mugswap 2013

Do you remember my post about the mug swap last year? If not, here's part 1 and part 2. Yes there were two parts. As there will be this year too. Just a heads up for tomorrow :)

Anyway, last year was my first year participating in Kim's swap. It was so much fun. I had Katy for a partner and Hannah had me. I have loved getting to know those girls better even since the swap.

So it was a no brainer that I would sign up this year too. In fact, I was scrolling through bloglovin' in bed one morning, checking out the news on the blogfront, and saw Kim's post that singups were up!



I literally jumped out of bed and shimmied on over to the computer to sign up right then. I may have been a tad excited.

A couple days went by and then I got the email. I had been matched. Which meant someone had me for a match too. The next couple of days were spent hunting down goodies for my partner. Then I went to craft weekend and met other ladies who were doing the mug swap too! Crazy small world.

Anyway, several days later, I came home to a lovely box waiting on my door step.



It was from the amazingly talented Heather of Life Made Lovely! If you recall, she asked to feature the girls' room in her new Room Made Lovely series a while back on her blog. I adore her style, her shop (the paperie) and her photos on instagram. So you can imagine how excited I was to see that my box was from her. I couldn't wait to tear into it and see what my mug looked like!

And wouldn't you know, she picked out a perfect mug for me! A vintage Swedish mug. It's delicate to the touch with a strong graphic pattern. PERFECT.



But she didn't stop there. Oh no. She spoiled me with the cutest packaging and gifts to go with my mug. So generous and lovely.

You can see it all in this photo.



Some Starbucks Via for the mug. Baker's twine and washi tape for me! And the sweetest print for my home. I actually saw Heather's IG post of that print and immediately went to her shop to favorite it. I'm glad I didn't buy it at the time since it came to my house not too long after :) You can get your own from her shop here.

So thank you, thank you, thank you, Heather. I don't know how you picked the perfect gift for me, it's like you read my mind! But I'm grateful you did. I just love it all. Thank for for the time you took in selecting and packaging this lovely gift. You're pretty much a mug swappin rock star.

Thanks again, Kim for hosting. You flat out rock. No joke. I don't know how you go through 800+ people and find everyone a partner for this swap and I don't really care how but I'm thankful you put the time in to do it. Love ya!

I'm linking up at Kim's blog today. Did you mug swap? Link up with me.

And if you're interested in what I gifted my buddy, come back tomorrow. There will be a ship, clown and purple cat involved!

All About My Sweet P

As my due date approaches, less than 11 weeks to go, I'm trying to take in every moment with my little Sweet P that I can.

We shop, picnic, meet daddy to feed the ducks and just enjoy our time together.





She's a lot like her momma, in many ways.

She has been inherited my inability to sit still when music comes on, love of laughter and a serious love for donuts.



She's also a lot like her daddy.

She thrives in the cold, she has the most gorgeous eyes and isn't afraid to get a little dirty.



She loves to be outside and she recently got to walk our little dog for the first time. The kid oozes joy!




She oozes joy a lot and is getting big so fast. We tried piggie-tails for the first time, she insists on doing most things by herself, she can rock massive headbands, neon and sunglasses - at the same time, she loves to color and she's getting more and more independent every day.

All of a sudden, my little sweet P turned into a full-out child.



She's a riot to be around and although I will miss our time together just the 3 of us, I'm pretty excited to watch her continue to grow and become an awesome big sister.

We love you little Sweet P.

crazy joy, instagram and Love146

How's that for a title!? I decided the topics all kind of relate so I'll just pull it all together in one post and get on with it.

First things first: the crazyjoy challenge. You may (or may not) have noticed the lack of posts regarding the crazyjoy challenge. Over Christmas break and then New Year's, Anna and I decided to take a little break from it. She was good and let her readers know about the break where I just didn't even mention it! Anyway, we both enjoyed the weekly challenge but also enjoyed the time off so with a lot of thought, we have decided to end the challenge.

