The Importance of Girlfriends

Someone once told me that you are a lucky person if you can count on one hand the number of "real" friends you have in your life.  I couldn't agree more.  Real friends, and I'm not talking about that ridiculous number of Facebook "friends" we all have, are diamonds in the rough.  So when you have a girlfriend like that, and life, marriages, long distance and kids is making it hard for you to find time to connect, what do you do?

We've all been there: We schedule a play date with our bestie and her kids in hopes of spending some quality time together, but our naive dreams are quickly dashed to bits by interrupted conversations, clingy children, dirty diapers, and the world's most impressive temper tantrums. Before you know it you are hugging each other goodbye, shrugging shoulders, and making promises of a seeing one another soon. You have so much to talk about and you miss each other dearly, but before you know it another 6 months has passed.  Sure you've emailed, sent texts and even shared pics of your cute little nuggets in their Easter best, but come on!  That's not what we want, ladies.  We want wine. We want to drop the "F" bomb without spelling it out.  We want to talk about who's on the cover of People Magazine. We want to connect without someone crawling up our leg. We want what we had before the kids came along.
There's always so much hoopla surrounding how to keep your relationship with your significant other ignited after children come into the picture, but little focus is put on friendship.  I can't figure out why this is, because friends are such a deep rooted extension of who we are.  Truthfully, we fell in love with them, too.  Real friends have chemistry, spark and stories that we never, ever tell anyone. Not even our spouses.
Maybe you are one of those women who has it all figured out.  Perhaps once a month, you and a group of ladies meet for drinks, dinner and that perfect conversation and belly laughter that is only achieved at a table filled with women, but, I'm about to get all Angelina Jolie on you and admit something: I don't particularly like huge groups of women.  I prefer the closeness of just a few great friends. I am already juggling so much, and sometimes being around lots of women exhausts me.
So if you are like me and notice that your friendships could use some TLC, start planning that girl trip you always talk about.  You won't regret it!

Love,
Lana

Photo by dawnandross

Grace's First Trip to the St. Louis Zoo

We took Grace to the St. Louis Zoo for the first time this weekend.  The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful time looking at all the animals and catching up with Jim's family for dinner afterwards.  Here are a few pictures if you are curious about how an almost-3-year-old charms a snake.

An Invitation Fit for a Tiny Cowgirl

Howdy! The first thing you want to do when making invitations to a Wild West Party is personalize them with an adorable picture of your teeny-tiny buckaroo.  If I still used film, it would have taken me an entire roll to get the one picture that I ended up using on Grace's invitations, but in the end I chose this one.  I think it captures her great big personality, all wrapped up in one tiny, hot pink bandanna.  She. Is. A. Ham. 

After you have chosen which picture you want to use, upload it onto one of the dozens of websites that allow you to make changes to your original photograph.  (I like www.picmonkey.com, but I am sure there are other websites that are just as good.) Once you are there, you want go to where it says "Edit Your Photo", then just fool around with your photograph until it's to your liking.  I cropped this picture of Grace so that I could get rid of the big black truck in the background.  Then I changed the tone from "color" to "sepia", adjusted the intensity so there was still a hint of color because I wanted the pink bandanna to show. Once that was done, I applied dark edges to the whole thing. Now it looks a little like an old tintype! Perfect for our Wild West party. From there, you want to upload your completed picture onto Walgreen's website and order as many wallet-sized prints as you need to make your invitations. 

Wanted: For throwing a fit at Target on Sunday

Next, you are going to spend some time in Hobby Lobby, Michael's, or whatever craft store you prefer.  You want to find some plain brown invitations and some scrapbook paper that has a good western feel to it.  I chose an old wooden barn print and a bandanna print that were on sale for 50% off, which made them 20 cents a sheet, and I used my Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon to buy the brown cards and envelopes.  Total bill at Hobby Schlobby?  $4.73!

Now comes the part of the invitation that includes all those important questions like: Who?  What?  Where? Date and Time? But instead of using the standard, old, boring invitation format, make this one original!  Be silly and creative.  People love getting invitations that make them smile. Here's how I worded Grace's and my family is so excited that some of them are dressing up! (PS: that was not a requirement, and no, they aren't on medication.)

See how I cut and glued the paper that looked like an old barn onto the right side of the invite and the "Wanted Poster" onto the left?  I did that because I wanted the invitation to feel like the Wanted Poster was hanging on the side of an old rustic building.  Mission accomplished!

