My sister Janci is going to be the maid of honor in her best friend Jordy’s wedding, and last weekend she hosted a bridal shower for her. Janci and Jordy have been best friends for as long as I can remember (and they are almost 4 years younger than me), and on top of that, Jordy is marrying Patrick, whom they were also best friends with in high school. Jordy and Patrick are both so genuinely kind and fun, and I am so happy for them!
Jordy and Janci
I love designing invitations and it had been a while since I’ve had a creative project that wasn’t work related, so I was pumped when my sister asked me if I could help out. They chose a cactus theme and I had so much fun trying out different ideas. I downloaded the free original vector images here and then of course made some adjustments to the colors and structure to get the look I wanted.
The shower was a brunch in my parents yard and they had a waffle bar!
The day was pretty busy (they had to account from some rain), but my sister did snag a few pictures for me to share. She did a wonderful job pulling it all together!
Jordy with her mom and mother-in-law to be. Both families are also family friends of ours. Both of Jordy’s parents are teachers that I had in school and Patrick’s parents are really involved in our county fair.
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I am pretty bummed that I won’t be able to make it home in September for the wedding. I love that as adults, your sibling’s friends can become your friends too 🙂 Thanks Jordy, for letting me share this on the blog! And congratulations to you and Patrick!
Jordy and I a few years ago celebrating her and Janci’s 21st birthday’s in Vegas!
I have never done much for Christmas decorations in my own home so far, and since moving into my new (and very small) apartment this year, finally getting a tree was still out of the question.
I do have a nice windowsill abobe my air unit where I normally display a few picture frames, and it has been way too long since I have had a creative project to work on, so I decided that I would utilize the space for a little decor.
When I first moved in, I built a entertainment center/shelving unit out of 2×12’s (I think?) and cinder blocks, and had a few extra pieces left after the boards were cut for length
I put two coats of regular acrylic paint on the board and let it dry.
Note to self: Do not try to FaceTime with your sister and work on a painting project, when you do not have the proper space to do the project in the first place. It is a miracle I did not get paint anywhere it was not supposed to be besides my arm.
When I went to Michael’s for paint, I saw this flat wooden tree and broke my rule of only going in to get paint… luckily it was not too spendy. While the board dried, I painted this and alternated each row with red and bronze.
This was the after photo for step one. I took the smaller brush that I used on the tree and did not clean it out so that there would still be some of the drying, clumpy red paint in it, which seemed to help with the uneven brush strokes. I used a dark grey that I already had and the same bronze paint. After I had made some of the bigger strokes I wiped the brush off and continued to dry brush back and forth over the color that I had just applied,
While the board dried again I switched back over to the tree, which was now dry (after two coats) and applied these rhinestone stickers along the seam of each layer. The nice part was that the rhinestones were grouped together in strips, which is great because there is no way that I have the patience to apply each of those individually. I got them in the sticker section at Michael’s.
Moving back over to the board, my next step was to take sandpaper to it. I varied the types of strokes I made and the pressure to get the look that I wanted.
The final step for the tree was to wrap this garland from Michael’s around it. I tacked it with glue in about four spots to that I could get everything to hang just right. As you can see I could technically hang it on the wall somewhere but it is doing just fine propped up on the windowsill.
The final part of the other project was to glue the ornaments to the board. I saw these ornaments at Target a few weeks ago and fell in love, which essentially inspired me to go ahead and do a little decorating. I just took all of their hangers off and used tacky glue to secure them on.
And here is the final look! The two little ferns are from Trader Joe’s and Frosty came from my family’s store in Oregon a few years ago.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I feel a bit silly saying that considering that we have had spring weather here for two weeks or so now and then had a cold front come through on the actual first of day of spring.
Thank you, Mother Nature.
Fall is my favorite season overall, but my love for flowers, sunshine, summer nights and all things warm weather related knows no end. The first day that it was 70 degrees here, I was so happy, and if my mother didn’t already know that the change of the season make me a little loopy then she probably would have thought I was on something.
Once again, I was happy with how everything came together and turned out. My co-workers are still amused that I put so much effort into this, but I think they are starting to understand that I need my office space to be put together and cheery for me to feel comfortable and productive. And I’ve said it before, but creative projects like this is a therapy outlet for me. Now if only my wallet would feel the same way!
This display sits on top of my bookshelf. The glass terrarium is the same one from Michael’s that I bought for my winter display. I was really struggling with how I could use it again for these seasons until I was actually back at the store in the aisle I had first found it and was reminded of what a terrarium actually is. After picking out the layers to fill it with I ended up planning the rest of the decorations and flowers for the wreath around the rich color scheme. The turquoise chalkboard sign was a find from the $3 dollar bins at the Target and the purple lantern was another random find at Michael’s that was just too cute not to add.
When I first moved into my own office anddecorated for fall (see that post here), I really only did so because fall is my favorite season and I thought the decorations would go well with the burlap wreath I had just made. But then my co-workers asked if I planned on switching it out for each holiday or season, and I suddenly realized I had somewhat unintentionally committed .
I don’t mind though, I mean decorated and doing things like this are kind of in my blood. Plus, when people come off the elevator into our lobby they can see straight into my office so I like that they have something nice to see.
I decided though that planning to change things out for each holiday just wasn’t practical, so for the most part, I have settled on the seasons.
I STILL haven’t finished organizing my shelf or hanging up some of my regular stuff, but winter has officially arrived in my office!
