Pinterest Sunday: Pillows, Pillows, Pillows!

 Well, 3 pillows to be exact. My friend Robin wanted some pillows for her bedroom from this fabulous Joel Dewberry fabric, Aviary 2 (the same fabric I chose for my bedroom too!). She enlisted Jamie and me to help her, as she is sewing challenged!

Jamie got hers done in 2 seconds flat, me, not so much! I have had the fabrics for weeks now and finally had a Sunday free to sew. Here is what I came up with:

 14" pillow

 16" pillow

and an 18" pillow

And here are all three:

 

Between the 2 Jamie made, and my 3 I have some fun ideas for my room, when and if I ever get around to it!

Sweet 16

Last weekend Tony, Sophie and I traveled to Oklahoma for our niece Cecilia's sweet 16 party. It was so nice to see family and be there for her special day.

 

Isn't Cecilia gorgeous?

Tony's sister Nanci did an amazing job with the whole event. I had never been to a Quince before. Here is a brief description:

A Quinceañera is the Hispanic tradition of celebrating
a young girl's coming of age - her 15th birthday.

Today's celebrations embrace religious customs, and the virtues of family and
social responsibility. The Quinceanera tradition celebrates the young girl
(la Quinceanera), and recognizes her journey from childhood to maturity.
The customs highlight God, family, friends, music, food, and dance.

Interestingly, many families today are merging their Hispanic and American
heritages by choosing to celebrate a Sweet Sixteen. For their Sweet 16 party,
the families do the full-blown quinceanera traditions – the religious ceremony,
the reception, the tiara with the number 16, and more.

 

It started with a mass in her honor. I am sure it was very spiritual and important and all that, but I was lost because

A) I am not Catholic and

B) it was all in Spanish

 

Next came the fun part, the paaartay!

The hall was decorated with a masquerade theme all in purple, green and gold. Nanci and her friend(s) did a great job:

 One of Sophie's favorite parts was the doll with a matching dress to Ceci's

Cute picture of Tony and his Mama:

  The group did a super cute, choreographed waltz, my pictures do not do it justice:

 

There was dinner and then more ceremony at the hall including honoring the com padres (Tony was one), and then the DJ took over and the party started.

And here is Sophie with her cousin, she thought Ceci looked like a princess. I hope she doesn't get any ideas about a quince for herself!

Sophie's 9th Birthday!

We celebrated Sophie's 9th birthday at "As You Wish" pottery painting. It was perfect for her, our little crafter!

We had a whole painter/artist theme, from the invites (shaped as pallets with circle punched colors for the paints), to the cake from Hollie's Hot Cakes :

It slid in the box on transport, sorry Hollie! The pictures do not quite do it justice. It was also delicious. The birthday girl wanted vanilla with strawberry filling. Hollie makes her cakes FROM SCRATCH! One of our party guests said "that was the best cake I have ever had in my whole life". Pretty good review from an 8 year old!

Our goodies for the guests were paint tins with a set of paints and some "paint splattered" (sprinkles) Funfetti cake pops:

Each child got to choose a piece along with colored glazes. It was a good age for this type of party, they all had a good attention span for it.

 

Especially the birthday girl:

 What attention to detail!

After painting we did cake and ice cream then presents!

 We get to pick up all their fired pieces on Tuesday, can't wait to see them. Happy Birthday Sophie!

Pinterest Sunday? Well...sort of...

Pinterest Sunday was interrupted this week by an impromptu camping/riding trip to the desert. Our plan was to make a test run of cake pops, and if they turned out well, make them for Sophie's upcoming birthday party. We did finally make them on Monday. Our flavor choice was Funfetti cake mixed with home made butter-cream frosting. We coated some with chocolate and some with white chocolate.

 

 We each got to try one, and decided they were good enough to use for Sophie's party. Everyone was bummed I would not let them eat anymore, so we made a second batch, red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting:

They were a hit!

Decorated

 I finally got a day with Tony home to do some "honey-dos". He was able to install an over the range microwave, new (programmable) thermostat, and do the trim and decorations for the girls' walls:

And here are some pictures, just for fun, of Alexa dressed up for decades day, for her school's spirit week leading up to homecoming:

 And in rare form for Alexa, she let me actually take pictures of her. They had to still wear their school uniform skirts, and could only dress up from the waist up. I think she did such a good job with her costume. Can you guess what decade seniors had?

School Pictures

I love how my girl's school pictures turned out! Thanks to Amanda from Pie in the Sky Photography we have some unique, fun, not your run of the mill school pictures.

Sophie, 8 years old, 3rd grade:

Outfit details:

Shirt and tie : JC Penny's

Skirt: Justice

Shoes: Target

Hair Flower: J Wag's doodads (available at Scrapbooks Etc.)

Glasses: Alexa's ;-)

Celeste, 13 years old, 8th grade:

 Outfit details:

Dress: Ruche

Shoes: Mom's closet :-)

And a couple of them together:

 Outfit details:

Celeste's shoes: Target

Sophie's shirt and shorts: JC Penny's

Sophie's Necklace: Forever 21

Sophie's hair flower: J Wag's Doodads (scrapbooks, etc.)

Antique Mall Finds

It will be a while until our "finds" find their permanent homes in our home, so for now here is a sneak peek at what we got:

 Old farmhouse paned windows. The yellow one will go "as is" to my bedroom and the white one may get a fresh, distressed coat of paint for my living room.

 

 Tony's finds, old radio and phone extension. The tag on the phone says "non-working", DUH!

This shabby table will get a fabric covered foam seat and become a bench for my bedroom.

 

This little old school desk already found a home in the girls' room. We also picked up the little personal chalk board hanging on the wall.

 

I got this just because it was funny/cute to me. Published in 1951, I am sure it is ripe with misinformation {even the cover has a baby on its tummy, not what we are told to do these days}. I will have to read trough the section on breastfeeding, I am sure it will be hilarious!

These are going to be a bed side table in Alexa's room. Her room eventually will have a world traveler theme with her pictures of Europe, etc.

We also picked up an assortment of old kitchen gadgets (rolling pins, graters, apron, sifters. etc) that will be hung on the soffit above our kitchen cabinets.

The whole time we were keeping our eyes out for windows, old typewriters, and an old Singer. I described to Tony the black metal with gold writing of the Singer sewing machines that I like. We never saw one but Tony did find me this:

 It's not a Singer, but it sure is pretty. Best part, we plugged in in and it works!