Yummy Ones

This is what I did yesterday:

And this too:

My blogging friend, Cindy at My Romantic Home (see left side bar) always has cupcakes in her photos. Cindy's photos make me want to do alot of things; she is always painting furniture and mirrors and making great tablescapes, gardening, etc. Personally, if I get anymore furniture, someone in this house will have to move to the roof, and I think my garden is as good as it's gonna get in this ranchland of a neighborhood we call home. Cupcakes however, I can tackle.

I've always wanted to learn to decorate cupcakes with polka-dots and flowers and stars and all those other cute things. So I bought a starter decorating kit and a box of dyes. I discovered it's not an easy task. And I didn't buy enough frosting. And I need more of those little metal tippy things that go on the end of the bag. What are those tippy things called?

Ok, you get the picture. Well, I'm not giving up on this one, practice makes perfect. I'm sure my friends and neighbors won't mind me practicing until I get really good at this, since they got most of the cupcakes.

I swear Arden picked up all of this stuff on her own. She even put that purse around her neck. That's her favorite purse, she carries it around all the time. She's into purses and necklaces...but she's not into babydolls. Not yet at least, and I am glad. I'm not sure how I feel about all that babydoll business at this age. How about a Doctor's Bag or a play pretend Computer? Sounds better than Babydolls...to me, at least.

It's hard to tell, but that furry rag next the little baby is a Yorkie. She used to be my number one baby before Arden was born. Now she is my number two baby, but don't tell her...

Tomorrow is a long day for me. Friday's always are. We go to baby music in the morning, and I've been logging 1 - 2 miles on the treadmill in the mornings, which I would like to try to do again tomorrow. But I will try my hardest to post the pictures of Judy's garden. Enjoy your FRIday!

TTYL
Angela

Judy's Cottage Charm House

Welcome to Judy's Cottage! Judy is my Mom, and she lives in a 1950's cottage. Her decorating taste used to lean toward the traditional side, but in the last few years she has moderated into the "Cottage" style, with lots of treasures from all the neighboring Texas towns. I wasn't able to take as many pictures of Judy's Cottage as I wanted, because my child was 10 minutes away from a major meltdown. Unfortunately, meltdowns take priority over pictures in this girl's book :)

Enjoy your stay at Judy's House!

Love that Glass! Those windows actually crank out! Wow!

This mirror right in the entry of the cottage reflects the Living Room. This mirror has been around a looong time...

Here's the Dining Room...the tablecloth below was found at Wimberly's Market Days...

Let's check out the den...I missed a few great pics in this room; to many people sitting in here watching TV, I didn't have the heart to tell them to "SCRAM!"

Love that Rabbit Weather Vane (is "vane" correct? or is is "vain" as in Carly Simon? Oh well, she got this at Target!) That watering can is vintage.

That's a "gardening" wall paper border, it has watering cans on it. When she called me & told me she was putting a wall paper border in here, I said "Eek! Wallpaper??!!!!" But I think it looks great...and everything in here accentuates the "Garden" theme.

This is Judy's "Blue" Guest Room. But she had a house guest on this particular day, so I could only get a few quicks shots in here...

This painting has been our family for years, it used to hang in my Great-Grandmothers house, and then got passed down to my Mom about 10 years ago. Sure do wish this photo was better so everyone could really see what a gem this is....

Step into Judy's "Sage Green Garden" Room. Lots of cute treasures in here, you will love it!

I wish I would have gotten a far away view of the area where this little garden homage is, she has a vanity close by...but I was awfully concerned about that impeding meltdown....

It's hard to tell in this picture, but these pictures are not prints, they are cross stitch. My Aunt started these for my Mom, but somehow my Mom ended up finishing them. Oh well, as long as they kept it in the family...

Hard to tell in this photo, but this room has celing tiles--and she did them herself!

I have that same armouir in my den--we do that sometimes; buy the same stuff. But we can have the same stuff bcs we are mother & daughter :) don't hate!

