Mantiques

Sorry for being so MIA. We have been so busy getting ready for Baby Loop and we only have 8 weeks to go! Plus I feel like I have been on the Baby Shower tour of North American these past few months. My last one is tomorrow, but then we start all the fun childbirth, breastfeeding, and infant care classes. Am I into being over-prepared? You betcha!

Anyhow, I have lots of fun projects to catch you up on from this summer. One of the biggest has been my husband's furniture making ventures. This has been a great way for us to earn some extra baby money as we try to prepare to pay for daycare. We went to our first auction back in July and I actually one these super cool card catalogs! John was really nervous about bidding so i took over and some lady was totally fighting me for them, but I won and stayed under budget!

John was able to make two different furniture pieces that are on sale starting today at Chartreuse & Co.! He originally started making giant card catalog buffets, which were crazy hard to transport and weighed a million pounds. So he decided he needed to do something a bit more practical for people. 

First, he made a smaller console table version of the buffet.

It's still a bit of a beast, but at least it only takes two people to carry it.

Then my favorite thing he has made so far is this entertainment stand. I think it's really practical for your TV and the finish turned out awesome. Don't you love the staging, as well? We were tempted to keep it for ourselves, but I wanted baby loot more. 


Thanks for visiting. I'll be taking some photos this weekend of more projects to share!


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Baby Deals

We are finally making some progress in the nursery and in the process we have actually stumbled upon some really good deals. My dad was nice enough to buy us our crib and dresser. Babies R Us happened to be running a promotion for if you spend over $1000 you get a $250 giftcard.


We picked out this crib along with the toddler rail and conversion kit. 


We also got this dresser. 

We earned our $250 giftcard and figured we would save it until we saw what we got at the baby shower then buy things we did get. We stopped in to pick up the items we ordered and were looking around. We noticed there was a bunch of stuff that had just been marked down to clearance. John found the Britax B-Safe Carseat and we asked an salesperson how much it was. He went and got the manager and she said the color was being discontinued and this was the last one. She offered it to us at 40% off. We noticed in another part that the coordinating stroller was also there, but not marked down so we asked her and she said she would let us get it for 40% off, as well.

We ended up with this car seat

And this stroller


Here is the breakdown of what we saved:

Car Seat Original Price: $179.99
Stroller Original Price: $259.99
Original Total: 439.98

Sale Price for the Car Seat: $107.99
Sale Price for the Stroller: $155.99
Sale Total: $263.98
Less $250 Free Gift Card
Total Out of Pocket: $13.98+Tax

Babies are us had lots of clearance so I suggest you pop over and see what you can find. The manager was very flexible so make sure you ask for one. They will make deals on displays and returns with no box. Also, if you sign up for their rewards program you can get great coupons. 


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It's a Girl!!!!

Last week we had our anatomy scan we we got to find out the gender of the baby. We actually both had a feeling it was a girl, but obviously, you never know. We were just so happy the baby is healthy and just the right size. Plus I really had no boy names in mind. I really like Campbell until my friend pointed out that Campbell Loop sounds an awful lot like Campbell's Soup. Fail...Anyhow here is our little girl!


I have been chomping at the bit to start doing crafts and decorating the room, but I wanted to wait until we knew the gender because I really didn't want gender neutral. I have decided on pink and teal. Here are some pics I pinned as inspiration.








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Alexa and Lillian: Travel the World

This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting Alexa and Lillian- Dawn's daughters from Mom-A-Logues! It has been a busy busy week for me trying to get all my finals done for school, but luckily Amie from Kitty Cats and Airplanes came over to help me work on a project with the girls.

I sure have been pinning a lot, but haven't had much time for crafting. We are in the process of remodeling one of our bathrooms so I am working on cute storage and I decided to try one of the tutorials for tinted mason jars I saw on Pinterest.

I knew I wanted to vintage looking blue ones, but once Amie got started on some other cute colors I decided to give a few more a try. You can see the tutorial for the tinted mason jars here.


Lillian did a great job stirring up the mixture. 


Amy used the food coloring to make pretty raspberry and orange sunset colors. 


Here is Alexa waiting to put the jars in the oven. 


I think they turned out great!


We really enjoyed hosting the girls here in Columbia, MD. We are right in between baltimore and DC. Next door we have the famous B & O Railroad in Ellicott City. Thanks for visiting!


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Ch-Ch-Changes!

I'm so sorry I haven't blogged in a long long time! Spring is always a tough time for me because it's my busiest time for work and for school. Although there is something else that has been causing me to slack off more than usual...


We are expecting out first baby in October! So please excuse my laziness. I've been one of the lucky few who never had morning sickness and wasn't as exhausted as most other people, but the bigger I get the harder it is for me to go nonstop like I used to. 

Anyhow thanks for reading my blog even though I've been so MIA. I have some great posts coming up!


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What's Your Hunger Name?

Head here to get yours!




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Thoughts about Hunger Games

I went and saw the Hunger Games this weekend like most of America and I thought it was pretty good. It didn't change my life or anything, but I do feel like it is a good stand alone movie. Obviously they couldn't include everything from the book, but at least they didn't change anything too crazy.

What I liked best is that I feel like they literally tried to make the book into a movie and not reinvent the wheel like they attempted with Twilight. After the most recent Breaking Dawn movie I have come to hate the Twilight film franchise a little. It is a giant pet peeve of mine when they purposely use a different director for each part of a series. It's one thing if you have the batman movies which were all different, done at different times and had different batmans. Actually that's pretty bad too. But it's worse when you know you are making 4 movies and each one if completely different and crappy in it's own way.



