craft room mini makeover

Last week I house sat for Cake Leah.  It was fun to be in a house by myself again!  Laura and I had conspired together before Leah and family left that if I house sat, we would give her craft room a desperately needed mini makeover.  Those of you moms with kids know that life with two toddlers leaves only precious few moments here and there to grab for a passion such as a craft of any kind...much less the time to actually keep a craft room looking spotless! On top of that, when she does grab those few moments here and there, she quite often ends up making things for US! Which of course we love :} don't get me wrong!  Then there's the fact that while Ben has an AMAZING music room downstairs that is solely for music...Leah's craft room triples as a craft room/office/guest room.  Laura and I decided it was high time that Leah have a room that felt more like an escape like Ben's music room.  And while it wouldn't end up looking like a room out of a magazine like his does, we did our best to make it cute and functional.  :)  

Here is a before shot:

We knew Leah needed an actual curtain over the window lol.  And I made the executive decision that that bookshelf should be pretty much dedicated to Leah's craft stuff.  We took over a couple shelves in the closet for all the books that were on the bookshelf.  Her window sill was lined with crafting odds and ends and we took care of that as well.  The material on the bed needed it's own place to go...so hello pinterest idea!

Here is an after shot:

We needed items for the wall so we added three things: in the left corner we went "shopping" in their basement for wedding pictures they had hung on the wall (hello! they should be hanging on a wall for everyone to see!!), we simply used a piece of contact paper above the window to add the word {create} for inspiration (contact paper was my idea...the word and {}s were from pinterest), and we used some beautiful little tapestries that our sweet friend, Jing, had brought back to Leah from China on the right side of the window.  

The sun was so bright at the moment that you can't really tell in the above pic, but there are matching pink baskets lining the window sill ($ tree!) plus a little green bucket that Leah already had for all her pens.  The larger pink basket on the sewing table is also from the $ Tree.  We added slips of scrapbook paper in the front of each drawer in the two drawer sets to the right of the table to hide the contents and make them all coordinate.

Here are some close ups of other things we did:

Wedding pictures from the basement...except the small one in a gold frame of just Leah...remember that one for future reference...

 Pinned and organized all ribbon.  Yes. That would be me who did it all in rainbow order...as much as I could.  :}

Pinterest idea of cool paper on the back of the bookshelf.  Baskets from the $ Tree for holding fabric scraps.  Cardboard (gift boxes also from the $ Tree!) to make mini bolts of fabric - yes, again in rainbow order...hey, it just makes sense! lol.  

Ok, remember I said this room is also the guest room?  And remember I told you to remember that one picture of Leah?  Well, this is how the guest bedroom side of the room used to look:

One tiny picture on that huuge white wall!!  And the bed the general fabric and scrap and odds and ends holder.

But not any longer!  This is probably my favorite part of the room now...  :)

 Laura found a way awesome Pinterest idea for those two biggest pictures kind of at the last minute...and of course we had to try it out!  You can order online at some office stores (we used Staples in OR...and found out later that the one in Knox can't do it...which is weird but whatever.)  an "engineer print" of a picture in black and white.  It cost $2 per picture at this size - this was the medium size - 24"x36"!  It prints out just on "regular" paper and then you grab some foam board (they said from home depot which cost $11...we grabbed some from...yes, the $ Tree...for...well...$1!), painted the edges black, used spray glue and set the pictures on it and voila!  huge cool and very light pictures for the wall!!  

We had a ton of fun working on this surprise...even though I about gave Laura a few heart attacks just taking over their house like that ("are you SURE Leah and Ben won't be mad that we're moving these books??  What if they need them?!" "Laura...we're only setting them in the closet! It's not like we're gonna get rid of them completely!...and AGAIN....have you SEEN Ben's music room?!")  :}

Hopefully Leah really enjoyed the makeover and will get a chance to enjoy the room...after she and her kiddos get over being sick!  :-p  Fun way to spend a trip, let me tell ya!  :-p

We love you Leah!  ;)

(abby...don't worry...i haven't forgotten about you...your post is coming!)

pampered

When a baby shower starts out like this...

...you know it's bound to be a good evening!

(I love this pic!)

This is Shannon and her cousin Jessica...my friend in real life, and my "bloggy friend" from Shady Nook.

