Happy Memorial Day - REAL PARTY

Fantastic Memorial Day weekend! Spent Saturday on the lake, Sunday at the pool and Monday grilling with friends in the back yard. Couldn't have been better.
Because I LOVE to go a little overboard for parties - I had a LOT of fun Monday. My husband kept asking, "Why do you want me to go get a wooden pallet?" But I KNEW it was going to be a fun addition to the festivities. And functional.

Overall look of poop-free zone (we have two dogs, so we built a small fence to divide our yard so the dogs can't poop in BE's swingset area):

 And OF COURSE, a few of my favorite shorties!

How to fold and store your chair covers

OK - I am going to try this instructional video of how to fold y our chair covers. My usual method is just to wad them up and throw them in a tupperware - but I see the validity of this method too.

Gary Manufacturing, Inc.: How to fold and store your chair covers

Quick & Simple Tablescape for Memorial Day

Love Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursdays!

Memorial Day SALES!

Time to shop!

20% at Arte Bebe with code SUMMERSPLASH

Up to 50% off at Janie & Jack

Additional 30% off Summer clearance items (my FAVE site) at Eternal Creations with code: SUMMER30

And check out Crate & Barrel Outlet Sale - Here are a few things that would be perfect for a Memorial Day BBQ:

Condiment Tray on sale for $4.95

24 pk of Burger Lines $1.50

Burger Baskets  in red or yellow $.95

Budget Friendly Patriotic Party

Whew! What a great weekend. Exhausted.

Emily from Magnolia Creative and I worked on a Budget Friendly Patriotic Themed Party. We started off with an idea of using a more muted, classic American theme. Then Emily designed the amazing printables and we were off. Dollar store finds, previously purchased items and a lot of baking

This party could be used for Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, a Welcome Home party (close to my heart), or a few minor changes and you have a baseball party! .

I took the pictures, but Emily is editing them. So in the mean time - here are my NOT so professional photos of the party.

Main table:

Originally we discussed covering the entire table with a white cloth - but that would have hidden the charm of the table. The flags were left over from my Husband's return home from Baghdad (told you this was extra special to me). A few $1 tins from Hobby Lobby, some sand and the flowers from our daughters' recital.
The apples for the garland were half off at Hobby lobby, soI just threaded some twine through and added ribbon accents to the end.
The white tableware, I already owned. As well as the Dollar tree sink shelves that I sprayed white and use for almost EVERYTHING now.
I also already had the burlap table runner - which you will almost always see on my tablescapes. Clean, simple.
For drinks we had Pellegrino, cane cola and lemonade.

Don't you love the patterns Emily chose for the bottle wrappers?

The food was traditional. Hotdogs, potato chips, cookies, cupcakes and a Cherry Pie!

Then, we did a kids table for our favorite gals

It was so much fun to work with Emily - and I can't wait to reuse this again and again. And just two more photos - because I can't think red, white and blue and not think of this:

Thank you to ALL the men and women who sacrifice precious time with their own families, so that they can protect ALL families. I love you Major Chandler.

Credits:


Paper printables: Magnolia Creative Co.

Party styling and photography: Her Royal Heinous

Apples, paper flowers on chairs, burlap fabric, glassware, flag garland and ribbon: Hobby Lobby

Placemats, napkins and baskets: Dollar Tree

White plates: World Market

Cake stand: Layla Grace

Ketchup, mustard and relish holder: Pottery Barn

Red, white and blue buckets: Target dollar section

Red and white straws: Hey YoYo

Next time I am taking my kid

I just got back from a trip to Boston. What a city, I could totally live there.

Everywhere we ate was delicious, B&G Oyster House, Uni Sashimi, Doyles, Union Oyster Bar. And I had, for the first time, Blueberry beer. Yummmmmmmm.

A Red Sox game at Fenway Park, not sure it gets better than that. (AND they won!)

The shopping on Newbury Street was fabulous, but the shopping on Charles street was where we spent the majority of our money. The Red Wagon specifically. Could not buy enough from there - Lobster sweaters, sweet nightgowns, hats, shoes, ahh. I love that place. AND, I found another store that I bought HRH some TRETORNS from. Yes, I said Tretorns. Yes, I know that I am severely dating myself. I never owned a pair growing up - so it was even more exciting to buy HRH a pair. They are white with pink swishes and plaid pink and yellow ribbon laces. I want a pair.

We also stopped by the Sam Adams Brewery and took a tour. They took us through the brewery that makes a whopping 1% of their beer. See if this explains the process to you:

Got it?

As we walked through history (with the occasional pub stop) in the town of Boston, we were overwhelmed with how badly we wished we had brought our kids.

Our frequent travel companions, the Payne, currently have three children and a fourth on the way. We of course, have just HRH. None of us could think of anything besides how much our children would have enjoyed this town. (Ok, and we thought about beer, too).

Check out this article from Babccinokids on their recommendations for Boston with kids.

