A taste of Orange Blossom

Last night we went to dinner at Orange Blossom Junction in Exeter. Big surprise, I know. The owner asked me if I would be interested in blogging about their specials when we come in (almost weekly). We will order our regular food, but will be brought "a taste of" whatever the special is that week. Then I will take pictures of it before the hubs and I dig in, and blog about it. Of course I said yes!! I don't know who was more excited, me or Brandon! SO..coming soon, A taste or Orange Blossom!

Valentine bags

I saw this post the other day for Valentine bags to fill with treats.I saved it, and thought about making them for a few days. I really liked the idea, but I really am not a big fan of big sewing projects. THEN I was looking for something in Hobby Lobby and came across these small quilted backpacks and thought it would be so much easier! I was going to do them both the same, but Cami is in a poodle craze right now so she got an iron on poodle. I embroidered their names by hand, along with Emma's little heart. I cut a heart out of Valentine fabric, and used wonder under to iron it onto the bag. Next I went around the edges of the heart with fray check, then stitched it on by hand with embroidery floss.

They were priced $8.99 each, but they were 50% off when I bought them! I couldn't have bought the supplies for the handmade bags that cheap. I think they turned out pretty cute, now I just have to hide them and fill with little gifts for Valentine's Day.

Wristlet Keychains

My key fob order from etsy came today! I bought my hardware from this etsy shop after searchinig all over town for them. I had already sewn on all of my ribbons so all I had to do today was clamp on the key fobs.

Free Valentine printables are from One Charming Party. Click here to print yours! When I chose to print, it gave me several options of size, I chose the two 5x7 prints per page, which means I get 8 per page I print. Make sense? There are 4 different, and super cute variations per page.

I used some cute little Valentine printables that I stumbled across in blogland, and put them in these cute cello red damask bags. Topped off with a heart clothespin, and they will be cute little treats for my friends on Valentine's Day! I really do love them! My life would be incomplete without them!

Craft Area {cause I don't have a room!} clean up!

I saw this post at Shanty2Chic and fell in love. Click on the link to check out her post and the steps she took to create this amazing craft table. I forwarded the link to my hubby and told him I would love to be surprised with something like this for Valentine's Day. His reply was a listing of all of the tools he would need that he doesn't have. So...I'm not too hopeful. My craft area has been an absolute wreck lately. I cleaned it after Christmas, but with all the stuff I've been working on for Valentine's Day it had creeped back all over the floor in my bedroom. I figured I'm better off cleaning/re-organizing it than waiting for the day I get a perfect storage craft table. I'm a little leary of showing my "before" pictures for the whole world to see, but here goes.

I started before I thought to take pictures, so by the time I remembered I had already cleared off the table, started a bag of trash, tossed my old tablecloth, and pulled the table away from the wall. Up until now, it has been pushed up against the big window ledge in our room, which is terrible because I haven't been able to reach to open the blinds for months! AND it led to the window ledge being a scraps-of-all-sorts-collector.

As with any organizing project, the first step is to totally clear the space.

This is my ugly excuse for a craft table.

I had some soft gray fabric that I bought a ton for only about 2 bucks on clearance a while back. I also had a runner that I bought from a thrift shop.

This is the "after" picture...much better. I pushed the table out from the wall as far as I could without blocking the door to the backyard. Now I have storage behind me and I can actually reach it!

I went through and finally took of my old empty spools of ribbon and added all of my new ones. If I had to do this over, I would use rain gutters and install them upside down to hold the spools of ribbon...then you don't have to take ten rolls off just to get to the empty one you are trying to remove.

I decided to use this basket for current unfinished projects-let's face it, I've almost always got at least one!
{Yes, that's me who bought balls from the dollar tree because they didn't have styrofoam balls and I didn't want to drive across town to the craft store}

Underneath are all of my wristlet keychains, sewed on and prepped for when my key fobs get delivered. ;)

I've been finding a bunch of free printables online, and as I switch seasons and remove old ones from frames, I needed a place to store them for next year. I also have tags, cupcake toppers, etc. This was my solution so that they wouldn't get crumpled or ruined.

I labeled all of the different holidays and seasons that I need, and now I can safely store them.

Have I mentioned I love my little labelmaker? It's every OCD girl's best friend! ;)

I'm still holding out hope that one day in the not to distant future the play room will become my craft room and I will have an awesome table like Shanty2Chic's!

Wristlet Keychain

At Christmas, our MOPS group got wristlet keychains as a gift. They were ordered off of a seller on etsy.com, I don't know which seller, but unfortunately they don't even fit on my child's wrist! I've been using it just as an easier way to hang on to my keys, but I've been dying to fix it myself so that I could put it on my wrist when I'm carrying lots of stuff. Today I finally bought the supplies I needed to fix it! I opened up the key fob and put it on my brand new {and CORRECTLY SIZED} wristlet! It is easy to see the size difference. The supplies to make these are so cheap, I decided I am going to make more!

I searched everywhere for the key fobs today... Hobby Lobby, JoAnns, Michaels...to no avail. I did however just order some from a seller on etsy, so 25 pieces of hardware were only 8.00!

Emma's Sleeping Beauty Party

Tonight was Emma's little girls party. We hosted a movie night for ten of her friends! We fed them pizza for dinner. I made apple cupcakes but, silly me, I was thinking of the apple in Snow White, and we were watching Sleeping Beauty! Oh well, they didn't ask why the cupcakes were apples, and I didn't tell them! Haha.

These were the treat bags I made for Emma to hand out. I ordered the Princess cups from Oriental Trading Co. , along with the crown candy bracelets.

I didn't want to buy all those cheap toys that serve no purpose other than to hurt the parents' feet when they step on them! So ...I thought real hard and put these together: a cup, candy bracelet, a set of princess rings and earring stickers, "Royal Gold Coins" and "Princess Aurora's favorite snack". I bought the chocolate coins in the bulk section of our grocery store and Princess Aurora's favorite snack was a mix of chocolate and yogurt covered raisins.

I cut a cute little part hat tag on my cricut.

Happy birthday Emmster, I'm so proud of you!

Emma's 7th Birthday

Our firstborn turned 7 years old this week. *tear* Here are a few pictures to share with my far away family and friends...