Babysitter’s Club

First, totally loved that book as a kid. Pretty ironic because I was NOT a fan of babysitting.  Did I ever tell you guys about the time I babysat my next door neighbors (three boys) when I was in high school and the dad asked me what I charged an hour?  Being my high school self, I told him “whatever.” This move was strategic on my part – I didn’t want to sell myself short.

After 7 hours of babysitting, the dad returned home and paid me a whopping $15 – $2 an hour + a $1 bonus. 

No wonder I hated babysitting.

My mom, being the sweet mom that she was, did go to the neighbor the next day and tell him the “going rate” in the neighborhood was $3 an hour.

I did end up getting an extra $6 out of the deal.

I do, of course, love babysitting my nieces and nephews. Though, it is an unpaid gig. I am assuming I am being paid in IOUs.  Surely one day they will return the favor. Well, not at the rate we are going. Ha!

And this weekend was my first overnight babysitting experience.  Little Miss Fin came and spent the night with us and we had a great time. I am totally not just saying this because I am biased, but she is such a good baby. She didn’t fuss the whole time she was here. She was a perfect angel and even slept in until 8 a.m.

It probably helped that we booked her schedule solid. We started with a play date with McCord.

Iris was sweet and gave them popsicles!

Next, we had dinner with Max & Drew! Someone loves her some mac & cheese!

Next we moved on to the Bixby Green Corn Festival (told you I packed her schedule full.  This baby was going to be TIRED if I had anything to do with it!)

Max was so independent! He rode rides buy himself and played games!

Finley was so cute. You can see her at the bottom of this pictures. Every time Max rode by she would wave at him and say “Hi, Max!”

I thought this was a really cute picture of my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, Max and Drew.

When we got home, Finley got a bath and went to bed. She slept with Tommy and I and that girl moves in her sleep. Let’s just say I slept a lot better on Sunday night.

Sunday wasn’t nearly as well planned….we watched a lot of Sesame Street and went to Target. But this baby’s second home is Target, so it was going to another aunt’s house for her.

She was just the perfect little baby to sit for!

Weekly Faves

I know most of you guys probably follow the Hostess with the Mostess, but last week she had THE most clever ideas!

For example, a cookie that looks like a cupcake!

Or a Wish themed party.  I think the dandelion in the corner is just the best idea ever!

Um, a milkaholic party. Is this not amazing?  I love the graphic design. 

Okay, so maybe I just really, really loved three ideas from HWTM.  Moving on.

Crissy’s Crafts had the most amazing bonfire cupcakes. I especially love these because they look like something I could do, but are so clever!

I am a sucker for presentation and these cupcakes featured in a cup (um, hello double entendre!), are just so adorable.  See even more at Swanky Chic Fete.

Also in cake related news, Tip Junkie featured 28 cupcake and birthday cake ideas.  I especially love these first two.  Don’t they look easy enough to do yourself? (Famous last words.)

Victoria at a Subtle Revelry featured these festive and functional candles.  Just be sure you blow them out before you eat your dessert. You can buy them here.

And speaking of cakes (loving my segues!), I LOVE this bunting featured at Attention to Detail via Lovely Scribbles!

And I have no creative segues for this one (there is probably a really good one out there, too), but I did think these child safety tattoos were creative.  Obvs, I wouldn’t send my kid (not that I have one) out with these all the time, but if you were at a festival or something where there were mass amounts of people, it could be helpful.  Via Infarrantly Creative.

Also on Inffarantly Creative she shows you how to take this:

And turn it into this:

I want one! Though, I would probably just pay for it. I prefer to outsource any hard work.

My blogging friend Christine of Barefoot with Champagne did a great post on how she displays her vacation photos.  Here is her final product. Read the full story here.

I hope you guys are inspired!

The crowds have spoken

I couldn’t just choose just one….so I got two!  Luckily, I got a family discount. I heart you, Kyle!

Now, I know the aviators weren’t a crowd favorite, but they really did look better in real life than they did in my pictures.  And the others are #6! 

I love that you people can make a decision. I definitely need to do this more often!!!

Shady

So I am in the market for some new sunglasses.  I have been to my brother-in-law’s office to try on said sunglasses no less than three times and CANNOT make a decision. Sooooo…..will you help?  Some I know are just awful on me, but I thought I would throw them in for the sake of having more than two photos. 

