Halloween Lunches

I've been meaning to post these all week!

Here are a few of our recent bentos - lots of Halloween fun if you're looking for some inspiration today! :)

This lunch was packed in our Laptop Lunchbox. Andrew had a cutie with a little leaf pick so it looked like a pumpkin, ghostly strawberries, spidery ham and cheese, Scooby bones, cucumbers with ranch dressing for dipping and monster eyed popcorn. Adorable!

Andrew asked for a monster Oreo so he got a little treat this day. :) He also had stamped jack-o-lantern sandwiches highlighted with an orange food marker, an orange cup with spider webbed cheerios, BOO! berries, cucumber with dressing for dipping and yogurt raisins. I made a little pumpkin pick with a puffy sticker and a toothpick too. What a super easy way to dress up a lunch! This was all packed in the PlanetBox.

We made it to Halloween day! Whew!

I made little jack-o-lantern chips out of tortillas, a pumpkin cookie cutter and a few little pieces from this face making set. You could also just use a knife, but it was nice to have the help with the cutters. Andrew thought the monster face on the left was super spoooooooky, which he loved! Ha!

(Here's a link to a full tutorial on the jack-o-lantern chips. Caroline and I are having ghost chips for lunch! You can do a lot using this technique.)

He had ham rollups with a ghost pick, spider web carrots, yogurt with ghost sprinkles and raspberries with candy eyes.

And that's the end of our Halloween bentos for the year! I'm a little sad, but kinda ready to get back to normal lunches too. I've got some cute fall ideas and then maybe a Christmas lunch or two, but I don't want to get too ahead of myself. Ha!

Have a super fun Halloween with your little ones today! I can't wait to go trick-or-treating with my little skeleton and bumble bee tonight! :)

Sundays

I've been chopping and grating all afternoon. We're having homemade tomato soup for dinner and the kitchen smells amazing. It's sunny and warm out, but not hot and I'm so grateful for the first hints of fall weather and the lower softer light that's spilling in our back windows.

Caroline didn't want to nap today so Brian rocked her in her chair and they took naps together.

I bought some new fall clothes for the kids last week. Andrew wore his dark jeans and a pink checked button down to church this morning and he looked like a million bucks. He helped me put the outfit together, down to the sloppy front tuck. I think he's got a little bit of style in him when he tries.

Caroline wore her new pink Nikes to church even though I wanted her to wear her little silver mary janes because these days shoe choice is just not something I have the energy to argue over. She is so very TWO - self assured and full of firm opinions. At least they're super cute for sneakers.

Our living room is full of the sounds of football. Andrew knows that a Sunday in the fall will be known as "football Sunday" in our house. The Cowboys lost. But I'm going to win both of my fantasy games this week. I'd honestly rather lose my fantasy games and have the Cowboys win, and that's saying something.

Andrew's spent his afternoon in the playroom building little cars out of his Legos. His ability to focus and build for 2+ hours at a time is still surprising to me. He's such a little boy. We call him Architect Andrew because he designs these tall castles and garages for his cars to sleep in.

I did some decorating while it rained yesterday. I worked on the bedding in the guest room and we hung a new mirror in the entryway. (But there's still so much empty wall space here! And boxes too. Oh yes.)

My fall book banner from last year is hanging on the mantle in the living room. I like it more here than I did in our old house. The old straw scarecrow is standing by the front chest, ready to greet you when you knock on the front door.

Now I just need a few little pumpkins to scatter about, and we're ready.

My Little Desk Nook

We kind of stumbled onto this new house. We knew where we wanted to be and we knew a builder and he had a house in the works, and one crazy summer later, here we are.

Our house was still under construction when we looked at it for the first time. But one of the very first things I noticed and fell in love with was the desk space off the kitchen.

So it's technically the mudroom. There are hooks and cubbies on the opposite side of the space.

But I don't mind one bit. I have a place to sit down at my computer and it has a window with pretty natural light. I needed a place to blog, craft and work. And here it is!

It is still a work in progress, just like every last room in the house. I need to warm it up with fabric and a rug and some texture.

I'm planning to do a pretty kelly green roman shade on the window to help with the glare in the mid mornings. And it'll add some much needed color and softness.

I want a pretty little rug, but it needs to be durable because - it's also the mudroom!

But even without those things, I love this little corner so much.

I can sit and quickly check email while dinner is cooking and the kids are watching a show. I can leave my camera out on the counter for easy access.

I can use my Silhouette without having to move all my supplies across the house to cut one little card.

I have a place to store all the kids' craft supplies and Caroline can't get them! She's insane with markers - trust me. And it's awesome to have a dedicated place for crayons and paints and know that she can't find them without help.

