Vinyl Love to the Rescue!

My dad called me on Friday afternoon to tell me that my two of my cousins, who together have FOUR children, were having a joint birthday party.  Fun right?  Well, the party was SATURDAY!!!!!  They do this to me EVERY year.  And EVERY year I am so shocked and caught off guard!  You'd think I would learn by now, LOL!  So, I was frantically trying to figure out what to give these kiddos for their birthday.  Also trying to figure out was there ANYTHING in my stash of 'potential gifts' that I could use.  We were super busy getting ready for an open house on Sunday and I did not have time to go running all over town for last minute gifts.  Low and behold, my silhouette came to the rescue again!  I found some water bottles on the cheap a while back and stocked up on them.  My intention was making teachers gifts and adorning them with vinyl.  However, for ages 10ish-14ish, I figured that'd work just fine.  Feast your eyes on my finished products:

The two girlies got polka dots on theirs.  I decided after lots of thought to just leave the boys with their initial on them.  I didn't want anything to look to cheesy or girlie for them.  ;-)  My dad's bday is this week and I am hoping to get his cake made tonight and a special project for him also using my silhouette.  I will post it next!
Here are a couple of pics of the fresh flowers I put out for our open house.  I wish I could have them sitting out all the time!  =)

Hope everyone had a fun weekend!

*Added: I will link up this post to all my parties on the side bar =)

More Vinyl Love

Last week I pulled out my silhouette again!  I had three different projects I wanted to do with vinyl so got to work!

First up, I wanted to finish the citronella candles I posted about here.  While the one I showed you last week was made using a recycled pickle jar, for the remaining three I used left over supplies from my Lil Princesses birthday party.  I applied vinyl to each container which was to be for each family member.  The Lil Princess and Lil Cupcake ofcourse are self explanatory.  Hubby's is obviously the pirate.  We colored his candle red for pirate's blood.  LOL!  My Lil Princess helped me with this entire project from candle making to decisions on colors and vinyl!  Here are the pics from this project:

Next up, is coffee mugs!  I will preface this by saying I've seen many a coffee mug go vinyl in blog land.  This is a very popular idea.  The idea has been in my head since I purchased a coffee mug from Hobby Lobby for $10 in March for my mother for part of her birthday present.  I do not have a picture of it but let me tell you it looks ALOT like the cream/black combo one I made below.  I definately confirmed the project by seeing all the bloggers making similar stuff.  I  love pink and black so I decided to make myself one in those colors.  Both coffee mugs came from the dollar store!!!!  So can you believe I spent that much money on a coffee mug I could have made myself?!  (Well, I didn't have the silhouettte supplies in time....but wow!)

And finally, my favorite project is a canvas I painted and applied vinyl for my girls bathroom.  I made a similar one in this post. It was for a friend's girls.  This pic shows the finished product with ribbon and all hung up.  I think I like the rectangular version from the first project better as far as shape, but the square shape fits the space well.  I *might* eventually go back and re-do the size of some of my wording.  I think it should be a bit bigger and maybe even thicker.  But for a quick cut and paste type thing, I am content for the moment.  ;-)

My vinyl rage is not over.  I have plans to make a gift for my dad for his birthday (it's next week!) and then gifts for my cousins kiddos for their birthday.  So stay tuned for more Vinyl Love posts to come in the future.  ;-) 

I will be linking up to the linky parties listed on my side bar. 

   

Show us your Life: Single Guys/Girls

Today at Kelly's Korner it's Show us your Life Friday.  Today's post is on Single Guys or Girls.  I am going to write a post on a dear friend of mine's little sister (age 23).  She is an AWESOME catch!  She is beautiful OUTSIDE and IN!  Because let's face it, beauty is only skin deep but it helps with initial attraction ;-)  I've talked with her and she gave me permission to post so I swiped some pics off of her FB account.  LOL!  Without further wordy-ness, This is Ashley:

Enough eye candy yet?  ;-)  I told you she was a beautiful young lady!  This last pic fits her personality.  She works for a photographer.  Well, this next pic shows how much fun you can have with props!   I loved this one. 

Okay, so facts:

1. She's 23

2. She loves Jesus

3. Her family is AMAZING and God loving.

(I know this because I spent LOTS of time at her house back when I was younger)

4. She's CRAZY in love with her niece. 

(I wish I had an Aunt Ash when I was little!  They go for pedi's together!)

