Hello Kitty Themed Birthday Party!

This past weekend, we got to attend a fabulous birthday party at our friends house again! This time, it was for Jadence, who turned 7! Isn't this Hello Kitty theme adorable? I really wanted to share some photos from the big bash!



These treat bags were designed by her uncle, who is a great graphic designer. They were complete with candy, and a Hello Kitty bracelet! Also, see the popcorn in the paper cones? Those were such a clever idea, and they found them for 6 for $1!





There were also some crafts going on...including Hello Kitty masks and bookmarks! Here is a picture of my daughter Payton wearing the mask she made! Aren't they cute? They were made from that styrofoam paper stuff (not sure of the correct term!).




Of course you have to have a pinata!





These are the cutest little cake pops ever! They were made by Jadence's aunt, who found inspiration from Bakerella's website. Yo ucan find the link to Bakerella here.



The Birthday cake in the perfect shade of pink!



And here is the Birthday girl herself! It was such a fun party! They always throw the best parties and have so much cuteness going on! I'm always grateful to be on their invite list!

Entry Table: Take One

Isn't this table funny? I've been wanting my husband to build me an entry table so that I can decorate our entry. Usually when I have projects that I want my husband to build for me, I draw a sketch, or draft a drawing in AutoCAD. This time, I just showed him how wide I wanted the depth of the table to be using my hands and let him go with it! He was just going to use scrap wood that we had out in our garage so we didn't go and buy any new wood for this project. This past Saturday, I took the kids to a Garden Party over at a family play center so that he could have some good time to work on it without kids climbing all over his tools. When I came home and saw how skinny it was...I was cracking up! Apparently, he thought I gestured to make it only about 6-7" in depth, which he thought was weird, but just went with it! Although my dear husband took the time to build this for me, I don't think I'm going to be using it. Honestly, it would make the perfect sofa table (the ones that sit behind a sofa and can display things). But since I don't have a need for that right now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this table (Sorry Dear!). As you can clearly see, not only would it have no function and purpose, but it is not to the proper scale in the entry. A table about roughly 12" would be much for fitting for that little space.



And p.s...See my light blue tile and blue carpet? I can't wait until it is replaced in the near future!

New House Exterior

Finally! The exterior of our house is finished! I'm so happy with how it looks! Since we've lived with it half painted for 3 years, it is nice to have a completed exterior. Like I mentioned before, the people we bought it from had half the house resided right before we moved in, so it had that pale siding color on certain parts. Here is a picture of the BEFORE...



...and AFTER...



We are still planning to add window boxes under the smaller windows on the left, and that will make a huge difference. I think we are also going to be re-doing our flower beds next Spring. They need a little help!

A little bit of Halloween!

Seeing these pumpkins that Kenzie made over at 9 o' clock Dance of Joy has really got me wanting to paint pumpkins this year. I've seen a lot of different painted pumpkins over the years in blogland, and this year I've decided I'm, doing it! I love the look of pumpkins painted white or off-white. They class it up a bit!

My bedroom

It's been a little bit of a rough morning! My little man broke my brand new Scentsy warmer in my bedroom that I just got 2 days ago. That triggered a whole bunch of other things that are frustrating me around the house...why we can't keep the carpets or our bedrooms clean to save our lives, and how everywhere I look, there are smudge marks and fingerprints of some sort. I guess it just comes with having little ones, especially twins. Anyways...enough with my pity party...

I wanted to share some of my favorite things about my bedroom. I love the Ralph Lauren shade of gray that I painted it when we first bought the house.
Even 3 years later, and I'm still not sick of the color! We also installed some crown molding at the top, to make it look more neat and clean...and posh :)

This lamp shade I got at Wal-Mart for $10, and I love the rectangle shape of it. The base I found at Home Depot on Clearnace for around $15



This was supposed to be a temporary home for this mirror, but I kinda like how it is propped up against the wall next to our bed. I don't think it will stay there forever, but it looks good there for now. I bought if for $20 from a friend who just recently got married and moved to Idaho. It is made from old barn window in Wyoming. I love stuff that is reclaimed!



My Damask bedding! I've also had this for 3 years, and usually I want to change out prints by then, but this is just a classic. The bed set was given to us from my parents, and I originally wanted to stain it black to go with the bedding, but my husband wouldn't let me, and I'm now glad he didn't. Suprisingly, this brown looks good with the grays, blacks, and whites. It warms up the space a little bit.



This is a print that my best friend bought for me on the streets of Paris, France! It is framed in an IKEA frame. It works perfectly hung above the bed.



One of my favorite pictures of my husband Danny and me. It was taken just 2 days before he left for his mission to Washington DC and I wasn't going to be able to see or talk to him for 2 whole years. In this photo, we had already been dating for 2 years.



I couldn't resist this Adam & Eve print. It works in our master bedroom, and I think it is very fitting for the space :)

My New House Numbers

Pretty cool, huh?



Little changes like this get me so excited! Look at our house numbers before we changed them...UGLY! I didn't like that they were on the trim around the garage and they were too skinny.





These were a major paint to install, but don't they look great? I found them at Home Depot for about $5 per number. I think this $20 addition to the front of my house makes a big difference, and I love the contemporary look of these numbers!




