New Year's Resolutions 2012

My New Year's Resolutions for 2012...I love making lists and checking them off especially big year long goals. I have been thinking for over a month what I want to put on my list for this year. I have a very big imagination but I also know my limitations so I have made a challenging but doable list for 2012. Some are really hard and some are just time consuming...some are nuts and some are practical.

1. Become a runner! I have actually started on this one already meaning I bought cute clothes ;) I am signing up for my first 5K on February 11th with my dad and sister-in-law. My mother was suppose to do it with me as "our new thing", but she broke her leg...so sad! I'm hoping she can start training in February and we can do one in March together. This counts as learning one new thing.

2. Read the Bible in a year. This one will be a life changer if I can stick with it. I have a Bible my dad gave me last year that goes in chronological order and has everything you need to read each day to finish in one year.

3. Make my first quilt! I am determined to finish my ZTA t-shirt quilt. I cut up half the shirts and took a class but I quit after that so I need to figure out how to do a few more steps and get it done. I know I will love it once I finish it.

4. Make some more progress toward my little home business - upgrade my embroidery machine is the next step toward that and replacing my laptop.

5. Sell our house! We are putting it on the market hopefully by the first week in January if everything goes well. We took down Christmas decorations last night and I started clearing out areas and staging the rooms...I have a few more rooms to do and closets to thin out. I am taking it room by room and each day stopping by Goodwill to donate it....its like spring cleaning and getting a tax deduction at the same time :)

6. Join one more organization this year...not sure which one but I want to do one more this year. Plus get more involved in the eMerge Marketing Committee.

7. Read books to Bailey everyday. During the summer I am really good about it because it seems less busy and we participate in the Summer Reading Program, but I need to do more throughout the entire year.

8. Cook more meals and not eat fast food (try for less than 3 times a month). If I cooked more at night I could take leftovers to work for lunch...saving money and calories. I need to enrich our diets by making meals with vegetables and whole grains. This will be beneficial toward our "family time" as well. My goal is to cook 4 nights a week - eating out as a family once (Saturday or Friday) and lunch after church on Sunday.

9. Find something Blake and I can do together...maybe running could be our thing once I can keep up ;) I just really want to find something we enjoy doing together. We got the Kinect for Christmas and it is so fun to do as a family so hopefully we will make time to have more fun with each other this year.

10. Get an iPhone! We are eligible for upgrades in March :) I can finally get cool apps!

To sum it up... I want to loose weight by running, feed my family healthy meals, be debt free, become closer to God, become closer to Blake, get more involved, grow as a person, and be a better mom.

Looking Back on 2011

Its feels unreal that the year 2011 is almost complete. I looked at my post from last year on goals/resolutions for 2011 and it's a little heartbreaking because we had hoped 2011 would be "THE YEAR" for us. I realize that when I wrote those "hopes" I was not being realistic. Every single card in the deck had to be aligned perfectly in order for that to have happened and well...our cards were a tad messy. One thing that I wrote for 2013 is that we would start on baby McArdle #2 and we were over achievers and did it in 2011 instead. What's funny is that I was pregnant every single day of 2011 until October 26th.

So here are our big moments that did NOT happen in 2011:
- I absolutely quit playing guitar and sold it :) lol...it wasn't for me as much as I tried to be a rock star...I will stick with singing
- I absolutely organized my t-shirts for my quilt...and packed them away into a box
- Career Moves that will have to wait for next year

So here are our big moments that DID happen in 2011:
- The Embroidery Machine was well worth the purchased and used a lot this year
- We went to Disney World for Bailey's 4th birthday and she had fabulous outfits for each day :)
- We converted the craft room into a nursery
- I did a lot of de-cluttering! All of Bailey's baby things and pretty much everything we don't "need"
- Summer of Cupcakes
- Bailey was a beautiful flower girl in my sorority sister's wedding
- We had our 5 year anniversary <3
- I started a facebook page for my business (go like it!) and I've created some fabulous stuff Had a baby
- Blake spent 3 months of the year in Puerto Rico
- Our house was broken into

I feel like 2011 was a slow year for us because I was pregnant for 10 months and couldn't do that much...plus Blake was gone 3 months of it in the summer so it just felt uneventful. Looking back on this list it shows me how great of a year it truly was...even though our "hopes" didn't happen...there's always next year ;)

Hello Blog World!!!

