Day 2 - Adventures of Jimmy the Elf

When MC woke up on Day 2, Jimmy was sitting right next to her bed, on top of her pink piano watching her sleep! She was so excited to find him when she opened her eyes. I love to see the "magic" on her face as Christmas approaches.

When she returned to her room later in the day, Jimmy was sitting on the piano bench, playing a sweet tune. He had somehow, climbed on to the bookshelf, grabbed a few books to boost him up so that he could reach the keys. MC couldn't believe it...she was laughing uncontrollably!
















Last night, before bed, MC found him sitting in her Princess chair in her Ballerina's lap. Jimmy has become quite the ladies man, and is breaking hearts left and right in our house. He played sweet ballerina right before he returned to the North Pole to report back to Santa.
















I had to have a counseling session with her as soon as he left. She's making remarkable progress!











If you want to see what kind of trouble Jimmy got in to next, come back tomorrow!

Day 1 - Elf on the Shelf

Day 1 - Black Friday

Andy & Sassy gave MC a huge surprise this weekend...an Elf on the Shelf.  It showed up at their house with her name on it.



(What I want to know is what Jimmy plans to do with the contents of the VS bag!)



I spelled mischievous wrong! Oops!

Come back by tomorrow to see the Day 2 adventure's of Jimmy & MC!

DIY Personalized iPhone Cover

I had this awesome iphone cover recently that was the perfect combination of metallic gold and hot pink. Yes, some called me Diva, but that was obviously because they were jealous…right? Well, my cover cracked and wouldn’t stay on. I was without a cover for a couple of days when I was getting out of my car at Panera Bread and my phone slid out of my lap and on to the pavement. (Now, MC congratulates me for not dropping my phone every time we go to Panera!) It shattered into what had to be several bazillion pieces. Now, I am going to stop here and ask you a question…why do you think Apple would create a phone made of glass? Beats me! I remember when the guy was selling me on the iphone at the Verizon store, he mentioned that if I was clumsy, I should probably invest in the Otterbox. I took one look at that thing, and thought, “that looks like a Zach Morris phone, no thanks!” I already had my eyes set on a beautiful blinged out pink & gold case at the mall. Sure, it wasn’t great quality, but it was an eye-catcher!

Well, thankfully, Apple fixed my phone last week, and it is as good as new. Now, I needed a new case. When you want to find the best of anything where do you look, Pinterest, of course! I searched every page of Pinterest for the cutest iphone cover when I found a personalized cover. Anything personalized catches the eye of someone who never had anything personalized as a child. Have you ever seen a set of pencils or a key chain with, Delecta, on it? But, fifty-four dollars for a phone cover, you have got to be kidding me. I finally stumbled across a blog that mentioned a DIY personalized iphone cover. I took one look, and knew that was it! My sister and my nephew’s girlfriend helped us with our Christmas card photo this weekend, so as a little “thank you,” I made them one too. Here is what I did:

Step 1: Order a clear phone cover. (I got mine on Amazon for $1.99)

Step 2: Use the insert that comes in the case to figure out the paper size for your personalized insert.

Step 3: Create your insert using digital scrapbook paper, cute fonts, pics, etc. (I used a digital scrapbook paper from ETSY & my new favorite font!)

Step 4: Print & cut out your insert. (You will need to also cut out the hole for your camera/flash)

Step 5: Put it all together and BAM, it’s that easy!

This is mine. I put a verse, Psalm 19:14, on my cover as a gentle reminder as I use my phone to remember the Psalmist's words. 

"May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in you sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer."

If you decide to create a phone cover of your own, I love to see it, so leave me a comment! :)

Silhouette Necklace

I found a silhouette necklace tutorial on a fun blog called, Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss.  It reminded me of a similar neckalce that I saw at Anthropologie, that I will never be able to afford. I immediately got up and went to Hobby Lobby to get materials...no, I'm not kidding! Living accross the street from Hobby Lobby and Target has been the single biggest mistake of my husband's life!

 Let me say, this was the easiest project I've ever completed! Honestly, the hardest part was cutting the tiny silhouette out. It's amazing to think of all of the creations that can come from this one tutorial. You could take pics of anything and make them silhouettes...pets, children, etc. Endless possibilities! I won't post the entire tutorial, but I will share some tips that I found helpful when I made mine.

First, I took a pic of MC in front of a white door/wall, wearing a black top. (She looks thrilled, huh?)

I used Publisher to change the photo from Color to Black/White. When I changed the color, it left a few white spots on her head for some reason, so I just used Paint.net to fill in the spots with black.

Here are a few pics of the finished project! I added another charm, and I'm thinking about adding two more: an initial and a birthstone. We'll see!

