Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope your day is filled with hearts, love, smiles, hugs & kisses and lots and lots of sugar!!

xoxo

V-day B-day

I have to share this absolutely adorable first birthday party!! My cousin's little Vivian turned 1 last week so she had a Valentine's Day themed party for her this weekend! What a great theme...who doesn't want their little girl to have her first birthday filled with pink, hearts, sweets and love?

Is this not the cutest thing ever?! So well behaved, just hanging out on a table full of candy and cupcakes!

My cousin is an amazing baker, and cupcakes are her specialty! She made strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese Frosting....here is Paula Dean's Recipe.

Not only did Vivian look like a little pink princess, the decorations were fabulous!!

This garland is my favorite! She found it at Marshalls!

Look at that hat!!

Happy Birthday Vivian!

-Whitney

Getting in the Spirit

Valentine's day is just less than a week away and so here are few things to get you in the mood.

 Nothing is better than hearing little kids talk about Love...

How about some DIY love for your front door...

before:

 after:

how sweet! LC knows best.

And Romantic Art that is just the perfect amount of personal. Birthstone Portraits, original hand-printed silkscreen

for the Valentine Baby - Amethyst 

 who doesn't love - Diamond

or a Ruby for a July birthday.

-Megan

DIY Gift Ideas From Our Archives

Looking for the perfect DIY gift for the special people on your Christmas List?? Here are a few great gifts from Pretty Penny. Click on the link below for the full tutorial.

- Painted Coasters

- Painted Tray

- Tassel Earrings

- Scrapbook Paper Coasters

- Wire Picture Hanger

- Painted Moccasins

- Fabric Covered Pots

Festive Fronts

Looking for that perfect front door decoration to welcome your guests and to get your neighbors into the Holiday spirit?? We are on the lookout for a festive front of our own. Not sure what look we are going for, or if we want to DIY it! Here are some fun wreaths that have been catching my eye:

snowy scape

via

cinnamon sticks

via

striped straws

via

peppermint

via

 winter twigs

via

au naturel

via

What's your festive front style??

-Whitney

Words for Wednesday: Christmas Printables

If you haven't started decorating for Christmas, then you're late! Just kidding, it's not even December yet, but after Thanksgiving we were more than ready. So we turned on Love Actually, lugged up the Rubbermaids full of greenery, ornaments, candles, nutcrackers, lights, the whole shebang! The house looks so festive and cozy! We have a wooden frame sitting in between our couches that we put different holiday/seasonal posters and prints in. I was searching for the perfect Christmas print to replace our fall leaves, and I thought I would share some of the cute printables I came across...

via

via

via

via

via

via

Do you have a spot for a fun Christmas poster or subway art??

-Whitney

Ghoulish Grub

Whether you're the haunted host or the gruesome guest, you may need some trick or treats for your Halloween festivities! Sweet or salty, scary or cute, here are some ideas to get you in the spirit: 

Festive Fourth Treats

The 4th is in just 2 short days, and if you are planning a bbq or get together like us, you need to have some fun and festive treats for your guests! Here are a few delicious and patriotic snacks that have caught me eye!

4th of July Rice Krispie Treats

July 4th Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Tie Dyed Fudge

4th of July Fruit Pops

Patriotic Biscuits

4th of July JELLO Shooters

How will you make your BBQ patriotic??

Six More Weeks of Winter

via

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, therefore we will be having six more weeks of winter.  If our "winter" includes 63 degree days like today I am fine with his prediction. 

Happy Groundhog's day

This lil' tradition is a fun way to break the long winter up, whether or not it's a proven fact it is still something to look forward to.  I found some cute Groundhog day goodies on etsy that can really get you in the spirit.

Bill Murray themed Watercolor Postcard

Groundhog Phil Crochet Hat  

Colorful Groundhogs

To Gobbler's Knob. Its Groundhog Day!

-Megan

NYE Progressive Party Success

Well our NYE progressive party was a success! We went a tad overboard on the decorations and food, but hey it was New Years Eve, and we found way too many cute gold and silver decorations and party favors! Here are some pics of our party...

We found a free print out online of this cute HAPPY NEW YEAR banner, that we hung with some silver ribbon. Other decorations we found at US Toy and Party Warehouse. The silver and gold glittered cake balls were a huge hit! (tutorial coming soon).

