Before I share these next few things, I think I need to have a bit of a preface. Yes, I am somewhat of a hippie. You may already know that by my cleaning solutions and nutrition. There is a reason behind my madness. When my sister, mother of 4, was 34 years old, she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. She battled cancer for 21 months, then passed away, leaving a husband and 4 little ones behind. After she died my Mother (as any Mother would I think), racked her brain to think if something she had done, worn, eaten while pregnant/nursing, could have possibly given my sister cancer. I don't believe anything my Mother did caused my sister's cancer, but ever since our family has been a bit more cautious of what we put in/on our bodies. I don't mean to bum anyone out with that story, I just wanted to share with you why I make the choices I do. 
Next up for summer fun, you have to keep the pesky bugs away! West Nile can be scary stuff, so we choose Burt's Bee's Herbal Insect Repellent. It is a mixture of bug fighting oils and is DEET free. We had it last year and have used it a couple times this year and we haven't had any problems with bug bites. It is again on the pricey side, $8, I bought it last year at Whole Foods. We can save money on inexpensive crafts and spend money on the good stuff like this.
These are a few of my favorite Summer time things, what are yours?
After a fruitful IKEA trip I found some super cute towels for my bibs. I will admit, I splurged. I usually hunt around, find the deal, and love getting something super cute for cheap. This time I just went for the cute, honestly, I didn't have time to hunt for the deal. Splurging ever now and again is OK right? We all do it, or am I alone? Don't worry I saved money on other things, and I stayed within my budget.
You take your ribbing fold it in half and measure your baby's head. You want to stretch it a little bit since you will be stretching the bib over the head to put it on your babe.
Hand towel size is the perfect size for these bibs, I decided to put the neck line 3/4 of the way over, giving more fabric to the front of the bib.
Fold your towel in half and cut a small circle. Cut it small, a little at a time, constantly trying it on your baby. You DO NOT want to cut it too big, otherwise it won't work with your ribbing and won't fit as well. Cut a little, try it on, cut a little, try it on, until it just barely fits over your baby's head. If your baby is anything like mine, they will absolutely DETEST this process, and try to crawl away from you as fast as possible when they see you with that striped towel. 
Once you have your hole cut out, you just sew in the ribbing, with it still folded in half. Just stich around the ribbing and the towel and it will turn out something like this....
Confession time, you all know I don't sew, this last part I did not do myself. My Mother-in-law was kind enough to sew the ribbing in for me. Aren't I lucky to have such a nice MIL? It turned out perfect and I love them! Since I splurged, I was only able to make 2, I would like a bunch more. Now I will be on the look out for some bargain ones.
This next little gem still amazes me, someone is truly a genius. It is the spill proof bubble container from Little Kids. My neighbor and I were outside the other day blowing bubbles with our kids and she had one of these. I was amazed at how it didn't spill and how nice the wand was. No sticky bubble messes here. For Easter my son received a giant bottle of bubbles, but it was such a mess, now I just pour it into my spill proof container, no mess! I ran to Target to pick one of these up, well worth my $2.
I think I have said it before, but nutrition is one area that I am not necessarily a penny pincher. I mean sure, I shop the sales, and on occasion will clip coupons, but I find that the food that usually has coupons, isn't the most nutritious. I am tired of all the added sugar and other things out there, so I try my best to find things with only a couple of ingredients and no added sugar. I came across these Dole fruit cups and I think they are a wonderful snack for my son. All natural fruit juice, no added sugars, and they are diced into the perfect size for a one year old. I can toss them in my diaper bag and they work well on the go. So far I have tried the peaches and pears and they are great!
These are a few of my favorite things, what are some of yours?
Here is the present table, where I hung his "monthly" photos. A couple years ago I was at IKEA and they were blowing out wrapping paper at $.25 a roll, I pick up a bunch of rolls, the same pattern, but different colors. The blue was PERFECT for a Cookie Monster theme, so perfect in fact that we used it as a backdrop for our "photo booth."
Since I already had a bunch of scrapbook paper in different shades of blue, I just went with it. I really didn't have money to spend. I found this cute paper hat template HERE. We brought over my son's Cookie Monster stuffed animal, he was a perfect addition to the party.
I used my Silhouette for everything in this party, it was so fast, and I love how it turned out.
I made the smash cake too!
I used different jars from my pantry, even though they were different shapes and sizes, I think they worked out well. I added some ribbon and twine to jazz them up a bit. The large jar I found at Tai Pan Trading for a steal at $7.97! I added a fun Cookie Monster sticker from Michael's to the front. I made all of the cookies from scratch, well except the Oreos, those were my husband's request, we never have them at home.
Planning early is a must for me! I saved so much money by doing so. I knew I wanted "milk bottles", but wasn't going to spend money on them. So, in January I asked coworkers to give me any old Starbucks bottles they were going to throw away. I washed them and spray painted the lids and "voila" milk bottles! I got the idea for the Cookie Monster cups from Hostess with the Mostess.
Some really inexpensive decor, tissue paper pom poms, and a felt circle garland.
I used my son's "M" from his room, it worked perfect.
For the kid's we had a game to guess how many cookies are in the cookie jar. The prize was Cookie Monster book, Cookie Monster stamp, and Cookie Monster figure, all from the dollar spot at Target.
I really scored with the favors, and didn't spent a cent of my own money. Let me explain. My husband sold some of his old text books to Amazon, so we had some online credit. I purchased these letter and number cookie cutters with the credit, so they were free! I used bags I already had from other favors, and leftover ribbon. I cut out the tags with the Silhouette and had them say "This party was brought to you by the letter "M" and the number 1." I printed out some recipes for sugar cookies to go along with them and placed them in a milk crate my Mother in law had.
