Bennett Levi's Sip n See

This past Sunday I helped host a Sip & See for one of my best friends and her sweet baby boy. I volunteered for the task of decorations and I was excited about doing some crafting for this get-together! It was a great turnout and the other 4 hostesses did so great with the delicious food, invitations, and picking out a hostess gift for Brooke. 

I found the link to make these on none other than Pinterest! On the website they suggest making ornaments out of these, but I thought they would look great hanging above the food table. You can find the tutorial and template here. [Warning: these are very time consuming...and a little frustrating when assembling, but the end result is great!]

 This yummy cake was made by Off The Square Catering

This was so easy to make and I think it turned out great. I just cut out the triangles with scrapbook paper, threaded some string through, painted the letters and voila! 

Izzy was enjoying all the attention on Sunday

The color scheme for the Sip & See was blue and brown. We pretty much went off of the cute blue and brown giraffe invitations. I wanted Brooke to be able to keep this for Bennett once we were finished with it and since his room is more of primary colors I made this a reversible banner! I loved the way it turned out!

The back of the blue and brown side

I made some pinwheels and attached them to dowels that I had painted and cut to size and then put them in mason jars. Have I mentioned that I LOVE mason jars?!

The blue stuff is 'Unity Sand' that I found in the wedding section at Michael's! It was inexpensive and served my purpose great!

I've seen door hangers like this at all kinds of craft fairs. I've seen them mostly made of burlap, but I've also seen them made of some type of screen. That's what this is made of: window screen. There wasn't any type of tutorial for this...I just kind of knew what I wanted and went with it. I love the way it turned out and I've even received some orders on door hangers already! Let me know if you're interested in one for your front door or even to hang on your child's bedroom door!

I was trying to figure out what to do for a table runner. One of the other hostesses said she had some white table cloths so I decided to go buy some fabric and just sew one. I found the fabric at Premier Fabrics in Germantown, TN. (I could stay in that store for hours redecorating my house! They have the BEST fabrics!) 

You may notice the giraffes hanging in the background. (I don't think I took a picture of them alone.) I wanted a backdrop for the food table and this is what I came up with. So a few weeks before the Sip & See I started cutting out giraffes. I had a PDF of the invitation with giraffes on it so I was able to take those from that file and enlarge them to cut out so they were the exact giraffe. I cut out two different sizes in varying shades of blue and brown. Then I strung them using some of Will's clear fishing line. I attached them to a square dowel that I painted blue and used to hang across the two windows. 

These giraffes caused some stress in my life. This photo was taken after I had hung the giraffes up at my house so they wouldn't get tangled... That obviously didn't work. As soon as I walked away it fell down. I just had to take some deep breaths over and over so I didn't scream! Ginger looks sort of like I did when I saw them falling.

You can see the giraffes good again in this photo.

All of the food was so good!

This is baby Bennett and his Mommy! What a good photo!

Bennett was so tired after a long afternoon! Isn't he cute?!

Speaking of cute, I just had to add a couple photos of Bennett and big sister, Celia! They were too cute not to post. You can really see Celia's personality in these pictures! I have no doubt that she is going to meet and exceed any expectations of her as a big sister. She is so great and I can't wait to see her grow up with Bennett. Being a big sister to a brother is something special and I'm so glad she gets to experience it!

Aren't these two babies great!? I think this photo of Celia is my absolute favorite!

WiLW

Happy Wednesday! We're halfway to the weekend!

I love this idea for a dog crate! It would save so much room and even looks cute! Will may have a new DIY coming his way...

I love this idea of baking banana bread in mason jars to give as Christmas gifts! Will and I spent the weekend in Muddy, IL last weekend visiting his grandmother and she made banana bread...so my mouth is watering for some more bread right now! Yum!

Love love love vintage pyrex! I always find some I love when we go antiquing, but have never bought any due to our lack of cabinet space...I need to just start buying it anyway and worry about space later! 

While we're on the topic of vintage glassware, have I mentioned that I also love jadeite?? We started collecting it this year. This is one piece that we usually always pick up whenever we go to a new antique store!

Wow...I love this blanket! Think about how comfy it would be to curl up and take a nap with this thing! Unfortunately, it's way out of my price range but a girl can dream can't she? If anyone has an extra $449 lying around you can buy this here!

Have a great week!

Veterinary Miracle Worker

 I try not to be one of those people who constantly talks about their dogs and just drives everyone crazy, but that's near impossible for me. I've just got to talk about what went on this past weekend with Ginger B.

On Thursday night we noticed that her head looked like it was twitching every second. She's never done this before so I had no idea what was going on. I finally noticed that her throat/neck seemed to be having spasms which was making her head jerk.

