Backyard Baby-Q

Wow! This summer has flown by. I say that a lot, but really it has flown by. I can't believe school is about to start back up. It is crazy! It has been a whirlwind the past month...so much to catch up on! First things first! I threw a "Backyard Baby-Q" for a good friend of mine, a couple weeks ago. We could not be more excited about this precious pink bundle she has on the way...this baby is a true miracle. When I found out she was prego, I knew that I had to host her shower and immediately the wheels were spinning in my head and I came up with the "Backyard Baby-Q" theme. I LOVE how it turned out. In true, Ashley fashion, I put a lot into the minor details, but those details are one of my favorite parts of this party. 

I started out with the theme of making everything mini. This was so much fun and really adorable. I used a lot of mason jars. Everything tastes better in a mason jar. Really. It's true! Try it!

There are a ton of details and pictures in this post! Enjoy!

These mini mac and cheese jars were a HUGE hit. I always use this recipe when I make homemade mac and cheese and it is always a favorite! I always add breadcrumbs on top...you can add whatever kind you want, I add plain, Italian style, really whatever I first see when I open the cabinet! I typically use gluten free pasta and you can't tell a difference between that and regular pasta! All of the guests raved about this part of the meal. Love that!

Mini pulled pork sliders. These were to die for! They were so good! I used this recipe. As my hubs always says "You can't go wrong with a recipe from Uncle Bill!" A lot of our favorite recipes are Williams Sonoma recipes. I served the pork on King's Hawaiian Rolls. These rolls are always delish!

Don't you wish you could reach into the computer and grab one of these babies? I do! 

 

Here is my plate. The coleslaw was served in mini masons too. I loved how cute and "mini" it all looked. We served kettle chips too. Everything was so yummy. My mouth is watering going through pictures to write this post! Ha! 

Quite possibly my favorite thing about the shower! Pies in mason jars! These were seriously amazing. They are my new go to dessert for new moms, new neighbors, you name it! These might be a part of my Christmas gifts for friends and neighbors too (added to the cinnamon rolls that we give out). I am keeping batches in the freezer too for unexpected dinner company! These are AWESOME! After googling, I realized I was not such a genius and lots of others have made pies in mason jars which is great because I found some useful tips and advice! :) I used this recipe for the crust (their butter only recipe. Crisco grosses me out.) but used taller jars. They have a great explanation about the freezing method too. This saved oodles of time the weekend of the shower! A couple friends and I made these pies a week prior to the shower. They were then frozen and we baked them the morning of. It worked great! We used a random mixture of apples and blueberries, sugar and a bit of flour for the filling(it did not come from the above site). The crumb topping was made of brown sugar, gluten free oats, flour and butter. 

We topped them with vanilla ice cream and OMG they were even better. The pies were still warm from the oven and the ice cream melted into them. Heaven in a jar!

They looked so adorable on the tray as we delivered them to each guest! Seriously loved these cute pies! Did I mention that yet?! 

This is the drink table. I loved how it turned out. I kept it simple with Mojitos, Fauxjitos (for the prego) and water with oranges, lemons and mint. Mojitos are our signature drink at our house. We make them a lot and they are always a crowd fav! My hubs is the real "Mojito Master,"so I learned how to make them from him.

We usually make the mojitos ahead of time and put them in mason jars when we have a party or take them to a party. My poor hubs has spent too many parties slaving away making these delicious concoctions, so this is a great step to alleviate any stress mid party. All the guests have to do is shake up the drink, take off the lid, add a straw and tada, they are set!

I put a vintage golf ball basket on the ground near the drink table for guests to throw their lids. It worked fabulously! 

 Here is I am with the mommy-to-be! 

 I had a cute little message on my pantry doors. I am loving having the chalkboard on them. More to come on how I did that project and all the great uses I have for these doors now!