Wow! My last post was on October 12th...that was 2 weeks before my little Brycen was born. There has been many things to happen in the last 2 months: #1: Brycen Conner McArdle was born and I had an AMAZING delivery #2 "Worst Week Ever" #3 Returning to work 4 weeks early #4 Parties, Parties, and Parties #5 Pinterest was born #6 Halloween & Thanksgiving Activities

Brycen's delivery was so awesome! I loved the nurses and my doctor was so great. No complications at all...much different than Bailey's delivery. One thing that did not go as planned was nursing. Day 4 I realized that I was making hardly anything and we had to start supplementing with formula because Brycen was dehydrated. I nursed for 30 minutes, fed the baby formula, pumped for 30 minutes every time...day 5, day 6, day 7, day 8...nothing. On day 8 I looked up Synthroid side effects and there it was - if your thyroid is really messed up while you are pregnant and they have to give you a lot of thyroid medication it can mess up your metabolism and cause the milk to never come in. So day 8 I washed up all the pump and packed it away and gave away all the stuff I bought for nursing. It was heart breaking. I think I cried from day 4 to day 10 constantly and it still hurts when people see the baby and ask "Are you nursing?". All I can say is "no" because I can't explain it. He is a healthy baby and is doing just great on formula so we are blessed. So one of my new year's resolutions is to find a new thyroid doctor. I wrote this out because it helped when I googled "nursing and thyroid" and found a girl that went through the same thing I did - it helps to know that it isn't your fault and you did everything you could.

So onto the "Worst Week EVER"...It all started the day Blake left for a 2 week trip to Puerto Rico - it was the same day as the Iron Bowl. Bama was beating Auburn by a huge margin and in the 4th quarter my mother went to take the Turkey leftovers to the outside frig and misstepped and landed on her leg causing it to BRAKE! Sheesh! What a nightmare! So dad and the neighbor help mom get into the van, turkey bones and grease are all over the ground, kids are crying, and mom is screaming from pain. Well her leg was definitely broken and she needed help during the day while dad was working. I thought this is so great that I'm on maternity leave because I can come over and help. I had lots of plans for us to do - I've wanted to help her go through all the pictures and categorize them as well as put them in albums and picture frames. Well on Friday I was on my way to pick up Bailey from school after spending the day with my mom and I received a phone call from my neighbor...our house had been burglarized. All I could think of was my dog, work laptop, and camera. She found Meiko locked up in the baby's room scared to death and they left my new camera on the kitchen counter, but everything else was gone. I had been working 5-10 hours a week from home on maternity leave so I had my work laptop on the kitchen table - it has everything on it but it also has a government issued password so there is no way in the world they will figure it out so my files will stay confidential. I miss those files so much and all the pictures I saved on it as well as the new picture CD we just got from having our family pictures done the week before...thank goodness I already uploaded them on facebook! They stole a few big things and went through our bedroom but in the end we are fine - it was overwhelming because I had no time to do anything and I wanted to be with my mom and I didn't have a computer to work on and to find quotes for. They stole my maternity leave from me because instead of being with my baby I had to deal with insurance stuff which was very time consuming. I was very mad that they took my security away, time from work, and time from my new baby...those things will never be replaced.

So life is getting back to normal now that I am back at work but one thing that is very different is that Blake is a stay at home dad. He is off orders with no orders in sight which means he is looking for a civilian job at the moment and the job pool is very shallow at the moment :( Life takes some really weird turns sometimes and hopefully he will find something in January.

