Miles' first birthday party

 Miles' birthday party was terrific! Unfortunately, a lot of the photos from the party were either blurry or super bright from the flash so I'm sharing the best from our evening. Miles was such a sweet boy the whole day and enjoyed all of the love and gifts from our friends who joined the party.

 Adorable, right!?

  The desserts were amazing and huge thanks to my sweet friend Melanie who baked her buns off the night before for us. I can't bake and that's a fact so she really helped this mama out!

 I followed this really easy tutorial on how to make these woodland animal party bags and they turned out great!

 

 Joanns was my go to for most of the decorations, plus I'm cheap and they always have coupons and sales. The cupcake garland was really easy to make. All I needed was twine, colored cardstock, sticker letters and some baby free time and there you have it, personalized bunting!

Since we were going for a woodland theme I thought it would be cool to incorporate slices of wood to the table. Thanks to my dear ol' husband for being resourceful and cutting up branches we found in our alleyway. For the centerpiece "M" I used moss cloth that I cut to size and hot glued to the cardboard letter.

 Birthday boy!

  He had fallen off his chair right before we sang to him so he was pretty adamant about being held instead of playing with his cake. He did look pretty darn cute wearing his cowboy hat with frosting on his nose though :)

 

 Miles took some good shots at his pinata!

The damn thing was so hard to break that eventually we just had the kids jump on it till they got to the candy.

 Pooped out!!

Greetings!

This is the first year we sent out Christmas cards to our family since last year we were a little preoccupied with a week old baby Miles. I found Ashley Ryan's Etsy shop while looking for customized holiday cards and couldn't be happier with how fast and easy it was to make them. I sent her an idea of the writing I wanted and in a matter of hours she sent over this fun design. A big thank you to Ashley for taking good care of us! You can find her on Pinterest too!

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy first Birthday, sweetheart!

We love you SO very much!

xo

mama and papa

What a day

I made this birthday hat for my boy!

I got these sweet critters at Target and added sparkly party hats to there cute little heads.

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 Yes, it's after midnight and yes, Miles is still up but I don't even mind because after a dark day like today all I want to do is eat him up and hold onto him forever and ever. Our aching hearts and loving thoughts are with the victems of this weeks shootings here in Oregon and in Conneticut...

Easy gifts are the best gifts!

 Hey y'all, I know the countdown to Christmas is speeding up so I wanted to show you a super easy and affordable gift idea for your girlfriends or yourself! I chose to use agate slices and turquoise crosses that I already had but feel free to make yours unique by adding feathers, fabric or beautiful crystals.

 supplies:

metal hair barrettes (I found these at Joanns)

hot glue gun

agate slices (check your local rock store or Etsy)

flat large beads

All you need to do is hot glue your bead or whatever it is that your using to the metal barrette and just like that you have yourself a pretty bitchin' hair accessory!

This guy

November was a tough month for me and the little one so it's really great to feel more balanced the last few weeks. Why was this past month so hard? Miles and I were a pair of crazy, emotional babies but December is feeling much more focused and fun and I'm digging it! Miles has been so awesome lately! His ADORABLE dancing on the coffee table has totally outweighed his shitty self proclaimed 12:30ish bedtime the last four nights. He's been a good boy though, teething and all. I try to indulge in all that is still my itty-bitty baby but am so proud and excited for my growing boy even when he's being a rascal. Steve and I have decided to only have one kiddo so to think that this is it, I will never ever have another baby Miles again, is sort of a hard one to swallow. I mean, goodness, I know he's only turning one but truthfully everything is going to change pretty dang fast. Steve feels it too.

It's a party!

