Baby shower!

 Yesterday marked my 32nd week of pregnancy, only eight more to go! And last weekend was my baby shower. It was small, just family and close friends, but it was so fun and relaxed! The colors were the same as my kids room is going to be, so a lot of the shower decor will find new life there. I have to say, my mom's sunroom is the perfect room for parties! We rearrange the furniture and add different decor for almost every shower and party we have. The snacks were made by my mother and I, the punch was a recipe I found on Pinterest and edited which I will share in another post, most food was made by my mother, one dish was made by my sister's mother-in-law, and as far as decor I will include credits at the bottom. Without further ado, pictures!

These are the prize bags! We found the bags on clearance at Target, and I hot-glued twine and little mini-flags on them to match the larger banners we'd made.

The invitations were SO cute. We found them on Etsy (credit below), printed them at Walmart, and we found this frame again on clearance at Target!

These large poms we found on Etsy (credit below) and we used twine to hang them from the ceiling fan. They came with clear fishing line for hanging, but the garlands we bought from the same shop we ordered on twine so we wanted them to match.

These garlands were the best decoration! They are different shades of orange on twine, and we hung them from the curtains using safety pins.

We made several of these banners and hung them across the doorways and also above the present table. We bought all the paper at Michaels (most on clearance for 20 cents a sheet) and were able to get 3 good sized flags out of each sheet. Then we punched holes in the corners and threaded them onto twine in a specific pattern similar to the one on the invites.

These are the sweets made by my mother and I, and the cupcakes were iced by my sister and I. The marshmallows are dipped in white chocolate and sprinkles, and they're skewered on gray chevron paper straws. The pretzel rods are also dipped in white chocolate and sprinkles. The cupcakes were a special recipe created by my mom (almond vanilla, with sour cream in them which keeps them moist!), and the frosting was a special recipe also.

Me, my momma, and the little munchkin before the party started.

The flowers sent by my husband that arrived in the middle of the shower. :) He's so sweet! They were even prettier when they were all alive. In this picture only the carnations are still kicking.

Some party preview shots!

Credits:

Poms and pom garlands purchased from:                                       Pom+Love on Etsy

Invitations purchased from:                                                            katiedidesigns on Etsy

Gray striped paper straws purchased from:                                     BakeMeAParty on Etsy

Cute matching tin owl purchased from:                                           Ross

Yellow pillows (originally for the kids room) purchased from:             Target

Paper and twine for banners and assorted decor purchased from:     Michaels

The original Punch recipe can be found:                                          here (but we did tweak it a bit for ourselves, more on that later!)

Shared Room Nursery Project: Stage 1

Edit: This project is finished! You can find those pics Here or Here.

Room Inspiration

So I can't honestly remember if I managed to mention at some point that the apartment we are moving into is being gutted and renovated or not, but that's where we are at with that. In the meantime we are living at my mother's (again...good grief) surrounded by boxes not worth unpacking, with half the furniture in her garage.
My poor mother.
Anyhoo, while we are here I am still nesting, acquiring things, and planning for the kids room at the apartment, which is super fun! Even if the stuff is all being piled up in one corner of our living space. Lexi has moved to a twin bed, so the crib will go to Talon, we got a changing table at a resale shop nearby, got a high chair for cheap from a friend, got our old dresser back from said friend, got my childhood toy box from my mother, and have steadily acquired clothing from the resale shop and my sister (who's little guy is almost 2 months old!!) as well as blankets with matching burpies from my lovely sister-in-law.
While we are here, I figure I can plan out the kids soon-to-be shared room as best I can, and this has actually proven to be really fun!

Color scheme

These are the colors for the kids room. In real life Carrot Cake looks a lot brighter on the swatch than it does here, so I added the Pecan Praline here because it more accurately represents the color we are going for. The Stone Mason Gray is going to go on the walls, and the Almost Charcoal is going to be the crib and dresser. Lexi's bed, the toy box, and the toy organizer are all white. Nothing is actually going to be painted the blue, orange, or yellow (yet anyway), they are just representatives of the accent colors in the room.