Next up are the tables. I loved how they turned out too! The black chargers underneath the plates are painted with chalkboard paint. Such a fun idea! I know I will use these again and again! Basic white table cloths are covered with a burlap topper. I just bought yardage of burlap and this worked great!

Each place setting had silverware wrapped with twine and an "eat" tag, along with some flower seeds to grow your own. I thought these were a fun and easy favor! The checkered napkins I used are these amazing things! Have you seen these? Napkins on a roll! They are awesome and reusable! Woohoo!

One more close up of the place settings. I didn't give myself a favor. :)

Here is a close up of the favors before I put them on the place settings, they each had a sweet hang tag that said "grow."

The tables.

Sunflowers in huge mason jars were the perfect centerpieces! Sunflowers are such pretty and happy flowers! I love them and they are so perfect for a "Backyard Baby-Q!"

 And last but not least, we had a sweet book that my friend made for everyone to sign and give messages to the mommy and her precious baby girl. We also went together and gave her a gift certificate towards her newborn photo session. :) 

I so enjoyed this shower! It turned out to be a beautiful day and it was so much fun to prepare such a special day for such a special friend. Happy Monday friends!

xoxo,

Ashley

What's been going on!

Wow! Can you believe we are halfway through July already?! I am shocked, but, as you can tell by my lack of posting, we have been living and really enjoying life! The little presidents have kept me extremely busy, especially now that the little miss is on the move! We have had so much fun lately. Here are a few things we have been up to!

We have done lots of swimming! They both love this little pool! Best $30 I have spent lately!

My baby girl turned ONE! I can't even believe it has been a year! They always say it flies by, but with the second child, it flies by even faster, which I didn't think was even possible!

 Little miss took her first unassisted steps on July 4th! She is progressively taking more steps each day...but hey, crawling is her fastest mode of getting places, so she may stick with that for awhile longer, which is fine by me! 

She got a stroller for her birthday and spends a lot of her time pushing her dolly around. 

 We are definitely blessed with two kids who LOVE the water! I really love to watch them in the water. They both enjoy it so much! Little miss got her first taste of the ocean this weekend! She loved it, despite how cold the water was! I was surprised because the pool she takes swimming lessons in is so warm, but she takes after her brother and seems to love the water despite the temperature! 

Trying to keep up with brother...her favorite pastime. :)

Of course after all the swimming, everyone needed some snacks!

We have enjoyed using our Lego Land passes! This little guy loves the water slides!

I'm so lucky to have a handyman living in my house...my machine had a malfunction a few weeks ago and this little cutie tried to fix it!

We have enjoyed some dinners out, just the four of us! 

Done some kissing. :)

And had our first taste of ice cream! 

 Life is good. Hope you are all having a happy summer, my friends! 

xoxo,

Ashley

The Best Day

I have been thinking a lot about the words of Taylor Swift's song, "The Best Day" lately. My sister introduced to me to it when Teddy and I were visiting her a few weeks ago and it's so powerful to me. Here are the lyrics...

The Best Day -Taylor Swift

"I'm five years old, it's getting cold, I've got my big coat on
I hear your laugh and look up smiling at you, I run and run
Past the pumpkin patch and the tractor rides, look now, the sky is gold
I hug your legs and fall asleep on the way home

I don't know why all the trees change in the fall
But I know you're not scared of anything at all
Don't know if Snow White's house is near or far away
But I know I had the best day with you today


I'm thirteen now and don't know how my friends could be so mean
I come home crying and you hold me tight and grab the keys
And we drive and drive until we found a town far enough away
And we talk and window shop 'til I've forgotten all their names

I don't know who I'm gonna talk to now at school
But I know I'm laughing on the car ride home with you
Don't know how long it's gonna take to feel okay
But I know I had the best day with you today

I have an excellent father, his strength is making me stronger
God smiles on my little brother, inside and out, he's better than I am
I grew up in a pretty house and I had space to run
And I had the best days with you

