A Reason to Celebrate
Jordan in pink, Talia in Tye-dye.
This past Friday the girls turned 18 months. It’s a big milestone in the world of a baby and for new parents and I always love a reason to celebrate. So on Saturday we had some friends over to enjoy the day and for an afternoon snack the girls got a birthday “cupcake”. The cupcake was actually a fruit and veggie muffin topped with whip cream and a bit of rainbow sprinkles. Talia ate the sprinkles one by one and not much of the muffin. Jordan licked all the whip cream off and ate a bite or two of the muffin The girls friend Livia was over so she joined in the half birthday fun, she finished her whole muffin!
She was also the only one that would wear the birthday hat. Her mom also brought the tasty muffins. I did try them, they are very good.
It was low key, but fun none the less and a memorable way to mark the occasion.
Happy half birthday sweet girls you are getting so big so fast.
Happy Purim – Chag Sameach
Happy Valentines Day
I hope that today is special for you, however you want to make it special. If you like a dozen long stem roses I hope you get them, if you like diamonds, I hope you get those, if you like Chocolate (like me) I hope you eat some and if you like heart shaped candy with cute sayings I hope you get lots. I like valentines day because it’s another reason to tell the people in our lives how lucky we are that they are in our lives.
I love my husband, he is my cool dude. We may have our not so loving moments but I never stop loving him. He is so good at little surprises. One of my favorite things he does is set up my coffee mug in the morning, so sweet. Thanks Baby.
Then there are those sweet little people that make us smile and laugh every single day. It seams almost impossible to love them as much as we do, but we do, every day more and more.The Girls helped me with our very simple but very festive Valentines decoration this year, paper hearts garland.
And is it really Valentines day without a heart shaped food, I think not.
I made it, well actually my husband did, using a heart shaped cookie cutter, please note you must spray the inside of the cookie cutter with non stick for this to work, cooking tip is also thanks to my sweetheart. Thanks Babe.
There are a few people that we want to send a big loving hug to today…Nana, Grandaddy, Safta, Saba, Doda Cilla, Dod Ben, Aunt Tracey, Uncle Sammy, Aunt Mindy, Uncle Bryan, Liliah, Elizabeth, Jacob, heather, Baxter, Colby, Guage, all of our aunts, uncles and cousins and all of our dear friends who are always there when we need their support and friendship and who always amaze us with their generosity and loyalty.
Here’s our virtual Valentine for you!
Happy Valentines Day We Love you.
‘Tis the Season – Cookie Swap
I went more than 30 years of my life never knowing what a Cookie swap was, I wasn’t even aware that such a thing existed until two years ago when I attended one of these events with my good friend Jennifer. It was a quaint little event at a friend of hers house. There were about 10 women, we had wine and dips. Then with a Tupperware in hand, we circled the table taking two cookies from each platter and continued until all the cookies were gone. We each left the swap with a nice assortment of cookies about 3 of each kind. Cookie swap events have been going on for over 70 years, and probably longer in some form or another. Traditionally it is a pre-Christmas get together with the purpose of coming away with a variety of cookies to serve to your Christmas day guests.
Last year I totally goofed when I posted this about the cookies my sister was planning to make for the annual cookie swap she attends. This event is more like a competition of the baking wolves, there are winners for the best tasting 
and best looking cookies, 
so it is important that cookie plans stay under wraps until the big reveal.
After last years exposed cookie plan debacle I asked if I could attend this years annual cookie swap, I wanted to make some cute confections and see what all the hype was about. Conveniently my sister forgot to invite me, until the day before, humm, I think she was covering herself this year, to make sure I didn’t ruin it for her again. I can’t really blame her, these things are not easy to get over. But it worked out to my advantage. She baked enough cookies for both of us to participate and I just had to show up! With camera in hand I arrived to what I will forever remember as the greatest cookie swap known to the south.
This event was not just about yummy and cute cookies, no, it was about much much more. It was about delectable tasty treats, it was about awesome displays of creative and culinary genius, even those who were not able to win a prize because of their cookie swap organizational ties still when all out to create good enough to be the winner creations.
There were cookies for every category,
Traditional
Non Traditional
Beautiful
Fun and Festive
and then they was the just plain delicious, like the chubby hubby cookies, here’s the recipe! Add melted chocolate icing for extra yumminess.
Some of the cookies were displayed in elaborate settings to showcase the theme, like this knitting themed collection of cookie button and yarn cupcakes.
Then there was the elaborate and exquisite maj jong cookie display. 
If you are not familiar with the Chinese tile game, here is a picture of a real maj jong set, the bakers did an amazing job!
Everyone left with a nice assortment of cookies to good to eat. But I am sure they did. And here’s a helpful tip I earned. When you get home, separate the cookies into individual containers or plastic bags, otherwise they all taste the same in the morning.
Another year
I’m not a big birthday person, I really never have been. I just don’t like that on your birthday everyone asks “how’s your birthday?” “Are you having a good birthday?” And you are expected to say yes. Well what if you are having a bad day?! Maybe you woke up with a headache, or the outfit you wanted to wear just didn’t fit right, or anything? What if it’s not a good day, then you have to tell everyone “no, I’m not having a good birthday” and they think you are just a grump.
