Valentines Decor... on the cheap

Anyone who knows me, knows I love to decorate for holidays. It drives Brian crazy, but I have a house flag for just about every holiday and occasion including birthdays, football games, baseball games and New Years. So, my festive decorating could get a little out of control if I let it. Fortunately, I have a tight budget to stick to, which helps keep things under control. But it also allows me to get a lot more creative with my decor.

So, in case you are feeling festive this Valentine's Day, I thought I'd give you a few simple ideas that add a bit of fun to the house for the upcoming Day of Love!

My first idea is filling a candle holder with conversation hearts and placing a pink or red candle in the middle. This particular hurricane candle holder is a bit large, so it could have cost around $10 to fill it up with candy. My trick is to go to the Dollar Store and buy the candy there. Yes, it may be from last year, but who cares... you're not eating it, you're just using it for decoration! So, since I already had the candle and the holder, this only cost $3.00.

The adorable frame with the photo of me with one of my special Valentines, was handmade for me last year by Payton. Pretty cute, eh? Here's a close-up photo of the candle:

The next idea came from all of the adorable Valentine's banners that I saw on Etsy this year. They range in price from $12-$30, but once you add in shipping, they were all over $15, which was just a little more than I wanted to spend on some paper strung together with ribbon. So, I went to Michael's Crafts and found this packet of chip board letters that came with the string to make your own V-Day banner. Cost: $4! It was pretty cute as it was, but I wanted a little more personality, so I purchased two sheets of scrapbook paper, cut them out with my decorative scissors, used double-sided tape to tape on the letters and voila! You have a pretty fancy looking banner for about $6.00.

Here is a close up of the "I" so you can see the decorative paper behind the letter:

Another cute idea that cost next to nothing, was a little packet of glitter hearts and words that I found at Walmart for $2.00. I used the removable adhesive from the 3M hooks to put the words up on the wall and then hot glue-gunned a ribbon to the larger hearts and hung them on the french doors to the patio. (Sorry it's a little difficult to see the window picture - I'm still working on my photography skills).

Lastly, I got this faux flower arrangement a couple years ago on clearance at Target after Valentine's Day for around $5.00. It really looks real... I'm not sure if it does through the camera, but most people think it's real when they see it. Anyhow, just pair it up with a candle you already have and it creates a romantic little display.

Hope that gives you some creative ideas to decorate your home. Happy (early) Valentine's Day everyone!

Miniature Golf Birthday Fun

Since I don't exactly have the energy to be throwing a big birthday party this year, we're doing several mini birthday celebrations for Payton instead. 

On Saturday, we took Payton and his two buddies, Grayson & Caleb, out for a "guys golf day" (or at least that's what Brian kept calling it). The boys had so much fun playing miniature golf at Celebration Station. 

After golf, they played a few arcade games inside and then had pizza and cake. And speaking of cake... I have to give a "shout out" to my girls at the Publix bakery! I went in and talked to them a couple weeks ago about creating a Mario Brothers cake. Since Publix is not licensed to sell the Mario Bros. logo, they could not put an actual Mario picture on the cake. But the nice lady suggested that I find another cake online that I liked, print out the picture, and then use my own plastic Mario Brothers figurines to finish off the cake at home. It was such a great idea! Here is the picture of the cake that I submitted to her (keep in mind, this cake is decorated in fondant, which is much easier to make tiny shapes than butter cream frosting):

 And this is what Publix created for me (Payton added the Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Bomb figurines):

Pretty amazing, eh? I had to stop by the bakery this morning and tell the ladies just how happy the made this little boy when he saw it. Not to mention it tasted amazing. Gotta love Publix!

Here is a little slide show of all the fun we had that day. I can't believe my little boy is turning 6 this Friday. Oh boy... I feel the tears coming on. I better go get some Kleenex...

Nursery Pics

A few of you have asked to see pictures of the nursery. Well, we finally finished it up (almost) this past weekend. My parents were in town, so we put my Dad to work and he and Brian finished up a few final things. The only thing missing (besides the baby) is a framed picture above the trundle bed. Other than that, this is what it will look like...

Picture of the crib and window seat (that's the video monitor hanging on the wall):

Picture of the changing table area next to the closet:

Picture of the trundle bed (my mom is making a pillow out of the same fabric that is on the window treatment that will add a little more character to the bed, and then we'll hang the large framed photo above the bed):

This isn't a picture of the room, but I had to share how cute the car seat carrier turned out! My mom bought us a cover so we didn't have to purchase a new car seat. I love the way it turned out (thanks Mom!!):

Now... all we need is Parker! Can't wait to meet you little man! We love you so much already!

Baby Celebration Party

We had another fun-filled baby-inspired weekend! Our dear friends, Neal and April threw us a wonderful baby celebration party at a local park. It was the most beautiful day - sunny and 70's - and everyone had a ball hanging out, watching the kids in the bounce house, eating tons of food, and celebrating our long-awaited baby.
Neal led the most touching prayer before we all ate lunch and I felt so much love and support around us. It was so special to both of us. We feel incredibly blessed to have Neal and April in our lives. They continually inspire us to strive to be better people, which is rare in this lifetime to have friends like that. Probably even more rare to have two people married to each other who are like that. I'm just so glad God put them in our lives. 
So here are some fun photos from the party...

