Meet my husband.

His name is David. But it is pronounced Daveed. I write it phonetically on the blog so that you all know his name isn’t david :)

He is my high school sweetheart. He’s an incredible dad. He’s also an amazing songwriter and musician. Next week, his first full-length album will be released.

It’s awesome. This has been one of his dreams for years and it is so rad to see him accomplish it.

It will be released next Tuesday, the 27th, but you can hear a sneak peak right now at davidtoneymusic.com

This Sunday, we will be having an album release concert/worship night at our church in San Diego. If you are local, please come :)  It is free and childcare will be provided. I’ll be playing in the band :)

Here are the deets:

Sunday, March 25th

6:00 pm

Green Valley Church

11501 Rancho Bernardo Road

San Diego California 92127

Let me know if you are coming! Hooray!

**All of the great pictures above were taken by our friends The Youngrens. They are awesome.

I’m linking up with Jeannett for InstaFriday!

It’s been a really exciting week in our house. My husband (a musician/worship pastor) is about to release his first full-length album- more details to come. It releases on March 27th :)

His CD’s came in this week:

It was pretty incredible to be able to hold my husband’s dream in my hand. He has worked so hard on it and everything has turned out amazing! We took some time to celebrate on Monday. Here he is taking it all in:

It has been a beautiful week here in San Diego as well, so we have been spending a lot of time outside. Wagon rides around the neighborhood:

(Yes my son is wearing his halloween costume. He puts it on about 4 times a week!)

Husband gardening away (hooray!):

Snippets of spring in the garden:

Backyard golf lessons and bike riding:

Cozy coupe rides:

Down the big hill in our backyard:

We got to go see one of our favorite bands, Gungor, play at the House of Blues. Absolutely incredible. I highly recommend their music :)

Without realizing it, I dressed us all in navy stripes the other day. Ha!

We had band practice for the album release concert, which I am so excited about. I think Ryan could use a few more keys. (That is a keyboard, rhodes, organ, synth, laptop and toy piano. He plays them all at some point!)

Isaiah had crazy hat day at school. He was not so crazy about me taking pictures…

A couple of cute custom flags ordered from my shop:

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Our beautiful weather is going to turn stormy, but I’m up for one more bit of winter :)

I am excited to start a little series on the blog. Every wednesday, I am going to share a product that I absolutely love. Either for my kids, for our home or for weddings, it will be an item that is awesome.

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Since the time just changed last week, I thought I would start with an item that is magic. It magically has made it so that my son does not get out of bed until 7:00. This is huge! You see, he was starting to wake up whenever he wanted: 6:15, 5:30. We are not morning people…

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Enter the Good Nite Lite. During the night, it glows like a moon. You program it to the time you want wake up to be and then it changes to a sun at that time. Magic I tell you.

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And it works. It took my son a couple of days to adjust to, but he knows that he is not allowed out of his room until “mr sun” comes on. We started using it when my son was just 3 and he totally understood the concept. Now that he is older, a clock could do the same thing, but we are fond of “mr moon” & “mr sun”. The time change was no problem at all for him- thanks to the glowing sun on the wall telling him when it was okay to get up. Our 1 year old, on the other hand- that is a completely different story…

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You can buy it on amazon. I cannot recommend it enough.

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**this post is not sponsored by Good Nite Lite. Just my honest recommendation**

Friday again- I didn’t forget this time :)

I got to help plan and design a shower for a sweet friend who is having a baby boy later this  month. We did a modern music theme, which was so fun! I turned these sweet thrift store records:

into these:

More decor and treats from the shower:

I came home from the shower to a 1-year old with a 103.5 degree fever :(  Turns out, he has roseola. We are now in the rash stage. He’s been a trooper through it all:

And he really really loves his daddy. It’s one of my favorite things in the world to see him light up and scurry across the floor when Daveed walks through the door.

Isaiah has a wooden sushi play set. It’s pretty awesome. He especially loved that he gets to cut things with a huge fake knife while playing sushi chef. He also enjoys reenacting the wasabi ice cream scene from Cars 2.

Due to the above mentioned roseola, we have been stuck at home all week. Add in a broken car and we literally have gone nowhere. This kept us from being involved in Jeannett’s insta-food drive. We definitely will take part next week though- such a great idea to use social media for good!

Have a great weekend everyone! We’ve got some gardening, concert-going and family timing ahead of us.

A while back, I shared some of the recipes I had found on pinterest that were winners. I am back with some more pinterest  finds that were a hit in our house.

