cheers to you & hip hip horray

One of Raul's cousins asked me to make her some birthday cards for this month. I started them a few weeks ago, and am happy to say I finally finished yesterday, after a wonderful surge of creative energy {which kind of comes in it's own timing, doesn't it? A mind of it's own...}.

Thought I would share these with you:

I went a little pearl-crazy on some of these cards, as you can see... They're my absolute favorite embellishment ever. It's like they add a little glitz without all the sparkle. {Although I love me some sparkle too now and then.}

The cuz sent me some lyrics to a song that is special to her and her husband, hence this card below... It looks very anniversary-ish, more than birthday-ish... I always struggle when it comes to man cards. Maybe I should try to tweak my skill of man-card making this year.

The card below is for her sister, unless she chooses another card of the group for her. It just seems sisterly to share all kinds of crazy sweets just because.

This card was an a-ha! card as soon as I saw the green glass match the green in this paper... I've been thinking for weeks on how exactly to use this paper. Bam, there ya go.

And is there any celebration sound more adorable than "hip hip horray!"? I don't think so, which is why I'm trying to teach Liv to say it. Coming from a one-year old multiplies the cuteness 100-fold.

happy valentine's day

I made R a bouquet today:

Chunky: his all-time favorite candy bar. I taped each one to a dowel, and added cut-out leaves and some ribbon. Heehee.

11 months & a tea party.

Time flies! Sorry I haven't been the best at posting projects lately--thankfully, last night's late night excursion at Archiver's with Leez has helped jumpstart the ole motivation once again. I worked on Livvy's First Birthday invitations... soooo fun.

For the time being, here are her 11 month photos--one more month till the big 1:

Liv's ad.or.able hat and scarf were knit by the lovely Leanne, who pegged Livvy's style to a tee. I'm urging her to start selling these in her Etsy shop; check it out, or e-mail her for a special request if you're digging them as much as I am.  Liv has been wearing her set for the last week and loves cozying up with the scarf. 

And of course, her partner in crime, the Dexinator. She insisted on him joining her for tea today, and even shared some of her treats. He happily obliged.

10 months.

This little face melts my heart every morning:

Each month, I like to take pics of Liv in her rocking chair. It's getting more difficult as she's more of a squirrel girl these days :) so I occupied her with a book--"I Am a Bunny," which is one of her favorites. She likes to point out Nicholas the bunny on the pages, and she will turn a page for you if you ask her to, or if you take too long to turn it yourself!

After dress-up time, I bundled her in her snow suit and took her outside to experience the snow. Dex, of course, showed his approval of her warm getup...

...And made sure she was doing okay sitting in the snow. {Actually, I think he thought she was going to feed some to him, one of his favorite treats. Sorry, D.}

Little bean is growing quick, and we are loving every second of it.

Project #1: The Linen Closet

At the end of our hallway lies our linen closet, which has been a mess for awhile. I finally tackled it this afternoon while plying Liv with some puffs:

So I started by taking everything out and cluttering up our bedroom {as you can see behind Liv there}. I loved seeing these shelves bare! I had a limited time to work with this space as Liv only lasts so long in her bouncer--a good challenge. Otherwise I'm sure I could spend hours on something simple like this!

I removed a lot of things that I normally keep in here, like medicine and lots of baby stuff. Time to pack away the baby stuff with the clothes that are too small--I didn't realize how much I was cramming in there that I could've packed in the basement months ago.

The things I left in this closet were towels, paper towels {upper left on top}, our sheets, Liv's sheets, a box of medicine after all, and a few odds and ends: a basket with my iron, an extra night light, a lint roller, and a scented sachet envelope to keep the closet fresh.

Before:

After:

Look! Extra space! Can you believe it? I may move some stuff from Liv's room onto that shelf {towels and what not} but for now, I'll take the space. Horray! Project #1 accomplished!