Who is that beautiful baby on that table?? Oh, wait, that's MY BABY! And who is that precious little girl with her mommy in the other photo? Oh wait, that's me! :) That little snap shot is of my mom when she was little, with my Great-Grandmother.

Who leaves thier heart on a string, with the key's right next to it? I guess Judy does, how cute is that?

Stay tuned for my next post, when we will take a walk through Judy's Cottage Garden!

TTYL,

Angela

Home Sweet Weekend

This picture above is not very good (my camera was acting up), but I love what the sign says. I hope your home is as sweet as mine. This will be a quiet weekend at Little Bird Cottage bcs someone here is sick. This person doesn't want me to say their name bcs they hate to admit when they are not feeling well...but I will give you a hint; it's NOT me, and it's NOT Arden.

So we had to postone our babysitter for tonight along with our plans to see Mama Mia at the movies. :( Well, maybe next weekend.

Have you ever seen a little baby in a bucket? Didn't you know when the stork dropped babies down from the sky he dropped them down in a bucket and they were already 1 year old? Ha!, you wish it was that easy!

Have a great weekend!

TTYL,

Angela

I Hobby Lobby, therefor I am...

Has everyone missed me? I've missed you. Bunches! I haven't been blogging bcs I have just been so UNinspired lately. I hate to complain, but my summer has been rather uneventful; infact BORing is a better word for it. LAME...slow...did I already say BORing? I know sometimes boring is good, but everyone here at Little Bird Cottage is really missing boating and lakes and beaches and sunscreen and sunsets on the water. Instead we are filling our time with teething & bottles & diapers. Hhhhmmm...I think you can probably understand the vast difference between these two sets of things. :)

Well, I still have Hobby Lobby to keep me alive! Sometimes all a girl needs is a little Hobby Lobby to let her know that all is not unright in the world. Especially when Hobby Lobby is having an 80% off sale on all of this seasons leftover garden decor. 80% off!! Woohoo!!
First I snagged this darling little bunny whom for now is living on my bedside table. I'm so glad I found him & I know he is thrilled he found me. My mom has a two rabbits sitting on her coffe table which look very similiar to this little guy. Maybe they are siblings from the same bunny making factory. I'm glad I changed my mind about stealing hers and blaming it on Arden. haha, just joking!

Then I picked up these 3 lawn ornaments for my garden. That 'fluer de lis' at the bottom was only a $1.70 !! Don't hate me :)

These candleholders were $3.70 each marked down from almost $20 !! Still try not to hate me.

And last, this precious guy below was a mere $2.40 !! Woohoo! I love him! I know it sounds strange for a girl to love a little stone bunny, but call me strange bcs I love him anyway!!

Have you ever seen this picture of my topiary? I love this topiary too. It's not real, but after trying unsuccesfully to have not one, but two live topiaries in my living room, both of which DIED....I had to go the "faux" rought. Don't judge, at least I know when to give up.

A few weeks ago my friend "V" and I took Arden to "Mini Town". It's a 'mini town' for kids to roam around in with a grocery store, movie theater, etc. It was more of a 'ghost town' since it's fairly new and we were the only people there, but she seemed to have fun none the less.

I can't believe I'm putting a picture of myself on the internet with no make-up on, but I know my grandparents will like this one....

Arden loved shopping for groceries....

And she especially LOVED the beauty parlor...

I hope everyone is having a more EVentful summer than we are. If you're not, you can always stop by Hobby Lobby, they may have some sale stuff left!

TTYL,

Angela

Ashes to Ashes, Tree to Dust

Current Mood: SAD :(

We are very sad to report that we have suffered a great loss here at little bird cottage. don't worry, it's not a family pet or anyone human. IT'S OUR TREE! the tree in the front yard contracted some sort of disease and within a matter of days turned to a dry, ashy, matchstick. i kept thinking it looked thirsty and so we kept watering it, and watering it, and watering it.
apparently this was the equivalent of giving someone with a hangover a band-aid, bcs i'm pretty sure that tree has bit the dust.