Have a fabulous Christmas and I hope to update back soon with new projects!! My next post will be my New Year's Resolution List for 2012!! I love NY's resolutions.

Fall Decor 2011

This year I decided to decorate for fall because Christmas is going to be less crafty with a new baby arriving. In fact I have already decided to do the barely 6 foot Charlie Brown Christmas Tree instead of our bigger one. Kind of sad to think that we won't be having any parties at the house this year like usual. I love having an open house, cookie exchange, and decorate your own cookie party for Bailey...this year we will be going to those instead of hosting :) So for fall I decided to do a little yard work at 9 months pregnant with a husband 1,578 miles away (yeah...I googled). So to kick off the fall I hosted a baby shower and a falltastic pumpkin party for Bailey.

I turned my plane vases into fall ones by adding orange and brown glass stones to my clear ones and whipped up a few vinyl pieces in fall colors.

I made a rag wreath for the front door using scraps of orange, brown, and crimson fabric left over from previous projects.

This makes me laugh because I pulled up a dead bush my husband tried very hard to save. It took hardly any effort to pull it up and drag it across the yard...but it left a nice space that needed to be filled so I went and searched for a bail of hay and a cute pumpkin that wouldn't die and could be rained on. I call it "my decoration spot" until he is able to plant another bush. At Christmas I will put my wooden cross in this spot.

Meiko chilling in his hot dog costume :)

My mom and sister came over the night before the baby shower and helped me plant new orange flowers in my pots...these are the only flowers you will ever see me grow. I don't do gardening or flower beds, but I like my two pots. That morning I spread the pine straw in the area in front of the house.

And there it is...my little groomed house ready for fall. I trimmed the bushes, pulled up a bush, spread pine straw, made a "decorating spot", and hung a wreath.


Party Here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyCQvZ4gVf5Sqe4pjgITZkJoC0rAkKgMPvAdN6gGPE4vAXpKb0i9hIJLO8R0KQjtBc9hvS-GGzAad5d2CvEQCUMjS984EC2V-s10D2jTiRUYUSUhr9dEybqndrMFEGki6ZBwYj190OPbI/s1600/wgw+button.jpg

Falltastic Pumpkin Party

I wanted to have one last party for Bailey as an only child...you know before she has to start sharing everything with her new baby brother. I also knew the baby would be born right around Halloween and we would not be able to do much this year. She was so excited about having a pumpkin party and helped me get everything ready. We had 10 little friends come over and the weather was beautiful! I made most of the food but had some help with the pumpkin shaped PB&J's as well as Little Debbie and her fall cakes ;) We played 3 games: Wrap A Mummy in Toilet Paper, Sweep the Pumpkin, and Pop the Balloon by sitting on it. There were 2 tables set up outside. The first table was set for the pumpkin magnet craft and fall themed coloring pages. The second table was set for "Decorate Your Own Cupcake". Target had 5 different kinds of Fall/Halloween themed sprinkles in a pack and I dyed cream cheese frosting orange for them to use.

It was a fun party and Bailey loved having her friends come over for the afternoon.

Yummy fall food! Orange Cupcakes, Popcorn, Chicken Nuggets, Cookies, Cheese Ritz Bits, Marshmallows...

Party Favors with Halloween Gummies and Candy

  

Little Debbie Fall Cakes in White and Chocolate as well as Pumpkin Shaped PB&J's

Pumpkin Shaped Sugar Cookies

Pumpkin Rice Krispy Treats

Everyone dressed up including Meiko

Each child made a Pumpkin Magnet to take home

Party Here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyCQvZ4gVf5Sqe4pjgITZkJoC0rAkKgMPvAdN6gGPE4vAXpKb0i9hIJLO8R0KQjtBc9hvS-GGzAad5d2CvEQCUMjS984EC2V-s10D2jTiRUYUSUhr9dEybqndrMFEGki6ZBwYj190OPbI/s1600/wgw+button.jpg

Flower Girl Bailey

I really need to figure out how to twist the pictures around! Bailey was a flower girl this past weekend in a wedding. She did such a good job and was so pretty. One of my sorority sisters did her hair and we painted her fingernails and toenails to match the bridesmaids. She loves going to weddings and being in them even more! She loves to dance and stays on the dance floor the entire time unless she is taking breaks for punch, cake, and food. The bride was beautiful and Bailey was extremely fond of her as she is her teacher and my sorority sister. She was so proud to be in Miss Jessica's wedding.

