The big par-tay...Part I

OMG, I am embarrassed b/c I am THE worst blogger ever in all of blogland. Okay, maybe not all of blogland...but I have been sorta MIA. No real reason, just life got in the way - first the mad dash to get all my DIY crafting & cooking done for her party, the party, the other birthday weekend activities, oh & did I mention I'm now on our HOA's board of directors :oO (?!),  catching up at work, a sick beh be, etc. etc. And I am STILL exhausted from all that...but I do apologize! And now, I give you...

~*The Birthday Girl*~

The party was an awesome success & my little mama had a great time! I got a professional photog to take all the pics & I haven't gotten the photos back from him yet, but I did get a chance to snap a few myself...

Obvs I took these after the party because you don't get the full affect of how cay-ute they are in the sunlight. Made these lil guys based on Emily's tutorial over at Not So Idle Hands. I had this bookmarked for quite some time now & I'm happy I finally tried them out! They are super cute, cheap & easy to make. They take some time, but I made a BUNCH & for this year at least, we aren't carving pumpkins so these cuties are it!

Here are some pics during the party...

{favor table} 

 

{paper lanterns used to decorate in the living room}

 

 {the eats spread + dessert}

The Decor 

As I mentioned in a previous post, Ciao Bambino made most of the paper for the party (the banner, the confetti minis, the favor tags, the cupcake toppers & stickers that I used on the plastic ware rolls - not pictured). I think I mentioned before that I basically bought the paper stuff sight unseen, but I rightly placed my faith in CB because the stuff turned out super duper cuteee! I was so excited when I got my box with all the stuff, it was like Christmas! I got the black & orange polka dot balloons from Shop Sweet LuLu's Halloweenery shop for $3! The black & white paper lanterns are from Luna Bazaar and the totally adorable pumpkin lanterns are from Party City, but they are only available online. If you're feeling crafty, here's a link to a DIY version of them - equally cute & I actually bought all the supplies to make them, but then I gave myself a reality check & returned the stuff, then bought these...I was already overloaded with projects, so I was happy to find these! The paper table cloths were also from Party City.

I DIY'ed the place cards on Power Point & the cake pop stand using a cardboard box & piece of styrofoam wrapped with polka dot wrapping paper & pretty orange ribbon. Speaking of ribbon, I got a lot of the ribbon you see in the photos from the Ribbon Retreat - great prices & they ship fast! All the other ribbon I got from Michaels & Jo-Ann's.

The Food

Instead of getting the party catered, I opted to make everything myself...which was SO much work & thankfully one of my close friends came over the day before the party to help me get a head start on some of the baking/decorating & then another friend came the morning of to help us finish up the cooking. It was ex.hausting, gah. But it was worth it because I think everything looked fab & it all tasted great too! The menu included: a veggie tray, cut up fruit in these adorbs polka dot candy cups from Shop Sweet Lulu, "mummy" dogs AKA pigs in a blanket, scarecrow crunch, Chick-Fil-A nuggets, cheese dip made by my awesome bestie Britt, sandwich roll-ups & pumpkin dip.

The sweets were the stars though! My girl Britt & I made pumpkin brownie pops, which weren't super pretty, but tasted awesome! The cake was made by my BFF Becky's MIL, who also made my bridal shower & wedding cake...she did such an awesome job! And finally, the cupcakes were from Cupcakes Actually - I had a Groupon for these that I had purchased a while back, so I just sent the hubbs to pick out a dozen the day of the party! I was hesitant to try a new cupcake place because we are pretty hardcore cupcake snobs in the Dennifer household, but these were actually very yummy. The munchkin had one of their pumpkin harvest cupcakes as her "smash cake" & she loved it too. :) Hopefully the photog got good pics of her eating/smashing/making a huge mess of her cupcake because I was in full clean-up mode when she was eating it & had no chance to get a pic, bahahahaha.

And pics in the basement/present opening area (excuse the horrible lighting in our basement)...

