Stephanie Howell

the sassafras blog hop is still open below!

i’m sitting here all alone, j’s at a social event, the girls are OUT, and i’m recovering from the party today. looking through the photos, i’ve decided that they bring me so much joy…i want to blog them TONIGHT instead of waiting until next week. 🙂

hope you all don’t mind!

harper decided she wanted a “flowers” theme and i came up with the idea of doing a “may flowers” party.

i had fun working on this party for a few weeks. most of the supplies are things i already had.

i thought i’d share what all i did. if you have any questions, please ask in the comments below. i LOVE to share ideas!

lanterns from oriental trading embellished wiht doilies,slice cut flowers,and jbs buttons.

party hats from the party store. decorated with slice cut flowers and 5s and jbs buttons

garland made from fishing line, silk gerbera daisies and daffodils and crepe paper (for the leaves)

 

i decorated the chandelier over the table with pom poms left over from harper’s party last year, fringed crepe paper, paper chains (made with patterned paper in my stash), 5s cut with the slice, and various garlands i had around the house.

an overview of the table. that’s her invitation to the left.

 

cookies and cupcakes from back in the day bakery. i made the cupcake toppers using SC notions, girls paperie embellishments, and toothpicks.

sprite in the bottle, with a flower embellished paper straw to drink out of. straws from shop sweet lulu

i put the cupcakes in a three tier basket in flower cupcake wrappers. i added some faux grass to the basket as well (yes, i really stuck with the flower theme..HA!)

marshmallows dipped in candy and flower sprinkles, another overview of the table

i filled watering cans (from the dollar spot at target) with bouquets and embellished the cans with doilies, slice cut flowers and 5s, and jbs buttons.

flower pinata…sadie was SCARY with that stick!

cute little ones dressed in florals

 

gifts from mama and daddy

 

window decorations made using dollar store flower doilies and slice cut flowers

favor boxes. these are from michaels. i topped them with doilies, gerbera daisies, twine, and tags cut with my slice. i stamped “❤ h” with studio calico stamps.

in the boxes:

flower socks from target dollar spot

flower shaped pot of lip gloss from michael’s dollar spot

tiny flower pot with planted marigold or daisy seeds inside- target dollar spot

flower ponytail holder

2 flower hairclips

 

the pinata goodie bags. these are from shop sweet lulu. i topped them with doilies (also from shop sweet lulu) and 5s cut with my slice (do you sense that i got lots of use out of my slice???)

how CUTE are these flower pots i found at michaels? they matched our theme and colors PERFECTLY!

living room…a pretty sweet dance party took place here. HA!

entry area…martha stewart pom poms, photo banner, favors,etc.

 

i think this banner is one of my favorite things from the party. i found it at the party store, in the fiesta section. it’s made of plastic. i added fabric flowers (thanks ginny!) and photos of h to it to make it a bit more special.

the mantel…lots of h’s and layouts of my sweet girl. i kept the ice cream cone wrapper banner there too.

i had the idea to set up a “party photo booth” outside. i bought a few yards of floral fabric and hung it on the porch.

i set up a basket of accessories for the girls (HUGE sunglasses, beads, mustaches, leis, and a bunch of flower petal headbands and hats) and let them dress up and pose together.

h took a photo with each guest…so fun! we are going to print the photos and send them with our thank you cards.

the birthday girl and her gifts and the look on her face that made ALL the work SO worthwhile.

shirt by amy tangerine

it was hard work. it was. but also REALLY REALLY fun. and best of all? after the party was over tonight, harper crawled in my lap, put her little hands on both sides of my face and said

“thank you for making my birthday so special, mama”.

and i melted. i would do this every day of my life for her.

i love my girl.

xoxo

s

here’s our lately, in photos and a few words:

me and my girls today after sadie’s mother’s day tea. it’s a self timer shot, which means we took 323849283 photos and NO ONE is looking in all of them, and all of them are blurry, but i L❤VE this one anyway. and i love that we found the perfect spot to take photos when j is gone.

miss h on the eve of her birthday. i love her big eyes and the excitement in them.

 

overjoyed at being five.

SOAKING up the daddy time:

 

bike riding,

guitar playing

 

\ 

lizard catching…LOVE h’s face here. she is so me.