You'll find the rest of the instructions here.

Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear how you customized this project.

What a Clown!

When our sweet girl asked to be a clown for halloween, I was NOT overly excited!


A clown, are you sure? What about something pretty & girly?
No, mommy, I am going to be a clown!
(This was the conversation we had about 20 times before Oct. 31st!)


She told everyone for months that she was going to be a clown. So, I set out to create the cutest clown costume I could think up. I found clown tutu's, but I still wasn't thrilled about the way they looked. My mom and I finally whipped this up, and I was happy with it. More importantly, MC LOVED IT! She wanted to dress up everyday. She was the sweetest clown, and I'm glad she insisted to be one!

The best thing is, it was super inexpensive...here's the breakdown:

* Tulle - 50% off Tulle on the roll at HL ($1.50/color)
* Elastic - $2.00 (HL)
* White Long Sleeve Shirt - $3 (Old Navy Clearance)
* Purple Squirt Flower - $1.00 (Dollar Tree)
* Clown Glasses & Nose Set - $1.00 (Dollar Tree)
* Suspenders - $8.95 (online)
* Tights - $8.50 (online)

We hope you had a great Halloween! Now, let's start planning for some Turkey!!!!

Confessions

The beach has always been my favorite place to be.  I'm that person who goes out at 9:00 AM and is sitting in the same spot at 6:00 PM.  If I lived at the beach, I'd be the one that looks like leather. Don't act like you don't know what I am talking about, we've all people watched! We are actually at the beach right now, Edisto Island to be exact. If you've never been to Edisto, I want you to close your eyes and picture this...sand, ocean, Piggly Wiggly. Ok, you have now seen Edisto Island. You're welcome! On top of the fact that there is nothing here, in late August, there is NO ONE here either. I love that. I love that I can look down either side of me, and see only sand and water.  I actually pretended while floating in the ocean today, that I was on a stranded island, and when I opened my eyes, I thought it was reality.  Don't stop reading because I just admitted that!  While I am confessing, I will throw another one out there: When a great song is playing in my car while I am driving, I will sometimes pretend that I'm in a movie. There I said it!  Now, that I have typed that, I am crossing my fingers that some of you have done that too.  Ok, none of this has any relevance to the purpose of this post.  


The real point to this post is that I have realized while here, that I constantly take for granted God's creation.  I mean, have you ever looked out at the ocean, and really thought about how mighty, how powerful God is? I haven't either...until today.  Looking out, I realized how small I am. God created this ginormous ocean and the beautiful sand, then orchestrated how far the water comes up to meet the land each day. Every detail is simply amazing! Have you ever stopped and looked at your child, and thought to yourself, "Was that child really in my body?" How in the world was she in there?  I went through 38 weeks of pregnancy, three years ago, and I am just now thinking about how amazing that is? God gave us a baby, that grew in my body, and is now a three year old running around asking for an iPad (i won't even get in to that right now)! One more example...I remember the first day that I visited Greenville, I drove in and saw the mountains and thought, this is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. That lasted for a month maybe? I drive home every day, and in front of my face are those same mountains that I saw ten years ago, and I cannot tell you the last time I have actually seen them. It is crazy that a mountain can be right in front of my face, and I don't see it...a mountain! 


We get so busy/selfish with "life," that we miss so many opportunities to worship God, which is why he gave us this life in the first place. I am writing this to myself, that I might now be held accountable to: stop, slow down, open my eyes, and see what God, the creator of the universe, has designed in front of me, and worship Him for it.  Today, let's look around us and worship God for what He has created!

Summer Bucket List #24

I'm checking off items left and right from my summer bucket list. This weekend, I checked off Number 24. When I was making my list, this is the one that I was not sure I'd be able to check off. We just don't get away much now. PMC (Pre Marli Claire), we traveled a ton, and if you have children, you understand why that came to a screeching hault on May 19, 2003. That is the one thing we are working hard to change right now. Matthew had a meeting at Princeton University last week, and our friend was playing baseball in Philadelphia, so we took the opportunity to travel! We had loads of fun, but I am exhausted...STILL! We traveled from Greenville to Princeton to Philadelphia to New York to Washington D.C. and back to Greenville in four days. This was just the first of the many fun getaways to come!

