Happy Birthday Cory (Two Weeks and Four Days Late)

So, I've been a bit busy.  Such is life for a stay-at-home mommy of two little ones, trying to run a photography business on the side, and currently has a guest from out of the country staying at her house.  But, I love it.  I am totally blessed and thankful for my crazy little life!  I have quite a few blogs to write, and I'll catch up.....eventually.  As you can see, I am two weeks and four days behind right now.

Cory's birthday was, September 16.  We were so excited to learn that Cory's parents would be joining us for the special day :)  Of course the grandbabies stole all the attention, Ha Ha, but it did allow time for us to go hang out with friends, alone.  Thanks Nana and Poppy!

So, here is how we celebrated.....

We made breakfast and homemade cards to make him feel all special.  The kiddos worked together to give daddy some art for his office.  Landry painted the frame, while Eli's finger paint masterpiece spells out, We Love Daddy.

Then he got his present from me.....Fruity Mentos and Juicy Fruit (a couple of his faves), photos of the kids for his office, and a date nights to last all year.  You see, the duties of the home sometimes get all my focus and I need to be more intentional about dating my husband.  Even though we are not able to go out every week, there are plenty of stay-in ideas.  I planned four date nights a month for us to enjoy.  They start next week and I am SO excited!  

Of course Landry had to make him his favorite cake, red velvet. (Thanks Libby and Amy for picking up the cake :)

 And she had to blow out the candles

That night we enjoyed time eating pizza with friends.

Happy 31st Birthday, Babe!!  We Love You!!

Sidewalk Paint and Ice Cream

Sorry, I couldn't think of a more clever name for this blog post.  Straight to the point, I suppose.  We recently had a wonderful playdate involving those two wonderful things.

We have a very informal mom's group (really, we're all just friends) that tries to get together at least once a week for a playdate.  Last week, we got together to have ice cream with all the toppings!  Also, I found this recipe for sidewalk paint.  Pretty cool, huh?  And really simple. So, since it was a nice day, I brought all the ingredients and let our kiddos try it out. (Notice I also repurposed my yogurt cups :) They had a really good time and their art turned out so nice.  Here are a few pictures from the playdate.  I'm thankful for my sweet friends and for their children who are sweet friends to my children!

We are total nerds, and were impressed when this spilled paint looked a lot like the United States.  Of course I had to snap a picture :)

Repurposing

In case I have not mentioned Pinterest enough, I am mentioning it one more time.  It really has given me tons of inspiration so I feel the need to give credit where credit it due.  Or maybe I should be giving credit to the bloggers whose work is posted on Pinterest.  Either way, I am inspired.  I am inspired to repurpose things.

I would not consider myself to be "green".  Sorry if that offends some people.  I am usually in so much of a hurry, that I just don't think about ways that I could be helping the environment.  However, I would consider myself to be EXTREMELY cheap frugal.  I was raised by one the best bargain shoppers around and because my family has never been extremely wealthy, we've always had to be creative in order to have the things we want.  Also, God commands us to be good stewards of the things HE gives us.  Therefore, we should not be wasteful.

Normally, when I am finished with a jar or a box or a yogurt cup, I toss it.  Lately, I have been thinking of how I could reuse it.  If you read this post you saw how I repurposed some of those items.  Normally, when I clean out my closet, I just bring a bag full of clothes to Goodwill.  That is a great thing to do, except some of the clothes have rips and stains and no one wants those anyway.  Now, I am looking at each item to see how I can use the fabric.  In the post I mentioned above, you saw how I repurposed Cory's shirt to make throw pillows for my bed.  There really are so many things you can repurpose, and while I am being frugal, I am actually being green too.

The weekend my mom was here and I was able to get so many projects done for my house, my mom did a couple of projects herself.  She is such a great seamstress!  I present her with an idea and she makes it happen.

Here is an LSU shirt I've had for a while (Hence Landry's newborn picture).  It had a small bleach stain on the sleeve and it was not really looking too hot on me anymore.

Voila, look how adorable it is as a dress for Landry

This was an old dress of mine.  It's cute, but I thought the pattern was much better suited for Landry

All she had to do was cut the skirt off that sucker, and she turned it into a pillowcase in a flash!   It's perfect for this happy little girl.

So.....what can you repurpose today?

First Day of School - 2011

The official first day of school was September 7, but due to some tummy troubles, Eli's first day wasn't until yesterday.  I thought I'd wait till I could post their first day pictures together.

Here's Landry looking a little unsure at first.....

......but she warmed up to the idea really quickly.  Notice that she had to accessorize herself for the first day of school.  I'm proud that she did so, tastefully.

And here is Eli, looking a little sleepy at first.....

 ....but he perked up and had a wonderful first day.  I am told he already has a girlfriend.  What a ladykiller!

Looking forward to a great year.  I am thankful to know that my children are in good hands with Godly teachers who love them!!

