Blog Archives
A Garden Tea Bridal Shower
I’ve been chatting about my friend’s bridal shower and the day finally came on Sunday. Here it is as wordless as possible….
The menu: a selection of vegetables (the veggie dip bowls were red peppers!), fruit salad, tea sandwiches (cucumber with chive cream cheese, classic chicken salad, ham and cheese and good old peanut butter and jelly), pasta salad and garden cupcakes. All complimented by sweet and unsweetened tea, lemonade, strawberry lemonade sangria and wine.
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Each place setting had a BRIDE Bingo card, trivia questions about the couple and a unique, handmade tea cup candle (should I post instructions on how to make these?). The centerpieces were tiny teapots with flowers.
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The Dining Room Transformation
We stood at the dining table (not ours) below and decided, that yes, this house was the house for us and we would make an offer. We decided to get the house even though the room was sunshine yellow with baby blue-ish carpet.
The photo from the home listing.
From offer to acceptance, we kept plans at bay. Our offer was accepted a few days later in April, we closed in June and officially had renters until mid July.
From acceptance to possession, we made plans… including what to do with the dining room. I turned to Pinterest to find an image to accompany what I imagined. This became roughly my vision for the dining room and was something that Brad could also picture:
Image via Pinterest
The walls, trim and ceiling were all painted. The carpet was ripped out. Brad laid new flooring. Windows were re-treated. And here’s how it ended up… Read the rest of this entry
Winter Decorating
The moment leftover turkey and mashed potatoes find their way into the fridge after Thanksgiving, I shift into gear for Christmas and start decorating. The trees go up, the Advent wreath comes out, there’s garland about, snowmen, ribbon and a new wreath on the red door.
These decorations are out and lit during the whole holiday season, all the way until New Year’s Day when it’s time to move on from Christmas and hang a new calendar. Once all the festive Christmas decorations are packed away in the attic, the house kind of looks kind of sad. In order to avoid the 60 to 0 switch, not everything that goes up at the end of November is Christmas-centered.
Most often, my wreaths aren’t Christmas-specific, that way I can leave them up all winter. This year, I opted to make a pine cone wreath for the front door using the scented pine cones that were stashed after Christmas 2011.
Bonus: Our entry smells like cinnamon and vanilla!
Snowmen, snowflakes and inspirational words (joy, peace, hope, love) are also perfectly acceptable (to me) all winter, along with the metallic accents, so they stay long after the trees and stockings go away.
Sorry that I didn’t take any in-progress pictures, but if you want to make your own here’s how I made it: Read the rest of this entry
Twitchy Fingers
There’s something about this time of year that makes my fingers twitch and my brain start dreaming of things to create.
During the summer months this year my creativity waned… potentially because my brain was frazzled with home-buying and moving tasks. But now I’m back to the mindset of “Let’s make something!”
I’m getting inspired in the kitchen and in the “Woman Cave” (PS: My room of the house is currently being called a woman cave because I haven’t named it. I thought about calling it the sewing room, but I do more than sew in it. It needs a name, help?). Brad actually asked me to chill out on baking goodies for awhile! He was overwhelmed by having both muffins and cookies in the house at the same time. Maybe I’ve shaken loose of the cooking rut. Last week we had all sorts of fun dinners like beer cheese soup, baked sweet and sour chicken, crispy Parmesan green beans, crockpot beef and noodles. It’s easier to find motivation to make hot foods in the cooler temperatures. I also got busy with the fall wreath and catching up on my sewing projects. Yesterday I altered of my shirts to make them fit me better. I’ll share some of my projects when I take some pictures.
I find myself browsing Pinterest more during these last few weeks and reorganizing my supplies to make projects easier. I’m already thinking of new things to create for the holidays!
Is anyone else more creative this time of year? What’s on your to-make list?
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The Red Door
When we first started making plans for our house I considered bringing up the option of changing the color of the front door. But as we showed our families the listing for the house the red door became the thing that was first noticed. So the red door stays red for now.
I used to rotate homemade wreath on the apartment door so I decided it was about time for some decoration on the door. So I got crafty and here’s the result:
Materials Used: Read the rest of this entry
Wordless Wednesday: Help Me Add Words
I took one of the keys from our new house to do this Pinterest inspired project. But now I need your help.
It needs words. I can’t figure out exactly what I want to write, which is where you come in.
Should I write:
- Our First Home
- Home Sweet Home
- The address or street name
- Something else
What should I say?
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I fancy myself a crafter!
Due to all of the DIY goodness that Pinterest provides, I undertook decorating the K-couple apartment pulling my inspiration from there. I’ve kind of fallen in love with upcycle crafting (that is taking something old and making it into something new).
Project 1
Using this as my inspiration:
I began hoarding toilet paper and paper towel tubes. With the hope of creating a modest wreath for the door.
probablyrachel 