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For Hudson’s birthday, I used this recipe for a light and fluffy vanilla cake & vanilla frosting. It was delicious!

source: sweetapolita.com via courtneytoney on pinterest

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Crockpot balsamic & onion pot roast. Super easy & really tasty. I especially loved the onions. I threw in some fingerling potatoes that were left over from the night before (added to the crockpot during the last hour).

source: kaylnskitchen.com via courtneytoney on pinterest

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The famed Baked brownie. I usually make boxed brownies. Yes- these were more work. Was it worth it? 100%. I usually don’t love brownies unless they are fresh out of the oven. These were even better the next day.

source: browneyedbaker.com via courtneytoney on pinterest

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I’ve made two brussels sprouts recipes found on pinterest recently. The first was The Pioneer Woman’s brussels sprouts with balsamic & cranberries. Delicious.

source: thepioneerwoman.com via courtneytoney on pinterest

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The second was a recipe from Chenin Boutwell for honey-roasted brussels sprouts. Easier than the balsamic sprouts and super tasty as well.

source: fudgebananaswirl.com via courtneytoney on pinterest

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Cheddar beer chicken tacos. Made in the crock pot- another easy & tasty recipe. I had pretty much everything on hand, which was awesome.

source: howsweetitis.com via courtneytoney on pinterest

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Smitten Kitchen’s buttermilk roast chicken. Some of the best chicken I’ve ever made. You’ve got to plan ahead because letting it marinade is key to the tenderness & flavor. It was SO good!

source: smittenkitchen.com via courtneytoney on pinterest

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Spinach Artichoke Pasta. So good. I used orecchiette pasta because trader joe’s did not have any shell pasta and it turned out great.

source: heatovento350 via courtneytoney on pinterest

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Goat cheese and rosemary mac and cheese with chicken. We are really loving all things goat cheese right now. This recipe included. My sauce was a little runny, so I’ll play around with the recipe a bit next time. Definitely not the most low-fat dish, but oh so good.

source: mybakingaddiction.com via courtneytoney on pinterest

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I don’t make many casserole style meals because my husband is not a fan of most. I did try this recipe for a cheesy chicken and rice bake with corn and black beans though and he didn’t mind it :) A good kid-friendly, quick mid-week meal.

source: tastykitchen.com via courtneytoney on pinterest

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Last but not least, I made these peanut butter & chocolate bars for my bible study and they were really good. Really heavy, but good. Like a big, smooshed reeses.

source: onemoremoore via courtneytoney on pinterest

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Now I’m hungry.

I don’t get to see photos of my handcrafted items purchased by brides very often. Every once in a while, a past customer will send me photos of their purchases in use on their wedding day and I love it!

I also love it when I happen upon my designs used in a wedding when I see them featured on a blog. That happened today, when I saw that Mark & Laura’s nautical Carlsbad wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty! Laura had me make three custom banners, all reflecting their clean, modern beach wedding design. She wanted simple navy squares with white writing.

Here is their thank you banner:

A “sweet love” banner for the cake table:

I also made the longest banner I’ve ever created to date. It said, “if you want to know how great my love is, count the waves”. Isn’t that a perfect quote for a beach wedding? I love it! I could not find any photos of the banner in action, but you can see the same quote on their cocktail napkins.

My friend Lori from Paper & Thread created their beautiful invitations and day of paper goods. She is amazing!

It was also fun to see my thank you banner shown again on the thank you notes that Lori created:

You can see their entire wedding over at Style Me Pretty, with photos by Greg Thompson Photography. Here a couple more of my favorites, including some of the cutest bridesmaid dresses I’ve ever seen!

I totally missed instafriday- friday flew by as I was prepping for Hudson’s first birthday party on saturday. So here we go: linking up with Jeannett’s instafriday on monday :)

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Really exciting moment for me: my work was featured in Martha Stewart Weddings!! This is a goal I have had ever since I started in the wedding industry back in 2003. The flag and banner I made for Leila’s wedding both got featured. So fun! You can see it on newsstands everywhere and, as soon as we are able to, I will share more photos from the wedding :) You can also see more photos on the martha stewart website.

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Hudson’s first drawing:

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I came home from bible study to find my husband and one of our best friends from college playing video games. Which they had been doing all night. Flashback to the college years. There may or may not have been a couple of days when they skipped all of their classes so that they could beat a game in one day. (boys…)

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Speaking of boys, I love my three guys:

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One of my project’s for hudson’s party. Fabric mache balloons. They hung in my front window all week- which was kind of fun and kind of ghetto all at the same time. Tutorial and photos coming soon!

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I got to sneak away for some me time last week. SO needed! Bible, soup and brownie at Panera and then some kid-free errands. Thanks husband!

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My sweet boy eating his first cake! He was pretty cautious about it- he’s not the biggest fan of making a mess with food. He had a couple little bites and happy sat there looking at everyone as they stared at him :)

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His party turned out super cute and was really mellow & fun. I can’t wait to show you all of the photos! I totally forgot to take pictures during the party on my phone though, so this is the only one you’ll get! :)

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It was summer in March yesterday. 92 degrees when we left church. Crazy! But beautiful:

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Happy Monday everyone!

