DIY Fall Wreath Ideas

I have so many half completed projects around this house, so I'm thinking of starting another one.  Sounds like a good idea, right?  I've been eyeing some wreaths out in blogland.  I'm really digging the argyle ones, they are so cute.  I guess we'll see what I come up with.

1.  Home Stories A 2 Z
2.  Craft O Maniac
3.  Stelabird
4.  yellow mums
5.  ItzFitz's Etsy Shop
6.  East Coast Mommy
7.  Shanty 2 Chic
8.  Tiffany Zajas Photography
9.  Johnny + June

New York!

I feel like the whole month of August was devoted to vacation.  There's the planning and packing before, then the actual trip and then some need recovery time after.  I arrived back home about 5:00 p.m. Sunday and am finally starting to feel human again.  I am looking forward to Saturday morning when I can sleep in!  I'm not sure why I get a second wind around 9:00 p.m. every night...it is really not helping with trying to catch up on sleep!  I wanted to share a few vacation pictures with you (of course this is just a preview as I have now narrowed down my collection to just under 2,000).

We stayed out late every night.  New York is most definitely the city that never sleeps!  It was so crazy to see all the crowds that are out around the clock.  Our hotel was a few blocks from Times Square, so we had the pleasure of walking through this every night.

The Empire State Building is so incredible to see in person.  Actually, the whole cityscape was simply breathtaking. 

I am so glad we decided to walk across both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges (this is a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge)!  The bridge itself was amazing and the views were just awesome!

More to come soon!

Guestroom Redo

The guestroom is officially painted!  It feels so good to be done with that painting project.  The walls, ceiling, trim and windows all received a fresh coat of paint.

Here's a few pictures of the room before the paint.

This room quickly became the catch all.  We essentially had wall to wall furniture, because anything that didn't have a home ended up in that room.  I hope we're not the only ones with a room like this.

Yep-every square inch of extra space was filled with furniture.

We had these blinds in both the master and the guestroom.  While they were very practical, they were not so pretty.

When we first moved in this room was red.  The previous owner hit the ceiling with red paint, but didn't fix it.  When we painted the room beige, we thought it would be a good idea to put some white paint over the red marks...brilliant idea...apparently there are all sorts of shades of white-duh!  Not such a great look going on...

The blinds are gone and everything has a nice fresh, clean coat of paint.

I have been looking high and low for orange accents, but have been having a heck of a time finding anything.  I think I will be making curtains, a throw and painting accents orange.  It seems like every time I have an idea in my head, there is nothing that I can simply buy in stores.  Oh well, guess I'll be getting creative!

Guest Bedroom Inspiration

I've been collecting pictures of rooms that I'm drawn to.  They all have one thing in common...

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light blue/green walls.  Apparently, we will be painting the guestroom a light blue/green.  I still haven't decided which color I will be using as an accent color, but I'm kind of leaning towards orange.  I love the bold orange against the soft seafoam green.  I currently don't have any orange in the house, so I'm sure it will take some time to collect some orange accents...I'm seeing a trip to the thrift store and some spray paint in my near future.

The plan as of today is to paint the guestroom this Saturday.  We're hoping to buy the paint Thursday night, tape Friday and paint Saturday!  Maybe if I'm feeling productive, I'll get at least a coat of primer on all the furniture that is awaiting a make-over in the garage.  Do you ever wish you could freeze time and just finish projects, because I sure do.

Which color combination is your favorite?

{DIY} tissue paper pompom flowers

I posted last weekend about the hubs graduating with his MBA and the small party we had for him here.  I have made these tissue paper pompom flowers in the past and love them!  They can make a bold statement (if you use bold colors), or they can add a simple touch (if you use softer colors).  Since his school colors are maroon and gray, I really wanted to find matching tissue paper.  I was able to find some silver tissue paper, but maroon paper was nowhere to be found.  I ended up picking up this glittery paper from the dollar store...not exactly what I had in mind, but it worked.

Of course, my mom found a whole pack of maroon tissue paper at the local grocery store.  I knew someone would find it at the most random location.  I tried the party store, Target, Wal-Mart and the local drug stores...so it wasn't for a lack of trying.

Supplies needed:

• Tissue paper
• Scissors
• Floral wire (I have also used paperclips and they worked great)

I used three sheets of tissue paper, which makes a pretty generous sized flower.

I cut my three sheets of tissue paper in half.  I just eye-balled it...you don't need to be exact.

Then, folded it accordion style, like I was making a fan.

Once I had my paper folded, I secured some wire around the middle.  This doesn't need to be perfect, because you won't see it once it's complete.

