4th of July '12

This year's Independence Day celebration was very low key. Rob and I have had some crazy busy work weeks leading up to the 4th so a mid week day off was our chance for some R&R. We took a 3 mile bike ride in our neighborhood, relaxed, and watched some fireworks from our backyard.

We hope you had a happy and safe 4th!!

Lighted Ribbon Garland

Pinterest is a wealth of inspiration for any aspiring crafter/decorator. I love the ideas around the holidays. There were so many I wanted to try out...but I just didn't have the time.

I did try version of this one:

Photo Credit: Whitney Caroline Designs

At first I was going to try the different colors. But then I went for all white ribbon. I got some white cotton/poly blend fabric from Joann's on clearance in their scrap bin. I also picked up some different ribbon....some crossgrain ribbon, satin ribbon, and a couple others. I also used some tulle that I had left over from my wedding (yes...it was over 10 years ago...and I still had it. I used one of our string of white lights and had to fold the lights since the string was too long. Then I just cut the strips of fabric and ribbon and tied the peices in knots around the lights. Here's the results...

I'm pretty happy with the result! Even my dear hubby thought it looked good. I am thinking about making a string of fun lighted ribbon for our guest bedroom. (Check out Whitney Caroline Design post - see the photo of the string of lighted ribbon around the headboard - totally cute!)

I'll have to check out Valentine's Day decoration ideas on Pinterest...and get started early this time!

All Photos, except where otherwise credited, are mine.

Christmas 2011

All the hustle and bustle of the holidays is winding down now. The house looks like it was hit by a tornado - but it's still filled with happy memories.

We had a great holiday this year. My parents flew in from California on Thursday. We went to Hoovers for dinner and met some of my aunts and uncles so they could catch up with my parents and brother.

My aunt Meri and Mom.

My Aunt Betsy & my Mom.

From Left to Right: My cousin Staci, Tom (Lela's hubby) and Cousin Lela

CHEERS! Our family toasting to recent accomplishments & seeing each other

The next day we headed down to San Antonio, TX. The original plan was to just see the lights down at the River Walk in the evening. But we made it a day trip and added a few things along the way. This year Brad is studying Texas History in school. So we went to the Alamo and saw a few historical things. Brad's first reaction inside the Alamo...."This isn't the Alamo - it's much bigger" It's amazing how children can make the idea of something in their heads much bigger than what it is in reality.

Bradley & The Alamo

I snapped a couple of photos in front of the giant TX themed Christmas tree in front of the Alamo with my parents

My parents, Brad & brother Ben

I loved all of the buildings and the grounds around the Alamo...

The Alamo

Wall - outside the Alamo

The bell above the door - Gift Shop/Museum @ the Alamo

Me and my little family on the Alamo grounds

 
After, we headed down to what my mom called "El Mercardo." Translation: Market Square or El Mercado - a Mexican themed square filled with shopping and dining. It had a couple shops with some cute items. There was one shop where I fell in love with something for my fireplace...but I didn't want to spend all that money before Christmas. Other than that - once you've seen one shop, you've seen them all. It's a fun place though. We met up with my aunts, uncle and cousins here.

Mexican pennants - El Mercado

Beautiful pottery

Ben & I waiting for Mom to finish going through all the shops.

Once we caught up with the rest of our family...the aunts & my mom decided a "5 block" tour of a street with old historic homes would be fun.

Betsy & my mom conspiring with their map on this "5 block" tour

We headed to the trolly-bus stop and purchased our tickets to take us to the neighborhood. Just as the trolly was about to pull away...my family realized they left a sister behind in El Mercado. My poor aunt Cory was left wandering the shops while all of us were just about ready to leave her behind. Betsy, my mom and Ben got off and found her and we all met up at the transfer stop.

We walked the streets filled with old, beautiful, historic homes. Ben had a broken toe and my 9 year old son weren't too happy about it. But it didn't last too long.

The houses were beautiful!

The boys were not happy on our trek back to the River Walk...

Just look at the happy expressions on my husband and brother's faces

We ended up eating down by the River Walk then headed home.

Christmas morning was wonderful. Brad slept in a bit (which allowed my brother to sleep in a little longer).

Good Morning Sunshine!

Brad's dramatic fall to the floor after he opened his iPod Touch

Parents (Mom with the journal I created for her)

Rob - the crazy cat guy - and Cleo

We opened presents, had breakfast and then started preparing the food we were bringing over for Christmas dinner to my aunt and uncles house for a BFD (Big Family Dinner).

The boys (Rob, Brad, Ben, Aaron, Keith, Andrew) playing hackey sack

Hydrangeas - my granny's fav flower- were placed at all the tables at dinner

Chow Time!

All the sisters chatting.

Me, my parents, and brother (photo courtesy of Steve Shepardson)

It was a great Christmas. It was very busy...but brought a lot of great memories. For more photos of our wonderful time together, click here!



All Photos, except where credited are mine

Holiday Cards are Ordered!

I've been a huge fan of Shutterfly for years. We store all our family photos on a share site and they always produce great product. We decided to go with a New Years card this year...partially because we're a little behind on the whole Christmas Card thing. Shutterfly has some great cards...check them out if you are still in need of ordering some of your own!

