Origami Owl tree ornament

I love Christmas time!

One of our favorite holiday traditions is decorating our tree

Every year we exchange ornaments with family 

and our kids get new ones from us every year.

We love setting up the tree because there are so 

many memories with each ornament.

This year I thought it would be fun to add some fun charm to it

So I added a Origami Owl locket 

with a peppermint candy charm and "Santa's Key" 

something so simple yet stunning! 

Have a Blessed Holiday Season! 

www.ashpage.origamiowl.com 

How to protect your tablet when cooking {Guest Post}

I love having guest post...
Kristine gave us some great ideas on how to protect our tablets while cooking 
Thank you for the awesome ideas!

How to protect your tablet when cooking

Both when I was growing up and when I was first married, there were tons of cookbooks around the kitchen with hundreds of recipes at my, my mother’s, and my grandmother’s fingertips. Now, thanks to the Internet, there are millions of recipes available! And as tablets have become an even easier way to bring a world of food into the kitchen. At the same time, however, it does create opportunities for your tablet to get dripped or spilled on, which can turn your tablet into a paperweight. Here are some ways to protect your tablet while cooking.

Kitchen Cabinet Mount: I don’t know about you, but in my kitchen, counter space is at a premium. I picked up this kitchen cabinet mount from Belkin and it is great! It keeps my tablet at a good reading level while saving me counter space at the same time. I have even used it to check out cooking videos if I am not sure how to do something!

Chef Sleeve: Even though I have a way to keep my tablet off the counter, I still always worry about splashes in the kitchen, like the bubbling that happens when I am letting my chili simmer for three hours. That’s a quick way to ruin a tablet with a splash of crushed tomato winding up on the screen. The Chef Sleeve is a great way to keep your tablet protected and still be able to have a reactive screen, which is obviously important when you need to move around the screen when following directions. If you are in a pinch however, consider using a freezer zipper lock bag. They don’t work as well as a Chef Sleeve for screen responsiveness, but it will at least help to protect your electronicsinvestment.

Tablet Coverage: Even when you are being careful and taking steps to try and prevent damage from your tablet in the kitchen, truth is, you are in a room with lots of wet, sticky stuff, which doesn’t react well to electronics. I have learned the hard way to make sure to keep my coffee away from everything because wet hands on a wet surface can be a bad combination.That’s why it is a good idea to have more than just standard tablet insurance. What is important is to make sure you have tablet coverage that will take care of liquid damage, like what can happen in a kitchen, so you can always have your tablet on hand. ProtectCELL provides comprehensive coverage for your tablet whether you spill a cup of milk on it or it slips out of your hand and cracks on the floor.

Using your tablet for cooking can bring a wealth of recipes to your kitchen so you have lots of ways to be creative in meal planning. It can also be an invitation for electronic disaster. So make sure you plan ahead before taking your tablet into your kitchen.

How to pose for pictures

I love this time of year.... Fall leaves, festivals, pumpkin spice lattes of course....
And the dreaded family pictures
I don't know about you but I have a love hate relationship with family pictures
I love picking out the clothes for the kids to wear but hate looking into my closet and trying on outfits. I never feel right or that my clothes fit how I want them to....
Oh being a women is a never ending struggle
This year I went simple, a flattering sweater, boots and blue jeans.
Now comes the fun part actually taking the pictures. Ugh!
Getting the kids to look at camera is a challenge sometimes or even getting them to smile
But what about me I want to look thin and good ( maybe I am too vain) but these are being sent out too so many people gosh I want to look decent.

So with that, here are some posing tricks to help eliminate some of the fear and putting your best look out there.

*Always always wear flattering clothes.... No need to slip into something that does not fit or squeeze those rolls in. That look is not good for anybody
*Place your arm away from your body ( makes your arms look way thinner)
*Turn your body to side
*Bend a leg a little gives it more of a sassy look
*Chin up
*smile
*But your best face on and show that you love yourself!
Hope that helps!
I love fall!!!!

Liberty's Strawberry Party

Liberty turned ONE on September 11th so perfect time to have a outdoor party ( almost too warm in AZ)  I am totally obsessed with chevron decor so I thought it would be cute for her first birthday! 

As I started searching for chevron party decor I came across these adorable strawberry baskets at The Tomkat studio I love her stuff! I purchased the strawberry baskets, chevron favor bags, paper straws and came up with Liberty's Strawberry Party

I searched around for vintage Strawberry Shortcake decor I could not find really anything in the time frame I needed. So I ended just buying few plates, cups napkins just so it didn't feel too overwhelming as Strawberry Shortcake party :0 

It was a awesome party!

We had fresh strawberries and strawberry candies through out the table 

We enjoy the weather outstide and BBQ for everyone!

