Shutterfly - Long Live Summer Photo Contest

**Compensated post**

Shutterfly is having a photo contest right now and you have the possibility to win a vacation to the Bahamas!

It is a multi-week summer themed photo sweepstakes with instant win prizes, enter HERE. 

Win a trip for four to The Bahamas and a professional photo shoot so you’ll remember your vacation forever.  All you need to do is upload your favorite photo and caption based on the theme of the week.  Get a gift from Shutterfly just for entering! You can enter at any point during the 5-week sweepstakes period.

PHOTO THEMES
•       Week 1(7/9): Americana
•       Week 2 (7/16): Great Outdoors
•       Week 3 (7/23): Water Fun
•       Week 4 (7/30): Sports & Activities
•       Week 5 (8/6): Parties & Celebrations

PRIZES
•      Instant win prizes just for submitting a photo!
•      Weekly prizes (contestants can enter one time/week)
•      Weekly featured photos: up to 5 weekly entries will be selected from the gallery and featured on the Facebook fan page and awarded a $500 gift card on Shutterfly and a copy of the new Lonely Planet travel photography book.
•      Grand prize: trip for 4 to Bahamas, 4 nights, family photo shoot

Shutterfly Sweepstakes Official Rules

Melted Crayon Art

The girls and I normally spend Fridays with my dad - we call it Poppa Day.  Miss A loves getting to spend this time with him and looks forward to Fridays all week long.... and I love having a little help with A and N, plus I love spending time with my dad.  Last Friday, we did a backyard art project during Poppa Day.  We made a melted crayon canvas... I am not sure who ended up having more fun - Miss A or me.  ha!

It was easy to do didn't cost much at all.  (I also got to play with my new toy, so I had some fun taking pics of everything. If you have any great DSLR tutorials, please pass them along!)

All you do is hot glue Crayola crayons along the top of an art canvas and then let the heat from the sun work some magic.  I propped the canvas up using a flower pot and made sure to cover the picnic table with newspaper. 

It took about 45 minutes, in the heat of the day, before anything started to happen.  We had actually just stepped outside to check on it when the first crayon melted down the canvas.  And once the crayons started melting, it only took about 45 minutes until we thought it was done. 

We carefully moved it to the shade to dry...

I thought the little "rivers" of brightly colored melted wax looked really neat, so I snapped away...

Now, all I need to do is made room for it on the gallery wall in the game room.

Shabby Chic Dresser

Looks like I took an accidental little hiatus .....  oops.  Life with 2 gets super busy, and before you know it, 2 months have gone by and your little ol' blog has cobwebs on it. 

Last summer we transitioned Miss A to a big girl room - she got a new room and we kept the nursery the same for Baby N. I had an idea of how I wanted her room to look and I am pretty pleased with the finished product.... It is a shabby chic, feminine and full of refinished antique furniture.  I am waiting on a couple more pillows to be made, but in the meantime, I thought I would do a post on refinishing her dresser.  Yes, big and pregnant and in the heat of the summer I was sanding, painting and working on transforming a beat up antique dresser to a perfectly polished piece.  I also refinished her bed and a little chair. 

Here is the dresser before:

I bought the piece from Gypsy Soul Interiors.  (If you are in Texas or Alabama and want vintage furniture - she is your gal. Check her out here.)

My first step was to lightly remove all of the hardware and drawers and lightly sand the entire piece.  Once I was able to get some of the old paint off, I was better able to see the areas that needed some extra TLC.   I am sure you can fill holes and scratches and then prime, but whenever I refinish pieces, I prime and then fill areas with wood filler.  I am pretty detailed in this step - why put all of this time and effort into a piece if you are still going to have little dings and scratches?

I worked on the top of the dresser....

Corners....

Filled in the old hardware holes in the drawers....

And used lots of wood glue and putty on the door...

I also removed the old feet and added these new wood ones.  I love how these look with the rounded lines on the bottom of the legs. 

After all of the wood filler and wood glue was dry, I sanded the entire piece again to have a super smooth painting surface.  Tip - After sanding, wipe down the entire piece with a tacky, glue like cheese cloth to remove all of the dust.

I did 3 coats of paint - semi gloss Benjamin Moore Decorators White. After each coat of paint, I would lightly sand with a super fine grit sand paper and then wipe down with the tacky cheese cloth.  All of these steps take quite a while to do, but it really results in a professional looking piece of furniture. 

Once everything was painted and sanded for the last time, I did a coat of satin polycrylic on everything.  Had this been going in an adult room, I might have just done the top of the dresser.... but, since it was going in a little kid room, I decided to do it all. 

