Totally Lauren Amber

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2012-03-06T13:58:00.000-08:00

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Board and Batten in the Bathroom

2012-03-01T09:49:00.004-08:00

I thought I was going to have a board and batten bathroom reveal for you today but I ran out of caulk and couldn't finish the project. I'll finish the caulking tonight and paint tomorrow. Hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll have the entire bathroom done and that would mean that I have one room in the house 100% complete. Here are some pictures of the bathroom up to this point.

This is the bathroom the day the house closed.

BEFORE

We removed the baseboards, large mirror/medicine cabinet and all the towel bars and primed over the green walls. The orange chalk line on the wall is where the Board and Batten will start. The top 3/4 of the wall are now blue and the bottom is white B&B.

DURING

New baseboards were added, Board and Batten is up, new mirror frame is in place and shelves have been added (for apothecary jars) around the sides of the mirrors.

Still DURING

I know I keep saying this but hopefully I'll have a BIG BATHROOM REVEAL for you by next week.

Updating the House TO DO List (again)

2012-02-26T21:08:00.003-08:00

We are accomplishing quit a few things around the house but not even 1 room is 100% done yet. I can't have a BIG REVEAL post with before and after pictures until I have the finishing touches completed. Here is an up to date TO DO list (anything in green is currently in progress). Another big accomplishment this week is getting the internet hooked up. YES! I finally have internet again so I can now post from my computer instead of from the phone...more posts will be coming soon. Thanks for your inquiries about the house projects. Hopefully the updated to do list will hold you over until the pictures are posted.

2-26-2012 Update
~~Removewall between dinning room and family room~~

~~Removebig screen TV built in wall in family room~~

~~Takedown wall paper and wall paper boarder~~

~~Removewood bamboo looking things on dining room ceiling~~

~~Remove old ceiling fans~~

~~Moveone cabinet in kitchen up to allow for built in microwave~~

Havemicro shelf made

~~Buildand add tv area to family room~~

~~Addtoy/game/dvd storage closet in family room~~

~~MoveLaundry room cabinet up~~

~~Addshelf in laundry room~~

~~Addhooks in laundry room~~

Paintlaundry room cabinets

~~PrimeEntire House~~

~~Paintall ceilings~~

~~Paintbaseboards~~

~~Painttrim around doors~~

~~Paintdoors~~

~~PaintKitchen~~

~~PaintMs M’s bedroom~~

~~Paintextra bedroom~~ still have to paint the ceiling

~~Painthall bathroom~~

~~Paintmaster bedroom~~

~~Paintmaster bathroom~~

~~Painthall to bedrooms~~

~~Painthall near dinning room~~

~~Paintdinning room~~

~~Replacebase boards in dinning room~~

~~PaintNew baseboards in dining room~~

Add newbaseboards in hall near dinning

Paintnew baseboards in hall near dinning

~~Paintkitchen~~

PaintLiving room

~~Paintfamily room~~

~~Paintlaundry~~

Paintgarage

Addlights in garage

Epoxygarage floor

Addgarage shelving and storage

~~Replacehardware on doors~~

~~Removebathroom towel rods~~

Replacebathroom towel rods/hooks

Paint kitchencabinets

Replacekitchen counter

Replacekitchen knobs and drawer pulls

Replacehall bathroom drawer pulls and knobs

Replacemaster bathroom knobs

Addkitchen back splash

~~AddBoard and Batten in Family room~~

~~Paint Board and Batten in Family Room~~

AddBoard and Batten in hall bathroom

~~Add Beadboard and shelf to one wall in Ms M’s room~~

~~Paint bead board~~

~~Removeold closet shelving in Ms M’s closet~~

~~Remove old closet shelving in master closet~~

~~AddElfa closet system in Ms M’s closet~~

~~AddElfa closet system in master closet~~

Build Extra Closet in Master

Add Elfa closet system in new master closet

~~Reconfigureextra bedroom closet~~

Replaceceiling fans where needed

~~Newlights in hall~~ decided to keep old lights

Newdining chandelier

StainMaster bathroom cabinets

Stainhall bathroom cabinets

~~Removemaster bedroom carpet~~

~~Replacemaster bedroom carpet~~

~~Removetile in dinning room~~

~~Removecarpet in family room~~

~~Installwood floors in family, hall and dinning areas~~

Newoutside front lights

PaintOutside of house

Painttrim and garage door

Newfront doors

~~Replacehooks in bathrooms~~

Move andreplace old pool fence

Removesome plants

Plantnew plants

Add moregrass in backyard

Removeweird wall that divides yard

Landscapeextra area on side of house

Groutbetween stone on fireplace

The "During" Phase

2012-02-16T10:17:00.000-08:00

We have so many projects going on in the new house that it seems like nothing is really FINISHED. When I look at the BEFORE pictures it's hard to believe that it's the same house but we are definitely in the DURING phase right now...no AFTER pictures yet. Here are a few pictures to keep you up to date on the progress that is being made.
Just getting started on decorating the bar area...

Fresh paint on the shelves in the extra bedroom (these are semi decorated now)...

The big project last night was the Board and Batten. I'll have this and the TV niche area all painted by this weekend...

Beginning of the black and silver frames on the gallery wall...

The vanity and desk area is almost complete in Ms M's room (new lamp for sure)...

Master bathroom is coming along but I still have to paint around the lights in the ceiling and work on few finishing touches...

It seems that toys take over the house (this is just the beginning). Organizing the toys in baskets for the new toy closet in the family room...

I hope to finish up a few projects this weekend and post the BEFORE and AFTER pictures soon.

Construction Dust and Wood Floors

2012-02-01T08:07:00.001-08:00

The floors are done and so are most (most not all of them) of the construction and messy projects. The dust is out of control and of course it really shows up on the dark wood floors. The boxes that I keep brining in to unpack are not helping the dust issue either. Luckily I have little Ms M...she loves to push the Swiffer all over the house. If she notices that I am about to clean with it she takes over. Oh, if you think it looks like n episode of Hoarders in the back ground that is just how I unpack.

Floors and Baseboards

2012-01-24T18:37:00.001-08:00

The floors were finished and the baseboards are in the process of being completed this week. Its really starting to come together. Here is a sneak peak.

Updating the House "To Do List"

2012-01-23T21:32:00.000-08:00

We have crossed a few more things off of the to do list for the house. Here is the update...