Wreaths

So thanks to the invention of Pinterest I have anxiety over getting things done ;) No seriously, I went on for a total of 30 minutes and found two projects that had to be done in a few days for my baby shower. It ended up being 3 things but 2 came from pinintrest. I made the hospital wreath for baby Brycen and a fall rag wreath for my front door. I also painted some canvases and did brown vinyl letters on them to go above the crib. They are now nailed to the wall thanks to my dad coming over to do some handy work while Blake is deployed. I had a few things on the list for him to tackle and my mom helped plant fall flowers in my planters outside to make my home ready for fall and my baby shower that was being held at my home. I will have to do another post soon on just my fall decor...I changed things up this year since we are having a fall party for Bailey next weekend. I wanted to have one last party for her before Brycen makes his debut and steals the show. I'm so excited to get my hands on him and read books laying on my stomach again.

 Ribbon Wreath with wooden "M" - I am going to get a white paint marker to write his weight and height on the "M" after he is born.

 Fall Rag Wreath with 2 different browns, 2 different oranges, and some crimson thrown in.

His initials in vinyl on canvases...the middle canvas took a while to get the borders but it turned out really cute. 

Summer of Cupcakes #8 & #9

Well I didn't get to #10...and really #8 & #9 were the same cake just different icings, but they were still delicious! Very Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Icing and strawberry drizzle or filling. I decided I liked the filling better so that each cupcake received the same amount. These are going over really well that I made them for another occasion and received high remarks about them. I made them with homemade whipped topping the third go around and they were delicious. I still think the strawberry icing tastes the best to get the "very strawberry" taste.

Very Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Filling and Vanilla Buttercream Frosting in Pale Pink and Pale Green with "6" flags for a birthday party

An order of #4 cookies for a birthday party at school for a little girl turning 4.

Life in the past few weeks

This past month had a few big things...school started back, Blake left for his 2 month deployment to Puerto Rico, I kicked off my business using a facebook page (Go like it!), I bought the silhouette vinyl machine (newest obsession), consigned all of Bailey's clothes and shoes from infant to size 5 (tear), Bailey's soccer practice on Thursdays and games on Saturdays, and the nursery is almost ready!

It has been an exciting past few weeks of new things and we have been very busy. It helps to stay fully scheduled while Blake is gone - it makes it feel less lonely when you have so much to do. I have orders to work on at night on days I don't have commitments. On Wednesday night I joined a new Bible study while Bailey is in choir...I can already tell that it's going to be fabulous. Bailey moved into the big kids choir so she has to learn a Bible verse each week - she is so cute trying to memorize her verse so she can get a sticker.

The pregnancy is going...I wish I could figure out how not to gain so much, but I guess it's the thyroid doing what it does best...messing everything up. At night I look down and do not recognise my legs and feet...they look like they belong to someone else large hippopotamus. I try to get off of them but I have to much to do. The pregnancy brain is at its finest. I have done some of the dumbest things ever in the past couple of weeks that I just laugh because I know it's not an all-together-Brittany making those choices/decisions.

One thing we have had to adjust to is the size of our TV screen. Blake took the xbox/only dvd player we have on his trip so if we want to watch a movie we have to do it on Bailey's 19 inch TV/DVD player in one. I have gone to red box on two different occasions to rent movies only to get home and realize we have to watch it on Bailey's single bed from across the room. Thank goodness I DVR'd a bunch of movies on the bigger TV in the living room so we just rewatch Tangled, Toy Story 1-3, Princess and the Frog, Beauty and the Beast, a Barbie Movie, or The Land Before Time.

