My Maternity Pics (revised)

So yesterday i talked my husband into taking some pictures of me and our baby ;0)  I think they turned out pretty good considering we took them ourselves! Here are a few of my faves :0)
Note: I got the impression that some might think these pics are too personal..so i took a few out.

Easton Matthew Gates ♥

05.23.2010

Shelf Tutorial

This is a tutorial on how to build these fun bookshelves that i posted about the other day!

Ive never done one of these before but here goes ;0)
What you will need:

~WOOD! board sizes: 1' 4, 1' 3 & 1' 2. (i got the 10' long ones so that i had enough to make 2 shelves. My shelves are 45' long.)

~Wood Glue..i personally like Gorilla Glue.

~Finishing nails

~Caulk and paint


What to Do:
~Cut each board to your desired size..if you want 45' shelves, cut each board 45' long.

~Use wood glue to glue the pieces together...like this:

Note: the widest board (1' 4) goes on the bottom.
~Let that dry for about an hour..
~I found this next step to be the hardest..nailing them together. It made me wish that i had a nail gun! Anywho, just take your finishing nails and nail the boards together...i did like 5 nails per side.

Now, it should now look something like this..

 ~Now you just have to caulk the cracks/ let that dry/ and then paint! (I ended up doing 2 coats) Then you are finished! Have fun :0)

Cool Blogging Tip!

If youve seen the blogs with big beautiful pictures in their posts and you want in, go HERE. There is an awesome tutorial on how to customize your picture sizes! There are a few ways to do it however, all i did was updated my 'Post Editor'..which i should have done like...yesterday! Who knew there was an Updated version?! To change yours, click on 'Settings'--scroll down the page until you see 'Select Post Editor'  choose 'Updated Editor' and then 'Save'...you will be glad you did!..it is RAD. Now when you upload a picture into your posts you now have an 'extra large' picture option which is way bigger and better than the old option. There is also another way to edit your pics (if youre hard to please still not happy with the bigger size ;0) You can edit your post pictures in HTML as well..again, the awesome tutorial for that is here :0) If you end up doing this, let me know how you like it!! Have a fabulous day ♥

Crafty

Ive been getting the crafty itch lately!...i think its my version of nesting ;0)
A few days ago, i made these bookshelves (all by myself) for Eastons room! It was pretty easy to do and im happy with the outcome...even more happy with the price! They came out to be like 5 or 6 dollars each...sure beats paying 20 bucks a pop! ;0)


I also painted these cool giant buttons...

And put them up on the wall ♥

Happy St Pattys Everyone!

Matt and i didnt even realize that today was St Pattys day til this afternoon {Pretty Sad!} Dont worry...Matt got his pinch for not wearing green ;0) Anywho, i found a good sugar cookie recipe on this awesome blog and it looked so yummy i had to make some of my own! I even talked Matt into helping me ♥

I didnt have a shamrock cookie cutter so stars were the next best thing :0) And of course they had to be GREEN!



Here...Have a cookie ♥

..and a happy St. Pattys day to ya!

Spring is here!

I love Springtime. Everything is so fresh ♥ This is our first spring in our new house so weve been excited to see what kind of flowers will bloom in our yard! Just recently, weve gotten a little glimpse of whats starting to bloom...i dont know the names of the flowers, yet but here are some pictures of some of the lovelies ;0)





..i know these arent flowers, but they are pretty none the less..and appropriate for the coming holiday ;0)

We have an awesome garden area in our backyard with 6 giant built in planters! It is covered in weeds right now but will soon be a plentiful garden...that is, if i can keep these guys from eating and destroying our freshly planted plants (true story.) Any suggestions? Look! I found a dirty little puppy in my garden ;0)

Penelope and Daisy are partners in crime best friends ;0)

Spring has also given us oranges...lots of oranges! (not all shown)

We have two little orange bushes in our front yard and they gave us over a hundred oranges! We had so many, that we didnt know what to do with them SO...we made juice!


mmm...theres nothing like fresh orange juice ♥ Well, i hope you all are enjoying the Spring weather and getting some fresh air..i know i am ;0)

Baby Shower!

Hello everyone :0) ive finally finished being lazy recovered enough to blog about my recent trip to my hometown (Bakersfield) for my baby shower! After the grueling 6hour drive it was nice to sit back and relax with my family..my sister treated my mom and i to pedicures {i hadnt had one since i was in beauty school..i felt bad for my lady! ;0)

Heres the finished product..well worth the pain of getting my skin filed off and stabbed multiple times in the toe! LOL Oh, and mine are the big puffy prego feet if youre wondering ;0)

*Random thought: I read somewhere that your feet actually get bigger during pregnancy sometimes..that worries me a little considering im already a size 10! Yikes!
My shower was on Saturday {the 6th} and i was pleased that lots of old friends and familiar faces showed up to support me ♥ It was so fun to visit with everyone! We ate yummy food and played some fun games! Here are some pics from the day...and for some reason, my moms camera took crappy fuzzy pictures so i apologize!

..playing a nursery rhyme game :0)

My Grandma and seesters ♥

Opening presents...i got tons of good stuff a.k.a 'loot' and little Easton will definitely be well dressed ;0)

Easton's stroller

Thank you everyone for coming to my shower and for your support ♥

That night i went to an old friends wedding reception..it was beautiful..and so was the bride :0) I got to see a bunch of people that i havent seen in a long time so it was fun to catch up! The next couple days were spent just 'chillin' with family..here i am giving my sister a hair cutting 'lesson'..her husband Jacob was such a good model ;0)

Heres a couple of my neices ♥

here we are out for icecream ♥

The next morning i headed back home to see my hubby that i 'abandoned' for 5 days..its good to know that i was missed ♥ I always have such a good time with my family! Thanks for everything!