Strawberry Candies in cartons with pink twine :) 
Twine from Domestic Charm

Totally obsessed with these chevron bags

party favors: bubbles, Strawberry candies, sunglasses, lipgloss and tiny note pads
most items were purchased at the Dollar Store :) 

table display 

Chevron name banner

DIY name banner: I found card stock that matched the theme color .  I cut the card stock into triangles and then first traced the Liberty's name in pencil ( a key to any project) I also purchased sharpies that match the theme color. I free handed the chevron design it was not perfect but who is perfect right? I attached all the triangles about 2 inches apart using pink twine :) 

ONE happy baby that turned ONE on a beautiful day 

Origami OWL!

I started a new business adventure ORIGAMI OWL! 

I am totally in love with this stuff! 

I love that you can change your living lockets as much as you want or keep the same charms in forever.

Let me know if you want to order anything

Perfect for Mother's Day, Birthday's, Graduations, Christmas etc... 

ashpage.origamiowl.com

~Ash 

Here are some examples of their awesome jewelry: 

7 Fun ways to celebrate Mother's Day {guest post}

{guest post}

 Kristin a busy mom herself came up with some awesome ways to spend Mother's Day! 

Enjoy! 

7 Fun ways to celebrate Mother's Day

Mother’s Day is not just a day to celebrate all your mom has done for you. It is also a day to recognize the huge impact mothers have on their children. Mom is all too often the unsung hero of the family. So Mother’s Day is all about her. Here are seven fun ways to celebrate Mother’s Day.

• Breakfast in bed: Just about everyone remembers making breakfast in bed for their mother when they were children. And the tradition will certainly continue! Even if it isn’t the most delicious breakfast mom has ever had, it will certainly be the most memorable. Make sure to have a Mother’s Day card on the breakfast tray. Ahead of Mother’s Day, make a custom Mother’s Day card on shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/mothers-day-cards-stationery  You can upload your own photos and enter exactly what you want to say.
• Give mom the day off: One of the best things anyone can do for a mother is to let them have a day just for them. Forget the cleaning, the laundry, and the running the kids around from soccer practice to ballet class. Mom should get to take the nap on the couch on Mother’s Day and have control of the remote if they wish.
• Mother’s Day picnic: If the weather plays along, why not plan a fun family picnic? Pick up a wicker basket and pack a lovely lunch. Most importantly, don’t make mom pack it! On Mother’s Day, she shouldn’t have to do a thing.
• Go for a hike: Why not combine that Mother’s Day picnic with a hike through a local state park? The weather in May will be warm and everything will be blooming, making for a lovely day to enjoy outside!
• Movie and ice cream: Sure mom may go to the movies all the time…to see kid’s movies. This time let mom pick the movie she wants to see and then head out for ice cream after!
• Run/walk a 5K: There are many 5K run/walk events planned on Mother’s Day around the country. They are usually fund raisers for different non-profit organizations, such as the Mother’s Day 5K in Denver that benefits HERA’s mission to fight ovarian cancer. mothersday5k.com
• Go bowling: Bowling can be the ultimate family outing. You can break up the teams however you would like; adults versus kids or girls versus boys. It is a great way to get everyone involved in mom’s special day.

Notice that none of the ideas are very costly. They are all about enjoying each other as a family and letting mom be the center of attention on her special day.

~K   

@instamommy 

Month by Month Pics!

For the first year of Liberty's life I decided to take pictures of my sweet baby every month.. since I totally forgot to do this with Jeffrey I wanted to make sure I did it this time. It was so fun seeing how much they change month by month here are some of the sweet pics!

 

2 Months 

9 months... Lib was a little sick this day :( 

Lib started getting very active, it was getting harder to get a good pic.

 1 year OLD! I thought it would be cute to take a picture in my wedding dress, Liberty was not a fan at first :)

 Here are some awesome picture of Liberty from a good friend of mine
check her blog out!
lizmason-biesemeyer

Road Trip

We have officially moved.... 

to KC, MO 

We are loving every moment of it!

We drove for 2 days around 22 hours...

with a 18mo girl and a 4 year old boy and our boxer :)

how did we do it?

Well I picked out new toys (from the dollar store) and every time they were getting a little crazy I handed them a new toy super exciting!

We also had books and a ipad definitely helped pass the time

We however did not have a DVD player on with a movie on after another

It was really cool to watch our kids find something to do with out throwing technology at them

We limited the ipad use and Jeffrey our oldest got to play some games on it every now and then.

We were able to stop in El Paso, Texas and visit the kids Great Granddad what a treat! 

We really enjoyed our trip!

Our kids slept a lot of the road trip which was very helpful