Andrew's 6 Months Old

You are now 6 months old. I can't believe how much you have grown is such a short time...though when I look back, I can't imagine that you have only been in our lives for 6 months because I can't imagine our lives without you. Things are finally starting to settle and fall into place with you. Your night time sleeping is improving...slowly but surely.

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Andrew's Half Birthday Celebration

Happy half birthday Andrew!!!

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Andrew's One Month Celebration

We started a little tradition with Emily, where we had a family celebration for Emily's first and six month...so, of course we have to continue that tradition with Andrew. We had a small get together with our families to celebrate Andrew turning 1 MONTH old. Nothing huge, just a nice dinner and cupcakes for dessert. Everyone got a chance to hold and cuddle with Andrew while we hung out, soaked up the beautiful weather and delicious dinner (cooked by yours truly), and enjoyed each others company.

Uncle "J" and Emily

Nana and Andrew

Not quite ready for a cupcake yet...11 more months

My Birthday Surprise

Craig totally out did himself this year!!! As I type this for you, I am still amazed at what he has done. For my birthday, Craig told me that he wanted to cook a nice dinner for me, but he was going to surprise me with what he was going to make. To accomplish this, he needed me out of the house for a few hours before dinner.

I was more than happy to comply and I was so excited to see what he was going to make. When I was finally allowed back home, Craig greeted me at the door and I was surprised to see him still in his nice work clothes (slacks and a button down shirt). As he was walking me through the living room, I could see a beautiful table set up on our back deck. It was adorned with white linen, our china from our wedding (used maybe a total of five times...now six), and a gorgeous bouquet of flowers.

Coming through the kitchen, I was introduced to our personal chef: Chris. He was one of Craig's childhood friends, but the man knew his way around the kitchen. Craig, later, told me that he was a chef at The Gateway to India, Anthony's, and The Spar. Chris had arranged to create for us a 5-course meal. I was in heaven!!!

As we walked to the back and sat at the table, it was clear to see that Craig really thought out every little detail...from the music playing in the background, to the vase holding my bouquet of flowers (it was practically a matching set to the one that he had used at my proposal).

 

~My 5 Course Meal~

  

Asparagus with balsamic vinegar and Parmesan Cheese

 

Berry Salad (Raspberry, Blackberry, Blueberry) with a strawberry puree dressing

Chicken with an orange glaze and garlic mashed potatos

Peach and Strawberry Sorbet

My Cupcake for dessert...I devoured it before remembering to take a picture...OOPS!!

DELICIOUS!!!!!

My final surprise from Craig was...

a sweet "Bachelorette" type date. He is whisking me away on a boat plane from Seattle to Orcas Island...where we will be staying at the Rosario Resort!!! How cool is that!! I cannot wait! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Emily's TUTU TWO PARTY

OH MY GOODNESS!! Emily's party is just a blur to me! Note to self...do not have a party during the week because you are all by yourself to set up, cook, frost, and at the same time...make sure that the birthday girl has a great day!!! I have already posted the tutorials on the crafts that I made for the party, so I will just post pictures from the party. If you have any questions about how I did something, or where I purchased things from, leave me a post.

DECORATIONS 

 

Click on this photo to get a closer picture of what it says. I basically took her invitation and changed some of the wording to give guests directions to take a tie, or bow, and head on to the back for the party. 

 I used the Cricut to make a HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign that matched her invitations. Sorry, you can't see it really well.

FOOD

I used about ten yards of tulle to make the table skirt, then I pinned a sequined ribbon to hide all of the pins from the tulling. I purchased the tulle tent from Target. I figured I would reuse it for Emily's big girl room. 

The cook always has to taste what they cook before the guests arrive...and I have to say...they were DELICIOUS!!!

After everyone enjoyed their burgers, I cleared off the table to make room for the birthday cupcakes. The special cupcake stand is actually a candelabra that I have had for years. I don't remember exactly where I got it from. I want to say it was at a Christmas exhibit one year. 

Emily's Friends

CUPCAKES

 She wanted to see the pictures that I was taking of her. When she saw this photo she said, "Mess!!" LOL

Gift From Mom and Dad

 I am so happy with how much she loves her gift!! Unfortunately it has become a huge struggle to get her to clean up and get ready for nap time or bedtime. We placed this in the dining room so she can see us while we cook in the kitchen and she can cook in her kitchen at the same time. 

I can't believe that I have a two year old now!! I remember, as if it were just yesterday, bringing her home from the hospital! I look at pictures of her now and I just can't believe where the time has gone.

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Birthday Ties For The Gentlemen Guests!

Yes...if I'm going to make something for all of the girls to wear at the party, I certainly don't want the boys to feel left out. I had two ideas: Ties or Crowns. Craig immediately vetoed the crown idea (even though I still like it and I think it fits the tu-tu theme really well). Craig liked the formality of the ties for the tu-tu party a lot better...so ties it is!!

