Just call me a stage mother...

Trying to fill up the next ten minutes with a lot of BLAHBLAHBLAH because I am nervous, y'all. On a whim, I started googling child talent agencies because I want to use my kid as a cashcow. Just kidding. I just want to see how it all works, you know? I think Natalie's pretty cute, especially when I see all of these baby models in catalogs and what not. I always think to myself, "Natalie could do that!" I know... it all sounds obnoxious when you type it out, but it's very innocent.

Here's the thing. I think it's better to have experience in the event you decide you want to do something. For instance, when I was in middle school and high school, I loved the idea of performing on Broadway. I was a musical theatre dork, for lack of better words. I was a loser, but I was passionate in my loserdom. Anyhow, I feel like I would have pursued this world of musical theatre if I had a dance background or musical background from an early age. Since I started dance class (begrudginly) at the age of eight, I didn't have the skills or drive of someone who had started at, oh, age three. I was scared and shy and awkward. I didn't pick up on stuff as quickly as the others. I embarrassed myself, so I quit trying.

I wish my mom had enrolled me in stuff at an earlier age. I would have been more well-rounded when the time came for my interests to blossom. Now, Natalie can shove this experience out the door if something more appealing comes her way as she grows older and develops her own uniqueness, but for now-- I'm going to pull the mom-card and see where this goes. I would never force her into something she hates, but I want her to have fun. And no, I would never be a dance mom or a serious stage mother. I'm really not competitive at all; I am nervous easily, so this really is something fun to try for us... I want Natalie to love the arts as much as I do, but her life is hers to live. Believe me, I've seen too many Lifetime movies where this scenario has gone horribly wrong! :)

Anyhow, I got a callback from a talent agency and am discussing possible representation for Natalie. If this goes as far as a Dollar General circular, I'll be happy. ;) I just think it would be something cool to tell her as she gets older. Anyhow, it's 1:00 and my heart's in my stomach as I'm about to make this call! Wish us luck!!

Organization of brain matter..

Okay, so typing in the words "brain matter" grosses me out. :/

Anywho, Natalie's party is a week from today, and I'm just checking in to get my thoughts organized. Losing an hour of sleep hasn't really helped me, and tomorrow I have to be at work at 7am, which is really 6am, and I'm just not mentally prepared for functioning that early even though I woke up at 4 am yesterday and was able to keep going until 11pm. You following me?

So, I found some pretty cute balloons for Natalie's party and plenty of tablescape inspiration on pinterest. (ah, I love pinterest. it's such a vicious cycle with me. I could go for hours with no food or water if I have a laptop with pinterest pulled up infront of me...)

The tricker is I don't want to drop the cash on a helium tank because I'm pretty sure I only have 12 balloons, not thirty... and you can have balloon overload. So I am going to be that obnoxious girl calling Party City as soon as they open to inquire about balloon blow up rates for balloons purchased outside their store. I hope to goodness gracious they don't have a weird policy. I'd be extremely grateful if they charged me like $5 to blow up 12 balloons because...yeah, that would be kind of them.

I'm probably going to throw things together extremely last minute, but I do like to have some semblance of a plan. I'm excited. Can you tell?

Brandon has given me $100 for the rest of this party, and I gotta make it last. Like I said in one of my previous posts, the invites alone were $30! :/ Never again. Generic invites next year. (probably not--next year is Handy Manny!! Do your kids watch that show? Pencil up my ear material, but the good thing is Natalie will probably be bilingual..)

So, with that being said..
balloons + balloon inflating charge
food
letters for highchair banner $2.99 at Joann's
scrapbook paper

I think I have everything else already taken care of.

I *think* I can make it work. Ya'll ain't never known a cheapskate like this one. I am a Dollar Tree addict.

In other news, I'm going to attempt to make one of these beauties today. I need a wreath form. My front door is nekkid.

Mine will be grey with bright flowers. I know it will not be this pretty. I'm not even going to pretend that something like this can come from my hands... I will probaby realize why these girls on etsy are charging $40 for something like this. I would love this for Natalie's door to her room... sigh. I just can't find felt in these colors and don't want to stand in line to have 1/8 yard of felt wool cut at the fabric store...

And in other other news, I have a date with a pile of yard debris that's cluttering up our backyard. We live in the city and can't acquire a burn permit, so I have to shovel all of it into my dad's truck bed and haul it to my parent's house to burn. I'm not looking forward to it, but I am so excited to have my yard back and looking good so the neighbors can stop talking and pointing. :) Just kidding. I have really nice neighbors.

New facebook site!

If you are in the market for some cute, gently used baby clothes, please visit my consignment site on facebook- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003610958884.

(Natalie's Closet 2x because I'm a loser and don't know how to set up a facebook page when not using a real first and last name..)

I am probably the last mom on the planet to start one of these fun online consignment stores, but I work full time and don't have much access to the computer. After some careful deliberation, I have decided it's in our best interest to get rid of some of Natalie's clothes to make room for more, duh. ;)

Kids grow so quickly-- why pay retail?!

Seriously, I salivate when I hear the words "clearance", "yard sale" or "consignment". It's like music to my cheapwad ears.

Okay, it's 11pm, and I have officially been ignoring my husband for, oh, three hours... so bye bye!

Hi!

So... I'm still working on Natalie's Minnie birthday party, slowly, but surely. I had hopes of it being a big ordeal, but then I got tired and just have run out of time to plan it. I don't want to be the overwhelmed hostess, so I think it's going to be a relatively simple affair.
The above are beauties off of etsy, and they were probably the most expensive part of the party. They were $12 to design, $5 to print out at Walgreens,$10 for stamps, and $3 for envelopes. I had to buy some clearance party invites from Target to find the right size envelopes. $30 for invites wasn't exactly what I was planning to drop, so I'm having to scrimp in other areas. So... basically I just paid the money to get people there so I can serve them crackers! I kid, I kid. Really, it's mostly family and only a couple of friends here and there, so it really was unnecessary, but you only turn one once, and it's mostly for the parents. :) And just so you know, there's more of the invitation than that, but I didn't want all of the crazies out there crashing our party so we've cut the address off.

We're going to have cupcakes, and my mom's making a fondant smash cake for Natalie. I'm making a banner from a cute tutorial I found on pinterest, and I have some other things up my sleeve that will take place the night before the party. I work best under pressure. I have also taken three days off before the party to plan, but we all know that means I'll be sitting around in my pjs playing with Natalie. ;)

OH... and another somewhat unrelated update, I have found the beautiful wonder that is Smocked Auctions. It's a facebook page based out of Texas where smocked dresses are sold for half off retail. There's only a select number of clothes in each size, so you have to pretty much act like a rabid dog to bid and win. I think I won a dress tonight for Natalie, and I'm kind of having buyer's remorse because I don't have $40 to spend on a dress she'll wear once. If you want to see a real life soap opera, tune into Smocked Auctions Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 8:30 CST. Grown women whining about not winning clothes for their babies, drama, drama, drama! You just have to roll with the punches, ladies, and wish for the best! I may or may not have won, but, trust me, I'm in more trouble for winning than for losing! :)

And that's all. Baby's asleep, and I'm about to go cuddle with my kindle!!

Minnie Mouse Birthday Party: In Progress

I'm going to be updating every so often with my progress on Natalie's first birthday party! I'm working on finishing up Natalie's birthday banner this weekend, in between working in my yard and attempting to clean out some of our garage. It just never stops, does it? :)

Please stay tuned!!