Color Me Fun!

Loads of fun today with friends at The Color Run!

 

We behaved way less than our age and had a great time cutting up.

If one comes to your local area, I highly recommend you check it out with a group of friends. It's more of a social thang, so I do suggest not doing it solo.

 

 

 

The girls deemed the tutus "a must".

And since I was in the single digits the last time I donned one, I had no choice but to agree.
We had to make that happen.
Only felt like a dork for like maybe a second.

 

 Workin' our tutus....

 

 

 

 A little pre-race fun and photo opps.

 

In the zone.

 

Game face on.

 

 

 

A little motivation by way of the gal's tshirt in front of us.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Finish Line Festival.

Explosions of Color.  Music.  And busting moves with the locals.



 

 



I'm seeing showers in our very near future.

Color. Everywhere.

A few fruity drinks and some pizza to round out the day.

 



Great time today, girls!

Can't wait for the next go round!

 

 

Instagrammin'

So I got a wild hair a couple of weeks ago and finally jumped on the instagram bandwagon.
What can I say? I'm always an hour late to the party.

I am so happy I finally did it though!

I love the quickness of snapping photos of our daily life happenings and sharing them there. For some crazy reason it feels less "in your face" to me than posting on Facebook. Sometimes Facebook kinda weirds me out. I still post photos and updates there on my personal page from time to time, but again, I'm really enjoying the whole instagram thing these days.

If you're on there and ever interested in the highlights of our days around here, please feel free to follow along. I'll be trying to share some more behind the scenes snapshots of what's going on in the shop as well.

These are a few snippets of what I've been up to the past week.

In other news, I recently added a new keepsake box and a few new designs for the baby boys in the shop. I have a few other things for the girls in the works as well. 

Baby boy Baptism/Christening keepsake

Baby boy birth announcement keepsake

Daylight Savings started this past weekend and I for one, am so very happy about it! While I don't necessarily love the dark mornings, I do love having that extra daylight in the evenings to get out with my boys! Anxious for spring and a new t-ball season to begin with my little ones!

Enjoy your week, friends!

{SLAM DUNK} Party

These photos are long past due. I did a little party preview, um, about 6 or so months ago.

Yikes. Where has my life run off to?

 

Anyway, here are some detail photos of the party goodies. Unfortunately, while I love using our church as the party venue, there is not a single window in the building, thus making for lots of not-so-stellar flash photos. Oh well, whatcha gonna do, right?

 

I had a fun time putting this third birthday party together for my little one.

He is all boy and so far, appears to love the physicality of all athletics....well, as far as a three year old can, anyway.

 

 

 

Invitation: Front and back

 

 

 

Again, not loving my flash photography, but I think you can get the idea. I was going for an orange color theme, but not necessarily orangy photos.

 

{sigh....}

My little Birthday man.

 

 

 

Big Bro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stayed up way too late working on those jersey and basketball cookies.

My first attempt at cookie decorating.

I quickly discovered that cookie decorating is no joke. It takes some serious skill.

Kudos to all of the cookie artists out there. Definitely an art.

 

 

The cake was really great-looking in person. Again, not nearly as orange as it appears in the photos.

It was a light tan parquet floor design. Loved the wood grain look.

Black and white umpire stripes.

 

Overflowing goodies in the little black cabinet.

I was shooting for that locker room feel.

 

 

Little cupcakes perched on white "bleachers".

 

Shooters...gotta have shooters at a basketball party, right?

3 Point Cheesecake Shots 

 

Apple slices and vanilla bean dip.

A.K.A. Apple Slam Dunkers

The birthday boy's favorite drink is chocolate milk, hence the Sideline Sippers.

 

Ok, looking back on it now, I really do take way too much pleasure in coming up with "clever" names for party foods.

I'm kinda weird that way.

Table centerpieces.

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome sign poster.

 



The party was more than six months ago and seeing my little birthday boy in these photos makes me all weepy.

He's growing up too fast.

I'm in constant amazement at how fast these early years really do go.

Doing my best to soak it all in....

 

 

 

Day 'O Love 2013

So, it's one of my very favorite holidays today! Yay! I'm a total sucker for all of the pink/red/heart/general love stuff you find in the stores this time of year.

It should be no surprise that I really get into all the class valentine stuff for my boys as well. Yeah, yeah, I know THEY are supposed to be doing it themselves and all, but really, what kind of momma would I be if I didn't give them a little help from time to time.

