Valentine's Cards!

So happy to have Anna's Valentine's cards done before we leave on our trip Wednesday.

More on that later.

I had lots of Pinterest inspiration for these...and I love how they came out.

I love the square retro feel and almost 3D effect of the picture.

And I especially love the cute little girl in the pic!

I used picnik.com to edit the photo with the wording and hearts.

And I also used Instagram to edit the coloring.



And just for fun...I got little sister involved.

That scowl was about as good as I was going to get during our little photoshoot.

I have learned to take what I can get with little ones!

Hubby and I won't be here to celebrate Valentine's Day with our littles.

We will be in Europe!

Wha?

Yes...Europe.

Spain and Italy to be exact.

We are helping with a conference in Spain for about 10 days.

Then we are off to play in Italy for another 10 days or so.

We have some friends that live in Italy and we figured...the time is now!

I'm pretty excited.

Ok...I'm freaking excited.

I'm hoping to post the things I'm looking forward to seeing the most in Italy.

And then I hope I actually get to see them!

My in-laws will be holding down the fort with our littles.

We have great families who love spending time with our kiddos so we can travel the globe.

Literally.

I don't expect opportunities to come up like this all the time...

so we're trying to take advantage while we can!

Buenos Noches Amigas.

Hasta Luego.

sidenote:

I like speaking my "broken-I learned in 4 years of spanish class in high school-I can only speak in present tense" Spanish around my hubby.

He doesn't know what I'm saying most of the time.

I find that amusing.

El Fin.

 

Oatmeal and Headbands...of course

My girls have a ton of headbands.

They have been living in a gallon size ziploc baggie.

Real classy...I know.

I finally got fed up with the lack of headband organization and went to my go-to site for ideas of all kinds...

Pinterest!

I searched for "headband organization."

BAM!  Done.

In about 3 seconds, I had my idea.

The next day I bought my box of oatmeal and completed the project in like 10 minutes.

Now THAT is my kind of project!



I actually need to make another one.
It's practically overflowing!

 

Here's the Pin on Pinterest that inspired me.

Source: makeitmyown.blogspot.com via Cheryl on Pinterest

I didn't have a cute candle stand like they did.

But I'll keep my eyes open when I'm at thrift stores and add it later if I feel like it.

What have you Pinterest'd lately?

Confession Time

I have a confession to make.
The only reason I'm outing myself like this is because I know there's some other momma out there that will relate to me.
I've read so many blogs about amazing Advent calendar ideas.
I think this one is my favorite.
Doing fun activities every day leading up to Christmas.
And not stressing over it.
Just making it fun and meaningful.
My goal is to do something like that next year.

And here comes my horrible confession.
It comes in the form of a picture. 

Yup. That's my Advent calendar from this year.
Pretty much the worst Advent calendar mom in America.
It wasn't bad enough that I bought it from the One Spot at Target...meaning $1.
I only got Anna to glue on 2 pathetic looking cotton balls on it.
In my defense, we left our house on the 21st and just returned this week.
Ok that's not much of a defense.
Nevermind ;-)
I'm making a New Year's declaration (because I like that word better than resolution) right here and right now.

AS LONG AS MY LIFE IS NOT TOTALLY CRAZY IN DECEMBER, I WILL DO A SUPER FUN AWESOME ADVENT CALENDAR FOR MY CHILDREN!

Did you see that "out" I gave myself?
I don't like to fail ;-)

Ok momma's...who had an advent calendar fail this year??
Don't leave me hanging out here all by myself!

Fireplace Completion!

I have a completed fireplace!!!

Yes, it took us 3 months to finish the mantel.

We like deadlines...and I was all "I AM having a decorated mantel for Christmas."

So hubby got er dun.

You can see the progression of our fireplace project in these posts...

To Paint or Not to Paint...

Fireplace Progress

Fireplace Progress #2

Fireplace Mantel

We debated on what to do with the mantel.

We ended up sanding down the weird piece of wood we had and staining it a dark brown.

And by "we" I mean "hubby"...with my design direction of course ;-)

And I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Here's the final reveal.

We'll make it a Christmas reveal.

Christmas Fireplace 2010

Christmas Fireplace 2011



What do you think???

Here's some other views...



Merry Christmas!

Embrace the Camera - Turkey Pumpkin

Best and easiest pumpkin decorating EVER!!

At a garage sale a couple weeks ago...

I opened a box to find some painted wooden turkey parts.

A head and five feathers.

I instantly knew what it was for and confirmed with the lady selling it.

I think I got it for around $1

(it was bundled with other things...so it's hard to say exactly)

Bottom line...it was CHEAP!

We decorated our pumpkin in like 2 minutes :-)

With no mess...I might add!

We'll probably carve one next year...

but for this super busy month...

it made my life so much easier!

We just shoved a couple things in the pumpkin...





my concentration face lol



And...we're done.





Anna was not cooperating...so I got a pic with my Ellie.



I look tired and my hairs a mess...captures me pretty well lol



***Embracing the Camera with Emily***

My Prima Ballerinas

Last weekend we took our girls to Sea World

(with free tickets woohoo!)

to enjoy Halloween Spooktacular!
They got to trick or treat and show off their costumes and see some animals.

Here's a few highlight pics.

If you want to see more...you can view my FB album here.

I made their ballerina fascinators :-)

I love how they turned out!

Our skinny little preschool ballerina...

And Chris Farley in a ballerina costume :-)



It's ok Ellie - you'll be that skinny prima ballerina in about a year ;-)

Our chubby ballerina just can't put down the candy lol

Anna was posing for all the pictures all by herself...she was in character all day!

We had a very fun day!

Looking forward to the girls wearing their costumes 3 or 4 more times!

Love getting more use out of them!

Let's put a couple more !!! of these in here!!!

