My new beach bag...for the pool

One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday is look through all the store ads from the paper. (Actually sometimes it's my least favorite thing to do cause I can find soooo many things I love but can't have! ha!) A few weeks ago Ulta had the cutest beach bag in their ad. I actually went to the store to check it out only to find that the fabric was really crummy and it was pretty small. Well I couldn't get it out of my head so I decided to make one on my own. I actually copied the color combo because I absolutely loved it and spent probably hours looking for the perfect grommets (which are VERY hard to find!). I'm loving the way it turned out. I used outdoor fabric since it's heavy duty and won't fade in the sun and of course I had to put pockets inside. This bag is HUGE which I love, I put four beach towels in it for the picture below and you can see how much more room there is. I can't wait to use it when we go to the beach in October but I'm sure I will use it a ton for the pool (since we probably have 3 more months of pool weather because of this darn heat!)

Pedicures and Best Friends

I'm super late in posting this but a couple weeks ago it was my sweet god-daughter Bella's 6th birthday. And what better way for girls to celebrate a birthday than with pedicures! Allie and I met Bella and her momma at the nail place and had such a great time. It was Allie's first pedicure at an actual nail salon and it was so cute to see her so interested in what a 'real' pedicure is like. Bella was adorable too sitting in the big chair soaking her cute little toes in the big tub.


After pedicures, we walked around and shopped a little bit and then enjoyed lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. Bella was so sweet to share her iPad with Allie and show her the ropes in playing some of the games.

The highlight of the day was when Allie and Bella were walking in front of Bri and I, they grabbed each other's hands and Allie looked at Bella and said 'you're my best friend'. We almost cried it was so incredibly adorable!

We've been blessed to have spent every single birthday with Bella and are so blessed to have her in our lives. She is already the perfect role model for our girls and I can't wait for our relationship to continue to grow. Happy birthday Bella! We love you!

Daddy-Daughter Weekend

This past weekend Matt did something that I will never forget. He did something that made me fall even more in love with him. We were planning on going up to Prescott to my parent's house but a couple of things came up and I wasn't going to be able to go. Completely to my surprise, Matt said that he still wanted to go...and he wanted to take Allie. My heart just melted when he said that AND when he followed through with it (I kinda thought he might chicken out and change his mind. He proved me wrong:)
He and Allie drove up on Thursday night. On Friday they played by the pool and then Matt took her golfing with him. She only lasted 9 holes but she had so. much. fun. He said she was totally obsessed with the divot replacer stuff and 'driving' the golf cart. She even putted at every hole. They watched Finding Nemo in bed before she completely crashed for the night. Saturday consisted of more playing, playing by the pool, going on a run and more movie watching. Then on Sunday before they drove home, they played in the pool a little more, ate lunch and said goodbye to Prescott (Allie thinks my parent's actual house is Prescott, she doesn't quite get the concept of a town:)
They both had such a good time and Matt said he definitely wants to do it again. Allie has almost been kind of depressed this morning without her daddy. She keeps asking where he is and saying that she misses him :( It's so incredibly adorable.
Of course Matt didn't take a camera but here are some pics he took on his ipad...

Preschool Countdown

In just two short weeks my little girl is going to be going to preschool! Yes, I said preschool, it's just unbelievable! And I'm not sure it's possible but I think she may be just as excited as I am. :)
I feel like this starts a completely new chapter in our lives. From this moment and for the next (hopefully at least) 18years or so she will be in school, learning from teachers, making friends and away from me :( As much as that last part makes me sad, I know it's a part of life and (I think) I'm ready to imbrace it. (Don't get me wrong, many tears will be shed on that first day/week!) But it does help that I LOVE her preschool. It is exactly what I was looking for and exactly what I wanted. And Allie loves it too...especially the little potties they have in the bathroom :)
She knows it's coming soon so I decided to make a preschool countdown chain (after she started asking me EVERY day, "Mommy, when do I get to go to school?") Allie helped me make it and every morning when she wakes up, we go downstairs and I give her the scissors and she gets to cut a link off of the chain. And she always says "It's getting shorter mommy, I get to go to school in this many days!" Yay and boo!

3 Cheap and Easy Projects!

I'm almost finished with our downstairs redecorating. It feels like forever ago that we had our house painted and it's about time that I can finally say it's (almost) complete!
I'm usually such a bargain shopper (and very good at it) but sometimes I just get impatient when looking for something specific for a steal that I just give in and pay full price (gasp!) After we got our house painted, I knew that I was going to have to practice patience when it came to redecorating. (Which should be easy since it took over a year of saving and convincing Matt to agree to change the paint!) And I really wanted to make sure that I loved everything that I bought and/or made. I am so happy with everything so far and can't wait to place the finishing touches. Below are a few of the house projects that I've completed...

Fabric covered corkboard for our desk area in the kitchen...
I removed the glass and ugly picture from the frame, spray painted it white, cut and taped a couple corkboard tiles together, covered them with fabric and glued it into the frame.


Old ugly frame from Goodwill - $4
White spray paint - $1 clearance at Joanns
Fabric remnant from couch pillows - free
Corkboard tiles - $4 after coupon

Yellow side table...
I searched and searched for the perfect round table for next to our chaise and finally found one on clearance at Target. I sanded, primed and painted it yellow.


Table - $25 clearance at Target
Sandpaper and primer - already in my garage
Yellow paint - $2.49 tester from Home Depot in the perfect color I was looking for

Canvas artwork
Stencils are now my new best friend! I love how these turned out.

2 big canvases from Michaels - on sale for $7 each
Stencil from Michaels - $6 after coupon
Leftover yellow paint from my table re-do - free

I'm convinced that you can literally find any kind of decor that you want on any kind of budget...thanks to internet how-to's, coupons and clearance sections!

A Little Pink Pillow

I've been on such a sewing kick lately. Actually, a craft kick in general but my sewing machine has gotten a lot of attention lately. I've been meaning to make a pillow to go on the rocker in Sienna's room for, well, a year now and I FINALLY finished one last week. I just happened to come across a tutorial for the pillow pattern below and I just HAD to make it. I used a pink satin that I had in my stash and now her room is complete (a year later! poor girl!)

This is the tutorial I used. I LOVE the white and gray stripe jersey she used - if I can find a yellow and white stripe jersey I'm going to make one for our downstairs. Isn't it cute?