Sophia's 1st Birthday Party!

 Sophia Marie Webber

Our baby girl will be 1 on December 8th, but we celebrated and gave her a little party today. It's hard to believe she is a year old already. I remember being very pregnant, in and out of the hospital, not being able to sleep, and getting up to pee about six times in an hour. My god. But it is worth it. She is growing up too quick! Waaa! 

From the beginning...

 Sophia was born on Dec. 8th 2010 at 3:27am

 First day home...

 2 Month Check Up!

 4 months

 5 months

 6 months

7 months

  

9 months

Now...

So me being me, I had a "Tangled" theme for her party. We both love the movie.

 I made these "Tangled" theme cupcakes...

 

The idea was inspired by a page I came across on Google called Supermom.

The only thing I did different was the choice of icing and flowers, the decorative pearls, and I used "Tangled" stickers attached to toothpicks to embellish. 

I did the flowers to represent the "magic golden flower" and I found the lavender and pink icing at Wal-Mart and I thought it was a perfect color to match Rapunzel's dress!
 

 "I See the Light" Jell-O Boats: 

The Centerpiece...

Nothing too fancy...just "Pascal" in a frying pan! 

The set up....

I didn't go too crazy because it was just a small get together with my SIL and her family and our best friend, John. Plus, we are on a real tight budget and I tried to make the best with what we have. So if having some "Party City" items mixed with my homemade stuff is "tacky," well... then... I guess I'm tacky. Oh well...
(I made the Kingdom banner with construction paper. And we had Little Caesar's pizza as the "main course.")

Anyway, Sophia got wonderful gifts from Evan and I, the Raynal's (Thank you and TY for mine and Evan's Xmas gifts as well! Loved everything!) And she got an angry bird pillow from "Uncle John" (Thank you!) 

Opening her presents...

The Queen digging in her cupcake! Crazy, messy, sticky, fun!

The party, I'd say, was a success because we had a great time with our family and we thank them for coming to celebrate this special moment with us! :)

Cousins!

Happy Birthday, Sophia!!

Thanksgiving weekend.

And so it begins. The holidays. We went back to Georgia to celebrate Thanksgiving.
I have to admit, I had a hard time dealing with the fact that it was the first time that I didn't spend it with my family. I miss them and my daddy's mashed potatoes. LOL. Anyway, we stayed at Evan's dad's house for the weekend, and then we went to Evan's great Aunt Hilda's house to celebrate. I learned where Sophia gets her famous cowlick from, apparently it is heredity on that side of the family, so that was pretty neat! And of course the food was good and her home was lovely!

Sophia with Patticat!

From left to right:

Me, Evan, Sophia is asleep in the stroller, my MIL--Donna, holding our niece, Adelynn, my SIL--Lori holding our niece Juliette and her husband, Christophe.

Sophia with her GREAT grandmother.

We also decided to go to Walmart at 10pm for the early black friday deals. Bad idea. The place was a madhouse. But I got what I was looking for--the 15 piece frame set for both Patti & Scott (Evan's dad) and Donna. :) The next morning we went shopping with Patti and she got Sophia some new clothes for her birthday and treated us to IHOP--which was delicious!

(And in the mist of all this, we had to move stuff out of my sister's apartment and rent a u-haul.)

We were very very busy...but we got new/old furniture! :) YAY!

Saturday we went over to Donna's and met up with the Waters and Williams family to celebrate everybody's birthday/ Thanksgiving. It was so nice to finally meet Molly! Molly is almost exactly a month younger than Sophia.

Sophia and Molly.

Molly took Sophia's bow!

This picture makes me laugh. 

Tis the season!

My name is Penny Pincher!

 "A quarter can save you dollars!"

 Let me just say this: I hate grocery shopping--especially in this economy. I used to like it but now I find it sort of depressing.

Before your house payment, your car payment, your electricity bill, you need food and water to survive. Period. My husband makes too much to qualify for food stamps and lately we have found ourselves in a bit of a bind when it comes to food shopping. The prices are ridiculously inflated and I am forced to spend no more than $80 in groceries every 2 weeks and that's including toiletries. I ate better when Evan was unemployed. Go figure.

It doesn't matter how well I budget, if the money isn't there...it isn't there.And life becomes hard, financially.

