Valentines from Miss P

Peyton was hard at work spreading her Valentine's cheer last weekend! I wanted to send some special valentines to our family and out of town friends who don't get to see Peyton very often, and as usual Pinterest and the Walgreen's photo department got the best of me. I got a little ambitious this year, which resulted in some Pinterest worthy successes and some equally as worthy fails.

Pinterest success #1...Valentine's photo card. Pinterest success #2...DIY Heart Garland that I used for the backdrop (DIY blog post here!).

If I had unlimited funds, I would send out photo cards to every person I know for every holiday. After being so pleased with how my Valentine's photos of Peyton turned out, I just had to do something with them. Alas, these adorable photo cards which I managed to send out last minute to some of our out of town friends and family.

And now on to my Pinterest fail...footprint Valentine's craft. Red paint and a wiggly 8 month old, this was clearly a recipe for disaster.

I had some pretty grand ambitions for this craft. I was going to make one for myself, as well as all of Peyton's grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncle, and maybe even a few special friends too. However, twelve pieces of cardstock and a big ole' mess of red paint later, I managed to only get 3 of these which were fairly decent enough and didn't look like a slaughtered my child on craft paper. Goodbye grand plans for spreading the love this Valentine's Day. I was defeated, thanks a lot Pinterest. So I packed up my art supplies and my dignity, and sent one to my mom, one to Jared's mom, kept one for myself, and called it a day. While I'm ready to swear off art projects with 8 month olds for good, this craft still came out pretty cute and Peyton's grandmas really did love it.

At least Peyton, and her red feet, had fun attempting this endeavor. I feel like Pinterest is every mom's worst nightmare. It's full of adorable ideas that look so fun and easy, but are always a thousand times more expensive, messy, frustrating and involved than they let on, and nearly impossible to execute. Welcome to my love/hate relationship with Pinterest. 

Valentine's Day with Daddy...as you can see, it's February and football season never ends around here. Daddy in his Bobby Bowden shirt and Peyton practicing her best Heisman pose. 

We hope your family had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

DIY Heart Garland

I decided that I wanted to take some special photos of Peyton for Valentine's Day this year. Rather than just sitting her in her regular chair or outside, I wanted to get a little creative and make my own backdrop. I saw a lot of cute ideas on Pinterest, so I found one that I already had all of the materials for at home and just went for it. I am pleasantly surprised at how well this came out! Plus, it was fun and easy to make. Here is a little DIY on how to make your own heart garland...

Even Peyton enjoyed my little props for her photo shoot!

Step One: Cut out heart shapes using a craft punch and cardstock paper. 

Step Two: Attach heart shapes to some type of string that matches your backdrop. I wanted to create the illusion that the hearts were floating in the background. I used white thread since I was using a white table cloth as my backdrop. You could also use fishing line. I used scrapbook mounting squares to stick the hearts to the string, but you could just use regular tape as well. I used two hearts on top of each other and ran the thread in between them because I didn't want the thread to be visible and since the hearts would be hanging, I knew they would spin around so hiding the thread on the back of the hearts wasn't an option. 

Figure out how many strands you need and how long you want your garland to be. It depends on what you are using it for. I made 6 strands with 7 hearts on each strand. Measure out the string in your desired location ahead of time so that you know how many hearts you will need. You can use all one color of paper or different colors. I used all red, but I wanted a little subtle variety so I used 7 different shades of red paper.

Step Three: Hang the strands in your desired location and then enjoy your adorable garland!

Here is the set for Peyton's little photo shoot! I didn't want my strands to lay flat again my backdrop, so I tied a string between two chairs to suspend them in the air and then tied my strands onto that so that that they appeared to be floating behind her. 

This garland was the perfect accent to some adorable photos for Valentine's Day!

Everlasting Mistletoe

I saw this idea on Pinterest and just had to try it out for myself. I was looking for a cute handmade gift idea for Peyton to give to her grandmas, and I just thought this was too adorable to pass up. Presenting Peyton's "mistletoes"...

This was such a fun craft project for Peyton and I to do together. Plus, what a sweet little keepsake to remember her first Christmas by. I made one for myself as well and framed it so that I can display it every Christmas as part of my decor. I've decided that I want my kids to make one keepsake Christmas craft every year that I can incorporate into my decorations. So here is the very first one!

