Warmer Days...

I've been slightly slacking in blogging....it's been so gorgeous out, I've hated to be inside! Spring has sure come full blast now - I can't believe we went from like 48 to almost 80. Thank goodness - I cannot take the cold weather! The warmer days are keeping me outside - or sitting inside wishing I needed something to do outside!

I took advantage of it yesterday and started planting flowers. Which, by the way, I've never done in my life, so.... we will see if I kill these suckers or not! But, I have this UK stepping rock at the end of my steps and I thought it would be adorable to have blue & white flowers growing on each side of the steps - and then I'll hang up my UK flag!  I scoured Home Depot and was having a hard time finding blue flowers until I finally found these:

They were the winner! I bought four of each (but only ended up planting 3 of each - I'll just use the others for pots I suppose!) 

Let me tell you: Gardening is not easy if you don't know WTF you're doing. But I finally got them planted - and we'll see if this turns out. My neighbor is ridiculously fabulous at gardening and his yard and porch always look like a floral shop, so he came over last night and scoped them out and gave them some treatment. Hopefully that helps them grow and I don't kill them :)

Today is gorgeous and I'm heading to Radnor Lake for a photo session - and a walk. The bestie and I just made plans to lounge on Pensacola Beach all  Memorial Day weekend -so I'm kicking my workouts into a little bit of overdrive to be beach ready! Thank goodness for all these sales at Kohls - with the crazy amounts of maxi dresses I bought last week, I am totally beach  ready in the clothes department! (And hooray, I had to buy a size smaller than what I normally wear! If that's not the best feeling ever, I don't know what is!)

And now a little Sunday Social! All about Pinterest -- which I spend waaaay too much time on!




1. What is your favorite outfit pin?
Right now, this. And I went and bought something kind of like it after seeing this pin.

2. What is your favorite food pin?

This chicken with bowtie pasta and creamy italian sauce was incredible! Recipe

3. What is your favorite wedding pin?

I'm not married nor getting married, so unlike a lot of girls - I actually don't have a wedding board! I do pin some photos though, for inspiration for weddings that I shoot. I have a bride next month that wants to do a first look, but doesn't have an idea of how, and just wants something cute or fun. So I started looking for some fun ideas. Thanks to pinterest, we fell in love with this and probably will go the "peek" route like this. (Photo by themarinstudio.com)

4. What is your favorite DIY/craft pin?

Turning your shirt into a scarf! Totally have to do this for football season for my Cats!

5. What is your favorite quote/verse/lyric pin?

6. Share one more random pin you love.

Clearly, the sign guy and I would get along FABULOUS. GO BIG BLUE!

Have a great Sunday everyone! 

A lazy Saturday..

Hooray for lazy Saturdays! Last night they were calling for snow overnight and into today...and we all know my ridiculous over the top panic over snow! So, I went grocery shopping and hightailed it home and stayed in. And of course -- woke up to barely anything on the ground.

It's been a lazy day where I haven't left my pajama's yet and took a nap an hour after I woke up. I am, however, watching my Wildcats game and screaming like a total lunatic.

And when I get lazy, I spend waaaay too much time on Pinterest. I was in so many different directions on pinterest today. First, Easter ideas for the kids. I want to do the "do your own scratch off lottery" tickets for them for Easter since they sure love when I shell out the money. But, I dont know how I want to do it. At ages 15 & 11, are they too old for Easter Baskets with "older" goodies in them? Should I really make them work for it and do a hard Easter Egg hunt since they are older and can look for them harder?

I am so undecided.

Second, I'm looking into some more decorating ideas. I know, it seems like I'm always doing this., but I really want to come up with some other ideas - mainly the living room and bedroom.

One thing I totally love is this:

I would totally love to put this in the bathroom though....I love putting up post it notes with my quote happiness....doing this would be so cute instead!

I totally love this idea for my little hallway from the living room.  I have nothing hanging there except a sisters frame in one tiny area. I DID think about getting shelves for the corner and putting frames there but I kind of like this idea instead - since I have Granny's urn in that area, it would be kinda cool to maybe have a huge variety of old family photos? Any other ideas for small walkway areas?

One thing I desperately want to change in the living room is end tables. I hate mine. I've had them since my old apartment, and Im ready for them to go. In searching, I loved this:

I feel like this could totally be easy to make or find somewhere...I guess we'll see?! 

I loved this too. I just want something simple....maybe I should get off my butt and start hitting up some furniture stores. Why can't Nashville have an IKEA?!?!

And because I am random and cannot ever seem to stick to one category when I hit up pinterest....

I spotted this and nearly died. This has to be the cutest thing I've ever seen. 

DIY Coasters!

Awhile back I spotted the ever popular “Coaster tutorial” on pinterest, and thought it was clever. At the time, I really had no idea who or what I’d make them for, so I just kept it in the back of my mind. Now I obviously have a reason to make them, so I made a few sets for a few family members, using photos. It’s a little time consuming, kind of – not all at once, it just requires a little patience because you really need to give these time to dry. Overall, it’s a really fabulous, personalized gift and it is not that expensive. Since I know the folks I made these for won't check the blog within the next few days, I can go ahead and post these :)

I made a few little changes to my coasters, so here’s what I did, and what I used. I also changed my process up a little bit.

