3 hours ago
Showing posts with label DIY Attempts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY Attempts. Show all posts
When the air gets crisp in the fall, and the leaves start to drop from the trees, I always insist we go on some sort of fall hike. I enjoy the family time, I enjoy getting out in nature, I enjoy taking pretty pictures with the autumn colors.
But mostly I like the smell.
The main kind of deciduous tree we have in our mountains is the aspen tree, so I can't testify whether every tree produces the same type of spicy, woodsy smell that aspen leaves do when they fall. But I do know one thing - that is close to the top of my list of favorite scents in the whole world.
I always said if I could bottle that scent up, I'd be a happy lady. Well, a few years back I stumbled a scent mixture that, while not exact, is pretty close to my favorite fall-leaves-on-the-ground scent.
I had actually used a Bath and Body Works aromatherapy lotion, and then rolled on a little of a thieves essential oil blend. When I sniffed my wrists, I couldn't believe it! It was shockingly close to the scent you get when you clomp through a grove of aspen trees and disturb the fallen leaves. Success!
Anyway, ever since then, this combination has been my favorite scent to diffuse in the fall.
Aspen Leaves Essential Oil Blend
2 drops Bergamot essential oil
2 drops Orange essential oil
2 drops Germ Fighter blend (or any traditional thieves blend)
Fill your diffuser with water, and the above quantities of essential oils, and enjoy the spicy/woodsy scent that fills your room!
Disclaimer: I am not a big essential oil enthusiast, I just like to use them for air freshening in certain areas of my house. I make no medicinal claims of any kind. If you are pregnant or have young kids or pets in the house, be aware that not all essential oils are considered safe for everyone. Several oils in typical "thieves" type blends may not be recommended for kids under 6. Do your research and use your good judgement!
I've been itching to share the rest of our Christmas decorations for the year 2016, mainly because this was an overhaul year!
I've had the same Christmas decorations since the first year we got married (back in the good ole blogging days, I'd do a post every year showing you the same decorations), but this year I decided to get some new festive decor. I got a lot of new furniture and decorations this year to go with our house renovation, wanting to finally get this place fully decorated and settle in - and some of those decorations would just clash with my old Christmas stuff.
You might have seen our new kitchen table on Instagram (follow my account for family stuff here), and if you did you might remember that the chairs are aqua. And I love them, so much. And our kitchen curtains are yellow stripes. I wasn't sure how I'd like red sparkles with aqua and yellow, and I didn't want to hide my kitchen chairs and curtains every year in order to decorate for Christmas. So we got some new stuff and put the red decorations downstairs.
For upstairs I was going for a colorful feel, minus the red...so we have various shades of blue, green, white, brown, and gold! I like how it turned out - it feel Christmasy but our touches of Christmas still kind of go with our regular color scheme.
I have the lights on white for these pictures, but we splurged and got new LED lights for the trees this year - and they can change to any color we want! I'm surprised to find my favorite is actually the multi-color. I thought I was a white-light person, but the colors on this string are really nice and the kids like them best too.
This year when we dug our decorations out of the shed, we also found that a mouse had nested in our tree! Gross! So we had to purchase a new tree. It was an expensive Christmas decoration year.
You might also remember our Advent calendar, personally crafted by Derek's brother and his wife! I love it so much. It used to be wood, but this year I decided to paint it white because I had this vision of how white would go with our other decorations and set off the jars. I love the way it turned out. I'm going to share more about our Advent next week.
This year I kept seeing these adorable garlands - they are twine, with little furry white snowballs spaced along them. I love the way they look, but we already way overshot our Christmas budget this year with the tree problems, so I just made my own version. All it cost me was $3 for the yarn! I made big white pom-poms and tied them along some twine I already had. This yarn pom pom tutorial shows you the basic method, but I used my whole hand instead of a fork. Maybe someday I'll get the furry garland, but this one has the same feel and was way less expensive!
The dining room is my winter wonderland themed area. When I uttered the words "winter wonderland", Derek nixed it and wouldn't let me do it all over the house, but this is my little wonderland corner. I got the trees and deer from Hobby Lobby, the marquee star from Target last year, and the crochet centerpiece was a wedding present from a sweet lady at the church where I grew up.
My favorite part is that I finally got a manger scene! We never had one before this year, and when I saw one I liked at Hobby Lobby I had to snag it. There is something about this one that I really like, and I'm glad to have the true reason we celebrate front and center this year.
Have you done a Christmas decor post this year? Comment below because I want to check it out!