*Disclaimer: Getting a 6 month old to make nice looking green footprints is so much harder than they make it look on Pinterest. I used the water-soluble kids poster paint, but I would still recommend wearing something that you don't mind ruining on yourself and on baby because we were covered in green paint by the end of this. Smiling and giggling, having a grand 'ole time together, but still covered in green paint nonetheless. Perhaps doing this while she was asleep would have been a better idea to try, but I didn't want to risk ruining one of her naps for the sake of the project so we did it while she was wide awake. I made a few extra mess up ones in the process, but she had so much fun getting her foot painted that I loved the experience anyways. Also, if you are going to do this, do one foot at a time. So I painted her right foot and then went along my papers that I had laid out and did all the right foot prints first. Then I washed her right foot and repeated with the left. Finally, I did the writing and decorating last. A simple, yet priceless keepsake.  

Peyton with my mom, Jared's grandma, and his mom

This was such a cute, easy and super cheap gift for the special people in your baby's life. And I promise it's guaranteed to get some tears out of those grandmas too :)

Nursery Tour

Hey, so remember back when I was pregnant and I told y'all that I would take you on a virtual tour of Peyton's nursery? Ok well, she's almost 12 weeks old so let's go ahead and do that now, mmm-kay? Presenting, Peyton's beautiful (in my biased opinion) baby girl nursery...

Peyton's nursery is basically my pride and joy. My mom and I worked really hard for months to make this the perfect space for our little girl. I absolutely love how everything turned out and this is by far my favorite room in our home...as it should be since it's the most well decorated and has the nicest furniture. Mommy obviously has priorities.

My mom and I went to this amazing baby furniture store in Atlanta called Georgia Baby to order the majority of the furniture. This store is so much better than any other baby store or furniture store I went to because it is basically a giant warehouse full of baby furniture. Most baby stores and furniture stores only have a few models actually out on the floor and everything else you can only see in a catalog. Let me tell you, buying furniture without actually ever seeing it in person is way too difficult. I loved going to Georgia Baby because they had hundreds of cribs, changing tables, etc. all out on the showroom floor where I could see and touch them all. Mom and I spent 8 hours in there trying to make decisions, but by the time we left all of the nursery furniture was ordered and on it's way!

This convertible crib is from the Enchanted collection made by Baby's Dream Furniture. 

These ruffle blackout curtains are from Pottery Barn Kids. The crib skirt is also made of this same ruffle material from PB Kids too. The floor lamp is from Jubilee lighting, and we ordered it through Georgia Baby. The cross on the wall was made by me. I searched and searched for the perfect cross for the wall, but I couldn't find one that was exactly what I wanted so I decided to make one myself. I bought two unfinished wooden crosses from Hobby Lobby. I used the white trim paint from the room to paint the big cross and the pink wall paint to paint the smaller cross. Then I layered the two crosses and hot glued them together. Voila! A custom wall cross that matches the nursery perfectly.

My awesome mother-in-law also happens to be really talented at painting walls. Therefore, I enlisted her skills in painting Peyton's nursery. I must say, the paint job in this room is far better than the paint job in the rest of our house which was done by the professionals. Go figure. It took quite a few paint samples for us to find the perfect shade of pink, but I could not be happier with the color we chose. It is the perfect hint of pink. The color is Diminutive Pink by Sherwin-Williams.

Wooden shelves handmade by Jared's dad. I love the little carved out hearts on the brackets. 

Peyton is so fancy, she gets her own private gate. This is basically the most important piece of furniture in the nursery. It's my "Sadie-you-better-stay-the-eff-out-of-here-or-die" gate. Needless to say, Peyton's room is the cleanest and most dog-hair-free room in our entire house. Thank you baby gate. I highly recommend this gate. If it can keep Sadie out, trust me, it will keep the creatures in your house out too. 

The glider is made by Little Castle, and we ordered it through Georgia Baby. I love this glider because it has a much higher back than most of the gliders out there. That makes it super comfortable for tall people like Jared and I which is why I chose this model. The pink ruffle pillow sitting on the glider is from Pottery Barn Kids. I had it monogrammed myself by a local shop. The floor rug is from The Rug Company, which we also ordered through Georgia Baby.

The little wooden bench is from Lowe's and made by good ole' Martha Stewart. The pink canvas baskets inside are from the same collection as well and come in a bunch of colors. Thanks Martha.

Peyton's crib bedding set is from Pottery Barn Kids: {Maya Floral Nursery Bedding} However, it is no longer available so good thing we bought it when we did. 

This adorable ABC print came from the Etsy shop, LucyDarlingPrints. That girl also makes the super cute little monthly stickers that I put on Peyton for her monthly photos.

This personalized toy chest came from Pottery Barn Kids: {Sabrina Toy Chest}

I am obsessed with Peyton's wall monogram. I really am super jealous and seriously want to order one for my room too. The monogram and the quatrefoil shaped frame both came from this amazing little Etsy shop, SouthernNest.

