Date Night Wardrobe Wish List

All items and Photos by Modcloth: Dress/bag/heels/coat/rings/earrings/eyeliner/lipgloss/eyeshadow

Last Sunday I celebrated an anniversary with my boyfriend of 11 years! Gabriel (my boyfriend) took me to dinner at an amazing Japanese restaurant in Santa Monica, and then we went to the Santa Monica pier to check out the rides, games, and dip our feet in the water. Since summer is still kinda here in Los Angeles the night was perfect for hanging at the beach. We're not the type of couple that plans out romantic nights--nor am I the type that longs for anything romantic but this night in particular was actually kinda romantic. I feel lame saying that but it's true! haha. We're also not the type of couple that has these types of outings on the regular. We like to stay at home and watch Netflix, or laugh at 30 minute 'fail' videos on Youtube; namely, because we want to save our money. I really enjoy stay at home dates because when we do go out it's so exciting and we're always fascinated by everything! LOL. I feel that when we used to go out all the time in the beginning of our relationship we felt we needed to top every previous adventure; and it got to the point where going out was just boring for us. I dunno maybe we're just weird. 

Anywho, while I did dress to empress that night I (in the back of my head) secretly wished I had something better to wear. Then, while I was thinking about that, I thought it would be great if I made a wish list of all the things I wish I could have worn on our Anniversary date. I love this little collection I've created. This is totally my style! Happy Friday!

Card of the week—Thanksgiving Place Cards

With the excitement of Halloween and Christmas some of us seem to forget about Thanksgiving until it’s literally right around the corner—but this year I want to be ready! I seem to always forget how much I love to decorate for Thanksgiving until it’s the night before and I don’t have time to put my ideas on the table. This year my goal is to make a place card for each person that’ll be attending our dinner. It’s something I’ve always seen in magazines and it’s secretly something I’ve always wanted to have at a party. 

It took me a try or two to get a place card design that I really loved, and I’ll show you how I did it.

Step 1: Cut a 5 x 3” piece of ivory cardstock and then cut a 2 ¾” x 1 ¾” piece of pattern paper

Step 2: Fold the ivory cardstock piece in half

Step 3: Use a gelly pen to create a sewn border edge, then set aside.

Step 4: I used the super cute ‘so thankful’ stamp set by Lawn Fawn. Click here if you’d like to purchase the set. 

Step 5: Stamp the pumpkins and leaf onto a scrap piece of white card stock

Step 6: Color them in, cut them out and get them ready for placement 

Step 7: Adhere the pumpkins to the pattern paper like so

Step 8: Stamp the sentiment

Step 9: I created the guest names with Harold’s ABCs stamps set created by Lawn Fawn. You can click here if you’d like to purchase this set. 

Step 10: Adhere the pattern paper piece to the cardstock and you’re finished! 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you come back again for more D.I.Y.s for Thanksgiving because I plan to post more ideas for this tasty holiday. 

Glitter Cupcake toppers for any Party Theme

Hello and Happy Monday!  I’m super excited to share my new cupcake toppers with everyone. I’ve been selling heart shaped glitter cupcake toppers in my shop for a while now and they’ve recently become of my top sellers of the month. Since they were doing so well I thought I’d create some circular shaped toppers and have them available in every glitter color I could get my hands on. I’m a sucker for shinny things + party decorations, haha. What I love most about this listing is that you the buyer can mix and match the colors they need to coordinate with their party theme; for instance,  they can select all 12 (or more) toppers in a single color; or, they can select a variety of colors that fit the theme of their party! One of my favorite combinations is the rose pink, neon yellow, and hot pink combo that my little sister named ‘Pink Lemonade’. How cute is that name? Here’s a picture of it:

Below are some other combinations that I’ve put together to show buyers what they can do with mix and matching these adorable cupcake toppers. I just can’t wait until I’m hosting another party so that I can use these. Namely because at times it’s hard to get your hands on that ‘perfect’ topper—but these can go with any theme! Here are some more pictures: 

I’ve also been working on a few different cupcake topper designs and here they are:

What do you think? Leave me a comment letting me know which set is your favorite and I’ll mail sample set of 12 for free! (Applies only to U.S. and Canada readers) No need to be a follower + the first person wins!!!! Ready? Go!

(P.S. don’t forget to leave contact information for me in your comment)

D.I.Y.--Last Minute Birthday Party Treats and Decor

The best things about hosting a last minute party is that it won’t cost you a pretty penny, and knowing that you don’t have stress out about all the planning and organizing that usually come along with hosting a party. The theme I used for my nieces ‘last minute’ 2^nd birthday was a ‘colorful’ theme. Using a ‘colorful’ theme means nothing has to match! I didn’t have to spend time looking for matching napkins, table cloths, and sweets. All I had to do was dip into my crafting closet and figure out what I had on hand that could be used. As a crafter/blogger I like to have certain things; such as, paper straws, tissue paper, cardstock, icing, box cake, sprinkles, and more, in stock for my photoshoots—and for this last minute party I was grateful to have stored a collection of these items. Although if you’re not a crafter or a blogger most of things I used for the party are very cheap and easy to find. Here are some pictures of the stuff I like to keep stocked in my crafty closet:

Tissue paper…because I never know when I’m gonna need a pom-pom, haha!

Craft punches

Glue

Twine

Paper straws

Mason jars

Cardstock

Cupcake wrappers

Kraft treat bags (for party favors)

…and the ingredients to make cupcakes, cakes, or cakepops

For the table setting I hung three pom-poms from the ceiling and tied a colorful handmade garland to each one. We also bought a small set of multi-colored balloons, a colorful $2.00 table cloth, and polka-dot napkins (all of these things were under $10.00). 

Here’s how I made the garland: I used my heart shaped craft punch to make a few hearts in a variety of colors. Next I folded them, applied glue, and adhered them the twine. Once they were done I attached them to the pom-poms I made. If you’ve never made a pom-pom before you can go ahead and give it a google—You’ll find tons of tutorials. 

For dinner we got pizza, fried chicken, and chips (all of her favorite things, lol)—all of which were under $25.00. 

As far as her birthday treats my little sister used the boxed cake, and icing container to make the cupcakes and cakepops. As you know one box makes 24 cupcakes—so she made all 24 of them, iced 12 and used the other 12 to make the cakepops! Clever. (You can view more of her work here on her FB fan page). 

Once dinner was done, we opened presents and sang happy birthday to my little niece Sammy; and, as you can see from the images she was not at all disappointed with the absence of a cake. She was perfectly happy with her cheap cupcakes, lol. 

…but she wasn’t happy when her grandma’ tried to smash a cupcake in her face! We had to distract her from crying by putting a cakepop in her hand, haha! 

She wasn’t fooled—she replied with, “get out!” (jk, I just wanted a reason to use this cute sad face pic, haha).

Well thanks for stopping by again! I hope you've enjoyed this D.I.Y. last minute party idea! I found out about this party the day of, but I was super happy with what my sisters and I were able to come up with in such a short amount of time. I think that was the fastest I’d ever made pom-poms, haha. Overall, baby Sammy was super excited when she walked through the door and saw all we had done for her—and that was worth everything!