Girl time

For Isabella's birthday, we decided it might be fun to have her over to hang out with us, have some girl time, and do something fun together.  We let her 'design' her own day from some suggestions we had, and she picked to have lunch with me, go to Michael's to pick out a craft, then have her friend over to our house to do the selected craft project, then have dinner and a sleepover with us.

It was so fun trying to get a few things ready to make the day feel special for Isabella.  She wanted brownies as her 'cake', so I just baked some brownies in cake pans and topped with ganache...

And set the table with my most feminine things - my mismatched teacups, delicate glasses that Krissy got me years and years ago, my silver candy server, and the napkin holders that hold fresh flowers (which I failed to get in time for the playdate!).

 
It was such a pleasure to have Isabella over for the day and have some great quality time with her - and A&T, too!  I mean what can be bad about a day with tacos for lunch, brownie cake in the afternoon, tacos again for dinner, and more brownie cake to follow?  We capped it off with the Crow family joining us for breakfast the next morning.  Fun times.  We feel so blessed to be at the same place as our dear friends.

Haircut

So, the fiddle leaf fig tree finally got a hair cut.  My new fiddle leaf fig expert friend, Al, helped me with all my questions about the tree.  We moved it to the far corner of our dining room - not the ideal spot for it...but he is honestly SO big, we don't have a perfect spot for him in this room.  But...this will do :)  I gave him a trim, and are going to hope for the best.

Before - this actually doesn't even do justice to just how big and unruly he was!

The tree also got a new pretty basket - this one is the Basay basket from Crate and Barrel - half the price of the PB look alike.  

And some sheet moss too...this came in a bag instead of getting it fresh b/c I haven't found anywhere that carries the fresh stuff.

All the cuttings are providing my 'fresh' greenery fix.  It may not be fresh flowers, but this will do - and maybe they will root if I am lucky!

I hope the tree likes its new home :)

The indecisive mirror.

We received this stunning mirror from my aunt for Christmas....

The mirror was bigger than I had thought it was, and I wanted to find the perfect spot for it in the house.  First, I thought I was not going to use this in our downstairs bath, so I went ahead and painted three other inexpensive mirrors to arrange on that wall.  But then, I decided that maybe it would be good in the bathroom.  So, I painted the black mirror white, and my patient husband hung it for me. After all that, I wasn't convinced it was in the right spot.

In the meantime, I finally moved the fiddle leaf fig tree from the middle of the room where it served as our Christmas tree, and I realized that the mirror might be a perfect fit for that wall.  HOWEVER, the now white mirror doesn't stand out enough against our gray owl walls. 

SOOOO...I am contemplating gold leafing the mirror.  Have you ever gold leafed?  I silver leafed once when I made this for my brother, and I made quite a mess.  I guess I am in the mood for gold - I am brainstorming another gold project.

I will update you as the craziness continues.

The mirror in the guest bath.  Two mirrors that I adore, but they compete against each other.

In the living room.  I like the location...now I have to figure out the right color for the mirror so that it pops.

Who is truly the indecisive one?  The mirror, or me? :)

This just makes me realize that I sometimes just need to slow down and think through more options before trying to rush to a conclusion.

Fruit Crates

I had been on a fruit crate kick lately.  I had seen some pictures of fruit crates on casters and I thought it would be fun to find a few crates, nail them together and put them on casters to serve as a bookshelf for Paddy.

Oh happy day...while we were at home over Christmas, I made my regular trip to Wise Penny in Wheaton (the awesome thrift store that my mom volunteers at), and I found three crates, already nailed together, ready to go.  The store had been using it as a display case, but they said they would sell it for $8.  DONE.  It wasn't PERFECT, but for the price, it was.  The top one is smaller than the bottom two crates, and the inside of the middle crate was painted white...I wish it was still the natural wood.

My dad and I picked up some casters at Home Depot, and he very kindly put them on for me.  Sean was able to fit this into the car to get it home - hooray!

The shelf:

Casters...

The best part of this project is that Paddy is going for his books so much more often than he did when I had them in big baskets on the floor.

Hmmm...which book should I pick? (this is currently one of my favorite gestures of Paddy's)

this one will be good...

Boston, re-done.

A while back, I posted about our Boston print by our friend, Ari Hauben.  We were excited to get it framed when we moved into our house.  I did have it framed, but it didn't turn out how I had seen it in my mind.

Ari had written us a message at the bottom, so we definitely wanted that to show (through this process I learned that artists always sign prints in pencil...I never knew that!).

The message...

 
However, I wanted a matching white border around the other three sides as well.

I had it framed at the craft store on post, and the manager could not have been more kind or accomodating.  She wanted to make sure I loved it.  I waited a long time (way too long) before bringing it back in.  I tried and tried to live with it, but I just couldn't.  It is that little tick inside me that needs symmetry...I just had to have it.  I got it back recently, and we are smitten.