 

bday party decorating

 

being entertained by sadie being sadie.

*NOTE* this lipstick is one i bought for the 80’s party last spring. i don’t wear flourescent fuschia on a regular basis. HA!

that’s our now. hope your now is beautiful and blessed.

xxo

i’m up early this morning. my eyes are swollen and i’m exhausted.

but it’s so worth it. what a historical,momentous event.

one of the most evil,repugnant,horrible men in history is dead.

he orchestrated something that changed my life, and everyone else’s lives,forever.he brought our country FEAR. and sorrow. and he was full of ugly black hate.

there are no words for the kind of person he was.

on the other hand, this man…

there are simply no words that can adequately express the pride i have in this man.

there are no words to tell you how much i love my soldier.

just like there are no words to tell you how much i fear for him.

i cannot properly convey the way my heart feels about him.

the way my heart loves every service member in our great country.

they leave. for months, years at a time. they miss birthdays,anniversaries, holidays, weddings, funerals.

they miss seeing their children walk, talk, graduate.

they miss their wives, husbands. many marriages crumble b/c the army (the military) is a powerful mistress.

i had to work for a long time to accept that jimmy loves her. and sometimes i feel like i’m playing second fiddle.

she is his heart.

there are no words to say how grateful i am that men and women are willing to do what he does.

because i never could.

i’d be scared.horribly scared.

so grateful for all of our strong,courageous,steadfast troops.

but that’s not all…there just aren’t any words to tell you the enormity of the gratitude i feel.

there are no words in the english language to describe the anguish i feel for all of the lives lost.

for all of the families that have lost husbands,wives,mothers,fathers,children,siblings…lost a piece of their hearts.

i pray that this brings them some peace. i pray that they know how much they are loved. and lifted up by prayer. and how much i wish i could take some of the sorrow off of their soldiers.

because, after all, if you are a military spouse…this is what you live in fear of.

there are no words to say how that feels.

but today, since i can’t quite make my fingers type the words that will perfectly put onto this screen the way i feel…i’ll simply say this.

thank you. to j and every man and woman fighting for me. for my girls. for our future. thank you.

never have i been prouder. xo

really? almost six months? almost HALF A YEAR? whaaaa?

i forgot how FUN five months is.

they are champ sleepers. three solid naps a day and about 10 hours at night.all my children were/are like this. i am CONVINCED it’s their daddy’s genes.

they spend lots of time playing and laughing and bouncing in their jumperoos.

lucy left,cate right on the lawn at the biltmore..laaaaahdihdah.

 

they are so happy and smiley.

lucy left, cate right

they LOVE interaction of any kind. especially when their big sisters pay attention to them.

 

lucy left,cate right

and they love being in their bumbo chairs right now. usually they face eachother and clasp their feet together. SO sweet.

they are always touching:

cate left,lucy right

 

always cooing, blowing bubbles, shrieking,kicking, sucking hands (sometimes each other’s hands!)

 

lucy left,cate right (for the record, it took a while for me to figure out who was who in this photo)

such good babies. always up for an adventure. such good troopers. they go go go. up a mountain, to a restaurant, in the car, to the stores…

cate left,lucy right

 

and everywhere we go we get stopped. j and i play a guess how many people talked to the babies game.

at the biltmore i had them both in my lap while j took the bigs for a restroom break. when he came back i had him guess and i think he was surprised by my answer of a dozen or so!

but the biltmore is full of people! and they all wanted to know about my girls. 🙂 and i love to talk as we all know.

 

so let me tell you about them.

 

lucy:

   

is such a low key, go with the flow, easy,affable baby.

she’s so content to just play. and smile. and eat.

she rolled a few times and hasn’t been interested since. the size of her thighs may or may not be affecting her mobility.

clearly the girl likes to eat. she’s a big,heavy baby!

i finally took the plunge and trimmed off the horrible comb over she had going on top. now her hair is a sweet,dark,even peach fuzz. i love rubbing it.

she has a tooth trying to get through on the bottom.

is a SUPER messy eater of oatmeal (they eat oatmeal once or twice a week at this point).

loves to be held, especially by her daddy.

gets kicked in the face about 93890980 times a day by her spazzy sister but doesn’t cry about it. she just kind of looks at her like…are you crazy cate??

fits in some of her 9 month clothes.