Also, please excuse my lovely self-portraits, especially the one where I look like a deer in headlights.  Only you kind of can’t tell because my eyes are shielded. 

I have two favorites, so I am curious to see if the masses agree with me.

1, 2 & 3 (I promise there is a difference between 1 & 2. Just pretend this is one of those pictures in People magazine where you have to find the difference between the two photos.)

4, 5 & 6

7

I cannot wait to see (ha! pun totally not intended) what your favorites are!

Nieces and Nephews

I haven’t done a niece and nephew post in awhile and I know you are all just dying to see what they are up to.  Right?

My little nephews had their pictures taken last week by Brenda Horan and the boys are just so adorable! 

Look how big Drew has gotten! He has just the sweetest little demeanor and personality.  And he could not be any cuter!!!  He might have a baby modeling contract in the future. I am not biased or anything.

Max is just more and more fun every time we are around him.  Last week Tommy and I went to go get some yogurt and happened to run into Brannon, Kristen and the boys at the shop.  Max was so excited to see us that he asked his mom if we could come back over.  And if it couldn’t get any cuter – he pulled up a chair and was going to wait for us on the front porch. Thank goodness we came over! Can you imagine how horrible we would have felt? 

This weekend is a first for Tommy and I.  We have our first overnight babysitting experience with Little Miss Finley.  I hope it doesn’t end like this:

Any ideas of what to do with a 21 month old for an overnight stay?  I am thinking of things that might wear her out :).  Any suggestions appreciated!

Bloggers I know in Real Life

I thought it would be fun to do a little blog post about the bloggers I know in real life.  Some I have known pre-blogging and many I have met through blogging. I will give you a little history on how we became friends and what their blog is about. You may just have a few new favorites.

I actually may break this up into several posts…this will get a little long otherwise. (I am very blessed to have so many friends!)

First, is my bff Megan of This is My Natural Color.  And perhaps this my attempt to get her to do a blog post. Ha!  (She’s the blonde. And Aja is the brunette with the tan :)…I will fill you in on her too.)

I could probably do a whole blog about my adventures with Megan. We have been friends for 11 years. We have traveled together, lived together, been in each other’s weddings and have shared many of our most significant experiences with each other over the past 11 years.

Megan is my opposite in a lot of ways, but I think that is one of the reasons we get along so well. One of our opposite ways is that she is low key and relaxed; I am definitely the more high strung of the two. Case in point: About 7 years ago we were flying home from a trip to Chicago. I was PRETTY sure the plane was going to crash because of the severe turbulence. I am grabbing her (as though that was going to save me) and her response (in a very calm tone, mind you) was that “It’s cool. If it’s our time to go, it’s our time to go.”  Um, I was pretty much not subscribing to this theory.  Good news – we both made it out alive.

Anyway, this is basically my petition to get Megan to blog. She is has been studying to take her CPA (again, I mentioned we were opposite – doing math problems and dealing with numbers is pretty much equal to my worst case scenario of ways to spend my time), and is on break for the rest of the month.

I heart you, Megan!

Blogger #2, Meet Jane of the Franzia Files.

Jane, this is totally my way of bullying you into writing something new for us. You CANNOT let my readers down. And, friend, we MUST get a more recent picture of us. This is the only one I could find.  Janie is on the far left, I am on the far right. The bride is the friend that binds us – Emily - who is due with a baby in 2 weeks!!  And this picture was taken three years ago.

I met Janie my freshman year in college. We were definitely friends, but things got messed up with the housing assignments in our sorority house our sophomore year.  Janie was supposed to live her Big Sis (what ever happened to her????) and I was living with two other girls that I went to high school with.  Well, we showed up for Rush and I was in a room for four and Janie was our fourth roommate.  We lived together the rest of college and I was also a bridesmaid in her beautiful wedding.

Janie is the most creative, hilarious and helpful people I have ever met. I truthfully know, without a doubt if I were to call Janie and tell her I needed her, she would be on a flight tomorrow.  Actually, scratch that, she would be on a flight tonight.

Also, when I had my flower business, she would drive in from Edmond just to help us. And probably bring us dessert or another treat. I always knew Janie would be a good mom because of how amazing she was in a crisis.

I heart you, Jane. As a thanks for this glowing review you can totally thank me with a funny blog post about what is going on in your life.