 

Rather than candy this year, Reeves took little snack packs of Pringles. We figured his little friends might like a little salty to go along with their sweet stuff.



Pierce and I did this little project together. I can't lie though. I had to literally force the boy to glue the hearts on the rocks and write out all his friend's names, but the boy DID do it.

He missed the craftiness gene somewhere along the way in life.

Turns out Plants vs. Zombies is wayyy more awesome then crafting.

Go figure.

 

 



 

The prayer rocks were a pinterest find.

 

 

My kindergartner is a total nut for sugary sweet cereals.

We keep the Cocoa Krispies company in business.

100% for sure about that.

 

 



We try to never forget the teachers on Valentine's Day either.

I came across this printable tag and went with it.
Cute, fast, easy.
 

We then filled the pint sized polka dot boxes with yes, bite sized brownies.

 



 

 

Happy Love Day, ya'll!!

xoxo

A peek into my studio

So, I've been working on getting my studio in decent shape over the last couple of weeks. While there is still plenty I'd like to do, for now, it's feeling cozy and I feel inspired once again to create some new things.

 

My favorite part right now is my new and much improved computer setup. Thanks, hubs!

 

It's amazing what a big screen monitor and a new little lamp can do to get you in the mood to be creative. I find myself sitting in my studio at night with just my little lamp on for light and a hot cup of tea as I work on shop correspondence and editing photos.

SO nice.

Just a few little snippets of what's in my studio right now...

 

 

We have a bit of a storage issue in this house....I'm sort of a sentimental packrat. It pains me to get rid of anything that brings back good memories for me. As a consequence, my son's closet was full.....not with clothing or toys, but with MY childhood memory boxes and lots of my party paraphernalia.

Glass jars, cake plates, tiered trays, etc.

 

I'm not sure why I never thought to do it before, but I finally decided to pull those jars, cake plates and tiered trays out of the darkness and bring them into my studio to store all of my "goodies" in.

I love it.

It feels great to be able to see all of my supplies and little collections once again out in plain sight.

 

 



Pin boards, everyday supplies, and a little girl's assemble that I created many moons ago on my pint-sized mannequin.

 

French doors open up on two sides of my workspace...one to the front door entrance of our house and another set go into our kitchen. 

 

 

 

I found a pretty open frame a couple of weeks ago and decided to give it a couple of coats of an ocean blue color paint. Since I've always found much inspiration in fabrics, I framed a scrap piece that always feels cheerful to me.

I think it's a Heather Bailey print.

Her vibrant choice of colors and prints always feel inspiring for me.

 

 

 

 

 

While I do have my eye on a new little rug accent and sewing a new table cover for my work table, for right now it's feeling really nice and spacious. I'm once again looking forward to spending many a day churning out some new things, both for the shop and for my own personal wishlist as well.

 

Here's to a great and productive week ahead!

Gone Campin'

I can't remember the last time I sat outside at a campfire.

We had a fun time with family this weekend doing a little camping for my niece's birthday party.

 

I took my boys while the hubs stayed home to fulfill his idea of a dream weekend.....deep house cleaning and a honey-do list. Yes, ma'am, that's my man!

 So after a long 24 hours of roughing it at the camp, I tiredly came home to new faucet fixtures, cleaned carpets, new window treatments hung on my doors, pressure-washed front door entrance, a freshly cut yard, and a new surprise fixture in my closet to help with my current shoe obsession. Oh, and he topped it off with flowers on my kitchen table too.

Yep, I got a good one. Think I'll keep him around. I'm always amazed at how fast that man can clean up a house.
Thanks, hubby! You are THE best!

 

My kiddos got to experience their first authentic smores by campfire, as did I.
Not bad. I kinda see what all the fuss is about now.

 

Speaking of campfire, I VERY quickly slapped together a little homemade-looking cake for my niece, Paris, just minutes before we left for the campground. We went with a glammed-up campfire chocolate cake, complete with a sparkly pink and gold flame.
 

Oh, well, it tasted really good anyway.
 Let's just say it fit into the "roughing it" weekend theme.
 

 

Some puttin' practice with the cousins.

 

The kids all got into a heated game of baseball and we finished out the trip with a nice little shiner for my youngest. Poor thing got socked with a baseball while at bat. It was definitely game over after that.

My little Bruiser

 

 

Busy week coming up! Lots of orders to go out, a pampered chef party to host, and all of the regular week long tasks need to get fit in there too somehow!

Have a great week, friends!