Countdown to the 1st Day of School

The kids are very excited that the first day of school is almost here! The kids made a paper chain for the days left until school starts. Calvin has a little longer chain than Zoey since he starts pre-school about a week later. The kids enjoy waking up and tearing off another “link” to the chain.

Since we’ve made the chain, we have also been preparing for school everyday. We had been spoiled with a PM start for Kindergarten last year and have enjoyed a slow start to the day. Now that Zoey will be in 1st grade, she starts at 8am like all the others and we are no way ready for that kind of transition! For the past two weeks we have been waking up early and have gotten into our new routine. To help keep us on track, we started up our daily stamp sheet/chore chart and it really has helped the kids stay motivated!

The kids each have their own magnet board with their stamp sheets. I purchased these small magnet boards from Walmart for about $7 each. The boards come with double-sided mounting tape, I chose to mount our boards with those wonderful Command strips that I love! I didn’t want anything that would take the paint off of our doors or leave any residue behind. Command strips are my go to for about EVERYTHING I hang on my walls.

So, do you have any special preparations to the start of a new school year?

Daddy’s Little Caddy Baby Shower

I’ve been kind of busy and haven’t had the chance to post final baby shower photos! The event was beautiful and everyone had a great time! Mommy-to-be was gorgeous and glowing! I am so happy that I got to be a part of the event and help out. It took a small army of helpers to pull it off and everything came together like a perfect puzzle.

I made these vanilla cake pops with white candy coating. Wilton’s golf ball candy mold was the perfect size for the pops. I love that the impressions came out so well. As for the stand, I made that as well! You can see the details for that project here.

I got so many compliments on the diaper golf bag. I love the way it came together and actually looks like a golf bag! It looked HUGE sitting on my kitchen table, but it was the perfect size for the centerpiece of the large dining room. My diaper golf bag “tutorial” to come…

I was so excited to see how the table linens and everything were going to look with all the other decorations. I didn’t know what the table linens or flowers were going to be until I got to the house. I guess all great minds think alike, everything matched perfectly!

The flowers were purchased from the Flower Mart in Downtown LA. We arranged cut and arranged them in the morning and added the flags once we put them on the tables. I like the pebbles at the bottom of the vase and the addition of the golf balls… it’s the perfect kind of water hazard!

The shower was a success!! It was slam dunk! Hole-in-One! Touchdown and all that Jazz!

Wedding Style: Mint & Orange

I got married…again!  I only do it once every ten years.

The first time we got married it was in Japan and it was just us and our Japanese translators.  Well, we finally got around to getting married in our church and celebrating with our family.

This all came together fairly quickly so I tried to keep it simple and as inexpensive as a wedding ceremony could be.  I’m a DIY kind of girl so I did a lot myself.

I’ll start with the flowers.  And they start with Succulents.  I knew that I wanted succulents.  What I didn’t know was that they aren’t cheap.  But, while hunting for Easter eggs at my Grandmother’s house I found that she had several beautiful succulent plants.  She was gracious enough to give me one and it was enough to give me 24 favors and 6 centerpieces.

Having that one plant saved me A LOT!  I priced the individual succulents  for the 24 favors and the cheapest plants I could find (at Home Depot) were $2 each!

I found the metallic pots at a wholesale flower store for $6 each, where  I also purchased glass candle holders for $8/dozen and painted them silver for the favors.  The ranunculus, roses and mums I literally found late at night at Trader Joe’s!

I was also able to save on the cake by ordering a 9 inch round and decorating it with [faux] succulents myself.  That cake was placed on the table for everyone to see.

The second cake was just a sheet cake that was kept in the kitchen, ultimately cut and served to guests. This helped me avoid the “wedding surcharge.”

Be sure to check back to see more!

Renovation Realities

So progress has been made! Here is what the bathroom looks like now! You can see the plan here, and the material selection here. While the cabinets, sink and painting still need to be completed..the shower works! A working shower is kind of a deal breaker for me. A makeshift shower was in use prior to our arrival and well, I wasn’t to keen on trying that out. I’m a little spoiled, what can I say?

