Ten Twenty Five Bride

Party of Six

 

The time has come! Anna Leigh (and sometimes Ryder, depending on the menu...) is sitting at the dinner table with us instead of the bar and highchair in the kitchen. That means the center leaf in the table is now permanent....we're a Dinner Party of Six, now!

To make up for the length, I found these awesome lanterns to help fill in the space. I've gotten to light 'em up a few meals, too and I think they'll be great for evening outdoor entertainment when replaced with mosquito repelling candles. They'll also be a timeless decor element, too.

I really wanted to "homie up" the dining room, as we'd be using it more faithfully, now. I found this neat stacked bowl lamp and plates at an antique store a few weeks ago...

Yes, the teacup on the wall is crooked...thanks to "helping hands" (and, I love that!). I found this 2 piece wall teacup set at TJMaxx for a whole $4. Perfectly timed (and priced) find! I loved how much this photo of Ryder accented the color scheme in the lamp...so, I had to display them together. I don't see myself rearranging my buffet too much, anymore. I found something that I finally love enough to leave alone! Until Christmas, anyway lol. I love these little Butter Pats I found at an antique store. These babies are not easy to find in such great condition in a matching set. Not only are they a nice accent piece for the dining room, but they really come in handy. I will be using these babies a lot!

I'm not sure how well you can see it but I found this amazingly large framed piece of art for cheap at a yard sale last week. I love how clean it makes everything look while taking up so much wall space. It just seemed perfect for the hall in color and size. It was a really good find. I'm also keeping my eyes peeled for the perfect lamp shade for this skinny lamp in the dining room. It's too grey.

And one more addition; another framed picture at the same yard sale for $3. Another great find! =)

A Weekend to Celebrate

Today, my wee wittle baby sister turns 24

You've grown into a beautiful young lady and wonderful mama! Thank you for being my best friend all my life!

Happy Birthday, MooMoo <3

 

ALSO, two very important gals in my life were hitched this weekend! One of my best friends since Jr. High, Kelly, was one of them. And, my did she look stunning! I really wish I could have celebrated with her! She married her High School sweetheart this Saturday.

Congrats Kelly & Ryan!

And, my sweet lil cousin, Tiffany. Are you kidding me? My southern talkin' baby girl, toddlin around is now married?

Congrats to Tiffany & Grant! Love you guys so much!

I pray you live

Happily Ever After

Paint, Frames and Character

 

Well, there it is. Our primered only master bath. For 4 years, this was our bathroom. Honestly, I didn't care nearly as much as Les did. It was a lot of white but I love the look and feel of a bright bathroom. It was definitely lacking in fashion.

Les got called to Ironton, MO for work one morning and I decided to surprise him by painting the bathroom. All we really had was leftover paint from our basement reno in brown. I'm no fan of brown furniture on brown walls of any shades but, it was better than white, right? Uh, maybe?

Well, lots of work trimming and 2 coats later, here it was. Les loved it more than I did. My neighbors really liked the color in the bathroom. So much they went and bought some. I found these frames on clearance for $3.00 each. I removed the glass, flipped the matting over (I knew it would get wet eventually. This kept the matting "spot"less incase I wanted to use the frames in the future) and hot glued these shells from Hobby Lobby onto scrapbooking paper, which matched our walls ridiculously well. All in all, it worked for us a good 2 years or so until I was def tired of it. It shrunk our bathroom and just felt like a "dirty" color. Even when the bathroom was clean, it felt dirty. (weird? I know...)

So, the buggin began. No, not nagging, bugging. (to the average woman, there is a difference =) Les agreed to change the color and trusted me to pick. Well, of course I knew what I wanted! It took no time at all....and I did it all myself =)

To get the big picture, we have his and hers vanities on opposite walls facing eachother....

Right after this picture, I swapped out the wicker basket for something a lil more "Rome". An old (heavy) yard sale buy planter....

And, my favorite part: The frame wall. I've always wanted to do this in the huge open blank wall over the steps in my living room. But, dusting would have been quite a chore =/. Oh well, it looks awesome against this color and this bright room and relaxing setting, anyway! And the best part? It cost me $6. I only bought the 3 gold frames to incorporate for this space at $2 each. The rest of the frames had broke or damaged through the years and found themselves in a box in my basement. Including a frame that has held a collage pic of me at only 5 years old. I. Love. This. Wall.!

