Father’s Day Gifts that Dad’s Will Love

gift ideas for dad

Father’s Day is less than 1 week away. Are you still thinking about what to make or get Dad?

I’ve come up with some great ideas you can use to help put your Father’s Day gift together. Some are DIY and others are just want dads are looking for to kick back and relax. All dads have different interests, but hopefully you can find one idea that you can use!

Idea #1 a personalized mug that your toddler or child can contribute to

Everyone loves a good cup of coffee in the morning. What better gift than to have your little one decorate a mug for dad to use. It will get used on a regular basis and is super easy to make! Grab a plain coffee cup. I grabbed a 17oz mug from target for $2.00. You could easily purchase this item from the dollar store as well. Next you will need some of sharpie’s oil-based paint markers. I bought a pack of 5 and decided to use orange, blue, and green. The last item you will really need for this project is stickers. I found some lying around in my scrapbook collection. It does not really matter what color they are because you will be tearing them off after you are done having them draw on the mug.

Step 1: tape of the handle and the top of the mug so that paint won’t get in dad’s mouth

Step 2: put stickers on the mug, I chose to write the word dad on ours

Step 3: have your child decorate the mug with the oil-based paint markers. Make sure you cover up the middle and around the letters so that when you peel off the letters you can read what the word says. I would wait to peel of the stickers at least an hour or two to let the markers dry.

Step 4: let sit for a few hours, I let ours sit overnight

Step 5: bake at 250 for about 2 hours, put the coffee cup into the oven before you turn the temperature on, this way it warms up with the oven

Idea #2 a personalized shirt for dad and baby

fathers day shirt

Dad and daughter matching shirts! I highly recommend using Bella + Canvas shirts, they are so soft, comfortable, and have practically every color imaginable! I created these shirts using my cricut maker.

Step 1: Decide on your favorite font

Step 2: the color HTV you will be using

Step 3: cut your image and weed

Step 4: heat up your heat press ( I used siser easyweed HTV so I set my temperature to 305 degrees and pressed for 15-20 seconds)

Idea #3 beer

Men love to drink beer. Whether it’s watching a sports game, relaxing outside, grilling, or hanging with his friends. Create a mixed beer box of his favorite beers or different ones for him to enjoy and try. You could also get a YETI rambler to keep the beer cold!

Idea #4 Slippers

Find a comfy pair of slippers that he can be comfortable in around the house.

Idea #5 Personalized Father’s Day book

I love the concept of Wonderbly’s personalized book collection. You can pick and choose from a ton of different stories where you can personalize the story and add your child’s name as the character. You can even create a dedication page that he will enjoy reading every time he opens the book. My daughter absolutely loves this story and it is a great way for her and my husband to bond at night.

fathers day wonderbly book
livin my best mom life
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How to Whitewash Brick Fireplace

fireplace whitewash

We recently moved into our new house in June. We were so excited to finally have found a house that was “move in ready.” It had everything that we were looking for: a dream kitchen with a beautiful island, an open layout, 4 bedrooms for our growing family, a brick fireplace, and new carpet. Luckily, being a teacher, I have my summers off. So, you guessed it; I started decorating and organizing as soon as I had the chance. I soon realized I wanted to paint the entire house to pull off a farmhouse theme. 

Bye Bye Red Brick Fireplace, Hello Whitewash

One project of course leads to another. We painted most of our house in a grey scheme and being type A, the brick fireplace in the living room no longer felt like it belonged. The bright red color popped out like a sore thumb. I thought lightening it up would make it pop more against the grey walls. That was when we decided to whitewash the brick fireplace in our living room to give it a more homey and warm feeling. Home depot had an article on whitewashing brick that gave me some inspiration.  

Side note: If you are looking for some great farmhouse gray, Amazing Gray and Repose Gray at Sherman Williams, is wonderful! Both of these colors are frequently used in newly renovated houses.

Get a Farmhouse Whitewash Look:

I searched the internet for white brick paint and ended up getting Giani Whitewashed transformations. I was so nervous and hesitant at first because once it is on the brick there is not really a way to take it off unless you paint over it. We decided we wanted the brick to show through a little and have a similar finish to a German schmear (usually done with mortar not paint) technique.

I am in love with the result, and everyone notices it when they walk in. This was such an easy inexpensive project and it only took about 3 hours from start to finish. To complete our fireplace, we added a 60’ mantle in dark chocolate from wayfair. Due to our original fireplace not having a mantle, we had to tapcon (if you are like me, you probably have no idea what that is! My husband took care of this part.) a 2×4 piece of lumber into the existing brick to mount so we could mount the mantle and slide it into place.  Once our mantle was up, it needed some decor. Target Run?! Do not have to tell me twice! Any excuse I can find, you will spot me at target spending way more than I should.

Supplies Needed:

paint brush

scrub bush/ scrub daddy

Rag for wiping off the paint.

Giana whitewashed transformation paint

Water 

Painter’s tape or masking tape

I bought just the can of paint because I had the other materials laying around. You can get the Giani brick whitewashed transformation in a kit that includes all the needed materials.

Steps to whitewash your brick:

1.       First, prep the area by wiping down / brushing the entire surface area with a warm soapy solution as well as remove any excess mortar.

2.       Vacuum away debris from cleaning, remnants, and dust

3.       Create your paint mixture by mixing 1 part water, 1 part paint. We ended up using 2 parts paint, 1-part water

4.       Start at the top of the brick by painting small strokes in one direction. (only do small area at a time see below)

5.        After you paint on the brick, immediately start wiping away the fresh coat of the paint.

6.      Repeat step 5 until the entire brick surface is covered and wiped.

Here is the whitewash brick transformation project before, during, and after:

Please ignore the clutter and the baby gate. Can anyone relate?! Our daughter always seems to gravitate to places she should not be.

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