We set up a coloring table for the kids with coloring pages I printed off the PBS kids website. We used an elegant paper table cloth, so we didn't have to worry about crayon on the nice ones. We had foam stickers, stamps, and Sesame Street stickers.
Overall, everyone had fun, and it turned out great, even on a budget. I think I spent around $50 total, which I felt was really reasonable for a party of 50 people. You only turn 1 once!
Lastly I have found this next one to be a lifesaver in a pinch. The Happy Tot organic toddler meals are great! I make 90% of my own baby food, but have found that these are about just as good. Organic ingredients and NO added anything. I bought a few and keep them in the diaper bag to avoid situations like last weekend. What happened last weekend? I was an air headed Mom and went to lunch with friends without bringing any lunch for my baby. He was hungry and cranky and lunch wasn't as fun as it should have been. I have since learned that keeping a few of these in my diaper bag helps when I am an airhead and forget to grab something. He loves them and the packaging is great, I just hand him one and he sucks it down.
These are a few of my favorite things? What are yours? Do you have any tips for me getting out of this funk?
Next, I am loving my Vans no show socks. I took a trip to the outlets in Park City this past weekend and picked up a couple pair of these to go with my new glitter Tom's. My hubby is the best, he got me them for V-day, don't you love getting your tax return? I do. I prefer the Vans over Peds for a couple reasons. First, they are a cotton sock, not just a nylon, so no stinky feet. I made the mistake last year of not wearing any socks with my Tom's, BAD IDEA. Second, because they are a sock, they are more comfortable.
Lastly, I love love the PocketBacs from Bath & Body Works. The cute little holder fits perfectly on the outside of my diaper bag and I use these babies a TON. I am a germaphobe, so they are just what I need to keep my mind at ease. It is nice to have the fun scents instead of the standard, boring alcohol smell. I am not going to lie though, I only shop at B & B twice a year... you guessed it the winter and summer sales. I stock up when they are cheap, I think $1 each, and I am pretty sure I got the holder for 50 cents.
These are a few of my favorite things, what are some of yours?
Aren't they adorable?? I needed something to go with them, so I decided to make a fun onesie. Let me just make one thing clear, I DON'T SEW. I am horrible at it and I had a really bad experience in my Junior High Home Economics class. I can do a *tiny* bit of embroidery, but I really am not good at that either. ANYWAY, an easy St. Patrick's Day onesie, was on my to do.
I found these fun gold buttons at Michael's. I have a love/hate relationship with glitter. It was the perfect thing for gold coins, but it gets everywhere!
I ironed on my pot o' gold and attached the buttons. I also added a shamrock with some green buttons I had on hand. I really like how it turned out!
I think it compliments the socks perfectly!
I am LOVING my Klipo Cutlery Set from The Container Store. The Container Store is definitely in my top 5 favorite shopping websites, they have so many great products. I take this handy set in my lunch and it even has chopsticks. The best part about it is I can throw it in the dishwasher when I come home from work.
Lastly for today one of my favorite games, The Game of Things. Have you played this yet? It is a riot! We had some friends introduce it to us a few years ago, back then it was only available in Canada, and we couldn't find it anywhere! Christmas of 2009 I saw it at Target and had to get it for my husband, it is such a fun one to play with your friends for game night. I won't go into too much detail about how to play, but you write down answers and have to guess who said what, and seriously, you will be laughing for hours! Telling you about this really makes me want to play, does anyone want to come over for home made pizza and game night?
These are a few of my favorite things, what are yours?
Here she is posing with her prizes. I went really simple with the prizes, a blue pack of Orbit gum, and blue Jones soda, with a necktie, I think they were cute! I like how the winner matched her prize!
The other game we played is one of my FAVORITES. It is difficult though to round up the supplies, especially if you have a breast fed baby. I managed to round up enough slow flow bottles though to have a bottle drinking race. I gave each person a bottle with an ounce of cranberry juice in it, I used cranberry just for the color, and then everyone raced to see who could drink theirs the fastest. This one is so funny to watch!! Those slow flow nipples really make you work!
I gave the first and second place winners each a prize, here they are posing, what do you know, Steph was the winner!
I had so much fun with this shower! We all had a great time, it is always fun to get together with family and friends! My next party is planning my son's first birthday in April, I can't wait to share it!
I have a bunch of the TOLSBY frames from IKEA. I picked them up a couple months ago, they are darling and only $.99!! I love how you can use them front and back too! I put a picture of the parents to be, an ultrasound photo, then used some scrapbook paper to jazz them up. I also decided with the "little man" theme to do mustaches on a stick. I have seen these a bunch of places, my cute friend Cierra did an awesome photo shoot with some, and I thought they would be so fun. I was RIGHT! Everyone loved them! I downloaded a mustache template from Lisa Welge's blog; I debated whether to do them in felt I had, but then I thought, "I can either hand cut them out of felt, or the machine can cut them for me out of paper." I don't have to tell you which choice won. I just used my trusty glue stick to glue them onto skewers.
When I decided to do the "little man" theme, all I had for ideas was my sucker mold. I perused the internet a bit and came across this CUTE idea for necktie napkins over at the Smitty Baby blog. So easy to make, just use napkins I already have, cut the ties out of scrapbook paper, and use a glue stick to adhere them. Easy, cheap, and FUN!
I used the diaper cake to as a decoration at the end of the table, overall I think the decor turned out cute, what do you think?
I can't wait to share the rest of the details with you!