Birthday Numero Uno! Part 3!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! Go get your green on!

Welcome back to 1st birthday celebration time! It was the simplest celebration you can imagine. So, you may wonder why it takes me 3 posts to finish it up. Because that is the way I roll people; that's the way I roll. 

In our first glimpse into Cora's birthday party, I showed you the things that were not at her party (creepy clowns, above-ground swimming pool, chocolate pizza). In part 2, we took a closer look at what actually did happen at her party. Now, in the 3rd edition of Birthday Numero Uno, I am going to show you the decorations aka BANNERS GALORE!


I made a fancy contact-papered Happy Birthday, Cora sign that I will put up every single year forever... even when she is out of the house. That sign will be up and I will spend the whole day looking at The Etc. Lists and all of my favorite photos of her. #creepymomtakeachillpill

Let's get on with the show. 
Here is how I made the contact-paper-infested banner:

• My best friend, scrapbook paper, entered the scene and got cut to pieces. It took me forever to decide what size each piece should be. Finally, I decided to choose what size I wanted the letters to be and then it was easier to choose the paper size. I made a template of the triangle, traced it, and cut it.

• For the letters, I looked at some fonts online and just hand drew them on thick pink paper. I played around with them a bit and realized they looked better with one more layer. So, I cut out a piece of letter-shaped white paper that was a bit bigger than each pink letter. FYI- when I say "I" I mean me and my wonderful mom who gave up her evening to sit on the floor with me and cut out letters.

• The layout was the trickiest part, but also the most fun! I spent at least an hour moving all of the papers around until I found the perfect order.

• Next, I added the contact paper so it would stand the test of time! Then I punched holes in the top corners of each triangle and looped some green ribbon through the whole thing. I added a pretty yellow ribbon to each end and Bam Boom Bam! It was done... about 10 minutes before the party!

Hold your horses, folks, there is more! THERE WAS ANOTHER BANNER! Craziness, I know!

I took a weekly photo of Cora during her first year. I picked about 20 of my favorites and turned them into a banner. I cut scrapbook paper into thirds. Then I glued each photo on a sheet and added a little title box that said what week the photo was from. Contact paper time. Then hole punching and ribbon stringing.

Tada. All done!

Here are a couple close-up shots of the banner.

There was also crepe paper streamers and tissue paper balls! Check it out!

As a favor, we gave out coloring books that we made with a bundle of 5 crayons wrapped in green raffia.
This was the cover:

And that wraps up Cora's very simple numero uno birthday! Less than 6th months left until Cora hits numero dos!

Birthday Numero Uno! Part 2

Go ahead and pretend like this post isn't almost 6 months overdue!

A couple of months ago we took a look at the things that Cora did NOT have at her 1st birthday party. Now, it is time to get our eyes in gear for a look-see at what she DID have!

Cora had two 1st birthday parties! Lucky girl!

First, she had a party with Scott, me, Grandmama, Emery, Boo, Pop, Uncle Rick, Aunt Jennifer, Wren, and Aunt Kelly (she was via Skype).

Grandmama and Emery had the job of picking out the birthday supplies. I think I just asked for some crepe paper but they came back with about a quarter of Party City. Of course my mom would buy party hats lined with pink fur!

I was trying to keep it low key- a little crepe paper, some balloons, and a birthday banner.

In my head, low key meant that it wouldn't take much time at all to prepare for. So, just as everyone was showing up for the party I had my mom, Scott and Emery throw all of the decorations up while I finished the birthday banner. It ended up being perfect timing and who doesn't like a bit of pre-birthday stress?

I also bought a bunch of animal masks for everyone to wear. Cora thought that was pretty fun!

Scott made 5 or 6 home-made pizzas. He made a few funky ones including a delicious bean pizza. He also made animal-shaped iced cookies. 

I am a bit of a stickler about Cora's sugar intake (some people might say I am a huge stickler. So, Scott made a cake that those same people may not classify as a cake. We followed this recipe. It was made with whole wheat flour, wheat germ, ripe bananas, applesauce, and topped with yogurt.

We had been prepping her for the happy birthday song and she was into it! She gave the cake a taste and liked it. So, she stuffed the entire thing into her mouth.

Her cousin, Wren, was nice enough to help Cora open her presents. Cora wasn't into the present thing at all. She was too interested in talking to Aunt Kelly on Skype. Finally, we had to shut Aunt Kelly down so Cora would pay attention to everything else.

