Tour De Homes

Back in high school, the three of us and our moms went on a cruise together before graduation.  It was one of the best weeks of our lives and even though we were teens, we so enjoyed the company of our mothers.  The 6 of us laughed hard, ate amazing food, made many memories and even befriended our cute waiter.  We still talk about the funny things that happened on the cruise and hope to one day be able to go again :)

It's no secret Maggie and Brandon just purchased a house, making it so that all three of us now have homes of our own.  Every time I see Janice (Maggie's mom), Luann (Hannah's mom) or Heidi (Hannah's sister) they talk about how they can't wait to visit our houses.  So yesterday we made that happen.

We got the "cruise girls" together, with one happy addition, the sister we love and adore, Heidi, and set off on a progressive lunch.  Us girls cleaned our houses and had our moms and sister over for food and a home tour.  I felt like a Realtor; it was so much fun!

The first stop was my place where we had appetizers and I walked around telling everyone about our house and all the changes we've made since we moved here.  Afterward, we made our way to Hannah's to see her adorable casa and have lunch.  Then, we hopped in the car and met up at Maggie's new place for a tour on the whirlwind of home-projects they've accomplished in just a few short months.

It was a full and blessed Saturday morning.  We laughed hard again (girls, remember the idea my mom had for the title of her would-be blog?) and shared a great meal together.  I am blessed to have these women in my life and to be able to share my home with them.

Now let's not wait another 7 years until we get the group together again!!

Judah's 1st Birthday Party: Brainstorming

Judah's first birthday will be in a just under 2 months and in order to keep my life simple and have plenty of time to create the party I'm envisioning, I'm starting the planning process early.  I've come up with a theme and have gathered mucho inspiration a la world wide web:

Vintage Carnival

Snippet and Ink made this mood board and did a fabulous job. The vibe it gives off is exactly what I'm going for- sans the fresh flowers and feminine touches.  I plan on bringing in masculine elements... it is my son's birthday after all:)  I'm pulling my colors directly from this, focusing on light blue, teal green, golden yellow and an orange-red.

As seen on Birthday Girl and photographed by The Winding Road

The outfit on the little boy in this photo is priceless.  I'm looking for a cute striped shirt for Jude to wear and want to give him a sort of "ringmaster" look. I love the pennants hanging from the ceiling and am hoping to have some adorning the dining room.

In order to save money, I plan on designing the invitations myself.  I was inspired by these gorgeous vintage invites done by Bier Designs.  I already have a design done but am not sure I am liking them that much.  Oh the woes of a designer.  ;)

Mustaches found at Carnival Creations

I plan on making some mustaches on a stick out of black construction paper and have a fun idea planned for them... you'll have to wait and see what it is.

There are so many ideas I could try to incorporate but I want the planning process to be enjoyable and not stressful.  In the end, I may hire out a few things I would normally attempt to DIY myself and I may nix a few ideas I originally had.  I want this to be a celebration of my baby to bring fun and joy to our lives; not take away from this special time because I get too caught up in the details.  Pray for me;)

As I type this, Jude is sitting on the floor playing adorable with his toys and books.  Life is so good right now.

So what do you think, do you have any ideas for me?  Do you like planning parties as much as I do?

That's a Wrap.

So the wrapping party was a success!  And by that, I mean we ate sugar cookies to our hearts content, rocked out to Winter Wonderland and wrapped *almost* all of our gifts.  A snow storm came through on Saturday but it didn't get us down and by 7:30pm we were surrounded by bows, ribbon and wrapping paper with one deliriously happy kitty snacking on it all.

The party was easy to prepare for since my house was already decorated for Christmas and I just had to haul out my wrapping supplies a few minutes before the girls got here.  I made a few snacks and decided to focus most of my "party planning efforts" into some yummy sugar cookies.

My Aunt gave me an amazing recipe in March that I had been begging her to give me for nearly 5 years.  She would cut off my fingers if I shared it on here, so I found another recipe that's almost as good (I've made these before).  The key to awesome sugar cookies is not rolling them out too thin and then making sure to not over bake them so you keep them nice and soft.  You never want them to get brown or crispy.

Here's my decorating station, it's not that exciting but ya know:

I lined up some dip-bowls with sprinkles for easy access. I'm not afraid to say I picked up a container of cream cheese frosting; it's easy to mix up but when you're striving to make things simple you have to know your boundaries.  Right?  Anyway, it glided on the cookies and was wonderfully tasty.

