The Ones You Love

(the makery)

I hope you all spent a wonderful Valentine's Day with the ones you love. I traipsed into the city to hang with my guy for a couple of days. I made my homemade Valentine's kind of at the last minute.  February creeped up on me somehow. My cards this year were VERY simple since I didn't have much time.  In fact, family members out of town will be getting theirs late. It's never too late to tell someone you love them, though, right?  Now, don't get me wrong, they hear it all the time from me.  I would show you said Valentine cards, but the photos are in my big camera that is still at the house.  It's a problem.  I'll have to show you in a couple of days. Does anybody out there make homemade Valentine's anymore?  Did you write a love letter to your sweetheart?  We went out to dinner and then our usual date spot, Barnes and Noble.  I saw this adorable wreath in the current Mollie Makes issue.  Very cute, isn't it? Should I dare say, plan ahead for next year? Nah, but I think I will "pin" it into my Valentine Board to keep track of it.  

Winter Decorating

Since this week is Valentine's week, I thought I'd show you my "winter" decorations before I change them. I have to pretend its winter, although it's fairly cool today here. I started with my little collection of ironstone pitchers.

I bought the little deer for a snow globe before Christmas.  This is where he ended up.

This is a photo of my girls and their daddy ice skating in our back yard when we lived in Massachusetts.

Hope you liked my little peek at winter.  I'll be adding some hearts to the mix this week.

Pretty Pendants

There has been a lot going on around here lately. I've been on jury duty for the last 4 weeks, which has been intense. Thank goodness that finished up today. There has been little going on at home during that time. On one day, however, our electrician put in our new pendant lamps. I won't go into why this decision was tricky, but choices were limited in order to get matching lights in the master bathroom.  

 I was going to stencil in the powder room but with all this reflection, I don't think it would look right.

Pretty don't you think? Thank you Restoration Hardware. 

P.S. I got them all on sale.  

Laundry Room Decorations

This is my lame attempt at making the clothes pin wreath I found on Pinterest.  Somehow it is NOT as easy as it looks.  It would also look much better on a pretty blue wall as in Kimba's laundry room. Here are her instructions.  I can just imagine pins popping off in the night.  I have no idea how she got them all to lay so perfectly.

Source: asoftplace.net via Karen on Pinterest

I decided to stop waiting for the perfect idea to come my way and just get these decorations up on the wall.  I am, you know, having a Super Bowl party and I'm just sure everyone's going to be in the laundry room. Well, having company coming does make me get things finished. I have a small, beginning collection of vintage dust pans.  Instead of waiting till there is the perfect number to make a lovely grid, I started with what I have.  Three.  That's it, three makes a collection, doesn't it? I use the tin box for my dryer sheets. The jar below if for laundry soap. Sorry the photo is so dark.  There is absolutely no time of the day when this room is bright.  So, this is about as good as it gets.

I'm also using my cute, old towel bar from Curious Sofa when she had a brick and mortar store. I sure do miss going there when visiting my parents in Kansas City. I still want to wallpaper or paint this room one day. I really love a Farrow and Ball wallpaper, but that's quite expensive for a laundry room. 

Wouldn't that be cute?

Paper Back Wreath

Sorry for the lack of posting lately.  Jury duty has recently waylaid any creative juices or distractions.  I've very slowly finished making a book page wreath for DD2's bedroom.

My daughter really liked her Christmas wreath we used above her night stand during the Holidays.  She wanted a non-holiday replacement.  So, I searched Pinterest, of course, and located several lovely options. She voted on this wreath by Living with Lindsay.

Source: livingwithlindsay.com via Karen on Pinterest

After a trip to the thrift store for a silly romance novel or two and JoAnn's for a foam wreath, 

we were in business.

Folding and folding and folding.  

Then gluing and gluing and even more gluing.

Now, the voracious reader has a book page wreath for her haven.  

Soon, I'll show you another book page project I made for her room.  Thanks for sticking around.

Before The Green

I thought I'd show you an update on our front yard project, obviously before any plants are added. 

 We resurfaced the front porch and took out the sidewalk.

 We added a faux stream bed into the actual drainage area.

 We moved boulders from another part of our property.  Now, that was a huge job!

 We widened the driveway.  Part of this is going to be redone.  It didn't quite work out right. 

In the distance you can see my urn fountain. 

This urn had a crack, so we have a different urn and it has yet to get hooked up.  More on that later.

 We added beautiful stone steps down to the back.

Here's just a peek at the before picture.

Not bad so far, don't you think?

As you can tell, I've been really quiet lately. Somewhat because I haven't had much to say. Also, I've been a little busy. This week I've been in jury selection.  I still don't know the outcome, but probably will know tomorrow.  If I'm selected, which is highly likely, I really won't be around.  I am hoping to do a little crafting this weekend.  My DD2 likes the Christmas wreath in her room, so we're substituting it with a book wreath like this. Since she LOVES to read, we thought it would be appropriate.

Source: livingwithlindsay.com via Karen on Pinterest

You can find the tutorial here.

I also want to finish decorating my laundry room.  At least get the accessories on the wall.  I thought this wreath would be a fun addition. 

Source: asoftplace.net via Karen on Pinterest

The tutorial for this easy clothespin wreath is here.  

I'm also stalking this pretty ironing board cover on the left at Pottery Barn.

Looks like I've missed out.  Shoot! In the mean time, I'll just keep stalking Pinterest, looking for pretty laundry rooms.  Isn't this blockage stuff a pain? Nothing seems to be working right tonight.

Floral Fridays

Source: designsponge.com via Karen on Pinterest

The Paperwhite bulbs I bought to use for Christmas didn't get planted until yesterday. I think they'll make a beautiful winter bouquet. I wish I had seen this pretty photo before I planted them. What old project will you finish this weekend? Have a long and lovely one!

Super Bowl Prep

We've decided to host a Super Bowl Party at our new house this year. It is also going to be a farewell for a fun couple that are moving to Texas.  Boo hiss!  Well, back to the party.  I've verbally invited several people, but have ordered these fun invitations.

Stacie has a lot of simple, cute products.  You can visit her at her Etsy store.

I'm anxious to see how mine turned out.

Since the entertainment is provided, the next most important element is the food. I think I'm making tacos. I use a recipe I found YEARS ago from Flylady's website. It's a Crockpot recipe that you HAVE to try. It's amazing. I like it better with beef than chicken, Spicy Mexican Beef.  It's not all that spicy. OH MY, this is fantastic. I will also make my homemade salsa, which is basically a Pico de Gallo. I'm sure my guests will bring lots of other foods, but I've found some fun ideas on Pinterest lately, when I should be doing other things.  It just sucks me in.  Here are some more ideas.

 Individual Seven Layer Dips

Source: the-girl-who-ate-everything.com via Karen on Pinterest

Source: plainchicken.com via Karen on Pinterest

I may have to try these CHEDDAR BACON RANCH PULLS again.  It was deliciously decadent.

Source: myrecipes.com via Nell on Pinterest

These football deviled eggs are cute!

Source: absolutelymonica.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

This person was clever with their guacamole dip.  Do you have any fun suggestions for a Super Bowl Party?  Are you hosting one as well?