Prima Ballerina

Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing this little beauty of a ballerina. She was such a joy to photograph. I loved her enthusiasim. She loved posing for me, and because she is naturally beautiful, the pictures came out amazing! Enjoy!

My Life Organizational Plan - Week 1: The Action Plan

How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.
Proverbs 6:9-11


It seems that the past few years of my life have flown by like a whirlwind. I feel so busy that the basic activities are not met. I am planning to homeschool my son next year, while continuing to work full time. Therefore, I feel the need to re-organize my life. I feel that having an organizational plan will perhaps redeem time, prepare me for homeschooling, and most importantly - keep poverty and scarcity far, far away.

I plan to document my progress. Each week, I'll focus on a certain area, in hopes to slowly overcome the chaos of my world.

Week 1: The Action Plan:

This week, I plan to create an action plan. A plan in which will help me find a starting point. That way I won't feel overwhelmed. I find that most of the time when chaos is abounding in my household, it is because I feel overwhelmed. Well, I plan to conquer that feeling this week, as I attempt to draw up my action plan. This is what my action plan will entail:

1. Discover the areas in my life that needs organization.
2. Develop a plan to focus on each week an area within my life to organize, i.e. housework, schedule, time management, budget, etc...
3. Walk through my house room by room, and write down a list of chores that need to be perform to upkeep each room. Then categorize the chores as daily, weekly, monthly, or seasonally.
4. Walk through my house room by room and develop a list of supplies, items, or tools needed to organize each area.
5. Draft the plan in a notebook, include excuses blasters (to blast away excuses that will prevent me from following through with my plan), inspiration for organizing my life (the "whys"), and then the plan itself.

Next week I'll have to follow up with you to let you know how it turns out. We'll also discover the item from my Action Plan that I will plan to tackle for that week. Let me know if you have any ideas for organizing your life. What works for you, or doesn't work for you?

Mother's Day

Mother's Day - The second Sunday in May appointed for the honoring of mothers (Webster Dictionary)

Yes, so last Sunday was Mother's Day - a day in which we honor the mothers in our lives. My son barbecued hamburgers for the first time (with my husband's help). It smelled and tasted wonderful! Well, this was the day before Mother's Day, but I found it particularly sweet, and had to include it for Mother's Day. Our Mother's Day was not a typical Mother's Day. Well, in all honesty, is there a typical Mother's Day? Well, what set this Mother's Day apart, is that my mother was on the other side of the world for Mother's Day. The bright side of this, was I has more time to spend on her gift, as I'm giving it to her after mother's day. The downside, I felt at a loss without having a mother to celebrate with. I am so used to devoting the day to my mother, even once I became a mother. My mother is most deserving of it. She has raised me to be the woman that I am today. She was super mom, always had fresh homemade dinners, fresh homemade cookies and cakes for a snack when I came home from school. She never missed a dance performances or orchestra concerts. She comforted me when I was sad, prayed for me when I was sick, and loved me when I needed to be loved. She taught me how to be compassionate and giving. She is strong, beautiful, and smart. She is my mom, and I can't think of anyone else who could fill that role. I love how God has pieced our family together, from my parents, to my sister, to my husband, and son - even my dog. I think God knew exactly the type of people I needed to be surrounded by just to make it through this life.

Well, Mother's Day was also about my Grandmother. My Grandmother didn't know her birth date - she had three dates recorded for her birth, all around Mother's Day. So, we always celebrated her birthday with Mother's Day. This is the second Mother's Day since her death. I'm still not used to spending the day without her, and now with my mom on the other side of the world (just for this week), it was hard for me emotionally.

Fortunately, my husband was super supportive, and took us to visit my grandmother's grave. He also took me out to a fabulous lunch. We ate so much, that when it came time for dinner, we were still full.

I can't wait for my mom to return, so I can give her the mother's day gift I made her. I have been into making jewelry. Not just any jewelry, crocheted wire jewelry. I suppose you can't tell too much from the picture, but chained crocheted the wire while interweaving pearlized beads throughout. I made matching earrings to go with it. I think it turned out rather nice. What do you think? I am most definite my mom will like it.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!!!

