Pinspiration vs. Pincopying

I have developed a new pet peeve, and it is when people go on Pinterest and copy verbatim from someone else. This really is ridiculous, you don't have to tell me that because several people already have, but it bugs me. Don't get me wrong, Pinterest is a great tool! I just think it's so sad because when you copy something detail for detail, it's not personal to you. You will look back at pictures and always think, "I copied that from someone" rather than "I took a great idea, and made it my own and personal to my event." 

There is a big difference between 'pinspiration' and 'pincopying.' For example, when it came to Macy's birthday party I had lots of 'pinspiration!'

This image was a HUGE inspiration for Macy's party. I knew that I wanted to carnival theme, but I am such a sucker for clever word play so this was a must!

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Here's how I used that inspiration.

Credit: Amylu Photography

Credit: Amylu Photography

Cupcakes are all the rage right now, but I wanted something different that you wouldn't see at all the other parties you were going to this summer. So, I chose to do cake balls and used this photo as my inspiration. 

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Here's how our cake balls turned out.

Credit: Amylu Photography

And here was Macy's smash cake ball...

Credit: Amylu Photography

The highchair was also very important to me. It needed to be perfect because so many pictures of Macy would be taken in this high chair. Below was the dream highchair, but I think what we had was even better!

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Credit: Amylu Photography

You rock, DB! Thank you for finding this for me and creating such fun decor to go with it!

I love the venue where we had Macy's party, but I wanted a ceiling treatment. There are so many cool things you can do using very little of your budget. I used the picture below, as well as few others, to try and communicate the vision I had for the chadelier-type ceiling treatment.

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This is what my fabulous friends were able to make.

Credit: Amylu Photography

I love looking at pictures from Macy's party. I love thinking to myself, 'Every detail is personal to Macy and to our family,' and I take pride in every single detail.  Again, this is a personal thing. I do not think you are a terrible person if you copy something straight from Pinterest, NO! Some things can't be helped, I just hope that you will put your own personal touches on whatever it is by changing colors, or wording, or WHATEVER! 

After all that, I'm going to step off my soap box! Goodnight!

Back to School Teacher's Luncheon and Gifts

So before I started working at the Country Club, I was a teacher at a small, private school here in town. It was basically a startup school, and as with any private school (I feel like) you wear a lot of hats. I love the people that I worked with there, but in the end it came down to the fact that our summers are crazy and my family needed down time all together. I felt like Cliff and I were always in a state of 'ramping-up.' For example, as soon as summer was over we were ramping up for the school year and as the school year was winding down we had to ramp up for summer traveling with the youth group. It's exhausting, all around, and now with Macy in the picture it was time to make some changes. Even though I'm not teaching anymore, I wanted to let those teachers know that I still care deeply for them and appreciate everything they do all year long. So, I offered to host the teachers and staff for lunch one day during their training week at the Country Club. I am so glad that I was able to host them, and still be able to feel connected to such a good cause, with such wonderful people.

Here are some pictures from the luncheon... 

I reused (for the second time, here's the first) some of the decor pieces from Macy's Birthday After-After-Party. 

Then I pulled books from my personal library that have either been or are currently on the literature list at the school. Also, I pulled different quotes off the internet about teaching from respected educational and historical figures, and printed them on card stock. I cut them and then used glue spots to adhere them to 'Thank You' tents, AKA colored card stock with my thank you stamp and gold ink. I was pretty happy with the results, especially since I found out I was hosting the 15-person party less than 24 hours before.

I love a pretty beverage dispenser. Little touches, like utilizing a dispenser rather than a pitcher when you can, make parties for me.

For lunch, the group had the ACC Signature Salad, which consists of baby spinach, Craisins, walnuts, Granny Smith apples and a raspberry vinaigrette, as well as the Par 5 Sandwich, turkey BLT with avocado. Everything looked wonderful and was quite tasty!

Dessert is a must in my book, which is why it's so hard for me to be a diet, HAHA! I need something sweet to conclude the whole experience. For the luncheon we had a beautiful fruit tray with sweet cream cheese fruit dip, and chocolate chip cookies. I had a really hard time abstaining from just spreading the fruit dip on the chocolate chip cookie. That dip was to die for!

