Happy Spring!!

On Campbell: 2 years old

Hair clip: The Sandbox children’s boutique (Chattanooga)

Gray sweater:Target

Brown dress: Target

Brown boots: H&M (Aberdeen, Scotland)

Black and white backpack: Stephanie Dawn collection (gift from friend)

On Gray: 5.5 years old (I think she dressed herself)

Headband: The Sandbox children’s boutique (Chattanooga)

Polka dot cardigan, gray dress, (gift from friend) knee high socks: crewcuts

Sparkly converse shoes: Old Navy

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Oh there’s so much to say about this special little girl. She turned our world upside down two years ago and continues to do so with her love for life.

One night this week, as I was getting ready to tuck her in, she asked me as she pats the rocking chair, “Rock baby…manket?” (She was asking to be rocked with her blanket). I sang “Rock a Bye Baby” as I rocked her and she had the biggest smile. Its one of those moments as a parent I will always cherish and never forget. Well, every night this week, she asked “Rock baby?” How could I say no? My heart just melts and this is how Campbell is. What a sweet, cuddly, hilarious, strong, independent, loving little girl. The best daughter and little sister around.

I was thinking of her birthday party months before and even thought of a great theme, but it had been an unusually busy January and we decided to celebrate her birthday with just the four of us at home. But then I felt guilty thinking I wasn’t throwing a party for her because of all the busyness and everything else that had gotten in the way. So I decided, I would plan a small party within a month and to invite close friends and family…..I figured fourteen invitations was a perfect amount for a quaint and intimate event. Well with over 30 guests confirmed and add a little excitement with details…get ready for some picture overload…

I quickly emailed Liana for help with my concept for Campbell’s button theme party translated to her invitation. She and her husband, Mike designed it exactly as I imagined, the pink and grey colors were perfect, and the letterpress work is just gorgeous. It was so fun to also be able to use her birthday crown this year again.

It has become tradition when I host a baby shower, I give the mom-to-be a “wishes for baby” card where guests can write a message for baby. I now include this for the girls’ birthdays (with their name and age) and hope to do it every year. I also was able to get these wooden blocks as Campbell’s first and middle name initials from Paloma’s Nest. Another favorite detail was the grey polka dotted tablecloths!

My husband has been SOOOO supportive with my party planning obsession and I think he has gotten into it as well ;) He came up with purchasing wooden circles at Michael’s, drilling two holes in them and hanging them as garlands across the dining room. I also had to incorporate the tissue poms, they really add alot to events.

Ahh the cake…its been an interesting journey with cakes. I used to describe a cake to some of the local cake bakers, and they always seemed to come back the opposite of what they are supposed to look like. I got tired of it and started making them myself. I actually loved making them for birthdays! I also love the look and taste of homemade cakes. As I planned for this party and the more details and projects I did, I realized a week before the party that I will not have time to make the cake. I remember seeing on Facebook recommendations from friends and photos of cakes from someone local who I had met at a recent wedding who made the wedding cake. I contacted her and described the cake, forwarded some photos, mentioned milk allergies of family members…WOW, did she over deliver and did an amazing job! The cake was not only gorgeous, but tasted DELICIOUS! Every button was handmade out of fondant. It was chocolate with buttermilk vanilla frosting, (soy/almond milk was actually used) layers of cool whip and chocolate ganache….it was the best cake I had ever eaten. Trust me I have eaten tons of cake! If you are in the Chattanooga area, get in touch with Queenie Lewis!

The adorable handmade ceramic buttons from Paloma’s Nest are not normally for cake toppers, but they worked out perfectly.

I made pink chocolate melts with button molds and there were pink ranunculus flowers in mason jars, courtesy of the super sweet and talented florist, Grafe Studio!

I was really happy with the pink burlap to use as tablecloths for the guests. We tied huge pink balloons to the mason jars and I strung pink buttons on pink striped cotton twine that were placed in the middle of table.

We now use this bunting banner every year for birthdays.

Sooo fun…we had three stations we called “bar”. One was the juice bar. We had six different juices: pineapple, pink lemonade, orange-pineapple, grape, apple, and orange. Guests could mix them up and drink them with different sized mason jars. Really loved the striped grey and pink straws.

For the little kids, they had a special juicebox. We had these labels printed (along with the labels in grey frames) at Kinko’s.

The second and third stations were a burger bar and fruit bar. We had all of Campbell’s favorite fruits…she can eat fruit all day long!

