iH3ART@blogspot.com

Project To Do List

2012-08-29T10:26:00.002-07:00

I have quit a few projects in mind that I want to accomplish in the upcoming weeks. This is what's to come .....

My staircase needs a little bit of TLC. Inspiration source: Pinterest

Looks fairly easy, now I just need to find some wallpaper that I like. Any suggestions on where I can find modern wallpaper?

http://thedecorologist.com/take-a-chance-on-your-stairs

I want to paint a design on the inner rectangle of the baby's closet in her bedroom. I was thinking possibly the same color as the walls with white polka dots. What do you think?

Our bedroom wall is very bare. I'd like to make a painting to go above it. While I'm at it, I should attempt making the bed too!

I like this idea from http://www.younghouselove.com/page/6/. I know its something I am capable of painting. I'll probably use green, yellow and white in my version to match my bedroom.

Then I seriously need to think about either making or buying curtains for both our bedroom and the game room.

And our backyard ..........

Now that it is cooling off outside I'd like to turn my backyard into a sanctuary where I can relax. In the far future I would like to build a deck off the back of the house.

And the most exciting project I'd like to finish is my seashell mirror .......

The mirror below is the one that I made for my sister-in-law over a year ago.

I guess I've got a lot of work ahead of myself!

Maternity Leave?

2012-08-20T14:03:00.001-07:00

I didn't plan to take a maternity leave from my blog, only from my job, but the unexpected happened! It has been quite an adjustment adding a baby to the family - the best adjustment I have ever made to my life. The past month all I want to do is hold my little girl. We've finally establishing some sort of a routine (this could change because babies are unpredictable), but with that being said, I have just a tiny bit more time on my hands ...... and I have decided to return from my blogger maternity leave. So, what have I been doing other than oooing and awwwwing at my baby? Not too much - dishes and laundry (lots of laundry!), but I have managed to get in a little bit of scrap booking. I'm only aiming for one page a day.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3 ...............

As you can see, one page a day has actually evolved into less than one page a week! On a more positive note, I do have a suggestion for any scrap booker out there. Stickers can be VERY EXPENSIVE. My method to save money when it comes to scrapbooking? - Save any cards that you recieve. Cards are expensive too ($5.00 each) and they seem like a waste of money, make people feel like they aren't wasting their money on cards by using the embellishments in your scrapbooks! That's what I do, I also frame cards that I really love.

While I have been away, I have had a few updates, additions and rearrangement to the house!

Yay! Microwave = Quick + Easy + Convenient Meals!

My loveley husband bought me this hydrangea mozaic to add to our living room! I love hydrangeas and the baby enjoys gazing at all the different colors and shapes.

So this was the living room before the hydrangea picture was added.........

And this is it now.....

Believe me - the living room never stays this clean! Usually it looks like baby land has taken over. Notice anything else that's different? We added the word inspire above the doorway, and the chest that used to be on the left is now on the right ..... and we added a desk to the left. A.K.A. - My office.

Close up shot!

This will definitly come in handy in two weeks when I return to school.

One other thing that I have worked on is the map that you see in the backround. It's an idea that I got from www.younghouselove.com . Track all the places you have gone in a cute sentimental way!

Its not completed ..... I'd like to decopauge the map to the cork board and add a few things. More of that to come! Then I can officially hang it on the wall above the desk.

I clearly need to venture out of New England! I'll add that to my list of things to do! Time to get back to my love ........ hope to be back soon!

Myla's Birth Story

2012-08-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

These past 10 days have flown by! We have been adjusting to our new life with the little one. Fortunate for us, she is the sweetest, most perfect baby I could ever ask for. She lets me sleep through the night, only waking me once or twice to eat, and she spends most the day sleeping or calmly looking around at her surroundings. Everyday for the first week we had tons of visitors. Johnny and I both come from very large families and then some of our closest friends stopped by too. This week we have decided to ask people to not come by so the three of us can bond as a family. On Monday of next week Johnny goes back to work. I am confident that I can take care of the baby on my own, but I do not look forward to Johnny going back to work. I have become so used to having him around and Myla and I will miss him a lot!

Like we all do, my little girl, Myla, has a birth story of her own. You can be told all the different things about having a baby but no birth story will be the same. And your birth story might be nothing like what you have been told or imagined. Everyone's body handles things differently. I did a lot of asking and researching on the internet to find out what a contraction felt like. I wanted to be ready when I had my first one. Friday July 20th, just as I crawled into bed around 11:30pm I felt a burning sensation in my thighs that lasted about a minute. Then about 15 minutes later it happened again. I thought, is this what a contraction is? I decided to just monitor it to see if it happened again, and sure enough if did. By the fourth time it happened, I woke my husband and told him that I thought I was having mild contractions and that hopefully we would have the baby the next day (I was already 10 days late with a planned induction date, and I really did not want to get induced.) A lot of people, including the doctors at the hospital find it strange that I felt my contractions in my thighs. As they intensified through out the night I did feel some in my back that radiated into my stomach. I wasn't able to sleep. With each new contraction I was awakened, and always felt the urge to pee and so I did. I started to record the contractions. At 2:00am I figured I should take a shower so I would be clean when the time came to go to the hospital. Then I packed any last minute items in the hospital bag, and did the dishes. By 4:30am the contractions were about 6 minutes apart. I woke Johnny up and told him that if he wanted to take a shower he had to do it now because we would have to leave for the hospital very soon.

While Johnny showered, I took Hershey outside to go to the bathroom and play catch. All night she seemed so sad, like she knew something was happening but wasn't sure what. She was worreid. Everytime I got up to go to the bathroom she followed me.

When Hershey and I were done playing catch, I called my Mom and told her that she should head over because I was about to call the Midwives, that my contractions were almost five minutes apart, lasting one minute each for about an hour (5-1-1). When I called the midwife it was 5:00am. She asked if I could still talk through my contractions and I said yes. I didn't find them painful at all, so I was hoping that by the time we got to the hospital that they didn't tell me that it was a false alarm. I was hoping that my water would break so that I had a clear indicator that I was truly in labor. By the time we got to the hospital it was 5:30am. I checked in and got sent to the evaluation room. This is when my contractions intensified.

Of course, I had to text everyone to let them know that I was at the hospital.

They hooked me up to the fetal heart monitor to monitor the babies heart rate and the contractions. My contractions were already 2 to 3 minutes apart. The nurse checked me to see how dilated I was. She said, "You're definitly having a baby! The head is really low and you're already 8cm and completely thinned! Let me go get a doctor." This led me to believe that she thought I was going to deliver the baby in the evaluation room. I started to panic. I knew I wanted an epidural so that I wouldn't feel as much pain when I was pushing but I was told that sometimes it is too late to get an epidural. I said to the nurse, "I can't have this baby now! I need an epidural first." and she just responded, "Hunny, you might not have enough time to get one." Panicking me is never a good idea. Because I was panicked and feeling stressed, I felt a lot more pain with each contraction and I began to pass out. This in turn made the nurses nervous because you can't really deliver a baby smoothly if you're passed out. They did a quick ultrasound and then transferred me to a wheelchair and brought me to a room where I could deliver my baby. Along the way I remember getting on and off of an elevator and people asking me questions but I wasn't responding to them, nor do I remember what they were asking me.

