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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Button flowers

This month's Crafty Club was hosted by me.

I created and hosted the very first Crafty Club in May of 2013, so that means the club has been going strong now for ten months! Each of us seven ladies has hosted the craft + we had our Christmas get-together in December. I'm so happy that everyone has enjoyed the club and is committed to making it a success!

I'm pretty darn sick of winter and I'm ready for some sunshine, flowers and green grass. So I wanted this month's craft to reflect my anxiety for Spring. 

I looked through my gazillion Pinterest pins and found one that really shouted "spring" to me.  I pinned this one quite a while ago:


A really cool lady named Leigh-Ann created this craft, so I need to give her credit! You can check out the craft + other creative ideas on her blog here:

I went ahead and whipped up a sample the night prior to hosting the craft. I wanted to make sure I had all of the correct supplies and that it would turn out okay (you never know when you see something cool on Pinterest if it's going to work out for you). This one was definitely doable and I think it turned out pretty cool!

Here are my finished button flowers...


All of the buttons were donated to me by my mom, my grandma and my mother-in-law. Cute buttons are cool. FREE cute buttons are even better! Liam helped me separate the buttons by color into little glass bowls...


I bought a jumbo package of embroidery thread from Hobby Lobby for $6...

 I set up six little workstations for the ladies. Each with an embroidery hoop (only $1.19 per hoop at Hobby Lobby) and a piece of fine linen fabric (I bought one large sheet and cut it into pieces). 

And of course we needed brain fuel, so I made little fruit kabobs...

...and mini pudding trifles (so easy -- Oreos on the bottom, a vanilla instant Jello layer, a chocolate instant Jello layer and then some crushed Heath bars on top). 

 Oops...I forgot to take a photo of the numerous empty wine bottles. Way to go ladies!

Joy and Janine concentrating deeply...

Everyone used 8-10 buttons as the flowers and then embroidered little stems underneath each one.

Sarah's blue/turquoise theme...

 Erin used pink and raspberry colors...

Oranges and browns...

"Blingy" buttons were used on this one...

Andi's finished hoop. She glued a cute little ribbon to the hoop and I think it finished it nicely.

Here's the 2nd hoop that I started. I will finish the stems someday...

Now I have to decide where I'm going to hang these things...
I think I'll hang one in our little green bathroom and maybe give the 2nd one to someone as a gift.


Have a good Friday!

Friday, February 21, 2014

A day in the life of a TWO year old

Our little guy turned TWO years old today! I'm not even sure how that happened. It's like I blinked my eyes and all of a sudden he's a little man.

Long gone are the days of breastfeeding and burping and sleepless nights...although who am I fooling -- only 9 more weeks of carrying our child-to-be in my belly and I'll be laughing at this post.

Now are the days of trips to the library, swimming lessons, spilt milk and runny noses! I promise to cherish each and every one of these days that I have with just Liam. Because I know that once the baby arrives things are going to change. And I must say, it scares the crap out of me.

Liam is simply THE most amazing thing that has happened in my life, other than meeting & marrying Matt of course :) He amazes me every day with his little quirks, his giggles, his smiles and even his temper tantrums. It's sometimes hard to remember how life was before he came around.

I decided to snap some photos today of our big 'ol two year old, just doing his thing. We had a pretty normal morning & afternoon. Then when Matt finished working we took him to a museum and a family friendly restaurant for dinner. Here's a little bit of our day:


Birthday breakfast. He decided what he wanted. Blueberry waffles, pineapple, raisins and an orange. He's a little fruit addict.


Attempting to help blow up some balloons...


Watching a little Dinosaur Train...


Playing a few games...


Playing, playing, playing...


Practicing sitting on his potty chair.
Notice how Elmo is doing the same thing?


Playing with blocks at our local childrens' museum, Above & Beyond Childrens' Museum.


Steering a ship (at the children's museum).


Checking out a circus exhibit (at the childrens' museum).


Climbing through a suspended tunnel with Matt...

We had dinner at a great local Mexican restaurant, El Camino, and then gave him a scoop of birthday ice cream when we got home. Matt and I practiced our "Happy Birthday" singing skills.


My happy boys.




Flossing before bath time, then bed time.


Happy 2nd Birthday, my little peanut.
I love you!!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Liam's 2nd Birthday Party - Photo explosion!

We celebrated Liam's SECOND birthday this past Saturday at our home. His birthday isn't until this coming Friday, but we celebrated a weekend early so that more family members could make it. About 25 relatives made the trek through the snow to help Liam celebrate his big day :)

Liam picked the party theme himself. He is currently obsessed with Elmo (when he sees Elmo on Sesame Street, when he sees Elmo books at stores, etc). So Elmo, Elmo, Elmo it was!

I'll let the photos do the talking:

Elmo balloons could be found throughout the house...

I made these balloons myself. It was way cheaper than buying a bunch of helium Elmo balloons. I bought red balloons from Target, printed eyes & noses off the internet and used a Sharpie marker for the mouths.

Little goody bags and party hats for Liam's cousins...

Another spying Elmo...


I cut an Elmo out of a large gift bag, then added the saying with a Sharpie...

My attempt at making a homemade Elmo cake! Do you know how HARD it is to make red frosting? I used an entire tube of red food gel (a cancerous amount....eek) and two packets of Cherry KoolAid powder, and this is as red as I could get him! I must say...the KoolAid definitely gave the frosting a "different" flavor than expected :)

My attempt at making homemade Elmo cupcakes. Edible eyes from a specialty cake store, Reeses' pieces for the noses and 1/2 Oreos for the mouths.

Snacks ready to go...

Liam coming down the stairs after nap, arriving at his party :)


Cousins Bella and Rylan eating dinner...
Cheesy hash brown casserole anyone?

Taking selfies with Cousin Beth

Gift opening time!
Lucky little boy.

Check out the boys' expressions....

Okay...I am super excited about these cool pants with suspenders :)


Chopping fruit with his daddy...


Cousin Bella...

There was NO getting that cupcake away from him once he had it...

...and then there was cupcake #2

Liam had a great time, which means it was a success :) Thank you, family, for helping Liam celebrate his big day.