Student of the Week: Lola!

I did NOT look in Lola's backpack until Sunday night around 8pm, after I put her to bed.  I went to make her lunch, along with Kyan's, and saw that there was a lot of stuff in her folder and one of the things was the above poster, that needed to be filled out, as Lola was star student for the week!?!  

I had planned on chillaxin' and watching a show on HBO with the hubs, but those plans quickly came to a halt at the discovery of the poster.  As tired as I was, I couldn't let her go to school on Monday without the poster!  She was the star!  I was bummed that she didn't get to help me put it together, but I slapped some supplies that I had laying around (because I hoped it would be faster than coloring it all) and filled out as much of the facts that I could.  Lola answered all of the questions in the morning when I woke her up!  It was really cute to see how much she loved her poster and how proud she was to carry it into school!

Along with the poster, Lola is receiving special privileges for the whole week!  Her teachers are some of the best communicators on the entire planet and I got an email from one of them today stating that Lola is not letting anyone forget that she is the star this week and has said, "I'm the star student so..."about 20 different times (just today)!  Why am I not surprised?!

Proud of you Lola!  Of course you are always a shining star in my book.

Continue to always let your light shine.

Really BIG love you.

Mr. & Mrs. Newberry

Congratulations cousin Hannah {Banana} and Will!

 Love you both very much.

Thank you for letting me play such a BIG part in your special day.

School Picture Time!

Picture morning came and Lola told me {with crossed arms}, "I'm NOT doing THAT!", while Kyan practiced his smile and wondered if he should or shouldn't show teeth {and his tongue popping through where there are a lack of teeth}!?  I shipped them off to school, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best!  

Yep, they are cute and boy, do I love them BIG!  

It's Done!

What a week it has been...and it is only Tuesday!

One word.

BUSY.

What most of you don't know is that I am shooting my cousin's wedding this weekend up in Payson {so excited} and then turning around hours later to host the reception in my backyard!  I feel honored.  When she asked me to be the photographer I was over the moon excited, when she asked to use the backyard to hold the reception, ecstatic!  My wheels immediately started turning though.  How is this going to work?  I won't be home to clean, make sure everything is ready?!  What will it look like?  

Enter my incredible sister-in-law, Rae Lynn and mother-in-law, Donna.  Quick to volunteer to help with any and everything wedding related, and let me tell you there are good.  Rae has done a dynamite job on decor {keeping it simple with supplies we have had on hand, aka, my craft room, it pays to be a hoarder}!  Think pennant doilies, mason jars, monogrammed letters...girlfriend has ideas in her head like it is nobody's business and has made so many of them herself, while I am at work!  Last night we played with lighting, as in my backyard has none and how do we create it while keeping it romantic?!  At 9:30 we called it a night, brains overloaded and unable to think anymore!  That being said, it is so much fun and it is all I want to do!

However, I have a real job and that real job requires a lot of my attention.  Morning duty, big observations, meetings, curriculum night {tomorrow}, first quarter grades due all this week!  AHHHHHHHHHH!  Yep, feel like screaming a little and living a bit off of adrenaline {and Mickey D's unsweetened ice tea of course}! 

So when my aunt and cousin {bride to be} came over tonight to deliver some more wedding items for Saturday and had my finished wedding album for me, I was over the moon excited!  It is a crazy week, so when a surprise like this comes along, definite game changer!

You know, it only took over 7 years of marriage to have our day scrapbooked into something worth displaying! 

 It is stunning!

Now, in my defense, I did try to put our pictures into a Shutterfly album and the picture quality was horrific.  Every picture I uploaded, the resolution was so distorted.  I was bummed and left the pictures in a chewed up album, courtesy of our late dog Delilah!  After I was done feeling sorry for myself, I begged my aunt, who is an amazing scrapbooker {something I just do not have the patience or knack for, although I am crafty}, to please do something, anything, with my pictures!  I told her I didn't care if I got them back in a year, two, three!  Heck, it is not like I was going to do anything with them anyway.  With her daughter's wedding quickly approaching, my wedding album is complete!  Just in time to start working on Hannah's!

Just look at those pages!  Full of incredible memories that I have been instructed to journal and write in!  I promise I will..someday, just not this week!  I can't pick out a favorite page, but there were a few pictures that stood out to me.  Not of the hubs and I together, but of us, with our dads.  The one of my dad and I in the middle I love!  And each of the pictures that includes Brion, I felt like I stopped breathing for just a second with each picture that I came across.  What a beautiful memory to see him.

THANK YOU AUNTIE HEIDI!

 Looking forward to spending the weekend with you!

 

 PS-If you don't see me 'round these parts for a little bit, go back to that one word.  BUSY!  I do have a few projects that need posting and a fall supper club post to tell about, as we came full circle this year together!  But all of those may just have to be put on the back burner for awhile!  We'll see how much I can squeeze in without losing my mind completely! 

Halloween Wreath

Ok, so this is technically the wreath that I made for my door for Halloween last year.  But, by the time I finally finished it {those rosettes took forever and a day} I only got to enjoy it for two weeks before I had to take it down, so I figured it was only fair that I get to re-post it and show off how I made it!  Plus, it should be in plenty of time for you to get one done too, just in time for Halloween! 

Ok, like I said...super easy to make, yet so time consuming!

My first attempt with the flowers was with felt, but I hated it! So off I went to buy fabric and what a difference it made!

HOW TO:

1. Cut your fabric into about inch and a half strips. Make them as long or short as you want, but I recommend making different sizes.

2. Hot glue the strip together, so you have the fabric displayed on both sides, better for rolling.

3. Roll the strip about 1/4 of the way down and then start twisting and turning the fabric around each other, gluing when needed to hold your flower together, until the flower is finished!

4. Repeat as needed (think I made close to 50-60?)!

5. Hot glue flowers onto wreath (I used a grapevine).  I did no sort of pattern, just kept gluing!

6. Add in tarantula looking feathers as needed (I found mine at JoAnn Fabric Store).

I wasn't sure where to put the letter R and originally wanted to include it somehow with the flowers, but decided at the last minute to put it in the middle of the wreath, where I think it fit rather nicely. To make this part, I did something very similar in this post. The difference was that I used craft paint instead of spray paint to do the black around the R and I used paper instead of fabric (which I think is easier).

Ready for the Trick-or-Treaters!

My wreath has been up for about two weeks already!  The rest of the Halloween decor went up last weekend.  Early?  Yes.  But I don't care.  Halloween is my favorite holiday to decorate for!  Maybe is has to do with the fact that I love me some candy corn?!  

Kinda funny, but I had to go last year's post about getting the house ready for Halloween to check to see where I put everything!  It sure came in handy!  If you are curious to see what the inside of the house looks like, take a peek here.

Linking up here with my favorite party peeps!  And also some spooktacular ones below!

Bestt Babbysitters Ever <3

Jenni, we love you and just decided to hack your profile!! Taylor, Bianca, and Alyssa:]

We love you ReallyBIG<3

No More Bookmarks...

...you can now find me pinning each project I love and feel inspired by!  Time to pin those projects I have had bookmarked forever and completely forgot about to be perfectly honest.

That is right, I am about 20 minutes late to the Pinterest party, but I can say that I have finally made it!

Tonight I spent the entire evening pinning things off of my blog that I have posted.  Why?  I am hoping to rearrange the old blog here soon someday and want to put a section on here for everything I have made {craft or food wise}, so I thought that it would be a good idea to go through and pin, that way I know what to go back and look for when I actually redo the blog.  I can't wait to start pinning things for real that I want to do, feel inspired by, you know, things that aren't just what I do!

Do you pin?