Friday's Etsy Faves

Happy happy HaPpY Friday everyone!!! Here are a few of my Etsy faves for this week. Have you been browsing on Etsy lately?? It is seriously jam packed with so many awesome treasures, I should probably stay away. Yikes! Seriously tempting :)

First up today are these super adorable hair clips from Nest Pretty Things. Seriously, these are SO SO pretty!!! Hayden may need these in her Easter basket!

Next up is this beautiful squirrel print from Chipmunk Cheeks. Isn't it adorable (hard to see but it has a white background)!? 

I am also loving this inspiration print from Lit Prints (again with the white background). I love the colorful and meaningful text. I totally agree!

This one from Small Talk Studio has me feeling inspired too. I hope to NEVER stop dreaming! Never never never.

And last, but certainly not least, this "You're My Happy Place" picture from Lisa Barbero. I absolutely love this. Want it. Need it. Neeeeeeeed it.

That's it for today folks :)
I plan to tackle some much needed organizing and some crafting this weekend. I hope you all have a great one :)

Easter Decor

Happy happy Tuesday everyone! We are coming off of a rainy weekend here in SoCal, but the sun is shining, birds are chirping, and it definitely feels like Spring. I have started Eater-ifying my house lately and I have to say, my Easter style is kind of all over the place. Ha ha! Like, multiple Easter personalities or something. Take a look.

My scrappy Spring bunting welcomes you into the den. There you will be greeted by a sophisticated/shabby chic Robin's egg wreath hanging from the highboy.

Closer look....

Even closer...

(I think the wreath was from Pier 1 like a billion years ago...can't even remember).

Moving on...the living room coffee table got an Eastery makeover too.

My sweet husband bought me these flowers from TJ's yesterday just for the heck of it. LOVE that guy!!!

I got this pretty Eastery hurricane from Kohl's randomly. I had a coupon, then another coupon, then some Kohl's cash. The thing was almost free. Isn't it cute?!

The nest is from TJ Max last year, and the mason jar is filled with "whoppers" robin's eggs. Mmmm. Why do I torture myself!?

In the kitchen, I filled a thrifty basket with some brightly colored eggs that my mom gave me years ago. They are so bright and happy :)

And lastly, the sideboard got some Easter love...

The pink feather boa wreath used to live in Hayden's room. I added the nest with some glittery eggs from the dollar store to make it Easter pretty. My 2 sweet little eggs, Noah & Hayden :)
The other little eggs are also dollar store eggs that I simply cut the hanging loop in half and tied them on some twine. Happy & colorful Easter!!

I'm still working on my mantle...to be honest, not too sure if I'll end up doing it. Easter is upon us and well....I'm lagging. Ha ha!!!

I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far!

WINNER!!!!!!

WINNER WINNER Chicken dinner!!!!
Drum Roll Please!!!
The winner, for the FABULOUS Easter Egg Banner Kit from Smart Bottom Kids is.........................

jandjhome!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Jeanne!!!!!!!!!!!
Contact me within 48 hours to claim your prize! YAY!
Happy Monday everyone :)

33.

Happy birthday to meeeeeeee, happy birthday to meeeeeeeeeeee, happy b-day dear meeeeee, happy birthday to me!

Today, March 23rd is my b-day. I am 33 years old :)

As most of you know, I share this special day with my twin sister...my best friend. We are another year older and wiser. How the heck did this happen? 33?? Really, 33??! Yikes. It feels like just yesterday we were kids running around without a care in the world. Now we have 2 husbands and 3 kids between us. What the!? Even though we definitely aren't kids anymore, life sure is sweet :)

33 years ago today, my mom was going in to labor 7 weeks early with her identical twin girls. She was flown in a helicopter as I was crowning so she could deliver us at a hospital that had a neonatal intensive care unit. We were early and little and they weren't sure if we would be ok. As luck would have it, we came out perfectly healthy and all was well.

(above: I'm the one wearing my dad's flip flops)

(Below: In our shared crib. Even as babies, my butt was bigger than hers. grrrrr).

Can you read our shirts?? I'm in blue and it says "I'm Ali, she's Lisa." My parents had fun switching the shirts and playing tricks on people. Goofy parents ;)

(above: I'm grabbing Lisa's ear)

Happy b-day to my baby sister (younger than me by 34 minutes or so). I love you so much and nothing would be right in my world without you. Watching you with our little Oliver is pure joy for me. Make a wish sweet sister....aw heck, make 33 of 'em!

First day of Spring GIVEAWAY!!!!!

Happy HaPpY first day of Spring everyone. Yay!!!! I thought I would start Spring off with an awesome giveaway...sound good!? GOOD!! Some of you may recall that the fabulous Darcy of Smart Bottom Enterprises the blog, and Smart Bottom Kids the Etsy shop is my sister in law. Yep! I practically married into Royalty :) She is awesome!!!! I have bragged about her kid's craft kits a time or two on this blog but words don't really do her awesomeness justice. Seriously!! Her kits are amazing! Every singe detail is carefully planned out and perfectly packaged. Darcy has offered to let me give away one of her new and improved Easter Egg banner craft kits to one of my lucky lucky readers...just in time for Easter! Sound Cool!? Yep, COOL! Take a look at the awesomeness that one of you lucky readers will win:

This awesome kit...

