Show Us Your Life {Bathrooms}

So awhile back I did a couple posts for "Show Us Your Life" at Kelly's Korner and then I kind of went MIA in the blog world. Now I'm back writing blog posts with a curious 13 month old on my lap who loves to "help" me type. Please excuse her spelling mistakes! ;)

This week is SUYL- Bathrooms. After we bought our house, we wanted to update it a bit. I say "we" but it was mostly just "me" and my obsessive love for decorating! I had always wanted to blog about the changes we made but never did, so here's my chance to show you what we did with our guest and master bathrooms.

Our guest room is also the baby's bathroom, so it's a never ending battle to keep it presentable. In my future Barbie Dream House I'd like a separate bathroom for guests- Kids Keep Out! But back to today's reality.... Here's how the bathroom looked right before we moved in:

Not quite my style. I decided to put to use some of the things from my old apartment (less to go out and buy), so we went with a red bathroom! I {heart} red!!!

At first, I didn't quite like the lighting, and though it's still not the best as far as brightness goes, I was excited to get to throw in some more red paint for a little something extra near the ceiling.

And to prove that it really is the baby's bathroom...

Next up is the master bathroom. Once I started taking pictures for this post, I realized there are a few more touches I'd like to do. I think the area by the tub would be a perfect place to make a little more inviting, and I definitely need to add a window treatment!

First the before shot:

Because our Master Bathroom is off of our Master Bedroom, we wanted the two to match. In our room all the walls expect one is light blue while the remaining accent wall is brown. I was told when I started decorating, I couldn't pick anything girly or with anything that resembled flowers in any way. So needless to say, this wallpaper had to go. We did the opposite in the bathroom- everything brown, accenting with light blue. It sounds like it would be very dark, but because we have a skylight, it's so bright you hardly ever even have to turn the light on.

{window treatment needed ASAP}

Probably my favorite part of our bathroom is the "His" and "Hers" vinyl on the closet doors. I just think its so fun and something you don't usually see.

So, these probably aren't the most photographed rooms of the house, but it's nice to get to relive the transformations!

Seuss-tastic Baby Shower

My best friend from high school, Mollye, was having a baby, (I say "was" because she just had it last week- yay!) so I threw her a baby shower! The gender was going to be a surprise so she's been decorating using a Dr. Seuss theme- adorable!!

Imagine my horrified surprise when I realized I had not taken any pictures and the food had already been dug in to! OH NO is right!! So if you see things missing, that's because people ate my decorations- yes...I consider food a huge part of the party planning "art"! hehe

Here are the invitations I made. I wanted them to look like a book and rhyme, since that's the essence of Dr. Seuss and all! Some of the rhymes I got using ideas from the internet and others I made up. I LOVE how they turned out!!

Here are a few shots of the party....

The cupcakes and cake were adorable!! Mollye's mom-in-law and sis-in-law were in charge of food and rocked it! They made half the cupcakes to look like Thing 1 and Thing 2 by putting blue cotton candy on the tops of them, but by the time I took the pics they had deflated. :( Fortunately, they still looked super cute!

If you noticed the huge Dr. Seuss hat in the background and thought, "Wow, that girl is certifiably insane about throwing parties," you'd be right, BUT I did not make that hat. I borrowed it from my school. We did the play "Seussical, Jr." and I thought, what's a Dr. Seuss party without an obnoxiously big Cat-in-the-Hat Hat?! :)

I kept seeing the idea for a Create-a-Onesie station on people's blogs, so when Mollye's friend Lee-Anna mentioned doing one, I was all about it! She brought the supplies and that seriously professional adorable looking onesie above! People had a GREAT time doing these...I think this might be a staple in all the baby showers I throw from now on!

I've seen the photo prop idea done a few different ways, one being at my own shower that my friend Sarah threw for me, and thought it would be a cute way to throw in some more Seuss-y stuff!

