o, btw...

i am co-hosting a Royal Wedding Party tomorrow.

eat your hearts out.

or join me in spirit!

it will be fabulous, i can assure you.

if you have time on your hands and are looking to plan a party,

head on over to TomKat Studios for some free

R O Y A L   W E D D I N G

printables.

oh yeah baby, that's right.

FREE.

i printed them all and will be celebrating beginning at 5:30am EST.  EDT?  whatev time.

i'm proud to announce my coworkers have agreed to meet up at work beginning at 5:30am for food and royal festivities.  

i'll be bringing the wedding cupcakes and tons of wedding excitement.

{it's ok to be excited.  i mean, it's like a real life fairytale, except for the see-through-dress she wore.  what was she thinking?}

i honestly am in love with this princess-to-be.

her hair is to die for.

*sigh*

and yes, that's about all it's going to take to convince me she'll be an amazing princess.

{because fairytales aren't real, it's ok for me to also be shallow.}

thank you TomKat for hookin' a sistah' up!

yayaaaa.

hip, hip, hooray!

another great set of before/afters...

and

SHOCKER...

they come to us via

Design*Sponge.

if you know me, then you know i am a super-fan of Design*Sponge.

totally fabu.

t o t a l l y.

so, instead of showing you both the before and afters, i'm going to show you just the befores.

you totally need to hit up DS for the afters.

it is totally worth it.

{no matter how annoying i am with my "totally"s tonight.}

and so we begin:

head over here to see what they've done with the place(s)!

{you totally won't regret it.}

awesomeness. in a dorky way.

so i love to blog hop.  constantly.

i have found so many new blogs lately, it ain't even funny.  but guess what?  they found me back.

well, at least one very awesome blog did... W I T H  T W O  C A T S totally did a mini-feature of my sweet lil' blog.  ok, so it was more of a featured-my-feature-of-someone-else's-feature, but i felt so honored!

i ain't gonna lie.

check it out here.  oh, you don't see me straight off the bat?  if you are a loyal follower, i think you can figure out where i am. 

it's the little things, right?

p.s.  such a great idea to feature great ideas from followers!  blogging is where it's at!

fooey.

you know, sometimes life just knocks the wind out of your sails.  it's decidedly up to you to make what you will of the situation.  it doesn't mean it doesn't suck, it just means, we need to regroup.

i opened up cjane's blog today and found four fantastic pieces of advice:

" From Bryn- We are a family that works. When my children wake up they know we will be working (housework, school work, gardening, etc) and they have a choice, to work along side me or find something to do by themselves. When the work is done we play, but I don't entertain my kids all day.

From Sarah- When life isn't pleasant there are only two things to be done, make a change or change your perspective.  

From Sarah (again)- Our children have it good. Really good. Stop worrying whether or not you are giving them enough, especially when you have to get things accomplished not involving their immediate happiness. They are extremely blessed.

From Kathy- If the baby is crying and your kitchen is a mess, let the baby cry and clean the kitchen."


with the wind out of my sails this past weekend, i needed to change my perspective.  Sarah, you, my unknowing-friend, are brilliant.  

last week we were told my father-in-law's cancer was back.  his latest pet scan revealed new undeniable growth, something we always knew would come back, however, something we didn't know would return so soon.  it was Easter weekend last year that he was first hospitalized with extreme jaundice, ending in a determination that he had pancreatic cancer.  it was Easter this year that he was rushed back to the hospital for two blood transfusions --- he had been loosing blood at a rapid rate, so much so that he was down three pints in the last month.  

he was very disorientated, short of breath, and agitated, all of which lead to him slipping into a bit of a depression over his state and the unknown future he was about to learn of.  thankfully, two transfusions later he stopped thinking it was the very end and he started thinking he would be more open to other cancer treatments than previously decided upon.  

without knowing it, we did exactly what sarah mentioned in her first point {highlighted in red} above.  we changed our perspective.

we were grateful.  it was an unfortunate reawakening and call to reality reminding us that we cannot take time for granted.  we are on this earth for but a short time and it is up to us to make the most out of that short time.  i can't do it for you.  you can't do it for me.  these are decisions you or i make.  for ourselves.

i choose to change my perspective.  i choose to live my life being positive about my father-in-law's state of health.  he didn't expect to be alive last Christmas, yet he was.  not only was he alive, he was told there didn't appear to be any new signs of growing cancer in his body.  it was a miracle if i ever saw one.  and while yes, it did come back, every day is a gift and i am grateful that i have received far more gifts this year than any of us ever expected.

my father-in-law is a great man and today  i choose to be grateful.

fav-o-remod

i finally found it.

my favorite remod of the week.

{or last ten days.}

i have been searching and waiting... and finally... it found me.

thank you apartment therapy.

you were there on my dashboard when nobody else was.

{i will love you forever....}

check out Beth Beattie's tiny office remod.

you know what's the best part?

she told us where to find all of the components of this room.

for me, that's like gold at the end of the rainbow.

her before:

and after:

not only is it beautiful...

it appears bigger.

