I HEART BUNNIES!

Anything bunnies or chickies put me all a flutter for Easter! I love the cupcake decorations and the sneak peek inside the gift bag treat. The cupcake decorations and garland....easy to make. The treat bags....not so easy. But little tags with the bunny tied around a treat bag would be equally darling.

DECORATING FOR EASTER

Hollowed-out eggshells make naturally beautiful vases for tiny flower arrangements. Break an egg at the top of its shell, drain the contents, and carefully rinse out the inside. Next, fill the empty shell with room-temperature water and place it in an eggcup for stability. Finally, insert small cuttings of your favorite blossoms (we used lilacs, lily of the valley, and violas). Individually or grouped together in a centerpiece, these tiny arrangements make a wonderful addition to the place settings at your table. [Via Martha Stewart]

I think these would look equally pretty dying the easter eggs a pretty blue, yellow & green. Now I will be on the search for some vintage eggcups!

PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGY.....

Ever since I posted about Dreams Los Cabos I have been on vacation in my head and heart. Time at the computer has been brief as I have been enjoying the children around me, all over me, in my hair, wanting lunch in picnic form, play time, creating time and packing time for our camping trip coming up.

So please accept my apology for not giving you tons of butterflies this week. I will be back next week with pretty Easter things!

DESPERATELY SEARCHING FOR A PLACE IN MY BACKYARD FOR THIS.....

little bistro set in Red from Martha Stewart's Aberdeen Collection

available at Kmart.

IT'S SPRING BREAK HERE.....

and since we aren't going anywhere luxurious, I thought I would share with you this week a few places we have been....a few of our favorite vacations.

DREAMS LOS CABOS, MEXICO

This resort definitely lives up to it's name. There are two huge pools, with integrated kiddie pools. Five restaurants with no reservations needed. Swim up bars with stools built into the pool and snack shacks right next to the pools that have amazing fish tacos and the best chips, salsa, and guac you could want. Oh...and I can't forget the ice-cream shack. We took Blake for the first time when he was three. He wasn't too fond of sand and we spent most of our time at the pools. Every time we would turn around, Blake would be taking off to the ice-cream bar. We would watch as he would walk up, get his ice-cream and walk back with it dripping all over! He was in heaven.



Dreams has an amazing Kids Club. In fact, each evening our kids begged to go to the Kids Club. It was perfect, since the resort is All-Inclusive we would come in from the pools around 5:00, order the kids room service while we dressed for dinner. We would drop them off at the Club, go have a beautiful dinner by ourselves and then pick them up in time for the evening events which three of the nights was a movie on the beach that started around 8:30 pm.



We have wonderful memories of that family vacation and look forward to exploring more Dreams locations in the future!


(the view from our ground floor suite....we were just steps from the pool)

P.S. There is no beach/ocean swimming at this resort location due to the strong current. But a surfing/swimming beach is a close cab ride down the street. You just need to be adventurous!

SUPPORTING LOCAL GROWERS.

We are getting our eggs locally from a friend from church who is raising chickens. It was so fun to meet the chickens and her newest addition of baby chicks. The children and I enjoyed our little field trip and left with two dozen eggs and feeling very educated. And although there was a little bit of "maybe we should build a chicken coop....." thought in me, I decided I will just continue to support local growers!

Another thing that gives me butteflies. Today is the first day of Spring!

And one other thing that gives me butterflies.....my sweet husband cooperated with an interview over on my family blog. You can read all about it and go get to know him (if you so desire) here.

HAPPY MAIL!

I received happy mail in my mailbox yesterday. It was from my cute friend's Esty shop Hearts and Anchors. She also has a cute blog you can find here. Her packaging was amazing and recycled. It gave me complete butterflies. So much so that I held her packaging most of the day and waited to open it later that evening. I knew what was inside. I just wanted to behold the packaging.

Packaging is a powerful thing among women. I'm not sure why we get so thrilled when something is wrapped nicely. For me....it has always been about the packaging. Whether it is actual wrapping paper, the shopping bag, the ribbon, the tissue, the way the tissue is folded with a pretty little sticker adhered to it, any and all of it.....packaging gives women butterflies. I'm excited for a trip I am planning with a cute new friend to go pick out packaging in the City when she returns from vacation. Even the thought of that gives me butterflies. Oh....I'm all a flutter about all of it...seriously.

