Pink Flamingos = Summertime

May 29, 2017May 28, 20172 Comments

Hello! Happy Memorial Day here in the States! I bet you all thought we fell off the face of the earth! Ha! Lauren is busy getting ready for her trip to Washington and I have been trying to get the end of the year stuff done at school. I haven’t felt very motivated either. I think I just have too much going on and the creativity just isn’t there. But I only have 4 days left (not that I am counting) and then I have my list of projects I hope to get done.

I did manage to change up my entryway a bit. I don’t know why, but I am crushing on flamingo’s! I just love them right now! So I decided to add some pink and a few of my flamingo things. Then the girls gave me more flamingos for my birthday and Mother’s Day, so I changed it a little again!

Here is the first version. I draped some pink pom-poms across the top and hung the flamingo plaque I found at the 99 Cent store.

I have had this pink bag forever and I added a white sparkly scarf inside. The Sunshine and Summertime printable I found at the Turquoise Home.

Lauren found the flamingo gift bag for me. I added some pink polka dot and some black tissue paper to it. A flowy, grassy plant and an oar finish it off.

I snagged the sand dollar candle holder off a Ross clearance rack. Love it!

A few rattan balls and starfish were added to a cloche.

Now on to the second version! I can’t believe Lauren found a turquoise tray with flamingos on it! Very unusual, but perfect for me!

I kept the rest of the vignette the same, just replaced the printable with the tray.

And Haley found the perfect throw! Blue with pink flamingos! This will go perfect in the guest room after it’s done here!

Just making these few changes has made me more than ready for summer! Are you ready too? Do you make changes around the house to reflect the summertime? I would love to hear from you! Hope you have a wonderful week!

Hello Seattle!

May 12, 2017May 10, 20176 Comments

Hello everyone! Welcome to another blog that I am excited to bring you. And I have an announcement to make!

I am going to Seattle Washington for 1 week! Hooray!!!!!

I am so excited to be going for a week with my roommate since she has never been there! So, I have planned an exciting vacation for us. And I am going to share some of the things that we are planning on doing.

1. The City Pass

This is an awesome thing were you pay $79 and you get 2 trips up the Space Needle, a harbor cruise, visiting a glass museum, visiting the aquarium, and visiting the zoo. It is not a bad price and we get to see so many things.

2. Pikes Market

Obviously we have to visit Pikes Market. We will probably not buy any fish for them to throw, but we will still check it out. And, of course we will visit the first Starbucks because we are right there.

3. Underground Tour

When my family went to Seattle years ago, we took this awesome tour of the underground tunnels. So because Amber loves history and I love the underground tour, we are going to add that to our things to do.

4. Whidbey Island

Whidbey Island is a little island not far off of the coast that only takes a ferry to get across. It has beautiful scenery and there is a cute lavender farm that you can get lavender ice cream from. There are cute little shops and it is an adorable island. It is the perfect place to go for a day and relax.

5. Seattle Mariners Game

Both of us are baseball fans and would love to go to a MLB game. Neither of us have been to one, so why not go when we are there? This is something that we would love to do, but if we don’t make it then it’s not that big of a deal.

Now of course, I will be taking lots of pictures and will write a blog post when we return. We aren’t leaving for a few weeks, so sorry to disappoint. But, nonetheless, we will have an awesome time while we are gone. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and a wonderful Mother’s Day.

Graduation Gifts to Make and Give

May 8, 2017May 7, 2017Leave a comment

Good morning! How was your weekend? I was finally home for a weekend and it was sooo nice! Our weather is pretty crazy though. We had 100 degrees on Thursday and then yesterday, it was 65 degrees and rainy! This is the most spring-like weather we have had in years! I am ready for warmer weather, but not too hot.

Of course, this time of year, there are graduations happening. My niece will be graduating high school this month. She is the youngest of the 6 grandchildren in our family. This is certainly reason to celebrate! While I will be giving her cash, because what high schooler doesn’t want money!, I wanted to find a fun way to give it. Here are some of the ideas I found. Click on the picture to be taken to the post.

A box that looks like a graduation cap. I actually made similar ones when the older nieces and nephew graduated.

2. I love these little origami caps. So cute!

3. How about a rose? Maybe a dozen?

4. Every teenager also like pizza. I think this is such a cute idea!

5. This is so adorable? It would be cute to paint little graduation caps on the umbrella.

6. How about a jar filled with little money diplomas? A lot of us have extra jars around the house. This is a great way to use them!

7. I love this! I have done a candy gram for other events, but not graduation.

8. A 2 liter full of cash and candy? Yes, please!

9. This little guy is so cute! Another use for those jars. Fill it with cash, gift cards, or candy.

10. I adore these! I found these on Etsy. They would be so cute to give with the city of the college the student is going to.