New House To Do List:

~~Removewall between dinning room and family room~~

~~Removebig screen TV built in wall in family room~~

~~Takedown wall paper and wall paper boarder~~

~~Removewood bamboo looking things on dining room ceiling~~

~~Remove old ceiling fans~~

~~Moveone cabinet in kitchen up to allow for built in microwave~~

Havemicro shelf made

Buildand add tv area to family room

Addtoy/game/dvd storage closet in family room

~~MoveLaundry room cabinet up~~

~~Addshelf in laundry room~~

Addhooks in laundry room

Paintlaundry room cabinets

~~PrimeEntire House~~

~~Paintall ceilings~~

~~Paintbaseboards~~

~~Painttrim around doors~~

~~Paintdoors~~

~~PaintKitchen~~

~~PaintMs M’s bedroom~~

Paintextra bedroom

~~Painthall bathroom~~

~~Paintmaster bedroom~~

~~Paintmaster bathroom~~

~~Painthall to bedrooms~~

~~Painthall near dinning room~~

~~Paintdinning room~~

~~Replacebase boards in dinning room~~

~~PaintNew baseboards in dining room~~

Add newbaseboards in hall near dinning

Paintnew baseboards in hall near dinning

~~Paintkitchen~~

PaintLiving room

~~Paintfamily room~~

~~Paintlaundry~~

Paintgarage

Addlights in garage

Epoxygarage floor

Addgarage shelving and storage

~~Replacehardware on doors~~

~~Removebathroom towel rods~~

Replacebathroom towel rods/hooks

Paint kitchencabinets

Replacekitchen counter

Replacekitchen knobs and drawer pulls

Replacehall bathroom drawer pulls and knobs

Replacemaster bathroom knobs

Addkitchen back splash

AddBoard and Batten in Family room

AddBoard and Batten in hall bathroom

~~Add Beadboard and shelf to one wall in Ms M’s room~~

~~Paint bead board~~

~~Removeold closet shelving in Ms M’s closet~~

~~Remove old closet shelving in master closet~~

~~AddElfa closet system in Ms M’s closet~~

AddElfa closet system in master closet

Reconfigureextra bedroom closet

Replaceceiling fans where needed

Newlights in hall

Newdining chandelier

Buildadditional wall closet in master bedroom

StainMaster bathroom cabinets

Stainhall bathroom cabinets

~~Removemaster bedroom carpet~~

Replacemaster bedroom carpet

~~Removetile in dinning room~~

~~Removecarpet in family room~~

~~Installwood floors in family, hall and dinning areas~~

Newoutside front lights

PaintOutside of house

Painttrim and garage door

Newfront doors

Replacehooks in bathrooms

Move andreplace old pool fence

Removesome plants

Plantnew plants

Add moregrass in backyard

Removeweird wall that divides yard

Landscapeextra area on side of house

Groutbetween stone on fireplace

House Project Updates

2012-01-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

I know that you want to see some pictures of the house. A million different projects are going on at one time so nothing is 100% finished but I have a few pictures to show you a tiny bit of the progress.

Ms M's closet has been painted and the Elfa closet system is installed. I put many of her clothes away last night too.

This wall/partial wall thing is gone now.

The lodge pole/bamboo looking ceiling has been removed and boy did it brighten up the room

Dining room in the "during" phase

This 1990'sish TV wall unit is gone and the southwest boarder has been removed too. Yipee!

Chalk line for board and batten in the hall bathroom


This is what the laundry room looked like when the house closed.

It is almost finished now...new paint everywhere, cabinet moved up, shelf installed below cabinet, hooks behind doors and washer and dryer have been delivered and hooked up.

Ms M's room when the house closed.

New bead board wall in Ms M's room...most of the decorating has been done in her room since this picture was taken too.

New House To Do List:

2012-01-12T15:02:00.000-08:00

Here it is...the TO DO list for my new house. The progress seems to move fast and then slow down to almost a stopping point before it picks up again. We have been working hard and I have crossed off all of the jobs that are completed so far. I'll update the list as more things are completed.

NewHouse To Do List:

~~Removewall between dinning room and family room~~

~~Removebig screen TV built in wall in family room~~

~~Takedown wall paper and wall paper boarder~~

~~Removewood bamboo looking things on dining room ceiling~~

~~Removeold ceiling fans~~

~~Moveone cabinet in kitchen up to allow for built in microwave~~

Havemicro shelf made

Buildand add tv area to family room

Add toy/game/dvdstorage closet in family room

~~Move laundry room cabinet up~~

Addshelf in laundry room

Addhooks in laundry room

Paintlaundry room cabinets

~~PrimeENTIRE house~~

~~Paintall ceilings~~

~~Paintbaseboards~~

~~Painttrim around doors~~

~~Paintdoors~~

~~PaintKitchen~~

~~PaintMs M’s bedroom~~

Paintextra bedroom

Painthall bathroom

Paintmaster bedroom

Paintmaster bathroom

Painthall to bedrooms

Painthall near dinning room

Paintdinning room

~~Paintkitchen~~

Paint living room

Paintfamily room

~~Paintlaundry~~

Paintgarage

Addlights in garage

Epoxygarage floor

Addgarage shelving and storage

Replacehardware on doors

~~Removebathroom towel rods~~

Replacebathroom towel rods/hooks

Paintkitchen cabinets

Replacekitchen counter

Replacekitchen knobs and drawer pulls

Replacehall bathroom drawer pulls and knobs

Replacemaster bathroom knobs

Addkitchen back splash

AddBoard and Batten in Family room

AddBoard and Batten in hall bathroom

Add Beadboard ad shelf to one wall in Ms M’s room

Paintbead board

~~Removeold closet shelving in Ms M’s closet~~

~~Removeold closet shelving in master closet~~

Add Elfacloset system in Ms M’s closet

Add Elfacloset system in master closet

Reconfigureextra bedroom closet

Replaceceiling fans where needed

Newlights in hall

Newdining chandelier

Buildadditional wall closet in master bedroom

Stain master bathroom cabinets

Stainhall bathroom cabinets

~~Removemaster bedroom carpet~~

Replacemaster bedroom carpet

~~Removetile in dinning room~~

~~Removecarpet in family room~~

Installwood floors in family, hall and dinning areas

Newoutside front lights

PaintOutside of house

Painttrim and garage door

Newfront doors

Replacehooks in bathrooms

Move andreplace old pool fence

Remove someplants

Plantnew plants

Add moregrass in backyard

Removeweird wall that divides yard

Landscapeextra area on side of house

Groutbetween stone on fireplace

Happy about Home Depot

2012-01-10T16:32:00.001-08:00

I'm so excited...after spending 3 hours at Home Depot this morning I was able to purchase what I need for board and batten in my family room and one bathroom...and a bunch of other stuff for other house projects too. The nice Home Depot lady even cut most of the pieces for me. This afternoon I painted 2 bathroom ceilings and unpacked a few boxes at the new house. A lot of progress will be made by the end of the weekend...I'll post pictures soon.

I have been...

