Christmas Mantel!

I really wanted to do something new & fresh for my mantel so with a few decoupage letters and some cheap wrapping paper I have a new look. What do you think? If only my IPhone could capture my fun blinking lights. Christmas time is upon us!! Noel! ;)

Time for Tea?? Lily's Tea Party Birthday!

Lily had a fantastic tea party! We've all seen the Princess tea parties and the Alice in Wonderland teas but I wanted a formal tea. Girls in pretty floral dresses and boys in ties. I bought bonnets & top hats and Lily (and me too!) had white gloves. We went all out!  Sipping real tea out of real china. I'm so lucky that my Mom has saved so many china sets that were her Moms and her Mom's Mom, etc. so I had some beautiful pieces to decorate with and use. Of course I had to add some bright colors to make it 4 year appropriate. With scones and mini muffins, chocolate dipped sugar wafers and age appropriate finger foods like pepperoni rolls, all the kids had a great time! Here are some of my decorations, thanks to the fabulous Sara Buskirk for being my photographer. Someone needs to push her to start a business!

Craft Fairs make me crafty!

I had so much fun at First United Methodist's Gift Alley this morning that it made me come home & feel like being crafty so I whipped out the sewing machine to conquer a few projects. I've been meaning to make an election dress for Lily for months but I finally got it done, like 4 days to spare. Haa. I forgot how relaxing it is to sew. It is definitely a stress release, maybe I need to get it out more often!! It had been so long since I made a dress that I had to remind myself a little bit. That's bad. I might have to give up sleep so I have more time. Ha.

Fall Artwork!

I needed some fall artwork so Lily & Trevor put some fingerprint leaves on their hand trees today. Trevor's tree is a late fall tree with some blowing leaves apparently. It held his attention for about 10 seconds but Lily really enjoyed the activity! Nothing like fall crafts on a 90 degree day! Ha.

T-Ball Snacks!!

Let's just hope the T ball games don't get rained out tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about our snacks! The parents all rotate snack weeks & tomorrow is our Saturday. Our team, Team #8, we named the Ochos. Their snack bags include temporary tattoos & yoyos too. That's motivation!

Update: The games did get rained out! Bummer! Luckily nothing will go bad so I'll save them for our rain make up day!!

Ready for the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

I know most of you have already started school, and we start on Thursday and I am more than excited! Both my kids will be attending Preschool which also means that I have to do teacher gifts for 4 teachers this year, eekk. I'm definitely going to have to plan ahead and start early!

I wanted to do something little for each of my kid's teachers for the first day to put a smile on their face. I also think I'm going to need to suck up in order for Trevor's teachers to deal with him! He'll be climbing on the walls before the end of his first day!

I thought a FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL SURVIVAL KIT was what all their teachers needed!

What the card says :

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL SURVIVAL KIT

Here’s a little something to help you through the first day of school. There is something to pick you up (caffeine!), keep you hydrated (water!), to keep you clean (hand sanitizer & kleenex!) and to indulge after the long day (candy & goodies!). 

                                                            Have a GREAT DAY!! 

 We meet the teacher tomorrow! Wish us luck!

Rosie's Wine Tasting Bridal Shower!

I am so honored to be apart of Rosie & Michael's special day! Rosie will be such a beautiful Bride and I was so honored when she and Michael asked me (and my family!) to be apart of their wedding. When Rosie's bridesmaids and myself started thinking about what kind of shower we wanted to throw for Rosie, the main thing she wanted was something FUN! We of course wanted to keep it a classy affair but why not turn a wine tasting into a bridal shower, or a bridal shower into a wine tasting. It all depends on how you look at it!

For a couple of months now, I've been having all of my friends save me their wine bottles. A special thanks to everyone who brought me the 22 bottles I collected, Amanda, April, Chrystal, Kelly... everyone! They made for such great decorations and vases. For the pretty wine bottles, I left the original label on but for the unattractive labels, I made a custom label (super easy!) and added a special touch to the decorations.

I even made small custom labels for mini wine bottles to give as favors!

I used clothespins (cause what wife doesn't do laundry? Oh, that would be me, haa) to hang pictures of her and the groom and made poms in all the colors of the wine palette.

I had a lot of fun making wine glasses for each guest to use and take home. For my first time using chalkboard spray paint, it was so easy and turned out so cute! My bestie Jenn helped me glass etch an "R" on all the glasses and then we used paint pens to make it stand out. I think they were a big hit.

I made my favorite Jalapeno Popper dip, so just in case you were one of the 20 party guests asking me for the recipe, here it is! It is definitely my new favorite party dip, and so easy.

I also improvised and made up a new wine spritzer recipe! I used Strawberry Daquiri frozen concentrate, a bottle of moscato and some sprite with frozen tropical fruit. Yummmmmmmy! I was looking for a Raspberry Lemonade frozen concentrate and could never find it so I made something up and everyone loved it, whew.

Check out my Pinterest board, I dyed the lemon slices and they turned out super cute in the wine spritzer punch and the pink lemonade!  A pinterest success!

Rosie is going to such a beautiful Bride! I can't wait for your big day!! 

Poolside Snacks! Pudding + Cool Whip = YUM!

So, in a Better Home & Gardens magazine a few months back I found a recipe for a poolside treat that sounded amazing, I am horrible about ripping things out and remembering them so I took a picture of the recipe and pinned it. Have I mentioned how much I love Pinterest? Well, when I was thinking of a treat to take to a morning playdate I was so happy to reference the recipe I took a picture of a few months back. These turned out AMAZING, they had the texture of ice cream but didn't melt like ice cream and were a hit with the kids. I used vanilla this time and I can't wait to try different pudding flavors in the future.