Before: 

After:

I love how you can still see the 'depth' of the piece even though it is a print, not the original.

There is one small 'love' stencil on the print.  LOVE.  Can you imagine making all these stencils?  Ari made this piece with lots of layers...newspapers, paint, stencils - and probably lots of other things that I am not even aware of.

Thanks again, Ari.  We love it!

High Flying

Loving this vintage metal airplane that my parent's got Paddy for Christmas.  My mom and I found it at an antique store in Cold Spring.  Sean did a great job hanging it - I love how it looks like it is just soaring around the sky...

Paddy is one...menu planning

I am as bad at menu planning as I am at picking out paint.

The menu wasn't finalized until probably 3 days before the party, even though I made a valiant effort to have it done much earlier.

The gathering was from 2-4, so we didn't need to serve a full meal, but being that a lot of cadets were coming, I wanted to have enough substantial food that they would leave feeling full.  So, at the last minute we decided to add some meat to the menu.

Here was the final menu...

Food:
1.  Artichoke Breads 
2.  Grandma's French Onion dip and chips

3.  Ina's Hummus with tomatoes, feta and black olives sprinkled on top with pita chips
4.  Cheese, Crackers, Apples and Grapes
5.  Caprese with fresh basil

6.  Sausage Cheese Balls (I always just google these before I make them, so I never have a consistently good recipe - does anyone have one that they always use/like??)
7.  Chinese Chicken Skewers with dipping sauces (ginger, sesame and mustard vinaigrette)

Sweets:
1.  Red Velvet Cake Pops  
Once these were made, I covered them with glassine bags and tied them with orange polka dot gingham ribbon)

2.  Brenda's famous carrot cake cupcakes (I made small and regular sized cupcakes for guests at the party and I made Paddy a ginormous cupcake with a silicone mold that I found on eBay.  His cake turned out completely lopsided and weighed about 20 lbs.  Too funny.)

cupcakes...

from a distance it doesn't look quite as bad as it really is...

here is the leaning tower of carrot cake...at least Paddy enjoyed it...

3.  Chocolate covered marshmallows (it took me a while, but I finally found the really giant ones at WalMart.  I used baking chocolate in the disposable plastic containers to make it easy on clean up and then sprinkled with orange/blue sprinkles.  Once they were set, I stuck lollipop sticks in the bottom of them.  I had a large hurricane that I filled with sugar that we stuck the marshmallows in for display.)

4.  Chocolate covered graham crackers (just because I had lots of melting chocolate left)

 
5.  Texas Sheet Cake (recipe from my mom)


Drink:
Orange Sherbert Punch (equal parts orange soda and ginger ale and then add orange sherbert ice cream)

If I had to do it over again...

1.  I would not make hummus...I feel like this is a food that people either like or hate....not too much of it was eaten.
2.  I am SO glad that we decided to make the chicken...almost every skewer was eaten!  We made ~5 lbs of it.
3.  I would try to make the foods as accessible on the table as possible...those that were less accessible were less eaten.

Christmas Cards

I made our Christmas cards this year, and as with other years, I wanted to include a picture, but I wanted a wallet print just because it would fit the best.  I don't know if you have ever priced wallets, but they are so much more expensive than 4x6s!  I have never bought them before for that reason.  However, I found a site, mPix, that had wallets at a good price.  They turned out pretty well...although Sean's head did get cropped a bit, and on the preview, I had ensured that no one was cropped. 

I designed these in PowerPoint (I know, I really need to figure buy/figure out how to use Illustrator one of these days), and then just used double stick tape to place the pictures on the card.

I enjoy making cards...now, if I could just get my printer to cooperate and not have a jam on every other page, or stop wirelessly printing whenever it feels like it, I would save hours and hours of my life and be much happier during the card making process :)

Paddy is one...invitations

Paddy turned one on November 13th (I can't believe it has taken me this long to post this!).  We decided to keep it somewhat simple by having a small gathering with the cadets that we sponsor and a small group of friends.

I sent out some invitations that I made using baker's twine, double sided tape, and scraps of fabric that I had laying around.

I know the banner theme is very played out, but I am still a fan.  I seem to be like that with most trends...probably late to the game and stay in the game longer than I should. :)

Unconventional.

So, due to the super-sized fiddle leaf fig tree, there really wasn't room for a Christmas tree as well.  We are happy with our decision to re-purpose our new tree as our Christmas tree.  I can't believe I agreed to this since I am such a HUGE fan of Christmas trees...especially the biggest, roundest one we can find.  But, it really does make sense for this year.  Paddy doesn't know the difference, and we will be able to enjoy the trees at our parents' houses when we head to IL.  So...next year, I will shove the FLF into the basement if we have to (and if I can keep it alive that long), and get ourselves a tried and true real deal Christmas tree.

We are embracing the unconventional new member of the family.

I am one of those people who loves decorating with the old school ornaments...

Love this beautiful Christopher Radko ornament from our friend, Blair...