Personalized Halloween Buckets and Bags

The last couple months, I haven't been working as much at my sister's preschool and daycare, and so I've actually been at home more, yet I feel like I have less time... to craft, to blog, to watch tv even. It's crazy! But I am enjoying being at home more. :) I've begun babysitting an 18 month old boy. Maybe him on top of a 22 month old is why I have less time... hmmm! No really I am enjoying that too! He and Caden are so much fun together!

So I "personalized" some Halloween buckets and bags last week and then kinda advertised on Facebook that I would be selling some, and I am so very excited to say that I have had several orders! Thanks to my sister and a friend of ours for helping get the word out!! I thought I would share my little project with my blogging friends.

I did these with little trick or treaters in mind, but I've thought of a few other ideas that I like:

• Instead of a name, I could do "Happy Halloween" and use it as a candy dish or snack bowl to hold chips, pretzels, crackers, etc or even ice and drinks! It would be especially cute at a Halloween party!
• Or instead of a child's name, I thought of using a family/last name and the year and filling with candy for trick or treaters that come to visit. Or just filling with candy and setting on a table to snack on.

This first bucket is one I made for Caden for trick or treating... buuut I found I like the ones at the end of this post (You'll see!) a lot too, so I may change my mind. This bucket has two other designs available too: an orange jack-o-lantern one and a white ghost one.

I'm using this bag already as a little tote for Caden, so really the bags don't have to be just for one night of trick or treating. Oh and I have two other designs in this bag (a purple one with a spiderweb and two cute spiders-if it's possible for spiders to be cute!-on it and an orange pumpkin/jack-o-lantern one.


And my little buckets that I've had the most orders for! Cute huh?!
I am picking up some pink and purple jack-o-lantern buckets tomorrow for some girly orders I got today.

Thanks for reading!! I hope to be back sooner than the last time I was here. :)

Bedtime Story Baby Shower

I'm late posting about this because it's been over a week ago that we threw this shower. It was for a friend of mine who is also my sister's cousin by marriage. She is expecting a baby girl... tomorrow actually!

We used this napkin for our color scheme:
















Pink, lavender, yellow, green, and some brown... polka dots and rubber duckies.

Our actual theme was a Bedtime Story shower. Each guest was asked to sign a book for the baby instead of a card. Everyone loved the idea of building the baby's library; she left with a big stack of books along with her gifts!

We set up four tables with one end against the wall and made each one look like a bed. We used tablecloths as the “sheets” and then added two or three pillows, a stuffed animal or doll, and a book to each one. Each “bed” was different but coordinated with the theme and colors. Finally, above each “bed” we hung a mobile that I made using rubber duck cutouts and polka dots, all done with my Cricut of course. Finally, we set a plate, napkin, and glass at each seat.

This is a closeup of each "headboard":

These are some cutouts we hung above the food bar:

They were bedtime words snuggle, rest, goodnight along with polka dot cutouts in different coordinating paper.

On the gift table, we had a "Wishing Tree" where each guest wrote a wish or word of advice for the mom to be. It was a big hit!

And the actual gift table:

See the pink bear on the left end? That was one of the cutest things I've seen at a baby shower! It was like a diaper cake, but it was tricycle!

I had a picture of the gift table after all the gifts had been opened, as well as that stack of books, but I accidentally deleted it off of my camera before I transferred all the pictures to my computer. :(

This was a bag I found and then added the baby's name to it. I used it as my gift bag and put an outfit, socks, hairbows, and a bib inside.

Thanks for reading!

These are a few parties I'll be linking to:

Thing 1 Thing 2 Baby Shower

Saturday morning, I helped host a baby shower for a friend who attends my church but is also my hair stylist. She's expecting twin boys next month! Browsing the internet for ideas, I came across the Thing 1 Thing 2 theme and loved it right away! Thing 1 and Thing 2 are characters in the Dr Seuss book, "The Cat in the Hat" and they were perfect for this shower that I'm sharing with all of you today.

The tables were set up to make one big rectangle. We covered them in blue and made these FuNKy centerpieces then added circle cutouts and a few other Dr Seuss books on the ends. At each seat, we had a plate and red and white checked/plaid napkin.

Close-up of the centerpiece and a view from the top. You can also see the napkins better.

This picture is a little blurry, here is the banner I made that said Things 1&2.

We made punch with sherbet ice cream and ginger ale (which I could drink every day I think!) and then floated this cute polka dot rubber ducky on top! It looked like it was in a bubble bath!

Here is the gift table with a "clothesline" on the front holding the Thing 1 and Thing 2 onesies that were decorations and gifts to the mom-to-be! Aren't they adorable!!

Finally, the Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes. They turned out so cuuute but the cotton candy, as I'd read, didn't stay fluffy for very long. Glad I got the picture when I did. :) Also on the cake table, I had a pail of peppermints and a framed sign that said, "A little something to thank you for coming."

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be linking up to some parties:

Thanks for hosting!!

So Far Behind!

Since I started this blog, there've been times that I had to look for and find something to write about. Right now though, I have so much that I can share but can't seem to find the time! I love blogging--writing my own and reading others--but in my "free" time when I can blog, there always seems to be a higher priority with something else or something with a deadline. Especially lately, with my kitchen, showers and birthday parties, church functions, and of course the day to day things.

