Fresh Start

So, I just decided it was about time for me to hang stuff on my walls.  I mean, we have lived here for almost a year.  Get it together, kristen.

Well, I am kind of getting ahead of myself a little.  First, I was home this weekend for a wedding and my amazing mom watched my kids while I had some alone time at anthro where I found some plates I love.  That made me think of hanging the plates I have at home up on the walls.  Since I dont really know where to hang the plates I have, my ADD mind flipped over to the babies room.  That lead me to some really cute, semi-gender neutral knobs for their dresser (that used to be Avery's and still looks very girly). 

The knobs are a little bit girly with the flower, but I think pretty gender neutral overall with the gray cement feel.
So, then I have moved over from hanging things on my walls to hanging things on the babies walls and repainting their dresser. That led me to painting the kitchen and, back full circle, to hanging stuff on the kitchen walls and in the rest of my house. Whew. My brain is a whirlwind.
Since I have the knobs for the babies room, I am starting there with my renovation.
I searched online on etsy for animal sketches and I ended up finding this amazing artist, Sarah Jane Studios, and ordered a few of her prints.  They werent exactly what I had pictured, but I just couldnt pass her up.  They are so cute!

I think it was the boy with the dinosaur and tea party that really set me off.  Aves and Sass love tea parties and ben LOVES dinosaurs.
She also has paper dolls and different cards and stuff

My original idea had been bright colors and a lot of ikea stuff.  Now I really dont know because these pictures are pretty vintage and light colors.
I also love these from rifle paper co.

Here are the beddings from ikea that I like for sass

maybe with some fun or colored sheets.  And ben could do the polkadots with some green or gray sheets, maybe...
then I loved these from land of nod

(sans star pillow)
of course now I just want these orla kiely duvets

I dont know...
I am still searching through bedding and stuff and may end up at ikea tomorrow just buying everything and trying it out.  I am going to paint their dresser a charcoal gray, I think, or maybe the blue color of the birds in the print of the boy and the birds. And their other piece of furniture navy? Or just cream for that one??  I will keep you posted.
Here's to new beginnings.

Horrible News

All of our prayers go out to everyone in Japan, Hawaii and now California.  This earthquake/tsunami is unbelievably scary.  I can not even begin to imagine the horror that they are facing and our heart breaks for everyone.  My cousin Lins lives in hawaii and I am hoping and praying everything in her life is completely fine.  Love you Lindsey, Andrew and Toby, so much.  Really  puts all my dumb worries about laying down to paint on my jeans in perspective.

painting 101

For the last two days Brittany and I have been painting the dancing silhouettes for Ella's party coming up. I learned some very helpful tips after our first day of painting that made day two much much easier.

My first mistake on day one was doing this project while Ella was awake. She of course wanted to be apart of the painting party as well. (which I don't blame her, we were making it look so fun!) So I set up her easel and gave her a brush and some paint. That was good while it lasted (5 minutes) but then she wanted to help paint on my paper...

Day two went much more smoother. We finished all of them while Ella and McKenna both napped and I outlined them in black sharpie first which also made it MUCH faster to paint. 

So today I am on to my next project which is party favors. I am working on a dance playlist with some of Ella's favorite dance songs that I want to burn on blank c.d's.  Bob told me that iTunes doesn't let you burn more than 5 c.d's of the same playlist! What?! Have you guys ever heard of that?  Hopefully thats not true cause that will put a major kink in my plan. 

Cinnamon Bread

We had to do it.  I mean, we had to.  And it was pretty much everything we thought it would be.  Delish.
and the crazies helped me.
First, I made the dough and refrigerated it over night.  Then this morning we rolled it out (and I have no idea how she got it to be 20in!  We worked pretty hard to make it like 15.   It definitely worked, but our final result was smaller than hers).



Then we buttered it and added the cinnamon and sugar mixure. (and not nutmeg because I dont love it)

and they loved that part.

Then we cut it up into squares.

and stacked them.
and loaded them up into the greased pan,

where they started out bigger and got smaller and did not fill the pan.  bummer.  and never rose again even though we put them out to rise.


Then we pulled them out and they were kinda short, but they tasted UH.MAZING.  And then we took them to Jeff so I would stop eating them.
On to make the cupcakes...

Fat Tuesday

Happy FAT TUESDAY guys!!

make this king cake to celebrate!

and then make these peanut butter chocolate cupcakes.  oh my gosh I could die! These look so amazing!!

and did yall see merediths wall?? she is so cute!! and so creative and funny!! and her boys-oh my gosh so cute.

Do yall know about Jane?  

And have yall seen Baker Bliss???  Jennifer has a cute new blog and her nursery is amazing!

And vote Tiffany for fan favorite!! (cause she is. duh)

and I had not heard about CSN until not long ago.  check out their lights.

Stop everything and go make this pull apart bread right now.  I think it really does melt in your mouth! gosh.  and if it dries out you could make bread pudding with it.  

and i love this cupcake stand!

Ok.  Enough of the links.  Be back with some pretty boring super exciting things we have been doing this week!