DIY Fall Decor

Fall is so fun to decorate for. I'm not a huge fan of the scary Halloween decorations so I much prefer the autumn themed route. Below are just a few ideas for decorating. My main items: mini pumpkins, bottles/jars, and dried flowers/grasses...

...and of course fall décor is not complete without a pumpkin spice candle. I got the mini pumpkins from Costco of all places. They had a bag for $6 with all of the pumpkins in this post. Not bad considering that they are the only thing I bought for all this décor. The basket is deceiving... I put some cardboard padding on the bottom to prop my pumpkin up and covered the cardboard with some dark gray fabric.

 

I think it's kind of cute that my pumpkin doesn't fit all the way inside of my little vase. It mirrors the top-heavy flowers in a unique way and the bow dangling down the second half of the vase fills in the empty space. It is also nice to have a "floating" pumpkin when my other pumpkins are flat on the surface or nestled into something.

 

 I've left this little "Happy Fall" banner hanging up in the corner which I made for a little party we had. The colors are fall appropriate and the way the triangles are hanging in that downward slope remind me of jack-o'-
lantern smiles :)

 

Here I am making more use of my bottles and dried flowers/grasses. I prefer collecting dark colored bottles because you can hide things better. If you look closely you can see that my arrangement only goes into the bottle just past the neck of the bottle. At a glance you'd never be able to tell.

 

And last but not least, a simple piece with mini pumpkins and tissue paper in a little dish.

I hope I've given you a couple of simple, cheap ways to spice up a corner, table, mantle, or window sill with some easy DIY fall décor. Happy fall!

DIY Vintage Soap Jar

My mom wanted a little bathroom decoration so I decided to make a cute soap jar. It's simple! Just use different white and cream colored soaps. (We collected them from different stores and even from hotels we had stayed at.)

4th of July Food Ideas

The 4th of July is secretly my favorite holiday! I love summer time, the fireworks, and the food that come with the holiday :) Because my dad will be gone over the 4th on business, we did a mini early celebration. Below is some food that I made to help celebrate the holiday.

American Flag 7 Layer Bean Dip
Not seven layers but still. Refried beans, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, and olives. Quick and easy!

Americana Fruit Kebabs
I used a cookie cuter to cut out my watermelon stars and then just slid the blueberries, raspberries, and star onto the kebab. These took like five seconds to make and look really cute.

Patriotic Fruit Salad
If you can't tell, my family loves fruit. And the 4th is a great day to use pretty blueberries and different red fruit to show patriotism. I used a little watermelon scooper (don't even know the right name for it) to make little balls of watermelon that I mixed with blueberries. This made a cute, little appetizer.

 

Dinner: Classic BBQ
Below is what we had for dinner. It's was a simple, classic 4th of July dinner... high q
uality sausages instead of hot dogs, corn on the cob, homemade potato logs, tomatoes, and an Americana fruit kebab.

Dessert: American Flag Shortcake
For dessert, I cut the pound cake into squares, layered them with whipped cream, and used blueberries and strawberries to make an American Flag. It is also fun to let people make their own.

Breakfast: Red, White, and Blue French Toast
This was a yummy breakfast... Need I say more?...cinnamon bread French toast, whipped cream, red and blue berries, and syrup.

DIY Old Page Wall

My mom has wanted a wall of old pages for a while. (She got her inspiration from Marissa, a lady in our neighborhood.) So, I took on the project to cover our music room walls in old hymn book pages. My mom loves her music room now! The walls add so much character to the room and helps create an antique, magical feel.

My Process:

I took the old hymn books and cut the pages from their spines. To create a nice variety, the books varied in the coloration of its pages. As you can see, the colors differed from off-white to brownish-yellow.

After making stacks of pages, I started to staples these to the walls of my mom’s music room. (Side note: if you are thinking to put up an old page wall only temporarily, then think again. It would be hard to cover up all of the staple holes if you took down the pages.) I used regular paper staples and a regular stapler for the job. Just make sure that you have a stapler that can open so you can staple the pages to the wall.

Along the edges of the wall (wherever it met the ceiling, floor, corner, a window, etc.), I lined it with pages—overlapping them here and there for an un-patterned look. Then, I moved towards the center until I had covered the whole wall. It is important to make sure that you use the different covered pages in a random fashion so that not too many of the same color are together. In addition, I made sure to scatter where and which pages I overlapped for the scattered, random look.

There are different looks you can use when putting up old pages. I liked keeping the pages all standing up straight. This way, I kept it neat and tidy because pages weren’t tilted, but I was still able to create randomness with layering and coloring.

Half Birthday Surprise!