After I had completed the inside of the invitation, I moved onto the front. (I'm bass-akwards like that.  You could do the front first, if you wanted.  It probably would make more sense, but in the end, the finish product is the same and nobody will you know you did it "wrong" until you blog about it.) 

Here, I cut and glued the bandanna print paper onto the front side of the invitation. Then I used photo mounts to adhere Grace's wallet-sized, tintype photo to the bandanna print paper. I thought it looked better placed at an angle.  Next, I used a small hole punch and punched out a hole on the right side of the invitations. Then I threaded a small piece of twine through the hole and tied the invitations closed with a neat little bow. Ain't that purty? 

Note: A bit of twine adds no extra postage, but lots of flair to your invites.
Hooray for the small things!

Once I had all the invitations stuffed into envelopes, I sealed each one with one of these adorable stickers I found at Hobby Lobby.  These were the most expensive part of these invitations, weighing in at $2.49 for 2 sheets of 12 stickers. 

And just when you think the fun is over, you get to address all of these pretty little babies. Honestly, this was my favorite part because I gave each person a Wild West nickname.  Patty became "Persnickety Patty", Beth became "Black Strap Beth", and David became "Dangerous Dave".  We laughed so hard coming up with different names for each family member and so will you!

Welp, folks.  There it is.  The first post from Grace's Western Party!  Stay tuned for the entire kit n kaboodle!

Happy Trails, 

Lana

Curious what your Wild West name would be?

The Perfect Wedding Gift for Everyone...Seriously

Ah, wedding season is upon us, and many of us will be spending our Saturday afternoons checking fancy linens, dishes, and strange kitchen utensils off of a gift registry list at Bed Bath & Beyond.  I have mixed feelings about gift registries.  I understand the point of them, but I also have an issue when a couple has been living together for years and then decides to get married and register for really expensive, unnecessary stuff. That is not the purpose of a gift registry, in my humble opinion.  It's goal is to help two people, who are broke-as-a-joke, begin to carve out a life together that doesn't involve eating off paper plates for the first six months.  But I digress.
If you are invited to a bridal shower in the near future, please do the bride and the groom a giant favor and give them a copy of Fall in Love for Life - Inspiration from a 73-Year Marriage. It is small enough to fit into a white and silver, over-the-top wedding gift bag, right alongside dish towels, spatulas, and a set of 100% Egyptian Cotton sheets, but don't be deceived by it's tiny size, because this book is packed with the marital wisdom of a couple who were happily married for 73 years.

Barbara and Harry Cooper

Written by Barbara "Cutie" Cooper, from The OGs, with the aid of her two granddaughters, this darling memoir is filled with advice that every couple needs to know.  Tucking into the first few pages feels like sitting down and talking to your favorite grandma, if she was Jewish and 1000 times more hip.  Soon, you are nodding in agreement at her simple, marital wisdom and wondering why more people haven't lived by her sage advice. Covering everything from the wedding night jitters, (do people still get those?) to the death of her beloved husband, Harry, 73 years after saying "I Do", Cutie lets us into her world and makes loving fun. Hysterical, even. Share this book with couples who are just starting out, give it to someone for their 50th anniversary, or read it yourself when you feel like you need renewed faith in your marriage, spouse, and life.  It's a gift to be treasured.

Love,
Lana

How to Plan a Party for an Urban Cowgirl

Grace's 3rd birthday is right around the corner, so we have been knee-deep in party planning.  This year, she wanted a "Little House on the Prairie" party, which I was totally down with except for two things:
1. I don't know how or have the desire to sew bonnets and calico dresses.
2. Shaking cream into butter doesn't sound like a very fun party trick.
So, instead of doing Little House, (Sorry Ingalls Family! We still love you!) we are doing "Wild West! Three Year Old Girl Style!" You might be wondering what exactly that means, and I'm hear to tell you that I have no freaking clue, but as it turns out, every single cowboy themed party idea I could find was aimed at little boys. This really sort of bothers me for obvious reasons, but more importantly, it's really putting a kink in my last minute party planning style.  Turns out that I'm really having to get creative in order to make my little girl's Wild West dream party come true.
The first step in proper party planning is the invitation. (I think I heard that somewhere, but maybe that's wrong.  Don't listen to me!) So of course that meant that Grace and I had to take a trip out to the back yard and take a gazillion pictures in hopes of getting one (ONE!) that was decent enough to glue onto the front of invitations being mailed to our family.

As you can see, Grace was giving me a run for my money, but in her defense, I think she's just about the prettiest little buckaroo I ever did see.

Hoping to make Calamity Jane proud,
Lana