Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Well, it is over.  Round 4 of Crafting With The Stars was the last round for this season... and I WON!  (the losers round of course but hey, it still counts.)  If you don't believe me check it out for yourselves at Sew Dang Cute.  I am so excited, thank you all for the views.  Now I am off to bask in the glory of winning.

P.S.  I threw Kyle a surprise 30th birthday party last night and promise to post some hilarious pictures soon!  Hint: it was a costume party:)

Luci Rae's Birthday Bash

Last week I showed you some of the fun decorations we had for Luci's first birthday bash.  You can see those here. 

This week I wanted to show you a few pictures from the big day.  It was SO much fun and even though I cried a little (it's hard to see your baby grow up) the day was fantastic thanks to all of our family and friends!

Here are a few pictures from our day:

On her new slide with Aunt Erin.

With Aunt Sara and Uncle Will... yes, she is holding a diaper in the picture with Aunt Sara... She likes to play with them, it is clean I promise, don't judge.

Hangin with one of my favorite people, Rachelle.

Opening presents in her birthday girl bib turned cape.  She started out all dressed and cute I promise, but lets face it, most days end in a diaper and cape.

See, I had her dressed at one point lol!

I couldn't get her to eat her cake.  She just cried the whole time!  I guess there were too many people watching.  I can't really blame the poor girl, I hate shoving my face full of cake when 30 people are watching me too.

Later on she dove right in, once everyone was gone and she could cover herself in chocolate in privacy.

And I will leave you with the best picture of them all.  This one takes the cake (pun intended).  Check out my mom's face! 


One year down, sigh.

DIY Diaper Cake

I have gone to a few baby showers lately... ok a lot of baby showers (I think my friends and I are going to cause the next baby boom!) As many of you mommies out there know, you go through a lot of diapers in that first year... A LOT. So, along with a gift I like to bring a pack of diapers. My friends did this for me at my baby shower and I literally didn't have to buy diapers for the first 5 months of Luci's life... a huge life saver!

I used to just bring a box of diapers and call it good. Then I learned how easy it is to make a diaper cake, so now I like to bring one of these with a few little goodies hidden inside. Here's how:

Get 3 different sizes of pie pans. I already had mine laying around, but you can buy these bad boys at Goodwill for under a dollar.  Fan out the diapers (white side out, I used Pampers) along the edges of the pan.  Like so:

Fill in the center with more diapers, or other fun goodies. You could add bottles, or blankets, or whatever you feel a new mommy can't live without.

Put a rubber band around the whole thing and pull it out of the pan.



Repeat this process with the other two sizes of pie pans.

Next, decorate the outside.  I used receiving blankets to cover the rubber bands, but you can just use plain old ribbon if you don't have blankets. Also, you can attach pacifiers, teething rings, rattles, etc to the outside using string if you want.

I just taped the blankets around each tier and then added a ribbon.  Attach the three tiers using a dowel through the center, or if you don't have a dowel, a little tape goes a long way!

Instead of diapers, I filled the top tier with a fuzzy blanket.

So there ya have it.  This took me less then 10 minutes to do!

Hope you all have a happy Tuesday.

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Round 4: Home Decor

This week's theme for Crafting with the Stars and Crafting from the Sidlines is Home Decor.  Normally this would be a really fun one for me.  I love decorating, but when you live in a house that is in constant repair it is difficult to decorate around all the construction!  Since I have been talking about actually having a living room to live in lately I thought I would show you what we have done.  It is NOT finished... but hey, I think it is pretty darn good considering.

Here is the before:

During:

And After:

The chairs are in the process of getting a "facelift" and trust me they are going to be FANTASTIC when they are done!

Check out the amazing tile job my hubster did on the entry and fireplace!

Remeber this little piece of free art??  You can read about it here.

There are still tons of projects to be done:

1:  Put trim around the mirror to make it look framed

2:  Baseboards

3:  "upcycle" my already awesome chairs

4:  Finish "upcycling" my lamp

5:  Fix up the entry closet

6:  and the list goes on and on

Although the living room isn't quite finished I think it is important (for my sanity) to recognize how far we have come in just two month.  I am trying to focus on one task at a time, so I don't pull all of my hair out, and go running down the street screaming like a mad woman.  Did I mention we have done all of this with a crazy crawling one year old... just keeping her away from the paint is a full time job in its self!

Well, there you have it... my half finished "Home Decor" project.  Do you have one of your own??  Link up, we would love to see it!

