Gettin' Crafty

So like 30 years ago April 1st, I met up with a bunch of other craft-lovin' bloggers for the Always Crafty Event.  I was soooo super stoked about this, especially since I had to bail out of the Always Bloggy Event in October (you know... birthin' a baby nine days before made it a little difficult to attend).  

Image stole from Shannanigans.
L to R Adrienne, Michelle, Mary, Shannon and her adorable babe Gabe, Bethany, Lauren,  me and Kate

Oh yeah..be tee dubs, I chopped nine inches of hair off in February.  Forgot to tell you all.  Moving on...

Shannon from Shannigans hosted the shin dig at her house and as soon as I walked in, there was a welcome center, with a sweet vignette of flowers, rain boots and complete with swag bags.  Swag bag= free shit.  I love free shit.

For refreshments Shannon provided us with refreshing lemonade and iced tea to sip from mason jars with mint and vodka as garnish.

stolen via

stolen via

Of course as a breast feeding momma I didn't partake in the vodka.

That's a lie.  I had me some vodka.  I missed my old friend.

Can I give you my honest opinion about these paper straws that are oh-so Pinteresting right now?  I know they are great for photo shoots, but they are a little strange to drink out of.  I don't know why, but it weirded me out.  I did enjoy a personalized straw, though.  I am totally that girl that puts her drink down and walks away.  Then I don't even remember what I was drinking, so I'll start sipping on your Merlot-- even though I had chardonnay.  So yeah... if you have me over for a party, label my drink.

Shannon's cohort in this was Bethany from Rinse.  Repeat.  If you know anything about these two, you know they are not gonna half-ass it when it comes to charming decor, such as fresh lemon swag on the back of the chairs, doily chandeliers or flowers made from Trader Joe bags

stolen via

We were given lunch to help soak up the vodka as well, and it was delish and packaged in the cutest boxes that matched the color theme!

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Shannon had different craft stations scattered around her house complete with instructions and an example.  We were able to walk freely from station to station and craft and chat as we pleased.

My favorite craft was the monogram wreath.  I tried hanging mine from the front door but the foyer was littered with fake moss so it's new home is on the mantel.  And I lurve it.

When I first saw the mason jar sewing kit, I was all "this is kind of stupid", but lemmie tell you, I use this thing more then anything else from that day.  Shannon sent us home with vintage notions to fill it, and I added all my loose thread and needles from the junk drawer.  Now I have a place to corral all my sewing whatnot as well as an actual pin cushion for my needles so I won't leave them in the couch pillows.  It's cute enough to leave on the shelves in our office so I have easy access to it as well.  And it pairs nicely with the sweet bird painting Bethany gifted me years ago.  Winning!

..and for the record, I had to look up what a 'vintage notion' was, because these girls were tossing around the term like it was common vernacular.  Cue me feeling like a crafting dunce.   But I'm not gonna tell you what it is.  Because if I have to google, so do you.

The fabric flower garland looks way more difficult that it really is.  After not knowing what a notion was, I didn't want to really blow my craft-cover so I was hesitant to even attempt this.. Once I got started, I realized how easy it was.  This is the kind of thing I could see myself making while watching a Say Yes to the Dress marathon and suddenly I've lost track of time, it's three hours later and I have a twenty-five foot garland.  My (much shorter) version is currently housed in the guest room.

My chicken wire frame ended up in Hunter's room and is the perfect place to stick cards from grandparents, or recent pictures of his girlfriend, Jenna...

We also made knock-off of Terrain's $18-a-piece napkins.  Eighteen.  EACH.  Jeebus.  I like these napkins better because I got to personalize it with 'noms'.  Happiness is a hand-stamped napkin.

Afterwards we took a trip to Terrain so the non-local girls could experience the insane prices for in person.  I fell in love with a beautiful ring and thought about purchasing it for myself to celebrate my up coming birthday... until I found it was $3,700.  Yeah.  Not happening.

Yup.  Hot glue guns nestled among yummy food and drink with new friends.  That's a Sunday well spent to me.

Always & Forever,
  ME

Mother Father...'s Day

In an effort to catch up on the insanely busy 3 months I've just had, I am going to combine Mother's Day and Father's day into one post.

For my first Mother's Day I got the best gift ever:  a couple extra hours of sleep.  God bless America I needed that.   When I did finally roll out of bed, I was given a dozen red roses and a card from JEGs and Hunter

I was also treated to a breakfast of birds nest.. nooomssss

JEGs and I are not really gift-givers.  We do birthdays, and for Christmas we'll buy something for the two of us to share (i.e. a trip or furniture).  So color me shocked as hell when a couple days before Mother's Day, the hubs brought this home as an unofficial Mother's Day gift

..a  pretty new Nikon D3100.  VeryniceIlike.

I spent the rest of Mother's Day with my mother and grandmother.  We have a tradition of going to Olive Garden every year, but in recent years my grandmother hasn't been well enough to make the trip so we order take out and eat at my mother's house.  I try to appreciate every holiday I have with my grandmother, because I always fear it will be her last.

Father's Day was more of a bust.  It started off well:  Hunter woke up and I took him downstairs to play.  He went down for his morning nap and I cleaned up from the party we had the night before.  I planned on running over to Dunkin Donuts and waking JEGs up with breakfast in bed once Hunter woke up.

However, around 9 am Hunter woke up from his nap SCREAMING and it woke JEGs up.  I still ran to Dunkin Donuts, but breakfast was served downstairs.    We finished cleaning up from the party and made the decision to swing by his grandfather's house for a Father's Day/ PopPop's Birthday party.  Don't you know we weren't there five minutes when  I was called out because jackwagon decided it was a good day to shoot at cops.  So we had to leave, which caused JEGs to get frustrated, me to get defensive and resulted in a silent car ride home.

When I came back from work,  JEGs was trying to feed a fussy Hunter.  He told me a story that involved JEGs getting pooped on and Hunter spraying down the crib with pee.  I realized the day was not salvageable, so we watched a couple episodes of Mad Men and went to bed while I promised to make it up to him with a Father's Day do-over.

I was able to snap this adorable picture in the morning, however:

Hope your Mother's and Father's Days went well!

Always & Forever,
  ME