penelope and the slide

Category: baby, everyday | March 14th, 2012


at our neighborhood park there is a little playground and p LOVES it. i do too. it’s a nice meeting place for all my mama friends too. :) this girl loves her slides. loved them for quite some time too. this one in particular because she can climb up the steps and go down the slide all by herself. such a big girl. i told her today that she needs to slow down with this growing up business. too fast! ….oh and she loves those rocks.

penelope’s room: nursery tour

Category: baby | February 22nd, 2012

i finally got around to taking pictures of miss p’s room, so now you get a little (and i mean little, her room is tiny) tour of this baby girl’s room. :) this room is full of handmade and love. i had different plans at first with colors but i love how it turned out.





before we knew miss p was a girl we already had an orange and yellow color scheme picked out. then we were just going to add splashes of pink or baby blue. pink won. (might have taken over a bit too). colors were really the only theme, so all of her stuff is pretty much a mix…which fits my eclectic style perfectly. (the mister’s?….not so much). ;) we were very blessed with friends and family who gifted us with all of p’s furniture too. yay!

P loves looking at photos of her family on the wooden wire frames i made. (i especially love the convenience of changing out the photos). that bookshelf used to be pretty much empty before her birthday. my mom even brought a few books of mine that i loved when i was tiny. she LOVES all of those books…and pulling them out one by one, every time she goes in there. ;)


oooh her closet. it’s actually a really small closet. so her clothes are packed in. and a HUGE thank you to my sis who provides all of P’s clothes. gotta love hand-me-downs! and clearly she needs lots of bows/headbands for that bald head of hers. so we have a nice collection going. :)


i’ve been meaning to recover the glider (it’s a baby blue color), but umm i have been busy. plus the awesome crocheted blanket my sister in law made for P covers it up nicely. :) i got the light fixture from urban outfitters a looong time ago. that thing has been with me for forever. something fun to pass down. also, the lovely “you are my sunshine” print is from a dear from of mine, the letter studio. this is a special song to P since we sang/sing it to her all of the time. it’s perfect for her room!

 
my mom made the sweet mason jar snow globe out of little trinkets that were hers when she was a little girl. i love it! the photo of the woman nursing used to be my mother in laws and she gave it to me right before P was born. :)



the tissue pom poms that are hanging above her crib were originally made for a dear friend’s couples shower awhile back. clearly i couldn’t just throw them away. (they took some time to make). ;) they fit perfectly in her room. i painted the tree painting for her too. :) the poem to the left of the painting was too sweet to not print out and hang. you can too! i also made her crib sheet with some fun amy butler fabric. see that awesome baby blanket?? my great grandmother made that blanket a long time ago for her future grand babies (and great grand babies). there were only two left and this one matched perfectly!!! it was such a sweet surprise when my mom gave it to me with a note written by my great grandmother (ps…she lived to be 103!). the bunny was a gift from sweet friends and i’m really trying to make it be p’s toy that she carries around by the ear and drags on the floor and gets all torn and ratty to where i have to accidentally lose it when she’s 4. hahaha. too much?? ;) also the pink sign with the girl praying used to be mine as a child.


my sister gave us the three wooden signs. these worked wonders and distracted p during diaper changes. (i have tried making a song out of the phrases but no luck so far). the orange basket was made by a friend with some pretty vintage fabric. oh and can’t forget the nourish baby skin products. ;) the picture frame happens to match the three wooden signs, and has the very first picture of miss p at 7 weeks old. and those tiny baby booties used to be mine. :)

the mirror is thrifted. the coat rack used to be mine. along with those sweaters. :) (thanks mom for keeping all these things!!) and of course i had to make a yarn letter for miss P. you can’t tell because of the lighting but it’s a burnt orange color (hook ’em!). The piece below was made by a sweet mama during a craft exchange event i did. such a neat idea! and last but not least, here are some flowers i made out of toilet paper rolls. lol. (yes i keep everything for a craft).

i love this room. it may look cluttered from the pics but it’s a pretty clutter. ;) so much love in this room. thanks for stopping by and looking!  

