pallet flower pot

 i love pallets and found on kelly moores blog a planter made with a pallets and wanted to make one with the kids :)

first home depot to get pots, hose ties to fit the size of pots, plants 

fit the hose tie to the pot and screw the hose tie to the pallet through the part with the little slits it makes it easier cause there is already wholes. 

 

while i was screwing the hose ties to the pallet isabella put all the soil in the pots and plated them for me.

then put the pots in and done. so easy and a fun way to add some fun to your yard :)

im linked up too
http://micheleravendesigns.blogspot.com
http://fishtailcottage.blogspot.com 

meet our little garden

I have wanted a garden for years but never really knew where to start. Well my mom has a green thumb and knows much about this stuff.  

so after my mom and kids and a little of me weeded the area. (i wish we had a before of all the tall weeds!) We went to home depot and bought beds that you could put together your self there so super easy even our 4 year old could help! 

 after we put then together i had some left over straw (from fall) and thought it would look cleaner putting it around the beds.

then we put a layer of newspaper down and then put the soil with manure in it down with lots of help from the kids :)

lol

  look at my moms muscles :)

after the soil was laid down we put the wood chips/mulch down 

so far we have planted snap peas, onion, bunches of peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon, beans, bunches of herbs. the only seeds we planted were the snap peas, onion, beans, watermellon and cilantro. other wise the rest are plants.  i have still have some more room and want to plant other stuff too. i love gardening :) and with this way of layering i only watered the seeds once and i have not had to water once since then. it been weeks (watch back to eden film for more info on that its amazing!) we also when planting put a little mushroom mulch mixed in :). not to much cause it can burn your plants 

(see to the right our compost been)

thank you so much mom for all your help!

im linked up to
http://fishtailcottage.blogspot.com/ 

chalk paint kitchen island rescue

So awhile ago my good friend myriah found this island in there back ally way it was in rough shape and ready for the trash man to pick it up :) well she knew i was looking for one to redo and so i picked it up :) it sat in our garage for a while till i could start on it :) 

 

  

*i sanded the top down a lot!

 

 

 half sanded

*i then wiped off the dirt :) it was gross!!

 *then painted it with the amazing annie sloan chalk paint i put a couple coats on :) didnt want to sand the chipping paint down cause i wanted it to add to the texture lol well and im lazy ha 

*i then put the same steal wool vinegar treatment i did here on top about 3 coats worth.

* then went to town on it with heavy grit sand paper and some using the electric sander :) 

*then i waxed the top to seal it although i think i need to go get pure mineral oil instead and redo to it so we can use it as a actual cutting board :)

it is still bowed a little but i love it anyways :) i also need to get new handles but i just couldn't wait to show it :)

me and my amazing mom carried this heavy thing in side up some stairs and have bruises to show for it :)

linked up to 

http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/

http://typeadecorating.blogspot.com/

http://shadesofamberinc.blogspot.com
http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com
http://www.primpjunktion.com/

Isabella is 4! look at her party!

I cant believe it is that time again. Our baby girl is 4 today! it feels like just a short time ago i held her for the first time and felt such peace joy and love. Man how time flies. She is such a sweet, fun little girl full of spunk and life. We celebrated her birthday yesterday with a party and i had the funniest time decorating for it for her! I started a few days before hand prepping things and set up all i could the day before. 

I had decided to make her a barbie cake this year and make it to where i could actually eat it too! 

hehe so i went on the search for a gluten free, refined sugar free and nut free cake (my cousin cant have nuts hehe). 

One of my favorite blogs for recipes is real sustenance Brittany Angells is brilliant in the kitchen! So i used the recipe for birthday cake on her site. I highly suggest getting the king arthur gluten free cake enhancer I did not use it cause i didn't have time to order it. 

So my cake was a little dense. The taste was great it just fell after baking. but hey oh well you live and you learn right :)  I used xylitol instead of sugar but im sure you could play around with different kinds if you would like. I then used the icing recipe it gives but used that as the crumb coat and inbetween the layers of cake. I wanted to use the mashmellow frosting recipe out of the almond flour cookbook to give it that fluffy look. Then used about a teaspoon of beat juice to dye the frosting pink :) 

So all in all i think it looked great  :) and it was a yummy dense cake ;) (next time i will use the cake enhancer) But isabella loved it and that makes a mommy happy!

So here is the beautiful party and the even more beautiful little 4 year old

 Isabella Mireya Gabriella Valenzuela 

the party favors wrap in fabric (so they would match the theme) ;) 

(the photo's here taken of isabella in the frame our by my dear friend heather armstrong photography) 

my mom brought her the adorable outfit to wear she says it twirls very good! :) 

haha gotta love the placement of the candles right? ;) 

 i love that you can see the glitter blowing of in this one 

she scored in the present department and her little cousin made her a bracelet that says best best buddies on it, they have matching ones :) so so cute. and her little friend hannah look at those dimples :) super. cute.  

 Isabella (and peanut) saying bye to people as they leave. :) 

so after they craziness of the party day i sat down to blog this and realized i never got a picture of most of the kids at this party let alone with her bothers. So YAY thay everything was still set up so i had them all pose with her.

  This picture makes me laugh, not only is diego being silly but cruz insisted on having isabella's pink shoes on lol

Thanks to my wonderful friend kezia and (snickers hehe) the kitchen got cleaned up so good and i barley had to do a thing!

linked up too
http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com
http://typeadecorating.blogspot.com
http://www.atthepicketfence.com/
http://chiconashoestringdecorating.blogspot.com/
http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/