St. Patty's Day Clothing Inspiration

I'm not much of partaker in the whole Saint Patrick's Day thing.  I don't decorate, I don't drink green beer, and I'm certainly not Irish.  However, that doesn't mean that I don't believe in the little tradition that is wearing green for St. Patty's to avoid being pinched!  If you're in need of some inspiring ways to incorporate the Pantone Color of the Year, you're in luck today! (Click pics for link.)

I love adding a bright punch of color to denim or chambray to dress it up and take it to the next level.  This green skirt and chambray shirt are a perfect combination!

Going out for St. Patty's?  How about an emerald dress?  Pair it with a blazer for work during the day...

These green skinnies are a perfect balance to the neutral top and shoes.  I love this look but don't know that I could pull it off... what do you think?

An assymetrical green cardigan looks great when paired with black and dark denim.

I pinned this look ages ago and have yet to be confident enough to try it.  I adore everything about it - the green blazer, the ripped jeans and heels.  ADORE!

If you're not quite ready for the big green commitment, how about some emerald accessories?

Yes please to all three for me!  Keep those Irish eyes smiling and those pinching fingers away!!

Will you be wearing green for St. Patty's this year?

Creating with the Stars–Will you Help Me?

I’m sure most of you know about Creating with the Stars, an awesome event where DIY bloggers are paired up with Super-DIY bloggers to craft, create, and be awesome!  Totally last minute, I submitted my Aqua Tea Tray Makeover for consideration as one of the 12 contestants.

This is where I need your help!  The first 11 contestants are chosen by the creative panel, but lucky number 12 will be chosen based on which submission link has the most views.  I would really appreciate it if you would head on over to the submission link-up and click on #358 – that’s me!!

Creating with the Stars

{My Home} Blue and Yellow Guest Bath

This is the first of (I hope) many posts to come about the spaces in my home; most of the rooms are in 75% mode, meaning I accomplished about 75% of what I had intended before jumping ship to start on another project (please tell me you can relate).  I wish I’d had the foresight to take photos of the guest bath when we first bought our house – it had a mixture of dark painted wallpaper and a brown paper bag wall treatment that made the room feel a little claustrophobic since it is a narrow bathroom.  Narrow bathroom also translates to: "very-difficult-to-get-a-good-photograph bathroom, so bear with me.

After removing the wallpaper and paper bag cement, the walls were textured and repainted in Martha Stewart Enamelware.  It’s the perfect shade of soft blue and really helped lighten up the room.

Behind the door is a great built-in cabinet for linens and a hamper.  The original orange-y oak cabinetry was restained a dark walnut color to more closely match the plantation shutter. (Don’t be jealous of my brass door handle circa 1990s.)

Since replacing the existing faux marble wasn’t in our budget, we made do and decided to just update the (brass) fixtures with oil-rubbed bronze.  It was a small improvement but a huge impact if you’d seen what was there before.  I hope to add cabinet hardware soon…

 

A vintage turquoise McCoy planter keeps washcloths at the ready, and mason jars corral toothbrushes and toothpaste.

I still have more that I’d like to do in this room, but those ideas will come to fruition in time.  My home décor budget is not extravagant so we just make do around here until then.  Some of the things I have planned in this little head of mine:

Add Cabinet Hardware

Repaint Trim

Add Shelves above toilet

Replace faux marble and tile floor

That’s not too long of a list, right?

Linking here:

Savvy Southern Style
Jennifer Rizzo
Tuesday's Treasures
Craftberry Bush
Design, Dining, and Diapers
Crafty, Scrappy, Happy
Miss Mustard Seed
Tatertots and Jello
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Transformation Thursday
It's Overflowing
The 36th Avenue
The Sunday Showcase

Girls’ Camping Birthday Party

My oldest turned eight years old this past weekend, and we celebrated by having her first slumber party with some of her very best friends.  The theme?  Camping!

I purchased the most adorable camping party printables from Lillian Hope Designs.  The party kit came with a custom invite, custom signs, banners, tags, printed paper… the works!  I’ve done the whole theme-decoration-thing from a party store before, and I think this is the way to go every time.  I love that it’s customized and that I can print it at home, rather than having the same old thing that every one else has and having to find a store with every item you want in stock.

I set up a simple sweets tablescape in our dining area.  (See the cute banner?!)  With such a small group of girls, I didn’t see the need to go overboard so I kept it simple with some trail mix, chocolate-dipped marshmallows, and some color-coordinated Sixlets.

The trail mix was made by mixing chex mix with some M-n-Ms (I got lucky by finding Easter M-n-Ms at the store since the colors matched perfectly) – the mix was spooned into canisters as party favors. The little jar canisters were found at Hobby Lobby during a 50% off glass sale so this was super-cheap.  I attached the printable Thank You tags with pink Divine Twine that I had in my stash, and called it done!

