A {Breakfast} Birthday Party

My littlest man turned 7 during Summer.  Crazy!?! How is my baby 7?!?  I have a hard time with every birthday, but 7 is just a hard one for me! It just seems old??

When we asked him what kind of party he wanted..well, actually let me correct that by saying we asked him what kind of food he wanted to have at his party (he is a foodie) he quickly replied "BACON!" I wasn't completely shocked because a few weeks prior we hosted brunch for family that was in town for my brother in laws wedding and the kiddos thought having everyone over for breakfast was the coolest thing ever!

So, bacon it is. Although I'm sure most kids would have been fine with just being served bacon, we also decided on waffles, fruit toppings, powdered sugar, whip cream and a cereal bar. Just to make sure everyone's kids had enough sugar to last them the whole weekend, we had a DONUT cake too! We even topped off breakfast with a piñata. It was a complete sugar fest and I'm pretty sure every kid needed to detox after they left...but hey, you only turn 7 once, right? Thank God it wasn't a sleep over!

I used craft paper as the table cloth and used colored duct tape to hold the two pieces together.

Since there ended up being a lot of blank space on the table, I decided to write the names of the food being served with a chalkboard pen.

We put the cereal in glass jars because it just looks cuter that way.  Actually, since the party we've left the glass jars out on our counter filled with cereal. The boy's like having their own cereal station and I love that they can get their breakfast themselves. No more cereal boxes left open to get stale and I can always see when we're getting low on cereal. Oh, the little things that make me happy!

And here's one happy, sugar loaded 7 year old!

On my littlest man's actual birthday he also learned how to change a tire.  Yup, that's how we roll.

He is a man in training, after all. He was very proud, but not as proud as his daddy! I love watching my little men get down and dirty and learn new "manly things" Cracks me up that he wanted to wear gloves!

Disclaimer:  I am fully aware that my child's hair is the definition of bed head!

xoxo,

Mid Week Inspiration

So, by Wednesday I really start looking forward to the weekend! Anyone else? 

I was looking through pictures on my phone the other day and came across this one that I took a couple of years ago and I thought I would share it with you.  You see, these tulips on my table totally spoke to me a couple years ago! 

Before you go on thinking I'm crazy let me explain.  You see how the flowers on the right are leaning toward the light or sun? The morning sun beams through our kitchen/family room every morning and I love it. It wakes me up!  Did you know that tulips lean toward the light/sun?  Did you also know that tulips continue to grow even after they are cut and put in a vase? Yeah, well I didn't know that either, until my MIL told me.

 Anyway, back to how these tulips spoke to me...As I was in my kitchen looking at these beautiful flowers leaning towards the sun, is when I these amazing sun seeking flowers spoke to me.  It was as if I heard them say to me "the same way I seek and lean towards the sun and grow, is the same way you'll GROW if you seek and lean towards the SON!"

 I hope these tulips speak to you the same way they spoke to me.

                                                                        xoxo,
                                                      

PINTEREST: Pinned it for real!

Sometimes I "Pin" things on Pinterest knowing darn well that I may never tackle the project. Other days I "Pin" something and think to myself why didn't I think of that and want to get started on it right away. 

Today's project was like that and I hope it will inspire you to make something you've pinned on Pinterest!

One of my little men, who will remain anonymous is a hoarder junk collector. I'm not sure where he gets it from?? I try to keep the above quote in mind, but I have to admit, sometimes I have a hard time seeing the beauty in his random collections. Over time I have learned to respect his collecting habits. He finds beauty in everything and I love that about him. I just don't have the space to keep it all...you know with my hoarding thrifting habits and all.  So, we've pinky promised each other (no joke) that as long as he puts his stuff where it belongs and doesn't HIDE his treasure/collection (that's a story for another day), then he gets to keep it.  I've given him jars/containers and designated spots to keep his things. It's been working for both of us so far. He's happy and Momma's happy! 

When I saw this on Pinterest..I knew the perfect little guy to make these for!

                                                                   

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Here's what you'll need: 

Remove all labels and wash the jars. You can also use mason jars, but luckily for me my kids LOVE pickles and had no problem finishing off the jar per my request. 

We already had the plastic animals, but Michael's carries them if you don't have any. 

Add some glue to the bottom of the animals feet and press down for a couple minutes. Don't add too much glue because it does spread and thicken fast. 

We let the glue dry overnight before spray painting them. 

Here's how they turned out:

This was an easy and inexpensive way to display a collection. Even if you don't have kids, these are great to store rocks, shells or other meaningful things.

 Here are some others that caught my eye on Pinterest:

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Hope this inspires you to take a moment and "Pin It" for real!

Have a great day!

xoxo

                                                     

Back to School Organization

This Summer my goal was to really try and organize our house. Well, somehow the Summer flew by and I only got to cross off a couple things off my never ending list. One thing that was at the top of my list was to have a spot for the boys to put their homework folders and all the crap paperwork that they bring home from school. You know that big pile of papers on your countertop that piles up. What?!? You don't have one? Well I'm trying to keep ours organized. When I see a lot of paperwork on the counters, it STRESSES me out! It makes me feel like I'm behind on stuff needing my attention! Even though half of the clutter is just coupons or mailers that I haven't had a chance to go through! I don't know...maybe it comes from my office working days?? Here's what I came up with to try and help our weekdays run smoother and keep our paperwork organized.

