A different kind of post...

I was so touched when I read this post about a nursery featured on ohdeedoh last week:

You may have already seen it, but if you have not, here is a little summary:

The day our little miss was born was the most wonderful of our lives – what happiness the three of us shared, together and with our families. We brought Charlotte home from the hospital and introduced her to this beautiful room that would be all her own. Then, when our baby was just eighteen days old, my husband… her Daddy… passed away unexpectedly.

 Now, it’s just the two of us – and while I could not have ever pictured being in this situation, this is where we’re at and we are going to get through this. Yes, there will be tears and struggle – but there will also be love and celebration. We’re about to put our house up for sale and I consider it a gift that Charlotte has been able to spend a couple months in her beautiful room – that her Daddy and I put so much love into – before we leave our home.

My heart broke into a million pieces when I read that.  It is breaking again just thinking about it.  My reason for this post is that Kate is trying to sell her gorgeous home in Atlanta.  She needs help and that is where we come in.  Kate has set up this website:  535 Stillhouse Lane  Please pass it along to anyone you may know in the Atlanta area.  You can visit Kate's blog, more specifically this post, for more details and ways you can help spread the word.  To quote Kate:

You may not think you know people who are in the market, but perhaps there’s a friend of a friend out there who is just perfect for this house.  It takes just one buyer…

Thank you so much for reading this!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend, have a very happy Monday, and have a fabulous week!

[The two nursery photos were taken from here.]

Favorite song?

Can you remember your favorite song from when you were 7 years old?  Take a look at mine:

ahahaha  Oh yes!  My favorite song in the second grade was Part Time Lover, by Stevie Wonder.  I wonder what my teacher thought of that.

I am so glad my parents kept some of my work from when I was a kid, because it is so fun to look back.  BTW, I find it hilarious that my favorite subject was Spelling and I misspelled "favorites."

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

FOSSIL Finds

I have not purchased a thing from FOSSIL in years.  Honestly, I cannot even remember if I have at all, and it's not because I think their stuff is hideous, I just assumed they only had watches.  I was shocked when I got their most recent catalog this week.  These babies are kind of cute and have me ready to start on my spring wardrobe:

All of these pieces and more can be found here.

I hope you have been having a great week!

Primanti Bros. sandwich re-creation...

Primanti Bros. Restaurant

Being from just outside Pittsburgh, my husband has quite a love for this place and more specifically, this sandwich (spicy capicola ham, provolone, fries, vinegar slaw, and tomatoes smooshed together on Italian bread) .  We attempted to re-create it this past Sunday to enjoy while watching the Steelers game.  I must say, we came pretty darn close.  We followed this recipe, but purchased fries in an effort to save time.  It is not at all healthy and is extremely messy to eat, but sure does taste good...assuming you like all of the ingredients.

Our masterpiece:

And my husband eating it:

Because I am such a good wifey (ha ha), I got this print for him many years ago for Valentine's Day, because of his love of that place and it's sandwiches:

Primanti Bros. Giclee print

He has it hanging in his office with all of his other Pittsburgh gear.  :)  See you in the Super Bowl, Steelers!  Wahoo!!

[I apologize for this post if you are not a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers or big fat meat sandwiches.  :) ]

EXPEDIT Explosion.

There has been one in my house.  We have five, yes FIVE, EXPEDIT shelving units from IKEA in our house and I kind of want one more.  They are just so perfect and you really can't beat the price.

EXPEDIT #1 in the play room

EXPEDIT #2  also in the play room

EXPEDIT #3 in my workspace

EXPEDIT #4 in my son's room

EXPEDIT #5 in the family room

We have had so much fun with the box from the one most recently purchased:

1.  a ramp for cars

2.  hide and seek with a bunny

3.  the perfect spot for playing with a big bowl of fake oranges

4.  great for bowling with a fake orange and puzzle pieces

5.  baby yoga

6.  dance floor

7.  the aftermath

I hope you are having a great week!!

My dad would hate these mugs.

My dad is a pretty traditional guy when it comes to his coffee mugs.  He wants a plain mug with a "normal" handle, nothing fancy.  Every single time I see a mug with an out of the ordinary handle, I think of my dad and crack up.  Here are a few I find to be interesting, but am quite sure he would hate:

I saw these ceramic travel mugs on 6th Street Design School last week and fell in love with them.

I think this face mug is pretty fantastic.  My dad  probably would not like it because of the tiny handle, but the fact that it can hold cookies (or anything else) may change his mind.  You can click here (this week only) to enter a caption contest to win these mugs or a gift card to uncommongoods.

These awesome letter mugs have a variety of handles...handles my dad would definitely hate.

This mug with a big fat handle that holds a spoon, I would find to be quite useful.  I am almost positive my dad would find it annoying.

I find these mugs to be a little disturbing, but quite wonderful at the same time.    Pretty sure, my dad would hate these too.

I am 100% sure my dad would hate this mug the most because of the wing handle.  I think it is  pretty cool.

Love you, Daddy!  I may send you one of each of these for Father's Day this year, just to make you laugh...or maybe not.  :)

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a great weekend and have an even better week!