Of course, we also had a pretty cool cake, courtesy of this idea from Hostess with the Mostest.

The girls were fascinated with the fact that it was entirely edible except for the sign…

After cake, it was time for a little camping craft time: the girls made S’mores necklace charms from polymer clay.  This was a surprisingly easy craft activity – I led the girls step-by-step while my sister helped them keep the charms to scale (these are tiny).  I attached the jewelry hardware after baking, placed the charms on a necklace cord, and put them in their goody bags for the next morning.

They turned out really cute, and the girls had fun making them.  It was also a nice introduction to the evening’s final activity: outdoor movie and real S’mores!

We hung a white sheet from our outdoor pergola and borrowed a movie projector for this fun event.  The pergola is by our outdoor fireplace, so the girls snuggled up together on a couch around the fire, sang a little “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, and ate S’mores to their hearts’ content.

Following all of this fun was about two and a half hours of the girls talking, switching sleeping spots, and waking me up until they finally fell asleep a little after 1 am.  Oy.  It took a loooooot of coffee the next morning to make me a little bit more pleasant after the exhaustion from the night before.

By 10:30 the next morning the girls had all been picked up, most of the house had been picked up, and we were all ready to curl up for a little nap (okay, maybe just me, but whatever).  It was all worth it to hear “This was the BEST PARTY EVER mom!” from this sweet girl…

She followed that quickly with “I want the same kind of party next year too!” – Of course she does.

Have you guys hosted a slumber party yet?  Any tips for making them sleep?!

Antibes Green Side Table Makeover

In addition to nearly every other room in my home, I’m working on a room makeover for my youngest daughter, one that allows a bit more of her personality to be infused into the space.  (Which may or may not be a good thing…)  Since starting kinder this past fall, she’s been waking up like a big girl to an alarm in the morning – I thought it was high time she had a side table so she wouldn’t have to get out of bed to turn off her alarm (or annoy her older sister while she lay under her covers, ignoring the constant beeping).  Rather than go buy one, I shopped my home and found this:

I actually bought this for her nursery way  back when *sob* to hold toys and books but it made its way out of her room during one of our moves.  It’s not bad as is, but it was a little too cream for a room with white walls and a white bed – not anymore, however…

Say hello to Antibes Green, another fabulous color of the famous Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

The original finish was a distressed cream color.  I wanted to have some of that peeking through so I used a watered-down “wash” of the green on the side cutout panels and the top rim.  I used two full-strength coats on the rest of the piece to really make the green pop.

The blogger in me wanted to completely stage this table, but I decided instead to keep it exactly how my baby girl likes it.  She was quite excited to set up her “new” table with all of her necessities: lamp, alarm clock, handmade clay bowl from art class, special books, and of course, a bright orange Furby.  She’s really a fun age right now and makes my heart smile.

In case you’re wondering about said room makeover, it’s a work in progress as is every makeover in the home.made. home right now.  Little by little, I’m knocking out my project lists though so hang in there.  Here’s a sneak peek just because I love ya…

Hope you have a fantastic weekend… we’ll be celebrating my oldest turning 8! *weep*  Where does the time go?

Linking up here:

Savvy Southern Style
Jennifer Rizzo
Tuesday's Treasures
Craftberry Bush
Design, Dining, and Diapers
Crafty, Scrappy, Happy
Miss Mustard Seed
Tatertots and Jello
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Transformation Thursday
It's Overflowing
The 36th Avenue
The Sunday Showcase

Last Minute Valentine's Gifts

In case you've been missing all of the blog posts and pins... Valentine's Day is coming up, like, tomorrow!  And just in case you're in need of a last minute gift for a special someone, you're in luck.  Here is a collection of great ideas for last minute gifts that are sure to win your sweetie's heart!

I adore this idea from Lucy at Craftberry Bush for a gift of a beautiful bulb.

Fill this jar with all of the reasons you love him... or her.

Here's another jar concept, but one filled with date ideas for the year!

How about start off the day with a Cupid-inspired breakfast, complete with a heart shaped egg inside toast?!

Or send them to work with these sweet little raspberry bites... yum.

Lastly, you can't go wrong with a love letter - nothing is sweeter than being able to read sweet words over and over again from the love of your life.

Are you ready for Valentine's Day??

{Giveaway Winner}–Clay Bunting Necklace

We had a whopping five entries for this little giveaway (five very smart people, I might add), but there could only be one winner and she is…

Jenny Grohmann!!

Jenny just so happens to be the owner of those Paint-Dipped Camp Stools from this past summer!  I’ll be sending you a FB message soon – congratulations!

Spray Painted Door Mat

We’ve had some crazy warm weather in South Texas lately – it was in the upper 70s this past weekend and gorgeous!  Like most of you, when the weather gets all “spring-y”, I get the urge to spruce up things outdoors… so I did just that!  I added a few fresh touches to my front entry – starting with a Spray Painted Door Mat!