 {yeah, I totally forgot to cut the extra ribbon on the right end of the month banner}

{And my cutie living it up amongst all her presents}

I wrapped the picture frames the hubbs had up over the mantle with orange tissue paper & polka dot wrapping paper. On the mantle - I framed her invite using a frame I got via Freecycle that I spray painted black...side note: I really wanted to spray paint the frame a pumpkiny orange, but couldn't find one at any of the stores I checked. :o/ I placed a large professional shot of her in the middle of the mantle, then my DIY #1 ribbon topiary {tutorial with photos coming up soon}. Finally, I hung my DIY monthiversary banner from the mantle to show how my munchkin has changed throughout her 1st year. Love her! I got the inspiration for the banner from Ciao Bambino, but figured I could just make a really cute one rather than buying it & I'm so happy I did because I loooove how it turned out! To make one yourself, just take a long piece of ribbon, get a 2 inch scallop punch & colored card stock, design some {less than 2"} circles with free clip art online & printed on white card stock. Use mini glue dots to attach them to the scallop circles, hot glue a paper clip behind the scallop circle & attach them to the ribbon using hot glue.  Make sure to space them evenly apart & then slide your photos into the clips & wha-la! I was planning to take photos & do a photo tutorial, but I was pressed for time & rushing to get this done. If I do this again, I'll be sure to take step-by-step pics.

For her birthday, she received so many generous gifts from our family & friends that attended the party. Everything from casual to dressy clothes, music toys, books, a portable DVD player + DVDs, her PBK Anywhere Chair {that was our gift}, balls for her ball pit, and I could go on & on.

Oh & to complete mama's birthday weekend, we headed to the local pumpkin patch! She loved the animals, the slides & especially they hayride! She loved it & we had a great time too, so we decided to make it an annual birthday tradition until she says she's too old to go with good 'ol mom & dad, lol.

So those are pmb (pretty-much-basically) the good pics I got. Once I get & select the professional pics I want, I'll share them with y'all of course! And, now that Miss Amaya has had an awesome party, got tons of cool stuff & turned the big O-N-E, what's she gonna do next?! DISNEY...next week, eeek! Wish me us luck, it'll be the first time we take the bambino on a plane. I still have lots & lots to to do...with not a lot of time to do it in. I'm sure I'll be talking more about it here before we head out. Welp, that's all I got for now. 'Till next time!

In 3 short days...

My little baby will be O-N-E. I can't believe it & I don't know how to feel. On the one hand, I'm so happy & feel so blessed that she's growing up healthy & doing well. On the other hand she's growing up & I just want her to stay teeny forever. Sigh. I have a special birthday post lined up for Friday that'll recap the first year mostly with pics, but just thought I'd show y'all the professional pics we got done at Picture People this past weekend as well. And at some point, I'll see if my good friend who updated my posts & sidebar title fonts can update the pics in my header too. Anywho, here is my little baby all grown up & almost 1:

:oD <-- That is me cheesing over how flipping cute she is, gah! I love that child. I'll be back lata tonight or early tomorrow with some more DIY par-tay deets. 4 days left till the party!! 'Till next time!

Munchkin's 1st birthday: the full outfit & a DIY Halloween'y wreath + tutorial

If any of you follow me on Pinterest, you'd know that I've been collecting so many ideas to make my munchkin's 1st birthday party memorable. And now with a little less than two weeks till her party, there's SO much left to do!

First, I'm still trying hard to finish up my office/craft space makeover & it's coming along, but I need to buy a few things to do some organizing & right now, all our money is tied up in the munch's birthday party. I also ordered one item from Pottery Barn in July & it was back-ordered to last month, then last month I get an email from them saying it's back-ordered until DECEMBER - seriously PB?! Ugh. So, sadly, I doubt it'll be completed prior to her party, but it has come a long long way & looks great so far! I'll continue posting updates on the space until it's completely done!

