Monday, July 29, 2013

Chloe's Party!

Chloe's 7th birthday party was yesterday afternoon, and she had so much fun!  Everything went smoothly, which was great considering the fact that I was still rushing around trying to finish my hair and makeup when guests started arriving.  I was so busy during the party that I totally spaced and didn't take any pictures of the guests, which included most of Tony's extended family, my immediate family, and a few friends, so about 30 people total.  Even though it may have been a little crowded, I'm just happy to finally have a house big enough to hold more than 5 people at a time!


Here are a few more pics of the dessert table and decorations.


We also had a bean bag toss, which was just a piece of medium density fiberboard from Home Depot that Tony cut a hole into with his saw.  It was a hit with the kids!


Chloe really wanted limbo at her party too!


And of course we had a pinata!  I made the pinata using this tutorial, and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  (Don't mind our sad looking lawn...the grass is growing, slowly but surely!)


Happy Birthday, Chloe!







Monday, July 22, 2013

copycat

Whenever people tell me I'm creative, it makes me laugh.  Because the truth is, I'm not very creative!  I'm just good at copying.  Example: Chloe's ombre dresser was a complete copy of images from Pinterest.

I spent this weekend getting ready for Chloe's "Adventure Time" themed birthday party next Sunday, and my copying skills were in full force.  Here's a few things I worked on, along with the inspiration photos that I 100% copied.

First, I bought a bunch of pink, blue, and yellow fabric to make bunting.  (I chose these colors because Finn is blue, Jake is yellow, and Princess Bubblegum is pink...duh.)

I was inspired by my friend Brooke's bunting that she made for her son's birthday party, shown here.

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And now, my version!  I made lots and lots of it.  I plan to put it at the dessert table, and outside around the deck.  And maybe some over the front door. (I hope those creases come out!)


 The next idea I copied was these Jake favor bags.

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The party supply store didn't have a pack of just yellow bags, so I had to go with a few other colors.  And my freehand drawing of Jake isn't amazing, so don't laugh!


I also found these really cute food labels on Pinterest, which I just had to copy!

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I ordered these stickers from Etsy, and then attached them to skewers. I still need to print and attach the actual labels.


I was also inspired by the coloring pages that Sherry drew for her daughter's birthday party.


So of course I had to copy that idea, and make my own!


The last project I worked on was a Finn pinata, which I copied from here:

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I'm about halfway finished gluing on the white tissue paper.  I just have to make the face and fill it with candy!  It was actually a lot easier than I imagined.


Here are two snacks I plan to make for the party.  Finn cupcakes, and fruit skewers that reminded me of Lady Rainicorn.

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I'd say it was a productive weekend!  What did you do this weekend?



Tuesday, July 16, 2013

wolfpack

Vegas... What happens there, stays there, right?  So how can I sum up this weekend without giving away too many secrets? There were injuries.  There was choking.  There were tears.  There were bruises, blisters, vomit, and even a little blood.  But there were also lots of high-fives, WHOOHOO!s, balloon hats, shirtless Aussies and Journey.  Oh, and obviously lots of alcohol.  (Although strangely not as much as past years... I guess this is what 31 feels like?)

If those things aren't indicators of a successful stay in Vegas, then I don’t know what is.

Celebrating our arrival with champagne in our limo.

Checking into the Venetian and getting our VIP bracelets (with more champagne).

Leeza's date for the weekend, Alejandro.

Then off to Tao Beach pool party!  My favorite thing to do in Vegas.




About to eat at Gonzalez Y Gonzalez! (We are down to 7 girls at this point, uh-oh!)

Full of yummy Mexican food and ready for Thunder Down Under! (Down to only 6 girls now, oops!)  We were old ladies this night and didn't make it out past 11pm.  But in our defense, we'd been awake since 5am that morning to catch our flight, and had been drinking since 10am.
And back to Tao Beach on day 2.  See, I told you there were balloon hats!



After stuffing our bellies with Italian food at Dal Toro, we're ready for our second night out.  All 8 of us this time!

Tao Nightclub was so much fun!

The bachelorette making new friends!

We spent our last few hours on Sunday relaxing in the pool, not wanting to leave the sunshine.  Ok, that's a lie.  I was ready to get out of that hot sun!


Viva Las Vegas!

xo,
Rachael





Wednesday, July 10, 2013

packing for Vegas!

