Invitations at last!

I have a dream that one day my daughter will tell her friends that she's so thankful that her mother put so much work into making her birthday perfect. 

Probably won't ever happen.  But hey, I can dream can't I?

You'll be happy to know that the Great Pooh Invite Search is finally over.  But it ended in a very time-consuming, sticky conclusion.  For those of you that want to make your own special Winnie the Pooh invites that are different than everything else out there on Pinterest and Etsy, this post is for you.

After I wrote about not being able to find anything I liked for Avery's party invites, I literally went to bed and dreamt about them that night.  As soon as I woke up and got to work, I grabbed a piece of computer paper and whipped up a quick idea of what I wanted it to look like:

A hunny pot!  Not just any plain old hunny pot, but one that, when the lid is lifted, it reveals the invitations!


Hooray!!  I'm so pleased with how these turned out.  If you like them, here's how I did it...

Originally, I was going to cut out all the shapes by hand.  Such a stupid idea.  I'm incredibly blessed with parents that love me a whooooole bunch and got me a Silhouette Cameo machine for Christmas.  And I gotta say...a Silhouette Cameo is God's gift to the crafting world.  It's fantastic.  If you have a project like this that's going to take a lot of cutting, find a friend that has a Silhouette machine and see if they'll let you use it.  SO much easier than cutting everything by hand!!  Obviously, if you don't have a Silhouette, hand cutting is also an option--it's what I did with Avery's 1st birthday invites.  Not impossible, just takes longer.  So!  Let's get to it.

I found a honey pot shape on in the Silhouette store and downloaded it.  I figured out what size I needed the honey pots to be to fit into my envelopes and resized them accordingly. 

I continued doing this with other shapes until I ended up with all the shapes I needed.  When all the cutting was done, I ended up with two drips of honey, a honey pot and lid, a square for the invitation, bee wings and a body, and the word "hunny."  To ensure that I could put the invite down into the honey pot, I made sure to cut a line going across the top of the honey pot.

I made sure to pick a glue stick that would dry clear because I would be applying a whole bunch of it.  First, I attached the honey drips near the cut I made towards the top.  Then, I glued the "Hunny" words in the middle of the honey pot.  I attached the invitation I printed towards the bottom of the yellow square and then glued the lid to the top of the yellow square.  Finally, I glued the wings and the bee's body to the top of the lid and attached the RSVP information to that.

I slid the square invite into the slit at the top of the honey pot and voila!

 

Normally, when I have a creative idea in my brain, the finished project doesn't turn out like I envisioned it.  But this one was EXACTLY how I imagined it.  Pumped.  Best part about these?  Every invitation I found on Etsy that I halfway liked was like $3 apiece.  These invites (not counting postage or envelopes) were only 30 cents apiece.  Hooray for being cheap!

 

Hot Mess Revival.

I've been a terrible gluten intolerant person (really, there's no better word for that...I tried).  I haven't been eating right and as a result, I've felt LIKE. CRAP.  Not only that, but I've gained back all the weight I lost by being gluten free.  I tell myself that the macaroni that my daughter is eating is worth a stomachache later.  Or that choosing a chicken sandwich with breading won't be all THAT bad for my tummy.  Or that I'm not a full blown Celiac, so I can tolerate a little bit of bread.  All of that is false.  And all of that is really, really stupid.  Take last week, for example.  I was running late, I stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and I ate a bagel.  I told myself that it would be worth it.  It wasn't.  I was in extreme pain the rest of the day--stomach cramps, shooting pains, the works.  No food is worth feeling like that.

I'm not sure how it happened.  Maybe it was just one time that I decided I could have a dinner roll with my meal.  Or maybe I just sampled my daughter's dinner (because I don't make her a gluten free meal...it's not good for a growing toddler).  Or maybe I just thought that all this work to be gluten free wasn't worth it.

I'll be honest.  Being gluten free is a gigantic pain in the rear.  It's meticulous menu planning before I even step foot in a grocery store.  It's reading labels while I shop to make sure I can eat even a simple dollop of ketchup.  It's spending three times the amount for gluten free items that I would on regular ones.  It's not being able to just walk up to my pantry and whip something together for dinner because a meal has to be planned out in advance.  I hate it.

