Cruz's First Birthday!

It was a HOT, but beautiful day at the park to celebrate my baby boy's birthday. Cruz had no idea why all of his friends and family were gathered together, but he had a great time.

The robot cake turned out pretty good and thankfully there was enough for everyone.

Me and my little angel.

I had a hard time finding any party decorations with a robot theme, so I had to improvise by making my own.

Cruz and daddy.

Cruz and Aunt Britney

Cruz's personal cake.

Cruz and Aunt Sandy.

Cruz had so many presents to open...

but his favorite was from mommy and daddy! We have many gender neutral baby toys around the house, but this is his first "big boy" toy.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy, mommy and daddy love you!

Window Fashion

I am in love with the new curtains I just made for my breakfast area and living room...and I am even more in love with how much I spent on them.

I have blogged in the past about using sheets and other textiles instead of always buying off of the bolts from fabric stores to make things around your home. In most cases it is cheaper and you can expand your choices of patterns and textures to choose from. These curtains were made from Dwell TABLECLOTHS that I found at Target.

Each tablecloth cost me $20 and I only needed 1 per window. So I ended up spending $80 for these custom made, beautiful curtains. I just cut the tablecloth straight down the middle and then hemmed the raw edges. I did not even need to hem the bottoms-I love the puddled look.

Something I learned through the process of making these curtains is that sheets and light cotton materials are great for roman shades, quilts, etc. but for drapes and long panels a heavier material looks much better. This tablecloth fabric was perfect, it was heavy and had just the right weight to make full, beautiful drapery.

I finally began work on the roman shades in my dining room that I have been putting off as well. This fabric was made from a sheet set I found at Marshall's. Because roman shades need lining on the back the lighter cotton material worked great for this project.

HAPPY SEWING!!

That's Just Cruel

My daughter is always keeping me on my toes when it comes to my diet by bringing tempting treats into the house. She had talked me into buying cookie dough yesterday in order to make some treats after dinner. I knew it was in the fridge and it was calling my name, so I broke down today and thought to myself- "I'll just have a little bite of cookie dough". As I was lifting the package from the fridge I was taken back to see this printed across the front :DO NOT CONSUME RAW COOKIE DOUGH....seriously???? Everyone loves raw cookie dough, right? Has this "warning" always been there? How can this be...how will I ever go on?????

Riley's Room

Riley is jumping on the redecorating train and since I am already doing Cruz's room I might as well fit her room in too.
It's been a while since she had an update and she has never had much of a theme. She has requested a butterfly room this time around.
I am not the type to go out and just buy butterflies, that would be too easy. I am going to try to make most of the details by hand and also repurpose things to keep the budget within reason.
I am using this Pottery Barn room as inspiration.

I had a hard time finding bird cages and the ones I did find cost a small fortune. I had to think outside of the box for this one. The first "bird cage" was actually a lantern I bought at a discount. I removed the glass panels, glued in craft sticks to create bars, and then painted it a pale pink.

This cage was a decorative cover for a tissue box that I found at Goodwill for $2 and it was UGLY...until I worked some magic on it.
I wish I would have thought to take a before picture so you could really appreciate the difference.
I sprayed painted it and used an old hardware piece for a handle.

I was rather pleased with the results.

In the end I was able to repurpose several items and ended up with some really cute bird cages to hang.

I thought I would incorporate butterflies by randomly attaching them to the cages.

Thanks to the Cricut I don't need to hand-cut each one!

I found this mushroom on clearance at Lowe's and decided to spray paint it and use it as decoration as well.

Other items I am using for inspiration...

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Robot Update

So, I have been working on ideas for Cruz's robot room and came up with some pretty cool stuff.
My 12 yr. old found these robot cut-outs while we were strolling around the craft store the other day. I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I knew I could think of something.

After some brain storming this is the finished product.

I decoupaged some scrapbook paper onto the little guy and used some embellishments to give him some cool detail. So glad my scrapbook materials are getting some use!

My daughter also spotted these gears in the scrapbook section of the store-she has a great eye for what her momma likes. Tim Holtz has some great materials to work with.

I spray painted them to match the colors I plan on using in his room.

The Three Amigos!

I am thinking of making some sort of banner with the robots...something like below.

Of course I need to get busy on making some more robots if I follow through with that plan.

Oh, yeah...I am also attemping this cake for Cruz's birthday. I found it on the Betty Crocker website, I hope it's as easy as the tutorial looks!

Riley Gets Her Ears Pierced

Riley has been wanting this for a while and I finally gave in. She handled it like a champ!