On March 29th my brother, sister, and brother-in-law surprised me by singing "Happy Half Birthday!" My sister also surprised me with half of a cake! I thought it was the cutest thing because I had no idea it was my half birthday. Who celebrates half birthdays, right? It was fun to turn an average day into a celebration J

She made a Bundt cake and gave me half. The best part... she kept half for herself because we are twins so it was her half birthday too!

Easter Brunch :)

We had family over for an Easter brunch! It was so fun! Here is what we served:

 Carrots, celery, and ranch

Roast beef and turkey sandwiches

 

Raspberry Lemonade

 

Sweet potato fries and potato fries

 

 Silverware :)

 

 Deviled eggs

 

Strawberries



DIY Easter Goodie Bags (Healthy Option Too!)

Looking for ideas for an Easter goodie bag or party favor? Here are the two cute ideas:

1)      Almost everyone likes Cadbury Eggs. Here is a fun way to put them into a little gift bags.
2)      Need a healthy option? This “carrot” is full of nutrition—dried apricots!

 Thanks to my friend for doorbell ditching these two adorable Easter treats! Have a happy Easter!

 

DIY Easter Rice Krispie Flowers

These treats are fun for Easter or any spring day. Here is the short list of ingredients:

1 pkg. mini marshmallows

6 cups Rice Krispies
¼ cup butter
Food coloring
Frosting (optional)

 So I could make two different colored rice krispies, I put half of the ingredients in one sauce pan and half in another. I made the rice krispie treats like usual (here is a link to directions: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/marshmallow-treats/) except that before I added the cereal I put yellow food coloring to one of the melted marshmallow mix and blue food coloring in the other. To cut out the flowers it would have been way easier to use a cookie cutter, but I didn’t have one so I had to use a different technique. I drew flowers on paper, cut them out and then traced my knife around the paper flowers.

To make it more aesthetically pleasing I put frosting in the middle of the flowers and drew stems and grass with the rest of the frosting.

It looks so cute we don’t want to eat it J

DIY Easter Carrot Cupcakes

These cupcakes are an easy treat for Easter. I used a confetti cake mix because it has some great spring colors in it, but carrot cake mix would be fun too.

Because I had cream cheese, I decided to make my own frosting and it is super creamy! I’m all about convenience though so store bought frosting works great too. To make your own you only need…

4 oz. cream cheese
4 oz. butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Look here for directions: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/index.html

I got the M&M's at Zurcher's, a local party store, because they sell different colored M&M's. I just made cute little carrots with the M&M's. Hooray for Easter!

DIY Easter Bird Nests

I made these little bird nests last year and they were really cute, quick, and easy. You can get all of these ingredients at a local grocery store:

1 (12 oz.) pkg. chocolate chips
1 (12 oz.) pkg. butterscotch chips
1 lg. can chow mein noodles
Cadbury eggs or Jelly beans

I melted the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips over slow heat (stirring continuously). When that was melted I took it off of the heat and stirred in the chow mein noodles. Then, I covered a cookie sheet with waxed paper and put a spoonful of the chocolate-covered noodles on waxed paper. I shaped these into bird nests and let it cool in the fridge until they were firm. Then, I put three Cadbury eggs in each nest to look like bird eggs. Really fun treat for Easter!

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

I love card making, and one of my favorite cards to make is my apple card. It says, “An Apple a Day…” on the front and inside it says, “Keeps the Doctor Away.”

 

When someone is sick or not feeling well, it is fun to brighten their day by bringing them one of these cards. And of course to make it cuter, I also bring something to do with apples: an apple, apple juice, apple sauce, apple pie, apple flavored candy, etc. (The apple juice and apple sauce are especially good for someone who just got their wisdom teeth out.)

I got all of the supplies at a craft store. Try it out! This makes a great DIY Get Well Soon card.

DIY Bird Pictures

Looking for something cute to take up empty wall space? Try this easy DIY craft. I stole this concept from a girl's apartment and decided to try it out for myself.

I got two identical picture frames at a dollar store, found an old book at a discount store, got two pieces of black paper and got to work!

1) The old book pages: I cut out some of the pages from the old book and tilted them this way and that for a scattered look. Then I pasted these onto the cardboard back that was already with the picture frame.

2) The branches and birds: To have a reference for my birds, I Googled "two birds sitting on branches" or something like that. I then put my two pieces of black paper right next to each other and drew my branches and birds onto the paper with pencil. (Note: put a bird on each page and be sure to give yourself some extra branch on the sides because some of it will be covered up by the frame.) I then cut out the branches and birds and pasted them onto the old book pages.

I spaced the pictures out a little bit but not too much to interrupt the eye's flow. I stuck them on top of my oven but they can go anywhere.

Valentine's Day Breakfast

Everyone knows the secret to a man's heart is through his stomach. So, for Valentine's Day I showed my husband just how much I love him. This post is a month late, but I just had to share my ideas for a heart shaped breakfast.