-Modge Podge (I bought mine at Michael’s for $8 or so, I think)

-Acrylic Sealer  (Michaels, $5)

-Ceramic Tiles  (Home Depot, .16 cents a piece. I got the 4.5x4.5)

-Engine Enamel (Auto Zone, $6)

-White paint (Michaels, $1.99)

-Black Felt (I think they were .29 cents a piece, bought at Michaels, but you can find them at your local Walmart too.)

When I checked out the tutorials, I read through all the comments on every one to see what potential issue people were having so I could try to avoid those issues.

I used this kind, and I used the foam brushes -- I found the small foam brushes were PERFECT for this. 

One thing I noticed is a lot of people didn’t seem to give the coats enough time to DRY. So, I started by cutting my photos down into squares. (And, I cannot cut straight. If you have an exacto knife, this is about when that would be the best invention ever.) I used modge podge on the back of the pictures to adhere them to the tiles. Once I did that, I let them sit overnight. The next morning, I applied the first coat of modge podge. It shows the streaks, obviously, since it’s modge podge, and it applies white, but it dries clear. Now, I don’t know how long it actually takes the one coat to dry, but I left mine sitting for 6-12 hours before I would apply the next coat. I put 4 coats of modge podge on each. (See why I said it took a little time – I really let mine dry as best as I could)

Drying after a coat of Modge Podge - they really look cute!

I let the final coat of Modge Podge dry for a little bit longer before I applied the acrylic spray. You do NOT want to apply acrylic spray in the house --- take these outside, in the basement, in the garage – anywhere  but in your living area. I applied four coats of acrylic spray, and I let each coat take a full day to dry.

After they fully dried, I decided to take one and test it. I noticed online a lot of people mentioned hot beverages left a ring or would stick, and that you should wait 30 days before putting a hot beverage on it to let the Modge Podge clear. I wasn’t so convinced. The coaster tested perfect for the cold, but as soon as I put a hot cup of water on it – it started to stick and leaving a little ring. I did some googling and decided a trip to Auto Zone for clear engine enamel was the way to go. The enamel is built for withstanding the hot temperatures. I applied two coats of the clear enamel, and I let them sit for 3 days before touching them again – so that they would be 100% fully dry.

You could probably just do the engine enamel if you really wanted to, but I liked having both the sealer and the enamel.

I tested them again after that, and SUCCESS! Hot and Cold Beverages are perfect on them. No extra 30 days needed, and no telling my recipients that they couldn’t put a hot cup on it!

The edge of the ceramic tiles are kind of unfinished, and  you could leave them like that if you wish. But I wanted it to be white, and I hated the feel of the unfinished side – I don’t know what it was, but it felt weird and I didn’t like it.

Some sides look worse than others -- which is why I do suggest finishing them.

I know some folks painted the edges first and used spray paint, but since I waited late to do mine, I had to use different paint. I picked this paint up at Michaels, which was only $2, and it applied flawlessly with a small brush. I suppose it is just as easy do that first, but I didn’t have any issues waiting so late to add the side paint, although I did had to take my finger and make sure there was no excess paint on the finished parts.

This is the paint I wound up using. It works perfect, and if I make more, I'd do this again over using spray paint. I let the paint dry overnight.

I used a black felt square and applied it on the bottom with a hot glue gun. I put some of the glue on the bottom of the tile, and then put the felt on – and then I went around the edges and put a little bit of glue under any area that was coming up.

I couldn't cut the felt straight either, but whatever. This seemed a lot easier than cutting four circles for the corners. Plus, it covers all the unfinished look on the bottom.

And they’re done!  Instead of tying them together with ribbon I found these adorable boxes at Michaels  and they fit perfectly, and look adorable!

I LOVE them in the little boxes. I put a little tissue on the bottom and on the top to protect them a little bit, because I made different numbers of coasters for different people so some filled to the brim. I think the box ended up fitting 7 or 8 coasters total. That's my super duper cute Granny, isn't that the cutest picture ever?! I made these ones for my Mom :) We miss Granny so much, I thought these would be great for mom to have.

And since I'm posting Christmas....

I have officially finished Christmas shopping -- AND have everything wrapped! Success! I got a lot more for the kids than I planned, but that's my job, right?! It doesn't help that my nephew is so crazy easy to buy for -- between the WWE stuff, Legos, and Star Wars -- I just kept buying him more! 

I put my tree up in November, and I'm going to be so sad to take it down. Next year I might swap out the pink ornaments for blue. I really love having the coordinated looking tree and not random ornaments everywhere, this sister ornament is the only non coordinated ornament I put on it. And of course, I did that because it was A) a gift from my sister, and B) Silver, and it looked cute!