Who Loves Party Lights? I Do!

Over the past decade I've collected a variety of party lights-on-a-string, but this might just be my favorite yet!

When you buy specialty light strings you pay, in my opinion, way too much. Now you can take those extra Christmas lights that you have lying around and get creative! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Reese Dixon. You can find her tutorial here. If any of you try this I want to see!

Car Seat Canopy

I know, I know... another item for a baby. My sister-in-law was talking about making a car seat canopy so I thought I'd make it easy for her and post a tutorial for one. This comes from Just Because I am Me. It looks way too easy. Hope this helps!

Growing Shamrocks

In preparation for one of my favorite holidays I wanted to share this article about growing shamrocks from Martha Stewart. It combines two of my favorite things: the color green and plants.

I apologize beforehand for the lecture on "going green." Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming to hear about it constantly.

Baby Changing Pad

I love this baby changing pad tutorial from homemade by jill. Ed and I are planning on having children soon and I'm a person who can never prepare for things like this early enough. Nine months doesn't seem long enough to finish a list of projects while you're busy working full time. I'll have to give this one a try sometime. It would make a great gift too, right?

For the Love of Garland

For Christmas my sis-in-law, Lacey, made me and my sister garlands for a few holidays. She made them almost entirely of paper and they are just about the cutest things I've seen. Until then I'd never given much thought to garland, which is quite unfortunate because now I know what I've been missing out on. They're so cheery! And they add instant color to a room. I haven't taken pictures of the garlands Lacey made me yet but here and here are a few to spark some creativity.

Valentine Cupcakes

I've been telling myself for the past month or two that I'm going to make cupcakes and I finally did it! This was nothing fancy. I used a devil's food cake mix and half a package of devil's food pudding mix. I attempted making Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting but turns out it doesn't work with margarine. At least this particular recipe didn't work. I ended up throwing away the entire batch, but at least I know now! I just used good old Betty Crocker frosting...mmm. Not as good as homemade, but it's what I had. Lemon, cherry and vanilla.


I tried doing a basket weave design. Obviously I need more practice.

As far as I can remember this is the first time I've actually used pastry bags and tips when decorating anything so I felt kinda proud. Go me! They're pretty tasty!

When I Have a Baby... and a House...

I adore this nursery from La Buena Vida. I love the colors and the simplicity of it. Someday when I have a baby (and a house so I can paint) I want something very similar to this! Of course it will have my own personal touches, but you get the idea. See more pictures here.

Vintage Cutting Board

Ok, so it's not actually vintage, but that's kinda what I was going for. I bought a plain old cutting board at a craft store for about a dollar. I didn't know what I was going to do with it but I wanted it. A few weeks later I found just the right paper for it.




I used my handy exacto knife to cut out the star, the cherry blossoms and the old school labels. I had tons of fun doing this. I painted the cutting board then sanded the edges. I should have sanded it more but oh well. I also used dry chalk around the edges of the paper to give it more of a worn look. When all was finished I went over it with my favorite medium, Mod Podge. Was it easy? Yes! Does it look fantastic in my kitchen? Yes!

Please let me know what you think!

Felt Playhouse

I just about squealed when I saw this felt playhouse. Though I don't have kids (and some day I will, right?) that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate some serious ingenuity! This felt play house from Homemade by Jill is brilliant! You transform your kitchen table into a play house by just putting this slipcover over the tabletop! I strongly suggest checking out Jill's blog along with more pictures of the felt playhouse. She's got some great ideas.