Oh, the cuteness!!

It kills me.

It's why I stay up half the night with these ridiculous projects I have going on.

It rules my world.

Just sit back and enjoy some of this cuteness:

Little paper strawberries. (Made with this kit.)



Dipped and sprinkled marshmallows.


Cute centerpieces


And, yes...I did all that for the sweetest little group of 4 and 5 year olds you've ever met!

I told you...I can't help it.

Since I received a few requests on how to make the marshmallows, I thought I'd set up a little tutorial. I totally stole this idea from my cousin Kristen. She had the most adorable marshmallow pops at her daughter's birthday party and so, I did what I do best.

I stole the idea.

With her permission, of course. :)

Here are the players:


I used lollipop sticks, strawberry marshmallows, white chocolate candy melts and sprinkles.

Start by inserting the lollipop sticks into the marshmallows. Come on, now...even a 5 year old can do that!


Go ahead and do all of 'em that way...it's a big stress reliever to poke a stick in something that sweet and gooey.


Then, heat your candy melts in the microwave according to package directions.

Before you start dipping the marshmallows, decide where you're going to let them dry. I used a styrofoam block to stand them up in.

Dip the marshmallow half way into the chocolate and carefully spin and tap off the excess melty goodness.



In case you couldn't tell, that's some spinning action going on in that last picture.

You didn't think my camera could actually catch that action, now, did you?

The final step is just to sprinkle and let dry!

See, I told you...easy peasy!

Please let me know if you have any questions! And, definitely let me know if you give this a try!

Happy Valentines-ing everybody!

And, please, savor the cuteness for me!

We recycle around here...

I mean...it's the right thing to do, right?

Every now and then, I salvage a piece of recycled cardboard and whip out a little scrapbook.

Oh, I kid.

I've only done that once.

But, it sounded good, so I went with it.

Anyway, I did, indeed, whip out a little recycled scrapbook for Olivia yesterday.

One of the awesome designers I work for, had a really cool little brag book to be released today. Since we were off yesterday, I was able to pop the pictures in, print the 4x6's at Walgreens and plant them onto the cardboard all within 24 hours!

Sweet Shawna even bragged about me here! Now, that makes a girl feel good!

The scrapbook is really so so cute and Olivia just LOVES it! I've seen her a few times in the corner of her room, huddled up with her stuffed animals reading them the book. That just makes my heart happy.

I have one for Whit in the works and he has plenty of suggestions for things I can put in his. I love it.

In all honesty, that's the reason I stay up all hours of the night preserving these memories for my kiddos.

Well, that and the fact that the cuteness factor is TO. DIE. FOR. on some of these projects (Valentine's post coming soon).

Here are a few pictures I just snapped of her scrapbook:
















Thanks for letting me brag a little!

Happy Saturday!

Wanna know what to do...

with that stuff you've got lying around?

Organize it!

When I'm having a month like January, I feel the need to organize. Something about getting my space clutter-free does my soul good.

So, I started with my sprinkle collection.

Yes, I said SPRINKLE collection. As in, the sugary confection you shake on top of your cupcakes or cookies or whathaveyou.

Apparently, I had enough sprinkles that I needed an intervention.

Admitting there's a problem is the first step to recovery.

So, I politely stole my sweet grandmothers empty, never-used spice rack.

Oh, okay, okay. I'm just kidding.

I didn't POLITELY steal it, I just stole it.

Flat out. Thievery.

I'm considering it an early gift from my inheritance. Thanks, Mama!

Here's what I started with:


All of my various sprinkles stashed in a tupperware container. Not appealing, to say the least.

So, Olivia and I diligently worked our funnel magic and transformed our various and sundry sprinkles into this fantastic little rainbow of sprinkle heaven!





Ahhhhh...that's SO much better, don'tcha think? A beautiful display of sprinkliciousness.

I just made up a new word. I like it.

Makes me wanna go bake a big ole' batch of rainbow sprinkle cupcakes! Too bad that hasn't actually happened yet.

Nope. After that was done, I was on a roll and decided to tackle my ribbon drawer.

Yeah, I know...I'm kind of spastic like that. Sprinkles to ribbons. At least I'm sticking with the decorative theme.

If you thought my sprinkles were bad (and, you know you did), just check the ribbon drawer:




You can say it. It won't hurt my feelings. That is a hot mess.

But, have no fear...I really needed something mindless to invest in, so here's what I did:

I dumped out all of my ribbons.


And then I threaded them onto little wooden clips.


And, I pinned them down, like the little devils they are.


After an hour or so, I was really making progress in the floor of my closet. {Side note: where do you do your best work?}



And, finally, I reorganized them back into their little drawer all nice and neat, like good little girls and boys.



Now they are all so nice to look at.

And, I do, indeed, look at them frequently.

There's something about looking at items arranged in PROPER RAINBOW COLOR ORDER that makes me happy.

The doctors can keep their happy pills...I'm just gonna keep on organizing!

And, that's all for now!

Hugs everybody!

Dear January...

Good riddance!

January was probably the single worst month I've experienced in quite some time.

In all honesty, I experienced some really low lows that I've never been through before.

It's hard to come here and write about life like everything is perky and wonderful when really, it's not. Our lives usually are perky and wonderful. I'm generally a funny gal who makes the most out of every situation, but January was not fun for me.

Not even a little bit.

We are very lucky as a family to have the life we have, and trust me, we do not take that for granted. But, every once in a while, the "stuff" takes over and we get bogged down in the details.

I won't go into most of those details here, but Whit has had a pretty rough month. We finally {FINALLY} got in to see the specialist we've been waiting for in Greenville (after 7 long months). The visit was awesome! Whit's doctor is wonderful and really took a lot of time with Whit and with us. We left there feeling better than ever! On top of the world, even.

But, that all quickly changed when we began our first round of medication. The medication interacted horribly with Whit's system and eventually ended up causing the week from Hell for us. We had lots of moments that looked like this:



It was awful. Whit's doctor swiftly made the call to take him off of that medication, but still, the damage was done. I'm not sure what happened that week, but all of the progress that we've made this year with Whit went spiraling down the drain.

Gone.

It was like the medication removed a filter for Whit and suddenly we were hearing lots of things that we'd never heard from him before. Unsettling, scary things. Things that run through his little innocent head that he believes are true. Things that you'd expect from a teenager filled with emotional angst...not a six year old boy. Things that made me weep. Repeatedly.

So, needless to say, we're back to square one. Actually, we're back to square negative 10. Whit had made a lot of progress this year with his anxiety and suddenly we're waaaaaaaaay back there {again}.

I do not blame the medication. I'm thankful for what we've come through because now at least we know what's going on in that little mind of his. When you know better, you do better. We can do better by him now. At some point, we'll be back at square one. Just maybe not any time soon.

I'm okay with that. I've made peace.

So, that's what's been going on with us.

Plus, on top of everything, our computer crashed. CRASHED.

Add another layer of chaos to the mix.

Mommy wants to pull her hair out at this point.

I LIVE by my computer. Everything, EVERYTHING I do is on the computer. My work files for school, my scrapbooking files, everything.

Gone. GONE!

Just another layer of awful. I had it all backed up through Mozy, but we spent a few weeks first trying to repair the computer, which did not work, and then another week replacing it, so it was a big ole' mess.

I'm glad to be back here now.

Hope your January was awesome!