Blog Sugar

Where do I even begin sharing about Blog sugar? There is so much to say about it and yet I cannot find the words. Can I just start by saying that God met us there? I know that sounds chessy but it is 100% true.

Blog Sugar is a faith based blogging conference where about 150 bloggers came together to learn, to mingle and be inspired. The mastermind behind Blog Sugar is Rachel over at No. 17, she made it very clear in this post that this was not her event but belonged to God. This proved to be true as we listened to some of the speakers and watched a video about an organization that I plan to share with you all soon. Rachel, along with the other organzizers Andrea and Jen, did an amazing job of planning and following the plan for this event. It was beautiful and fun and inspiring and so much more.

What I took away personally from Blog Sugar?

• Even when I am discouraged over numbers or sales, you all chose to follow me. You choose to listen to me. You have so many options of what blogs to follow and you chose me. For that I am so thankful to you and so inspired to blog more often and more intentionally.
• I am not one dimensional so why should my blog be? You should be seeing all aspects of my life not just the pretty stuff I create.
• It is okay to let somethings slide. Laundry, cough. If I want to run a business and have a happy family, I need to realize that I cannot do it all.
• I need to make sure that I am honoring God in my business, my blog, how I handle customers and even how I deal with competition.

A few of my favorite quotes of the night?

• Look at your goals and what works best for your family and do it all for that. -Maggie at GussySews
• It's not always easy, it's not always fun but it's ALWAYS worth it.- Julie at Joy's Hope
• It doesn't matter the why, it's happening! -Jeanett at LifeReArranged

I left Blog Sugar feeling inspired and lifted up. I feel like this blog has a purpose. It is not my blog but HIS. I will still post about my day to day life. What it is to be a mommy. About what I wore. I will still share the little things. As Julie pointed out, sometimes that is what will light up someones day. BUT I will also be posting about what it means to be a follower of Christ and where my walk has/is taking me.

Now that I have shared all about what I learned I can't figure out where to place the pictures from the night. So let's just add them here.

On top of all that I learned, I got to come together with friends from all over. Some friends I had already met in real life and hang out with regularly. Others I was meeting (in person) for the first time. Regardless, there is something about blog and twitter friends that I cannot explain to people who aren't a part of it. Our friendships are real. Many of them I hold more dearly than some of the friends I see everyday. I love this world I am a part of!

 {April, me and Monick}

 {Me, Monick, Alissa, Kimmie and Lindsey}

 {Nicole, Me, Maggie and Monick}

 {Nicole and I being real with ya!}

 {Me and Ruthanne}

 {Me, Nicole, Julie, Heather, Erin and Alissa}

{The girls from my Blog Sugar Table- Top: Me, Lindsay, Casey, Monick, April Bottom- Nicole and Ashley}

Seriously an amazing group of woman and an amazing event. I linked everyone to their blogs because you are going to want to follow them!

What I Wore Wednesday- Blog Sugar

This Sunday was Blog Sugar. It was nothing short of amazing. You will be hearing all about it in a couple of days. For now, I want to share my outfit, which I loved, with you.

I mentioned last week that Nordstroms Fashion Island was putting on a Personalize your Style event. Can I tell you that it was awesome!? They started off with coffee and cookies, followed it with a few raffles and then showed us some hot trends pulled by their super cute personal stylist Stevie, she has some great items pulled!
After they gave us some guidance we were free to roam the store and shop on our own or with some of their personal stylists.

Not only did I have the personal stylists helping me but my friend Mandy from In the Fashion Lane helped me out. She knows I am super simple and decided it was time to help me venture out a little bit. The stuff the filled my dressing room with was adorable. I had such a hard time choosing. I finally just sent a bunch of pictures to my husband and had him pick.

The event was a blast and extremely helpful. I would recommend it for anyone and everyone. Their were both fashion bloggers and every days moms with no sense of style ::raises hand:: there and all of us seemed to enjoy it and get a lot out of it. I will make sure to inform you all when the next event is approaching. For now, here is the outfit I went home with and wore to Blog Sugar.

Shirt- Nordstrom Fashion Island Personalize Your Style Event
Trousers- Nordstrom Fashion Island Personalize Your Style Event
Belt- Nordstrom (already owned)
Cardigan- Gift from my mama
Wedges- Anchor Blue like 5 years ago
Felt Bow Headband- Rock-A-Bow
Necklace- Handmade Gift Exchange
Purse- Walmart with Brooch by Rock-A-Bow

Rhi's First Day of Preschool

So, the day came. The day I had been stressing over, fearing, dreading yet oddly excited for. Rhiannon's first day of preschool. Yesterday was her very first day of being homeschooled.

