*hello new love*

my goal for my very first mother's day was to play with paper after a long hiatus from my art journaling days. i really wanted to put into words and paper my journey to being a mommy :) and even though i remember in my pre-mama days it taking me forever to finish a single page... this little book took me a bit longer than that now that i have my buddy little r. but i did a bit of planning and grabbed a paper kit ( i used this paper kit in the shop ) to simplify my creative process ( i have so much stuff! sometimes its hard to choose ha!)

i made a little time here and there, played with my sewing machine, cut up some of my favorite photos, reminisced and enjoyed the process from start to finish. good times. just like last mother's day...when we first announced to our families we were pregnant. one of my favorite days ever. happy times xoxo.

when my baby bump started to show :)  sometimes i would catch my reflection walking by a window and i seriously would not recognize it. it was kind of hard to believe i was pregnant. so thankful and so happy for what was to come.

i tucked a bit of journaling in the glassine envelope about how we told our families we were pregnant. it was something special i cherish deeply. although this year i'm sure both our families were expecting another bit of baby news. but alas, no extra special baby news except that little r is our cutie patootie and whipping us into mommy & daddy shape every day :) i really think he knows he's in charge. yikes hahaa!

a bit of journaling about how we felt when we found out we were expecting a baby boy xo. it made me teary remembering being so anxious and the waiting...and then knowing...peace xo.



and me having to retake my dmv photo and knowing it was extra special since little r was in it too :)

i'm so thankful mr.handsome took photos of the entire journey. even though it felt silly at times. i'm glad  i have them xoxo.

since knowing i was having little r i've adopted wearing the color blue. it's quite a fun color to wear :)

and our last photo of the bump before meeting little r in person. sometimes when little r is kicking away next to me it reminds me of when he was kicking away inside. now i get to kiss he little toes. watch him grow ever single day. it's amazing. that little guy has stolen my heart. every bit of it.

i finished the book with my favorite quote: "al infinito y mas alla" ( "to infinity and beyond") from toy story. my love for mr.handsome has multiplied remembering our journey to today. these are just a few of the happy good times. our journey had its ups and downs like everyone else's, but i'm glad we are holding onto these happy ones. each one reminding us to be thankful for every little blessing along the way.

today i remember that we are blessed to infinity and beyond
:)
thanks for letting me share
xo
-d

where did she go?

between lots of baby drool.
tummy time.
a million diaper changes.
& loads of laundry.
and sticky kisses and smiles.

alas, i am back :)

and my little ninja too :)

Our Inspire Lovely Giveaway winners are:

Please e-mail me at belladrummer@gmail.com and I will get your coupon codes to you :)

pardon my absence.  adjusting to motherhood has been crazy around here. i can now safely say i've underestimated, under appreciated and not praised my mother enough now that i see what kind of crazy she had to deal with raising me & my siblings. :)  My mama is amazing. She raised 5 kids. 3 girls three years apart + 2 after a five year hiatus.  all i can say is i'm the cute one. hahaa. i kid. its my middle child perspective talking. ;P

and now i have a cute little one. look at my mangy baby :)
i've always wanted to rock my hair like this. so far i've been his chew toy and he's like my little pigeon ready to splatter me with anything and everything. never a dull moment :)

the only bad thing...
i don't smell the same.
no matter how hard i try.
:(

I wish i had more time to do a million other things but i have to remember i'm a mom and that always comes first. Everything else comes after that. But thankfully had time to do some fun things and we even got to do a market

had a date complete with a new dress + shoes and starbucks. :)

driving mommy bananas... check!

made and enjoyed a delicious breakfast with mr.handsome while little r naps :)

got my crafty on by making some big 'ol bibs for little r. ( i'm surprised they are still holding up :)

and i made him his first crinkle toy. quite the experience. 

celebrated our 3 year anniversary ( our first as mom & dad )

FINALLY got to make something pretty from some wooden salad bowls i picked up while thrifting TWO years ago! two years. wow. i almost gave up and gave the bowls away thinking it was a ridiculous idea to upcycle salad bowls into planters...

my mom is the queen of succulent plants so it was nice to work on this project together.

i even scored a bronze t-rex...  kitschy and appropriate in this house full of guys :) roar!

And yesterday i celebrated my first mama's day ( mexican mothers day ) and little r gave me a gift.  sexy right?  i even ironed the darn dress!!! ( i never iron anything ) oh geez.  

and this is us last month. before little r got his hair cut. we're still alive and kickin'. still holding on and trying to figure everyday out. Holding onto every good moment and tucking it away for safekeeping. and if all else fails, thankfully starbucks understands... hahaaa! We head to starbucks to enjoy happy hour and that my dear lovelies is where you will see a mangy lady and her cute mangy baby :)

xo

-d

friendship month xo

it seems all holidays are going to roll into celebrating all month long. that's the way it goes with a 2 month little r :)  yesterday we went to visit mr.handsome and his wonderful co-workers for lunch. we brought sweet presents for our dear friends. a little late valentine's love is always better late than never :P

I made french vanilla cupcakes in gold liners. I dyed the mix a soft petal pink. I bit into the cupcake to take a picture after snapping this shot... i wanted to show the pink cake under all that frosting... but somehow didn't put the cupcake down and just scarfed it down. 

oops.