Again, I felt so blessed to be able to host this group. I know they work hard all year long so I couldn't stop there. I knew I wanted to make them something gifty, but was having a hard time deciding on what I wanted to do. Luckily, I stumbled upon The Crafting Chicks blog post Back to School Brainstorm. They offer several different ideas for back to school gifts, as well as any printables you would need to go with them. I decided on this sweet gift, but I added my own spin on it.

The Inspiration

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What I Used

Ball Half Pint, wide mouth, Mason jars: 4/$8.99 

I had a coupon for 40% off of 2 packages of them and 25% off the whole purchase!

Avery 2'' labels: 60/$7.97

 I only used 12, so I will have some more for other projects!

Individually wrapped Smarties: $2.16/bag 

I ended up needing about two and a half bags to fill 12 jars

So I ended up using Mason jars: a. because I love them, and b. because I had a coupon to Joann's Fabric Store and they didn't have the treat jars, but I'm more than ok with it. Then I filled them with Smarties (*FYI: If I did it all over again, I may have chosen something with a little less of a defined shape, but I loved the play on words*) and then at the last minute I added some ribbon. Luckily, I cleaned out and organized all of our gift wrapping today, and remember that we had some leftover ribbon from Macy's birthday party that would match perfectly. On top of that, it was precut perfectly to tie nicely around the wide-mouthed jars. I just love when a plan comes together! 

My Finished Project

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the gifts. I wish I had been able to wait a little bit longer before needing to take them up to the school because I just ordered the BEST THING EVER!! I have been researching cutting machines for what seems like months now, and had narrowed it down to the Cricut or Sizzix Eclips. A dear friend, and avid crafter, who has both machines, adamantly recommended the Sizzix over the Cricut, and then proceeded to tell me all the website I should be stalking for the best sale. So Cliff was out of town when I came across the best sale I'd seen on the Eclips. I found it on Oh My Craft, and it is the Eclips Start Up Kit with the option of the eCal software (which I also got at the recommendation of my friend). Just a note, if you find/found the Eclips at a better price, do not tell me. I was pretty happy with myself. Don't burst my bubble...

It was basically 50% off, then also offered free shipping and then 25% off the whole order. Needless to say, I jumped all over that sale, but it's still being shipped. Otherwise, these teacher gifts would have been even more crazy awesome!!! 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post and that you have taken time to thank the teachers in your life for all their hard work and dedication to your kids and community. 

Happy School Year!

Character Analysis for Me

So about a year ago, I was in graduate school for educational leadership. It was basically a program to be certified to become a principal or superintendent. About halfway through I found out I was pregnant, then proceeded to get wickedly sick ALL the time, and finally decided that it may not be for me. However, before I stopped taking the courses, we took a character analysis questionnaire. It's amazing to me how straight on these can be, sometimes. I'll be the first one to point out that not all of these qualities look good on me, but for the most part I guess they are true. I'm not so sure that 'dislikes committees and group discussions' is quite so accurate, and I'd like to think I'm not rigid and impersonal. Oh well, agree to disagree.  Take a look at my results. Can you relate to some of these?

Characteristics of the Directive Style	Others May Perceive Your Style As	Best Organizational Fit
Focuses on tasks and technical problems Considers facts, rules, and procedures Acquires information through hunches and by using short reports with limited data Evaluates information by using intuition, experience, and rules Has a low tolerance for ambiguity and needs structure	Rigid Impersonal Simplistic Autocratic	Structured, goal-oriented, such as in bureaucracies, or where power and authority are important
Typical Leadership Style Characteristics of Those with a Directive Decision-Making Style
Practical and authoritarian Impersonal social orientation Needs power and status Is forceful Dislikes committees and group discussions Completes tasks quickly Action and results oriented Motivated by situations with measurable achievement potential, tangible rewards

 I just ran across this as I was cleaning out my email inbox on my phone and thought it was interesting enough to share. Anyway, about a week and a half ago we were on a wonderful vacation with my family to the beaches in Destin, Florida. It was Macy's first time and she loved it. Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip. 

Lucky for us we have the Lifeproof Cases, so we were able to take our phones into the water!