Now, I know that I am not leaving my daughter at a school, I don't have to drop her off and say goodbye. Even so, today was so emotional for me. My baby girl is growing up. The harsh reality that she will not be little forever is very present.

My fears subsided a bit when Rhiannon took to everything pretty quickly. She is a bit, umm, easily distracted I guess would be the best way to explain her. But she stayed pretty focused. I am still scared about how I will do as a teacher. Her education is in my hands and that frightens me but she is quite the little student.

This week we are focusing on the letter A. We are having so much fun with it. However, at the end of our school day, while wrapping up and reviewing, I asked Rhiannon "What did you learn about today?" and she responded proudly "The Letter M!". Hmm. Cracked me up.

Here are a few more pictures of her first day. Such sweet memories.

 Coloring and practicing the sound of the letter A.

 Music time. The Ants go Marching On. With Maracas of course.

 Baby Brother insisted on being involved.

Pre-School Eve

Last year I stumbled upon this post. I didn't know Erin yet or how amazing she was, I just knew that one day I wanted to have a back to school eve celebration, to make it a tradition. I hadn't thought about school or when we would start but I knew that these dinners would take place.

Fast forward to today. It is Rhiannon's first day of pre-school. She has been excited for the last two weeks about this day but last night really seemed to prep her. Her excitement has exscalated. She has not stopped asking questions about what school will be like...and I am pretty sure my name is forever changed to Teacher.

I knew the dinner would be fun. It is always fun to celebrate milestones, I did not know how huge of an impact it would have on my soon to be student. For that I am especially grateful for Erin and her sharing this idea (as well as some decor) with me. You need to check out all of her back to school eves. 2008, 2010, and 2011.

Oh yes, and here is a recap of our night.

We set the dining area up all cutesy. I wanted Rhi to feel really special. It was her night to celebrate after all.

We borrowed this super cute map and a crown from Erin and I also borrowed the idea of a bookpage table runner from her.

 

Here is our table all done up. Simple Table cloth, bookpage runner and little centerpieces. I kept it east, tissue poms (left over from Talon's birthday party) on top of some glass bowls filled with crayons. Finished the look off with some old books and flashcards with Rhiannon's initials. Simple but cute.

 For dinner, I asked Rhi what she wanted for dinner. Salad and Cake was her answer. I went with that and added her favorite pasta dish and garlic bread. She insisted that we have yummy drinks, which means Cherry Limeaid. So we had that out of twirly straws of course.

Now to let the classes begin...AH!

The Threadery Announcement!

About a month or so, my friend Nicole and I let you in on a little secret we had been keeping. Today, I would like to formally introduce you to The Threadery.

The Threadery is quickly approaching. Nicole and I have been busy, busy, busy and working hard to make sure that this market is going to be fun and full of amazing product. We have quite the bunch of vendors lined up for you. Have you been dying for the announcement of who will be there? I know I have been going insane wanting to blurt it all out. So, drum roll please...

The Threadery Vendors are:

A Handcrafted Home
Bethadee Zoo
Eisley Rae Etsy/BigCartel
Fairly Fabulous Etsy/BigCartel
Fleeting Beauty
Happy Bee Boutique
LillyBug Lane
Little Wellies
Make it Cozee
Mama Matryoshka
Moxxie Essential Care
Nature Mamma
Olive Blue Etsy/BigCartel
Polka Dots & Poppies
Rags to Stitches
Rellas Bellas
Rock-A-Bow
This Little Piggie

Click on the vendors names to check out their shops. Make a shopping list ahead of time so you know what you are looking for when you come shop with us :)

Personalize Your Style

Let me start off by saying that being a mommy is by far the most amazing and rewarding job I have ever had. It is my most favored role, that and being a wife. But being a mommy often means less time for "me". It is rare that I get to do things for me and when I do, I bring my kids along. I love taking my kids everywhere I go but it often means that I will be rushed and probably a little frustrated when I do things like, let's say, shop.

That is why I am especially excited to share this upcoming event with you. Nordstrom Fashion Island and Alissa from RagsToStitches have teamed up to bring you Personalize Your Style, a trend show and shopping event.

At this event, we will get to meet with their personal stylist and take a look at all of the hottest trends, learn how to maximize our wardrobes and get this, if you go on Wednesday morning they will have arts & crafts and movies to entertain our kids! That's right folks, a little piece of time just for mama!

Alissa has asked 6 bloggers to team up with her and Nordstrom for this fab event. I am so honored to be one of the 6 bloggers that she has chosen. And I am super excited to invite you all to come learn how to transition your wardrobes with me.