 How AWESOME are Miles' party invitations!? My girlfriend Danielle "Yelley" Rauto does such a fantastic job at updating our family illustration. She also designed the back which look equally as badass! My little pal's birthday is in less then a week and I can't help but get a teensy bit sad about my boy getting older. It's only natural, right?

cake and teeth

 

Working on decorations seems like it's taking forrrreever! But, my hard work is paying off because everything is slowing coming together and looking awesome! Here is a little peek at his cake toppers. I just finished the party favor bags and they are ADORABLE! Even hubby was excited about them. In other news, Miles is teething really bad. It's been really rough for him this time around and this second molar is kicking his butt. Poor baby woke up almost every hour last night screaming and having a cold on top of it hasn't helped. Isn't teething the worst? Thankfully, he's been a pretty cool dude during the day and we even shared an hour long nap this morning with some park time after. Not a bad day for a little sick fella.

Goals and earrings

First off, Happy December! It's pretty hard to be a grump during the holiday season and lucky for me I have two wonderful celebrations this month, my boys birthday and of course Christmas! This mama is busting her chops trying to get birthday/holiday presents, party planning, holiday photos and festivities and lots of post office trips in before the month is over. Considering that I'm pretty non-stop at the moment, I thought it would be a wise idea to set a few solid goals for myself to help keep me on track.

1. Start getting more involved in playgroups/ kiddo activities for Miles. Sometimes I get really wrapped up in daily errands and house chores and neglect the fact that Miles does need interaction with other children close to his age and other stimulation then hanging at home with his ma. And you know what? I could really use some time with other mamas as well, so this is something that is really top on my list.

2. Finish planning his party! As much as I love crafting and going to Michaels art store a few times a week, I still am pretty ready to wrap it up. 

3. Edit and send out Christmas cards, like soon. Our lovely friend Jenna (who photographed our wedding!) took awesome family photos of us this weekend and from the sneak peek I saw, I think they're going to be absolutely wonderful.

4. Start Christmas shopping. Well, more like present making but I feel a little behind considering I need to ship the majority of my families Christmas gifts. Luckily, I'm pretty good about shopping (mostly thrifting) for Papa and Miles year round, so their pretty much done but I still need to finish up my nieces gifts.

5. Help Steve find more work. His second job just ended so now it's time to pick up the pace of finding more carpentry/welding work for him. It's always a little hard having a one income household but it's even a little more scarier when that one income isn't very high. Fortunately, I have my Etsy shop and antique space to cover the odds and ends when work is a little slow for Steve. Within the next few weeks I really need to focus on helping him network his business and most importantly be a great supporter of his.

6. More "me" time! Gosh, Isn't that everyone's goal!? Really though, this is something I forget about a lot and before you know it I have a meltdown and cry a lot. Haha, it's so true though. It definitely takes a toll on me taking care of people 24/7 without taking care of myself (all you mamas hear me!)  Besides having alone time late at night when everyone's asleep, I really do need to leave Miles with Steve and spend a few hours doing something that makes me happy besides being Miles' mama. I really want to take cooking lessons so that's another goal I want to accomplish. Or even the movies! Dang, going to see a movie alone sounds pretty freaking perfect!

7. Aside from needing me time, I also need friend time. I want to hang out with more moms and I really want to find friends that I share common interests with. I hope that with doing more community activities with Miles that I will meet other cool parents in the city. I think with the combination of that and picking up a new hobby I am bound to meet some pretty awesome people.

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So maybe a few of these goals will take longer then December to reach but ya know at least there out here to help keep me in check! By the way, I have finally added new jewelry to Midnight Riders. I am really excited about my new pieces and hope you are too! It would be super rad if you helped spread the word of my jewelry by pinning, blogging or gifting to a friend. And because I love you so, enjoy 15% off your purchase!

Use the code MIDNIGHT at checkout for 15% off!

Midnight riders

Besides trying to get a jump start on Miles' birthday decorations and invitations, I have been making new designs for Midnight Riders. I decided that once Miles was born that I would take a break from jewelry and focus on my babe but now that he's older and we have a pretty awesome routine down, I feel way more motivated to start working again and it feels great. Cross your fingers that I get everything updated on the shop tomorrow!