5. She's a college graduate

6. She just got a license to open her OWN business!

7.  She has a great personality to match her outer beauty =)

I know Ashley through her sister.  She has been a very good friend for a long long time.  That means I've known Ashley since she was a little league cheerleader!  She is a DEFINITE catch.  Want to know more or talk with her?  Leave me a comment.  If you did a single boys post, then leave me a link to show her!  =) 

Beautiful

I wanted to share a song today that is one of my fav's lately.  I hope you enjoy it!

And here's a pic of my family that I randomly got.  I took it hoping to get some sun flair.  No flair but a beautiful backdrop in the sky.  I'm lovin' it!

Hope you all are having a great week.  Mine has been super busy so far.  Looking forward to rest.  ;-)

Fix It Friday

I'm participating in Fix-it Friday at I heart Faces!

Here are the before and afters:

What do you think?  I used my favorite least time consuming editor...Picnik!  I cropped in, ran vibrance, crossprocess, and ortonish macros.  I heart you picnik.  Before I discovered you, I thought editing with Photoshop was hardly worth the effort it was so slow.  
What would you have done differently in editing the photo? 

Favorite Bible Verses

This is a post inspired by Kelly's Korner, show us your life: Favorite Bible Verses. 
I am a planner.  I like to live by a plan.  When the plan falters it is SO difficult for me.  I have trouble adjusting and may or may not show it.  My mind constantly plans out the day, the hour, the future, etc.  You get it right?  Well, SOMETIMES, I have these plans that don't pan out.  Not because I didn't give it my all or try hard enough, but that door just closed.  I find myself wondering what did I do or what didn't I do?  I can analyze anything to death.  Then I read these verses:
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)
Ever had one of those times in life when your parents wouldn't allow you to participate in something that all the kids were doing?  Now you get it right?  They had your best interest at heart.  God does too.  So I try to keep in mind as I'm planning that if it doesn't work out the way I think it should, that is just because God knows so much more than I do!  He knows that is not what's best for me or my family.  For a person who is a planner like me, the not knowing is hard.  But trusting God to know what's best...that's natural.  =)

Fourth of July Celebrating!

How was everyone's fourth of July???  We had a blast!  Watched a great fireworks show that is sure to become a family tradition.  Ofcourse the Fourth of July is this guy's favorite holiday (if you can't tell from the pic!):

He made it home with lots of fireworks to shoot for the girlies.  On the 3rd we took the Princess to the back yard and Daddy set off some fireworks.  We let Einie outside because the Lil'Cupake was in bed and when he hears fireworks he barks like crazy (always has).  This is how he handled it:

The Princess was a big help to Daddy.  She held his flashlight and shined it out in the yard so he could see to light off the bottle rockets!

On the fourth Daddy shot off fireworks for both girlies.  We all went to the front yard this time so Daddy could shoot some off in the cul-de-sac.

Played in the front yard in between the shows:

(I can not believe how tall my Lil' Cupcake looks here!!!!)

The Lil' Cupcake has been noticing air traffic all the time lately.  In the middle of the fireworks by daddy I heard her squeal with excitement!  Looked over to this:

I'm going to have to teach her to say "De plane, De plane!!!"  sometime soon, LOL! 

Here are a couple more pics of the fam getting ready to enjoy the local fireworks show!

Even our guests enjoyed it!

How was your fourth of July?  Do you have any family traditions?

Citronella Candles

I did it!  I finally did it!  I've been wanting to try out Amy's bug banishing tutorial since she posted it!  I got all my supplies about a month back and finally I just MADE the time to do this.  I am SO glad I did!  I ended up with enough soy wax for 4 candles.  I put one of them in an recycled pickle jar and we used it over the Fourth of July holiday to keep the bugs away:

These ROCK!  My girls didn't end up with ONE SINGLE BITE!  =)  Thanks Amy!!!!  Anybody interested in how it's made, check out her tutorial!  It's Positively Splendid ;-)

I will be following up this post with one filled with pictures for all our friends and family to see how we spent our fourth of July holiday! 

Fun Friday

I took the girls downtown today.  I figured since our daycare was closed and I took a vacation day we might as well do something fun!  These two ran around chasing one another and holding hands and hugging...they had the best time.  And so did mommy! 