Down at the Barber Shop

So, it's been a lil while comin'! The need for a trim. It's been so hard to let go of those precious lil curls. Unfortunately, those lil curls just stopped curling. With 3 older sisters, it's easy for people to assume he too is a girl...it just had to happen. So, the 2nd week of April was dooms day for mama and hello handsome for my lil boy.

So, here it is. The big reveal. (The following persons names have been changed for their protection:) Amanda and Michaela, to name a couple, were pretty upset with me at first. But, they got over it when they realized it was still Ryder Man.

 

So, mama brought her camera along while we went to watch daddy work on the choo choo for a bit. Couldn't resist.

 

 

And, brought sissy along for a lil shoot, too. I call them my "Jack and Jill". I'm lovin their collection of plaids and classic, timeless clothing.

We've also decided to let Anna Leigh's bangs grow out. She's the only girl we had whose bangs were defined and grew straight over her forehead as stubborn as can be. So training them will be a lil bit of a challenge but atleast she can see. When I hose them down with hairspray lol. OR clip them straight back =)

And so I leave you with this picture of truth. The response I really get when I ask for my kids to look at me.....

Little rascals....

Our Easter

Easter was a blast, this year! I got to keep my niece and really get into it for the kids. My hubby was pretty involved, as well...it was just plain fun.

Saturday, we dyed eggs. The girl's favorite part, of course. It was good ole, barely messy, fun!

We left our mess, came inside and put our eggs in the fridge. I turned on Veggie Tales: T'was the Night Before  Easter, popped some popcorn and we watched a movie. After the movie, I had some print-out pages for the girls to color along with activity sheets. Are you starting to catch on? Yes, we needed them good and sleepy as to not "catch" the Easter Bunny when he hopped in. But, first...a lil tradition we found here which we hope to continue as long as possible with the girls. It was a total hit. We planted magic jelly beans...

Yellow, Orange, Red and Purple. Then gave them some water...

What will they be? The girls voted that they'd grow into a jelly bean tree. Then I thought, wow...they're actually gonna be disappointed lol. Anyway, we put our dyed eggs in a watering can for the Easter bunny to hide, left out our baskets, along with some Koolaid and carrots for the Easter Bunny...oh, and the coloring pages we made him.

It was a fun day and a fun night. I set my alarm for 6am then hid the eggs and planted their surprise and went back to bed lol. I wake up to the sound of Heidi's urgent voice, "Wake up, guys, wake up! Our jelly bean grew into lollipops! WOW! That is SO cool!" It was the first thing they looked for when they woke up =)

We got to have candy for breakfast (of course!)

Then we grabbed our baskets and went on the hunt!

Then we got on our Sunday best and head to church. After that, we enjoy time with family then all went home and relaxed.

I got a sweet nephew that weekend. 7lbs, 14oz of pure precious. Having Maddy that weekend inspired lots of busy activities....which I hope we do again next Easter!

Fit for a Princess

Well, it's been a long while since I've been able to post with photos but turns out it was our internet connection and the problem has been solved! I have much to catch up on, including Heidi's birthday! I'm usually able to give my kiddos a shout out wishing them a happy birthday with a special blog post but I missed hers. Heidi turned 6 on March 30th and that evening, we threw her a little party at the house. We knew we'd be giving the "real" party for all 3 of our girl's to share in April, but we also did cake at home with the other girls so it was definitely Heidi's turn. What started out as a lil decorating, turned out to be lots of decorating, thanks to a party trunk in my storage closet. I was able to use lots of stuff from Heidi and Kamryn's Princess party when Heidi turned 1 and Kam turned 2. We invited a cousin, Maddy, the babysitter (of course) and a few close friends. It was so much fun just seeing Heidi's reaction when she came home from school to this:

Which was even a surprise to me =). I bought the mural at our local Factory Card & Party Outlet and stored it away in it's original packaging along with these princess decals. I pulled out left over streamers, tableclothes, table decorations, balloons, paper party crowns, and wands.

