Smile And Wave

Yarn Stash Pom Pom Ornaments

Note: This post was created in partnership with Voya Financial. All thoughts and fantastic pom pom making skills are my own. 

I love switching up our Christmas decor each year in some small way so I've learned to get resourceful. It allows me to respect the budget and spend that hard earned money on gifts instead! I have stashes of beautiful vintage glass ornaments from years of thrifting but our toddler has made it quite clear he is not to be trusted with breakable orbs. I realized I would either have to leave the bottom half of the tree bare or come up with an easy, inexpensive solution for adding some color to our white tree.

I started brainstorming ornament ideas after seeing some of the projects shared by the ever resourceful Holiday Hall, who has been sharing creative holiday ideas and tips over on the Voya Financial Facebook Page. My studio is full of random yarn cut offs, and leftover mini skeins from weaving workshops so I decided to put them to work. I'm not a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas colors so I gathered my favorite shades and my trusty pom pom maker and worked through two holiday movies on Netflix while cranking these out. I love the texture and color they add to the tree, but even more so, I love that it cost me NOTHING to change things up this year.

Here's what you need to make your own...

SUPPLIES

Various coordinating fibers from your stash

Clover large pom pom maker

scissors

 

Open your Clover pom pom maker and start wrapping your first color in the middle of the arm. Then wrap a different color on either side of the first color so that they are generally the same thickness. 

Add a third color almost all the way across the arm to cover the first two colors. Put the arm back in place and repeat the process on the opposite arm. 

Cut the yarn by placing you scissors under the yarn on one of the arms where there is an opening that looks like a gutter, for lack of a better term. Repeat on the other arm while holding the flat sides of the pom pom maker as shown. Then cut an 12" length of yarn and place it in the blue gutter so that it wraps all the way around and pull tight. Tie a knot, tighten it as much as you can without breaking it, and then tie another knot. 

Gently remove your pom pom maker and trim your ornament until you have a lovely round ball. Repeat, repeat, repeat!

If you have kids, this is a fun way to employ their pom pom making skills! Make plenty more and string them into a garland, top your presents, or add them to your stockings for extra texture. It's such a useful way to use up your yarn stash! Keep them for next year or repurpose these fun pom poms by adding them as tassels on a pillow or throw to give it a modern twist. Or use them to make this woven wall hanging!

Check out other ways to spend less this holiday season with Holiday Hal and learn more about Voya Financial online and through their Facebook, and Twitter.

I hope your holiday season is full of love and peace.

-Rachel

 

Mother's Day Cake the Easy Way with Cold Stone Creamery

This is a sponsored post but all opinions are my own. Because ICE CREAM CAKE!

The kids and I got to spend the weekend at my parents' house in Oklahoma City last weekend and played with some baby ducks my mom incubated in her 3rd grade classroom. It was so nice to take a little road trip and let everyone get spoiled by my parents and grandparents. We played catch until dark in the backyard while keeping an ear out for tornado sirens, held those fuzzy little baby ducks while they slept, ate lots of mom's cookies, and had ice cream three days in a row! You get to do that when you're on a road trip! 

There's always ice cream in the freezer at our family get togethers because it's always a reason to celebrate when we're able to spend time in the same place. I'm also pretty sure ice cream has been a part of all the family get togethers since before I was born! One of my first ice cream memories with my family is pouring salt over the ice in our ice cream maker and having such a hard time understanding how that salt and ice worked. I also remember thinking it took FOREVER for that ice cream to get hard enough to enjoy but it was always, always my favorite treat. My mom made the best banana ice cream with chocolate as a close second. 

This year we won't be in the same place to celebrate Mother's Day together but I made sure not to leave the ice cream fun out of our own Mother's Day celebration. I partnered with Cold Stone Creamery to try their Strawberry Splendor cake that's being offered for Mother's Day and have an easy way to make a store bought cake a little more personal.

First I wanted to share why I'm all about a store bought cake for this particular holiday! I make cakes for every birthday, special holiday, and sometimes just because I really want some cake. While they usually turn out tasting lovely, it's always more of a mess to clean up when I'm done. I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't have to do dishes on Mother's Day so a store bought cake, especially an ice cream cake, is my answer to a successful Mother's Day celebration. 