There is a video I found from back when I was three
You set up a paint set in the kitchen and you're talking to me
It's the age of princesses and pirate ships and the seven dwarfs
And Daddy's smart and you're the prettiest lady in the whole wide world

And now I know why the all the trees change in the fall
I know you were on my side even when I was wrong
And I love you for giving me your eyes
For staying back and watching me shine
And I didn't know if you knew, so I'm takin' this chance to say
That I had the best day with you today"

This song has really stuck with me lately and really anytime I listen to the song I tear up and sometimes just cry. It just reminds me that kids don't even care what you are doing, just as long as you are together, they can have the best day. I think really this goes for everyone. It's so easy to let all of life's stresses and being busy get in the way. Family days are the days that count and really the days all of us will remember most. I can almost guarantee I won't be thinking about the week that I was swamped with work, ten years from now, but I will remember these great days where everyone was happy and the day was just the best. Sunday (and really this whole past weekend for that matter) was the best day and it reminded me of the song. We don't get out a ton as a family for long periods of time, due to the prez's nap schedules. She's really not great at on the go napping (meaning she refuses to sleep), so I try to steer clear of things that will interfere with nap time...otherwise we all pay the price later that day and have decided it's just not worth it. As she gets closer to one, I know we will drop the morning nap at some point in the next few months, so I'm not too stressed over it. Just a stage of life. :) 

This past Sunday, one of my best friends' daughter was baptized. The service began right when nap time would normally begin, but this is something we just could not miss. We are family to each other. So, we headed out early Sunday morning, dressed up (which was so fun...so rare we all get dressed up these days) and ready for a long day away from home. It was just such a great day. We had a couple minor hiccups along the way, but nothing awful. I had to pick Reagan up from the church nursery because her "stranger danger" was in full force, but I actually figured that would happen. Also, she only slept maybe 40 minutes the whole day. But, she still so happy and content that we didn't even notice. She enjoyed the day as much as we all did. 

Teddy had an amazing time. Being the only kid under 7 that day, besides the babies, I still knew he'd have a great time. He played and played with good friends of ours', who really enjoyed their time with him. It is such a special thing to see lifelong friends enjoy your kids and your kids enjoy them. He is such a happy kid and was totally in his element. He actually didn't want to go home and asked a few times this week, if he could go back. :) He loves when we are all together as a family and so do I.  The hubs and I were laying in bed that night looked at each other and both said "it was such a good day!" It was a day I will always remember and it's not like it was much different than any other day (we have lots of good days like this), but it just sticks out in my mind and I love that I'll always have it as a precious memory. :)

Happy Wednesday friends!

xoxo,

Ashley

A fun order!

Every once in awhile I get people who order numerous gifts for a few different baby occasions, all at once. So fun. This customer just told me the names and sexes of each baby the gift was for and told me to do whatever I wanted! Love that!

The first gift was a burpie set and a onesie. I decided to have them coordinate. I have been wanting use this Alexander Henry fabric for awhile...I bought a year ago! This seemed like the perfect project for it.

 A close up of the sweet monogram. Oh how I love a monogram!

A close up of the R for the second burpie. This is different than I normally do my burpies but I tried something new and this will be an option from now on. I think it turned out so cute!

Here is a close up of the onesie. I love how this turned out. I think my own little miss will be sporting a tee which these letters soon. I'm thinking some matching ruffle capris to go with!

The set!

This sweet tee was for a little guy. I have such a love affair with anchors so I knew that would be a perfect applique for this! I love red, white and blue too, so this was definitely a favorite of mine!

This is actually the first burpie set that I made for this customer in this order but it was a rush order and I didn't get pictures of the whole set before I shipped it off...this is just an instagram photo but you can still get the idea! I seriously love this set!

Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone's week is off to a fabulous start!

xoxo,

Ashley

Organize Me

As you can see by my Great Purge of 2012 post, a huge organization project is going on in our house lately. I am in the process of switching offices with my hubs, so that project is on-going and I'm still waiting for some of my new furniture to arrive, so there is a bit of a lull at the moment but I am looking forward to getting it completely finished. I already feel like I can breathe lighter! We have made a few trips to Goodwill and have been just giving stuff away, which feels great too! I can honestly say that my garage doesn't look any worse than it did before, in fact it looks a bit better...there's still work to do in there, but anything that was taken out of the house has been sold on Craigslist, is waiting to be sold, has been given to Goodwill, given away or put in the trash...I did NOT want to just simply move my clutter, I wanted it gone! We are very blessed to have lots of room in this house, however, sometimes, like in our case, we were holding onto too much stuff just because we had space for it! I'm working very hard to remedy this problem and plan to be very strict about what we keep and don't keep from here on out!

One of my favorite organization projects so far has been our closet under the stairs/coat closet.

It was an utter disaster before...and so easy to ignore. We would just throw something in there when we had people coming over and say "hey, I'll put that away later when I have a free minute!" Let's face it, we don't have many free minutes, so this is how this closet became the awful mess that it was. No more of that!!!

Then after a few Goodwill trips and trash pickups, it looked like this. Way better!

But then while I was laying in bed one night (my best ideas come to me while I am trying to fall asleep...main reason I don't sleep great!) I realized I could make an awesome wrapping area towards the back, which was empty for the first time since we moved into this house! The next day I set off to make these plans happen and I love how it turned out! My two HUGE dining table leaves live in this area as well. I need them far out of reach of the kiddos! :)

I have had this Elfa gift wrap cart from The Container Store for about 6 years now. It has definitely come in handy and I love the organization it brings. It has totally paid for itself over and over, but my wrapping paper selection was getting to large for it! The wheels broke in our last move, so I have just had it sitting, sans wheels in my old craft room. I really didn't want it sitting out in my new craft suite and I didn't want to have to leave it up my hubs' new home office. So this area seemed like the perfect solution. On the right side is my gift pile...just gifts I keep in case I need an unexpected present for someone and don't have time to shop! Then I have some gift boxes on the left that I have kept just in case. The drawers are full of tissue paper, gift bags, leftover wrapping paper pieces, etc.

I have some of my ribbon on top of the gift wrap station, but the rest is upstairs in my old craft room closet. Love how I can have scissors, tape, gift labels, etc in the top drawer of this cart!

Now, onto my favorite part of this gift wrap area! I used to have wrapping paper in a bunch of different rooms and it was making me crazy! Now I have it ALL in one organized spot! Gotta love that! Woohoo! 

These fabulous wrapping paper organizers are actually plastic bag dispensers from the lovely Ikea. They were $1.99! I mean really you can't beat that price!! I'm sure you could find similar things like this elsewhere made for wrapping paper but I can almost guarantee they'll be way pricier! Another bonus is that you can order online if you don't have an Ikea near you(so many Ikea items are not available for online purchasing!). I bought a bunch of the dispensers and actually plan to buy more because I keep coming up with more ideas for these babies! I also bought some similar square shaped baskets from Ikea and I show you what I did with those soon!

I ended up having the hubs screw the gift wrap holders (what I call them!) into the wall. They come with adhesive stickers on the back, but some of my wrapping paper is too heavy to be held by just the stickers. They have holes for screws or nails, but you'll need your own nails and screws, which I was lucky enough to find a bunch of during the purge, so I saved myself or the hubs a trip to the Home Depot! :)

 I have to say, just looking in this closet makes me happy. It's really nice to finally have a place for certain things and have that area organized. I feel such a sense of relief lately because of all the purging and organizing. It's really a TON of work, but I'm glad I'm sticking to it because once I'm completely finished, it'll be that much more of a relief! Hope you all had an amazing weekend! We sure did. As always it seemed to fly by and I can't believe, yet again it's Monday!

xoxo,

Ashley