Advent Calendar {Spice Tins}

I know, I know, it's December 14th. A bit late for sharing my advent calendar, but well, that's life. My blog isn't the only thing that's neglected. You should see my eye brows! But things are changing, tonight I'm updating the blog. And who knows what tomorrow might bring for my face!

My friend Angie shared this Glittered Magnetic Advent Calendar from Martha Stewart which inspired this year's advent calendar. You might remember my "Advent Forest" made of paper truffle boxes last year. The paper boxes were fun, but I was looking for something more durable. And plus, who wants to do the same thing two years in a row? Gotta change things up, people. So...this year, we went PINK. Yes, that's right, with two little girls in our world now, most everything is pink. I purchased a pink artificial Christmas tree and ornaments to match. Each of these spice tins holds about three tiny ornaments. I purchased the spice tins from Specialty Bottle. The quality was wonderful and they arrived quickly! Each day Marin opens a metal tin and adds new PINK ornaments to her PINK tree. She L.O.V.E.S it! However, her Daddy and I want to throw all 25 tins out the window each time they come clattering off of the refrigerator. Yes, that's right, these pictures make the idea look and sound perfect, which it would be IF I would have used stronger magnets for the backing. I just used magnetic tape on the back and let me tell you, it's NOT strong enough. So, modifications need to be made, but who has time for that? Until next year, we'll enjoy the sounds of Marin's excitement about opening a new "number" (as she says) and the clatter of metals tins falling to the floor each time the fridge door is shut just a tad too hard.

Giraffes and Tutus {First Birthday Invitation}

  

I was hired by a friend to design a birthday party invitation for her daughter's first birthday. I'd never heard of a Giraffes and Tutus themed party, but LOVED the idea. The invitation design is mine, and I recommended that she order the giraffe print lined magenta envelopes from Mountain Cow. I also designed cupcake toppers and food marker cards. I asked my friend to share photos of the party and hope to post them for your viewing pleasure. Such a fun theme! Thank you, Jackie for allowing me to be a part of such an exciting milestone for your family!

Hunting Theme Baby Shower {The Main Event}

The Hunting Themed Baby Shower was on Saturday. Here are photos from the day. I thought everything turned out wonderfully and I had so much fun working with the mom to be and her family! And while I was out of my "realm" working with a hunting theme, in the end I really had fun! I couldn't find ANYTHING on the internet partaining to a Hunting Themed Baby Shower, so I'm hoping that this post will inspire others looking for a similar theme. I heard one guest at the shower say "I think the camo themed party is on the up and up." I laughed to myself. Seriously? Or just in east Texas?

These mobiles were ADDORABLE and fairly simple to make, I just cut various theme appropriate shapes from paper that matched the party color and had help attaching them to the oversized embroidery hoops using fishing string and tape. It was a simple and effective way to bring the theme to the food table.

 

The cardboard deer head I made from a pattern that I found on the Chronical Books Blog. The cutting was tedious, but I think it was worth the effort. He added a whimsical charm to the main table.

The cake was made by a lady in our church. I thought she did a great job replicating the cake that the mommy-to-be requested. AND it was tasty!

The centerpieces were made from logs cut in various heights. I placed a candle on the top of each on and added snow since the shower was in December. The pine cones were a nice outdoorsy addition.























With all of the recent interest in this post, I've uploaded pdf files of the various printed pieces I created for this shower. They are yours to use, just please give credit to Bit-O-Me when appropriate! Please let me know if you use the files. I'd love to see your Hunting Showers!
Mobile Pattern
Onesie Pattern
Camo print Food Markers
Animal Game
Animal Game Answers

UPDATE: I recently created a remixed version of this shower. Check it out here. 

Hunting Themed Baby Shower {The Invitation}

I'm planning a baby shower for a couple at our church. They are both avid hunters and want to celebrate the anticipated arrival of their baby boy with a Hunting Themed Baby Shower. Never having spent even one second in a deer stand. And because I've never aimed a gun at an animal, I was a bit concerned about being inspired. There just isn't much on the internet in the way of Hunting Themed Baby showers (believe me, I've looked). So, I'm crossing my fingers this invitation design is a good mix of hunting lovers meets bundle of joy. What's not cute about baby onesies camo and hunter orange strung on a line in a pine forest?

Adalyn Crawling! {A New Phase Begins}

Just a few days shy of her sixth month, Adalyn, fascinated by a wooden alphabet puzzle, crawls!

Hello Bee, Hello Me {Adalyn's First Halloween}

Adalyn's favorite book is "Hello Bee, Hello Me" so I thought it would be fun to dress her up as a yellow bumble bee for Halloween.  I just sewed a strip of yellow felt around the middle of a black, long sleeve t-shirt, added elastic to the bottom and stuffed her shirt with cloth diapers. Hot glued the wings on and made a headband out of felt, yellow pom poms and elastic. Black leggings and yellow bloomers completed the look. Comfortable and cute! The glow of the sunset was beautiful and we had fun taking pictures of Adalyn and her best friend Miranda.