2012-01-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas came and went with a Blurrrrr! We had 5 Christmas gatherings/celebrations, 2 performances, 1 dance performance, preschool Christmas parties, 2 cookie exchanges, Polar Express vacation, a trip to the cabin and our house finally CLOSED...all of that in addition to all the normal activities and work between December 16th and December 31st. The holidays were fun and a little hectic this year. I'm glad they are over with so that we can get the new house in order and finally move in. After a few LONG months of waiting to buy a house that was a short sale my plan was to get in there and start working the minute it became MINE, not stopping until everything was finished. WRONG! I never imagined it would take this long to close. Or that it would close a few days before I was going out of town for two back to back trips and a week before Christmas. I did get in there with a few helpers and clean, knock out a wall, start knocking out a second wall and empty one storage room full of boxes to the house before everything house related was put on hold to enjoy the holidays. Now that we are back house projects are on the top of my TO DO LIST and I seem to be spending all of my time over there...since Monday I have primed 2 bathrooms, one bedroom, a hallway, most of the ceilings and unpacked and organized almost the entire kitchen. CONSIDER THIS A WARNING: many house related Before and After (picture overloaded) posts will be showing up on Totally Lauren Amber in the next few months...I'm excited for everything to come together and to show you how everything progresses. I think you are really going to like it!

Melting Snowman Sugar Cookies

2012-01-04T22:51:00.000-08:00

We made sugar cookies that look like melting snowmen.  I stumbled upon this idea on Pinterest a few months ago and just got around to had the opportunity to make them. These were some of the easiest cookies that I have decorated in a long time and they came out pretty darn cute.  Here is a simple run down of how we made them...

 First make the dough, cute out cookies using a circular shaped cookie cutter (mine had a scalloped edge) bake and let the cookies cool before frosting them.  

 After I made the frosting I put it in squeeze bottles so Ms M (3 years old) could decorate her own cookies with me.  Remember these are MELTING snowmen so the frosting is supposed to look messy like it is melting.  As soon as the frosting is spread over the cookie I had Ms M put a marshmallow on top of it for the snowman head/face.  

We let the frosting and marshmallow dry for a bit and then decorated with more frosting for the eyes, nose, scarf, arms and buttons.  

I put each snowman in a colorful bag and Ms M passed them out to her friends at school. Yummy!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T15:07:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day is spent making memories with family and friends.

Pending (again)

2011-11-22T15:40:00.001-08:00

That's right!  After patiently waiting since submitting an offer at the end of July the house is finally PENDING.  The short sale process takes forever and I'm so glad that it's almost over.  The inspection and appraisal were today and we are all set to close on or before December 16th.  I can't wait to get in there with some cleaning supplies, paint and a lot of tools.  Here are a few pictures of what it looks like now...I have a 4 page list of the changes that will begin to take place once I get the keys.  

Looking through the dining room into the living room

part of living room and entry

family room with fireplace and built-ins on the left

entrance and part of courtyard

Hall to 2 of the bedrooms and the office...can't you just see it with a big gallery wall of photos

Wall of storage in the office/craft room

cute niche with floor to ceiling shelves in one of the bedrooms

 I can't wait for the house to close and the construction to begin.  The DIY posts and before and after photos will be posted as we work on all sorts of projects to make this house a home.  

Onesie Sugar Cookie Tutorial

2011-11-14T12:05:00.001-08:00

I love frosting sugar cookies.  I shared cupcake and gift box cookies for Ms M's 3rd Birthday party, fall leaf cookies and Christmas light cookies for our Breakfast with Santa.  The frosting part is actually pretty basic and I'm always trying new recipes for the cookies but they always turn out...and everyone enjoys them.  

I was asked to make cookies for the favors at Jenn's baby shower.  I made two different shapes.  I'm using the cookies that are shaped like a baby onesie for the tutorial.  

(sorry for the strange spacing in this post...I'm not sure what was going on with it) 

I baked the cookies and let them cool completely.  

 I make frosting using powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.  I never measure any of the ingredients for the frosting.  I start with it thick and add milk as I need it.  I don't usually use bags for the frosting...I prefer squeeze bottles.  The small ones are from Pampered Chef and the big one is really for candy melts.  I put the thick frosting in the smaller bottles and the thin frosting, that I will use to "fill in", in the larger bottle. 

Using the thicker bottle I make an outline of the entire cookie (or just the part that you want to have in the color you are working with).  As soon as I have the outside line I use the thin frosting to fill in the area completely.  

 I wanted to add a second layer to these cookies so I let the first frosting color dry.  This took a few hours and then I added a pink outline layer using the thick frosting.  

 Once the second frosting color was dry I put each cookie in a bag and attached a cute ribbon to keep the bag closed.

The cookies looked cute on display at the party and they tasted yummy too.

Pink Baby Shower

2011-11-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had the opportunity of hosting a baby shower with some fabulous ladies. Here are some raw pictures from the event.

The adorable mommy to be Jennifer

pink plates and napkins

Everything pink on the tables

Beautiful roses all over the house

The adorable cake

This is the biggest diaper cake any of us had ever seen...it was brought to the shower in 4 sections and was taller than the mommy to be.


Sugar cookie favors in the shape of onesies and ducks

The baby shower was a success. Everyone had a great time and Jenn got great gifts for her bundle of joy. We can't wait to meet the baby.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T21:45:00.001-07:00

Strawberry Shortcake (aka Ms M) hopes you had a fun and safe Halloween!

Roloff Farm Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is a post from October 2010...We had such a great time at the Roloff farm (just outside of Portland, Oregon) I thought I would share the post again.

Last week was Fall Break and we went on a trip to Portland, Oregon for a few days. We spent time in the downtown, visiting Pumpkin Patches/local farms, antique stores, Saturday Market and eating at the local restaurants. The best part of the trip was our visit to the Roloff Farm. Not only was it exciting to meet the family from the TLC show Little People Big World but the pumpkin farm was fabulous. It is the BEST one that I have ever been to.

This is how our day went:

As soon as we parked and walked up to the entrance we were greeted by Matt. He was talking to everyone and taking pictures with anyone that wanted one (95% of the people were taking advantage).

We bought tickets for the wagon farm tours, as we walked out of the door we saw Jacob. Just like on the show he is much quieter than his dad but happy to talk to visitors and take pictures.

Then we checked out the pumpkins. There was one area where you could pick your pumpkin off the vine or another area where you could just "pick" your pumpkin up from the grass field.

We also made our way to the petting zoo

and saw the dog, Rocky, wandering all over the farm.

We went on the wagon tour. The tour was awesome (our driver was Mueller, a family friend and he is often on the show)! We saw everything that you could imagine or that you have seen on the show. Here are some pictures from both tours.

The house and some of the vehicles...

Men's Crisis Center...

Amy's gazebo and the fire pit area...

Swamp fort...

Western town...

On the 2nd wagon tour we got to get off of the wagon and explore the Western Town and visit with the Roloff Grandparents...

Matt's newest project, the Ark and the animals...

Little Ms M decided she wanted to participate in the pony rides.

She went around and around on a pony named Chief when suddenly Matt appeared on his Ranger and took a picture of her with his phone. He said something like this, "I hope you don't mind that I took her picture, she just looks so cute."

We went back to the area with the pumpkins and picked small ones they had to fit in our luggage to take home.

We also took a lot of photos in the TALL chair...

We were just getting ready to leave and Amy came out of the house. Just like Matt she talked to everyone and was available for photos. Amy talked and danced with Ms M.

Overall I give the Roloff Farm, the wonderful family and friendly staff an A+. We had a great time and I don't think the experience could have gotten any better.