The burger bar was a hit. Knowing that about 95 percent of the guests were vegeterians, we served 100 percent vegetarian burgers. There were three kinds: “chicken” patties, grillers (both were Morningstar brand) and the homemade patties, so good! We cooked up lots of those…I think there were at least 100 miniature burgers! If you would like the recipe to the homemade ones, let me know, I’ll see if my husband is willing to share the ingredients ;)

I made button sugar cookies…tried to do it Bakerella style, but did not really succeed, but they were yummy anyhow.

More overviews of the room. Garrett’s grandma makes the best pasta salad and it went really well with the burgers. YUM.

It was quite a surprise for the weather to be so sunny and the temperature around 70…in February. So as you can see by the lack of decorations on the back deck, we were not really planning for us to use the screened in porch but the kids LOVED eating outside and parents were able to eat inside and still be able to watch the kids through the open windows. It worked out so great!

Time for cake!

Gray is the most helpful big sister and she just adores Campbell.

Sampling the delicious cake for the first time. And taking a moment to be with my daughter.

We had three games. The first one was “Pass the Button.” Garrett drilled four holes, painted and tied fabric around the homemade button. Sooo cute! The kids loved passing it around with music.

Then we played a similar version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. We had “Pin the Thread on the Button.”

The third game was “Guess How Many Buttons?” Everyone had a chance to guess how many buttons in the jar…there were 374!

Soooo fun to have all the cousins and lots of friends together!!

Time to open presents!

One of my favorite details was the favor bags. I asked my mother-in-law to see if she could make a similar favor bag that I had seen online…I have very little knowledge in sewing and had actually asked her for sewing lessons 8 years ago…she is truly so talented and has quite a gift. I asked if it would be hard to make the bags and would we have enough time (this was two weeks or maybe less before the party). She graciously said yes, she could do it and it wouldn’t be hard at all…she even added special details with scalloped edged flaps and bow finished twine. It turned out way better than I dreamed of! Thanks Mom!

Everyone took home a favor bag and in it had the chocolate button lollipops, clementines, and pencil with pencil sharpener (for older kids). I love that the bag itself is re-usable for a toy, or give-able as a gift, etc.

Last but not least, the “thank you” cards. I just mailed these out last week…I think it was in record time! These were letterpress thank you cards made by Liana and Mike customized for Campbell. I absolutely love her monogram initials and button on the back! Their customer service is also the best out there, they truly go above and beyond.

Whew, you made it!

Thank you for reading this and I hope you were able to get some ideas for your next event! I wasn’t able to link everything, so if you have any questions, please let me know.

If there was something that I regret not doing, it was to have someone official photograph the event! I know I deserve a slap in the hand as we are photographers and we should know better! Honestly, we overlooked it and just totally forgot :( Garrett took most of the pictures and yes we indeed got some great photos, but we should have had someone there so we could actually be with the guests more and serve as better hosts. I almost forgot to have a family shot too, thank you Amanda! Lesson learned!!

To all our friends and family who came, we loved getting to spend time with you. I know Campbell had a blast. Thank you also to those who helped us out, we truly appreciate it! And for the ones who weren’t able to come, we sure missed you and hope to see you soon!

I want to especially thank my husband, Garrett for his wonderful support with all this! His creativity along with encouragement of all of my crazy ideas was unbelievable. He is a keeper :) And love to my beautiful daughter Gray for patience, humor, and being a wonderful little helper.

On to the next one!

If you don’t know what Pinterest is…don’t bother finding out, you’ll never get anything done. It is an addicting, informative, creative, eye candy of a site. I love seeing things I love all connected on my very own virtual inspiration board. It does create a challenge to be more creative since there are many ideas on there you want to do or you have thought of and there it is, shared by people you know, but its definitely fun and full of inspiration. I have been dreaming up home improvements since we finished our dining room and there is one I follow that has collected all the projects I have dreamt up!

I have been dreaming of a fun and new front door…not that we need it…but if for any reason we need a new one in the future, the above Dutch door is PERFECT.

I am hoping I will not be dreaming about our loft project forever. We actually have drawn up plans for it and hopefully will be starting on it sometime this year. The above loft is so close to what I am picturing ours to be.

Another project I would love to do is a built-in dining nook in our breakfast area. This is a teeny tiny private nook so I had to include it. I have a whole folder on Pinterest for built-in dining nooks and lofts….I have become obsessed.

If I was to describe a room just for me…this photo is it. Its a library with a private library behind it. I would stay in that room forever. Oh and yes, I am dreaming of another library room.

Don’t get me started on our girls’ rooms.