The bedding we bought for Lexi's room (left) And Talon's crib sheet (right)

We are having to piece together Talon's bedding from individual places because I have yet to find any crib bedding in our color scheme. We found this orange sheet at Target (the bedding is target too), and are looking at custom made crib skirts and bumpers on Etsy to try to bring all the colors together. Lexi's bed will have orange sheets also, which I finally found at JCPenny in the right color and size (harder than you would think!) and with good reviews as to the quality. I'm hoping to bring the colors together with pillows and blankets also.

We found all of these pillows at Target (I work there, so the discount makes it worth it to shop there almost exclusively!) And the pillow is actually from a tutorial I found on Pinterest.

And the baby shower is in the same sort of color scheme, so things like the orange pom garland, and paper bunting banner will make great accent pieces on the walls in the kid's room! I'll post pics of those in a later post. I have a big inspiration board for this room on Pinterest called For Our Kids Room. Pinterest has been so helpful with planning these kinds of things! I just love it.

These are some more inspiration pics for me. The banner in the middle is from Etsy, and I have actually considered buying it for the kids room.

So this gives you a good idea of what we *hope* the kid's room will look like. Stay tuned for the real deal, and pics of the baby shower and decor!

::Credits::

Monkey inspiration room: Chiccheapnursery.com

Paint: Valspar

Chevron bedding: Target here

Orange crib sheet: Target here

Pillows 1-5: Target

Blanket: Purlbee.com

Dark gray with rainbow inspiration room: Chiccheapnursery.com

Banner: Etsy here

Gray & yellow inspiration room: Chiccheapnursery.com

B is for Baby, Blue, and Boy!

That's right! Baby Smith number 2 is a BOY! And not only that, but he has a name. Mr. Talon Cameron Smith is due May 4th. I can't wait!

A lot is changing with us (as always). My job at Target is supposed to be coming to an end at the end of February, mostly because Cameron is back to work at UNFI now (as of last week) and I'm ready to be done! Cameron really doesn't want me lifting heavy things much longer, so that's really the driving force behind it.
Cameron is on his last quarter of school, with only one class. He was trying to finish up last quarter but they canceled a class at the last minute, so now it's the only thing keeping him from being done. At the end of this quarter he will have his AA and be on track to becoming a certified Air Traffic Controller.
In the meantime the poor guy gets up at 5am 3 days a week to drive the two hours up to Auburn for school, then after class drives 2 hours back down to Ridgefield to start work, and doesn't get home until after 10:30 each night. Not. Pleasant. He sacrifices a lot for us, and I couldn't be more proud to have him!

We are in mom's house, again, but are just waiting for our apartment to be finished so we can move in sometime in March! My in-laws own the apartment building, and decided that it was time their 91-year-old resident moved to a retirement home. He's been living there alone for 41 years (and is a hoarder), and they are concerned that if anything were to happen to him no one would know. It's fortunate for us though, and hopefully he'll be happier surrounded by people his own age, with help a ring away. The apartment is currently gutted and not at all pretty, but they are completely remodeling it, so I can't wait to see the end result!

Also in March is my baby shower! It's planned for March 2nd. My mom and sister are throwing it, but we are all 3 planning it, which I love because I love to plan parties! Etsy has been our best friend thus far. :)

Alexis is loving preschool, being 4, and sleeping in her new twin bed! The crib is going to Talon, and she's growing like crazy, so it was time. Cameron and I got my mom's old bed, my younger sister Jewell got our old bed, and Alexis now has Jewell's. It worked out wonderfully!

Also! I am an auntie! :) My first sister to have a baby! Little sis Jenessa gave birth to Kashton Richard Kell on December 7th, and he couldn't be MORE beautiful! A quick pic of Lexi holding him right after he was born:

So that's it! You're caught up for now.

