Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Along with putting the final touches on Rachael's baby
shower, I made the decision to create a photo book
for my mom's upcoming 60th birthday.
I love making these photo books,
BUT I'm indecisive and a perfectionist so making
them often takes awhile and
leaves me feeling stressed out.
I finished it today because I had an amazing
Shutterfly coupon that was expiring.
This book would have cost around $73 and
I got it for $34!!
SWEET!!

Anyways, I hope she likes it....
I'm hoping for lots of happy tears when she reads it!

Rachael's Baby Shower!

Saturday was a day I've been looking forward to for....oh, about SEVEN months now!!
Rachael's baby shower!!!  Hooray!!
Her best friend Gina and her sisters threw her an ah-mazingly cute baby shower that was so very thoughtful and very Rachael....(definitely worthy of pinterest ladies...NICE WORK!!!)


As the co-hostess of her work shower I was definitely analyzing the decor and food with my own shower plans in-mind....It surprised me how similar some of the ideas were, but I guess thats what happens when you have lots of close friends throwing someone the know so well a shower....and I'm sure it doesn't help that we've all been scouring the same internet sources...(pinterest/etsy...etc) for ideas!!

Can I just say that I've never seen someone get so much stuff at a shower...I mean, this is obviously one VERY LOVED mommy-to-be and it's the first grandchild on Rachael's side of the family.....that being said...gift opening went on for so long that I think Rachael was becoming dehydrated and I had to get up and go get more food halfway through!
(Well, that might have happened regardless of the amount of presents...but I'll blame it on a long gift opening!!!)
I honestly don't know of any couple/person/baby more deserving than their family to get showered with so many gifts and so much love!!
I might also throw in some extra props to Rachael for holding off on the clothes buying until her shower....I've admired her will power thus far, as she has barely bought any fun clothes---but I think she knew her family well enough to know that there would be no shortage of sweet baby girl clothes!! Let's just say that I hope someday I have a girl so I can get my hands on some of her adorable hand-me-downs!

As soon as her family leaves town I'm planning on bombarding her nursery to take a second look at all her awesome loot!!
But as relieved as I am to have another couple weeks until her work-shower....
(I need all the time I can get)
I'm definitely ready to be able to cross 'baby shower' off my to-do list!!
Then there will be nothing left but anxiously and impatiently wait for Baby Girl to arrive!!!

The spread....loved the chalkboard sign!

Mommy enjoying her tasty treats

Rachael and LeAnn

Headband making!!

We're doing this at the shower I'm planning too,

so it was interesting to see their take on this 

group craft vs. the way that I've been planning it.

'Keeks' trying on her headband from Aunt Beth :)

The loot....minus the additional 10 bags that

got carried in from Aunt Dory's car later on!!

Holy Moly!!

Adorable baby things piling up on the coffee table!

Myself, Rachael and Baby Girl

Sisters and party planners!

Rachael with Matt's sisters!!

I just realized I failed to get a picture with Rachael

and Gina....oops...but she was there and she 

looked lovely and was a great hostess too!!

Sopapilla Cheesecake Bites

Why don't you just thank me in advance,

cause these little bombshells are ah-mazing...

I took one bite of these little beauties and said

wow...you just earned the right to have your picture

taken....and you get an entire blog post...

(I halved this recipe cause I didn't really think

that Kelly and myself needed SIXTEEN crescents)

1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 c. sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 (8oz) pkg crescent rolls

1/4 c. butter, melted

1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheet.

Beat the cream cheese, 3/4c. sugar and vanilla extract 

in a bowl.

Unroll crescent rolls. Place a spoonful of cream cheese on

larger end of crescent triangle. Starting with the two corners

closest to the cream cheese, fold inward. The roll up the 

crescent roll, making sure to try and keep the cream cheese

contained in the doubh.

Combine 1/2 c. sugar and cinnamon in a cup. Brush roll-ups

with melted butter then sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Bake in over for 13-15 minutes until dough is crisp and light brown.

Allow to cool 10  minutes before serving.

Take these somewhere and be prepared to make 

some new friends!!

Holy mother of fish!!

This weekend flew by....

And I had good intentions for today.

I was gonna run errands and work on

crafts, maybe start painting the bathroom...

but so far I've only managed to drag myself

from my bed to the couch.

It's just one of those days!!

Friday I met some work friends at Brio on the 

Plaza for Stacy's belated birthday happy hour.

Visiting the plaza = opportunity to eat fried pickles at Tomfooleries...

so Alicia and I took advantage of this and 

pre-ate before happy hour...

guilty as charged....fried pickles in hand...

I didn't take any pictures at happy hour,

but it was a good time with yummy food and 

delicious white peach sangria!! Yes, please!!

After happy hour we did some window shopping

and I know you'll all be relived to know where

you can find you're next blue suede 

vintage inspired hat...

And now you know what I'd look like

with a blue condom on my head...

Saturday I slept in until 11 and then

met up with Kelly and her friend Jackson

to head down to my parents house.