One way to make a store bought cake feel a little more personal is to add your own beautiful floral topping. I bought two bouquets of carnations at the grocery store, cut off the stems, and arranged them on top of my cake so there was just about 1" left of space along the perimeter. Then I added a few smaller floral cuts near the base and suddenly it looks like I spent all day working on this number. Except my homemade cakes are always lopsided!

The best part is carnations freeze well so you can add your decoration and then keep it in the freezer until you're ready to enjoy it with your family or your mama. Or maybe you can send them out on an errand and enjoy a second or third piece of that strawberry glazed ice cream. I won't tell. 

If you're able to celebrate with your mom this Mother's Day, savor that! And maybe show her how special she is by treating her to a Cold Stone Creamery Strawberry Splendor cake for Mother’s Day because ice cream cake is just a little extra special, too. Add her favorite flowers on top and you're golden!

I'm sharing a chance to win a $50 gift card to Cold Stone Creamery later today on my Instagram account @smileandwave so stay tuned! 

-Rachel

Note: This post was created in partnership with Cold Stone Creamery. I was paid a sponsor fee for my work but all thoughts, opinions, and anecdotes are my own. I'm always thankful to get to work with sponsors that our family already enjoy when we're in need of a specific product! 

 

Smith's 2nd Birthday

Even though I've already been through this whole getting older every year thing with my first two, the days since Smith's last birthday have flown by with warp speed. I love that everyone can sit in their own chairs and feed themselves, that all three kids can pretty much tell me what they need, and that we are THAT MUCH CLOSER to the day when we are a diaper-free household but still...did we skip a month? Was it September? I don't remember much from September. 

As a blogger of almost ten years (WHAT!) I can't not decorate for a cute little birthday backdrop. I've tried and I start to twitch. I'm not going to be painting watercolor napkin rings and hand-carving cake toppers or anything but a few specific details here and there can go a long way. Hosting big birthday parties at our house is not my...umm...natural gifting so we've just kept it low-key for Smith's first two years and had cake and opened presents with just us and have face-timed all of our out-of-town family and had drop ins from in-town family. All he really wanted, according to his most recent awareness of them in all of the books we read or shows he's watched, are balloons. Party City made that one easy on us.

I made the cake the afternoon before and had it scooted back on the kitchen counter out of Smith's usual range. I was getting ready to head to Party City but had to make a powder room stop and made note that Smith was in the living room with Brett and the big kids. Ten seconds later I hear the pitter patter of two-year-old feet run past the bathroom to the kitchen and hollered at Brett to get him. As soon as I got to the kitchen, I saw he had made quick work of his need to taste test his cake. There were tiny little finger swipes all over one side (see above) and frosting covering his little hand. Apparently, nothing is safe unless it's under lock and key. 

The next morning on his actual birthday I brought him downstairs and he squealed with delight when he saw his balloons. It was day full of phone calls, sugar, and toys with plenty of time outs but still a day full of memories. Brett kept the kids outside while I got the cake decorated and then I let Smith come in so I could get some pictures of just him. He wasted no time in getting back to his cake so I decided it was better to just roll with it. It made for some pretty darling pictures the second time around. 

We're so thankful for this sweet boy! He slept all night in his own bed last night for the second time in a week so I'm counting that as his birthday gift to his mama and hoping there's more where that came from. We've got spring break this week and great weather this morning so it's time to get moving. Thanks so much for all of Smith's birthday wishes on Instagram. If you're interested in making a candy explosion cake topper, Party City has a pretty great selection of individually wrapped candy for getting things just so without having to purchase twenty of everything. 

Thanks for sharing in these milestones with us!

-Rachel

 

DIY's of Christmases Past

It's almost impossible to not make something each Christmas to either fill an empty space in a new rental or satisfy a slight shift in tastes! As I was pulling out boxes and boxes of Christmas decor and deciding what should make an appearance this year, I got really nostalgic for Christmases past. I decided it was about time to do a little roundup of some of my favorite DIY's from the last six (or seven) holiday seasons. 

Himmelis were a traditional Finnish decoration long before they became mainstream and are still filling trees and gracing mantles in my Instagram feed. Here's an incredibly inexpensive and easy tutorial from 2013, the year I swapped out the colored Shiny Brites for something geometric. 

Decorative Clay Bell DIY for A Beautiful Mess. A fun addition to any garland or to add to your mantle.