None of those things happen to me. My birthday was yesterday and I am happy to report it was a pretty good day.
I wore my new shoes from Sole Society and I love them!
And I got some pretty nice gifts.
Like this little piggy from fruitflypie, from my sisters.
The beautiful flowers above from my in-laws. And some yummy perfume and a chocolate cake from my husband.
We also asked our nanny to stay extra late so we could enjoy dinner out with friends.
We went to VG Bistro in Roswell. The food was excellent, but I would suggest passing on the desserts. .
Instead stop by the Krispy Kreme down the road. All in all it was a good birthday. There was no embarrassing awkward surprise party at work (I’ve been at my same company for five years) So I was quite relived by that. I got a grand total of 118 happy birthday posts on my Facebook time line, 1 Facebook message, 7 emails, 14 text messages, 2 ecards and 2 paper cards. I feel very loved. And my girls danced for me while Yael sang happy birthday in Hebrew. I think they we’re confused as to why there were no toys.
I never thought I’d be one of those women who lied about their age, but it turns out I am. From here on out I am 32. Until I’m 60, then I’ll turn 50.
Thanksgiving Day
I love Thanksgiving, it’s probably my favorite holiday. 
I love it for several reasons, since its not a religious holiday there are no services to attend. It’s not that I mind the services, it’s just nice to get to spend the whole day off enjoying free time with family. And it’s a great excuse to dress babies up in their fancy dresses from Safta. They are from Zara (similar here).
Another reason Thanksgiving is a favorite of mine is because we spend it out in the country at my sister lake house, which is beautiful and relaxing and always one of my favorite places to be. OK, its not exactly out in the country, its more like a country club, but the town is far away from a big city. 
Then there is the fact that Thanksgiving is always within a week of my birthday, so I always get to celebrate my birthday with my family.
And last is the deserts! 
I love pumpkin and pecan pie, whip cream in anything is perfect and there is always enough chocolate left over to last for days. The actual meal is always tasty too, but it’s the deserts that keep bringing me back each year.
So that’s a wrap for thanksgiving 2012, let the games be watched.
I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving and spent it in company that you enjoyed. I hope you ate enough gravy to last you until next year and I hope that each day you remember that you can be thankful for the people who make your life special.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Family and Friends
Just want to share some of my recent favorites from Instagram. I am gearing up to make my first Instagram book using Blurb. I have almost 700 photos I’ve instagramed, I think probably 600 of them are of the girls. I’ll have to cut some, it’s not going to be an easy task.
I love this one of Jordan on the slide. Without socks on she can climb up to the slide platform but doesn’t quite understand that she can fall off so we help her once she reaches the top to safely get down the slide.
Talia isn’t as into climbing, she would rather us just put her on the platform and help her down the slide.
Talia learns a new trick from Mommy.
Jordan’s technique for going down the steps.
Teddy seams to be shrinking
My little snuggle bug, Jordan
Present from Abba
Lovely love
A southern wedding, my childhood friend got married this past weekend in my hometown. We had a great weekend playing with our girls, celebrating Dori and her new groom Brian and seeing lots of friends and family.
And lastly for today, Abba little snuggle bug, Talia. Yes, they all said it would happen, one twin prefers mommy and the other daddy. Thus is the case in our house.
Halloween with one year olds!
We had such a fun night celebrating Halloween with our girls and our friends. Our good friends were so sweet to host the get together at their house. The fun started around five getting everyone into their costumes.
We had our two little watermelons of course,
then there was Ragedy Ann
and a little snow bunny. 
My sister stopped by with her kids to see the girls, it was a fun surprise. My niece was Repunzal and my nephew was a sumo wrestler.
Once the rest if the dads arrived we gave the kids some snacks and headed out.
Livia’s grandma made sure to take about 1000 pictures of her dirt granddaughter.
but she better get more iCloud storage for next year because she will have to take 2000 pictures!
There weren’t too many trick or treaters out before sunset but to was fun to take an evening walk with the girls since its not often we get to do this.
But it was fun to walk around the neighborhood and look at all the decorations.
the girls had fun discovering pumpkins
and meeting Superwoman (this is our friend Alex, but I’m not sure if the girls recognized her in her costume)
After the trick or treating fun we headed back to our friends house and all had dinner together.
Once the babies fell asleep we ate all the candy they collected.
AWESOME
A Birthday Party Favor
Thinking of a birthday party favor for one year olds is not an easy task. It’s not like you can give them a bag of candy and send them on their way. I wanted to give the kids who came to Talia and Jordan’s first birthday something they could and would use, in some form now and to play with for years to come. My goal was to give the birthday party a vintage shabby chic theme I thought chalk boards, like the ones kids use to use in schools way back when would be a cute, fun, useful and theme appropriate gift. I found these really nice wood framed 5×7 chalk boards on Walmarts website,
but they were unavailable for order and I couldn’t find a Walmart in town that carried them. I’m sure if I had actually gone to Walmart to find them I could have eventually, but with early fall being my busy time at work I had no time to be diving around running errands of any kind. I made it an absolute goal in planing this party to order as much as possible online and have it delivered to my door.
