"SODA"lightful Summer Social {RS Activity}

Our "Soda"lightful RS Summer Social was "The Cherry on Top!"

We played a getting to know you game and made our own Italian Soda's!

The Italian Sodas were DELISH to say the least...

 

It was a fabulous evening of fun & getting to know eachother better!

Italian Soda Bar:

Italian Soda recipe is hand written on the "black boards"

Italian Soda cupcakes!

Made by our very own "Betty Crocker" Leslie Galloway

Striped straws are perfect for stirring and sipping!

Walk a Day in my Shoes {RS Activity}

It was a "heel"arious, fun & inspiring evening! Our Relief "sole"ciety sisters brought a pair of shoes and shared their own personal stories! We laughed, we cried and enjoyed eachother's company! We also donated shoes to a Women's Shelter and ended the evening with a waffle bar!

FLIP FLOP ON OVER AND JOIN US!

WALK A DAY IN MY SHOES

Please join our 4th Ward Relief "sole" ciety Sisters for a

fun, inspirational, and "heel"arious evening!

Tuesday May 8^{th at 7pm}

^{Founders Park Bldg.}

^{We ask that each sister bring a pair of shoes and use those shoes to tell a great story!}

^{"Shoes are worn for different reasons, and every pair has a story. Just like shoes, women are in different Seasons of their life, and every woman has a story!"}

^{Did you finish a tough race with your running shoes? Did you dance your way into someone’s heart with your dress shoes? Did you have a memorable vacation in your flip flops?}

^{The choice is yours! Be as creative and inventive as you like! This will be a great opportunity to get to know some of our new sisters and find out new things about our old friends.}

^{Please also bring gently used shoes to donate!}

**************************************************************************

This was a great activity with a wonderful response! We had Sister's bring their own shoes and tell their own stories, and we also had Sister's that brought a relatives old shoes and tell a story about them! It was a great way of getting to know one another better and learn more about eachother! 

One of the Sister's on our committee created the shoe favors* and she did an amazing job. 
The template was found online here:
http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/articles/free_shoe_template_download

*FYI: the favors took a pretty long time, she used printed paper ... don't use cardstock! 

Here's the FREE Printable that we used for our display! Check out this blog, it has fabulous articles and free printables!

http://www.the36thavenue.com/15-shoe-makeovers-free-printable/shoes-2/


Good luck and have fun! Make it a GREAT Day!







It's GREAT to be 8!

Our oldest child and our families oldest grandchild was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints...It was such a beautiful day surrounded by the Spirit and loved ones! More info to come...

Thrifting

Hello, my name is Tina, and I am addicted to thrifting, lol.

  I get a rush when I go thrifting, and I'm very picky about how much I spend.  If I go thrifting, I make it a goal to always spend less then $20.  Now if I score on a piece of furniture, or a big mirror, then the price will go up a little bit.  But, I'm very particular about how much I spend.  Even if I REALLY like something, I always think to myself 'Is it really worth it?  Do I really need it?'  Most of the time, I do need it, haha. 

Just recently, I've been scoring like crazy with decor, mirrors, chairs, and pieces of furniture.  When I say score, I mean I spent less then $25 on all the pieces of furniture.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  I spent less then $10 on all my furniture pieces, and I spent $25 on a headboard.  I'm so excited about the headboard I scored!  It's vintage, and I cannot wait to paint it a bright bold color!  That's another blog in itself.  Right now I'm in the process of decorating our living room, and family room.  I've changed quite a few things in my living room since my post on my other blog, and that is all thanks to thrifting. 

A week ago I went thrifting with my sister Lota, and I had my eye on a certain piece of furniture.  I decided against getting it..  Why, I have no idea.  I should have just got it, because I could not stop thinking about it (another sign of addiction to thrifting, lol.)  So, I decided to randomly go check out that D.I. again and see if it was there.  Low, and behold it was still there!  I was so excited, and what's even more exciting is that they dropped the price to $10!  I'm so glad I waited!  The piece I'm so excited about is...

THIS

I know some people may think 'Now why in the world would you want that?'  Well, this little piece of furniture brings back so many memories.  My Grandparents use to have these in their homes, and I would get so excited about listening to them.  I am a sucker for antique's, and anything with history!  I have been since I was little, and so when I find vintage or antique pieces, I get so excited! 

Last night, after my 4 little ones went to sleep I decided to head out to start painting it.  After about 3 coats of paint, this is the finished piece.

I LOVE IT!
 I love it so much, and I'm so excited that this is my first big piece of furniture that I have refinished.  I have done chairs, and little tables, but this was my biggest piece.  Isn't it amazing what a little paint will do?

Here it is in it's new home :)
Pictures to come of my thrifty family room!

New Parent 24 Hour Survival Kit {gift}

Our brother and His beautiful wife just welcomed a little Princess into this world! Becoming parents for the first time is such a blessing, but as we ALL know it's also very exhausting!

THEY WILL NEVER SLEEP IN AGAIN, but the sleep deprivation is

SO WORTH IT!!

We created a "New Parent Survival Kit" for the two of them! 

We included their fave sodas, snacks and candy and little extra's!

The possibilites are endless, use your creativeness! Have fun in personalizing it!