They transferred me from the wheelchair into the bed and within minutes the anesthesiologist (whose name happened to be Doctor Payne - how ironic) came in and gave me the epidural. I immediately felt better! I would recommend an epidural to anyone! I didn't even feel it.

The next few hours were kind of boring. Apparently the reason I progressed to 8cm so quickly was because I was dehydrated. When you get an epidural they hook you up to an IV. The IV rehydrated me and slowed the contractions down. We patiently waited for 6 hours until I could begin pushing. Johnny and my Mom watched T.V. and listened to their Ipods while I tried to rest. At one point they went out and got themselves breakfast sandwiches and coffee! How cruel, do you know how good that smelled, and how hungry I was, and all I could eat/drink was ice chips!

At about 11:30am was when I began to push. I pushed for 3 full hours before my little girl was born. I'm not lying when I say this, I felt no pain the entire time. About half way through I was even able to place a sushi order so that my Dad could bring it when he came to visit after the baby was born. Yes - that's what I said - SUSHI! I had been deprived from my favorite food for 9 months and that's all I wanted to eat. I was able to monitor my contractions because I felt a sensation (not pain) in my left buttcheek. Very strange, I know. Even the anesthesiologist found this commical. Since I felt no pain they claimed that I was the best candidate for an epidural . Although the contractions and pushing was not accompanied by pain, it was very tiresome pushing for such an extended period of time. The last two pushes was when I finally felt the pain, but it didn't last very long because seconds later at 2:26pm, I had this gorgeous little girl in my arms. I can't explain the feeling but it was one of the most amazing feelings in the world. I won't show you the picture of her when they first gave her to me. She was purple, and as you can imagine, I looked very unattractive. They let me hold her for a few minutes and then they took her to weigh her and clean her up.

I couldn't believe how alert Myla already was, she was staring at me as if she knew I was her mother. And I couldn't get over the look on Johnny's face as he held her in his arms for the first time.

He had really only held a baby once or twice before and it was never a newborn. He was instantly a natural and has become one of the Greatest Dad's. I appreciate all his help and the help of my mother during delivery.

Myla Isabella

2012-07-24T21:52:00.001-07:00

We are so proud to announce that Myla Isabella was born Saturday, July 21, 2012 at 2:26PM. She was 10 days late and weighed 7lbs 10.8oz and 20.5 inches!

We are so happy to have her home with us!!!

Girls Night Out Win $150 Giveaway to Applebee's

2012-07-20T22:41:00.002-07:00

Go to http://www.dreambookdesign.com/2012/07/girls-night-out-with-150-giveaway.html and enter a chance to win a $150 gift card for a girls night out at Applebee's courtesy of Applebee's and blogger at dreambookdesign.com

Spare Room: Before and After

2012-07-20T13:17:00.002-07:00

I apologize for being absent from blogging the past week and a half! I have no excuses! Unfortunately, no I have not had my baby yet. She has decided to come when she wants to come. Next Wednesday she will officially be two weeks late, so on Tuesday night the hospital plans on inducing me. At least I know that I will be meeting her within the next six days! You would think that during my time off without the baby I would be doing lots of projects but I haven't .... I have been a complete sloth! I'm not proud of it. I figured, since I don't have any projects to blog about I will share with you kind people a before and after of the spare room, A.K.A. "Johnny's Game Room."

I guess when we first bought the house I didn't do a good job at taking a picture of the room.

This room was one of my least favorite rooms in the house. Not only did it have paneling, but also drop down ceilings. The hard wood floors also looked beat up. Johnny convinced me that this room is not a priority yet and that in the future we can demo it, and put up new sheet rock but for now that we have to make do with what we have and just cosmetically make it look better. Cosmetic changes begin with painting.

That is ---- If I chose an appealing color ............

At least we were able to recognize that this color was ...... ummmm ........ well I guess you could say POOP. The second attempt at a color was the blue that you see in this image. This was also a No No, the blue was too vibrant. We made a trip back to Home Depot and picked out a new color. Third time is a charm!

Once the painting was done we moved in our couch.

Then we had our first sleepover at our new home!

As you can see, there was still construction going on in other parts of the house and that's why it looks so dusty. We didn't buy blinds yet, just hung up sheets and seeing as there was no cable or T.V. we brought our laptop to keep us entertained. It was exciting to spend the first day in our own home even though it may not look very cozy. After we finally moved in about a month later and began working on the baby room, this room then became the storage room. One evening, while I was out, my mother-in-law came over and her and Johnny cleaned up the room and rearranged it. I was so grateful of this.

Before

After

My mother-in-law and Johnny separated the sectional into two pieces, and we got white roman shades for the windows at JC Penny's for $20.00 each. As you can see the T.V. is waiting to be mounted on the wall and we still need to get curtains for the windows but I am loving the way the room looks!

Baby Room Reveal

2012-07-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my last day of work (until October)!!! If you consider taking care of baby work, then let's just say yesterday was my last day of secular work. Seeing as baby is not here yet I get to have a few days to myself. Most of the baby prep has already been completed so I was able to get some of my daily house cleaning done today and soaking up the sun by my parent's pool. I thought now might be a good time to reveal the Baby Room, just in time, before she arrives!

This room has been pretty much closed off, or kept as storage since we bought the house back in November. We knew it would be one of our final bigger projects. I would have to say this room was the most difficult to decorate. I didn't want it to be too babyish, or tacky. If you want to see where I got a lot of my ideas from click here to read my previous posts. Thankfully, Johnny and Jack took care of the sanding and painting. That left me with only cleaning, and decorating. The first pieces of furniture that moved in were the crib, dresser and rug.

Before anything else was moved in I asked my father-in-law if he could remove the closet doors off of the closet and build a shelving system. The next day I came home from work and he had already started it!

Once this project was complete we began assembling all our other gadgets and slowly moved them into the room.

Johnny would probably hate me if he knew I posted this picture of him putting together the glider! To be fair, here is a not so glamorous shot of myself testing the glider out for the first time.

And so it goes everything was moved into the room!

Before ..........

After!!!

Don't the shelves look AWESOME!

And here is my tribute to Pinterest. Johnny and I are obsessed with giraffes and elephants. One day while I was browsing Pinterest I found this idea ......

http://www.shopmilkweed.com/2011/07/nursery-art.html?spref=fb

....... And immediately fell in love. So I pulled out some of my old scrapbooking paper and began. My Ipad came in handy for this project. I googled giraffe and elephant silhouettes. Then I traced them with a pencil. This was a very quick and easy way for me to get the perfect stencil for a giraffe and elephant without trying to sketch it myself. Then I mounted it onto another piece of scrap book paper and framed it!