 ;)

i swirled caramel sauce over the frosting and added a dash of salt ( mr.handsome's idea :) and finished them off with pretty mini pink heart sprinkles ( from jo-ann's ).  they were pretty darn good.  i wish i could send you one. all i got to share is a pretty picture. alas. xo 

we also gave each of our friends a little chevron baggie with 2 dove chocolates inside. i LOVE dove anything. i especially love that little message inside each one :) 

these pretty little bags will be making there way into the shop tomorrow. i love. i adore and i really can't stop filling them with everything and sewing them up.  :)

i added a few tags i designed especially for valentines. sweet love indeed.

 

i added a bit of sequin love ( also from Inspire Lovely ) for some extra sparkle and shine. love the glam.

we only used the red and pink bags this time but the shop will also be stocked with yellow, black, aqua, green & note book bags. i love color. i also LOVE cute bags. but i love giving lovely packages the most  :)

i can't wait. the shop will go live tomorrow, Saturday and i hope you will come and swing by to wander the shop once again. and just for fun, i would love to give a $10.00 credit to 2 lovelies to our Inspire Lovely shop ( Excludes shipping cost. International entries always welcome. :)  

So you could be a winner! it might be you. you never know, you could win something this time :P 

( i always say i never win anything but i actually did one time! yay for free stuff :)

so with that excitement please leave a comment just saying hi, tell me something fun you've done or share a link to your site to show me something you've made. i love sharing and i would love to see what's going on in your little corner of the world. :) Oh and leave your name and where you are from. i hope to pick one international & one domestic winner.  I will pick a winner soon!

xo

-d

Valentine's XO

 i woke up valentine's day feeling a bit restless about what to give mr.handsome as a card to show him how much i love him. I wanted to make him a card just like the one's in the previous post but it still left me with the feeling like it wasn't enough. this was my first valentine's day as a mom & wife and so i got to work on our frame wall in our living room as a gift to both mr.handsome and little r. i played all day :) and this is what mr.handsome came home to.

 

it was so much fun going through photos of us with little r. it's been a little over 2 months and boy have we changed. ( i have been saving trims of lace & crochet and made this shadowbox frame using the trims as garlands :) I also designed the cute "hello love" tag just for this frame.

 


inside the shadow box i added these three cute grey/metallic spools. one for each of us. cheesy i know! hahaa on top & the outside of the frame i added some wee garlands i whipped up, i punched out pink hearts from notebook paper, vintage floral pattern paper and starburst punches from vintage newspaper sheets. little r had fun watching. hehee.

 

i've had this mini ornate frame for a while ( thrifted ) and it fit this cute picture of mr.handsome & little r together in our first picnic together. i also added a cute fabric stripe yo-yo i made a while back + a cute zebra i thrifted in a cute bag of dinosaurs for little r. i think i'm going to have fun playing with his toys hahaa!



 i love candles. just not spending money on them ;) so i remembered i had a pier 1 gift card from way back as a wedding gift ( almost 3 years ago - yikes :) and thankfully i was able to purchase a few candles. ( the heart wooden clothespin is from a handmade market and from "mom", pretty amazing handmade stuff!



and how can you have valentine's without flowers? i asked for anything but roses :) we were visiting our local farmers market on saturday and i got to pick these beautiful soft pastel flowers. they even smell so sweet!

 

and here we are, my little r. he's such a cute kid. i would like to state for the record he gets that from me. hahaaa! ( frame from melissa frances scrapbook supply )

 

 more zebra fun. one mama zebra and one baby one for little r.

 

 i had fun glittering up this duo with sparkly vintage glass glitter. it's much shinier than regular glitter, pretty awesome. and xo for my two handsome fellas. so this was my valentine card for my 2 loves. but just in case i bought 2 packs of baseball cards for mr.handsome, one from little r and one from me :P and guess what mr.handsome bought me??? the breaking dawn cd hahaaaa! i CANNOT watch any of the twilight movies with him! he's always repeating the cheesy/romantic lines in the movie "you breathing is enough for me" and saying them in the most annoying voice.

he's of course mocking the movie and my love for the films. hey, it's a love story. i'm a sucker for love stories. and even in all his cheesiness, i am in love with every bit of my handsome man. :)

so yeah, i'm rocking out to the soundtrack this weekend. i hope you have a beautiful weekend!

love to you, -d

Little Valentine xo

celebrating our first valentine's day with a cutie patootie. i've got 3 valentine's this year, married one, adopted another and gave birth to my new found love. you might know the wee little valentine :) that smile just melts me. and that double chin makes me gaga :) while little r was away playing at grandma's i had the pleasure of playing around with paper. So of course I made VALENTINE cards for little r's grandma, tia and nana. It's so sweet to be celebrating such a fun time with little r. I wasn't going to let this festive day pass us by without sending a little love on his behalf. xo one can never have enough glitter. glittery x's and o's are lovely :) once i had everything glued down, i used 2 new kraft design bags ( soon to appear on Inspire Lovely shop shelves :) as envelopes and they looked so cute! I love easy and adorable crafts :) i made a little sewn heart around the edge of one card. ( a bit wonky but i love the quirky look ) and i found some heart sequins to add extra charm. is that possible to have too much charm? i think not. hehee add some glittery mini wooden clothespins and viola! pretty sweet valentines ready for our loves. on that note, little r's smile is as sweet as candy. And just this weekend, we got to hear little r laugh for the first time! it was ADORABLE! i can't tell you how much my heart wants to burst with love every time i hear him and see him giggle. i'm in love. completely. xo so a happy sweet and charming valentine's day to you! I hope to open the shop back up soon...still trying to balance work and play :) Thank you for visiting and enjoy some sweets for me! xo -d