I'm a visual person.  I've already made a very detailed list of what I'll be wearing each day during my trip Vegas this weekend, even down to what accessories I'll be wearing to the pool!  But a list wasn't enough for me, I had to take it one step further.  So here is my visual packing list!  (Well, part of it anyways!  Still have to fine tune a few things.)


Dress / Necklace / Sandals / Bracelet 

Dress / Necklace / Bracelet / Shoes 

Dress / Necklace / Shoes / Bracelet 

Except that I'm not actually wearing pink heels on the colored dress night.  I had this great idea to paint an old pair of shoes I had bright pink, but it didn't work out the way I envisioned.  So I'll just be wearing black shoes!

Tony went to Vegas two weekends ago, and temps reached over 117 degrees!!  That is too hot to handle.  I just checked the forecast and am relieved that they've dropped a bit.  Looks like it will only be around 99 degrees this weekend.  I can handle that!  I am SO excited, I love Vegas!

P.S. Today's my birthday!! ;)

Xo,
Rachael

Monday, July 8, 2013

this weekend, I...

This weekend, I partied like a rockstar.  If you follow me on instagram then you may have already seen my stream of ridiculous photos (a few of which I deleted the next morning!).  Haha, no more drinking & instagramming for this girl.

It was Tony's family's annual party at the lake house, and it was the first year in a loooong time that the party was adults only.  So as you can imagine, we took advantage!

We started out with mimosas...Then I had to get a picture of Tony's awesome ensemble...Speaking of awesome ensembles, Stef brought some pretty sweet graphic tees that she found on ebay...and lastly a random foot picture because nothing else is g-rated enough to post!

This weekend, I did not paint Chloe's bed like I promised I would.  Sorry, guys!  I was in recovery mode on Sunday, which meant lots of laying around and catching up on Dexter.  But we did make a short trip to Ikea to replace our plain black bedspread with this new duvet cover:


I still need to add a few more pillows or something to spruce it up a bit, but it's a huge improvement and totally lightens up the room.  I'll take more pics of the room once we add curtains and replace the blinds.  It's still a work in progress!

What did you do this weekend?  Link up here!

xo,
Rachael

Friday, July 5, 2013

red, white & blue

Hope you had a happy & safe 4th of July!


We spent time with Tony's family at his grandparents lakehouse.  Sadly I had to leave early because I'm stuck working today, but Tony and Chloe camped out at the lake.  Hopefully it didn't get too chilly for them last night!

What did you do??

xo,
Rachael

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

mathematical!


Today I have a short & sweet math problem for you.  But don't worry, even if you hated math in school, you will love this equation!


So there you have it, my plans for the weekend!  Can't wait to share it!

xo,
Rachael

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

DIY paint chip art

I had such a fun, eventful, sunshiney weekend!  I had a girl's night out (well, sort of...), went to a bridal shower, went to a birthday party, and even had time to fit in some DIY craftiness.

The DIY project took me about 20 minutes, and it was so easy.  I got the idea when I was cleaning off the table and found a pile of paint chips leftover.  I've seen plenty of paint chip art on Pinterest, so I was feeling inspired to create something.  The paint chips were Chloe's wall color options and her dresser colors, so the obvious choice was to make something for her room.  As I was brainstorming what kind of project I could come up with, a vision of Sherry's faux butterfly art popped into my head.  

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So I decided to create something similar, but with hearts.  Because let's face it, hearts are easy to cut out.  And I like to keep things easy.

I used one of the existing Ikea frames from Chloe's room, because the bunny picture is the only one that doesn't match the others.  She had a lot of purple in her room at the duplex, so it was perfect back then.  But it's just not working in the new room, so the bunny got replaced.  Sorry, bunny!  

I found a white piece of cardboard to use as the background, and scrounged up some fabric glue from the garage.  I wasn't sure how the fabric glue would work with paper, but luckily it worked just fine.


The first thing I did was draw a heart onto one of the paint chips, then I cut it out and used it as a template for the others.  I just drew the heart free-hand, but if you're more of a perfectionist then me, I'd recommend printing one from the computer and tracing it.  I cut out nine hearts total.


Once I was done cutting, I played around with different patterns until I found one I liked best.  I also used a ruler and pencil to mark where each heart should go.


The final step was folding all the hearts in half to give them a 3D look, and then gluing them down to the cardboard.  I just squeezed a thin line of glue down the center, and held the heart in place for about 10 seconds.  (Hello, blurry picture!)


Once I was done glueing, I put everything back into the frame, and that's it!

  

VoilĂ , free art!

xo,
Rachael