polly & me

This is my sister Polly & me-from this fall. She is 2 years younger & lives in Dallas. We are due with babies 2 weeks apart-she's due at the end of February & me mid-March. Such a sweet blessing to be prego at the same time & have babies together-no one else can truly remember newborn days besides the ones living it. My Ruthie & her Charlie are 3 months apart as well. Polly & I have walked life together:
-cheered jr high & high school together
-ran track together
-dated brothers back in the day (kinda weird & neat at the same time)
-went to college together
-pledged same sorority (I was her pledge trainer). her sorority big sister was my sorority little sister---Jane!
-I assume her friends are my friends & now she has Dallas friends that I don't really know (!)
-we got married in the same year (poor mamasita)
-I can be very honest with her & tell her anything
-we are very different from each other in lots of ways but get each other & i know if we every fight/disagree, we'll get over it quickly & maybe just pretend it didn't happen.
-we appreciate the same type of music
-i am the older sister, but sometimes there is role reversal many times going thru life-polly can be more adventurous than me about things.
-polly is a pretty no-frills girl, but ain't scared to indulge in a massage: chair massage, table massage-wherever she can get them (in the middle of a mall, in a spa, or at the chiropractor)
-she has a heart for the people around her, people who are hurting/those who need God/she takes time for them regardless of her own "stuff"
-if you know polly, you love her because she's authentic & really don't pretend to be someone she is not. this sounds like a simple thing, but is hard for us to do.
-essentially, polly does her thing without much fanfare, and you are blessed if you know her

come fly away

 

YAY for the soon arrival of baby Camille. This is one of my little sister-Polly's best bud's first baby. I tend to acquire Polly's friends too, so Palmer is a friend of mine as well! I was smiling & praying for this little one while painting. Palmer will be a great mom & handle it all well. And our babies will be the same age coming up together-sweet! This is part of the baby shower gift we are helping do for her.

step stool steps!

STEP STOOL ORDERING:

Local customers...
1. Order the above KidKraft step stool from Target or Wal-mart and assembly it (sorry, hubby says no more on assembling them).They have lots of colors. See links above.
2. Leave it on my door step & convo with me on what you want.
3. Painting cost is $30-50, depending on the detail. Tell me your thoughts & I will price it.
4. So $35-45 for step stool plus the painting fee.

If you are not local:
1. Have a assembled step stool shipped to me & I will paint it & ship back.

Above is another option from Wal-Mart of a pre-assembled step stool. I only see natural & this honey oak offered. You can order this & have it shipped directly to me. So it is around $40 (plus the cost of painting & me shipping to you). It does not have the lift up storage top.

custom boards

Okay, so this project started with a friend dropping off a sad/falling apart wooden Adirondack chair at my house & had the idea for me to make something of this wood for her Christmas gifts. I was stumped for a bit, but after Tim took it apart (sweet tim)-the slats lent themselves to little hangers. Fun to make something out of junk. Thanks, Sally Kate for the challenge & the order.

luv is in the air...

So Ruthie's #3 is March 10, but we are celebrating early with a v-tine party and this is all she talks about. She's been decorating for it already. Heart stickers all over the kitchen windows. We are both so excited. Ideas I've gathered below, not sure if they will all happen, but at least gets me going.

I have limited energy these days...baby boy due March 11 & my body is giving out on me. But a party can always energize me!!! Got one of those nifty belly braces and everything. And sporting a fever blister, which doesn't look that great on a heavy breathing, big bellied woman. Mandy, you can feel my pain & all the sistas out there who cannot hide when they are stressed because of these loverly tell-tale signs.

To clarify, this post is not about my fever blister, it is about getting excited about Ruthie's party!!!

invites

INVITE INFO:
-$1.25 per (4x9 or 5x7 sizes)
-2 weeks turnaround, por favor (extra for rush-rush jobs)
-Super thick cardstock & white envelopes
-Return address labels included with quantities over 40 (or pay $10 for 40 return address labels)
-bah humbug, no Christmas cards offered
-$1 per coordinating 5.5x4.25 fill-in the blank thank-you notes 

Here are some designs new & old:

happy NEW YEAR

This was a commission hand lettering for a Happy New Year's card from an ultra hip blogger-Mary Straton. You should add her site to your list-it will make you feel hip too.

What new will God bring your way this year?

mo ho ho

You know how I like to wrap. Made use of some paint swatches I had & used these great initial stamps from Michael's for my Christmas wrapping. Not that my 4 & 2 year old fully appreciate coordinating wrap job, but it made me happy!

 In motion unwrapping.

 My sweet babies, they were bribed with choco milk to pose for this pic.

 Monkey bread for Christmas morning! Henry's favorite. His comment was that he liked monkey bread much better than pumpkin bread.

honey & big daddy's Christmas visit & these great Melissa/Doug cupcake kit

dinner rec

So I'll take any food shortcut I can find. This little box mix gives us a somewhat fancy tasting meal for not much work. Very yummy. You just provide the chicken. Found my magic box at the Wal Mark.

shell L

A little happy for Tim's parents for our Thanksgiving beach trip. I used shells from the beach & glued them in the shape of L with a little w-color treatment. This is such a gift to us each year.

When I'm at the beach, I collect shells like crazy and want to make earrings, belts, EVERYTHING out of shells. Why?

Happy 2012!!!

Got a wild hair and decided to have a little NYE gathering. Very last minute, which works best for me. Still time to throw together some decorations using things I had: silver/black chargers, brown butcher paper, newspaper for stars & accents. I love a night when both kids & adults can have fun! The weather was great, so the kiddos could run around crazy outside. And SPARKLERS! So simple but so much fun.