Christine's Bridal Shower

Have I mentioned a time or two how excited I am that my little brother is getting married? My sister Kelly and I had the honor of throwing our soon-to-be sister-in-law a bridal shower this weekend, and not to toot our own horns or anything, but it was a smashing success!

THANK YOU, PINTEREST. You never fail us.

On the menu: caprese salad skewers, bacon wrapped pineapple, strawberry spinach salad, quiche, fruit with fruit dip, and cupcakes.

We also served strawberry lemonade, sangria, cucumber infused water, and coffee.

The Cupcakes were from Fat Cupcake bakery in Oregon City - they were incredible!

We had the guests fill out a cute little card of wishes and advice for the bride & groom that Kelly made (she made all the banners and signs too. She is awesome.) They will fit in an album we gave Christine that we'll also fill with pictures from the shower.

And finally... the beautiful bride-to-be!

Visiting and eating before playing "guess the groom" and "bridal scattergories". 

I was pretty proud of my Guess the Groom board! (If you're stumped by number 8 that's because it was especially for Christine... he was the Heisman winner from her alma mater, Florida State, and we knew no one else would know him besides her!)

These hangers are so fun for a wedding day picture of the dress. Kelly and I ordered this one on etsy - there are tons to choose from.

My Aunt Kathy and cousin Kristin made the rehearsal bridal bouquet from the ribbons on the gifts, and then got really creative with wrapping paper and tissue after we realized most gifts were in bags! Didn't they do a fantastic job? 

Oh it was such a fun day! Kelly and I enjoyed all the planning and preparation that went into it and were tickled pink when everything turned out how we envisioned it. But most of all it was a great "girlfriends" afternoon, and actually really relaxing once the shower began. That's always a bonus :)

We love you, Christine, and can't wait for your big day!  

Monday Confessional {And melted crayon art)

I have nine young teen girls sleeping over tonight for my daughter's belated birthday party and I think I'm having as much fun as they are.

Confession: I'm a sucker for a girls-only all-nighter. The planning, preparation, running of it, it's all fun.

So far activities have included, but not been limited to: swimming at the river, with rock jumping and rope swinging, spaghetti & meatballs dinner with cupcakes and ice cream for dessert, giant shrink-wrapped candy ball game (fun party game we found on pinterest), Pinterest-inspired melted crayon art, scorch (flashlight tag) in the dark, and as of 12:01 am (the time right now), a full on hair and beauty makeover session while rocking out to Pandora.

In an hour I'll send them all out to the huge tent set up in the backyard, and in the morning when they roll in around 10am, I'll make them cinnamon rolls for brunch and then send them all home.

And it will have all been completely delightful!

SUPER BONUS: Pinterest did not let us down.

We tried out melted crayon art without any real tutorials and were pleasantly shocked when it actually turned out to be as easy as it looked! I found the canvases in a multi-pack on clearance at Michael's, used hot glue guns or painters tape to affix the crayons either permanently or temporarily, depending on what the girls wanted, and then used an embossing heating tool to melt the crayons (heats much hotter than a blow dryer).

The girls were so creative and absolutely loved the process, and adding their own touches at the end.

Nope, I'm not minding this at all :)

Now please excuse me, it's Divergent time ;)

Awkward and awesome

Awkward:
- finally watching Duck Dynasty with your husband and realizing "oh my gosh, my husband could be ON this show."
- enthusiastically waving at a stranger in a car because your husband just waved at them so you thought it might be someone you know, when it turns out it was just a guy who yielded his turn to you at the 4-way stop so your husband was politely thanking him.
- using your husband's stick shift car for the week and stalling out almost every time you pull out of your long driveway because you forgot you were in 2nd gear already.
- leaving the headlights on overnight (again in your husband's car - a DIESEL) so asking a friend to come give you a jump only to find out that oh no, it's not that simple with a diesel. You need a BIG vehicle, and BIG jump cables, and THIRTY MINUTES of charging... and half your day wasted.
- bringing your so-so attempt at high heel cupcakes (found on pinterest) to a womens church event...

Only to see that you're going to have to put them next to these knockouts...

I have other skills, ok?!

Awesome:
- husbands who call you on the 7th day of their 9 day hunting trip to chat for a little while and then tell you, "oh by the way, I'm 10 minutes away." Hurrah!
- when your husband comes out dressed like this for church and makes you forget that you are mad at him for shaving off his hair.

