Life is Changing..... again!

Welcome to our new home!! A place to rest and rejuvenate..... or so I thought! This newly remolded home is beautiful however underneath it's stunning construction lies many hidden projects. Some are a necessity like shelves in the closet, some devised by my husbands need improve, improve, improve! I can't complain too much, I am getting a bigger pantry out of the deal! But that will come later.... my first project was to paint the ugly yellowish-tan looking walls. Not a terrible color really, but on every wall?? yuck.

My biggest challenge was the kitchen walls.

Who am I kidding.... every wall was a challenge. Except one wall in the kitchen.

The dark green was easy. Picked the color. Painted. Loved it instantly!

The lighter color..... that's a different story. I went through three different colors before I found one I liked. One color I chose looked like a aqua blue when I put it on the wall. How I went from green to blue I will never understand. I don't know much about tones in paint colors. I had to do this all by trial and error.

Some errors worked in my benefit. The cream I chose for the living room wall was too light but it ended up being perfect for our bedroom. I found another color for the living room in a darker cream but I was a little skeptical when holding up the color swatch. However, once it was on the walls I actually liked it. It also took me two tries to get the red I wanted..... Like I said, choosing paint colors in not my forte!

But in the end I was very pleased with my colors!

My advice...... buy EVERY color in quart size and try it on the wall first.

A big THANK YOU to these three ladies as well as

Jessi Kauffman for helping me with this big job!

FINALLY!! My dream has come true. I got to through a birthday party for my first child! If you didn't know already, I love to plan parties and when I do I like to make them BIG. When I was setting up for Alexia's party my husband said these words "You'd think this was Lexi's wedding!" My response was "You don't want to see me at her wedding!" What can I say, I love to cook (especially cakes for children) , make decorations, and I love to entertain and see people having a good time :) Now, I'm no Martha Stewart...... as you can see from my struggles with choosing a paint color for my walls! I really don't have an eye for color combinations but that is not going to stop me from trying. You just learn. For instance, I originally had candy bowls with different colored candies to match the pink, yellow and teal pom-poms I made. Once I set it all out, a few days before the party of course, I realized that with the pom-poms and the cake there was way too much color involved. So I opted for just red candies instead.

I think these pom-poms were the funniest and easiest decorations I have ever made. I got the idea from a friend who had a party and had white pom-pom's from a Martha Stewart kit. I looked on line and found a site that explained how you could make them from tissue paper. It was supper cheep and took me no time at all! If you would like to give it a try click here to learn how.

I must say I had high hopes for this cake. It was a lot harder than I though it would be and it nearly took me all day to make it.... but it sure tasted good!!

I'll never forget the moment we all sang to the birthday girl. Her eyes light up and she smiled real big.... she just new this was all for her!!!

Alexia's three little buddies who joined her for her celebration. Us ladies must have spent 20 minutes taking photo after photo of these precious faces!

Alexia trying out her new sippy cup.... I can't believe it has been a year already.

We ended the nigh off with some fireworks! What a show :)