OH LA LACE

This lace covered wire hanger is so pretty. Perfect way to beautify a space to hang your way too many pretty jewels. Cherie {who is my ultra chic Vancouverite cousin}  ... this feels like a project for you! That is if you can even find an old wire hanger in your place but the thrift store will have one for sure :) 

{A LITTLE RAIN CAN BE PRETTY TOO}

Are these little mobiles not especially perfect for the West Coats inhibitor? I LOVE this Whimsical Rain Cloud Mobile for a child's nursery handmade by The Butter Flying! You can find these adorable little creations on her Etsy shop! It's no wonder I pounced right to the blushy pink powdery shades {insert eyeroll here} but it looks like she absolutely takes custom orders. Like the very last photo ~ a lovely jewel toned custom piece with a star & moon accent, headed to Australia to sit above an equally lovely little sleeping babe. I absolutely want one when it comes time to need one ... these are just so unique and so delicate looking. Perhaps even an olive green, grey and white for a boy? Check out her designs in the above Etsy link. I encourage you to poke around at other Etsy shops too ... there are some extra unique pieces out there for you and for your home, just like these :)

I do hope the rain can stay a away a little just for the weekend perhaps ... I have plenty planned and I'd love to wear sandals and fun dress for most of it if at all possible ;) It's Ryder's Second Birthday this weekend so I'm really excited to go snap a few action shots of him diving into his cake, tearing open gifts and being gushed at by a house full of people that love him. I've probably mentioned it before but in case I haven't Ryder is my best friend, Laura's, son. Along with Ryder's Birthday, it's mine and Ben's One Year Wedding Anniversary. All I can is time flies ... it's been an amazing first year and I think we grew taller not only together but individually. It was a big year for both of us in terms of careers and accomplishments and I've enjoyed being able to focus and spend the time together just him and I. For all those inquiring with love ;) ... Ben and I both absolutely want to start a family. However, we are both so very much wanting to have a few things pegged down before we do. So that's what we're doing :) We've got a plan. We're planners and it works for us right now. We're feeling like the harder we work to get our careers in order, the better of a position we'll be in. I know we've told a few people our plan and they say to us "you'll never be ready though!" I can appreciate the thought but I KNOW we can be a little more ready than we currently are, in terms of a home especially. That's number one for both Ben and I ... a home. I do feel like we've made this place our home in many ways, but it's not actually ours and I think both of us would thrive in a space that we can do what we want with. That's our story and we're stickin to it ;) Enjoy today, rain and all friends because it can be kinda pretty too!

Design Tip!

I was doing my morning blog reads, having a big glass of cold water and a jam packed smoothie when I came across a fabulous little party decor tip this morning! Hopefully this means today is going to be a great day! ;) Because I usually always use some type of backdrop for a main party table (a table that might hold your food/drinks/decor/whatever else), this little tid bit might make it so much easier and maybe a little more fun.

Next time you need something to use as a backdrop maybe try happily spending twenty something dollars on a pretty SHOWER CURTAIN rather than fabric that might cost you quite a bit more. Shower curtains are actually much wider than the standard fabric width therefore they will give you more coverage than a piece of fabric might. Also, the fact that shower curtains already have loops for hanging is a bonus PLUS they're already hemmed at a handy length. Try places like London Drugs, Target, Zellers, Walmart or if you're local try Fabricland - the one here in Courtenay have the best choices for pretty patterns (like this garden flower shower curtain in the photos below which was found at Target). I'm gunna try it!

xoxo

{photos courtesy of hostess with the mostess blog}

Bebe Reveal Party!