To make my decorations last through February I tried to focus on the winter season instead of just the holidays. For being 25 years old I have a bit of an obsession with the character Olaf from Frozen. I would like to clarify though, that I did not buy him for myself. Last year before Christmas, I kept sending pictures to my Mom of all of the giant stuffed Olaf’s I saw in the store or mentioned on Facebook, and joked that it was too bad that I was WAY too old to have one. So, of course this more practical sized Olaf found his way to my stocking. Anyway, after brainstorming what kind of theme I wanted to go with for my decorations, snowmen, blues and golds just seemed like the perfect fit.
This display sits on one corner of my U-shaped desk. The table top tree and the couple of snowmen ornaments are actually mine from when I was a kid. (Thanks for sending them Mom!) The ball ornaments that you see here, as well as in the picture below in the terrarium and the wreath are all from Target. The tree skirt is actually a  small table runner from, also from Target. I originally bought the gold sticks as ornaments, but they overwhelmed the little tree so I stole the mason jar that I stash my makeup brushes in at home, and problem solved!
I realize the tree is still more of a Christmas decoration so I’ll have to eventually decide if it is going to come down much sooner than everything else.
This display sits on top of my bookshelf. The little evergreen “tree” is from Trader Joes (only $4!) and the sign is from Target (only $3!) The glass terrarium is from Michael’s, along with the smaller fillers. After growing up in a flower shop I should have known better than to buy so many things covered in glitter. I guess for some reason I didn’t think these silks would shed as much. But no, they did. MY OFFICE WAS COVERED. It’s a good thing I’m a pro at cleaning it up and that’s not something you typically get fired for.
IÂ spent the first six months at my new job sharing an office with one of my colleagues.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually didn’t mind that much and in many ways, since she had only started 4 months ahead of me, it was a great way to learn the job and get to know her.
But a few weeks ago we were able to shuffle around and now I have my own office, and I have to admit, I really missed having my own space. I’m a true believer that creating a space that supports your habits, personality and creativity is important for balance and staying motivated.
The silks, wooden pumpkin and tin vase are from Michaels and the other pumpkins are all from Target. Everything is new this year. I’m really disappointed that the closest Hobby Lobby is over an hour away from me, but Michaels’ always has things super marked down, which is great because I have trouble staying away.
This is my other fall display sitting on top of my bookshelf. The pumpkin container I’ve had for a few years from a birthday flower arrangement my parents sent and the small wire pumpkins I found in the $3 bins that sit in the front of the store at Target. The DIY wreath is my favorite though! I have wanted to make one for quite a while now and was planning on it this past winter, until my big move happened.
To make it I used this tutorial:
The tutorial is pretty thorough, but I did have to re-watch a couple of times and re-did my first section a few times before I got the pattern of it down. The video said to use wire to first attach the burlap and that is what I had planned on using…until I forgot it in the shopping cart at the store. Even though I was going back the next day, I was impatient to get started and used safety pins to secure it instead and that seemed to work fine.
I made mine on a 24-inch frame and used 4, 10-yard rolls of burlap that was 4 inches wide.
One of my friends back in Oregon already has plans for me to make her one when I visit for Christmas and one of my co-workers wants to pay me to make one for his home’s entry way. He then proceeded to make sure that everyone in our office had stopped by my office to see it.
In my family’s group text the conversation went like this:
Grampy: “Where did you buy that?”
Me: “I made it.”
Grampy: “Really? Outstanding… you must have grown up in a flower shop.”
Me: “Yeah, I guess I learned a thing or two.”
I’ve been pretty crafty over the last couple of months, so I thought I would share.
Really, all of the baking on Pinterest makes me feel inadequate, so I had to compensate somehow.
1. Hanging Wooden “O” Monogram
My childhood best friend Richole up and got herself hitched last summer to Dustin Osbourne, and right away they moved into a new home. They didn’t have much to start decorating with so I went ahead and helped out.
I painted this medium-sized wooden letter that I got from Hobby Lobby and embellished with lots of fun bling, that I also I got from the holy ground.
(i.e. Hobby Lobby.)
I made these ones for my best friend Megan’s birthday, who recently did a new bedspread and color scheme for her bedroom. I used a tequila bottle and two different wine bottles, and all of the accessories are from Hobby Lobby. One fun thing I found was that instead of buying individual twine string, it also comes in a ribbon that looks like you used individual strands. For the paint I used acrylic. Now there may be more preferable kinds of paint to use on glass, but I like that acrylic is fast-drying (I’m an extremely impatient person) and I particularly like the texture that it leaves. You may not be able to see in the picture, but I also used metallic colored silver and gold sharpies to add some final detailing.
4. Purple and Blue Painted Bottles
So I lied. THESE were technically my first bottle project, but I didn’t decorate them like the ones above, so they don’t count, right?
Anyways, I painted these when I moved into a new place last year and got a new bed spread set. I already had the skinny blue bottle (on the bottom right) and the mosaic vase (on the bottom left) and decided to build my look around them. Again, I used acrylic paints and the few embellishments were random decorative things that I already had. As for as the bottles go… well there’s a little bit of everything up there 🙂
I’ve been wanting to do something with wine corks for a while, and have been religiously saving my stash for the right project. Now I kept and used my broken ones because 1. I like how they look and 2. I’m really bad at removing the cork perfectly. Like the “O” I got this large-sized wooden letter at Hobby Lobby. I was making this one at home in Oregon over my holiday break to I access to my family flower shop and their “library” of spray paint. For this I used a matte black for the front and then lined all of the edges in metallic gold. All of the button embellishments came from Hobby Lobby, but all of the rest came from the odds and ends drawer at our shop. This was a Christmas present for my uncle Josh and Sonia, and the future home they is searching for.
The Good Stuff 