{U lala} Spontaneous Celebration DIY



My Spontaneous Celebration DIY is live on U lala today! 

After these early morning pictures, we spent the rest of the day with rogue confetti peeking from our tresses. 

Wherever I paused was left a golden flower or ruby butterfly.

I didn't altogether mind. 

Maybe that's how we should live life. Something of beauty, through Christ, left everywhere we rest.



Paper Doll Bridal Shower Invites


I designed these paper doll invites for a friend's bachelorette party a while ago (modified from this 1957 Barbie paper doll set), but through a series of unfortunate events they weren't able to be used. 

I thought I'd make the pdf available here so that another hostess might be able to modify them for her shower. 


To ward-off confusion, the bride and groom's name are to be added before and after the "&." 

Also, when you click the below link, to view the pdf, the bride looks washed-out. Once downloaded, the quality is as pictured above. 


Bat Light Garland DIY


My decorating for Halloween is standardly pretty tame. I'm very sensitive to "scary" (never have, never will watch a horror film) and tend to stick with pumpkins and gourds this time of year. A few months back I found the above lithograph print and my heart skipped a little. 

Witches, ghosts, blood? 
Uh-uh. 

But bats? 
Cute.  

Inspired by Cakies' black cats, I cut out paper bats, punched stars for eyes, and pulled twinkle lights through.  Here is a Bat Template pdf I created if you'd like to have your own house full of bats!

Graduation Gift Idea



Every year, as a volunteer with my church's youth ministry, I say goodbye to the -tremendous- seniors graduating. It's rather bittersweet... a kind of "boo-hoo/yay!" seesaw if you know what I mean. 

There's quite a few graduation parties that go with the youth group territory and a few years ago I came up with an all purpose gift idea that's served me well. 

On the day of the graduation party I gift a coin envelope in the style of a "miniature" gift package. Then, at some point within the next school year, I post a bubble mailer full of goodies their way. 

Personal but doable if you're a fan of a lot of seniors. 


Cheerio Class of 2013! May you abide in Christ your life-long. 

Costumes

The day after Halloween. 

Crumpled costumes lie in piles round houses everywhere. 

Here are a few, in all their glory....

Christine as Mrs. Potts, Debbie as Cogsworth, Courtney as Belle, and Rebekah as Lumiere

Me as Anastasia and Zade as Dimitri 


Lauren and her guy as Wayne and Garth

Melody and Jake as French and Texas Toast

Polar Bear Visitor



This little polar bear stopped by our home to rest after his long traverse from the Arctic. 

He commenced his expedition to Michigan two weeks ago on the night Luke Adam was born. He knows he was made to be best-of-friends with Luke and the long journey was made short dreaming up the adventures they will spend together. He got a little turned around on his way to Michigan (that's what happens when you ask a moose for directions) and ended up further south than anticipated. 

 When he heard that we are cousins to the Luke he asked if he could bunk a couple of nights with us before trekking the rest of the way. 

He's partial to a frigid climate. So, we fixed a bed for him where he'd feel most at home. 





 Luke, we can't wait to meet you! 

Bulletin Board Makeover


A little over-the-weekend project for the kitchen. 



I've been storing the two vintage strawberry trays since I bartered them down to $2.50 a pair the summer before last (a proud garage sale moment). 


Stumbling upon this picture finally helped me decide how to use them. 


I knew I'd need more trays, so with a little e-bay hunting I happened upon the gingham set of ten. 

So perfect. 


A sweet and simple way to display photos of dear friends, little notes, and dental appointment reminders. Egh, better to forget that last one. 

DIY Cake Platter

I've wanted to make a cake platter for years now. Over Christmas break my sisters and I decided we wanted to spend a day making something crafty. So we happily scooted off to Raven's Roost Antique Gallery to choose our plates and stands. 

Vintage plates, silver goblets, and glue. 

We used Gorilla Glue at first - bad idea. It bubbled and showed up as white against our cream plates and silver goblets. We had some epoxy on hand and I recommend this for any cake plate DIYers. 

Apply epoxy/glue and some heavy reading 

and voila! Pretty.

 I'm pretty sure my sisters were planning to gift their platters but then couldn't bear to give them up! My platter is holding clementines and shelled nuts right now but I'm looking forward to baking up some pretty little cupcakes some time soon.