This has been the question recently asked by all. Do you think my big belly is giving me away? I have never been the type to sit down, say no or relax. What this means, is that I never listen to my doctor, nor my poor husband when they tell me, “Enough is enough; it is time to take maternity leave.”

Trust me, it’s not that I don’t want to listen, but I have worked since I was 16 years old. It’s hard for me to take time off, especially because I have my own photography business. I just don’t think I have the ability to shut off and relax. My mind is always going 100-miles a minute.

To be honest, this pregnancy has not been the easiest. Many complications have kept me on and off of bed rest and restriction. Don’t tell, but I’ve adapted the doctor’s version of “bed rest” to my own! I’m tired and a bit overwhelmed at the moment. I have been advised to take leave and take it easy now. My husband and I have accomplished many things on our to-do list, yet we have many others that we haven’t even started that need to be finished before the baby is born.

Still, the time is NOW….

I’m officially on maternity leave until further notice. I know you’ll understand; with our family dynamics about to change dramatically, we need some serious family time.

Baby is expected to be here sooner than we thought; maybe the week of May 21^st or 25^th. I am very thankful and grateful to all of you for working with me through the last few months with my restrictions and now through maternity leave. I will keep you posted as to my return to work. I will also try to share photos, when I can, upon her arrival.

In the meantime, I plan to continue regularly blogging about our personal journey as we transition from our family of five to six (this includes Parker).

Thank you all for your wonderful support! I can’t wait to see you all this summer as we photograph your changing and growing families.

See you all soon!!!!

Freebie Friday coming later today…

One of the reasons we are looking forward to our transfer is because we’ll be moving somewhere with warmer weather all year ‘round. To be honest, I’ll miss the four seasons with the fall leaves and snow on the ground around Christmas, but I will learn to live with it!!

I came across this wonderful bowl at one of our local furniture stores and fell in love with the style and feel of it right away, but I wanted to bring in some of our colors and summer textures. I kept walking the store and found these light blue glass buoys, along with a few shell ones and patterned ones. These were just the ticket!

This center piece has been in a bag waiting to make its debut since late last summer. I’m thrilled to finally break it out and use it.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. More home summer elements & designs coming soon!

Are you ready for your summer accessories?

Today’s DIY tutorial: our tablecloth.

I wanted to do something elegant that I could use for any occasion.

Supplies Needed:

-       Tablecloth – I found mine at Wal-Mart; I wanted something in a plain white but heavy material.

-       2 Rolls of 1 ½ “ Ribbon – The size is up to you

-       Thread & Sewing Machine

Steps:

1. First, wash and iron the tablecloth.
2. Then pin the ribbon onto the tablecloth about five inches from the bottom.
3. Finally, sew the ribbon on both sides of the tablecloth. Fold in the corners to get a finished look.

Now you have an elegant, yet simple tablecloth. This would also be fun with some funky ribbon or fabric and just as easy!

Our final product:

How do you like it? What are your next Birthday party plans?

I hope you will have a great day filled of wonderful moments and memories to last a lifetime.

This time of year is always so difficult for me. I lost my mom very suddenly to cancer. My mom was my best friend. She passed away about four years ago, on May 27^th to be exact. You may read a bit about it here. I truly believe it doesn’t actually get easier with time, just a little more bearable.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about her. Around Mother’s Day, or any special occasion, it seems to be even harder. As the birth of my third little girl approaches, I wish my mom was here to comfort me. I long for one more of our many conversations about life. However, I know she is looking down, enjoying every moment with us.

I adore my frequent chats with my girls now about friendships, love, life and the wonderful journey that lies ahead. I’m so very thankful and proud to have my daughters. My oldest is off to college soon and my youngest, now 9, has more energy than I know what to do with. If I could just bottle that up, we’d be in business.

As life continues, our journey is filled with ups and downs, happiness, sadness, silliness, lots of love and so much more. One day at a time, we enjoy every single moment.

I don’t know about you, but summer is my favorite time of year; the sunshine, the sand, the heat, the beach, the ice-cream, the feel of a brand new beach towel, the pool, cookouts, and the smell of suntan lotion… I LOVE IT!! Can you tell I’m obsessed with summer time?

Today’s freebie Friday is to kick off our summer season….

Download Here

I hope you enjoy this “Beach Days” 8×10 wall art!

Supplies Needed:

-       Plain Bags

-       3/8’ Ribbon

-       2” & 3” Flower punches

-       Letter Rubber Stamp

-       Ink Pad

-       Scrapbooking Paper

-       3D Glue Dots

-       Tissue Paper

-       Thank You Rub on’s

I wanted the goodie bags to coordinate with the invitations and banner.

Steps:

1. First, punch out your flower shapes.
2. Then, cut all your ribbon to desired size.
3. Proceed to rub on the Thank You’s to your flower cut outs.
4. Your final step is putting it all together on the face of the bag.

To make the birthday girl’s goodie bag stand out, I punched out two different size flowers, stacked them together and stamped the letter “J” (for her first name) on the top of them.

Voila!!! Now you have simple & cute goodie bags!

What you will need:

-       Marshmallows

-       Sprinkles

-       Pop Sticks

-       Flat Plate

-       Cup

-       Chocolate Melts

-       Stand

I began by putting the pop sticks into the marshmallows and placing them in my homemade stand.

Follow the candy melt instructions on the bag. I melted a small portion of the candy melts in a cup, as I hate to waste chocolate. You just want it deep enough to submerge your marshmallow half way in.

Once dipped, I set them upside down onto a plate with sprinkles, to cover just the tops of them. Finally, I placed them on the display container to harden.

A simple, yet beautiful display of goodies. They are also a great treat!! YUM

What you will need:

12×12 scrapbooking paper in a variety of colors and patterns for the flowers.

3/8 ribbon and the length will depend on how long you want it to be and where it’s being hung.

3’ Flower paper punch (or any size you desire)

Scissors and or paper cutter

Paper ribbon punch – eksuccess

Step 1:

Use your flower punch to cut your shape. I cut as many as I could get from my 2-12×12 papers. My banner had 24 flowers.

Step 2:

Use your ribbon press to make the cut outs to insert the ribbon thru the flowers. Make sure they are at the same center on opposite sides.

Step 3:

Grab your ribbon and start to loop your flowers through. Make sure you do this carefully as you don’t want to rip the paper flowers. Tip: Use a heavy cardstock or scrapbooking paper.

Make sure you leave enough ribbon on both ends to hang.

Step 4:

Space out the flowers evenly.

Your banner is now ready to hang!

I was very pleased with the results, especially as I was trying something new. My daughter was so excited when she saw it and said she loved it; that was a first as far as decorations go. Gotta love my cutie pie!

Going to try this? Send me your post link when you do!

We started with a flower banner to coordinate with the invitations, followed by goodie bags, tablecloth, marshmallow pops and much more. With all that material, on the blog this week we’ll cover a few simple party DIY tutorials. I will also be posting about a few pieces of wall art I purchased and just LOVE!

Here is a photo of our finished party table.

Can you guess where the girls decided to go for dinner?

Tell me what you think! What is the best party décor you’ve ever done and what inspired it?

We have many more fun freebies on the way for you, so be on the lookout every Friday! What would you like to see?

Have a great weekend!