Celebrate

Bubbly Bar

January 23
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Last week i had some friends in to celebrate the New Year!  You might be scratching your head a bit…I realize it’s a little late for a countdown party, but better late than never I say!  During all the festivities of the Christmas holiday I realized there just wasn’t time for me to squeeze in a New Year bash…but I rarely follow entertaining rules so I decided to go ahead and have a past-due “Girl’s Night In” gathering to not just celebrate the arrival of 2017, but our friendships as well!  And I even added a touch of early Valentine fun to this little event…nothing wrong with combining the best of both celebrations!  Another fun twist to this girly gathering…I invited everyone to show up in their sweats or jammies!  Girlfriends, pink drinks, sweet treats, & jammies…it doesn’t get better than that!  So have a peek at how simple it can be to have a special night in with friends!  It’s always fun when you serve up…

cupcakes & cocktails!

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Create, Holidays

Hand Out Smiles!

January 20
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My boys are past the days of creating and handing out those adorable classroom Valentines…but that’s no reason to stop making some simple tokens of love for all the special people in your life!  I don’t make bunches of love notes anymore either, but I still create some fun little gifts for my family and a girlfriend or two!  I want to share a really fun DIY valentine that you could make for kids or adults…and with plenty of time to get your hands on the goodies I created them with!  Have a look at a whimsical way to make someone smile on Valentine’s Day!

#makesmesmile

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Favorite Things

Cupid Season…

January 18
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As you probably now know, one of my most favorite things to do is help my friend Amy at Alice-Louise Press change her displays for the seasons!  It’s such a fun day for me…I get to spend time with my pal, get a little creative, rearrange furniture, and check out first hand all the new goodies she gets in!  We’d already done a display “quick fix” after the Christmas season was over…but it was time to add a little Valentines joy AND start making room for wedding season!  So last Sunday afternoon we filled the hours changing it all up…

see what’s new…

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Create, Holidays

A Little Paper Love

January 16
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I had so much fun with all the paper hearts in custom colors for my sun room the other day…I actually went a little crazy customizing the rest of my home!  I LOVE decorating with paper so much because it’s really inexpensive and you can make a simple display look like a million with very little effort!  And since the papers for my raspberry and black sun room decor were from a scrapbook supply pack, I had plenty more patterns to choose from to create some Valentine joy for my living and dining rooms too!  The other day I bought an adorable garland of glitter arrows and hearts at the Target dollar spot…it’s so sweet but I was really hoping to use some spring inspired colors for the holiday this year.   So the purchased hearts became a template for all the pretty paper ones I cut from the pad!  Take a peek at how a little paper can add lots of love…

paper and strings make wonderful things…

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Create, Holidays

Friday DIY-Day!

January 13
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Happy Friday everyone!  Valentine’s Day is just over a month away…but it’s never too early to start thinking about fun holiday crafts!  I have a really easy project today that anyone can create…really!  I was inspired by some friends on Instagram who shared how to make a festive Valentine wreath…and I merely put my own twist on it.  I love to be motivated this way…in fact, we’re all inspired in one way or another by those we admire or creations we see on all the wonderful media outlets we have to gaze upon!  I hope you too can find some inspiration today to recreate this craft or change it up to make it just right for you! So take a look at this simple and seasonally festive DIY that will steal even Cupid’s heart!

shot through the heart!

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Decorate, Holidays

Customize It!

January 11
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Have you ever wanted to create a holiday display with colors other than the traditional offerings in the stores?  I don’t know about you but I often want to mix it up a bit and coordinate holiday color to the hues in my everyday design.  I’ve also had color schemes in my home that just didn’t go well with the common colors of certain holidays…like red and green just didn’t mesh well with the canary-yellow walls of my living room!  It can be tough to seasonally decorate if your color loves just don’t fit in!  Now that my home is more on the neutral side it’s much easier to blend in traditional seasonal decor, but sometimes I just want something different!  If you can relate, or if you’ve avoided decorating for holidays because those particular shades just don’t work, I’d like to share a solution with you…make your own!  I DO understand that not everyone gets a little giddy when the the subject of DIY enters a conversation!  But let me tell you that this option today is so easy that you could have your kiddos do it for you if the thought of crafting turns your tummy!  But I hope once you see how simple it can be, you might find more inspiration for not just decorating for holidays but celebrations & occasions of all sorts!  take a peek…

make it your own!

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Celebrate

Baby it’s Cold Outside!

