{Parties} July 4th

July 13, 2011 By

I host a 4th of July party every year because we are within walking distance of a great place to watch the fireworks, and well, mostly because I just like to throw parties. Beverly and her family and my parents always come, and then any friends who are in town are always welcome.

We’d been having nightly thunderstorms, so I was hesitant to set everything up outside, but we have a spacious backyard and are almost finished with our deck, so I had to at least try! Jim and I got everything set up in time for people to start coming over, and then 10 minutes later, it started thundering and the sky turned black. So, everyone grabbed food, table cloths, and wine glasses and we quickly set up in the kitchen and dining room. I went back outside to make sure we’d gotten everything we needed and my brother-in-law and my dad were standing in what seemed like disbelief. Then I noticed this:

Apparently, it missed my dad by inches. Jim, Ben and my dad got to work cutting it up and carrying the pieces to the curb, and Jim got the lights hung back up in record time. {We should have more people over when tree branches fall!}

It continued to rain, but we have so much tree cover that in certain places outside you couldn’t really tell it was raining. Mostly. so the guys started a cornhole game and the kiddos played in the wagons and in the little house and on the cornhole boards. Jessica snapped this picture of Graham, Addison, Molly and Wyn towards the end of the night {Molly was already in her pj’s because her dress was soaked, and then she managed to get the pj’s dirty, too!}:

Then we loaded the kids up in the wagons and strollers and walked to our firework-watching spot! It was a super fun night, in spite of the thunderstorm and half of a tree that made an appearance.

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You know I don’t do much cooking, but I saw these yummy and patriotic treats on Pinterest, so I gave them a try. For the record, when the directions for melting chocolate state that you should use vegetable shortening when melting the chocolate, I’m sure there’s a good reason. I decided it wasn’t that important and my chocolate ended up getting clumpy and hard to use. Go figure. Anyway, that still looked festive and tasted delicious, so that’s all that matters, right?!

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Beverly tried to get a picture of Molly and Addison together, but the girls had other ideas. So we have these instead.

Addi-bird

Sweet Peaches

Beverly and I hope you had a safe, fun 4th of July. And we’ll pretend like I wrote this post *last* week, ok?

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{Introducing} The Puppy Collection and a Deck Update

June 13, 2011 By

This weekend, I finally got this adorable puppy collection in the shop. A sweet customer of ours asked us to create a custom invitation for her daughter’s birthday, and we had so much fun designing these invitations and other party items. We ended up creating a personalized banner, return address labels, favor stickers and cupcake toppers to coordinate with the invitation. We’re hoping Nan sends pictures of the party soon! If she does, we’ll post them for you to see. But for now, here’s a peek at the whole collection:

Don’t you just love the colors? This would also be really cute to customize the colors for a boy’s party, too! You can find the collection in our Etsy shop today!

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As you know, we’ve been working on our backyard and deck. Saturday morning, this is what the deck looked like:

Last weekend while I was in Santa Barbara, Jim and my dad poured the concrete for the posts and got the posts inserted. During the week, Jim cut the posts to their appropriate heights. By Saturday evening, we were much closer:

Sunday evening, we got to eat dinner on our deck!

Or, at least we started to eat dinner on the deck until it started thundering, lightning and raining buckets. The deck is still missing a bench, railing and steps, but I’m so excited that I can actually envision the finished product and stand on it!  Jim and my dad have done an awesome job so far.

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Coming soon {I hope}: A backyard makeover

May 19, 2011 By

I’ve convinced the hubs (and my mom and dad!) to tear down our current deck and build a new one. Our fifth anniversary is coming up and the traditional gift is wood, so I thought a new deck would be the perfect gift. We have a ginormous backyard with lots of tree cover, so even though it’s hard to get grass to grow, it’s still a great spot to hang out and I love to throw parties back there. I also want to work on our landscaping, to create a natural area along the back fence to eat up some of the unused space and provide something pretty to look at. I mean, our neighbor’s cars and a chain-link fence are pretty and all, but I thought some shrubs (hydrangeas maybe?) and some pine needles and flowering perennials would be nicer.

So I did what I always do when I get an idea: I perused the internet to find others who have done the same thing. And I can definitely tell it is warming up outside beside there is no lack of inspiration in blogland for outdoor living spaces!

So without further ado, check out the eye candy I found this week. And be sure to check back…I’ll post before and {eventually} after pics of our backyard!

Kate over at Centsational Girl is ready for dinners on the patio with her DIY, affordable new table cloth and terra cotta pots inspired by pricier versions. I love her use of spray paint and that blue is beautiful!

And then Ashley and her hubs from The Handmade Home are working on utilizing their backyard space to its utmost potential and sprucing up the view on and from their patio. They started the project by extending/building a new fence to enclose their side yard and include it as part of the backyard. Major DIY work going on over there and I can’t wait to see what they do next!

Then Beverly told me that World Market had a yellow and gray outdoor line this year, and you know how much I love that color combo! Our pillows and umbrella are a natural color, so it would be fun to liven it up a bit with fun color scheme. The wheels started turning and I realized I could paint the adirondack chairs yellow!

I also love turquoise and orange, or blue and lime green, or crisp black and white {and I already have a few black and white damask outdoor pillows that I “borrowed” from my mom and never returned!}. We have great basics – 2 comfy adirondack chairs, a Chesapeake table and chairs from Pottery Barn {a major score from the outlet years ago!}, and lots of space. Jim even strung lights from the trees for at my request, so there’s always a party atmosphere. There are a zillion ideas flowing and I can’t wait to get started. I just hope it’s ready to show off {I mean, enjoy} before Molly’s birthday in August!

 

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