Evan's 1st Birthday

Whew!  One party down and one to go. Even though his official birthday is on November 12th we had his 1st birthday on November 6th.  He's having another one next weekend with extended family. What a lucky kid!  The party was great, the moonwalk/bounce house was a necessity for the kids eating all that sugar. I'm so glad we decided to rent one. I hope that E-pie will enjoy looking back at these pictures one day. I only wish he could remember it all. Guess that's what pictures are for...right?

Oreo Pops

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Cheeks Magee

Cupcakes!

E's Giant Cupcake

Two years ago.

It's amazing what changes can take place in two years time. It was just two years ago on Halloween day that we found out that our June baby was not meant to be. The bleakest moment was searching the ultrasound screen for a flickering heartbeat and finding only darkness in its place. All hopes of what could be, what should be were gone. I can vaguely remember calling my mom and gasping through tears to tell her the grand baby-to-be was lost. 

October 31, 2008 was the hardest day of my life. My husband and I had plans to go to my sister's for a Halloween party later that evening and too afraid to be home with our fears and pain we decided to dress up and go. I don't remember most of the party. Just sadness. I do remember driving home from my sister's and the song "Wild Horses" came on. I completely lost it. The tears that I had been holding back for hours in front of friends and family had been held back too long. They flowed and  I didn't think they would ever stop. I can distinctly remember falling to the floor in pain when we got home. My husband terrified by my pain and stricken with his own sat with me and held me until I could calm myself.

The days following are hazy at best, but eventually I started to build strength from our grief and held on to the encouraging thoughts that some day we would have a baby to love.

Now two years later I have my baby to love and what a difference two years can make.  I love you E-Pie. I love you soooo much! Happy Halloweenie my sweet boy!

A few firsts...

Today we went to a Fall Festival that I had anticipated taking E to for last few weeks of course before we could get there....

Fortunately E woke up and was ready to explore...

 First Train Ride!

                   
 

 First snow cone! Not your typical fall festival treat, but hey it's Texas and it's hot!

 

 

First petting zoo and only one chicken lost a few feathers in E's death grip. Those poor animals.

Cake Pops and Wine

Last weekend was a perfect opportunity to try my hand at making cake pops.  I called up my sister and a friend and invited them over for a cake pop making/wine drinking night.  I must say that they turned out much better than I expected.Armed with a little confidence I think I'm going to make them for E's birthday in two weeks.
 
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 Cake Pops

                   

And with the left overs we made cake balls...

                 

Transformer Invite I made using MTC and my Cricut.

My good friend's 4 year old son is having a Transformer party this weekend so I decided to make him a Transformer birthday card. I found a file on Google images and brought into MTC and pixel traced it. Then I broke into two layers and used the bottom layer as my shadow layer.  To give it some dimension I used small foam squares to make it stand out. 

Evan's 1st Birthday Invitations are here!

They finally arrived and I am so happy with them! I created the invites in Photoshop Elements (PSE) using Lettering Delights graphics I purchased on the Dollar Deal days.  I had them printed  by Vistaprint.com and I am very pleased with the way they turned out.  The color in person is exactly like it looks on the computer screen. I was a little concerned with that much color printing poorly, but alas I received them in the mail on Monday and they look perfect (to me).  What do you think?

Follow Me...

My hope for this blog is to share DIY ideas and other crafts that others would like to learn how to make.  Anything from party planning to baking, I like to try it all. 

I'm also an amateur photographer with a passion to learn and improve my work. I would love for anyone else with these same interests to follow me on this journey!

Evan's Vintage Toy Party with Sock monkeys and Little red wagons

I have been a crafting fool for the last couple of weeks. It all started when I purchased my Cricut Expression and Make the Cut (MTC) software a few weeks ago.  Since then I have been preparing for E's 1st birthday. The theme is vintage toys (Sock Monkeys and red wagons) with a mod look.  I also made his invites which I will post at a later time.

Away we go...

Who Am I?

I'm a silly Texas girl with an attitude and a passion to create.

What I love...

my husband, my son, my woof-woofs "read Oliver and Riley",  art and of course photography. 

What I do...

I started shooting manual photography after my son, Evan, was born and many hundreds of dollars later I feel like I have come a long way from the auto setting on my Nikon.

Now with Little E's birthday right around the corner I have found myself absorbed or some may say obsessed with creating birthday decorations. To date I have made a partial birthday banner, 1 birthday hat with handmade pom pom, 30 cupcake toppers, 50 custom birthday invitations, and decorated one Wilton 4-tiered cupcake stand.  Left on my "to do" list are 15 more cupcake toppers, complete the birthday banner, and make a high chair banner.  Did I mention making the cupcakes and possibly E's smash cake too? I'm a busy lady, but I have a passion to make things and make 'em pretty.