2 baby showers in 1 summer on a budget

So, I had not planned on taking a year off but that is what happened. Now I am back and ready to go! My husband and I have made some home improvements that I am excited to share...hopefully before next September! More of that later. 

This summer I had the privilege of hosting not one but two separate baby showers for some great friends of ours. I had actually never threw a shower for anyone before but I was almost giddy at the thought of going crazy with a theme and trying to stay within a budget. I don't know, you like what you like. 

First and foremost I tried to consider the women I was throwing the showers for, then I took into consideration what would be fun for me to make and scour stores for. They were both having boys but I wanted to steer clear of the cars and sports stuff, both of which I know nothing about. So for the first I went with a vintage theme and the second was a bird/nest theme. I knew Sara was going to be decorating her nursery with antiques so this was right up her alley and as a bonus she would be able to use some of the decor in his room afterwards. For the second shower I stalked Andrea a little, not knowing her quite as well I didn't want to overdo something she might hate. Thanks to Facebook I learned that they had birds at their wedding and I love birds! It really does make a difference too if you can choose something you have an interest in as well. If I had to throw a car or sports themed shower I would've been out of my element completely.

Shower #1: B is for Boy

I had a head start with this one because I already had vintage toys and books I could use as decoration. The nice thing about this theme is you can always find baby blocks and books at flea markets for a reasonable price. Gather up what you already have. I used an old chalkboard as my sign on the front porch,

and another,

 some old baby blocks,

toy sailboats, an old toolbox, baby scale, flashcards, and anything old that was baby related really.

Pinterest had a lot of diy ideas so I tried to work in whatever I could using paper and fabric- two things that tend to be inexpensive and go far. I used the scrapbook paper for paper airplanes and pennant flags.

I lucked out with the fabric because I have an issue buying fat quarter pieces even though I don't have a project in mind but they came in handy this time. Yay for hoarding! I made tiny drawstring bags to put candy in as the party favor. The front side had this cute alphabet pattern...

and I just used a variety of contrasting patterns for the back. Like this one...

It's poor picture quality but you can see the baby scale below on the left side of the table holding the napkins and forks. Now you can buy straws of any color you want and with different designs even so for this shower I used the red and white swirled ones. A friend of mine provided the cake(s). She baked individual ones in mason jars so that everyone had the option to eat it at the party or take it home as another favor. They were pretty cute and kept with the theme I think.

 

Shower #2: Nesting
I am a sucker for bird anything so this theme was my jam. Again, I lucked out with this one because I already had so many bird items, from figurines to nests to eggs and feathers. I went a little cuh-ray-zee to say the least. I set out an extra postcard I made as an invite for the shower, nest flashcard, and different bird prints I had on hand.

 

 More bird decor...

For the centerpieces I used little metal nests with some moss and inexpensive paper mache eggs from the craft store, along with dishes of gummy worms (in keeping with the theme).

 

For signs I used cardboard,

fabric,

my handy chalkboard,

and some unfinished wood letters I just covered with scrapbook paper (that she could keep afterwards).

For the favors I got a bunch of thicker card stock and cut strips gluing them together to form a mini birdcage. I wasn't thinking and neglected to take pictures of the process but I kind of just made it up as I went. Then I cut strips of book page paper to fill the bottoms and added some feathers to each one. These held the candy.

My favorite part of the favor was the dishtowel though. If you're trying not to spend much you may opt out of this part but they are just too cute and once again fit the theme so I went with it. I followed this link for how to make your own sweet potato stamp to a T and it worked great. I got the plain white towels at Target for around $1 a piece.

Since I had hosted the first shower just a couple of weeks before this one and many of the same guests came to both I decided not to do the traditional games everyone normally does. Instead I got several onesies, some short sleeved 0-3 month and some long sleeved 3-6 month. At first they served as a decoration...

  

and then we were able to eat and hang out while we decorated them for baby Jack. They're obviously not perfect but a fun memory and she now has several onesies he can wear to bed.

 Side notes to think about:
~These were baby showers for church friends so with the first one I had everyone bring a side dish which was a huge relief to me as the host. I also collected money to go in on a gift. Many times people like to do this so that they don't have to worry with a registry or go out to get something last minute. This way too you can get a bigger item as opposed to the recipient getting many small items, often times things they didn't even register for.
~The second shower I hosted I made the mistake of sending a Facebook message to see who would want to contribute to a gift as well as give $5 that would go toward the decorations and food. Several people said they would chip in but rounding up all the money can take time so it's kind of a gamble to assume you have a set amount to work with if you don't actually have the money in hand.

Overall it was a fun experience and something I definitely didn't think I'd enjoy doing as much as I did. Maybe I'll have another kid just so that I can throw myself one!

year 5

I can hardly believe it's that time of year again. This weekend, September 29th will be me and my husband's 5th wedding anniversary. Man time flies. So, 2 years ago I wrote about how we met and how he is my best friend (both are still true, especially the first one) but this year all I can think about is how hard this past year has been and wonder why he'd want to stay married to me. It has really been a challenging one for us. This time last year we first saw the house we are now in the process of buying. Back then we never would have imagined purchasing a house would be so difficult. Typically it's selling your current house that is the struggle. Well we sold ours 3 months ago and are still waiting to close on our future one. 