 

A Super Hero Costume for Marin

Marin's favorite movie is The Incredibles, so when I offered her the choice of a superhero costume or a mermaid costume, she quickly chose superhero. The cape is a modified version of this free pattern from http://www.thelongthread.com/. And the mask was a free template from http://www.armommy.blogspot.com/. Both with my own modifications and touches to personalize this for Marin. I created a belt as well, and the only picture of it is the last one, and it's just a peek. Ah well.

Pumpkin Carving Party 2010 {aka PCP '10}

My family is a hoot and this year they were ALL at the 2010 Pumpkin Carving Party. All 14 of us! So, naturally we had to take a family picture and it's tradition that after the "formal posed" photo we do a crazy shot. Always entertaining! We served Taco Soup and Boudin and guests brought pies! Yum. Steven is a great cook and the soup was a tasty hit.

And the pinata for this year was a slice of pumpkin pie. Sadly this is the best photo I have of this little beauty. And if you read my post about past PCP pinatas, you'll notice I did NOT take step by step photos of my process. Maybe next year.

The outdoor showing of "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" was a BIG hit with the guests (adults and kids alike)!

Did I mention that my best friend flew in from Virginia and brought her adorable pumpkin head, baby M, with her? Aren't the matching pumpkin caps too cute for words.

Another successful party. Onward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hello cooler weather and family time!

It's Not All Fun and Games

When it rains it pours, or in our case when the city's sewer main backs up it makes the grass really green. During a drought GREEN grass is a sign that something is wrong. An abandoned sewer drain line that ran under the cement sidewalk in our backyard was leaking moisture into the ground. The moisture caused the sidewalk to sink and broke the grey water drain line for our kitchen and washroom. After Steven identified the broken drain line and repaired the line we thought our troubles were over. He pumped out the hole and within hours the hole filled with water. We thought maybe it was just water leaching out of the soil, so he pumped it again and once again it filled quickly...HELLO SEWAGE! That's when we realized there was more to the GREEN grass than just our leaking grey water.

Poor Steven spent most everyday of this week, digging holes in the yard, repairing plumbing, talking to city officials about easements and sewer mains and digging around in sewage. Things could be worse. We could be living in our neighbor's house. Her home sits right on top of the City sewer main that's causing all of these problems. A crew of guys came out today and dug a swimming pool size hole in her backyard and capped the old abandoned service line from the tap that once serviced our home and out buildings. Hopefully that will be the end of our sewer fed GREEN GRASS.

I always share the fun aspect of remodeling This Old House, so I thought it only fair to share the yucky side too. Sometimes it's about choosing paint colors and custom cabinets. Other days it's about sewage, digging holes in the yard and drinking BEER, lots of beer.

So here's to here's to the adventures of remodeling an old house and having an UBER talented Handyman by your side. Thank you, Steven.

Pumpkin Carving Party 2010 {The Invitation}

This little beauty is the 2010 Pumpkin Carving Party Invitation. I L.O.V.E. it!!!!! My UBER talented brother-n-law Kevin Kaleh (aka Kevin Elliott) created the fun, colorful watercolor illustration inspired by vintage pumpkin pails.

The event is just days away and I am scurrying around trying to pull the details together. Atleast the invitation was done well and sent out in a timely manner (ha)!

This invitation is a beautiful tribute to our seventh year! Thank you, Kevin.

Vinegar and Salt to Clean Old Faucet Bodies

 

After researching ways to remove lime and mineral deposit build up from these old faucet bodies, we settled on a concoction. Five table spoons vinegar to two teaspoons salt. WORKED LIKE A CHARM. After testing a few small pieces, we made a large batch of the mixture and let the faucet bodies soak. That was the key. That and then scrubbing them gently with a wire brush. The tedious part was picking at the grooves with a set of "dentist" looking tools Steven bought for the project. After paying to have the visible parts of these faucets rechromed, we just couldn't bring ourselves to screw the new, freshly chromed pieces, to these green scummy faucet bodies. What a pleasant surprise it was when, after a little elbow grease, they came out so clean and shiny. Steven has put one faucet body back together on the fresh, refurbished porcelain sink. Will take pictures of the final product once the sinks are hanging in the bathroom. Little by little...

Pumpkin Party Piñatas

In preparing for this year's Pumpkin Carving Party I thought it would be fun to do a recap of the last six years. It's fun to see each of the piñatas I've created, but it's even more fun to see the kiddos grow up right before your eyes. The kids are lined up according to age, so you'll see the same nieces and nephews in these pictures.

I create my piñatas using BIG blow up bouncy balloons as a base and then layers and layers of paper Mache (strips of news paper dipped in 1 part water to two parts flour mixture). I've found that colored tissue paper is the best for giving the final design the textured look. I brush on Elmer's glue and then scrunch pieces of tissues paper onto the surface where I've applied the glue. Hope to take pictures of my process this year and let you in on a little piñata durability secret! Stay tuned.

Pumpkin Piñata - Pumpkin Party 2004

Candy Corn Piñata - Pumpkin Party 2005

Acorn Piñata - Pumpkin Party 2006

Sucker Piñata - Pumpkin Party 2007

Corn Cob Piñata - Pumpkin Party 2008

Trick-Or-Treat Bag Piñata - Pumpkin Party 2009