I struggled with ending it because we committed ourselves to doing it for 52 weeks and had only made it about 30 so that would mean we failed. But to be honest, that's not a very good reason to keep doing something. Sure, it's not great to be a quitter but if you have the right reasons, I think it's just fine. I want to be more intentional about my time this year, including my blog and the challenge was just not a high priority. I don't feel bad about giving up on it but I have also replaced it with a new challenge.

Which brings me to the second topic: instagram. I love having a phone on my camera. I usually have my camera on me at all times and take random pictures of just about anything. I found instagram quite a while ago and love it. Although I have tried doing project365 twice before and failed, I'm giving it another attempt this year.

I think this time around will be more successful because I'm only using instagram photos for the challenge. That means I don't have to worry about uploading them to my computer, editing, or anything else. All I have to do is snap a picture with my phone each day (no problem there) and add it to instagram. I'm 8 days in and doing good.




Oh, and if you're on instagram, let me know, you can find me by searching recipeforcrazy.

Sorry, this post is super long, but I'm almost done.

If you haven't read any of this post yet, start now!

So, back to being intentional.

One of the more personal posts I've shared was this one on Love146. Just to remind you, Love146 is an organization with this mission:

"Abolition and Restoration! We combat child sex slavery & exploitation with the unexpected and restore survivors with excellence."

So, in an effort to raise awareness, did you know that the month of January is Human Trafficking Awareness month and January 11 is Human Trafficking Awareness Day?

You can click here to view a PDF with quick facts on child trafficking.

Want to learn more? Here are some great links:
HumanTrafficking.org
Love146
Love146 blog
Not For Sale
Oklahomans Against Trafficking of Humans
Stop Child Trafficking Now

Those are just a few but I hope you take some time this week to learn more about this issue.

Alright. That's all for today! Thanks for taking the time to read this today.

Oh, also, thank you for all the comments regarding the Star Wars poster! You guys made my day!

Ok, have a great week!

Hand Drawn Lego Star Wars Alphabet Poster

One of the fun things about working in design is doing random projects for the fun of it. This is one of those projects.

If you know much about my nephews, you are well aware of their obsession with Star Wars. They know the movies, the characters, the games, the books and I think they own nearly every single Lego Star Wars set that's been made.

I thought it would be fun to make them an alphabet poster of the characters for Christmas. I took on the challenge of finding and drawing 26 different characters for the poster. You'd be surprised how many sources there are on the internet full of Star Wars info for such a project as this.

I started off with a basic google search for "alphabetical list of Star Wars characters." Then I wrote out a list to make sure I had a character for each letter. Once I had my list ready, I did an google image search for each name, made a contact sheet to use as a reference, then sketched out some dimensions so each would be proportionate.



Then it was time to sketch. Each little character was hand drawn with pencil then I inked the lines in with my Sharpie.



Once I had all the line art ready, I took a photo of each character (because I don't have a scanner) and then added the color to each in photoshop.



I should correct myself here, I only did 25 characters. I asked my sister to get a picture of the boys doing some sort of Star Wars light saber battle scene to use for the "F" for the FORCE. The photo was perfect!

Now that I had 26 graphics for each letter of the alphabet, I downloaded a Lego font and added the letter to each character. I also included the character's name inside the letter, just in case the boys needed it. Ha! Right.

So there's the finished poster - sorry about the large, ugly watermark!



I gave it to them for Christmas and was not surprised when they told me nearly every single name in a matter of seconds. The boys know their stuff.

Check out the Halloween costumes my sister made them last year - here. They're awesome!

Reminders for 2012

I know I just said I'm not big on New Year resolutions but I came across something the other day that made me think of them in a different light. If you follow me on pinterest, you saw Woodie Guthrie's resolutions from 1942.

There are so many simple, doable things on his that serve as great daily reminders of how to live. I used his resolutions as inspiration for my own daily reminders for my life in 2012.