We'd bought the goodies to make Les' awesome punch, which is always a hit (equal party ginger ale to tub of sherbet) and cake. I displayed Heidi's art...a rainbow she painted in class...and a Princess photo plate her Aunt Kristen bought her for her 1st birthday! When I asked her what her favorite part of all the decorating was, she said, "That plate" lol. The cake was the real surprise. I got to try a new icing technique. Pretty much had to because I had no intention of making the cake this tall! I needed something to make it seem a lil more proportionate =)

Tada! We hid Heidi's REAL surprise out in the open.....it was her favorite thing in the world: Rainbow. And cake lol. Lots of cake! Happy Number 6, Heidi! We love you, Princess!

Oh, Baby

I've had the pleasure of taking a few maternity pictures for my sister this week. My sister isn't all that picky, nor does she stress about this kinda thing. Infact, I had to push to get her to finally just do it! I understand you feel anything but photogenic while you're pregnant, but I didn't want her to regret it in the future. And my nephew deserves it, too =) I think we can all agree that most creativity happens on its own...hence this may seem like a follow-up to my last post haha. I'd say 80% of the time, when I catch a great picture, it's mere coincidence. Like this shot, below. I brought one of my own mirror frames, hoping to highlight her belly. It worked great in the color I had, as her shirt was dark and made her belly "pop" out. When I was editing from our shoot, I came to this pic and really wanted to highlight that beautiful belly...so I did bw vs color. Wow, it turned out great! Actually, it ended up being my favorite =)

I meet my nephew on April 5th...unless he get's antsy! I'll have the pleasure of keeping my niece for those 3 days or so which my girls are excited about! Spring break is full of fun...not to mention Easter! Bring. It. On.!

Don't you love that sweet face? Me too!

Hmmm...Pinteresting =)

I finally got this wee picture to load so this post will just have to hold you over =). The girls wanted pancakes and I had just bought some blueberries so I wanted to do something different. Kamryn's birthday was the following week, too. When she saw me adding blueberries, Heidi said, "Yuck! We don't like them berries." I said, "Well, mommy just wanted to do something fun and yummy....what do you want?" Heidi said exactly what I thought she'd say: Rainbow pancakes. She has never seen them before and neither have I but, if you know Heidi...anything can be "Rainbow". I'd seen cakes layered in rainbow colors before but wasn't sure how the batter would take the food color. Well, turns out you needn't add much at all (so add very little at a time). It was very messy and spur of the moment! But, the kid's reaction to the final product was well worth it.

Speaking of fun and yummy, I've been making some changes to my Pinterest page. I recently found myself relying on the creativity of others who make/create neato things. Pinterest is handy, no doubt! But, I've decided not to get too into the wave of it for things like party planning, decor, etc. I like having a folder of misc stuff I love which I feel would help someone know me a lil more, if they see what kinds of things I enjoy. I like cute clothes but I'm so content in my blue jeans, my husband's shirts, Target or Charlotte Russe's clearance racks, and name brands and designers mean nothing of stature to me to be quite frank. I enjoy reading helpful beauty tips, recipes, organizing tips etc. I'm still tweaking it and have "stuff" I can afford to lose (delete, that is). That, to me, is another drag on the site. It's nice to dream up these things I want to do, make, create for my kids, buy, wear etc. but whether it's realistic or not, it shouldn't take up more time in my day and room in my mind than I'm willing to invest into genuine priorities. I know for me, the things I may see on Pinterest will become thoughts that linger for so long even away from the computer. Pinterest sticks whether you're actually there or not. I started to find myself critiquing things in my house I wanted to change which weren't realistic and some not even cheap. Most importantly, unnecessary. I'm relearning to limit my wants and stick mostly to my needs and I must admit, once you turn on the faucet in that part of your brain, it takes will power to turn it off. I felt convicted by the underlying cons I didn't seem to recognize until recently based on my own use of the site.

