What next?

I have a hard time not having something on my agenda AT ALL TIMES! It makes my poor hubs crazy because I tend to drag him into my madness most times. Or I'll just work circles around him while he is trying to relax until he feels my energy and he feels the pressure to jump in! I love it when that happens!

Right now, I'm working on Mission Bowling Birthday party for McKenna! Her Birthday party is this Saturday and it's going to be cuter than snot seeing all those kiddos with the bumpers in the gutters and bowling ramps! I decided to get a little crafty with this party so I'll be busy with that this week. {pictures from the party to come soon}. I'm taking on the challenge of making my own yummy, filled-with-something cupcakes. I'm not a baker usually but I'm giving it a shot.

If you are coming to the party on Saturday and you are reading this, don't worry, I'll do test kitchen first ;)

As far as what's next...I'm thinking the bathroom.

Since we eventually want to knock down walls and build on to our T.T.C {teeny, tiny casa} I know it's not financially smart to sink too much $$ into this bathroom since we'll probably knock walls down later, but seriously, I need it to have a face lift!!! {sorry babe}

This is our bathroom when we closed on the house. It's a little cuter now, but not much!

I know you love the forest green accent tiles...I know I do {insert sarcasm}. The sad part is that it goes into the shower too.

{side note: the rug and shower curtain are not mine and are NOT there anymore. Just sayin'.}

So, here are a few pictures I'm drawing inspiration from. I need to get it all together in my brain and then execute the mission. {yes, I take it that serious}

This one is more of my DREAM bathroom with a claw foot tub. It's not happening for my bathroom "face lift" this time around, but one day it will be mine!!! muaahahaa.
I love this instead of wallpaper since that never seems to do well with the humidity in a small bathroom
I know, I know, I can't have the pattern above and this chevron patter in the same tiny bathroom, but I do love this rug.
Since our bathroom is so small I feel like shallow built ins like this would be so perfect. I love the towel baskets too.
Found this cute guy on Pinterest, but I have no idea where to get it! I just love it!

Love how rustic and functional floor caddy is. Found this guy on Pottery Barn's website.
mm, mmm, mmmm! How cute is this bathroom? Found this sweet inspiration here
I love the idea of a furniture piece like this turned into sink console. Of course I want to do it myself, but then really???
So clean, fresh and pretty.
So, there you have it! My bathroom inspirations. Let the count down begin as to when this will happen! If I blog it, it will come right???

4 years later...

Happy New Year!!

And Happy Birthday to our super sweet, smart and kind McKenna! Yes, I will gush while writing this blog post and I'll probably shed a tear as I think about her turning 4. I can't even begin to tell you the amount of baby pictures I have looked through in the last couple days thinking about how big she is getting and how sad and exciting it is to see her grow up. I know all you mommies out there can relate.

I am looking forward to watching her grow more and more each day into her own personality. It is true, she has Brian's crazy intelligence and my creativity...but she also has my sass and both of our stubbornness, so there is our challenge =)

2012 is going to be awesome either way, but this is how we have started our year so far...celebrating our girl's 4th birthday!

She woke up to her first big girl bike and a bunch of balloons, cause this girl...she loves her some balloons!! Look at that crazy bed head! I love it!!

I seriously want to eat those cheeks! I don't care how old she gets!!

Getting some love from Meema! Thank you Meema and Grandpa Jerry for

the safety gear now that this girl has wheels!

Next stop...Rainforest Cafe for Birthday lunch.

{her choice...she loves this joint!}

Boots joined us for her Birthday lunch. Here she is with to ladies that adore her more than words can say.

Brian and his Mom! It was so nice having Angie with us for a week! This was the first Birthday that she was able to celebrate with McKenna! It was very special. I'm blessed with an amazing Mother in law.

Take #2 on blowing the candles out. I have to admit, our server lit the candles again for us because I missed the photo op of the first huff and puff. Can you tell she is posing for this one? =)

That's what we do...we keep it classy with our birthday Sundae!

Next birthday activity for the day was Zoo lights at Point Defiance Zoo. Boots bought us tickets for Christmas and we made it on the very last day of Zoo Lights! It was the perfect way to end our Birthday celebration with our girl and the last night we got to spend with Angie as she flies back to Florida tomorrow morning.

It was pretty much an awesome day!

Other than the fact that Brian was pretty sick; he was a trooper and an amazing daddy for hanging in there with us through all the birthday activities today.

It wouldn't have been the same without him.

So, moving forward into the new year...I do think this will be an amazing year, but trust me when I say, I'm not unrealistic to think that this year won't bring it's share of heartache, frustrations and challenges. I'm just positive that as a family we will take better care; Better care of our health, our spiritual life the relationships in our lives, our marriage {more date nights!!} and our home! I'm looking forward to all of that!

So, happy New Year!! Thanks for keeping up with our life!

xo

Shelley

A couple more pictures...

So, I ended my last blog saying "so that takes us through to December..." So, not true!!! I forgot about Thanksgiving!!! My most favorite holiday of them all! What other time do we really stop and think about what we have to be thankful for?

First of all, I'm thankful for this:

This is a face to die for and she completes our sweet family every day! I can't thank God enough for giving us such a beautiful, kind, mostly sassy (she comes by it honestly) healty daughter! It makes me sad to see time go by so fast, but I'm also proud on a daily basis of how wonderful she is.

