Showering Aleksander

Lucas's boss and his wife are expecting a precious baby boy in November. Apparently the Quality Engineering Department is doing pretty good! Haha!

We were able to celebrate at a beautiful couples' shower for Baby Aleksander this weekend. (It was so wonderful it even made up for the fact that we missed the second half of the Bama game. Roll Tide! #2 in the nation!)

Since I have felt so crafty lately, I really wanted to make something special for such a special boy. I love Homemade by Jill and I had been dieing to try out some appliqued onesies like she made for her baby boy. This was the perfect occasion! I think I'll definitely be making some for Lily Ann very soon!

"A" for Aleksander

A dapper neck-tie
(P.S. I made one for Landon, too, because this one was just too cute!)

A German Shepherd (they have a few)and a Canadian Maple Leaf (his daddy is Canadian)

All rolled up to make a pretty little package!

These are so easy to make!

• Just find a shape or pattern online that you'd like to use and scale it to the size you want it.
  
• Print it out (card stock works best).
  
• Iron some WonderUnder to the fabric of your choice.
  
• Then, trace your shape and cut out the fabric.
  
• Peel off your wonder under and iron in place.
  
• I added a zig-zag stitch around each shape to give it a little something extra.

We also bought them a big box of diapers. Instead of just wrapping them up, I decided to make yet another diaper cake (and gift bag the left overs). I knew we were transporting this one so I made it a little smaller and more manageable (wrapped in shrink wrap), but I loved the way it turned out! I used their nursery colors so it would fit right in.

We can't wait to meet you, Baby Aleksander!

Fa La La La La La, La La La La

I'd like to introduce you to a few of my friends.....

Hello there, little guy. Nice to see you again!

Same ole' stroke, eh?

Hello Skater Dude and Dudette! I always love you!

And my words and barn stars (big and small), too!!!

Wow! How beautiful you are!
(Haha! My parents gave us this ornament last year. They are always giving us little sentimental ornaments.)

Hello, little reindeer! Our good friends Chris and Aida bought us this little gem after I commented on her cute ornament that was very similar. Great gift!

And here is a new addition to our holidays - another tennis Santa. A recent gift from my mom!

And another new ornament from my parents. It's Rafa!

Since this is obviously going to be an annual thing I took a sharpie to the back of each ornament my parents have given to us and added the date so I'll always remember which ones are from them and when they gave it to us. Sweet!

So now that all of these guys are out.. you know what that means. I did put up my Christmas tree. I normally go way overboard but this year I'm just sticking to our fun family Christmas tree in the family room. I normally have an extravagant (what I consider it to be anyway) Santa tree in the living room and another poinsettia tree on the front porch but not this year. At least we have this cute tree to snuggle up by the fire and admire and get in the holiday spirit! So.... without furter ado, I give you the Linares Family Christmas Tree of 2008. (I feel like this is the part where Clark cuts the rope and the branches go flying through the windows and knocking over lamps. Little full! Lotta sap! Okay, sorry, you all are going to have to put up with my Christmas Vacation memoirs!)


But why stop there? After seeing this @ The Nesting Place, I knew I wanted to try to steal borrow this idea as best I could. So I attempted my first lighted and way overstuffed garland!

What do you think?



I can't seem to get a good picture of it.... here are some more angles:

(Remember this beautiful barn star I won from Wendy. I found it a holiday home! I've been saving it for this until I find it a more permanent home.)

And some shots of our family room with the tree and garland.

Is it too early to say Merry Christmas? :)

Showering baby Karson

The long-planned baby shower weekend was finally here. After I got home from my tennis match on Friday night we did a little shopping and cleaning but Saturday was the most cleaning I've done in any one day ever I do believe. We woke up at about 6:00 or so and started cleaning. Lucas worked outside while I worked inside. He also helped me clean our master bath and finish a few small little projects we had to do.

Our team had a match at 12 on Saturday but unfortunately we had to default a court. Lucas played but I did not. I took Rafa and we met mom and Grandmother there to watch Lucas and our team play. We pulled it out! Both courts had tough matches but we won. I'm so proud of my team! After the match, mom, Grandmother, and I went to Sams. Then we came home unloaded all of their platters and things to get ready for the shower. They also helped me hang up pictures and things that I had procrastinated doing since we moved in.

