Cupcake Toppers!

All of the details of Stella's big birthday celebration are to come. In the mean time feel free to download these cupcake toppers to use at your Super Bowl party! Use a 2 inch hole punch to cut these out, hot glue them to lollipop sticks and you have fabulous cupcake toppers!

They are here.

Enjoy!

Love birds

I was cruising the aisles of Michaels when I came across these lovely little birds. They are adorable for Valentine's Day. The kicker is...drum roll please...they were only $1! Score!

I got these bad boys home and decided to make a Stella a little head wrap. Well, you know how it goes with bad boys...one things leads to another.

Next thing I knew I had a whole arsenal of coordinating baby accessories. I made the head wrap and the hair clip using the clips and hot glue. I attached the love birds to the socks and bib with a simple needle and thread. It was so fast and easy. I literally did it during half time of the Packers and Bears' game. To make it even better...I had everything but the birds. I made all of this cuteness for a BUCK! Double score!

I wanted to get some photos of Stella modeling the goods but as you can tell I'm not that good with a camera...yet. So capturing a very active baby and trying to showcase these lovely bird accessories just wasn't going to happen. My sincerest apologies for denying you of Stella's adorableness (;

Good things to come

It may seem as though I have been MIA. Things are a little busy around here as we prepare for The Bean's first birthday! Yes, we nicknamed our dear Stella, ''bean''. Along with ''scooter'', ''sugar plum'' and ''rootie tootie''...Don't ask about the last one. Its embarrassing for her (;

Anyhoo, never fear there are DIY posts and sneak peaks of Stella's big ONE coming soon!

On a side note, what have you nicknamed your kids...both the human kind and the furry kind (;

It's going to be one sweet party!

Here's a peek at Stella's birthday party invitations, 100% made by me. My total out of pocket cost was $3.46. I had everything but the lollipop sticks. Now that is a sweet deal!

Come and get'em

Trace's school, Twentieth Avenue Christan Learning Center, is having a fundraiser. The kid that raises the most money wins. The competitor in me comes out. What does he win? Who cares, its the winning that matters.  Look out kids, I don't care if you are 4, I take no prisoners.

Fundraising is to being a mom as snowing is to winter. Okay, so I did really horribly on this part of the SATs so that probably made no sense. But what I'm trying to say is that fundraising is one of the many, many, many parts of being a mom. Does anyone really like begging, pleading and badgering everyone they know to donate money to their kids cause? To make it a little more fun, Trace and I decided to host our own personal bake sale. I thought this would be a good opportunity to teach Trace the value of hard work and of giving back. I had a rosy picture of us in the kitchen baking together, laughing together and bonding. Trace had other ideas. While I baked, he did this...

Yes, why, that is his room. Today he will be learning the value of cleanliness.

Anyhoo, back to baking. We I started with 3 recipes. The first can be found here. Kisses Chocolate Chip Cookies.

We started with our ingredients

Mixed the dough. Mmmm cookie dough!

Then I shaped the cookie dough around Hershey kisses to create little cookie balls.

Baked in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes and out came these heavenly things.

Joey was the official taste tester and he said they were superb.

Next on the agenda...fudge! Chocolate and peanut butter to be exact. Salivating aren't you. You can find the recipe here. Start with chocolate fudge and peanut butter chips.

Add a peanut butter topping and prepare to meet heaven.

These too, received the Joey stamp of approval.

The third recipe was chocolate chip and raspberry bars.

They looked so pretty but tasted AWFUL. By no fault of mine, might I add. They were so bitter and way to raspbarry-ie. I didn't even post an after pic because they were that bad. They went straight to the garbage.

The keepers have been packaged and are ready for sale.

Don't they just look delish? I bet your dying to get you mitts on one of these coveted, prestigious, glamorous, delectable goodie bags. If you are, let me know and we will happily deliver one to you. For a small donation, of course. If you aren't justy DYING to have one of these...then will you please, pretty please, with a Hershey kiss on top, buy my kid's baked goods and support his wonderful school?

 How were my begging and pleading skills?

A little paint goes along way

I believe in the power of love. I believe in the power of the human spirit. And I believe in the power of paint. Much to Joey's disapproval, I have been hanging on to a few pieces with the whole hearted intent to repaint them and make them new again. Well, this weekend I got that wild hair, you know where. Check out the before and afters.

This eye sore is proof that one woman's trash is another woman's treasure. She was ready to be thrown out but I took her home instead, knowing she still had some magic left in her.

Now here she is all dressed up. She is destined for our front entry way to be used as a plant stand for the beautiful greenery I hope to not kill.

Another pathetic soul, the effects of too much entertaining are evident.

Good as new, although I still need to paint the handles black. I'll probably do that next weekend. Regardless, he is ready just in time to be filled for Stella's first birthday. Not only does his beautiful green hue match our patio furniture perfectly, he also satisfies my lust for green mentioned here.

So there you have it, some sanding, primer and paint go aloooong way! And the best part is that now I can rub it in Joey's handome little face that I did actually paint the pieces he said I never would. Ahhh, sweet victory.

Whoop, whoop!

We reached 100 views! Not a big deal in the grand world of blogging, but hey its 100 views we did not have last week. Stay tuned, folks, we have some DIY projects coming soon!!