I'm fortunate to have a friend that stalks my pinterest page because the hooks hanging below my home made pictures were also something I liked on Pinterest. My pinterest stalker/best friend bought these as a gift for our baby shower!

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/category/hardware/home-hardware.jsp

Join the seasonal Pinterest challenge at http://www.younghouselove.com/

Project Bathroom: Before & After

2012-07-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

In our lovely home we have two bathrooms - one upstairs and one downstairs. I'll admit, I like having one on each floor especially when we have visitors but I will also admit that I am not proud of one of them. The downstairs bathroom. It is very outdated and it is a project that we have yet been able to tackle.

This is our shameful downstairs bathroom. We added a few items such as a trashcan, towels and the necessities but it definitly needs some work. Nonetheless, it is still functioning.

This is our upstairs bathroom before it was made over.

The major work that had to be done on this bathroom was cosmetic. The seller replaced the toilet and the sink. All we really had to do was paint and decorate it. Most of our house is painted with grays, greens and blue so Johnny suggested that I go with something else. And I did! I chose purple!

We stuck with the same type of blinds, Roman Palisades from Home Depot for the window. The round shower rod and shower curtain are both from home goods.

Turns out the Roman Palisades were a little revealing to the outside world. We covered it with a matching shower curtain. (My mother-in-laws brilliant idea!) We also added matching towels, a rug, a picture on the wall and the essentials.

Before:

After:

What's in your hospital bag?

2012-07-06T05:22:00.002-07:00

I'm a less than a week away from my due date and I finally have my bag completely packed! Everyday for the past few weeks I have added to it. When I first found out I was pregnant I treated myself to a new travel bag for a hospital bag. I found this bag at Ocean State Job Lot for $38 and it came with all sorts of inserts. It also has a pull out handle and rolls on wheels. If this was a backpack I would say its a little nerdy but for travel purposes the wheels are awesome. I couldn't resist buying this suitcase! I felt a little overwhelmed about packing the bag because what do you really need when your going to the hospital to deliver a baby and what will be provided? And how much baby clothes, diapers or swaddle blankets do you have to bring? I was pleased that during our birthing classes they went over the essentials that you will need to pack for the hospital bag. We made a list and went from there. I also want to tell you that a great baby shower gift is gift cards to Target, Walgreens or any grocery store so that you can pick up some of these essential items. The following items are things that I packed for my hospital bag.

Hospital Bag Essentials

This is my beauty bag. This insert rolls open and has all sorts of compartments for your beauty supplies. See how nicely it rolls out?

In my beauty bag I included:

Toothbrushes (one for hubby and one for myself)
Travel Toothpaste
Floss
HPA Lanolin Lansinoh Nipple Cream (I heard it's really expensive when the hospital tries to sell it to you.)
Make Up Remover
Travel Q-Tips
A Razor
Travel Contact Solution
Extra Contact Case and Contact Lenses
Glasses Case
Hair Ties
Head Bands
Bobby Pins
Travel Hair Spray
Waterproof Mascara (You must think I'm a little vain! I never go anywhere without mascara on and I definitly don't want it to smudge during delivery!)
Eye Liner
Body Butter
Deotorant (One for hubby and one for myself).
Travel Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Wash

I couldn't fit these in my little beauty bag but I also brought my Hair Brush, Blow Dryer and Flat Iron.I probably won't use them much. I plan on just putting my hair in a pony tail and wearing a headband but hey - just in case! My blow dryer broke about 2 months ago and I figured it was probably healthier for my hair to not use one at all. I finally splurged and bought myself a new blowdryer.

I got this Revlon blow dryer at Target. I like that it is collapsable and good for traveling. I was also drawn to it because of the retractable plug and wire. My other one broke from wrapping it everyday.

The next bag that I packed was the Goody Bag. Don't want to waste money on the over priced vending machines!

In the Goody Bag I brought:

Lolly Pops (These were suggested from the birth class that I went to in case you have a long labor lolly pops will prevent dry mouth. My hospital also provides popsicles.)
Gum
Doritos (for hubby)
Energy Drink (for hubby)
Chewy Bars
Fruit Snacks

Aren't these bags sooooo cute!

The next thing I decided to pack was the charger bag.

This is where we are going to keep the:

Camera charger
Cell Phone Chargers
Ipad Charger (The hospital has Wifi so we plan on doing Facetime with my grandparents in Florida so that they can see their new Great Grand Daughter!)

Moving on to the Diaper Bag

We got this diaper bag as a baby shower gift, it is from Babies R Us! I love it, and its perfect because its not something that Johnny will be embarassed to carry around.

In the Diaper Bag I packed:

A few New Born Diapers
Two burp Cloths
Swaddle Blankets
Travel Baby Wipes
Lansinoh Diaper Rash Ointment
Sleep Sheep
Options for Coming home outfit

The sleep sheep is my favorite! During our birth class they did a sound demonstration of what a baby hears from inside your womb and then the second it enters the world. Its a dramatic change from constant swishing noises to what seems to be silence in the real world. I want to help our baby's transition by having the sleep sheep which imitates the sounds in the womb to soothe the baby. The hospitals now recommends that instead of putting the baby in the nursery keeping them in the room with you and that's what I want to do. I also want the room to be as comfortable for the baby as possible.

I packed a few outfits similar to this one. At the birthing classes they said that they baby has to be completely covered when we go home from the hospital. It's going to be hot! So that is why I chose this dress-like onsie. It also has the little mittens that curl over the babies hands so that they do not scratch themselves.

This is what I mean by the mittens.

I probably packed too much for the diaper bag. I know that the hospital will supply me with some of these things like the swaddle blankets, diapers, rash ointment and wipes but it was nice to get my bag all set up anyways.

The last thing we had/have to pack is clothes. Some things that I packed are:

Socks (The hospital suggests that you bring grippy socks so that you do not fall. You could bring slippers too. I brought enough socks for my husband and myself)
Nursing Bra
Underwear (I may not use these because I was told that the hospital supplies mesh underwear for your hospital stay.)
Bathing Suit (In case you decide to use the tub to relax and relieve contractions. You can also bring a bathing suit for your husband)
A nightgown or something loose that you would like to deliver in (At the birth classes they suggest that you bring something from home, something that you feel comfortable in.)

The rest of the clothing we have to pack the day off. After delivery you are usually in the hospital for about 48 hours. I would say bring a change of clothes for 2 to 3 days. It could be even longer if the delivery doesn't go as smoothly as hoped for. Make sure to remember:

T-Shirts for your spouse
Shorts / Pants for your spouse
Undershirts for your spouse
Boxers for your spouse
Pajamas for your spouse
Yoga Pants or Sweat Pants for yourself
And comfort clothes!

The last thing that I would like to suggest that the hospital also suggested to me is that you bring pillows (the hospital ones are uncomfortable) and extra long sanitary pads!

I hope this post was helpful! I think I may have gone a little overboard but I would rather be prepared than not be prepared. Plus I don't think I will be packing for any other trips this summer!