By the way, you gotta get the gel food coloring.  Colors have never been so vivid, so fabulous, so edible!  No more "red" frosting that looks pink instead.  You'll love it.

I like to use cookie cutters as "stencils" to decorate.  

Trader Joe's Mac N' Cheese Balls and fudge too- yum!

Now, onto the fun part, the actual party! The supply stash (probably only half of what we had/brought): 

Wrapping paper, bows, embellishments, tape scissors, bags, tissue, and my personal favorite this year: tulle.  It works great instead of ribbons and bows and a roll of it will adorn gifts-a-plenty. This is where you pretend that I took a picture of one of the gifts I used tulle on, so you could see an example. Sorry!  

 The beautiful Hannah after her wrapping was done.  I surprised her with some peppermint coffee:)

The beautiful Melissa displaying one of her gifts.  

Sorry I didn't get any "in progress shots", I was busy;) And of course there's no Before and Afters 'cause a lot of you cute people reading are on the receiving end of the gifts and we wouldn't want you to see what you're gettin'.  Plus, we forgot to group all the wrapped gifts together and take a shot- whoops!  Still tryin' to get this blog thing down, he he.

I invited 5-6 people but a lot couldn't make it because they hadn't done shopping yet.  Maybe next year:)  It is best when the party is small because each person takes up so much space.  Unless you have a HUGE house or don't mind having people in your bedroom, on average, about 4 people is good to have over.  

So, we chatted, we wrapped, we laughed and we made one of the biggest tasks of the holiday season as easy as that.

Wrapping Parties!

Rachel is a hostess. No, not a cupcake (but she sure is as cute and sweet as one!).   ;)

Seriously, this is one of this girl's passions and gifts--it comes naturally easy to her and she does it beautifully! If you're ever in need of help for planning a birthday party, casual get-together, wedding shower, baby shower, etc. (you name it!) Rachel is the woman to go to. She puts so much thought and effort into everything she plans and she has a blast doing it! We have been through MANY parties and showers together (both the planning and receiving ends) and Rachel is always at the forefront of it all, making every party splendid and unique to the individual/event that's being celebrated. As one of her friends, Rachel has blessed me in so many ways with this special gift of hers and the parties she plans are some of the times that I feel the most loved by her. She does a fabulous job paying attention to each special detail--she really goes all out!

And leave it to Rachel to find a reason to party if there hasn't been one in a while or isn't going to be one in the near future! :) She brings life and fun to things that some people don't even think of, hence the beginning of the wrapping parties. 


What's a wrapping party you ask? Well, instead of sighing at the sight of the large task before you and dreading how long it's going to take to get all those presents wrapped, do it in the presence of some friends and spice it up a little! Rachel is hosting another one this year (I am so excited!) and here is what she is asking us to bring:

• Gifts to wrap 
• 1 or more rolls of wrap to share (Hobby Lobby has great stuff!) 
• Ribbons/embellishments 
• Labels 
• Bows 
• Scissors 
• Tape

Then, everyone combines their supplies and share so that they don't get stuck in the rut of having all their gifts look the same. Before you know it, you're done! You didn't even realize how much time had gone by because you were enjoying laughing and talking with the girls so much. Of course, it's also fantastic to be able to share wrapping ideas and techniques (I have to be honest folks...I am definitely NOT the best wrapper. Eric, my husband, is MUCH better than I am--he really does an awesome job! Way to go hubby!)

Scrapbooking supplies are also fun to bring so that you can experiment with adding embellishments or creating your own gift tags.You can also ask people to bring goodies to share or provide them yourself if you are the hostess.

Here are some pictures from previous year's parties (hosted by Rachel of course!).

Picture of all the supplies.

 Getting to work!

 All of our hard work! Rachel used this table for her display of goodies too at the beginning of the party

Here's a closer look! 

By the end of the night, you've been very productive AND spent some quality time with your friends--how can it get any better than that?!

P.S. Do you and your friends have any fun traditions for the holidays? Do you have any suggestions to help add even more fun or creativity to Rach's wrapping party idea? 

P.P.S Don't forget to stay tuned to see an update and pics from this year's wrapping party!