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. 

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: Card Crafting

How quickly a month goes by.  Definitely faster after the baby is born, than when you're waiting for the baby to come...  Making sure I don't take any of it for granted. 

Below are a few birthday cards I made and am posting for inspiration.  New idea: use an old unwanted book to cut a shape out of, color and add to your card.  It's a different twist and gives the card more detail without a lot of time or effort.

Paper Crafting: Wedding Scrapbook

One of my favorite pastimes is paper crafting.  Mostly that means making cards and home decor, but occasionally I venture into scrapbooking.  For our wedding pictures I wanted something more personal than just an album printed by an online company (although I think those are really neat too); I wanted it to be more special and meaningful.  I wanted to put as much of our personality into a picture book as I could.  So out came the mountain of craft supplies.

A lot of the little touches that I put on each page are handmade.  But some of the sweet little extras I picked up at Hobby Lobby, along with the paper.  I love Hobby Lobby; you might say I'm addicted.  And the great thing about it is that if it's not on sale this week, it probably will be next week.  I got most everything at about 50% off.  A way to save money and tie the whole album together is to pick out just a couple extras (such as stickers) and then spread them across several pages. 

Our beautiful wedding pictures were taken by Evangeline Renee.  As you can tell from the sub-par pictures below, I'm still learning to use my camera...