Fun and exciting stuff!

I've had a million things going on this week from t-ball games to birthday party prep, so I've been staying busy with all sorts of stuff. In the middle of all the craziness, I thought I would share a few things fun things!

As you might remember, Alivia turned one back on the 12th.  Usually I am a BIG party person.  Everybody who knows me knows that.  I love to go all out and throw big BBQ's and have fun stuff for our family and friends.  That was our original plan for Alivia's birthday considering she is ONE, but you know what?  After thinking about it and realizing that a) we are just too tired to plan a huge party,  b) we can't reason spending all that money (especially right now) and c) feeling bad and then getting over it, we decided we would just keep things super simple and have a very small family-only, cake and ice cream party. We're celebrating this weekend and since we're still doing a party, I can still make some fun things to coordinate with all the cupcake themed things I bought back when I thought we were doing a big party.  I've been working on this banner for Liv and still need to do a few more things to it, but I think it's coming out really well. I love my Cricut!

 The finished banner will say "Alivia is One."

Last month when I was getting my party things ready, I ordered this awesome cupcake stand that I saw on a blog a while back and I think it's going to be so cool!

Up until now, I've been using my Wilton wire stands and I've more recently started to think they're getting a little outdated.  I found this one for a great price on Amazon, used two of my $5 Swagbucks gift cards and paid almost nothing for it.  If you like this stand, you can find it here....Wilton 4-Tier Stacked Cupcake and Dessert Tower.  It's sturdy and is super easy to put together and clean.  I know it's going to be put to really good use!

Another awesome thing I thought I'd share is Paper Coterie.

Has anyone else heard of them?  I first happened to stumble on their name on Facebook a couple of weeks back and have been hearing more about them all over the blogosphere. They are a new company who specializes in preserving memories with things like personalized journals, photo books, growth charts, and much more.  When I initially found them on FB they were offering a special for bloggers for a free product of your choice from their site and all you had to pay was shipping.  I thought that was pretty cool, so I checked out their site and immediately fell in LOVE.  They have so many cute products and I wanted to order several.  Well, due to being on a budget and not being able to order everything I saw, I narrowed my selection down a bit.  And then, I happened on a code on another blog that I could use on their products for 50% off plus free shipping and I decided to order just a couple more things!

I ended up deciding on four things.  I had a question about shipping and emailed them and was super impressed with their help and graciousness.  After placing my orders, I waited patiently to get my packages in and when I did, I fell in love! Everything was such good quality and better than I had anticipated!

Paper Coterie is coming down to the final days of being in Beta mode on their site and will be having a big "Open House" to celebrate! I just saw on their site a couple of days ago, that in celebration, they are offering a coupon code for $40 off!  How cool is that? (Edited to add...this does not include shipping and is good on Wednesday, May 4th only.) Go HERE for the code!

Well, I know this has been a long post so I'll end here for now.  I still haven't forgotten my promise to giveaway a little something for all of the sweet comments from last week.  I used random.org and picked one winner and will be sending these two fun little cupcake things her way...

Congrats to Tiffany @ The Pifer Family!  I'll be in touch with you soon and I hope you like the cupcake stuff!

P.S. Just wanted to mentioned I was not paid to endorse Paper Coterie.  I just really like their products and wanted to share. :)