Oh Baby!

Caylee Rae was born Saturday, April 27th.
6 lbs. 3 oz.
20.5 inches

She may or may not have stolen a few hearts in our family!

And life is settling back into place so I will be spending more time on this blog again.

Hope you will join me for my adventures as a new Grandma.

Thankful

image source

Happy Sunday everyone. I've been absent the past few days because I've been spending time at the hospital, waiting to become a grandmother. And yes, I'm still not comfortable with my new title. But she is soft and beautiful and amazing and the title will grow on me over time. Stop by tomorrow for a photo or two.

For today, I'm just going to focus on be thankful for this life that I have.

Tutorial: Painting Shoes

How to Paint Shoes Yellow.

Please take notes.

1. Buy ugly oatmeal-colored canvas shoes on clearance for under $10.
2. Buy Tulip paint for fabric.
3. Paint shoes with a paintbrush. Only 1 coat needed.
4. Add polka dots to inside by dipping end of paintbrush in paint and dabbing onto shoe.
5. Let paint dry.
6. Pinch yourself. That was super easy! The hardest part was picking the paint color, wasn't it?

If you are a super savvy shopper, you could use a Michael's 40% off coupon, and pay $2.52 for paint.
Now that is a deal!

Do you have any super simple, but cute, craft projects that you want to share with me? You could leave a comment. Just saying.

Currently

Eating:  Meeting my dad for lunch in 40 min and hoping to have a yummy grilled cheese sandwich from Wildflower Bread Co.

Drinking:  Same old, same old. Iced white chocolate mocha coffee.

Wearing:  Grey pants, black tee, granny sandals. I'm all about the comfort factor.

Starting:  To get excited for summer break. No early mornings. Relaxed, lazy days. Yes!

Feeling:  Tired. Still worn out from Snap and a few late nights since I got back. Goal is to hit the pillow early tonight.

Reading:  Just finished The Wild. Loved it! Might buy a new book today. Maybe Perks of Being a Wallflower. I was blown away by the movie, so I'm thinking the book would be Awesome!

Watching: Game of Thrones, recording Mad Men, folded laundry today with House Hunters International in Taiwan. Love HGTV!

Weather:  81 right now (noon), but high will be 91 with 61 as the low. Partly cloudy. Hello pool season!

Needing:  Absolutely nothing. Feeling like my cup is very full right now. Happy to be home with my family!

Thinking: About having the next 2 days off with the hubby. Crazy excited. Thinking about going to the gym together, lunch, Costco, a movie or two. Would love to buy a grill and make steaks outside, but probably not going to talk him into that one.

Dreaming: About a house cleaner. I was cleaning the master bedroom today and wondering if I could scrape together enough money from my coupon savings to pay for cleaning help once or twice a month. That would be heavenly.

Loving: Life right now. Being away those 5 days made me really miss my tribe. I'm happy to be home and have a few more days off before I return to work on Friday.

View From My Bed

 

View from my hotel bed as I close my eyes for sleep and when I open then 8 hours later.

I slept with the curtains open each night so I could look out at the city lights. I was on the 5th floor so privacy was not a concern. And then my first view each morning was the stunning sight of the mountains covered in snow.

I'm home now with lots of thought about Snap swirling in my head. Deciding what is right for me. Deciding what direction I want to head in.

And, of course, lots of photos to edit and share.

But for now, I'm happy to be home with my family. My people who know me best and love me and get me.

Happy Monday to you!

You Are...

 SOURCE

April theme: Beauty

Did you need to be reminded that you are beautiful? Because you are. We all are. In our own way.

Now go enjoy your Sunday!

Snow

 

Driving back to hotel after a full day @ Snap.  Snow covered mountains and a sunset.

Photos taken by me. As I was driving. There may have been some slight swerving going on. Not that the highway patrol car behind me noticed though. Yikes! Don't tell my insurance company!

Have a happy Saturday!

Friday Wrap

Happy Friday everyone.

You know the routine by now. It's the day to dump cell phone photos and remember the moments from the past week.

1.  Gotta love a great cookie with even better packaging! Cookie from Chick-fil-A.

 2.  Her lunch/His lunch on a much enjoyed Saturday off together.

 3.  We're thinking of sending Daisy off the college since she's sporting the scholar look these days (photo taken by Emma).

 4.  Luggage shopping for Salt Lake City. 

 5.  Cupcake testing continues (picking out flavors for the baby shower in a few weeks). This week was Margarita and Sopapilla. Margarita was a winner. There are still many more flavors I want to try.

6.  Landing in Salt Lake City. Attending Snap Conference. Don't worry, I will be sharing lots of photos and stories soon!

Another week full of good moments around here. Hope yours has been also!

Linking up with Jeannette at Life Rearranged. Come on over and check out some other great blogs!

Oxygen

Adding some oxygen producers around the house.

Both areas are in progress.  The white tray will have beach finds added, like shells and sand.

The wall will have more air plants added. I'm thinking maybe a total of 3 or 5.

Saguaro Mini Book

This past weekend I made a quick mini-book about our stay at The Saguaro hotel.

 

I started with a book I purchased years ago. I have a basket full of these. Can you say hoarder?

 

 

 I planned on keeping the color scheme of the book simple, to let the colors in the photos pop.

 

 

But then somehow I painted the pages bright, rainbow colors. Shocking? No. Not really.

 

 

 Then I got all fancy and taped on the photos. Some pages are single photos and others are layers.

 

 

 Next, I added some very simple journaling on top of that fancy artist's tape.

 

 

I ripped out pages from the super cool visitor's guide that I stole was gifted from the hotel. The pages were taped to the inside covers of the book (I covered the chipboard covers first with fabric and mod-podge).

 

 

Ribbon was added to finish off the top edges of the covers. Random pieces were added to the front and back cover for final decorations.

 

 

 

 Then I went back in with an oil pastel stick and added some grey detail to the inside of the white circles, just to grunge it up a bit.

 

 

That's it. A few hours of playtime and now I have a colorful book to remember my night of "sleeping in a rainbow". 

 

 

Hope you have some time to play this upcoming weekend!

Buy Happiness?

 

Some say you can't buy happiness, but I'm thinking maybe you can!