Once Upon A Story Review & Giveaway

Im a huge fan of individuality, especially in little boys! Maybe its the fact that I have a house full of blue, but I feel like most stores don't quite get "cool" for boys. Not a huge fan of skulls and that seems to be the majority of the mass produced "cool clothes".  My boys have distinct likes, little bro loves giraffes, try buying that at the local store. Now that big bro is the big FOUR he's into big boy things like ninjas, star wars, lasers and jumping from any stationary object. 

When I came across Once Upon A Story I was super impressed. Alison is also a mom of 2 boys so I feel like she totally "gets it"! Not to mention her photos are GENIUS!!! each picture tells a story of the shirt it is featuring (not to mention her model is super photogenic, I mean seriously that kid needs to be on T.V or in magazines)

Check out some of these awesome Tees featured at her etsy.com shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Onceuponastory

Being a cardiac nurse, I totally LOVE this one!

We were lucky enough to receive a shirt for each of the boys! I told her a little about us, and each boy, and she surprised us with 2 perfectly matched new tees.

We made a science center trip this week and I figured this would be a great chance to show off our Once Upon A Story wear.

Yes hes that cool! Cape and ninja shirt showing off his
awesome moves (he also had a sword in his back)

Big Bro got a super cool ninja shirt!

Little Bro got a giraffe shirt, goes great with his new
giraffe TOMS shoes.

Little Bro checking out the Dinos.

Thank you Once Upon A Story for the awesome new shirts!!!
If you would like to check out all Alison's great designs visit her etsy shop HERE and you can become facebook buddies HERE!


And.......... Yes great news, Once Upon A Story is hosting a giveaway!!! She is offering one winner a tee of their choice (up to $25 value)

Check out the rafflecopter below for details and please only click done on the tasks actually performed, just to be fair to others ;)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Home Gym Re-Do

We had a spare room that we loveling call "the cat room" this is the spare room that the litter box and everything else we do not want to look at seems to land.. It has housed 3 elderly Chihuahua's in their final days and recently our kitty tucker in his final days. We are now down to 2 kitties and a room with no purpose. This was also one of the last white walled rooms. We knew for sure that the carpet HAD to go!.

We decided to turn it into a home gym. 

We had a elliciptal machine and a weight bench, both lived in the garage and neither had gotten much use. Theory is, get it out of the hot garage, + TV = get skinny!

step 1 - removal of crap

my handsome handyman - the husband
step 2 - paint paint paint

Step 3 - fresh paint, new TV, remove carpet!!

Hubby patching the nail holes from the carpet instal

Heres where things get serious! We knew the carpet HAD to go and we didn't want to spend a lot of $$$ on new floor. So my suggestions was to pain the concert.. Hubby needed ALOT of persuading on this one. His choice was rubber mats  but with a price tag of over $300 I convinced him to try this first. Originally I was convinced I wanted to do grey floor with chevron stripes butttttt you will see in the final it didn't quite work out that way. 

Patchwork on the concrete

Hubby had the genius idea about putting the litter box in the closet with a doggie door!!! No smell at all!!! Good job love!

Wifi cables and wires all have a home in this mounted shelf, we can also
keep gloves and misc small work out equipment.

Taaa Daaa! Finished product! And the reason the chevron stripes were out! Found these amazing
 rugs on clearance at lowes for $30 each!!!!

Also doubles as boys craft storage room.

The Lullaby Leaf Review & Giveaway

The Lullaby Leaf is a amazing, hand stamped jewelry store with so many beautiful products, you might find it hard to pick a favorite! We were lucky enough to win one of her awesome bracelets and I was able to talk her into a additional bracelet for a giveaway!!!

My bracelet reads "You Make Me Happy When Skies Are Gray" This is near and dear to my heart because no matter what mood or craziness is going on with my youngest, I can softly sing this song and it seems to calm him and turn him into a little snuggle ball ;)

Our giveaway bracelet is from one of my favorite artists, making 2 trips to Jamaica with my husband this one also takes me to a place of white beaches, steel drums and red stripe, it reads "dont worry about a thing because every little thing gonna be alright" Irie! The golden bird is also a nice touch..

If you feel like doing some jewelry drooling visit

The Lullaby Leaf on Facebook!!!!

or on etsy.com The Lullaby Leaf.

Her designs are smart, clever and cool!!!

Like this "giving tree" inspired necklace

And this DMB inspired bracelet! (another one of me and

the hubs favorites)

Such a cool shop!! I could litterly go broke ordering from Lindsay and the Lullaby Leaf!!

Would you like to win a Bob Marley Wrap Bracelet?? Check out the rafflecopter for details :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nugs first Haircut

So its a tradition in our family to take the boys to get their first hair cuts at Disney. Last Sunday (which was both St Patty's day and Nus actual birthday) we went to Disney along with my sister and Bro-in law. We also have waited till the boys were about 2 to get their hair cut. Since next monday (April 1st) is Little bros actual birthday we figured it was time..