Maybe a little over a week ago I got an exciting package in the mail {don'tcha just love packages, wooo} - the other part of her outfit!! Here it is in all it's pumpkin & polka dot glory:

I mentioned it in my previous post about her party, but this adorbs outfit was done up by Amber of Made Cute Just 4 U on Etsy. I can't wait to see it all on her! I think I'll wash it this weekend & try it on her. :)

I have also been making progress on some of my DIY crafting/decor for the party. Project #1: a cute wreath for the door that would go with her party theme, but also be something I can leave up through Thanksgiving...then I saw this on Pinterest & I just knew I had to try it! Well mine is no where near the one on Etsy, but I still like the way it turned out & am so happy I went with the DIY, Also, it was waaay cheaper than the Etsy version!

Here's how my DIY version turned out:

Of course I had to get a pic with my bey-beh in it ::wink::! So what do you think? I really love the way it turned out. Not quite the Etsy version, but that's okay..I still love it all the same! And it's much much cheaper. I think all the supplies I purchased cost less than $20, so I saved like $40, woot!

Okay so to make this bad boy it's simple, but slightly time consuming & messy. Messy because the burlap fibers get literally every.where when you're working with them - on you, on the floor, on your working surface, the dog, etc. And that brings me to the tutorial step numero uno...


Gather up your supplies:

• 1 square yard of orange burlap
• wire wreath form (I used a 12" wire form for my wreath)
• a ruler of some sort
• scissors
• glue gun
• extra glue sticks

Cut out approximately 1.5" wide x approximately 5" long strips of burlap:

You'll need a bunch of these. I found that cutting them out beforehand saved me a lot of time as opposed to cutting out a few, gluing, repeating. **WOD Tip: after cutting out the first strip, use it as a template for all the rest, that way you won't have to continually measure & mark the burlap {like I did, until I caught on...duh Jen!}.


Fold strips in half over a ring of the wreath form & get to gluing:

As you can see, I originally started out with Unique Stitch, but I quickly discovered that: a) it's not strong enough to hold burlap together, and b) even if it was, it takes much too long to dry...ie, if you used this & held each strip together while it dried, then it would take you sooo long to finish your wreath. I found out by a little trial & error...

See how it pulled right apart as soon as I tried attaching it to the wreath form? No bueno. FAIL. So I moved on to my brother from another mother favorite adhesive go-to, my trusty glue gun. And he didn't let me down:

So I just started gluing working the wreath form by section & from the outside in. I forgot to take a photo of the final wreath once I glued all of the burlap strips, sorry! But the final pics basically show what it looked like when I finished. I just added a pretty {polka dot} bow to tie in Munchkin's theme & make it more Halloween'y, fluffed as necessary (do this over a trash can or outside, other wise the burlap fibers will get all over your work space) & hung it up on our front door. I really really love how it turned out & it serves several purposes - party & seasonal decor. Can't beat that!

Want all deets on Munchkin's "Little Pumpkin" themed 1st birthday party? Check out the invites, decor & the initial sneak peek of her outfit here...more coming very very soon! 'Till next time!

Munchkin 10-11 months

Side note: I DID, in fact, finish my wreath & I promise, promise to post it this weekend...I went to take the final pics, then my camera battery died, so I had to charge it. Then I had to wait for daylight to take it, then I had to go do something for my sorority sisters & so here we are today! Today is the final final day of the FY, so my life should go completely back to normal after today...and I am going to be hard at work DIY'ing & blogging about all of my Halloween/fall/Munchkin birthday party crafting!

And now, back to the regularly scheduled blog post...

Cue tears... I simply cannot believe my daughter is 11 months! She's actually 11.5 months, so she'll be a whole year old in a couple weeks. I can't believe it. It's bittersweet of course - I'm so happy my little munchkin is doing well & healthy & thriving, but I want to push the pause button. In just 2 weeks (exactly 2 weeks from today), my baby will be a {gulp} toddler. Sigh. Where has the time gone? I think about it sometimes & get a little choked up. Makes me want another little squishy babe, but def no time soon...I need a raise & a bigger house & for our c/c debt to be paid off before that happens - looking at 2013 - and that's if I can get the hubbs fully on-board. I think he'll agree after Amaya is a little older & a little more independent.