 Each of the boy's has their own file for their Wednesday folder. Yay! No more searching through the pile of paper looking for it! I found the files, rail and hanging caddy all at Ikea. The metal bookplates on the files are from Martha Stewarts Avery line at Staples.

 I had made the chalkboard a few years ago from a picture frame I bought at a garage sale. My dad cut a piece of sheet metal for me (since I wanted the chalkboard to be magnetic) the size of the frame and I painted it with chalkboard paint. We also cut a piece of foam board the same size and placed it behind the sheet metal to prevent it from moving when you write on it. 

So far, this has really helped me in keeping the paper clutter in the kitchen off the counters.

Here's a sneak peek at what else is helping us stay organized.

   

                                                                                                     xoxo        

Mustache and Bow Tie Themed Baby Shower

A few months ago we (my mother in law and my sister in law's mom) threw my sister in law Katie a baby shower. I was in charge of coming up with the theme. Since Katie was having a boy, I knew I wanted to go along with the "Mustache" trend!

The shower was held at Katie's house, which is a beautiful old Victorian home. I brought over my chalkboard and hung it next to the door on the porch. 

I made the dot garland using grey and turquoise scrapbook paper, a circle punch and hot glued it to twine.  As my littlest man would say..easy peasy lemon squeezy! 

We served salad and baked potatoes with all the toppings. The labels were made by Designer Blogs.

We ordered cupcakes and just added the cupcake toppers. These were also "punched" using the 2inch circle punch from Michael's and then glued to a toothpick. 

A few years ago my father in law cut tree stump pieces (cookies) for me and I used them for Thanksgiving as chargers on our table setting. I since have used them for several different occasions, including this shower and am very glad I hung on to them! I have since seen faux wood chargers at World Market for $20 a piece! This time I placed them on top of a few different sized cake plates and then added the cupcakes.

The small mustache's on the straws were ordered from this etsy shop and then glued to the straws.

After seeing this image on Pinterest I knew these would be the guest favors

Here's ours,  grease spots and all!  Got to love Pinterest!

Katie loved how the "Mustache Bash" turned out! She ended up saving some of the decorations to possibly use at Madden's first birthday! What a great idea!

Apparently I think mustache's grow under your lip, rather than above! 

Marissa's Room Makeover

The boy's are back to school and this momma has some free time!! So, I'm hoping to take a break from cleaning house and blog more often then once a year! Although I haven't blogged recently, I have done my share of DIY projects, decorating and party throwing and am excited to share with you what I've been up to.

Last Spring I helped my sister design my niece Marissa's room. Boy, did this teenager know what she wanted! I must say she has been the pickiest funnest to design for so far.  Marissa wanted her room to be dark coral and had her heart set on A BLACK AND WHITE STRIPED RUG. She's a girl after my own heart. I too, LOVE stripes. But, most of the striped rugs we found were too expensive and I was not up to DIYing a striped rug. I fell in love with the Lappljung Ruta rug from Ikea. Marissa was not sold on it initially...crazy, right?!? She didn't like the turquoise trim around it. To be honest, I didn't care for it either. But for the price of this rug compared to striped rugs, we couldn't pass it up. (Ikea has since made the rug in a bigger size WITHOUT the trim and I'm dying to buy it for my bedroom!)
After a lot of persuading, she gave in and agreed to the rug.

We did ALL agree on this white bedding from Target. The Coral pillow is from Marshalls.

Did you notice I didn't completely let the girl down! I did give her a striped throw blanket! 

Now, let's talk about that round footstool at the end of her bed. It was an easy, cheap project and became one of our favorite pieces in her room.

Before

After

I found the stool at the thrift store for $3.00  We removed the original fabric, spray painted the legs with Rustoleum's Gold spray paint and stapled Ikea's  Faux Sheepskin Rug over the foam cushion. Such an easy and inexpensive project, yet it made a huge statement in her room.

To the left of her bed we decided on a gallery wall. The picture below was taken before we added pictures to some of the frames. Sorry, but just imagine the frames with artwork from the Valentina 2013 calendar which has a whimsical, colorful vibe.  By the way, I have the same calendar and LOVE the artwork.

 The squared frames are also from Ikea. We added gold to the frames by spray painting blue painters tape gold and adding it to the corners. This idea was brought to you by Pinterest! Shocker, I know..The Audrey Hepburn canvas is from Ikea, clock is from Target, the two small gold frames with birds were thrifted. Everything else were things we already had.

My brother in law painted her existing dresser coral. Sorry, we can't remember the name of the paint we chose. The hardware on her dresser is from World Market.

We also decided that she needed a small work area and this desk fit perfectly.

To the right of her bed is her vanity. We spray painted (Rustoleum Metallic Gold) and reupholstered the stool she already had to match her room.

We're still on the hunt for a sitting chair for the right corner of her room.

 Marissa in her new room! Oh, how my inner teenager wanted to move into this room! Who am I kidding... my 33 year old self wanted to move into this room! 

XOXO

Angelica