If you are going to be near Portland in October you should make the the Roloff Farm a destination on your places to visit. You won't be disappointed.

Outdoor Tuffet

2011-10-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

(Gum Drop Pillow)

I have to admit, I'm not much for patterns. I like to figure things out on my own and pretty much wing it, but when I saw the Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillow pattern I had to buy it.

How can you not love those Gum Drops???

I bought the pattern and outdoor fabric and made two of the Gum Drop Pillows (Ms M calls them Tuffets) for my back patio. I couldn't let the extra fabric go to waste so I made some coordinating pillows too.

If you plan on making these you will need to purchase more fiber-fill than suggested. I used double the amount and they are so firm that I can sit on them.

New Blog Design

2011-10-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

Did you notice the improvements around here? I've been thinking about changing the look of my blog for awhile and I found the perfect person to do it. Kim from Seven Thirty Three did all the design changes here. Check out her blog and view her portfolio...you will be amazed at all of the creative blogs she has designed. Her prices are reasonable and she could not have been easier and FASTER to work with. I submitted the form and my blog design was completed and installed in less than a week. I love my new blog design...Thank YOU, Kim!

Sewing Progress - Elite Tote

2011-10-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

I have been sewing and sewing and sewing Elite Tote bags for some of our upcoming boutiques. We have just under 70 bags that will be sold this fall and winter. My mom is finishing the last 3 or 4 today. Here is a glimpse at the completed purses all lined up...

I'll be posting some additional pictures in the next few weeks. Check out our website and blog to see when we will be selling these bags and for other information.

Painting a Bird House

2011-10-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

One of my friends is cleaning out her house because she is moving to Sweden and she thought Ms M might want this little house to play with.

As soon as I saw it I knew what we were going to do with it. A few holes on the sides, a hook on the top and some primer was all it needed to do to get it ready for our project.

Ms M was excited to begin. We painted her feet for one side and her hands for the other side and then I let her do the rest.

She painted all the sides, the door, roof and even inside the drawer.

Once she was finished we let it dry over night and then put an outdoor clear coat on it for protection. Check back for the a picture of what it looks like finished...I'll post it hanging in the new spot at our new house.

Fall Cookies

2011-10-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

It's just under 100 degrees in Arizona so it doesn't feel like fall but we made a few sugar cookies to get us in the mood for cooler weather.

A Frame Change

2011-10-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

I found this frame over a year ago and had big plans for it but I forgot what those plans were so I just came up with something else.

I removed the knobs and glass and painted it a yellow/gold color and then added a glaze for a little distressed look.

Once it was dry I put the glass and knobs back and added some pictures.

It's ready to hang on the wall whenever our new house is ready for it.

1st try at Locker Rug Hooking

2011-10-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

While I was shopping for fabric for the the Kenzie Mac Ruffle Skirts at Quiltz I spotted something that I really liked. After a quick lesson from one of the sales people I purchased the materials and was on my way to make a beautiful rug. I got home and cut out a basket full of leftover pink, green and white fabric to make the rug for Ms M's room in our new house. I searched "locker rug hooking" on YouTube and watched a few videos before I began the project too. Here it is now...

I have been working on it for a few weeks and I still have a long way to go. It's taking a lot longer than I expected and I have used 4 times the amount of fabric for half of the rug than I thought I would need for the entire project but it's going to be worth it.

I'll post another picture once the rug is complete.

Bootiful Cupcakes

2011-10-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

We had some family over and I made these "Bootiful" cupcakes for the kids.

They are all gone now...everyone enjoyed the Halloween treat.

Beach Wedding

2011-09-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from the wedding rehearsal dinner in my last post. Here are pictures that I took just before the bridal party hid in the house while the guests arrived for the ceremony.

Before it all began...

This is the what you see when you walk up from the beach and towards the tent. Behind the tent is the beach house.

Inside the tent

The tables and centerpieces

Head table

Flower ball for the flower girl and the brides bouquet

Some of the adorable chalkboard signs

The bride and groom

Ms M and me at the reception

Beach Wedding Rehearsal

2011-09-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month we went to a beautiful beach wedding in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The weather was beautiful all week and everything ended up perfect. A Thursday luncheon, rehearsal dinner and wedding reception took place at a beautiful house on the beach. I have a ton of pictures from the wedding but only a few the rehearsal dinner. Here you go...

The wedding colors were aqua and burnt orange...the flip flop cookies were perfect.

I love the chalkboard signs all over the reception and rehearsal. I'll post more chalkboard signs from the wedding tomorrow.

After dinner the bride and groom passed out Wish Lanterns and markers to each table. Everyone at the table wrote a wish for the couple on the lantern. Once everyone was finished we went to the grass (at the edge of the beach) and let the lanterns go into the sky. It took a bit longer than we expected for them to fill with air and rise but once they did it was spectacular. It was very similar to what they do in the movie Tangled.

This lantern is just taking off and you can see a few others that are much higher up, they look like little specs of light in the sky.

Check back tomorrow for pictures of the wedding.

Bows Bows Bows

2011-08-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

I started making Ms M ~~a few~~ bows to go with every outfit this summer. I had so much fun making them and she finds a bow or two to wear everyday. Here are a few for you to enjoy.

Many of the bows will be available for sale at our Kenzie Mac & Co event in November and at the boutiques throughout the year.

Hand Painted Wood Signs

2011-08-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

Last February I posted my "Be Mine" sign and promised you that I would share the other signs that I made with the same wood scraps. I'm sorry that it took ~~forever~~ so long for me to share the photos with you but here you go. There are some photos of the entire sign and a few close ups so you can really see what they look like.

"Believe" for Christmas

"Tatum"

"Lily"

"Will"

Purple Bridal Luncheon

2011-08-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

I hosted a Bridal Luncheon at a local golf course a few months ago. The colors of the wedding were purple and black so we used that color scheme for the luncheon too. Of course I forgot to bring my camera to the luncheon so I only have pictures of the favors, decorations and invitations as I was making them.
The purple and white invitations went in black envelopes. To see how to make the invitations click here.

The tables were rectangular and I spread these tissue paper flower balls down the center of each table. I also found black metal bucket for purple tulips and small white buckets with purple candy for the center of the tables.

On top of the purple and black menu was the part favor. I made heart shaped krispie treats on a stick and drizzled purple and white candy melts and sprinkles on top. The favors had each guests name on them and served as a place card as well.

Everything came together very nicely...I just wish I actually brought my camera to take pictures of everything.

House Update

2011-08-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Have you been wondering why I haven't been updating you on the house progress? To make a very LONG story short... we didn't end up buying the house that I posted pictures of. I have an offer in on another house right now. It's a short sale. The owners accepted the offer and we are just waiting for the bank to accept it. This house needs a lot less work than the last one but I still have a long list (just not as long as before) of projects that I want to do to it. I'll post pictures once I know if we will actually be moving in or not.