We made these awesome glittered star headbands ourselves, after seeing this one on etsy for $75!! All we needed was glitter foam sheets  (we found it at Michael's), ribbon, and hot glue! Cut out star shapes (we did 5 per headband), and hot glue each one to your ribbon, leaving enough room on each end to tie the ribbon in a bow on the back of your head! It took us about 15 minutes, and cost about $3.

NYE Party Planning

This year we have opted out of an over-priced bar celebration for New Years Eve, and our friends are doing our own little "Progressive Party" with a bus to drive us around! Our house is the first stop, and of course our decorations need to be top notch. Where else to look for ideas, than Pinterest!

Here are some fun party decoration ideas we have come across:

We even found this web site for some fun NYE printables . Will you be decorating your place for NYE??

DIY Hanging Xmas Pine Cones

We still had our fall wreath up on our front door on Sunday, and I figured that needed to be taken down! We spent so much time decorating the inside and the outside of our house for Xmas, we neglected the front door. 

We have a lot of crafts going right now, mostly for Christmas gifts, so we needed something quick and easy. Our house should be in a Hobby Lobby ad right now, you can't even tell we have a dining room table because it's covered with all sorts of craft scraps, hot glue guns, gifts, wrapping paper, you name it!

I remembered seeing a  DIY project with hanging pine cones on Pinterest, so I went with it! We had all of the supplies at home, and it took only about 5 minutes.

All you need is:

ribbon (i used some Christmas colored ribbon we already had)

pine cones

hot glue gun

wreath hanger, or some way of hanging it from your door

Cut your ribbon to different sizes and collect them all together, evening them out at one end.

Tie another ribbon in a bow around all of the ribbons that you gathered, holding them together (the green ribbon is the one i used to tie mine together)

Put a rather large amount of hot glue in the top of each pine cone and attach the bottom of each ribbon to it. Be careful pushing the ribbon down onto the hot glue, it's thin and the hot glue could burn you through it!

Once you have glued all of your cones on, let the glue dry for a minute or two. Attach a small hook or ring to your ribbon that is tied in a bow, and hang it from your wreath hanger. You could also  just hang it from a nail without a hook or a ring.

-Whitney

DIY JOY Garland

We had a lot of burlap to use after we took down our Friendsgiving tables, that went through 3 rooms in our house! Luckily, burlap makes for some very cute Christmas decorations too. Brooke sewed stockings for all 4 of us out of the burlap, and I made this little JOY garland that we hung from the mirror in our living room.

It was super easy and fun! All you need is:

 a few feet of burlap (more or less depending on how many triangles you want)

twine , rope or thick string of some kind

 red embroidery floss (that you make friendship bracelets out of)

a large needle with an eye wide enough to fit the red floss 

 white acrylic paint

 letter or shape stencils

whatever you would like to add to your garland (I used red bells and some greenery cut from a tree in our back yard)

I simply cut out 3 large diamonds from the burlap, and folded them over the twine (so you have 2 triangles, one on each side of the twine), stringing the bells in between each one.

Using a large needle and your red embroidery floss, sew each half of your diamonds together with a large stitch (this will attach your diamonds to the twine, and create the triangle shape. Do the same to the other 2 diamonds, so you end up with 3 double sided triangles.

Then just stencil whatever wording or shape you would like onto your triangles, add a little greenery (I just poked mine into one of the holes in the bells) and TADA!

-Whitney

Merry Mantles

The mantle is my favorite part about Christmas decorating! Maybe because it's such a focal point for most houses. Or because it frames the fireplace, which is where you want to be during the winter time, and especially Christmas. Here are some mantles that have caught my eye this year:

Love the greenery on this mantle with the pops of red, and the lanterns are perfection!

These silver hanging glittery stars are so fun! I really like the white stockings against the lit fireplace.

The logs in this fireplace are amazing, and i love the peace garland!

The simplicity of this one works very well with the awesome Santa portrait!

 

I love decorating with pine cones, so i was naturally drawn to this one! The natural colors are awesome, and with just subtle hints of Christmas, this could stay up all winter long.

These bright red wreaths really pop on this mantle, and I really like the spacing of the hanging stockings.

This one is a little overkill, but kind of fun! I wonder how long that took to make, and how the heck do you store that??

Images via Pinterest

 Here are a couple pics of our mantle. Brooke made the burlap stockings from the burlap we used for our Friendsgiving dinner! (tutorial to come soon!)

The PEACE stocking hangers we got last year from Hobby Lobby, of course! And the pre-lit garland is from Target.

What's your mantle style??

-Whitney & Megan