Playing Catch Up, Cute and Choclatey Girlies, and Maybe 1 Tip for Today

So this is me yesterday when I realized the next day was Tuesday and I had no tips and I completely have forgotten what day of the week it is...

 Then I remembered that all of you are awesome and you come here because you dig my chile. This was actually an expression I used as a teenager.  Is it any wonder I was a geek?  I actually thought that expression was cool. This is my face after I revealed my high school coolness to all of you...

But I remembered that I make being a geek...cool. You know it's true.

So I am good now.  

Moving on...

On Sunday I got a craving for ice cream.  And not any ice cream. I wanted GOLD MEDAL RIBBON ice cream from Baskin Robbins at Dunkin Donuts.  Oh, that creamy vanilla and chocolate goodness wrapped in tons of sticky, gooey ribbons of caramel.  Really, it is a sweet, scrumptious treat that is pleasure beyond reason. 

And my girls agree.

I think Ella felt her girled out t-shirt with a glittery rainbow and hearts needed some edge so she browned it up with some chocolate.  I like it. 

Oh yeah.

On the pants too.

Even the shoes.  Brand new shoes I might add.  But whatever.

And chocolate kisses are always fun too.

So then I got to thinking.  Do I have a tips?  AHA!  I remembered something from the weekend. Cati and I were playing tug of war with her dollar tree hoola hoop (Have I ever mentioned I often lack maturity and good old common sense?) Well the obvious happened.  It broke.

But you know me.  What can I do with this now that it is broken?  So I did this...

A Canopy Made From a Hoola Hoop!

I was so excited!  This is probably already out there but it was fun to imagine I am the only person on the planet to come up with this.  All I used were sheer curtain panels, and some leftover tulle I had.

 I peeled off the ribbon from the hoola hoop and taped the broken part.

 If you want to try this without brilliantly breaking the hoop during tug of war, just take off the ribbon and pull it apart here. Then slide the panels on.

I don't think this should go over my mischievous daughter's crib but I thought it might work on a covered porch or even in the corner of one of the girl's room's as a little reading nook.  We shall see what I come up with at the new house.

What do you think?

Hope you enjoyed this Tuesday's utter randomness!  Hugs to all of you dear friends!

I Have Another Blog!

I have been so busy with packing lately that I have not been blogging.  

The only thing I have to talk about is this move, the new house, and I felt like if I did this too much on my blog (and I already felt like I told you too much as it is) I would start being one of those friends that just talks about one thing every time you saw them. So I decided to just to stay busy and break from the blog.

But the thing is...I always need to vent.  Plus, I am learning so much about this process.  Since we are buying our first home, preparing to do some remodeling (which is so new to me), and basically starting from scratch, I figured I should create a journal of sorts to document this momentous process.

Sooooo..my new blog was born that will strictly be focused on the house, home decor, remodeling, and DIY projects for the home. I am NO EXPERT but I think it will be fun to see what happens.

 

Hummingbird Lane

I am not sure if I will do all the bloggy pizazz with this blog and have a button or fun fonts. It is actually pretty simple.  I just want to document this amazing home adventure.  I have no idea where it will go or if I am even kidding myself that I can do a HOME DECOR based blog. Or maintain TWO blogs. I am not one to easily stay focused which is the beauty of Two Shades of Pink.  I gave myself permission before I even started writing to be random, crafty, talk about my family, my girls, and my faith to give you a picture of me if you knew me in person.

So if you want to check it out, please do.  If you want to stay with me though this whole process then follow along.  I have been pretty overwhelmed with all of this but it always makes me smile when I remember that all of you have been so encouraging and with me through it all.  Thank you so much.

Just click on the the little hummingbird above and it will take you there.

Thanks for being my friends!  You have come to mean so much to me!

Two Tips Tuesday: Guest Post

OK, I am seriously ecstatic to introduce you to Keren.  I can honestly tell you that her blog is like a hug and a cup of tea with a close friend. Also, with that kind of blog title, I was an instant follower. :)

Keren is so sweet, so creative, and so lovely. Her creativity is a merging of simplicity, feminine loveliness with an "I can so do that" ease.  Her blog is wonderful to visit. She is the kind of person you meet and instantly want to be friends with.  Not to mention getting peeks of her off the charts beautiful, baby daughter every once in a while. Honestly, I am just so excited that she is here today.  Please go visit her and give her lots of love. 

 

Hello Everyone!

I'm Keren from Free PrettyThings For You!

Thank You Jessica and Everyone for welcoming me here today!!