!

Silhouette Necklace

About a month ago I posted about some craft projects I was "itching" to do.



Well...

I made the necklace!

And I bought the paint for the pumpkin...so that almost counts ;-)

The playgroup I'm a part of tries to have a Mom's Night Out once a month.

Last month we did a craft night and all made silhouette necklaces using this tutorial.



my finished product

WARNING: cutting out the tiny silhouettes is crazy hard...BUT doable.

I made the Ellie one and then gave up.

I thought "I'll get hubby to cut out Anna for me."

Well, he gave it a try.

Handed me his finished product and said "I don't know if this looks like Anna or not."

I laughed and said "It looks like a muppet."

So I got er dun.

Here's my Ellie on the left and Anna on the right.
I think it actually looks like them...right?

And here it is making its debut at the Fall Festival at our work.  We were on a hay ride :-)



Anna's is flipped over...sad.  But it looks cute nonetheless!

Wish I had taken a pic of everyone else's necklaces at our Mom's Night Out!
I was too busy trying to stop myself from cursing at the tiny scissors ;-)

Do I Really Need Another Fall Wreath?

I'm really in a crafting mood lately.  Like for real.

There is a blog I follow called Ucreate.  They post craft tutorials every day!

Some involve sewing, which I don't do, but a lot don't.  It's kind of like Pinterest, I guess.

Every month they post a project and invite people to make it and send in their pictures.

Then they post the pictures at the end of the month on their blog.

Here's this month's project:

photo and tutorial here

I'm so tempted to join in this month!

Even though I just made this wreath a couple weeks ago...

There's room in my house for another wreath...right??

You can never have too many fall wreaths...right??

hmm...someone talk me into it ;-)

P.S. I updated the Fall Events post with a couple new events.  Including a really fun little craft show this weekend.  Check it out!

Chalkboard Jar Thank You Gift

Before our road trip to CO, I wanted to make a few thank you gifts for people who were hosting us on our trip out there.

I was in a chocolate making phase and so I decided on this idea.

It's so easy...it's ridiculous!

Here's what you'll need:

Jars - I got them at Hobby Lobby 50%...score!

Black Chalkboard Paint - Hobby Lobby

Painters Tape - already had some

Chalk - Hobby Lobby

Sweet Treats - made them myself

I already had a lot of the supplies, so I think it just cost me a couple dollars per jar.

I love high impact, low cost, low work projects! ;-)

These pics are from my phone...sorry for the low quality...sad.

I just taped off an area on the jar and followed the directions on the chalkboard paint and painted away!

 

I made some yummy treats and stuck them in there!

You could easily fill it with just about anything...cookies, toys, nuts, fruit...

 

Of course I didn't get any pictures after I wrote "Thank You!" on the chalkboard area :-(

But I think you get the idea!

My Crafty Birthday Party

I had the best birthday party EVER!

I really wanted to have a party where my friends could do something fun and take something home with them...kinda like a Build A Bear party...but for big people ;-)

My friend Andi had sent me this link and I was so inspired by the wreath that I decided to have a Crafty Birthday Party.  The base craft was the fabric flowers, but we made lots of different things out of them.

Ring - the inspiration link

Necklace - the inspiration link

Wreath - the inspiration link

Picture Frame - the inspiration link

Paper Mache Letter - the inspiration link

Here's a couple tutorials on how to make the fabric flowers

Emily's at The Anderson Crew - here

V and Co's - here

The only thing I would add to the tutorials would be: USE A LOW TEMP GLUE GUN!

About half the glue guns we used at the party were high temp and we learned pretty fast the difference between high and low temp, because you DO get glue on your fingers.  Low temp glue doesn't hurt.  High temp glue makes you squeal a little.

Ok...ready for some pics??? 

Here you go...



everyone working away

Before this party I owned no fabric.

I shopped the fabric scraps half price bins every time I went to a craft store for weeks.

And a couple of my friends brought their fabric too.

the messy supply table

I loved getting awkward candid pics of people working ;-)

Erin's concentration face

Diet Coke, outlets, and happy crafters!

 

Silly Jill :-)

 

 



my first fabric flower!



 



some of my flowers



Have you ever heard of Strawberry Cassata Cake?  My friend's mom use to make this fabulous cake for my birthday parties when I was little.  Apparently it's a Cleveland thing (where I grew up).  Who knew?!  Well, it's really yummy and Jill labored over it and we all uber-appreciated it!

 

 

yummo!

The everyone-is-singing-and-looking-at-me-therefore-I-am-embarrassed look.

happy birthday to me

We left the cake to continue crafting and this is what we found a little while later.  How sad is that?!  It was still totally edible...hubby and I can testify to that ;-)

sad little strawberry cassata cake

Here comes the fun pics...everyone's finished projects!!

Janel's daughters were super jealous that Mom was going to a craft party without them ;-)

Kelly had her baby the very next day!!  Woohoo!!

Kristin was busy making all her fun fabric flower crafts



Rene made the green and orange frame specifically for her 3yo daughter (her favorite colors)...who ended up not caring about it at all.  {sigh} 3 year olds {shakes head}

Erin was cranking out the crafts.  She brought fabric that she used in her living room...now her wreath matches her living room.  Great idea!

Andi is a fan of brown, blue, and white...can you tell??

Jill - the cake maker - also had fun making her crafts

Kim is a self-professed non-crafty person...but she still managed to bust out some fabric flowers and take some fabric home to work on later.

all my handiwork....SO.MUCH.FUN

still need to find a mantel...could you even imagine this fireplace any other color...ya me neither!

LOVE

I wore my necklace the very next day :-)  And you don't even want to know how many tries it took to get this picture...goodness gracious!

Hope you're inspired to do a Crafty Birthday Party sometime!  I highly recommend it!