Vegas, Baby!

Did I tell ya? I went to Vegas! The boy and I had a stinkin' blast. The worst part? Leaving our pups. They stayed with J's mom so we didn't have to board them. We left on Monday and came back on Friday. In those 5 days, we did everything we wanted to, and we gambled and WON! WHOOOOOHOOOO!!!! We did soooooooooooo much walking. I thought my cute little flats would make it, but I found my flip flops to be more comfortable. Luckily, the weather was amazing (upper 60's and lower 70's) so my regular wardrobe worked. Here are just a few pictures from the trip, but I'm going to take a few posts to talk about the highlights. Enjoy!

Krystal's Baby Shower

Throwing Krystal's baby shower was so much fun. My cousin Callee and I hosted the party. Krystal, Callee, and I have grown up together, and in high school we were on our high school cheerleading squad that won state. We've been on vacations together and stood next to each other at weddings. This picture is from 2000, from left is Krystal, our friend Sara, Callee, and me.


We threw the shower in the community room of the bank in the town where we grew up. It was just a shower for Krystal's friends and close family members, as she's already had two showers before for just family. Callee and I made all the food and I put together a scrapbooking project for the attendees.

I love doing scrapbook pages for baby showers. I know Krystal was thrilled at how easy it would be for her to scrapbook baby Grace's photos between naps and feedings. We asked each party-goer to make one scrapbook page from materials we supplied.




Instead of a guest book, I glued a shower invitation to a pretty pink paper and had everyone right sweet little notes to Grace and Krystal.


We had an amazing spread of food. Tea sandwiches, no bake cookies (Krystal's current craving), cupcakes, cream cheese ball, fruit... yum. Callee also made an adorable diaper cake and we decorated with a functional and sweet clothesline with new clothes for Grace.



We had such a fun time, giggling and telling silly stories. Krystal got a lot of fun gifts... and the little clothes were to die for. I am a sucker for baby clothes and being surrounded by it is so much fun!



We had two little babies to play with and they sure did enjoy each other!


What a fun day. Krystal went away with fun gifts and an amazing scrapbook. Callee and I just had a blast celebrating Krystal and sweet baby Grace. I can't wait til one of them has another one! (I kid, I kid, girls.)

Thankful

I am so thankful for this holiday. I feel like some days we go without realizing the amazing life that surrounds us. My grandma asked us to say what we were thankful for before she said our prayer. I only had the time to say my family and my dogs, but there's so much more in my life to be thankful for.

My parents. They are my heroes.


My sister, Jessy. She's strong and loving and funny.


For my friend Krystal. And her little girl on the way.


For my friend/cousin Callee. And her little girl Lucy.



For my grandma, Mazie. She's amazing, funny, and loves/knows sports more than me.


For my boyfriend. He makes me laugh EVERY DAY.


For my dogs, Duke and Daisy. They love me no matter what I do. And they snuggle.



I'm thankful for my job. For my past. For my future. To the rest of my family and friends. I'm THANKFUL for the grace God has shown me and His constant open ears. I'm thankful for you.

I hope this day surrounds you with love and delicious food. I hope you go to bed happy, healthy and full. I hope you give thanks today... and maybe remember to give thanks a little every day, for something.

Have a wonderful, thank-FULL day!

Busy Week(s)

Long time, no see, blog! The last few weeks have been busy... to say the least. I moved in with my boyfriend over Halloween weekend, threw a Halloween party at my work, threw a baby shower for my best friend, then went on vacation for a week. Here are some highlights to get us started, I'll go over each event in more detail in the coming week.

Here's the new house:

I love this house. Built in 1914, it's a bungalow with only two real bedrooms, one bathroom, the tiniest kitchen ever, and an amazing front porch complete with porch swing. We've got lots of plans for this house, and I can't wait to share the pictures of it's current state!

The Halloween party was a success at work. We served hot dogs to the tenants and had a costume contest. We have a lot of young little tenants, so seeing them as cowgirls, bumblebees and super heroes was a ton of fun.

The next weekend, my cousin and I threw a baby shower for our best friend Krystal. We didn't go with a theme, but had an amazing spread of food and had the party goers create scrapbook pages for the new baby. I love doing scrapbook pages for baby showers because it makes it so easy for the new mom to put a picture on a page without having to worry about cutting and pasting.


My cousin brought her sweet baby girl with her. I got to hold little Lucy for most of the shower. I just love LOVE love this baby girl!


I just got back from my first vacation in over two years. The boyfriend took me to Las Vegas and we had a blast. We had so much fun, I almost forgot about the full house that needed to be unpacked at home.


AND... I'm engaged!!! There's not a really exciting story to tell and we haven't set a date, but I'm really excited!


Since I've moved (again) back to a house, I feel the blogs title isn't fitting any more. I also feel the "Cottage Apartment" limited me to talking about decor things only, and I want this blog to go other places. So, I'm brainstorming new blog titles. If you've got any great ideas, please share!

I missed you blog world! It's glad to be back!

Will Work for Food

We finally got down to brass tacks and got to work on my friend Krystal's first baby's nursery. She told me she would feed me dinner... and I was up at her place in no time. We had shopped ahead of time and collected all the necessary pieces.

We wanted to do the baby's name, Grace, above the crib and Krystal found flower hooks at HobLob to paint to match the flowers in her bedding. Our idea on the name was to mount wooden letters on cork board squares covered with scrapbook paper. Originally, we wanted to frame the name, but money-wise, we figured the cork board would be cheaper and reusable.

Here's a shot of the beautiful cherry wood crib and the bedding:


And a close-up of the quilt:


We started with plain wooden letters and flower hooks, paint to match the bedding, five 12x12 cork tiles, and five pages of scrapbook paper. We chose the scrapbook paper so it would stand alone in the room. Krystal picked 5 adorable graphic prints in pink and green.



We painted and watched Glee and drank coffee. Did I mention she also fed me dinner?

Here's Krystal painting:


We painted all the letters and flower knobs to match:



We both loved the way colors worked together. The color of the letters match the bedding, but are just different enough from the scrapbook paper to make them really pop.



This will be the layout once it goes up on the wall:


And it's so so sweet with the red flower knobs, that will be a perfect perch for Grace's little baby coats and jackets.


To finish, we used spray adhesive to mount the scrapbook paper to the cork tiles and super glue to mount the wooden letters on the scrapbook paper/cork tiles.

We've had a couple ideas about how to hang them. We thought about hanging them from ribbon, but that would be too close to the wall hangings that came with the bedding set. We're down to nails. They'll either be hung with the nails hidden behind corners of the scrapbook papers, or putting the nails right through the scrapbook paper and cover the nail heads with decorative embellishments.

When we decide and get them hung, I'll update you. We also worked on organizing the room, which is another post for another day. Krystal's baby shower is today, hosted by yours truly, so I've got to get to work!

**UPDATE: The final product can be seen in this post.