Lallie

Finally, Lallie's two year pictures have arrived. I got the pictures done at Sears this time around. Photo sessions are quick, get the task completed and pictures two weeks later. I will be scheduling some more professional family photos for November or so, so these will do for now.

She has straight hair in this one!! I know, shocking, right?





I don't know what happened! She went down for her nap and woke up with straight hair. Her hair has always been curly, I didn't know what to do. I fixed it up (she sat so nice and still for me) and had the picture done. When the picture popped up on the camera, Hubby and I both thought, this is not our Lallie. So I quickly put her hair into a pony tail (her preferred hair style) and re-did her pink bow. By the time the shoot was completed, her hair was completely disheveled, but you know what? THAT was our Lallie, so we think the pictures turned out perfect! At least she has her little smirky grin that we love so much!



Here are a couple other pictures. I'm not crazy about the one with the ball, but this was one picture where she was actually looking at the camera and her smile, there's that smirk again!

Winner of the Name My Blog Contest

It's time to announce the winner of the Name My Blog contest. Drum roll please!

My new blog name is Southern Living: Preppy Style sumbitted by Molly Lou Gifts. Ms. Molly Lou has won the tin bucket from Whitney Caroline Designs. Molly Lou, send me an email with your color, ribbon and monogram choices along with your address. It will be on its way to you very soon!

The runners-up are Pretty Personal Gifts and Preppy Mama. Send me an email with your addresses and your pink and green surprises will be off in the mail by Monday!

Thanks for everyone who posted. I had over 60 names, so it was tough to decide but I love the new name and I can't wait until my blog design and tag line are completed for the big reveal!

~ smooches ~

I have great blog friends! Flip Flops and Pearls sent me a homewarming gift and I can't wait to find a place to put them. I had no idea she was a photographer and a faboulous one at that! Look at these prints of wine corks. Aren't they beautiful? She must have known that my new kitchen has copper pressed tiles with a wine motif, so these will match perfectly.



Thanks Flip Flops & Pearls! Hubby and I just love them!

~ smooches ~

Preppy Crafting

Now that we are all moved and my craft room is nearly set-up, I'm beginning to get back into crafting full swing...preppy crafting that is! Completing projects was always difficult in our old house as the guest bedroom doubled as my craft room, but wasn't big enough for a desk. So, when family and friends came to stay, everything had to be put away. That, and I just don't like disorganization, especially when trying to complete crafts on a bed. Think of me like you would the Marcia Cross character on Desperate Housewives: everything has it's place and must be in its place at all times, or the mommywife will go mad! Ask Hubby, he'll concur on this point!

My new craft room is also a guest bedroom, but much larger and will likely not be used much...until baby #2...way far off into the future (sorry grandparents, just not there yet!) I will have fantastic organization and won't have to put everything a way one day just to pull it all out again the next. In addition, my plans include curtains for some of my storage shelves so that on the off chance someone needs the room, I can just snap them shut! I will post pictures when it's completely done (I haven't hung a thing on the walls anywhere in the house yet.)

What will my first projects entail? Hubby, Lallie and I had run to Target this weekend. As you may know, Smith & Hawkins is getting ready to go out of business. I'm not sure what this will mean for the Target line of Smith & Hawkins, but everything was on sale, I think 30-70% off. I saw a few things that got my wheels turning for some possible projects. A couple weeks ago, I had found some great t-shirts that are super comfortable and a style that can be worn to work, for $5.00! I needed one in green, so I went back today to pick one up. I swung through the Smith & Hawkins aisle, and it all just came together, my crafting gears were well oiled and I could just picture finished projects, lots of them! I picked up several for about $25.00 and over the next few weeks, I'll be posting pictures and tutorials for the super easy projects I have in mind. Anyone can pull off these little tricks and I bet some of you will be saying, "hmmmmm, why didn't I think of that?"

And of course....all of them will be preppy (fall preppy that is!)

~ smooches ~

Weekend Recap & Tip Tuesday

Boy, was our weekend jam packed!