As if that wouldn't put enough of a strain on a marriage we also had a baby in June. She has been a true blessing, but one more challenge for sure to work through in the midst of everything else. 

With my hormones being jacked up, a lack of sleep, and not being able to handle stress in the first place I'm sure that I've become unbearable to live with. There have been numerous times this year that I have broken down at the most random times. Times when I didn't know how in the world we were going to fix all the things the bank flagged in the appraisal because I was already exhausted just thinking about the work involved. Through it all Joel has tried so hard to keep not only his but my spirits up and remind me that it would all be worth it. At times he gave me tough love but I needed to hear it. I have not been very supportive or encouraging to him. 

When Joel gets home from work, tired and beaten down Harper always has the biggest grin on her face. She knows he is someone special. She tries to watch whatever he is doing while smiling the whole time just waiting to get his attention. 

I too know he is special. This year has not been easy but he has been by my side through it all. I know other people expect to have a perfect marriage, where nothing goes wrong ever, but it's during the rough patches that I realize he's in it for the long haul. He is faithful as a husband and father. I feel so blessed to have him in my life. I will choose to love him for as long as he will let me!

    

on mount vernon avenue

So as promised a while ago here is my first "before/after renovation on the house" post...like how I worded that? Where better to start than the front porch. The funny thing is that that is definitely not something we gave any thought to doing this summer, but thanks to the bank we had to basically paint anything that was chipping. Just what I wanted to spend lots of time and money on! So here is the true before picture...

The nice thing is the previous owner replaced the siding before an agreement to buy was in the works. It's gray like it was meant to be ours.

The new siding actually improved the look of the house greatly but it wasn't until we painted over the old dirty white paint on the trim and covered up the remaining green paint that we realized what a difference it would make.

While it was not going to be a priority I still think it was well worth all the hours and work our friends put in to make our house look fresh and new. 

My husband and I tend to gravitate towards grays as it is a safe color and goes with everything, but we thought the porch needed a pop of color. We painted the ceiling a coral color and I could not be happier with the outcome. It's not overwhelming and you don't always have to look at it if you don't want to...just don't look up. It's a little bit of Savannah in Cincinnati if you ask me.

 We also painted the back porch coral...

TO BE CONTINUED! 

home sweet home

Since the beginning of July we have been working nonstop trying to complete projects around the house. We started out with an FHA loan but then were able to switch to a conventional one hoping that meant the things that were flagged to be repaired in order for us to get our loan would then be overlooked...this was not the case. This has been the hardest, longest, and most challenging process I've ever experienced. The stuff we started out working on ended up not even being mentioned in the appraisal report so we put that on hold to begin painting the exterior. The hardest part was finding the time to get things done. When we finally got the appraisal report Joel was back in school so we only had nights and weekends to work. Having a baby created another obstacle to work around. One of us had to be caring for her or if we were lucky she'd take a short nap so that we both could frantically work before it got dark. As a result we left the house to come back to our friends', where we are temporarily staying feeling worn out, frustrated, and like there was no end in sight. 

Joel and I are aware of the gift we've been given, to be able to buy a home for half (if not more) of it's value, and in an area we thought it'd take years before we'd get to move to. We can tell the current owner is so ready to be done with all of this as well. He is still paying the bills, going over to turn lights on at night, and taking trash out so it appears as though someone lives there. I don't blame him. I too wish this could be over. Seeing our stuff in the house and completing projects is such a tease. I want so badly to just relax on our freshly painted porch at night. Lay on my couch and watch my tv that hasn't been turned on in three months...such stupid things, I know but when you leave your home every night to sleep somewhere else you begin to realize the kind of things that you take for granted. 

We realized we could not finish things by ourselves so a handful of our friends came over tonight to get it done. Many of them worked for six hours straight, painting trim along our roof and in places I wasn't about to go. I have never known people like this before. In the back of my mind I seriously doubted anyone would show and I began to break down (like I've been doing a lot lately). Why did they have to give up their week night with their family to come help us? They didn't. Thanks to them we got it done and the night before the final appraisal! 

I truly feel a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. We could not have gotten all that work done by ourselves...we tried. I love our friends and now thanks to them we will someday soon be living within walking distance to them.

Good riddance summer!

I typically love the summertime-my husband is home from work and we get to travel to see family. We eat, stay up late, and tend to buy things we don't need just because. Well this summer was different. There were days when I looked forward to running to the store for formula just to have time to myself. I quickly tired of eating out because it turned into an everyday occurrence. Any extra money we had went towards gallons upon gallons of paint...

