You’d think drinking water would come easy for everyone, but for me, it’s hard. It’ll be noon before I realize I haven’t taken a sip of water. It’s also why I had the worst hemis during pregnancy (gross, sorry) and not the best supply of breast milk back in the day. I just don’t drink enough water in the day, plain and simple. Then, one night I was stalking all of my favorite girls on Instagram and saw on Julianne Hough’s Instagram that she took on the 21-day water challenge (it takes 21 days to create a habit), drinking two glasses of water every morning. WHICH is meant to hydrate and wake up your digestive track, preparing it for coffee, tea, breakfast and more (I heart the “more” stuff:))). I started just today and actually didn’t want to fall asleep at my desk for once! Instead of crashing at 2:00pm I wanted to crash at 6:30pm, right before Pure Barre, ha, but then I pushed through and went to Barre, and was re-energized again. Now I’m excited to wake up and do it all over again. For 20 more days .. And I’ve chosen two very special vintage drinking glasses to help me get through this = antiques handed down from my momma. Let’s see if this drinking water thing improves my skin, too. God knows my face could use some more moisture. Game on!
Browsing Category
Projects
I’m currently obsessing over a wall in my living room. I got a canvas wrap of one of my favorite pictures of Jace and because it’s fairly small, I decided to start to build out from it, with other picture frames and pieces, creating sort of a wall collage. So now I’m on the hunt for new pieces to add to it. I’ve found a cute mirror at Home Goods (I could spend all day at Home Goods!), a white wood box from Target for my favorite house plant, a wood panel with a mason jar painted on it .. but I need a good 2-3 more design elements to make it complete. Such a task! .. especially when the coloring needs to match Jace’s canvas. Thinking I will try Hobby Lobby and then maybe Ross. Any other places I should look for good decor options? Not sure this was worth a blog post but I’m excited to add some color and texture to my walls. I usually keep them so bare, so this is a big deal for me, lol!
Last week I was desperate to do something creative. Something where I didn’t have to use my brain. When you work all week, and are required to be “on” for 8 hours a day, you start craving some down time to let your mind relax. To just decompress. For me, it involves doing something creative. Like block-printing, making a pineapple pinata or planting a succulent frame .. just to name a few. It’s so wonderful to try something new and get artsy. And water coloring with Modern Moni at the Bloguettes studio in Phoenix sounded like the most perfect night. I didn’t even go with anyone; I just went right after work and turned my brain off for a couple hours. I barely even talked to anyone, ha. I poured myself some iced tea that the miss Teaspressa served and water colored away. I must admit, one of the bigger reasons I booked this class was the possibility of water painting a pineapple. And, we did!! Ha. My creative night was complete.
That’s Modern Moni herself (Monica) there at the front of the class in the blue. She is the sweetest little thing in the world. And so incredibly talented. If you haven’t seen her work you need to. She does custom prints, portraits and all kinds of fabulous prints you can buy for kids or for your home office. Everything she does will inspire you. Her water coloring skills are amazing .. from donuts to giraffes to flamingos … so modern and so perfectly blended.
Also, all of the beautiful flowers scattered throughout the studio were donated by The Florette. The only mobile floral boutique in Phoenix. Such lovely flowers to look at all night (and paint!).
I sat next to these girls and was so happy to take a picture with them at the end of the night:)) My popsicles were not as beautiful as theirs so I held up my pineapple .. ! Such a fun night. A great thing for a girls or momma’s night out. So relaxing and freeing. I am REALLY digging the water coloring thing and really would love to practice at home. But yet again, I’m still waiting to find time to try my hand at calligraphy and that has yet to happen, a year later. I still have all my nibs, in their original packaging. Ha. Should tell me something. Thank you, Blogquettes, Teaspressa, The Florette and MODERN MONI for such a colorful and creative night.
Jace’s first birthday was an absolute hit. I planned a very colorful and fruity birthday for our little pineapple. Even the weather felt tropical with the rain and warm temperatures. I’ll let the pictures say the rest! A big thanks to all of our friends and family for celebrating this special day with us. Such a blast. And Mr. Jace was the happiest, cake-eating, attention-loving little 1 year old ever. Such a ham. I must say, I had so much fun planning this party; more fun than any other. Especially the little goodie bags for the kids. We love you Jace. You’re the light in our life.
A HUGE thanks to Heather for taking all of these pictures and for the beautiful album to put all of our mini polaroids in. Isn’t her handwriting and sketching skills absolutely amazing?!! She is seriously the coolest person.
Party details:
Jace Turns 1 pineapple tattoos
Balloons
DIY Pinata
Fruit garland
Pineapple flowers on cupcakes
Pineapple cups
Straws
Pineapple sangria
BBQ pulled pork sliders
Pineapple album, including calligraphy
Party favors:
Bags
Calligraphy
Sunglasses
A couple weeks back, I hosted a block-printing party and invited all my girls over to partake in the stamping fun. It rained all day but that didn’t stop us from setting up our craft station under my carport. I was on a mission to get some of my Christmas gifts done, so I came with blank kitchen towels and geometric patterns for inspiration {more on my Christmas gifts later!}. . .
Heather brought all of the supplies, including the Carving blocks, ink, pencils, sketching notebooks, rollers and paint plates. Each of us came with material or fabric we wanted to print on — a note here, block-print on linen or something with a little bit of texture. As I mentioned, I brought towels to print on for holiday gifts. The girls brought a little bit of everything – blank totes, make-up bags, gift tags, blank cards and napkins. After doing some idea sketching and drawing out our designs, we started carving them into our blocks:
The rain came and went, and out came the rainbow — just in time for us to start stamping! Actually, we were all kind of in our own worlds. Some spent most of the time carving, others moved right into stamping once their block design was ready. The best part about block-printing with friends {in my opinion} is the ability to use each other’s block designs. Do a little wash, pick a new color, and you can mix & match block designs. Instead of using all my time on one design, I was able to use multiple designs for my towels {thanks, girls!}. I really wish I would have taken more “after” photos. Everyone’s projects came out so great. For a really great how-to on block-printing, visit this page. It’s pretty close to how we did it. Or, you could spend a whole day browsing all of the block-printing designs on Pinterest. Lots of DIY inspiration there. I think I’m completely hooked. I’m already dreaming of my next project . . . onesies, totes, note cards, everything.
{Even Rob got in on the action}
{After the stamping I hung my towels up to dry. Then ironed them the next day to “lock” in the color. Can’t wait to share my gift idea with you later!}