All seemed to be going well. I still had more cleaning to do but knew I could get it done. As Lucas and I were in the garage getting out the rugs we had put away (for Rafa's sake) our neighbor pulled over as he was leaving his house and told us we had water streaming from the meter cover in our yard. Lucas lifted it up and sure enough the entire pit is filled with water and flooding over, causing a very muddy front yard. Great! So I called Huntsville Utilities. They sent a truck over. The guy said it looked like our main service line was busted and they would fix it on Monday. Great! So we had a muddy yard and water streaming down the street for our shower.

I stayed up until about 1:30 the next morning cleaning and getting ready for the shower but the most important thing is that I got it done. The next morning I slept until 8 then watched the French Open finals (where Rafa just killed Federer). I potted the Impatiens I bought for the pots on the front porch and got ready for the shower.

We had fewer people than I had originally expected but all went well. The table was gorgeous! We got so many compliments. So I have to show you.

Here is a snapshot of the table. We used my cream tablecloth on the table then put one of my grandmother's blue round table clothes in the center with a lace rectangle tablecloth on top. We used blue place mats and blue and white check napkins and cloths to dress up the platters.

Here is a long shot of part of the table with mom's lemon blossoms at the forefront

This photo highlights the diaper cake and baby carriage fruit salad

I made cupcakes with blue sprinkles and little "Karson" toppers for each one.

Here is a closer shot of the diaper cake. I used an awesome template Homemade by Jill but I used silk flowers instead of the handmade flowers (not enough time or patience for that). I made a cute little topper with Karson's name. Kristina and her mom loved the diaper cake. Her mom told Kristina not to take it apart until her grandmother from Texas came down and sees it.

Here is another shot of the watermelon baby carriage. I found this idea online somewhere and dad took care of the rest of it. Isn't he crafty?!?

I was so proud of our table. I think we did a good job. And hosting the baby shower was a good way to make me do some serious spring (isn't it summer yet?) cleaning. Now Lucas and I have lots of goodies at the house. We even spiked some of the punch last night after everyone left. So good!

Feeling Creative

I (along with my mom and grandmother) am hosting a baby shower at my house for my cousin's wife in a few weeks. We are in the planning stages about what food, punch, etc. we will have. But I created the invitations myself and have had them done for quite some time. I just sent them out a few days ago. Here is a picture of it (minus my address - since it is on textured, layered paper and has ribbon I can't simply upload the file to show you).


I'm still not sure a picture does it justice. It is so Cute! So, I am going to use the polka dot letters as the theme. Instead of a shower cake we are doing cupcakes and I am making little cupcake picks with Karson's name to put on top of each one.

Also, my mom came over last night and we worked on a diaper cake as a centerpiece for the table. I am using Jill's directions (found here). I had seen diaper cakes in the past but all of them looked pretty cheesy. Then I saw hers and was inspired. Although I played around with her directions it is pretty much the same (but using our colors and themes obviously). It all came together pretty easily. The diapers I bought had a blue check on them. I didn't realize this at first.... having never bought diapers before I just figured they were all white. But we tried them out to see how they'd look and the blue check actually enhanced the design of the cake I think. I am so proud of this project. Even Lucas was impressed when he saw the finished project! Now that's impressive. Tada! Here is our diaper cake!

(I hope Kristina doesn't read this blog since it is part of her present. I don't think she does. But I was just too excited about this project to keep quiet!)

Lucas picked me up around lunch today because we needed to go to the bank and open a new account. We are leaving First American Bank because Royal Bank of Canada bought them out and I don't want checks that say "Royal Bank of Canada". I know, I'm weird, but this is me. So, back to where I was headed, Lucas bought Wendy's before he picked me up and we stopped by Big Spring Park to have a nice lunch in the park. It was wonderful. We've decided we'll do this more often.... we'll plan it next time so I can fix a lunch for us to carry in our picnic basket. It definitely made me ready for movie in the park nights this summer.

I just looked up the schedule. Here it is:

June 13 – Pretty in Pink

June 27 – Stand by Me

July 11 – Pillow Talk

July 25 – Back to the Future

August 8 – Dr. Strangelove

August 22 – Bedknobs and Broomsticks

I have never seen Pretty in Pink (circa 1986... I was 2) but here is the imdb summary:

Young Andie is one of the not-so-popular girls in high school. She usually hangs out with her friends Iona or Duckie. Duckie has always had a crush on her, but now she has met a new guy from school, Blane. He's one of the rich and popular guys but can the two worlds meet?

Classic story but sounds good. We'll have to gather a group and go!