Pinterest and Parties

Oh Hai! Long time no speak. Why? Because I have been crazy busy with an almost toddler, a baptism party and planning Emma's first birthday. Things have been just a smidge crazy in our house, and I have been going in circles in my head making lists and trying to figure out everything that needs to happen for the birthday.

The expectation that Pinterest has put on us mothers to create cute and adorable and handcrafted parties has made me a crazy woman once again. Why did I even go online and look up inspiration photos for this party? I put together lots of items in my board and thinking to myself that I got off easy because I picked an easy theme. HA HA HA ha. (insert sarcastic laughter) I my head doing a 4th of July inspired BBQ was easy. But now with all of my "inspiration" I am feeling the stress. I think I say this with EVERY party I do. Why why why do I do this to myself? After a couple of crafting weekends under my belt, invitations out and decisions made I am feeling better and we will hopefully be able to enjoy this upcoming weekend as a early birthday celebration for me and the hubbies first Father's Day.

What's a post without a couple of craft updates (Pinterest inspiration), and a Pinterest fail!

The hubby and I painted this wooden pallet as a flag inspiration. It was a fun project that we did together, and it can be used as decor on our porch, when we have one.

Again, I saw this inspiration on Pinterest and had to do it because it was so cute. They are firecrackers made out of pool noodles and some wire decor. They were hung from the ceiling in the pin, but our location has vaulted ceilings and I cannot do that, so they are going to be table center pieces.

There's no first birthday without a highchair banner. I took inspiration from two separate pins and blended them together. Excuse the blurry image of Emma, but I LOVE this thing! It was so fun to make. I also made some "sacks" for sack races. Hopefully I can come back and do another post with all the fun things I am planning.

I promised a Pinterest fail didn't I? Well, in all my glory of ideas I plan on making Emma's smash cake. I have some cake decorating tools so I thought that I would practice. Here's my inspiration:

Source

Seems simple enough. I emptied a couple of large cans of chicken and baked my cakes to have a small little three tiered cake. I then died my frosting using liquid food coloring....mistake one, it wasn't even red or blue. Then I used my horrible tool and started frosting.

NOT EVEN CLOSE!

I kept trying and it wasn't working so I eventually just ended up with this:

I was so frustrated that I had a mini meltdown and cried in my hubbies lap. I eventually calmed down and once at work asked a coworker if she had better decorating tools. She brought me an arsenal and I practiced my roses on a plate.

Much better. I feel a little more confident that I can pull off the cake now. All I need is some gel food coloring. Pray that I don't die of frustration before the party! Happy Monday!

Baby Shower Preview

The day has arrived!! Today is the day of my long awaited (at least for me) baby shower. As I sit here thinking about the day and feeling our precious little one move around I cannot help but think how lucky I am to have such a wonderful support system around us. It's true what they say that everybody loves babies but so many people have told me just how excited they are to welcome little Emma into the world! She will be such a loved child and I am so grateful for that.

We kicked off the celebration by picking up my step mom from the airport yesterday afternoon. She had no idea I was going to be at the airport so when she saw me and the tears came for her, they did for me as well. We made the trek back in from lax, if you live in L.A. You know what an irritation that is on a Friday afternoon. We ran a couple errands and then relaxed at my cousins house to try and stay cool out of the triple digit heat. Apparently things for me are always planned on weekends where we have record breaking temps. Sorry family! We then told my step mom that we were going to dinner, wings and fries of course, but actually had booked another 3D ultrasound so she could see babes precious face on the screen. D's dad also came because he missed the last one as did his mom and my mom. Once we pulled into the parking lot I could see the perplexed look on my step moms face and I pointed to the sign exclaiming "obviously were not going to dinner yet, but here first." She instantly lit up and of course started to cry again. We enjoyed another 30 minutes of little miss stubborn with her hands in her face, but we did get some good photos and I will post those soon! :)

After that we made our way out to the local Bdubs (BWW) for wings not realizing that the Kings were playing the Ducks for game 7. The place was a zoo, but it was a buzz with excitement because they ended up winning 6 to 2 dealing the Ducks fate in the Stanley Cup race and moving on to defend their title! We got home and put together our car seat and stroller, both of us were so tired that it was interesting watching the hubby reading the directions how to snap everything in place. All in all it was such a great Friday and the perfect way to start off the weekend.