Birthday Pillowcases

2011-07-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

Ms M turned 3...I can't believe that she can possibly be 3 years old already but she is. Her party was at Pump it Up and we (my mom and I) made birthday pillowcases for the party favors. Actually my mom did the embroidery of the names and I sewed the pillowcases...25 pillowcases. It took a lot longer than I expected but everyone seemed to enjoy a party favor that you don't throw away the day after the party. We picked a different color scheme for the boys and the girls.

I folded each pillowcase and attached a note explaining the idea of the Birthday Pillowcase.

The note said...
Thank you for sharing in your own special way
and helping to celebrate my 3rd Birthday!

We made this birthday pillowcase just for you,
to add to your future birthday celebrations too.
The night before your birthday put the pillow in your pillowcase
When you wake in the morning you will have a smile on your face!
I hope you use this pillowcase year after year
and that it adds to your birthday cheer!
Love,
Ms M

Just in case you were wondering what was next to the pillowcases...each family got a bag of homemade sugar cookies too.

Pending

2011-05-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

I finally found a house, they accepted the offer and it is currently pending. The closing date is June 1st...and that is when the work begins. I have a 2 page list of "things" that need to be done in the house. Here are a few pictures of it in its current condition. It won't look anything like this once I am done replacing carpet and some flooring, knocking out 3 walls, removing arches, filling in some walls, replacing doors and windows, painting the entire exterior and interior, landscaping, entire kitchen renovation, lighting changes, etc. That's just the beginning but you get the idea. I'll have a lot to post once I actually own the house and begin the demolition and reconstruction to make it beautiful.

House Shopping...

2011-04-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

Where have I been???

Yes, I have been shopping for a new HOME and I am ready to find it. I'll get back to the creative projects, organizing and craft posts as soon as I FIND the ONE!

Organizing the accessories that belong to Barbie...

2011-02-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

Ms M isn't even 3 and we already have too much Barbie "stuff" to keep organized in one large basket. It looked like this...

I wasn't using this 5 drawer plastic container anymore so I decided it would be a good Barbie "stuff" organizer.

1st I decided what I was going to put in each drawer. There were 5 categories and 5 drawers, PERFECT! I found images for each category on the Internet and printed them on labels.

Each label has a picture and the word for what is supposed to go in that drawer. The categories are; brushes, clothes, shoes, accessories, clothes and play pieces that are included as accessories with some Barbies.

This is what they look like on the drawers.

Here is a close up of the "shoe" drawer.

This is the inside of the "play pieces" drawer.

Everything is organized in the drawers and the Barbie dolls are the only thing in the big basket now. Ms M loves looking at the pictures and putting the items in the correct drawer. I was actually surprised that she understands this system so well...so far, so good.

Valentine project in the works...

2011-02-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a Valentine for the party in Ms M's class.

These mailboxes are form the dollar section at Target.

"Be Mine" Sign

2011-02-07T14:34:00.000-08:00

I had some square wood pieces left over from a project I did last year and wanted to get them out of my craft space find something creative to do with them. I painted, drilled holes in the corners and added a few letters with stencils. Once the paint was dry I attached them together with tulle and ribbon.

This was just the beginning...I used all but 5 of the wood pieces to make signs like this one but for different holidays and with names of some of the children in my life. Check back to see those photos in the next few days.

Linking Up...

a href="http://www.texasmonkey.blogspot.com" target="_blank">

Breakfast with Santa

2011-01-02T18:32:00.000-08:00

Ms M hosted her first annual breakfast with Santa for 18 of her closest friends and cousins at Grandma's house. Here she is waiting for everyone to arrive.

The mail station was set up near the front door so that each child could write a letter to Santa when he/she arrived.

When they finished the letters they went outside to decorate cookies. Each family had a disposable cookie sheet to put the cookies on once they finished so that they could take the decorated cookies home.

Just before Santa made his grand entrance all of the guests got a plate of food and sat down at the tables. The breakfast/brunch included mini blueberry muffins, banana bread, poppy seed bread, Christmas bread, mini doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, yogurt and granola, fruit salad, mini quiches, sugar cookies, orange juice, apple juice, cranberry juice, milk, chocolate milk and coffee.

Once they had the food they went to the tables inside. The tables were set with a place card for each child and two crafts to complete after they finished eating.

Once everyone was seated Santa walked in the front door saying, "Ho Ho Ho". His elf followed right behind him. Most of the kids loved it.

Santa sat in front of the Christmas tree and the kids and families took turns sitting with him and having their pictures taken.

Once they sat with Santa they returned to their seats and finished eating and/or worked on the craft projects. One was a picture frame with Santa on it and the other was a snowman ornament that held a candy cane.

Santa left after everyone that wanted to visit with him had a chance to. Shortly after he was gone the party ended and everyone grabbed a party favor bag on the way out the door.

Too see the invitations for the Brunch with Santa keep reading or go here.

Brunch with Santa Invitations

2010-12-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

I am hosting a Brunch with Santa for Ms M and some of her friends next week. I made the invitations for the event. You can see the same type of invitations that I made for a baby shower here.

First you have to decided what you are going to write on the invitations and print them.

Then make the folders for the main part of the invitation to slide into. Take a regular 8 1/2x11 paper and cut it in half length wise.

Then fold both of the pieces in half.

Cute from one corner of the paper to the opposite corner (making a triangle).

You need to cut triangle pieces off of both of the long pieces that you just folded. You will use the entire 8 1/2x11 paper for 1 invitation. Make sure you cut opposite triangle sides off so that the pieces can fold together...this can be a bit confusing at first.

Lay the flat part of the invitations on top of each other and fold the triangle pieces inward. Once you know that the pieces fit together you can glue/tape the back pieces together.

Next, fold the triangle from one side down and add the decorative triangle paper (cut separately) to the first side.

Fold the other side of the triangle over the decorative paper. Add an additional decorative triangle piece to the other side of the paper. Make sure that all pieces stick together at this time.

Add embellishments at this time. I cut out stars with a punch and added a ribbon to the invitations this time.

This is what the folder looks like finished but without the actual invitation inside of it.

Now it's time to cute the paper with the wording. I cut them out and then used a decorative corner rounder on the corners.

Then you mount the words to the decorative background paper...for these invitations I used the same background paper as I used for one of the triangles on the folder part of the invitation.

Here are both pieces for the invitation.

Slide the wording into the folder and your invitation is complete.

Wreath Time

2010-11-26T15:23:00.000-08:00

Last January I made these wreaths with ornaments that I bought during the after Christmas sales. I can't wait to hang them up now that it's time to decorate for Christmas.

Check here and here to see how I made them.

Linking To:

The Creative Crate

Fall Sugar Cookies and Frosting

2010-11-26T14:11:00.000-08:00

I bought a leaf shaped cookie cutter before Halloween and didn't find time to use it until yesterday. We made sugar cookies, frosted them and brought them to share with the kids at both of our Thanksgiving celebrations yesterday.

While the cookies were in the oven we made the frosting.

We picked orange, yellow and green for fall leaves. I love frosting sugar cookies. I made 1 big batch of frosting and separated it into sandwich size bags. I add a different color of food coloring to each bag.

