Party Central! WoopWoop!

Hello Friends!

Thanks for all the sweet comments and emails from yesterdays post :) I am so happy to be back!!

Now I am in the process of catching up on everyone else's blogs too!!

Before we get to the recent parties I have announcements:

Today is a BIG day for two reasons ...

#1 We have a tasting for our wedding food this afternoon! 
I have been starving myself all day and am SO ready to go eat some yummy food :) Will update how that went tomorrow! I am little nervous about it, picking food for several people to like is kind of a lot of pressure?!?!

#2 Tonight is the season finale of PRETTY LITTLE LIARS .. who will betrAy them?

Who is your pick?
The last episode showed two black hoodie people .. hmmm... ??

I really am feeling like its Paige, I've never liked her ... but my friend Cory thinks differently ... see below, he is a PLL expert to by the way ha!

So if not Paige... who could it be?? We shall see tonight!!!!

Ok next order of business ... PARTY TIME!

I have pics from a few of the parties I have been able to partake in these last few months.

Let's start with a "Construction Party" for Chris's nephew Jack :)

How cute is he? His hair is adorable and cracks me up! This cake she MADE and it looked awesome!!

(PS. Yes she has painted her laundry door with chalkboard paint!)

She had the table decorated with black cloths and then yellow duct tape for the "road" effect ... the silverwear were the "tool" and then she did orange plates and yellow napkins!
With little construction toys sitting around also :) It was so cute!

He was most excited about that cake I think lol

And it's safe to say our present was a hit ... I got a text from her a few days later with a pictures of a million balls all over her house that said "Thanks for the bday present!" hahaha. At least Jack loved it though ;) That's what Aunt's and Uncles are for right? The fun toys your parents won't buy!

Next up ... "Thomas the Train" Birthday party for my Godson, Connor

I did get a few ideas from Pinterest ... and wouldn't you know it that at the party I barely took any pictures the whole time! :(

I did make some train theme things ... like these wooden signs ... SO easy, got the really thin pieces of wood from Hobby Lobby for like .99cents each! Then painted them white ...

Then painted black stencil letters on the signs, hot glued them together and then used red and black cardstock paper to make the lights for underneath!

Ta-Da!! 
How cute did these look hanging up at the shelter the party was at?

She did a cupcake cake and it turned out so cute, he loved it! And the cupcakes were amazing!!

How cute is that sweet boy? Love him to pieces, he had such a good party! Can't believe he is 3 years old! And he will have a baby brother in about 3 weeks ... ahh!! ... which leads me to my next party ...

Chrissy's Baby "Sprinkle"
This past weekend I had a "Sprinkle" for Chrissy at our house ... now before you ask ... let me give you my definitions:
Baby Shower: A party thrown for someone when they are about to have their FIRST child where you go crazy and celebrate with a million friends and family!
Baby Sprinkle: A party thrown for someone when they are about to have their SECOND child where you invite close friends and family, don't register, just kind of get some necessities, and celebrate :)

I had so many people ask me what the H a sprinkle was hahaha it was hysterical!
While setting up the night before I had all the decor out and Ella and Ava (the party planning assistants!) were helping put everything together, Ella said "Umm I don't think this is a sprinkle, this is more like a hurricane!" LOL I died laughing.

Chris got so sick of me saying the word "sprinkle" that about three weeks ago he banned me from saying it around him hahaha
And then Chrissy's dad had to throw in a few jokes as well ... calling and telling her next week he was having her a "drip" and the week after that they might have a "mist" lol ... nice one Steve. ;)

Anywho ... the important thing is, it turned out awesome! :)

I printed this cute free printable and put on the polka dot paper and framed it :)
(Email me if you want the free printable I can't find the link anymore but I have it saved, it only came in red though :(

I'll just be honest, the cups were my favorite thing about the entire Sprinkle!

I ordered the pdf for the stickers for the cups from this Etsy seller ... then had them printed on label paper at Kinkos for really cheap, then cut out and put on clear cups!

The straws and flags I ordered from Etsy HERE ... they came on time and were the talk of the party! Adorable!

These cute water bottle labels came in PDF from HERE then I printed on label paper also!

After food and presents we did ice cream last and I had a variety of "sprinkles" and little blue plastic ice cream cups and spoons from Walmart (yes Walmart ha!) .99cents each ... were absolutely perfect too!

The mom to be with myself and her sis!

