Averyville

So if you know me, you know I always have a project I'm working on. That's not hyperbole, y'all - I seriously have a project constantly going. I've become much better about it though, now, instead of having numerous projects ongoing I limit myself to two at the max, so I can't start another one until I've finished one of the two. It's helped get things done quicker, so that's nice. If you're a perpetual project-doer like me I suggest you try something similar. Anyway...

I realize it's only September, but with my constant projects coupled with the fact that I make each of my kidlets two of their Christmas gifts each year, its totally necessary to start my Christmas projects early or they won't get done. Kinda like that t-shirt quilt of Owen's that I've been working on for two years. No exaggeration. I just need to bind it but it's the least fun part so I keep putting it off. Le sigh.

I have two and a half DIY gifts for Avery this year. The "half" is a hack I plan to do to an already built ikea play kitchen so I can't really claim that as a total DIY. I like that its made mainly of wood,  if there's anything I've learned in my 16 years of motherhood its that quality toys are what you want. Don't get me wrong, she has plastic toys as I'm no prairie/crunchy mom despite what some of my friends may say, but the majority of her toys are wood because they last longer. With my oldest he had 8 million and one toys and with Avery she has significantly less. I've learned that less is more. But that's a post I plan to bring to you another day.

Now to go with Av's play kitchen area I thought it would be super cute to make her a sign. She loves role-playing lately (taking care of her baby, 'cooking' me food, 'reading' to herself) so a kitchen and serving area would be right up her alley. Check out some of the cute hacks I found on Pinterest, this is the kitchen I plan to get her but my 'hack' is going to be slightly different as I plan to pull inspiration from some of these and yet make it all her own and to go with the rest of her decor in her play nook.

Can we talk about that faux marble contact paper they used on the counter of the first kitchen?! Mama like. Essentially this kid is gonna have a nicer kitchen than me. Which I guess isn't that difficult seeing how we are in a rental and its builder basic. In a couple years, when we aren't moving states or countries every five seconds I'll have a pinterest-worthy kitchen, just you watch.

Now, to go with her kitchen I made her a cute little sign. I love personalized decor so I thought it only proper to give my girl her own sign. I went with the "Averyville Cafe". I promised my girlfriend a quick how-to and figured it'd be a useful blog post as well so here goes...

1. Decide how big you want your sign. I plan to hang this directly above her kitchen. The kitchen is 28" wide so I made my sign 27" long. I had this wood already stained and left over from a past project so all I did was measure and cut. Yay for easiness.

2. Hop on your computer and open up Photoshop of whatever editing program you like to use. Pick the size and face of your font. The font I used was "Sweet Pea Regular" in all caps at 250 size font. That was after resizing my image to the size of the board (27" wide by 5" tall).

3. Print your saying.

4. Position your saying at your desired location on the board and tape it in place.

5. Using a sharp pencil (a pen would work too) trace over each letter HARD! This is going to leave an indent in the wood.

6. Choose your paint.

7. Remove the paper and hand-paint the words on your sign using the indentations as your guide. You need a steady hand for this so enlist the help of someone else is you tend to be a bit shaky.

8. Let it dry.

9. And a coat of poly to it (this will prevent the paint from being chipped) and viola!

Easy as pie! Tracing the letters took me the most time. And I think I spent about 30 minutes total on this project and I already owned everything so it was free, what's better than that?! I do plan to distress the sign a bit but I want to wait for it to dry for a couple days before bringing it into contact with sandpaper then I'll poly it so that'll probably take me another 10-15 minutes but I'm not complaining. Now I can't wait from Christmas to show you what I do to the kitchen. I'm more exited than I probably should be, guys.

Welp, hope this tutorial helps you bite the bullet if you've ever wanted to try your hand at making your own custom sign. Merry Christmas Happy Fall, friends!