I know this post promised something other than a recap if yesterday so here's a couple of photos I was able to sneak in with regards to the shower. I can't wait to see what the ladies have done and I cannot say enough times how lucky I am to have such wonderful women in my life!!! Stay tuned for the whole recap (you know I'll be snapping away and the details!)

My Only contribution...the chalkboard layout!

The color scheme

Decor - Cupcakes made out of receiving blankets and onesies

Decor - Adorable diaper cakes

Decor - Popcorn boxes and cupcake toppers!!

Ties or Tutus? A Gender Reveal Party!!

This post is WAY long overdue. I am so sorry. Things just went crazy after we announced that we are having a baby girl. However that is no reason for my tardiness! We have been packing to move, trying to figure out what to register for, which is a whole other post, and frankly I have just been so exhausted! #preggoproblems! Anyways, here's the recap of our gender reveal party, or as we called it Ties or Tutu's.

I scoured Pinterest, of course, for many ideas for decor, food, and creative ways to announce our baby's gender. I saw many many of the same announcement ideas and I really wanted to step out of the box a little. I saw the Ties or Tutu's theme and just fell in love. I was a dancer as a child and in my formative years, and my hubby works in a bank and wears a tie everyday so I thought it was super appropriate. Although in hindsight.....in looking at our chalkboard....many people commented on Facebook and Instagram that they thought it read Tits or Tutu's and didn't know the gender difference. I guess it was a good thing that she ended up being female! Haha

I decided to go with a dessert table covered half in pink and half in blue. We had two different types of popcorn in custom boxes, caramel corn and kettle corn. (per daddies request) We made pink and blue chocolate covered strawberries, funfetti cupcakes with custom cake toppers, to fit the theme, and had candy, left over from our reveal. I made pinwheels and hung streamers in pink blue and white to complete the backdrop. I also made "Tie" and "Tutu" signs that were meant for a game that we didn't end up playing, so they just doubled as decor. We used them in our announcement photo and I will put the best ones in her baby book!

Custom Popcorn Boxes

The Dessert Table

"Tie" Game Signs

Cupcakes with custom toppers "Ties and Tutu's" of course

Pink and Blue chocolate covered strawberries!

Once everyone arrived we mingled a bit, got very few photos, and ate some SUPER yummy food made by my cousin, who generously opened her home to us, and my mom. They made pineapple Swedish meatballs, chicken wing bites, strawberry and walnut salad, and potato skins. I forgot to take photos, and need to get these recipes because they were Ah.Mah.Zing!

My outfit. We each wore pink and blue as to not give a hint!

Family mingling and my mom and cousin cooking away

Here are some shots of some more decor items, I made two pennant banners. One that is seen on the chalkboard above and this big one that is seen below along with more pinwheels. I also took our ultrasound photos and the bump shots to date and hung those for everyone to see.

After food we played a couple of games. I wanted them to be light and fun, since this wasn't a baby shower. We did the old wives tales, where I read aloud the old wives tales and we filled in the answers. When I did it for the blog it was boy all the way, but it ended up being a tie at the party. Haha. Then I passed out notecards and asked everyone to write down their best baby names and their worst baby names. We read them aloud and all had a chuckle. There were some doozies!

I figured after those two games we better just announce to everyone what we were having. I spent about 20+ hours making a pinata for our reveal. I wanted it to be cute and special but to be honest I will NEVER make another one. What a time suck! Lol. We filled the pinata with candy and the plan was to have the Great Grandparent's hit first, then the Grandparents and so on. We go four people in and my grandfather took a huge whack and it when flying. So I went and picked it up and told everyone that the answer was written on a piece of candy and they would have to look for it, when in actuality it was written on several boxes of pink Nerds. I dumped the candy on the ground and my brother and sister in law went scouring. In less than 30 seconds my B.I.L. had found one and shouted "ITS A GIRL!" Everyone started crying and hugging, and saying "I knew it." 90% of the people said we were having a girl. 

