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