What home projects have you been dreaming of?

We have a fun-filled family weekend planned: celebrating Garrett’s recent print competition awards from WPPI! I am beaming with pride and you can read all about it on our photo blog! A baby dedication for our niece and Campbell’s 2nd birthday party (lots of buttons!) I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Find the original sources and photo credits for the projects on this Pinboard.

I’ve been a fan of Audrey Hepburn for awhile now and for so many reasons. Her style, character, presence, career, legacy…well pretty much everything about her I adore. The above photo of Audrey Hepburn’s quote was a surprise Valentine gift from Garrett. He created it in Photoshop and had it mounted especially for me! It now sits above my desk as an everyday reminder to me of this beautiful message.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Trista Sutter’s Family Interview!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I am receiving some fun party things in the mail and now that we have mailed the invitations out, I wanted to give you a sneak peek!

I collaborated with Liana and Mike to create a simple and sweet invitation. I am thrilled with the result!

Beautiful letterpress invitation designed and made by: Liana and Mike Hall of Apres un Reve.

Also you may have noticed something different on the blog. You can now read each post as a complete post instead of opening each one. You can also comment easier with the comment box visible and less things to fill in. And you can now  “Like” the posts :) Thank you Flosites!

Speaking of buttons….

I found some of these great Valentine craft supplies a month ago and finally got them out today. Gray went to work and did her own thing. Felt heart buttons, heart stickers, kraft paper, and heart doilies from  Michael’s. Cotton striped twine from Anthropologie.

How appropriate and adorable! Valentine’s Day is around the corner. I found this button heart and its perfect because I wanted to give you a sneak peek on Campbell’s birthday “theme”. Yes its buttons and the colors are pink and gray!  I’ve been planning like a crazy lady and its such a fun thing to put together. The invitations are ready to be mailed off. I’ll be dreaming of party favors and whats on the menu and wrapping special Valentine gifts this weekend. Hope you spend it with people you love.

Here are more adorable buttons. Pink vintage.

White buttons. LOVE.

Wooden buttons I adore and group them with ribbons, spools and twine….perfection.

Photo credits: 1) tinywhitedaisies 2) frecklesfairytales 3) Country Living 4) Stipje All via Pinterest

The dining room has been one of those rooms I have always felt inspired to change from the norm and to sit in and dream…other than eat yummy food of course!

The above photo was our dining room when we used to live in Orlando back in 2004, (please excuse the logo, I got the photo from our photo blog). The dark plum paint was already there which we loved and we decided to add the black bookcase complete with a rolling ladder! I was reading rue magazine the other day and there was a quote on pg. 41 that spoke to me: “It doesn’t matter if it’s supposed to be a dining room. How often are we going to use the dining room? Can it also be a library? A study?” It made me miss our dining-library room!! Of course we put a table in there too, so we could actually eat. hehe.

Fast forward to the summer of 2007, when we moved into our house that we live in now.  This is the only photo I can find of our dining room with the red walls. We didn’t do anything special to the room nor did we hang anything on the walls for a looong time. I did not know what to do with it. Check out Gray when she was only 2!

In the fall of 2009, I was inspired by the Urban Outfitters store in downtown Charleston, SC, with their beautiful white moldings and plum walls. I decided that is what we needed to do with our dining room. I know lots of people would think, PURPLE?! And in the dining room?! This is why we didn’t ask anyone’s opinion, we just went for it! Its different, risky, mysterious, lovely, and fun! And my darling husband said, “if you want me to paint the dining room purple, we are definitely going to put lots of pictures up!”

We had a big collection of frames and some mirrors that were just stored in closets, so we decided to make use of them. We wanted all white frames and we wanted to fill them with many of our favorite family pictures. To round out our collection, we also hit the antique stores in town to find some perfect vintage frames! Below are more of the frames that we found after taking the previous photo.

Here they are on our back porch, spray painted by my loving husband…and even Gray was able to help out.

Almost done!

Voila! This project took 6 days and wrapped up by Labor Day weekend in 2009. Just in time for a wedding shower I was hosting. There was a total of 40 white frames and 3 white mirrors!

Most of the vintage frames were originally gold.

I absolutely love hanging out, having guests over for dinner, and hosting parties in this room. It truly inspires me because its so different and I adore seeing my family photos on the walls. I say it is ALMOST finished…still have to decide if we will put in drapes or shutters, find the perfect buffet and chandelier! And all of the pictures in the frames can easily be changed, updated or replaced. Speaking of which, we should probably update some of them now!

