McCarty Adventures: Reach for the Stars

            While I was putting Elliot down for a nap I came back to see my youngest 
            ready to blast off into adventure...


               Guess you are never too young to dream big. 

DIY: Distressed Outdoor Sign


So, what does one do a week after having a baby?
Normal people are sleeping on their couches and recovering. No, weird me decided it would be an awesome idea to make my mom a birthday present. 

My sister had been wanting to buy her this wooden sign from Disney World (my mom's a bit of a fan) yet it was over $80. On my Pinterest I'd pinned this DIY laundry sign from Burton Avenue awhile back and thought... I could make something like my sister was thinking yet perhaps a bit more personal.  Over the last two years my parents have both REALLY gotten into growing their own garden, because of that I thought they could use their own garden sign.


As with all things my husband tells me... though it looks easy it will take ten times longer than you think. I hate it when he's right but even though this project looked like 20 minutes yet ended up being an hour or two it still was worth it in the end. 

The cool thing about this is the endless possibilities. 
Wood signs are all the rage to decorate with and I know I have a TON of ideas/wants for signs in my new casa. So, actually making this little sign gave me hope I could tackle the bigger ones later! 


First, I snuck away and went to Home Depot while Bryan was still 
home. I had them cut the wood to the dimensions in Burton Ave's direction.
I realized quickly that the wood I choose was NOT the wood she choose so I had to fudge the dimensions a bit.  

Brought home my treasure to a very stunned husband and sister than got cracking.

I believe the conversation went something like this:

Bryan: "What's that?"
Jessica: "No idea what you are talking about."
Holly: "Is that pieces of wood? What would you need that for?"
Bryan: "You didn't."
Jessica: "No idea what you are talking about."



Like in Burtan's design I wanted a bit of gap between my wood slats yet a penny wasn't going to make much of a difference. I used nickles instead and used wood glue to glue the two vertical pieces down to the horizontal ones. This makes your sign!

Since my wood was different I liked the other side for the front... not the side with the two pieces of wood on the sides.  

Looking back on this project I realize I guess I lucked out getting the thicker wood since this would hold up to the elements much more than Burtan's design since her's was an indoor sign. Whoo hoo!



So, here is your sign. I wanted a solid three hours (and that took A LOT of effort on my part since I don't like to wait people...) and made sure when I picked it up by the vertical pieces the others didn't fall off of it. 

Assured enough to my standards the thing was solid, I took it outside and sprayed the front with some white primer spray paint. This is important as it will be the color of your lettering.

While I was waiting for the paint to dry I pulled out my amazing Cricut that I got from my mother-in-law for Christmas. I know... you can feel jealous I have the best mother-in-law in the world. Tis true... tis true. 

As with anything with my Cricut... it takes forever to cut this stuff out. Yet, once I figure it out it is totally worth it. I cut out my letters in silver vinyl and laid them out on my project. 


My youngest niece Lucy could never say Grandpa. She called him Crapaw. I loved it so much I won't let anyone forget she use to call him that. 

With the vinyl secured onto the sign I took it back outside and spray painted the whole thing orange. 
I peeled off the letters and it left me with crisp white lettering underneath! Plus it was fun for me to pull off the letters with tweezers. 

My sweet hubby than took the sign and nailed some finishing nails just to secure all the wood slats together. (That's the engineer in him) He than took a sander to it and distressed it all around. 

Since the sign was intended for outside use we spray painted a clear coat of protectant on it too so it will last for years. We make awesome fun things together. 



We later ran back to Home Depot and got some stakes and added them on as legs. 


This is what it looks like from the back.


It was all ready for my amazing mom for her Birthday.


I think she liked it. :)

Happy Birthday Mom. 

Our New Adventure!

So excited about our sweet new Adventure Ethan.
He's already proven to be quite the adventure seeker...
Which makes him a perfect fit with us.

<3


McCarty Adventures: Elliot's Photos

When Elliot was born I ran across this lady Adele Enersen's fun website where she was having a ton of adventures with her sweet baby girl! I thought... I could do that. ;0)

I learned very quickly though that her daughter must sleep like a rock... and mine, yea not so much. But that didn't stop us from making some awesome memories. 

I had so much fun doing it with Elliot that we had to do it with Ethan. 
Yet, before I debut Ethan's starting adventure... I thought I'd re-cap all of Elliot's. 
Check them out! 


Our little Destructor courtesy of Stevie Ramos Photography


 I actually found this onsie at a thrift store and had to have it... and Like Hubig's... Made 100% locally and awesomely sweet. 


Elliot was born in Winter 2010 but there definitely was not snow that year so I decided to build him some. 




Enjoying a day in the sun. 


One of my fav's... Hip hop Elliot
♫ I like my milk and I cannot lie ♫
 



Where's Elliot?

Be my Valentine?


Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!
We found the baby in the King Cake!


When Elliot was feeling under the weather Dr Bear made a house call.


Our little lucky charm.



Captain Adorable hits the high seas!

Elliot was excited to be the Easter Bunny until we told him where the eggs came from.
"You want me to hatch WHAT?!?"


And all that Jazz...

We had such a good time making these photos we are excited to do them again with Ethan and hope one day... one day... 
Elliot will stand still for photos and we can do these again. :) 


















Newborn Photos

We were so blessed to have Angelle from Angelle Missios Photography come and capture out sweet little boy. She's a beast let me tell ya... when she wasn't getting the cutest pictures imaginable of Ethan she was keeping Elliot entertained since he kept climbing into her arms trying to get her attention!
She was fantastic and we are so in love with her results! 
Check them out!








Elliot loved having Ethan in his arms. He sat still for a good five minutes holding him too!






Ethan's room isn't exactly done yet since they are technically building it in Texas. But Bryan lovingly made this airplane mobile for me to match his paper airplane themed room. 



This photo is hilarious... Elliot doesn't like to cooperate too much for photos. 

We got one though! 



Even crying he's precious looking. 



Welcome Ethan!




At 4:30am on May 29th, 2012 we skipped (literally) into Ochsner Hospital to have our sweet new baby boy Ethan. After six short hours we were greeted by his cute squeaky cries and went from a family of three to a family of four.


Whenever I think of family of four I always am reminded by those Disney commercials that always have price plans for a family of four... now suddenly I'm a part of one!


When I first saw him I had to do a double take. He looked just like my eldest Elliot! Except way smaller... and purple. The purpleness went away thankfully within a few minutes and we saw dark brown hair, beautiful blue-gray eyes and the skinniest, longest baby we'd ever seen.


Born at 7lbs, 10oz and 21.5 inches long he was a full inch and a half longer than Elliot and 2 oz bigger yet he was so much smaller!


At first Elliot wasn't too excited about this new little bundle... than he figured out it was kind of like a new toy and "What's Dat, What's Dat?" kept flying out of his mouth.

My parents were excited to welcome our new bundle and we were so glad to have him too.

Welcome to the McCarty's Ethan... it's gonna be an adventure!