Outdoor living space

We just love eating on the deck in the summer time.

The only bad thing with outdoor decorations and furniture is that it wears out so badly from the sun and rain. We've only had this patio set for 2 years but this spring it was already time to replace the cushions and outdoor rug. But the new replacements really made it back into a pretty great space that we use a ton!

These are a few little details that make outdoor dinning fun…A  Carafe for easy-to-bring-outside drinks, lanterns with candles, and plastic placemats. 

A few pretty potted plants finish off the cozy look and add a little color to our deck. 

I am excited about fall coming up but I am also savoring these last few weeks of warm summer nights spent on our deck. 

Beautiful Flower Prints for Home Decor

I took these with my spiffy new lens for my Nikon! All but the 1st one of the tulips were taken at the Biltmore Estate and Gardens in Asheville, NC. 

 I was thinking about printing a few of them out and making a collage of some sort for the guest bedroom. I wanted to post them on here in case any of you wanted to do something fun and creative with them too! Feel free to save them to your computer and do whatever with them~

Bedroom Update

Seems like all the rooms in our home are getting an update here lately. So not to be left out… here's the bedroom's facelift!

This is the before pictures. I've had this bed frame forever. Skot hated it because his feet hit the footboard. So I knew when I started tossing around ideas for the bedroom, the bed had to go.

 

We decided to take the top of our old dinning room table and turn it into a headboard. The tabletop has sentimental value too. When we got home from our honeymoon, Skot had surprised me with it as a wedding gift. I had been eyeing a barn wood style table at Pier 1 for a few months before we got married, but being broke newly weds, buying a house and all we decided to wait on the $800 table haha. Skot went and took pictures of the table and recreated it with real barn wood and legs he found at an antique store. It looked almost identical to the Pier 1 table, and the thought, effort, energy, and love behind the wedding gift from my new husband was so so sweet! Much better than the store one! 

So needless to say the table couldn't go! Now it just has a fresh coat of paint and has a fabulous new purpose in our home. (tutorial on how to paint things to give it the"distressed" look, coming soon!) 

I bought the elephant and chevron fabric off amazon and just covered our old pillows. I've been seeing pillows like these go for around $50 each on websites I follow!! All the fabric cost about $25 and i still have some left over. I see some cute travel bags being made in the near future :-)

I found this grey and white striped duvet at target for a steal of around $30. It came with pillow covers too! Much cheaper than the West Elm one I was thinking about buying.

I think the string lights (also from target) just set the room off! the right lighting gives any space the perfect finishing touch. I found these in the outdoor/patio section.

I gave our existing shelves a fresh coat of paint. I have been buying the sample size of paint from Lowe's for projects like these here lately. That way I can pick out the exact color I want and it is good quality paint. It runs about $3.00 per sample, and its more than enough to complete projects like this.

I recruited my milk glass vases that I have collected from thrift and antique stores over the years. I love how simple and clean milk glass is. 

Found this great mirror from TJ Maxx. I love it! 

Gave the lamp a few coats of white spray paint. I didn't prime it before (i get impatient with things like this) which made it kind of bubble up but I ended up kind of liking the texture. Then I just used the left over pillow fabric and covered the shade. I like elephants a lot :-) Roll Tide!

We love the new bedroom update. Now I wish I could just lay in bed forever and enjoy it!

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!!! 

Upcycle those cheap, plain flip-flops in 30 minutes

I turned these …

into these using this link!!! Super easy… great for beginner crafters and only took about 30 min.

Summer Red Sangira

The other night I got in the mood for sangria… It was a peaceful, lazy, summer night and it just felt right. Hubs was frying squash fresh from the garden and i decided to whip up a batch of sangria for us. I searched around on Pinterest and mix and matched a few recipes that sounded good. I used what we had (because I was just too lazy to go to the store this particular night) and it turned out yummy! 

I even tried it 3 nights later and it still tasted fabulous! I'm planning on making it again very soon. 

Enjoy!

Jamie's Summer Sangria Recipe 

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup ginger ale
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup triple sec
• 1 (750ml) bottle of red wine chilled (i used cabernet)
• 2 cups diced/sliced fruit (your choice… i used watermelon… soaked up everything very nicely)

Mix all ingredients together;chill for about 2 hours; enjoy over ice preferably in a mason jar.

FREE super cute invitations

Oh! Aren't these adorable!!!

My sweet and crafty friend made these for one of our friend's house warming party.

I thought they were so awesome I had to share them on here!

She simply stole borrowed a whole lot of paint samples from a home improvement store and just ran them through the printer. 

She practiced on white printer paper until she got the font just how she wanted.

She then held the 3 sheets together with a small brad. What a great idea for inexpensive but super cute invites! 

I love having craft nights with these ladies! I get so many great ideas and get filled up with so much joy and love from my beautiful community! Perfect night!