My little helper loves to "squish" the food coloring around in the bag until the entire bag of frosting has turned to the color we desire.

Once the color is perfect I cut one corner of the bag and then squeeze the frosting into individual plastic bottles.

I make a line around the outside of the cookie and then fill it in with slightly thinner frosting in the middle. My little helper added a few sprinkles to the cookies today too.

We ended up with cookies like this...these were the extras but I forgot to take a picture all the finished cookies before we gave them away.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T08:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Turkey Day! I hope you have a fun day with your family and friends.

Color in Cupcakes

2010-11-07T08:06:00.000-08:00

First, I have to apologize for not posting this when I made these cupcakes for my daughter's birthday in June. Ooops! I forgot about doing it until I was reading through my old posts last week.

It's easy to make your cupcakes colorful. You can use any color of food coloring but I made mine red, white and blue because they were for the big red, white and blue birthday party. You can use any kind of cupcake mix as long as it's a light/white color. After you have the batter mixed together separate it three bowls (or the number of colors you want). Put a few drops of red food coloring in one bowl, blue in another bowl and leave the third bowl alone (this will be the white). Poor a little batter from each bowl into every cupcake wrapper. Bake according to package directions. Once you the cupcakes cool you can decorate them however you want to.

The inside turns out like this...

Candyland Birthday Party

2010-10-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

We went to two Birthday parties on Saturday. One was a football theme and the other was a Candyland theme. The decorations were fun and there was PLENTY of candy.

The Roloff Farm is Amazing

2010-10-12T17:05:00.000-07:00

This is how our day went:

As soon as we parked and walked up to the entrance we were greeted by Matt. He was talking to everyone and taking pictures with anyone that wanted one (95% of the people were taking advantage).

We bought tickets for the wagon farm tours, as we walked out of the door we saw Jacob. Just like on the show he is much quieter than his dad but happy to talk to visitors and take pictures.

Then we checked out the pumpkins. There was one area where you could pick your pumpkin off the vine or another area where you could just "pick" your pumpkin up from the grass field.

We also made our way to the petting zoo

and saw the dog, Rocky, wandering all over the farm.

The house and some of the vehicles...

Men's Crisis Center...

Amy's gazebo and the fire pit area...

Swamp fort...

Western town...

On the 2nd wagon tour we got to get off of the wagon and explore the Western Town and visit with the Roloff Grandparents...

Matt's newest project, the Ark and the animals...

Little Ms M decided she wanted to participate in the pony rides.

We went back to the area with the pumpkins and picked small ones they had to fit in our luggage to take home.

We also took a lot of photos in the TALL chair...

We were just getting ready to leave and Amy came out of the house. Just like Matt she talked to everyone and was available for photos. Amy talked and danced with Ms M.

Overall I give the Roloff Farm, the wonderful family and friendly staff an A+. We had a great time and I don't think the experience could have gotten any better.

If you are going to be near Portland in October you should make the the Roloff Farm a destination on your places to visit. You won't be disappointed.

Guess where we are...

2010-10-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

Can you guess where we are spending this vacation? I posted two photos to help you out...

I'll be back next week to share all of the fun that we are having.

Quick Fruit Pizza

2010-10-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

I made this fruit pizza last week because I needed a quick dessert. I normally make my own cookie dough but I used some form the store this time because I was in a hurry.

- Roll the dough into one giant cookie shape and put it in the oven at 350 for about 12 minutes.
While the dough is in the oven:
- make the cream cheese frosting ( I mix ABOUT 10oz of cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla)
- cut the fruit you are going to use as toppings in thin slices

When you take the giant cookie out of the oven let it cool.

Once it is cool spread the frosting mixture all over the cookie and then place the fruit on top. You can put it in any design or pattern that you want.

Scrapbook Journal Writing...Making it Easier

2010-10-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

I have been working hard to complete my scrapbook pages. I finished another album last week. I love completing the last page in the album...I feel like I have accomplished something. The picture below is of the last two albums that I have completed. Both albums contain almost one entire year of photos.

Anyway, on to the scrapbook journal writing part of the post... I have never been good at writing in my scrapbooks. I don't like my handwriting and I often forget to print something that I have written until I am almost finished with the page. I used this idea when I was working on 1 or 2 past albums and it was really helpful so I decided to do it again with the new album that I am about to start working on.

This is the way that I find it easiest to get a good journal entry onto your scrapbook pages...
1st - organize your photos and divide them into the pages/layouts that you will be working on. I put all of my photos into the page sleeve in the album that I am working on. I currently have pictures slipped into the page sleeves of my general family album from March through July. That will be about 25 individual page layouts.

2nd - Take your album (with the the pictures in each page) to the computer with you and start typing away. I started at the 1st page in the album. If you have a story that you want to tell or something important that you need to document journal about it. I didn't write something for every layout. Some pages don't need any writing and others do. Everything I wrote was short and to the point (about 2-6 sentences) because most people looking at your albums won't read anything longer than that. Once you have completed the your typing change the fonts and adjust the sizes that you want for each little blurb that you wrote. You can also change the shapes (edit the margins) so each one looks entirely different.

3rd - PRINT what you wrote and use your trusty paper trimmer to cut each journal entry out.

Here are all of my journal entries cut apart and ready to go onto the page layouts...

Once they are cut out you can slip them into the proper page sleeves with the pictures that you placed there before you did your writing. Now you can spend your time being creative and making the cute layouts that everyone loves...you don't have to think about what you are going to write until you complete this album and move on to the next one.

I hope this helps you spend less time writing and more time working on layouts for your albums. Happy Scrapping!

Thank You and a WINNER!

2010-09-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Thank you Becky...for your entry on my 1st link party. You are the winner of the Tutu from Kenzie Mac & Co. Please send me the address you want your tutu to be sent to and let me know if you want an infant (0-2 years) or child (2-7) size tutu. Thanks.

My FIRST Link Party

2010-09-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

It's time for my FIRST Link Party and Giveaway. Link up your crafts, DIY projects, recipes, remodel projects, before and after posts, or anything else that YOU spent time on.
Everyone that "links up" and follows the rules will have the opportunity to win a Halloween inspired tutu from Kenzie Mac & Co.

Rules:
1. Become a Follower of this blog.
2. Link to your specific post, not you entire blog
3. Link back to the party so everyone knows where to go to share their inspiration with us.
4. If you really LOVE a post leave a comment to let that person know how much you like what they did.

The winner of the Kenzie Mac & Co. tutu giveaway will be announced next week.Info on the Tutu: The Original Tutu is perfect for every little girl. It can be worn with leggings as part of an everyday outfit, to a party or to play dress up. The Original Tutu has an elastic waistband and plenty of tulle. Available in infant (0-2 years) and child (2-7 years).

Don't Forget...Link Party

2010-09-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

In less than 24 hours I will be hosting my 1st Link Party and a Giveaway. Please "link up" something you love and tell your friends to join us too.