The whole she-bang ended with a major Cora head-conk. She doesn't usually cry when she falls, but this time she hit the corner of her little rocking chair pretty hard and had an immediate bump. So, she got some mama comforting and we wrapped the party up pretty quickly.

Fuuwwwwweeeeeeeeee it was a whirl-wind!

We had some friends over to celebrate her birthday the following weekend. At this party, Cora ran around the whole time picking things up from one area and bringing them to another- mainly dish towels. She was excited that people were singing her happy birthday again. And she seemed to like the idea of shoving some more cake into her mouth.

I'll wrap this birthday party up with a couple of family shots.

I'll show you more of the banner next time.

Birthday Numero Uno! Part 1

I am 2 months late on this but let's talk birthdays!

Hard-to-believe-disclaimer: There are actually no photos of Cora in this post. This is part  1. I promise you will get some Cora photos in the other parts. Now, grandparents, relax and enjoy some creepy clown footage.

We decided to have a low-key birthday celebration for Cora. Actually, we decided to have 2 low-key birthday celebrations for Cora. We had one with family and one with friends.


I had my mind set that I was going to keep it simple. No creepy clowns who make the kids cry (like my parents had at my 3rd birthday party).

That's me sitting on my mom's lap sucking my thumb and holding my security blanket. The  "creepy clown" is hanging out to the far left of the photo. Rat-tail, billowing sleeves, a gold vest, and an Olympic medal (?) around his neck... everyone knows that's what clowns wear.

At least he has a huge leopard printed tie and face paint.
Can you tell by the backs of our heads that we are not impressed with Mr. "Clown"? Louise (in the middle)... I like that rat-tail you're working with. Just wait until the clown turns around so you can see that you're twins!

No above ground pool or Slip 'n' Slide would be present at Cora's celebration.

No chocolate pizza (sorry Mali)!

Here I am blowing out the candles on my chocolate pizza birthday cake (my mom's specialty).


No Twizzler straws

source

No gumdrop trees

source

There wouldn't even be any bad perms at this birthday extravaganza.

Christina (Stewey)- are you always going to be the bad hair culprit?

No bizarre eyeglasses. No jingle bell PJs that go down to your ankles in August.

There are her beautiful glasses hard at work again!

No sleeping bags covering the house for this birthday party.

I've ruined all the fun? Is that what I hear you say... no slip 'n' slide, no perms, no creepy clowns. 

Well, what did we have? A BIRTHDAY BANNER!!!!

Here I am with the birthday banner that my mom put up every year. Going along with that tradition I made Cora her own banner.

Next week I am going to show you the birthday banners (yes, TWO of them) that I made for Cora. I am going to show you her cake face photo. I'll let you in on the secret recipe we used for her cake. I will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about Cora's first birthday.
Until that time, stay busy by answering my WYR of the day.

Would You Rather Question:
WYR... add an extra 15 minutes to your day every single day
or
never have to wait in line anywhere ever again and never have to deal with customer service phone calls or emails?

More About 80s Cabinets!

You're still reading? Good! That must mean you are really looking forward to a post about 80s cabinets! 

I could hear you chanting it... 80s CABS 80s CABS. Well, your wish is my command. 80s cabinets is what we will be talking about today.

In case you forgot... this is not the first post I have written about 80s cabinets. That is why this one is MOOOOOREEEE About 80s Cabinets!

Yep... this is what I do with my time. I take a photo of cabinets from the 80s and attach it to a super cool 80s girl (wearing  jellys, a SBTB cut-off sweatshirt, an Anaconda flap cap, smiley faced earrings, slap bracelets, and a mullet). I am normal.

A few weeks ago, I talked about painting the 80s cabinets in the lake house we thought we were going to move into.
Then, I mentioned painting an oak wet bar black.
Later, I showed you my first try at cabinet painting when I had no idea what I was doing.
And don't you worry your pretty, little heads because in the future I am going to show you some bathroom cabinets that I painted.

I get a lot of questions about how to paint cabinets. You could say that painting cabinets is my specialty. You really shouldn't say that though.

Well let's get this party started! I am going to show you some before and afters of 80s cabinet transformations!

I ran into a lot of really impressive cabinet redos when I looked into how to make cabinets like these:

from the Rustoleum Transformations website

look a little more like these:

Photo from here

So, without further ado here are the before and afters that impressed me most:

Before:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations. I have never used the product Rustoleum Transformations but they have a great gallery of before and after photos that people have submitted. People seem pretty happy with them. 

After:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations

Before:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations

After:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations

Before:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations

After:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations

Are these makeovers TOTALLY BLOWING YOUR MIND OR WHAT?

I know they aren't the most amazing thing you have ever seen. But for the cost of a gallon of paint and a weekend of your time... WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

Before:

This not so attractive kitchen was found here.

After:

The impressive after photo can be found here.

My father-in-law suggested adding bead board and trim to the cabinets we were planning to redo. It sounded like a great idea to me. So I did my research and found someone who had already done it.

The blog In Between Laundry has some wonderful photos and advice about how to take ugly cabinets, add bead board and trim and make them beautiful! Her father-in-law seems to be involved in her cabinet redo too!

Here is the kitchen when they moved in:

This is what they did to each cabinet front.

And this is what they came out with! This is the best after photo I could find. I think they are still working on the kitchen.

So, there you have it! 

Life lesson of the day: Ugly kitchen cabinets can be transformed. 

And, last but certainly not least... A HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHOTO OF MY BFF ANGUS!

Here is a photo of the birthday girl enjoying Thanksgiving dinner on the beach in '05!

Would You Rather

If you know my husband, Scott, you probably know that this post is about him.

Today is Scott's 31st birthday! Happy Birthday, SCOTT!!!!

Here is a photo of Scott and Cora:

OKKKKKK... maybe Scott really isn't in this photo but Cora sure thinks he is. She has been carrying that book around with her every opportunity she gets. Yesterday morning I found out why. She started pointing to the photo on the cover and saying "Dad" over and over. I said, "Cora, that isn't Dad." But she insisted it was. Soon Scott came downstairs and she showed him and said "Dad." I even told her to give Dad a kiss. Who do you think her smackers went straight for... Yep, it was creepy, old man, black and white Dad.


Here is a really blurry photo from last year of Scott running top speed through his birthday banner (I will get to the birthday banner soon).

To celebrate the big 3-1 we will do some of the things that I have done my whole life to celebrate birthdays:

• There will be a decorative wooden cake
• Scott will run through a toilet paper banner that says "Happy Birthday, Scott"
• I will play Beatles- Birthday when he wakes up
• I will make Scott a coupon book of things like, "one day of no diaper changes," "one day that I will watch football with you." This one is slightly different than growing up. I used to make coupon books for my dad that had things like, "5 car cleans," "10 hair pulls" (hair pulls basically equal head massage," and "10 back walks."
• I will call the radio station and have them say happy birthday to him on the radio. Actually, that tradition stopped when I was about 10 years old. We may just keep it that way
• A few other traditions that might not make the cut are: Twizzler straws, a gum-drop tree, a Slip 'n' Slide, and chocolate pizza.

Here I am back in 1984 with #1 on the list- the wooden cake

Scott LOVES to ask would you rather questions. Most of them are something like, "would you rather wake up and I was me but had a squirrel head or I had 6 arms?" Answer is obviously six arms so he could make a good living in the carnival circuit.

So in honor of ScottPant's 31st birthday I am going to pose a few would you rather questions!
Everyone, feel free to answer them. I would love to hear some of your own WYRs too!

1. WYR... Always be a little hungry
OR
Always be a little too full

2. WYR... Always have the sniffles 
OR
Always have on two very obviously different shoes

3. WYR... As an adult have to go back to high school right now. Grades 9-12 and you are the big weirdo who is creeping around like it's normal. (You can come home at night and you only have to work 20 hours/week of your normal job). 
OR
Have to spend the next 4 years in charge of whatever happens to the sewer stuff on a cruise ship. (You do not get to leave the cruise ship for 4 years but your family or friends can come with you).
... Sorry, I know this is a stupid one (UNLIKE THE OTHER FANTASTIC QUESTIONS).

4. WYR... You have to start every morning by randomly singing the national anthem to your next door neighbor. (They have no idea why and most likely stop answering the door after a week but you still have to keep singing)
OR
Have to commute to and from work every single day on a horse. (You have to clean up the poop too but you don't have to worry about where the horse stays while you're at work).

5. WYR... Always have to wear the same outfit no matter what. (You can decide what outfit it is but you are stuck with it for the rest of your life... better not lose or gain too much weight).
OR
Have to go everywhere by either walking, running or riding a bike. No exceptions.


Think carefully. These are important questions!

Here is a photo of my very lovely birthday-boy husband having fun with my little sweetie baby!

Happy happy happy birthday to the best husband in the whole world! I LOVE YOU!!!
and a very happy birthday tomorrow to one of my best Aussie pals, Lizzie!!!