{Thanksgiving day 2011}

And then there is this face! Mustache and all! Even on the days I think I want to trade him in on a version that puts up with my crazy, I realize how thankful I am to have a husband who loves both of his girls so much!

{Thanksgiving day 2011}

I know this post is coming a little late in the year for being thankful, but looking back at these pictures made me realize I just didn't brag enough about my sweet little family of 3 this year! So, here it is! 12:00am on December 30th. I love this little family of mine! I hope to brag much more on this blog in the upcoming year!

Happy New Year in 2 days!!

That's all. Now I'm off to bed. =)

xo

Shell

My quarterly post...

Oh man...I am so bad at being consistent with my blog. I guess my blog should be more therapeutic and fun than stressful, right? I mean I think about posting new blogs all the time and then get a little disappointed in myself when I don't make the time to do it. I have to stop and think about the reasons I have not posted on my blog lately:

1. My family & friends are so fun to hang out with!!

2. My Etsy store has taken off and it's been such a blessing to be so busy creating for other people!

3. I finally had the chance to decorate my own house for Christmas! Yay!

All good reasons right? So, instead of stressing about not blogging and feeling like a blog failure, I decided to just blog about the reasons I haven't blogged. How repetitive do I sound now? I know, right?

So, here is what we've been up to since my last post in October...our friends & family! They are fun!

Brian took me to LaConnor, Wa for my 3?th birthday. SUCH a cute little town! I could have stayed for a few extra days for sure! I felt like I was a world away from normal life...it was nice for a day...just a day =)

This is the lodge we stayed in. How sweet, right? Great spa, great masseuse! We recommend this joint for sure.

Not the best picture of us, but still love this man regardless ;)

Moving on to the end of October, we come to all the fun festivities of Halloween...please don't judge me for not having a picture of McKenna in her costume! I'm just now realizing I never uploaded them and now I can't find them!!

This was our first field trip with McKenna! It was so much cuteness I couldn't even stand it! We went to Thomlinson's pumpkin farm in Enumclaw.

Why does she look sooo little to me here? Can I just stop time?? Please?

We ran into her sweet little friend Juliana too! Those two could pass as sisters!

Later at on the Heck farm came the creative punkin carving with Boots. The eyeballs for sure a little on the creepy side, but they just made me laugh.

Figures! ;)

Wait...I found one of her in her sweet little Strawberry Shortcake costume!!! TO.DIE.FOR!! I love this face so much!!

Next on the agenda...we co-planned and co-hosted our first annual "Drifthood Pointers" progressive happy hour in our neighborhood! We seriously live in such a cool community!! If you have at least a few neighbors that you love kickin it with I highly recommend starting a progressive happy hour hop...the personalized sweatshirts are a must to be successful!

We took McKenna to her first wedding! Congrats Jon and Jenn Reese!!!

Is this NOT the cutest little cake topper? Love it!

Loved all the Dahlia's, mason jars and of course all of the crafty, paper details! The bride is one of my craftiest friends ever!

Then it hit...

November is when the craziness of the craft shows began for me! It was amazing, but a whirlwind of business, excitement, fun and ramping up inventory between shows while keeping up with the orders I was still receiving through my Etsy store! I feel so blessed, but it was pretty crazy for a few weeks! 5 shows in about 8 weeks...whew...good times!

The first show I was invited to participate in was all because of two sweet gals, Wendy and Angela who found my shop on Etsy! This is the show that started the ball rolling for me and I'm thankful for it!

{Trophy Cupcakes in Wallingford, Seattle}

After that I organized and participated in a couple fund raiser events at Rendezvous Wine and Brew! This was SO awesome for me because this is also where I work a couple nights a week and the people I work with are amazing! Talk about supportive, generous people! I love'em all!!!

Boots and Callie also did the shows with me. It was a blast having them there and to share all that crafty success with them!

{me and my sister, Callie}

Boots and Callie at the Rendezvous event {take 2}

Then I was invited to participate in the Starbucks Corporate holiday bazaar...talk about a whirlwind of a day! So glad Callie was there with me to as well as Maegan and Sharla. I wouldn't have been the same without my fellow crafters! We all did the Rendezvous show the night before the Starbucks show at 9am the next morning in Seattle...crazy? Yes! Fun? Totally!!!

Would I do it again back to back like that? I'll get back to you on that one next year =)

{my booth at the Starbucks event}

A girl has to get pretty creative with a max of 3' of table space to set up on!!

One of the shows I had the honor of participating in was for my very dear friend Sarah's benefit for Child Haven of Auburn! What an amazing fun night!! Sarah organized a group called Hope Helpers which is basically a group of women to share ideas and organize events to give back to our local community. The Child Haven fund raiser was the first of many to come and it was so awesome to see the turn out of so many people in our community to give back! I love it! I can't wait to be part of the next one!

My sweet, beautiful friend Sarah!

Well, that basically takes us through to the first week of December! Those were just a few of the highlights! I think I'm blogging about this to make it real to myself how busy we were looking back. Sometimes we get so busy with life when we finally stop to think about what it is that kept us busy we can't remember the details. I'm hoping that in 2012 I create more memories with my family and friends, blog more, journal more, take more pictures so no matter how bad my memory gets I will always look back and remember how blessed I am to have this busy, crazy {at times} life. I truly am blessed.

Just to warn you, this is part 1 of 2; after all, I only got through the first week of December!!

xo

Shell