I, of course, wanted to do a baby shower for Shannon...and Laura wanted to do one with me. Together we decided a girls' night out might be a better idea this time than a "regular" shower. We didn't have our definite plans yet so we hadn't mentioned that plan to Shannon. The funny thing was when Shannon commented that it might be fun to do a girls' night out instead of a regular shower! Lol! She was a little afraid I might not like that idea... as it turns out, we were all on the same page! :)

Shannon's other cousin, Jennifer, decided to not get a pedicure...so I told her she therefore got to be in charge of my camera for the evening! She took the above pictures - great job Jennifer...and thanks!! :)

After pampering our toes, and dinner at Chili's, we came back to my house for Leah cake and presents and just to hang out.

Jennifer is also my real-life/"bloggy" friend...from The Cozy Cottage. Go check out her cute blog and say hi! :)

Shannon's sweet roommate from college, Sybil, even came in for the shower! She's so cute. :)

So, what do the five of us girls + Shannon have in common? And when was the last time we were all lined up around her?

When we were all bridesmaids in Shannon's wedding several years ago in 2003!

Our "bouquets" looked slightly different this time... ha!! :)

And good grief, I'm short. Lol!

So colorful! So happy! Yay for cute feet! :)

Shannon, I hope you enjoyed your evening out! I am praying that little girl decides to make her appearance early...just not too early! lol :)

really late easter egg hunt

Because Leah's 2nd birthday party fell during the week before Easter, we didn't get to have the egg hunt we wanted to do until the week after Easter. But it was just as much fun!

little bo peep

Had to get these edited and up tonight because I have another photo shoot tomorrow evening! :) Just pray the rain will hold off until afterwards!!

Here are *some* of the rest of Leah's 2 yr birthday pics. I had come here to explore with Michael a few months back and couldn't wait to come in the spring when everything was green and flowering! It was definitely beautiful!

She loooves "circle flowers" and oh boy! were there plenty of them here!! She "shake! shake! shakes!" them instead of blowing them. Very effective! :)

We knocked on a lot of doors trying to see if Aiden was behind any of them. He wasn't. Aw, nuts.

She loved these red chairs! And mommy and Kiki were happy to beat the belly dancer over to them who was also there having her pictures taken. Ha!

Ooh, how I wish I had a video of this! :) She was holding this little chick toy and singing to it: "Rooock a bye chiiiiick....."

Soo. Sweet!!

Pausing to hug the tree during our peek-a-boo session... :)

And then Aiden came for a few minutes!!

They are so funny together! Aiden was peeking through the V in this tree and Leah wasn't quite sure of the point of this...although she did try it too. :)

And of course, I couldn't not take a pic of this little cutie! Can you just barely see her new accessory?? Here...you can see it in the one below...

She got her ears pierced!! She is just so fashionable! :) And yes, she's a pro at blowing bubbles! lol :)

Next we found a great tree to climb! By this time it was dark enough that I had to turn on my dreaded flash! Bleck. I do not like having to use it. but oh well. These two pics make me smile! :)

Flash again...ew. But look! Little toddlers holding hands...tooo cuuute!!!!

Some day these are going to be engagement pictures.

If these two can overlook the fact that little Leah would have the same name as her mother-in-law.... Teehee! :)

fancy nancy butterfly birthday

Yesterday was Little Miss Sunshine's birthday. She turned 8! I'm not sure how that happened! We decided we would have a small party in the morning with a couple of our favorite friends. LMS said she wanted to have a Fancy Nancy party. If you don't know who Fancy Nancy is...click here. To sum her up...she likes being fancy and wears whatever makes her feel fancy. So, we told our friends to dress as fancy as they wanted!

So everyone wore something super fancy and super cute!

After the quick group picture, it was time to eat!

Ok, so, I have been listening to a lot of Francis Chan's sermon's on YouTube lately. He is so challenging and speaks the truth so well. (He wrote the book Crazy Love...which, if you haven't read it yet...you should!) Anyways, several times he has mentioned how sometimes God just blesses us in the most surprising ways - even the tiny little details that He takes care of even when we haven't even asked Him to. For this party, all I did was tell Leah and Laura the Fancy Nancy theme. That was it. Nothing else. Ok, so notice the butterflies hanging in the kitchen that Wendy happened to put up that morning for LMS's birthday breakfast and note that the little cupcake liners I used to put the fruit in had butterflies on the bottom...and keep watching.

