My Favorite Things

easter ornament swap

I just received goodies from a easter ornament swap that Alanna George hosted.  She is a Silver Bella sister.  Since she was not going to be able to attend Silver Bella this year, she decided to host a swap.  Sadly, I am not going to be able to attend SB either this year, so I jumped at the chance to do a swap with my Silver Bella sisters.  And, yes, in case you are wondering, we are a little late for easter!  It is going to be so hard to put these beauties away until next year, but how fun to have this surprise waiting for me next Easter.  Everyone really out did themselves!

This is a sneak peak at what I saw when I opened up the box.

Alanna took some great photographs of everyone's ornaments.  So, just go on over to her blog to see the adorable creations that everyone made! 

till next time,

melissa

a fabulous birthday

I woke up last Friday morning at 6:30 am to these 2 signs made by my ever so thoughtful youngest daughter.

This one was attached to our front door.

 

This child knows my love for all things chocolate!  So, she used Hershey Miniatures to spell out her birthday greeting.  She then gave my an amazingly comfy t-shirt that she knew I have had my eye on and MORE candy.

 

The blouse that I am wearing is a birthday present from my oldest daughter, who knows exactly what I like and from where ... Anthropologie of course!  I was definitely spoiled this year.  My oldest also made me cinnamon rolls for breakfast after I went running with my cross-country girls who sang happy birthday to me in 5 different languages!!  

I spent the rest of the afternoon with sweet hubby.  We went to a favorite spot for lunch, and then we did a little shopping (I should say I shopped while he patiently waited in the air conditioned car and read).  

One of my stops was to purchase my very first Copic markers.  Who knew there were so many colors to choose from?!  It took me about 45 minutes of testing out many of the colors before I finally settled on a few.  I played around with them today ... love, love, love them!  Before my friend, Jen, had gifted one to me at Christmas, I had no idea what I was missing.  My long standing love affair with the sharpie may now be compromised!  

After our afternoon together, hubby and I headed home to have cake and ice cream with our kids.  Once again, my oldest came through and ordered this amazing birthday cake.  

My hubby's parents also came over for cake.  We had a fun evening of our family's version of stupid human tricks.  You know, it just doesn't get any better than this!

till next time,

melissa
 

   

fun with buntings

I have been wanting to try my hand at making a bunting for the last month.  What you see here is my second attempt ... and I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.  Admittedly, I tried to make my first bunting the morning of my oldest daughter's high school graduation ... not so smart!  We were having her party outside that afternoon, and I thought a bunting would be a perfect addition to the garden decorations.  Well, as you can imagine, nothing went right.  I was following the directions from a tutorial I found online, but their suggested way to calculate the measurements was just not working for me.  I finally gave up when I realized that I was going to be late to her graduation ceremony if I kept persisting with this frustrating project :(

Three weeks later, I'm here trying this project again.  This time, my hubby was so kind as to help me calculate the proper width of the unfinished piece in proportion to the length.  That is where I kept going wrong before.  My unfinished piece (the piece before I started gathering the fabric) was too wide.  So every time I tried to gather the fabric towards the middle I never got a nice half circle shape.  The beauty of persistence is that eventually (most of the time, anyways) you figure how to put the puzzle together!  So, after I made the first one successfully, the second one was a breeze.

If anyone is interested in making a bunting of their own, just let me know, and I would be more than happy to share on my bunting pattern!

till next time,

melissa