The event is taking place on Tuesday Sept 20th at 6pm and Wednesday Sept 21st and 10am. I will be at the Tuesday evening event and would love to meet you there but feel free to attend the Wednesday morning if that fits your schedule better.

Oh, by the way, the event is free!!! You heard me right. Nordstrom Fashion Island is offering this to all of you for FREE!

So head over here and register for the event. Please let me know if you are attending. I would love to meet up with you.

The event will be held once a month through the end of the year and possibly longer depending on the outcome. SO let's make this month a huge success. This is definitely an event I would like to stick around!

Office Chair Re-cover

For the past few weeks I have been on the hunt for the perfect vintage chair to go with Rhiannon's desk. I found one at an estate sale that was to tall. One at a thrift store that was too wide. Nothing worked. I found a little bench that would go perfectly but then no back rest. I want her to be comfy while doing her schoolwork. I thought the vanity turned desk was going to be out due to the lack of a chair. But then I found this on pinterest. (Unfortunately the link does not take us anywhere but the website. But at least we know where it came from and who should get the credit, right?)

That's when I realized, "hey our office chair fits at her desk". And so, this project was born. Easy and LOVE the end result.
Step one: grab that ugly old office chair and disassemble it. I started by simple removing the seat and back rest. For the first 5 minutes I was convinced that the plastic part would NOT come off of the backrest. But after calling in my muscle (husband) I was proven wrong. It took some work but he was able to pull it apart.


Step two: Cut your fabric down and staple it to the wood backing. No need to remove the ugly fabric already on the chair. I think it actually helps to leave it on. For the chair that I covered, 1 yard was perfect but I would measure your chair to be sure before purchasing fabric.
Step three: Disassemble, primer and paint the rest of your chair. As for the paint, I used Rustoleum Painters Touch spray paint and primer. Ideally, you would use plastic paint BUT I was too picky and didn't like any of the colors. The very nice Home Depot employee assured me that using primer would do the trick, we will see how it holds up.

Step four: Reassemble and stare in amazement that those ugly office chairs can look so beautiful!

Bacon Jalapeno Sliders

Last week while grocery shopping, I spotted some pre made sliders and they have been haunting me ever since. Because I can never justify spending extra money simply because someone formed a patty for me, I decided to make my own but spice them up a bit. This is what I came up with:

Bacon Jalapeno Sliders

Ingredients:
1 lb. Hamburger
1 egg
1 Jalapeno- diced
4 slices of Bacon
Half of an onion- diced
1/2 cup Italian bread Crumbs
2 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
Pepperjack Cheese
Mayo

Directions:
First you are going to want to fry up your bacon, set it aside when you are finished. Do NOT throw out that precious grease/bacon fat, we are then going to cook up our onions in that. YUM!
While your onions fry, crumble up the bacon. You are essentially just making fresh homemade bacon bits.

Once your bacon and onions are cooked up, mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Mold into small patties. Remember they are going to shrink in diameter but bulk up. Plan your sizing accordingly.

Toast your rolls.
Grill up your burgers on your handy dandy grill pan. Cook on the first side for about 2 minutes. Flip burgers top with cheese and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Put a thin layer of mayo on your rolls and then place your patty on it.

Devour!

I'm linking this post up with:

Talon's Birthday Party

Last Saturday we had Talon's big 1 year birthday bash and I am finally getting around to telling you about it. Unfortunately, we were so busy having fun and enjoying the birthday boy (or should I say fortunately?) that we didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked.


For Talon's party, I wanted a theme that screamed boy. Everything in his little life has been girly due to having a big sister. So we went with a racecar theme. Lots of cars and checkered flags. It was exactly what we were looking for. My favorite individual decoration? Racecars numbered 1-12 that displayed Talon's first 12 months of life. So sweet!

We went super simple on the food. Concession stand style. Hot dogs, soft pretzels, popcorn and nachos. Everyone seemed to enjoy the simplicity and the kids were in heaven over the junk food lunch. For drinks or the pit stop we had Fuel, H20 and Oil aka Cherry Limeaid, water and Iced Tea.

Desserts were the real hit of the party. I ordered a plain 8" cake (that no one even touched) and some cupcakes that we added decor to ourselves and then I made a ton of my favorite cake pops. Devil's Food Cake with a German chocolate twist. The cake pops were devoured, next party I will be doing all of the baking.The dessert setup was by far my favorite area of the house. I LOVED the look.
Talon was blessed with tons of gifts. In fact we aren't even sure what to do with the cash he received because he got everything we could have asked for. Savings account it is!

I really wish we took more pictures so I could show you just how cute it looked but the boy had an awesome birthday and in my book, that is a success. By the way, his little cake I made him, gone. Every single bite!