Did you make any resolutions, goals or reminders for 2012?

Top Posts in 2011

I have enjoyed other people's posts about their top 5 posts from the previous year so I decided to do that here. I just based it on most page views for posts made in 2011, though, some of the most viewed pages were from 2010 posts.

Anyway, here are the top 5...

5. I Think I Did It



Maybe it's the coffee ice cubes or the fact that a ton of people are looking for a perfect iced coffee recipe, but either way, this post made it to the top five. I feel kind of bad because I am going to share something this week that will make this post obsolete. Seriously, folks, stay tuned.

4. P is for... (part 2)



I would like to think it's my clever "Princess and the Pea" cake that got all the page views but it probably has more to do with the super cute dollhouse, pillow and quilt that were given to my P.

3. P is for... (part 1)




This makes me happy to be in the top five because I'm usually not a crafty gal. I busted out all my secret skills on this party and it seems that people liked it, thank you pinterest.

2. Homemade Pizza Balls

Say hello to my favorite snack recipe for 2011. Those babies were so good. I have made them several times since and have no plans to stop. The Nathan's ball is my fave.

1. Maybe a Tad Biased



Maybe it's the too-cute-for-words pictures my sister took of my P or the subtle announcement at the end that made this the top 2011 post but in all honesty, I'm quite certain it's the fact that my sister linked up to the news. Most page views in one day goes to this post as well. Thanks, sister.

Hope you enjoyed at least one of those!

What I Learned

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, mainly because I never can keep them. Last year I made a resolution to make our bed every morning. *gasp!* It's true, I have a terrible habit of not making the bed. I probably made it about a month before I failed. I have gotten better, though. I guess that's the point anyway, to continually improve.

So this isn't a "what I'm going to do in 2012" post, more of a mindset I want to have.

See, the other day Sweet P reminded me of something. We were doing a simple, mundane task, the laundry. Here's the thing, the very sound of the buzzer going off on our dryer makes me annoyed. There is never an end to laundry, it just keeps coming. I wash, dry, fold and put away and start the whole process over. It never ends. That's probably my biggest pet peeve.

Anyway, Sweet P was helping me put clothes in the washer and was having an absolute blast!



She wasn't thinking about the next load, or the load after that, she was just having fun throwing the clothes in (and taking them back out) and pushing the buttons.

She lives in the moment.

Sure, it's kind of the only way she knows to live but it's still a good lesson. A lesson I want to carry forward in 2012, to live in the moment and to enjoy it, no matter how simple or mundane it may seem.

So, I hope you have a very happy New Year's Eve and cheers to an awesome 2012!!

Christmas Vacation

Howdy folks! I hope you all had a great Christmas! Here's a little recap of some of our Christmas vacation in photos.



I'm going to be taking a break from blogging for a little while but I'll be back.

Until then, have a great week!!

A Visit to See Santa

I know I said I'd post week 3 of our Advent activities today but we're having a bit of a situation at the house so hopefully I'll get it up later.

Until then, Sweet P's visit to see Santa. This was her second visit to see the Bass Pro Shops Santa - we took her last year too.

She was excited as we stood in line. She even waved to the reindeer and Santa.



Then it came her turn to sit on his lap. Although there were no tears, she was obviously not too thrilled about the situation.



And here's her picture from last year's visit.



Tonight, we're baking Christmas cookies and decorating them. Wish us luck!

Winterfest 2011

Or Embrace the Camera - Winterfest Edition (with Emily).

Or, How to Wear Out your Child

Any of those titles work for today's post.

The BOK Center, in downtown Tulsa, puts on Winterfest every year. I don't know how long they've been doing it but it's a pretty big hit. They have live music, an outdoor ice skating rink, food vendors and a gigantic Christmas tree. It's really pretty at night but it's also pretty fun during the day.

Last Saturday the weather was gorgeous so we took Sweet P down to check it out. So, this pregnant lady not going to ice skate, the husband has ice skated once and hated it and there was no way we were going to attempt getting a 16 month old to wear skates - if they even had her size!