We have cousins in town from Colorado and my

parents are holding them hostage in Mound City,

so we were gonna have to make the drive if we

wanted to see them!

We started out with some fishing off the dock

(I'm saying 'we' loosely as I

did little more than stand and soak-up some sun)

Kelly's friend is some sort of a 

crocodile-dundee wannabe and promptly caught

a freakin' ginormous fish...

Howdoya like those action shots?!

(National Geographic: call me....)

Then we hopped on my Uncle's new boat and

took a slow jaunt  speed-of-light tour

around the lake....

Ha! This is priceless

Hold on!!!

Whew!! I risked life and limb and 

most definitely my camera to capture these moments....

And then the fish slayers wanted to hunt some

more, so I worked on my tan and took a few pictures

in the meantime...

Uncle Jeff

Cousins Jane and Bill

yours truly

The only damper on the day was that I 

had to head back to KC early for work...blah.

But seeing out of town family was definitely

worth the long drive!

I have a pretty full work-week and

then Rachael's baby shower with family

and friends is next Saturday!

I'm so excited!!

Flower Power!

So I told you I'd give you little glimpses of my shower handiwork......

I'm pretty happy with how my little felt flowers are turning out!

They're going to look so pretty on Baby Girl's sweet little head...

But lets be honest,

behind every pretty little craft

usually lies one very messy craft table...

There is definitely no 'dining' going-on in this dining room!

My husband, who is always looking for an 

opportunity to make some extra cash,

 is quite impressed with 

my recent crafting rampage, and is

 getting all kinds of ridiculous ideas in his 

little head....

most of which include me having an

internet start-up business making, sewing

and selling my goods...ha!

I'm quite happy punching a clock and

crafting for friends, thankyouverymuch...

But I'd be more than happy to show you

how to use the sewing machine if you're so inclined...

More to come!!

Megan got hitched!!

                        

     In February, our sweet friend Megan 

  and her husband Ryan got married

  on Captiva Island in Florida.

    (And P.S. I'm pretty sure their wedding pictures

          are some of the most amazing, idyllic images

   I've ever seen!!)

So yesterday, they hosted a reception 

back here in K.C. for their local 

family and friends that couldn't make it 

to their intimate ceremony in Florida.

Roy was working, since

the bad weather was holding off,

so I was flyin' solo to the reception.

Luckily I had lots of good friends

 to sit with!!

Alicia, Rachael and myself

All the girls from work

What's wrong with this picture??

Oh, wait... Rachael is holding

MATT's baby bump!! 

Here we are with the lovely bride!

Alicia's husband stayed home too,

so I made her my stand-in date.

Megan did a great job putting everything

together and I know how relieved

she must be to finally have

all the wedding stuff behind her!

Help! I'm in a blue/green hell!

There is a giant box of paint supplies in our office that is begging to be carried downstairs to the storage room....
What's the hold up you ask?
Well you see, I'm having THE hardest time finding a color to paint our guest bathroom.  It's the last room in the house left to paint, and go figure it's been the hardest to decide on.
This bathroom has a cooler/cleaner feel than the rest of our house, and I wanted it that way...but now that it's time to paint I'm finding myself turned off by all the icy cool blues and more modern grays that I thought I would like.
Everything either looks too gray, too 'baby boy' blue or too sea foam green....ACK! Help me!!
I've wasted purchased no less than 5 paint samples.  Initially when I slap them on I think 'oh, not too bad...maybe this is the one!'  but as the hours and days go by I slowly decide that I hate it :(

It doesn't help that the lighting in this bathroom is a disaster.  We've tried to solve this problem by buying a bazillion different light bulbs....which leads me to the question...Have you tried to buy lightbulbs recently?? What the crazy is going on with the light bulb industry? I felt like I needed some sort of degree in electricity to figure out what # of 'lumens' 'watts' or 'volts' I was needing....Do I need soft white? warm white? Natural light? Day light?
But no matter which ones we've bought the room either looks like someone peed yellow all over the walls or resembles the fluorescent glow of a jail cell....barf.   I just want bright white light!! Not yellow! Not neon fluorescent! Geesh!...ok anyways, here a few pictures of the smurf-tastic walls that we're currently sporting...

A few of our paint samples....please note the lightbulb assortment

that is happening in the background.

The big guy on the far left would be great if we wanted to 

take a trip back to the dingy 80's, while the little swirly guys

are great for pretending you're incarcerated...bah

Ick! What is happening here???

Sad day. These look even worse on camera

than they do in person, which is making me 

even more disheartened...

Anybody got any great ideas? I still want to keep the cooler overall feel of the bathroom, but I'd like the paint color to lean a little more towards the traditional side of colors versus something uber modern.

I'm picturing this....

See?? Now how did they manage to make this bathroom look so cool and clean while still feeling traditional? And their blue walls don't look like a little boys nursery at all!! Maybe I just need to pick one and hope that when the accessories are all in place it will come together....

Thoughts? Advice?