Oh, guess what? My original plan was to save all of the decor for a future party but my hubby thinks that I will never duplicate a birthday theme. He thinks he knows me or something. Ha! He is probably right. I love to create way too much. Back to what I wanted to tell you. We have decided that all of the fabric decorations, the ones that I spent WAY too much time on, should get more use. So we are going to be auctioning them off on the FB like page today.

{Details: The auction is for everything pictured in the album: 3 felt dot garlands (sizes 35in, 9ft and 17ft), 4 Pennant Banners (Two-4ft, One- 6ft and Happy Birthday Banner 9ft) and a 5ft Rag Garland. Based on average prices on Etsy this lot is worth $137!!! Starting bid will be $30, I will pay the shipping.
Please place bids on the photo album and not individual pictures. Bidding will end at Sept. 16^th at 8am.}

So head over there now and place your bids! FACEBOOK PAGE

Sweet Bedtime

In the last few months I have been given a lot of grief about how I put my almost 3 year old to sleep at night.

Every night she drinks her milk, brushes her teethe, uses the potty and heads to bed. The difference between her bedtime routine and most other three year olds? When she climbs into her bed she taps her pillow and says "mommy night night me?" and I climb into her twin size bed, say bedtime prayers and snuggle her until she falls asleep.

I cannot tell you how many looks and even harsh words I have gotten about this. Most people just tease, in the nicest and friendliest way. (which does not bother me at all and if you are one of those people please do not feel bad) But more than a few have told me what horrible habits I am teaching her. Many very close friends have given me that look of judgment, you know the one I'm talking about?

More times than not, when bedtime routines are brought up I share mine in a defensive manner, even when people don't see anything wrong with it. Habit I suppose.

Still every night, I lay in my toddlers bed and snuggle her. Last night while her little arms were wrapped around my neck, all I could think about is how I would not trade this for the world. I will never get these years back. Sooner than I know it she will be a tween, too embarrassed to hug me. Shortly after that she will be off in her own home. So for now, while I still can, I will climb into her bed and snuggle her until she is fast asleep.

Wordless Wednesday- Pretend City

A couple of weeks ago, I invited you all to Pretend City. I was so excited to meet a few of you. For those of you who weren't able to make it. We had too much fun for words but here are some pictures to give you an idea....all from our phones because we forgot the camera. Opps!

Crayon tutorial

This week for Toddler Talk I want to share a fun little project I did. For Talon's Birthday party, which you can read all about tomorrow, I wanted some fun handmade favors. I went with racecar crayons. They were really easy to make and the kids all loved them. I had lots extra so we also set up a big poster board coloring sheet outside that had a racetrack for the kids to color and race all over.

Here's how I made our crayons,
You will need:

• crayons
• a candy mold of whatever shape you want (we could only find a pretzel mold)
• a funnel
• old cans

As prep, you will need to peel all of your crayons, I found it easiest to take a knife and split the paper wrapping lengthwise. Next you will want cut all of your crayons in half in order for them to melt faster. If you can only find a pretzel or lollipop mold, simply block the area for the stick. Hot glue seemed to do the trick for me.
Once your crayons are cut, separate them by color and put them into your old veggie cans. Place the cans into a pot of boiling water. Make sure your water is only about an inch high, if the cans float they are more likely to tip and make a mess, trust me. Let them heat until fully melted. No need to stir or do anything. Just wait.
When they are done melting, grab a potholder and pour the can of crayon into the mold using your funnel. Place the mold into the freezer for 5-10 minutes and pop them right out. You are finished.

Here is our finished product, cute little favors for our guests to take home.
What projects are you working on?

INSTA-Friday

The past two weeks have been complete chaos. I think I have mentioned that a time or two here on the blog. I have also been missing, I know I told you I would be back this week and it's looking like I was wrong. I will be back next week with lots to offer. I promise!

I am going to make time to tell you all about Talon's fun party, show a little tutorial and share about our time at the PBS SoCal event at Pretend City. I WILL make time!

For now, I will just give you a peek into what has been keeping me so busy.

Little man turned one! We through him quite the birthday bash with 80+ guests. Yes, yes we are insane. Yes, I know that is bigger than many weddings. Craziness!

His party was a hit but it was lots of work. Decorating and baking were a blast though. Worth every second.


We went to Pretend City the next day. Had so much fun. Mama was/is tired though.


It has required lots of caffine. However, budget said I was out of coffee money so I stuck with the homebrewed stuff and the awesomeness that is Dr Pepper.

Now that the party is over, I am focusing all of my creative energy and thoughts on The Threadery and getting products together. Luckily Nicole came over and we got my space looking super cute and it is keeping me inspired.