CONGRATULATIONS Mr. & Mrs. Tai!  We love you both!! XOXO 

Flower Tutorial

Now, before I start..  I don't blog nearly as well as my sister Lota.  She's the best when it comes to 'writing' anything.  So, I apologize if I'm a bore when it comes to my posts, lol.  On the side bar it gives you an idea as to what I love most.  I love to thrift shop!  I can spend hours at a thrift store looking through everything.  As you all know, the color Coral is really in right now.  I've looked at fabric stores to try and find this fabric to make flowers out of, but didn't like the asking price.  While thrifting I spotted a worn down, button up shirt.  It's silk, and had really nice buttons (Buttons can be pretty expensive, especially the nice ones.).  I looked at the price, and it was $2!  Did I say how much I love thrift stores?! 

Below is a picture of the shirt, and one of my flowers.  I found a tutorial on YouTube for this flower, you can find the link here.  In this tutorial she advices to use elastic thread, but I didn't have any on hand.  So, I used regular thread and it worked just the same.  I added some lace, a pearl to the center, and hot glued them to some felt.  Then, I hot glued it to some elastic lace and there you have it, a cute little headband for your little one.  You don't have to attach it to a headband, you can also hot glue it to a hair clip as well.   

Hope this was helpful!

A Baby in BLOOM {event}

Our beautiful Sis In law is due in March and we were honored to host a baby shower for Her and Baby Tina... Yep, Auntie Tina is going to have a beautiful lil' namesake!

Mahina is honestly the PERFECT Sister In law...Really, She is! And We had tons of fun planning, preparing, and pulling it all off! Isn't Hina such a gorgeous little prego?! Glowing and all... LOVE IT!

PLANNING: We planned the shower during a Holiday weekend hoping that our loved ones from Las Vegas could make it, and many of them did!
We decided on the theme "A BABY IN BLOOM".  Our decor inspirations were flowers & bright color combinations of hot pinks, yellows, turquoise and aqua.
PREPARING: We sent out "Save the Date" reminders on facebook
and also mailed invitations.

Mahina and John had their maternity photos taken by Kassie Feinga with Soda Pop Photography http://www.facebook.com/#!/sodapopphotography!

PREPARING:
Our Mom came in from Las Vegas on Thursday and it was so nice to have her here... and we're so grateful for all of Her help! Decorating with my Mom and Saster was too fun and funny! I'll cherish the time my Mom was standing on my kitchen table gluing rosettes to the canopy, burning my fingers multiple times with the glue gun, and then telling Tina "get down from the table" because she was standing on it fixing the decor while holding her 7 month old... LOL! Good times, good times!

All of the items used for this table scape were already in my home, some people may call that hoarding... It's called being prepared! 

Flower & Ribbon Canopy: I installed a temporary hook shaped screw into our ceiling to hang the canopy from (thank goodness for my handy husband, who has now patched up the hole) We glued rosettes to the canopy, and tied ribbon inside the canopy to hang the tissue paper from it. And We also draped ribbon from the top of the canopy to add pops of color.  

Tissue Paper Flowers: Created with approximately 8 sheets of tissue paper,  per flower.

Instructions can be found here:

http://pinterest.com/talavou/baby-shower-inspirations/

Picture stands: We used glass vases filled with silk flowers and topped them off with a silver serving tray. We used tacky tape to adhere the two temporarily together.

3 Tier Diaper Cake:  I make my diaper cakes a bit different than instructed. I believe that unrolling each and every diaper from the cake can be a bit tedious for new mommies.

 Instructions to come :)

Onesie Flower Arrangement: PINTEREST Inspired, we filled a short glass vase with shredded pink paper and placed the onesie flowers inside.

Instructions here:

 http://mymindseyecreations.blogspot.com/2011/06/waiting-for-baby-noelle.html

Baby Banner: Strung grosgrain and satin ribbon with small clothes pins and an outfit for the princess!

Where to BUY this look:

IKEA bed canopy - $20  

Glass Vases $0.50 - $5 glass vases & jars may be purchased at the Goodwill for super cheap!

Dollar Tree silver platters/trays - $1 

ROSS Tissue Paper - $5 for 125 sheets  who knew Ross had tissue paper? Now ya do!

Sam's Club cupcake stand - $10 Sam's Club has a great variety of serving trays!

There is always some kind of decor that doesn't quite work out the way it was planned, and the Baby Banner was just that.  I originally wanted to have "Baby in Bloom" on the banner, but my printer stopped working...Arrrrr! So we just used "Baby" with a cute outfit from Auntie Tina! In the end it turned out super cute!!

FANTASTIC FIND: Do you see the cute pink cake stand in the front? I bought the candlestick for .50 and the plate for .25 at the Goodwill in Las Vegas. I just hot glued the candlestick to the plate, and the topper was from DI for .75!

 $1.50 for a *PINTEREST INSPIRED pink little cake stand is totally PRICELESS! We used this for our hot pink cake bites!

  We are truly grateful for you Hina, and we are so excited for the arrival of Tina's little namesake. Hosting this baby shower was the least we could do for your little family & We are so happy for your beautiful growing family! My brother is the happiest we have ever seen Him, and we have You to THANK!

XOXO