This is very depressing for us since A) this is our ONLY tree in the front yard, and B) this tree used to house a nest which was home to several birds, and C) we now have a very ugly...and very sad...and rather scary looking "has-been" of a formerly healthy oak tree right in front of our house.

When i said in my last post i couldn't wait until halloween i certainly did NOT mean i wanted a spooky tree in my yard. we are at a loss right now as to how we will handle this. i'm trying to convince myself it's still hanging on and can be helped through medication or therapy. Andrew says it's a "GONER" and we need to get out the chain saw. since we don't even own a chain saw, we won't be making drastic decisions anytime soon. in the meantime, i'm certainly not going to post any pictures of a spooky looking tree, so i thought this pic was much more appealing....

That cake is not real, but i like to PREtend that it is. i pretend that i baked it from scratch and i need to reward myself for a job well done by eating handFULs of dark chocolate. i highly recommend that you try this. pretend you've dusted your chandeliers or cleaned your toilets and now you need to REward yourself with chocolate. i've found that if you eat enough chocolate, and really stare at your chandelier, after awhile it really looks like it's just been DUSTed.

I have not however, tested this theory out with toilets. i refuse to eat chocolate in the bathroom. a girl has to have some standards, even when it comes to chocolate.

Pray for my tree.
TTYL,
Angela

"Ladies & Babies" Luncheon

It's been awhile since i've posted bcs i have been BUSY with family stuff, friend stuff, arden stuff, and everything in between. i hope to get back to posting regularly this week.

Anyway, i wanted to share these photos from arden's "Ladies & Babies Luncheon", which was held at a local tea house called Apple Annie's. we were so pleased with the way everything turned out. these are pictures of the centerpieces i brought which consisted of tall and miniature sized bird houses. you can also see the favor boxes in the pic below which were pastel colored "chinese" take out boxes filled with dove chocolates. i HAD to buy these bird houses as soon as i found them at Hobby Lobby (also known as the greatest place on earth), bcs i knew they would be perfect for my little bird, arden.

Apple Annie's made the cake which as you can see was beautiful, i couldn't have asked for more!

Several of Arden's little friends from her babie's music class were also at the party, although we all know this was really just an EXCUSE for all of us grown up girls to get together!

And of course Daddy was there too.....

It was a great day and we can't believe our baby girl is already 1 year old. this first year has gone by so fast, i can already tell 16 will be here before we know it. Get ready world, here she comes!

Well, 4th of July is just a few days away. this summer is flying by, but i can't say i'm sad about it bcs it is SO hot here in the south and we are experiencing such an awful drought. is it to early for me to say, "I can't wait till Halloween?" haha...

Hope to post again soon,

TTYL,

Angela

One down, Part II to go

I haven't had any time for posting bcs we have been doing ALOT of celebrating around here. Arden turned 1 on june 7th, and she is marking this milestone with not one, but 2 parties. what a party animal!

The first party took place on her actual birthday and was a "Cake & Ice Cream Party" here at Little Bird Cottage, with just our family. even though it was just family, we all had a blast watching arden play and open presents and have her first taste of birthday cake.

My mom made this cake especially for Arden. this was SO special bcs when i was a child Mom made all of my birthday cakes, every year until i was 13 (13 is when i discovered ICE CREAM CAKE--the best invention ever!!!).

Anyway, my mom used to decorate my cakes in the same style as this teddy bear was done; with so much attention to detail and...well...perfection!

Thanks for making the cake Mom!

Well, Arden's next celebration will be this saturday when she has a "Ladies & Babies Luncheon" with her friends from 'Babies' Music Class' and their Moms. Andy will be there too...as technical support--he's working the video camera.
TTYL,

Angela