I'm a SUPER Fan of Jessica's and I am Honored to be her guest Blogger on this fantastic

2 Tips Tuesday!

 Lets get started!!

 

Tip  1:

 

 As all my followers know already, I am a Mega fan of Martha Stewart and her amazing line of products!  But they also know that I am on a budget and sometimes ...  OK all the time MS is a bit pricey.

So today I am going to show you how to Save $ and get super similar results by Doing It Yourself!

 

 In one of my trips to the ever fabulous Michael's I stumbled upon the new MS Flocking Powders.. they looked So yummy in all their pastel color glory ...But... I had NO CLUE on how to begin to use them or what they were even for!

 

Of course I had to find out so I GOOGLED it and came across this wonderful Blog called Such Pretty Things!!  She had this AMAZING tutorial on how to use them and I fell even more in love with the Powders!

Take  a look for yourself here!  They make pretty paper even More pretty with fuzzy texture! :)

 

Here is how I did my own Flocking Powder:

 

1.  I Started with MS Craft Seam Binding  ribbon I already owned  2.  Used pretty leaf heart punched paper
3.  Cut small piece of Craft Seam Binding ribbon
4.  Unravel it
  5.  Cut it super fine
6.  Collect the  fuzzy powder
7.  Spread glue on desired area
8.  Spread fine fuzz over glued area   -shake excess off-  

and your done!!

Now you have a super cute gift tag ready to adorn a special gift!

Tip 2:

 This is a SUPER easy DIY Tip for you to try next time you want to personalize a gift for a loved one :) 

 1. Peel off the Logo Sticker

2. Choose your Rub on transfer image

3. Rub it on

 

And there you have it!

your own personalized budget friendly beautiful candle!!

 

 

Front                                          Back 

 

If you have any questions or just want to say hello please feel free to do so! 

Thank you again for having me Jessica my dear! Love ya!

Take care Everyone and God bless!

XoXo's

~*~Keren~*~

 

 

Isn't she fabulous? Go visit her and say hello! 

 

Happy Tuesday Friends!

Flashback Friday...on Saturday

People, I really need to get on it. I miss writing. We are living in a sea of boxes and the process is progressing as slow as my weight loss but with a numerous hitches along the way.

BUT...I had an idea to help me stay on top of the blog without actually needing to overcome this blogger's block I am experiencing.  How about revisiting old posts?  Ones that make me smile and maybe you have not read because I wrote them when I had 3 followers and still trying to comprehend what a blog actually was. It will probably not be every Friday but I hope for those of you have only starting visiting me here will get a glimpse of me.  I love to craft, share with you about my faith and family but the heart of this blog is my writing.

So here you go.  This one is probably my very favorite, numero uno post because I literally wrote minutes after encountering this bizarre experience.  Hope you enjoy.

Go HERE.

Easter Photos...A Little Late

I meant to post this Monday and time just got away from me.  I wish I had photos that were  more exciting but I was not on the ball that day plus I kept forgetting to get a family photo.  But my girls are always worth every picture even if it is only the tops of their adorable heads.  They looked so cute and I was so excited Ella was ready to do the the egg hunt this year.

If you notice the above pics, I got their cute, little bonnets from the dollar tree.  I removed the pink ribbon, added my own, and made the flowers from an old bed skirt that I use for scrap material.

Before

 After

The girls love hats.  Which I love because they look so precious and girly. And my hubby told me this sweet story about how his pastor from the church he grew up in always had the women and girls wearing Easter bonnets to stand up so he could ooh and ahh over it. I love that story and since the girls were all for it, I had them wear them.  But did you notice that little piece hanging down on Cati's hat?  She apparently wore out that hat because it started unraveling. Too funny.

After church I made banana cream pies.  I do it each year for Easter dinner. The girls got to lick the beaters.  I always loved that as a kid.

Cati is such a ham.  Takes after her momma.

The egg hunt!  

I bought these cutie baskets at Sam's Club last year and they have held up so nice!  I looooove anything felt so I snatched these up. I use them for different things throughout the year too.

The lollipop flowers worked out OK.  They were much bigger in my mind's eye. Next year, I will cluster them together or make bigger flowers. The kids loved it and that's what matters!

A fabulous day to celebrate our Risen Savior.

Two Tips Tuesday

I am in MAJOR packing mode.  So this may be my last two tips unless any one of you lovely people will graciously volunteer yourself to guest post for me.  There are a few of you I have in mind to ask for help but I am so busy I don't even think I have time to do that.  So today's tips are born of desperation coupled with a desire to salvage anything even if it is merely to post it here.  None of it is new but may inspire some of you as you embark on Spring Cleaning or an urge to purge!

