AWKWARD & AWESOME thursday

AWKWARD:

-Lil’ A constantly getting into the cabinet in the bathroom that houses all of my feminine products. She spreads them everywhere and often interrupts my shower by flinging the shower curtain back to show me the pads in her hands. Yes honey, very exciting...

-Going back and forth about growing my hair out or chopping it for a year. I have finally decided. My hair is a couple inches past my shoulders right now and I am just not a long hair girl. I loved my pixie and it’s time for it to reappear.

-Looking frantically around the house for my iPhone only to look down and find that it was in my hand the entire time I was looking. Time for more sleep.

-Being overcharged by $80 at a floral supply store on a day when I was in a hurry to leave. She handed me my receipt and I happened to look at the total and said, “Ummm- was it really $96.78?” It took over 10 minutes to rectify and I was given a red balloon and a “Happy Mother’s Day!” to make up for the inconvenience.

-The fact that I had like 5 obvious awesome things in my head minutes before writing this post and now they have all disappeared.

-Our bed breaking last week. Our mattress is now on the floor.

AWESOME:

-Lil’ A learning to brush her “hair” even though she has none.

-The sister and niece are coming to visit for 10 days. The girls are at the perfect age to play together so I plan to be entertained.

-Peonies and vegan donuts from a date to Whole Foods.

-Hubby designed and painted the custom cabinet pictured for our flatscreen. He’s awesome like that.

-Thrift shopping. I have gotten some fun finds lately. Some vintage children’s clothing here, some milk glass there.

-Free beef from my parents who raise and butcher a cow every year. I think we’ve only bought beef once in our 5 years of being married.

-Reserving the room for our August 5-year anniversary trip. 4 nights away with no baby! Amazing and scary at the same time.

-Lil’ A getting her own tiny Toms from Nana for her birthday. They are shimmery silver and I can’t wait till she fits in them!

adelaide's 1st B.DAY BASH

It reads:

Adelaide Meriwether is turning 1. As we want the party to reflect her interests,

we decided to ask her what she would like the theme to be. She chose her two favorite things:

#1 was inappropriate

#2 was hair

As bizarre and repulsive as a hair theme would be, we decided that in order to appease our daughter, we will celebrate her birthday in the following way:

NO BALDIES ALLOWED*

Please bring your head of hair** and join us on Saturday April 30th @ 2 o'clock in the afternoon for some dessert to celebrate Little Miss Kookster's first crazy year of existence.

* mild baldness okay. ** hair extensions appreciated.

My little girl is one. I know everyone says this, but IT WENT SO FAST! I don't have a baby anymore, I have a toddler. I'm already freaking out about the day when she doesn't think I'm cool anymore. I'm sure I still have a few cool years before that. I'll have to savor them.

So... we had a party! It was all planned and crafted by hubby and I. The first detail to figure out about the party was the invitations. I don't have anything against themed parties, but I just didn't feel like a 1-yr old would care much if she had a theme. I tried to think of all of Adelaide's favorite things and the 4 that came to mind were breastmilk (hence the "inappropriate" invitation joke- I'm sure next to no one got it but it made hubby and I laugh), animals, hair, and being outside. I decided to pretend that the theme was hair because it seemed so ridiculous and I chose to have the party outside. With 30ish adults and 14 kids invited it's not like they would have all fit inside my teeny house anyway. After the invitations went out we got a few people asking if they were supposed to wear wigs, but we reassured them that no wigs were necessary. To go along with the theme, I made hair (the beards) and hare favors--- and that's where the theme ended.

Party prep took a month of nights since I was determined to make everything myself and as inexpensive as possible. The guest of honor would rarely let me craft during the day so after she went to bed, I got out my crafting supplies and spent hours with Psych on Netflix streaming. As far as decor, I made everything based on inspiration from around the blogosphere and pinterest. I didn't go by any tutorials as everything was pretty self-explanatory. The food was just all foods that sounded delicious to me. I didn't want to go overboard so I decided to do a cake in leu of cupcakes and I had been dying to try cake balls for a while so I decided this was the perfect opportunity. The cake frosting turned out quite runny as you can see in the photo but the cake ended up being delicious and I made way too many cake balls and had to snack on them for the following week to finish them up. Poor, poor me.

With a lot of help from friends and family on the day of, the party turned out great and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was rewarding to see everything come together--- well, except for one tiny detail. We had carrots to put in a bucket for the kids to feed all the horses that live on the other side of our fence, but the horses were all gone for the day! Luckily we had other activities for the kids. I got hula hoops and sidewalk chalk from Dollar Tree and our stepping stones were decorated to the max by the end of the party. Adelaide also loved the chalk and carried it around the whole party. The cousins loved the beard favors except one who tried them all on before deciding he didn't want one. He was also the cousin to ask "when are you putting the music on for the party?" and "where are the favor bags with candy?" (He belongs to you, Ang.) A couple of the bunnies went home, but some were forgotten and still have to be delivered.

As much work as the party was, I can't wait for the next party to plan and am already thinking of excuses to get friends or family together--- home movie screenings, Saturday brunches, clothing swaps. We'll see what actually comes to fruition.

I've included the details from the party below. If there is any interest in tutorials and downloadables for the beard and bunny favors or decorations, I'll try to put something together. I linked up the recipes, but want to note that I made them all non-dairy so that I could eat them. :) If you are interested in my non-dairy tweaks, I can do a post including them as well. Let me know if you have questions about any of the details!

INVITATIONS: Designed by hubby and I.