In it’s former life, my front door mat looked a little like this:

I know, not exactly terrible, but also not exactly me.  I wanted something a little more fun to welcome my guests so I did what any DIY gal would – I grabbed some spray paint and got to work!  After a coat of primer, I taped off a little message in the corner with some Frog Tape.

    

A couple of coats of a sunny yellow color later, and my front door offers a cheery welcome to my home!

Are you ready for spring like me?!

LInking up here: 
Savvy Southern Style 
Jennifer Rizzo 
Tuesday's Treasures 
Craftberry Bush 
Design, Dining, and Diapers 
Crafty, Scrappy, Happy 
Miss Mustard Seed 
Tatertots and Jello 
Be Different Act Normal 
I Heart Naptime 
Transformation Thursday 
It's Overflowing 
The 36th Avenue 
The Sunday Showcase

French Dresser Makeover

Part of my slowly-evolving bedroom makeover began with this dresser…

It’s the companion piece to the Chevron Side Table that I redid for my office area.  I actually stalked Craigslist for this type of dresser for a while and was so lucky to find both pieces for $75.  My sweet hubby made the trek to pick these up after working one day.  He’s a keeper ;).
Here she is now, all dressed up and in her new home…

I painted this dresser in Annie Sloan French Linen, a lovely color that is the perfect combination of beige and gray.  I love the way the color morphs between light and dark depending on the amount of light in the room

I liked the original hardware (and didn’t want to spend money on replacing nine handles), so I gave them a good cleaning and reinstalled.  This is a traditional French provincial piece, and I want it to look as such, so the flourish hardware remained.

I also did not distress this piece (at least not yet).  I used the same chalk paint technique that I used on the Curio Transformation and the Nautical Aubusson Blue Desk to achieve a smooth, even color.  I did run into some trouble with the laminate top.  My second coat of chalk paint started pulling up the first coat (pretty sure it was due to humidity), so I sanded the top to rough it up a bit and then had no problem after that. 

I’m still slowly finishing up the details of my bedroom makeover… it takes time when you’re on a budget, you know?  You can see some glimpses in these photos if you look closely: new wall and trim paint, new curtains… now I just need to commit to some wall art.  Anyone else have trouble with that part of decorating or is it just me?
I have a couple more projects in the works in addition to the bedroom makeover, so stay tuned.  Coming up later this week: a fun little spruce up to my front entry, inspired by the gorgeous weather we’ve been having in Texas lately.
Have a great week!

LInking up here:
Savvy Southern Style
Jennifer Rizzo
Tuesday's Treasures
Craftberry Bush
Design, Dining, and Diapers
Crafty, Scrappy, Happy
Miss Mustard Seed
Tatertots and Jello
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Transformation Thursday
It's Overflowing
The 36th Avenue
The Sunday Showcase

Groundhog Day Food Ideas

First D.J.: Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today.
Second D.J.: It's coooold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach?
First D.J.: Not hardly. And you know, you can expect hazardous travel later today with that, you know, that, uh, that blizzard thing.
Second D.J.: That blizzard - thing. That blizzard - thing. Oh, well, here's the report! The National Weather Service is calling for a "big blizzard thing!"
First D.J.: Yessss, they are. But you know, there's another reason why today is especially exciting.
Second D.J.: Especially cold!
First D.J.: Especially cold, okay, but the big question on everybody's lips...
Second D.J.: - On their chapped lips...
First D.J.: - On their chapped lips, right: Do ya think Phil is gonna come out and see his shadow?
Second D.J.: Punxsutawney Phil!
First D.J.: Thats right, woodchuck-chuckers - it's
[in unison]
Both: GROUNDHOG DAY!

Tell me I’m not the only one who quotes this movie every year!  Come on, woodchuck-chuckers… you know you do too!
I thought it’d be fun to break up the Valentine hoopla a bit and celebrate the infamous Groundhog Day, when a sweet little furball predicts when spring will finally show its face.  (Although in Texas, that really doesn’t apply considering it was eighty degrees this week!)
Here are some super cute food ideas to welcome Punxsutawney Phil!

If you are a supermom, you’ll make this super cute Groundhog bento lunch from Lunchbox Limbo.

Your kiddos will love warming up with this Groundhog Day cocoa from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.

Here’s a sweet little Groundhog pudding snack from Little Paper House.

Whodathunk?  A Groundhog Baked Potato dinner!  From Smith, Party of 5.

I adore these Groundhog Donuts from Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons.  Peek-a-boo Phil!

And finally… Groundhog Day push-up pops from Sweetology.  I die from the cuteness!

Here’s wishing you a happy Groundhog Day, and may your day be wonderful (just in case you have to repeat it over and over again ;))!