Thank you,

My 1st Linky Party & Giveaway

2010-09-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

I am hosting my FIRST Linky Party this week. You can submit crafts, DIY projects, recipes, remodel projects, before and after posts, or anything else that YOU spent time on. Please tell your friends so we get some great links.

I'll have more information on the giveaway soon.

Family Room

2010-09-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

This is the last post of pictures from my 2nd house.

Here is the family room just before I moved in...

This is the family room a few months later...

Living Room Picture Wall

2010-09-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

This is the living room in my 2nd house just before we moved in.

Here it is after I completed the picture wall. I saw a picture in the Pottery Barn catalog of picture frames on a ledge and stars. I love stars so I knew I had to have it. I created my own picture wall in my living room because it had 2 story ceilings. It also has really high windows so those are the light spots you see on the wall.

This is just another view of the room when I was standing on the stairs.

Don't worry, if you are getting sick of the pictures from my old houses, I only have one more room to post about.

Sports Theme Game/Play Room

2010-09-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Here is another room from my 2nd house. It's the game/play room. We decorated it as a sports theme room and had a variety of items on the walls and shelves from different college and professional teams. It is the size of an oversized 2 car garage.

The first thing I did was paint the walls a dark blue (almost Navy) and put up a chair rail with a lot of help form my sister-in-law (she did all the cutting).

I painted the entire wall in the alcove because we decided to put built-in shelves and a window seat there and wanted the dark color to contrast with the white wood.

Once the room was painted and the chair rail was finished I began to hang "stuff" on the walls.

This is how it started...I was going to fill every inch of the main wall with "stuff" representing teams that we liked and pictures of our family and friends at various sporting events but I ended up taking some of that stuff down (see last photo).

This is a picture of the window seat and built-in shelves with lots of storage for toys, books and decorations.

This is a close up of the window seat. I had my mom make 5 pillows (2 here and 3 on the couch) out of our old ASU t-shirts. This was a fun way to carry out the theme throughout the room.

This picture is the only one that I have of the room in its finished form. A few more important things were hung on the walls after this but you get the idea.

Dinning Room Makeover and Updating a Table

2010-09-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

I told you in my last post that I would be posting pictures from my 2nd house. Here are some from the dining room...please remember that these photos are 2 and 3 years old (depending on the picture) and I didn't take them for blogging so the quality may not be the best.

This is the dinning room in my 2nd house. The picture was taken a few days before we bought the house. The opening on the right leads to the kitchen. Look at the ugly chandelier...

I bought a beautiful black distressed china cabinet for the wall on the right at the French Bee in Phoenix and was on the hunt for the perfect table. A month or two passed without any luck on a table and I decided to make my kitchen table work in the dining room (and buy a new kitchen table).

This is a picture of one of the chairs after I removed the seat and completely sanded it. Sorry for not having before pictures.

I painted and distressed all four of the chairs, put a finishing coat on them and covered the seats with new fabric.

During this time we also painted stripes on the dining room walls and put up a chair rail around the room. The picture below is before I put the seat part back on the chairs.

Now you can see the china cabinet that I got at the French Bee in the right side of the photo.

Below is the dinning room in it's finished form...seat cushions on chairs, window treatment hung, pictures on the wall and new chandelier up. Did I mention that I got the chandelier for free?!?

Linking Up:

Looking Back...My 1st House

2010-09-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

These are a few pictures of the my first house (the 1st house that we owned). It was under 1500 sqft and had a kitchen, great room, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, office/den, laundry and 2 car garage. It's fun to see how styles change and what you once loved is not what you would pick today. Sorry that these are not the best pictures, I didn't take them for blogging...I don't even think I knew what blogging was in 2004.

Kitchen

Great Room

Office

I will be posting a few different projects from pictures that I found from my 2nd house too.

Decorative Balls

2010-09-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

I have a tall glass canister with a lid that I would like to have on display. I usually use it for candy when I host parties with candy bars/candy buffets. It has been sitting in various places in the house because I didn't know what to put inside of it. I found some decorative balls on sale and brought them home but they ended up being too big. I returned them and have been on the hunt to find smaller ones for the past few weeks. No luck...I can't find smaller ones, they are not my colors, they are too expensive, etc. etc...

I decided I would make my own. I wasn't sure what I was going to use but I headed to Hobby Lobby. I found a variety of sizes of styrofoam balls and itsy-beads-sies (a vase filler). They looked easy enough to hot glue to a styrofoam ball. Boy was I wrong about that. They had so much static electricity that they were EVERYWHERE. I finished a few balls with those things and moved on to something much easier...BEANS!

Begin by hot gluing an area on the ball and then placing the beans on top of the ball.
Keep doing this until you have the entire ball covered.
I put all of the finished balls into a bag and headed outside to paint them. See how I have more with beans then the other little balls...
I stuck each ball on a food skewer to make it easy to spray paint them.
The first color I used was black. I had two balls painted and thought they looked great until I painted the third one. It was one with the little ball thingies all over it. The paint went on great but as soon as I took my finger off of the sprayer I could hear a strange sound coming from the ball as if it was hissing at me.
The spray paint was melting the little ball thingies that I had glued all over the styrofoam ball.
I painted the rest of the balls anyway.
Here they are drying.
In the end they turned out like this. I am happy with the results even if the paint did destroy the little balls. It just gives it a different kind of look.
After I put them in the tall glass canister that I had planned to put them in I decided that something else would go better in that canister so I searched for a new place for these decorative balls to go. Here they are in there new home...a cute little tray I found on sale at Marshalls for $7.99.
If you are going to do this project I suggest working with beans rather than the other "thingies".

Link Parties:

Sidewalk Chalk (layout)

2010-09-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you have figured out that I've been working on my scrapbook layouts instead of other projects lately...I'm trying to get caught up. The photos on this one are from January when Mackenzie discovered sidewalk chalk and we had to play with it everyday. :)

Sitting Pretty Layout

2010-09-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

We went to the 7th Avenue Street Fair/Melrose Street Fair in March and I snapped this picture of Mackenzie. The beads and sunglasses are typical (she never wants to take them off) but I just love the way she was sitting on the curb waiting for a snack.

Dollar Store Containers

2010-08-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

I got these containers/small jars at one of the dollar stores near my house today. They came in a package of 3 for 1 dollar. I got 3 packages. Here they are all lined up on my shelf just waiting to be filled with something crafty...

They can also lean forward like this...
I decided to put my buttons in them. Each color has it's own container.

I love the way they look lined up with different colors in each one.

I'm thinking about going back to get more. I have one more empty shelf that they fit perfectly on. The question is...how many packages should I get???

Scrapbook Pages

2010-08-24T16:44:00.001-07:00

I've been working on my scrapbook layouts...trying to get "caught up". Here are a few of the pages that I really like right now.

2010 Valentine Love

16-18 Month Favorite Photos of Mackenzie

Santa's Lab with Girl Cousins 2009

Mama's Shoes

Lab Love

I hope you get some ideas from these pages. Happy Scrapping!

New House...