And even if I used coupons at Wal-Mart, Kroger or Publix...the coupon policies have become more stringent and they have made it even harder to save due to everyone catching on about extreme couponing. So I have come to find that it is not even worth it.

 But there is some hope. 

First, I got a new job at Palm Beach Tan. It's part time and I make minimum wage plus commission. I'll bring in some extra cash. Normally, with my qualifications, this would piss me off. A degree in marketing, 8 years of retail experience, 4 years in management.....and I am making minimum wage. This is EXACTLY the problem that other students and workers are facing.  And they wonder why students are constantly deferring and defaulting on their loans and why workers are waiting in the unemployment line in the midst of losing their home. Where are the jobs that  PAY?!?! And what happened to getting paid every WEEK? Nowadays, you have to hope that your billing cycles match up with your monthly or bi weekly payday schedule, especially when you are living paycheck to paycheck and minimum wage is a bad idea...but that's another topic.

The good news about this job is that it is walking distance from my apartment. Less than a half of a mile. I save on commuting and with gas being $3-4 a gallon, it will save me money in the long run. So I am not all that upset about it.

A brand new Aldi just opened a new store right next to Palm Beach Tan. This is great! The way our budget is, Aldi is perfect to accommodate our food needs. They have milk for $1.99. A dozen LARGE eggs for .49. Everything that I would have bought at Wal-Mart cost at least $20 less at Aldi, and even a little more because I am not using gas to get to the store.

Aldi is not for everyone, though. Many people like the convenience that Aldi doesn't have. At Aldi, there are not many BRAND NAMES. Most of the groceries are generic but honestly, I cannot tell the difference. You have to bring your own plastic or reusable bags and bag your groceries yourself. You have to pay a quarter to get a shopping cart, but you get the quarter back when you return the cart. All the merchandise is in boxes, so there isn't any shelves or anything fancy like that like you would see at Kroger or Wal-Mart. But all of these cuts in overhead, help save me money. Aldi is very smart when it comes to competition. Aldi doesn't carry everything you may need, but they have at least 90% of what you are looking for, especially when you are on a tight budget. They even carry some toys for much cheaper than other stores. I was able to buy Sophia Mega Blocks for Christmas for $13 when they originally cost $20 at Wal-Mart and they have it on ROLLBACK for $15. I win. And no, I am not lying.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mega-Bloks-80-piece-Maxi-Bag/5692921

 So if there's an Aldi nearby, I highly recommend shopping there if you are on a tight, penny pinching budget like us! :)

My birthday!

November 13th, my birthday. 

I had a great birthday weekend considering how short we are with finances (who isn't nowadays?). We made the best of it. Yesterday, my soon-to-be step-mother in law, came up from Georgia to visit, it was really great to see her and she got to see Sophia. It's been awhile! She took us out to Red Lobster (my favorite place to eat out) for my birthday--I got the endless shrimp and got a drink. It was delicious. And I was extremely full! 

Today we went to Bridge Street and we ate at a new place called, "Lime." It's pretty similar to Chipotle, so I am a very happy girl to have found this place when I get my cravings for Chipotle. There are no Chipotles' where I live, so this is a very good thing! LOL. 

I had a good time spending time with my family, just walking around and enjoying the fresh air.
I also talked to the managers at Ulta and Sephora for a possible job, so I am hoping one of them will pull through. I love working with makeup!

Here are some pictures of Bridge Street. It is like a little oasis! I love it here! 

 

Mall-O-Ween 2011

We went to the mall to celebrate Halloween. Sophia was a ladybug, I was a bumblebee, Evan was the pest control guy and John was Indiana Jones. We had a real good time, and Sophia got herself a bunch of treats! She loves lollipops! LOL.

Sophia, getting herself some candy.

"Trick or Treat!"

"What did she give me?!"

Yay! A Lollipop!

ANGRY BIRDS!! We thought this was cool.

 

Sophia and I. 

 
Other little Trick or Treaters at the mall!

My Bumble Bee makeup.

Get the look!

Some people have asked what I used and how I did it. So I will share my makeup artistry techniques. 

