Yellow & Pink Spring Party

Around this time of year, I am always inspired by all the beautiful colors to want to throw a beautiful Spring party. Not helping, is this GORGEOUS cake I stumbled upon on Pinterest:

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Is this not the most beautiful cake you have ever seen???

Inspired by this, I bring to you,

A Yellow & Pink Spring Party

First, I found this beautiful invitation from Etsy: (it's for a bridal luncheon, but this would be perfect for a spring party, a baby shower, a brunch, or a little girl's party!)

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1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16

::::sigh::::

Tomorrow I have a super cute post planned along with a freebie! See you then!

xo,

Rachel



Hot Wheels Storage

Hello there :)

While the madness that was our Care Bear party has subsided, we are slowly creeping up on what will soon be known as "the day monster trucks and hot wheels took over our life".

In other words, our big guy is about to be SIX.

Handsome little guy, right?

Christmas in our house included the addition of 1565986 more hot wheels (of course that is just an approximate guess. ha!) This guy has been planning his Hot Wheel party since the start of our "birthday season" (Our youngest kicks this off with his birthday in November). Easy Peasy.

Until Daddy took him to his first Monster Jam. And then it was all over. Monster truck obsession took over. And our poor guy just couldn't decided which kind of party he wanted more: Hot Wheels or Monster Trucks.

Que the soon to be 'Hot Wheels and Monster Truck' party we are about to start planning.

The reason we are able to throw suck big parties is that we start planning early and gathering things as we see them. Like these little monster trucks my mom found at the dollar store. Perfect! Of course, the biggest challenge here is keeping our two boys away from all of them :)

Although his party is not for another 6 weeks, I am sure I will have plenty to share with you up until then!

For now, I wanted to see how do you organize all your children's little obsessions?? We seriously have these little cars ALL OVER our house. Now that we are pretty much unpacked I have moved on over to the organizing phase, and couldn't help but check out some awesome ways people have handled their little car collection. Of course, you could always subsitute these storage ideas for whatever it is that your child loves!

I LOVE the idea of keeping collections in the open like these:

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If you wanted to keep your collections under wraps, I would totally go for a vintage hide away like these:

1 / 2 / 3

Or, if you're feeling kinda crafty, these options would be great as well:

1 / 2 / 4  (I couldn't find a link for #3, if you know where it's from please let me know!)

Or, even better, a combination of both:

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This blogger took an old vintage crate (like the one I found this weekend!) and simply added on wheels. Genious!

I hope you found some of these solutions inspiring! I know I did :)

xo,

Rachel



Series: The House on the Left

Hello!!

I had mentioned last week that I would be introducing a new series to the blog that would chronical some of the few gazzilion projects that I do on a daily for our house. A new house = a bunch of new projects for this gal, and I just CANT WAIT to get started :)

So, I bring to you:

This weekend was a lot of fun for us (okay, well mostly me. ha!)

As well as doing our normal tour of the few thrift shops around here, the outdoor flea market opened up for the season! a. this means that summer is officially right around the corner, and b. this girl could not be any happier :)

 I LOVE flea markets. I feel like you never know what you will find and that the next treasure is right around the corner.

Total score for the weekend left us with lots to love...

...like this adorable little vintage toy bank for only $4 (!!). I must say, it was love at first sight, and was our first purchase of the day, setting the tone for the rest of our hunt. (and, to keep it real, as proof that everything we own has been drawn on, just look at our poor books!)

This little steal-of-a-deal at $3 was bought for the intent of holding some cute soda bottles and burgers at the vintage 4th of July party I want to hold this summer. For now, it looks quite lovely on our side table :)

Some things we found need a little love...

....like these instument candle stick holders. A little brasso action and I think these babies will look amazing. I found them at a thrift store up here, and had to go back a second time to go pick them up because I couldn't stop thinking about them. They are just such a fun, unique bunch of little acccessories, don't you think?? The placemats I found were only $2 for all 4, which I snatched up, even though I have no idea what to do with them. We are not placemat type of people (plus they are hand wash only--ha! I have 3 kids, so they would last a week in our house), but the design is so lovely, that I just know I will come up with something to use them for.

...And a few of the things are going to need a whole-lotta love:

I am excited to redo that ugly chair in the middle. We bought two of them, and I just know that I can make them look beautiful...I hope :)  

As well as a BUNCH of paint, I picked up some fabric to get started on some projects:

All in all, this was a  successful weekend "hunting" that left me with a lot of projects to fill up the next couple of weeks. I can't wait to show you some 'after' pictures :)

Hope your week is going great!

xo,

Rachel



How to Print on Fabric

Happy Monday!

A couple weeks back I wrote a post about the Care Bear goody bags I made using one of the techniques I found through Pinterest HERE.

