Pinteresting Project: Valentine’s Day Votive Holders!

People close to me know that I am a big fan of Pinterest – I am there daily getting and sharing inspiration (PINspiration hehe). Here’s a little project I did the other day, inspired by this pin, on Pinterest.

The original crafter created a more permanent covering for her Valentine’s Day votive holders, but I simply wrapped tissue paper around the outside of one mason jar (topped with a pink polka dot scrap of fabric), and stuffed some inside the other jar. You might be thinking this would be a bit problematic as a votive holder, and you’d be right :). My secret? Battery operated tea-lights, a mom’s best friend! I popped three in each mason jar. The tiny jar had a real tea light inside, but I keep it away from all the tissue paper when lit. The decoration on the outside of that one is actually a cupcake wrapper :)!

Nativity Set for Kids

Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3

My mom gifted Gabriel with a sweet little nativity set made of painted wood either last year or the year before, and it has been such a lovely addition to our Christmas things. It is great to have something that’s just for the kids as we open box after box of decorations. I have enjoyed seeing Julia play with them this year too!

Here’s a cute scene I captured from last Christmas, when Gabe was three – he did this when I wasn’t looking and I discovered it after he was down for a nap:

He had taken all of his nativity figures and lined them up on the table with the “grown up” nativity.  Notice the angel tucked into the background :). I just thought it was so precious! You can find lots of play nativity sets online, but I only saw one link to this specific set, in case you’re interested: Child’s Nativity made in Sri Lanka.

Thanksgiving Craft Ideas

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving :)! We had such a lovely weekend – there is much to be thankful for. Here are some fun Thanksgiving crafts we tried this year, plus a few from last year too :)!

Printable Thanksgiving Paper Craft Toys

Aren’t these guys SO CUTE??? If I had realized they would take me two hours to make I might have skipped them, but once I got going I was hooked! And Gabe loved playing with them too, so it was all worth it :). Here’s a link to the site where you can download these and other free printable paper crafts (look across the top of the page): Thanksgiving Paper Craft. TIP: I used glue dots instead of liquid glue!

Vintage Thanksgiving Postcard Banner

This was a super cute and fun idea I have seen on lots of crafty blogs – a banner of vintage images. You can find plenty of these images by doing a Google search for vintage post cards (for practically any occasion too)! Just make sure it is OK with the site owner before you print them out and use them :). I just backed mine with scrapbook paper and tied them together with string (ribbon would look pretty too if you have some on hand).

Pumpkin Turkey!

Gabe made this one in Mrs. Claudia’s class :). She used a fork to poke holes in the top and sides for the kids to stick feathers into. Then they just needed to add a felt waddle and googly eyes of course!

Happy Thanksgiving Banner

This is the banner Gabe and I made for Thanksgiving last year. It was a great way for me to make use of some left-over scrapbook supplies while creating a sweet reminder of my little boy – small hands make the most adorable turkeys :).

Fall Wreath with Nuts and Bittersweet Branches

Here’s the wreath we put together last year when we got together with my sister and niece for a craft day :)!

Three Simple Fall Centerpieces for Under $10

On Sunday morning our pastor started talking about the “yard sale sub-culture” and everyone in my family started looking at me and giggling. I am not ashamed to admit that I love a bargain! If I can find great toys, books and games for the kids at a tiny fraction of the original cost, I am a happy camper. When Target comes out with Pottery Barn-like home decor I am all over it (although even Target is a little pricey for me sometimes). I have even picked things up off the side of the road (waiting for trash day). YES – I have and I am totally fine with it as long as I know it is something that can be thoroughly cleaned and isn’t broken.  So with that in mind, it shouldn’t come as a big shock that I love dollar stores :). I was at the Dollar Tree store a few days ago and picked up two little bunches of autumn florals to use in some fall centerpieces around the house. I just added some mini pumpkins, gourds and a few simple white dishes to make these three lovely autumn decorations!

Three Simple Fall Centerpiece Ideas

Supplies:

“Mini Pumpkins” and other small pumpkins (usually 50 – 75 cents each)

Gourds (I bought a bag of 5 at Walmart for a little over $2)

Fabric flowers/leaves/berries etc (I bought two bunches for a dollar each)

Dishes, bowls or baskets you already have on hand. You can use fall-themed, but I think simple containers display the colors and textures of autumn beautifully.

How to Make Autumn Centerpieces:

Step 1: Wash your pumpkins and gourds, pat dry and set aside.

Step 2: Remove the fabric flowers, leaves and berries from their plastic stems and choose a few nice pieces to use in your decorations.

Step 3: For the first centerpiece, arrange three similar pumpkins or gourds in a row on a dish or flat basket, then add a few small berries, leaves and/or flowers in between and at the ends of the row. TIP: Less is more! Try not to over-embellish :).  See the photo at the top of this page for an example – this one works well for a rectangular table.

Step 4: The second centerpiece is super simple: just place several gourds and/or mini pumpkins in a bowl and add fall leaves or flowers here and there. TIP: groups of odd numbers tend to look best together – I used 5 pieces in my bowl, plus one flower (see photo below).

Step 5: Lastly, you can make a cute little pumpkin tower using mini pumpkins and fabric leaves :). This one is pretty small, but it looks great on a small round table or a narrow side table. Choose three mini pumpkins that will stack nicely without easily falling over. Remove all plastic connection pieces from the fabric leaves, and lay the first set of leaves in the center of a flat dish or basket. Place the largest of the three mini pumpkins on top of the leaves, then alternate leaves and pumpkins until you have your sweet little pumpkin tower completed. I also added a few tiny sunflowers to the top and sides.

There you have it! Three quick, simple and best of all – cheap fall decorations you can make yourself :). By-the-way, when I lived in New England it was easy to find REAL Bittersweet berries for free all over the place, plus plenty of colorful fall leaves, but the plus side of using artificial ones is that I can get them back out again next year!

Oh, and one more tip for working with inexpensive fabric flowers: the most tacky looking thing about them is always the plastic stems, so make sure you minimize those as much as possible. Remove any unnecessary plastic parts and tuck the rest under things to keep them hidden :).

For more autumn decorating ideas, check out these old blog posts I wrote in 2006:

~Fall Decorating Part 1~

~Fall Decorating Part 2~

UPDATE: Also check out this fall decorating post by my friend, Emily :)!

Our Sweet Girl’s First Birthday Party!

Today is Julia’s first birthday! We celebrated on Saturday with an “explosion of pink and purple” as Chris called it ;). As you can see, Miss Julia Rose LOVED her first cupcake :).

There were plenty of other yummy treats besides the rose-topped cupcakes.  We also served heart-shaped sandwiches, pink lemonade and strawberries with pink fruit dip. I even found the PERFECT little mints for party favors, which looked like polka-dots and matched the party colors too!

Julia’s face totally lit up when we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her – so adorable! She looked really cute in the birthday hat, outfit and tutu I made for her :)!

Her tutu is so puffy that we had to bunch it up behind her so she could crawl :).

I had an absolute blast making all the froufrou party decorations! Hopefully I will get a chance to share some great links and tutorials for some of these fun projects in a future post.

I will leave you with a photo of one of the birthday gifts from my parents – could this BE any more perfect for the party? Pink, polka-dots, roses and even a tutu!!!