A Little Game of Catch Up...

1. My yard pretty much looks like this whenever we get a warm day.
2 & 3. We love spending lots of time with these girls...
4. Such a great brother, helping his sister...
5. Some of the chicken scraps (I have since learned that I shouldn't give them any onion, thank goodness they picked around it).
6. Cooking some Easter eggs.
7. Water color is his new favorite thing. Ever.
8. Trying to brighten this 'ol house up. I'm going for a cottage/farmhouse feel...
9. Another great brother, swinging with his baby sister.
10. My little love bug playing outside.

ONEderland Party!

I know, I am SO late posting this. I'll tell you what happened: Life. That's my excuse! HA!

Paisley had a ONEderland party for her first birthday. We totally based it off of the Disney movie, Alice In Wonderland. I turned out just precious if I do say so myself. :) Birthday's are a big deal in my opinion, especially for kids. So when she turned one I knew we had to do it right!

 We covered a board with white paper and added all of her monthly photos to it. In the center is a photo from her one year shoot I did. I am so glad I took the time to take a monthly photo now! I also made the banner out of some scrapbook paper I found on sale, some white cardstock, and we used the cricut to cut put glitter letters.

 This was the gift table. I made so many of these pompoms that I could do it in my sleep now.

 I put this book beside the door when you walked in. We had some white roses that I had painted red (of course). I also bought Happy Birthday to You! by Dr. Seuss and asked that everyone please sign it. I think she will appreciate this when she turns sixteen. That IS another major birthday for a girl.

 The chalkboard is just a tray from the Dollar Tree that I painted with chalkboard paint.

 The favors were tea cookies in clear plastic bags and we tied on some Thank You labels.

 Told you I made a ton of tissue balls. I think they add a lot to the room and it is a cheap project!

 Her cake was so amazing that it pained me to even cut it. How gorgeous!

 We also had some random photos from her first birthday shoot spread all over the room. Of course the tea cups and saucers!

I made this poster board at the last minute after I saw the idea on pinterest.

 This was just before you walked into the room. It was my favorite quote and I knew we had to use it!

Arrows on the rails read: This Way, That Way, Up, Down, Wrong Way, and Off With Your Head!

 The food table!

 The kids had Mondos to drink. We tied on some labels that read: Drink Me.

The drink table! We used a fountain for the tea.

 I originally made this to hand on her high chair but it didn't lay right. So we taped it to the front of the gift table!

Her smash cake. AHH!

Whew! That was a lot of pictures. If you made it all the way through, that wasn't all of them! HA! I will be doing a separate post and it will contain photos of Paisley at her party.

~Nicole

"Disney Jar!"

 As I previously announced here, we are taking the kids to Disney in a few months. We scored the free dining plan and couldn't pass it up. I am SO excited I could burst. All the kids know is that we really want to be able to take them there one day. They have no idea we are actually going. We plan to tell them the morning of. I'm pretty confident it will be the surprise of the century! Mom and Dad are getting huge points come fall!

Anyway, since we have been talking about rhe idea of everyone in the family wanting to go, we started a "Disney Jar". This was our best idea yet. The kids love it. Every penny they find they yell, "Disney Jar!" Hence the post title. Literally. It's quite awesome! This has also shown me how badly they actually want to go. I mean they were willing to put birthday money in there, (I totally didn't let them).

 I bought some scrapbook paper at our local Michaels. Two sheets on clearance for 20 cent apiece. Of course we went with a Disney themed paper.

 Here I go again with the old formula cans. A coffee can would work really well too. I washed it out and let it dry, then added the paper with mod podge in a matte finish. I trimmed the excess with my exacto knife.

Print a label to mod podge on top of the paper once it is dry and VOILA! You have a savings jar (well... can) for less then 50 cent. Can't beat it! This would work for any type of vacation fund.

Linking Up:
Feature Yourself Friday at FOTF
Weekend Wrap Up at Tatertots and Jello
DIY Project Parade at The DIY Showoff
Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming
Tip Me Teusday at Tip Junkie
Get Your Craft On! at Today's Creative Blog
One Project at a Time at A Bowl Full of Lemons
Craft O Maniac Monday at Craft O Maniac

Formula Can turned Bag Holder

I save grocery bags like crazy. I use them a lot. Whether it just be to send something with one of the kids or to send snacks to school. My usual method of storing these bags would be to shove them all inside one main bag and put them under my counter. Well, half of that cabinet was always a mess of grocery bags. No matter how many times I tried to clean it out, it always went back to the same thing.

I used an empty formula can for this. It was the Up & Up brand from Target if you are familiar with their cans (it was the large one). This would also be easy to do with an oatmeal can or coffee can as well. I just peeled the paper off of the can.

I took my exacto knife and cut some slits into the lid. That way I can pull the bags out this way also.

I grabbed my mod podge and found some old scrapbook paper that I had never used. It had probably been in that drawer for over a year. I brushed the mod podge to the can and cover it with paper. It did take two sheets of paper to do this.

I then printed a label for myself. I just picked a font I liked and printed it out. Then I cut it out with a circle cutting scrapbook tool. I mod podged it to the can where I wanted it. Also, be sure to do a coat of mod podge over the entire thing when finished.

TA DA! Now I have a cute and practical place to store all of our grocery bags. No more mess under the counter for us!

Linking Up:











~Nicole