Half Birthday

Today my little dude is 7 months old. I know it's cliche, but time really does fly. Each day The Hubs reminds me to live in the moment. Sometimes we spend so much time thinking about the future, we forget to appreciate what's happening right in front of us and sometimes what's in front of us goes so quickly.

But enough with the sentimental stuff, not really my thing, but this kid brings out some weird shit in me.

Last month, we celebrated 6 months of Little Dude's life with a party. I searched Pinterest and the regular ol interwebs for hours trying to make this the most adorable, quaint little party possible. The entire party was inspired by a wonderful post I found on Pinterest. Hank and Hunt shared some amazing ideas. I don't even come close to doing justice to the party this girl put on. Check it out.

Here's Little Dude waiting patiently for his family to arrive.

And the set up. I used the stairwell to the basement as my backdrop. Really for no other reason than that it was the only possible spot in the entire house to hang these friggin awesome circle thingies (i.e. construction paper hot glued on to coordinating ribbon)

The half cake...get it? Of course you do.

The Hubs decorated these Half Sized cupcakes (okay, so they're just mini cupcakes, but that doesn't go with the damn theme). If you ask me, the sprinkles really set these apart from any other mini, ahem, Half Sized cupcakes I've ever seen.

Little Dude enjoying some time with Grammy.

Those awesome little springy thingamajigs on his cake last about 2.8 seconds after this photo. Oops.

Because it was only a half birthday and the chances of Little Dude remembering any of it were slim, I didn't want to spend too much cheddah on the decorations, so I bought things from the dollar store and scoured my craft supplies to come up with everything you see. (longest run-on sentence ever? perhaps.) I bought boxed cake (to save time and my sanity...I get so nervous baking stuff from scratch. Not once has anything turned out edible). I bought tablecloths, plates, napkins, balloons, cups and straws from the DS and everything else I already had.

Such a sweet afternoon with the boy and the family. Ah, memories. Wonderful.

<3 dani

Just Eat It: Low Cal Cupcakes

I've stopped posting much about my weight loss progress. For a second there I fell off the wagon, but rest assured I'm back at it. Shedding pounds, feeling better and practicing patience. It's not easy. I struggle everyday, but little things, like this recipe certainly help.

My mother-in-law gave me this Weight Watchers Cupcake recipe: "if you're ever in the mood for something sweet...wink wink" I'm always in that kind of a mood. So, obviously I went straight to the store, bought a box of chocolate cake mix, a can of pumpkin and went to town.

If you make mini-cupcakes, which I suggest for portion control, these end up being about 60 calories each. Not too shabby.

1 box of cake mix (I used chocolate)
1 15oz can of pumpkin
1/4c water (you could add an egg white or two if you'd like)
set oven for 350 and follow box directions from there. 

I can't lie, they certainly aren't the real deal, but they don't suck. And it's better for you than the alternative, so I won't complain.

For dessert tonight, I crumbled one and mixed in some chopped strawberries. Yummers.

<3 dani

Front Door Update

This was such a quick, simple update. I was able to do it while the little one took a nap.

The Kid and I went to the store for one thing: a pool skimmer. We left with more, obviously. If I had enough self-control, I could walk right to the item I need without looking at anything and turn right around and leave. bing bang boom. But nope. Impossible. Whatever. I've accepted it. It's fine. Besides, I wanted to try out The Kid's new grocery cart cover. No point in making a quick trip if I'm going through the trouble of hooking him in, right?

Anyhow, as usual, I end up in the Clearance aisle and like any craft hoarder, I pick up everything going through all the crafty possibilities before I talk myself out of it and move on. Today though, I grabbed a Styrofoam wreath that was flat on one side and already covered with burlap for $3. Sold. But of course, you could grab a plan wreath at the ol' dollar store and cover it with whatever to get a similar product.

When The Kid went down for his nap, I ran to the kitchen, grabbed the coffee filters and threw together a new wreath.

I just kind of scrunched the filters up until they resembled flowers (if you squint your eyes).

Then I secured them to each other in small bunches with twist ties (no time to run to the basement for the glue gun).

Then I secured all the little bunches together as a big bunch.

And used several twist ties to wrap around the wreath and connect the filter flowers to it.

Yay. And all before The Kid woke up. Success.

<3 dani

Let There Be Fire

It's so easy to get a fire permit in my city, I'm not sure why it took me so long to make a fire pit. This is really just the beginning of what could be a grander project, but this'll do for now.

My inspiration:

 

So gorgeous.

Here's what I have now:

Short of the sand, which I fully intend to get, eventually, it's pretty darn close to my inspiration photo. An almost free project. The rocks we had lining a poorly placed garden that could only ever grow weeds. We bought the Adirondack chairs for $18/each, those aren't a necessity. You could get away with using something natural for seating, like logs to keep the cost down to nothing.  Buy the permit for $20, then boom, done.

Check out your local recreational fire code and give your husband a shovel. There's nothing better than the smell of a fire on a cool night.

<3 dani