Okay, so this has gotten a little long. More soon! XOXO

Weekly Faves

I think my last post was my Weekly Faves.  Clearly my life is pretty unexciting. I have got NOTHING to tell you all about. LAME.

So instead I will share everyone else’s fun stuff.

First, you all must check out my friend Ashley from Living and Loving Our Life in the Midwest’s adorable Dr. Seuss themed party she threw her son Cooper. I even got an inspiration shout out ;). See, someone does read this!

Over on Sheek Shindigs this week she had really, really cute fruit ideas for this summer.  I loved this “fruit kebab” for a shower. Photo via Baker’s Royale.

Another friend of mine, Anne, from A. Party Style posted this really adorable idea from Martha Stewart Living of flavor flags for the 4th. I just love this!  And so easy.  The only hard part would be finding the white candy sticks. However, you could probably just use peppermint sticks and get the red and white all in one.

Aren’t these cookies by Bake and 350 ADORABLE????  And so realistic. This is probably the only way I would have friend chicken.  Funny, huh? I will fill my stomach with cookies, but friend chicken – notsomuch.

I love double entendres. Every time I hear one, I always think to myself – why didn’t I think of that? So when I saw these book plates (get it?????) over on MegMac Designs, I was in love. And I love to read. Perfect.

I fell in love with these cookies featured on Living Locurto.  They look so complicated, but when you look closer, you can see how simple they are.  Just two cookies put together, ice them, add yogurt covered raisin as the “pearl.”  You can get full directions on Family Fun. And when you do them, you must send me a picture!

Celebrations at Home featured a really cute picnic themed shower and I thought these favor boxes were really cute. 

I have had so many friends who have gone on trips and have great anxiety about how their kids will behave.  Birthday Girl had this great idea and free printables on her blog this week. How could you get upset with a cranky baby if you get these preflight? :)

Maybe this week will bring something blog worthy?  In a good way!

Weekly Faves

I apparently had parties on the brain this week.  All of these would be perfect for your summer soiree. 

I saw this idea on the Attention 2 Detail blog and I thought it was a really clever way to make your chair backs pop.  You can get the full instructions at Bride’s Café.  My only thought would be to use artificial apples rather than real ones so that you could use this again and again and, also, if you didn’t have a super sturdy chair, I would think it would be so top heavy that it would fall over.I have gotten some realistic looking ones in the past at Garden Ridge, Hobby Lobby and Walmart.

So apparently Ralph Lauren’s daughter, Dylan, who owns Dylan’s Candy Bar is getting married.  Well, on Martha Stewart’s Weddings this week she featured photos from the bridal shower. You guys will die and you must go look.  Wouldn’t this be the most fun shower ever????

Also, if you don’t want to click through all of the pictures, you can see the highlights on A Blissful Nest.

I am not sure if I ever mentioned this, but I LOVE honey.  I was especially intrigued when I saw this Bee-Mosa on Second City Soiree.  Also, it takes so little effort – just honeycomb (not sure where you get that, though, farmer’s market?) and champagne.  Now I am on a quest for honeycomb!

Okay, so I lied. Not all of my posts have to do with parties this week.  As an aunt to two adorable bow-wearing nieces, I loved this post by Mish Mash Mom who gives you instructions on how to make these adorable bows yourself. I see a bow making party in my future.

On eighteen25 this week she posted a tutorial for these ties.  I thought this would be really cute for a little man party and shower. 

I LOVED this idea and there are so many other ways you could make this work other than Father’s Day. I just LOVED these cake balls from Everything Sweet.  Aren’t they clever?

This week Paiges of Style did a guest post over on Birthday Girl.  She posted the most clever envelope idea I have ever seen.  Basically, the inside of the envelope is a photo.  You can read the full tutorial by clicking here.

Wow, this post is getting long.  But there were so many cute ideas this week!  This was a photo shoot styled by Chris at Celebrations at Home. All of the pictures are amazing and inspiring. I just love the colors and would totally want to go to this party.

We all love the Hostess with the Mostess and her parties are all amazing.  This one caught my eye because it was really unique and adorable – a British invasion theme.  Too bad there isn’t another Royal Wedding on the horizon. Click here to see the rest of the photos.

And, believe it or not, that’s all I’ve got!