My second favorite part of the party ... the Party Favors!!
I went to Bath and Body Works and got the little mini hand sanitizers that were blue in color ... then printed out a cute little saying and hole punched then tied on the bottles with some jute. They were presh!
And I thought of the saying all on my own ... which I was quite proud of ;)

Now everyone will be ready to hold the baby when he gets here!! ;)

I also did the Hershey Bars for the kids to all take home ... with a paint pen just colored blue the HE and they were perfect! 

I bought the book "On the Night You Were Born" and had everyone write a little note in it for Chrissy and the baby as a guest book, then gave it to her to take home and read on the night he arrives :) 

Chrissy's sister made amazing and super cute cake pops! They were awesome! Thanks Steph! 

We played my favorite Baby Shower game I've ever played!

Here are the rules:

Buy balloons and size 2 diapers for however many guests you are having ... (we had about 30 so one pack of diapers was all I needed)... 

You give everyone a balloon and a diaper and then at the same time .. everyone starts to blow up their balloon. once blown up they have to fit the diaper on the balloon without it falling off and hold it up. The first 5 people to do this move on to the next round .. 

Our top 5 are pictured above ha! :) 

The next step is to give those 5 people a marker and they have to draw their best "baby face" on the balloon.
The Mom to Be then chooses her best baby :)

This was our winner! :) So cute! And we had a second place winner as well ... their prizes...

Blue Essie Nail Polish ... some nail goodies, and some blue Extra gum :) A fun little goodie for a boy shower!

Whitney and Kim .. having fun with the game :) 

PS. These two pretty ladies are two of my bridesmaids <3

Opening her presents!

Baby Boy Cookies brought by one of Chrissy's friends :) They were so good and looked perfect!

Chrissy enjoying some sprinkled ice cream :) 

Last Picture. Love this! So cute!! :) Would be perfect to frame with a thank you card or something :)

How cute was that? It was a great day!
Love you Chrissy! Can't wait to meet baby boy #2 <3

Ok I gotta run, tasty food is calling my name!
Have a great day!

Back in Action!!

Hellllooooooooooo :)

I am SOO excited to be typing right now, you have no idea how much I have missed blogging!

Two MONTHS! :( So sad.

I realized I needed to get back to blogging when random people have started emailing me with emails like "Are you still alive?" ... "Are you ok?" ... "Did something happen?" hahaaha so sweet ... thank you for the concerns ... everywhere I go people have said they have missed the bloggy and it made me so sad, but I honestly have been so busy with so many things (we will get to that later ha!) .. and I kind of needed a privacy break for a minute too ... you know sometimes you just feel like you want to keep some things private and enjoy them for a minute? Well that's how I felt. Ha.

OK so many things have happened in the past 2 months I need to share....but first the BIG news ... for those of you who are very keen you might have noticed something new with the blog ;)
Yes the page is wider (thank you PLL), yes I have a Pinterest button now (needed that for a long time, thank you again PLL ha!) .. but my Dana girl has a new accessory ... on her left ring finger ... :) check her out!!

Surprise...
WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!!

On July 4th while in Florida I said YES when this sweet man popped the question! :)

It was so sweet and perfect! I was totally shocked!
He did a good job of keeping it a secret lol only like two people knew, one being my dad and he never let on at ALL like he was keeping a secret!!

My ring literally could not be more perfect or beautiful. It is exactly what I wanted, he did such a good job! :)

Sooo pretty :) In love with it! Literally couldn't stop staring at it for like a week straight ha.

We spent the next few days in Florida with my brother and his girlfriend and my dad... it was a blast!

As soon as we got home we told the kids, and they were just as excited as I knew they would be!
They literally were screaming and jumping up and down haha it was so cute!

I knew immediately that we wanted to make them feel like they are a very special part of the day... so thanks to Pinterest I got the cute idea to make them these ...

How cute?

Adorable!!

I was so excited to give them to them ha and they were just as excited to get them! :) 

Next ...
I was off to buy magazines faster than you would believe!

Then I ordered these super cute Thank You cards from Etsy to start sending to all the sweet friends who sent us stuff :)

 Find the cards on Etsy here

And then next on the agenda was to ask my Matron of Honor ... which was never a question (even though I love all my friends equally of course ha!) .. but Chrissy has been my best friend since 5th grade. We lived together during college, have always been there for each other, her son is my Godson, Connor (who I've only probably posted a million pictures of ha) ... so of course she will be the one to stand next to me on our special day <3

How cute is that?
I made this for her ... even found a picture from the 8th grade and all ha! :)
So excited!!