P.S. THANK YOU to all who commented on my old-fashioned blogging post! I am so excited to know there are so many of you still out there who like that kind of blogging, and I have to tell you, I'm already excited about pounding out something random this next Tuesday. It's been a while since I looked forward to writing a post like that - it's freeing to plan something that is NOT pinnable! So I hope you won't think I'm going back on what I said by including the pins below. I'll still just include pins when something happens to be pinnable, but I'm going to not let my whole focus be Pinterest either, as it too often is for bloggers these days. Because sheesh, social media seems to be a necessary tool that also has a way of sucking the fun out of blogging. Do you know what I mean?
Last year at this time my husband and I were dead-set on moving.
He had just started a new job a few months before, and was also working on his master's degree. We were thinking that it wold be nice to be a little closer to his work so that he could make it home earlier in the evening, and honestly, I was just ready for a change. We have been in this house since we got married, and it just felt like it wasn't an ideal fit for our family anymore. My wishlist was for a house closer to work, closer to our church, and that had a little more space for our family.
I have been dying to create a gallery wall for several years, and I'm not sure what has been stopping me. I think I was unsure of what wall I could use - we had a large blank wall in our empty downstairs living room, but it seemed silly to decorate that wall without getting some furniture first. So I convinced myself I couldn't start yet, and I have been sitting on the gallery wall idea ever since.
Last summer I started dabbling in painting in watercolors. I took oil painting lessons when I was younger, but that was about 20 years ago, and I had never tried watercolors before. For some reason, maybe inspired by the recent watercolor trends, I decided to give it a try.
It's not something I do every day, or even every month, but every now and then when the inspiration strikes, I'll pull out my watercolors and pencils and see what I come up with. It's a fun way to be creative and a little artsy, and you don't even have to be good at drawing. It's just as fun to slap some paint on the paper in splotches and see how it looks when translucent layers dry over each other.
Overall, I feel like watercolors are a really easy medium to get started in - you don't need a lot of fancy supplies - you don't even have to do much research. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a basic watercolor kit, and some watercolor paper, and that was that. But if you are thinking about trying watercolors as a hobby, and you need an extra little boost to get you started, I have some resources for your inspiration!
You know how at baseball games, they play a song for each baseball player as they go up to bat? The songs the players pick for themselves? Usually they are some intense song that is supposed to say something about who the player is.
When Derek and I went to our first baseball game together, he told me that if he was a baseball player, his song would be "The Rubber Ducky Song".
You know, "Rubber Ducky, you're the one! You make bath time, so much fun!"
He'd rather make people laugh than try to be some big, tough guy. I kind of love that about him.
But what were we talking about? Rubber duckies. Somehow, when I thought of Clyde's first birthday, rubber duckies kept coming to mind. And when I was working on Clyde's first birthday invitations, the rubber ducky song was playing through my head.
Excuse the long intro, but if you don't know Derek, or don't know the "Rubber Ducky" song, you wouldn't get these invitations.
I've made almost all of our party invitations myself, and today I wanted to share a simple little tutorial for these first birthday invitations.
Materials:
Blank notecards
Coordinating scrapbook paper (about 1 sheet per 15 invitations)
Word processing program and printer
Washi tape
Modge Podge
1. To start, I created a document with all of our party information on it. I created mine in Photoshop Elements, so I could add the stripe border, but you could also do this in a regular word processor program. For this invite I used the fonts Return To Sender, KG Somebody That I Used To Know, and Notera.
2. Print the party invite papers, and also a paper with the number "1" in a large font (I used Allstar font in 244 pt).
3. Cut out the number "1", and trace it onto your scrapbook paper. Cut it out, and repeat for your number of invitations. Cut out the party invitation information into rectangles that will fit inside your notecards.
4. Tape the information to the inside of each card with wash tape.
5. Use the Modge Podge to glue the numbers onto the outside of your cards. Cover with a thin layer of Modge Podge to seal (it will dry clear, but use matte Modge Podge so there isn't an obvious shine).
And you're done! I have a terrible time finding party invitations that go with the themes that I pick, and if I do, they are often expensive. I love making my own invitations because it is easy to really personalize them to my own party theme!
Ideas for making invitations that will match your theme seamlessly?
1. Think about the colors you will be using for the party, and incorporate them into your invitations.
2. Add wording to go with your party theme. If you are using a specific theme, it's nice to give your guests a heads up of what to expect!
