No more babies for a while

Hi ya'll!

At this moment I am reliving some moments that I am surprised to find I forgot about so quickly.  I am talking about the constant neediness and care that a newborn requires.  It was only 1 yr ago that I was in this position, how could I have forgot so quickly??  And, just for the record, it is not my newborn, I am babysitting her today and while she is cute, she cries an awful lot and needs burped after every feeding so her belly does not get upset and she requires so many diaper changes.

It's not that I have never been in this position before, it's just that I forgot about it. I am moving into the toddler years, I can just sit back and watch my child play, and talk, and discover.  My living room is no longer littered with pack n' plays or swings, or bottles, and blankets.  Life was starting to get easy, and then I offered to watch a new born.  What was I thinking???  I am sort of kidding, she is cute to cuddle and all but it definitely made me realize that I don't want another baby for a few years. I really am enjoying my one on one with my little toddler, and I don't want to sound mean, but I just don't feel like interrupting that time with another baby that constantly needs to eat, sleep, and poop.  Give it a few years and I am sure baby fever will be in full swing, but just not right now.


On a side note, please keep an eye this week for my first guest post ever!!! It will be on the ever fabulous blog Straight Stitches, written by Heather.  She has some amazing projects on there and is so down to earth.  I just love the friendships that come about in the blogging world!  I am not sure what day it will be on there this week, so keep a lookout for it on her blog.  I will give you just a little tease of what it's about-

that's just a little taste!



I also will be having a few projects coming up this week that I am super stoked about.  They are halloween/ fall themed and I can't wait to see the finished product.

I ran across this kick-ass thrift store (although it does sort of smell in there)  here and found a wreath that I am going to re-do.  Why you ask, well let me tell you why.  Here in my one horse town where I live, there is no such thing as Jo Ann's, Wal Mart, or craft stores in general.  So instead of going to the store and buying a foam wreath, I have to search out the thrift store, I am not really complaining, but I would prefer to go to Jo Ann's instead of just hoping there is something worth buying there to re-do, that's all.

I also found a way to use up all of my saved formula cans, I knew they would come in handy!!! Even better, it is a Halloween decoration, and involves spray paint!  I love myself a can of spray paint.

Have a great Labor Day everyone, and enjoy these cute pics of my "toddler".

Daddy's boots

Bath Time

Family time

Pouting

sitting in her toy box reading! 
seriously cute!!

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!!

Date night with the Hubba Wubba

Last night-

I went on a date with this man-



and this man-



and this man



I know, it's okay if you are jealous of me. I would be too.


All joking aside though, we had a great date night thanks to one of our best friends who so graciously offered for our daughter to stay the night there. (Her daughter is 8 and is best friends with my almost 1 yr old.)

When the movie was over, we walked down main street drinking good beer (no open container law, how cool is that!) and listening to good music.

Then we came home and cooked pad thai, drank a bottle wine, and cuddled next to the firepit-

and we won't talk about what happened afterwards because this is a family friendly blog- duh!!

When I get our camera working, I will post pics of the finished dress I sewed for Olivia- let's just say that it is a practice dress. A new one will be made in light of all the learning that occurred through my mistakes.

I am also in the process of making this-



except mine is a baby pale pink with fabric backing and chicken wire! Can't wait to get my camera working to show you.

Have a great day, I am off to go swimming!!

ADDICTED TO SEWING!

Okay, so my mom gave me her sewing machine last week and I am in love!!! I am currently attempting (I use that word loosely) to make Olivia a dress from a pattern but somehow messed up with my amount of material for the bottom portion so now I am winging it with some fat quarters that were $0.99 at JoAnns the other day. I hope it turns out!

I also got a bunch of patterns that were typically $16 for (brace yourself) $0.99! One of them makes an adorable apron which I bought super cute material for (on sale of course) and laptop carrier pattern, stuffed animal pattern, window treatment pattern, and yoga pants pattern! I am going to be a sewing fool.

The bottom of my Jo Ann's receipt says that I spent $23 and saved $73!!!!!! Now if any of you would like to step up and be my mentor so I don't royally screw this up and lose lots of money in the process- that would be fantastic! (I am sort of kidding about that last part.)



Anyhow.... I will post pics when I charge my camera and get around to it sometime tomorrow.