2010-07-27T16:30:00.000-07:00

My mom is moving into this new house tomorrow. Since she doesn't update her blog much I am posting pictures on mine. They are finally down sizing both house and yard. The new house is about 1/2 the size of the one they live in now. It is beautiful inside...the previous owners gutted it and did a complete remodel 2 or 3 years ago. The cabinets in the photos look white washed and they are NOT. They will be doing a lot of painting...although the painting is nice it does not go well with her style of decorating.

Sorry the coloring is a bit off in these photos.

Kitchen

Desk in the Kitchen

Formal Dining Room

Kitchen Pantry (with an area to hang tablecloths)

1/2 of Guest Room Closet

Guest Room 1

Sewing Room

Master Bedroom

"His" Closet in Master

"Her" Closet in Master

I'll post more photographs of it once they are unpacked...you won't believe her style (to say its unique is an understatement). I'll also try to remember to include front and rear house, family room, living room, entry, garage (it's worth seeing) and eating area photos...and anything else I forgot.

Oh...I am jealous of all the storage and the HUGE closets in this house.

Collecting for Her New Room

2010-07-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

As you know I have many ideas for my daughter's big girl room and the planning began before she was even one.

The furniture will be a white shabby chic style with glass knobs (I have already completed the desk/vanity, dresser, princess seat and bookshelf), the walls will be painted a mint green, the duvet is Magnolia from Pottery Barn Teen and the accessories are pink and green.

The past few months I have been collecting a few accessories to go in her new room.

Back from Vacation

2010-07-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

I'm back from La Jolla for a few days before I head for the cabin. It's just too HOT here!!! I haven't put all of the pictures on my computer from our trip but I'll get around to it sooner or later. Here are a few of the cute houses that I saw when I was there...

2nd Birthday/Patriotic Party = Success

2010-07-01T16:04:00.001-07:00

Sigh.......it's over. The Red, White and Blue 2nd Birthday party was last Saturday and it was a huge success. I worked on decorations and food for this party for WAY to long but it was perfect. My only regret was that I didn't get more pictures. Darn! With almost 100 party guests who has time for pictures!?!?!? Here are a few to let you see how it all turned out...or at least what I got photos of.

Below: The Birthday girl ready for the guests to arrive.

Behind her is a table with two scrapbook pages ready for people to sign.

Below: Food Tables...I had three food tables, a candy buffet and a dessert table/kitchen island. The main food table was inside and had chips and salsa, chips and dip, humus and pita chips, veggies and dip, fruit skewers, watermelon wedges, rice crispy treats, star shaped sugar cookies, pretzels, pretzel sticks dipped in candy melts, red, white and blue chocolate covered strawberries, cheese and crackers and veggie stick.

The second table was also inside and had one of these on it...

The inflatable buffet was filled with ice to keep some of the food cold. It had potato salad, 2 kinds of pasta salad, fruit salad, dip for fruit and some chip dips.

The third food table was outside and had hot dog and hamburger buns, condiments, slices onion and tomato and lettuce and space for the burgers and hot dogs to be served.

Below is a view of one side of the yard...it had a big Banzai water slide, bounce toy and slip and slide. This side of the yard also had two 8 foot tables and chairs and 1 kids picnic table for people to sit at and eat. Separated by the pool, the other side of the yard had the grill area and two more tables with chairs for eating and lots of adirondack chairs for people to lounge.

The candy buffet was inside. All the candy was red, white and blue. The picture below is before I finished filling up all of the containers.

Below: Candy Buffet

I made 12-15 of these tissue paper hanging flowers for the party. I put them above the candy buffet and the main food table. I think they added a lot to the rooms and were inexpensive and pretty easy to make.

Below: Inside table to eat at...all 6 of the tables looked like this but some were 8 foot tables and the others were 6 foot tables. Each table had a red table cloth and a patriotic banner down the center. On top of the table was a sparkly star centerpiece with one picture decoration on each side of the table. The tables also had a bucket of veggie sticks and a star shaped bowl of pretzels.

I bought a variety of red, white and blue beach towels and had my mom embroider them with each child's name. She volunteered to do it before she knew that there were going to be 25 kids 12 years and younger attending the party. I rolled the towels and tied a big bow on them. They looked great together and everyone was excited about getting an embroidered towel as a party favor.

Here is the cake...the cake took FOREVER to decorate. We spent HOURS rolling out the fondant but it never got thin enough and made the cake very heavy. It was red velvet cake. I will take a fondant class and buy necessary tools before I make the cake next year.
This is the dessert table/island. In addition to the cake I made red, white and blue cupcakes for the kids to eat. I'll post directions for the cupcakes in another post.
Below: We are about to sing Happy Birthday...

After the cake we had a giant cupcake pinata and then a few horse rides.

Once the sun was set we had lots and lots of Sparklers too.

In the end it was a FANTASTIC party and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Now, I better start thinking about what I am going to do for her 3rd Birthday. ;)

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Making Treats for Patriotic Party

2010-06-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

I have been busy making treats for the red, white and blue party this weekend...

Kids Mail Box

2010-06-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

I know someone that loves projects, especially when they are for his grandchildren. He already made her an adorable play kitchen. I saw the plans for this mailbox on Knock Off Wood and gave them to him. He built the mailbox quickly (made a few more for other grandchildren too) and we picked it up a few days later.

Below you can see the mail slot...The door opens and is big enough to get the letters and notes out easily...
Here is the entire box...

Patriotic Birthday Invitations

2010-06-17T22:20:00.001-07:00

There are many adorable red, white and blue invitations available but when I found these I knew they were the ones I wanted for the event. I found them at a store that was closing and bought each and every one. At the time I didn't think that I would need more but if I did I could always find them with a quick google search...

WRONG....they were no where to be found. I searched and searched but they were all sold out or unavailable so I ended up ordering another invitation design (below).

This invitation is actually 2 pieces. One piece slides into a slit in the other one (see below).

I borrowed a few ideas from 4th of July invitations that I saw on various websites and came up with wording that I was happy with.

I know it isn't easy to read in the photos on this post so the wording is below.

Come celebrate

Mackenzie’s

Birthday in Sparkler Style!

This little firecracker is turning 2

Swimming, water slides and horses, it’s true

Come decked out in your red white and blue

A Star Spangled BBQ is sure to be fun

Smores and Sparklers for everyone

Join us for the evening & stay until it’s done

Saturday June 26^th at 5pm

Address/Location

Scottsdale, AZ 85260

RSVP to Lauren phone #

emailaddress@hotmail.com

*Don’t forget your swimsuit

"Better After" Dresser

2010-06-14T18:06:00.001-07:00

I bought this UGLY OLD dresser from a girl on craigslist. It had mismatched knobs and some of the drawers went inside so far that they got stuck.

I had a little help fixing it up and then I sanded, primed and painted it. I let it sit for a few days and then I distressed it and added the adorable glass knobs that I found at a store in Phoenix.

I can't wait to put it in a room with the desk/vanity and princess chair that I finished a few weeks ago.

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