A Splash of Love!

Only a few more days until Valentine's Day.    Truth be told I think it's a totally bogus holiday in many ways. Personally I don't need a special day to tell the people in my life that I love them or feel a need to have my husband spend 3 times as much as normal on flowers to show his love, BUT.....I will go along with it anyway.  My kids love it and they love any excuse for something special so I will oblige.

I didn't go crazy on decorations this year, but I found these on Pinterest and of course and had to try it.

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Now their letters are far fancier than A- I have time for or B- want to spend to achieve.   I did however give it a shot.   I bought 4 letters from the craft store for $1.99 each as well as a skein of red yarn for $3.79 and I was off to work.  For a total of only $11.75 I was super happy with how it turned out.

I apologize in advance for the horrendous picture quality..they were taken at night on my phone.

Close up you can still see the white letter underneath, but from further away you cannot tell at all.  Here is a closeup of the letter "O" which was the easiest to do.  My yarn was a red and pink mix and it's so pretty.

I added this to my mantle with the banner I made last year that you can see how I made HERE.   I also added a few Dollar Store heart picks to a red olive jar I had and some red candles and VOILA!

I kept my new canvas that I ordered right before Christmas for SUPER cheap on Groupon because I love it so much.

Here are a few closeups...banner from last year with the addition of a ribbon this year...

heart picks in an olive jar...

Certainly nothing super fancy...just festive!

Here are a few other cute ideas I found, but I just ran out of time this year.  I am desperately trying to re-stock the shop and have so little time to do much else but sew after taking 2 weeks off to re-do my office.

Next year one of these 2 topiarys is definitely joining our mantle.

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And I think maybe a Valentine's canvas might be in order for next year too...check these out!

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Do you have some fun Valentine's decor to share?   Email me if you do...I'd love to pass it on.

I always do a special breakfast for my kids on Valentine's Day and I have started gathering things for this year's mini celebration too.  I will share some great ideas with you next week!

Poshed Up

Sprucing up for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays.  I love that it is truly just about being together with family.  There is no stress of gift-giving or specific requirements other than food and family.    Of course, we all have our Thanksgiving favorite menu items that we can't live without, but other than that....it's just a day to be together with great smells in the kitchen.

I am hosting Thanksgiving this year at my house for 6 adults and 4 children so I am starting to decorate a bit and add some minor touches to my Fall decor that I shared HERE.    I saw this great burlap banner that I wanted to make earlier, but with the storm that hit our area, I was a bit behind.  So now it is going to be a "Thankful" banner instead of "Welcome Fall" banner.

Here is my inspiration...

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I love the antique-y (new word) look of this one too...

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The other thing I love to do this time of year, actually any time of year, is add candles.  I know they don't really add tons of warmth, but they do add the other kind of warmth to your home.  I went through quite a few candles during our 6 day power outage with Sandy so I invested in a few new ones this year.  

I love all of the fall smelling candles, but usually only get one small one so the smell doesn't overpower our home.  I generally just buy the cheaper colored, plain candles and then spruce them up with some decorations.   Here a few that I loved...and if you notice, they all use basic items.

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Here is a closeup of my hurricane right now without a candle, but I intend to swap out the Indian corn for a candle and add that to a different candle similar to the idea below.

New idea for Indian corn...

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Another thing I love is all of the subway art that is out there and FREE for Thanksgiving.  If you are not much for decorating, but want a small touch, how about adding one of these to a simple frame?

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For those of you who want easy peasy....here are some great free printables that you can simply print, cut and use.  

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I have more ideas to share this week...stay tuned!

Poshed Up

Pins of the Week

Life has been nothing short of CrAzY lately with the end of preschool for one, end of a soccer season, opening of our beach club and finally...end of the school year for my daughter tomorrow.  Woo Hoo!  I need to get on a better schedule than we've been on.  We've been burning the candle at both ends for a few weeks now running from activity to activity, staying up way too late enjoying the weather and sunlight, visiting with friends and it has caught up.   We even had an impromptu play date in our PJ's yesterday.   Needless to say, I ended up sick last week with an ear infection and so forth and finally feel better this week.

So, with that said, I have been very negligent of this blog.  I have been very busy with teacher gift order of beach bags and other bags and I am soooo grateful that the shop is nearly sold out.  I need to re-stock soon, but still have a few more orders to fill.  Thank you to all who have supported my business...we're nearing a year already and I'll keep you posted on a big celebration sale in July.

I thought I'd do a quick "Pins of the Week" post today before I run to my daughter's school to deliver some teacher gifts (homemade bags  and zippered pouches and gift cards of course).  

(and yes those are play handcuffs in the background...lol)

So here you have it...I've even been neglecting Pinterest if you can believe that.  The nerve.

CRAFTASTIC

We love to make friendship bracelets in the summer or really in any down time we have.   I recently found a very cool kit with these cardboard wheels that you use as a guide to make all sorts of really neat bracelets.   I thought this is super fun too and simple directions.   Last summer as one of my very first blog posts HERE I mentioned that we were knee deep in bracelet making at the beach.