So what do you do? Well, aside from people-watching and just being out and about?

You pose for some pictures and laugh when you come home to notice the wipe-out in the background...



You find the hill next to the stage with live music and have a dance party.





You get lots of kisses.



And you watch your husband and daughter run/slide up and down the giant hill until they're both about ready to collapse!



Oh, and don't forget about getting a family picture next to the gigantic Christmas tree!



You can find out more about it here.

Advent Week 1 in Review

We started an new  Christmas tradition last year with Sweet P and decided to continue it this year. We have an Advent calendar house-like-thing that has little door to open each night.



So we decided to fill each door with a variety of activities to do, Bible verses to read, movies to watch, songs to sing and dance to and food to eat to open each night.

Here's the first seven days:















I'm curious, what traditions do you have or Christmas treats you always make?

The Stache Party

So last week was my dad's birthday and my sister and I worked up a little party to celebrate his many years of life!

I originally saw this photo collage on pinterest and wanted to do it for dad. I didn't even know it came from MS at the time! Have I mentioned how much I love her?

Anyway, my mom pulled some photos together for me and I took pictures of each one with my phone, converted them all to black and white and added a border, then printed them for the backdrop at our swanky venue.

Looking back on dad's pictures, one thing that popped out was his mustache. He's had one my entire life so I thought I would be fun to incorporate the stache into the party decor. Thus, the theme was born.



My sister and I made treats for the party. Lots of mini cupcakes came out of my oven and a few didn't make it to the party - a girl has to taste-test. I used Bakerella's cookies and cream icing recipe (with butter, not shortening) and added some crushed Oreo's to a little of the chocolate batter (in a box) as well as the vanilla batter (also from a box). Folks, I may never make  a standard cupcake again. Those things were delicious. The cookies even kept their crunch.



Anyway, my sister made a variety of fancy treats like peanut butter bites, rolo pretzels and sugar cookies. They were all so tasty. She also cut out mini mustaches and the number 60 so we could top the treats. I think the party table came out pretty cute if I do say so myself!



My sister probably got tons of cute party pics so while she was doing her thing, I chased her kids around trying to get them to pose with mustaches with me for a little photo booth fun.

Side note - do you have the pocketbooth app?

photo from itunes

No!? Go get it now. If you do, you know how much fun that thing is, especially at parties AND parties that have mustaches on sticks!

Anyway, here are just a few of the photo booth pics - there's a whole lot more.



Oh, and the swanky setting? We had it at none other than Jim's Coney Island. I've mentioned it on this blog before and some know it by "Never on Sunday's" but I basically grew up there. I've even ran into my Dad at Jim's a time or two. It was the perfect setting: laid back, the smell of chili dogs and Greek food and just classy enough to not get stares from the other patrons as we ran around covered in fake mustaches!

I hope dad had as much fun at the party than we did planning it!

In Case You Missed It

OSU beat OU.

Way to go Cowboys!

We had a little good luck charm during the first part of the game, but after she went to bed, we kept her enthusiasm alive by repeatedly playing this:

Happy Birthday Dad!!

It's my dad's Birthday today so let's all wish him a very special, happy Birthday!

We celebrated his big day this past week and here's a little sneak peek at the party details.



I'll post more on the party next week but for now, Happy Birthday to the world's best dad.



I love you.

CrazyJoy =

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Sorry this is late. I've been in and out, enjoying a few Black Friday traditions, eating, decorating and even grabbed a quick nap. It's been a great couple of days!

Anna posted the new crazyjoy challenge word earlier today so I hoped you checked it out. If not, here you go.



I'll see you Monday where I'll post my photo for the challenge.

Until then, here are some new photos over the last few days...






The collages were made with the diptic app using instagram photos from my phone library. I guess I should mention that I'm a little obsessed with Instagram (free) and Diptic (only 99 cents).