Happy August! We have finally made it, the summer is slowing down and hopefully our crazy lives will slow down a little bit. :) I hope the same for you and yours!

Macy the 'ONE-derful''s First Birthday Party

First of all, you should know that I have been planning this since before Macy was born. Themes and colors changed several times, but there were some things that I knew I had to have. I wanted it to be big. I wanted lots of fun, personal details that made this party all Macy's own. And last, but certainly not least, I wanted to serve lots of good food. In the end, the vintage circus theme with bright red and turquoise colors won out against all others. 

We decided to have the party at a fabulous, local restaurant, Railway Cafe, in our city Athens, TX. Macy came to her first lunch at Railway when she was only two days old. Many times she is referred to as 'the Railway baby' and waitresses can often be seen carrying her around as they refill drinks. We literally love everything about Railway Cafe from the waitresses, to the atmosphere, to the food, to the owners. I guess the only things we could complain about is that they are only open for lunch and we can't eat there for all three meals in a day. 

Macy was so excited when her friends started coming in. She really loved getting to see all of her buddies.

Guests were asked to write a special note to Macy on red and turquoise tickets.

Since it was Macy's first birthday, we didn't plan much entertainment, but we did plan lunch! We decided to serve all of Macy's favorite things, but it seems a few of Mommy and Daddy's favorite things snuck in there too... 

The menu included: Sweet potato fries, petite grilled cheese sandwiches, yeast rolls, puffs, animal crackers, goldfish, BLT sandwiches with chips, pimento cheese sandwiches with chips, flatbread pizzas, heirloom tomato salad with goat cheese and balsamic dressing, and edamame.

But we can't forget all the sweets! We also had homemade banana nut bread, a fruit tray (to make us feel better about everything else we were eating), homemade pear and peach fruit sauces made and sold by local farmers at the Athens' Farmers Market, and family-tradition sugar cookies made using Macy's great-grandmother, Granana's recipe. 

We used popcorn buckets filled with animal crackers and anchoring balloons, as centerpieces. The kids also enjoyed eating all the red and blue candies out of the Mason jars that held the food markers. 

Oh, the wonderful high chair. The only one Macy has actually wanted to sit it. Maybe I should create decorations for her high chair at home?

Tutu That* made Macy's over-the-top birthday outfit. Everything that company makes is fabulous and Macy's outfit was no exception.

This detail was the crowning jewel for me. Railway Cafe is already a very picturesque setting with the exposed ceilings and brick walls, but I wanted a very eye-catching element right in the middle. I asked for a chandelier of some sorts, with lots of color and pop, and they delivered!

Macy Water! Macy loved these little bottles, and she carried one around with her most of the party.

Adorable and very yummy red velvet cake balls, with a tutu cake stand? How could a girl refuse?

After a little help from Mommy, Macy was able to dig in to her cake ball. 

Macy seemed more interested in feeding Mommy pieces of cake ball, but I couldn't refuse. They were delicious! Then somehow whipped cream got involved... 

There's a good Daddy who stares lovingly at such a mess!

A little washing up before returning to the party.

Guests took home bubbles, with a precious tag that said, "Thank you for making me feel ONE-derful on my special day!"

After all was said and done, we hole-punched all the tickets and birthday cards and put them on a ring with the oh-so fabulous invitation.

This is one of my favorites, written by my 13-year old brother, Noah.

Sadly, these were the only things left. NOT! We made it home with so many fabulous treats and eats to last us until dinner, which was also catered by Railway Cafe but served in our home 

(see Macy's Birthday Phase Two).

Overall, it was exactly what I had always hoped for our little daughter. The party was so fun and beautiful, and we were surrounded by those we love as we celebrated a full year with our precious blessing.

 Credits:

Tutu That*: Birthday Girl's Outfit and Headpiece

Amylu Photography: Invitation and Photography

Railway Cafe: Party Planning Help, Chandelier Construction, Food and Service

BushelandPeckPaper: Water Bottle Labels

Mary Had a Little Party: Door Signs, Food Markers, Gift Bag Tags, Toothpicks

DKDeleKtables: Straws

Treehouse Cupcakes: Cake Balls