So even though there's still a million things to do, I'm so, so happy with it. And I love that it's a project. I can make this space all about what I enjoy, what I love. I can hang baskets for our mail and display tons of blue vases and hang photos all over the walls - it's just that kind of space.

Caroline Turns TWO!

This sweet girl celebrated her second birthday last week! She's so funny and full of life and spunk and love.

We woke up and sang Happy Birthday dear Caroline then ran downstairs to open her presents in our jammies and bedhead.

If there's anything Caroline wanted for her birthday it was food - ha! She loves all kinds of food - whether you can eat it or not.

Loving on her adorable baby doll from Cleo & Poppy on Etsy. She was a big fan.

She also opened two Mo Willems books and a few darling little outfits. They were the perfect gifts for her! And lucky girl, Andrew was right there to help her open it all. :)

We had cupcakes with our breakfast because you only turn two once!

We spent the morning at the new neighborhood park.  It was a beautiful day with a cool breeze and clouds. What a gift on an August day in Dallas!

We're not throwing a birthday party this year. I'm a little sad considering how beautiful her party was last year, but with the move and family vacations it would have been really tough to get something planned and put together.

So I wanted to make sure her day was extra special, and I think it was.

But I couldn't resist making these little cupcake toppers.

It felt so good to break out the Silhouette and make something crafty again! :)

Brian made it home from work early enough for us to have dinner together and we played outside before bedtime.

It was a great way to celebrate an amazing little girl!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July friends!

We're celebrating all that is wonderful about this great country of ours with some swimming and some barbecue, super cool shades and maybe a firework show or two.

I really, really wanted to make this peanut butter American flag dip (OMG!) but I ran out of time. Boo! Maybe we'll have it this weekend instead.

via Crazy for Crust

We'll just keep the celebration going.

What are you doing to celebrate today? 

Superhero Birthday Party

Oh what fun we had at Andrew's party! A bounce house! A face painter! A balloon maker! Bright blue frosting!

But mostly it was the great friends that made it so much fun. We had lots of Andrew's friends from school, our friends from my mom's group, our sweet neighbors and family.

It was awesome.

The party was in the afternoon and it rained all morning. I was so worried and the bounce house was soaked. The rain cleared up just in time for the party to start so Brian and my dad and a few brave friends got inside with beach towels to soak up the water, but the kids would have bounced in a rainy house anyway. :)

So I started planning weeks and weeks ago and it was so exciting to see it all come together.

The details:

I used flowers and custom designed and cut (with the Silhouette) shapes all through the house.

I used a cutout city scene for the food table backdrop. It was made with a black project board with gold glitter and yellow card stock cut into various square shapes.

I also hung a few comic book page banners. These were the easiest banners I've made. Loved them!

We hung paper poufs here for Caroline's first birthday, and I was super excited to find these lanterns for Andrew's party. We might just leave them up all the time. :)

These popcorn boxes and juice box wraps were a last minute addition.

Water bottle labels are so simple, but add a lot to the decor.

And the cake!

I didn't get a good photo before the party, and oops - we ate some! :)

I wanted something simple to let the cute little toppers be the centerpiece.

As the kids were leaving they picked up a cape, a mask and a little batman bracelet. They all looked so cute in their masks. :)

It was so much fun, and I'd do again in a heartbeat. But probably we'll have to do something else next year. Ha!

Sources:

Capes & Masks: Sew Plain Jane

Popcorn boxes, Lanterns & Batman bracelets: Party City

Color Cardstock: Michael's

Cake: Society Bakery

Flowers & Cupcakes: Kroger

Bounce House: Dallas Party Rentals

Face Painter/Balloon Maker: Plano Party Animals

Comic Books: Barnes & Noble

Linking up with these fun girls:

Superhero Party Prep

Andrew's superhero birthday party is this weekend.

We decided to have a his party at home this year. I knew it would be more work to have it at home rather than somewhere like the Little Gym, but I love at home parties.

You can invite more people, serve beer to the adults, and it just feels more like a party - you know? But I had to come up with something for twenty four-year-olds to do at our house besides destroy it.

So we're having a bounce house in the back yard, a face painter, and fake barbells to lift overhead just like real superheroes do. We'll have chicken nuggets and popcorn. And cupcakes of course.

I've been making fun little crafty stuff for weeks. The people at Michael's could probably greet me by name at this point. :)

My Silhouette has been working overtime. It's amazing y'all. I thought it was kind of silly to spend that much money on a crafty tool, but Brian gave it to me for Christmas, and it's just awesome. I think it was totally worth it. It can do so much!

I made most of our paper goods with colorful cardstock, the Silhouette and two rolls of this dot tape - love that stuff!

So I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together on Saturday, and I will have way too many photos to share with you next week. :)

My "Craft Room"

My poor dining room used to be a pretty room. And now it's doubling as my "craft room".

