Update 2016

I really fell off the blogging bandwagon! I'm determined to get back up and share so much that has been going on.  The girls are now 7, 5, & 2...as of this past June! :) We did one big party in June and celebrated all 3 of our June babies....I just realized my last entery was April of 2014 so at that time we were awaiting the arrival of Kinley Austin who made her debut on June 26, 2014.  She just celebrated her 2nd birthday 2 weeks ago.   Now that we are a family of 5 things have been more exciting and fun all the time! Kinley was our last piece to the puzzle that is our family and now we are a perfect fit! :)   Below are our most recent pictures from July 4, 2016. Happy birthday, America!

Great Expectations :)

Well, a lot has changed since I last posted.  We are now expecting our 3rd baby girl in June so we are busy working on getting a room set up for Kinley.  Baleigh and Rylie Kate are now sharing a room and Kinley will be in Rylie's old room.  I had it in my head that I wanted to use aqua (with navy for a boy or pink for a girl) well, once we found out it was another girl we got busy! Austin's Mom painted the room and I love the colors! We did 2 walls a darker aqua and 2 walls the lighter color on the same swatch.  It looks great.  My Mom and Austin's Mom went in together and got her bedding on Amazon.  I LOVE it! Below is a picture of the bed and the wall behind.  I wanted to do something like curtains on the wall to frame her bed and I think it turned out really cute :)  We are still working on it and soon I'll get more pictures of other parts of the room.  I haven't decided if I will leave the K or come up with something with her full name yet--that's the K from RK that used to hang there above Rylie Kate's crib :) Until next time....

Fabric Tutu :)

I made these for my girls...I just picked abut 10 fabrics that I liked...I did purple & aqua for my older daughter and then orange and aqua for my younger daughter...so I used the same aquas for both and then chose about 5 of their coordinating color to go along with the aqua.  Here are some pics of how I did it....first I had to cut the material into strips and I used shearing scissors to give it that zig zag look.  I made the strips about an inch to 2 in. across--I varied the sizes.....once I had my strips you can see in the pictures what I did.  I bought one strip of elastic waist band and I used it for both girls...I measured them by wrapping the band around them and giving myself an extra 3 in. and then cutting.  Once I was done I tied the waist band and cut it.

I used the paper towel rolls to hold the elastic after I measured the girls...I didn't tie the material...I just slip knotted it over the band.  Worked great! :)

   

 

Guest Room Remake!

I bought a used headboard through a facebook group for $15...it was black so Austin painted it with Killz (sp?) and then I painted it yellow to match the colors I have in the guest room....here is what the finished product looks like! I love it!! :)

The girls were helping model it after the paint job! They insisted to be in the picture :) 

Finished guest room :) 

"Under the Sea" Birthday Splash

This year my girls were turning 2 & 4 in the month of June so I decided to do a combined birthday celebration.  Last year at Baleigh's princess party she asked me if her next birthday could be a mermaid party...so as sad as it sounds, I've been planning this for 1 year!! :) Below are the pictures of the party and I do have to say it was a grand success! :) the girls loved it and I was so happy with the way everything went.  Thank you Pinterest!! :)

Entry way decorations...the blue streamers are just hanging around the light in the entry way.

Favors for friends :) Instead of goodie bags I bought each guest a pair of flip flops (Old Navy) but I added bows to the girls' flip flops and I created a hair bow for each girl.  Below is the left side of table so you can see the boy shoes in the middle and the pairs for Baleigh's friends on the left...her hair bows had an Ariel in the middle of them.   

Here is the right side of the table with Rylie's friends flip flops...her friends each got a hair bow with Nemo in the middle of them :)  

This is the squid chandelier I made over our dining room table.  Plus you can see the seaweed streamers I created on the walls and the cut out fish I got to make the scene complete. 

Here is an up close picture of the wall decorations. 

I also hung blue streamers in the connecting doorway to look like water.  :) 

Here is an overall look at the food table.  We did Octo-dogs, peanut butter & jelly starfish, a goldfish bar, rice krispy treats, seaweed (grape) skewers...plus more that you can't see! 

Here is the drink table.  We made mermaid punch on the left...sad thing is that it was so cute when it was full & blue...in this pic we refilled the mermaid punch with water...but on the right we called it sea water, but it was just water with fresh cut strawberries & limes. Both were yummy! The mermaid punch was lemonade and blue kool-aid. 

Up close of the sea water. 

Up close of mermaid punch...or water! :) 

Goldfish bar :)  

Octodogs :) We cut them and then boiled them. The kids loved them :)  

Rice cake sea scenes....I just mixed blue food coloring with the cream cheese and spread it on then used a mixed bag of carrots & broccoli to put on each and added 2 goldfish to complete the scenes. 

Seaweed skewers....they were so good that they all got eaten! :) These were just a mix of grapes on each skewer. 

Rice krispy treats with swedish fish.  :)  

Cake!

Another view of cake! 

I got these cupcakes at Publix and asked for 6 choc. & 6 vanilla and I added the dowel and tied fishing wire to it and stuck a Swedish fish on the end :) 

Birthday printable....created by Pinkadot Shop....find her on Etsy for all your celebration needs! 

One of the birthday girls! I made her tutu :)  

We had a photo booth so here was a pic of Baleigh with all the big kid friends :) 

 Pinata fun! My mother-in-law found this Ariel pinata at Party City! :) 

Another pic of the squid chandelier! :) 

Vanilla fishing cupcakes :) 

Birthday girls :) Rylie Kate & Baleigh 

My sweet Baleigh girl is now 4! 

 Photobooth fun with grandparents...I didn't get a single pic where everyone was looking at the camera!! 

Salted Caramel Brownies! (Delicious!)

Salted Caramel Brownies

These were delicious and I found them on Pinterest, but all I could find were pictures of the recipe so here is what I did:

Ingredients: brownie mix, bag of pretzels, jar of caramel, sea salt

Directions: Mix the brownies according to the package directions then pour into baking 

pan (I think you were supposed to save half of batter, but I poured all of it--either works) 

then put a layer of pretzels covering all of the batter. Bake according to brownie 

instructions.  **if you half the batter put the other half on over the pretzel layer. Once the 

brownies come out of the oven pour the jar of caramel covering all of the pretzel layer or 

over all if the brownies....last step: sprinkle with sea salt! Let sit so that they will be able to

 cut apart.  I let mine sit over an hour and they were a yummy gooey mess.  Enjoy!

{Bows, Bows, and more Bows}

So, I recently went to bow class.  :) I can now make my girls bows to my little hearts content...or so I thought! Well, I kind of got addicted and knocked out 26 bows that weekend after leaving bow class...I created another 23 the next weekend and right now I sit at 63 bows created! :) Needless to say, I opened my very own Etsy store! I put my wreaths up and some of the bows as well.  I'm hoping to keep adding crafts that I have made.  Visit me at etsy.com my store is called Somewhat Sparkly! of course!  Here's a sneak peak at some of my creations :) Visit my store please! :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SomewhatSparkly