Like I've said before, it's all about the small and simple things!

My new re-upholstered chair!

I'm bummed because I can't find my "before" pictures of this chair on my memory card and I know for certain that I took them! So let me just describe this chair as it was before...I bought it at a garage sale for $2! I couldn't believe that the price tag said $2, I probably would have paid $10 or even $15 for it because it was exactly what I was looking for. It had the perfect shape, good bones, and looked easy to tackle and re-upholster. I needed a chair for the little nook in my master bedroom, and this was perfect. But, it had beat up chair legs that desperately needed sanding, and the body consisted of a nasty, musty smelling, mustard yellow vinyl covering. So I went to work removed the chair legs that were really easy to remove (just simple screws), and started sanding the legs down. Compared to the other chair that I re-did and posted about here, this was a breeze to sand down. I learned that stain is much easier to sand down in comparison to paint! Once the old stain was sanded off, I bought some new stain at Home Depot for about $4, and re-stained the legs. I had picked up 2 yards of red and off-white colored houndstooth fabric at Joanne's for about $8 per yard, as well as a bag of batting, that cost $7 at Wal Mart. Then my husband and I pulled out the staple gun and started stapling the fabric around the front of it. For the back, I just did a simple panel and stapled it down.







For my first re-upholstering job, I am really happy with it! The final cost for the whole project ended up being $29! Not too bad for a cute chair that has the perfect fabric that I wanted!

Sage's Felt Playhouse

Sorry for the lack of posting this past week. Other than getting over strep throat, I had a lot to do for my church responsibilities as well as crafting away for my twins' 2nd birthday! They turned 2 years old on Saturday, 9/11. My goal for this year is to make each child a felt playhouse for their birthday instead of buying them toys. I was able to make Sage's pink playhouse, while I am still working on Sawyer's. I felt bad that Sawyer's wasn't ready for their birthday, but I don't think he cared! Here are some pictures of Sage's felt playhouse that I made...



The front is probably my favorite. I love the little poodle patch I bought for $4. I also love the little mail envelope. I meant to make a door, but ended up not and I think it still looks good.



I cut out the birds from the leftover fabric I used for my kitchen curtains. The fabric comes from IKEA, and it worked out perfectly for the little bird bath.



This is the back of it, and I wanted to add a real cut out window, but I knew they'd try to crawl in and out of it and end up wrecking it, so I settled for a felt window. As you can see, I need to go back and iron on the felt to adhere the Heat N' Bond better. It takes a little bit longer over felt.



I cut out each leaf individually, so it took forever for this side! The butteflies were on another fabric I had laying around and so I thought they'd be cute!



And here is a picture of them chowing down on their birthday cupcakes. They are still shirtless because we had just eaten spaghetti!!! It was a good birthday!

I spent about $67 in materials for both playhouses, so I figured each one costs about $33 to make...not too bad for a cool little play fort! I bought felt fabric and used Heat N' Bond that I found at Wal-Mart to adhere each little detail on it. The only sewing was to stitch together the actual sides and top of it.

Here is a website that has a tutorial on how to make your own playhouse:

Fireflies and Jellybeans

Martha

I hate having a sore throat! The past few days I've felt like someone has taken a pipe cleaner wrapped with barbed wire and used it in my throat like a chimney sweep! No fun, and I can't afford to slow down!

Anyhow, you know how I love Martha Stewart? And that I saw her in person when I went to two different tapings of her show in New York City? Prior to seeing her in real life, I was watching her show daily. It all started when I had my first daughter Payton and I suddenly became a stay at home mom (and I was available to watch TV in the morning rather than at my desk working away on kitchen cabinet details) when I became addicted to her show that was packed full of homemakers' bliss! Ok so, back to the NYC trip...I was with my mom and my sister sitting in her studios and I remember when she walked into the studio kitchen and was chatting with the chefs working away before the filming began...seeing her in person was one of the coolest things! There she was, in the flesh! Not on my TV screen, just like I had seen her every day for the past year, but standing right in front of me. And because we got there early, we got VERY good seats so I was right up front! Alice Waters was there so we all received copies of her awesome cookbook that had just been released, and there was also some firefighters there as it was National Fire Prevention Week. After the awesome episode taping, she took questions from her audience and I wanted so badly to ask her something, anything, but I chickened out! Luckily, my graceful and confident Mother sitting next to me didn't hesitate to raise her hand and ask her what kind of Christmas gifts would be best for the people who already have everything i.e. my Grandparents!? I remember Martha telling her that unique and handmade things would be best, but I still couldn't believe that Martha Stewart was standing there having a conversation with my MOM! It was real neat, and hopefully I can make it back there again. In my book, Martha is a legend and so to have seen her in the flesh and for my Mother to have spoken to her was amazing.

On another note, I think it would be super intimidating to be her Interior Designer buddy, just as Kevin Sharkey is. He recently designed his whole living space in Manhattan and there are a few things that I can find inspiration from.

For example, a few strokes of a paintbrush on some MDF for artwork on the walls above the sofa...




Or I like these simple yet playful framed color blocks...




You can read the full article here about Kevin's apartment transformation. It all looks so beautiful!