carry it anymore - instead of the delicious little balls of deliciousness, they now have "confetti" sprinkles, which just aren't the same.

Katelyn's birthday is in January, and we looked high and low for the Rainbow Chip Cake. J thought he found it online, but it was a faker.

So J did the next best thing. He found a recipe and made it for her.

http://notwithoutsalt.com/2011/02/28/homemade-rainbow-chip-cake/

Um, have I ever mentioned what a great gift-giver this man is? It's a talent.

It was an interesting process.

Our old man dog Micah needed some love. He's very needy and likes to be included.

And here is my Katelyn. Can you see her red eyes? She teared up a little when she found out what we had for her.

It is my most treasured hope that a person loves my gift so much that he/she cries. It's the best compliment, really.

It was a fun night. Just hanging out and talking. The boys didn't last as long.

We didn't need them. We kept ourselves entertained.