And finally, here is me with the (now) mommy, Mollye! The gifts above my mom, sister and I made for her were 2 fold- one said "Soon to be Mommy's Favorites" which contained boobie pads (as I like to call them), a paci clip and a Diaper Genie refill pack, while the "Maddie's Favorites for Baby Reese" contained Maddie's favorite toys- an elephant teether, a musical MP3ish player and those mesh teether things that you can put fruit and stuff in. I thought it would be fun to pass on our favorites to them.

Hope you enjoyed and maybe got some cute ideas! :)

Magnetic Make-up Board

So, as any of my Pinterest followers know, I am what they call "addicted" to pinning! I have already admitted it, but I'm not quite willing to do anything about it, so I guess I'll just keep pinning like a madwoman! :) (If you haven't entered the world of Pinterest yet, you are missing out!!)

Anyhow...back to the reason of the post. I saw this great idea for organizing make-up, and anything that has to do with organization goes straight to the top of my "Must do NOW!" list. Here was the picture I saw:

I LOVE it! The only problem I had was that I don't have a good place near my sink or mirror where it could go. So I decided to put my own spin on it while also going the super cheap route (you're welcome, honey). My closet door is right by my sink so I decided to hang mine just inside the closet on the wall. This also meant I didn't have to match it with the colors of my bathroom! Sooooo here's what I did....

Materials:
1 cookie sheet (mine was small, but it was also only $1 from Dollar Tree)
1 magnetic basket (also Dollar Tree)
1 sheet of adhesive magnets ($0.97 from Walmart)
Can of spray paint
Sheet of scrapbook paper
Mod Podge/Brush
Ribbon
Hot Glue Gun
Duct Tape (Optional)
Stickers (Optional)

Step One:
Spray Paint the edge of your cookie sheet- front and back. Notice you do not have to spray the middle since it will be covered, but do make sure to get along the edge where your scrapbook paper will not cover.

Step Two:
Mod Podge the piece of scrapbook paper on. I had to trim down a 12x12 sheet but just that one piece fit perfectly! *Side note to prevent ripples- spread the glue on the pan in a very thin layer. Lay down paper and flatten with a credit card aiming to get any bubbles out from under paper. STOP. (yes- I'm talking to all you out there like me who like to rush through a project and then get mad when it messes up!) Let it dry completely. In fact, go ahead and do the next step. Then, go back and spread a thin layer of Mod Podge over the top of the scrapbook paper. This will seal it and prevent scratches or tearing of the paper.

Step Three:
Gather the things you want to hang on the board. Cut piece of the adhesive magnets and put onto the backs of the items. *Side note- I started putting all the magnets onto the backs of the containers and then realized from the front they all look the same. On my eye shadows, I switched it and put the magnet on the front so I can easily see the eye color without having to take it down. See what you like and go with it. :)

***UPDATE: After a few days of hanging in my closet the adhesive on the magnet strips just didn't cut it. I'd suggest adding some hot glue to keep it all together! That way you're not spending your time picking stuff up off the floor!***

Step Four:
I now give you permission to go back and finish your Mod Podge! ;)
The Real Step Four:
Make a bow or a knot or neither, and hot glue your ribbon to the back of the cookie sheet. I added a piece of Duct Tape for good measure, but I don't think it's that necessary.

Step Five: Add your basket to the front. I found a cute sticker in my closet-o-stuff to just jazz it up a bit, but that's not important if you don't want to.

Step Six:
Put all your make-up on the board! You are done! So easy!! The hardest part was getting antsy while waiting for the spray paint to dry (which was only 10 minutes...but still!)

Like I said before, I used the small cookie sheet. I wanted it to be a cheap project and I really don't have any more make-up that needed to go up, in fact, there's stuff up there that probably could have been left off due to lack of daily use. Point being, if you'd like a bigger one, just get a bigger cookie sheet and an extra piece of scrapbook paper.