{i want to be there.}

go hit up apartment therapy for the full deets.

yummy.

living like i was on t.v.

somedays it's a cosby show kinda day.

somedays it's more like the office. or seinfeld.

sometimes it's like fresh prince
{even if only because you like to rap the song.}

{and maybe do the carlton dance.}

is there anything wrong with having theme days in the office?  about seriously getting up and rapping like you were will smith while DOING the carlton?

i love a good day at the office.  i mean, i luuuuuuuurve it.

did you ever see the episode of the office that included the "finer things club?"  i so want a finer things club in my office.  we took a poll and there are a good five of us that would be willing to sit and play CLUE during our lunch hour.

C  L  U FREAKING E.

but i want costumes.  and accents.  and the perfect lighting.

possible?

probably not.  but if i can get up in front of my coworkers and do the ELAINE while completely sober, i guess nothing is impossible.

these good days are long overdue.  remember when they sucked everyday all day?  if performing like a monkey and laughing hysterically can create a setting in the workplace that brings people together, then by golly ima do it.  ima be, ima be, ima ima ima be a fool.  for workplace happiness.  my own little sacrifice for my personal universe.  not martyrdom, just sheer entertainment for the masses.

maybe {but not really}

children are amazing little things.  {expecially the ones in my life. but i'm not partial, or anything.}  they know how to take you by surprise at any given time using any given tools or means possible.  they say funny things.  they eat crazy things.  they do  a w e s o m e  things.

for the last eleven years i have had the pleasure of being an aunt to this girl {the one that made me love myself just a bit more}.  she stole my heart from the first time i laid my eyes on her.  her smile was always so rewarding to see.  her sweet voice always brought joy to my heart.  she was {and is} {and forever will be} my sweet baby niece.  i love her {with all my heart}.

color me shocked when i learned she would be traveling from california to virginia on her own with 24 hours notice just to spend her spring break with our extended family.  she is eleven.  ELEVEN, folks.  we are approximately 2,616 miles from her home and she got on a big-ass airplane by herself and flew across the mother-stinkin' country.

when i was eleven i was throwing rocks at cute boys.  my first trip across country?  at the ripe ole' age of twenty years old.  T W E N T Y, folks.  {color me pathetic.}

but she got here and had an exceptionally awesome week {says me!}... and now, she is home in the arms of those that made her.  and i miss her.  and i praise her.  and i just don't know if i could muster up the courage {as a mom} to send my own little birds across the country on their own one day.  i've got a few years before ethan starts begging, but i totally open-mouth-inserted-foot after we said our goodbyes, "yes ethan, when you are eleven perhaps we could do something as big as this!"

why do i say things like that just to get out of the moment?

oh.

to get out of the moment.

damn it.

 maybe he'll forget. 

party plannin' mommacitas

you know i'm a sucker for a good party.  over time "good party" has evolved from "having lots of alcohol, cool people, and music" to "crafty, beautiful, and creative."  amazing what a decade'll do to ya!

Circle of Moms is currently running a contest to find the top 25 party plannin' blogs - who is your favorite?

i have featured several of these blogs on here throughout the years, and i have to say... it's not going to be easy!  the beauty of landing myself on One Charming Party's page this morning was not only that it linked me over to CoM, but that now i have been introduced to several other amazing party plannin' sites.

i love it!

{there must be close to fifty nifty blogs in the running.}

so if you have some time today, go find yourself some new party awesomeness!  show these blogs some love and pop in for a visit.  also, be sure to VOTE over at Circle of Moms!

an itch.

i have this itch.  this crazy, crazy itch.  i just can't stop from thinking about denese's yellow paint job.

it created an itch inside of me.  you see, i have this table.  a dining room table.  it's pine -- soft, yucky pine.  i used to think about staining it and coating it with poly, but never wanted to risk it.  why?  i have no idea.  it couldn't get any worse.  i mean, it was good looking but totally not practical for a mom with three chillens.  because of all the creases in it, coupled with the softness of the wood, we added a glass top to the table.  but... it's glass.  and i have three kids.  you know how that goes.

but after seeing that table... and then seeing these chairs {thank you HM}, i am feeling uber-itchy. {personal problem, i know}.  i am also feeling uber-risky.

i am a fan of color.  color everywhere.  it's just awesome.  i mean i love white too, but it has to be the right white.  anna maria horner knows what i'm talking about.  her upstairs remod is going to be off-the-hook-fantastic.  but if it's not the right space with the right white, i'm all about COLOR.

so here's the deal... i'll keep ya posted.  no guarantees but....... wouldn't it be fun?  kinda like when i blogged about this couch.  hmmmmmmmmmmmm....

awe. awe. i sit in awe.

because i am sitting here in awe, i have to submit a second entry tonight.

i have just landed upon the most creative and awesome party i've seen in a long, long time.  

of course, i'm going to give a shout out to my sistahs over at Hostess with the Mostess, for if they did not feature this party, i fear i never would have "landed" upon it.

here's a small tastes of the awesomeness that existed as  

Gavin's 4th Birthday Party:

gavin was one lucky little dude.

totally awesome and something you need to check-out YESTERDAY!

thank you plumlife.

check out denese over at plumlife.

she shared one heckuva remod on her table.

before:

after:

denese... i totally approve and am currently wiping the drool from my bottom lip.  this yellow is to die for -- the risk completely paid off, my friend!  bravo!  bravo!