Family pictures!!

Yeah, so pretty much I have wayyy too much free time on my hands and like to play around with Word and Paint. So sue me! Anyway, it is nearly autumn (or Fall...barney songs come to mind...ahh get it away!), nearly monkeys 1st b-day (hurray!), and past due time for a family photo or two. Lucky me I have a super cool mom-in-law who got me a gift certificate to a really neat local photography studio, lemondrops photography. And (small world) I found out I know the photographer, she's the daughter of my late father's ex-brother-in-law-turned-best-friend. Yup. How much does that rock? About as much as the dress I found for the monkey on Etsy! Feast your eyes upon this beauty

And once I found monkey's dress I just had to go perusing for deals on autumnal wear for husband and I. Yes sir, I said autumnal wear. Should it be hyphonated? I don't know. Is hyphonated mis-spelled? I don't know. Am I getting distracted due to it being past midnight? I don't know, but probably.
What was I saying again? Oh yeah, so here are some things I was looking at (all oldnavy.com) for me to wear to match monkey without looking matchy matchy. After getting husbands opinion I went with the green sweater, which he chose based on the fact that I'll wear it most because I happen to love that spring green color.

And what will husband be wearing? A plain, solid-colored, v-neck brown sweater. Yep yep. We're going to look like one spiffy little fall-flavored family. LOVE it!

Oh! And before I forget, we're also getting monkey's 1 year pic's taken. But not traditional 1 year pics, no no...cake smash 1 year pics.
Yes, you heard me correctly, cake smash pics.
And just what is a cake smash photo session?
Well, first of all there's a grand example on Jenica's lemondrop gallery under "Fun Stuff", but here's the general idea:
You pick a color scheme. You buy your little munchkin a cute little diaper cover in a color from said scheme (and for munchkins of the female variety perhaps a bow as well).
Then, Jenica has a cake decorator she works with who will make a cake featuring said color scheme. Jenica chooses a solid colored background. She then places munchkin in front of cake and proceeds to snap perfectly amazing photographs before and during the destruction of that lovely cake.
The perk? Well aside from awesome pics, munchkin gets a faceful of cake for free, as the cake is included in the session price (an awesomely low $45.00).
Yep, cake smash. Fun for all, and all for fun.

Woot!

Lemondrops Photography: here

EDIT: Lemondrops Photography has been doing extremely well since this post. And, well, prices have adjusted accordingly. The photography style is amazing, but as of January 2013, you are looking at a minimum of $125 for a session, AND a minimum of $250 towards prints and packages. That's minimum. For example, a newborn session is $575, and in order to get a maternity session which costs $275, you must also purchase a newborn session. And those prices don't include the cost of prints. So please keep that in mind if you take a stroll over to her site from here!

Hurray for the return of Home-made!

I just discovered "etsy.com" which is full of home-made goodies I drool over. Especially in the children's section.
I found a bunch of great idea's that I can just do myself (yippee!)

and some things I know I would screw up, so I'm considering just buying them from the site.

But they've also got adorable clothes, and entirely different sections such as candles, furniture, and my favorite: Geekery. Yup. Geekery. Which is pretty much anything funny, and sentimental with that innate geeky quality. Such as hand crocheted Star Wars characters, and miss pack-man wine bottle charms.

Priceless!

It's got me all excited to get some more done in the monkey's room. I hand-painted her name in block-letters and updated an old painting that once hung in my baby room, but that's about it wall-art-wise. My favorite is her armoire, which was originally my mom's old tv cabinet.

We painted it black to match her crib, and buttery-yellow on the inside to match her walls in the old apartment.
(By the way this is a HORRIBLE picture, its from our first apartment, and we couldn't do much with the room. I'll get a new pic up soon)

But speaking of the monkey, yet again she is waking up from nappy-time. I'll tell you how my (yikes!) home-made dessert turns out tomorrow!