Happy December!

Hello, December!  We've been busy little bees over at the Meyer household.  After a delightful Thanksgiving spent with Paul's family, we hit the ground running preparing for a superhero birthday party for our out of this world and soon-to-be FOUR year old!  Here's a peek at his Save the Date, plus one of my favorite Christmas photos to celebrate the beginning of the holiday season. Happy tree trimming!

xo,

steph

sweet success!

Well friends, the cake was a success!  It was easy to make, a complete hit and totally yummy.  Here are a few pictures of the reveal.  Can you tell how excited I am?  I had a moment of panic when I cut into the cake and thought, "What if it looks terrible!?!"  The last photo is of Dylan and his best bud, Will, enjoying a little huge piece of rainbow heaven.  

I didn't hire a photographer for the party, so I'm going through the photos my sister took (thanks, kate) and some a friend gave me today.  Hopefully, I'll have some more to share! 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  We spent most of Sunday recuperating from the party-mania.  We slept in, ate waffles, played outside and went out to eat.  Somehow, I'm still tired and craving more family laziness today.

xo,

steph

p.s. after a long run of potty-training regression, dylan wore his big boy undies all day yesterday (even when we went out)!  he went to school in them today, too.  i'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping we've reached the beginning of a big milestone and that the second time's a charm!

happy weekend...

I lucked out and snagged an unexpected half day at work, so I am off to do some mad-dash, day-before-party running around.  Sometimes, when we do the party thing,  I wonder how we are going to pull it all together, but, remarkably it happens.  I hope the same goes for this party.  Does it make me a crazy person if I'm considering baking this amazing, adorable, so perfect rainbow cake tonight?

Here's a little link love for you...

How crayons are made.  Do you remember watching this as a kid!?!  It totally took me back in the best way.

1001 books to read (before you die).


Author and illustrator M. Sasek.  Dylan loves these books and I love M. Sasek.

Paul Rand Rocks.

How fun is this zoo?

Very cool album covers.

Santa's Portable North Pole.  This is the coolest!  I made a message for Dylan and it was hilarious watching him watch it.  Check it out!

Reindeer Cards.  Free templates for adorable reindeer cards that the kids or you can color! 

Enjoy your weekend!

xo,
steph

Party-mania

Sorry for being MIA ever since Thanksgiving.  After waking up from my deep food coma, I've been running around like a mad woman preparing for Dylan's birthday party this weekend.  AH!  I'm really excited.  Last year we just had a 'little' family + close friends get together, but this year I actually got my act together and invited Dylan's entire class.  I can't wait to see how much fun he will have with his friends!

Plus, what could be more fun than an art party?  Here is a shot of the invitation I made for the party.  I had meant to order them off of minted., but ran out of time so I just did it myself.  I can't wait to share the rest of the party with you!

So, hang with me and forgive my sporadic posts.  I'm hoping to get a little holiday gift guide up this week, but don't hold it against me if it takes me until next week.  In the meantime, there are TONS of fun holiday ideas out there right now.  Check out my favorites!

Design Mom's great finds for the men in your life.  (Plus tons more!)

DIY pom-pom garland.  I just love pom-poms, don't you?

Pintrest gift guides!  I just joined pintrest and I'm pretty much obsessed.

Oh Joy! gift guides just started.  Check out the first two posts here and here.

The sweetest Advent Calendar ideas.

A yummy 10-minute meal for those crazy holiday evenings after those crazy holiday days.

There is lots out there to share.  I'll be sure to post some more link love when I can!  For now, I hope this made up for my absence.

xoxo!
steph

Pretty Flags DIY

{all images courtesy of Project Wedding, Oh Happy Day!}

I saw this Flag DIY by Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day! a while ago, but was recently thinking of making these for Dylan's birthday party next month.  Of course, these flags are great because they would look good for any event really.  You don't need much of an excuse to make them! 

Flag Sculpture DIY

Materials Needed: 

Dowels (strong enough to place them in the grass), Fabric (we chose varying hues of yellow) 

Sewing Machine, Scissors, Elmers Glue, String, Tape, Large Bowl

1. Cut out the shapes of flags that you want. The shorter flags work better than the longer lengths. 

2. Fold a flap of fabric over on one side and sew a space big enough for the dowel to fit in.

3. Taking the large bowl, add about 2 cups of Elmer's Glue. 

Then mix in 1/3 cup water and stir until it is completely mixed in.

Step 4. Dip Flag into the glue mixture (with dowel already inserted) until it is completely covered. 

Remove some of the excess glue with your hands but make sure 

it still has a generous amount of glue covering the surface.

5: Hang the flags to dry by taping the dowels to the string. 

Make sure the string is level and is in a place that isn't windy (somewhere like a garage is best).

Line the area below the dripping flags with newspaper or scrap materials to prevent mess.

Flags should dry and harden within 12 hours and you'll have yourself some cute flags to decorate your event.

♥ ♥ ♥

Jordan always comes up with the best DIY projects!  This sweet flag project was posted on Project Wedding, which offers an endless amount of DIY's that can be used for any kind of party, plus it has beautiful wedding things-something I never tire of seeing.

Have a happy Monday.  I don't know about you, but I'm kind of fighting the Monday blues.  I want to be at home!

xo,

steph

p.s. Don't you covet that dress the model is wearing?  I seriously love it.

our wedding

Yesterday, Pictage sent me an email of our wedding photos to remind me of their holiday specials.  I took one look at the thumbnail image of our wedding and couldn't help myself: I spent the next hour and a half looking through all the photographs of our wedding.  Our photographer, Jennifer Lindberg, and her husband, Jim, did an incredible job of capturing the best moments of that day.  Paul and I have been together for six years, but he proposed to me the year we met.   After having to post-pone our wedding three different times, I finally gave up trying to plan one and waited for our lives to smooth out a bit.  In hindsight, I'm so glad my previous wedding attempts didn't work out.  Our wedding ceremony was last May at my Aunt & Uncle's home in Lago Vista, Texas and was well worth the wait.

Here are some of my favorite photos...

 

Details...

family-style seating

chandeliers in the trees

favors for the kids

the four may-poles we made bordered the dance floor

sunset view of the reception

dessert included four cakes, five pies, rose cupcakes and gelato

a big italian dinner party!

we danced to willie nelson and kimmie rhodes 

'love me like a song'

I didn't have a wedding coordinator, something I wish I had at least organized for the wedding day.  I remember feeling overwhelmed and a little frantic at times.  Mostly, I think it was just too much responsibility for me to be both the bride and the wedding planner.  {I'm too much of a perfectionist and should have known better!}  But, looking through these pictures, all I see is happiness and love and I know I'll remember that day as beautiful...from the inside out.

xo,

steph

*all photos taken by Jennifer Lindberg*