All packed and ready to go!

Coming Soon

2012-07-05T05:04:00.002-07:00

Please bear with me with the delay in posting. I can no longer add any photos to my blog until I update my blogger account. Once I am able to do this (sometime after work today) there will be more posts to come:

1. Whats in Your Hospital Bag?
2. Upstairs Bathroom: Before & After

Maternity Photos

2012-07-03T04:10:00.006-07:00

Two weeks ago Johnny and I got our Maternity Photos done by my aunt who is a photographer. You can visit her website if your interested at www.photographybynoonan.blogspot.com . She did a great job. I knew that if I didn't get the photos done, I would regret it, and Johnny was a really good sport about it too. These are a few of my favorites:

www.photographybynoonan.blogspot.com

Front Porch: Before and After

2012-06-29T03:35:00.000-07:00

Your probably sick of hearing about baby showers so I wanted to sneak in my weekly house update before the week is over. I decided to finish up with the downstairs and give you a run down of the before and after of the front porch. Believe it or not, two of my favorite things about our house is that it has a front porch and a huge walk up attic. The down fall is that in the heat of the summer, both the front porch and the attic are comparative to a furnace! In the future I would like to turn my attic into an art studio for myself. As for the front porch it is still usable in the evenings when it cools off and in the spring and fall. This is our front porch when we first bought the house. It was a storage room for tools for a little while.

Once it was cleaned up a little bit I decided I wanted to make it look more homey and inviting. We had leftover paint after painting our bedroom. The paint that we used in our bedroom is Sherwin Williams Rainwash. It is very similar to the color in our living room.

I wasn't sure if it would look better if I painted all of the panelboard or just the bottom portion. The best way to find out was to paint it all and see how it looked. I ended up repainting the stop portion back to white. Then I brought in the furniture, decorations and sheers. The white sheers are from JC Penny and the teal sheers in the left of this photo were from Christmas Tree Shop. It created just enough privacy for us to spend time on the porch but also lets enough light shine in. This was the first time I had ever hung curtain rods by myself and they were a pain in the butt! At least now I know how to do it!

Before

After

In the springtime I enjoyed eating me breakfast and dinner out here everyday!

Baby Shower Highlights

2012-06-28T05:19:00.001-07:00

My baby shower that I mentioned in my last post was on Saturday. My Mom threw an amazing party. She always does! I didnt get to help her but when I walked in the hall this is what I saw.

Here is a closer look at the tables.

My mom made the centerpieces by attaching a vase to these cute baby toys that she found for $1.00 each! And that is one of my pom pom balls that I made used as a half ball to decorate the table. It was my Grandma's idea to insert the leaves under the pom pom ball to make it look like lilly pads! It all came out so cute.

Notice the Goya hot sauce? The food theme for the party was spanish food. My Grandma, Mom, and Adriana catered the party. They made spanish rice, steak tips, chicken, and plantains! My mother and father-in-law also brought three platters of sandwiches!

My Mom made more of the vanilla extract for party favors.

And the beautiful cake was made by Janet who also made our announcement party cake. We also had the cookie bar and more cake pops.

Our friend Sheila surpised us by making this adorable Baby Carraige Fruit Basket! Her and Keeana also made a Motorcycle Diaper Care Package!

Aren't they so creative!

My mom doesn't throw the typical baby shower. She invites couples rather than just women. My mom likes to have a good time and she doesn't like the guest to be bored. That's why the place she rented had a dance floor and of course she had to have a DJ there too. Here is another cute inexpensive way to decorate which we used on the DJ table.

This is just a simple paper chain made out of scrapbooking paper. It is a great project for kids, my six year old neice was able to help make this.

While we opened gifts my Mom entertained the guests with all sorts of games. This is a great way to distract your guests if you don't like attention (if your anything like Johnny and myself.) And of course my Mom made sure to reward them with prizes!

Homemade Swedish Fish Vodka

And an assortment of other homemade Vodkas and Kahluas. I was able to decorate the bottles! They make great gifts.

Pineapple Infused Vodka

Pear Infused Vodka

Like I said, not the typical baby shower - but totally awesome and we had a great time!

Pom Pom Balls and Fancy Paper Fan Party Decor

2012-06-25T06:06:00.005-07:00

I haven't mentioned it within the past few weeks but I had another baby shower this past weekend! It was on Saturday. I am so relieved that I have made it this far. I was paranoid that I would have the baby early and not make it to my shower. My mom didn't really want me involved too much in this shower. She said she wanted to try and keep most of it a surprise. That's why my Grandma flew in from Florida, to help organize the party. My mom did ask me if I could do some of the party decorations which I gladly took on this task. I'm the kind of person that if you sit me in front of a T.V. and expect me to watch T.V. I can't. I need to be constantly doing something. So in the late evenings, before bed, while I watched T.V. I have been working on party decorations - specifically Pom Pom Balls and Fancy Paper Fans. These are both really easy to make, it's just time consuming. So every evening for about two weeks I made a couple fans and a couple Pom Pom balls.

The Pom Pom balls are made out of tissue paper. You can get a value pack of tissue paper at Christmas Tree Shop, the dollar store, or ocean state job lot for only $1.00. For each Pom Pom ball you need 8 or 9 sheets of one color. Neatly stack all 8 sheets of tissue paper.

Once you have all 8 sheets neatly stacked you have to fold the tissue paper like an accordion. Each fold should be about 1 inch wide.

Once you have the entire sheet folded you will need to use wire or a pipe cleaner and tie it around the center of the of the folded tissue paper.

Get your scissors and round off or create triangles in the ends.

Then fan out the pom pom and very gently peel apart each sheet of tissue paper.

Once you have finished you will have a complete tissue ball.

Attach a piece of fishing wire to the the pipe cleaner so that you can hang the pom pom ball. The cool thing is that no one will see the fishing wire because it is clear. Because I decided to start making the Pom Pom balls In advance I didn't open them up because I didn't want them to get ruined or dusty. These are all the Pom Pom balls I made.

I think I went a little crazy.

The fancy paper fans are even easier than the Pom Pom balls. I first got this idea when I spent the evening with my Mom in Northampton. We went to get a massage and then out to dinner. When we were walking to the restaraunt we did some window shopping. One window was eye catching because it was decorated with the paper fans. That's when I said, "Mom, wouldn't these be awesome for the shower?" All you need is either square scrap booking paper or fancy wrapping paper cut into square pieces I got a whole pack of scrapbooking paper from Walmart for $5.

You will need two sheets of the same kind of paper.

Fold the paper like an accordion. Once your finished fold the accordian paper in half the long way and staple or tape the center folds together.

Fan it out.

You will notice that this creates only half of the paper fan. You have to repeat the process a second time with the same patterned paper. Then staple or tape the two halves of the circular fan together.

Here are what my fans looked like. I created all different sizes for variation.