One of those handmade projects you'll keep forever and pass down to your kids. 

I still have this wreath and only one vintage ornament has been needing replaced! One of my favs.

A trio of simple pillows to spruce up your space. Find the full tutorial over here. 

Straw himmeli ornaments are simple to make and great as gift toppers!

Spell out a phrase from your favorite Christmas carol or just keep it simple with a short phrase. Either way, it is an inexpensive way to make a big statement!

Guilded Nutcracker Makeover. One of the easiest ways to repurpose thrift store or dollar store finds to fit your own aesthetic. Not into that much gold? Try white or something to match the rest of your decor. 

Place cards always make people feel extra special. 

In case your old tree skirt just isn't doing it for you anymore. Get this no-sew, felt tree skirt tutorial here.  

A sweet little scene with mostly vintage and thrifted items. 

And just in case you're feeling nostalgic, too, here are all of the ways we've decorated for Christmas for the last few years. Things were MUCH more colorful back in '08 and I love seeing how some things have changed while others have stayed the same. That white Christmas tree isn't quite as white but I still love it just as much!

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2014

It really is the most special time of year! I hope it's treating you well. 

-Rachel

Free People Printables for Even Prettier Gifts

Every year I strive to be better at presenting presents with just as much enthusiasm as if I were a hybrid of Santa and Martha Stewart but once I get to taping them off, I just end up writing the recipient's name in sharpie somewhere directly on the wrapping paper. Classy!

This year Free People is helping me up my gift giving game with some darling printables. All I did was download the file, print off a few copies, cut them out, and attach them accordingly. Done and done.

I picked up this beautiful wrapping paper at Target and then made it more exciting with a handmade pom-pom using this gorgeous chunky yarn from Knit Collage. A few of the leftover trimmings were the perfect little something to make this gift the one that everyone hopes is theirs!

See the attached zip file to download all of the Free People gift tags, cards, and even wrapping paper if your gifts need a little something special, too. 

Download Free People Holiday Printables 2015 

Have you already started filling the space under your Christmas tree? Our house is officially fully decorated and I've got a Christmas House Tour in the works that I can't wait to share. Book deadline is two weeks and counting but somehow all the plates are still spinning! 

-Rachel

Ruby is Six! Say What?

We celebrated six years with our sweet Ruby a few weeks ago and never before have I felt like she's actually looked and acted so much older than this time. Suddenly those legs are so long, her bangs have finally grown out, her baby teeth are coming out two at-a-time, and I see flashes of her teen years with certain head-tilts and sassy looks. I love watching her grow into herself with each new year. 

We decorated our dining room a little for our family party on her actual birthday and she helped me make her cake. She's all about decorations and treats so it was extra thrilling for her to help with her own party prep. Stacie Bloomfield of Gingiber sent over some of her beautifully illustrated wrapping papers the week before her birthday and they were perfect for her animal and nature-loving gifts. We also pulled out some white butcher paper from IKEA and she crawled up on the dining room table to design her own wrapping paper for the rest of her gifts. 

We celebrated the next afternoon with friends at a bounce house. It was the kind of generic party I never thought I'd throw my daughter but the complete joy on all of those little faces over pizza and cupcakes and fruit punch was worth it. The party room came with a host and hostess and getting to enjoy our company and finish conversations was my second favorite part. 

I remember celebrating her fifth birthday like it was last month. We'd only just moved into this house after a major cross-country move and career change and were still up to our eyeballs in boxes. I'm so thankful for these kids that go with the flow and have helped us establish so many special layers of memories this year. 

Ruby, you're my special middle child with all of the sunshine and silly-ness we so often need in our day-to-day lives. Thank you for being ours and for playing such an important role in life already. You're my best girl. 

Love,

Mama
 

Halloween 2015

I have to at least get this year's Halloween festivities blogged so there is some record of our fun. Ruby and I decorated a week prior with our lacey ghosts outside and some pumpkins and owls inside and then we finally managed to get to the pumpkin patch the day before Halloween and ran into some old friends from the kids' last school. Halloween day was spent finishing up costumes and letting the kids' have a neighborhood friend come over to play. It was almost 3 o'clock before I realized we hadn't yet carved pumpkins so we did that in a hurry and then rushed inside to fill our bellies for the long night of walking ahead!

