4th of July Party

4th of July has kinda became "our holiday" in the past 3 years. We have hosted parties for either neighbors or church friends every year and we love it! Its such a fun holiday. I feel like grilling and corn hole were made for the 4th of July. 

I made this flag with brown packaging paper, paint, and stars made from my cricut. It took all of 10 min. to make and was a perfect backdrop to our festive table. 

I ordered these mason jar lids from Very Jane, Its a great website for party supplies, craft supplies, gifts, jewelry and other great stuff. They run the sales for a few days so the items are always changing. I love it. check it out!

These are the same straws I used for Lauren and Dakota's Couple Shower . The package came with 144 straws so they will definitely be showing up at parties for awhile.

The flags were a free printable I found online. I think I was out of blue ink so it printed black but who noticed right?

Cricut + Frame = Instant Easy Decor!

These chalkboard labels came from Very Jane as well. Some are on long wooden sticks and some have clothes pin on them. You could probably make them pretty easily but they were so cheap It was just as easy.

 I'm telling ya check it out!

This is my go-to way to label my punch containers. Cricut cut out shapes and twine. Easy and cute my favorite combination. 

My great friend Laura has became a pro at making cake-pops! She even made them for one of our friends wedding's recently. She brought these to the party and I just thought they were too cute not to post!

No 4th of July party is complete without watermelon. 

This is such an easy way to dress up plastic forks and spoons. I made this tin the same way I made these flower pots. Now I can customize it for all my parties!

We love opening our home to friends and holidays are a great reason to bring everyone together and do this!!! 

Easter Decorating

I love to decorate for holidays. My husband jokes with me about how many decorations we have. He says I am banned from holiday decor shopping. Good thing I stocked up on all the holiday decorating goodies our first 2 years of marriage! 

These glass display candle vases have been a great purchase! They are so versatile , you can be creative and use them for every season. I love them!

Getting a bag of cute eggs can go along way. I just stick them in random places and then everywhere looks "Eastery". 

 These carrots are from Pier 1 … I got them last year… but its a great store to find cute little do-dads like this. I love Easter, I love dying eggs, I love cooking my nanny's dressing (stuffing if you're not from the deep south) but most of all I love my savior who died for my sin then conquered the grave. That is what Easter is all about! 

Happy Valentine's Day

Whether you have a special date night planned with your Valentine, or a long distance Skype date with them, or even a fun girls night with those special friends in your life, I hope you have a very FABULOUS and SWEET Valentine's day! My Valentine to you is my family's wonderful Red Velvet Cake recipe. This recipe has been in our family forever and it is to die for! I made it for my husband last night and I can't wait to eat it tonight after dinner! I tried to make it a little "cleaner" by using unbleached flour, pure cane sugar, and fat free cream cheese.  (note: cleaner doesn't necessarily mean "healthier" all the time… but everyone deserves to indulge ever now and again) I hope you will give it a try, I promise you will and your Valentine will L.O.V.E. it!

Red Velvet Cake

For the Cake

• 2 ½ cup flour (self rising)
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 1 tsp cocoa
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 ½ cup oil
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 tsp butter flavor
• 2 eggs
• 1 oz red bottle food coloring
• 1tsp vanilla 

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Mix the 3 dry ingredients together. 
3. Add in other ingredients in order and then beat for 2-3 min. 
4. Split the batter into 2 circle cake pans
5. Bake 28-32 min. 

Frosting:

• 1 stick of butter softened
• 1 (8oz) cream cheese softened
• 1 lb confectioner’s sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup chopped pecans

1. Beat together all ingredients in an electric mixer except the nuts
2. stir in nuts
3. wait until cake is COMPLETELY cool before icing.
4. spread on a thick layer onto of one of the cake rounds and then place the other one on top
5. using a spatula, spread the remaining icing all over the cake
6. enjoy!

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: So I have a embarrassing confession, first go at this beautiful cake, I used all purpose, unbleached, organic flour because it was on sale thinking (stupidly) that It wouldn't make a big difference not being SELF RISING… well needless to say i was wrong…. I could tell right when I took it out of the oven, that that was NOT my mama's wonderful Red Velvet Cake. I took a bite and it tasted like a doggie biscuit (or how I would imagine doggie biscuits tasting) so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use SELF RISING FLOUR and save your self a heart break :-)