We are still living with our friends. We really thought we'd be in our house by now but the bank is being very particular about the hoops we must jump through to get our loan. While it has been nice completing jobs we would have eventually gotten to, they are definitely not the things we would have chosen to do right away. Although we are still homeless and may need to consider going with a different bank to complete this process there is hope in the air. The start of Fall has brought with it clean crisp air that makes me look forward to the time I will soon spend on our freshly painted front porch with my family. Hope that by the time we buy pumpkins and it's nice enough to keep the windows open and not need the air on anymore that we will be enjoying our home. Our place that we've already put plenty of blood, sweat, and lots of tears into. 

Costa Rica

 The summer before my freshman year of high school I realized I had to make a change in my life. I had friends and went to church but something was missing, my faith was not my own-I had been going through the motions but my heart was not into it. Something finally clicked for me that summer and I thought to myself "people don't feel sorry for you when you are feeling sorry for yourself". It may sound dumb but it woke me up somehow. As a result I signed up for a mission trip to Kosova. I had never been out of the country before and I only kind of knew a couple of people that were signed up to go. This was beyond out of my comfort zone. Looking back I can't even remember what we were originally going to do there because a couple of meetings in my missions minister said the Kosova trip was off. They apparently had overbooked and no longer needed us where we would have been serving. Our team was disappointed but eager to learn of another opportunity that mysteriously presented itself. This would be a trip to Costa Rica to work alongside missionaries our church was supporting at the time, doing odd jobs they were not able to do themselves.
Our team was too big to stay with Rick and Debra, the missionaries, so we had to split up into smaller groups to stay with families from the church. I was excited to learn that I would be staying at their home. They were such genuine, selfless people and I looked forward to spending more time with them. The first night Rick and Debra gave us the rundown about what to expect, what we'd be doing that week, and gave us a tour of their house with the exception of their room which was off limits to us. As missionaries allowing multiple groups to stay with them throughout the year they needed a place that was just theirs.
I am sorry to say a lot of what we did that week is now a blur. I vaguely remember painting the church, spending time with the locals, seeing a volcano, walking through the rainforest, and learning how to salsa dance. These are not the things that stick out to me when I look back on that trip.
Like I said before, I was lucky enough to stay with Rick and Debra along with my missions minister Chris, another trip leader named Brad, and a couple of girls my age. The day we were scheduled to leave we were woken up by Rick screaming, "No Debra! Why God, why?" Still somewhat asleep and not realizing what was going on we stayed in our room until Brad ran in to pray with us. Still unsure about what had happened all I could think was, "Rick is hurt and needs help. Why are we not helping him?" Debra had died in her sleep and all we could do was pray for Rick. It was unreal. How could this amazing week we just spent with them end in such a tragic way? The rest of our team met us at the house and we waited around on the porch in disbelief about what we were experiencing. Our flight was later in the day so we tried to stay out of the way as Rick and Chris made arrangements. A couple of hours later Chris came to get us escorting us to Rick's room. There was something so personal about it. This was a room that none of us had been in and now we were invited to come in and stand around their bed as Rick held Debra one last time. Rick wanted us there, surrounding them to thank us for being there for him, for being his family.
I believe Debra was going to die that week whether we were there or not, but God worked it out so that Rick would not be alone. This trip, this amazing, life-altering experience opened my eyes to a God that cares about the details. A God that cares about his people. I just don't know how a person can experience something like that and think it was all just a coincidence. I fully believe we were meant to be there that week for something greater than what we did the days leading up to Debra's death.         

"The hardest job is the best job!"

Nothing you may read or learn from other parents about parenting can come close to preparing you for the real thing. Having a baby has really put things into perspective for me. I had all of these fantasies about what kind of mom I'd be but it wasn't until I actually became a mom that I realized that's just what they were, fantasies. Now I understand how a woman can go hours upon hours without bathing or eating. I've even had to put peeing on the back burner a couple of times...which I never thought I'd see as a luxury but it totally is! The first two weeks we had Harper at home were a little rough to say the least. I felt like a zombie. The 2 1/2-3hrs between feedings were just not cutting it. Do I try to rest, sterilize nipples, pump, clean the house, entertain guests, shower, check Facebook, take my medicine? It was not nearly enough time to do anything at all. 

 I have never experienced anything like this before and I don't regret it even the slightest bit. I am constantly in awe that my husband and I could create something so perfect. She has surpassed anything I ever imagined she would be with her sweet little face and growing personality. There is something so special about being a mom. Part of me feels bad for Joel because he didn't get to experience being pregnant and even now I see the bond I share with her that they just don't have. I secretly love it though. Sometimes I am the only one that can comfort her. Sometimes when I'm holding her over my shoulder to calm her she puts her head in my neck or even up to my face to be closer to me. I'm sure Joel will be her favorite soon enough but for now I'm going to take advantage of it.

All that to say it hasn't been picture perfect or anything like I expected and I'm tired a lot of the time but when I look at my daughter's face I am so thankful she's mine. God blessed us with something we will never deserve and I hope I never take it for granted.