Happy Halloween with a Pumpkin and a Punk Rocker

Even with their desperate need for haircuts, we couldn't not dress up our little pups for Halloween. They wear clothes on a regular basis and really don't seem to mind it! Especially now that we live in a snowball, our little lovies depend on their tiny sweaters to stay warm. Found these little costumes at Target and couldn't help myself.. Happy Halloween!

Coco Chanel, our Lil' Pumpkin

Our Lil' Punk Rocker

xo

My Little Blog is 2 Years Old!

Holy cow, it's been 2 years! Looking back, this past year definitely seems busier and the crazy stories seem less eventful! I suppose it's a blessing either way, right?

On this day, I can't believe I actually have 47 followers! 47 people who actually care about what I have to say.. Quite an honor. When I first started it all, I thought my only followers would be Justin, my best friends, and my mom! Thanks so much for reading, lovies!

By the way, I do have some exciting news..

I will be launching my new party-planning website soon! A lot of things have been in the works in developing the logo and the starter-site and I can't wait to show everyone! I'm pretty excited. I plan to keep going with this blog as my personal blog, but will eventually be launching a party-blog as well. I promise to continue to keep you posted.. just hang in there!

xo

Photo Credit: The Cilantropist

Hello, Wisco (Visit + Anniversary)!

Since the move, J and I have been slam-busy with so much happening that we haven't had a chance to visit good ol' Wisconsin.. until now! It's been way too long since we've seen his family, so it was really great to be able to throw this one together at the last minute. Thanks to Macy's, I was finally given a couple days off in a row (in a ROW!) to celebrate our 3-year anniversary, so we decided to take advantage of my freedom and spend it in Wisconsin. We made the 6 hour drive, pup-free and it was definitely a great little weekend!

Highlights:

• Rocking out to dubstep the car with my hubby and rolling into Gratiot late (and I mean late!)
• Examining Lukus' 4000 DVD collection and choosing 20 for ourselves (Thanks again, Lukus!!)
• Waking Alyssa up in the morning and looking at her collection of owl accessories
• Laughing our heads off watching funny music videos with the brothers.. I-I-I-I work out!
• A cheese-filled lunch at Culver's

• 1$ Psychology and Therapy books from the Library
• Stocking up on good cheese and 2 gorgeous, aqua bird cages at Swiss Colony
• Playing with a 3-legged kitten, feeding some cows and seeing the old trailer where I met Justin for the first time 8 years ago (ghetto-looking, yes, but it was different back then!)

• Playing a hefty game of Dominoes
• Enjoying my father-in-law's message at church and visiting with family friends 
• Birthday celebration for Justin's Dad
• Alyssa teaching me to paint and tattoo my nails with newspaper

• Spending an afternoon with Marta, laughing at old voicemails and blackberry videos
• Giving Georgia a "little girl makeover" and feeling awful when she hated it

• A sweet, rainy anniversary dinner at Vinny Vanucci's in Galena
• Channel-surfing, sipping champagne and being silly at our hotel

• Spending lunch and the afternoon with Marta at her boutique

• Exploring Galena, munching on gourmet popcorn and finding some fun little treasures on Main Street

• Dropping by Justin's old high school to see his sister and Dad
• Visiting Justin's old Platteville house and a few antique and cheese shops on our little drive home

xo

3 Sweet Years with my Love

Happy 3rd Anniversary to my sweet man.. Can't believe another year has gone by.

I love you, Justin!

xo

DIY: Q-Tip Flower Poms

I have been meaning to share this for some time now, but I have literally not even had a free minute to blog! It's sad, but I'll explain more about the craziness happening in an upcoming post. 

In my recent bridal and baby shower planning, I found some fabulous inspiration on Pinterest and stumbled upon a super easy-to-understand DIY for Anthropologie-Inspired Blooms at Homemade Ginger. At first I couldn't tell what they were made of until I looked closer at the DIY. Q-Tips! 

I always love incorporating new elements into parties and I knew these would be perfect - My sister Vanessa and I took on the challenge and we had a fun time with it! Here is our experience, based on inspiration from the DIY -- 

We used:

Lots of Q-Tips, cut in half (we used almost 2 boxes for 9 flowers)

Styrofoam Balls

Scissors (strong enough to cut Q-tips)

Hot glue

Food coloring + water

Thick, wired stems from silk flowers (unless you plan to hang these)

We began by cutting all of our Q-Tips in half. Before we figured out a system, we kept getting a kick out of how they kept shooting off in different directions as we were cutting them.. I think one even shot into my drinking glass! 

We debated whether or not to use hot glue and decided to, since I wanted to reuse these for other parties, etc (I'm sure the project would have gone much quicker if we had chosen not to use the glue). Depending on the size of the styrofoam ball, we spaced them accordingly. It's totally up to you, how close or deep you want the Q-Tips -- We definitely found it a little more challenging to fit them when we placed them closer/deeper, since there was not much room for the ends to go. Another thing to keep in mind.. The more Q-Tips you use and the larger the styro ball, the heavier it is. If it's too heavy, the stem will have a harder time holding it upright.

I was absolutely too excited to dye these beauties to think logically - I filled a bowl with yellow food coloring and failed to add water. AH! I really wanted yellow, but without the water to dilute it (at all!), the dye was so severely strong, that it turned out orange. We originally planned to make 6 yellow flowers and I dyed 3 of hard-worked poms orange. I decided to do an additional 3 and save the orange ones for something else. Boo. I'll never make that mistake again -- Add water to dye.

For the additional poms, I wanted to pack the Q-Tips in. I loved the direction they were going. They turned out a bit heavy for the stems, but with the right vase, they looked pretty amazing! We ended up using these little beauties for my sister's Sweet, Yellow Bridal Shower and they were a big hit! My mom kept asking the ladies, "What do you think those are made of?? Huh??" and it was fun to see everyone's expression when they found out it was all Q-Tips. Definitely worth the time and hassle!

Thanks again, Homemade Ginger, for sharing a great tutorial!

xo