So far the wedding stuff has been going great!
I have an amazing wedding planner, Ginny, who is so wonderful, she thinks of things before I do and is just so good to work with. As busy as I am, I have really been thankful to have her! She was a gift actually from a very close friend, and I am so blessed to have her know me so well to know I am way too busy to have to keep up with all the wedding stuff on my own!
(If you are in Lexington and looking for the best wedding planner, message me and I will send you her info! You will love her I promise!)

We have booked a venue, a gorgeous farm in Versailles and I can not wait!

Booked the photographer ... none other than the amazing Alicia with Aesthetiica Photography and I am SOOO excited to get to work with her! Love her!! XO

Stuart and the boys at House will be doing our flowers ... duh, he's the best! ;)

I will be doing more updating and info on the wedding (which by the way is next JUNE!!) but you can also follow my wedding board on Pinterest where I have a million ideas pinned for a rustic, shabby chic outdoor wedding ;) So exciting!

Ok, let's see ... some other fun things that have happened in the last two months I have been MIA .... 

We did some fun Summer activities before school started back :)
Like this one where we put tape on a canvas in their initials, and then I let them paint all over them, then peeled off the tape to reveal a beautiful picture :) lol it was fun... as you can see Frankie was of course up in the mix the entire time!

Speaking of that sweet angel ... he had a birthday in July!
Frankie turned 4 :)

He wanted nothing to do with the fire on the candle and that is as close as he would get to it for a picture ha!
Also I am a horrible mom and let his birthday cookie melt in the car while I was in the mall :( lol

Checking out all his new toys :) 

(Yes I am crazy, yes I buy him a million new toys for his bday, he probably has more toys than most children, its sad ha!) 

The girls played dress up with Frankie for his birthday ... can't you tell he enjoyed it? lol
Especially the sunglasses!

Let's see ... what else did we do before school ...
we went to the Lego store in Cinci one day ... Jake was in there for like two hours ha it was so funny

We went to Kings Island one day ... they were wild!

We had crazy nail day ... and got manicures :)

Chris and I have visited our wedding venue a few times ... love it out there!

I have been crazy busy selling houses here in the Bluegrass region :)

Congratulations to these sweet people ...

Congratulations to the Monarchs ... they were so wonderful! They bought a new J.Moore Home and it was absolutely beautiful! Can't you tell just by the little pic of the kitchen? Ha! Thanks to them, and their Realtor who were all so great to work with! 

Also Congratulations to the Kunish family!!
They are from New Mexico, were referred to me to buy a home here in Lexington, and they were the best! So happy for them and know they will love it here in Lex! They also built a brand new home that turned out so nice! Could not have worked with a sweeter family than this one! :)

I have been to/hosted so many parties in the last two months you would die ha! 
So I am going to do a separate post tomorrow on some fun party ideas and have lots of pictures!!

But until then I will leave you with a few of my new favorite E-cards on this Monday :)  ...

I try to stay away from political things on here but this is too darn funny haha! sorrry :( 

Love this! 

Story of my life hahaha

I died when I read this, I want to frame it, I literally hate Crocs but suck it up because the kids like them at the beach and pool ha. 

Ha that is just funny 

LOL poor Chris ... this is us every time we eat out ha! 

This was my weekend ... lol ... as soon as I cleaned something up more stuff was right back out, gotta love it ;) 

My favorite haha that is so true! 

What would I do without the calculator on my phone? lol 

hahahahahaha this made my eyes water when I read it! If you know me, you know why haha! 

Lastly, how could you not love that? hahaha 

Well I am sorry for the long post but SOOOO happy to be back!!! 

If you want to do a guest post for me next week on what your favorite thing about your wedding was, and share a few pics, please email me!!! I thought it would be fun since I am all in the wedding zone! :) 

@ShastaAnne I really want you to little lady! Ha! I think I have seen one of your beautiful wedding pics before!!  

Missed Ya'll!!

XOXO

Skaneateles Real Estate - Summer Edition

Yes, it's been two very busy weeks for me, so I didn't do last week's blog update.  But it's summer, the days are winding down...no, I haven't been hanging out on my paddleboard at the lake, but I have been getting a couple very sweet new listings, one of which I will add to the update.