After applying my face primer, foundation, blush, bronzer and filled my eyebrows. I primed my eyes with Urban Decay's Eye Potion Primer. It is one of the best primers in the market for eyes--it costs $18. It really helps bring out the pigments of the eyeshadow and makes the eyeshadow last for hours! No creasing. So it is worth the money if you wear eyeshadow often. 

After that, I used NYX's bright mellow yellow eyeshadow and heavily deposited it with a sponge brush on my lid, the inner corners of my eyes and a little above my lid, creating an "arc." Then I deposited some shadow along the bottom of my eyes as well. 

 NYX's Mellow Yellow

Then with a regular eyeshadow brush, I used Too Faced's "Smoky Hot" black MATTE eyeshadow that comes in their "Smokey Eye Kit" along the crease and the outer corners of my eyes to create a "wing" look. I kept putting more color and blended the black into the yellow with a blending eyeshadow brush. Then I added some creme black eye liner to it to intensify it and blended it in also.
The key is to BLEND, BLEND, BLEND! 

Then I used the white eyeshadow in the kit along my brows for a highlight effect.

 Then, I lined my eyes with L'Oreal's HIP Creme Black Eyeliner. Put on a couple of coats of mascara, and then put some lip gloss on. And DONE. 

FINAL RESULT:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Trunk or Treat?

Our church was having their 4th annual "Trunk or Treat." It was nice, poorly organized, but nice for the community to gather together. But it is just not the same. 

What happened to Halloween? It really saddens me that nut jobs and uptight parents have taken the fun out of Halloween. You know what I'm talking about. Walking from door to door, or even going on a hay ride to door to door in your neighborhood. Shaving cream, silly string wars.Eggs being thrown at you. Toilet papering someones house. Decorating your house instead of the trunk of your car. Candy instead of toothbrushes. What happened to SCARY costumes? The guy with the chain saw?! The only people I see trick or treating today are small children dressed up in cuddly cartoon characters throughout the daytime only. Isn't Halloween supposed to be a night of horror, mayhem, mischief, fright and FUN?!Everyone goes "trick or treating" at these local gatherings or at the mall now. I bought tons of candy last year thinking I would have a lot of trick or treaters because I lived in an apartment complex, but NOT ONE trick or treater came to my door. I wanted to cry! And what happened to trick or treating ON THE DAY OF  Halloween? October 31st is losing its luster.

Anyway, Sophia was dressed up as a lady bug!

And then on Halloween, we are going to the mall from 5-7 to get ONE piece of candy from each store. Sigh...I miss my handfuls from neighbors. And I miss filling pillowcases with sugary, yummy tooth decay. All while I was covered in shaving cream...

Maybe one day we will celebrate Halloween RIGHT and go to Salem, MA. :) 

Feelin' Crafty!

Sophia's Princess Bow Holder

Real easy to make and the overall cost was less than $10. I found the "Princess" plaque at a Goodwill. It was originally part of three piece hanging picture frame. The picture below is a general idea of what I am talking about:

 The hanging frame was held together by chains, so I was able to take the chains off with a pair of pliers and have three separate things. A princess crown picture frame, and a wooden plaque that says "Princess."

Here is the Princess Crown frame that was part of the three piece set:

 Easily supported by a little plate easel. 

So not only did I get a crown picture frame out of the deal, but I also was able to make her bow holder. 

So  I went to Wal-Mart and bought corresponding ribbon to hot glue on and there ya go! Real quick, cheap and easy. And cute! 

Sophia's Polka Dot Picture Frame:

       

I went to Wal-Mart and bought a wood picture frame in the crafts section. I had paint and brushes on hand. I just cut out some stencils from paper and attached them to the picture frame after I painted the entire frame black. Then I painted within the stencils-- especially for the big circles. The little ones I painted free hand. A real nice touch to her room. 

Sophia's Coat Rack:

I found the coat rack at TJMaxx on clearance for $10. It was originally white with floral design. It was pretty, but I thought an animal print design would look more cute in her room. So I painted it pink/magenta, covering the original design. It took at least 5 coats of paint! And then free handed the zebra marks with black paint.

The perks of being a stay at home mom: the craft bugs bites you, suddenly you have an infatuation with plants and household appliances are the greatest gifts! LOL. I hope I inspired you to make some of your own stuff! It's fun and definitely keeps the time flowing when you are not busy handling the little one! :)