So yeah, that's what our family has been up to in the past month.

New Facebook Page

Here is my new facebook page! Each month will have a cupcake deal - September's deal: $15 for 1 dozen (2 dozen minimum same flavor). Please like it! Thanks!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Cupcake-Boutique/142109545881175

Embroidery Items

I had an order for 4 polos this weekend...#3 wasn't cooperating so I cut the machine off for the night and finished up yesterday on #3 & #4. I was also able to get a little backpack ready for my neighbor's son before school starts next Monday. I have one more order I'm wrapping up this week. I'm so thankful for all the orders I've been given over the past few weeks...It's a fun way to make some extra money plus I like to give my friends a better deal than the catalogs.

Summer of Cupcakes #7

These cupcakes were specially ordered by my best friend for her birthday dinner with family. They are Mint Chocolate Chip with Chocolate Ganache filling, Mint Icing, and Ghirardelli Mint Chocolate Pieces crumbled on top...in Jumbo size green liners. They were pretty amazing. I tried a new recipe for the chocolate cake that was less difficult...here's the secret...Hershey's Chocolate Cake recipe. Yeah...I'm that original. I looked and looked on the internet for variations and different recipes but people kept commenting on Hershey's recipe...and since I use Hershey's cocoa I figured they must know how to make a good cake and I was right. It was super moist and delicious...even 3 days later.

I'm hosting a jewelry party next Tuesday so I will have #8 posted by mid-next week...still deciding on the flavor. I haven't made anything with coconut yet! Only 3 cupcakes left to do before the end of summer!

Summer of Cupcakes #6

Yesterday I decided I would make blackberry cupcakes, but when I got to the store they were out! So my backup plan was to make blueberry cupcakes. They turned out so good. I refrigerated these over night with blueberry preserve filling, fresh whipped cream topping, and garnished with sugared blueberries. I used jumbo dark purple cupcake liners...I love making jumbo size! I took a few to the ZTA luncheon today -- the last one of the summer. I will be taking the rest to family members... this recipe made 16 Jumbo size cupcakes so I have around 10 left to get rid of. I give these 5 stars because they were so moist and delicious without being too sweet. I think they could also be eaten for breakfast because they are light. Only 4 more left in the summer of cupcakes challenge!!! Next up: Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes on Saturday!  

Embroidered Diaper Covers

I have a few diaper covers left in stock but here is a cute one I did last night:

We went to 2 birthday parties on Saturday morning and the moms loved their diaper covers...the kids didn't care for them as much ;) We went on the school uniform search on Friday now that Bailey will need them for school (I just found out!). I love shopping but when you actually NEED to find items with limited time and she has to try on the pants at each store it quickly became a chore...especially battling the lovely Alabama afternoon heat 7 1/2 months pregnant and it was NO TAX weekend so it was quite busy. After the 5th store I finally found a great deal on the uniform dresses in khaki and navy - 2 styles each. Whew! I felt so accomplished after getting all her outfits for the next school done in 3 hours. We even stopped at the Target cafe for a cinnamon pretzel with a cherry coke and a few refills.

This week I will be making either blackberry, blueberry, or peach cupcakes for the ZTA Luncheon on Thursday. I'm leaning toward blackberry or blueberry because I am lazy and don't feel like peeling the peaches ;) Also, I'm at a war with a diaper bag and my embroidery hoop...I think I will youtube how to pin a frame.

Have a great week!!

Party Here:
http://www.iheartnaptime.net/2011/08/sundae-scoop-link-to-party-8.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Iheartnaptime1+%28I+heart+naptime+with+Chocolate+Sundaes%29

One Step Closer

Today my sweet husband met me at Best Buy during tax free weekend to help me buy a new laptop for my future website! He researched what kind of laptop I needed for running an online business. Isn't he the best?!? Because I really don't have a clue what I need ;) So my next step is looking into website companies for the best design, speed, and capabilities. I'm so excited!

