HappY {Heart} DaY Photo Card

 I like to send out Valentine photos of my boys every year to family and some of our close friends.  Well, I had almost forgotten about it this year until I saw this post at eighteen 25.  Love everything they do!  And I knew as soon as I saw them, this was what I was doing this year.  Only problem is...I can't decide if I should do them together... 

Or each individually...

Decisions, decisions!

'Bee' a Great BabYsitteR {Activity Days}

 I've been a slacker in getting my Activity Day activities posted as of late...my apologies.  So while I was putting this one together I thought I would make a better effort of getting a few pictures and getting it posted.

All of my girls will be turning 12 this year...I'm slowly loosing them all to YW :(  I thought it would be a fun idea to make babysitting kits, since 12 seems to be the standard age when you start to get those babysitting calls.  So you can imagine how excited I was when I came across THIS little kit at Wendy's Activities.  So cute and full of great ideas...and, did I mention it was already done and put together!  All I had do was print.  Love it when other people do the work for me!

I printed up these pages...

Added them to these folders.

Purchased these bags (Old Navy...$1.00).

Found a few supplies for some of the games (a lot of them from around the house).

Then for the activity we went over a few of the pages in the kit and then put together our games.
I now have 8 {almost} 12 year old girls who are excited to get out there and get babysitting.
Such a fun and effective way to introduce the whole babysitting experience.

pillows.

So the trim has yet to be put up (can't show you the walls we fancied up quite yet), but I couldn't wait to get the crib up and start putting things together a little.  I've been sewing a bit.  And by bit, I mean pillows...that's about as tricky as I get at this point.  So, NO.  I did not make the rest of the bedding...so wasn't ready to branch that far out!  Sewing still scares me quite a bit.  But pillows yes.  I can do pillows.

And before I get nasty emails/comments...they are purely for decorating purposes.  I will fully and entirely remove any suffocation device before placing baby in the crib.  Thanks for your concern, though.

Okay, so I've seen SO many cute pillow ideas floating around out there and have been dying to whip up a few.  Starting with this twisted flower pillow...

Now, I haven't got a tutorial of my own for you...cause really I just made it up as I went, that and...I'm so not qualified to be telling you such stories.  I did, though, find this tute (after the fact) that is probably a much more sophisticated way of doing it than my way.

And while I was there I also found this awesome tute on how to make pin-tucked pillows! So I had to try. And can I say...I'm impressed with myself?!

Never mind that I started with a too small piece of fabric and had to do a little piecing together (hence the ribbon and bow)...I still think it looks like I might have known what I was doing when I put it together :)

Now this one I came up with on my own...I do do that from time to time.  I've always loved pillows that tie on the side.  Everything looks better with a bow, doesn't it?  I also love the look of having a mismatching fabrics on front and back.  So I gave that all a go and came up with this...

Found this cute fabric at Hobby Lobby and thought the nursery rhyme theme was PerFeCt for a nursery!  So I didn't add anything to the front as not to distract from the Cat and the Fiddle and Humpty Dumpty.  How fancy to have a pillow that you can read!

 And finally.  My attempt at a 'stuffed animal'.  Certainly not my best work.  But it was fun to attempt anyway.  It took a bit more effort than I was hoping for and I ended up improvising quite a bit (hot glue!).  Maybe next time I'll look for a pattern rather than trying to fib my way through.

Now let me tell you about the bumper pad and crib skirt.  I bought this set about a year ago (Target clearance).  Are you doing the math?  Yes.  Before there was a baby...and way before it was known to be a girl.  I know I'm crazy like that...let me explain.  $8.00.  Yes sir.  I paid $8.00 for the bumper and $8.00 for the crib skirt!  For a grand total of...$16.00.  And in looking at bedding sets over the last few, I've realized that's quite a DeAL.  I wasn't sure how I was going to make it work, because it wasn't exactly what I was going for.  But again, $16.00.  I figured I would make it work.  Adding the pillows and mixing and matching the fabrics has helped to make the look I was more going for come together.

I do have a few things I would still like to do before we're finished up.  For instance...see that big blue ruffled pillow in the back?  Didn't make it, but found a set of two at TJ Maxx for about $10.  I have BiG plans for a quilt for the second sham.  We'll see if I have to break out the hot glue for that one.  Wish me luck.

NoTe:  As I'm getting ready to post this I'm thinking to myself...I wonder if there is really AnYOne out there who could possibly care this much about stinking pillows.  Really quite a lengthy post on such a subject.  I apologize.

More {LoVeLy} Prints

I can't stop myself.  I have quite the collection of V-daY prints going on.

I've been inspired by others out there in blog land and made up a few of my own to share...

They look great in frames...

Or if you don't want to decorate with them, shrink them down and use them for Valentines!

