easter egg garland {tutorial}

we visited some friends we hadn't seen in almost a year and a half this week and her house was decorated adorably for spring. i felt super sad that my house had, um, no decorations. sad news.

so i decided to make a easter egg garland. and i love it. it was super easy and i thought i'd show you all how to make it too!

**this was my second version of the garland. last night i tried to just loop the string thru my eggs and no matter how i did it, the eggs still moved on the garland. however. i did figure out a cute and functional way to keep them in place.**

What you'll need:

1. bag of plastic eggs (got mine at target, loved their colors this year)

2. stretchy beading cord (i cut mine 11 feet.)

3. crimp beads

4. small/med. beads

(i used some of my smaller crystal beads from when i used to make jewelry. i liked these because their shape allowed them to fit on the small hole of the eggs w/o going in them. i think that there are a lot of other kinds of beads you could use tho.)

5. flat nosed pliers.

step one:

thread one crimp bead onto your cording. using your pliers pinch the bead and squeeze. this should flatten your crimp bead.

add your crystal on next, these two together will keep your egg in place.

step two:

add your egg. it's best if you do one half and then the other so you can see the holes.

step three:

once you close your egg add another crystal and crimp bead.

i held my cording up in the air so that the egg would be all the way against the first side before i crimped the second bead. this would prevent the egg from moving at all on the cording.

step four:

repeat steps one thru three as many times as needed. as far as spacing the eggs, i used a really scientific method called "four finger spaces." aka, i used my four fingers to guess and would crimp the next bead down there.

step five:

hang and display your beautiful garland. i don't have a mantel, so i put it on my chandelier instead!

now, if you're anything like me, you've been so involved in making your adorable egg garland that you've failed to notice that your child to all the other unused eggs and displayed them in his own special way on the floor.

love that boy. even if he is mischievous. hope you enjoyed the tutorial and i'd love to see what you make with it!

really?

so i went to the best place in the world yesterday. target.

let's just be honest if i had no money (maybe only enough for a starbucks) and an hour of free time, that's where i'd be. that'd probably be better because i wouldn't spend anything, to my husbands delight.

anywho. my story.

my hubby and i are taking a vacation in 6 weeks to jamaica. no we aren't rich. i won the trip on wheel of fortune. yes, i was on wheel of fortune last year. it's a long story. but the important part was we (my dad & i, family week) won the prize puzzle and each got our own 7 day trip to jamaica.

i want to look cute when we go. not 20 weeks preggers and feeling plump. the hubbs said i could have some extra fun money and get cute clothes for this summer and our trip. (i'll be way preggers in the summer, due september 25)

the first thing i thought of was a swim suit. i hate shopping for swim suits. actually i don't know many people who enjoy shopping for swim suits. it's subconscious-self-image torture.

here's my problem. have you seen the maternity suits out there? maybe not, probably not because you may or may not be pregnant.

well, please allow me to show them to you...

this one's not that bad. except for the fact that it looks like part of my suit is missing and you are getting a peep show at my bra.

what were those pictures where you had to look super close to see the hidden image...

yeah, this is one of those i'm sure of it.

nothing like ugly tie-die to make you feel ubber sexy. only good thing about this is when i spill on myself it'll look like it's part of the design.

my personal favorite. when i look like a beached whale, i'm pretty sure no amount of camo is going to hide me. really?

i'm sure there are better suits out there, but i'm not a rich lady so i'm praying they're going to be on-sale.

in general i think the designers who make maternity clothes seem to think that pregnant women lose all sense of style, design and structure when they get pregnant. i don't mind a few flowy tops, but all of them? again. really?

i want to feel like i look good sporting my baby bump. problem is that the super cute clothes are at places like the gap and specialty stores, and mama can't afford those. just going to have to save my pennies and keep looking.

hope you got a good laugh out of the ridiculous suits. i know i did. have a great day!

breathing

we needed family time a few weeks ago and this is where we ended up.

not too shabby a view if you ask me.

the hubbs has been working ALOT lately and it's taken it's toll on our little family. especially the little guy. i get used to daddy being gone (not in a good way, but i just get used to it.), but the little mischief maker asks for daddy all day and thinks that every car is daddy, and every knock on the door is daddy. it breaks my heart to tell him, no love, daddy's at work. that's why we needed family day.

there is something special about the beach for me. we were actually going to go to the zoo, and at the last min the hubbs suggested we go to the tide pools.

i don't know why it means so much to me. i can't tell you exactly how but something wonderful happens in my soul when we are there.

i feel like i can breath. deep soul cleansing rejuvenating breaths.

we've always loved going to the beach together. which may explain why we got engagged at the beach, married at the beach and honeymooned in kauai.

seeing these two together makes my heart feel so big. how did i get so blessed? how did God choose me to be with them? the big one makes me feel so loved and complete, and the little one stole what was left of my heart and gobbled it up.

i think he might love it a little. only a little bit though.

love this one. he has no fear and an absolute love for getting wet!

the poor hubby had to grab him so many times so he wouldn't get swept away with the tide.

yes. he's knocking on the rocks. i've started to learn there are a lot of things boys do that don't make any sense at all.

now we are teaching our little man to love the beach. and seeing things through his eyes are the best way to see things. i learn so much from him and for us to share one of our favorite things with him is so much fun.

every time we go it's like seeing it for the first time. feeling the sand in our toes for the first time. the excitement of anticipating that cold rush of water when the waves his our legs. exploring, learning, growing... and that's just my experiences.

found this cool old banged up boat to take a few pics next too.

it was cool for about two seconds. that's the attention span of an almost two year old.

proof that i was there!

the whole day was wonderful. i felt refreshed and had so much fun. i hope we can go again soon.

if you noticed my pictures looked better that was because not only does my husband love me, but he spoils me. he spent some of our tax return on a new canon camera for me!!!

love that man.

now, if you'll excuse me i need to go nibble those cheeks.

preggs

i have 18 friends that are pregnant right now. that is a lot. a crazy lot.

and, now, i am one of them. :)

yep. you read that right. i am preggs. again.

hence the lack of blogging at all lately. i've had a major case of first trimester fatigue.

and pregnancy brain. i've forgotten just about everything once you tell it to me. and forget committing to something. i could tattoo my calendar to the insides of my eyelids and it wouldn't help me. holy moly. it's so annoying. :)

okay. that's the last of the complaining. promise. instead i'll share some lovely pregnant moments from this last few months:

just about anything makes me cry these days. the first few weeks after finding out i wasn't feeling well and the only thing that sounded good was the yumminess of a chick-fil-a sandwich.

those things are so good they literally brought me to tears.

yes. i just said i cried over a chicken sandwich. sooo pregnant.

i didn't expect to have bladder control problems until after delivery, but apparently i was wrong. if you've ever had a baby you know that the twisted nurses make you drink an obscene amount of water prior to having an ultrasound in the beginning. if it weren't so important to see that little bean wiggling in there i would have shouted profanities at my ultrasound tech for making me pee my pants.

yes. i just said pee my pants. i did. in the ob gyn's bathroom.

i tried to convince myself i could just pee a little. i figured i could, and when i walked in the bathroom i got so excited to go that's when i peed my pants. i was literally telling myself out loud to stop peeing when someone walked into the bathroom. so awkward. {i did stop. in case you were wondering. not easy to do, but it was worth it!}

all my husband has to do is imitate the sound of throwing up and i'm bending over the bushes. oh, and he does. he thinks it's funny.

anywho. that's pretty much what i've been up to. it's already been a lot of crazy surprises with this one. i can't wait to get a decent ultrasound pic to show you guys.

have a great week. coming soon... my new etsy page and all it's yummy items!