What do you think? Would you give any of these to friends and family? I will be getting started on a couple of these. Hope you all have a great week!

How to Make A Mother’s Day Wreath for $20

May 5, 2017May 6, 201715 Comments

Hello! It’s Friday, the end of the week for some people. Unfortunately for me, it’s my Sunday because I have to work on Saturday and Sunday. Oh well.

This blog post contains content that is sponsored by Dollar Tree.

So Mother’s Day is a little over a week away and for some people, they are hosting Mother’s Day events. So, how should one decorate for such events?

Well, you could always start with the door! I am going to show you how to make a beautiful wreath for about $20! And it only takes about 2 hours to make.

Things you need are a pool noodle, lots of fake flowers, tape, scissors, and some sort of statement decoration. All of these items can be purchased from the Dollar Store, so it makes the wreath even cheaper!

The first thing you need to do it make the pool noodle into a wreath. Just make it a circle and use tape to keep it in place. I had to use packing tape to make sure that it would stay in place.

Then I started placing flowers. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work exactly, but I thought that the easiest way would be to cut the wire to stick in the noodle. So, after a little bit of work trying to figure out the easiest way to cut the flowers, it was able to get started on my wreath.

I went with white, pink, yellow, and orange for my flower choices and filled in the noodle as I went. I didn’t fill in the back of the noodle because I knew that no one would see the back. But, I worked for about 2 hours to fill the wreath.

Now for you decoration of choice. I went with a wooden S since our last name is Smith. I first covered the noodle with a sparkly silver ribbon so that we wouldn’t see the green styrofoam underneath. I painted the S white so it would stand out against the silver ribbon and between all of the flowers.

After a little bit of hot glue, the wreath was complete! And here is the finished project!

First of all, I love how the colors look against mom’s turquoise door. It makes the pinks and yellows really stand out. And I love how it looks! The colors are so bright and pretty and they look great with the S on the wreath as well. This wreath is even better because it only cost me $20 to make! $20 and 2 hours of work to have the beautiful wreath, I think it’s worth it!

If you want to check out the Dollar Tree website, click on the link in the sidebar to find all of your supplies for $1!

If you decide to try this project, please let me know how it goes! And, comment a picture of it below so we can see you beautiful creations as well!

Family Room Styled Shelves-Coastal Style

May 1, 2017April 26, 201710 Comments

Happy May Day! Hope everyone had a great weekend! Our weather is really warming up and I can’t wait for the summertime! I’ve been thinking about redecorating in the entryway to reflect summery things, so that’s on my to-do list. Summer reminds me of even more seashells (you didn’t think I had enough, did you?)and the beach, pink flamingos, lanterns, and all things California. What do you use to decorate?

I realized the other day that I had never let you know who had the most votes for our tablescapes. It was actually a tie! But we didn’t have too many votes, so I would say we all won! Lauren created Pink Summer Chic, Haley did Retro Turquoise Chic and mine was Seaside Charm. It was fun to see what we could all come up with! Thanks to all who voted!

Now on to today’s post. I hadn’t shown anything of my family room since we moved in. To be honest, it’s not very put together. It’s kind of become the dog hang-out room, but I have styled the mantel and the shelves, so I thought I would share those today. Someday, I want to whitewash the brick around the fireplace and really clean-up the inside, but that is going to have to wait for now. I’m really glad the mantle and shelves are white though. One less thing to paint!

I added this old aerial picture from the refinery where my dad worked. I’ve always loved this picture. It hung in my parents garage for years and I finally talked my dad into letting me have it. I painted the frame black and it was ready to go. I also added shutters to the sides. A small lamp, topiary and glass insulators were added for depth and interest.

When styling shelves or mantles, try to use different heights in the items you choose. The lamp wasn’t quite tall enough for my liking, so I used a couple of old books to make it higher. I also set the insulators on different height candlesticks.

I added a few coastal items to the shelves. I tried to keep it really simple and not over pack it. There are several coastal accents, plus other personal items. I also used a little bit of a green and blue theme.

Adding in different heights and textures creates a pleasing look. These are two of my favorite pictures of my girls.

Love the simplicity of just a basket of old books. I displayed the book pages, but using the spines to add color would look great too.

More books, a seashell, a twine wrapped bottle and a little wooden shoe. I love the little touch to my Dutch heritage! And it was turquoise! It was meant to be!

I added in a few California gardening books along with my whale tail. I also placed my glass fishing balls in a metal basket.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I appreciate each and every one of you! It always makes my day to read your comments too, so be sure to let me know you visited!