Easter Egg Ideas

Tiffany shared the cutest and easiest way ever to display your eggs, which inspired me to jump on the bandwagon and write a little about eggs today. I'm trying to usher in the spring weather anyway around here!

I am not sure if there is anyone left out there who hasn't heard all of the many wonderful reasons why your should preserve your Easter eggs, but just in case I am here today to convince you! We have been "emptying" or "blowing out our eggs for years." Here is a great tutorial for how to do this. Hollowing out your eggs only takes an extra minute per egg, and lasts a lifetime! I think I have mentioned before that both my mother and I are big on holiday traditions. I know I inherited this from her. We hollow out our eggs every year and save the ones we decorate. She keeps them in her basement in a large plastic storage bin, and each year we find creative ways to display them all over the house. What a wonderful way to keep memories from year to year! We have eggs from my 16th birthday, the year I found out I was pregnant with my daughter, my daughter's first Easter, etc. We get to look back at them each year and remember. It is one of my favorite times of year!

Here are a couple of pictures showing you how I display my hollowed eggs.

This is in no way a tutorial on how to decorate cute eggs. Tiffany's gorgeous eggs put mine to shame! I think I have to look up some new methods for decorating and show you what I find in the next couple of weeks! I just hope that if you haven't hollowed your eggs before, you try it at least once this year! It's my FAVORITE way to keep Easter memories around this house, and something I will do for a lifetime!

Happy Thursday!

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Vintage Valentine's Table

I found these sweetest vintage Valentines at the same local antique store I purchased my awesome farm table.
So, I thought it was only fitting that I put the two to work together to create a sweet and vintage Valentine's table.
As I was working on putting my table together, I thought I would show you my first step one just to keep it real around here... So, first find your dining room table under the random useless stuff you've spent the last few days piling on...Next, I gathered a great tulip bouquet I snagged for $6, the last great remnants of some great flowers the hubby surprised me with, and one of every jar I could find in my house.The tulips went further than I could have expected! I was thrilled.
I arranged the flowers on my table, somewhat hap-hazardly for a natural feel.Can you tell I am IN LOVE with the way these flowers look in the sunlight in their glass vases on that farm wood table top? And for $6 a bouquet, I am going to be watching my grocers clearance section a little more closely this season...

Now, for the place settings, I pulled out some favorites, like my monogrammed plates from way back, some china tea cups, gorgeous pink spray roses and the vintage valentines.

I also added some interest to the napkins by scalloping basic pink dinner napkins and tying they up pretty with red ribbon.

Then, I just sat back and had a nice long look. Sure, the flowers will have to be changed out again closer to Valentine's Day, but I am sure by them I will be willing to spend a few extra bucks for a special family dinner.
Have you done any great Valentine's Day table displays? I would love for you to link them up to our flickr page on the side bar and share your fabulous ideas! In the meantime, I will be linking to these great parties this week. See you there!

Happy Thursday,

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Chalkboard Door Hanger (Valentine's Style)

I wanted to do something different on my front door for Valentines Day. I think my husband has been a little overwhelmed with all the frilly Christmas Decor, so when taking down our decorations I vowed to take it kind of easy for Valentine's day. The first thing I made for Valentine's day you saw last week, it was this back-door sign...
So, to keep with the same low key Valentine's Day theme for my front door, I took a few random supplies I had in my craft closet...
Painted them up...
Put them together...

Added a little message...
And called it a day!

Can you tell I am on a "simple" kick this new year? I am starting to take bets on how long people think its going to last? I'll be linking to these parties this week. See you there!

Happy Thursday!

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Valentine's Day Decor

We switched days up on you all last week.  Erin was so gracious to post on Tuesday for me since I was crazy taking temperatures and giving out medication.  I am happy to be back on Tuesday and happy to have 3 kids that are {almost} all better!  

I love Valentine's Day but didn't actually start decorating for it until about two years ago when my oldest daughter was almost 3.  She loves the holiday more than most and loves to decorate like her Momma so I was inspired to create a few things for my little valentine.

I started with some pillows, of course.  Muslin is my go-to fabric.  I cut a big heart out of red felt that I just knew would make my girl smile...

    

And I also used another favorite, iron-on transfer paper to put the word "love" onto another pillow...

I got "green" with these pillows and stuffed them with plastic bags...

And we placed them on the bench in our kitchen...

Of course there had to be a banner.  I sewed around the edges and a flap at the top to pull the twine through.  I also cut out and then hand-stitched the white felt letters to the red fabrics.

I added some red felt hearts to the ends.  I added loops of white ribbon to the tops, stuffed them up, and hand-stitched all around the hearts.

The previous pics were from last year.  The walls are no longer green and my daughter added her own paper decorations this year without any assistance. It is only because I am crazy about my daughter and want to encourage her "decorating" that I allowed her to hang paper cupids on our fireplace.  Oh, the things we do for our children. But I was so very proud when I saw the finished product.  She apparently loves symmetry.  She is definitely her mother's daughter.

Then I placed the word love in a couple other places in the house...

And what would Valentine's Day be without some candy conversation hearts? 

I have been loving all the adorable Valentine's Day decor I have seen throughout blog land.  So much fun!  I'll be joining these fabulous parties this week!  

Happy Tuesday!

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Sparkly Valentine Banner

When I showed you my Chalkboard Christmas Card Display last month you knew it would be appearing again, didn't you? If so, right you were! My new favorite item in my kitchen couldn't be neglected for long, especially when there is another sweet holiday around the corner. So I made this beautiful sparkly Valentine's day banner.

I started off with some creamy white burlap, a little flag template, and one of my favorite new tools, my Silhouette Cutting Machine, to make the stencil.

Before I had my Silhouette, I was a big fan of the pencil transfer method of getting letters and numbers onto my projects. But obviously that doesn't work for something like this, I am DREADFUL at doing such things free hand, and it is such a time (and sanity) saver to let the Silhouette cut out my stencils for me. I need all of the time and sanity that I can get, so purchasing this machine was a small price to pay! :)

I picked out a basic font in the Silhouette Software, adjusted the size of the letters to fit my flags perfectly, and a few minutes later I had these great stencils! But you could easily cut these stencils out by hand or use any store bought letters to get the same effect.

I made sure to use a piece of card stock for my stencils that had a glossy finish so that it didn't get soggy in the middle of my stenciling. I soaked my foam brush in Elmer's glue, and stenciled the glue onto the burlap.

Keeping the stencil in place, I covered the glue in a small pile of fine red glitter, shook of the excess and set each flag aside to dry.

A few times I put on too thin of a layer of glue, but if you do this, don't worry!

I used a toothpick to apply a little more glue to the gap on the letter, added some more glitter...

and it was perfect!

Once you have a fun pile of sparkly lettered flags, hang a string and clip them on! I'm using mine on my chalkboard, but they would look gorgeous across a mantle, window, or just along the wall!

I was originally thinking that I would glue my flags to the string, but since Valentines Day is still almost a month away, I know I'll switch it up and rearrange it a bit in the meantime. More than likely I will add a few photos of my valentines in between the x's and o's.

Look how perfectly the letters came out thanks to my Silhouette stencil!

Sharp lines and fun little detailed fonts, with swoops and tails. Just what I like!

I put one of these Valentine banners in my Etsy shop, so click here if you'd like one just like this.

I'll be linking my banner to these fun parties, so swing by for some more fun Valentine's Day ideas!

And I'll be back on Monday as usual. Have a great week!

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