I'm spending every spare second getting ready for Hawaii!! Let's just say that we are stimulating the economy. Wanna see my dress for the Luai?

Taylor wanted to buy these Betsy Johnson earrings for my birthday. Instead I told her that I would buy them if she would take a hula lesson in Hawaii for me instead. I'm hoping we can find one.


This vintage necklace was my Mother's. She wore it when she was in her twenty's and gave it to me to wear when I was in my twenties. I own and cherish several pieces of her vintage rhinestone jewelry. I wore them when Mark and I used to have fancy, dancy parties to go to when we were newly married and he was the Head Pro at the very exclusive Camelback Country Club. On my list tonight is to rework a necklace to wear with my new dress using a few of the pieces from her necklace. I'm going to make a bracelet as well.
I needed a second nice dress for my birthday dinner. We are celebrating my birthday in Maui at the Hula Grill. My birthday was actually five weeks ago, but we were still in school.
Accessories are everything! Carmen has been helping me get ready. She gave me this darling tote for Christmas to take on our trip and this fun tropical beach bag for my birthday.


I'm taking this straw handbag with tropical flowers. I really get into theme dressing.

I hope you have a great week. Until then, ALOHA!

I love the Fourth of July. I get that apple pie, baseball, patriotic feel good feeling. However . . . I try not to be in Arizona over the 4th. It's just not fun watching fireworks when it's 100+ at night. I miss sparklers! You can't buy any fireworks in the state of Arizona. Too many fires with our hot summers. So I try to create my own little spark of patriotism around our home.
I "borrowed" the red and blue stars from Cole's room. We decorated his bedroom around the armoire that I bought when we moved into this house.
I'm using an older photo. He no longer plays with those toys. Big sigh. He's a big high schooler now.

I made the mistake of filling the small jar with the blue jelly bellies before I had the licorice for the larger jar. Can you guess what happened?? I even threatened. I guess they're not scared of me. I need to toughen up.

I saved my Mountain Dew bottles from last year. Didn't see them this year.

I would like to take credit for the brilliant idea of using red, white and blue poker chips in my vase. I found the idea in my favorite seasonal home decor book "Celebrating Home".

I was thrilled that my lighted house that I found last year in a Scottsdale thrift store still works.

We bought our tickets today for "WICKED". I'm so excited. It is always so much easier to get tickets when it's a return performance. My bunco group tried to get tickets when it was here last year, but they sold out immediately. This time my husband and I are having a romantic date night.

The streets of ASU are flying their Wicked flags. I can't help but here "I'll Get You My Pretty." I know that it's a take off from the Wizard of Oz and that's all I know and I'm purposely not reading up on it so that I will be surprised. We went down to buy our tickets in person. Our seats are in the 11th row. We like to sit in the orchestra section. Can't wait!

It's the little things. I love the attention to details. It seems surprising that I'm like that because I don't have an anal retentive bone in my body. With my husband's permission, I turned our butler's pantry, which previously had a bar theme (wine bottles, etc.) into my baking area. During the holidays, we use it for entertaining. We have a little arched area in between the kitchen and dining room with a butler's pantry to the left and our walk-in pantry to the right. I've said this before, "I love our kitchen." It's the best part of our home. I walked by the butler's pantry and noticed out of the corner of my eye, Taylor's beloved Strawberry Crush bottles. I thought it was so funny that she displayed them there. They won't last long! They are a rare treat, too much sugar.
Our 4-shelf tall cupboards previously held wine and bar glasses. Now they house my baking supplies.

I found the darling candy-cane measuring cups at Hallmark a few Christmas's ago. Both the pink measuring cups and the cookie jar with the pink lid are from Pottery Barn Kids.

I keep my cupcake liners in the cookie jar.

Glass jars are wonderful for storage. I found the other glass cookie jar with the red knob at a thrift store for $.50. It's great for storing cookie cutters.


I found the cutest little cake pedestal at Blissful Saturday. I told Tricia that I was going to buy one after class. In the middle of teaching us, she said "Cindy, that lady just bought the last two cake pedestals." Lucky for me, she knew where there was one more in the back.

I found a fabulous garage sale today in one of our nearby neighborhoods. I haven't been able to go out garage sailing in months. This family previously owned a home decor store in Denver, had just moved to the Phoenix area, and was selling the remains from their liquidation sale. I could have gone crazy. I restrained since our trip to Hawaii is coming up. They are expecting another truck and will be having another sale in a few weeks. Can't wait. Tricia called me a few days ago encouraging me to take her upcoming beeswax canvas class at Blissful. I have been wanting to take it forever. She is such a great instructor. There were just 3 of us in her class today, allowing her to give us her undivided attention. I'm sure I'll be making several more canvases as soon as I buy the beeswax, a few stamps, canvases and a mini quilting iron.
I loved learning this new technique. I really want to make her bunny canvas. She also shared the technique for using photos. Fun class.
On the way to Blissful, I stopped at my favorite thrift store. I found a set of four vintage "Marie" pictures. I gave two to Miss Tricia.

I couldn't believe my luck in finding this adorable tiny vintage cameo pendant. I know the image is blurry, but I wanted you to see the price tag. $2.00!!!

I stopped in at the produce market in Mesa where we used to shop with Mark's grandmother years ago when we would have family dinners in her home. I found these tiny, little red potatoes and decided to serve shish kabob for dinner. I also made a special trip to this little cornfield where they sell corn on the cob during the month of June. I had planned to grill chicken, red potatoes, yellow pepper and zucchini. Well, my family loved the idea, but wanted to expand on my menu. They went to the store and bought beef, shrimp, onions, asparagus, mushrooms and more peppers. I used my new grill pan to cook the asparagus on the grill and marinated the rest of the vegetables with olive oil. We dined on a feast. It's amazing what a little olive oil and cooking on the grill makes food taste so much better.

My Fabulous Birthday Gifts
My husband and kids took me to the Coach store. Wanna see what's inside???
We all picked this one out together. I love the shape. Our second choice was a pink one, but it was a little over the top.
My next gift from my family is my new black island for my kitchen. I've been wanting one since we moved in. I've seen several with marble tops and was going to settle for a white one, but then we found this one. I'm loving it.

I'm thrilled that I now have a place to hang cute towels. My husband swears that I just wanted the island to have something else to decorate. Well duh!
Check out these drawers. All of those utensils used to be in this crock with my wooden spoons. It's always driven my husband crazy.

I wish my entire house was this tidy. My dear great Aunt Ruth, who I adored, and had an incredible Victorian home in Iowa told me that her secret was "A place for everything and everything in it's place." I think I just have too much stuff. I wish she was still around to help me find a place for everything.

Our birthday candles.

My sweet next-door-neighbor gave me this darling Willow Tree birthday girl angel. I love it.
These beautiful silver bracelets are from Mark's family.
I also received a gift certificate to my favorite pedicure salon
and money. I hope to spend it tommorrow shopping with my girl. I love summer!

This is my first attempt at a diaper cake. My neighbor's daughter is having her first baby next month. Taylor and I will be attending her baby shower today. My go-to-gal, Sasha, has been making these for the past few years and generously shared a tutorial on her site. She is incredibly talented and lets her readers in on her secrets. Cole and Taylor both helped me shape and tie the 90+ diapers that we used. I found everything I needed in my "magical craft room" as my kids call it, except the pink teddy bear. I shopped yesterday specifically for a light pink teddy bear and was so happy to have found one. I hope she likes it.