1. Twilight: I mean where do I begin? Yes, I was pumped it was being made a move period, but it was so AWKWARD. I didn't really see Bella and Edward fall in love. Had I not read the books I wouldn't have really cared if these two people for together or not. Cheeseball is the word that best describes it.

2. New Moon: This is actually my favorite of all of them. The characters actually had personalities and you were actually rooting for either Bella and Jacob or Edward and Bella.

3. Eclipse: Was not too bad except that they changed Victoria. So annoying. Bryce Dallas Howard was a crappy Victoria. Also, the Volturi made this movie for me.

4. Breaking Dawn: Oh my word so crappy. This did not need to be a separate movie! They just wanted more money and I fell for it. Oh and we are back to Twilight theme weirdness. Please. You are turning a YA book into a movie. Try not to take yourself so seriously and actually make something people want to watch.

So I guess this post ended up being about how Summit ruined Twilight, but really I am just hoping they don't do that to Hunger Games. From the looks of movie, it seems like they won't.

Oh and I'm sorry, but I just can't get behind Josh Hutchison as Peeta. He is just too little. I feel like Jennifer Lawrence was just gonna pick him up and stick him in her pocket. And he is too skinny. I heard he tried to bulk up for the movie, but if you were lugging flour all day for real you would have bigger guns.

I was disappointed at the lack of Gale action, but I actually think Liam Hemsworth did a good job with the small part that he did have. Although I feel like his American accent always sounds a little southern y'all. I bet it's because of Miley Cyrus.

The best casting choice of all was probably Rue. Snow was not creepy enough, Haymitch was not sloppy enough, and Effie looked too old.  Although the girl that played Clove who was also the girl from Orphan was pretty good. I think she has a bright future in playing super creepy roles.

What did you think of the Hunger Games?

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I'm Not Dead!

So things have been super duper quiet over here lately and I have some seriously awesome legit excuses. First, I have a lot of school work this semester. I'm working full-time and going to grad shool full time so I've got a lot. Not to mention the pressure to keep up my 4.0. Why I do this to myself I do not know. I am trying to hussle through my degree, but the course offerings are not cooperating. I want to be done people! And never look at school again.

We have a lot of other personal totally not fun stuff going on at our house right now as well. I'm not quite ready to share it all over here yet as I would say I am a little shell shocked at the moment, but eventually I'll come around. It's one of those things where literally one day I was like, "How did my life get so awesome without me even trying?" then the next I was like, "How am I going to survive this?" Life is so weird and tough.

I'm trying to focus on the positive and I've really only come up with one thing and that's that I am really being humbled and forced to accept that I can't do everthing all on my own and I can't do all things all the time. All I can really do is trust in God and pray that he can pull me through everying.

I found this on Nichelle's blog over at Vintage Wanna Bee. She is super inspirational herself so go check her out. Thanks for your patience while the blog is just about my last priority.



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Blog Directory Map

Di over at Craft-a-Spell recommended me to the Blog Directory Map over at Latte Love. It's pretty cool, but will be even cooler if you sign up to so we can find more bloggers by us.


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My Husband the Picker

My husband's favorite show is American Pickers. He is always telling me he could totally quit his job and pick for a living. Since we don't actually have time for traveling around the country picking through people's barns, John spends a lot of time scanning Craigslist. His dedication finally paid off and he found something really awesome for a reasonable price. 

Behold, John's card catalogs from the Library of Congress!




John, literally, brought me my camera and asked me to post these pictures so you guys could see. He did have to twist my arm into getting these. They are huge and, yes, we do have two entire ones. Plus they need a lot of work. And our New Years's resolution was to save more money and this isn't exactly in alignment with that goal.

My plan is to redo them both and sell one of them. That's not exactly John's plan, but we seriously don't have room for both. 

So what do you think. Did John do a good job?

Here's an example of what we may do.

Young House Love






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Finally! A Valentine's Mantel

I'm not really happy with the end result, but I am totally stumped on this. I even went to (gasp!) Home Goods and came up totally empty. Maybe you guys can help. Take a look at what I've got.





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I Still love Owls

On my trip to Home Goods this week I was hunting for Valentine's decor. I came up empty on that end, but I did find something I'm in love with. I got this totally adorable owl necklace tree. It's so cute on my dresser.  Don't you love? The owl trend is alive and strong at the Loop house.




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Flower Study Part 8: Pinecone Flowers

All of the flowers I have shown so far have been fabric. Amie over at Kitty Cats and Airplanes has a great tutorial for pine cone flowers. These would be so cute in the winter. Plus they are free! Check out her tute!



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Let's Be BFF's on Pinterest

I know I am so slow on this on the blogging game. I've been on Pinterest for a while. I've just never really promoted it on my blog. I'd love to see what you've pinned so leave your link for me to follow you and check me out if you like.

Follow Me on Pinterest

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I had to Share This

I'm totally in love with this chair redo over at Kojo Designs



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Beachy Button Art

I've been seeing button art all over blogland for forever now. Weirdly, my main reason for not trying it is because I didn't really have any cute buttons. Have you noticed buttons never go on sale and if they do they aren't the cute ones?

I broke down and bought a bag of buttons from Hobby Lobby this past week. Then Amie came over and brought her expansive stash. She also brought her Silouette and I showed her how to cut vinyl. We each cut out a letter and placed it on some scrapbooking paper. Then we started gluing away.

I really wanted more of a teal look, but the buttons I liked best were all more of a baby blue. It turned out super cute. Luckily we are planning on doing a nautical theme in our basement so it will fit right in.




I found this other super cute example of button art over at Mod Podge Rocks















Creations by Kara

 shabby creek cottage

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