New Year // New Start

I don't normally do a lot of reflecting at the end of the year - I'm too ready to look forward, get things done, make some progress already. I wandered around Target this morning, hot coffee in hand, alone, and I started thinking, planning, decorating our home in my head. (Because the new spring Threshold stuff? Awesome!)

I have many things I want to work on in 2014, but at the top of my priority list is hospitality, welcoming friends and family into our house. I naturally lean toward being a homebody, focusing on my kiddos and Brian and our time.

And these things are good, but I want to invite our friends in more often, fill our house with the sounds of kids laughing and music playing and fun times being had. Specifically, I'd like to entertain in some form or fashion once a month in 2014.

My other big focus will be on my photos. I'm going to do a better job of sharing my pictures - both in print and digitally. I have a terrible habit of uploading photos and then leaving them on my computer forever, never to be seen again. Well not anymore! I'm undecided on whether I'll try a photo project again - I've still never completed one - but if I do, then I'm going to make sure it's well displayed - ha!

There's so much more, but right now these things seem easy and fun to me, and I'm not dreading them one bit which is a good place to start for the New Year.

Do you make resolutions? Great goals and plans? What is on your list for 2014?

Fall Decorating & a Free Printable

I love fall - the cool, crisp shorter days, the football games, sweaters and boots and the pumpkin treats.

Our anniversary is in October too. It's just a great month.

And I love decorating for fall. I don't usually go all out, but I like to do subtle fall touches here and there that will last through Thanksgiving when we're ready to put up the Christmas tree - whoa!

This year I made a few super cute digital papers and a little pumpkin printable that I want to share with y'all.



Click below to download:

{Papers//Pumpkin}
You can do so many things with the papers - party invites, banners, flag buntings, but I used the dots and the pumpkin to make this framed printable that I added to my entryway fall display.



I also made these cute little tags that I tied on to acorn filled mason jars with twine. There are a few of these scattered though the house.



And pumpkins - I have mini pumpkins sitting around looking pretty. Love them!



I have a new wreath this year too!



My sweet babysitter, Hope, made it for me, and it's perfect! It looks just right for fall, but I think I can use it through next summer too. I just love the little yellow rosettes. Her Etsy shop it called Hopes & Crafts. How cute is that??

So the inside is decorated and ready for fall! Now we need to head to the pumpkin patch to decorate the front porch. I'm so looking forward to taking Andrew this year. He's going to love it!

Sunday, Fun Day

Oh y'all, we've had the most fun weekend.

I had all this stuff I wanted to share with you, but now it's after 10pm on Sunday and I just didn't get it all together in time.

I was too busy hanging out with these amazing people.

We had a Father's Day full of water play, grilling, baby walking and napping. It was so fun. Brian had to study for a few hours, but he was able to spend a big chunk of the day at home with us.

It was perfect.

So later this week I'm going to have these adorable 4th of July printables ready for you.

I also wanted to tell you about how I went to my first blogging event last Thursday for Dallas Moms Blog. It was great to meet the blog contributors and catch up with other local bloggers I'd met a few weeks ago, Cynthia at Oh So Pinteresting and Rach at Life Ever Since.

And I have this yummy recipe for banana apple muffins to share.

But tonight, I'm heading to bed. I'll be back later this week with details. And those 4th of July flags - they're so cute!

I hope your weekend was spent with those you love. :)

Linking up:

Have a Refreshing Summer

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day! We had a great time hanging out with family at the lake, swimming and boating and barbecuing. In fact we had so much fun and played so hard this weekend that Monday was spent lying on the couch watching Cars, hoping for bedtime. Ha!

So now that Memorial Day has come and gone it's officially summer. Whoa...this year is flying by!

But I know some people have to go back to school this week to finish up, and I thought I'd try to make your last-minute end of the school year teacher gifts a little easier to put together.

Remember how much I love these cups?

Well, I was inspired by Pinterest to give Andrew's sweet teachers one. But I wanted to change up the flag a bit and personalize it.

So I came up with these:

They were so cute and his teachers just loved them.

And today I'm sharing the printable flag with you! I added a bunch of tiny flowers to the design and removed the personalization.

I think any teacher would be thrilled with these cups!

You can download the JPEG file here.

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One of my local blogging friends Cynthia at Oh So Pinteresting posted today about the best way to clean the straws on your cups. I hadn't really thought about it, but they can be a little tricky to get completely clean. You will definitely want to check it out!

Stars & Stripes Printable Banner

Do you have big Memorial Day weekend plans?