But back to my happy mail I received yesterday. It is a package of 8 of the prettiest little mailing labels, which means....the next 8 people to purchase one of my lovelies from my Etsy site will be getting even prettier packaging than before!

(I considered blacking out my address.....but actually I'm listed in the phone book....so what's the big deal right? And once I purchase something from you....or you purchase something from me....we all know each other's addresses anyways!)

I'VE BEEN DREAMING.......

of one of these and either a backyard worthy of one or a vacation destination where one is provided!

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

I love these prints from Sean Finocchio. Living in Napa, we frequent the local taco trucks quite often. I love their chicken tacos with pico de gallo, lime and radish....please add a little queso. At first I was afraid to order from the taco trucks but a friend encouraged me to try them about 7 years ago and I have never looked back. I, too, think these prints would look great in a kitchen, but I think I would prefer to go out and take pictures of our own local taco trucks for my wall.

{Quick story.....we had ordered our tacos from the walk-up taco truck and were waiting for our order to come up. It was obvious a tourist couple was trying a local taco truck for their first time while on vacation here in wine country {convertible rental car, both a little tipsy from wine tasting all day, and lots of hand holding}. They got their order and sat at the little metal bar attached to the side of the taco truck and started eating their tacos. Their camera was sitting on the bar next to them and I couldn't help myself. I interrupted them and told them they had just discovered a little secret in the Napa Valley and that I thought they should have a memory of them dressed in very dressy clothing, bellied up to a little metal bar eating tacos from the local taco truck! I snapped the picture, taking care to crop it perfectly so that it would be frame worthy.}

{via Apartment Therapy}

OH BABY DEAR SHOWER PICTURES.

front enterance

beverages & coasters


Cathy Wagner did these darling candy jars

decorations

jelly jars & tulips

buffet table

cupcake liner mobile

Caesar salad cups, veggie platter, caramelized bacon wraps & prosciutto wrapped asparagus

hawaiian meatballs, pulled pork sandwiches & caramelized onion cheese puffs

"estimated time of delivery" game

play-doh winner

dessert buffet

Kathy's favorites....mini eclairs

Phew...that was a lot of pictures. The evening was so wonderful. Kathy was showered with love and fun. And lucky little Ira to be coming to such a sweet little couple! The estimated time of delivery ice-cube game was a huge hit and Kathy actually delivered her baby in the ice-cube on the actual minute she guessed. Lucky! Let's hope the same is true for her real delivery! First runner-up took the all natural method, not touching her ice-cube and delivered within one minute of her guess. It was very exciting! Everyone had a great time trying to get their babies to deliver when predicted.

The play-doh game went over equally as well. The winner, pictured above, was created by a previous day care owner, and she even included a bottle and some ball toys while play-doh baby sat and sucked his thumb. So sweet! The skits were great and had us all laughing. The food amazing, the mini desserts mouth watering and Mike and Cathy's home was a beautiful setting. Thank you to everyone that helped! It was a beautiful evening showering Kathy with love and baby gifts.

LAST SNEAK PEEK!

Almost ready...........

Jelly jars in all varieties tied with themed color ribbons for flowers and tealight candles.

Water bottles wrapped in custom themed paper wrappers.

Pom pom balls, cupcake liner mobile and twig centerpiece just waiting for final touches.

Thank you so much for your response to the baby shower game ideas! They were all fabulous and reminded me of a few I had forgotten about. I picked up play doh yesterday for a baby making contest. We played that at a couples shower a year ago and it was a hoot. I also am going with the last comment I just received. It will be quick to put together and a lot of laughs should be had. It is quick skits made up by the guests about labor & delivery with these props: plunger, tongs, gloves, baby doll, robe, bulb syringe, etc. Thank you again for coming to my rescue! See you all Monday....with lots of pictures.

MORE 'OH BABY DEAR'

Everything is coming together nicely for the shower and I can't wait to show you pictures of the final product. The babies above will be used for a little game called "estimated time of delivery" and I am working on a little mobile of sorts with the cupcake liners! I still have bottled waters to wrap with themed paper and pouf balls to make in orange, green and blue. I do also need to come up with two unique type of baby games......any ideas? I definitely don't want the same ole' same ole'. Something fun and new! Please help.

RINGS!

available in my Etsy shop today and posted about here.