I’m thrilled with the way its turned out so far and can’t wait until the bathroom is finished!

The tile work is completed and the cabinets come in next week! On Friday, we went shopping for curtain fabric. I will be making curtains for both bathrooms while I’m here and I’m excited to get my sewing machine fired up.

I just love the new shower fixtures! The large rain shower-head is awesome and so relaxing! There was seriously two water temperature settings prior to the renovation, scalding and cold. Now that we have this new thermostatic shower mixer, we can preset the temperature we want and then turn on the water. I recommend a thermostatic mixer, especially with kids because you will never have to worry that they turn the water on too hot. Another convenience, a built in shower niche for shampoo and soap.

So this is the fabric for the curtains and the paint selected. Making progress…choosing is always the easy part. Back to work!

Reading Challenge

I have signed up for the 2013 reading challenge this year! I pledged to read 50 books this year and so far, I’m on track! Woo hoo! So far, I have read 10 books. The genre varies, I think changing it up is important. The last book I finished was The Host by Stefanie Meyers. I never read the Twilight series, nor got into the movies. I was recommended this book and to be honest, I had some strange dreams the first two nights! That shouldn’t be a surprise, I have LOTS of strange dreams! The Host was a great book actually and I am looking forward to the sequel. The movie comes out soon, but as we all know… BOOKS ARE BETTER!!

Currently, I am reading Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker. I am enjoying it so far. I love to imagine the beautiful dresses that she makes and honestly, I picture Sally Fields as Mrs. Lincoln now. I haven’t seen the film, but it is on my list to watch.

If you are on Goodreads, look me up- Caasandra Copp! I love seeing what others are reading and getting recommendations on what to read next!

**UPDATE: I started this post and it was a draft for a week! I just finished The Fault in our Stars  by John Green and Look me in the Eye by John Elder Robison, both excellent reads! Still currently reading Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, I had to stop and read John Green’s book because I had many friends tell me it was so good! I couldn’t wait, had to know what everyone was talking about! Okay? Okay. 😉

Funky Finds

Aren’t these prints fun? My mother in-law has had these prints for years! They are my favorite and I enjoy looking at them all the time, they make my heart smile.

There are many prints hanging all over the house, but these two really make me happy! The colors, the faces, the designs, they have a fun and funky vintage vibe that I love!

Desert Renovation

I’m so excited to be working on a project just for fun! I am in the process of designing one of the bathrooms in our family’s desert house. I’ve been working with my mother in-law figuring out the fixtures, tile, paint, cabinets and more.

So far we have picked out the faucet and shower set and the tile. The demolition started this week and I will post more photos of the progress! Until then, here is what we have planned…

Check back for more on this project!

Giving Thanks

Thank you to all of our readers, followers, friends and family for your continued support and encouragement! We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of love and turkey too! Cheers to you!!

Back to School

My little girl starts Kindergarten today. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry. One thing I know that I don’t have to worry about is lost jackets!

Martha Stewart makes these great labels! No sew clothes labels! These great stickers last 20 washes and I don’t have to worry about losing jackets and sweaters this school year!

These labels work very well for uniforms. Every Friday is spirit day for my little one and you can bet every other kid in her class will have one of these sweatshirts… now hers will easily be found! Here’s to the start of a new school year!!

Who’s Hot?

Who loves this Summer weather? With temps well over 100degrees in many parts of Sothern California, we are finding ways to beat the heat!!

Pool time is awesome, but sometimes a nice cold treat is just as sweet!

You could try Yvette’s Mango Ice Cream here!!

Make your coffee on the rocks here!!

A kid’s favorite, Chocolate smoothies here!!

Since it’s too hot to get the oven and burners going, we are planning on sandwiches with cold pickles on the side for dinner and chilled watermelon for desert!

How do you keep cool under the sun?