Summer of Cupcakes #5

Half way to the goal...and there are how many weeks left before the summer ends?!? I made Chocolate - Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes with Chocolate Cheesecake Icing filling and Chocolate Shavings on top. This was my first go at chocolate shavings so the beginning was a little rough until I got the hang of it. I would rank these with 5 stars...they were pretty fabulous. I did them in the jumbo size since I needed less than 15...12 for the event and 3 for home ;)

My chandelier cupcake holder made another grand appearance at the ZTA Alumnae Wine Tasting event last weekend. Next week I will be making Peach Cupcakes with Fresh Whipped Topping for a luncheon and Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes for my BFF's birthday dinner. That will be 7! I may have to do some "Zeta Turquoise Cupcakes" for recruitment weekend in two weeks if I have time between running around...Sorority Recruitment...It's one my favorite time of the year.

Party time:





http://whipperberry.com/2011/08/friday-flair-who-i-am-with-melissa-kellie-from-icing-designs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Whipperberry+%28WhipperBerry%29

New Items Are In!!

My order came in this week and I have pantie covers in all sizes, pink and blue bibs, and decorative linen hand towels! This morning as I was getting ready I thought...I really want to see what those bibs look like with an initial so instead of getting ready I did up this fancy bib for a little guy I am meeting for the first time on Saturday. This Saturday we have 2 little girl birthday parties to attend - both around the same time but within 5 miles of each other so Bailey and I will be birthday hopping Saturday morning and then going to meet little Samuel afterwards. Here are their presents:

Wrapped Up and Ready!

Backpack embroidery

It took me a few tries 20 minutes later, but I got the hoop on strait and put "BCM" for Brycen Conner McArdle or Bailey Carson McArdle...whichever we use it for. Bailey still has her backpack from last year in fabulous condition since it was basically used to hold an extra outfit and a folder...now her lunch box from last year...that was thrown away. So this will be Brycen's over night bag or maybe his diaper bag?!? I don't know yet. I made him a burp cloth with the new little elephant I ordered...he is so cute...or she if it was in pink ;) And lastly I made a reversible Long Jon-Jon to sell! It is super cute, but Blake is not for the Jon-Jon look on little boys...oh well! I had a feeling but wanted to make it anyway. Now I have my first item to put on sale in an etsy store! whoop whoop! I will wait until I stockpile a few more things before making the site...plus I need a good name for it.

I stayed up way too late last night working on the above mentioned as well as other projects. I hate bringing out both machines now that my craft room is a nursery so the kitchen table = disaster zone with two machines, sewing box, bags of scraps for appliques, the laptop hooked up, projects lying in their special piles... I repaired a giant hole in Blake's jeans back together (they are his favorite's) and I shortened straps on Bailey's mickey mouse dress that we bought at Disney World...yeah a few projects that needed to be done back in APRIL. Procrastinate much?!?

New items are in the mail!

I just met up with a friend and we ordered so many cute things from www.embroiderthis.com. I'm so excited to put names on bloomers and bibs for baby gifts and newly married couples initials on towels. I also ordered a large spool of orange embroidery thread for $3.10! What an incredible deal! I love love love finding good deals! Can't wait to put Sweet Little Brycen's initials on the bibs as well as all the other babies being born this year. I have 3 little girl birthday parties to attend over the next two weekends so the bloomers will be great gifts for them. I can't wait to show pictures of everything that I will be working on...we are getting a new faster laptop next week during "no tax" weekend so I will be able to work on more projects and open a website! I may start with just an etsy store at first and then branch off...we are looking into options right now. Any tips on starting a website retail business is appreciated! I am starting with embroidery, sewing and cookies - I have everything for those three hobbies without having to invest anything more. So who knows I may branch off into vinyl stuff but that will have to wait until I get a handle on these three first. The next few weeks will be busy but I'm ready for a new challenge.

