The Boy's Basketball Party

We celebrated Bud's 2nd birthday this past weekend and even though the weather wasn't cooperative, it was still a fun time.  The kid loves balls of any kind and so I decided to do a basketball party for him.  How I love to throw parties, and this one was completely stress free for me...I think because I just had fun with it and remembered "this is for a 2 year old".  I asked everyone to wear their favorite jersey to the party and those who did got a prize (a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, totally worth it right??).  We also did a little "Guess the NBA Team Logo" game.  You can download it for free here.  Kind of fun. My brother did it in about 20 seconds but everyone else found it a bit challenging.  Here's some other highlights:

We got him--what else--a basketball hoop.  He absolutely loved it and jumped up and down when he saw it.

The cake.  It's supposed to be a basketball in a hoop...but whatever.

  He actually blew out his candles!  Well one of them, but I don't think I've ever seen a 2 year old do that.

And yes we were in the garage.  We did hot dogs, salad, watermelon, corn on the cob and lots of other goodies.  I really wanted to do our free throw shooting contest outside on the driveway but because of the low temp we were stuck inside the garage with the doors down.  Classy aren't we?!

I'll spare you posting pictures of each person taking their shots, but my nephew won the kid's free throw shooting contest and my brother won the adult's contest.

Thanks to everyone that came despite it being a holiday weekend.  

Happy Birthday Bud!

A Tutorial and a Warning: Excessive Use of the Word Ball

I've been looking for cute ways to spice up my daughter's room (because the bright pinky-purple walls and board & batten wasn't enough!) so when I saw some hanging flower balls at a local baby boutique I knew I wanted them!  As they were way out of my price range, I decided to make some myself and do them a little bit smaller.  After googleing (that's a word right?) and searching for ways to make them I couldn't find anything--which really surprised me because this seems like something that would be out there in blog land (it very well could be I just didn't find it). My sister in-law told me how someone she knew had made them and we found a place to buy all the flowers. So off I went.....actually a year ago I started and am just now finishing! Yay for procrastination.  So here's what you need:

A styrofoam ball in the size of your choice, hot glue gun, ribbon (I used regular old white grosgrain in 3/4") and let's pretend that container of tacks is actually push pins.  I used push pins on the other two balls I made but after our move I couldn't find them so I had to settle with the tacks.

 Oh and you need flowers.  I buy them in bulk here for super cheap.

 Since I want the hanging piece to be built into the ball I hot glued a realllllly long piece of ribbon all the way around the ball like so:

Then I put push pins or tacks all the way around to ensure it was secure.

 All the flowers I bought have a built in small stem so I use that to poke a hole, fill with hot glue, then attach the flower.

 

 Then keep working....

 Until you are done!

 Easy peasy!  We used these hooks to attach them to the ceiling:

I might make my hubby take the hooks down and spray paint them white, but other than that I love it!  So fun for my little girl's room.

Sorry horrible bad night-time lighting but you get the idea.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!  We are celebrating my baby's 2nd birthday.  Time with this kid has absolutely flown by, and I love him to pieces.

The Mustang and a Toddler

I did a photo shoot with my cute nephew last week.  He turns 2 next month (he is 2 weeks younger than my son).  These types of photo shoots are a bit hard--they never stop moving!  But luckily he has the absolute cutest personality so we got some great pictures.  The kid absolutely loves cars so we asked my mother in-law to pull out her GT Mustang so we could see his reaction. I've never said this about a car before, but dang, that thing is gorgeous.

Top Ten Projects

I know I just disappeared for awhile but I'm back!  Can you contain your excitement?  I can't!  I'm coming back to share with you the top ten projects for our humble abode (taking a cue from this stylish blogger--seriously I'm obsessed with her playroom and her whole house for that matter).  Our house is wonderful, but honestly it has absolutely zero decor/style/evidence that humans live here.  There's nothing on the walls, nothing on the beds, everywhere you look: nothing.  So I'm ready to change that.  Here are the projects we want to tackle in the next year in no particular order.

Entry from the garage:  We want to do a faux mudroom type of thing here with a bench, hooks, and boxes for our shoes that are always piled high as we come inside.

 Breakfast nook: I'd love to do some sort of bench seating here with storage and pillows, also a new table some day.

 This is the spot we are currently working on.  The bench seat has proven to be a huge pain--mostly because I have no idea how to do it.  I mean I could slap something together and have it look ok, but I want it to look nice.  I don't think that's too much to ask.  Also I want to style this mantel somehow...possibly a family picture or sunburst mirror, and some other cool finds for the shelf.

 Kitchen back splash: we are probably going to tile this area, but it's going to take some cash so we'll be waiting on this for awhile.

 Front Entry: Oh this entry.  I have NO IDEA what to do here.  But it is so blah and plain I've got to do something!  Yes that is my beautiful door.  Love her.

 Entertainment center: I'll either redo this piece of furniture OR we'll get a new piece to go underneath the giant TV we'll buy.  Yeah, I'll probably be redoing this.  Just not sure on the color.

 Laundry room: We need to put a counter top on the cabinet, add upper cabinets, and make some sort of basket shelving for the end of the room.  This room is a pretty good size so I'm excited for its potential for complete organization.

 Hallway to the bedrooms: I'm not sure if I would dare to do this but I think it could be amazing.  I also have a gallery wall type of thing in mind for this space.  Something like this, this, or this.  Which reminds me, our little family really needs to get family pictures done.

 The girl's room: Her room has the most decoration out of the whole house, but I still have a couple of things I want to do in here.  Curtain tie backs, hanging flower decor, and more pictures on the wall.  

 Master bedroom: This is the room that I've neglected since we got married.  Before kids we got our bed,  bedding, nightstands, and an ottoman that goes at the foot of the bed.  But since then I have done zero to spice it up.  I need to bring some life to this space and I have a few ideas.  Redoing our dresser like this.  Adding some molding to the walls like this.  And then more pillows, more interesting lamps, window treatments, and furnishing our reading nook area.

Oh man this list is daunting (the things I could do if money were no object).  But I'm going to try not to get discouraged.  Just take each space at a time and do what we can, when we can.  I'm looking forward to making this house a home...or you know, something not so sterile!