These would even make great decorations for your house! I hope this post is helpful for cost effective decorating at your parties

Living Room: Before and After

2012-06-20T17:43:00.001-07:00

The living room and the dining room progressed at about the same rate. They were the two easiest projects in the house and that is why we tackled them first.

As mentioned before in my dining room post the first task for the living room was sanding the walls and painting. We were fortunate that we did not have to gut this room or do any construction on it.

Once it was completely painted the living room served as a storage room for a brief period of time while the kitchen was worked on. This is where our appliances found their first home.

As time past and the kitchen was pieced together like a puzzle the blinds were welcomed in. They are the same blinds that we used in the dining room.

Our biggest mistake was bringing in the couch!

Now we had a comfortable place to sit which gave a great excuse not to work as hard! The set up of the living room was a little bit unusual. It may not seem like it because it's one large rectangular room with plenty of space. The dilemma in planning the set up of the furniture was that we have a lot of openings. We have two wide doorways and the rest of the walls have windows. We first tried the couch pushed flush against the windows but I didn't like the idea of having the couch facing straight into the dining room. It also didn't leave much of an option of where to put the T.V.. I decided to try something a little different. I squared off the room by moving the couch. I found this to be cozier and more inviting.

Curtains went up too! Other furniture slowly moved in. We used a vintage chest as our T.V. stand. Then Johnny's blue leather chair was added and another chest that my father in law made. We also got another area rug ... Guess from where? Another Pier 1 Import fantastic deal! I was really excited when I could finally hang pictures. I created a picture wall. The only thing that we haven't added is a coffee table. It would be a nice addition to the room but I'm afraid that if I put a coffee table in the living room we will never eat in our dining room! Or it could become a clutter table instead of a coffee table. Instead, we decided to put in a desk for those late nights when I have homework to do!

Before

After

Feels like Home!

Planning a Bridal Shower

2012-06-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

Its a very exciting time when a best friend ask you to be their maid of honor... and that's truly what it is, an honor. When Keeana asked me to be the maid of honor at her wedding back in May I did not hesitate to say yes! I was so happy that she was getting married and that I would be able to take part in sharing the occasion. Along with being maid of honor comes the duty to throw the personal bridal shower. I wanted my party for Keeana to be perfect, and I was worried that it wouldn't be. I had come to the conclusion that I wouldn't be able to throw the party anywhere fancy because I was now on a budget. Buying a house, remodeling it and then finding out that your pregnant does that to you. I had no other option than to throw it in the comfort of my own home. At first thought this may not seem like such a bad thing but for me it meant that my house had to be liveable - past the demo construction stage and well into the decorative stage. Fortunately we were able to make that deadline. Hosting the party at my home put the pressure on. I wanted it to be fun, cozy and also have the feel that it was being held in a restaurant. That's why I decided to make a list. I'm typically not a list type of person. I don't like to be bound by an agenda but having this list kept me very organized. I was able to check things off as I went. This is how my list looked.

Agenda

5:00 – Light Refreshments

5:30 – Salad served

5:45 – Meal

6:30 – Dessert & Gift Opening

7:30 – Start Video

8:00 – Limo arrives

Table Settings:

· Borrow 8 dinner plates from Alicia

· Borrow 8 chairs from Alicia

· Two foot tables from work

· Chalkboard from Mom’s (need to paint)

·        Silverware

Beverages:
·        Huckleberry Lemonade
·        Diaste Mascoto
·        Water Bottles
·        Soda Cans

Salad:

·        Spinach Greens
·        Cherry Tomatos
·        Goat Cheese
·        Grapes
·        Pears
·        Craisins
·        Glazed Walnuts

Breschetta:

·        Loaves of Bread
·        Fresh Mozzarella
·        Tomatoes
·        Pesto Spread

Dinner Meal: Stuffed Shells

Dessert: Cupcakes & Coffee

Other Foods:

· Fruit / Cheese / Cracker Platter
· Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Party Favors Ideas:

·        Spread the love

Other Necessary Items:

·        Babies Breath
·        Flowers
·        Candles
·        Notepad & Pen
·        Games
·        Prizes
·        Decorations
·        After Dinner Mints
·        Chalk

I know it seems very detailed and it it may seem a bit extreme but I really wanted this evening to be special. This first thing I had to do was order the invitations for Keeana at www.polkadotdesign.com . Make sure you order your invitations knowing that it will probably take about 2 weeks for them to be delivered and then you have to assemble them. While I waited for the invites to arrive in the mail I had Keeana create her guest list and get addresses for me. These are the lingerie / personal shower invitations that I chose.

You can also check out this other website, www.tickledpinkdesign.net . This is where we ordered my baby shower invitations. They usually run a deal for new customers. We recieved 25% off the invites below.

Over the course of time I picked up decorative pieces. A week before the party I made the party favors. I ended up getting little glass jars from Christmas tree shop, filled them with jam, and made personalized stickers on them that said spread the love and had Mike and Keeana's wedding date on it.

A few days later, on Wednesday, Johnny rearranged the house. The dining room was too small to seat 16 people for dinner so we turned the living room into the dining room and the dining room into the living room.

Look familiar? Probably not - but remember my post from last week of the dining room? Well this is the dining room transformed into the living room.

I borrowed an assortment of dining room chairs from my mother in law. Thursday my priority for the showers was grocery shopping. Friday I designated as cooking and baking day. I also set and decorated the tables so that we we could have a sit down dinner.

I loved the romantic look that resulted! Exactly what I was aiming for.

Where did I get my table decor?

Table cloths from Ocean State Job Lot for $5.00 each
Teal cloth napkins 4 for $2.00 at Ocean State Job Lot too.
The runner was a roll of burlap that I was able to find at Joanne's Fabric
Large dinner plates? (Mine! - a wedding gift from target.)
The small assorted plates - these were also from Target. I didn't mind spending the money on them because I can reuse these.
Wine Glasses from Costcos 12 for $12.00
Everything else was items that I already owned

Saturday morning I thought that I would have a lot to do but because of my list and chipping away at it a little bit each day I found myself entirely prepared and with a lot of free time to relax and wait for the party to begin. The only jobs I had to get done before 6:00pm was cutting the fruit, making the salad and breschetta and folding the napkins. I youtubed how to fold napkins and it was actually really easy!

I made this menu board for the party and set it up at the entrance of my house.

I also dressed up the staircase a little bi with ivy and lights.

While the guests were arriving we served appetizers.

Following our appetizers was a three course meal which included a Mandarin Salad, Breschetta, and the guests choice of Stuffed Shells, Chicken Cordon Bleu, or Chicken Parmigiana. It was then time to open gifts.

While gifts were being opened coffee and dessert was offered.

Everyone seemed to be having a great time but little did they all know that they were in for a surprise. At 8:00pm there was a knock at the door and behind the door was a man with a champagne glass motioning towards a limo. Thanks to my mom, Keeana's evening was made super special by renting a stretch limo made to fit 20 people. Everyone was invited to go out in it. The first stop is where the mothers were dropped off and they spent the rest of their evening there. Arrangements were made for their pick up. As for us girls ... We continued on in the limo and made a few stops along the way. We all has such a great time and made it safely home by midnight.