And click the "like" button on your favorite project to vote!






I am also linking to:

Round 3 Winner

And the winner of Round 3 of Crafting From the Sidelines is:

...

My Owl Costume... doesn't seem right that the host should win so I think I would like to feature my personal favorite:

Elena's Blanket from The Lackadaisical Willow

It is AMAZING and I want one... if I ever get up the courage to try!

Way to bring it this week!!

Don't forget that this week's theme for Round 4 is:

  Lara from the Lackadaisical Willow will be hosting this week, so get your Home Decor projects ready and come link up!  This is the 4th and final round so bring it all this week!

Link your projects up here:

Napkins to Pillows in 5 Minutes

Some people may call me lazy crazy... I say creative.

This story begins like most of my favorite stories do... with my sister and I wandering the isles of Target.  Shena is one of my FAVORITE people to bounce design ideas off of.  We don't always see eye to eye when it comes to design but she has such a great style.  Mine is a little more vintage/cottage, hers is a little more traditional and sleek.  This should come as no surprise if you have ever met us.  We are opposites in a thousand ways, and I LOVE it!  She seems to balance out my crazy clutter in a way no one else really can.

I have been working on getting my living room...well... livable.  This is a strange concept to me since I have been living on unfinished floors with no furniture for the past 2 months!  Our floors were finished, Luci's first birthday party was done, now it was time to actually LIVE in my living room... we are crazy like that.

Shena, my mom, and I had set the living room up all perdy like and decided something was missing.  My "raggy shaggy" table and bench were in place, my awesome new thrifted chairs had found their home but there was still something not quite right.  What was missing you ask?  Pillows.  I had no pillows to soften the room. 

Well, time seems to escape me and the thought of sewing new pillows just seemed daunting.  But then something fantastic happened.  There we were, wandering the isles of Target, and we happened upon the kitchen section and out jumped the most beautiful cloth napkins I had ever seen (this may be an exaggeration but seriously they were fantastic!)  Then the little light bulb went off above my head.  PILLOWS! 

Shena agreed that they would be perfect and I bought 8 napkins for a total of $10.  (this made 4 pillows... 4 pillows for $10, that ROCKS!)  I got them home, pulled out the old sewing machine and in less then 5 minutes my cloth napkins became this:

Aren't they just wonderful!  No cutting, no measuring... probably should have ironed, oops :)  All I had to do is line up the edges and sew a straight line, insert my old ugly pillows and there you have it.  No tutorial because lets face it... this  is pretty self explanatory.  Have you had any Ah Ha! moments lately?

I am linking to:



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Party Party Party

Last week we celebrated little miss Luci Rae's first birthday.  We threw her a huge little shindig at our new abode... still in construction.  Let me tell you, it was a mad dash to the finish line.  The party was on Sunday.  We literally... LITERALLY had our floors finished 4 days before the party.  This meant we had to be out of our house for 3 days.  Thursday rolled around and we were allowed to move back into the house.  My sister and her new little one flew into town from Texas and I started cracking the whip!  My mom, dad, sister, hubby, and I started moving furniture in like crazy people.  This included hanging curtains, setting up our basement and mowing the lawn.  My poor family.  We had 3 days to take my empty house and turn it into party central, complete with a cooking session and all!

Well, luckily my cousin Chris and his wife Janelle (one of my greatest friends) helped with the cooking... and by helped I mean she baked 70 cupcakes, made the chicken salad and ALL of the appetizers.  I seriously owe her... I mean BIG! Chris helped by eating all the cupcakes... he's nice like that:)

When Sunday arrived we all took a deep breath, wiped our brows, and thanked God we made it!  Here are a few pictures of the decorations and party ideas.

The ONE banner I made months ago... So glad I didn't wait till the last minute for that one!

My "I Love Luci" mantle.  (this was probably my favorite part).  I also made this banner months ago.  My mom found the heart shaped wood years ago and I just love it!  The I is cut out of cardboard and spray painted. 

All the kids got to take home "S'more birthday fun" with these little s'more packs.  I got the printable off of Pinterest... where else!

Along with the S'mores the kids each got a mini pumpkin... All of the kids and Aunt Ashley.  (she may be 27 but she is still a kid at heart... she got 2:)

Janelle's FABULOUS cupcakes!!

My ONE collage made from pictures of Luci over the last year.  I also got this idea off of Pinterest.  (yes I am aware the the O is much smaller... I tried ok.)