This is definitely a first.

I am in an infomercial.

Yep.

The good people at ProvoCraft asked if I would be willing to do a short demo and wedding table set up for an infomercial for the new cricut mini. After saying, “Are you serious?”, I jumped on board right away.

It was such a fun and interesting experience. The film crew was amazing- I can definitely get used to being called “the talent” and having a hair & makeup stylist and a wardrobe stylist making sure I look up to par.

Keep an eye out for the infomercial- I don’t have exact times and channels that it will air, but it is all over the place. If you are flipping channels and see the cricut on TV, chances are that is it :) My segment is about 6 1/2  minutes in.

You can also see the whole 28 minute spot on YouTube here.

Here is a look at the DIY project I (very quickly) demonstrated.

That lace backdrop is made out of 7 1/2″ paper squares, cut on the cricut mini and joined together with wire loops. It would look super cute as a photo booth backdrop or behind a cake or dessert display. As I say in the infomercial, “there really are endless possibilities”. Ha! :)

I also designed details for two different wedding reception tables using the cricut. Table numbers, chairbacks, escort cards, menus, vase wraps, etc.

I also made some fun details for a trio of cakes: wraps for the tiers of the main cake (yes- they are paper!), a monogram topper, mini bunting for another cake and I cut a stencil and then stenciled on the monogram in edible glitter on the third cake.

Add in some labels, a flag and banner and you have a wedding infomercial set! Disclaimer for my designer/planner friends: I cannot take credit for the napkins in glasses, overlays or chair sashes :)

My husband laughed for a good 5 minutes at, what he called, my “infomercial voice”. It is pretty funny.

Thanks to ProvoCraft and Raymond Entertainment for having me be a part of it. It was an honor!

Well… this week has been a big one. Linking up again with Jeannett for InstaFriday- photos from my week, captured through my phone.

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The biggest event of my week was Hudson turning 1. I still cannot believe that he is a year. Denial is okay, right?

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On his birthday, we went down to Oceanside and had lunch at Ruby’s on the pier. Then we attempted a mini photo shoot (failed…), played on the playground and with the sand. Sweet family time.

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Hudson’s birthday party is next weekend and I am so excited about the details! I’ve been crafting a bit and will be hitting the prep hard this weekend :)

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My husband was out of town over the weekend, leading worship at a high school winter camp. On Valentine’s Day, he bought me unopened tulips so that they would open and bloom while he was gone. The man knows me well :)  They made me smile at his thoughtfulness the whole time he was gone.

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This has happened more than once. I find him napping in his laundry basket. Usually, he is curled up in a ball inside, but this time, he decided that the laundry basket would be his sleeping bag. As long as he sleeps, right?

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I saw this at Target the other day. Just what every little girl has been waiting for: fashionista Ken?? There are so many things I could say about this…

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We got to sneak away to Disneyland yesterday and had such a great time with our little family.

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Spiderman kiss:

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It was almost 80 degrees, sunny and beautiful. Isaiah went on his first big kid roller coaster (Thunder Mountain) and loved it! While the big boys were off on rides, Hudson napped and I rested my feet while people watching.

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Happy weekend everyone!!

Dear Hudson,

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One year ago today,  I held you in  my arms for the first time. You had my heart instantly. Your sweet eyes, chubby cheeks and little fingers brought me so much joy from that very first moment.

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The first months were hard. Your reflux made you sad and uncomfortable. We did all we could to make you happy and feeling well. Even through the fussy times, your smile could light up a room. Your adorable laugh would make us smile from ear to ear.

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Around 6 months, your body started handling things better and you became a mellow happy little guy. Curious and sweet, you are a little cuddlebug. You love snuggling with us, but also love exploring the world around you on your own. You love your big brother- and his toys. Seeing your friendship start is so good for this mama’s heart.

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Your favorite things to do right now are to play with your little kitchen, roll around on the ground, get into the tupperware, pretend to cook things with pots and pans and get into anything and everything in Isaiah’s room. You love music- seeing you sway, bounce and shake your head to the beat is one of my favorite things. You love to eat pretty much anything. I’m pretty sure you are going to pass up your brother in height and weight before age three :) You say three words: mama, dada, and uh-oh (that one is your favorite!). You’re not walking yet, but you cruise around the house holding onto things.

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Sweet little guy, your dad, brother and I love you so much. You have been such a gift to us this year and we cannot wait to see you continue to grow up! (but not too fast- this year went by way too quickly!)

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**Warning: lots of pictures below! Mainly to appease the family :)

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all photos above by the amazing Drew B

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Happy birthday little buddy. I love you!