Total cost to me today- $2.97 plus tax (cookie sheet, basket and magnets.) I just decided not to be picky and used left over stuff I had from other projects. Your cost might be more if you have to buy spray paint, ribbon, Mod Podge, etc. but none of those things are very costly.

Have fun!!!

4th of July!!

Happy Independence Day!!!

We had a GREAT 4th of July! My mom and sister drove up for a couple days to visit so we decided to go spend a few hours at the Cameron Park Zoo here in Waco. We thought it would be crowded since so many people have off on the 4th, but turns out we were very wrong. It wasn't crowded at.all. It was perfect! Maddie enjoyed showing off some of her new walking skills, which meant we spent much of the zoo going at a 1 year olds pace (and not the pace where they take off running in all directions, the pace where they stagger often and still like to hold your hand.) Small steps aside, we still had a wonderful time!

After the zoo we did the American thing and grilled hamburgers! And by "we" I mean Brent. Us girls just sat in the nice air-conditioning and chatted...I mean that's a guy thing anyway, right?! :) Of course they were delicious, but that also meant it was time for my mom and sis to head home. *tear*

After a couple hours of laying around rest, we headed over to Brent's parent's house for BBQ, hot-tubbing and fireworks! Maddie was especially fond of the beans, which she sounded off about at the dinner table (if you know what I mean). She LOVED the hot tub, and don't worry all you worriers out there, we did NOT have it hot. It was basically a giant bath tub to her, and she did not want to get out. What we were most nervous about, simply because of the noise, was the fireworks, but Maddie thoroughly enjoyed them!! I covered her ears during the loud ones, but at one point she pushed my hand aside and didn't flinch once at the loud bangs. She's such an American!! ;)

Well, that was our day. We got to spend it with lots of good family, food and fireworks! Just perfect!

We hope you all had a wonderful day as well and never forget the reason we have our independence. Thank you to all who served in the past and serve today to make sure we have the freedoms we have. You are truly appreciated!



Our Cupcake's First Birthday Party!

Well, the time finally came to celebrate Maddie's 1st birthday! One whole year has gone by since this sweet first day...

It was an amazing year, so I wanted to make sure her birthday was just as amazing, because you know, she's totally going to remember it and all! ;) I know, I know...why spend time and money (Brent pretend you just stopped at "time") when they aren't going to remember it any way and they're too young to really do much. If you've known me even for just 5 minutes you'd know those reasons can't stop me from throwing a cute (note I said "cute" and not "fun". I can't help if you don't have fun, but I can make sure everything is adorable) party! So here's what I worked on for the last couple months whipped up....

I had to take pictures of the invitations with my phone so they are a little blurry. The front I designed on photoshop and then added the cupcake and candle so it had a 3D look to it. Then for the back I just used a picture I took of Maddie holding a *fake* cupcake...can you imagine the possible mess if I used a real one!)

 Then for the food and sweets...

I made the water bottle labels on my computer and then put them in a tub with water balloons that were placed in the freezer so I didn't have to use ice...much cuter, don't you think?! Plus, after the party I was able to put them back into the freezer to use for the next weekend when I hosted a surprise party for my friend...love getting multiple uses out of things!! Side note about the food- the strawberry shortcake kabobs were a huge hit...strawberries and angel food cake on skewers, how easy is that?!

I saw a cake like this on Pinterest and knew I had to get it for Maddie! The small cupcake on top was used as her smashcake! Then of course, to go with the cupcake theme, we had to have cupcakes so I made some cute cupcake toppers to go on top! Since she didn't have very many friends come that were older, I didn't want to go all out for party favors so I just made candy filled cupcakes with little "thank you" signs on them.

Another shout-out to Pinterest for the fruit cones idea. So much cuter than just putting out a bowl of fruit...will use this idea again and again!!

