A boy and a dream...

Little Hayden's 2nd b-day is right around the corner and her silly willy big brother Noah had his own idea about what her party should be like. So, my 2 boys got right to work.

My hubby is such a patient man and really let Noah do a lot of the work. It's very sweet to watch them in action.

Next it was time for the little guy to help me make it pretty. Combine a boy's dream with a mommy's need to make everything pretty and you have pure magic! (please forgive me my cluttered garage....it's....yeah. It's.......there are no words).

In my efforts to amp up the cute factor, we needed fabric. I had this old white cotton curtain panel laying around so I put it to good use.

I snipped off those tabs, taped on some stripes, got out my craft paint and got to painting.

Wallah! Sunny yellow stripes! Do you know what it's going to be???? Drum roll pleae..........

Ta-daa!!!!! A Sunny lemonade stand for our young entrepreneur. Our boy LOVES lemonade stands and has wanted to have one for a long long time. Every time kids are having one at the park near our house, he begs and begs to have one of his very own. We figured, who better for him to serve sweet lemonade to than our loving family and friends at Hayden's party.

Hand painted stripes, pom poms, hounds tooth ribbon. Just {DREAMY} for this party planning, detail obsessed mama.

I staged it quickly for these photos, and no, the lemonade stand will not be a permanent fixture in our kitchen. For the party it will go in our backyard (weather permitting of course). AND, this is definitely Noah's lemonade stand and while his plastic toy cash register wasn't cute enough for these photos, it will most certainly be in full effect on the party day so he can "ring people up" and make change. He's classic that boy, classic! I plan to make little baggies of quarters for our guests to buy lemonade with (don't worry, we won't be making our guests buy their beverages with their own money, ha ha). I'll have tons of pictures of Noah's lemonade stand in action after the birthday bash, but I thought I would give you a peek at our recent masterpiece. Martha Stewart, watch out!! Isn't it cute!!?? I think I'm in love :)

Oh yeah - and to make the banner, I just cut squares from the left over fabric with pinking shears. I hand painted some yellow polka dots first, and then free-handed the letters with black craft paint. Next I used my glue gun to glue the squares to some twine. Then, I hot glued mini clothespins to the top of the posts so I could clip the banner on. Easy Peasy People! Cheers!!!

{SWEET} Giveaway Sponsored By Strawberry Sky's!!!

Hello people! We did it, we hit 100 followers (& counting....yay). As promised, I have an AWESOME giveaway to share with you!!! My bloggy friend (& fellow California gal) Sarah over at Strawberry Sky's is the master crafter behind this wonderful giveaway. She definitely has a knack for putting together miss-matched patterns and making the most adorable fashions for your little angel. Sarah doesn't currently have a shop, but is super excited to meet all of you amazingly crafty people and get some more followers over to her awesome blog. The 2 items that she's giving away are pictured below and are seriously adorable. This strawberry tee is making my teeth hurt because it is oh-so sweet! It is hand-stitched by Sarah herself and it is perfection.

The second item is an adorable pink baby beanie with an even more adorable pink handmade fabric flower hair clip. The clip can be worn on the hat, in hair, or clipped on to a purse or diaper bag. Adorable, right!? Adorable. Here's how you enter:

1. Be a follower of this blog and leave a comment letting me know - 1 entry.

2. Be a follower of Strawberry Sky's leave a comment letting me know - 1 entry.

3. Post about this awesome giveaway on your blog or Facebook and leave a link to your post in the comments section - 1 entry.

4. Become friends with Strawberry Sky's on Facebook and leave a separate comment for that - 1 entry.

5. Purchase a fabulous item from my Etsy shop and leave a comment letting me know- 1 entry.

This giveaway will run until 11:59pm PST on Friday March 4th. The winner will be selected by random.org and will be announced on Saturday March 5th. You have 48 hours to get back to me with your shipping information or another winner will be chosen.