Payton and Carter going down the slide on the bounce house...

A photo of some of the women who attended the party (lots of kiddos and babies in attendance as well!)...

Of course then it was time to eat, so you know the boys didn't miss a beat on that one...

My parents were able to make it to the party as well...

And then the adults got to play on the bounce house...

(Neal, April and their son Carter started the fun)

Then it became a football touchdown zone...

A great time was had by all - big and little kids alike! Thanks so much Neal and April - we love you guys!!!

Baby Shower!

Okay, here's my warning up front... this is going to be a long post. I don't want to leave out a single detail about the most amazing baby shower I had this weekend!

First up, I have to give some love to my girlfriend Jenny Sharabba. She and I have known each other since Kindergarten and have traveled the world together (literally - we lived in Italy together). She was so sweet to drive over from Orlando to attend the shower with me. It meant so much to me and I loved having her there! My other BFF, Ashley, was also there in spirit, as she sent a gift without me even knowing and it arrived via UPS during the shower even though it was scheduled to arrive days earlier. It was perfect "Ashley timing" and we all got a good laugh out of it.

Okay, now on to the details of the shower... it was hosted by 5 of my dearest friends here in Tampa - (from left to right in the picture) Jenny, Paula, (me), Cheryl, Amy and Jen. Now, you have to understand that these ladies have a real knack for throwing parties, so I just knew it was going to be a fabulous affair. And they did not disappoint for one second! From the beautiful flower arrangements all over the house, to the incredibly delicious food, to the beautiful china and silver... it was all so elegant and gorgeous! Here are a few pics...

The buffet included a beautiful flower arrangement with all sorts of photos of me growing up that Paula got from my mom. It was such a sweet way to personalize the beautiful bouquet...

The buffet included some of my most favorite foods in the universe: homemade chicken salad with croissants, warm brie topped with a raspberry compote, tiny little cheese biscuits, and a salad that was so good with strawberries, walnuts and all sorts of goodies. The ladies even served everything on their beautiful china and real silver!

The cake was another highlight that I cannot let go without a mention. If anyone has ever stepped foot in Tampa, they know about Wright's Gourmet Deli. It is home to the most decadent cakes you've ever tasted! Jen had the idea to get their 3-layer chocolate cake for the shower and I could just kiss her for it! It was the most heavenly thing I've ever tasted - YUM!!! I'm even posting two pictures of it so you can see the height on this baby. It was huge!

They also had served beautiful sangria in gorgeous crystal glassware and had a huge picture frame that matches the nursery perfectly that everyone could sign with their good wishes for us.
 
As if all of these details weren't enough, they even thought to have each person at the shower self-address envelopes for a cute set of thank you cards they purchased for me. How awesome is that? It made writing thank you notes so much easier. 

Okay, I think I covered all the details of the actual shower, now I have to tell you about how wonderful it was to have all my girlfriends there. It is very humbling to be in a room where every single person cares so much for you. I felt such a sense of warmth and love, it was incredible. I had friends there that I've known since Payton was a baby, and friends that I've only known for a couple years. But each one of them has been so supportive throughout our journey to have a baby, it was such an amazing experience to have them all in one place so I could thank them and let them know how important they are to me. Of course I cried a couple of times during the shower... blame it on hormones, or just the overwhelming sense of love that I felt from these ladies. But all in all, it was such an incredible day. I couldn't have dreamed up a more perfect shower if I tried. Thank you so much to my hostesses who worked so hard to make the shower so perfect. And thank you to everyone who made childcare arrangements or scheduling changes to attend the shower. It meant the world to me to have you all there! Here's a slide show of all the pictures that were taken at the shower:

Happy New Year and other stuff...

I can hardly believe 2010 is over. We are so excited to start this new year and have so much to look forward to with the upcoming birth of our baby boy. But before we move on to 2011, let me wrap up a couple final things from 2010.

I celebrated my 35th birthday on December 29th. I've decided that I'm done going up in numbers from now on for my birthday. 35 seems like a nice round number and really there's no reason to approach any closer to 40. So, "Hello 35, I'm here to stay!" I had a wonderful birthday and was pampered all day by family and loved ones. And my boys were so sweet to me all day giving me lots of hugs and kisses.

I also had Brian take a few quick "belly pics" on my birthday. I figured I would post a couple of them so you can see just how odd I look these days. Thank God we are not in bathing suit season. My warm sweat suits cover things up quite nicely.

Although I do have to say the one of Payton kissing my belly is pretty cute. He does this on a daily basis always saying "good morning" and "goodnight" to Parker. He's going to be such a good big brother! And yes, that is a baby swing you see in the background. I'm ready folks!

And lastly, we set off some small fireworks on New Year's Eve after we returned home from our friend's kid-friendly party. We thought Payton had fallen asleep in the car on the way home, but no... he perked right up when we pulled into the driveway pleading to set off fireworks. As you can see from this smokey photo... he's not a big fan of the loud noise that is involved with fireworks, so he wears big headphones that block out the sound. It was quite funny.

Happy New Year everyone! Here's to a blessed 2011!