House Warming on a Budget

My childhood BFF recently bought her first home. She is one of the most amazing people I know and I really wanted to make an extravagant wreath for her housewarming party but it fell in line with my finals; therefore, I had not a lot of time but I still wanted to do something more thoughtful than a gift card. While browsing Pinterest I ran across a moss letter hanging on a door by a burlap bow, and bam! I found what I could manage to make my friend with the time (and money) I could afford. This project cost me roughly $5 per letter and about an hour of time per letter.

Now, I have mentioned Morgan, one of my favorite bloggers, here before and I feel obligated to mention that she has done the moss letter as well and her's is fabulously from her own brain. Me, I need inspiration.

I already had this light cinnamon paint, sponge, and
random piece of bubble wrap.

The letters I found at Michael's were white so I brushed the
paint on them dryly with the sponge brush so there was
practically no dry time.

Each letter was about $3.50 and I also used a 40% off
coupon I printed from Michael's' web site.

All you have to do is use a glue gun ON LOW (I can't stress this enough, I tried using the high setting to rush getting the "P" done at the end of the night and burned the snot out of my palm) and just glue and pat, glue and pat (the moss on, that is).

I bought moss from the Dollar Tree for $1 per bag and I only used a little over a half a bag for both letters combined. I got the black satin ribbon on sale for $1.99/spool at Michael's and thought it added a bit of sophistication to the "green" nature of this project. 

I used a staple gun to staple the ribbon to the back after I tried the bow where I deemed appropriate.

"D" for BFF's last name & included
a 3M Wall Hook w/ Command Adhesive
strip for no-muss hanging and removal.

"P" next to our front door
(I still had a DIY wreath from last year up)

Viola, friends! Enjoy!

A Tweet & A Post

Hey all! I just tweeted this picture of my newspaper nails and got many requests for how I did it. I am not the pioneer of this technique at all and I'd feel bad if I took any credit for coming up with it.

I used Sally Hansen "Made You Blush" and Sally Hansen
Hard as Nails for my top coat

I am subscribed to nguerriero19 on YouTube and she is the first glance I had at this technique. Happy polishing! Oh, and check out the rest of her vids and subscribe, she's super cute and positive : )

Friday Fancies: Food & Jewelry

This is going to be a shorty, I have a Finance exam on Tuesday so I'm freaking out!

First of all, I've been a smoothie maniac for the last month, averaging one every other day. Smoothies are a great meal filler when, frankly, I have no time to think about making something for myself. I decided to share my favorite thus far with you, I'll call it the Bodacious Banana Smoothie : )

Ingredients:

1 & 1/3 bananas (this is only b/c my daughter had a piece of leftover 'nana)
3 heaping tsp. peanut butter
1 scoop Jillian Michaels' Whey Protein in vanilla
1 handful of crushed ice (sorry no specific measurement, just add enough ice to make the smoothie cold and a little thicker)
Milk (no specifics on this one, I usually use less than a cup of 1% milk because I like a thicker consistency, more like a milkshake; it just depends what thickness you prefer)
Blend!

There was more leftover from after I poured this in the glass. I drank all of it.

Secondly, I have found that I have to force moderation on myself with any "snack" food I buy because I'm a student who munches non-stop when studying, I have zero self control, and I will polish off a container of anything in one sitting. Not good!

Craisins are BOGO @ Publix, making each
bag about $1.25. Thrifty snack alert!

Five servings in ea. bag = 10 snack bags @
$0.25 a pop!

My solution is to split up snack foods immediately so I do not have the chance to keep going, and going, and going... until I have to have my test-proctor-man come and give me my exams at the house because it's too expensive to cut me out of it! 

Finally, the pretties! I've been reaching for these pieces of jewelry that are bargains yet fast becoming staples in my day to day look.

Cupcake earrings from Forever 21: $1.50

These are sweet (haha) and not too bold so the people who would criticize them haven't even noticed and the people who love them have. I love how that works! I looked for them on the site tonight and couldn't find them but I encourage you to look at the rest of the $1.50 earrings on F21's site, they're darling and you can't beat the price!

Crisp White from The Prim Trimmings shop

Not to be cliche but I really do wear this ring quite a bit, it seems to go along with a lot of my wardrobe. I'm also really loving white for the summer, it's so refreshing. 

Well, wish me luck on this mother of an exam and I'll probably post shortly after. Have an awesome weekend!

Color Palette: Yellow, Navy Blue, & White

Had a happy Sunday with my little family & attended a wedding

Sunnies: Dior
Necklace: Given to me by my father on my wedding day
Blue cardigan: Ross

Yellow racerback: too long ago to remember

Skirt: Gap, forever ago

Ring: Me, mentioned here

Flips: Target

New Hunting Grounds: Pier 1

Target and TJ Maxx top my list of places I constantly haunt for fabulous clearance items but I'm ready to make an addition to my reprotoire: Pier 1. I've always loved Pier 1 but I am well aware that I can't be going up in there all the time, buying things full-price so I tend to steer clear.


Well, yesterday I decided to take some "me time" before picking up my daughter and I had a P1 gift card in tow. Much to my surprise, I was able to stretch that $20 pretty far!

Here is my P1 Haul:

Red tags make me happy : D

Candle sticks Orig: $3, Marked: $1.48
I bought them out and they will be used to make pretty things

Orig: $35 Marked: $8.68

Bright frame will be used to spice up my
space @ work. O: $14 M: $3.48
Lavender air freshener: O: $5 but
Lavender is the scent of the month,
therefore 20% off!