Thanks for all of your support and I'm so excited to see who wins!!! Good Luck people :)

Smart-Bottom Enterprises and a....swan

I first want to give a HUGE virtual hug to one of my bloggy besties, Cassie over at Primitive & Proper. She saw this sweet glass swan while thrifting and sent it my way. This guy is crazy fragile and he traveled across many states to get to me. THANK YOU friend, you are so sweet to think of me!! Isn't this swan amazing!!?? It's the thinnest glass, and there's a hole in the back so I can put in a flower or two. I'm in love!! He may have to go way up high somewhere to get out of the war zone that is my life :) Ha ha.

Second, one of my all time favorite blogs/etsy shops belong to my amazingly talented sister in law Darcy. Smart-Bottom Enterprises is a wonderful blog where you'll find crafting, cooking, & SO much more. Her Etsy shop is amazing too! She makes the most AMAZING craft kits and she is having a super awesome giveaway on her blog!!! Go HERE now and enter to win, you won't be sorry. You get all the supplies to make these adorable little Spring chickies. I have one of these kits already (I'm an "insider" over there) and Noah and I are so excited to get started. Happy Weekend everyone!!!!

Projects and a Bathroom

Hello people, happy Friday!! We're busy busy around here. Not doing anything remarkable, just keepin' busy. The hubby was sick, the kids were sick. It's hot, it's cold. I don't know. Just life I guess. I did, however, buy my first piece of furniture that I am going to makeover and try to sell. Not a major business, but could be fun on the side if I find cheap pieces that I don't have room to keep. This table is exactly that. Too big for my house, but too pretty & too cheap to pass up ($15 from the local thrift shop).

These 2 guys are hard at work making something special for baby sister's second b-day party next month. More on this project soon.

And on to the "master" bathroom refresh. I put "master" in quotes because there isn't anything "master" about it. One lame sink, an ugly old shower, and it is teeny tiny in there. Lame. But even lame spaces need to be fresh, and this little space needed it. BAD. See this lovely light fixture. Yeah, I think it's been like that for at least a decade. Eeew.

Icky water damage on the window frame. ICKY. Well, I didn't invest too much considering this room needs a wrecking ball to really whip it into shape. But, a temporary fix for me involved pom poms.

I am a lover of pom pom trim. I would put it everywhere if I could. Lampshades, pillows, & most of all, curtains! I got this pair of beige cafe curtains at Anna's linens for $8.

I hot glued some black pom pom trim from WalMart on the bottom to fancy them up a bit.

I got this cute little ceiling fixture at home depot for $6. The part that attached to the ceiling was a shiny brass color, so I spray painted it white so it would blend in. Easy fix, and I think it sort of has a cute antique quality to it.

We painted the walls BEHR cottage white, I hung up a cute birdie, and that's about it. Refreshed-ish. See, it's not a proper master bath and it's hopefully in the 5 year plan to make more major improvements (i.e. spa tub...in my dreams).

And I'm currently making over a flea market magazine holder because this situation is NOT working.

I also wanted to show you where this guy ended up. He's hanging out in our kitchen "command center" by the phone. Slightly creepy-ish, but to me, adorable! (& I am swan smitten today as I received an extra special swan in the mail from a super duper friend. It's sort of hard to photograph so I'll try to share a pic tomorrow - yay!).

And this is the newest necklace in the shop (& my new personal favorite). Gotta love a quatrefoil, especially if it stands for something special :) Have a GREAT weekend people (& I should have more info on my 100-follower giveaway soon. I'm collaborating with another blogger and we're getting our ducks in a row as we speak)!

100 FOLLOWERS!!!

WOOHOOOOOO!!!!! I did it!!! I hit 100 followers thanks to Renee over at
Where The Grass is Greener. She found me on Cassie's AWESOME blog today and put me over the top!! Oh yeah, let's par-tay! Stay tuned for details about my awesome "I hit 100 followers" giveaway!!! Woohoooooooooo!!!
(this pic is from our friend's wedding, and yes, that's my husband's tie on his head!!!)