TABLECLOTH: Lace vinyl from Joann's over a white plastic tablecloth from Dollar Tree

GARLAND: 90 feet of fabric with index card and Dollar Tree doily half circle

HAPPY BDAY BANNER: Dollar Tree doilies glued to the back of a Party City banner

FRINGE BACKDROP: tissue paper and streamers (I hadn't even seen this post or tutorial before, but this is the perfect tutorial, except my fringe was shorter.)

HARE SOFTIES: Sewn by me.

BEARDS: Sewn and designed by me.

FOOD: Strawberry cake balls with cream cheese frosting dipped in dark and white chocolate (generic cake ball instructions), Coconut cake with raspberry preserve filling and cream cheese frosting, peanut butter rice krispie treats, popcorn and pretzels drizzled with dark chocolate (not pictured), Mike & Ikes, Newman's Own tangerine and strawberry licorice, and Lemonheads

BEVERAGES: cucumber water, lemonade, Hansen's flavored water, and root beer

happy MID-MAY MONDAY

a Monday thought for you.

Hi there! Remember me? Yeeeeah. It's been almost a month since I've posted- a busy bee month. I was in full-on prep mode for Lil' A's 1st birthday party till April 30th, then I was in full-on recovery mode for a week, and then it was Mother's Day. Pretty much it's been busy around here and when it hasn't been busy it's been a yawning fest. The only person who has been rested is the little gal. Sometimes I envy her eating and sleeping schedules. Well, maybe all the time.

So how was your Easter and Mother's Day? We hopped from one grandparents' house to another on Easter and I scored $7 of change in the Easter egg hunt. I still persuade my parents to do money hunts for the 20-something and 30-something year old cousins. I'll shed a tear the day that they stop. Mother's Day was lovely as well. Hubby got me Decorate (woohoo!) as an early Mother's Day present and then on Mother's Day he and the gal took me shopping at H&M and we had lunch at Chipotle. He knows what I like. That preeeeetty much catches you up on the life happenings. Anything I should know about any of you? Engagements? Pregnancies? New jobs? Fabulous new shoes? ;)

This week I have some exciting things to share with you---

#1.) Photos and details from Lil' A's bday party.

#2.) Lil' A's nursery tour- FINALLY! I know you thought it would never happen, but you are mere days away from the reveal!

So hang in there and I promise not to disappear for a while. Happy mid-May Monday to you!

LATELY.

Lately I have been crafting and decorating and thrifting and getting ready for A's 1st birthday party. I seriously cannot believe she is turning 1. Insane. I have been loving actually accomplishing things. When the birthday madness is over, or when I feel like I am prepared for the event, I will be back with photos of my craftiness. But for now- a picture of my gorgeous girl as shot by April Christine Photography. If only I had those blue eyes. Yes, I am jealous of my 11-month old.

ORANGE you glad it's Friday?

I'm not a big orange lover- the fruit or the color. But these outfits are changing my mind. Who knew orange could be so chic? And who knew I would ever be wishing for an orange maxi skirt?
1- via Apartment 34
2- J.Crew via Style.com's iPhone app

AWKWARD & awesome thursday: it's almost friday edition

AWKWARD:
-Right now I am wearing yellow sweatpants and a college sweatshirt with fresh out of a bun crazy kinked hair while eating Chinese food with chopsticks and typing. It is H-O-T. Ha!
-Being so exhausted that I had an emotional breakdown today right before date night. Time to start getting more sleep.
-Crying during Flipped, a PG movie about the romance between two jr. highers. Did I mention I'm tired? But seriously- it was a really sweet movie.
-Getting sprayed in the face 3 times in the last week by my water bottle after leaving it in the car and forgetting that the warm weather causes the pressure to build up. Luckily I wasn't going anywhere where I had to impress people with dry clothes.
-Realizing that I forgot my debit card at home while I was halfway into the insanely long line to get gas at Costco. Hubby bailed me out by bringing me his card since he happened to be a couple minutes away. Phwew!
-Getting emotional every time I think about my little girl turning one at the end of the month. She is growing up so fast!
-Having an elderly lady come up to me while I was in line at Target and singing "Li li li li liiii" to Lil' A while tapping her long purple fingernails on the shopping cart, then putting her head on my shoulder numerous times and telling A that I was "mama", then grabbing my hand and giving it to Adelaide.... she spent 5 minutes trying to get A to smile and she didn't once. People get crazy around babies!


AWESOME:
-Hanging out with my best friend who is visiting from SoCal on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. We usually only see each other once a year but we've seen each other twice already this year and there are 2 more visits coming up through summer. Yay! Now if only I could get her family to move here to NorCal...
-My sister is finding out the sex of her 2nd baby on Monday. I am SO EXCITED to find out and shower the little peanut with gifts.
-I finally have weekly walking dates with some girls from church which means fellowship and exercise. Win win!
-Tina Fey's new book, Bossypants. Hubby and I listened to an excerpt last night. She is hi-larious. I can't wait to read the rest.
-Having chicken and waffles for dinner on Sunday. It was so delicious. I've been having crazy cravings for Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles lately and was ecstatic when I found some pancake mix in the cupboard and realized I could make my own Roscoe's dish at home! It was mmm mmmmm good. I know it sounds weird, but don't knock it till you've tried it.
-Having a sweet little snuggle session with Lil' A before her bedtime this evening. She rarely sits still, but she just cuddled under a blanket with me and played with my thumb while I savored every second. It was wonderful. *sigh*

Oh my goodness, you know what was awkward? Writing this post! The brain cells are not cooperating today. I must sleep. Now. G'nite friends! I hope you are having an awesome week with an abundance of cooperative brain cells!