Last bit of decorations...I made a Happy Birthday sign with my Cricut (a crafters MUST HAVE item!) On the mantle, I framed her monthly pictures that I had been taking over the past year. It was so neat to be able to look back and see how much she grew in just a year's time! You can't really see the true look to the cupcake wrapper garland, but it turned out great in real life. It was so easy to make, just string cupcake wrappers, and viola- total cuteness! :) The canvas picture of Maddie I got online from Fabness. I simply uploaded a picture onto their site, and they had it at my door in just over a week!

So, you did all this work...did the birthday girl have any fun, you ask? Oh yes! We got her a little water activity thingy (yes- I do think that's the proper name, thank you very much) and she wanted nothing more than to dive, or crawl, right it! She wouldn't even smile for pictures once she caught eye of it.

Remember that cute little smash cake? Well, it didn't stay cute for long. Funny story though, at first she would not mess it up. She started first just picking at the icing and throwing it on the ground. It was quite uneventful for a few minutes...then Mommy helped her out a little. Once I smashed it open, cake started flying! And once she heard us laughing, she started clapping, which meant more cake in more places! Thank you for being outside! I also made the ribbon decorating her highchair..totally necessary, I know. Super easy though, just cut different ribbons different lengths and then stick them onto a long piece of ribbon with glue dots!

Ok, well...I think that's all I can recap about the party. She of course got many many presents, but since we video taped that, we didn't get any pictures. I have to say, no offense to anyone there or any of the amazing gifts that she loves and plays with, I think her very favorite gift that day was a sleeve of Club Crakers from her Grammy. She loves her some crackers!!

Thank you to everyone who came and who has been a part of her life for the last year! We love you and our little cupcake!!

Eleven Months!!

Dear Maddie,
I say it every time but time is flying by so fast! I see people with their newborns and it makes me so sad that I can hardly even remember you being that tiny. Even as I look back at pictures it's so hard to believe that you are growing this fast!!



You are getting very good at walking while we hold your hands. I know any day now you're just going to take off! Even without walking, you are curious about everything. You crack us up when you reach for things you know you're not supposed to play with because you look up at us with those big blue eyes just waiting for the word, "no." Then when we say it you get those big alligator tears flowin'! I think we may have a little drama queen on our hands!!

You are really enjoying "real people food!" In fact you are starting to get mad when we try to feed you out of a jar. We have to put in on a plate or in a bowl to make you think it's not baby food, though sometimes you show off those smarts and still refuse to eat it! That being said, you are NOT a picky eater!! I'm talking you eat tomatoes, avacados, all veggies and eggs! You must get that love-all-things-food attitude from your mama!

And speaking of food...check out those chompers! I simply LOVE how your precious little teefers came in! Front Bottom two, then the 2 next to your front two, but no front two yet (did you follow that?!). Adorable! You know what else you do with that sweet mouth- you say "mama" and you mean it! Yep...no one can deny it- we've had several witnesses! ;) Mama loves you SO much!!

Look how big you look!!! I just can't grasp how much you're growing! Thanks for an amazing 11 months! I know the fun has only just begun with you!

xoxo
Mommy

Easter {a little late}

So I realize Easter was quite a while ago, but I still wanted to share Madison's first Easter! We spent the day visiting Brent's family in Temple. Maddie was quite the hit. She didn't do any Easter egg hunting, but she did do a lot of Eater egg throwing! ;)

There was a big field of blue bonnets that we just had to take Maddie to. She was definitely not a fan of being put on the ground, so I had to go find a blanket for her to sit on. Even still she didn't smile too much. Oh well, some of the pictures still turned out cute...it's hard to get a bad picture of such a cutie! (In my professional opinion)

When we got home, we gave Maddie her Easter basket. She loved digging through all the goodies, and though it didn't keep her busy all night, it did entertain her for a little while.

We had a wonderful day with our little girl...what a way to celebrate the reason for the season. Thank you God for such a beautiful and loving baby! You are truly wonderful!