New Motivation

So I finally splurged and bought a jogging stroller!! Cambry and I took it for a spin this evening! I can't believe how smooth the ride was and how out of shape I am....
Cambry seemed to really enjoy the ride and I enjoyed the fresh air and exercise. We will see how long I keep it up and how well the newest set of wheels holds up in the Jackson household!

**GoAl**Drop 15 lbs before the end of the summer
Should be doable if I can stay away from all the temptations and desirable. I need to convince my mouth that Dr. Pepper and donuts are yucky and the water and celery are where it's at!

After selling Cambry's travel system - over sized and bulky and taking up way too much space - I decided up upgrade to this jogger. Check it out at: Walmart. It is the Instep Grand Safari. I am addicted to the color scheme and wanted a front swivel wheel. Only complaint so far is that it isn't very compactible. The journey will continue.....

Craft Fever

As I was laying around the house today, I felt a huge urge to craft come over me. I loaded Cambry in the car, picked up my sister and headed to Michaels!  After 1 1/2 hours and $20 (after sales and card member discounts), we came home with this:

Shopping list includes - 1 canvas, paint of your choice, brushes, ribbon of your choice, and sewing pins - we picked metallic colors for more color. (I already had the staple gun)

The goal is to create a new hair bow organizer for Cambry -  one that is larger and more functional for the bows we use on a daily basis.

My 1st step was to paint the canvas. I started with a solid purple base, then added pink and white for more color. Using a dry brush, I went edge to edge to blend the colors together. End look:



After allowing the canvas to dry, I cut and laid out the ribbons. I chose to alternate the thick ribbons around the thin. I stapled 1 end of the ribbon to the back of the canvas board and wrapped it around the front and stapled on the other end to wrap around the edges. 

Next, I cut down the sewing pins so they would not be longer than the width of the canvas. I put 2 pins in the wider ribbon and 1 pin in the smaller ribbon - random colors. This gives more accent but also keeps the ribbon in place after adding the weight of the bows. Some of the pins went through the wood frame, for those that went only through canvas, I used my glue gun to fasten them on the back side of the canvas.

For the wall hanger and accessory hangers, I used a long strand of plastic dress-up beads. I snapped every 9th bead off the strand to allow a place for me to staple them into place about 1.5 inches apart for the accessory hangers. As for the wall hanger, I took the remaining beads and stapled the ends between 2 beads 6 inches apart to have an even distribution. 

I was very pleased with the end product! It holds twice, if not three times as many hair bows as the original bow organizer I made, but also has a place for sunglasses and head bands - so it should grow with us for a while!

Birthday Fun!

Our baby girl turned 1 on March 29th! We celebrated with friends and family!  It was a great time planning and hosting!! I wish we had more reasons for celebrating - maybe we can make up some new ones!  Through all the excitement, it is still bitter sweet. To think that 1 year ago, I was holding the smallest most precious gift anyone could ever receive. And I grew her - for nine months I was the only one who could give her the care she needed. Now, after 12 months of having her to hold, I feel so blessed and happy and thankful. She is a healthy, beautiful toddler....There, I said it. My beautiful baby has grown up into a beautiful TODDLER!!
I do want to share some of the things my mom and I did to make Cambry's birthday such a wonderful celebration. First of all, that onesie and tutu are the doings of my mom (and Pinterest).

These are the party favors. I upcycled some empty baby food jars by spray painting the lids silver. I filled each jar with some small candies - jelly beans, M&Ms, skittles. Then added colored paper to make the the jar accents. These were a great success and super cheap!! The kiddos all loved them especially with a balloon tied around the top. They also were great table decorations! Way to multi-purpose!!!

 

This was by far one of my favorite creations! A lollipop tree accented with jelly beans!  I made this with a 4 inch styrofoam ball, a dowel rod, and 4 bags of Dum Dums. First, I created the lollipop of Dum Dums by taking cutting down all the Dum Dum sticks to about 1.5 inches. I started in 1 spot and filled in around it. Second, I glued a cylinder piece of styrofoam into the base and weighted the base down with marbles. To help secure the styrofoam, I put a few wash cloths between it and the bucket walls. This helped keep it from shifting as well as made a good seperation for the jelly beans. Finally, I stuck the lollipop tree into the styrofoam and added the small windmills I found for 99 cents at Hobby Lobby. It was a crowd pleaser after they realized they could eat it!!

Another favorite of mine was the cupcakes my mom and I made together. They were nothing fancy but worked really well and made everyone happy. We simply used boxed cake mix (it was too much for us to bake from scratch). We decorate them ourselves using the STAR tip for most of the decorating. It always gave us a fun, bright point.  The best part of the whole day was watching little miss dig into her cake (we used a pot pie aluminum pan to make hers). She loved digging in and getting dirty!! She is just too cute!!