so the cook said: Guest Post: Cora's Cozy Coupe

I love that technology allows me to keep in contact with childhood friends. When I saw what my friend Meghan made for her little girl's birthday (which is the same date as mine) I begged her to share it here on the blog.

Meghan and I have been friends since childhood. Our dads were pastors on staff at a larger church in Ohio. We probably played together weekly, recording our own Adventures in Odysseys, pretending we were Olympic ice skaters and gymnasts, and filming our own commercials. We were the same age and enjoyed the same things. And as you can see, we were quite fashionable!

Because of how much time we'd spent together, I figured there would be tons of pictures of the two of us. My mom helped me find a few...and it's obvious that we were pastor's kids!

Meghan, Me, Amber, Alayna and Ashlee singing at church

All the pictures of us were either singing, speaking at a Mother/Daughter Banquet (with measuring tapes around our necks??) or going to church camp! ha.

Stacie, Amber, Me and Meghan

Here's Meghan's cute project...

My newly 2 year old is pretty in love with Minnie. We were just a week or so from her Minnie Mouse party and I still had not decided on a gift for her. Parties are expensive enough so I didn't want to spend a lot of money. While party searching, I came across a post on Pinterest about a "Cozy Coupe Minnie Mouse redo" . ( don't you just love the satisfaction of doing things yourself rather than buying it?! Although my hubby swears Pinterest only exists to give him more projects .....but that's another subject!! ;))

I suddenly got inspired to search Craigslist and got lucky - someone had just posted a used Little Tykes Cozy Coupe that day for $25. Determined to get an even BETTER deal, I asked if they would take $15... and they agreed!

With my hubby's help we started the redo! Here is a picture similar to what the car looked like before.

My hubby was able to pull all the needed pieces apart to paint the yellow parts black and the red parts a "Minnie Pink". Even the little horn on the steering wheel came apart easily!

We purchased these spray paints from Lowes ( around $3.50 a can) :

Although, I will say if you know something that might bond even better to plastic- use it! We haven't been super impressed with these even though it says it bonds to plastic. (which is why we did the extra clear coat). It took about 2 coats of the berry pink and one of the black.

I contacted a friend who lives close to me and has just started up a cute vinyl store on Etsy and placed an order with her. She made us some dots and Cora's name with her machine so that we could attach them easily rather than try to paint it on ourselves! ( also what I saw done on Pinterest) Please check out their shop! They do great work!!

www.etsy.com/shop/lovelylittlevinyls

Message her about the dots and specific name and I know she'd love to accommodate you!