That whole center piece was from one of my favorite stores - the $ Tree. The flowers are pens and pinwheels and the little balls filling the vase are Sixlets candy.

Aiden looks so big drinking out of this big kid cup! :)

This little girl, who is most definitely "tutu cute", is SO. IN. LOVE. with Aiden!!! You should see the look on her face when she just sits there staring at him!! She is totally planning her wedding in her head! lol Ok, maybe not quite...but almost! At one point, Cake Leah picked Aiden up for a minute and this little Leah looked around and said, "Where did Aiden go???" like he did NOT ask permission to leave her sight! Ha! So cute.

Ok, back to Wendy's butterfly decorations. Leah agreed to make LMS a Fancy Nancy cake but all I did was flip through a F.N. book to show her who F. N. was. No other instructions or ideas whatsoever. Yeah...check out her (crazy beautiful) cake:

Uh-huh! Butterflies!!

Oh wait...there's more.

And fyi, this might be my favorite cake Leah has ever made...

and I might have eaten a slice for breakfast this morning....

Maybe.

Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday, make a wish, and blow out the candles. Which of course includes the obligatory picture of the birthday person with chipmunk cheeks as they blow... :}

Next it was on to presents! Have you seen Lalaloopsie dolls? Evidently it was one of the top items this Christmas. They are...interesting. :)

Oh, and see that pretty present with the flowers all over the wrapping paper?? Um yeah, that was from Laura and baby Leah and guess what was inside???

One craft box of butterflies to decorate and hang up.

AND!!

A FANCY NANCY BUTTERFLY BIRTHDAY sticker book!!!

Like...seriously?! Are you seeing a theme yet? A completely unplanned one? Well, unplanned by us girls anyways. :)

Aiden sat on a little stool and watched the present opening very patiently...for about two minutes. Which is about right for a two year old! Then he was off to the see-saw! :)

My handsome little man! :) He was soo excited to get to wear this suit and didn't take it off for the rest of the day! I told him he could change back into his favorite red sweatpants and a comfy shirt but he chose to stay all dressed up! He did make one slight change however...he didn't like that you could only see a tiny bit of his cool tie...so he pulled it out so in hung down in front of his jacket and then it was all perfect! :)

We love our baby Leah!! :)

Everyone had such a good time! The kids had fun playing. The mommies/kiki enjoyed squeezing in a bit of grown-up conversation in between chasing kiddos. And the birthday girl said it was the best day ever! Leah, she told daddy that you made her cake and worked soo hard on it and that shows how much you must love her! ;)

A little while after everyone left, the mailman brought LMS a package from Aunt Janet! It was a "grow your own mushroom crop" package which is perfect because LMS LOVES science! She also sent these cool little laser rings for all three kiddos and they couldn't put them down the rest of the day!

We of course got outside for just a couple minutes for a quick mini bday photo shoot....

Fancy hair. :) Not the best zig zag job I've ever done. I do zig zag parts a lot because it's just fun and super easy! Oh, and I made her hairbows the night before. Can you tell what sparkly things I chose to put in the middle?? Yup! Butterflies!! I was trying to decide between that or flowers but liked the way the butterflies looked better. Little did I know at the time.....! It was just so fun that four of us chose butterflies for different things and hadn't even discussed it! It just felt like God reminding me one more time that He cares about the big stuff...but that He also cares about the little stuff too - stuff we never even thought to worry about in the first place! :)

Funny kids. :) LMG has no teeth! And Mr. Happy has a banged up chin! He fell and hit it on the corner of a metal box! Yeesh! Thankfully I was not around for that one!

One sweet pic....aaand of course...one goofy one!! That's my kiddos! They get it from their mother...! lol :D

Ok, so check this adorable little boy out:

Cute, isn't he??

Actually, that is not the same little boy!! The one in the middle is Aiden...the other two are Mr. Happy a couple years ago when he was two!! Aiden gets most of the clothes MH grows out of and wore this outfit to our little party. He got out of the car and I said he looked just like MH! Which is a comment that has been made before. So I had to pull up a couple pics of MH in the same outfit. It's so fun to get to see it on another little handsome boy now! :)

LMS, I hope you had an awesome day! I think you did. :) You are such a sweet girl with a tender heart. I love how you are learning to love Jesus and have told me before that you have prayed for our new friend Isaac or the little street boys in Uganda at some point during your day. You are so helpful around the house for me and are so much fun to be around. I love you!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE!!!