And now, what you've all been waiting on..hehehe...Amaya's 10-11 month pics:

And the 0-9 month pics for comparison:

{10 month outtakes}

{11 month outtakes}

 {with her "dog dog" <3}

Look at my little lady! She's growing so big & she's so much fun now! A couple weeks ago, my husband took her to the Dr because she had a persistent cold & she was - in his words - "17 something pounds"...hahaha, thanks babe for the accurate number! I'm guessing she's close to 18 lbs now, but that's unofficial. She will go to her 12 month well baby appointment in a few weeks & I'll know the "official" number. So, she's still on the small side of normal for her age, but she's looong. She is still in 6-12 months (or 12 months) for most clothing, but she has moved on to 12-18 months in a lot of the brands that run smaller (Old Navy, Circo {Target}, Osh Kosh) because of her length. The bag of clothes she can no longer fit or are out of season is quickly getting filled up. I'm getting slightly worried because we are going on our first family vaca to Disney World in early November & I'm hoping that all of her 12 month summer stuff still fits because I am not planning on buying any new summer clothes. Or I'm hoping that it'll be slightly cool there, so I can just use some of her lightweight fall clothing. We shall see I guess!

She's been doing excellent at night - sleeping anywhere from 10-12 hours straight, less when she's about to get sick or teething. And she does 1-2 naps a day, normally anywhere from 1-4 hours per day. The 1 hour nap thing only happens when she's at daycare. Needless to say, she goes to sleep super early on those nights! We stick pretty closely to the bedtime routine every night & actually tomorrow we are going to something for our Alma Mater's alumni weekend, which will mean a bit of a later bedtime for the munchkin, so I'm a little anxious to see how it'll go. She's a pretty go with the flow little girl though, so I have a feeling everything will be just fine. I just always get nervous anytime something goes off schedule for her.

As for food, she eats EVERYTHING. She loves food. She makes a horrible mess, but she does eat a good bit! I normally give her a little bit of anything we happen to be eating. And she's pretty much off of purees. I do have a few frozen cubes in the freezer that I feed her from time to time for dinner, but for the most part she's having steamed veggies - very soft & cut up small & bananas + regular applesauce for fruit mainly. I am going to also start giving her the cut up fruit you can get at the grocery store in the cups - the kind without any sugary syrup added. She also has cut up fruit at daycare & they say she does well with it.

Speaking of daycare...I think being around all the kiddos has been really great for her. Seems like she's doing & learning new things every day! The one thing I really dislike is that she's literally sick like every 2-3 weeks - I think some of her stuffiness can be attributed to teething, but I think a lot of it has to do with germs at daycare...ugh. I have read though that kids that go to daycare at an early age are less likely to get sick as often as kids that did not go to daycare early on when they get older. Here's hoping I guess! Her favorite word by far is "dog dog", but she also loves "duck" & "da da". Unfortunately, she doesn't say "ma ma" much unless she's sleepy, hurt or mad at me, lol. She still scoots around - not much crawling, but she can do it, I think she just discovered that scooting is a much more efficient way of getting around! She likes pulling herself up on our ottoman in the living room & she'll stand without us right there for several minutes at a time. She loves anything that plays music - she likes to "dance", which generally consists of her bopping her head back & forth, lol. It's so cute. Oh & she now has 5 teeth - 3 on the bottom, 2 up top! I hate teething because I can tell it hurts/irritates her so much, poor baby.

I think that's it! I can't believe that in just 2 weeks I'll be able to say I have a 1 year old, a toddler. I am happy & sad at the same time, but either way can't wait to celebrate her birthday with friends & family...and speaking of, I have lots of DIY crafting to get to, so I'll sign off here tonight & be back in the next day or so with the deets on our party/fall/Halloween wreath! 'Till next time!