January 9
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The weather around here has been quite nippy lately…and it seems extraordinarily difficult to warm up when the temps are hoovering around the zero marker!  But no matter what the thermometer reads, or how strong the cold winds blow, you can always warm your bones with a piping hot cup of cocoa!  My son had a few friends stop by yesterday afternoon and it gave me the opportunity to serve up some hot chocolate for a chilly-day treat!  I had tucked away some adorable disposable cups that I’d ordered in December from my friend at Pink Poppy Party Shoppe!  (You should check out the link if you want to score some wonderful party supplies!)  This party set was so cute I was hoping to use it during the holidays but I literally ran out of time!  As it turns out, this “everyday” celebration was perfect for bringing a bunch of rambunctious boys to the table for some sweet treats and silly fun…and I got to make it look cute too!

cocoa, doughnuts, muffins…oh my!

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Create

Tissue Pom Tutorial

January 6
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Not sure how you feel about decorating in January but after all the holiday celebrations are over, my house seems a little bare!  And even though there’s a part of me that enjoys the new simplicity, I still can’t help but miss the festivity, the twinkle lights, and the pops of color!  I’m so conflicted about how to make that transition from over-the-top to next-to-nothing…do I go all-out Valentine’s Day a titch early or stick with some seasonal snowflakes until the time seems right to invite cupid in?  Seems a silly thing to get stressed over so I decided to fall back on one of my favorite decorating go-to items…pompoms!  I often make a cluster or two of those happy, paper poms to hang around the house.  If you make them yourself they can come in an endless array of colors making them perfect to brighten your spaces or make any party extra festive!  I happen to use them whether I have a reason to get festive or not…they add a splash of color to my home and just simply make me happy!  When I posted some pretty pastel poms on Instagram yesterday I got a couple of inquiries about how to make them.  I know I’ve demonstrated in the past how I create my poms…but since friends were asking and I was making some anyway, I decided to give another quick and EASY tutorial on how to make these joyful little things!  So in between the winter and spring holidays you might be seeing plenty of poms in my home!  Let me share with you how I DIY…

easy-peasy pretty poms!

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Travel

Fun in The Big Easy!

January 4
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Well we’re now into the first week of the New Year!  I hope everyone enjoyed a holiday that was full of celebrations with family and friends, travel, or just having some time to stay snug in your jammies all day long!  I’m lucky to say I had the pleasure of all of the above this year…and those simple moments are often times the very best of them all!  After our Christmas festivities came to an end, my family and I headed to New Orleans for a few days for some colorful sight-seeing, exploring, eating, eating, and more eating!  None of us had ever been there before and weren’t sure exactly what to expect…I guess that’s the fun of investigating new places!  The truth is, we were blown away with the city–how easy it was to explore, the colorful and kind personalities of its citizens, the music, the festivity that never ends, AND the food…oh my was it ever good!  All I can say about that part is that my boys were thrilled but I’m glad to be back on a normal diet! (I sure did enjoy every bite though!) So without going on and on about how we fell in love with this city, let me share a glimpse of what we saw…

living well in NOLA!

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Holidays

Cocoa & Cookies!

December 21
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Well, the big day is almost here and I FINALLY feel fairly prepared for all the celebrations!  Since the last day of school is today, we can soon start baking cookies and getting ready for all the holiday callers!  And it’s a fact that we will be loaded with plenty of gingerbread, sugar, and other varieties of Christmas cookies, so we NEED to have a warm and toasty drink to go with them!  One of my favorite sips during the holidays (and actually all winter long) would have to be hot cocoa!  We serve it up often when the cool winds begin to blow, but there’s something about Christmastime that give us the opportunity to doctor them up in holiday style!  At our annual Christmas Eve Gumbo I usually prepare the hot drink…but this year I thought a Cocoa and Cookies bar was in order!  It’s a perfect opportunity to make it special with plenty of friends stopping by all evening for a cup of soup…AND some sweets and hot chocolate to wash it all down!  If you caught the Holiday Hop last week, you got a good dose of inspiration…including some festive cocoa displays!  Lucky for me, I also soaked in the wonderful ideas that inspired my own cocoa station for my family and holiday guests!  Hot cocoa is easy to make and you really don’t need much to go with it to create a treat table that will delight kids and adults alike!  So with a few days left before Santa arrives, you still have plenty of time to create a holiday treat for whoever may come calling!  Have a peek at what I’ll be serving up on Christmas Eve…

hot, hot, hot chocolate!

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