Three Cheers for the Red, White & Blue!

July 3, 2019July 2, 20191 Comment

Let the celebration begin!! Are you all stocked up and ready for the 4th of July? I set up a table with some fun kids stuff (big kids too!) that I received from Oriental Trading. Have you checked them out? The Oriental Trading Company is a direct merchant of value-priced party supplies, arts and crafts, toys and novelties and school supplies. It’s a great place to order all you party needs and, should I say, school supplies. Nope, it’s too early for that!

*The contents of this blog are sponsored by The Oriental Trading Company.*

I love decorating this picket table my husband and I made. It’s the perfect spot for a snack or beverage table. I decided to mix a little Americana and Nautical together.

I thought these Mini Stars and Stripes Bubble Bottles looked like fun! It helps keep the kids entertained until the fireworks start. The Rustic 4th Napkins look great with all the other accessories. Do you notice the Cotton Plant Garland? I know it might seem a little out of place for 4th of July, but the valley I live in grows a lot of the U.S.’s fruits and vegetables, and cotton. So this is just a little nod to my community!

I placed the bubbles on one of the trays. By turning it upside down, it makes a great spot and makes them easier to see.

I love these Patriotic Yard Bursts! I placed them inside a couple of bottles I got from Hobby Lobby. They make quite the statement!

The Nautical Fabric Pennant Banner is my favorite. It looks like it belongs on a sailboat somewhere. I like the solids and stripes and it’s even on twine! It goes well with my Wooden American Flag. I will be posting the DIY for the flag next week.

The Patriotic Food Trays are the perfect size for a bunch of cookies, or chips or any other snack. I added these cute little Shining Sea Pinwheels too. They would look really nice in a plate of cupcakes.

Flag Tootsie Rolls anyone? I probably shouldn’t have ordered these. I will probably eat them all myself! The little cups are the perfect size to hold your goodies in ( I ordered the cups from Oriental Trading too, but I don’t see that they are available anymore).

I’m all ready! Now it’s just waiting for the celebration! Happy 4th!

Disneyland Tomorrowland Graduation Party

June 24, 2019June 23, 2019Leave a comment

Good morning! We are officially in summer! I love it! Last week we spent time camping at the beach. It was so nice! Cooler weather, but no wind. It was so pleasant to walk to beach and just sit on the dunes and hang out with family.

Before we headed to the beach though, we had Haley’s college graduation party. Woo hoo! Haley works at Tomorrowland in Disneyland, so we planned our party around it. We featured each ride and even snacks to go along with it!

Here is the graduate and cast member, along with her galaxy dress and blue lipstick!

Lauren and I have worked many months working on some of these pieces. The Astro Orbitors took us months to figure out! I was quite the process! I think it turned out amazing and it was the first thing you saw when you walked in the door. We also made a Tomorrowland Directional Sign which included each of the rides, Pizza Port and of course, the restrooms.

The rockets even light up!

We made a styrofoam moon complete with planets, rock candy and ‘Star’bursts.

Lauren made this amazing acrylic pour painting to look like outer space. I think it looks so cool! We added few more planets, stars and Haley’s graduation pictures along with a Class of 2019 banner.

These are my favorite! Autopia cars! This is Haley’s main attraction she works at and I was so excited to find some replica cars on Ebay. I borrowed some foam road pieces from work and we added some Oreo tires and gumdrop roadblocks. Aren’t they fun!?

We are not the biggest Star Wars fans, so we borrowed some pieces from some friends who are fans. We found the grape juice bottles with Chewbacca and a Storm Trooper while going through a grocery store on our way to find something else and knew we needed to add them to the table.

This was a last minute design. Lauren decided we needed a Pizza Port since we were serving pizza. We used a tomato cage, some plate risers, and a wooden stand. Lauren made the claw to hang from the middle. It turned out really cute, but unfortunately the pizzas didn’t really fit inside. Oh well! It looked good! We included Buzz and an Astro Blaster for the Buzz ride.

We had lots of great food too and gave them fun names to go with the theme. Popcorn became Astroids.

Seven layer dip became Seven Leia Dip and…

The tortilla chips were Storm Trooper Scoopers.

Aren’t the Little Green Men cupcakes adorable? I love their little eyes and antenna!

Even our drinks were named. Lemonade was Vadoraid,

Soda was Yoda Soda,

and we had Rocket Fuel and Blinker Fluid.

We had so much fun celebrating along with family and friends. Congratulations Haley!

Lazy Days and Lemonade Wood Sign

May 27, 2019May 26, 2019Leave a comment

Good morning! Happy Memorial Day! Thank you to all those who serve, have served or have given their life for our freedom. You are appreciated!

I have had this sign for several years and it was definitely showing its age. The colors were faded and the paint just looked awful, but I love this saying! So I decided to redo it.

I decided to use my favorite summer colors: apple green, oasis blue and orange. I gave the wood a little bit of sanding and then spray painted the board with Rustoleum Apple Green.

Once it was dry, I taped a piece of newspaper on the middle of the board. I curved the edges to give it a softer look. Once the newspaper was secure, I spray painted Rustoleum Oasis Blue over the whole thing.