I had a picture station as well.  I made props and blank word bubbles.  Then I hung an empty picture frame and set out a camera.  I had people fill out the word bubbles to say whatever they wanted to say to Luci.  Then they took a picture behind the frame holding their bubble and prop.  I did a TERRIBLE job explaining that so let me just show you... These are some of my favorites:

In case you can't read it, it says "Gpa's the best".  Good job dad.

ANY way... there you have it.  We had so much fun with all of Luci's family and friends.  Other then a slight melt down during her birthday cake the day went off without a hitch.  I will show you some pics from the actual party later this week.  Thanks to everyone who made her first birthday SO special!  We love you all.

Round 3: Fabric

This week I am hosting Round 3 of Crafting From the Sidelines, as well as linking up to Round 3 of Crafting with the Stars over at Sew Dang Cute.  This week's theme is Fabric.

So, in the words of Jen over at Northeast of Eden, and the master mind behind Crafting from the Sidelines, this is how it works:

"  This contest is really little more than crafting along with those rock stars over at Crafting with the Stars. Come along, join in on the fun! no commitment, not many rules, join in anytime (if you miss a competition, no big deal- try to beat our butts on the next one ) and meet some other crafty bloggers. No prizes other than a virtual pat-on the back and the awesome title of "WINNER". This weeks theme is Fabric.  Link up on Monday, Oct. 17th. Then polls will open and you can put down your glue gun and rally some votes.  On Oct. 18th, sewdangcute.com will have a place to post your entries on their site and they have a REAL prize. FANCY and loads of viewers."

So now is your chance, you rock stars of the fabric world.  Link up your amazing fabric projects below and knock our socks off! 

Don't forget to vote for your favorite.  You can vote by clicking the "like" button on your favorite project, or commenting on the blog of the project you like the most.  Ad this link to your blog as well, so other people can see the fun we are having!  Good luck peeps!

Does Felt Count as Fabric?

This week's theme for "Crafting with the Stars" and "Crafting From the Sidelines" is Fabric. Well, I am pretty darn good with spray paint, I am pretty darn good with dumpster diving, I am even pretty darn good with a drill, but I am not all that great with a sewing machine. I knew this week's challenge would be, well, a challenge.

After browsing through Pinterest for a while, scratching my head, and staring at my sewing machine for a while, I decided that what I really wanted was a Halloween costume. A while back I found this little gem on Etsy:

Problem: Price tag didn't match my wallet size.

I decided I wasn't going to let that stop me. I headed out to, where else, Goodwill. I found myself a $7 Limited dress (super cute) and then headed next door to Joann's. Can you believe there is a Joann's next door to Goodwill!! It is my own personal heaven. Anyway, I bought 4 pieces of felt for $1, and some fabric glue for $2. I cut out the eyes, ears, and nose, fabric glued them on and BAM my $10 version of this super cute costume!

I know I did not actually sew anything but hey, I think it counts!

P.S. this is one of the only times you will see a fashion shoot of me. I am SO not a model... don't judge.
P.P.S.  My hubster did make a Hooters comment... I won't repeat it.

I am hosting this week's Round 3 of Crafting from the Sidelines and have added the link below. Vote for your favorite project by clicking the "like" button or leaving a comment! Link up your projects if you would like to play along as well... we love some good competition.

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A Drop of Golden Sun Part II

Happy Birthday to the cutest person I know:)  Today my little girl turns one... sniff sniff.  As promised here is the second half of the post I started last week.

Here she is, months 7-12.  I still can't believe a year has gone by.  I guess time flies when you are having fun:)

7 months old at her first Kentucky Derby party.

On my first mother's day... also 7 months old but just too cute not to include:)

8 months old and happy as can be!

9 months old. Visiting Buena Vista, her first home.

At 10 months old.  I don't think it gets any sweeter then this.  (she has the world's best daddy)

At Grandma's house at 11 months. 

Eating cake at her first birthday party.  She didn't actually like it all that much... so funny.

Luci Rae,  I wrote this to you one month after you were born.  And it stands true today and always will.

"Dear Luci,

I can't even begin to describe how much I  love you.  You are the most beautiful little girl.  I hope you know how many people truly love you.  You have brought a whole new meaning to my life.  You are perfect in every way, and I can't wait to watch you grow.  It is such a privilege that God chose me to be your mom.  I love you more then you could know.

Love,

Your Mom"

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11