From the bottom of my...

woodland felted heart pebbles

...bowl of hearts heart,  thank you!  I have the hardest time expressing myself sometimes and often feel like I don't thank people enough or tell them I love them enough.  I often don't call or email enough, but it doesn't mean that I love my family and friends any less.  The same goes for my blog friends!  I need to thank you for taking a little time out of your day to stop by cupcake monkey!...even if it is just to look at the pictures, like my husband does, or even if it is only because I have left a comment on your blog.  Thank you for your thoughtful comments, your support, your sweet emails, and your friendship!  They truly mean so much to me and I feel like I don't say that enough!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Blog Crawl: "It's in the bag."

I am pretty sure when Ashley of A Hasty Life asked me to participate in her blog crawl, "It's in the bag," where bloggers post a peek inside theirs, she wasn't anticipating my bag to be a diaper bag.  Sorry to disappoint, folks, but that is the truth...and I am okay with it!  :)  My son is now 19 months (OMG) old, so I could likely ditch the bag, but in a weird way, I am attached to it.  Having such a big bag allows me to drag along as much crap as I want and when questioned for having such a large one, I can just blame my son.  I found this Sisley bag while hugely pregnant and fell in love with it.  It is technically not a diaper bag, so that makes it a little more acceptable that I am still carrying it, right?

Here it is:

..and here I am, carrying it (and a beer):

Words cannot describe how much I love this bag! Check out how much stuff I carry with me almost every single day:

1.  Books!  Connor loves books, so everyday before leaving the house, I grab two books for the car ride.

2.  My pouchee (a gift from my parents).  I love this thing.  It holds my license, debit card, credit card, my phone, cash, pen/pad of paper, and whatever else you would put in a wallet/small purse.

3.  The polka-dotted bag has diapers/wipes and the striped one has a change of clothes for Connor.  I learned the hard way that I still need to carry the change of clothes.  :)

4.  keys

5.  I'd be lying if I said there weren't random hair things and gum wrappers at the bottom of my bag.

6.  I almost always have a magazine in my bag to look at when my husband is driving.  I feel like I never have time to read my magazines, so car rides are always the perfect time to catch up.

7.  gum

8.  My cheap sunglasses from Target.

9.  My make-up bag.  I never leave home without it.

10.  Fridge pack.  This almost always has a sippy cup of rice milk and snacks.  Since my son has multiple food allergies, traveling with his own food and drink is a must.

11.  Drugstore in a bag.  :)  ..tissues, Clorox wipes, antibacterial hand/face wipes, first-aid kit, disposable adhesive place-mats, Benadryl, and Connor's EpiPen.

I know it seems like a lot of stuff to drag around, but I am almost always prepared for anything that may come my way.  :)

Thanks to Amanda from Itchin' Stitchin' for handing things over to me for the day.  Be sure to head over to Bows & Sparrows tomorrow to check out what's in Erin's bag.  Thanks, Ashley, for organizing this whole thing and asking me to participate!  It has been fun!!

I forgot how much I love molasses.

Not only does molasses taste good, in my opinion, but it is good for us!  For the past few weeks, I have not been able to get enough of it and have been having it every morning on toast with SunButter:

I don't feel as guilty about indulging in sweets, when I know they are benefiting my health...even just a little.  :)  Here are of a few treats on my list of things to make in the upcoming weeks:

1.  Molasses Granola

2.  Chocolate Kissed Gingerbread Cookies

3.  Gingerbread Popcorn

4.  Cranberry Gingerbread Scones

5.  Apple Pandowdy

Yummy!  That should be enough.

Featured on ohdeedoh!

Connor's play room was featured on ohdeedoh yesterday!  It made my day!!  Eeeek!

Found photos...

One of my goals this year is to go through the thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) of pictures on my laptop and delete the unnecessary, print the fantastic, and maybe save some too...definitely save all of the greats online and on a flash drive.  I was trying to find a particular photo and realized just how many I really had and just how long this was going to take me.  Feeling a little overwhelmed,   I decided to check in with my favorite blogs and came across this post on Honey We're Home.  I took it as a sign and decided to get started.

I'd love albums similar to these, filled with photos and organized on bookshelves.

The first group of photos I found were the before and afters of my son's nursery.  The previous owners sure did put in their time creating their son's nursery, but it was just a tad too busy for me:

I wanted the walls to be a bit more neutral because I planned to add pops of color with all of the accessories. I ended up using Behr's "country club" and "popped corn" and was pleased with the results.  The walls almost look purple in these photos, but I always say the color resembles chocolate milk:

And I showed this way back when, but here is the finished product again:

Pretty soon, it will be time for a big boy room.  Ahh!!!  Photos of the nursery will definitely be printed because I don't ever want to forget his first room.  Oh my goodness!!...what great memories.

Candy Memories!

pop rocks necklace by urban legend

I have had this necklace bookmarked for a little while and I keep coming back to it.  Just looking at it makes me happy and memories of DUM-DUMS and GOBSTOPPERS come flooding back.  It's the little things...

I hope you had a great weekend!!  Happy Monday!!

Oh my buttons...

My love of buttons has been taken to a whole new level!!  Oh my goodness.  I really have no words for this gorgeousness, so pictures will do!!  This "cute as a button" dessert table and vignette I spotted on Somewhere Splendid was a collaboration between Sugar and Spice Specialty Desserts and Botanica Floral Designs, photographed by Tinywater Photography.  Take a look:

For more fabulous photos of this "cute as a button party", click here! I hope your weekend is as sweet as these photos!! :)