I just made some very adorable nursery wall letters for Miss Jenna's room. I was shopping around Etsy for some and it was going to cost me anywhere from $60 - $100 to do her name. So I thought I'd try doing it on my own.

I'm not going to give a detailed tutorial, but I'll give you the quick & dirty how-to.

You'll Need:

• Wooden Letters - (Sold at Hobby Lobby for around $1.50, or I bought mine online, because I wanted a cute font. Mine cost $2 per letter)
• Paint
• Scrapbook Paper
• Modge Podge
• Ribbon/other embellishments

All you do is paint the edges and backs of the letters in a color of your choice (so the plain wood isn't exposed when they are hanging).

Then you trace & cut out the scrapbook paper to go overtop. Once cut out you use Modge Podge to glue on the paper to the letters.

Then you apply a coat of Modge Podge to the front and edges to seal the paper on there. I actually did 2 coats just to be safe!

Once dry you can glue ribbon to hang, or other embellishments like buttons and glitter!

It seems like once Jenna turned 1 she decided she was a "Big Girl." She wanted to sit in her own chair like a big girl and not be held. She doesn't want help from mama or daddy when she's trying to do something. She insists on wearing jewelry - especially necklaces. I even made her a ring out of a silver twist tie and she LOVES it!

She even weaned herself! I'm happy to report she hasn't nursed in four days, so I think we are officially weaned. It started when she turned one...she quit nursing for thirst. I was good about always offering her the sippy cup and she learned how to say "wa-wa" when she was thirsty and wanted water, so that made it easier.

Then she was only nursing to fall asleep...so maybe only 3 times a day! At night she got in the habit of sucking her thumb to fall asleep so she didn't nurse at night. Then during the day, I started laying her on her little dog bed in the living room and facing away from her pretending to go to sleep. Pretty soon she was falling asleep on her own without nursing!

It's bittersweet because I did enjoy nursing her, but now that she's older, has lots of teeth, and doesn't really need it, I felt it was time to move on, and so did she.

Lastly, my little big girl is finally sleeping in her room, in her crib! This is the first week we have done it, but it seems to be working better and better. She cries for a bit at first and then falls asleep for the whole night. She seems to sleep even better by herself. I'm so proud of her!

I am now dreading when the day comes and she starts school....it will be here before I know it.

We are planning on upgrading our queen bed to a king bed in the next few months, and what better time than that to re-decorate our bedroom?

Lately, I've been obsessing over the yellow and gray color combination. This will be our new bedding color scheme.

I'm usually a brown, beige, green fanatic and most everything in my house falls within those color schemes. Right now our bedroom is beige with brown curtains, and a brown/green quilt bedspread. But I think it'd be nice to mix it up a bit.

I'm linking up with The Vintage Apple's Pinteresting Wednesday. Pinterest is this awesome place where you can catalog everything you like in one place.

Bedding inspiration from Amazon

A gorgeous bedroom...

Art inspiration...

Awesome ruffle accent pillow

Chevron Chair

Wall decor...this is actually from a party, made from paper, but I think I could probably make something similar for my bedroom. Not sure how clean it will stay in the long-run, but who knows!

I recently tried a great recipe for Frozen Fruity Burritos. These make an easy, great snack. The full recipe with instructions and photos can be found here at Once A Month Mom.

The recipe basically calls for flour tortillas (not the homestyle, but the flatter ones), cinnamon/sugar mix, spray butter, yogurt, and frozen berries.

You make these fruit burritos and put them in the freezer. You can eat them frozen or let them thaw out a bit. Very yummy and Miss Jenna really enjoyed!

I'm at the halfway mark for my pregnancy! Only 20ish more weeks to go until I get to meet my new little one. The baby is roughly 6 1/2 inches long and 10 1/2 oz.

I'm feeling pretty good these days. Feeling lots more movement. No annoying symptoms to report....I'm so lucky I haven't had any heartburn yet (and I never did with Jenna, so we'll see!). I'm also very excited that my belly hasn't been on fire. With Jenna my belly would burn and itch so bad from stretching out...maybe this time around it's still stretched out from before.

I think it's so funny when I compare what I was thinking when I was 20 weeks pregnant with Jenna, compared to this time around. I was so obsessed with getting the crib bought and the decor picked out. I kept harassing my poor husband about it. Then Miss J decided she'd rather sleep in our bed than that god-awful nursery I spent so much time obsessing over!

This go-round all I'm looking at getting is a 2nd dresser for #2's clothing. The way I figure is that the two kids do not need separate rooms at this age. And I'm going to co-sleep with baby #2 because it makes nursing and sleeping so much easier...so really I only need a nursery to store diapers, clothing, and toys. And lucky for me, I decorated gender neutral so it doesn't matter if it's a girl or boy!

I'm still in a dilemma about what to do with Jenna. She is still in our bed. We are planning on getting a King size so we're all more comfortable, but I'm kinda wanting to move her into her room for reals this time. I'm just worried with a new baby in our bed, she will get woken up. However, I think since I waited so long to transfer her over, it's gonna be extremely hard to do. The good thing is that she's not nursing to fall asleep anymore (in fact, she only nurses maybe twice a day to take a nap). So maybe that will make it easier? Who am I kidding, I will probably end up with both babies in our new king bed :-)

I think I've gained about 7 lbs, which is what I had gained last time. I'm just really worried about not gaining too much. I feel like I could easily blow up like a balloon. I was doing good with the exercise, but I've been slacking the past couple of weeks. I am trying to do better with eating. I bought skim milk for me, flavorless oatmeal, frozen fruit, and whole wheat, low-fat bagels to snack on. If it were up to me I'd eat cupcakes all day long...

We have our big ultrasound on Monday. Just hoping for a healthy baby. We won't be finding out the sex - sorry to disappoint everyone!

Anyone interested in $20 off women's clothing??? I have an exclusive code for you! Use the code SIMPLE0811 and get $20 off when you shop at eShakti - valid till 15th September, 2011.

eShakti offers trendy, comfortable women's clothing. I have a pair of pants from here that I LOVE. The best part about eShakti is that you can have the clothing measured to fit your body. All you have to do is input your measurements when you check out, and you will have custom-tailored clothing to fit you!

Here's some of my favs:

In my last post, I wrote about time management and getting on a schedule. In this post I want to talk about some great organization/cleaning tools I've found to be most helpful.

I love the Totally Together site by Stephanie O'Dea. I just finished reading her "Totally Together: Shortcuts to an Organized Life" book. It has so many helpful tips. The book is very brief, right to the point, and includes a journal with daily tasks to help you get started.

Stephanie recommends following the Daily 7. These are:

Number 1: Make Beds Right Away

Number 2: Do One Complete Load of Laundry

Number 3: Empty All Garbage Cans

Number 4: Keep Your Kitchen Sink Empty

Number 5: Clean Up After Yourself and Help Children Do the Same

Number 6: Bathroom Wipe-Down

Number 7: Before Bed 10-Minute Clean Up

I recommend buying the book for all of her helpful tips, but if you are on a budget, she has plenty of good info on her website.

Another must-have tool is a Home Organizer Binder. (See my post for an example and printables). There are several versions out there and plenty of awesome templates to follow. I recommend including things like babysitter info, important phone numbers, birthdays, passwords, budget, to-do list, and calendar.

Lastly, I have a few favorite websites that I like to purchase organizational stuff from. Things like containers, baskets, dividers, etc. One of my favs is The Container Store.

Another favorite of mine is See Jane Work. They have very cool stuff like these magazine containers.

I also like this idea for a menu planning station. There are several variations out there - you can find one that works for you.