check out this giveaway!

there is an awesome giveaway going on at Tangled and True Check it out! She also has some great tutorials, I followed her tutorial for Aiyden's freezer paper stenciled shirt.

aiyden's 2nd birthday!

aiyden's birthday was a huge hit! we could not have asked for more beautiful weather and everyone in our complex came out to celebrate. i have many more pictures to post but i thought i would get a few on here. he's a lucky little boy to have such a loving family and great friends and neighbors!

i set this up the night before so he would have a great surprise in the morning! the birthday banner was a great little project out of craft paper and letter stickers and i finally made the drawstring backpack out of a pair of riv's old pants (huge hit, he carries it everywhere!)

king for a day! the craft store had this foam crown and packages of stickers...

a picture of the three of us is rare, and of course aiyden had to pick his nose for this one!

about to blow out the candle...

i still have to load all of riv's pictures onto the computer. it was such an awesome day! i feel like i have been planning this day for months. i totally admit that i go way overboard for special occasions, completely aware that he will never be two again and it's going by so fast! today meant so much to me...and it was perfect, he had so much fun (and only one breakdown!) i am so blessed that sometimes it's overwhelming. i'm just lucky to be aiyden's mom!

Handmade Birthday Invitations

I made some birthday invitations for aiyden's upcoming 2nd birthday. they were really easy and cute so i thought i would post a little tutorial.

Supplies needed are the invite printed on photo paper ( i made mine in photoshop), foam sticky dots, craft paper, ribbon, scissors, and a hole puncher.

i got double sided 12x12 craft paper and cut it into 6x12 strips. this one had a cute animal print on the outside and polka dots inside, usually about $.69 from the craft store. put four foam dots in each corner of the back of your photo

stick it fairly center on the craft paper ( the foam dots add a nice bit of dimension but photo squares would work just as well)

fold each side in, they should overlap. (my photo was 4.5in x5.5 in which works well)

punch a whole in the bottom and top of both flaps and tie together with ribbon

and that's it! a cute, inexpensive, and unique invite!!

Birthday Panning...

so, aiyden's 2nd birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and of course, i want to make the best, most fun birthday possible. we ruled out doing the whole chuck e. cheese thing and are going to have a party in the courtyard with sidewalk chalk and bubbles... anyhow, below are the invites i created. they took a ridiculously long time but i think they are so cute!

i don't know what we're getting him yet (probably something thomas the train related) but i saw this awesome tutorial at Noodleheads for a kids drawstring backpack made from old khaki's. sooooo cute!

decal mania

i got a roll of contact paper a while ago to make some wall decals for aiyden's room. it is so easy and instantly gratifying. they are also completely removable.

did a lovely little silverware set for the kitchen

and aiyden got some birds on a wire

the next one will be a shel silverstein quote for the long wall in his room. nothing better than cutting out letters! but i'm sure in the end it will be great.

some pics...

sorry i haven't posted anything lately! time has flown by since christmas! it's been quite rainy in the bay area lately but aiyden and i were able to get out to the beach last week in between storms and took some pics. the light was awesome because the sun was shining over us but we could see the next storm rolling in...

aiyden waving to the airplanes...

he's very advanced with his handwriting! j/k...

christmas and a few crafts

santa was good to us this year! i didn't get any pics of christmas morning (too wrapped up in the moment) but here is how it looked for aiyden's 2nd christmas...

along with christmas came more toys to store so i hung some floating shelves and fashioned pocket storage out of leftover felt to hold markers, puppets, etc...

the new bike trailer from oma and opa is a huge hit! i think we biked 20 miles over christmas weekend! and elmo goes everywhere with us!

aiyden experienced his first tummy slide with the help of a big kid who gave him a little shove!

some felted items from the holidays...