The big kids both chose their own costumes early on this year. Ruby was going to be a pink butterfly so we found some worn out butterfly wings at a thrift store and took apart a pink, sparkly H&M dress that no longer fit her to retrofit some new wings. Then we slipped some glow-in-the-dark necklaces inside each wing panel so she'd be easy to spot after dark. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a photo with her wings showing! 

Sebastian went as the robot from his favorite movie this year, Real Steel. It came out a few years ago so we were out of luck finding any licensed costumes on Amazon and decided to try our hand at making our own. I found a few random elements from old costume pieces at one major thrift store in town and then cut out a few pieces of black foam to create a robot type costume. It may or may not have ended up looking like a knight's costume. My bad, Sebastian. Also, no one knew who he was supposed to be but he still scored plenty of candy! 

Smith had no say over his costume. I went as Miss Frizzle, one of the kids' favorite storybook characters, and it only made sense that he would go as Liz, the lizard. I literally walked into the same big thrift store and found his costume two minutes later. I had him put it on every day leading up to Halloween to condition him that dressing up is fun and totally not scary or uncomfortable. He didn't keep his hood on most of the night but he was all about carrying his bucket up each walkway to say hi to everyone. He also discovered dum-dums (the candy, not the pacifiers). 

I sprayed my hair orange and then had to wrap my head in a t-shirt before bed because I was too tired to even take a shower and wash it all out. It was another fun year trick-or-treating in one of the prettiest historic neighborhoods in town along with 4,000 other families and their strollers. I successfully snuck all the Butterfingers from the kids' stashes and reminded myself these are the memories that are worth making no matter how much effort is needed to make them special. 

Next year, though, I'm skipping the orange hair.

-Rachel

Clay Cake Topper DIY for ABM

I recently shared an easy way to customize your own cake toppers (or donut toppers) for any old occasion over at A Beautiful Mess. Someone lost a tooth? Celebrate! You passed your last final of the school year? Bust out the sprinkles! You finally caught up on your epic laundry pile? Who am I to tell you not to go nuts with a batch of cookies!

If cake decorating isn't your forte, these are sure to be a great distraction from your limited icing skills. Also, whoever started the donut pile instead of cake for birthdays needs a pat on the back. Head over to A Beautiful Mess for the full tutorial and add this to your summer to-do list.

-Rachel 

4th of July Birthday Decor

Our 4th of July celebrations are always doubly special because we also celebrate Sebastian's birthday. It's insane to me that we're doing this again already! WE JUST CELEBRATED HIS EIGHTH! 

I decorated the dining room the night before because he's always the first one up and I wanted him to start his day with a little ping of excitement, even if no one else was up to share in it! Ruby is our night owl so she colored him a card while I hung the fans and arranged the balloons.

Sugar Confetti Shop so generously sent us some decorations that I picked out from their online shop. I knew I wanted some huge balloons but I had NO IDEA they were THIS BIG! I sent Brett to Party City to get them filled with helium the night before and he almost didn't get them all in the car. I got a text as I was putting Smith down that he didn't think they'd all fit and I thought I was going to have to wake Sebastian up and haul all three sleepy kids into the night in order to squeeze one of the giant balloons into our second car but he finally texted back that he'd figured it out. SUCCESS! I know there's some sort of analogy about square pegs and round holes here...or round balloons and rectangular cars.

Sebastian got some really fun gifts from family members and was especially thrilled about a new bike that doesn't leave him hunched over. It was time to upgrade from the one he got when he was four! 

After opening presents and having breakfast, Brett took the big kids to see the movie, Inside Out, and I finished making the cake. I'd done the base layers the night before and wrapped them in saran wrap so no curious early risers would get into them but my birthday boy thought they were brownies for some reason and dug in. It wasn't a total lost cause and who can be mad at the birthday boy for having his own cake? I mixed up a little extra cream cheese frosting and filled that hole with extra love.

It was funny watching Smith dig in. He looked like he still remembered how this worked from his birthday a few months ago. I am glad I remembered to take his shirt off before handing him some cake.

"Can we do this every month, Mom?"