Rambling about time

Today I found myself looking at things to purchase for the future and almost went crazy. The list kept getting longer and longer (new this, new that, upgrade this...ooh! I need one of those too). After looking at a few items I realized I needed to stop getting too carried away. I have these goals and when I haven't checked off one or two in a while I get very frustrated with myself for letting time slip by. I am suppose to have a business plan done this summer along with 10 perfect cupcakes. So far 3 out of the 4 were fabulous. So I still need 7 perfect cupcakes by the end of August. Where has the summer gone?! Time...it still feels like I just graduated from college and it has been 3 1/2 years! 3 1/2 years - I could have completed my masters by now (on a very slow pace) or I don't know...opening a cupcake shop?!? Brycen will be here in 14 weeks...I feel like I just found out and 26 weeks have already past.

Two cupcakes coming this weekend (hopefully they will be perfect...then I will be halfway there): Chocolate Chocolate Cheesecake & Mint Chocolate Chip

Although the summer is passing by, "Bailey's Summer Checklist" is almost complete! We completed a few more this past weekend: Water Park and Travel for the Weekend (Panama City Beach).

What's left on "Bailey's Summer Checklist":

• Golf Range with Daddy
• Splash Pad
• Putt-Putt Outing
• Go Bowling
• Ride a bike with training wheels without help
• Make Smoothies
• Go to a baseball game - Biscuits
• Play with play dough

Some of these are small but we haven't found time to do them yet. Bailey's last week of daycare is this week and then Blake will be keeping her while he is off orders so they should be able to get some or most of these done before school starts in 4 weeks. I think Making Smoothies might get checked off tonight :)

2 more onesies

I did these onesies a few weeks ago for a baby girl gift. I finally saw the mom-to-be yesterday to give them to her. I love the purple flower! Her name is precious, Rileigh Ann. I also made some size tags for her closet for organization but I forgot to take a picture. Sorry for the horrible quality in these pictures - I used my cell phone.

Summer of Cupcakes #4

Today I am hosting the second "Zeta Crew" luncheon of the summer and I will be bringing these delicious cupcakes: Chocolate Peanut Butter with Chocolate Drizzle and a Reeses on top! I think these will go over well with the Zeta Lunch Crew Ladies. I did however cheat this time! I could not find a few of the ingredients to make the chocolate cake and the items were a bit on the expensive side...I need to go to a bakery shop and find these fine ingredients. So I made Dunkin Hines and it tastes amazing...love cake in the box. I have been trying to do everything homeade this summer but I couldn't this time. The icing is 100% homemade and Oh So Good!! The recipe was a lot! I packed on probably twice as much icing on each cupcake and still had leftovers...so I put it in a a Tupperware dish and will save it for dipping apple slices in later :) yum! Also...take notice in the quality of the picture because I got a new camera!! I'm so excited to be able to post quality pictures now! I needed a new camera before Baby #2 arrived so I am practicing with it on my cupcakes.

Lingerie Shower

For the past two weeks I have been busy getting ready for a fabulous Lingerie Shower with a Fiesta theme. Blake just happened to be in Puerto Rico a few weeks ago so we scored on getting good tequila for a great price. Every night for the past week and a half I have dedicated 1-3 hours to doing something: cookie dough, cookie icing, 3 layers on the pinata, spray painting the pinata, tissue paper covering the pinata, bagging the cookies, making the cookies, decorating the cookies and my love/hate relationship on printing out the invitations ;) Here are pictures of the fabulous shower. We had such a fun time even if the weather was bad. Three of us hosted and two of us are pregnant...so more margaritas for everyone else ;) I forgot to take a picture of the margarita shaped cookies and lingerie cookies...hopefully someone else did on their camera.

The hostesses with the bride-to-be in front of the lingerie pinata!

