A Very Happy Mother's Day!

I would have to say that my least favorite job that I've adopted since being married is that of present finder.  The reason that I say that is because I'm still getting to know my newly formed family and as a result, am not always 100% certain of what they would like/need in a gift.  My gift giving style is one that is very simple.  I listen when I talk with people and then I remember things that they like or things that I think they would like based on our conversations.  I like to think that I have an impeccable memory.  My best friend always jokes about how I can remember what I was wearing at a certain time or what she was wearing.  I'm not going to lie, it's a gift.  It's also a curse because I have a hard time forgetting things that I should, but we'll save that for another post.  However, it's a little harder with Stephen's family because I'm fresh and new to them.  For that, I lean on Stephen's ability to come up with a good gift for members of his family.  Bad idea.

For example, when it was his mom's birthday he continuously asked me what I thought she would like for her birthday.  We weren't even married at this point...how was I supposed to know what she would want for her birthday?  So we went to Macys in hopes to find something we could both agree on for her.  After a few minutes of looking around he said, "Why don't we ask a sales woman what we should get my mom for her birthday..."  DOES THE MACYS SALESPERSON KNOW WHAT YOUR MOM WANTS FOR HER BIRTHDAY?!  I had my work cut out for me.  You see, before we were married, Stephen's sister was the one who would take care of him when it came to the gift category.  Since we've been married I have inherited this role.  I must admit that it has gotten a little bit easier, but it was somewhat hard to figure out what to give his mom for Mother's Day.  

I knew what I wanted to give my mom: new kitchen knives.  Back in March I was using her knives to cut up a red onion and I just about turned all my fingers into knubbin's and so I was sold on the idea of getting her some new ones.  Stephen's response when I told him that's what we were going to give her was, "Why don't we get my mom some new knives too?"  Oh Stephen.  "Your mom doesn't need new knives."  So I had to try to be creative.  The only thing I could get out of my husband when I asked him what we should get his mother was, "flowers".  So, flowers it was.  

I didn't want to just give her a bouquet, as that is what we did last year, I wanted to do something more.  So that is where this idea came in: a monogrammed flower pot to go on her screened in porch.  Here were the supplies:

We picked up the plastic pot and black spray paint (make sure it's for plastic) at Wally-world.  We borrowed the contact paper from my mom and I printed out a big "C" from the computer.  I placed the "C" in back of the contact paper and I traced it onto the paper with a thin tip sharpie.

I then cut out the C (keeping the contact paper in tact) and proceeded to peel the backing off the contact paper and attempt to stick the paper onto the flower pot.  I say "attempt" because it didn't actually work.  You see, the flower part was textured so the contact paper wouldn't stick to it.  Dangit!  The plan to use the paper to shield the pot while I spray painted the "C" wouldn't work.  But, I am telling you what the plan was because if the pot WASN'T textured it would've worked so just make sure your pot isn't textured and you can do it that way.

Plan B: Use the paper "C" to trace onto the pot.  I then used black acrylic paint (I know it won't last as long and will chip super easy doggone-it!) to paint the "C" on the pot.  We also had purchased 2 hanging baskets of impatiens.  When the "C" had dried we took both hanging baskets and uprooted the impatiens and replanted them into the pot.  

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There she is in all her glory!  What a good compromise between my husband wanting to give her flowers and me wanting to give her a little something more!  Had the contact paper worked, this would've been EASY PEASY so I encourage you to monogram some things in your life.  You never know when you'll forget your last name initial ;).

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