Sneak peak of my DIY fall wreath!

Hallelujah the fiscal year is over (at least for my office's part - our actual FY ends September 30th) & I survived another year! Im actually on the train headed home now as I type this. Now hopefully my life can return to normal! I'm excited too because fall is upon us - my fave season, not to mention my munchkin's birthday party, which I'm super excited about!!

And in celebration of the fall, tonight/tomorrow I'm gonna finish up my DIY fall wreath! I'm so excited, I think it's going to turn out pretty cute! Here's a little sneak peak:



Get excited. ;) Pics & tutorial coming this weekend, woot! 'Till next time!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

What I wanna buy Wednesday - 09.21.11

Hi there everyone! I am deep in the trenches of the end of the Government fiscal year, sigh. I.am.so.ex.hausted. I hate this time of year, I end up working sooo much & I totally need a break in a big way. I'm thinking about taking all day on Monday off, taking A to daycare & going back to sleep until I catch up on all the sleep I've missed lately. I am soo happy that Friday is almost here (the true end of the FY is next Friday, but we have to finish all of our contract awards this year so that finance can obligate everything by next Friday)! But as soon as this cray cray is over, I'll be hard at work trying to get everything together for the munchkin's 1st birthday party!

Anywho, just thought I'd check in this week with another installment of WIWBW, woo! Online browsing & some buying is all that kept me slighlty sane this week. Is it sad that shopping makes me happy?! Not in a crazy, blow all my money sort of way, but in a fun way, hahaha. Anywho, here's what I want this Wednesday:

1. A personalized Halloween tub:

{photo credit}

I've been eyeing these tubs on Etsy for a while now - even had them pinned on my Fall Holidays pinboard on my Pinterest. Our previous Halloween candy bowl is a cheapo dollar store plastic bowl & it's fine, but I think it's time for an upgrade! So I finally bought one today on Etsy & I plan to use it for the big birthday par-tay & for Halloween! I can't wait to get it & see how it turns out!!

2. C&B Vine Pumpkins & Gourds:

{photo credit}

Gah I love the fall & decorating & everything fall! These are another thing I've been eying for a while & so this week, I decided to go ahead & buy a couple to decorate this fall! They'll be a perfect accent during the munchkin's little pumpkin themed birthday party! And on top of that, Crate & Barrel has them for an incredibly affordable price!

3. A Baby AJ puppy costume:

{photo credit}

Amaya loves her some "dog dog" as she so eloquently puts it. Seriously, it's the first thing she says in the morning when she wakes up! So I always call our dog up the stairs or in from the other room so she can see her dog dog first thing...then she lights up & giggles. Amazing how great of a mood he can put her in, lol. And sometimes, when she's playing on the floor, he'll come up & give her a little kiss & she just laughs & laughs! Anywho, so dog dog & duck are two of her favorite words - she knows what they are at first sight, so I decided to let her be a dog for Halloween this year. I didn't want to spend a fortune on her costume though & this one is super affordable! I love the little paws. :) And of course, since she's a girl dog dog, I'll be tying a cute bow around one {or both} of her floppy ears! 

4. These beautiful PB news text pillar candles:

{photo credit}

I peeped these cuties in Pottery Barn's fall catalog & I fell in love! They are just awesome. I think I might attempt to DIY them at some point soon & it that is a fail, well...I may just be spending {gulp} $30 on a candle. You think the hubbs will approve that purchase?!

5. Cheetah print flats:

{photo credit}

I hear animal print is all the rage this fall & it's one trend I'm happy to follow! I feel like these flats are so versatile - you could dress them up or down & they'd look fab! These are another item that have been on my Pinterest for awhile now - once I find a pair at a great price, I'll grab 'em. I generally have a rule for myself against buying full price anything. ::wink::

So that's what I wanna buy this Wednesday, how about you?! I'll be back soon with munchkin's 10-11 month updates, more deets on her party & of course, more to come on my office space makeover soon. 'Till next time!