There were so many deals to choose from beyond what I bought. It was hard to choose but I didn't want to spend much more than my gift card (I went little over $6 beyond the GC). 


Here's a taste of what I'm going to be keeping an eye on...

Floral Coffee Cups w/Stand

Floral Measuring Cups

Watermelon Serving Bowl
This family is OBSESSED w/watermelon!

Indv Watermelon Bowl
Yes, I realize how corny these are!

These are just a few things I loved during my visit, among a trillion more. I chatted up the guy who rung me up and he said things get marked down all the time as new merch gets brought in and this summer they are getting a TON more inventory. Happy Shopping!

Creative/Reusable Gift Wrap

One of the lovely ladies I follow, Morgan, wrote this blog post: Frugal Gift Giving about her obsession of wrapping gifts uniquely and making the appearance just as special as what is inside. I couldn't agree with her more! Along with making gifts look fun and fancy I also like to make the gift wrap reusable.

More recently I find myself staking out cute boxes, containers or reusable gift bags or shopping bags to save for a special gift to fit inside. The last gift I had the pleasure of giving was for a dear friend's baby shower...

I got K some necessities from her registry (hangers,
pacifiers, etc) along with a necklace with her child and
little one on the way's initials. The necklace is from:
Etsy: Elemental Workshop

As you can see I wrapped all the odds and ends in tissue
paper and I put the necklace on a little tag.

I created and added this bright bow for a little more
oomph as well as to hide the necklace.

I thought about myself and other moms I know, always clamoring for storage options, so I decided to find a colorful bin to put everything in. I found this rainbow hearts bin at Target on clearance and everything happened to 'just fit'. I think it turned out very cute, bright, and cheery. 

Birthday Gift

This is one of the finished products that came from all of those thrift store frames I bought. I ended up giving this to my best friend, Jill, for her 25th Birthday. It just-so-happens that Jill is purchasing her first home and plans to make one of her guest rooms into a themed Victoria's Secret "Pink" room. She said she plans on putting this piece on display there.

My trusty little sanding block.
I find I can grip these best when working on little things.
I believe it is a medium grade grit.

There she is, ready for her makeover.

I just LOVE this color!

I got cheap but cute, round push pins at Wal Mart and
painted them them the same color as the frame.

I also got poster board at Wal Mart.
I had to trim it a bit, then used E6000 to glue it in place.
*This picture was taken at night, not the best -sorry!

P.S. I will be posting my other creations shortly. One needs to be fixed and the other still needs to have accessories attached so it can be hung.

A Little Slice of [my] Life

This is my little setup on my little side of the bathroom sink (his & her sinks in the master a MUST in the next house we buy). I just set this up about a week ago and I'm proud to say it's still this organized. All of my go-to makeup and jewelry is right there so I feel so organized and so girlie getting ready in the morning. I really don't think I could be in a bad mood looking at this. 


The serving platter has been kinda just sitting around since I made it from thrift-store plates and tea cups a while back for a display at a craft fair (flop). The bowls are from a recent trip to Michael's where I picked them up for $0.49 each! I'm still obsessing about buying more of those bowls as ice cream dishes...

 Thrift store haul when I bought the supplies for the serving dish display.

 Finished serving dish display, naked.

Haul from recent Michael's visit : )

To make yourself a serving dish like I did: find various pretty saucers/plates/tea cups & attach the together with Gorilla Glue. I had to attach each piece one at a time and let it dry with a few text books pushing the pieces together for an hour before I'd attach the next piece. Apply Gorilla Glue very thinly, it expands when it bonds two things together and can cause major bubbling to occur if you use too much.

I'm really into indulging myself a bit with little things that make me happy. I have a lot going on right now so I need inspiration to break up the monotony. 

Bring on Spring

Florals, bright colors, sunshine, and Easter, I'm ready for it all. I cannot wait for spring! The first previews of spring seemed to be all around me and inspired some impromptu crafting... Enjoy!

Mother Nature:

These are neat little birds that fascinate our daughter, as well as our dogs. They stab their long, pink beaks into the ground looking for something to nosh. They're probably tearing up the next thing photographed, but they're so beautiful I almost don't care.

As I looked out into the back yard today I realized that our grass is growing back from the dead! The new baby grass is so bright green and vibrant, it really lifts my spirits just looking at it.

On to the crafting:

I went to Michael's today with a thought in my head and a gift card in my pocket. My original plan didn't come to fruition but as I was roaming the isles I found these sweet flowers amongst scrap booking supplies and I immediately knew what I'd do with them!

More sweet spring whimsies...

       

...viola!

...ta-da!

This is my first time using E-6000 on bobby-pins and ring pads. I used Gorilla Glue on the last ring pad I made something with and the adornment ended up popping off and I'm really not a fan of how GG bubbles when it dries. I didn't want to use hot glue because I don't like the strings created by it. I have used E-6000 on other crafts and I've never had a problem with it. The adornments on each bobby-pin and ring pad were on snug after about thirty minutes but I'm still going to wait over night until I wear an item. If I have an issue with anything staying glued I will post about it.

Bobby-pins with blanks and ring pads can be found on both Etsy and Ebay, just shop and compare since there are new postings on each site all the time.