Here’s what it looked like after removing the paper.

I looked through the different fonts on my computer and choose the ones I wanted and then printed them out.

Once the papers were cut, I scribbled pencil over the back of each piece. I had to press down fairly hard in order for it to show up on the board.

I placed the papers where I wanted them on the board and then traced over the letters with my pencil, pressing down hard until I could see the letters.

I used a thin paintbrush and orange acrylic paint to paint over the pencil marks.

Once everything was dry, I lightly sanded over the whole board to give it a worn look. Finally, I was able to take it out to my patio and display it on my potting table.

The colors are perfect!

I’m looking forward to some lazy summer days!

Thank you so much for coming by today! I would love for you to leave a comment and to chat with you! Have a great week!

Here are some other posts you might be interested in:

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Celebration!! Our Peacock Graduation Party 2015

May 20, 2019May 16, 201922 Comments

Good morning! I hope everyone had a great week! We are headed south for Haley’s graduation! Unbelievable!! It seems like we just did this a couple of years ago, but it’s been 4 years since her high school graduation. We won’t be having her graduation party until June, so I thought I would share her peacock party with you again! I love decorating and coming up with ideas for parties! Enjoy!!

The day finally arrived! All the pomp and circumstance! What a crazy week leading up to this day, but I have lots of great memories I am tucking away. My baby graduated! It just seems so crazy that time has passed so quickly!

I had so much fun decorating for the party! For starters, it was in my favorite colors!

Second, decorating helps to keep me busy and maybe not shed so many tears! Haley picked out the peacock theme and we went with turquoise, lime green, purple and a little black. We purchased most of the paper goods at Hobby Lobby and the silk flowers came from the 99 Cent Store. I did order some of the peacock feathers and our very kind neighbor gave some others. He owns some peacocks and had been collecting feathers for us for the last 2 months. He also gave us the 2 metal peacocks to use as decorations. We are so thankful to have such great and generous neighbors!

We started with purple tablecloths and laid a runner of turquoise sparkly mesh down the middle. I also added some graduation scatter on the runner. We created centerpieces with peacock feathers, lime green cattails, and grasses to glass vases. We bought Floral Gel Beads (from the Dollar Tree) and Haley added food coloring until she got the color she wanted. We added these to the bottom of the vases. We kept the table very simple.

We had purchased tissue paper balls and paper fans from Hobby Lobby and hung them above the food table and the main dining area.

The Candy Bar was the real hit! Do you recognize the beverage bar I made a month or so ago? I found the beautiful peacock feather wreath at Michaels several months ago and hung that on the top. Then we added glass containers for the candy. The glass jars came from Target, as did the 2015 dishes. The other clear bowl were from Walmart. Most of the candy was in the turquoise theme, but Haley wanted a couple of her absolute favorites too, Swedish Fish and Peanut Butter M & M’s!

I also made a bunch of these tassels from tissue paper and hung them in different areas around the space. There were some by the food table, the drink table and the patio.

We had a table with lots of memorabilia from Haley’s high school years and even younger, but since I didn’t want to plaster her information all over the internet, I will just show you a picture of her medals. She is a discus thrower for her school and is the school record holder! We are all very proud of her!

You can just see a little corner of the prayer the principal gave for all the seniors. He had verses and then listed each seniors name. It was so moving and made the occasion so much more special.

We had so much fun planning this whole party! We received many compliments and it was a great way for Haley and I to work together to make the day more special. I am so very proud of my girl and can’t wait to see what the future brings!

How I Organized My Tool Cabinet

April 22, 2019April 17, 2019Leave a comment

Good morning! I hope you all had a fun and family filled Easter! It was such a beautiful day here. Perfect for hunting eggs! I was able to accomplish a few projects while I was off for spring break.

This locker cabinet was one of my projects. What a mess! I was constantly having to dig through all this to find the one tool or item I needed. There are small tools that I use in the house, a few painting supplies, batteries, and other miscellaneous items. I finally decided it was time to do something about it.

I found this divided box and knew it would work perfectly for all the small pieces I had in the locker. I started out putting the smaller items in the small squares. Items such as nails, screws, hooks and eyes fit perfectly in these compartments.

Once I finished with the smaller pieces, I had several larger items. I was able to take some of the dividers out to make larger spaces. I placed razor blades, zip ties and larger hooks in these compartments.

I also had a small clear plastic box that I filled with the larger tools like the hammer, screwdrivers, levels, wire cutters and sandpaper.

I also had a divided box for batteries. I have had this organizer for awhile and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it for the other items.

What a difference! It’s amazing how two little organizers could make this much of a difference! It’s so much easier to find what I need now. I have the batteries on the top shelf and hung up a few extra packs on the hook. I also have a few painting supplies and the staple gun in here.

I placed the divided box and the tool box on the bottom shelf.

Such a simple solution to a big messy problem! I’m so glad to have this one project done.

Have you organized any areas in your house lately? Do you have any simple solutions for keeping your items neat? Thank you so much for stopping by today and have a great week!