Being 7 months pregnant - I was exhausted by the time I got home and fell in love with my bed!

Baby Announcement Party

2012-06-15T05:15:00.000-07:00

When I decided to return to the blogging world about a week or two ago I had mentioned that we had a unique and interesting way to announce whether we were having a boy or a girl. This was my Mom's idea. For those of you who decided to wait to find out the gender of your child kudos to you! As for us, we couldn't wait and had no desire to wait to find out. My Mom decided that she wanted to throw a party with our family and closest friends to announce the gender of our child. She had heard an idea that you tell a baker if it's a boy or a girl and depending on what it is, the inside of the cake will be colored pink or blue. Then the frosting of course would be something neutral so that no one would know what it was. Instead of asking a baker to make the cake we asked a friend to do it because she is very talented when it comes to making cakes. The way it worked out for us was that we had our ultrasound on a Tuesday. We told the technician not to tell us if it was a boy or a girl. She wrote it on a small piece of paper, and put it in a sealed envelope and we gave it to my Mom so we could avoid the temptation of opening the envelope. Then my Mom delivered the envelope to the friend that was baking the cake. We had plans that evening, and also Wednesday evening that prevented us from being able to have the party then. We had to wait in anticipation until Thursday to find out what our baby was! Before the guest arrived all I wanted to do was stick my finger in the cake to know! This is what the cake looked like.

After everyone showed up we quickly ate dinner ..... Pizza, the easiest and quickest thing possible. Then we cut the cake with all our closest family and friends surrounding us .... Including my grandma from Florida via the iPad (Thank You Steve Jobs!).

I love this picture because everyone looks like they are thinking what is it going to be!? And the point of reveal .....

We cut the cake to reveal a pink color! This is when I whispered, "It's a Girl!" Can you tell how excited everyone was? That's my sister-in-law jumping up and down screaming! Johnny and I were both shy with all the people watching us but so excited to find out we were having a little girl.

And then we all ate cake! And it was DELICIOUS!

Prior to this party everyone asked me what I thought the baby would be. My gut feeling all along was that it was a girl. After I saw the ultrasound images, especially the 3D ones (which are very scary), I thought well maybe it could be a boy. I was shocked to find out it was a girl. All my life I have grown up around boys, I have four brothers and now here I am having a little girl. To those of you who wait to find out the gender of your child that's awesome, and I am sure you have great reasoning behind waiting! I'm sure it adds motivation during your pregnancy up to your delivery day. But to me finding out the gender has bonded me more with my little girl to be. I can refer to her as "her" or "she" rather than "baby". It also has given me the chance to think of ideas for the baby room. I was so happy to have an announcement party and share this moment with my friends and family and I highly recommend it!

Dining Room: Before and After

2012-06-14T05:17:00.002-07:00

The dining room was probably one of the easiest projects in our entire house. The previous owner had resheetrocked both the dining room and living room. Here is a picture of what the dining room looked like before we did anything to it.

I have noticed that in a lot of older homes there is a door separating the kitchen from the adjacemt rooms, probably to keep the heat from the kitchen out. The first thing we did was remove the door from the hinges and get rid of it all together. After that basically all that was required of us was to sand the walls and ceiling. When the previous paint job was done they must have used a bad roller. It really pays to use an expensive roller because you don't leave behind particles from it. After sanding the walls we needed to wipe them down and clean the room to prep for painting. The color I chose for the walls is called zinc by Martha Stewart and I love it!

This is the Dining Room looking into the Living room.

When we finished painting both the dining room and living room we had someone come in to sand our floors. Our home was a foreclosure and it was uninhabited for a while. During that time there was some damage to the floors. I'm not quit sure what happened but something with the heating system (which was completely replaced by the seller before we moved in). When the heating system went it caused some water damage to the floors which caused the beautiful hard wood floors to buckle. Many people we spoke to thought it was something that was unrepairable. Fortunately we found someone who told us that he would be able to sand them down and get rid of the buckling at the low price of $480 for the entire downstairs. And he did an unbelievable job!When the floors are being sanded the sander usually has to come back about three times to finish them. The smell of the finish is very bad for your health especially if your pregnant. So during that time we avoided the house for a few weeks. Once we returned, the decorating stage was ready to begin. First Johnny and his father installed our brand new chandelier. Johnny's mother and sister bought this for us. It's origionally from Pottery Barn but they were able to get it at www.overstock.com

Then we chose our roman palisades blinds from home depot.

It became a dusty mess again because during this process the kitchen was also being worked on.

We decided to use these blinds for the entire downstairs. Then came the round dining room table and four matching chairs and two cozy fabric chairs from my mother and father-in-law.

We had eight windows in our old bedroom which is just as many as we have between the living room and dining room so we decided to reuse our old curtains and I love how they match!

After that I hung one of my favorite pictures in the dining room. It was a picture that Johnny and I got on our cruise at an art auction. I plan on hanging another one once I am able to get it framed and I will move the mirror to another wall. I also was able to find some tie backs for the curtains at Christmas tree shop for $1.00 each and they were the exact color match to the curtains. The latest addition to this room was a rug from Pier 1 imports that my mom bought for me. It was originally $399 and she got it on sale for $75!

I, as we all do with our own homes, have a few more ideas planned for this room but haven't gotten to it yet. Johnny and I are both so fortunate to have such generous parents and family. Without them we would not be able to afford to have a beautifully decorated and fully furnished home.

Before

After

Planning the Baby Room

2012-06-11T20:40:00.004-07:00

The babies room is our most current home makeover project. It is actually the biggest bedroom in the house. This is a before picture of the babies room.

I've had a difficult time choosing how I want to decorate the baby room. I was shocked when I found out I was having a little girl. All my life I've grown up around boys. I have four brothers. I am girly in my own way but when it comes to colors and decorating I'm not a huge fan of pinks and purples. I don't want the baby room to be over girly but I also don't want it to be so neutral that you can't tell it was meant for a girl. The first thing that we picked out for the baby room was the crib and dresser set. The one we chose is from Chaplin Baby and it's the Sonoma Echelon set in Driftwood.

This is what the crib will convert to in the future.

The next thing I ended up buying was an area rug from Pier 1 it was originally $400 and I was able to scoop it up for $75. What a great deal. I love the crocheted Flowers and the earth tones.

Pinterest was my main source for choosing colors. This picture inspired me most. I wish I could crochet those hanging lights!!! I also love the star decals on the wall.

My mother in law and I went together to pick out the color. We bought Elephant Gray in Benjamin Moore paint. I like this color even more than my inspiration color because it has a hint of purple in it rather than brown.

For my baby shower one of the gifts we recieved was the Shermag Cherry Glider Chair from Babies R Us. This is what it looks like.

The chair matches the crocheted flowers on the rug and the earth tones in the bedroom. The most recent decision we have made is on the curtain material which I posted about earlier this week.