This is my new listing at 1020 Ten Mile Point, just south of Lourdes Camp.  Look at that beach!  It has 295 feet of level small rocks, two current docks, and a cottage up in the trees.  The price is $250,000 - and no, this is not a giveaway.  Contributing to the peace and quiet you see here is the limited accessibility - a good thing in this rush-around world!  No cars, no roads, no traffic.  Take a short boat ride or woodland path past other camps along the shoreline and find silence, only the lapping of the waves and the birds in the many trees.  You are truly away from it all, but only minutes to the Village.

So!  There are currently 117 other active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 27 are in the village and 29 are considered waterfront.  Eight are new, including Ten Mile Point.  A couple are re-lists, including the huge mansion at the Enclave on Route 20 - now priced at $500,000 for the house and over 24 acres.  There's another property with twice as much acreage, also in the town.  A good little ranch and pretty cape, both in the town,  came on the market over the past two weeks.  An under a million waterfront property completes the new homes.

And sure enough, four new properties came under contract.  All of them are outside of the village, and three of them hover around the $300,000 mark.  There are 32 altogether in this category, including the four new ones.

And more closed!  Five new ones!  We are up to 65 sold and closed homes for the year!  Three of them are in the village, to continue the 2012 theme of buying there.  They range in price from a low in the mid-$100,000 to a high close to $600,000.  The two in the town that closed were sold near their asking price.

We are on to something here - Skaneateles is going through a wonderful upsurge in real estate.  And why not?  It is a beautiful area, filled with beautiful homes, where prices have not fluctuated as they have in the rest of the country.  And rates - oh my!  One of my buyers got a 3.5% FHA mortgage just recently.  It makes a HUGE difference!  So buy now - please!  And you can start with my Ten Mile Point listing!

Saundra Smokes

Saundra Smokes passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday in Syracuse.  She was a columnist for the Post-Standard for years, and only returned in May to write again in her hometown.  She was writing during the years before I tried to get my charter school off the ground, and she was an inspiration to me, pushing me (although she had no idea) to go out there and do things I never thought I could ever do.  But I should do them because I believed in them, no matter how hard.  Because it was the right thing to do.

I never wrote to her, as I had planned to do since her return.  I wanted to say thank you.

But this is a column she wrote that was hung up in my house on East Street in Skaneateles, and then made its way with me to Elbridge.  It resides on the back of the pantry door.  To remind me.

Put Resolve in Your Resolutions

One of my sister-friends and I were talking about the foolishness of making the same old New Year's resolutions.
I am going to lose weight.
I am going to get organized.
I am going to be on time.
I am going to exercise.
I am going to spend more time with my family.
I am going to learn a new skill.
And on and on.
Not that these goals are not worthy goals.
It's just that most of them are self-centered, and most of them keep finding their way on the list year after year - sometimes decade after decade.
What if - my sister-friend and I reasoned - what if all of us made new kinds of  resolutions?
Attitude resolutions.
Character resolutions.
Community resolutions.
We weren't talking about vague "I want to be a better person" or "I want to do more for my city" promises.
We meant specific, identifiable, reachable goals that would benefit others - loved ones,co-workers, neighbors.

What would have happened if, years ago, President Clinton had made a character resolution list and decided that he was no longer going to mess around on his wife, ignore his marriage vows, hurt his young daughter, jeopardize the office in which he was serving?
What if he had decided to deal with his lust problem and gotten some help to get himself in check?
Maybe we wouldn't be where we are at the moment - wrestling between censuring the man or putting him through a Senate trial to determine whether to remove him from office.
All of us have a list we can make that goes beyond giving up ice cream or reading more books.
Why can't people who have biting tongues make a point of controlling what comes out of their mouths?
What can't parents who holler and scream and say any old thing to their children resolve not to talk to their kids any old way?
Why can't bosses who think they know it all decide they don't, and listen to their employees?
Why can't employees resolve not to whine about everything?
Why can't the folks who are cheating on their loves resolve to stop lying and cheating and manipulating people?

