Jewelry Holders

Here are two simple projects you could whip up real easily to display your earrings and necklaces.

Earring Holder:

I bought this frame from Walmart for around $5. It's an 11"x14" frame, but you could get whatever size you want. I bought the lace ribbon from Hobby Lobby. I measured the lace across the frame and then cut 6 even strands. I hot glued them to the back of the frame. I spaced out the ribbons unevenly to allow space for smaller earrings (studs) and larger, dangly ones. Then add your earrings and there you go!

Necklace Holder:

I picked this branch right from my front yard. I have 4 huge trees that drop branches weekly (which I use often for many projects). I bought screw hooks from Home Depot for only a few dollars and then twisted them into the branch by hand. This took a little bit of time and my fingers were a little sore, but not a biggie. It was done in no time! I have this hanging in my bathroom. What do you think??

60th Surprise Party

For my mom's 60th birthday we wanted to throw a surprise party for her. She is such a loving, kind woman who has been through a lot over the past couple years and she deserves it. Planning this party was fun, but difficult. I had to sneak her address book away for a day in order to get her friend's contact information. A lot of people are on Facebook these days, but not everyone. Keeping it a secret was so hard because I was so excited and just wanted to tell her! Overall, it was a huge success with people who came from Wisconsin, Michigan & Kansas and all over Colorado. There was not as much DIY at this party as I would have liked, but it turned out great! Check out the party below.

The gold 6-0 balloons are reusable balloons from Hobby Lobby! I had never heard of reusable balloons before, have you? You basically blow them up like you would a regular balloon and then you just deflate them for another party down the road. How cool is that?! The material is almost like those foil balloons and are pretty durable. My daughter was turning 6 the next summer so I reused the number 6 at her party. Perfect!

I ordered these photo booth props off Amazon. They were great! They were pretty inexpensive, under $10, with minimum assembly required.

Pantry Door Remodel

 This is what our pantry doors looked like before. Very plain with no shape to the doors whatsoever. There wasn't even a handle or anything! So of course I had to do something about it. I love the "barn style look" and decided to upgrade these doors. 

We used the same doors, but just added to them. We created a "Z" design out of 1x4's. We nailed the 1x4's to the original doors, and filled in the holes with wood putty. 

Twine

I'm a huge fan of country decor as I just love anything shabby chic. One material that is often used with DIY country themed decor is twine. There are SO many cool things you can make with twine. I am always on the look out for new ideas. I have attempted several projects, some successful, some not. Here are a few decorations around my house that I made:

I just used an old wooden frame for the border. I bought the wreath at Hobby Lobby for $6.99 and the wooden letter for $2.99. I wrapped twine around the letter, using a hot glue gun about every third wrap. Then I made 3 burlap flowers by folding, twisting, and gluing. You can decorate your wreath however you'd like. 

Mermaid Party

I threw a mermaid themed party for my daughter's 5th birthday. She wanted to have her party at the pool, so I thought that a mermaid theme would be fitting. 

I designed this invitation on my Mac.

I made a fish bowl centerpiece with the number 5 on it. I just put glass beads, seashells, and water in it (all purchased from the Dollar store). I also scattered seashells on the tables. 

Gender Reveal Party

We are currently expecting our second child and we are beyond excited!! Gender reveal parties are a new trend and I love the idea! It's so much more special to find out the gender of the baby with your close family and friends instead of by yourself laying on the sonographer's table. I decided to hop on the band wagon and have a little gender reveal party of our own. 

The first thing was how to actually reveal the gender. I have seen so many wonderful pictures on Pinterest of people having blue or pink confetti fall on them from a box, balloon, or a piñata. I first tried to do the whole balloon thing, but couldn't find a store that would stuff the balloon and fill it with helium. Who knew that would be such a hard thing to find! That's when I discovered pull-string piñatas! I loved the concept of not having to beat up and destroy the piñata just to get into it, but instead, be able to simply pull a string. These are also great for little kid birthday parties who might not be able to break open a piñata. ;-) I had looked on Etsy for pull-string piñatas and they are around $30-35! So I decided to make one of my own using the good ol' fashioned paper mache method. Here is a great link for instructions. I wasn't good about getting pictures of the process of making the piñata, but I did take one when it was almost done. 

Here are more pics from our gender reveal party. :-)

Pony Party

For my daughter's 4th birthday, we threw her a pony party. There is a local lady who owns Fairy Tale Pony Parties which is where we had her party. Her property was beautiful and the party was a huge success. I highly recommend Fairy Tale Pony Parties!

These were the invitations. They weren't homemade, but fit the theme well. I did make a homemade insert to describe more about the party. 

I love, love cakes made in a shape out of cupcakes! It makes it so easy for people to eat, just grab and go!!