It was such a fun and exhausting day. I am so glad we announced in a fun and special way. I want to thank my cousin for hosting and helping with the food, my mom for helping cook and keep me sane during the planning process, and my hubby for helping with decisions and being overly excited to have a party. I wouldn't have been able to do it without all there help! Thanks to everyone who came out and celebrated the announcement of our little Baby Girl Kimball! We love you all!

And The Gender Is???

We had our gender reveal party this weekend and was able to throw a little party for our immediate family announcing the gender of our baby. We found out on Wednesday after a lot of poking, prodding and enticing that we are expecting a bouncing baby GIRL! We are so excited and I was able to get my hubby into a pink shirt! Hehe. I can't wait to share with you all about the reveal and finally post everything I created! Happy Monday. Look for my bumpdate tomorrow! Mommy Monday got delayed due to a PINK circumstance.

The one who is a wedding coordinator

Source via Facebook

Woowza! What a whirlwind weekend it was. I am still recovering and it's Wednesday! This weekend was my first official duty as being a day of wedding coordinator. What does this entail? Running the rehearsal, set up day of decor, coordinating vendors, dealing with any issues and making sure the wedding stays on schedule. If you recall on Friday I was off to run the rehearsal dinner. I thought this would be a little harried, but thankfully all but two people had been in weddings previously! Whew! Everyone pretty much knew what to do and how to stand. Easy for me, especially because I needed to gather my scattered thoughts to align with the task at hand, as opposed to the task on Sunday. Details were spinning through my head. After an hour everyone was good as rehearsed. The bridal party, friends, family and myself (yay) went to a local Chinese restaurant and gorged on orange chicken and toasted to the couple. I got to hang out with my dear friends Mr. and Mrs. A and their cutie pie daughter. It was wonderful to be included in this whole event and be treated like family with them. I feel like they are an extension of my own family and am so happy for the couple!

Sunday was the big day. I got up bright and early to make sure I looked decent for the whole day. Er....well my hair had fallen flat by the time the sun went down, but really that's not any big surprise. I didn't need to look pretty, right! Once on site I got straight to work pulling out all the decor, making sure everything was there. I spent the next couple of hours staging and getting everything set for the bride and groom. I neglected to take finished photos because it was ceremony time, guests were arriving and I needed to head out to the ceremony site to make sure everything started on time.....which it did! Shocker!!! Even my own wedding didn't start on time! Hopefully I can link you to the photographers site when the photos are up with detail shots. I'm excited to see everything.

Everything went according to plan, except for a couple of seating snafus, some broken glass on the dance floor, and some last minute time adjustments. When does any wedding go exactly to plan?! The thing that was the coolest was the sparkler send off (which we did early to get a good crowd and great photos) The gifts were picking citrus in the orchard (the venue was a huge lemon orchard and it was gorgeous!) The bride and groom danced until the very last song and were just so grateful that their family and friends came out to celebrate them. I am so glad I was able to help give them their fairytale wedding and to make sure that their day ran as smoothly and stress free as possible.

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. G!!!!

Stay tuned for update photo's when I can get access to them!

instagram ♥ pinterest ♥ twitter ♥ google+ ♥ bloglovin

Parties, Guitars and Wings - Weekend Recap

I want to start off this post by saying a prayer for all those that were affected by the Boston Marathon bombing yesterday. It was very scary to say the least because I actually knew someone who was running in it. She is safe and sound and we thank the Lord for that. My thoughts go out to the families of people who's lives were lost, and to those who were injured by the events. Please lets all say a prayer for all the victims of the shocking events and let's also thank the members of the police, fire, and emergency units for all their hard work rushing to the aid of all the people affected!

So this weekend was an eventful one. Saturday was my great aunt's 75th birthday hosted by her children at my Papa's home in Simi. 50+ people attended the party with a taco cart, cupcakes and a little accordion/guitar serenade from her grandchildren. The hubby had to work so I went alone, but got to spend time with all my family. We ate, drank and acted like the large Italian family that we are! Since spring is finally starting to show itself here in SoCal, I took a photo of this blossoming tree that just smelled amazing. This was of course before the clouds and cold weather rolled in later that afternoon and hung around for the rest of the weekend.