Friday morning I took her to the vet. I'm not naming names, but it starts with Pet and ends with Vax. By the time we left they had diagnosed her with a respiratory infection. The doctor was in with us for only about 5 minutes and didn't run any tests or anything. I'm obviously not a veterinarian, but it just didn't seem right. Nonetheless, I got her antibiotics and went home. 

By Saturday, Ginger could barely walk. It was so sad! It was killing me that she was hurting and I had no idea what was going on! (I guess that's what it's like having a sick baby??) She was just laying down all day. She couldn't stand up on her own and couldn't go up or down the stairs without crying. On Saturday and Sunday I talked to two friends who are vet techs or have been before (thanks Cory and Paul!) and we started thinking maybe Gin had a back injury. And then it hit me, she DID have a back/neck injury!! I don't know why I didn't realize it sooner! After working at a chiropractic office for 4 years in college, you would think I would have realized this right off the bat. Her symptoms were exactly like those of patients I had seen at the chiro. 

Look how sad! She was hurting

For some reason she thought it was comfortable to lie on my side on Saturday

Remi knew she felt bad 

Monday began my frantic calls to try and get her into a veterinary chiropractor. Everyone knew of only one in Memphis and when I called I found out he was booked for the day. And didn't have any openings until Wednesday! I was so upset. I became the crazy lady crying on the phone to the front desk workers. So embarrassing. I cry about everything. I finally called the vet back for the third time to ask them to go ahead and schedule Ginger for Wednesday and to please call me if anyone canceled for Monday. The lady that had answered the phone was the third person I had spoken to and asked me what was going on and to describe Ginger's symptoms. I tried not to be too blubbery and managed to tell her everything. She reassured me that everything was going to be alright and that she would talk to the doctor and call me back. When she called me back, she said that if I could bring Ginger and drop her off then the doctor would see her in between patients. I was so thankful and let out a sigh of relief! 

I picked Ginger up that evening and met with Dr. Parker to discuss what was going on with Gin. He said that he had given her an adjustment and showed me some stretches to do on her neck to prevent and help reduce muscle spasms. Ginger was like a new dog!! She was wagging her tell, prancing around, and just looked like she felt 100x better. So we got sent home with some muscle relaxers and pain meds and an appointment for next week just to re-check her. Dr. Parker at the Shelby Center for Animals in Bartlett, TN was awesome! I was so thankful to find a doctor who cared about what was going on with Ginger and who stayed a little later than closing time to talk to me about Ginger.

Look how happy she looks!

Before and After!

If your dog ever seems to have symptoms like this, remember Dr. Parker and chiropractic care!

WILW

This past week has flown by! I feel like I just wrote last week's WILW post! 

Here it goes again! I'm loving a lot of things this week!

I really love these splash dyed shirts! They are for sale here on Etsy, but they cost muchhh more than I would want to pay so I NEED to figure out how to DIY. Looks like dye and bleach?  What do you think?

I love these bracelets. I'm been a little DIY jewelry obsessed lately and I'm sure I'll be making these soon!

Call me grandma, but I love this quilt tutorial and blanket. I need to learn to quilt and crochet/knit!

Another tank I love on Etsy! Will and I listened to Old Crow Medicine Show in honor of "loving" this shirt!

I love these accessories from Fossil. The studs are adorable and the bracelet is rose gold...need I say more?!

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Olympics! Will and I don't have cable (and never miss it), but I'm definitely missing not having the NBC Sports channel for constant Olympics coverage!

I've loved watching the U.S. Women's Soccer team! Makes me miss playing! I don't know who I'll be rooting for if they end up playing Brasil!

Who hasn't loved watching the Phelps & Lochte swimming showdown?!

I lovvvvve my new tattoo I got last week! I had been thinking of getting this verse for a few years and FINALLY went through with it! The verse is in memory of my great-grandmother, Mamaw, who I miss so much. She'd probably have a cow if she saw this tat though! All of the women in my family are such amazing women of God so I guess in a way this verse is for all of them. It's a reminder to me of the woman and wife that I need to be. The feather design is something I saw online and instantly loved. I gave it to the tattoo artist, Lawrence Pennington at No Regrets, and told him to redesign it a little just so it wasn't exactly like the one online. I think it turned out amazing!

"Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."

Proverbs 31:29

Cody got a tattoo also! He's wanted one for a while too, but because of some Army rules, etc. he couldn't get one after getting sworn in and before going to Basic. His is a silhouette of Army soldiers with a verse on the bottom. His turned out good too!

"for the battle is not ours, but the Lord's"

2 Chronicles 20:15

So there you have it! What I'm Loving Wednesday! Hope the first half of your week has been great!