Saturday, April 21, 2012

The Perfume Bottle

Darion inherited a very old bottle of Tiffany's perfume from her great-grandmother.  It is very vintage-looking although somewhat stinky.  I decided I wanted to decorate her room around the bottle. 

I mentioned my idea to Pamela on the phone one day and within five minutes she had her travel plans set.  She was soooooo excited.  She spent the next month or so making multiple trips to Hobby Lobby (her favorite store) and searching and searching online for the perfect ideas to make this room beautiful.  It all came together in four days with help from Mom the Seamstress.


Cameron and I were a little disappointed with how small the dresser looked when he put it together.  Pamela solved this problem by stenciling behind the dresser, which also added a touch of femininity.  Then she put the shelf above the dresser to add height.  This was also a great place to add some color with the bird and the bottle.  The spoon set used to belong to Darion's mother and was repainted to match the room.  The Tiffany's perfume bottle along with the other two perfume bottles were part of Darion's inheritance.


Darion has always loved to decorate her room with scarves and other clothes, so we figured we'd give her a place to do just that.  The frame above it has Mod Podged lace attached to the back and is used to hang earrings and necklaces.  One of the necklaces belonged to Darion's great-granmother.

Darion painted the picture of the woman in art class a couple of years ago, and her room was the perfect place to display it.  She painted the other three for the express purpose of hanging them in her room.


The two dark purple and the silver pillow were Pamela-finds.  The others were old throws covered with new fabric, thanks to a little math and a lot of pinning.  The handkerchief was also an inherited piece from Darion's great-grandma.  We just bunched it up and sewed it to the pillow.


The small bed was another concern of Cameron's and mine, and again Pamela solved this problem beautifully.  We used the window as the backdrop so that the bed can sit daybed style.  We also extended the curtains beyond the window in order to frame the entire bed.  Mom sewed it all with the exception of one pillow.


The elliptical machine unfortunately has no other place to go in our house, so Darion's room got it.  I had a magazine rack in a box in the garage that went with the room, so we put it on the wall to bring the elliptical into the design of the room.  The little table was pink when Pamela purchased it, but a can of spray paint fixed that.

Now exercising seems a little more pleasant, and Darion has a room full of family memories and beauty.

Birthday Parties

Annika turned 9 this year.


She took cupcakes to school during lunch and shared them with all her classmates. 
Here she is with Kiki and Miki.

A few days later we had cake at home with the family.


Oreo turned 100 this year.


We had a party, complete with limited edition Birthday Cake Oreos, homemade ice cream, and candles.


Apparently the ice cream was too good to waste even a drop.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Floyd's 70th

Cameron's dad hit 70 this February.  Boy is he old.  I mean, boy does he look great.  Our family went up to his house a couple weeks before his big day.  We took with us 57 presents.  We tried to make it 70, but do you know how hard it is to buy 70 presents for a guy who has everything?  We had to get creative.  We did things such as buy a 10-pack of pens, take them all out of the packaging, and wrap them separately.  Floyd managed to unwrap all those presents without getting a single paper cut.


Cameron shamelessly used his innocent baby to play a joke on his dad. 
He made Tamzin hand this present to her grandpa.



Floyd and Joan said they couldn't bear to eat that Baby Ruth.

We did end up being able to go to his "real" birthday party in O.U.  His entire family was there except for one son-in-law and a granddaughter and grandson who are both on missions. 

Here's the hoard of people he calls family.


Current count:
10 children, 9 children-in-law, 42 grandchildren, 3 grandchildren-in-law, 4 great-grandchildren