Well hey, sexy. 

- hanging out with girlfriends at summer parties. I'll miss you, summer parties!

- bucks out your bedroom window...

- and pears ripe for the picking! (minus that rotten one hanging in front of the buck's ear. Pretend you don't see it.)

Happy Thursday!

Pinterest party: mason jar lantern edition

So last night was another pinterest party night hosted by my friends Cindy & Shay and as usual off I went fully planning to take lots of pictures, only to discover I'd not just forgot my camera (again... that's zero for four now), but I hadn't even grabbed my cell phone!

Mum and her iphone to the rescue.

Here was our night's inspiration:

(both pics from pinterest, source unknown)

All you need to make the lanterns is a jar and two pieces of wire; one to put around the rim and one to make the handle.

<< Tracy, Linda, Holli, Joni, Shay, Nancy, Jana, & Jennifer >>

To color the jars you put a couple drops of food coloring in mod podge and then coat the inside of the jar.

The mod podge dries clear with just a hint of the color added (super cool, right?).

I decided to skip the color and just make the lanterns. 

And by "make" I mean I handed the jars and wire one at a time to my mother-in-law, who turned out to be quite handy with the pliers!

<< Shiree, Linley, Helen, Mum, Kelly, & Teri >>

Add sand, rocks and a votive candle and you're done! 

These are going to hang off my back porch and I think they're darling. 

Pinterest night success!

Past pinterest parties:

pinterest potluck

painted pumpkins

fringe scarves

a t-shirt fringe scarf paaartaaay

Last night was "pinterest night", ie: girl's craft night, and we took on the t-shirt fringe scarf tutorial found all over pinterest. The perfect project for me since all it required was a t-shirt and scissors and a few snip snips! (And an excuse to go to the Goodwill for cheap tees!)

Seriously, all you do is cut the t-shirt straight across under the armpits and then cut a fringe across the bottom, pulling the individual strands when you're done to stretch them out and make them curl in on the edges. Throw it around your neck and you're done!

The girls: Hillary, Heidi, Holli, Jennifer, Kelly, Nicole, Diana, Ellie, and me. (And Shay who hosted and took this pic)

Look at all them cute scarves! Thanks to our new friend Heidi some of us (read: not me) got REAL Crafty and cut out extra holes and hung beads, etc. There are seriously endless options of things you can do with a simple t-shirt and some scissors. 

I love a fun girl's night!

InstaFriday - holiday treats edition!

Happy weekend, friends! 

I'm selling treats at a Christmas Bazaar held at our church tomorrow and have been in the kitchen quite a bit the last couple of days. I did get out and about a little though, here's the instagram proof!

Monday night: Russ's first home game of the season. It was "pink out night" (raising money for cancer awareness) and the team was all in pink! Pretty awesome.

Blake likes to play with the camera on my phone when I'm engrossed in daddy's games and not paying attention. This was my "hey, you little stinker!" face when I found the camera 4 inches from my nose!

Tuesday night: Walmart run with Mum for all the ingredients I needed for my bazaar treats. The checkout lady wanted to know why I was taking a photo of my stuff... how to explain InstaFriday?

Thursday: out running errands with Blake... one for me and one for him!
Love their free whipped cream cups :)

Cooper's latest, drawn yesterday while watching the old cartoon. Pretty sure I'm running out of room in the file cabinet with all his pictures that I MUST. KEEP.

And on to the treats! Here's what I've been whipping up in the kitchen:

Recipe found on the blog Joy's Hope. Love her blog! And this addictive toffee.

No recipe, but got the idea from seeing several different kinds on Pinterest. LOVED how these turned out!

Instructions found HERE, again via Pinterest. I am, of course, a sucker for anything with the words peppermint white chocolate in them.

A recipe I've had for years and don't remember where it came from. But I googled the name and found the same recipe HERE. This stuff is amaaaazing.

And thanks to my sister, I have cute labels for my packages!

No picture of the popcorn baggies - just Christmas edition quart sized ziplocks.

Here's hoping all these goodies sell!

I'll post pictures of my table and some of the other cute stuff found at the bazaar (that I'll probably have bought, because you know I'm a sucker for bazaars...) on Monday!