Birthday to do list among other things on my mind

My darling Olivia (who is not so darling at the moment due to a persistant tooth trying to poke through) is going to be 1 yr old on Aug. 11th. I am trying my best to make it an awesome birthday party on limited funds so, I have gone searching in blogland and here is what I have found:



great idea! My hubby has a ton of butcher paper since he runs a meat dept!


How darling is this???



Love these invitations, so beautifully homemade and organic looking




what great decor is this!

All of these fantastic party ideas came from the wonderful, talented Cottage Mama

I am doing a sesame street theme while still keeping the party cute and girly. I am doing fabric invites that are all going to be different from very cute $0.99 fat quarters from Joann's and I am hanging a sign that is going to say

This birthday party was brought to you by the number 1 and the letter's O-L-I-V-I-A

Just like on sesame street!

I am going to order a cupcake tray with one small cake on top for the bday girl, and I am in the process of making her a birthday dress.

I also love these ideas for birthdays:



I love this, and I knew those empty formula can would come in handy.

These ones are made by Sumo over at Sumo's Sweet Stuff but it originated at Fireflies and Jellybeans.



How awesome are these bday favors, pretty cheap too with a dollar store trip and a little DIY.

For more bday awesomeness, check out The Girl Creative's link up

Now, I must say that I am feeling inspired and ready to work!!!

But alas, I have some family news that I am quite excited about and just have to share. After a recent family vacay back home, the Hubba Wubba and I have decided that we HAVE to move closer to our families. I am so homesick, and I want nothing more than to be able to raise our daughter close to her 3 sets of grandparents!

So instead of living a whopping 10 hours away from our family we will soon be uprooting our family about 2 hours away from our parents. I must say that I am quite excited about this which is making all the more homesick and ready to just pack up and go. I can't wait to be able to have weekend visits with our family, and holidays together, and no more teary good byes because we can see them whenever we have a few spare hours in the day :)

Don't get me wrong, I love where we live but family is truly the most important thing to us and what's the point of living that far away from the thing that means the most to you if you don't have too??

Wish us luck, because we are about to write a whole new chapter in our lives!!!

by the way, I am open to birthday party ideas, and links if you know of any good ones.

Thanks!!

Blissfully Painful- Not Mom of the year contest

Blissfully Painful

First off, a big thanks to The Mommyologist and Life without Pink for hosting ' Not Mom of the Year Award'. When they announced this contest, I originally had a million ideas swirling through my head, funny jokes that I could make about why I am not Mom of the year. It was all supposed to be just for fun. I was going to laugh about how my daughter is lucky if I even put a diaper on her, let alone clothes. I had plans to joke about the fact that she is almost 1 and still sleeps with me for half the night because I enjoy cuddling with her and it's unfortunately become a routine on both ends that we can't seem to break. There was going to be a funny tidbit in there about the time(s) she ate dog food or how about the fact the she has already ate fast food, ice cream, and loves watching Sesame Street. It was all supposed to be just a fun joke but then.... Olivia started getting her eye teeth in.

As I sit here cuddling next to my poor teething baby, I am starting to think that it's no longer a joke. I honestly deserve the 'Not Mom of the Year Award'. Any good Mom would not walk away from their screaming, teething child, but me, I did. I walked away because I did not know what else to do. I had exhausted all other options, and if I had not walked away from my screaming, teething child, I would have sat right down on the floor with her and cried and screamed too.

She has been so clingy the last few days that as I went to go throw some garbage away, I turned around and knocked her right in the head with my knee, sending her into even more of crying, screaming fit. I feel absolutely horrible for not watching more carefully, I feel like a big pile of steaming poop for my attitude the last few days. I mean, I should be used to it by now. Since January she has been getting teeth in one right after the other, but none have caused her to act quite like this. This is not my daughter, she must be someone else's cranky, screaming, crying, whining, clingy, picky child- because no child of mine acts like that. BWAHAHAHA!!!

I got a swift kick in the butt from Little Ms. Reality because Olivia is my child and she is acting like that. I am at the end of my rope, what kind of mom holds her breath as her heart sinks when she hears her child wake up from nap time, and whispers a little prayer to the Nap Gods for just a few more minutes of silence. That is not a very good Mom quality in my opinion and yet I fit the bill to a T. I can only hope that tomorrow will be better and that we can get through today with a little more silence, a little less pain, a few more smile and hopefully a bath (lord knows that she needs one, it has been about 3 days).

At the end of the day, I might feel like a crappy mom, but I would endure a lifetime of this all for just a smile and a cuddle from my daughter as she nuzzles into me and looks up at me with those eyes, you know, the one's that tell you that you are her world. I would not change a thing if I could (well, actually I would have not knocked her down if I could go back in time) because I love being Olivia's mommy and I cannot imagine life without her.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!! Announcing winner for blog award

The Rules:
•Thank the blogger who awarded it to you.

•Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five (5) words.

•Pass it on to 10 other blogs which you feel have real substance.





Thank You again so much Susie B. Homemaker!!!

If you want to read the post where I formally thanked her, please look here.


Now, after a crazy weeked full of walking for Relay For Life (woo hoo, we kicked cancer's ass just so you know and took 4th place with a total of $5,000) and then sleeping the rest of the weekend because I was about to fall over in my tracks from sleep deprivation, I am finally announcing the winner's of the 'A Blog With Substance' award!!!!! (sorry, I suffer from exclamation point overload syndrome- EPOS)


Now, these are in no paticular order, so here it goes.

DRUMROLL PLEASE...........................................................................................................................................................

• Laundry Hurts My Feelings
  

Joann makes me laugh every single post! (Better than any date I have ever been on)

• Mommas's Pixie Dreams

Her blog rock's and her little girls are seriously the cutest thing you ever laid eyes on

• The Cottage Home

I have the greatest desire ever to be half as good of a seamstress as she is, she also lives in my dream house, and throws my dream birthday parties!

• Girl. Inspired.

This girl truly does inspire me, if you don't have a creative bone in your body, you will still feel the urge to go and make whatever awesome tutorial she is walking you through.

• Night Owl Crafting

OMG.... Idea overload is all I can say- but that a good thing right, because we always need a million projects lying around!

• Ruffles and Roses

Giveaways, tutorials, and a summer of skirts- what more can a crafty girl want!

• Housewife Eclectic

This woman is a genius for many reasons, one being that she created a Blogshare Community which have to go check out to find out what it is and the other being that she actually convinced her hubby to help her do it!

The Handmade Dress

This wonderful lady is a master seamstress who I only aspire to be like someday in my sewing endeavors.

• Made By Jess
  

Cute blog, tutorials, and ideas

• Running With Scissors

She is crafty, thrifty, and chalk full of helpful ideas and directions!