.....................BEFORE..................................................................................AFTER.............

Such a good little man, YouTube train videos help

They give you a hat with "my first haircut" and a certificate and of course your little cut locks.

The barber shop is located in Magic Kingdom on main street. There always seems to be a wait, I hear you can make appt.. Girls can also get "pixie dust" or coloring. 

I also wanted to thank My Little Beauty Queen for B's St Pattys Day shirt!!

Handsome boy!

He just got a little trim, mainly to get hair out of his eyes, the back didn't get cut too much to leave his little baby curls.. Cutting their hair is such a hard thing to do! I feel like each haircut ages them so quickly...

Birthday Boy got a trim also ;)

Flash Back to Big brothers first cut! Lots more hair and not as happy about the cut as little bro.
The R2D2 helped though

Vintage Train Party

My oldest turned 4 on St Patty's Day. I usually start the Birthday party planning process after Christmas, and this year he picked trains. This is actually the second time we have done trains (we did choo choo I'm 2, in 2011). 

I wanted to go for a big boy train party this year so used "Vintage Trains" as the theme. 

We knew we wanted to have a train come to the house and we used

http://www.mychoochootrain.com

The train was a huge hit. 

We ordered Conductor and Engineer hats from Oriental Trading Co.

I tried to do a mix of DIY and purchased products. 

Our invites came from Luc and Lilah Events, they offer couture printable invitations and paper products.

I blocked out our address and phone number, the actual invite is more centered :)

We used Bug A Boo designz for the printable package. I loved the chevron print and the vintage look of the train.

We used her printables everywhere!!

Fuel Car

lollipop favors

Choo Choo water

Juice boxes

Banner

Food table tents

Mason Jar drinks

Straws were made by the fabulous shop The Party Penguin

We served "Bar-B-Choo pork sandwiches 

And "Cams Corn"

I used dollar store containers to make a produce car, with strawberries,
a coal car with Oreo cookies/marshmallow mixture, and a log car with pretzels .

Accent signs were provided by Sittin on a Cloud

My sister Jessie-Cate Sheehy painted the backdrop for the drink table! Turned out PERFECT! She used the printable's as inspiration and added hidden details like his age and monogram to the front of the engine.

Favor Bags

 

Favor bags were from Crafty Clementines
Inside contained a wooden train whistle and a bag of "gold" bubble gum from Oriental Trading Co.

Vintage inspired suitcase from Michael's arts and crafts

Cake and Cupcakes were Provided from Sonia Raghunandan, if you are in the lake county Fl area and need yummy cakes or cupcakes give her a call 352-223-4288

Wood purchased from hardware store for less than $3. Reflectors
also purchased from same store less than $4 for 2.

Outside "ticket station". Red Amelia Earhart suitcases purchased
from local thrift store for about $10 for both!

Ordered the yellow flag on ebay then used
painters tape to do the X and printed a R to use
as a stencil.

More outside signs. Metal train sign from eBay

Birthday boys shirt provided by Lion and Lamb Tees

Moms shirt from Smash Transit
Dads Shirt from Atlantic Coast Images

The whole family decked out! , Dads shirt, Moms shirt, Birthday boy and little bro's shirts

Train track floors using painters tape (which are
still down and probably will be for a while)

A friend sent me a YouTube link for making tissue paper poms and fans, super easy to follow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u1PA_FI79U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GraHvOojmuo

The train party was a huge success and Cam had a blast! Thank you to everyone who helped and came to celebrate our special boys 4th birthday!!

Awesome custom made "thank you's" from our friends at Luc Lilah Events

How about some giveaways and discount codes :)

If you don't see your parties theme contact the shops owner and ask about custom work. All discount codes are to be used at their etsy.com shop ( link is underlined)

Straws from The Party Penguin
10% off your order use the code PENGUIN

Moms shirt is from Smash Transit
http://smashvintage.com
10% off your oder with code NUANDNUGS

Printable signs, labels, tags from Bug A Boo Designz
20% off purchase with code NUANDNUGS20

Muslin gift bags from Crafty Clementines
20% off one time purchase with code ADVENTURE20

Birthday Boys Vintage train shirt from Lion and Lamb Tees

They would like to offer a Lion and Lamb Tee from their shop

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Invitations from Luc & Lilah Events
They would like to offer a $20 voucher towards invitations in their shop
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Accent signs from Sittin on a Cloud
They would like to offer a giveaway for one product from their shop.

                                                           a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dads shirt from Nova customts

10% off order using code 747train

They would also like to offer one reader a vintage train shirt of their own
 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also thank you to our friend Karol Porter for taking pictures

And to my mom for making the Pork in the Bar-B-Choo sandwiches

                       These boy party ideas were also featured on Spaceships and Laser Beams.