Since I had filled in all of the hardware holes, I had to drill new holes for new hardware.  This part stressed me out - I had done so much work, I was afraid of messing it up.  Thank goodness my dad helped me with this part.  I was too chicken to drill the holes - I just didn't want to screw it up! I used clear, green glass handles for the drawers and clear, green glass knobs for the door. 

 And, here is the finished product! I love how it turned out.

Mini corn dogs

Feeding a toddler can be a difficult thing.  (Is a 3 year old still considered a toddler?  For the sake of this post, lets go with yes.)

I know that Miss A would eat macaroni and cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I would let her..... and some days, she comes pretty close to that.  I now buy the Kraft veggie macaroni, so at least she gets some veggies that way.  But other than mac and cheese, I can always count on cottage cheese, fruit and some veggies to make their way into her tummy.  Meat has now become the kicker.  Other than CFA nuggets and chicken fajita meat, she is not a huge fan, so I am trying to come up with creative things for her dinners. 

Last night I made her mini "corn dogs" and she gobbled them right up. I used canned biscuits and mini turkey sausages and baked according to the biscuit directions.  It made about 20, so I have plenty for the next couple of days.  This would even be a fast thing for a breakfast on the go. 

What are some things your toddler loves to eat?  Give me some new ideas!

Hey, Stevie - Vol 2

It has been a while since I did a "Hey, Stevie" post.  Miss A still is in LOVE with Steve and he tolerates her affection about 90% of the time.  And when he get annoyed with her, well.... most of the time she probably had it coming.  :)

 A Bears headband and bracelets as earrings.  Stylish.

 "Stevie, are you cold?"

 I did not buy this shirt....  But, I am ok with her wearing it because she still knows to cheer for the correct team.  Go Mavs!  Go Dirk!

 Froggy panties.

 Steve likes to visit the farm.

 And watch Bob and Larry DVD's.

 Sunglasses are always a popular accessory.

 "Hey Stevie, want to check your email?"

He looks like he is wearing a bowtie.... it is a headband.

"Hey Stevie, look... it lights up!" 

Strawberry Dora shampoo

Last night when I was putting Baby N to sleep, I just sat there holding her for an extra 5 minutes.... breathing in that intoxicating smell of freshly bathed baby. There is something about that scent that makes me want to move to a farm and have an entire litter of babies. But then I snap back to reality. I realize that my baby is almost 6 months old. I try to freeze this memory into my mind. Pretty soon the baby shampoo smell will be replaced with strawberry Dora shampoo and she will no longer fall asleep in my arms.

But then something else pretty wonderful happens. That big girl will run in from playing with bubbles in the backyard, wrap her sweaty and dirty little arms around my legs and say "mommy, I love you all the way inside my heart."

And before she runs off to start playing with stickers or books, I make sure to wrap my arms around her and tell her that I also love her deep inside my heart. As I am doing that, I take in the smell of strawberry Dora shampoo, sweat, and the smell of a little girl that has been playing outside all afternoon. I also want to bottle up that sweet, innocent smell and never forget it.

Life with a 3 year old and a 6 month old can sometimes be pretty hectic, but all it takes is a whiff of a sweaty ponytail to remind you that unloading the dishwasher can wait.

Grass Worm

Over the weekend we went to a Living Green Expo.... I am all for recycling my wine bottles and Land's End catalogs, but mainly we went to see the Bubble Lady. This lady was incredible - I am not sure who loved it more - Miss A or us. And in case you were wondering, Joy dish soap is the best for making homemade bubbles.

After the bubble lady, we checked out some of the exhibits. They had some really cute children's booths and Miss A made some fun little crafts. My favorite was a grass seed worm made out of panty hose and rubber bands.

We go out and water the worm every afternoon and she can't wait for it to start growing.

I think this is such a fun idea, I could see making these every spring or even making them as a fun birthday party project.

Miss A turns 3!

Miss A had her 3rd birthday party a couple of weeks ago and we had a wonderful time celebrating our precious girl!  Her party was held at a big McDonald's and all of the kids were able to play in the huge play area.  The food was provided - all I did was make the decorations and bring cupcakes.  It was a prefect setting for a bunch of rowdy 3 year olds! 

One of her favorite books is Olivia the pig, so it only seemed right to throw an Olivia themed party.  Black, white, red, polka dots and stripes were everywhere. 

A good friend designed the invitations and I made the address labels and star stickers. 

Since the party took place inside the play area, there was not much I needed to do for decor.
 

You can't tell in the picture, but the letters on her name banner are made from red glitter paper.

Here is the main table. 

I made all of the cupcake toppers. 

All of the other tables had Olivia coloring pages, as well as McD crowns. 

And the basket of favors. 

As far as a family picture, well.....  the birthday girl was too excited to pose!