Source: via Julie on Pinterest

Beach Memories

We just got home from a great vacation in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Although the weather wasn't ideal, we did have a few nice days to enjoy the beach. One afternoon in particular, the in-laws offered to stay in the condo while the kids napped and the hubby and I got an afternoon alone on the beach. Not only was it delightful but we got lucky in that it was low tide and there were TONS of sand dollars on the shore. Growing up in Houston, I don't think I've ever seen even a whole sand dollar, let alone so many. One group of girls had almost 50 of them. We collected what we could find in 20 minutes, which were still more than I can find space for and decided we'd take them home for souvenirs. So, now I have about 20 of these things and I need creative ideas on how to display and use them since they are definitely a rarity.

After a couple bleach and sun sessions, they are finally at a white that I am happy with, I like a little bit of the brown detail around the star, it keeps it authentic, ya know?

Here are some of my favorite projects in utilizing these sea creatures.

I bought an inexpensive empty frame from Hobby Lobby (only $7!), took a piece of card board left over from one of my many Amazon packages I came home to and used mod podge to cover it with some burlap. I then put mod podge on the sand dollars and let them set on the burlap overnight, with a little stapling... a wonderful souvenir is made and already looking at it on my wall reminds me of our wonderful vacation and a place we love so much. Oh, and if you are wondering, the sand dollars symbolize our family, I picked out different sizes to represent our family of 4.

I used some of the other ones to create a centerpiece and a few of them as some souvenirs for Lily and some of her friends.

 I love (almost!) free beach memories!

Summer is here! Wait, School is over??

Even though my 3 year old is only in 2 days of Mother's Day Out a week, I value those 10 hours a week and love having something new to help her learn and make new friends. Next week is the last week of school (eekk!), how I am going to entertain 2 kids all summer long?? I'm thankful for 3 long vacations so at least we won't have a ton of time to sit around staring at each other. The Mom in charge of Lily's year end party had the cute idea of buying buckets for each kid and each Mom bring something to put in the bucket for the kids to use this summer. I came up with 2 ideas (with a little Pinterest inspiration) that I thought turned out super cute and will add to the summer buckets of fun.

I used an envelope I cut out on the Cricut (5 1/2in worked perfectly) to go around individual Kool Aid packets and then tied them on silly straws. "Have a "KOOL" Summer!".

I also purchased inexpensive shovels from Target (with a large handle) and used paint pens to create a personalized shovel for each of the kids in the class.

No, I didn't forget the teachers! I think they need a fun summer gift too.... complete with a beach towel, flip flops and a few purse essentials like sun screen and lip balm. I'll attach a sweet card & a gift card too!

I am definitely looking forward to lots of time by the pool, at least the water tires the kids out! Happy Summer!

A yummy Easter... and happy to wear my white shoes!

I had a lot of fun with all the different spring and Easter inspired ideas this year, especially the ones I can eat! With all the birthday and baby shower craziness in March, I was delayed on getting anything going for Easter and sadly didn't get to doing very many crafts. I sure did make time for the priorities though, the food! Check out some of my favorite ideas of the season.

My favorite and Easter Sunday dessert choice was inspired from this post on Roots and Wings and turned out amazing, the best description I could come up with was a Baked Easter Smore. The way the peeps hardened and melted and how the M&Ms softened just enough but still had a little crunch to them make this dish amazing. You could really do this with any holiday, it seems like there are peeps for all seasons these days! I definitely think it was a thumbs up.

The completed dessert:

We had a great pre-Easter Saturday breakfast with a baby chick (eggs & pancakes!) and lunch with some colorful tuna salad too!

The one Easter craft I did was for Lily's class. I loved how the waffle cone made this look like a carrot and what 3 year old doesn't love to eat a waffle cone full of candy and jelly beans?? I even got a couple of compliments from other Moms!

I have a Spring pin board full of ideas and hopefully next year I'll get around to doing a few more of them! Happy Easter!

Trevor's Space Themed 1st Birthday Party!!

Trevor had an amazing 1st birthday party, it was OUT OF THIS WORLD! ha. My little Astronaut had a great time with his family and closest friends and I had a great time creating his party! We hung "planets", also known as homemade pom poms and shooting stars (star cut outs on ribbon) and an assortment of homemade banners.

 

My favorite little project was making shirts for me, the hubby & big sister to wear that matched Trevor's NASA space suit purchased from Amazon. Just a little fabric paint and some stencils on a cheap white tee and we had a family of Astronaut trainees! 

Here is my spread of dips and chips and the wonderful cakes from Sweet Treats by CC. Don't you love my fabric pendant banner?? I have so much fun making these. This one is now hanging in Trevor's room as it is made of all different space prints. We had buckets of space themed goldfish & moon pies on a stick! And of course, no party is complete without it's own "Keep Calm.." sign.

 

 Look at these pretty girls and their space themed skirts from PrettyLittleHappy! 

 All the kids received name badges that said "Astronaut Trainee" to wear at the party & their favor bags included space themed treats like moon pies, milky ways & starbursts and foam space shuttles. They were "Preflight Snacks & Goodies" for all the little Astronauts.

 and who doesn't love a good photo opportunity banner for the guests??