We stayed at the incredible Eliot Hotel in Back Bay - this was very convienent for Newbury street shopping and dining, and of course Fenway Park. Not sure if we would stay there with children though.

Pascal: my Chameleon - HRH

Yesterday Mommy made me dress like her. It was so humiliating.
I have been asking for a baby chick. All WEEK. So when Daddy and I were taking our naps, Mommy went to the store to find a chick. Unfortunately, PetCo doesn't sell them. So she brought home something even BETTER. A Chameleon.

She woke me and Daddy up with all the noise she was making trying to assemble the cage. Daddy is an Engineer, Mommy isn't.

So I picked out the name Pascal, because I love Tangled. And I made Mommy and Daddy take her to the party that afternoon. Pascal was a HUGE hit, until she pretended to be dead. Who knew Chameleon's tire out that quickly?!

I ran around showing Pascal to all my friends - and telling them this was "My Chameleon"

And now, I get to introduce to you! Isn't she the MOST AWESOME CHAMELEON EVER?!?!?

Sincerely,
HRH

Feature on BabyLifestyles

What is the coolest thing that could happen?!? ME being featured on the amazing, incredible BabyLifestyles!

Have you checked them out yet? They have so many amazing parties, tips and advice, and (my personal favorite) a little CELEBRITY BABY GOSSIP!

Please check out my (FIRST EVER) interview and feature here.

This could not have happened at a better time - I just had to write a scathing email to my child's daycare director. I am not good at those things and it breaks my heart that my sweet baby is being bullied. This may not help the situation - but it certainly made me smile despite the negative.

Thank you Baby Lifestyles!!!

My Very Own Fairy Tale

I bought these for every kid in my 'family' two Christmases ago from I See Me. They are personalized fairy tales for the hearts of your life. I love the illustrations for each letter - and couldn't help but think: Wouldn't this make a fabulous Fairy theme??
Here are some of the fairies:

Aren't they fantastic??!?!

Her Royal Heinous, a brief explanation

My 3 year old daughter started this blog when she was 1. She would sneak into the 'puter' room when I wasn't paying attention, which is often, and would explain life from her tiny (and often kinda bitchy) vantage point.

She, my daughter, is Her Royal Heinous. Or HRH as she chooses now. I have since hijacked her blog for my own selfish reasons. It makes her very mad. But she has learned to tolerate me over the year(s) and besides, I am the one that will be paying for her therapy later on.

She occasionally still pops up on here - always identifying herself as "HRH" in the heading. But, I thought I would share a couple of my favorite posts she has done in the past. Here are some snipets of wisdom from HRH waaay back from August 2009:
If life gives you lemons
eat them

It is better to have loved and lost than to be headbutted

when someone tries to keep you down....
slap them

If at first you don't succeed....
bite

If the shoe fits...
take it off and throw it

A Penny saved is probably a penny soon to be in a bowel movement

To err is human, to forgive
is too big of a word to understand

A bird in the hand is worth Jezza and LJ knocking me down to chase after for

All that Glitters....
is not edible
You can't judge a book
by its taste

An apple a day...
makes me constipated

Don't bite the hand that feeds you... it probably tastes like cigarette!

If you can't stand the heat..
keep pointing and saying "hot?"

Laugh and the world laughs with you...
cry and EVERYONE comes running

Evergreen Charity Event Part II - WestSide Story

And here is the WestSide Story table. We worked enormously hard on this table. Although, it didn't have the "uumph" factor that people experienced when they saw the Breakfast at Tiffany's table, it took a lot more creativity. This is the table I am most of proud of. Audrey and I started this table from a sketch on a bar napkin during a "Wine Lunch". It took a week or so to come to fruition, but it finally DID:

First we laid the bricks. I wish I had gotten a better photograph of their layout. They are actually placed in a jagged "U" shape. The bricks came from my demolished patio.

Then we constructed the fence. I just got PVC pipe and sprayed it silver and made my hubbie cut it to the sizes I wanted.

Next, we cut the fence - I was worried about how this part would work. But I just wove the PVC pipe into the fence and then mounted the PVC pipes to a metal holder that we screwed into a piece of plywood for balance. Pretty simple stuff.

For the signs, Audrey designed them and I printed them on photo paper. Then we just cut them out and glued to cut (and sanded) pieces of foam board. A little hot glue on the posts and we had surprisingly realistic street signs.

We raided Krogers for the flowers. We bought a HUGE bucket full of anything tropical we could find - then we arranged them in the fence at the event.

The linens were red underlay, black overlay, black napkins with sheet music as napkin rings. Dark red chargers.

The gifts were the amazing bottles of red that Audrey found. WestSide Red "Troublemaker" - could that have been any MORE perfect?

RIP Marlin - HRH

You were a good fish. A really good fish. I am sorry you got sucked into the filter, you deserved a more honorable demise.
Also, sorry about the time I dumped all the poison in your tank. And the time I put random pieces of metal in your tank. And the time I got in your tank with you.
-H.R.H