Materials

• Fabric
• Fusing Material
• Felt (by the yard)
• Iron
• Tie Pattern
• Pen
• Scissors
• Hot Glue Gun
• Hair Clips (Sally's Beauty Supply) 

This is super basic, and easy to make. I let Craig pick out the fabric for the ties, and then we purchased matching felt to fuse to the back of the fabric so that it helped to keep the tie flat and stiff.

After fusing the fabrics together, I placed the pattern piece on top and traced as many ties as I could.

Then, go ahead and cut out the ties

Now for the back of the tie. I didn't want to glue my hair clips directly to the tie because I thought it would kind of be a waste. I can recognize that no one is going to really keep these ties and reuse them the following Sunday at church. So, to save my clips I decided to cut small strips of felt approximately 1 inch long by 1/2 and inch wide. Then I placed a dot of hot glue on both ends of the strip and placed it on the back of the tie near the top. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of this, but you can hopefully visualize from the picture below. The idea of the strip of felt is that I can put one part of the hair clip behind the strip.

Here is the final product. So, when the gentlemen arrive, they just pop on the tie and are ready for the tu-tu party...all dressed up!!!

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No Sew Tu-Tu Tutorial

For Emily's first birthday, our chosen theme was: Emily's First BEE-day party. We loved the idea of the play on words...so Craig has creatively come up with her next birthday party's theme. Since she is turning 2...the theme is...(drum roll please)...A TU-TU PARTY!!!! Get it? She's turning two...so it's a TU-TU PARTY!!

The birthday is only a couple of weeks away and I have a lot to do to. So, basically...to address the theme...there will be A LOT of tulle being used for the decorations. Obviously a tutu is going to be made for Emily...by ME!! I have tulle for the table skirt, tulle for wrapping around the chairs, tulle to make a skirt around the cake stand, and tulle to make the lady guests a tulle hair clip...and I'm sure there will be tulle many other places as well.

Today's post is on the tutu that I made for Emily. I have to say that I was pretty proud of how well it came out. I searched the internet, high and low, for a tutorial on making a tutu and also for pictures of how I wanted the tutu to turn out. A lot of the pictures were of tutu's that weren't as full as I wanted them to be, or they were too long so the tutu was droopy looking. So, here's what I did. Since I LOVED Emily's tutu from her first party (made by Strawberrie Rose), I dug it out of her "outgrown clothing bin" and I gave it a close look over...and I wanted to attempt this on me own.

To begin, the biggest push that helped me to do this on my own was a small craft store near my house that had rolls of tulle, in all sorts of colors...ON SALE. So, it was a relief that I didn't have to purchase yards or tulle from the fabric store and cut it into strips myself.

So let's begin with the tutorial ~
MATERIALS:
3/4 inch elastic
2 rolls of tulle (25 yards each)
     ~Obviously I used three only because I wanted more color, but for the fullness of the tutu, it didn't take more than two full rolls of the tulle
Scissors
Measuring Tape
Round object to put the waistband around as you place the tulle on


1. I measured Emily's waist and then took away one inch. This will be the length of the elastic band. I used a clothes pin to secure the width and then sewed the elastic together to form a waistband.
2. I rummaged through my cabinets to find something round that I could put the waistband around securely so that my hands would be free to tie the tulle on. The best thing that I could find was an unused cookie jar. It was perfect!!

3. I rolled out the tulle and cut the entire roll into 20'' strips because I wanted the length of the tutu to be 10'' long. I did this to both the white and pastel pink rolls.

4. I wanted mostly pink to show through, so I decided to tie the tulle with the following pattern: pink, pink, white, pink, pink, white. 

5. Take your 20'' strip of tulle and place one end through the back of the waistband and pull it until the two ends are equal. Then tie a double knot.

There is a second way to place the tulle on the waistband. You fold the strip in half, place the folded piece around the waistband and then pull the ends of the strip through the loop. I tried this, but wasn't very happy with the outcome. I felt that it took up too much room on the waistband so the end result of the tutu wouldn't be as full as I would want it.

6. To add fullness (I'm not sure if this made a huge difference or not...I think that it did), I alternated the height of my knots. For example, I started with one know on the bottom on the waistband and then the next knot I would make towards the top of the waistband. 

7. Keep adding tulle!!! As I was about half way finished with the tutu...I stood back to take a look and I felt like there just wasn't enough color. You couldn't tell if it was white or pink. My original plan was to take my bright pink tulle and tie small sections onto the ends of the each of the parts of the skirt, just like in her bumble bee tutu pictured at the top of the post. I tried it out and it didn't look exactly how I wanted to...SO...I decided to squeeze in the bright pink into my pattern. So, my new tulle pattern became: lt pink, bright pink, lt pink, white, lt pink, bright pink, lt pink, white. At first I was afraid that it would look like stripes...but it was PERFECT!!!!!!