We finished off the afternoon with pizza and S'Mores around a bonfire per Sebastian's request. What really happened was I took Smith on a walk downtown while Brett and the kids made S'Mores and got eaten alive by mosquitos. Toddlers and bonfires aren't my favorite mix right now so we resorted to the trusty divide and conquer method of parenting. We then piled into the car and drove to the top of a downtown car park for a quieter view of the fireworks. We could see them spread out in different neighborhoods all over the horizon and got to avoid a crying baby that doesn't quite understand what's going on. Despite everyone being over tired, full of sugar, and cranky at the end of the night, it was a successful day of celebrating both our country and our son!

Last year was celebrated in Colorado Springs at Memorial Park with thousands of people and a terrified baby. The year before that we'd just sent Brett off to Kuwait and I found out the same day I was pregnant with Smith! Oh, how quickly time passes.

I hope you had a lovely 4th of July weekend (if you're in the States), too. Mosquitos and all.

-Rachel

Details: Honeycomb, fans, plates, cups, balloons, and candles c/o Sugar Confetti Shop.

Thoughts on Expectations and Mother's Day

Mother's Day is fast approaching (May 10th in case you needed a reminder) and with it the annual battle against expectations of how Mother's Day should unfold. It's often between my longing for that ideal opportunity to be relieved of all motherly duties so I can spend some time solely focused on myself without any threat of self-imposed guilt, and the reality of running a household and caring for three young kids. 

It's not a unique battle, I'm sure. It's so tempting to host thoughts of handmade cards delivered with breakfast in bed after a full nine hours of sleep, followed by an afternoon lounging by a pool before treating myself to some shopping and a movie all by myself. It's tempting to wish for one day I wasn't needed and every treat I could imagine was lavished upon me as a reward for all of the sacrifices made the rest of the year for working so hard to be a good mama. It would all be well received and we are all (mamas in all forms) so deserving. 

However, most nights I get an interrupted seven hours of sleep and wake to someone having spilled the milk trying to get their own cereal. Brett will make me coffee but then I'll have to heat it back up two hours later once my youngest stops trying to scale our wingback chair and goes back down for a nap. I'll sit down with a magazine only to have two energetic kids race through the house to go outside, slamming the back door and subsequently waking the baby early enough that the rest of our afternoon continues to be pretty loud. I see some understanding nods. 

Every year I tell myself it's just another day of being a mother and that I'll enjoy an indulging day to myself when they're older and less needy. Then I will inevitably sabotage those noble thoughts with feelings of self-pity when someone throws a fit at lunch. Even though it's just another day with young kids, it all feels harder and less fair on those elevated days of honor. 

That's the problem with expectations. They almost always leave us wanting.

Yes, our house is loud because it is full of voices and bodies that I get to call mine. Yes, they forget to flush the toilet 95% of the time but that is their greatest fault. They forget to flush the toilet. I should thank my lucky stars that all I worry about with my kids right now is germy hands. Yes, I have regular dark circles under my eyes but I get to wake up to care for a baby we longed for and didn't think we'd get to enjoy. He, too, will someday forget to flush the toilet 95% of the time but I'll get the privilege of reminding him. 

This Mother's Day I'm refocusing my lens and my heart. I'm going to honor this day myself by working towards being the kind of mom that takes a breath and pauses when I'd rather groan in frustration. I'm going to allow myself to see how beautiful my job is as a caretaker and guide to these three growing humans. I'm going to do my best to stare straight into their eyes and wait for them to notice how loved they are in that moment. 

I'm going to ask for coffee in the morning and enjoy reheating it two hours later because I get to be among the ranks of so many hard working, lovely, worn out, resplendent, and aspiring hearts that tend to those that need them.

I have the privilege of sowing seeds of love, kindness, and courage that will take root and bring beauty. I get to share in their curiosity, creativity, and wide open possibilities. I get to bring more good things into this world through their little lives.

It's hard but it's beautiful. 

This year on Mother's Day I am ditching my internal eye rolls for intentional moments together. I'm hoping we get to spend a little more time getting our hands dirty, beautifying our front porch using this beautiful wooden potting bench c/o Ace Hardware, and making some solid memories. Ruby has laid claim to one special purple plant, named it Violet (it's a Petunia), and made a literal bed for it in her room complete with a cozy towel to rest on but the rest are safe and sound outside. 

No matter how you get to spend this Mother's Day, I hope your heart meets your circumstances with peace and love. And maybe some flowers. 

-Rachel

P.S. Thank you, Ace Hardware for the opportunity to make these memories.