Obsessing over this.
(Seriously good ideas. What I would do to have an ounce of their creativity!)

Snacking on this.

(I finally tried it and all I can say is death by cookie butter is how I wanna go one day.)

Buying this entire line.

(This planner was just $7.99 at Target and it's perfection. The outside was blank so I just slapped on a glittery monogram from Etsy and then my planner-loving heart just about burst.)

Listening to this.

(I'm going real old school here, well, because I can. And because I'm Morrissey-obsessed.)

Downloading this.
(I look forward to Sarah Hearts' ridiculously pretty wallpapers every month!)

high five for FRIDAY!

 

1. There's some not so awesome stuff going on in my personal life (NOTHING to do with Ronnie, things are great there :) and it's turned me into a weepy, grouchy mess so I'm taking a break from Twitter and Facebook. And you know what? I'm actually pretty happy without them (for now).

 

2. Remember we were going to cancel cable? Well I called Time Warner and I . got . swindled. Totally felt like this after the swindling too. But how could I say no when they knocked our cable/Internet bundle down $25 AND upgraded our Internet? Ronnie seems to think it's should've been real easy to say no - it wasn't. I guess we'll just have to keep cable another month ;)

3. Ronnie made these Roasted Chickpeas last night and all three of us LOVED them. I'm not sure what recipe he used but they're all pretty similar, this one looks close enough. Ronnie just changed it up and used some different spices, it's really all about what flavor you want anyway.

4. I am so in love with this newbie toddler stage and wish I could just freeze time. She is just so silly and fun and learning all sorts of new stuff. Hangers and junk mail are her favorite "toys" lately.

5. I've been obsessing over embroidery hoops for a while and I could easily just buy one of the many on Etsy but I'm thinking crazy thoughts and have decided to make one! I mean, I just freed up a whole bunch of time just with quitting Twitter alone! Has anyone seen an tutorial that's pretty easy to understand - say, Embroidery Hoops for Dummies? Please send it my way or send me your own tips!

Linking up for the first time with Lauren, love her blog!

 

Happy Friday, friends :)

Easy Peasy Christmas DIY Ideas

I'm totally cheating today and re-posting something I wrote as a guest post for Lauren recently. I'm not sure if many of y'all saw it so I thought I'd share it here! 

But first I gotta tell you, I did one DIY project the weekend of Thanksgiving and sure, it was the easiest thing ever (even so, I'll post a quick tutorial soon!) but I basically felt like a god - dang rock star when it was done. Can you believe I'm FINALLY BEING CRAFTY, Y'ALL!? :) Lindsay's DIY post today totally inspired me for my next project too; her glittery ornaments are the cutest! And who doesn't love glitter with no mess?! 

Read on and let me know if you'd try any of these! Or tell me what your next DIY project is ;)

So I don't know about you but I feel like everyone in blog land has become Martha Stewart since Pinterest was invented and I, for one, am totally jealous! Where was I when the crafty gene was being handed out?! Either I missed out or I am just seriously lazy. (But that sounds bad so I'm gonna blame the baby for now, ok? Sorry, Violet.)

I figure the only way to turn things around is to start small. So today I'm sharing some of the easiest Christmas DIY projects eh-ver. So easy even I could pull them off. And I fully intend to. Pinky swear! Plus, Ronnie called me out for talking a big game on my blog about wanting to DIY and never following through so I kinda have to prove him wrong. 

My favorite thing about these projects is that you won't even have to step away from the TV and/or bottle of wine to get these done! What's not to love about that?

Ornaments in a shadow box. 
Oh, I can soooo do this.

DIY Sparkle Garland.
Bring on the glitter!

Hang ornaments and blingy things on fishing line.
FISHING LINE, y'all. DONE.

Spray paint wine bottles then spray on craft adhesive then roll in Epsom salt.
Then drink some more wine.

Place sticker monograms onto an ornament and give as a gift.
I'm pretty sure my 8 9 month old can do this.

Turn paint strips into gift tags.
E-Z and you'll basically look like a genius.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Happy Thursday!