Celebrate The Bang New Year's Card

Shutterfly always has unique designs for our holiday cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Easter Weekend 2011

B has been having a lot of nightmares lately - we'd wake up in the morning and he'd be asleep on the loveseat at the foot of our bed. On Friday, Bradley came home with a painting he made at school. He told me it's to help him not be scared at night and it made him feel calm.


Copyright 2011 Bradley Wadas   :)

Now...I normally don't get in to religion. I personally feel that someone's religious beliefs are something very personal. Yes, this is my blog and I can write about whatever I darn well want to...or believe in...but it's just a very personal thing. Quite honestly, we haven't exposed Bradley to a lot of the religion he was baptised in to. He and I are both Episcopalians (hope I spelled that correctly). After some conflicts with the "rules" of our church that married us in 2000 and then my test of faith after my Grandad died in 2002, I've had "issues" (you could say) with organized religion. I have never denied Bradley information about my faith or God - but I've never pushed it on him either. He's always been interested...and I've given him the information he wants to know. He believes in God and I support whatever beliefs he has. Anywhoo...back to the story. So he came home with this painting saying it's the "God Cross" and it makes him feel calm. He plans on putting it by his bed in hopes it prevents him from having nightmares. He made me smile. And the timing of this painting was quite fitting for the Easter weekend ahead of us.

In the past, Easter has been a time for us to spend with family. Whether that family be blood relatives...or the friends that you grow so close with they become family - that's how we spent the holiday. This year, we spent the holiday with family...but it was in a different way.

Without getting in to many details at the moment, my Granny's health has been deteriorating rather quickly. Quite frankly it is heartbreaking for me. She has been spending the last several weeks in a skilled nursing facility after a week in the hospital. My family found a new place for her to live that will give her the care and attention she needs. So we needed to move her belongings out of the assisted living facility she has been living at the last 6 months. So Saturday after B's soccer game we spent the day with family packing up the remaining items in her place, loading them up in a big U-Haul van and putting them in storage. While it was with family...it wasn't a celebration of any kind.



Bradley sat under the counter & played on Rob's phone to stay out of the way.



Granny's belongings all boxed up

 Sunday we spent the day with just our little family...just the three of us. We started the morning off with Brad finding his Easter basket full of goodies...then a little Easter egg hunt in the back yard followed by a few cracks of the cascarones on our heads.



Bradley doing his little dance while hunting




Yes, Brad does have his collar popped :)

 We relaxed most of the day...cleaning a bit...watching some movies...then going to dinner. What a weekend!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend filled with family & joy.



Story Telling and an Easter Printable



I'm the short one with the arrow & Heather's the tall one with the arrow

 Once upon a time I was a freshman in college. I pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma with about 20-something other fabulous ladies. One of these ladies names was Heather. (For a fun look back at the Fall '95 Pledge Class of KKG - check out the above photo...I know you're all envious of our fabulous hair and attire!)

Back to the story...Years and years passed...we each got married...had children...moved out of California.

Fast forward to today...We both live in the same area... Seperate towns...but very close. Amazing how small the world is!

Anyway, she and her sister-in-law have a blog called HMH Designs. These ladies blog about cooking, sewing and crafting. One of the recent posts was an Easter Printable. It's super cute. I used it for some tags for an Easter gift basket I'm creating. Check out the printables...and better yet their site!

Cascarones!

Monday I headed over to H.E.B. (for those outside of TX, that's a local grocery store chain) to pick up some items. When I walked in the door I saw a full pallet of Easter-time fun....Cascarones. These things sell out FAST! I grabbed 4 boxes as back up - and plan to grab more closer to Easter so I can ship my mom some in California.

Cascarones are confetti eggs...eggs that have been drained of the egg white/yolk, cleaned out, dyed and filled with confetti. They are so much fun! You crack them over someones head and confetti comes pouring out. (They're fragile and don't hurt when you break them).

Here's some examples from last Easter...

Me after an egg cracking

The Colorful Aftermath

They are fairly inexpensive  - only about $1.60 per dozen. You can make them as well - however, it would probably be more expensive to make them to be honest. If you are wanting to give it a try - head over to Save-on-Crafts - they have a step by step (with photos) process on how you can make your own!

Craft Idea: 5 (or 10) Things I Love about You

February 2011 Martha Stewart magazine had some totally cute ideas for Valentine's Day. One of the ideas was called "Chain Mail" and displayed a way for you to share the 10 things you love about your Valentine. I will be out of town for Valentine's Day due to work travel - so I've been on the look out for unique ways to let my two Valentine's know I'm thinking about them this Feb 14th.

 I modified it a bit...but here are the basic steps I took...

First I took the Hippie Chic paper packet (it's sized just a little over 6x9 so I had to trim it a bit to fit the envelope), some card envelopes I purchased at Staples and some index cards.

Next I used a paper punch to punch the top edge of each decorated sheet of paper - then I glued the card stock on the front of the decorated paper.

Next you glue the envelopes together top to bottom (see last photo below for example). I glued the inside of the bottom envelope flap to the front of the top envelope - repeating this until all 5 envelopes are attached.

Last - get creative with the things you love about your dear one, decorate the outside of the envelope and make your special someone feel great this 2/14.