TIP#1:  Other Uses for a Plastic Placemat

 I had this placemat (bought at Target) for Cati because I found myself scrubbing the table for 5 minutes after one of her many meals turned Frenzied Dining Art. It helped a lot but after cleaning it all the time it was showing some wear and tear.  Not to be one to just throw it away, I figured I could use it for something else. Here are two ways I came up with...

 Mouse Pad

Do you like my retro chic mouse? I so looked for our more current one but I think it broke and we had to go back to this one.  Disregard dusty desk as well.

Coasters

TIP#2:  What to do with Mis-Matched Picture Frames

A lot of these frames are great and I have been trying to figure out which stuff will go in the yard sale, donate, or trash piles.  And pictures frames have always baffled me.  Often, they come as gifts in all shapes, sizes, colors and tastes but the photo is the important part!  But I am always left feeling like I am unsure how to make these  look unified. Other people make it look easy (probably many of you) and it was long time coming for me to finally get it. So I decided to throw some of my frames together and give them some new life.

For me, the key was to not be afraid to work with what I had and just change them.  So a fresh coat of spray paint did just the trick. I think I will carry out the unified theme and just do black and white or sepia toned photos.  I am excited to salvage some picture frames and be able to put them to good use in our new home. Now let me go wrap these up and put them in a box.

Happy Tuesday! 

Saying Goodbye to Cati's Room

As promised, I thought I would show you Cati's room before we leave this house that saw the beginning of a family.

Before you come in you need to know that this was the room that we initially readied for the precious foster kids we cared for.  We poured so much prayer and anticipation into this room. Who would have known it was the beginning of parenthood for us bringing our firstborn home in a matter of months?  Below are some pictures of hubs and I painting the room.

I do believe the hubs may threaten me bodily harm once he gets wind of this photo out there for all the webby world to see.  But it is so cute.  This is his "beachy look" stage where he grew his hair long and wanted to buy a jeep to restore.(I am totally laughing right now and I keep hitting delete because I can't stop cracking up).  If you don't hear from me soon, check in on me as I may be trapped under something heavy.  A supposed "accident."

So to soften the blow of this reveal, I have posted this very unflattering picture of myself as well.  Wielding a paint roller and like always...talking nonstop.

This is when Cati occupied the room but I wanted you to see how I stenciled all these happy words around the room like Sing, Cuddle, Hug, and Explore.  We wanted this to be a safe and happy place for these kids.

That dresser was in my apartment during my senior year of college.  I can't believe I bought a kids dresser but I was a poor college kid.  It came with these bright primary color slider things to put on the front of the drawers. Came in handy here!  Those valances are a Kmart special and I have had them forever.  I think they were in my kitchen in my first house.

Cute Cati hard at play and wanting to become one of her stuffed animals.

This is her room now.  
She loves the color pink (I wonder why) and wanted a pink room.  I bought this bedding for a song at TJ Maxx and Cati's sweet daddy painted this room during a weekend Cati and I went away. And see?  Decor on the ceiling.  It is a must.

Her living and kitchen area.  Ha!

Her dress up clothes which are a daily pleasure around here with 2 girly girls. They wear it ALL!

This is the molding around the closet door.  The paint is cracking and it is dirty with filthy zebra stripes where I clean in between the lines. We started a height chart for Cati here and there is no way I am risking wiping it off.  I finally took a picture of it and this is part of the sweet history I am sad to walk away from.

This is a precious doll house she got for Christmas from her grandparents.

As I backed up to take a picture for ya'll, I stepped on the corner and heard a crunch.  Shoot!

Look at this cute thing!  How adorable but look at the door on the right hanging off because I am a klutz.

So then I am fiddling with it to see if I can glue it and I snap it completely off.   

JESS! STEP AWAY FROM THE DOLL HOUSE!  

Cati came up to me later on with the whole door in her hand.  Oh well.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of Cati's room.  I am not sure I can show you the rest of the house as I have been packing like crazy and we are drowning in boxes and chaos.  But I will see what I can do.

But get ready.  I will be asking you fr advice about the new house.  I will need HELP!

POST SCRIPT:  I am a liar, aren't I?  I told you in another post that I have no pink in my decor and here you see it gracing the walls of my daughter's room. And I did say there is almost none of it in my decor.  But come on?  A pink bathroom vanity with pink sinks?  I draw the line somewhere.