This doesn't bode well

A holiday is coming and naturally Peyton gets sick. How do they know?!

It started with general crankiness this week. I figured: teething. Child has had her fist shoved as far into her mouth as she can get it for WEEKS. Drooling. Won't let me inspect the situation and tries to gnaw my finger off when I try to feel around in her mouth. Serious molar action, I thought.

Then there was the falling asleep well before bedtime. I'm talking asleep on my shoulder at 5:30 PM and so help me do not wake her.

Then there was this morning. Oh, this morning. It was one of those mornings when you have a little person clinging to you for dear life and there is no way she is letting go and everything you do is the WORST possible thing to ever happen to her.

Here, Peyton, let's put on your shirt.

Oh no, why are you screaming?

Hey, Peyton, want to snuggle?

Oh, I picked you up too quickly. Why are you screaming?!

Sick toddlers. Sheesh.

I do feel bad, because she's just so sad when she doesn't feel well.

Sleeping on Nana.
How can someone look so sad even when they're sleeping?!

I brought her to my sister's house for dinner and some egg dyeing (Dying? I feel like it's so sad for the eggs if it's spelled that way). Peyton was not too thrilled about the festivities:

Ugh, bunnies.

Eventually, I got her in the spirit of things.

Just kidding.

So my mom, my sister and I dyed eggs and Peyton watched.

Megan's first blog appearance.

Serious egg dyeing.

Eggstagram.

I'm taking the day off from the 9-5 tomorrow to nurse our poor baby back to health because we have a hot date with an Easter Bunny on Saturday.




If you haven't been following on the Facebook page, I posted the final necklace of my line-up so far. I'm excited to use some different fabrics to make more. But here's a sneak peek of what's next:

Unedited preview. I am LOVING this color combo.

Check out the shop to see some more goodies and check back throughout the weekend for some more new additions!

I'm obsessing over a rug.

You guys.

I am whooped.

It's Monday. It was a long, snowy, slushy, gray, gross Monday.

I find myself staring at Peyton's Easter dress, hoping and wishing to see those nice pastel colors in real life, but no. Things are gray. I dislike.

So I've been whipping these up, you know, to get past the gray Winter doldrums:

You can find these in the shop.

I'll be adding a new necklace each night this week until they've all been unveiled

in their springtime gloriousness.

PS: Facebook page is here. In case you were wondering.

 

 

I feel like I would have been better rested if I had relaxed this weekend. But no, we are closing on our house a month from TODAY (!!!) and I couldn't be more excited. There's so much to do!

 

On Saturday, I dragged my mom around to every thrift store in a 20 mile radius on a mission for living room furniture. We are ordering a couch brand new, but $300+ for a coffee table and $250+ each for side tables made me sad on the inside so I was a woman on a mission. And my mission paid off.

 

Behold:

 

 

 



That one that doesn't have the ceiling fan on it? She's mine. For a whopping $50! I've seen other bloggers do much better price-wise on sweet furniture finds, but after searching several thrift stores, I'm realizing $50 on a coffee table is way better than a $300 coffee table. Any day.

 

I also found a pair of ADORABLE side tables for $65 ($32.50 EACH! That's what I'm talking about!). I don't have the picture of them uploaded to the computer from my phone, but I do believe I'll be having a special blog post about all three of these tables in the near future, so you'll be seeing a lot of them very, very soon.

 

I also wanted this. BAD.

And this. EXTRA BAD.

 

 

But I practiced a whole lot of self-restraint. And also had realistic expectations that neither piece would fit in my Malibu. The 'BuBu can fit a whole lot of junk in it, but not that much junk.

 

 

This also happened:

Image courtesy of RugsUSA. I'm obsessed.

 

 

New rug for the living room! After I ordered it in a state of sheer and utter joy and MUSTHAVEITNOW, I realized that it's an outdoor rug. But it will look so darling and twee in our living room that Momma don't even care. It's beautiful. And I'm obsessed. I might have dreamt about it last night.

 

So naturally, after all the junk hunting, frenzied rug ordering, and gray snow yuck, I am tiiiiiiiiired.

 

Here's to Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday moving along nice and quickly. I'm looking at you, Tuesday. You're next.



Spring

Can you feel it?

The hunt is over!

We have a house, folks!

I'm so excited, relieved, happy, and a thousand other words. We've found the place we'll call home and raise our children and THAT is such an awesome feeling!

The REALLY exciting part is that the house is only five years old and is a complete blank slate. The paint colors the current owners chose I can totally get down with (except for a SUPER yellow room which needs to be toned down like crazy).

So different, yet so alike. This is my newest internal debate.
15 different yellows, seriously?!

This means I get to try all those awesome DIY project I've saved on Pinterest. Gotta make that house a home, you know?

We are so excited!

In other news, I'll be releasing some new headbands for the shop as often as I can. I launched the headband line yesterday, and I'm really happy with them!

Another conundrum: finding some GOOD light. It's an uphill battle.