LOVES sleep. when we put her in her crib she GRINS at us. like “FINALLY! THANK YOU MOMMY!!!”.

loves to bat at her toys that hang from her playmat.

 

cate:

eats like a champ suddenly. can now finish a bottle before her sister, eats her oatmeal like a maniac.

rolls non-stop. this is not an exaggeration.back to front,front to back,back to front. it’s ridiculous.

always arching her back, pushing off of something with her feet, head back…out.of.control.we are convinced that she wants to crawl.

is still very finicky. she likes things a certain way. and that way only.

is drooling so much right now,it looks like she’s foaming at the mouth.

loves to wring her hands.

screams like a crazy monkey when she’s mad.

can still fit into lots of her 0-3 month clothes.

9 out of ten times if a baby is crying, it’s cate. bless her sweet, cranky little heart. 🙂

but she also smiles the most radiant, happy smile.

they both do. 🙂

 

i love them so so so much. it hurts my heart. and it’s so FUN.it’s getting more and more fun every single day.

happy friday!

xoxo

s

hey sweet readers! yep, it’s that time again…time to share my studio calico kit work. the may kit is called lawn party and it’s just as happy,springy,and chic as it sounds.

this month i got the pink lemonade and paper lanterns add-ons. and don’t ask me to pick a favorite b/c i can’t. i love them both equally. 🙂

 

i also got SC patterned paper b/c this is pretty much my favorite SC exclusive paper ever. Doilies,butterflies,chicken wire? HELLOO!!

 

i already owned almost all the shop items this month, so i used a bunch of those too. in addition,i already had several bits+pieces of the other addons,so you’ll se some of those.

 

this month was majorly short on time. with easter, j on leave, vacation…i just didn’t have more than a couple of days with my kit.

 

booo.

 

with that being said, i am super happy with what i did have time to make. i just love spring colors and patterns. spring has always been my most favorite season.

 

here’s what i came up with:

 

almost 5

8 1/2 by 11

made using:

lawn party(patterned papers,alpha)

pink lemonade(rub-ons,ephemera,brads)

clear skies-(border sticker)

shop extras(crate chipboard)

making memories slice&studio essentials cartridge

i know i already mentioned this, but i love the doily paper this month. i sent kelly some images of my vintage plastic doilies and she came up with this awesome paper.

love love love. love it even more since there’s chicken wire on the b side. reminds me of visiting our farm.

this layout is pretty basic. collage style, made using iPhone pics that miss H has asked me to take of her daily ‘ashion.

love the hambly rubons.

 

like a mirror image

12×12

made using:

lawn party

this one is super “graphic/clean” for me and i love it. these photos are so stinkin’ cool and i really wanted to showcase them.

the butterflies reinforce the mirror theme.

 

sunshine

12×12

made using:

lawn party (paper,flags)

paper lanterns (alpha,chipboard accents,border stickers,crepe paper flowers)

happy colors for a layout about a happy girl. i trimmed the crepe paper flower with scissors so that it was smaller and would layer easily on the flower.

 

that grin

12×12

made using:

lawn party (floral paper,alpha,flags,pinked filters)

pink lemonade (black dot paper,lace,mini alpha)

clear skies(border stickers)

shop extras– crate paper chipboard accents

apron lace punch

i love this layout. it feels sort of vintage to me, which i love. i had NO idea what to do with the filters, to be honest. i’m not a crumple them up,dye them, mist them type of gal.

so i just used them sort of as vellum…and journaled on them. easy peasy.

this month we got to choose a SC member and lift one of their layouts. i chose the one below by SusanC.

as you can see i lifted the general design, and i loved the ribbon threaded through the holes of the die cut. i mimicked this by running lace through the holes on the chipboard film strip.

thanks so much for the inspiration,susan. your layout is absolutely gorgeous!

 

huh. looking back at this post i realize i used this piece of crate paper from the main kit:

on every.single.layout. literally. on all four. wow. i knew i loved it but i didn’t know i was obsessed. HA!

 

hope you have a beautiful,blessed thursday!

xoxo

s