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!!

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.

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.