Audrey's First Birthday

Audrey's first birthday was a blast. She showed up fashionably late because of a nap that lasted longer than expected and the weather kept us indoors, but all in all it was fabulous. We had a houseful of friends and family help us celebrate this milestone. Here are a few pictures from the day.

I'm not one who thinks a first birthday party should rival a wedding, so the decorations were kept nice and simple with a few homemade touches.

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and a flag bunting to match the her invitations.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles, everyone agreed that these were delicious and as a bonus they were super easy to make. Here is where I found the recipe.

 Audrey loved eating her cake. We joke that she explores the world with her pointer finger and her approach to the cake was no different. After she realized she liked it she dove right in. My only regret of the whole day is that we didn't have the video camera out to film her eating the cake. I figure if that is the worst thing about the whole day then we did pretty darn good.

She didn't think opening presents was half bad either. 

I wish I could take credit for the beautiful photos, but all credit has to go to my sister of Erica Cunningham Photography. Thanks to everyone who helped make this day extra special.

Road Trip: San Francisco

I love a good road trip. If it's spontaneous that's even better. Luckily, Bryce shares my love for road trips and we kind of make the perfect road trip team. Bryce is the driver and can usually drive indefinitely; while I'm a champion passenger, I don't get bored and have pretty decent navigational skills. A few summers ago we spent the better part of two months road tripping up and down the west coast. As much as I love big trips like the one we recently took to Hawaii, that summer of road trips ranks pretty high on my list of great memories.

Bryce has been working like crazy lately so when he had a day and a half off last Friday we decided to take advantage of it. We threw together a bag, booked a hotel room and hit the road for a night in San Francisco. We were literally only gone for 26 hours, but had a blast.

Friday night we wandered through the marketplace at pier 1. Oh my, how beautiful everything is. If I ever win the lottery I would love to walk to a place like this to buy my groceries each day.

Friday night we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant called Pazzia Restaurant and Pizzeria. It was INCREDIBLE. Not only was the food out of this world, but the atmosphere was great and they couldn't have been any friendlier to us and our happily noisy one year old. Check it out if you are in the area.

Saturday morning we got up and headed over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and the Bay Area Discovery Museum. It is a museum designed for kids 6 months to 8 years old. I would highly recommend it, although I would say 6 months might still be a bit young and 8 years old may be pushing too old. Everything was very hands on and interactive. There were plenty of both indoor and outdoor activities. Audrey had a great time and loved all the tunnels.

All in all we had a wonderful trip and came back feeling a bit rejuvenated, Audrey came back a bit exhausted...  what more could you ask for? I think we have a little road tripper in the making.

Nightstand: Before and After

Space is at a premium in our guest room, which is also my craft room. I redid the room back in September and am still happy with the results. Although I have always thought that I needed a second nightstand on the other side of the bed, but I wasn't able to find something small enough to fit. There is only about 10 inches between the wall and the bed. I know some of you are asking "then why not just push the bed those extra ten inches against the wall?" Well nothing drives me more crazy than when we stay the night at someone's house and my side of the bed is pushed up against the wall, meaning that I have to climb over Bryce if I want to get up or down. Hence the need for a tiny little nightstand.

Enter this little beauty I found at a yard sale for two dollars.

Bryce cut that top inch of the legs off for me and I gave it four coats of "Fuzzy Navel" yellow paint and this is what we ended up with. 

The perfect size nightstand for a very small space.

I still love the gray and yellow combo in here, but I'm thinking a pop of color is in order. Maybe a little red? We'll see what I find at the next yard sale.

Posted at: 

Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous
We Did It! Wednesday at Sew Much Ado

Painting

Our dining room table has looked like this for the majority of the last week...

I've been painting. 

A lot. 

So far I've painted a side table, a coat rack, a mirror and a few pictures frames.

For the most part I've been having great success. 

However, have you ever tried to paint a picture frame from Ikea?

Don't! 

At least not unless you realize you are trying to paint something oil based. 

Here is my first attempt trying to paint the picture frame... 

Obviously the paint wasn't sticking so I stopped, let it dry and sanded the frame. 

I figured the frame just needed to be roughed up a little for the paint to stick.

Attempt number two had exactly the same results. 

Again, I stopped, let it dry and sanded the heck out of it. 

Here's attempt number three...

No better. 

Luckily at this point I happened to mention this to my mom, who is truly an expert when it comes to all things paint, stain and otherwise refinished, and she said the original paint must be oil based and that no matter how many times I started over and sanded the frame the latex paint I was using was never going to stick. 

Bummer. 

I'm off to find a new non-oil based picture frame today.

And I'll be back tomorrow with one of my newly refinished projects...

A $2 yard sale find turned into the perfect nightstand for a very tight place.

Recap

I've been a bit absent lately. We've been spending a lot of time outside and enjoying the beautiful weather before it gets too hot. Here is a little of what we have been up to.

Swim lessons with her Uncle Jeffie.

A couple of trips to the zoo.

A lot of backyard swimming, complete with funny faces.

 And a baseball game where her Uncle Blake quickly became her favorite after giving her her first taste of licorice.

 

Are We Related?

The phone rang today and when I went to answer it I noticed that the caller ID read our last name with the first initial J. I couldn't figure out who it would be. Bryce does have a cousin, or second cousin, or something like that whose name begins with a J, but it seemed like a pretty slim chance he would be calling us.

The conversation went something like this...

J: Is this Bryce?
Me: No, this is his wife, may I take a message?
J: My last name is the same as yours.
Me: OK?
J: Are we related?
Me: I don't think so.
J: Are you from Mississippi?
Me: No, sorry you must be looking for someone else.
J: Nope, I think we's related.
Me: How did you find our phone number?
J: In them white pages.
Me: ...
J: So, maybe you's all related to me?
Me: No, sorry, I really don't think so. My husband's family is not from Mississippi.
J: Well, I was just looking y'all up in the white pages and I figured we's must be related.

Much to J's dismay I quickly ended the conversation and hung up a bit baffled. We don't have that unique of a last name and I can honestly say no one has ever randomly called me or us before because they thought they had found long lost family. 

I kind of feel bad for J, he seemed so excited to find some family. Maybe the next people he calls will happen to be from Mississippi.

One Year Old!

Audrey turned one on Saturday! 

For the last year I've been getting a weekly email from BabyCenter with the subject "My Baby This Week" on Saturday the subject read "My Toddler This Week." That was a little weird to see. 

Her party was a blast. I'll share photos soon. But for now I am savoring one last day with family in town. 

Hope everyone had as great of a weekend as I did, happy Monday!