As for the creative side, I must admit I've always searched google or MSN's image pages when looking for something specific. I'm a visual person. But, the difference then was that I would dream up themes or ideas or designs or whatever for crafts, cake decorating, parties, DIY info etc and make a list, sketch stuff out, set a budget, and wrack my brain for different twists or things to incorporate from my own creativity. Then, after I had everything planned and in place and "Lauralized", I'd have to SEE it before I pulled it off. So, I'd google, bing, combine and all that good stuff. But, as far as party planning and gift ideas etc, I see myself not even giving my brain a chance to dream things up and get creative in my own way....luckily I haven't thrown a party since Pinterest! I like to be different and I'm learning that most people do and if it seems different and unique and rare, AND it's on Pinterest? It's only a matter of time before everyone realizes they're doing the same thing everyone ELSE is doing lol. Not only that, but even if you've never embarked on the journey through Pinterest, the site will get credit for anything creative you do (your originality) simply because everything has been done and seen before and now no one will have to look far to see that. I should put a sign on my front door that reads: "Nothing that goes on in this house was inspired by Pinterest. We're happy, crafty and nifty without it!" Heeeeey...now there's a creative idea (pass it on ;D)

I was never this thought provoked on "stuff" before a couple of years ago when we started making changes inside our home. That was well planned, earned and not more than we could afford lol. But, I got a taste of it and suddenly it was easy to be consumed by it because not only am I filling my home with things I absolutely love, but I enjoy the entire process! The planning, the hunts, the finds, the bargains, and seeing it all come together. I actually enjoy painting, hanging pictures, rearranging (though I can't do much of that with furniture in this house). My friend, Leslie's consumer challenge really brought me back to ME and who I am as not being defined by things I own or things I like but by the way I live and the most important thing in the world: Relationships with people. I don't want to become a materialistic girl...I want to be the girl my husband married who had that quality he admired. Easy to please, needs over wants, confidence over beauty, comfort over fashion, high on life...not possessions. Most importantly, I want to please God with my time, my money, my lifesong, my heart, mind and motives. I think Pinterest could damage the qualities of originality and what makes us who we are, how we invest our thoughts, time, considerations, money. On the flip side, Pinterest has a lot of great things which encourage saving money, using or reusing thrifty things in creative ways, healthy meal ideas, fitness plans etc. I'm fashioning mine for me and though it may be tempting to wander, I refuse to let Pinterest misplace.....well......ME!

These are my own convictions because of my own use of the site....so, I'm not judging anyone who would use it in any way they choose simply because it varies by person. Material possessions have only recently been a struggle in my life...roughly the past 2 years. So that's why, I'm sure, I have convictions- it's simply never been a part of my life. I know God draws a line...but I have mixed feelings as to how far He "permits" us to go. My morning devotion a few days ago was Romans chapter 14 in The Message....it's such a powerful translation of the chapter! It's all about perspectives. God is so gracious! I'm encouraging you to take this walk with me and rely on yourself, your friends, family, and your day to day inspirations and experiences to be the #1 inspiration in your originality. Get inspired by YOU! I'm going to "limit my lingering" on Pinterest! Get in and get out lol.... Lemme know your thoughts by shooting me a message via email or facebook or commenting here! =D 

AH!

Okay, guys! I've been struggling with Typepad since December. Now it's not letting me upload photos at all! It's really hard to blog without photos! Stay tuned.... ;)

My Valentine

Okay, so...there's this guy. This guy went all-out for his Valentine. My husband made secret reservations at a fancy shmancy restaurant and I could hardly wait to find out where we were going! I didn't recognize the route but, there we were...at Dalhousie. Wow. We enjoyed our 5:30 reservation with a yummy 5-course meal by candle light and fresh flowers. It really was amazing. 

After that, we saw "The Vow". It was pretty good...I was disappointed because I've had that thought for a book (but totally sweeter and less true) for about 7 years, now. Hahahaha, it's funnier now than it was last night! But, it IS a great movie. I'm not the biggest fan of Channing Tatum so I think they could have cast a better beau. Don't hate me! It's just my opinion! ;)

As if that wasn't enough, my husband got me a spoils Gift Card for eDen Spa. I just love that boy. He's so thoughtful and creative and great at keeping surprises a secret! Although, he did almost gave in to my charming begging techniques. So, here was our almost 5-hour date night last night...including incredible babysitting by the amazing and sweet Michaela (THANK YOU, MACHILA!)