Our love is MAGICAL...

I don't know about you but I love Dollar Tree. I get so much inspiration from there. I made a trip last week to pick up a few Valentines items and came across these fun games in the toy section.

I knew when I saw them I had my next date night plan! And all for $3! Who can beat that?!

I created an invitation and placed it in his mailbox for him to find this afternoon. I left it very general because I wanted to make sure YOU could use it also. He knew tonight was date night so this was just a hint of what to expect!

Download Here

I set the scene by dressing in a black skirt and white button down to look like a magician. I laid out all of my Dollar Tree finds on a tray from my kitchen.

I preformed two of the tricks, the top hat and the boomerang illusion. For the top hat trick I pulled out a "Lover's Coupon" for him to have and use. And it is another one that you can print as well! 

Download Here

Then we took time to learn some of the tricks together. It was a short date because my sweetie wasn't feeling well but I am happy with the way it turned out. I am learning that any amount of time spent together without technology between us is time well spent!

***Please let me know if you try to use these. I have never uploaded anything to be printed and wasn't sure where/how to do it!***



Project Life Eye Candy

So, while I am anxiously awaiting the rest of Project Life to come in stock I have been exploring the internet for accessories to go along with my outfit of journaling cards and photo's.  Here are some lovely things I would like to add......

This cutie of a date stamp is from Dear Lizzy. I just love the pink color and sayings along the side.

via

And this camera would be perfect to snap a quick photo while on the go. I have seen several people post about it and now I want it! I remember having an Polaroid i-zone in my teen years and loved it. I still have some of the photos taken on it!

While I have been awaiting the blog post that the pockets are in stock I have been using OhLife to help with journaling. After you sign up they send you an email each day asking "What happened today?" You just reply to the email and then can go back and see what you did for that day.

What are some of you best accessories for Project Life? I would love to hear of them.

I am linking up with Jessica at Project Life Tuesday!

Exercise

Well y'all, I am jumping on the bandwagon. The one that is.....




I saw the picture below a while back and have had it in the back of my mind and with the inspiration from my friend, Jenny I am going to do this!!

I am hoping to tone just like this picture shows.  I don't feel I really need to loose weight just tone up some spots. Such as the "pooch", my arms, legs, and tush!

My main reason for wanting to do this is to be healthy. I want to set a good example for my daughter. As of now the only activity I get is chasing her around! I am starting Zumba this week and if that goes well I may join the gym.

One of my down falls is not drinking enough water. I don't drink a lot of drinks, I just don't drink at all. So this weekend I splurged on a Camelbak water bottle. I figure that might help me want to drink more.

I also have a hard time cooking. Dinner isn't so bad but I never know what to fix for lunch. If you have any healthy suggestions please share!

I am going to do a weigh in and measurements on Wednesday so I will be sure to post them. I am off to search Pinterest for recipes!

A Very Hungry Birthday

Hi y'all! I hope everyone had a good week. Today I would like to post about my daughter's 2nd birthday party we celebrated back in November. I found so many ideas online 

throughout my year of planning and would like to share them with you. Hopefully I can site each place I found ideas. WARNING This post will be very picture heavy!

This was the invitation I made on my Silhouette. The wording was a combo of several invitations I found online. It said... We can hardly believe another year has passed, our little caterpillar is growing so fast. Please join us at the Bowers cocoon on Nov. 12 to celebrate Tempe's 2nd Birthday. We hope you are hungry for some fun.

I worked all day the day before cleaning and setting things up. That was a plus to having it at our home, I was able to have things ready the day before so that I could enjoy the day of.

Sorry it is blurry! I will change the picture each year and hang for her birthday month!

Guest were asked to sign her birthday book as they entered.

Antenna headbands for guest to wear.

This is the food tablescape. I hate that the photo is so dark! I was running around taking pictures as people were coming in.  I had food to represent each page of the book. I would like to have had it in order of the book but to use the dishes and space I had that didn't work out. I will try to site recipes as we go.  All food labels were found here. I am so thankful to Rachel for making these available for FREE!

These were so yummy! Mini ice cream cones with a marshmallow stuck in them and dipped in white then milk chocolate. Added a few sprinkles and a skittle. They were a great hit!!

http://www.orientaltrading.com/mini-swirl-pops-a2-5_892-12-1.fltr?Ntt=mini+lollipop

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1613,150160-227205,00.html

http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-cream-cheese-sausage-dip-361663

http://thatssomichelle.blogspot.com/2011/02/fancy-watermelon-jello-shooters.html
I used the above recipe without the vodka! And added chocolate chips as seeds. This was very time consuming. Like 2 hours for what you see here. And not yummy. But pretty!

http://ashleyscookingadventures.blogspot.com/search/label/Family%20Favorites?updated-max=2011-01-06T21%3A18%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=20

Bow tie pasta salad

A lot of the food was prepared the day before. I am so grateful that my mom and good friend came to help me the day of because making those sandwiches was also time consuming! I wanted to cut them into circles and use a tomato as a caterpillar head but there just wasn't enough hours and it would have wasted so much food.

I set the cake up in the kitchen with a paper lantern caterpillar above.

That is her birthday plate that everyone signed at her first birthday.

The cake was made by a sweet friends family member.

And cupcakes for the kids were last minute by my cousin. The head was Tempe's smash cake.

I had games and art stations set up in our playroom, extra bedroom and Tempe's room. (the egg carton caterpillar isn't shown)

Here is the favor table. I go a little overboard on favors. And this is why I always plan a year in advance. With her birthday being in November I knew I would not be able to find the bug kits so I bought them in the spring from Dollar Tree.  The "2" was made simply using cupcake liners and a cereal box. I never could get the 2 cut right!

The children each had a personalized butterfly house with a butterfly/caterpillar lollipop in them. The lollipops were from here. I just tore off the Easter tag. I wanted to use it but it had Easter on it!

The adults took home Caterpillar food (M&M's) and personalized water bottles. I made the labels and then taped them on with packaging tape.

I made a caterpillar banner on my silhouette for each month of her second year photos.

And even had Hungry Caterpillar lotion in the bathroom!!

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at our party as much as I enjoyed planning it! And yes I am already working on her third birthday!  If you have any questions at all please ask. Have a great weekend dear friends!