There are a lot of different techniques out there (several I have personally pinned!), but I ultimately chose this one because it only involved ONE "ingredient" needed to create and was SUPER easy to do. Pretty important for this super cheap and lazy gal :)

To begin, I created the images and text I wanted to use for my goody bags on a basic computer draw program (I use CorelDraw). The one downside I see to creating projects by printing on fabric is that you are limited to the size that you can print from a home computer . Luckily for me, this project worked perfectly as a full 8.5 x 11 sheet (half used for the front; half used for the back).

After you have designed the image you want to print, here is what you will need:

To begin, cut down you fabric so that it is just slightly larger than your cardstock.

For the next step, you will want to go outside. Just trust me :) Spray your cardstock evenly with all purpose adhesive. Quickly place your fabric onto the cardstock and smooth out any wrinkles or bubbles.

Once dried, cut your fabric so that it is the same size as cardstock. (you don't want any hanging off the sides. When you are done it should look like a thick piece of cardstock).

Once this is done, you are now ready to print! Just place in your printer making sure to place the correct side down so that you are printing on the fabric side. I forget which setting I set my printer to, but I just chose a setting that was made for thicker paper.

Next, watch in amazement as you print on paper! My printer messes up constantly when I print on iron-on transfer paper, so I expected many problems to arise, but I swear to you, it printed up perfectly every single time. Color was crisp, and the fabric looked beautiful!

At this point, this is what I had:

(sorry for the horrible pictures; I didn't make these until the night before the party, so by then it was late and dark.)

As you can see, the left side is designed to be the front of the bag and the right is the back. This size allowed for me to sew with a small hem and was the perfect size for the goody bags.

Next, gently peel off the fabric from the cardstock. It curls up a little on the edges, but this wont effect anything when you sew them.

You are now ready to use your fabric!

One of these days I may have to try out some of the other methods, but I am pretty happy with this one :)

Hope your Monday was a good one!!

xo,

Rachel

Adorable ideas for an Easter themed 1st Birthday or Baby Shower

I shared with you yesterday some of my ideas for a global themed easter with items I found from Etsy. While I was browsing all the amazing items out there, I kept coming across some of the most adorable items that would be just perfect for an Easter/Spring themed 1st birthday or baby shower.

1./ 2. / 3. /4./ 5. / 6. / 7. / 8. / 9. / 10. / 11. / 12.

Aren't these just some of the sweetest things you have ever seen?

Although I have never choosen a holiday as a party theme before, I am really inspired by some of these photos! How about you? Have you ever had a Halloween themed birthday or Christmas wedding??

Hope you all have an inspired weekend! I am hoping to get my act together this weekend and finally post my Care Bear collection to my Etsy store...wish me luck!

xo,

Rachel

Global Easter via Etsy

As well as unpacking what I am sure was our 10,000th box this week, I also unpacked some of our Easter decorations. Which, may I say, is sorely lacking...nothing a little shopping couldn't cure, I am sure :)  That said, however, Jason now has me on a strict budget every time I leave to go down the road to HomeGoods (our new house is now suuuuper close to a HomeGoods store, and I miiight have gone a little over board since moving in. What can I say? Pillows make me happy.)

I have way too much going on this year with unpacking and party planning to even THINK about a DIY project. So, for now it is strictly dreaming :)

Since I am obsessed with all the beautiful colors of this season (think, aquas and tangerines), I thought it might be fun to to do a sort of  "global" theme. Throw in a bright ikat pillow or two, and I would be in heaven :)

Here is a little eye candy I found on Etsy:

1./2./3./4./5./6.

Fabulous, right?

Do you decorate for Easter or Spring in bright colors or pastels? I think my eye is always drawn to the brighter colors.

Hope you have an inspired day!

xo,

Rachel

Dropping By

Hello :)

Things have been super busy over here (as always!). I am in the middle of 16548 DIY projects (and yet, finished with none. HA!).

Plus, I will be honest. I have been trying to figure out what kind of direction I want to take this blog. My initial desire was to focus on kid's design and parties, but I kept feeling this crafty part of me come forward. I do so many projects around our house that I want to share as well.

So, I have finally decided to keep it mostly about the kids, but to have an on-going series (name to be determined soon!) about our house. Also, my first goal is to tackle that "about me" section. ugh :) 

In the meantime, I recieved my new phone case yesterday, from a company BoutiqueMe.

I'm not going to lie; I did bookmark the website for Jason, as a....hint :) But he got to choose the design. And he chose well :) Two of my favorite things! Aqua and Chevron:

You see, I am  (this is only an estimate) the only person left in the world without an iphone.

Insert sad song.

Although my network finally carries it, there is not yet a need to give up my perfectly functioning EVO. Except for the fact that noone makes cool cases for my phone.

Until now! I have finally found a few sites that carry cases that are not bedazzled.

A happy girl.

I have a few fun posts planned this week. It's spring break up here, so I am home with all

 kids, so please bear with me :) Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

xoxo,

Rachel