But it doesn't matter how much of a headache it is, it means that I won't be in pain anymore.  And isn't that worth it?  Being able to live pain-free and enjoy my daughter, instead of asking her to play quietly in the floor by herself while I roll myself into a ball on the couch.  What I was doing was stupid.  Food isn't worth being in pain.  Food isn't worth sacking on the extra pounds and having zero energy.  No amount of creamy mac and cheese is worth not feeling good and not being able to spend time with my family.  Isn't it the same way with dieting?  Just say no. Put down the bread and walk away and tell myself that it isn't worth it.

SO....I'm bringing back HOT MESS MONDAYS!  I was losing so much weight and feeling really great about myself when I was doing that.  I was holding myself accountable and eating right.  I was tracking my meals and I was seeing results.  Time to feel good about myself again.  Time to be able to stand in front of a mirror after I get out of the shower and not feel disgusting.  Time to stop feeling like I need to hide every inch of skin from everyone...even my husband.  I don't want to live like this.  Time for exercises and gluten free menus.  Wanna join??

Starting weight:

 Now, before you bite my head off, let me explain.  I weighed myself and posted it to show you that weight is just a number.  I weigh the least amount I ever have, post-Avery, and I feel horrible.  My stomach is flabby, I have no energy and I'm not eating right.  Weight is just a number.  So, instead of having a "goal weight" that I want to reach for, I'm going to have a "goal lifestyle" that I'm going to work for.  I want to be able to walk up a flight of steps without being winded.  I want to walk around my neighborhood (which I've been trying to do with Avery most nights) and still have energy when I get home to clean my kitchen.  It's about a way of life and not a weight number for me.  Heck, 125 was my GOAL weight whenever I was doing my first round of "Hot Mess Mama!"  Shows that I'm not living healthy, no matter what I weigh.  So it's time to bring the Hot Mama back and feel better about myself!   Hot Mama and gluten free (again!), here I come!

Oh, Pooh.

This Winnie the Pooh party will be the death of me.  They'll write on my tombstone:  "The Pooh did her in."

I had a mini-crisis earlier over Avery's birthday outfit.  That's been solved.

Now I've moved on to the invitations.  I'm seeing a lot of this kind of stuff....

via etsy

via etsy

Just kind of basic.  Easy (I really wish I knew what my aversion was to easy things...it'd make my life much simpler).

I know you're making fun of me.  And that's okay.  I love party planning.  I want everything to scream Pooh (without being cheesy overboard style) and I want everything to show that I worked hard on this.  That I cared enough to sit down and work on these invitations and didn't take the easy route.  I mean, did you SEE the invitations for Avery's first birthday party??  SUPER time consuming.  But so worth it.  I'm still getting compliments over those invites. 

So then I found stuff like this. And I die.

via etsy

At $55 for 8 invitations, this is not even an option.

via etsy

Again.  $44 for 8 invites?  Not gonna happen. 

I could make these myself.  But I have a Silhouette machine, which, unfortunately, doesn't have licensed character shapes for purchase yet.  So I would be hand-drawing all of the pots and Poohs and everything.  Doable....but very, time consuming.  

Sigh.  I need someone to make creative invites...and sell them for really, really cheap.  Is that too much to ask?

Yard Sale Finds Are My Friends

Yard sale finds, castoffs, items hidden deep in my mom's basement storage room....these are my friends.  I never thought I'd be the type to say that I loved junk.  I enjoy looking at an item and finding a new use for it.

Like these old shutters my mom had in her basement.  They were black, nothing special about them at all...but I felt like they needed to be displayed somewhere and out of the bottom floor of my parent's home.  I took them to our house in Bardstown, where they hung out in our storage shed for awhile.  I was unsure of the perfect place to use them.  As a picture holder?  As a decorative accent on a wall in our home?  Nothing sounded just right.  Until around Christmas time, when I decided to take a shelf off the wall and it left a HUGE mark where the brackets had been.  Oops.  I searched frantically for a solution to hide the eyesore and finally came up with one of the shutters.  I displayed it on the wall and hung our stocking from it for a couple of months (oh, you don't take your Christmas decorations down until March either??).

