{Some Lovely Advice}

Life is not always easy, & believe me... it's not always perfect.  There are days that go amazingly according to plan & days when it goes completely off course.  But all in all, it's a great thing to be reminded of a few things.  Who knows... maybe today is one of those days for you, where it's going completely off course & this may be just what you needed to hear.

{Health}

1. Drink plenty of water.

2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.

3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

4. Live with the 3 E’s - Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy

5. Play more games.

6. Read more books than you did in 2010.

7. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

8. Sleep for 7 hours.

9. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

{Personality}

1. Don't compare yourself to others, you have no idea what their journey is about.

2. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

3. Don’t over do. Keep your limits.

4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.

6. Dream more while you are awake.

7. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

8. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.

9. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.

10. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.

11. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

12. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class, but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

13. Smile and laugh more.

14. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

{Society}

1. Call your family often.

2. Each day give something good to others.

3. Forgive everyone for everything.

4. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.

5. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

6. What other people think of you is none of your business.

7. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

{Life}

1. Do the right thing!

2. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

3. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

4. The best is yet to come.

5. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

{My Personal Mantra}

{Bloom Lamp}

Well, working on the house has been an ongoing project & prbably will be for a while.  I am a big beliver in letting the room & time help decorate, meaning I don't run out & buy everything needed & throw it together.  I start with a piece of two that inspire the room idea, then paint & furniture placement, followed by leaning pictures & decor against the wall & moving it around before ever tapping a nail with a hammer.  I move around & change things often before they find a home.  Besides it's your home, as Oprah & Nate say it's needs to rise up & greet you when you come in as well as reflect who you are. 

The kid's rooms have been the focus over the last few weeks.  They are both lacking window treatments & pillows, but the machine has been taken up with {Aidan Grace} orders here recently.  I believe next week I'll be able to get some projects of my own done for the house & the kiddo's upcoming birthday party.  Emma needs her dance bag finished before that starts up in August too.  But all in good time.  After refinishing a dresser & an armoire her room is really coming together.  Her room may be my favorite room in the house... I may just move in:)  Anyway, I thought about doing this lamp shade a while back & it was an easy project so I thought I would share.  Here goes:

You will need:

A lamp of your choice (this was in Kaleb's nursery, we've had it forever) & a plain shade ($5 at Wal Mart).  I would suggest a solid color just because bits of it are inevetably going to peek through, so you don't want some crazy pattern showing.

Some artifical flowers.  These are two pregrouped bouqets from Hobby Lobby, origionally $16 each, on sale half price.  I selected one that has peach tones & one that has pink.  I also bought two small tea rose stems .98 each to fill in any bare spaces at the end.  You will want to use nippers (*shown next) to trim the flowers off of the stems.

LOTS of glue sticks... I used all of these plus ended up grabbing two more from the Sewing Room before I was done & wire nippers or a pair of sharp scissors.

Now you're ready to create your shade:

  I suggest placing your largest flowers first & working your way down in size.  I stuck my little pink tea roses on at the very end to cover up any "bare space" left.  The end result is a super fabulous flower covered {Bloom Lamp}. 

 I think it would be cute done in just petals as well.  But this really just added a little wow factor to Emma's room.  Look how sweet when it was all finished & in her room...

One of my favorite pics of my two munchkins... That's Emma at one week old & Kaleb is feeding her a bottle... he's been in love with her from day one... for the most part:)

Here's a pic of it lit, I love how the light bounces off of the varnished diamonds.

Here are a couple pics of her room with the new armoir done, the dresser is done to match as well, but I will share more pics as I move on with her room.  Her little side table... should I paint it a dark pink or leave it cream... decision, decisions!

{Moo...}

Are these cute or what?!?  I made 'em!

OK, I like to brag as much as the next girl... especially when it's a project and it turns out FABULOUS!!!  Friends of mine may know I really enjoy baking & I like learning new things... so when hubby came home with the Bakerella Cake Pops book  I was excited & frozen with fear a bit.  I had followed her blog & had added the Fan Page on Facebook... but aside from the regualr ol' cake balls I hadn't attempted anything crazy.  Here's Bakerella's 'Cow Pops'

Well, hubby's office decided to do something special for the boss man's birthday & boss man likes cows & hay & all that fun stuff.  My husband being the comic he is... thinks he is, thought it would be comical for me to come up with "cow patty" cookies as well.  So, the end result were Bakerella's Cow Pops & my own little cow patty cookies, or smooshed cake balls covered in chocolate & covered in toasted marshmellows & toffee crunch:)

Here's the final product... not too shabby, & believe it or not, they weren't SUPER hard, they were just plain hard, but completely do-able!  *I couldn't find pink M&M's as Bakerella suggests using so I just colored some fondont & made my own little noses;)

And lastly, the "cow patty" cookies lol!

When I'm not swamped with Aidan Grace {A Children's Botuique} work I tend to bake... well, honestly, baking calms me, so occassionally I need to take a "baking break" just to keep me sane. 

Make sure to check out {Bakerella} for some fabulous ideas &/or get the hubby to get you this book:

PS, If you look at her site, there's a 'Bakerella' shirt & I admit to wearing that too... only to bed... ok, annnnd grocery shopping, yard work, date night, j/k... no date night:)