Has all of the supplies you need to make this....

Just look at all of that sparkly awesomeness. Wanna see more (I do)???

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!
This is some serious "Quality Time Made Simpler" provided by Smart Bottom Kids. There will only be ONE lucky winner, so if you desperately need to make one of these pretties, go HERE and get your kit now!

Here's how you can enter to win (4 separate chances):
First (mandatory) - Become a public follower of this blog using Google Friend Connect (or if you already are - you rock - just let me know in the comments section.
Second - become a follower of Smart Bottom Enterprises and leave a separate comment for that.
Third - Go to Smart Bottom Kids on Etsy and let me know what your favorite craft kit is and leave a separate comment for that.
Fourth - Tweet, Facebook, or PIN this giveaway and leave a separate comment for that.

Got it?? Good :)

This giveaway will be closed at midnight on Sunday 3/25 and the winner will be chosen by random.org. The winner will be announced Monday morning. This is a fairly quick giveaway considering Easter is right around the corner.

Good luck everyone!!!!

The loop.

Happy Friday friends!!! I plan to resume with my Friday's Etsy Faves post next week, I've been lagging on my Etsy browsing lately but plan to get back to it soon. We are preparing for a rainy weekend here in SoCal and my kids are getting the house ready. First, I know I have never really done a "home tour" on this blog. Honestly, my house is just never ready for a tour. Ha ha. Take my word for it. Maybe someday I will get my act together. Anyway, we have kind of a strange layout in our house. There is a random open "den" in the center of the house and then the rest of the rooms go around it in a loop. Random? Random. Noah and Hayden, on the other hand, think it is awesome!
Here is why (pic from my front door):

(living room on the left, "den" on the right, kitchen straight ahead).
See that train track on the ground?? I will be stepping over it ALL weekend long. Let's follow it.

If you notice, the covered bridge is preventing me from opening our pantry door all the way. Not frustrating at all....nope. NOT AT ALL. Moving on...

Rounding the corner and down the hall towards the bedrooms. The first door on the left is the bathroom, and the next door is the master bedroom. On the right is a broom closet and the furnace.
Turn the corner again...

This is the hall that leads to the kid's rooms and the garage. First Hayden's door on the left (not pictured), then Noah's comes next, then the garage is straight ahead. Last turn around the corner....

Back into the "den" and back to the beginning. That's it. Our loop. Such a strange layout, huh?! Like I said, a rainy Saturday is in the forecast so this train track will stay around for a while. Noah gets so proud of himself that he can make the track go ALL the way around the house. Ha ha, silly boys!

I stopped by my florist (aka Trader Joe's) and bought these to brighten up my gloomy weekend :)

...and these.

And while my kids got the house ready for their version of rainy day fun, I spent my time writing the rainy day rules on the wall....

Ha ha! We shall see how it goes!
Happy weekend everyone! Make it a happy & safe one :)

My sweet girl.

My sweet baby girl turned 3 today. What the!!?? How is my tiny baby 3 years old?!? I blinked and 3 years went whizzing by. {Sigh}. My emotions are all over the place. Happy, sad, confused, over the moon! We had a wonderful day at Chuck e. Cheese's yesterday and then came back to the house to celebrate with family. Here are some pictures from Hayden's happy day :)

The b-day girl got to go in the ticket blaster for the first time ever.

Click on this link if you want to laugh:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoE5yiZ-NxQ

(look at her face in the one below. Ha ha!!!)

Happiness...

Once we got home she opened all of her presents. She got this awesome princess carriage fort that she can color on :)

And we had more sweets :)

Then last night while she was sleeping, Josh and I did a balloon sneak attack in her room.

When she woke up this morning as a 3 year old, her and Noah had a blast kicking them around :)

Yay for happy balloons!!!

It was a wonderful day and my sweet Hayden had a blast! "Make a wish pretty girl, you are so so loved!"

Have a great week everyone!

Invisible Children.

(written last night before bed)

As I am typing this, my babies are warm and cozy in their beds. When I wake up tomorrow, we will go through our morning routine...get dressed, breakfast, brush teeth etc, and I will take Noah to school. He will play and learn and grow while he's there. Hayden and I will have some time together playing and eating and snuggling. Just a happy usual kind of day. Sounds simple enough, right?

I had 27 minutes to spare tonight so I watched this video.

http://vimeo.com/invisible/kony2012

Our regular old day seems not so simple anymore.

If you have 27 minutes to spare now and haven't seen it yet, please watch it. If you don't have the time now, come back later and watch it. Share it. Sign the petition here. Donate a few bucks if you can. If not, spread the word. That's worth much much more.

Thanks for your time in reading this. I know I don't usually get "heavy" on the ol' blog, but I thought this was important to share.

Happy weekend to you.