Of course I had to spend time with the baby at the party. Emily is my cousin's 6 month old baby girl, who apparently has stranger anxiety with everyone else, but she just loved me! Yay! I held that child for hours and she eventually just fell asleep in my arms. *Tear Tear* While she was sleeping my aunt came up to me and said that holding her is giving me good baby pheromones, and when her daughter held her nephew that's when she got preggo with her first daughter. Well by all means, if that's all it takes then I will hold every baby on the planet and share that secret with the world! Haha....I know that this is just silly talk, but honestly every little bit helps. Especially since she was so cute, I would have held her until my arms fell off.

Sunday was a little more mournful. It was the 2 year anniversary of my fathers passing. I woke and spent the early morning looking at photos and shedding a few tears. I posted some memory photos to Instagram and Facebook. Then I bombed the hubby out of bed so that we could go get breakfast and run a couple of errands.

We went to several stores looking for cushions for our patio table set, but ended up coming home with this beautiful succulent. Since it's in the cacti family I am hopeful that I can attempt to cure my brown thumb. Honestly, I just forget that the plants are even there! They don't stick their leaves in my face with big eyes saying "Water ME!"

After arriving home, we got to work hanging up my father's guitars that we brought back from Florida with us. Of course as with any other project, we needed assistance from our neighbor because the screws that came with the hangers were too short to hit the studs and just pulled out of the wall. No bueno! So our handy dandy neighbor brought over some long screws and his kick ass drill and we hung those bad boys in no time! Thanks R!

 

After that we listened to my dad's CD watched some Netflix and got ready for Wings and fries. We tried out a new sweet wing recipe that was BOMB DOT COM! They fell off the bone! I will put that recipe up for you all later this week! Thanks to cousin B! We toasted his life with a cocktail and watched Ted. Since my dad was from MA I thought it appropriate! 

So that was our highly eventful weekend. I am linking up with Sami's Shenanigans!

Headboards, Catalina, Weddings and a Pigskin Party

Ok so it's been mostly crafty posts around here lately. Honestly because so much has been going on at work and in my personal life that the time to write an actual blog post seemed to get put on the back burner. I have been out of the office at least 4 days out of the week for the last 3 weeks and it's not slowing down. I usually write my posts either on my lunch break or on the weekends. So here's whats gone on the last two weeks.

I finished the chalkboard and posted a couple of recipes to boot! All of which has gotten great interest on Pinterest which makes me so happy! I need to figure out some more things to keep the content of this blog and momentum going! I do have a couple of other baby crafts to post, but one needs to be finished before I post. Maybe this weekend, while doing laundry and getting ready to go to CATALINA! Whoop! We are so excited to get away for a couple of days and have an adventure.

Last week I got a hit with a double whammy. A bout of food poisoning with a UTI to boot. I was not a happy camper at all. While waiting two hours in urgent care and getting my meds, all I wanted to do is lie in bed and sleep. Instead of actually sleeping, I just watched Grey's Anatomy on Netflix and read blogs on my phone. I got to one of my favorites, Sawdust and Embryos as she was announcing the winner of the contest she was holding for a DIY headboard. I just entered cause I LOVED the fabrics, but never thought that I would win. Well wouldn't you know, I did! I had a great little email conversation with Beth and she told me that all my supplies shipped this weekend! EEK! Stay tuned for that to be featured in the future and pop over to her blog to read about her crafty life with her hubby and two adorable girls! They do awesome furniture redo's! Trust me you wont regret visiting!

We went to a comedy show last weekend, to root on a friend who's trying to get into the business and got to see Andy Dick in person! He was funny, but mostly just sang funny songs instead of doing actual stand-up, so that was a bummer. Also I met up with a dear friends sister, the future Mrs. G to discuss helping her as a day of coordinator for her wedding in August. Her details look perfect and I can't wait to help her out with the biggest day of her life! Gotta get the timeline together and make a site visit to Santa Paula to get an idea of how everything can be set up. She's got all the decor details figured out, just gotta work out some of the kinks with regards to the ceremony and set up and just be there to help with everything she needs on the big day! I'm really excited to do this for her!

