Happy Birthday Laney!

Did you know that we bought Greenies off of Craigs List?  Kind of a crazy way to buy a business, and it is all thanks to Darin's sister Ellayne.  She had been campaigning to get us to move to Tri Cities for years.  So when she finally found something that would work for us we took the opportunity and ran.  Ok so there is more to it than that but Ellayne set it all in motion.   She's awesome.  Ellayne's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and as soon as I saw this I knew it would be exactly the perfect for her gift.  She LOVES Christmas, couponing {crazy good at it too} and she has five kids- hence the planning ;).

What better way to spend a cozy evening curled up with your ads, writing your Christmas lists and planning your black friday attack than with a Christmas planner and some cute slippers?! Throw in some hot chocolate and Bing Crosby and its the perfect way to relax at the end of the day.  

Aren't these slippers so cute?  They are flannel lined and have some snowflake traction on the bottom. 

The rosettes just make me smile and almost made me keep them .

These Christmas planners are so fun.  The ribbon ties are key if you have little sneaks around.  Although you might need to padlock the ties if they are a little bit bigger sneaks.  

  

On the inside flaps there is one envelope for coupons and one for receipts.  

The planner has four tabs.  Starting with The List.  

1.  The List  2.  Calender  3.  Menus  4.  Notes

I found an awesome weekly calender and started it on November 1st and it goes all the way through January 1.   She won't miss a beat!  Happy Birthday Laney!

On another note, can you believe that we are already two weeks in to November?!  Does anyone have a good idea to slow down the next 2 months?  

Perfect Ending

Thank you Passionista for the perfect ending to a crazy week.  Walking up the the red barn I knew it was going to be exactly what my heart needed.  I only imagine these kind of evenings, and this is one I'll love forever.

 

Thank you Mindy for covering the Cure so that even Darin was hooked.  Oh, and uh, any information about where you got your fabulous boots would be greatly appreciated. 

+++++

Love,

My Dragon, uh I mean Princess...

My little girl was going to be a dragon for Halloween.   Or more specifically Toothless.   She decided two months ago and hadn't waffled one bit.  She loved telling Grandma's and Grandpas at Costco, and everyone else that she was a dragon. 

Until Friday night. 

We were at her cousins house and Ivy fell in love with a "Belle" dress.  Like gaga.  She wouldn't take it off.  Begged her aunt Laney to borrow it.  She even wanted to wear it to bed.  The next day I tried to talk her in to the dragon costume, with no such luck.  And since I'm learning which battles to pick with this one, I knew it wasn't worth the fight. 

Luckily, I am a good mom {really I am!} and knew that she would pick the princess dress.  So I stayed up  late Friday night and fixed it a little bit.  I added the pick-ups using elastic thread to really get the Belle effect.  I patched a few holes and ironed it so it would be ready for my little princess... 

...who loved it.  And since she had been waiting EVER so patiently for Halloween to come she got to go trick or treating three times on Saturday. 
 

But just like last year she had way more fun handing out the candy. 
In her dragon costume. 

Happy Halloween!

Ivy's Pumpkin Party

On Monday Night Ivy hosted her First Annual Pumpkin Party.  She has been asking if it was Halloween yet for 2 months, and has been wanting a party if the worst way.  So we invited all of Darin's family over to carve pumpkins!

I turned to my trusty friend, Picnik to help me out with the invitations.  I saved a blank image  in photoshop the size that I wanted -4x8- then imported that in to Picnik and used their halloween stickers and fonts to whip this up.   Then I imported it back into photoshop so I could print three on a page.  I know, I know, sometimes I cheat on Picnik, but as much as I love it, there are some things it just can't do ;)

 After I  printed it out, I used my favorite Halloween paper and my big shot to decorate the other side. Check out that creepy spider shadow!

  We hand delivered the invitations then waited for our party.  After my apple-palooza this weekend I decided to buy all of the food go easy on myself for refreshments  We had chips and salsa, apples with caramel dip, and pumpkin donuts.  

Since I went the easy route on the food it freed up some time to make a couple of decorations!  {Cuz I would much rather do that then make cookies!}  I made some food label thingy's using picnik - of course- to put by the food and drinks.  I also put together a little banner using cardstock and some baker's twine. 

Ivy had a blast playing with her cousins more than anything.  It was all we could do to tear them away to carve pumpkins for a few minutes! Darin had elaborate plans for a witch, but he decided to go the easy route too, and went for the goofy smile instead.

And that, my friends is exactly why we moved here.  So we could do things like have pumpkin parties with our family and Ivy could be the bestest friends with her cousins.  Thanks Warnicks for coming!