Friday night, I cleaned the whole house, top to bottom. Why is this even remotely interesting? Because it was the first official top-to-bottom cleaning of the new house. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I haven't cleaned in a month. It's just been disorganized and disheveled cleaning while we were still unpacking. Now that the home-setup is done and life is relatively back to normal (somebody explain normal to me...please?) I am running through the normal cleaning in about 2.5 hours. That's vacuuming, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, washing down the kitchen, putting stuff away and starting on laundry (while Hubby thankfully and attentively attends to Baby Girl). I also got dinner in there somewhere. Not bad, I say. Now, if we can just work on keeping it that way through the remainder of the week.

So, while we're on cleaning, here's a little cleaning tip for Tip Tuesday: clean your ceiling fans using an old pillow case cover. It keeps all the dust and grime inside without getting everything all over your linens, floor and furniture below. With this tip,fan cleaing is a cinch and done in about 5 minutes, rather than 30! Just throw the cases into the wash with your dish towels and dust rags when you're done! If you don't have an old pillow case, pick a pair of cheap ones up at TJ Maxx or Marshall's on your next outing.

Okay - moving on: Why did I clean on a Friday night when we're just going to be in the house making a mess all weekend? Well, Baby Girl's birthday party number 2 of 3 was on Saturday! We had our friends, Mike and Rachel and their two kids (2.5 years and 10 months) over for a BBQ and pool party. Our friends, John and Michelle stopped by too (we've known John since college, an old buddy of Hubby's). Our other friends unfortunately were very ill, so we really missed them and their two kids. Mike and Rachel, two of Baby Girl's Godparents, got her a Little Tikes picnic table...she LOVES it!!! She also got a bean bag from Mommy and Daddy, some more art supplies from Granny and Grandaddy and several dresses from Grandma and Geezer (the Geezer part is a whole other post - think of him as Grandpa!) Grandma and Geezer will be down in a couple weeks for party #3! She is also received a bracelet and book from Godmother Auntshleigh. Auntshleigh is starting a classic book collection for Baby Girl and the first book is Anne of Green Gables with an inscription from Auntshleigh inside. I think I'm going to read it myself!

Time for another side-note. I received an email from BabyCenter the other day wishing my "Preschooler a Happy Birthday." Okay, since when is a two-year old a preschooler? I'm not ready for that yet! However, I don't think I should call her Baby Girl anymore either. So from now on, I'm going to call her "Lallie." This is a nickname made up for her, unintentionally, by Mike and Rachel's son. He couldn't pronouce her name, so it came out Lallie. Since this is close to her real name, but "no cigar," this is now her blog name.

Back to the weeknd recap - Sunday, of course we went to church and Lallie made it through the entire children's sermon - for the second week in a row!! I'm so proud! However, we did spend the rest of thh time in the cry room. Uggg....we're getting there! I wore my new Lilly shopper's skirt that I recently bought from Hopsy/Kappa Prep. I don't know how she let this skirt go. It is so cute and comfortable, I wore it all day! I usually take my church clothes off right after, but this skirt was just so comfy I didn't want to take it off! It looks sort of like Largo Skirt Lawn Printed skirt currently out in the Lilly line, in lay and colors (pink and green...yes!) but mine is from a year or so ago - it has monkey's in the print which had Lallie screaming "monkey, monkey" over and over again at the beginning of church! So cute!

We also went to Dillard's for the Lilly 40% off sale, where I picked up a pair of white and kelly green embroidered capris. Perfect with pink, yellow or green now and navy for those early fall months. We also stopped by Best Buy to look at a subwoofer or amp thingy for the surround sound system (like Hubby's lack of knowledge of maxi dresses, I have no knowledge of technical things!)

So, there you have it! A day late, but oh well!

~ smooches ~

Blog Name POLL

Okay blogger buddies, it's time to choose my new blog name. I had over 60 entries, so it was very difficult, but these are my favorites: names in which I can add a tag line to describe my preppy working mommy-wife life!

So, which name do you like the best? Post a comment here and on Monday, Friday, August 4th, I'll annouce the winning name. The winner will receive the monogrammed tin from Whitney Caroline Designs with the two runner-ups receiving something from my pink-and-green stash.

As to be fair - I will not moderate the comments to this post. Here they are, in no particular order:

1) Preppy & Perfectly Managed

2) The Preppy Chronicles

3) Southern Living: Preppy Style

Okay - post away!

~ smooches ~

GIVEAWAY!!

Okay blogger buddies....today is your last day for my Name My Blog giveaway. I still need some ideas, so shoot away! No worries - your comments are moderated and will be kept private! For the rules, click HERE.