Eventually I found these, faux (plastic)wood framed chalkboard sets complete with two piece of non-toxic chalk and an eraser from Oriental Trading, a dozen for under $10, perfect.
When they arrived, I understood why they were so, um, inexpensive. The faux wood was orange, very orange, it looked nothing like wood. But the party was in two days so I made due. I unpackaged the little chalkboards.
Used some twine and a handy glue gun to give them a rustic feel. I cut a piece of string about 10 inches long and glued each end to “back” of the top edge of the chalk board frame. These chalkboards are double sided so either side can be the back.
Then a friend helped me write all the kids names on the chalkboard signs. Thanks Teresa!
I created some cute little tags and tied them on with the chalk and the little sponge eraser.
I love how they came out. For an inexpensive but fun party favor I think they were perfect.
If I had had more time I would have like to have painted the wood frames with the same heirloom white paint I did the dresser in. Next time.
DIY shabby chic refinished dresser
I worked really hard to plan and organize the girls first birthday party.
The planning started in my head when they were about three months old and really reved up after I got home from celebrating my best friends bridal shower a little more than a month ago. I started by creating a Pinterest board with ideas I liked. At night after the babies went to bed I worked on small craft projects that would add to the over all of the party.
But my big project that I had no idea how long it would take got started only two weeks before the big day. The shabby chic chest of drawers that was used for the desert buffet.
I purchased the dresser just after we moved into our current home, the plan was to refinish it and convert it into a bathroom vanity for either our master suite or the guest suite downstairs. But I wasn’t in any condition back then to be refinishing furniture and I wasn’t about to let anyone else touch my $75 Craig’s list treasure.
So in the basement it sat and collected dust while it awaited its new fate.
Fast forward a year and half, I found this inspiration. And knew that the dresser would be the perfect fixture for a shabby chic/vintage birthday party.
It wasn’t the best Craigslist find ever. $75 was kind of a lot to pay for this piece. It had several layers of paint on it and no drawer pulls,
Some of the front panels of the drawers were separated from the edges and a few of the drawers don’t close completely.
All the rails need to be replaced. And now I am thinking to myself, why did I buy this piece?
This is why! It was begging for a new life as a pretty little thing that would hold lots of other pretty things!
Getting it to look like it does now was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.
First I sanded the surfaces. I used an electric sander with 80 grit paper on all the flat areas
And an 80 grit sanding block, which is more like a sanding sponge, on the curved and detailed parts. When I was finish sanding I decided to use the gas powered blower to get all the dust out of the garage. Don’t do this, it just made a bigger mess. The dust just blew around the garage and the fumes got really thick and even went inside the house. Letting the sanding dust settle then sweeping the next day would have been much more effective. Although using a blower is a lot of fun.
The next step was to paint it. I chose To use spray paint because it is quick and easy. And since it may get repainted another color one day there was no reason to spend a lot of time on a heavy paint. I chose Rustoleum Satin heirloom white.
i used a total of four and a half cans for the dresser and all the drawers, inside and out.
I got this handy little attachment as well, it’s a comfort grip esiecially for spray painting.
It attaches easily to the spray can and makes dispensing the paint like pulling a trigger rather than pressing a button.
No more cramped fingers, no more paint stained fingers. For a project like this its well worth it’s $9.50 price tag.
I waited a full day for the paint to dry really well then used the same 80 grit sanding sponge to sand the corners and edges to give it the old shabby worn look. Because of the many layers of color that were already on this piece, this little effect worked better than I even imagined. I found these pretty glass drawer pulls online for just over $5 each, it was the absolute least expensive I could find fancy drawer pulls. I’m really happy with the pink.
there were already holes in the drawers but they weren’t spaced correctly for the drawer pulls that I got so I had to fill the old holes and drill new ones. I did this even before I sanded the piece using Elmer’s wood filler.
But as you can see my wood filling skills could use some improvement, luckily the imperfectness just adds to the shabbiness of the look!
In order to drill the holes in the exact right place I needed to mark where the holes would go. These pulls made it relatively easy to do because the bolt that attaches them goes all the way through. I just needed a pen or pencil that would fit all the way into the hole. My solution- an over extended piece of lead in a mechanical pencil.
I just had to be careful, but it worked perfectly.
drilling the 12 holes and attaching the 6 pulls was finished in about 20 minutes.
Over all I am really happy with how the piece turned out.
it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I originally thought it would be.
I learned a lot from the process and now I have the confidence to tackle another piece, maybe one that will have a little more permanence in our home.
My advice is if you are intersted in refinishing furniture find the least expensive piece on Craig’s list that will give you the look you want and “practice” them there is no stress about wasting lots of money when something doesn’t turn out as planned.
I have a bunch of chairs stashed away that I have collected over the past few years, yes, I have a chair addiction. I hope to repaint, refinish and reupholster them in the months to come.
Ill keep you posted!