monday funday

Category: baby, everyday | February 7th, 2012




yesterday we were out and about allllll day. miss P was amazing. although i’m sure the 2 hour nap in the car helped. lol. we started out at the Austin Children’s Museum for the Baby Bloomers. it was our first time, and i am in love! i’m sure P is too, since she had so much fun. this place was filled with so many baby/toddler (3 and under) friendly things. so many activities and hands on stations. we spent 3 hours there and there was never a dull moment. saw some of her buddies there too. we had a great time. if y’all are ever in town on a monday from 9-12 then i highly suggest this place! small fee, but well worth it.








we had a birthday party to go to downtown at central market as well so we stayed around (since it’s about an hour ride home), she took a two hour nap and i had lunch in the car. :) then it was time to hang out with a bunch of 5 year olds! she had so much fun watching them and trying to keep up with them. oh and climbing anything and everything. it had rained right before. that didn’t stop her. she was soaked, but had a smile on her face the entire time.



look what made an appearance. ;) there’s still more leftover. get these things away from me! anyone want some? seriously.

monday funday was great. an hour and 15 minutes later we were home. whew.

penelope’s 1st birthday party

Category: baby | January 23rd, 2012


this sweet girl had her 1st birthday party last weekend. we ended up doing a rainbow (not an actual rainbow, just the colors) and book theme party. i tried not to get too overwhelmed with all the colors, because well, it’s a lot of color, but i loved how bright and, of course, colorful it was. since her birthday is so close to Christmas, she didn’t need any more toys so i asked for books in lieu of toys. this girl loves her books (and now we have an awesome collection!!) the goal was to make as much of the decor as i could and use stuff around the house that i already had. i think i did pretty good. :) there were some things that i didn’t get a chance to do…so i will save them for her next birthday! (yes, i already thought about her next theme…too soon??) ;)



*my canvas portraits were very fitting since they are all about miss P.
*i made some circle garland with wonderful construction paper. :)
*i hung up this awesome vintage lace table cloth as a background, and threw up some finger knitted garland i made a couple years ago.  then i pinned up this paper doily garland (thanks katy!) with the tiniest/cutest clothes pins ever. i loved how cute and handmade this turned out. :)


(don’t hate on my super creased table cover. didn’t have time to worry about that) ;)
*here we have the DIY table. kept it simple with balloons and streamers on the wall. (simple, but how cool does it look?) :) inspiration table here. (thanks mom!)
*to go along with the book theme: decorate your own bookmark station and decorate your own colored book (made from paint swatches. thank you home depot!)
*and DIY painted initial goody bag




*my favorite party decoration! it’s still hanging up too. i guess you can call these accordion paper flowers. even though it took awhile to do all of them, they were fun to make! (thanks M&D and husband for the hanging advice) :) this was my inspiration. super easy to make and hang up. (perhaps a DIY post coming up?)


*made this tent/reading nook for her. i followed this tutorial which was super easy, but there are tons out there. i made it with the vintage sheet that i’ve been wanting to use for something special but never knew what. :) and i love how it’s easy to take down/set up and put away when we’re not using it. i would keep it out all the time but we don’t have that much room.

*more paper circle garland over the window. so simple but looked really fun. i might have this up still too… :)


*i used some of her vintage golden books to display her photos by month. this was an easy and super fast way to show her year’s worth of pics. i simply used some hole punched circles and added stickers for each month..and of course used the cute, tiny clothes pins to hold them up on the books.


ahh the cake(s)! my sweet friend katy, who is mastering her baking skills, made P’s cake and smash cake (first time attempting this kind too!)
*i made little matching accordion flowers for the cake toppers.
*it looks like P is really loving the cake…but she’s really screaming in that pic. haha. she gave some to her daddy instead.

*LOVED how the rainbow cake turned out. (watch out martha stewart!) :) looked pretty AND tasted great too! you’re the best katy!

she didn’t care for the cake so much, but she went to town on her ice cream. it was her first taste of sweets! i think i was more excited for her to try it than herself.

*made just a few mini cupcakes for her play date buddies too. :)


*had a little something for the big kids too. printed out this fun “Alternative Names” children’s book titles quiz over here. some of those i didn’t know. i need to work on that.



well there ya have it folks. penelope ruth’s first birthday! yay! i can’t believe it’s already been one year since THIS! :) thank y’all for everything! she is so blessed and loved by many! *i have waaaay more photos from her birthday party, but i felt like this was plenty for now. ;) (any questions on how to’s or anything, feel free to ask!)