diy: painted vase with a chalkboard label // mother's day inspiration

This DIY was inspired by our mom.  She absolutely loves flowers and gardening!

Kelsey and I found this adorable card on Treat Cards, and we knew we had to get it.  For as long as I can remember our mom has been gardening.  Our backyard is always bursting with flowers, and is so lovely to be in.

This mother's day we will be lucky enough to celebrate with our mom, and both our grandmothers!  Our mom's mom is traveling out from Alberta to stay with us for a while, so that will be lots of fun.  Our mom definitely got her love of gardening from her mother, so I imagine there will be lots of flower love happening this weekend!

Now mom will have a new customizable vase to display her lovely flowers in!

This vase is super cute, and you can use it for any occasion.  Also you can make the chalkboard label as big or small as you would like!

Materials:
-vase (any shape or size - we thrifted ours!)
-acrylic paint (we chose to use white)
-chalkboard paint
-chalk
-masking/painting tape
-paint brush/sponge

Instructions:
1)  First, wash and dry your vase thoroughly.
2)  Pour a generous amount of paint into your vase (more than you think you will need).
3)  Tip your vase on it's side, and rotate it, letting the paint completely cover the inside of the vase.
4)  Pour out any excess paint (you can put this back in the bottle if you wish).
5)  Wipe the lip of the vase clean.
6)  Tip upside down, and let dry overnight.
7)  Using masking tape, tape a rectangle or square onto the vase (in the exact shape you want your chalkboard message label.
8)  Tape exactly around the edges of your first tape rectangle, and peel off the original rectangle.
*or you can always choose to freehand something!
9)  Following the directions of your chalkboard paint, paint it on (I painted on one layer, let it dry for a couple hours, and then painted it on another layer and let it dry overnight).
10)  Once you are sure your chalkboard paint is dry, peel off the tape.  Be very careful while doing this, our chalkboard paint started peeling off with the tape.  You may need to hold down the paint layer with a finger while you slowly peel the tape off.
11)  Use a toothpick to clean up the edges of your chalkboard label.
12)  Now you need to condition your chalkboard.  To do this rub a piece of chalk all over the area covered in chalkboard paint.
13)  With a slightly damp paper towel wipe the chalkboard clean.
14)  Write a fun message!

basic pancakes // mother's day inspiration

Mother's Day is quickly approaching (hint hint....to those of you who had no idea!), and I thought I'd share a super basic pancake recipe as inspiration of what you could do for your mom.  Breakfast in bed is always sweet, and these are nice and simple!  As my mom always says: "Everything tastes so much better when you don't have to make it!".

Serve these pancakes with some fresh fruit, and a quirky card, and you'll be sure to make your mom's day!

The inside of the card reads "Great moms turn the mixer off first."  Haha.  My mom definitely let me lick the beaters when I was younger....and still does!  The card came from Treat Cards, which we were recently introduced to, and they have a huge collection of hilarious, as well as gorgeous cards.  They can all be personalized as well, with photos and text, which I think is pretty rad!  

Anyway, these pancakes are nice and simple, and can easily be customized.  Throw in a few chocolate chips, or maybe some blueberries to jazz them up a bit if you feel like it.

Basic Pancakes

slightly adapted from: Martha Stewart

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 tbsp butter, melted (or vegetable oil)
1 large egg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1)  In a small bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together; set aside.

2)  In a medium bow, whisk milk, melted butter, and egg together. 

3)  Add dry ingredients to milk mixture and mix until just combined.  (a few lumps are fine here)

4)  Heat a large frying pan or griddle to medium heat.

5)  Grease pan with cooking spray, oil, or butter.

6)  Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of batter onto your pan.  You can use the back of a spoon to help spread it into a circle.  *Make sure you don't spread your batter too thinly.  You'll get flat pancakes if you do!

*If your pancakes spread out too much and are flat, you might need to add a small amount of flour to help thicken the batter up.  Or, if your batter is too thick, just add a small amount of milk to the mixture.

7)  Cook until bubbles have formed and started to burst (1-2 minutes).  Flip and cook until both sides are brown (1-2 more minutes). 

8)  Serve warm and top with syrup, jam, fruit, peanut butter and/or whipped cream!

And another gif!  This time I used a tripod, so it's a little prettier than my last one.

Let's hope you don't get sick of them...since I think they're my new favorite thing!

Please note that yellow maple syrup + a blue plate = green looking syrup.  Oops!

p.s.  ♥ kelsey