Etsy Shop Memorial Day Sale and New Banner

 

 

 

Herman Miller Eames LCM

Just wanted to update those interested that we are having a Memorial Day sale at our Etsy shop, Grade A Fresh. The sale will last from today, Friday the 27th till Friday, June 3rd. We've added a few new items in the past week and plan on adding more in the days to come. Use coupon code MemorialDay2011 to receive 10% off the item price on any and all items in our shop.

And while you're there check out our sweet new banner created by our super talented friend, Marco Suarez. Take a look! Thanks!

Things That Make Me Smile 3

Everything about these two pictures makes me smile. We had little girl's best friend and cousin over for the day today. As soon as her cousin walked in the door little girl literally dragged her upstairs announcing she was going to "make her all pretty." About 15 minutes later little girl came downstairs and said "look at us, mommy!" I almost fell over laughing when I saw what she had done to her cousin. They were both so proud of how pretty they looked and I was pretty impressed at the creativity involved.

Little girl's face and my niece's outfit make this picture hilarious

These two are a riot. There are so many funny things that they say and do that I hope I can remember later. I want them to stay this age forever because they are so much fun right now.

Happy Monday Everyone!!!

Surprise Birthday Party!

My younger sister (Stacey) turned 21 last week, and since her birthday has always come at the most busy time of the year for our family (think graduations, mother's day, dad's birthday, niece's birthday) it has been overlooked more than a few times. This year my youngest sister Lindsey and I decided to make her birthday super special. So we threw her a surprise birthday party here at my house. The colors were gold, pink, and white and we accented with doilies and white milk glass. We had lots of fun planning the party and even more fun eating the awesome food, making yo-yo necklaces, and taking tons of pictures in our very own photobooth made just for this party (Thanks to Gerald for making it and dad for buying the supplies) Stacey was very much surprised...so our mission was a successful one! Thanks to all who came and all who helped us make this day special for Stacey!

Happy Birthday banner

Decor on the mantle and flowers

 Chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Decorated with doily liners

Cute gold tags for the food

White chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles

Doily parasols for our drinks

Pomegranate iced tea

Party favors made out of paper doilies with color coordinated candies

Ribbon chandelier

Gorgeous flowers

Table before food

Closer shot of the beautiful doily runner made out of hand made doilies found at an estate sale

Table with food

Stacey right after we yelled "surprise!"

Yo-yo jewelery making station

Lovely yo-yos in a bowl made out of a doily

Making our jewelery

Gerald in the process of making the photobooth

Now....here's where it gets fun. We took TONS of pictures of all the guests behind our very own photobooth. We followed this tutorial over at More Design Please. Lindsey purchased the wall paper from Urban Outfitters and Gerald put the wall together for us. The only hard part was making the wallpaper line up perfectly. All of my grand illusions of how fun it would be to wallpaper a wall just went out the window...wayyyy too much work for me. I have gobs more great pictures of everyone, but I couldn't possibly post them all...I probably posted too many as it is. This photobooth was definitely a hit!

 

 

Happy Birthday Stacey! May the 21st year of your life be the best one yet!!! Love you!

Things That Make Me Smile 2

Little man fell asleep in his Jumperoo the other day. It was the cutest thing ever. I was in the living room listening to him happily jumping up and down when all of the sudden he just stopped. When I went in to investigate why he was suddenly so quiet, I found him fast asleep. I decided not to disturb him and just let him go ahead and take his nap like this. When he woke up about half an hour later he immediately started jumping and smiling again like nothing had ever happened. He's such a happy little dude and it's definitely looking like he's going to have his daddy's napping abilities.

Isn't this just too cute?

I know this doesn't really go with the other pictures, but it definitely makes me smile, so I'm going to throw it in there. My youngest sister and I threw a surprise party for our sister Stacey as she was turning 21 this past week. We had a lot of fun planning the party and there were lots of pretty decorations, awesome food, and fun memories. I'll do a more in depth post later with all the details. Happy Monday everyone!

Things That Make Me Smile

I've decided to start a weekly post entitled "things that make me smile." Hopefully, this will happen every Monday and the post will include pictures that never fail to bring a smile to my face. Most of the time it will not be that the picture is funny, it's more that the memory or the experience is a happy one for me. The first picture is a sweet moment captured between LG and LM. I'm praying that they will be continue to be great friends like they are now. No one can make LM smile and laugh like LG can.


The way LG plays with her "little people." I'm constantly stumbling on scenes like the ones below and am always left wondering what can it all mean? Where are all the animals going? Why is this odd assortment of little figurines dining together? Why is one little girl sitting on a potty at the table? Why is Sid the Sloth part of the scene? I'm sure it all makes perfect sense to a 3 year old! Sometimes, I almost hate to pick it all up.

 

 

 Checking on LG one last time before going to bed and finding her fast asleep with an umbrella over her. When we asked her why she did this the next day, she said that the umbrella protects her from monsters. We've found her like this twice now. I also love the way she decorates the back of her bed with books and dolls...it's always a little bit different every night.

 The way little girl puts her dolls to sleep beside her on the floor.

The thrill of a cool vintage find, like this One Step Polaroid camera. Sorry, but this one is already spoken for!

My new favorite lunch that I eat pretty much every day now. Thanks to my awesome friend Jody for having me over for lunch and sharing this recipe with me. The base is plain whole milk yogurt mixed with pesto and a little garlic salt. The cucumber and tomatoes are drenched in olive oil, apple cider vinegar, italian seasonings, garlic salt, pepper, and a little sugar. You put all that on a toasted piece of bread and, if you want, you can add a little more flavor by buttering the toast before you put the yogurt/pesto mixture on. Soooo yummy!