The lamp on the changing table matches the floor lamp behind the glider and is from Jubilee lighting, which we ordered through Georgia Baby.

This custom canvas wall art was hand-painted to match Peyton's bedding. It came from this Etsy shop, addilyneli. This girl will custom paint canvas to match anything you want. Just send her a picture of a fabric or decorative piece that you want her to match it to and she can paint it! She did an amazing job and I absolutely love this piece of art for the nursery!

Peyton's changing table was hand-crafted in Romania. I know, this kid has nicer furniture than I do. Ridiculous. It came from the manufacturer Romina, which makes super high quality baby furniture all made from solid wood. I love this piece and for some reason it reminds me of the enchanted chest from Beauty and the Beast which makes me love it even more.

Basically my favorite little nook for snuggling with my baby girl :)

Hope you enjoyed our tour of little Miss P's nursery!

Cilantro Lime Chicken

That's right y'all, a non-baby-related post! Seriously, what's going on here? Not only is this post not about Peyton, but it's about cooking, which I totally hate. I know, I can't believe I actually had time to cook a meal and blog about it. Look who's finally becoming a legit stay-at-home-mom. Go me. Of course, with my new role as a mommy I'm in need of recipes that are quick, easy and produce leftovers. This one is perfect for just that and it involves my all-time favorite kitchen appliance, the Crockpot.

I actually borrowed this recipe from my friend Rebecca and her blog. I just tweaked it a little bit and changed the way I serve it because some of the toppings she included in her recipe are delicious dairy and I'm trying to avoid incorporating dairy into my cooking at home for now. She also suggests preparing it ahead of time, bagging it and putting it in the freezer so that when you need an easy dinner option, you can just throw it in the Crockpot and heat it up. What a great idea!

What You Will Need...

1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts

Juice from 2 limes

1 bunch chopped cilantro

16oz frozen corn

2 minced cloves of garlic

1/2 red onion chopped

1 can black beans drained and rinsed

1 tsp cumin 

Black pepper to taste

2 bags of Ready Rice

Step 1: Mix together frozen corn, black beans (drained and rinsed), and chopped red onion. Pour mixture into the Crockpot to form the bottom layer. 

Step 2: Add chicken breasts, garlic, black pepper and cumin. 

Step 3: Top with chopped cilantro and lime juice. 

Step 4: Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. 

Not only does it taste good, but it also makes your kitchen smell like cilantro-limey goodness!

Step 5: Serve over a bed of rice. I used the microwave Ready Rice, but you can also just use regular uncooked rice and throw it in the Crockpot with the rest of the ingredients as well. 

I like to shred up the chicken breast and mix it altogether. It's delicious and I hope you enjoy it too!

Maternity Photos

When I told Jared a few months ago that I wanted to do a maternity photo shoot, he was less than thrilled. At first, I think he was actually confused. "Maternity photos, like that's a real thing that people do?" Yes, paying someone to take professional photos of you while you are fat and swollen is a real thing, and I wanted to jump on the bandwagon. I still don't think he is completely sold on why I believe this is a necessary part of a first pregnancy. However, he was a good sport and played along because he knows how obsessed I am with taking photos of everything.

I chose my photographer and location carefully. I knew what I ultimately wanted, but I also wanted to make this experience as painless as possible for Jared. My cousins use this one photographer for all of their maternity/newborn/kid/family photos and I always love how all of their photos turn out. Sold. I decided to use a local park sort of back in the woods as our location because I wanted to be able to have a little bit of privacy so that Jared and I didn't feel like we were on display out in front of a bunch of people watching us take our pictures. Plus, I didn't want the location to be too super girly for Jared. He likes the woods and water, so off to Alpine Groves Park we went.

Our photographer, Ariel with Ariel Rose Photography, did such an amazing job and I absolutely love how our photos turned out. She was great to work with and made us feel super comfortable the entire time. My favorite thing about her is that she is so good at giving directions. Posing while pregnant is really awkward and it's hard to tell what I look like because everything feels weird and uncomfortable. Not knowing how I look while I'm taking pictures makes me anxious and nervous because I'm terrified that I'm going to spend all this money and then not like the way I was standing or something. Luckily, Ariel was awesome about calling me out when she could see I was doing something that she knew I wouldn't like. For example, reminding me to relax my face or lift my chin up, trying out different positions to find the most flattering one, and telling me how to hold my arms or my dress to make me look as thin and "all belly" as possible. I love her for that.

Here are a few of my favorites from our shoot!

Ariel will be returning to do Peyton's newborn photos, and I can't wait to work with her again!