Featured! {Special Baby Shower Gifts}

The always popular Hunting Themed Baby Shower has been featured on Special Baby Shower Gifts. Thank you, Jami and Caryn for the exposure on your site. So well done and helpful for anyone interested in hosting a similar shower. I'm so happy that this unique theme is inspiring others!

While I Was Away, We’ve been busy…

Eating nutritious meals for the new growing baby. That’s right baby number three is due Jan 8. Above is the 20 week ultrasound photo taken yesterday. Boy? Girl? You’ll have to wait until 2012 to find out.

Attending ballet class with Marin the Ballerina. This photo is from her first class.

Spending entirely too much time on pinterest.

Learning to eat with a fork.

Researching preK curriculum for Marin. Think I’ve settled on starting with this preK Scholars curriculum.

Filling out my Belly book for baby #3. My most treasured pregnancy possessions are my belly books. I’ve made it a tradition to buy every friend family member one of these upon hearing of her pregnancy.

Vacationing with Family in Wimberly, Texas.

Studying for the Captains exam at the fire station.

Reading the book Sarah's Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay.

Going to the theatre to watch the Winnie the Pooh movie.

Cleaning the floors in my house with this dandy Bissell steam mop I borrowed from a friend. 

Pink Princess Bingo Party {The Game}

This custom Princess Bingo set was designed for my daughters fourth birthday. The concept is simple. Playing with a bingo game based on an object and colors helps younger children enjoy the game. I ordered spinners for the circles from Board Game Design and printed the cards and wheels out on card stock. Pink M&Ms were the Bingo chips. We played at the party and each guest had a small take home set of their own as a party favor.

Pink Princess Bingo Party {The Party}

 These beautiful cakes were made by Granny (my wonderful, talented Mom) and were fit for a princess! The imperfections are because the four year old princess was involved in the decorations and had preferences as to where the wafers, marshmallows and red hots were placed. It's fitting that ice cream cones were used to create the towers as ice cream cones (minus the ice cream) are Marin's favorite snack when she is at Granny's house. My mom had seen the princess cake idea below and thought Marin would love it. After visiting with Marin about what she wanted for her birthday she insisted on a castle cake. So in true "Granny Fashion" Marin had TWO birthday cakes.

 Loved the tiny paper flag at the top. Perfect addition.

 The sugar cookies were made with cutters we found at Hobby Lobby. Princess crowns and magic slippers.

 Hand made hat and wand (smile).

 Party favors were these stripped water bottles and a princess hat for each little girl. The boys that attended were given the same bottle but in blue and a foam sword.

 I created a custom Princess Bingo game for the party. Above are the prizes the kiddos chose from when they won a round of bingo. Marin's favorite candy (dum dums), glow in the dark stars, princess stickers, tiny princess crowns and dress up rings.

 I had a poster size print of the bingo circle printed at a local print shop and glued it to a piece of foam board. The spinner was a piece of the foam board covered in black paper attached to the board using a game size spinner that I ordered from Board Game Design. Worked fairly well. Each of the kids were also given a set of two bingo cards and their own spinner to take home for more princess bingo fun.

 I splurged and purchased bottles of Lorina Sparkling Pink Lemonade from World Market. I have a serious addiction to that stuff!

Activities for the kids included this cardboard coloring castle from Hobby Lobby and the Princess Crown Pinata, also from Hobby Lobby.

It was a magical evening filled with family and close friends. What a blessing to watch my beautiful Marin grown into a lovely princess.

Pink Princess Bingo Party {The Invitation}

 See this little cutie? Well on Tuesday she celebrated her fourth birthday. The photo below is of her the day we delivered her birthday party invitations (above). I wanted the invitation to feel like a royal decree from Princess Marin. So we slid a red and white paper straw through the top and rolled them up securing the message with a red ribbon. Marin LOVED hand delivering the invitations. She didn't know or care that mommy had waited until the LAST minute (sheepish grin).

Pineapple Salsa

Photo courtesy of Dole.

Made Pineapple Salsa for the first time last week. It was a big hit and I wanted to archive it here on the blog.

Pineapple Salsa

2 cups chunk pineapple (drained)

¼ cup pineapple juice

½ cup finely chopped Red Bell Pepper

¼ cup finely chopped Green Bell Pepper

1 Tablespoon finely chopped green onion

2 Tablespoons cilantro or parsley

2 Tablespoons chopped jalapeno chilies

Custom Medicine Cabinets {The Final Product}

So, I don’t even want to think about how long it took us to wrap up this project, but I AM relieved and excited to say they are finished and we LOVE them! The staining portion of the project was a nightmare. Trying to stain wood an espresso color is impossible for a novice (me) and so being the smart woman that I am, after multiple layers of stain attempts, I begged Steven to take them to a professional. In the end, “Fine Touch Refinishing” in Beaumont, Texas provided us with a beautiful, sealed, espresso finish on both cabinets. A huge relief and a lesson learned. There are some things that should be left to the experts!

Once the cabinets were returned, we had glass shelves cut and ordered these Glass retainers and glass retainer clips from Rockler to mount the mirrors. The antique knobs and hinges that we saved from the old cabinets were installed and Steven mounted the cabinets and lights to the wall.

Our custom cabinets turned out beautifully and I think this seemingly small project embodies how we approach The Old House.  We want to preserve antique elements in our home, but also see the advantages to new things. Thus we saved the hinges, knobs and mirrors from the old cabinet and based the new cabinet design on old dimensions and design. Goodbye lead pained cabinet. Hello espresso stained cabinet. We invested time in cleaning and refurbishing the hinges which many called us crazy for doing. We often try to do most of the work ourselves, but we also know when we’ve given the project our best shot and we aren’t afraid to call on professionals. We have expensive taste and are willing to wait to have what we really want. We could have run down to Lowes and bought a standard vanity light for the cabinets, but we/I have an appreciation for old and refurbished light fixtures so, we saved our money and waited to buy these Rufus light fixtures from Rejuventation. We are never sad when we save and wait. It’s not easy and it takes longer, but the end result always makes us happier. That’s why a medicine cabinet project that could have taken just a few months took many months. And on a grander scheme that’s why this project of remodeling our old house takes so long. We’re picky, we prefer to pre serve within reason and we’re patient (well, that part is a work in progress). Maybe I should have said we’re learning to have patience. Next up? Trimming out the bathroom. You guessed it…custom trim!