Found the Keep Calm print here.

V-daY PriNt {free}

Plain and simple.

Happy Valentines...and then some.

(right click, copy, paste, print).

Progress {a littLe peek}

The hubs had a long weekend this past week...so I was sure to take advantage.  We've made a bit of progress on the nursery.  Just need to get a few pieces of trim up...then the fun begins!  I've been out shopping for fabric and have a few things in the works.  Be back soon to show you more...

A PiRatE PaRRrtY!

Over the holidays my 3 year old turned 4.  Yes.  A VERY busy time of year for us!  

I have really had to make a point of acknowledging this kid's birthday where it lands itself in the middle of the BiGGesT holiday of the year (4 days before Christmas).  And although it feels hectic and crazy getting it all together, I don't want to ignore his special day.  It's not his fault his parents are stupid and didn't plan ahead!

This year the little man decided on a PiRAtE PaRrrtY. 

So we invited our friends...sent them a message in a bottle (found at Oriental Trading). 

Loved these because they came with the lables and sand.  They also came with the invitation, but I decided to make my own...just so they'd match everything else I was doing.

I even burned the edges of the paper for the full effect...it was a pain, but worth it.

Can I say, there is a ridculous amount of pirate stuff out there to take advantage of.  The kid did make it easy on me in that reguard.  Decorations were easy to find, and I actually had a lot on hand and didn't need to go out and buy a ton of stuff.  I was able to use the fabric banners from our last shindig.

I found somewhere online (can't remember exactly where)  where they had a table set up as you walked in the door with all sorts of pirate garb to get dressed for the occation...so I copied.

Found these printable hats free online...but I can't remember where.  I tried to go back and find them, but couldn't.  I hate it when I do that.  But I loved the girl skullies with the bows!

I found the boys bandanas at Oriental Trading and just used polka dot fabric for the girls.

 I also made a few felt mustaches on sticks.  Which, I was surprised, the girls loved just as well as the boys

For the table I used a bit of burlap down the middle with shredded brown paper and coins and jewels sprinkled everywhere.

The balloons tied to the chairs added a lot to the decor and the kids loved them.

I also used regular old mason jars, filled them with shredded paper and stuck two Jolly Roger flags (Oriental Trading)  in them.

I also found the treasure map place mats and cute little treasure boxes at OT.  The boxes had cute pearl candies inside.

Borrowed the big PirAte ship from our toy room.

I wanted a little back drop for the serving table, so I used a bunch of scrap fabric I had lying around and pinned it to a bulletin board (we had this party at the church...needed the extra room...dang winter birthdays!).  I tried to billow it up so that it looked something like sails on our "ship".  I strung a little rope and hung my piRate prints from them with clothes pins.

I never did get a picture of the serving table all finished but we had the bucket filled with ice and had Squeeze-Its (or Deadman's Punch) to drink.  I made the ship cupcakes and found the awesome sails and cupcake wrappers here.  I think these were my favorite part of the party!  Something about a cute cupcake.

I used this yummy recipe for the chocolate frosting.  Mmmm.

And the favor bags and favors...

The bags were just brown gift bags that I tied a little scrap fabric and burlap onto.  I also tied a name tag and a wooden pirate cutout that I found at Joanns.

Some of the 'TreASuRes' they found along the way.

And finally...the paRrrtY.

We started with a relay game where the kids lined up at opposite ends of the room.  They had to race to 'walk the plank' then 'swab the deck' and push the 'cannon balls' across the deck to their teammate.

We had 12 kids ages 2-5 and most of them were able to handle the game...although pushing those ballons did get a little tricky for some of them.

Next we had a TreASuRe HuNt.  We started with our maps and our favor bags, then set off to find our loot.

My birthday guy showing me his map.

Our hunt lead us around the church to different rooms where we found all sorts of treasures.  I put a 'clue' (picture of each stop on their map) on each door so they would be able to find their way on thier own.

Here they are dashing through the halls...

The map lead them right back to where they started...at the BiG treasure box filled with pirate beach balls and ring pops.

For our last game we had a TreasuRe DiG.  We filled up our big tin buckets with sand (100 lbs each...don't ask me how we got them there!) and buried all kinds of jewels, coins, necklaces and rings. 

Then I gave each kid a card with the number of jewels, etc. they had to find in the buckets and had them dig for their buried treasure...

The FavOriTe game by far.  The boys loved digging in the sand, and the girls lOved the jewles!

The crazy bunch having their cake and ice cream...

The Captain of this ship.

The Capt'n...and everyone else opening presents.

And a little game of PiRate, PirAte, SkuLLy (or duck, duck, goose) 'til the mom's came to pick up thier little mates.

All the mateys and their mustaches.  ArrG.

It was a fun one to put together, and I dare say the kids had a gOod time.