The last major thing I have to choose is the crib bedding. I'm not quite sure what I want but here are two of the sets that I like.

This bedding is very neutral and goes with my colors. It is from The Land of Nod.

I also love this Spa Pom Pom set but I thik it might clash with my curtains. So many choices to make!

I can't wait to see the baby room completely finished and put together! I will post pictures of the room once it is complete!

Osgoods Fabric Store

2012-06-09T18:52:00.003-07:00

Earlier this week, on Tuesay, my Grandma flew in from Florida. She is visiting so that she can make it to my second baby shower and possibly be around for when the baby is born. While she is around I am going to make use of one of her many talents .... Sewing. My grandma is a hot ticket and she is so creative. She is always working on projects and I'm pretty sure she probably has more pins on pinterest than I do.

About a month ago I purchased some curtains from Pier 1. The ones I chose were on sale. I bought two packages and still spent $100 bucks. I didn't mind because I really loved them, and thought they would be perfect for our bedroom. I also thought I deserved to treat myself. When I got home I was quickly disappointed. The image on the packaging led me to believe that each package contained two panels. Wrong! Each package only contained one panel, which meant on sale I spent $50 for each panel and that I would also need to buy two more panels. So in the end I would have to spend $200 for one small room. That's when I decided to return the curtains and utilize my Grandmother's talents. And thankfully, she happily accepted this task. So this week we went to Osgoods Fabric Store.

It's a local material warehouse and it has better prices and more options than Joanne's Fabrics. When we got there we were very overwhelmed by our options.

Wouldn't you be in a place like this!?

So many choices!

I could have spent all day in there. After perusing for a little while I quickly learned that I have very expensive taste. Some of the fabric I liked was $25 a yard and I needed 12 yards. At that rate I would spend more making curtains than what I would have at Pier 1. Here are some of the materials I liked.

My grandma suggested that I take a look at the cotton material. She explained that I could make curtains out of this and still get a print that I love at a reasonable price. She also explained that cotton curtains are much easier to clean. I ended up choosing some material for the baby room and next time I go I will choose some for our bedroom. Maybe I'll even have my grandma show me how to make them and I'll make them myself. In the end this is the material I decided on.

It was $3.50 a yard. I ended up spending a total of $49 on the material and it will create 4 panels! What a great deal - the price of all 4 panels less than the cost of 1 panel on sale at Pier 1! When I got home I washed the material, dried it and immediately took it out of the dryer and folded it. When you use cotton this is a necessity because you need to preshrink the material. You also don't want to let it sit in the dryer otherwise you will end up with wrinkles that will later require ironing. I can't wait until my curtains are done and hanging in the baby room! It will be nice to see everything come together.

Kitchen: Before and After

2012-06-07T05:07:00.002-07:00

Remember this hot mess of a kitchen?

I can't believe I even contemplated leaving it like this and redoing it sometime down the road. When we purchased our home the biggest eye sore of the entire house was the kitchen ... And as we all know everyone loves to hang out in the kitchen! Thankfully one evening back, in November when we were working on the house, I went out to get pizza for everyone and when I came back cabinets were being torn down!

This didn't upset me in the least bit because who doesn't want a brand new kitchen, I just knew that it would set back our move in date .... It was totally worth it. Not to mention we had it made at my in laws house with the entire upstairs to ourselves, so there was really no rush or deadline to be out. Now that the cabinets were down I made it clear that the paneling and the drop ceilings had to go. And so it goes demo was underway.

Some of the bigger projects that went underway was that we needed to patch up the chimney.

We also had to agree on sacrificing some closet space to ultimately gain cabinet space. If you notice in the images above, to the right of the chimney there was a closet. We ended up sheeting rocking right over it. Before the sheet rocking stage we insulated the outside walls of the kitchen. Being an older house we lack insulation everywhere. We also had to hire an electrition to come in and rewire, put in new outlets, and install our recess lighting. My father-in-law also installed new windows. After that Jack and Johnny were able to begin sheeting rocking. I enjoyed watching this. The sheet rock had to be cut to size, outlet holes were cut out and also the lighting holes. My father-in-law did all the taping. The only thing I took part in was mudding the screw holes.

The next step was to sand everything. Not fun - glad I was medically incapable of taking part in this job!We then primed the kitchen and painted it with a very neutral color because we weren't sure what we wanted and how the colors would look with cabinets. We figured in the future we can paint it again, or add backsplashes.

When the ceilings were being torn down, the linoleum floors got a little banged up and had to be torn out. Before I knew it beautiful hard wood floors were installed.

Now we could begin to design our kitchen and pick out cabinets. This took us a little while. We didn't know what was the best way to go. Origionally we looked at Cabinets at www.cabinetstogo.com. This website offers discounted wood cabinets. They also have a very useful program that they can set you up on to design your own kitchen. I was able to play around on the website to figure out what the best options were for where to place all our cabinets. The difficult thing for us is that we have four doorway openings in our kitchen and almost one wall is taken up by window space. In the end though, we decided to buy our cabinets from Lowes. They were running a great deal. I brought in my layout and we met with a consultant who gave great pointers on how the kitchen should ideally be set up.

In our origional design we wanted to have the fridge built into the cabinets. After a lot of hmmming and haaaaaaaing we decided to move the fridge to the external part of the cabinets. The advantages of doing this was to prevent the fridge door from banging up the cabinets and now we have a lovely magnet board to hang pictures and funny poetry frases on.

Our next project was to pick out countertops. We went with formica countertops from Lowes. Lowes had a lot more options than home depot. My father-in-law also put new molding everywhere in the kitchen. He matched it to the style of the molding found everywhere else in our house which is old fashion. I appreciated that he preserved the look of our older home. Our last project was hooking up all the appliances and filling our cabinets with food! We needed all new appliances because our house didn't have any. They were delivered before the cabinets and sat in our living room for a little while. It was so nice to finally move them into the kitchen and get them running. I think that is about everything that has been done in the kitchen. Here are the official before and after shots!

Before

After

Before

After

The last thing our kitchen needs is a little bit more decorating! Oh yeah, and a microwave to go above the stove!

Vanilla Extract Party Favors

2012-06-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for a creative and unique party favor for a baby shower? Look no further! Yesterday my mom threw me a baby shower and she made the cutest party favors! Her and my brother planned this idea months ago. They decided to make home made vanilla extract. I would have never known this but vanilla extract is made from 100% Vodka and Madagascar Vanilla Beans. Fill a large air tight glass container with vodka and vanilla beans and let it soak for six months. Before the shower you can divy up the vanilla and vodka into small party favor jars from Michaels, AC Moore, or Christmas tree shop. Attach a label with the date that the vanilla extract is due or ready to be used. If you plan it properly like my mom did you can even make the due date of the vanilla coincide with the babies due date! In my case the due date for both the vanilla and my baby is July 11, 2012. Your party favors are now complete. To jazz it up even more you can decorate the party favor bottles with an assortment of things. My mom was able to pick out some cute teddy bears. We attached the teddy bears to the bottles with a hot glue gun.