Visiting with Friends

What's everyone been up to lately?  I *finally*  made the princess a new hairbow.  I make most of her bows or else they come from Walmart.  ;-)  I bought a how to off of ebay when she was born because I never wanted her to go a day in her life without a ginormous bow.  LOL!  So here's the latest.  I'm not as nifty with the larger ribbon but I do it anyway. 

My college room mate called and said her family was going to be in town for a while this holiday.  We made plans for dinner.  My oldest and her daughter are very close in age and get along so well.  The Princess told me on the way to dinner "mommy, I just love Miss N"  Here they are together after dinner while enjoying a mint:

Enjoying the balloons and fountains outside:

Just being silly girls:

I am off work tomorrow!  YEAH!  Our daycare is observing tomorrow as their fourth of July holiday.  As my friend said, 95% of the rest of the country is observing Monday.  But hey, it gave me an excuse to spend the day with my girlies.  And that's always a treasure to me!  We have a weekend packed full of fun coming up.  Meeting up with more friends, meeting some friends of friends from out of the country, and ofcourse FIREWORKS!!!!!!!!!!  What all do you have planned for the upcoming holiday?

Fix it Friday Challenge

Fix it Friday

I heart faces fix it Friday challenge:

Edits I made using Picnik include:

• Cropped
• Enhance color vibrance
• Darken Shadows
• Cross Process effect
• HDR-ish effect
• Add vingette

What do you think?

True Love

This week's challenge at I heart faces is pets! How could I resist!!!  I snapped this pic one afternoon after he'd just gotten his summer do!  =)

Summer Lovin'

I mentioned in my Father's day post that we got a little pool for the girls.  I was able to take a few pics of them and I've finally had the chance to post them.  =)  The girls are LOVING taking quick dips on the HOT Alabama days!  =)  The Princess called this her 'itty bitty' pool.  LOL!  Here are a few pics I snapped with my new 35mm lens!

This is what happened when I tried to get the Princess to give the Lil Cupcake some lovin'.  She wans't having any part of the loving or the pic!  LOL! 

What are you all doing to cool off this summer?  Is it HOT where you live? 

I hope you are having days full of blessings!

Robin

Icebox Cupcakes

Earlier this week I talked about a SUPER easy and YUMMY dessert I had made over the weekend.  I have finally gotten time to post about it.  =)  I will start off with showing you these:

These are chocolate wafers made by Nabisco. I purchased them at Publix and they located on an endcap where all the icecream cones and such were displayed. The box has the recipe on it! It calls for a 16ounce container of cool-whip (I used the light) and REAL vanilla extract and the cookies! Woo-hoo, only THREE ingredients! I can handle this. =) The one step that I changed was rather than making the log cake roll they picture on the package, I layered 4 cookies and the filling in cupcake wrappers. Individual sized portions if you will.  (You will still need to eat them with a fork.) 

But hey, let's not try to fool anyone here. I did it strictly out of convenience. It just sounded easier! I made these for fathers day.  All you do for this is mix the whip cream and vanilla and layer it in between the cookies. You do have to make this a little in advance. The wafers are crispy! So once you make the cupcakes you place them in the fridge for the day. Take them out and the chocolate wafers are now soft, like CAKE layers! =) And it's pretty Yummy. You can garnish with all sorts of things.  Strawberries, sprinkles, chocolate shavings.  You decide!  I left ours plain because I have a picky little girl.  ;-)  
This makes a quick and tasty dessert for the summer time.  I hope you make some of them and enjoy as much as we did! 

Creamy Berry Muffins

Linking up with The Getts Times for a Recipe Exchange!
Subject today is MUFFINS!


The recipe I am going to share was found in Southern Living. Remember, I am all about an EASY recipe. So not too many ingredients. LOL!

Creamy Berry Muffins

Ingredients

1 (7-oz.) package berry muffin mix

1 (3.5-oz.) package dried blueberries


4 tablespoons regular or fruit-flavored cream cheese


Preparation

Prepare batter and muffin pans according to package directions for muffin mix, stirring dried blueberries into batter. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pans, filling two-thirds full. Drop 2 tsp. regular or fruit-flavored cream cheese onto center of batter in each muffin cup. Bake and cool muffins according to package directions.

How about you?  Do you have a favorite muffin recipe or just want new ideas?  Check out the McLinky she has going on!  The button for the party is on my side bar ;-)