Click HERE to read all about the tea party on Celebrate Magazine's website today!! If you are a magazine hoarder like me, you might have seen this issue of Celebrate when it hit newsstands early last month. Before starting her own photography business last fall, my sister Kamin was a photographer for Hoffman Media, a magazine publisher here in Birmingham. Ella has had the pleasure of modeling for her on several occasions, but Sophie was still a little tot and never got the chance. Until just after her birthday last year. Kamin and Lucy, a stylist at Hoffman, came and spent the day with us, along with some of Sophie's best buddies. They magically transformed the playroom into the CUTEST Valentine's Day tea party and Sophie was center stage. As if the party and the photography weren't ...
holiday
Gender Neutral DIY Valentines Printables
After talking to my sister and a few of my other boy-mom friends, I decided to share a few more quick ideas for your Valentine this year. These don't require a tutorial, they are gender neutral and easy to put together! Just click on the links below each photo for the free download. {I used mustache whistles from the party aisle at Hobby Lobby, but I spotted stick-on mustaches, stickers & tattoos that would also work perfectly!} Mustache Valentine's Printable {These nerdy glasses are also a party aisle find, but would be just as cute with sunglasses!} Eyeglasses Valentine's Printable {The craft store was full of fun, novelty pencils, but I saw them even cheaper -- and cuter, too -- in the dollar spot at Target this week!} Novelty Pencil Valentine's Printable {If you ...
Tutu Lollipop Valentines Tutorial
Affiliate links appear in the following post. Although shopping the embedded links won’t cost you any additional dollars, it might mean that I earn a small commission on any purchases made. Your support of this blog is always appreciated! Next up on our tour of Valentine's are these lollipops with miniature crepe paper tutus. I loved our ballerina themed cards for the dance studio last year, but I wanted to try something a little more dimensional this year. I scoured Pinterest for ideas on how to make the mini tutus, but the closest I could find were cupcake toppers without a tutorial. It took some trial and error, but we came up with a couple of fun ways to make these work! Supplies needed: printable file | lollipops | crepe paper rolls | needle and thread | hot glue gun | scissors | ...
Ring Pop Valentine’s Tutorial
Affiliate links appear in the following post. Although shopping the embedded links won’t cost you any additional dollars, it might mean that I earn a small commission on any purchases made. Your support of this blog is always appreciated! One of the things I wanted to do more of in 2015 is to share step-by-step tutorials with printable design files, so you can create some of our fun crafts yourself! Usually the girls are full of ideas and know exactly what they want to share with their classmates. Maybe it's because we started talking about it so early in the year, but they were pretty open to ideas this time around. I scoured Hobby Lobby as soon as their Valentine's Day goodies were on the shelves and found some really cute ring pops that the girls loved. They are a little smaller than ...
Even MORE Christmas!
We are so fortunate to have an abundance of family who live close by. And remarkably, all of their Christmas celebrations coordinate quite nicely and we've never had any conflict. Josh & I were amazed when we first started dating at how well we were able to harmonize our favorite traditions without making any major sacrifices! For that reason, my girls get to celebrate almost every day for an entire week. We try hard not to spoil them, but that's almost impossible when you have so many people to love. First up was a box full of treats from our Aunt Lane in Kentucky. We usually save these gifts for after Christmas, but I decided to kick the week off on Sunday night with a pajama party in their room. Not only did she send them all of these wrapped gifts, but they got some pretty ...
A Christmas Recap
For whatever reason, Christmas didn't quite feel real this year. It came out of nowhere and I didn't feel nearly as prepared as I would have liked. I'll chalk it up to our lives being in a season of flux and I'm vowing that next year I'm going to pace myself and be sure to take in every moment. I read and heard from so many people that they just weren't in the Christmas spirit this year or were just ready to get it over with and no matter how "out of it" I felt, I don't think I'll ever have that attitude towards the holiday. I might have already taken my dying evergreen down, but every other decoration is still in place and probably will be for another week. Not because I'm lazy or are trying to avoid the process, but because I'm always so sad to pack it away for eleven more ...
Dear Taylor Swift,
You make all little {and big} girls' dreams come true. xoxo, one super excited mama I've made no secret of the fact that in our house, we love music. My daddy was teaching us Beatles' tunes before elementary school and I was introduced to the awesomeness of The Grateful Dead my freshman year of high school. I've seen some pretty amazing shows in my lifetime (Hello, Lenny Kravitz in his heyday) and still have plenty left on the bucket list to conquer. I have a vast collection of concert tees and I don't care how expensive or unnecessary they are -- if we go, I will buy. Even while my girls were babes in arms, I thought about how fun it would be to take them to their first concert. It might sound silly, but I wanted to be sure their first concert experience was one to be ...
Our Pen Pal, Scout
Christmas is over and we're all still mourning it a little bit, I guess. We spend so much time preparing our hearts and our homes and then it's over in a flash! We do everything we can to infuse magic into the days leading up to Christmas and give our girls as many happy memories as we can possible fit in. I know every mother has their own opinion about Santa's little helpers, but I just can't be apologetic about our elf fever over here. My girls look forward to Scout's arrival every year and to be honest, so do I! There are mornings where I wonder if he's made the move or if the girls will be disappointed, but it's worth the extra few minutes to see the smiles on their faces when he is found. In years past, Scout has always showed up on the first of December. Maybe he was worried about ...