 

First stop...Priceton Univeristy. Matthew had a meeting for work, so I took advantage of the situation, and hung out downtown Princeton.  It was so charming. Wouldn't you know the moment we drove in, I spotted The House of Cupcakes? I am addicted to a show on The Food Network called Cupcake Wars. The House of Cupcakes recently won Cupcake Wars, so I had to investigate! I got the winning cupcake, Espresso Brownie Cupcake with Chocolate Ganache Icing. I know what you are thinking, and yes, it was DIVINE. This place even had cupcakes for dogs, pupcakes. How adorable? I also spent some time in the locals favorite coffee shop for the amazing cappachino that you see. I found a shop full of the most beautiful papers, rows and rows of paper. As I walked in the door, I saw visions of crafts all over our house...Matthew didn't. While he met at the university, I walked around the campus, taking pictures. The architecture was indescribable. You look at the building and think, these have been here for hundreds of years, but in fact, some of them are brand new. They fly stones from all over the world to make the new building look hundreds of years old. (fun fact for your day) While sitting on campus, with my hot pink laptop and hot pink cell phone, I began feeling like I was part of a Legally Blonde movie. Just sitting on the campus made me feel smart, I even joined in on a prospective student tour! Hey, you never know! Overall...a very good day!

Next stop...Philly. We were able to spend some time with our friends Landon and Allyson (and sweet Holden) while visiting Philadelphia. Honestly, that's the only reason we went. Landon plays for the Oaskland A's, and is rarely playing on the east coast. This was a rare occasion, as the A's were up against the Phillies in Philadelphia. We were able to go to the game and hang out afterwards. We enjoyed an amazing lunch with them the next day.  I just love that Holden!  We walked around the city, taking pictures of amazing American history. I'm embarrassed to admit that if it weren't for the movie, National Treasure, I wouldn't have known any of it was there. Thanks Nicholas Cage! Matthew kept insisting that we visit The Philadelphia Museum of Art. When we got there, he said, "Can't you just hear the music?" What? He said, "You know, the Rocky music!" (he is humming it) Apparantly, in Rocky (about the time I fell asleep I guess) he ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art while training for the big fight. Anyway, we saw it! Don't even think that we left Philly without a famous Philly Cheesesteak! We loved Philadelphia, but we had bigger places to go, and more things to see.

 

"Now you're in New York. These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you. Let's hear it for New York, New York!" Ok, I will stop there. I COULD NOT get this song out of my head the whole trip. (Now, you will probably have it in your head all day! Sorry!) I was so excited about our third stop. It was NOT what I expected. We still had a good time, but New York wasn't like the movies. We hit up the major tourist attractions, and then some. I didn't think my feet were going to make it. You know I wore cute shoes! If I had it to do over, I would get me some of those hi-top black reeboks (you know the ones) and hit the streets running. I'm sorry if you own a pair of hi-top black reebok, this was not intended to insult! I've always wanted to eat a hotdog from one of the street vendors, but you know Matthew wouldn't eat one. While we are talking about food, I will go ahead and tell you where we ate dinner...Rockefellar Center. We literally ate on the ice skating rink right beside the water. What did I eat? BBQ! You know I am a southern girl, if I go to NYC and order barbeque. We went from store to store on 5th avenue, without buying one thing! We even went to FAO Schwarz, without buying a single thing. (MC, if you are reading this, I am so sorry! It was all daddy's fault! On a positive note, I am so proud that you can read!) NYC is such an intriguing city with very intriguing people. While in a cab, we started making small talk with our driver. We learned that he was in school to become a doctor, when his father became very ill, then eventually passed away.  He had to quit school to support his family, by driving a cab. He wants to one day save up enough money to complete his education. We assured him that we will pray that he will be able to do just that!  I'd love to make another trip in the fall when the leaves are changing, and the weather is cooler. We'll see!  Until then...Washington D.C.

Our last stop was for Matthew!  For those of you who know him well, you know that he wants to be president one day. By president, I mean, President of the United States. Ok, let me just throw this out there, I AM NOT FIRST LADY MATERIAL! Don't act surprised, you were thinking it too! It was fun standing in front of our future home, The White House, and thinking of the changes I would make. You know, my personal live-in Starbucks barista, shades of pink (my signature color)  incorporated in the interior, and that indoor slide I saw on Pinterest. They already have my garden in the back, but I will need to make sure they have the silver queen corn out there. By day four, Matthew was over me taking pictures, and my feet were over walking. After walking from The White House to the Capital Building, I had enough. I hailed a cab, ok, it was really a boy driving a bicycle cart. I have always felt bad for those guys. I mean, it is hard enough to ride a bike, much less with the weight of two individuals on the back. Apparantly, I didn't feel too bad, because I let him drive us to the monument. It was a ton of fun, but after seeing EVERYTHING Washington D.C. had to offer, I was ready to get in the car and head back to South Carolina. 

So, there it is, Summer BL #24 is complete. Hope you enjoyed the quick recap!