Summer of Cupcakes #3

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes! I am not one to love white cake but this white cake was Delicious! Although not as good the next day... I need to find a better way to store them. Anyway, it called for almond extract in the cake but I wish I would have used key lime extract or juice because almond and key lime do not exactly go together. Sorry I forgot to take a picture!! It was a white cake with the center removed and filled with Key Lime "stuff" and a homemade whipped topping. The batch made 24 big ones! So I took them to two different events that were back-to-back. For the second event I realized I did not have enough whipped topping and I had a lot of the Key Lime "stuff" left over so I combined them and Blake said they were much better that way and tasted more "key limish". He even said he would pay $2 a cupcake for them which is saying a lot. So another cupcake scratched off the list for The Summer of Cupcakes! Next up: Chocolate-Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes!

Bed Rest on July 4th Weekend

I had the worst feeling this past Thursday while watching Transformers 3 at the movies with Blake but thought it was just pains from being uncomfortable. The last hour of the movie (3 hours with commercials) I was having contractions. I knew the pains were long and sharp but they went away. After the movie was over I went to stand up and realized quickly that I couldn't. I couldn't because my stomach felt like it would burst and my body felt cinched together - there was no way to stand up. So I sat there and tried to breath and relax - I tried to recline in the chair as far back as I could go and after 5 minutes or so I was able to slowly stand up. It hurt so bad, but I tried not to panic. I went to the bathroom to make sure everything was okay and it was so we went home and read about contractions at 23 weeks. It is not uncommon and that dehydration is the main reason...light bulb! I had been sick most of Wednesday and Thursday and was not able to keep anything down besides my trusty staple: dr. pepper. So the rest of my four day weekend was spent on bed rest. We did leave the house a few times but other than that I stayed off my feet and rested. Cramping lasted for a few more days but no more sharp pains/contractions after Thursday. Thank the Lord. I drank as much water as I could over the weekend and had my regular appointment on Tuesday - everything is doing good and he is measuring right on time.

I realize after this happened that I do too much that week, but it's not because of procrastinating - everything I have to do always seems to be on the same day or back-to-back. I don't schedule it to be insane...it just happens. This week I have done my best to do one thing after work to prepare for the chaos this weekend :) I'd mention all the things but if my mother reads this she would flip out that I've over scheduled myself AGAIN.

Cookie Cake

I haven't done a cookie cake in some time and needed a practice run before I make 2 for a Lingerie Shower coming up next weekend. It turned out delicious! I wanted to practice drawing a margarita glass so I made it with bright colors for my bunco group I hosted this week.

Embroidery Projects

I embroidered a few more items over the weekend for gifts: a little girl's 1st birthday party in a ladybug theme, a burp cloth with a lady bug embroidered on it. To be honest I had to test the ladybug on something so why not do a gift at the same time?! Well I put the little girl's name at the top to realize midway through that it was not spelled correctly so I stopped it to start over and well...I did my best to make it look like I wanted the letters to go up ;) The baby is just going to spit on it right?!? I'm using "It's a new font I'm trying out" as my excuse!

This was my first time to do letters over an applique. I love it and her momma is pleased too!

Okay so you see I had to put the letters at the top of each letter....It's suppose to look like that right?!

All things Boy

I am thrilled about having a boy. It is harder than I thought to make things cute but boyish at the same time. I went to get some boy patterns at HL and quickly realized there are not any. So I bought a simple romper pattern but they only had it is sizes 1, 2, and 3. I have a few outfits I can compare to the size one and see where to shorten/take in...other than that there is nothing to make but some cute onesies with his name and a boyish applique. So to introduce his name to the world of facebook I made his first onesie. It turned out so adorable...but in a boy way. Also, here are some pictures of the Airplane Nursery! It will look so good once all the ideas in my head are played out. Blake is being a bit of a downer on all my ideas because it is "too much", but I suppose he is right...I don't need to have EVERYTHING in airplanes, he is too small for a growth chart, and childish airplanes with WW II airplanes do not mix.