You might have been aware of the game that happened this past weekend. I dunno, it's some big thing here in the states that most people get all riled up over, the Super Bowl. I am not a big fan of football, but like to make it interesting by making little wagers with D. Not only did I predict that the Raven's were gonna win, but I won our little side bet! HaHA! Too bad I didn't come up with my own wager beforehand, but it's more interesting for me to have something to look forward too. We went to a friends house to watch the game, with 3 other couples. 2 of them had the most adorable little boys, and Dylan (pictured above) loved our friends little bridge that he has in his yard. We tend to always make fun of it, but it was the perfect size for a toddler. He loved walking back and forth on that thing! He was so cute! For the most part the "Super Bowl" party turned into a sit outside and eat yummy food while playing baggo party. It was so fun and relaxing. Poor D was the only one who wanted to watch the game. We did end up watching most of the second half, as it was far more entertaining. Super Bowl at Casa P's will forever be known as Non-Super Bowl party.

Since there were babies a foot, the topic came up over the course of the day with many questions with regards to our luck. So, here's a little update on that. December marked our official go-time to try again. Unfortunately we haven't had luck yet, but are having fun with the process....because honestly it's not supposed to be a chore. We are still very positive and are waiting patiently for our time. Seriously though, there is WAY too much cute stuff out there! I am looking forward to visiting our god-daughter and niece at the end of the month to get more of a baby fix as well.

So that's what has gone on in our neck of the woods! Can't wait to share our island vacation with you all as well! Maybe I will bring up the courage to zip-line! o.O 

A craft blast from the past!

I know, it seems like this is becoming a craft blog. I assure you its not. I am just trying to go through and document all of the crafting I have done in the past two years, plus the quilts that I had done previous to blogging. Although my life isn't all about crafting, it is something that I truly love to do! The hubs may have been a little frustrated with it at first, now he understands my need to stay busy, and I think truly appreciates all the things that I create! While updating my All Things Crafty tab up top I realized that I missed some really cute and fun quilts that I had made some years ago, as well as a camera strap cover that I did last year, and a Bachelorette party menu also! While the quilts and the menu don't have a tutorial to go with them, I still thought that I would share them with you to see some of the other things I have done. Also I will post a link for the camera strap to the tutorial that I used! Enjoy!

This is the one and only quilt I have made for myself. It came as a kit that I bought at a quilt show with my mom in Ontario. We went for the day and perused all the fabrics that were to be seen. I also got fabrics for the first quilt I ever made for our dear friends The Anthony's wedding in April of 2008. Since then there has been a little disaster with this quilt as our puppy, when she was a puppy thought that it was a chew toy and gnawed a nice hole in the borders. It's really fun and funky with little kittens riding scooters and Eiffle Towers with brown and pink graphic prints! I still love it. Hopefully I can fix it! My mom also made me a tote bag out of the left over fabrics too! Oh and those little tootsies at the bottom are D's!

This quilt was made for our other dear friends the Roben's for their wedding in June of 2009. It's a little throw quilt and it was made entirely out of scrap fabric. I made it in one day with my mom's help and when it was done it had a little Americana feel to it! Again the toes belong to D! Haha

This one is another wedding quilt. For our friends the Ransdall's in May of 2010. This one was also made out of scrap fabrics and it went really well in their Tuscan inspired home with the warm reds and golds!

Please excuse the poor photo. I took this with my blackberry, when I had one, since my nice camera was the subject of the photo! I made this really cute camera strap cover. Priddy Creations had a wonderful tutorial on how to make this simple slip cover for your camera strap to show it a little personality. There was some errors in cutting that made me have to create more than one of these babies, but it was still fun and super simple! Not the most masculine of fabrics as the hubby uses this camera too, but he doesn't mind!

And finally something not sewing related. For a friends bachelorette party I whipped up some cute menu's in Photoshop, glued them to some black card stock and added a little bling bling! The idea was to make all the names be wedding related. These babies went on the table at the restaurant where we ate in San Luis Obispo. We had a great weekend dressed in purple attire, ate great food, wine tasted and all around shenanigans were had!!