We're excited around here. This weekend will be our first official lake weekend of the summer. We'll be at my parents' lake house for swimming, boating, beers, backyard barbecues, and lots of family of course.

So I decided to create a little patriotic banner to make our weekend a bit more festive because well, I'm kind of crazy about making fun stuff in Photoshop.



This banner has been hanging on my mantel for a few days and every time I see it I think summer.



It's also given me an opportunity to talk to Andrew about Memorial Day. I'm not sure he really gets it, but he knows we live in Texas, America and that counts for something, right? :)

Do you want your own stars and stripes banner?



You can download the zipped file here.

(Make sure you remember to click extract all files after you download or you won't be able to print them. Also, remember, these are for personal use only!)



After you've downloaded you'll need to:

-Print out the banner. You can make as many triangles and stars as you need for your space.

-Cut out the shapes. You can use a paper cutter like this one from Fiskarsor you can use your regular scissors.

-Punch a hole in the top corners of the triangles and in two ends of the stars. (I didn't do this, but I would if I were going to make it again.)

-String them together with twine.

-Hang on your mantel or wall where you're having your patriotic get-together and enjoy!

So, what are you doing for the holiday weekend?

{Linking Up for Wordless Wednesday: The Paper Mama, Naptime Momtog}

Baby Boy Sip 'n See

I was so happy to help host a sip 'n see for my good friend Kelli's new baby boy, Jude, on Saturday.

I had lots of great co-hosts and basically only had to get my house ready and make one dish. It was my kind of party!

We decided on a blue elephants theme to coordinate with his nursery. It was darling.



I made the banner in Photoshop and printed it on card stock - so easy and super cute! (Is anyone interested in a tutorial? I'm going to try to write one soon.)





One of the hostesses ordered the cupcakes from a bakery north of town and they were beyond adorable. They were some of the cutest I've seen and they were good too! :)





We had an eclectic brunch menu with breakfast casseroles, snickerdoodle bread, fruit and chicken salad. It was all really tasty. (How cute are those elephant punches? We had super crafty hostesses!)

Another hostess brought her beautiful drink dispensers with lemonade and mimosa punch.





Which one do you think we finished off? :)



I made coordinating water bottle labels and they might have been my favorite part of the decor. My sweet friend Suzie taped the labels to the bottles for me.

See? I had so much help. It was awesome.



The guest of honor. He was so sleepy and cuddly. He barely made a peep through the whole party. Can you have baby fever when you already have an eight month old baby? Probably, that would be crazy. But two month old babies are just about the most wonderful thing in the world. I want to smoosh those cheeks.

I am so bad about taking pictures at parties! I didn't even get a shot of his beautiful mama. I talk too much and forget to get out my camera. Does that happen to you or are you the one getting all the guests together for a group picture?

What a fun, fun party! Now someone else needs to have another baby so we can do it again. :)

Easter Cupcake Topper Printables

For Andrew's third birthday I made darling cupcake toppers to match his invitation and the theme.

I had so much fun making them and they were so cute that I'm kind of on a cupcake topper kick now.

So I decided to make Easter toppers and share them with y'all!

How adorable are these???



I love that they'll jazz up any ol' cupcake. Because these may or may not be a Betty Crocker special. (But that icing? It's all mine.) :)





So, how do you make a cupcake topper you ask. Well, first you'll need to print out these JPEGs:

DOWNLOAD LINKS: 1-inch circle JPEG / 2-inch circle JPEG



You can print them on regular paper or card stock to make them a little more sturdy.

You'll need:

1. Scissors
2. Craft Punches (optional, but will make it MUCH easier)
3. 4" lollipop sticks
4. Double-sided tape or pop-dots
5. Glue gun

Fist, you need to cut out your circles. It can be done with scissors, but it would be much easier with a craft punch like this one and this one, a two-inch scallop for the bigger circles and a 1-inch round for the smaller ones.

Once you have your circles you'll need to attach them to each other with double sided tape. Or you could use pop-dots to make them 3D.

Then you'll need to attach them to the lollipop stick. The 4" is a very good size. I got mine at Michael's and I used a glue gun to attach the circles to the sticks.

Then you pop them in your yummy cupcakes and...

voila!



I bought the darling chicks and eggs and flower graphics from Paper Treehouse Studio on Etsy(she has the cutest stuff!), but I'm giving away the toppers.

All I ask is that if you like them you'll share them on Facebook or Twitter. It would also be great if you'd follow me here or on Twitter, but you don't have to.

And if you use them? Let me know! I want to see pictures!

Happy crafting!