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CRAFTASTIC- FATHER'S DAY

I had been planning on doing an entire post dedicated to Father's Day ideas, but since time is slipping by...I thought I'd just share some of the 'Tip Junkie's' great homemade ideas.   We are working on finishing up our crafts today in time to celebrate our favorite daddy this weekend!

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FOR THE HOME

I have been pinning tons of stripes in rooms lately and I guess I really want some in my house.  I think I'm sold on this idea for my daughter's bathroom that I truly despise right now.  We have not painted 1 wall since moving in 6 years ago this July.  Oh, wait, that's not true...my daughter and I painted her room last year.  Besides that though, not 1 wall has changed because when we moved in we were happy with the colors and I was soon expecting the rambunctious boy I now have and expected many dinged and chipped walls.  I think it's finally time to get rid of the peach bathroom (no offense to those of you who like peach) and bring in a more beachy feel to my daughter's bathroom.

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FOR THE KIDDOS

A step by step guide to turn an ordinary sock into a teddy bear.  So cute.  I love up cycling too!   I think this is a great rainy day project for us this summer.  I'm hoping the past week's weather is no indication of our summer weather to come or we'll be making tons of sock animals...lol

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GREAT TIP

No explanation necessary other than...who wouldn't want one?  I do not like putting the DEET sprays on myself or my children so this is perfect.

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RECIPE

Oh my this is GOOD!  We had my in laws for dinner a few weeks ago and decided to grill outside (Mother Nature of course had to ruin it for us).... I digress.  We decided on grilled fish, grilled zucchini and this Fiesta Lime Rice.  SOOOO GOOD and SUPER simple.  We will definitely be making this one again...OFTEN!

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QUOTES TO LIVE BY

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Poshed Up

A Hoppy Easter to ALL!

We had a wonderful Easter with my in laws and our little family.   We had a great brunch of omelets, lox and bagels, bacon and of course TONS OF EASTER CANDY.  For this one day, and this one day only, I allowed candy to be a meal....well sort of.  My rule was that after breakfast it could be counted as brunch.   Crazy I know, but I remember myself getting an Easter basket full of candy and wanting to eat it all.

The best part is that once the sugar burned off...we had a great nap time this afternoon.  We had beautiful sunny weather and were able to have an outdoor egg hunt and spend hours playing outside with our new toys including a Power Rangers water shooter from the very generous Easter bunny!

Speaking of the Easter bunny...he was very kind to the little people of our house.  Here is the basket for the little boy of the house.  It's a good thing he can't read and see that the Easter bunny bought the Easter tablet at CVS...lol

And for the little lady...

Surprisingly, the toys were far more exciting than the candy this year...I guess I did well.  In previous years, they were ALL about candy and nothing else.   The Easter bunny sure scored this year.  My little guy is over the moon with his Power Ranger Zord (if you have a PR fan you totally know what this is, if not, you think I'm crazy that I do...lol) and my daughter was sooooo excited with the book.  So fitting for their personalities.

Here's what my little guy's basket looked like withing 5 mins....grass in garbage, eggs sorted and toys open. Oh, and of course right in front of the door for someone to trip over...lol

I did some simple table decorations this year because it was just a few of us and brunch, but I still wanted something pretty and festive.  I used an old hand-me-down tablecloth from my mom that was handmade.  I can't remember if she made it or my grandmother (sorry, mom that I'm not giving proper credit...I love it just the same!)  It has hand stitched purple flowers so I tried to tie in a little purple and green.

I used my light green and cream colored dishes from my Southern Living at HOME days...so basic and beautiful.  I mixed and matched them all together.

My favorite bunnies and sequins eggs from this post relocated themselves to the table and I added some tulip shaped crystal candlesticks.

Apparently I never found any new napkins since I cleaned out my hall closet and purged so many old ones...oops.  So....paper was all I had on hand and I had nothing festive because I was sure I had some.  Ooops!  So...I needed to add a little more color and I came up with these festive place cards.  They were easy.

Here's how to make your own.  Supplies - construction paper, glue, silver sharpie, fake gemstone.

Step 1: Cut out 2 flower shapes in two different sizes in the colors to work with your theme.

Step 2: Stack the smaller sized on top of the larger and glue.

Step 3: Cut out leaf shape and label with each name.

Step 4:  Glue leaf in place on side of flower and gemstone in middle! Voila!

I think they added a little color to our table!   They were a big hit!

I also wanted to do something fun for the kids.  Since I didn't have fabric napkins I couldn't make the cute bunny napkins I mentioned HERE.  So, I did the best I could with a paper napkin.

I also made the cute cups I mentioned HERE on a clear cup.

Cute kids' table setting.

After a wonderful brunch and some nice naps, we changed out of our "poshed up" Easter clothes and into some comfy clothes to play.  

Here's my favorite Power Ranger at play.

I hope you had a wonderfully HOPPY Easter with your family and loved ones.

Oh....and apologies for the poor picture quality.  They are all from my phone.  My new camera is supposed to arrive this week...I cannot wait!

Poshed Up