We were so honored to have our dining room featured on the National Association of Professional Child Photographers (NAPCP) blog!

Now I am trying to figure out what is the next inspiration room…

Photos in dining room wall from awesome photographer friends: Amber Holritz, Alice Park, Tina Wilson, and hubby Garrett Nudd

Our sweet Campbell turned 2 yesterday and we had such a great time celebrating with her including a super fun photo session with her sister and dad. I have been planning her birthday party which will be next month. Can you guess what the main style focus will be and the colors? I haven’t told a soul (except for Garrett of course) so I will be so excited if you get it right!

Child: Campbell, now 2!!
Birthday crown: Stell and Livi on Etsy
Birthday dress: LIHO London from Zulily
Cupcake: Whipped Cupcakes (downtown Chattanooga)
out & about activity: birthday photo session
Photo credit: daddy (all photos)

Gray hat: Gap Kids
Dress: crewcuts
Tights: Zara Kids

Dress: Plum Pudding from Gigi’s (Rosemary Beach, FL)
Tights: H&M Kids
Boots: H&M Kids (Aberdeen, Scotland)

I have a lot on my mind lately especially after being snowbound for more than 3 days.

My little girl is growing up.

This morning we attended a Kindergarten meeting for Gray. We met at the school she will be attending in August and we were able to meet the wonderful teachers, tour the school, ask questions, etc. I decided right at that moment she will be attending school and registered her without any hesitation.

I. am. so. relieved. I finally made the decision and can breathe better. I really really like the school (although I will have to start saving up my pennies for the tuition, yikes!) and what amazing programs and opportunities they offer.

We will go through some big changes when she goes to school. So what a timely message I read on Facebook, a parent posted a message they received from their kids’ school.

Suggested resolutions for parents. Some things we already do, but some  really resonate with me and will be reading DAILY.

Living with Children

John Rosemond

Given that this is the first column of a new year, I’m proposing a number of parenting New Year’s Resolutions for my readers to consider. The list is by no means comprehensive. It’s just a good beginning on what is probably a much-needed family revolution:

1.    We will not throw expensive “event parties” for our children on their birthdays. Instead, we will confine all birthday celebrations to our family, including extended family. We will keep it uncomplicated: a special dinner of the birthday boy or girl’s favorite food, a cake, the obligatory song, and a few simple gifts, mostly clothing or other useful things.

2.    We will spend at least as much time helping our children develop good manners as do helping them get good grades in school, which means we will cut back significantly on the time helping with the latter (in consideration of the fact that good manners, which are expressions of respect for others, will take one further in life than will good grades). Each week, we will work on one specific social courtesy, such as saying “excuse me” when you walk in front of someone. Taking two weeks off, that’s fifty courtesies a year!

3.    We will show our love for our neighbors by properly disciplining our children, insisting on proper behavior, and reprimanding immediately (even if that means in front of other people) when they behave otherwise, and on those occasions we will also insist they apologize appropriately.

4.    If we have not already done so, we will assign a routine of daily chores to each of our children (at least those who have reached their third birthdays) and we will insist that said chores be done, and done properly, before they engage in recreation or relaxation.

5.    When our children ask us for cell phones, we will tell them that they may have cell phones when they are able to pay for them as well as the monthly bills.

6.    When our children complain that they are the only kids who don’t have cell phones (and do chores), we will tell them that learning how to be different is character-building.

7.    Our children will not be able to order customized meals unless we take them to a restaurant. At home, they will eat what we are eating, and they will sit at the table until they are finished. We will do this so that when they are invited to eat at someone else’s home, they will be the best of guests.

8.    We will put our marriage first and our children second…for their sake as well as ours. They will revolve around us; thus, they will not grow up thinking the world revolves around them.

9.    If I am a single parent, I will take good care of myself for my sake as well as my children’s. I will have an active, adult’s only, social life. I will take plenty of personal time to simply relax and do those things I like to do. I will do all of that so that my children will not ever think the world revolves around them.

10. We/I will put our/my children to bed early so that we/I can end each day reconnecting as a couple or relaxing as a single.

11. We will eat as a family around our own table at least six nights a week.

12. We will keep after-school activities to a minimum, and only let them enroll in activities that do not prevent us from delivering on number 10.

13. Instead of buying our children expensive things, we will help them develop hobbies and take them to museums and on trips.

14. We will do all of the above so that when they grow up, they will have wonderful memories of their childhoods and raise our grandchildren in a manner that honors us.

Happy Friday!