So many things happening...2013 is going to be a BIG year for us and for Whimsy Renee. 

I'm so glad to be on this ride.

Visit the shop, Whimsy Renee, to check out the rest of the pretties, and be sure to check back often!

Do you like free stuff?

Check out Whimsy Renee's facebook page here and like the page for a chance to win these darlings:

Hello, pretties.
 

Winner of the giveaway will be announced at 8 PM EST tonight! Happy sharing!

Looking forward to an afternoon of thrift store hunting in the meantime.

Sometimes, I go overboard.

If there is anything I enjoy doing more than making cute stuff, it's entertaining.

I live for it. If I could throw a party every day, I so would.

Unfortunately, not every day warrants a party. But I wish.

A big day is coming up for a party...June 15. Most people think two to three months in advance is enough to plan a party. Not me. I'm talking more like six months to effectively plan and execute a party.

Except for when we decided to host a New Years Eve party. Two weeks before. And had to move out two weeks after. That was fun and I function well under pressure, but I didn't necessarily like it.

Peyton's 2nd birthday is June 14th. Falls on a Friday. PERFECT. Party will be Saturday!

Last year, we didn't have the space at our house to accommodate our huge families and friends, so we rented a couple pavilions at a county park. Beautiful day, surrounded by family and friends, celebrating little P's one whole year on earth.

Birthday girl.
And mother of the year over here forgot to pack a change of clothes for her after the cake assassination.

Sad thing is, I slaved for MONTHS over this birthday party...a cupcake themed party, with pinks, cream, and brown as the main color scheme and bunting galore. 400 feet of bunting. Hand-rolled rosettes as centerpieces. Tissue paper pom-poms.The above photo is the only one I got of. the. whole. day.

I was so wrapped up in entertaining I didn't take any pictures of any of my hard work! It was blog-worthy, I tell you. WORTHY. If there was a Style Me Pretty for 1st Birthday Parties, Peyton's first birthday party would be ON IT.

Sadness. Thank goodness for family who are quite adept with their camera skills, because I did wind up with a whole slew of photos for the day.

At any rate, birthday number 2 for Miss Peyton is going to be Minnie-themed. If you've glanced around Pinterest at all, you know my brain is exploding from all of the awesome ideas and I see DIY burn-out in my near future.

Party planning. It hurts so good.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning, sitting at the office, praying my pork in the crock pot comes out okay since my crock pot has been DESTROYING food lately, thinking about the loads of laundry I need to do when I get home, daydreaming about our new house (!!!) and otherwise enjoying my Tuesday.

So far.

It's not even 9 AM yet.

This post is mostly a reminder for me to buy a new USB cable for my camera so I can start uploading some photos.

Because I do need more of that.

Why my lunch break is better than your lunch break

I'd like to take the time, now, to talk about how awesome my lunch breaks are.

My start time is 8 AM. Sometimes I roll in at 7:45 because I like to beat my bosses to the office. I'm just that way. I may be the littlest guy (girl) on the totem pole around these parts, but I like to beat everyone here for the day. It's a strange competition, because at the end of the day I'm still at the bottom and they still make more money than my brain can comprehend. AND they get an extra 15 minutes in the morning.

But whatever. It's all mental.

I'm there first, so I must be a winner.

Anyway.

Between the hours of 12:30-1:30 PM is a magical time known as the "lunch hour". For most people it involves just lunch, but for ME it involves so much more. You see, I have about FOUR awesome shopping centers within a five square mile radius of my office building.

This is amazing for so many reasons:

Forgot to pick up macaroni and cheese because that's the only this Peytom will eat this week?
That's OK! Wal-Mart!

I'm out of glue sticks!
That's OK! There's a Joann Fabrics AND a Michaels!

I need a dress for a wedding this weekend!
That's OK! The mall is right there!

I need cute stuff for the house, quick!
That's OK! There's a Pier One AND a Christmas Tree Shop!

I feel like spending my hour wandering aimlessly, looking for one thing, apparently blacking out and leaving the store with my one item plus spending another $200 on stuff I didn't really need.
That's OK! That's why Target is there!

Behold, a map:

I worked really hard on this, guys. Not an exact replica of the shopping situation, but pretty darn close.
And that jug handle? Haaaaaate.

And this, my friends, is how I spend my lunch break EVERY DAY. And it. is. FABULOUS.

On houses

Another bid, another waiting game.

Who said buying a home was fun?

Actually, I don't think anyone has ever said that to me. People have said it's exciting. But to me, this type of "excitement" is giving me ulcers.

I just want to be able to find the house we love and BUY it.

That shouldn't be too hard, right?

I'm so anxious over this whole process.

Our realtor has five or six more houses to look at tomorrow since the owners of the house we put an offer on don't want to close until May and we don't want to wait to close. Tonight I will mentally prepare with wine and my needle and thread.

I've got about 75 yo-yos that are BEGGING to be turned into necklaces and bobbies and a bottle of Shamong Red that is BEGGING to be consumed.