So happy it's spring

Like most Minnesotans, I have been loving the amazing weather we've been having this year. It's only March and all our snow is gone and we've had 70 degree days. Beautiful!

As I've said before, I don't typically decorate for every holiday or season. But one "decoration" I enjoy putting up is a wreath on the front of our home. It's quick, it's easy, and I like seeing it everyday as I come and go from home. 

I started using this twiggy wreath for Spring, Summer, and Fall and just switch out what I decorate it with. This Spring I chose to use some artificial purple hydrangeas that my mom purchased for use in my wedding. She made paper cones, filled them with these hydrangeas, looped ivory ribbon through a hole and hung on the chairs that lined the aisle at the ceremony. I loved them so much and had been thinking of a way to use the flowers another way. So this is what I did:

Happy Spring!

Craft Day

This past weekend my dear friend (S) hosted Craft Day and I was invited. The basics were that each lady brought a snack to share (I brought kettle corn made from hub's great recipe) and a craft to work on.

We had planned that I would get there a little early so we could take some maternity pics of S...and then I just got giddy over editing them that they really consumed most of my crafting time. Oh well. I did start on a cutey headband slide (more on that later, when it's actually complete).

So aside from the good food and crafty ideas, I got to meet some super fun ladies! And they were totally ok with me being a paparazzi...at least they seemed to be ok with it.

Good coffee ~ yummy monkey bread and tostadas ~ Wally ~ cream-cheese-jelly dip

M's cutey idea: felting a heart onto a sweater...rather it turned into a Pintrosity project :( 

hope she has better luck on try #2

me and my headband slide ~ S's humungo stack of coasters ~ S and her many completed projects

M and her felting ~ the materials for my headband slide ~ K's idea of craft day: painting her nails, uploading songs from her iPod and gin cocktails, I like her :)

Baby Sprinkle...Postponed

I know I referenced throwing a Baby Sprinkle for a dear friend of mine (p.s. it was called a Sprinkle instead of a Shower because this is her 2nd baby and apparently that's just what you do). It was originally scheduled for Sat 2/28, but then was moved back to this past Saturday 3/3. I was super excited as I've never hosted a baby shower before.

Because the daddy is a firefighter and they found out they are having a girl, I decided to design a Pink Firefighter theme'd party:

I LOVED finding firefighter-like items and turning everything pink! I found some other ideas from some other amazing party planners that I know and had so much fun creating a few other print-ables for the party but...

late Tuesday I checked my phone and realized I had 3 missed calls, 3 voicemails, and 2 texts...

they had been admitted to the hospital...

and weren't going to go home until the baby was born.

So the Sprinkle was postponed and will now be a Sprinkle/Meet and Greet the Baby...whenever she decides to make her debut. But they were only 32 weeks along when they were admitted so we're all hoping she decides to hang out in there a little longer.

So whenever the Meet and Greet is rescheduled I will have more exciting things to talk about, but for now I couldn't help but sharing the cutey invite I created :)

Besties Get Together

As I mentioned earlier there are 3 ladies with whom I get together at least every other month. And this month was scheduled to be at my house. I was so excited because it definitely gave me a reason to get my Christmas decorations up (the past few years here we've been in varied states of moving/remodeling and have never really decorated for Christmas).

So my wonderful mom came over in the mid-morning and helped not only decorate, but also finish cleaning my house. And I don't mean she simply helped unload the dishwasher (which I would've been perfectly happy with)...she mopped and then hand scrubbed our floors!!! See I said she was wonderful. And don't think that I was just sitting around while she was doing that, no I was painting our new entryway (more on that later).

So in a matter of a few hours we were able to finish cleaning, painted 1 coat in the entryway, and completely decorated the house.

This vase here was thrown together at the last minute, literally the last minute. I had purchased these cinnamon sticks and bits and glittery leaf things last year after Christmas (when everything at Michael's was like 99% off, which I love doing) and was waiting for this Christmas to do something with them. Well I hadn't thought of ideas and we were in the 11th hour (I think that's the saying) and I just opened the cinnamon bags and dumped them in this vase (that I had just washed and hadn't yet put back in the cupboard so it was literally in the drying rack) and then shoved 2 glittery leaf things down the sides and there you go: 30 second centerpiece!

And yes, I pulled out the Christmas wreath from last year but this year hung it on our new porch. I keep forgetting to take a picture because I just hurry into the house to get warm and then forget to go back out haha, but it looks the same as last year but with new ribbon on the top.

Home Additions

I found some things on Pinterest that I feel are must haves for our home:

a bench that will double as extra storage

a cutey way to hang up the puppy leashes (obviously a pic of our babies will be displayed)

And ever since our wedding (where we used monograms) I have been in love with monograms and think this would look really cute.

I love the idea of this glass-less frame above our headboard

And some other ideas that require some crafy-ness on my part but are just adorable:

Obviously I would use our babies silhouettes and likely not use pink (although I LOVE pink)

Tutu Time

I had made a tutu for my niece's 1st birthday and a friend of mine wanted one for her daughter who is starting dance classes so of course I had to make another one. And I love the colors she chose!

Quote of the Day

Recently sold all our wedding centerpieces, feeling a little nostalgic...

Christmas quilt

So this past Christmas both sides of our family decided to do a "present-less Christmas". This was decided for multiple reasons but the main reason was to help everyone save some money. Well there were some exceptions on both sides. On my family's side: we did Secret Santas for the pet babies! This is a tradition that we have been doing every year and I.LOVE.IT!


Puppies got their favorites: treats, from the "kitty cousins" (I've already stated that yes, I am that kind of pet person)

  

My sister's cat, Claude and his Christmas T and furry mice from Hank



My parents' cat, Lightening and his Christmas sweater :)

 Well the obvious exception on Matt's side was our neice. It was her 1st Christmas and there was no way I was going to not make something extra special! So I decided to make her a quilt after seeing specialty fabric found on etsy. Well I had never made a quilt before so I decided to enlist the help of my mom, who is amazing at sewing.



The fabric all cut and getting pieced together



see she has all the fancy tools



Me actually doing some of the work :)



I can sew, with lots of directions from mom



spraying to keep the front and back stuck to the backing



all pieced together



sewing the binding on with mom's handy gripper glove



front




back



Lillie on her Lillie quilt!

Wreaths

I have always liked decorating for different holidays and seasons, but aside from Christmas don't have many decorations for ALL of the holidays and seasons. One thing that I have been keeping up with is creating different wreaths for the front of our house:




I have always loved sunflowers, how big and bright they are is perfect for fall



After the snow started falling I realized I should probably switch out the sunflowers for some evergreen:


This weekend I decided to FINALLY pack up all of the winter decor and say buh-bye to the cold weather (at least that's what I'm hoping for). And what better way to say hello to spring than with bright colors and daisies?!?

One of the reasons I LOVE updating the wreaths is that they are so inexpensive! This daisy wreath for example: wreath $5.00 (with 50% off coupon), ribbon $1.00 (in clearance bin), flowers $3.00 (all Ashland flowers were 50% off this weekend); so for the cost of a trip to my local Michaels store and less than $10.00 I made a new decor that will last likely until September...unless I get the urge to change it up this summer.

Side note, everything is temporarily secured to the wreaths to help reuse the wreaths (ribbon is tied to branches, flowers are weaved between branches, thicker flower stems are secured with twisty ties).