Open House Invitations

I recently made birth announcements for my friend Terri's baby boy, Beau. Her mom, Irene, will soon be hosting an open house for their friends to meet Beau since he lives about two hours away. She contacted me and asked me to create some invitations for the occasion. I thought it would be cute to use the same colors on the open house invite that I used on the birth announcement, which were light blue and celery green. I also included the baby's first initial to make it more personal. I like the way these invites turned out, and I think the open house is a great idea!

Personalized Notecards for Nicole

My best friend from high school, Nicole, asked me to create notecards for her using a monogram that one of her friends who is a graphic artist had created. I took the monogram and paired it with some simple designs and dark pink envelopes. These are 3.5 x 5 folded notecards printed on white shimmery paper.

Happy Halloween!

Okay....I'm biased and bragging but.....come on.....isn't he adorable? My almost 2-year-old nephew, Jack, came in with my sister and mom to visit me in school this morning. I miss my cute little shark so much....

Decorating: Another Fall Idea!

Aren't these little Halloween/Fall framed signs adorable? My friend Alyssa made them for me as a hostess gift, and I'm LOVING the way they look in my home! Thank you Alyssa! I told her she should sell them....I would absolutely buy these if I saw them in a store. There are five total. I had three little white pumpkins sitting on this cubby/shelving unit before Alyssa gave me something much better! I did happen to find a new home for my white pumpkins. See below....

I found these chunky black candle stands in one of my unpacked boxes still sitting in my basement. How perfect for my little white pumpkins! They now sit atop my fridge in my kitchen.

Stay Tuned: I'll be posting a lot of new projects I've been working on in the next few days!

On a Budget: Storage/Organizing Idea

I bought this little bench when we first moved into our home in May. It sits in a screened-in porch (which I DO.NOT.LIKE!) off our mudroom. Hopefully this porch will be enclosed with windows soon b/c it's so useless right now. The screens are falling down and dust is constantly blowing in. Uh huh....total dirt trap....I can't keep it clean. And everytime it rains, it gets wet and yucky....ughhh! In any case, I envision it soon with windows and indoor outdoor carpet and maybe a cute little Christmas tree that can be seen with white twinkly lights from the side of the house as you drive by???? Hmmmm....we'll see.

The bench, unlike this screened-in porch area, has been very useful. Not only does it look cute, but it is a place to sit to put shoes on, clean the puppy off after she's finished digging holes our backyard, and a storage place for all of my husband's many sneakers. I like the look of baskets better than what I have in the cubby holes, but baskets can get pricey and I bought these little collapsable storage boxes at Target for $5.99 a pop. They come in all different colors and fit in my storage bench perfectly!

It's a Little BOY!!!

{Check him out! He was waving to us this morning!}

{Proof that he's a BOY! The arrow is pointing to his boy parts. It's very tough to see b/c I might be the worst.picture.taker.EVER!}

{4-D ultrasound picture. Totally amazing! You can see his hand up next to his face, his little belly, and his knee is bent to the side. I think he bears a strong resemblence to his Momma!}

We had our 20 week ultrasound appointment today to check the baby's anatomy and find out the gender. We are very excited to be having a little boy....I love little boys :o) Now I can finally proceed with all of my ideas for his nursery! Stay tuned because that will most definitely be a future blog post!

Halloween/Fall Decorating

Here's another cute decorating idea for all you girls that love to decorate as much as I do! My mom saw this idea in a magazine or catalog (maybe Pottery Barn???) but I love it for Halloween and fall in general.

Materials needed include: candy corn, a pillar candle, and a big glass hurricane. Bonus: this is a very affordable idea. I bought my candy corn (~ $1.25/bag) and pillar candle (~ $5.99) at Target. The glass hurricane I found this summer at Home Goods (my fav store) for $9.99! I love the way this looks in the middle of my round pedestal dining room table. It's normally filled with wine bottle corks and beer bottle caps that I've collected over the years, but I was in need of a change for the holidays. I'm already thinking about ideas for Christmas - ditch the candy corn and replace with fun Christmas balls or cranberries? Hmmmm....ideas, ideas, ideas!

Announcements for Baby Beau

{Please excuse the poor lighting in the photos. They are much more adorable in person! I desperately need photography lessons!}

My friend Terri had a little boy in September and asked me to create his baby announcements. Let me just say that this little guy is completely adorable, and how great is his name?!?! Beau Willen Wiatrak - LOVE it! My husband loves it too....he is also a Bo (just spelled differently)!

