So thrilled to be participating in the Hall Harvest Blog Hop with Abby from The Cards we Drew and about 75 other bloggers.
It’s not a secret that I love the wood cutouts at the craft store so I when I saw this wood pumpkin cutout I had to have it. I have to admit I was never a big fan of monogramming. I mean do you really need to have your pillows, your napkins, your bag, etc stating your initials? Of course with time things are changing I am starting to like the single letter monogramming.
I really wanted to do colors that would stand out on the black door. The perfect colors: orange and light gray with a touch of burlap.
The items needed for the craft:
Mask off the stripes if you are going that route. Do not be afraid to include the kids when doing this. My daughter had a blast.
DONE!
One of my daughter’s kindergarten assignments is to read 20 books each month. We already read a book a day with my daughter, but with lots of repeats and with the holidays coming I decided to create a themed list of books for us to be able to explore new books and to make it a little more fun.
I have found some great lists of book on the Internet. You can find some of my pins here that contain some of the lists, but I wanted to gather one that I know would interest my daughter. Plus it makes it easier for us to find books that we know are at the library or friends have them so we do not have to buy too many new ones. One of our traditions I to get our girls a new book of their choice every month.
The list for the month of October is going to be Fall and Halloween themed. Hope you enjoy it and please feel free to share some of your favorite children’s books in the comments. (I have provided links to each book but I am not affiliated with them, so no I do not get paid if you click on them).
Fancy Nancy and the Fall Foliage
Fancy Nancy: Halloween or Bust
The Legend of Spookly the Square Pumpkin
Happy Halloween Curious George
Sofia the First Halloween Ball
It’s the Great pumpkin Charlie Brown
The Little Old lady who wasn’t afraid of Anything
It is not a secret I love Pottery Barn but sadly I do not love their prices! I understand you pay for quality but even when “on sale” most of their items are overpriced. In some cases it’s pretty easy to knock off their items, for example banners, art work, and certain home décor items.
It was a love at first sight when I saw their “Trick or Treat” burlap banner at the store a month ago. When I saw the price I knew that I would be able to make one myself for the fraction of the cost. We are trying to become diligent with decorating our front porch and I knew this would be the perfect addition. No rain in Southern California means I can put practically anything outside.
It took me about an hour for the whole project (my favorite kind of projects). Here is what you need:
1/2 to 1 yard of burlap, depending on the size of the flags
Stencil for the flags
Marker/Scissors?Glue Gun or Fabric Glue
Paint
Twine
Since I am a visual person here are the instructions in photos:
Here is the comparison:
It is not a secret that fall comes to Southern California a lot later than the other states, but the heat has been very unbearable in the past few weeks. As I had mentioned a couple of days ago I am in the process of gathering and making items for my fall mantle. I have already done the rag banner and I am now adding an easy leaf artwork to the mix.
When I received my polka star stencil from Royal Studio’s for the playroom, I also received a small leaf stencil that I knew I wanted to use. As I had mentioned before I love their stencils but you can always print a left onto a paper and trace it onto the wood or get a similar stencil from the craft store.
For this project I used a scrap wood that I had from home. The size of the piece is 7.5” x 7.5”. I used some of my fall inspired colors for the sign and of course you can use colors that inspire you too. Below are the instructions.
You might remember my patriotic rag banner, if not you can see it here. For the past year I have been really loving the rag banner. It just gives that texture and added character to the mantle or the party table or even a room decoration, depending on where you use it. I am in the process of decorating my mantle for fall before switching it to Halloween in a couple of weeks, and decided to do another rag banner.
As I had said before what I love most about this project is that I can have it done in less than an hour. It’s a project that can be done while watching TV at night, watching the kids play, heck, they can even help you.
The instructions are easy: 1) Gather your fabric of choosing. 2) Cut it into strips in the width desired. 3) Fold the fabric strips and loop into the twine 4) Repeat with all the fabric strips in the pattern, fullness, and length of the banner desired. You are done!
Naked Cakes! That sounds dirty, doesn’t it? Yet, it is not! Naked Cakes lack the outside frosting and/or fondant and believe it or not are beautiful.
Naked cakes has been a trend that has been going on for the past year, but you can see more and more brides incorporating it in their weddings, You most likely will see these cakes in rustic set wedding or a garden themed birthday/bridal shower.
After searching Pinterest I can say I am more and more in love with these cakes!
Do you like them?
Tell me!
This was originally posted/featured in Everyday Party Magazine. I would like to share it here with you as well.
Celebrating Fourth of July as Independence Day has been something that I had to adjust to when I came to the United States seventeen years ago. Almost eleven years ago I met my husband during Fourth of July weekend and that’s how the holiday became a little more special to us.
It seems that every year Independence day is a low key celebration for my family. We usually spend the day swimming, visiting the local fair and later going see the fireworks. When it came to this styled shot I decided to do something that we would usually do: a last minute get together with things that we have around the home. As much as we love homemade food, when it comes to putting parties together at the very last minute my husband and I believe in the 70/30 rule: 70% store bought or made by someone else ; 30% homemade by us. In this instance everything in the dessert table was store bought and everything for the main course was homemade.
I decided to arrange the dessert table on a outside bench that my husband made for me. I love simple design and being able to bring items from inside the home. In this instance my big piece was the American flag that we painted and used for the focal point of the table. I have been told that there is noting more American than pies, popcorn, caramel apples and Coca Cola. I used apple, cherry and salted caramel apple pie along the traditional ice cream that I think should be part of any event during the summer.
For the main course we had pork ribs done by non other than my husband, orzo salad, corn on the cob, corn bread, fresh strawberries and chips and salsa. What I loved about the food is that everything was done in less than three hours. The table was dressed with fresh flowers placed in mason jars.
Fourth of July means to me to celebrating our freedom, spending time with family and friends and the official start of summer. Hope you have a great celebration this year!
I loved being a part of the Ultimate Red White and Blue Link Up Party and seeing what the other 109 bloggers came up with. Here is a round up of some of my favorite projects.
1. Stars and Stripes Paint Chip Bunting by One Krieger Chick
2. Land of the Free because of the Brave Free Print by The Contractor Chronicles
3. 4th of July Photo Booth Props by Capturing Joy with Kristen
4. Star Spangled Dessert by Giggles Gallore
5. Red White and Blue Painted Mason Jars by A Girl and a Glue Gun
6. Red White and Blue felt hairbows by Sugar Bee Crafts
In case you missed it here is the post with all the linked up projects. My project was the scrap fabric bunting.
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