I then cut both ends to a pattern of my choosing.  

I pulled the top layers in towards the center and the bottom layers towards the center on the other side.  I repeated on the other side (the left side in the picture).  Adjust and fluff until they reach the desired look you want.

I have seen these used at both baby and bridal showers.  I even saw them used as flowers in a bridal bouquet.  They are so pretty and so inexpensive.  I used one package of tissue paper from the dollar store, which made five flowers.  

Linking up here:

http://myfavoritefinds.blogspot.com/

Wedding Favorites

I've been sitting in Panera working away on some wedding photos.  I saw the rise and fall of the lunch crowd and left just before the dinner rush.  I had to laugh at a conversation I overheard.  From a group of teenage girls across the way, I could hear one talking about how much her parents have been driving her nuts.  She was going on and on about how much nerve her dad had-he actually woke her up at 10:30 a.m. today.  She went on to explain that he really wanted to play golf with her and she just couldn't believe he would wake her up so early and then want to go play golf.  Oh, I wonder what conversations I had about my parents when I was 16 and who overheard them.  Regardless of the chatting (or ranting) of those around me, I'm making some good process.

Here's a few of my favorites so far...

This last one is a five generation ring shot.  The smallest hand is the bride's daughter.  When the bride was proposed to, her daughter was also proposed to-she even got a ring.  Pretty cute, huh?

I just love ring photos.  I love how much of a story can be told with such a small object.

I'm excited to put the finishing touches on these photographs, so I can move on to editing some family portraits I took the other day.  Maybe that will be my project for tomorrow.

Party! Party! Party!

The hubs graduated with his MBA last weekend (read about that here).  After his ceremony we had a small family party back at my parent's house.  What's a party without the details...

I measured the labels that were on the water bottles and replaced them with ones I designed.

After I got all the labels on, I realized the blue caps looked a little silly.  Next time I make these, I'll make sure to get a water bottle with white caps.

To assemble these, I just used a piece of packing tape to secure the two ends.  I was going to use a piece all the way around the label, but it didn't work.  It was impossible not to get little bubbles and to keep everything straight.  We kept the bottles in the fridge, so getting the label wet wasn't an issue.

There can be no party until there's sweets!  By the way, maroon and gray are the worst school colors ever.  Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find anything in those colors?!  Plus, the lady at the bakery thought I was completely insane when I asked to have gray icing...she had to ask me if I was sure I really wanted gray icing.  The hubs insisted on chocolate frosting on some of the cupcakes, so since it was his party I entertained that idea.

To make the cupcakes a little more special, I designed and printed cupcake flags. 



I glued together the design side (the part pictured) and the backing, which was just a solid maroon circle to a toothpick.  Pretty straight forward, but it adds a little special touch.

I cheated a little to keep things simple.  I used the same design for the cupcake flags and labels for the cups.  I printed the cup labels on 8.5x11 sticker paper, which is available at any print shop (I went to Office Max).  It's a little hard to tell, but the straws are also maroon.  I searched all over this town for anything maroon and gray.  I ended up finding these straws at Michael's dollar aisle for half off-score!  I also found these gray (even though the packaging says silver...we're going to go with gray) cups at Michael's as well.  Everything else ended up coming from the party store, which I was trying to avoid because their stuff is so expensive.  I think the schools and party stores are in cahoots with selecting school colors that can only be found at the party store...I wonder how much of a kick back the schools are getting from these party stores (have I mentioned my irriatation with the lack of maroon and gray party supplies)?

I wanted a simple centerpiece and loved the results I got with my spray painted mason jars, so I ran to the thrift store and picked up some jars.  I grabbed the only three that were the same height and gave them two coats of paint.  Since maroon is a fall color, finding maroon flowers in the middle of the summer proved to be no easy task.  I did place a special order for these dark red carnations.  Not exactly what I had in mind, but they worked okay.



I redid this poster design five times before I settled on this design quickly whipped up this poster.  Did you know you can print a 36x24 poster in black and white at Office Max for under $4.00!? 

Check out my tutorial here to learn how to make those cool pompom flowers.

I also made signs for the food, but forgot to take pictures of them.  My dad did tease me about this and pointed out to everyone that in case they aren't sure what things are, I had made signs....he clearly didn't understand the method to my madness.

I'll wrap up this post with a few pictures taking during the ceremony, because I'm not sure what else to do with them.

Ooooo ahhhh!

Have you thrown any parties lately?  What details have you made special?



Linking up here:
http://myfavoritefinds.blogspot.com/