Baby Shower Fun!

I hosted my first ever baby shower at our house last weekend! It was so fun to bust out the girly frilly plates and tea cups and celebrate my friend Catherine and her little girl, Hattie due next month!

We served baby quiche Lorraine, chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, vanilla petit fours, fresh fruit  baked brie with raspberry jam filling and sherbet punch!

I made a "baby Hattie" banner

I made little goody bags of caramel popcorn with tags that say "Catherine's going to POP." 

We had guests fill out "Baby Wishes" cards to let Baby Hattie know what they hoped for her. And I put a pink sparkly flower on the letter "h" for Hattie Hammond.

Custom water bottle wraps that matched the invitations

Vanilla petit fours with rattles from TART bakery. So delicious and precious.

Mommy to be with her super cute rocking toy from Hannah! 

I was so proud to get 15 girls around our TV room! 

All the shower hosts minus one that couldn't be there.

Everyone who came to the shower! It was such a fun time!

DIY Ottoman

David and I took on a big project last weekend. We built an ottoman for our formal living room. Ya you heard me...we built an ottoman! We have been shopping for a very specific ottoman. We knew we wanted a round, upholstered ottoman in a neutral color.

Of course I found exactly what I wanted on Horchow's website for $600. Yikes.

I then looked on Cutting Corners and I could this made in my choice of fabric for $330 plus the cost of fabric. Not too bad but still too expensive for our budget.

So I started searching on Pinterest and I stumbled up on this two part blog post on In My Own Style.

Part 1 is the construction process and Part 2 is the upholstering process. This was her finished product. The best part about this is it's a NO SEW ottoman. Perfect for my non-seamstress self.

The ottoman above is 20 in. wide. We needed 36 in. wide to fit the scale of the space. I also knew I wanted larger pleats and I had to do the nail head trim because I can't sew piping...so David made the base by copying the instructions on the blog mentioned above. 

We added 3-in high density foam.

Found fabric off Harry Hines for $6/yd!! (Needed 4 yards.)  And followed the blog again. I used liquid stitch for everything! 

And here it is! I'm so happy with how it turned out! 

All in we spent $75!!! Love it even more!

Miss Me?

WOW...It has been FOREVER since I last posted. I'm just going to do one big update on the past several months. Enjoy!

APRIL

My sister gave birth to her third little one.
Sweet McKinzie Lynn.

We went to the Jimmy Buffett concert in Dallas.

We enjoyed a visit from David's dad. He lives in Oregon so it was a treat to show him our new house, favorite sports bar and the best shrimp and grits in town at Meddlesome Moth.

MAY

David and I flew up to NYC to meet sweet McKinzie and visit with the whole Sullivan Clan. 

 

I had to have a wisdom tooth pulled unexpectedly....but David was the BEST nurse. He surprised me when I got home with this...

JUNE

We flew to El Paso for my Mama Two's memorial service. 

We celebrated David's 27th birthday.

I had Maggie's bachelorette weekend in Dallas.

I said goodbye to one of my best friends. Daryn and her fiance moved to Seattle! Can't wait to go visit them!!

We flew to Santa Fe for Maggie and Kosta's wedding.

JULY

We celebrated July 4th with Bo & Laura at the Royal Oaks Country Club!

Whew...here's to not waiting SO long to post updates.

DIY Cleaning Solutions

I just saw this on Pinterest and thought I'd share. I'm curious to try a couple of these!

Source: picklee.com via Sarah Bella on Pinterest

Happy Cleaning!

Been A Little Busy...

This is why I haven't been blogging much lately!

We've been:
1. Traveling to Arkansas to see friends and family
2. Decorating and unpacking the house
3. Having a few house guests (brother, brother's girlfriend, two extra dogs, brother-in-law, college friends, brother again, etc.)
4. Planning an engagement party for our friends, Bill & Hillary
5. Getting rear-ended at a red light (all ok just a few scratches on my back bumper)
6. Reading the Hunger Games trilogy (I'm on book 2 and LOVING it)
7. Celebrating two years of marriage!
8. Re-painting our desk and finishing other projects around the house
9. Celebrating Caroline's birthday in Dallas
AND
10. Welcoming our new niece, McKinzie into the world this past Friday, April 13th!


I cannot wait to get to New York City and see this beautiful baby girl and her older siblings- Kate (almost 5) and Wesley (almost 2)! Aren't those the cutest smiles?!? Just precious.

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie..

Remember this adorable children's book?


I can SO relate to this mouse! As I've mentioned, we recently purchased and moved into a new house = really exciting and yummy cookie. Now I need a big {expensive} glass of milk = decorations and furniture.

We obviously can't buy everything we need at once, so I'm scouting Pinterest and the web for cheap ideas. I'm thinking I'll start with some little things that will add a pop here and there. So here are my top two for today:

Idea #1 - give my Kitchen Aid Mixer a pop of color. I totally regret registering for a boring and plain white mixer. I wish I would have gotten a fun bright color. Now I've found an inexpensive way to give this appliance a face lift! For $12 at The House of Smiths Designs you can purchase these vinyl decals to put onto your mixer. I'm thinking about the chevron in a green.



Idea # 2- paint and/or wallpaper the back of my butler's pantry. I'm not sure what color I want to do but right now the clear glasses against white pantry are not working. They just don't stand out.




Again, this idea came from The House of Smiths Designs. You can see her step by step instructions by clicking HERE.

Pictures of the finished products will follow! Wish me luck :)

Packing Fun!

This weekend we begin the packing process as we'll be moving into our new home very very soon!!

Source: notetosarah.tumblr.com via Devon on Pinterest

I'm semi-looking forward to packing as it's a great time to get rid of stuff we don't need or use anymore. I have a ton of clothes that I keep thinking I'll fit into again but I think it's time to say goodbye!

There are so many great tips and tools to get packing done right. Loving these free packing labels from Pinterest.

Source: theprojectgirl.com via Hayley on Pinterest

Right now we have about 10 boxes in our attic that all say "Miscellaneous." Hmm that's helpful!