My little bestie, Courtenay, is having a baby! When she first told us that they were going to find out BOY or GIRL, I threw the idea out there about maybe having a little party for them to reveal to our group of friends if we are all going to have a new baby niece OR nephew! I won't reveal  the verdict because there are lots of people who know her and read my blog too (which I love) although I, personally,  want the news to be hers to share. We had a pretty even amount on "team" boy and "team" girl! We had anyone who thought GIRL wear something GREY and anyone who predicted BOY wear something GREEN. Courtenay was hoping to go for a woodsy, owl theme regardless of the babies gender so I decided to kick start it off with this little party too. I used my wedding chalkboards (but painted them a light, uneven cream color which I've been wanting to do since our wedding). And of course I had to make some paper poms. They're so simple and they can really add a huge presence of color and shape to your main party area. I like to have a "party area" - is that ridiculous or smart?! I'm still not sure. I like to think it's smart though for a few reasons. One is that you have less of an area to decorate, therefore, less money, less time and of course sometimes less is more. The second reason is that it seems to look more complete, rather than having random decorations sprawled through out the course of a few rooms. I know there are times when it's much more appropriate to decorate in more than one room or a few spaces for a specific event and I've done that before too. Although, this is just a good way to do things if you're hoping to make a big impact with all the "less's" that I mentioned previously.

 I have quite a few baby items around here anyhow because of my two little nephews so I thought I'd use a few pieces, string them on twine with wooden clothespins and voila! The white knitted booties were actually my Dad's from when he was first born. My Grandma passed them onto my sister and she recently passed them off to me for when the time comes that I'd like them. I showed them to my Dad today and he barely believed me - I had to bust out a special card that was with them along with the rest of the outfit! The last photo below of the fabric banner is the banner I made for Court to take home. Hopefully it's a good addition to the start of her baby nursery.

I just have to say that I feel so strongly about loving and embracing people who mean something to you whether they are your biological family or not. While I have two nephews of my own who mean more to me than I can express, I feel like when your very close friends have children of their own (like a few of ours/mine have), it's another little life to love as part of your family. I guess what I'm saying is that the biological aspect of "family" isn't defining to me and I'm sure that when the day comes for Ben and I to extend our family, our very close friends will love our babes just the same. Hopefully you are still awake after reading all of this. Whoever and wherever you are though, thanks so much for listening, xo!

Our Christmas Tree!

Although I hate to admit it, we did consider not putting up a tree this year (shame, shame, I know). Not for any other reason but the fact that we knew this year it was going to be a super low key holiday and my entire immediate family was going to be in different corners of the world for the first time ever. While my Dad has unfortunately had to be away for work for I think one, or maybe two Chirstmas' in the past, we have always had our Mom around. My Dad is away in Africa working this turn around and doesn't return until January, and my younger brother is in Japan in the middle of his student exchange this year. My Mom decided to go with our Aunt and Uncle and their kids to Disneyland for the holidays (and a visit out to see her and my Uncle's Dad, which I'm so happy for her to have the opportunity to do). My Mom is feeling sad about leaving for the holidays but we all know that this is what's best for her this year (even though she may not agree). She likely won't get the chance to do it again as our family continues to grow and the babies will definitely be old enough to realize their "Gamma" isn't here next year! ;) In saying all that, this is still our first Christmas completely apart from our parents, all three of us. It's just my sister and I here together this season, although, she has her own amazing family of four now to celebrate with. I gratefully have Ben's family who I consider my own and we'll be celebrating with them. A side note to Mom, Dad, & Chayse - Casey & I will miss you! Although, one Christmas apart won't erase all the memories we've shared together over the holidays in the past, we  promise ;) Plus, we know we don't have to physically be together to remember how much we all love each other. We'll see you on skype Christmas morning!

To make a short story long ... I told Ben that while I originally "didn't see much point" to setting up a tree and decorating, "it doesn't matter to me how much work it is to decorate for the holidays, or get and set up the tree. It's only once a year and for me, the memories that we make doing it are worth the work". It's not Ben's style to steer away from something just because it's inconvenient (thankfully because there isn't a whole ton in life that is convenient) and it's definitely not mine. So Ben turned on the original Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on t.v and we decorated. It was exactly the night I had planned. Here is our tree. We both LOVE it this year more than we ever have! Next year I WILL learn to sew well enough to make simple stockings out of burlap. I hope to get more creative and more adventurous each year. So far, so good! 