Soon after, we moved and I haven't found the "perfect" place to put the shutters back up in the new house.  I've been trying to decorate very deliberately and with purpose and not just throw crap on the walls just to have decorations.  But one day, while I was watching TV, it hit me.

Duh.  These shutters make the perfect frame for our TV!  When Marty mounted the TV, it left quite a bit of open spaces on the sides that I always felt needed something.  I didn't want to hang pictures because I felt like that would distract from TV viewing, but I didn't like the idea of leaving it all blank though.  Marty complains that they make his TV look smaller, but I don't mind a bit.

I'll leave you with some other TV wall inspiration that just make me drool:

via thelaurenelizabeth

^ I literally have dreams about this wall I love it so much.  Maybe one day.

via

Love these colors.  And the frame around the TV.

via

I'm geeking out over this.  I want sliding barn doors!

Do you have any creative ideas to make a TV wall look prettier?  Share! 

I Love Hobby Lobby (and HL Sales...)

Nothing makes this girl happier than visiting a craft store (okay, maybe a few other things....).  So when I got the opportunity to go to Hobby Lobby this weekend, I was pumped.  I get a strange high from being around that many canvases, fabric spools and brilliant home decor ideas.  Just being there makes me happy.  So you can imagine how I feel when I'm in the craft store and I score a ridiculously awesome deal.  Meet my new clock.

Gahhhh!!!  It's gigantic (seriously--the picture doesn't do it justice...it's at least 20 inches across--if not more), it's covered in burlap and it's antique looking.  Could it be any more perfect?  Actually yes.  Yes, it could.

That sucker was originally $60 and I picked it up for $12 on clearance.  The clock works, but the hands stick and cause them to move when they're not supposed to, but that's just fine with me. Again, it's giant, it's covered in burlap and it's antique-y.   Even if it doesn't keep time, it's PERFECT for my house.  And I've been on the hunt for a statement piece for our living room.

Now, put on your imagination goggles with me for a second.  There's a super long wall spanning from my dining room into my living room that has two double doors along the wall going out to the screened in porch, but there's still a long wall that was devoid of any decorations whatsoever.  The previous homeowner (aka my aunt) had her TV on that wall with the furniture facing it.  When we moved in, I looked at that wall for our TV, but realized, because of the placement of the room, I wouldn't be able to center my couch with the TV if we did that...BIG problem for my OCD.  So we switched the room around and left this wall alone.  Here's where the imagination goggles need to be on.  (FYI, I apologize for this terrible picture.  I was trying to take it in between Avery's "I hold you!" whines).

You ready for my plans?  My mom has an old white wooden mantle in her basement that I'm going to steal  borrow with permission from her.  It needs a new top and probably a fresh coat of paint.  I'm going to tell ask Marty sweetly if he and his cousin (who is a whiz with wood and silly projects I hope to accomplish) will mount it centered on the wall.  I'm picturing two small printed chairs on each side and beautiful decorations on top.  Finally, I'm going to take a scrap piece of plywood, cover it in chalkboard paint and put it in the "fireplace."

via

Saw this idea in one of my mom's magazines last year around Christmas (Country Living? BHG?) and fell in love and have been obsessing over the idea ever since.

If I can get everything to work out (mom letting me have it, husband painting and mounting it...), I hope to have after pictures soon!!

My Behind-the-Scenes

Someone told me once that when they read my blog, they imagined that my house was perfectly clean, organized and decorated.  Hoo boy.  I'm here to tell you.  That's 100% wrong.  Dead wrong, in fact.

I've made the mistake before of reading a blog and imagining that the writer was completely perfect.  Spotless house, perfect kids, doting husband, the works.  I found myself comparing my life to theirs quite often and always falling short.

So, for the sake of being completely honest with you guys....wanna see my house?  Just to prove that this blogger isn't perfect and (is currently) a terrible housekeeper?

I was in a wedding last weekend.  I came home, threw my suitcase in this chair and have been digging stuff out of it ever since.

Also, can I get a shoutout from anyone else that MUST try on every article of clothing in their closet when they're going somewhere important?  Thus, all the clothes on the back of the chair.  I had to dress up (something I've obviously forgotten how to do) and literally tried on every possible outfit combination I owned.  These are the castoffs.