Why can't those who are being cheated on , lied to and manipulated, resolve to stop the abuse or get help to stop the abuse?
Why can't family members who aren't speaking to each other resolve not to let another year go by without addressing whatever it is that is keeping them apart?
Why can't fathers resolve to acknowledge the children they pretend aren't theirs?
Why can't people in the caring and nurturing professions - doctors, nurses, teachers - resolve to treat all their patients and students with respect, affection and dignity?
Why can't neighbors resolve not to disturb the peace of the neighborhood by playing music too loudly or letting their dogs run loose?
Why can't people in the social services field resolve not to think of themselves too highly and forget that they may some day be where their "clients" are?
Why can't every person resolve to make a difference in the life of one child this year - by being a mentor, volunteering at a Boys and Girls Club or community center, becoming a Big Brother and Big Sister, joining an "Adopt a  School" program?

Why can't people resolve not to tell one racial joke, not to make on racial slur, not to contribute in any way to racial stereotyping or racist behavior?
Why can't customer service employees resolve to treat the public the way they would like to be treated?
Why can't companies resolve to truly assess the working conditions of their employees?
Why can't lawmakers resolve that every person in this nation will have a health-care plan as good as the one the lawmakers have?
Why can't lawmakers resolve that every child will get the kind of education their children are getting?
Why can't parents resolve to keep abreast of what is happening with their child in school?
Why can't parents resolve to not let the schools raise their children?
Why can't people resolve not to have to be motivated by the holidays to reach out to the needy?

Why can't the folks who want to lose weight resolve to give the money they would have spent on cookies, doughnuts and lunches that could pass for dinners, to charity?
Why can't people who are always stirring things up, always gossiping, always trying to cause trouble, simply stop it?
Why can't we all put some resolve in our resolutions?

I will miss her column, and miss her.

The Third Twenty

Amazing.  Just amazing - that there could be so much activity this very hot summer.  With no rational reason for this order:

1711 Borodino Bluffs - Town of Spafford - $921,500

1541 East Lake Road - Town of Spafford - $284,000

1 Elson Lane - Village of Skaneateles - $140,000

1012 Butters Farm - Town of Skaneateles - $600,000

3332 Kane Avenue - Town of Skaneateles - $217,500

1721 Lancelot Place - Town of Skaneateles - $159,000

8 Goodspeed Place - Village of Skaneateles - $300,000

205 Hemlock Hollow - Town of Niles - $458,000

887 West Elizabeth Street - Town of Skaneateles - $245,000

82 State Street - Village of Skaneateles - $300,000

10 Fuller Street - Village of Skaneateles - $263,000

2155 Singing Woods - Town of Spafford - $544,000

6787 Glen Haven Road - Town of Sempronius - $110,000

1760 Tamarack Trail - Town of Skaneateles - $1,225,000

3130 East Lake Road - Town of Skaneateles - $234,000

160 East Genesee Street - Village of Skaneateles - $210,000

5 Ramble Wood Drive - Village of Skaneateles - $540,000

60 Calemad Drive - Town of Sennett - $436,000

26 East Lake Street - Village of Skaneateles - $279,000

33 Calemad Drive - Town of Sennett - $428,000

Skaneateles Real Estate - The Weekly Update

The moon rose last night over the lake.  It's a blue moon - or rather, the first full moon in the month of August and there will be another at the end, I guess making that the actual blue moon.  I learned that the cycle between full moons is 29.5 days, which explains why it isn't the same day every year, every month.  The moon slipped in and out of the pink clouds, at times totally obscured.  We watched from our deck with guests there for dinner - and the light show!

What a summer!  Both for weather and for real estate.

There are currently 119 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service.  Of these, 26 are in the village and 30 are waterfront.  Three homes were re-listed this past week, each with significant reductions in price.  Four others came on the market - a little bit of everything: new construction, almost new construction, a ranch down the lake, and a sweet Village home.

The already contracted houses number 34, just waiting to close.  Three more were added to the list - one in the village, and two others in the town.  These were higher priced homes, too, ranging between $300,000 and $400,000 for list prices.

And now the Big News!  We have reached another milestone for the year.  SIXTY!  Sixty homes have closed year-to-date in Skaneateles.  Three new homes were added to bring it to this number - village, near-village, and a house in the town with acreage.  The price-point on these was around $200,000.  But SIXTY!  

Why such a big deal?  In both 2010 and 2011 at this time there were only 38 houses that had closed.  In 2009 there were 46.  Last year it took us until November 15th - another 3.5 months - to get to 60.  That's why.  Whether its pent-up need or great rates (I saw a flyer for 3.25% for a 30-year fixed FHA loan!) or this gorgeous weather or good prices on these homes - let the analysts argue the reason.  I just love it!

Again - if you are thinking of buying or selling - do it now!