DIY Scrabble Piece Ornaments

Try this! Such a simple way to personalize some of your tree ornaments. It feels a little rustic, yet modern enough to fit the style of most homes. You may be totally into scrabble {no judgement, lol} and therefore you may not want to dissemble your set so instead you can check local thrift stores for old scrabble games.This might be a fun little project to do with your kids - let them choose some words that remind them of Christmas, like brr, grinch, cheer or hohoho! {images via mysweetsavannah}.

What you'll need:

* Scrabble pieces

* Glue gun
*Scrabble trays
* Hand/Chop Saw or something to cut the scrabble trays to fit your chosen words

Simply choose your word and line it up on the scrabble tray. Mark the ending of the words with a pencil and then cut the tray to the marked size. Next, glue your letters in place. If you chose to hang them on the tree, you can use a small drill bit to drill two holes in the top middle area of each tray. To make it extra pretty {cuz I know we like it that way}, use a candy cane striped red and white ribbon to hang or something that coordinates with your tree ornaments. VOILA!

P.S. For the record, I love scrabble.
P.S.S. I would use this idea for other occasions/crafts as well. Maybe thanksgiving or a dinner, as part of a centerpiece or at a child's birthday party on the table, spelling out the child's name and age or even as labels for your food and drinks at any party. 

Pretty Christmas Ideas!

Cute Christmas ideas huh! If I don't get my bum in gear here, the holidays will end up flying by me and I won't have any trace to prove that they even existed this year around our house. All of our decorations are tucked way too deep into our jam packed storage space so it's a massive job for Ben to get them out for us. I love, love, love this cupcake liner Christmas tree wall design and I think it would be perfectly adorable in our place this year. SO I'm going to get to it as soon as I'm done this week of last semester madness. I know I've been slacking on the blog posts lately. Although once December is through, it's off to Mayan Rivera first then no more school, therefore more time for enjoy my hobbies in my free time. It's been so busy the past few months that we have barely seen our families and we all live in the same town!! It's an awful feeling really ... so I'm very much looking forward to the holidays this year when we can all catch up. 

Lastly you NEED to check out this very pretty, very simple and fun idea ... DIY Snow Scene Jars from Rhonna Designs!  I cannot wait to try these. I hope very much that I can pull it off this year but either way, it's another inspiration found to use at another time if not. I would love for someone to try this out and let me know how it goes!!

Halloween Party - the stuff!

I love this spooky font I found at dafont.com. I think it's called 'A Lolita Scorned'. I download new fonts way too often I'm sure. Downloading new fonts for your computer is super easy. For anyone who might be unsure of how to do it, I'd be happy to fill you in so just ask. I used music paper to print my words on. I picked up a few old music books at the Salvation Army months ago and they've come in handy more than once. Whenever I wonder to myself "where the heck am I gonna get that from", I head to the thrift. Just when you think you can't find it, you usually will. I glued the words to small paper bags I had left over from a wedding project. I glued each bag to the twine and tada - a suiting Halloween banner! I painted all my pumpkins white and I decided to try out a little 'pumpkin art'. Next year, I'm going to try and be a little more creative. I baked vanilla cupcakes and decorated them with messy brain like icing and added three little bloody bone candies. I also baked my cakepops but as I suspected, the white chocolate was almost too sweet. I'm not a fan of white chocolate so I didn't eat any, but that was the word on the street. I spray painted sticks from our vine outside black and used them in a vase with little spiders hiding in them. The mustaches were a hit and they suited the party perfectly. I had to make a last minute run to Fabricland to scope out their scrap sales to see if I could find a fitting black piece of fabric to use for the table cloth and I did! It was $10, lace, black and somewhat sheer, and it was the perfect size for our little table. I used a white sheer fabric to cover the windows and had light purple colored lace pieces and silver balls strung randomly across of it. Ok, that's PRETTY much it.