A giant load of towels that was taking over my bathroom floor, so I moved them to the bedroom.

I took a quick trip back to the FFA Convention yesterday and had to throw on some makeup and clothes.  I didn't have time to put anything back.....and that's why my bathroom looks like this.
Note:  right after taking this picture, I had a panic attack over it and cleaned everything off the countertop.  The floor, however?  Looks exactly the same.

See y'all?  And this is just MY room.  You haven't even seen the rest of my house!!  Just because I blog about the good stuff I do (because who wants to hear about the crappy stuff???) doesn't mean that my house (or myself!!) is perfect.  Far from it.  I heard a perfect quote once that helped me stop comparing myself to all those "perfect" bloggers I follow:

"Stop comparing your behind-the-scenes to someone else's highlight reel."

A blog is just that.  Me, talking about my highlight reels.  Talking about a DIY project I was proud of or sharing the details of my daughter's birthday party I planned.  I don't come on my blog and talk about the fight my husband and I got into the night before or the fact that my kid spilled milk on the kitchen floor that left a sticky spot that stayed there for 2 weeks before I finally cleaned it up.  That's my behind-the-scenes.  I screw up (quite often).  I yell at my kid too much or I get on my husband for doing something when I shouldn't.  I mess up dinner and my family eats a bowl of cereal that night.  I run through a drive through and pick up lunch when I know my daughter should be eating healthier.  I'm not perfect...by any stretch of the imagination.  When you see a blogger bragging about the things she's doing....remember:  it's her highlight reel.  We all have behind-the-scenes stuff that make our lives not so pretty....but they also make our lives REAL.  And that's perfect enough for me. 

Just a Simple Thank You.

Today, I had the chance to return to the Kentucky FFA State Convention as a contest judge. I always love going back to convention. I'm surrounded by national blue and corn gold corduroy jackets. I see wide-eyed youth, on fire for the FFA. I feel their nerves as they prepare to compete. I notice their excitement as they try to take in all that the convention has to offer. I know this because I was once a young FFA member experiencing my very own first state convention. First as a regular member, then as a team competitor, then as a prepared public speaker, next as a State Officer Candidate and finally, as a Kentucky FFA State Officer. To try to describe to you the impact the the National FFA Organization has had on my life would be impossible. There aren't enough words to properly express how much love I have for the FFA. Or what it did for me. Or how passionate I feel about youth getting involved in the FFA.

When I first came back to convention as a Past State Officer, I was overwhelmed with sadness. I was no longer allowed to sport my official dress down the hallways. I couldn't blend in with the members in my blue corduroy that became so familiar it almost felt like a second skin. Instead, I was in dress pants and a blouse...the official dress of a "has-been." I looked at the fresh faces of the new state officers and wanted to trade places with them. It was an emotion so strong, I physically hurt from missing the FFA.

After the next few trips back, it got easier to see the new batch of state officers. Instead of jealousy, I felt excitement for them. Glad they were getting to live out their moment and experience something few members get the chance to. Instead, I looked at my friends from the FFA...people that were members the same time I was...that were now the FFA advisors. The ones that got a front row seat every day to watch their students fall in love with agriculture. I began to feel a different kind of jealousy. One where I felt like my friends were getting to live out the ultimate dream job, while I just came to convention as an outsider--only to return back to whatever job that was waiting for me at home. I'd look at my friends and wonder if I'd made a terrible decision. I'd wonder if I, too, should be in their shoes and should have followed the path of an ag teacher.

Finally, I returned to convention again today. I waited for the pang of jealousy or the realization I hadn't made the right decisions to hit....but that feeling never came. Instead, I looked at my friends, leading their groups of students around, and just felt proud. I am so proud to know people that have truly found their calling in life. People that just KNEW they wanted to be ag teachers and are doing a fantastic job doing just that. When I look at my friends and hear them talk about their plans for their programs and their students, their excitement is contagious. I'm genuinely happy for them. They're living out their dream...it's just not one that was made for me. I know that I'll find my true calling one day (I hope, I hope...), but for now, I'm content coming back to convention in my current role: as a proud FFA Alum that's deeply, gratefully, humbly thankful for having the chance to learn so much from just a simple school organization. Thank you, Kentucky FFA.