3. Add cutouts or confetti to the inside of your invitations that will match your colors or theme. I was thinking of adding little rubber ducky cutouts to the inside of these invites, but I ran out of time.
4. Finish them off well - add a strip of washi tape, a sticker or envelope seal, or a little hand-drawing to the back of your invitations before you drop them in the mail!
Have you ever made your own party invitations? I'd love to hear how you went about it!
Check back soon to see how Clyde's rubber ducky first birthday party turns out!
When Derek and I went to our first baseball game together, he told me that if he was a baseball player, his song would be "The Rubber Ducky Song".
You know, "Rubber Ducky, you're the one! You make bath time, so much fun!"
He'd rather make people laugh than try to be some big, tough guy. I kind of love that about him.
But what were we talking about? Rubber duckies. Somehow, when I thought of Clyde's first birthday, rubber duckies kept coming to mind. And when I was working on Clyde's first birthday invitations, the rubber ducky song was playing through my head.
Excuse the long intro, but if you don't know Derek, or don't know the "Rubber Ducky" song, you wouldn't get these invitations.
I've made almost all of our party invitations myself, and today I wanted to share a simple little tutorial for these first birthday invitations.
Blank notecards
Coordinating scrapbook paper (about 1 sheet per 15 invitations)
Word processing program and printer
Washi tape
Modge Podge
1. To start, I created a document with all of our party information on it. I created mine in Photoshop Elements, so I could add the stripe border, but you could also do this in a regular word processor program. For this invite I used the fonts Return To Sender, KG Somebody That I Used To Know, and Notera.
2. Print the party invite papers, and also a paper with the number "1" in a large font (I used Allstar font in 244 pt).
3. Cut out the number "1", and trace it onto your scrapbook paper. Cut it out, and repeat for your number of invitations. Cut out the party invitation information into rectangles that will fit inside your notecards.
4. Tape the information to the inside of each card with wash tape.
5. Use the Modge Podge to glue the numbers onto the outside of your cards. Cover with a thin layer of Modge Podge to seal (it will dry clear, but use matte Modge Podge so there isn't an obvious shine).
And you're done! I have a terrible time finding party invitations that go with the themes that I pick, and if I do, they are often expensive. I love making my own invitations because it is easy to really personalize them to my own party theme!
Ideas for making invitations that will match your theme seamlessly?
1. Think about the colors you will be using for the party, and incorporate them into your invitations.
2. Add wording to go with your party theme. If you are using a specific theme, it's nice to give your guests a heads up of what to expect!
3. Add cutouts or confetti to the inside of your invitations that will match your colors or theme. I was thinking of adding little rubber ducky cutouts to the inside of these invites, but I ran out of time.
4. Finish them off well - add a strip of washi tape, a sticker or envelope seal, or a little hand-drawing to the back of your invitations before you drop them in the mail!
Have you ever made your own party invitations? I'd love to hear how you went about it!
Check back soon to see how Clyde's rubber ducky first birthday party turns out!
One of my goals for the New Year was to try my hand at some hand lettering. It is not something I am naturally good at, but I do think it is something that can improve with practice. So I looked up some websites, and ordered a couple books, and I've been playing with lettering here and there.
One book I was so excited to have the opportunity to review was DIY Type by Dana Tanamachi. This isn't a traditional book - it consists of a couple chapters and then is filled with stencils for you to use in your own DIY type experiments! Probably 90% of the book is stencils, including a capital letter alphabet, a small letter alphabet, and some decorative stencils.
Even though there is just one real chapter with instructions, there are definitely a lot of fun ideas packed in that one chapter. From monogrammed t-shirts to birthday cakes, there are many fun ideas in these pages to get your creativity flowing. I also really liked how Tanamachi includes some basic ideas for how to embellish your letters to give them that hand-lettered feel, even when using a stencil. I never would have thought of a lot of the embellishments, but they look easy to do.
I decided to test one of the stencils out and make a "G" for Gwen's room - I just doodled a bunch of flowers inside my letter outline. The only thing I wished I hadn't done was that I bent the paper because I didn't want to take the stencil out of the book yet - and the letter turned out pretty cute, so I wish I had just taken the stencil out! Maybe I'll just have to make another one.
My plans for the stencils in this book include a birthday banner for Wyatt that I'll be making this weekend…and I might try some of the other ideas in this book, like the personalized notebooks. I think there are a lot of great gift ideas in here!
If you like the hand-lettered look that is popular now, this book is probably a great place to start!