Kids' Bathroom Redo

I didn't include this in my last post even though I completed it this weekend.  I've actually worked on it for the last couple of weeks now. 

 Here is a picture of the bathroom before:

There was really nothing wrong with it at all.  I just wanted a more fun place for my kids.  Here are the changes.... 

My mom did all the awesome towels!  Special Shout Out, she has a business now.  You should definitely call her for all your monogramming and applique needs.

 I was so excited to walk into Goodwill and find this metal vase that matched so perfectly.  What a lucky day.  And then my super creative mom designed the soap bottle using her silhouette machine.

These are awesome little dry-erase boards to make my kiddos feel special everyday.  Any guesses where I found this idea?

 And my favorite part is the banner above the tub.  I knew I wanted something there, and I felt like it needed a spruce of color.  However, I didn't want to spend any money.  I was so excited to find scraps in my fabric bin that went so well together.  A simple little fix :)

It All Started With One Project.....

I'm so excited!  And I just can't hide it.....yes, I know that is extremely cheesy, but I could shout it from the roof tops right now, because that is how I feel :)  What do a mixture of steroids (prescribed for a horrible case of poison ivy), a little inspiration from Pinterest, and a weekend with your husband out of town and your mom here to entertain the kids get you?  Well, in my case, it got me projects accomplished GALORE!!!

It all started when I stopped into Michaels and found some scrapbook paper on sale that would match my kitchen.  I had pinned this idea on pinterest.  So I used my clorox wipe container to make my own bag holder.

It's pretty nifty :)

Then I remembered this frame I had picked up a yard sale for  a quarter.  I forgot to take a before picture, but it was gaudy black and gold and it didn't have glass or a back.  I didn't mind.  I just added scrapbook paper, got my mom to make some vinyl letters with her super cool silhouette machine, and added some fabric rosettes.

Tada, a sign for my kitchen.

So then, I realized just how sad my window looked above my sink.  

That's just not a fun place to wash dishes!  So I started making a few things to display in the window seal.  These are paper flowers I made to put in repurposed Crush bottles.  

Then I spruced up my sanitizer bottle and made a dish soap dispenser using a Crisco Olive Oil bottle.

Ahh, spray paint and the silhouette machine.....A good combination!

Now, onto the window treatment, I've always loved the look of awnings, but wasn't exactly sure how to create one.  When my mom and I put our heads together, it turns out, it was the simplest project ever.  It only took two cafe rods to do the trick.  Here is where I get to wash dishes now :)

Now, let's move on to my pantry.  We love our house, but one thing we would change about it would be the size of our pantry.  Apparently, we like food too much and it is always overflowing.  Here is the before picture.  I should be totally embarrassed by this, but the transformation makes it worth it.

Yikes!

I pinned this glorious idea on Pinterest and this one too.  Then, I combined the two ideas to make these!!!  

The bins are made from post office boxes, Those little chalkboard labels are made from the inside of a cereal box, and I had the leftover fabric from another project.

I also made these storage boxes from diaper boxes.  You'll notice the unfinished ones on the bottom.  That is because I'm holding out for the right sizes.

My pantry has lost some serious weight and I am a HAPPY girl.

Let's keep going, shall we?

This idea was too good not to steal.  I had thought about it before, using wire, but I snagged this piece of trim out of a junk trailer, and it worked perfectly.

Alright, so I think that is all in my kitchen for now.  Let's move to my bedroom.  I recently refinished my headboard.  I have wanted to paint it black for a while, but had been a little scared.  I'm so glad I finally went through with it.  Ever since I saw this idea of Pinterest, I knew I had to do it.  I found a large frame at Goodwill.  It was a sea green and cream color, so I painted it to match our the colors in our room. Then I picked up gold letters from Hobby Lobby and painted them black.  Here is the finished product.

But, what is lovely white bedding without fun, fluffy pillows?   A little boring.  So, I made some.

First, I used Cory's old shirt

to make two pillows.  Then I found some scrap fabric and ribbon to make the others.

I am quite satisfied with my bed now :)

At the same time I bought my frame, I also picked this chair up from Goodwill.

I plan to use it as a prop chair from time to time, but prop chairs are even better when you can use them in your house.  So, I refinished it to match our new room

Landry and Eli have been taking turns sitting in it.  They are quite fond of it.

And last, but not least, my new living room wall display.  Our living room has really tall ceilings with LOTS of wall space.  I have oodles of pictures to display.  I found these frames on clearance and have had a vision for a while, I just had to pick pictures (a very arduous task) and get those suckers hung.  Woo Hoo, for my Wonder-Woman momma who helped me accomplish this.  What do you think?

Next time you see this, there will be some color on the couch, I promise.

I rehung these pictures as well

Did I mention that all this was a surprise to Cory?  I was SO anxious for him to get home and see what I had been up to.  He was quite shocked and very pleased, especially since I spent very little money on all of it!

How's that for a Labor Day weekend?