Aren't these adorable!

My mom also decided to do a cookie bar for additional party favors. Her and Adriana made all sorts of different kinds of cookies and put them in cute decorative jars. On the guests way out they were all invited to take a treat bag full of cookies and cake pops home!

We want to give a special thanks to everyone that helped in planning the baby shower, donating raffle prizes, organizing games, and assisting with the gift opening. The evening wouldn't have gone smoothly without YOU! We also want to thank everyone for showing their love and support in helping us prepare for our baby girls arrival.

Cake Pops

2012-06-02T12:48:00.001-07:00

In preparation for my baby shower today, last night my mom, Adriana and I decorated the cake pops. I can't take credit for making them. My mom was organized and made them prior to the decorating stage. She made three different flavors: Vanilla, Chocolate and Lemon. Fortunately, for the sake of this post, I was able to find out how she made them.

1. The first thing that you have to do is bake the cake. You can either do this from scratch or you can use a boxed cake mix.

2. Once the cake is finished, you let it cool and break it into small pieces.

3. In order for the cake to stay together in perfect little balls you have to stir in the frosting and then form balls out of the cake.

4. If you're not ready to decorate the cake balls you can store them in your fridge in an air tight zip lock bag.

Quite easy right?

My job - choosing how I wanted the cake pops to be decorated. I flipped through my moms book on how to make cake pops that she picked up at Michael's and chose my favorite cake pops for inspiration.

I really liked this vintage style cake pop because they weren't tacky looking (as some baby themed things can be). The pastel colors made it appropriate for a baby shower.

For supplies my mom picked out all sorts of sprinkles, fondant, food coloring, sticks, and meltable chocolates. She also made sure to have a rolling pin for the fondant and small cookie cutters to create decals buttons out of the fondant.

I divided up the store bought fondant which is also very easy to make but it just seemed much quicker and convenient to use the premade fondant (and I found it to be more pliable.) I slowly added just a drop of food coloring to the fondant. I was careful not to put too much because the color I was trying to achieve was a pastel color and food coloring can be very powerful if you use too much.

After my colors were made I rolled out the fondant on parchment paper (wax paper would work too) and began cutting out decals with the small cookie cutters from Michaels.

Once all my decals were made my mom heated various colors of chocolate in tall glasses deep enough for dipping the cake balls into. Adriana attached the cake balls to the sticks and dipped them into the chocolate. To get a smooth texture it is easiest to twist the cake pop as you remove it from the chocolate and then tap the glass with the stick to remove any excess chocolate. I applied the decal buttons. You have to be quick about this because if the chocolate cools then you won't be able to get the decorations to adhere to the cake pops. You can also add sprinkles. Once the cake pops are finished you stick them into a styrofoam bases to allow the chocolate to cool and harden without ruining the design.

Once they're completely cooled you can put into treat bags and tie with a twist tie!

Isn't my mom so creative! I'm so fortunate to have her. It's getting late! Time to get ready for the shower and enjoy these sweet treats!

Recap of the Past 6 Months

2012-05-31T12:51:00.002-07:00

I have basically been MIA from blogworld for the past 6 months. When I first started this blog I was really ambitious about it and I wanted to post something new everyday .... but in the real world that is pretty much impossible unless you get to stay home all day. I will admit, I go through phases. I enjoy doing one hobby for a little while and then I let it dwindle down to not doing it again for six months. But guess what - I'M BACK. Hopefully for good. Here is a quick recap of what has happened in the past 6 months of my life ......

My last post was from November 23, 2012. Earlier that month, on November 8th, exactly 6 days after we bought our first home, and 2 days after I turned 22 - I found out I was pregnant! This was frightening and exciting at the same time, but it really put a deadline on getting the home makeover done before baby comes. Almost everynight after our 9-5 day jobs we worked diligently on the house until 11:00pm. Unfortunately, there was a lot that I couldn't help with with my new condition, and therefore I took on the job of the decorator. (Pictures and posts to come about the makeover)

During this time I was also taking a physics course. Once the college semester ended in mid December life slowed down ..... sort of.

My best friend got engaged in early January and asked me to be the maid of honor in her wedding. I of course said YES!!! So thrilled that she was getting married, I wanted to help as much as possible. (More to come on the shower and party favors). Pinterest is a miracle! It makes party planning and decorating so much easier and unique.

On February 23 we announced to all of our family and our closest friends that we are having a baby girl! My mom planned a really cute announcement party that I think every pregnant women should have. (Definitley will post more on this!)

March 14 marked my three year wedding anniversary to my lovely husband Johnny.

On April 6 Keeana had her first bridal shower.

April 21st was my turn to throw Keeana her personal bridal shower, which I am proud it turned out to be amazing!

On April 27 I recieved my acceptance letter to a program that I have been trying so hard for two years to get into! This is the Diagnostic Medical Imaging Sonography program which I will begin this fall!

May 12 was the big day! Keeana and Michael's wedding.

Since then, Johnny and I have had a little bit of time for us. Now we're focusing on the Baby and preparing for her arrival. My mom is throwing me two baby showers coming up in the month of June. She is letting me help decorate which I love to do!

Before our world completely changes forever - Johnny and I were able to sneak away on a little "Baby Moon" to Maine.

This timeline covers the major events that have happened in the past six months of my life! I hope to be more regular about my posts! Can't wait to write more soon.

Picking Paint

2011-11-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

I thought that picking paint for our house would be very simple, but for me it has been beyond simple. I have only been picking one room at a time. We first went to home depot for our colors and we finally decided on Martha Stewart Paints. She had an amazing brochure that I found very helpful.

Double Sided too!

I picked my first color from this brochure – rainwater – which is the color in our living room.

It took two gallons to paint the living room (2 coats). Then for the dining room I decided on a gray called zinc.

I didn’t want too many different colors for the first floor so I decided that the front hall should be a gray but not as dark as the dining room because there isn’t enough lighting. This lighter gray, called nimbus cloud, will follow all the way up the stairway and down the upstairs hallway to keep it uniform. Its a very neutral color which will make it easier when it comes to picking out paint colors for the upstairs bedrooms.

I think when the kitchen is ready to be painted I will choose a yellow but I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. Like I said though, the Martha Stewart Brochure was very helpful. It has tons of colors to pick from and she coordinates it for you. For example, the first color I picked out, the Rainwater has a symbol next to it (*). To find out what colors would look best with it I just have to look for that symbol next to the color. The other good thing is that the Martha Stewart Paint happened to be on sale when we went to home depot and we were able to get it for $19.00 a gallon which is fairly inexpensive. If your worried about the chemicals in paint, Martha Stewart's paint is low VOC which means that it does not have a lot of volatile organic compounds. Volatile organic compounds are variety of chemicals that can have an adverse affect on your health. I have also heard that Sherwin Williams sells paints that has zero VOC in it. If your unsure about these fumes you should be safe and wear a mask! I know I did!