Note: I received this book for free from Blogging For Books in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
It is officially fall! Like so many people, fall is my favorite time of year, and I just feel like it is worthy of some type of celebration. This is the first year in two years that we haven't had some type of baby-related celebration to plan in the fall, so I was itching to do some kind of gathering. I decided to throw a party, and the start of Autumn was a good enough reason for me!
I have a lot of fun planning our parties and figuring out how to make it cute without spending a ton of money. I have to say, this was probably the easiest party we've had when it came to planning and decorating, because I had so many items already. I think simple touches add a lot to a party atmosphere and help to make it memorable.
Without further ado, here are the pictures of our party.
I like sending out invitations to our parties. It makes it seem more official to me. I don't know about you, but I am much more likely to attend a gathering if I get an invitation in the mail, as opposed to email. That's just me. So I almost always send out paper invites.
I made these invitations myself. Several years ago I bought a couple boxes of plain colored cards and envelopes from Target, and that purchase has served me so well - I make so many invitations just from the cards in those boxes! For these invitations, I created a graphic in Photoshop and had it printed up at Staples (I think it cost five dollars or so). Then I cut it out to fit into the colored envelopes I had, and sealed the envelopes with some fun wash tape.
I kept the decorations really easy for this party.
-I bought some fake leaves from Hobby Lobby for a few dollars and hung them from the light fixtures with thread.
-I got some paper straws - they are fairly cheap and so festive! I stuck them in a mason jar and tied some raffia around it with a scrapbook-paper leaf cutout.
-I made a leaf banner using scrapbook paper, double-sided tape, and glitter (using this glitter method). The banner took the most time, but I did it with the kids, so it doubled as a fun craft activity!
-I lit some of my fall scented candles.
-The apples doubled as an activity for the party and a decoration.
-I made labels for the food and activities (see below) using our printer, scrapbook paper, and some of the notecards from the Target notecard box.
I've come to realize that I go a little overboard on food for my parties - but it's better to have too much than too little, right? We called this party a "fall barbecue", so for the main meal we had burgers and brats - then I made a few other goodies.
-Pumpkin Fluff Dip. Oh my goodness, this was so good. We used the dip with apples and crackers, and it tasted great. I think I am going to have to make this one again before the fall is over - the picky eater in the family, who shall remain nameless, actually ate apple slices with this dip. It's a winner.
-Pumpkin Blondies. I thought this recipe was really weird (no baking soda or baking powder - what?), but the bars actually turned out really well.
-Leaf chocolates. My own experiment, using Candiquick, flavoring, and leaf-shaped candy mold. I thought they tasted good, but I didn't have any red food coloring when I made them, so I was bummed I didn't get to make any orange leaves. Oh well.
-Candy Corn Fudge. I used a white chocolate fudge recipe that I have had for years, and I just split up the batch into three bowls and added food coloring. The idea is to layer the different colors like candy corn, but I realized I should have let the layers set a bit first before mixing. It ended up having more of a marble effect, but I think everyone still got the idea.
-Pumpkin Pie Popcorn. Another experiment of mine, using brown sugar, coconut oil, and pumpkin pie spice. I liked it, but the recipe could use some tweaking before I share it.
My philosophy is that if I am inviting different people to my party who don't know each other, I should have something to break the ice and keep the guests busy. I don't want anyone to feel awkward, or as if there is nothing to do if they don't know the other guests. So we came up with some activity ideas - here is what we did:
-Caramel Apple Station. I hardly ever make caramel apples, so this was fun to me! I made it easy on myself and bought caramel apple wraps, and some nuts and chocolate chips to add to the outside of the apples. Bonus: the bowls of apples on my counters also added a nice decorative element!
-Candy Corn Guessing Game. The traditional game of guessing how many candy corn pieces were in the mason jar. Everyone wrote down their guesses, and the person with the closest guess received a prize ($5 Starbucks gift card - aren't those leaf gift cards cute?).
- Find The Pumpkins. I bought five mini pumpkins and hid them around our house, inside and outside. Once someone found all five pumpkins they wrote down the locations of each pumpkin and dropped their entry into a mason jar. Then I shook up the entries and picked a winner. I gave out another Starbucks card for a prize. Everyone who played had fun with this game, and it definitely kept the kids busy as well!
-----
As I said before, I think this was one of the easiest parties we've thrown! It all came together pretty seamlessly, and we planned ahead a bit more so we could just relax and visit when everyone arrived. I was really happy with the way everything turned out. A party doesn't have to be super elaborate or expensive to be festive and fun!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