Terri requested a classic, simple announcement for her baby boy, so I used pale blue stripes and a simple yet sophisticated monogram with different fonts. Upon Terri's request, I also used celery green in the announcement, and I think it turned out adorable!

Tommy's Thank You Cards

Tommy, my friend Carolyn's 4 1/2 month old son, is being christened this weekend. She asked me to create simple thank you cards that she can send out to family and friends who attend the christening. I used a white linen paper and envelopes and three simple designs incorporating a classic blue color. Love these!

Etsy - I'm Addicted!

If you've never been on Etsy, you need to check it out ASAP! It took me a little while to catch on but now that I have, I can't get off this addicting site. I've found about a dozen sellers that I regularly check in with for new products because they make, design, and sell such cute things. I imagine once I have my baby this winter, I'll add a least a dozen more sellers that make adorable baby products to my list of favorites!

Off Woodland Lane, one of my favorite sellers on Etsy, created this handmade sign for me a few months ago, and I have it hanging in my family room. Most of the sellers are very willing to personalize and work with you to create exactly what you want. This seller used specific fonts that I wanted and customized the sign with my last name and wedding date. Check out Etsy and pass along any new sellers you come across that you know I'd love!

Cute Fall Decorating Idea!

I have been having a ball decorating my home for the fall season! Technically I was done a few weeks ago; however, I have continued to add more touches as the weeks go on. Last weekend my husband and I went out for dinner at a restaurant that displayed these HUGE glass vases filled with mini pumpkins and sticks. They were sitting on a huge mantle above a fireplace and looked adorable. Well, my mantle is already full; although, I have been looking for something to replace my summer hydrangeas on my dining room buffet table with and this was it.

So, tonight I stopped at my local farmers' market and purchased 3-4 pounds of mini pumpkins (~ 12 of them). Then, I kindly asked my husband to gather a few sticks from the backyard (he is so good to me....he didn't even complain), and I found a big, empty glass container in my storage cabinet. It took me about 2 minutes to put the entire ensemble together, and it looks fabulous! If you're looking for a super simple, yet stylish fall decorating idea, this is it! Try it!

Cupcake Toppers!

Tonight was Girls' Night at my house! It was such a beautiful fall day, so I decided to put together a fall meal consisting of pumpkin dip with ginger snap cookies and apples, chicken chili with the fixins', spinach/apple/cashew salad, and the dessert seen in the pictures above featuring my new cupcake toppers! The girls at my home tonight raved about these delicious, fallish brownies so I've included the recipe below! All I'm going to say is caramel ice cream topping, Recees Peanut Butter Cups, peanuts, apples, brownies....mmmmm....a perfect combo of sweet and salty!

I figured tonight was great time to try out my new cupcake toppers. I have been seeing these on all my favorite blogs, and I just love them! They can be used in a variety of ways: toppers on your favorite dessert (cupcakes, brownies, etc), tags on party favor bags, and many more! See below how I used them to decorate a glass jar filled with candy corn.

The toppers are super simple to make - I created them on my laptop and then used a 2" scallop punch (AC Moore), to create the fun, scalloped border around each. I plan on using these a lot! The colors can be customized to match the decor of any event, as well as what you see in the middle of the circle. How adorable would these be for a child's birthday party or a baby shower?!?

CANDY APPLE DESSERT SQUARES:
Ingredients:

~ 1 pkg brownie mix

~ 8 oz cream cheese, softened

~ 1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping, divided

~ 2 firm apples

~ 6 peanut butter cup candies, chopped

~ 1/4 cup peanuts, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degreens. Spray pan. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions for cake-like brownies. Remove from oven and cool completely.

2. Place cream cheese and 1/4 cup of caramel ice cream topping in bowl; whisk or beat until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over brownies.

3. Core and slice apples into small pieces and spinkle evenly over cream cheese mixture. Coarsely chop peanut butter cup candies and peanuts. Sprinkle candies and peanuts over apples; drizzle with remaining ice cream topping.

4. Cut into squares and serve.

5. Enjoy this YUMMY fall dessert!

Here's another idea for how to use the cupcake toppers! I bought fallish looking ribbon from Michaels and using my hot glue gun, attached it to the glass jar. Then, I glued one of the cupcake toppers, minus the lollipop stick, in the center and VOILA! A cute jar to fill with your favorite Halloween candy!