Favorite Things Party

I saw the inspiration for this party on Pinterest a while back and have wanted to throw one myself for some time. After having to reschedule due to a snowstorm, the party finally happened and it was so much fun! I think I'm going to make it an annual tradition.

Each guest brings 5 of their favorite things (all the same or 5 different things) and they are given a stack of 5 papers with their number (first person got number 1, second person got number 2, and so on) on it to fold and put in a bowl. We then went around the room and each person drew 5 papers out of the bowl. You could not draw your number or two of the same number. In the end, everyone went home with 5 different favorite things.

I served an assortment of desserts, crackers and cheese, mixed fruit, and strawberry punch. My theme for the party was "Pink" and "Hearts" and all of the decorations are made by hand. I've found that paper decorations are the cheapest way to do a theme for a party, especially since I have lots of paper scraps.

Oreo Truffles
Combine 1 package Oreo cookies and 1 package softened cream cheese in food processor. Pulse until crushed and combined. Roll into truffles and refrigerate. These can be dipped in melted white chocolate or chocolate, but I combined pink food coloring and sugar and sprinkled it on them instead.

Sugar Cookie Bars
Recipe HERE.

White Chocolate Truffle Filled Almond Toffee Cream Cupcakes
Recipe inspiration HERE. I changed this recipe by using an almond toffee flavored creamer instead of macadamia. And right after the cupcakes came out of the oven I cut a slit in each one and pushed in a white chocolate Lindt truffle. I garnished each cupcake with white chocolate pieces that I had colored pink. 

Our Cozy New Home

Last year was a big year for us. First, we started our family. Then we moved our family into our little one bedroom apartment. It was small and sweet and perfect for us. Later on in the year our little boy joined us and that led to our latest expansion - moving into a bigger two bedroom apartment! We are loving the extra space and I know when our little one starts crawling around, he's going to love it too. Several have asked for pictures of our new place, so I am posting them! We decided to put paint on the walls this time and we have several pictures hung, but there is still a lot I am hoping to do before I say it's finished! But that's the great part of decorating your home - there can be projects on the to-do list, but it can still feel like home.  So I am sharing the pictures of our home now, instead of waiting until it's completely finished. May it encourage you to work with what you've got and make your house a home in the midst of the everyday.

 

 I love candles! They are one of the greatest ways to make a place feel homey and welcoming. This one is from my dear mother-in-law and smells like mint chocolate...yummmm.

A word to the wise - red paint take numerous coats to make it red instead of pink. This may be my only red kitchen...

Sorry for the dark picture. This wall in our office space off the kitchen is brown.

Details make a house a home! This wicker trash basket is perfect for our beach themed main bathroom.

The wording on the wall is a DIY applique that my sweet sister gave me for Christmas.

Haven't figured out a great way to hide wires from the nightstands, but this pictures shows the gold detail on the lamp next to the grey wall.

Baby's little cradle...but he has almost grown too big for it!

You will notice I don't have any pictures up of the nursery. There are several projects I am wanting to do for that room and I am in the middle of a couple right now. As soon as those are done, then the nursery will be its own post.

I will also be posting as I get to do the projects around the apartment that I'm wanting to, so keep checking back for great DIY ideas!

Inspiration: Holiday Gift Wrapping

So sorry to not have posted very often.  Not only have we had the holidays, but our little family is currently in the midst of moving.  We'll be hosting Christmas at our house just 4 days after moving in!  Hopefully a post about that will be up by the end of the year.  Until then, here are some pictures of the presents I've wrapped so far; hopefully they inspire you as you are doing your Christmas wrapping!

2013 Fall Decorations

As much as I dislike being cold, fall is here and I am quite in love.  Holidays, for me, have always been somewhat magical.  Thanksgiving being in just a couple weeks has me on cloud nine.  But the moments, the minutes (yes, even those spent awake with our little boy in the middle of the night), the days until then are not being taken for granted either.  I'm so enjoying life; I have been richly blessed and I'm eternally grateful.  In true fashion of embracing this season, my home is filled with fall decorations and smells.  Heavenly, I'm tellin' ya.

I didn't want to use real pumpkins this year because I didn't want to have to deal with them rotting and having to take care of that when I'd rather be taking care of my wee one.  But I wanted pumpkins.  So I wondered if I could make them myself and, after a search on Pinterest, I discovered I could.  THESE are the directions I roughly followed.

DIY: Nurse Thank-You Packets

I've never been through the process of having a baby before, so the thought of putting together little "thank-you's" for the labor and delivery nurses didn't even occur to me until I saw the idea on Pinterest.  For anyone who has nesting syndrome every day and lives in a sweet little one bedroom apartment, projects that require getting done ahead of time are greatly appreciated.

I gathered the supplies from a couple of different stores; Walmart had the little notebooks on sale since it's been back-to-school season, Bath & Body Works has had their travel size lotions on sale for a while, and any grocery store will do for picking up little sweets (I figured chocolate and mints were pretty basic).

I have some clear bags that are for wrapping up candy and they suited my purpose well.  I stapled them shut and then taped a little thank you tag, made with plain ol' cardstock, onto the bag.  Ta-da!  These little packets are now sitting with our pile of stuff that will need to be packed last minute on our way out the door to the hospital.  Any day now we'll be holding our sweet little Bug in our arms!

DIY: Iron-On Transfer Onesies

A little while back I made a onesie using an iron-on transfer for my nephew.  I had seen the inspiration on Pinterest, but the original cost more than I wanted to spend.  For most everything, you'll find it's much cheaper to make your own than it is to buy it.  So that's what I did.

On second thought, it might be more expensive to make your own.  Reason being that once you've gotten started making it, you're going to want to make more.  And more.  And more.  After I had finished the nephew's onesie, I wanted to make some for Bug.  Thankfully, the only cost I incurred for this whim was the cost of ink to print the images; I had been given several white onesies at baby showers and my brother had given me his whole leftover stash of iron-on transfer sheets.

I had an idea for an image I wanted for Bug's onesie.  So I searched Google images high and low.  But it was to no avail.  So what do you do when you can't find the image you want?  You draw it, of course.  I usually always start my drawings by sketching it out in pencil.

To fill in these images I used permanent markers.  The vibrant colors showed up really well. 

Then I scanned the images to the computer and inserted them into a Word document.  For iron-on transfers you need to flip the image so that it will turn out facing the same way on the garment as the original image.

Iron-on transfer sheets can be bought at almost any local craft store, even some general stores, and will come with their instructions.  They're very simple.  After printing the images onto a sheet, I had to cut them out and iron them (surprised??) onto the onesies.

I am so happy with the way the onesies turned out!  I cannot wait for little Bug to wear them!

And since I was at it...might as well make them in "bulk".