Pop of Color Please

Stay tuned for the final results, but here is what I have been working on the last two days while E has been snoozing.

2013 Resolution…

I am only 19 days late, no big.

After starting to read blogs again, I have decided that I should write in mine.  Hope this actually happens!

Let me catch you up on life.

Still married. ha!  (Jeremy just read that and asked if there was an expiration date.  Funny kid.)

Emma is now a little over 16 months and has the personality of a 16 year old.  She is now called “The Voice”.  She talks loud, she laughs loud, and she cries even louder.  But she is sweet and we love love love LOVE her to death!  (She is currently messing with her sleep sheep in her crib instead of napping… )

We remodeled our kitchen last summer and we changed up our game room.  No more ugly wood paneling! Woohoo!!  So, we don’t have anymore big projects left in the house, yeah.  Just small things here and there.
(This picture is obviously before it was completed since there isn’t hardware.  Don’t worry, we have some now!)

Our business is doing great and we have a fun time working on it.  If you are in the need for a high end cooler company, you know who to call!  Brute Outdoors of course!

I said goodbye to sweet Jetty last summer and said HELLO to spacious Explorery.  Best purchase ever.

I have a new nephew!!!  Oh my goodness he is so sweet and SO cute!  T-Bone (Thomas) was born on December 26.  He was so nice to wait until after the holidays.

I have done a few quick and cheap DIY projects to spruce up some walls.
(Again, these are actually up on the wall but I have no picture… just image them 3x3 in the playroom.)

Okay E is currently chatting in her crib.  Bye friends!

Our sweet mermaid

I can’t believe that I haven’t blogged about Emma’s first birthday party!  She is almost 14 months already, oops.  Life is busy these days, sorry friends! 

I started looking for ideas on Pinterest and just online in general a few months before her birthday and I know I wanted to have a Mermaid/Under the Sea theme!  It all started with the invitation designed by my sister, Jen.  She owns Lil Mop Top and has wonderful invitations and cards for sale on Etsy.  (Yes, I just blacked out the address and it looks nice and ghetto.  Don’t hate!)

Then I went to work!  Luckily we were having an outdoors party (and it was a BEAUTIFUL day) so we didn’t need a ton of decoration.  I tried to make as much of it as possible to save money, but I did buy a few things.  I bought these blue poms at Party City and then the coral colored ones on Etsy.

For the food area.  We kept it super simple.  We just did sandwiches, fruit, chicken salad, and cupcakes.  My mom made the cupcakes, thankfully!  There was a lot of people and I couldn’t do it all so she offered to help make them.  I did make the cupcake toppers.  I bought the digital prints off Etsy and just put them in the circles, cut, and then taped them to toothpicks.   The photography was done by a good friend a few weeks before and I found a great deal on Wolf Camera for the canvas.  All of the coral serving pieces were super cheap from Target and the blue ones were even cheaper from Dollar Store!  Bam!

The favor table was part of my favorite area for the party!  I made a banner with the Cricut using the Life’s a Beach cartridge and I think it turned out so adorable!  The favors were just buckets loaded with pool toys, bubbles, and sunglasses.  Everything was purchased from Walmart, Dollar Store, and Michaels. 

For adult favors my friend Kendra, from Simply Pressed, made these adorable coasters for me.  Check her out!  She came make anything you want and is super easy to work with.

I found an old wooden high chair at a garage sale for $5 that just needed to be fixed a bit, which is no problem for my family!  Ran up to Home Depot and bought a small amount of coral paint and I loved the final outcome.  It was pretty ugly beforehand!  I don’t have a picture because I got a new phone… oops.  Anyways, I then used the Cricut to cut out pendants and shapes to decorate it.  Her smash cake was made by one of our best friends and it was GOREGOUS!  Exactly what I was thinking and I am so happy that she offered to make it for us.  It was perfection and DELICIOUS!  How great are my friends?!

Cracks me up that Lilly was eating what Emma dropped.  She is so sweet to share.  And, do you think she liked the cake?!

We had a slip and slide area for the kids and of course there was lots of swimming.  We had a GREAT time!  We are blessed that Emma has wonderful family and friends that love her dearly!!