Monday, March 25, 2013

:: Little Ones - a greeting from the white house

A few years back, I posted about how to get a
"welcome to the world" note from The White House.

I'll definitely be doing this for Anson once I finish his birth announcement.
No matter who you voted for, it's always cool to get something in
the mail from The White House, right?

You'll need to send the announcement to the address below:

White House Greetings Office
Room 39
Washington, D.C. 20500

{On the back of the announcement, put the name of the baby, name of the parents,
 address you'd like it to be sent to and the baby's date of birth.}

We've done this for both of our girls.
What a special note to put in their baby books!



And I hear you can do this with wedding invitations too!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

:: Family Happenings - and he's here . . .

Introducing Anson Smith
Born March 15, 2013
9lb 3oz
22 inches


And his two sisters absolutely adore him!





Friday, March 15, 2013

:: Easter - egg decorating tip

So I found this tip a few years ago and thought it was a great idea.
Instead of using a spoon with the egg wobbling everywhere,
use a whisk!


We tried this last year and it worked great!
The girls were able to do it on their own without me worrying about
the egg going everywhere.
Try it out!


Can't believe how much they've grown just within a year.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

:: Refashion - maternity dress

So, I'm going to have this baby in a week and I'm just barely posting this maternity dress refashion.
Ha!  This depicts my life exactly.

Anyway, a few days after Christmas we were in Vegas visiting family.
I really wanted to get maternity pics done (28 weeks along).
 (I like to get them done for each pregnancy - - can you tell I'm a middle child?)
We had Janette from Janette Nelson Photography take some photos for us.
 (the wife of my husband's cousin - - you got that?)
Unfortunately, I forgot how freezing cold and windy it is in Vegas in the winter. . .
but we did get some cute shots.

I found this mid thigh dress/tunic at H&M 
and knew I wanted everyone else's outfits based around this striped gem.
It's not a maternity dress, but was on clearance for $10.
So I bought it thinking it would look cute with some black leggings (it was mid thigh length).
But, really . . . I don't know if I'm a leggings girl.
And after thinking about this for a few days, I had my hubby go back and get me another one . . . 
cause I had an idea.
Why not just put the two dresses together and make a cute maternity dress?
And that's what I did.

I wish I would've taken some before pics, but I didn't.
But in the picture below, you can see where the dress went down to, sorta.


So, on the top dress just right above the hem, I cut across the bottom of one stripe.
I measured to how long I wanted the dress 
and then cut across the top of one of the stripes on the bottom dress.
Does this make sense?
I then sewed these two pieces together in the middle of the top stripe (on the bottom dress)
and in the middle of the bottom stripe (on the top dress).
There are different ways you could've sewn these pieces together, but that's how I did it.
And I think the finished product turned out pretty cute!

FYI:  buy the same size dress! By the time Tommy went back to the store to get the second dress,
they only had a size smaller than the one I bought.  And it was a PAIN!  It would've gone
so much smoother and looked more professional if I had the same sizes . . .

Here are some other pictures I love.
 I think the girls were more excited about chasing after the peacocks than having their picture taken . . .





I'll be linking here.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

:: Free - March desktop calandar

Free March desktop that I'm using this month.
Can be found at Oh the Lovely Things.



Monday, March 4, 2013

:: St. Patrick's Day - past treats

St. Patrick's Day is quickly approaching.
Here are a few of my past St. Patrick's Day treats . . .




Friday, March 1, 2013

:: love notes/packages

Sorry about being MIA this week.
This is the week I've both dreaded and couldn't wait for, for 3 years now.
The week my husband took the bar.
Luckily it's over with and now we're just waiting.
How dare they make us wait 3 whole months to find out if he passed or not! 
Ugggghhhhh.

Anyway, he was in Ontario for 3 days taking the test while I've been at home with my two cuties, 9 months pregnant (praying that I wouldn't go into labor while he was gone), and working one of those days.  So needless to say, I'm happy this week is over.
Just slightly stressful.

The night before he left I made him these 3 packages
with little notes from the girls and me.
I had my sister tape them to his steering wheel before he left each morning.
Hopefully they helped ease the stress.


Just used clear bags (Target party section), washi tape, and these cute love notes here.

Have a great weekend!