Heart shaped pancakes are super easy to make. If I had had red food coloring I would have turned them pink. By lining the pancakes with whipped cream, it hides the imperfections if you are pouring the batter free-handed. For sides I cut the tops of strawberries to turn them into hearts, cut hearts out of potato slices and fried them, and folded bacon strips into heart shapes and baked them in the oven. And of course, I served it with pink grapefruit juice. My husband loved it!

St. Patrick's Day

My mom used to always make us kids green Cream of Wheat for St. Patrick's Day. I decided to carry on the green tradition for breakfast and dinner!

For breakfast I made spinach scrambled eggs and avocado on toast. It was delicious!
Spinach Scrambled Eggs: sauteed half an onion (minced) and a garlic clove (minced) in a couple tablespoons of olive oil. When those were soft I added a huge handful of spinach (chopped small). After that cooked for a few minutes I added five eggs and some salt and pepper and scrambled.

During the day, a friend of mine brought over a cute St. Patrick's Day treat for me. She found a little plastic black pot from the grocery store and filled it with gold foil wrapped Rolos to look like a leprechaun's pot of gold! With this she added a no pinch sticker.

For dinner, I made corned beef and cabbage, an Irish classic, for the first time. It was really easy because I just stuck everything in the crock pot and let it cook itself all day. To go along with that main dish, I made green sides: pesto covered spinach ravioli and steamed broccoli. And to top it all off, we had green apple Jones soda.
Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/corned-beef-and-cabbage-with-herb-buttered-potatoes-recipe/index.html

Ski Themed Party

For my husband's birthday, I planned a Ski Themed Party at the "Corkin Lodge". He loves skiing, and because we couldn't bring all of his friends onto the ski slopes, we invited them to a ski themed party.

Invitations
We did not have time to send out printed off invitations, but a cute idea would be to send out an invitation that resembles a ski pass.

Food
All of our food played off of skiing, ski lodges, or snow. In the kitchen we served hot dogs, hot chocolate, and pop. On the snack table I made little signs to put by the food to help people connect the food to the ski themed party. "Ski poles" were made from pretzel sticks, celery sticks, and carrot sticks.

"Snowballs" were powdered sugar donut holes.

 "Pow-pow" was white cheddar popcorn. (Pow-pow is ski slang for "powder" which refers to fresh, powder snow that hasn't been skied on yet.)

 "Bunny Slope" cupcakes were made from carrot cake mix (get it... bunny and carrots?). I used white cream cheese frosting and coconut flakes to look like snow. And the bunny slope is the beginner hill which is represented on the slopes by a green circle, so I put green gummy rings (peach-o's) on top.

 "Intermediate" represents the middle level ski slopes and is represented by a blue square on ski signs. Therefore, I used white cake mix and added blue food coloring to make the cake blue. I frosted the cake with white cream cheese frosting and again added blue food coloring to make it blue. I then cut the cake into squares and placed squares of blue candy (cut up Airheads) on top of each.

 The "Advanced" level is represented by a black diamond. Therefore, I made dark chocolate brownies, cut them into squares, and turned them to look like a diamond.

 "Pizzas" refer to the pizza wedge that skiers use to slow themselves down. This happens when skiers point their skies in a wedge shape that looks like a pizza, hence pizzas. We bought two large pizzas and cut the pieces into smaller triangular wedges.

Decorations
We had a sign on the front door that said, "Corkin Ski Lodge." I found a big roll of Scotch branded brown paper for a couple dollars at a local grocery store to make all of my signs.

In one corner of the living room we had a ski lodge lounge set up with chairs, natural colored throw blankets, candles, white Christmas lights, fur pillows, fur slippers, a basket of blankets, etc. Because we didn't have a real fireplace, we used a laptop to play a fireplace video on YouTube that played for over 3 hours. It was hard to capture this corner in a picture, but the lighting was really cool and made a soft, warm, lodge-like environment. We turned the lights off in the whole living room so that we could get warm light coming from all of our candles and white Christmas lights.

In the opposite corner of the living room we made a snow corner. This corner had the snack table and another table that held another laptop that played ski YouTube videos and music. I put white plastic tablecloths on these tables and then covered them in "snow"...white, silver, and blue confetti and white cotton balls and candles. From the ceiling I hung cut out snowflakes and hung white icicle Christmas lights. And of course I through in my husband's skis and one of his ski boots.

We turned the couch into "The Chair Lift" and draped the back of the couch with white Christmas lights. From the ceiling we hung paper snowflakes.

Above the entrance to our kitchen we hung a sign that said "The Alpine Grille" that sounds like a name you would find on any ski lodge grill/restaurant. 

The ski themed party was so fun! Our friends and family loved the decorations and food. It was a complete success!