P.S.
I linked up my birth story over at Michelle's blog, for those of you who might be interested in that kinda stuff ;)

Easiest DIY e-v-e-r

Y'all, I am dying to be crafty. One of my first ever DIY projects was my preggo skeleton shirt from last Halloween and that nearly killed me. I blame my attention to detail and the need for everything to be neat, straight, perfect...and if it's not, I feel like I might literally explode from the stress. Having said that, I know I need to start small before I get into the serious projects! And this one is obviously super simple and something I'm sure many of you have done before. But humor me, I was excited that I actually pulled it off!

This was a super last minute idea, done Sunday before my sister's going away party! I had already put together a little care package for her that included some make-up, candy, etc. but I also wanted to give her some framed quotes for her desk. At first I wanted them to be inspirational but then I figured they just needed to be sassy and cute like her :)

So by just Google'ing "free inspirational printables" and searching through Images, I found a few that I just loved (among MANY others!) and even though I only planned to do 2, I found 3 just to be on the safe side. You know, in case I screwed up something at the last minute. These were the three I chose:

 1. // 2. // 3.

I didn't have any card stock at home but I did have this postcard stock which is only 4 1/4"x5 1/2" so I knew I was in for it since I wanted to put them in 4"x6" frames. But I went for it anyway, I kinda had no choice ;) Our printer isn't of the highest quality either but I knew it would get the job done. See? 

I just opened up Microsoft Word, used the template for this size postcard and pasted the images in. I printed the pink card on a seperate sheet because that was at the point when I decided I should have a backup.

At this point we're already running late to the party but we made a quick stop at Target for frames. This is where I found the PERFECT set. Four frames for just $5.99! The set came with two black frames (just what I needed!) and one silver and one white. Major score.

Crappy picture of one of the frames but you get the idea.

When it came to framing the pictures, since the size was off, I had to cut the sides down to 4" to fit. As for the other end being only 5 1/2" that meant I was left with empty space at both the top and bottom. I didn't have any black paper with me (this was being done in the car! Agh!) so I grabbed the next best thing - pink tissue paper! Since I was going to be wrapping this gift in the car, I had some extra.

So I framed the silhouette image, put pink tissue paper behind it and voila! Next came the turquoise print and I didn't like the way it looked but luckily, Jessica had prepared for a situation like this! ;) I had a back up! So I popped the cupcake print into the frame, placed some tissue paper behind it and DONE.

All pictures were taken with my cell and I kept getting a glare no matter where I took the picture but again, you get the idea. They weren't perfect by any means but for a last minute project, I think they came out pretty cute!

Besides, my sister loved them and that's really all that matters :)

This project cost me just $5.99, the price of the frames, since I already had the printer paper and the tissue paper. Of course, the printables were free. Plus I get to keep the two extra frames for myself. Major score!

Not half bad for a last minute, done in the car DIY project, no? ;)

Planning a budget = tons o fun

Apparently having 2 incomes in our household means nothing when planning a wedding. We got engaged and I was (still am :) excited about it but was immediately brought back to reality when I looked at how little (if any) extra money we would have to spend on this shindig. So my mom offered to use her and my dad's money to do this for us. She said they've always wanted to do this and it made me SO happy. See, most people expect that from a parent but I don't expect that from parents who have their own financial struggles and I especially don't expect them to do this for a couple who's already lived together for almost 3 years! But my mom was adament that they would do this for us and I couldn't be more grateful for them. But then she started to talk numbers. I was afraid of the numbers. So she finally laid out the budget to me: $10-12,000.

Whoa. It's like we hit the lottery! That's a ton of money!

But not in the wedding world.

I've been requesting quotes from different venues and caterers and stuff is coming out to half our budget. Just for the venue. . . I am SO nervous about really pulling this off. I have the ideas - the colors, venue, food...But somehow it's always ruined when I think of $$$$$$$.

I'm pretty flipping stressed as to how I'm going to find a place that's affordable to rent for the ceremony/reception and about finding affordable yet tasty catering for 250-300 people. Oh yeah, did I mention that's how long our guest list is? I have the big Mexican family and Ronnie's family is a decent size + our friends = a whole lot of craziness and people to feed! So yeah, this is going to be tough.

Stress is not a good start when we've only just begun the planning but I have a feeling I'm quickly going to turn into a DIY bride!!