Guest Posting.....(my first one ever)

Hi friends, I'm guest posting over at This Present Life today (I feel kind of famous posting on such an awesome blog). Go over there and see how I balance my life as a mom/wife and diy'er. Happy Wednesday!

Go check me out................

Ok peeps, head right on over to Lisa's blog and enter to win one of my FABULOUS charm necklaces (can you tell I'm not shy about my awesomeness....ha ha). No, seriously! Lisa's blog is really great AND I'm hosting my first-ever giveaway over there. Good luck to my faithful followers (I hope one of you win)!

Awesomeness....

Rebecca over at This Present Life has an awesome Etsy shop called Happy Baby Designs. I recently purchased a set of bath cloths from her and they are absolutely AWESOME! If you have to suffer through the don't-get-water-in-my-eyes drama while bathing your little ones, do yourself a favor and go get some of these. They are super soft, super absorbent, and SUPER affordable (oh yeah - and SUPER adorable too). Go over to Happy Baby Designs and get some for yourself, you won't be sorry! (my new problem after buying these awesome cloths is getting him out of the bath. I'm sure Rebecca will eventually think of something to fix that problem too!) ha ha!

Flea Market Pretties

There are always so many pretty things at the flea market. I find it therapeutic to just stroll up and down the aisles browsing at all the pretty & unusual things. This therapy gets even more intensive when I find something to "pop" on (if you don't watch American Pickers on the History channel, you must start). Anyway, a while back, I got these 3 little nature scenes to hang on my wall. I got them from the same lady who sold me my large antique tool box (see the makeover in this post). I thought they were really pretty, and at $2 a piece, I just had to pop (seriously, watch that show, it's great)!

(sorry grass, this Spring you will be green again)

The smallest of the 3 had this little sticker on the back of it.

Don't get me wrong, I like natural wood. I do. But, these beauties needed to be shabbified! I just got some white acrylic craft paint and went to work.

It took several coats to get it to coat well, but luckily craft paint dries quickly so it didn't take too long. Once they were dry, I distressed them a bit with some fine grit sandpaper, and finished them off with a clear varnish.

Ta-daa!! Here they are hanging in my bedroom. This may not be a permanent place for them (my husband is not such a fan), but for now this is where they'll stay. I like them. A bit eclectic and random, and they definitely aren't the same style as this. But still, I like them. They make me happy. Ha!

This frame came out the best in my opinion. Love all the details :)

I just want to be there. At that place. Standing by the creek feelin' the cool breeze on my skin.

Or frolicking with my brother out by the barn. I will most likely never be a country girl, but I like to daydream about it from time to time.

Here's the view from my bedroom door. I saw an article in Country Living magazine once where this woman covered her entire wall with flea market/thrift store art. The whole thing was covered. It was awesome!!

Look at all that empty wall I have left. I better go shopping :)(that distressed green frame was a wedding gift from long ago. It came from Potterybarn).

"Oh Happy Day!"

Oh Happy Day.

My little boy and I had some Cricut fun last night. He is VERY into gadgets and anything electrical. Anything with "cause and effect" really. I decided I needed to refresh my chalkboard area now that Vday is over and my love banner has fulfilled it's decorating destiny (have you seen the FRIENDS episode where Phoebe wants to save all the dead Xmas trees from the chipper so that they can fulfill their Christmas destiny? It's a classic!).

I decided to add some "chalkboard motivation" to my kitchen. Something to remind me starting at breakfast that today is a happy day that needs to "count."

Noah and I cut 2" circles and all the letters out on the Cricut. I realize that both of these steps could be done without the Cricut, but we have one so we used it (so there, ha).

I cut out 3" circles on glittery silver card stock, and I layered them with mini white cupcake liners. I like the 3D ruffly look it gives. I used a glue stick to stick on the letters, and then I used a hot glue gun to stick the rest of it together. Then I added twine for hanging and wallah!

And one of my dreams came true today. Just look at those little pink piggies. {DREAMY!} I hope you all have a "Oh Happy Day" too!