I try to keep all this stuff in our study, but that's kind of Brian's room and he works in there at night after the kids are in bed so somehow all my crafty project stuff has been landing in here recently.

Let's take a closer look:

Here's the tube that holds my new Printsagram poster. It's waiting on a frame. I'm either going to buy one and paint it or build one, but I don't have one yet. So it's hanging out in the dining room.

Also pictured is my Silhouette Cameo. I love it so much, but it doesn't really have a home. I've been storing it in the study, but there's not a great spot for it, and I have to haul it to the kitchen when I want to use it. Not really ideal, so here it is in the dining room.

This is a sign I've been painting for weeks. I made a set of two, but didn't like the way one turned out so I decided to start over. Ugh. It's like the project that never ends. But I'm happy to report I finished these this weekend. They are finally ready to hang on our back patio. And they are out of the dining room. Whew.

I'm working on Andrew's valentines and it's all currently sitting out. I just hate to put it all away before I finish, but it takes me a long time to finish things these days. So - here it is in the dining room.

I ordered this little bottle holder from One Kings Lane a week or two ago. It's so pretty, but I haven't found its new home. So, it too is waiting in the dining room.

I think the moral of this story is that I need to clean up after myself.

And I need a basement. :)

Valentine Banner & a Printable

Valentine's Day....

One of those funny holidays that means so much more now that I'm responsible for small children. I want to make it special for them, something they'll remember.

So we decorate our house and we make pink funfetti cupcakes and we read little stories about making Valentines for our friends.

 This sweet banner is hanging in our front hall and it makes a big statement for such a small piece.

I made the tags in Photoshop and then cut different sized hearts out of coordinating Valentine themed scrapbook papers. (I used my new Silhouette to cut the hearts because I'm obsessed, but any scissors will work.)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>You can download the jpeg here<<<<<<<<<<<<<

You'll just need a hole punch and some twine for an instant Valentine banner. I also like to use these pop dots to add some dimension. 

I picked up a little book of Valentine papers at Michael's a few weeks ago, but if you're looking for digital paper, Paper Tree House Studio on Etsy has darling packs you can print.

Enjoy!

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Linking up with The 36th Avenue.

Thirty-three

When I was a kid I thought it was pretty tough to have a birthday at the beginning of the year. We'd finish up with Christmas and the New Year and then - bam! my birthday - just when it was time to go back to school.

But now as a real life grown-up I kind of enjoy it.

It's like double the fresh start that the new year brings. And some years I can use lots of fresh starts.

I want to do a few things to grow my photography this year. I'm thinking of joining a 52 week photo challenge. I have no idea if I'd finish though. Last year I made it about 20ish weeks.

Paint the Moon Photography is doing some kind of big project and My 4 Hens Photography is hosting her challenge again. Maybe if I only had to commit to posting the photo on Flickr I'd do better? I don't know.

Are you doing any photography challenges this year?

I'm also committing to a 365 iphone photo challenge. I know never in a million years would I take a photo with my big camera every day, but my phone I can handle. I'm planning to hashtag them #mrs365photo on Instagram. That way they'll be easy for me to find.

I'd LOVE to have a giant collage made at the end of the year with all our Instagrams. My friend Devon just finished up her photos from last year and they look great. I also adore this giant frame from The Handmade Home. How perfect would that be in a game room?

I have a clean slate. A new calendar to go with my thirty-fourth year. I feel inspired and motivated - a great combination! What will it hold?

Coffee Scarves & Christmas Flags

I know we're all off getting ready for Thanksgiving this week, and I think I've done a pretty good job of focusing on the turkey, not skipping ahead to Christmas. It's hard though.

I have listened to a little Michael Bublé Christmas music. I've started my shopping and picked out my wrapping paper. And I've designed a few Christmas cards for friends and family.

But I still have my pumpkins out in the house. They're moldy now though so come Friday it'll be full on Christmas around here.

One thing I wanted to do ahead of time was make a few little gifts for Andrew and Caroline's teachers. Y'all know how much I love my iced coffee cups, but I decided hot coffee might be a little more appropriate for the holidays.

And I've recently discovered the joys of working with felt. It's super easy to cut, it doesn't fray and I don't have to sew it.

I put these together and came up with coffee scarves.

How adorable are these?

And they were super easy.

Cut a one inch strip off your 12" felt square and make little cuts at the ends to make the fringe. And the only tricky part is that you have to sew on the button. I did have to watch a YouTube video, but I did it. lol!

Once your scarf is ready you'll want to print your Christmas flags.

>>>> You can download the jpeg file here. <<<<

Attach the flags with mini clothes pins and you're set.

You can also attach the flags to a lolly pop stick and put it on top.

I can't wait to give these to the kids' teachers. And I think they'd be great neighbor gifts too. Who doesn't love coffee?

Enjoy!