Star Candels

I noticed that I have yet to post any crafts. I worked so hard on making the 36 candles for my sister's baby shower, so I decided this would be the perfect way to break into my craft blogging ;-). Like I said in my post about my sister's shower (found here) It took me 8 tries before getting this to work smoothly. I'd say by the end, I got to be pretty proficient with this candle making stuff. A couple of notes, I noticed that if you are making a lot of candles, it is good to have a lot of molds. The reason I made the candles was 2 fold: (1) because I have never made a candle in my life, and I wanted to try it out, and (2) because I wanted pink star candles for the shower and could not find any that I liked. With that said, it's probably best to start small when you're starting a craft, not intending to make 36 (which actually started out as 40), and for a huge event you are planning (i.e. baby shower). Yes, I was a bit crazy and stressed with this candle making stuff, but it actually ended up being a lot of fun. I got the inspiration from Martha Stewart's Website which had an article on floating candles. I'm not sure if these will float, I'll have to try it.

Supplies:
 Wax (I got the crafty candles wax crystals from Hobby Lobby. I mixed pink with white wax)
 Wicks ( I got the crafty candles waxed wick and wick tabs (3-1/2") there were 10 in a pack)
 Mold of some sort (I used star cookie cutters)
 Wax paper and tape (if using cookie cutters)
 Measuring cup with spout
 Double boiler
 Knife
 Fragrance (optional) (I used sugar cookie fragrance)
 Glitter (optional)
 Cookie sheet (optional, but makes clean up easier)

Pre step (if using cookie cutters):
cut wax paper to cover the bottom of the cookie cutter. I found that cutting the wax paper in a circle works best for the star cookie cutters. I cut the circle to be about a half of an inch larger than the star. I then taped the wax paper to the cookie cutter. I then placed a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet for easy clean up. I then placed the cookie cutters on the cookie sheet.

Step 1: Melting the Wax
 I didn't have a double boiler, but they said that you do not want to heat wax directly on the stove, so I used a sauce pan filled with water, and then floated a smaller sauce pan in it. I then poured the wax crystals in it (half white, half pink), and melted. This is also when you add the fragrance, if you choose to have fragrance.

Step 2: Pouring the wax
I then poured the hot wax into the spouted measuring cup. I then put just small amount just to cover the bottom of the star cookie cutter. The wax tends to leak a little, allowing the small amount to harden a bit before pouring the rest of the wax helps keep the wax from leaking too much from the cookie cutters. This is also a good time to put the wicks in each of the cookie cutters. Pour the rest of the wax in each of the cutters.

Step 3: Glitter (optional)
 Once the wax starts to harden a bit, but still a little soft, sprinkle glitter to make the stars sparkle and shine :)

Step 4: Removing the candles
 Once the wax is completely hardened (usually about an hour,  I usually did it at night, and allowed the candles to harden over night), remove the wax paper. Break off the excess wax. Use a knife to loosen the wax from the cookie cutter, and then press through.

Then you should have a beautiful star candle.

A Very Fairy Birthday

This weekend I had the pleasure of helping my friend with her daughter's birthday party. Being surrounded by all of the boys in my life, I jumped at the chance to help plan a little girl's birthday party. The theme for this party was fairies. It also provided the opportunity to break out my fancy camera to photograph the event. It was a lot of fun capturing the excitement of the girls as they dressed up in their fairy gear.

I had a fun time planning the decorations for this party. I didn't want just any run of the mill fairy party, so we added a little Hollywood flair to it - think Rodeo Dr. The plan for the party was for the girls to pick out their fairy outfits: wings, tutus, halos and wands. Then they went to have their makeup and nails done with a little sparkle of body glitter. After they are all dressed up in their fairy attire, they will learn a fairy dance. To capture the essence of the party, I made signs for the various areas, naming them after famous fairies: Sugar Plum's Boutique, Pixie's Parlor, and Tinkerbell's Dance Studio. The girls loved it!

The girls looked so sweet in their fairy outfits from the Sugar Plum's Boutique!

 They loved getting all glamored up at the Pixie's Parlor! 

The fairy dance was adorable, watching little girls twirl in their pretty little fairy costumes!

Fairy dancing gets better when we go to Tinkerbell's dance studio, and add bubbles!!!

Then there was endless fairy play...

...and plenty of Chik-fil-a and delicious cupcakes for hungry little fairies!!!

The party was a fun success!!! I can't wait until my next party venture =)