Pics of latest finished project

I found an old magazine rack/table at a garage sale with several layer of nasty mustard yellow paint on it and decided I needed a bedside table. The hubba wubba has always had one but I never got around to getting one, so I jumped at the opportunity to be a crafty DIY and made myself a table. After a lot of chipping, sanding and painting- I was finished!some sort of paper was glued on over the yellow paint, so I chipped that off....

Then I chipped the yellow paint off and revealed the wood which had some sort of design in it, but it was uneven so I sanded it down....

and painted it with a beautiful raspberry color which I liked because it's truly the only girl element in our bedroom (but I plan on slowly sneaking it in here and there)

Yep, It's Friday again!!! Unfortunately, the hubba wubba will be gone fishing for the weekend. That seems to be a common occurrence these days, but I have a fun BBQ to go to and plan on making an earring holder out of a picture frame. Fridays also mean New Friend Friday over at The Girl Creative which excites me because I always love meeting new bloggers and coming up with new craft and DIY ideas.

I am super excited at some killer deals that I got at a garage sale this morning! Two pairs of Gap jeans for $4 and a nifty cat scratcher for $2 and of course I can't seem to stop buying my darling Olivia clothes!!! She has more clothes than me and the hubba wubba combined, I swear that is no lie!

I will post more later, seeing as how my child is screaming and won't take her nap but check back because I am going to be posting about fun activites for babies and young toddlers in the summer!!

To Do list a mile long

I have a to do list a mile long and between the housework and two babies I have no clue how i am going to get it done. I finally bought the remainder of our vegetable plants so I need to plant those and weed the garden. I also need to mow by the garden and move the picnic table, the hubba wubba is camping and I was hoping to surprise him and have it all done but instead I am blogging (damn you blogger for being so addictive).

I started weight watchers Tuesday night and so far I am doing good, I have been eating a ton of fruits and vegetables since they are 0 points and I feel like my energy has skyrocketed which is good because I was sorta in a slump. But I must admit the challenge will start tonight when the hubba wubba returns because he is a horrible influence, I am quite positive he puts a stick of butter on everything he cooks, then again that would explain why his cooking is delicious. So, I am really going to need to stand my ground and just ignore his offer to cook me shrimp scampi, I will also have to ignore his offer to make me a cocktail or fetch me a beer which is going to be really really hard!

On another note my daughter thinks she is a dog, and I have no idea where she learned this because even my dog does not think she is a dog. Olivia has been carrying toys around in her mouth while she crawls and walks around, someone please tell me it is just a phase, because while it is extremely adorable and cute, i don't want her to think she is a dog. I am worried about this you see because she has developed a taste for dog food and dog toys also, if I put everything up then I forget about the dog needing to eat and if I leave it down, the baby that thinks she's a dog will get into it.

My very first ever attempt at being a crafty DIY will take place soon, I have a bedside table that I am going to fix up so I will post pictures of that and of my garden once everything is done. I also have plans to turn a picture frame into an earring holder and when I find the blog that I got the idea from I will give credit where it's due. I am also really wanting to sew Olivia a dress for her first birthday, I have fallen in love with Amy Butler fabrics but I am having a hard time picking a semi-easy dress pattern, so if you have any ideas- you know where to leave them.

TGIF!!!

Happy Friday Everyone!
This is going to be a good weekend, my best friend from high school is coming to visit me and I am participating in a relay for life garage sale (i will probably spend some money there as well). I just got back from a garage sale and found a really nice bedside table that i am going to re-do. Yep, that's right, my first attempt at being crafty! I will keep you posted.


It is also Friday Follow- it's a great opportunity to "meet" new people, and new blogs. You follow them, and they follow you!

Here's how it works

Here's how YOU can join the Friday Follow celebration:

•* Click on above button to get to one of Friday Follow's sponsors, One 2 Try

•* Grab the Friday Follow button and include on your Friday Follow blog post.

•* Follow the Friday Follow hostesses: One 2 Try and Midday Escapades

•* Follow as many other blogs on the linky as you'd like

•* Take a moment to comment on the blogs telling them you're from Friday Follow

•* Follow your new followers!







The Girl Creative is hosting New Friend Friday
Welcome to New Friend Friday! Just go check out The Girl Creative's awesome blog and add on to the mclinky- search out new friends and followers!
It's a great way to get your blog noticed and to gain some new friends and followers.