I haven't blogged in several weeks, yet much of what's kept me away from are things to blog about! I'm pretty much done with my kitchen, and I love it! I still have the countertops to do, and I think I'll wait for those before I post pictures of the finished product. :) So many "little" projects were done IN the kitchen though that I'm going to try to blog about some of those in the meantime. And I also have a few other projects plus showers, parties, etc.

So here I go... again....

Two Awards! Wow!!

This post finds me behind in the blogging world because I should have seen this weeks ago; however, for some reason, I didn't realize I had been given an award until my blogging friend Allison clued me in! I even read her post and STILL missed it! Aaahh I feel sooo bad!

So to Allison... first of all, I'm sorry for not seeing sooner; second, THANK YOU for the award; and third, I'm glad you didn't decide to take it back because I didn't accept it in the first place. ;) If you haven't chekced out Allison's blog, A Glimpse Inside, you should definitely make time to do that! Let me tell ya, she is one talented girl! I started following her when she first started her blog and look how many fans she has now!! Yay for Allison!

Alright, so on to the award:



As I've said, Allison at A Glimpse Inside gave this to me. I now have to share 10 interesting facts about myself. I am "stealing" some from an award that I just posted about yesterday, and I will add a few new ones.

1 - I am the oldest girl in a family of nine children! I have six brothers and two sisters: three older brothers, three younger brothers, and two younger sisters.

2 - I love going to the gym and exercising, but I hate to be there alone. I get bored!

3 - I'm married to a man who helps with the dishes. Isn't that awesome?!

4 - I only went to public school for about six weeks in the 7th grade; the rest of my education was through homeschooling (til 2nd grade) and private schools.

5 - I'm a Military baby. My dad was in the Army for 13 years.

6 - If I could meet one person, it would be Nascar driver Jimmie Johnson... hands down!

7 - I love to shop! There's nothing else to add; that says exactly what I want it to. :)

8 - Pizza and spaghetti are two of my favorite meals!

9 - I can't stand not having all the pieces to Caden's toy sets in their "homes" (all the balls to his crawl and cruise jungle, all the tools to his Handy Manny book in place, all the shapes to his cookie jar shape sorter, all the monkeys in their barrel... everything has a place.). My husband says I'm OCD. :}

10 - I regret not going to college right out of high school... but am happy that I did finally go!

And now to pass this award to some blogging friends of mine:

Jaimee at The Accidental Crafter
Kathy at Mimi's Mini Tales
Jane at Designing Lady Jane
Donene at Easy Peasy Grandma
The Unorganized Housewife
Rox at Everything Else I Love

Working, Painting, VBS, Painting, Vacation, Painting....

You get the picture! Those are the reasons--well some of them anyway--that I've been MIA posting since my shelf redo over a week ago! I'm happy to say that my kitchen is coming along, slowly but surely, and I have reason to believe I am going to LOVE it when it's finished! :}

Also added to that list is the sudden death of a friend/practically-family-member's mother. :( It breaks my heart to see her hurting. I can't even imagine what she and her family are going through! Please keep this family in your prayers.

Hopefully, I will be back posting more often in the next week or so! Thanks for sticking around!

I Got an Award!!

I received this award a few days ago, and I am sooo happy to accept it!! My mother-in-law gave it to me from her blog, Mimi's Mini Tales, which is about her two grandchildren (my son Caden being one of them and her daughter's daughter being the other). She's been blogging for over a year now, and I don't think she'll be running out of post ideas any time soon with these two!

Madison and Caden


Go check out her blog when you get a minute!


There are a few rules that come with receiving this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person that gave you the award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award to at least 4 fellow bloggers who inspire you.

4. Let them know about the award.

My seven things are:

1 - I am the oldest girl in a family of nine children! I have six brothers and two sisters: three older brothers, three younger brothers, and two younger sisters.

2 - I love going to the gym and exercising, but I hate to be there alone. I get bored!

3 - I'm married to a man who helps with the dishes. Isn't that awesome?!

4 - I only went to public school for about six weeks in the 7th grade; the rest of my education was through homeschooling (til 2nd grade) and private schools.

5 - I'm a Military baby. My dad was in the Army for 13 years.

6 - If I could meet one person, it would be Nascar driver Jimmie Johnson... hands down!

7 - I love to shop! There's nothing else to add; that says exactly what I want it to. :)

And these are fellow bloggers that I'm passing this award to:

Brook at Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Lori at Nitty Gritty Pretty

Danielle at Hookable Designs

Ginger at SSB

Karie at Karie's Chic Creations

Before and After Yard Sale Shelf

I picked this shelf up a few weeks ago when I was driving through town and saw it at a yard sale. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it but actually thought to myself, "This will make a great before and after project!" That's what blogging has done to me. Lol. I paid $4 for it. When I got home, I saw the Pottery Barn sticker on the back with an original price of $29.99, so I think I definitely got a good deal! It needed to be cleaned and even had a few scratches but nothing major... and nothing spray paint couldn't fix. ;)

So here is the before:

I'm in the process of redoing my kitchen, so it didn't take long to decide that's where it's going. I cleaned it, sanded it lightly to rough it up a little, and then painted it black. It looked tons better but was still kinda plain so I measured and cut squares of scrapbooking paper then Mod Podged them to the back.

And here is the finished product:

And a close-up of the paper I found at Hobbly Lobby:

I looove the way it turned out! And it's going to look even better hanging on the wall with a few red pieces I have to display on it (I'm waiting until the kitchen is done before I show that).

Thanks to the ladies hosting the parties I'm going to link to: