Love Sweet Love

Update!!

2012-04-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends!!!!!!

I can't even apologize enough to you for the MEGA delay in posting over the last month. It has been pure crazy around these parts.

But the good kind of crazy that means lots of change, blessings, good sleep at night-from pure exhaustion :), the occasional meltdown (who doesn't love a good cry?!), and some good practice breathing like a normal person.

So, here's what you've missed over the last month-you know, for those of you who don't live within the walls of my home, or within my cell phone directory....

My cutie little bro came home from serving a two year, Spanish speaking mission in Spokane, Washington for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Our whole family was able to be together waiting for him at the airport when he walked through those doors. It felt SO amazing to be all together again after 3 years of being apart (my little sis left before he did on a mission as well).

Since we were all-together it was a great time to get family pictures done-especially since we have, are you ready for this....NEVER have had a family picture taken. What?! I know, so it was time. :)
Left-my sister and her fam, Middle-my sister, parents, other sister and bro, Right-MY fam (yup, I'm the oldest of 5)!

My parents and us crazy kids...all growed up. So wierd. I still see all my siblings in my mind as the same ages that they were when I left home for college. Does anybody else do that?!

And since we were gettin' pics done, I figured I might as well snag a few of my little fam since the hubby gives me ONE family picture time a year. He absolutely detests getting family pictures. DETESTS. Ha ha :)

And just because I have THE most gorgeous sisters on the planet...I'm so lucky to have ALL 3 of my sisters be just as gorgeous on the inside as they are on the out. Love them!

One boy, with all these sisters...he's going to make one AMAZING husband-trust me. We've been training him for awhile ;).

I was down in sunny St. George for almost 2 weeks with the fam, and the week we got back I was right back to real life and was in full Relief Society mode. I threw together this fun look in about 3 days. Gag-let's NOT procrastinate that much next time! I'm pretty sure I still haven't caught up on all that lost sleep-but soooo worth it. :)

We created the night around your basic 'Happy Birthday' theme and spent the evening celebrating the specific sisters in our ward...

(Happy Birthday printable from Eighteen 25)

...and what makes them 'EXTRA'ordinary. (our party favors-pack of Extra gum)

The main centerpieces on the tables-Faux ice-cream sundaes. I used this tutorial-Super cute! I wish I would have thought/had time to take pictures of these at home and staged them all cute and whatever so you could see them better, but oh well these cell phone pics will have to work! :) The "whip cream" is white tulle, the "cherry" is a red lindor truffle, bendy straw from Walmart, "ice-cream" is snickers glued around a styrofoam ball, "ice-cream in the sundae glass" is white tissue paper, sundae glasses $2 from Walmart. Each Sundae used about 1 and half bags of snickers. The stand they're sitting on you might recognize from this party! :)

See I'm still crafting...just not blogging. :)

Before I could even turn around from that fun adventure :), my husband accepted a JOB OFFER in the Salt Lake City area!!!

We are thrilled, excited, nervous, thankful, anxious, sad (to be moving from a great area), happy (to be employed :) ), and are still trying to wrap our brains around all the changes that will be coming with this new change in May.

So getting a job means that the Mr. will be GRADUATING on May 5th! It means that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and we have finally reached the end of this particular tunnel. It has been a loooooooooong road full of trials, happiness, frustrations, laughter, challenges and HARD work to get to this point.

I'm so proud of my man and all that we have overcome to get to where we are. We feel so fortunate to have found a job while still in the last semester of school, and are looking forward to being "real" adults. :)

But what may be the most exciting news ever (okay that's a slight exaggeration cause I'm pretty sure having a job is the best news ever, but this is a serious close second!) we're headed to DISNEYLAND!!

We've been planning on doing this as a graduation present to ourselves for the past several years and I can't believe it's less than a month away now! I haven't been in over 5 years (and last time I went I was super sick so I don't really count that) and my kids have never been. They are 5 and 3 years old, so I'm hoping this will be a great time for them to go-as in they might actually have some memories from it and be old enough to really enjoy it :). Super stoked. Like every time I think about it I get goosebumps. Eeeeek! (I would LOOVE any tips/suggestions you might have if you've been with small kids before since it's a first for us!)

More news????? Okay.
We are soooo close to being the proud owners of this....

Okay not that one exactly since that's a google picture :), but yeppers I'm about to break into the world of the minivan moms and I am stoked! Two months ago I swore I would never, ever, no matter how much money you paid me, would rather walk, NEVER drive a minivan. I've had a few experiences over the past month that have completely changed my mind and I am seriously excited to be driving one! I can't wait to have more space!!!! We've been sharing one car-our little bitty, but awesome :), ford focus for 4 years and we needed an additional car like...years ago. :)

We've been looking pretty much since the day we found out we were going to be moving and it would be almost impossible, and more than un-econmical (ya I know that's probably not a word) with his commute to share one car. Fingers crossed I'll have one to call my baby by next week!

And last but not least...

Being a first time home buyer...sometime!

Not quite yet though. There are only so many things we can do at once, and after a several breakdowns in a 2 day period being SO overwhelmed with all the changes happening at once, we decided to put the idea of- trying to buy a house in 4 weeks-in the trash.

After being in rentals for EIGHT years, I'm just ready to call somewhere home. At first, I wanted to just jump in head first and buy something for that reason. After some crazy days I realized that if home is what I'm looking for I need to give it some time and not rush into, soooo we think we'll probably just rent for a little while in the Salt Lake area until we can get to know the areas, schools, communities, etc. (In the mean time if you have ANY thoughts, opinions, info you want to share about anything in the south salt lake area I would love to hear them!!)

Okay. I think that's everything. Do you forgive me for being absent??

We still have a lot of things to work through, decisions to make, plans to be seen through, and fun to be had, so I know that the next month or two is going to be just as crazy as the past one has been; so for that reason I'm going to sign off the blog for awhile. I just want to devote my full attention to all the things our family has going on right now and just enjoy this next step and time in our lives! I'll try to check in a few times, but just know I'm alive and busy busy if you don't hear from me for awhile.

Thanks for all your support, kind emails and comments-I always LOVE hearing from you! Getting that little 'bing' on my phone telling me I have new email just makes me day!! I would love to hear if anything new/exciting is going in your lives so tell me how YOU are doing mmmkay?!

Thanks for reading!

Tricky Little Leprechauns

2012-03-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

There's just something about having little ones that makes holidays just brim over with excitement. I love getting things set up and all ready the night before, and am just GiDdY with the thought of how their faces will look when they wake up in the morning and see all that the day will have in store for them! I love to watch their eyes get big as they slowly turn their head from side to side, trying to take in every ounce of the world I've created around them, and then...the smile.

The smile that says what no words in my language could say. The smile that leaves them speechless, as if saying the words they're thinking would break the spell of the magic that surrounds them. The smile that makes every moment of the previous late night of preperation worth it.

And then comes the laughter.
The laughter that starts in their heart and comes from deep within their chest. The laughter that is contagious as it fills every corner of the room. The laughter that is priceless because it comes from the mouth of a child.
Your child.

And that is why I do this. Decorate, craft, use that dusty old right-side of the brain, and go hog-wild crazy for holidays. For those moments. And I believe moments make memories.

Looking for some ideas to create some memories with your kids...how about some of these fun St. Patrick's ones!

Last year we woke up to find our kitchen had been turned topsy turvy by those tricky little leprechauns! How do we know it was them you ask?

I think their little green footprints they left across the kitchen floor gave them away! (Just washable green fingerpaint-mine was the Crayola brand. Just curl your hand up into a fist for the foot part and use your fingerprint to make the toes!)

A whole trail of them as a matter of fact that led to...

...the refrigerator!

"What did he do?! What did he do in the fridge?!" Tyler was screaming. We opened it up to find that the leprechaun had turned our milk green! They thought that was so awesome-especially Tyler since his favorite color is green-and thoroughly enjoyed drinking it and having it in their cereal that morning for breakfast!

When Tyler went into the bathroom to get dressed he screamed to me, "MOM! There is green pee in our toilet!" What?! That tricky leprechaun went potty in our toilet and we thought it was very rude that he didn't flush away his business!

We were so excited when we saw this green footprint on the fireplace since our trap is sitting up there and hoped that we had caught the tricky little man that had wreaked havoc all over our house!

Awww! It looks like we almost caught him!! Better luck this year!

That afternoon a couple moms got together and put together a little St. Patricks day party. We had a yummy green lunch and then did some fun activities. We started out by painting some Blarney stones! These weird squinty eye people are me and my kiddos...we may or may not have the ability to be in direct sunlight without shrieking in pain-vampires much?

A little clover face-painting :)

Next we made some clover necklaces...

Lastly, we did a little scavenger hunt. We heard a knock on the door and found this clover from Larry the Leprechaun...

We followed 5 more clues till we found the last one where Larry had left the kids a pot of gold!

They had an awesome time and had lots of fun stuff to bring home!

I feel like the LUCKIEST mom in the world to have these two bugs in my life!

I know I said this would be my last St. Patrick's post, buuuuut I totally forgot I have just ONE more thing to share with you! Are you totally sick of this yet?!?! Ha ha, well if you have a little girl you just might want to check back tomorrow for a last minute, easy peasy holiday skirt idea! ;) Thanks for reading!

St. Patrick's Mantel...and stuff :)

2012-03-13T06:00:00.001-07:00

Okay so I did not intend for all the rest of my St. Patrick's day goodness to end up in one post-or take a WEEK for me to get around to it!!!-BUT that's just what happens when it's almost 60 degrees outside in Northern Utah in early MARCH! We have spent hours at the park, on bikes, having picnics, playing with friends and just enjoying this amazing weather!

At nights I have been slaving away :) working on getting the Relief Society birthday activity planned. In my church I have been asked to serve as the person who puts together the quarterly activities for the woman ages 18+. Every year in March we celebrate the "birthday" of the Relief Society which is an organization that was formed 170 years ago this year! This is our biggest activity of the year and I have a very small committee -2 people-that help me pull this off so I am very busy in March! You can read more about the Relief Society organization here.

March will also hold a lot of memories for my family this year, as my younger brother will be returning home from serving a two year mission for our church. He comes home ONE week from today (eek!!!!!!) and so I have also been doing everything that has to do with getting ready to go on a week and a half trip with two kids (hubby's staying home for work/school)!

Aaaaand-as if that's not enough!-we have our bi-annual housing inspections (oh the joys of living in a rental!) this week and we're talking white glove test, pull out the fridge and clean behind it, clean out and re-organize the whole garage(and for my thrift store loving self it looks like an episode of Hoarders in there) so that has been a BIG project as well. But oh how I do love my CLEAN CLEAN organized house right now!

So can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE forgive me for my absence this past week, I didn't mean to leave you hanging! And I'll just go ahead and ask for a little forgiveness in advance because I don't imagine there will be too many more posts this month either! But when I can finally get around to taking some pictures and writing up posts, I do have lots to share with you...A fun menu planner I made, some re-purposing of old shutters to hold photos, and LOTS of spring decor! I can't wait to show you!

So just in case you're doing a little last minute decorating for the old st patty's holiday, or want to store some ideas away for next year, here are a few fun things I did to amp up the spirit in our house! :)

The mantel...

**the Lolli banner tutorial and St. Patricks printable on the window frame above the mantel can be found on my previous post**

Even though St. Patrick's isn't a big decorating type holiday, I still wanted to update my mantle for it but spend as close to ZERO dollars as possible! I found that just by digging around the house for green things I already had, spray painting other things (with green paint I already had), and making the rest by hand I had a fun, new look and spent $5 for the whole mantel decor!!!

I found this set of tiny leprechaun hats at JoAnns for $1 the week before st. patty's last year and stuck them in a little glass vase I already had. The FUN leprechaun trap behind it was made by recycled materials from around the house, and you can read about the making of it HERE.

I already had these black candlesticks (originally from the thrift store and then painted black) on hand, and to top them I dug out one of my green bean balls, and an old candle-updated with some green scrapbook paper and embellishments from my lolli banner. I downloaded THIS free printable from Today's Fabulous Finds, printed it out at home, and then used spray adhesive to glue it to an old, green piece of wood that was sitting in my garage (I like being able to display things using different looks...versus always putting things up in picture frames).

Next, I took a cute little glass jar I had (I found these puppies for .88 each at our dollar store-somehow knowing I was saving .12 made ALL the difference ha ha!-and stocked up!!), put a little foam leprechaun sticker on the front (from the same set of foam stickers from JoAnns that I used for the lolli banner) and filled it with rolos to make our own little pot- o'-gold! **NOTE-this pot was full of "gold" not very long ago...

I love, love, LOVE displaying holiday photos of my kids throughout the year and I just loved these pictures I took of them last St. Patrick's day and wanted a different way to show them off rather than just putting them in a frame, so I grabbed these plastic clipboards from walmart (they were out of the wood ones) for about a dollar each and embellished away!

I first covered them with scrapbook paper using spray adhesive, but I didn't love the way they looked so I went over them with a coat of green spray paint. I love how the bumps in the paper still give off a little textured look, but it's not as distracting as the paper was alone (before the paint was put over it). I didn't want to go way crazy with the embellishments because I wanted the main focus to be the pictures, so I just added some different ribbons, buttons, and gems that I already had in my little stash.

To clip the picture to the board I used a fun, decorated clothespin. I made them by spray painting them yellow (you can get a pack of like 100 from the $ store), mod-podging on a little strip of scrapbook paper, and then adding a felt clover (with a little added bling in the middle of the clover b/c you know I just can't help myself!!) Cuteness right?!

This St. Patrick's printable made by Michelle at A Little Tipsy was the perfect thing to place between the pictures of the two people in my life that I'm most LUCKY to have. (I don't consider being married to my husband "lucky" since I psychically chose him...I chalk that up more to good life choices :) )

And lastly, some easy and cute wood blocks. These were just cut from some 2x4's we had in the garage that were then spray painted black and decorated using scrapbook paper mod-podged on and vinyl letters cut from my cricut (you could use scrapbook stickers if you don't have a machine cutter).

The Mr. actually cut a whole bunch of blocks for me at one time out of a 2x4, and I've decorated them for all the different holidays throughout the year. I do the front and the backs of each block to get even more use out of each set! The back of these ones are for valentines day :)

Whew! Sorry for the overload, I meant for these to be separate posts! I just have ONE more St. Patrick's related post for you coming up tomorrow with some fun ideas to do for your kidlets ON St. Patrick's day. Until then...thank you SO much for reading!! Getting your comments throughout the week makes me smile SOOOO big!

Have a great day!

I have a little sister...

2012-03-09T15:20:00.003-08:00

So I have a little sister. Well I actually have 3 little sisters and my littlest little sister (who's not so little at all anymore since she's a JUNIOR in high school!!) is Alena. (are you sick of the word 'little' yet-hehe) Well all of us sisters love to get goofy and take pictures of ourselves, do silly photoshoots together and ham it up for the camera. Pretty much anytime we can take pictures of ourselves...we do. Ha Ha, we're just dorks that way! But Alena has a love for the camera that none of the rest of us could ever come close to. She is fantastic on both sides of the lens and does not let her camera leave her side whether it's taking pictures of herself, or herself and friends...or herself :), she is always ready with a smile. Right now she has an opportunity to win a photoshoot from Shannon Kaeding Photography by simply getting the most 'likes' for her photo on the Shannon Kaeding Photography Facebook page HERE. I would love it SO much if you could just do a quick little clickety clack-clack on your keyboard and 'like' the photographer's FB page and then go HERE to the contest and click on Alena's picture and 'like' it. That's it! Good luck Alena, you're beautiful!!!!

St. Patty's "lolli" banner and a Cuh-UTE printable!

2012-03-06T14:11:00.006-08:00

I think the thing I love most about decorating for St. Patrick's day, is that it can be SO simple and super light and easy on the pocket-book! (versus other holidays where your whole house turns into a wonderland :) ) By just adding a few *green* touches here and there to your home, it is just enough magic for this fun holiday!

Last year I made this easy and cute lolli banner using this tutorial from Michelle at A Little Tipsy and it cost me all of two little buckaroos to make!

The CUTE Subway art hanging above is from the adorable blog eighteen25-they always have my favorite subway art! (and it's still available for free download!) I just popped it in a thrift store frame painted green and BAM...cuteness!

If you've got some green scrapbook paper, a cereal box, some green fabric scraps and some ribbon you can make yourself a sweet little banner too! (and if you don't, you can pick up a sheet or 2 of paper from your local craft store and some plain green fabric and make one for a few bucks too!) I started with the clover in the center.

As Michelle suggested, I used a cereal box to cut out a clover shape-I just free-handed it. Then I cut strips of fabric in about 1" width strips.

I wrapped those strips around the cut out pieces of my clover just hot-gluing it to the cardboard wherever the strip ended and then started a new piece. I then hot-glued all the pieces together to get my clover. It doesn't have to be perfect because the center will be covered by a lolli.

You can find a perfect tutorial on how to make lollies here...mine we're 4". I used some 3D foam stickers I found for a dollar at JoAnns to place in the center, but I think buttons or ribbons would be cute in the center too if you don't have stickers.

Then I hung them all from...a shoelace!! St. Patrick's ribbon was a couple dollars, but this set of shoelaces were only a dollar at JoAnns so I opted to use that! You say ghetto, I say frugal! ha ha!

The clover just hangs by running the shoelace through the openings, but I attached the lollies using paperclips-so easy!

Now hang that little cutie wherever you want and you've got some cute, fun holiday decor for next to nothing!

I'll be sharing a few more ideas on how to get a little more 'Irish spirit' in your home later this week for ZERO dollars so be sure to check back!

Thanks for reading my friends!!

Just a Peek...Our Snow day

2012-03-02T06:00:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite bloggers-Amy from Naptime Crafters- does a cute post about once a week or so that she calls Just a Peek, where she shares a pic or two from her "real" life giving us readers a little peek into her. I sorta love that.

As I was going through some pictures from my camera tonight to put a post together for my personal family blog, I thought, hey why not give my craft reading friends a little peek into my real life every once in awhile too?! If you hate it, I'll just stick to craft posts-promise!

So today I thought I'd share with you just a little peek into the fun snow day we had today! My husband came home this afternoon for a little 2 hour break between work and school (I know 2 hours may not seem "little", but when he's gone by 8 and not home till midnight 2 hours doesn't feel very long.) It had been snowing ALL day-good sticky, big, chunky flakes of snow (our first REAL snow this winter!) and he walked in the door and announced we were going sledding! (and by "go" I mean walk 30 feet out our front door to our little hill) You'da thought he said Santa Clause was standing outside with presents the way the kids were screaming, and jumping up and down, and running around like crazy trying to gather up all their snow gear, they were SO excited!

I hate the snow. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that before, but since there hasn't really been any this year even I was excited to get out there and have some fun!

One of my absolute FAVORITE things in this world (even more than mint oreo IceCream which is seriously saying something) are rosy, red cheeks. I love them in the summer from a hard day's work of sweat and laughter, and I love them in the winter from meticulous snowman making, and spontaneous sled days.

But I especially love them, because in one moment, mommy's nice glove-warmed hands can warm them instantly upon them rushing up to you, out of breath, saying, "Mom, this was SO fun...but I'm really cold, can you warm me up?". Then I take their sweet, little, rosy-red faces in my hands, and I kiss their red, icy noses, and I look into their eyes full of excitement, and I hear the laughter falling from their lips, and in that moment...everything is perfect.

Have a WONDERFUL weekend friends! Thanks for reading!

A Tricky Leprechaun Trap ;)

2012-02-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

"As everyone knows, leprechauns hoard pots of gold, and if caught, must reveal the treasure's location to their captor." says JoEllen Mitchell from Family Fun Magazine.

Those tricky, little leprechauns sure have played US for fools over the years-turning our kitchen upside down, dying our milk green, leaving green footprints on the floor, sending us on wild and crazy scavenger hunts and even leaving green pee-pee in the toilet-GROSS!

So this year, we're fighting back! We figure they owe us some treasure after all the havoc they've wreaked in our house so we used this idea from Family Fun Magazine to make our own leprechaun trap!

JoEllen also says, "Leprechauns have big egos, so a giant version of their own hat is irresistible to them. Once they step on the false top, you'll have caught a 10-gallon prize"

Want to make one too?? You probably already have everything you need and can make one this afternoon with your kiddos! Here's how...

Supplies:
-Some kind of used cylinder container (the actual one I used was a rolled oats one)
-a cereal box
-a couple sheets of green felt
-a piece of black, yellow and green construction paper
-"gold" (I used Rolo wrappers)
-twigs to make a ladder
-hot glue

What to do:
1. Wrap the container with your green felt using hot glue to secure.
2. Cut a circle-I just did mine about an 1 1/2" bigger than the bottom of the rolled oats container-out of the cereal box for the bottom of the hat, and cover that with green felt as well. I just hot glued the extra felt that came over the edges onto the bottom of my cut-out circle.

3. Hot glue the top of the hat to the base.

4. Make your "belt" around the hat using a strip of black construction paper and a square of yellow placed on-top of the black. Adhere using glue or tape.

5. If you have a machine that cuts paper use it to cut out some clovers on your green construction paper(I cut about 15 in different sizes). If you don't have a machine to do this, I'm sure you could find something to this effect at your local craft store, or find an image online to print out and then cut them out manually. Then use either a small dab of hot glue, glue dots or double sided tape to adhere it randomly all over the felt.

6.To make the lid-or the trap- part of your hat, just cut a small circle of felt slightly bigger than the top of your container and it sits just right on top! A perfect place to put your bait of "gold" for those little sneaky men!

Another piece of advice from JoEllen was,"Leprechauns love to break rules. Warning signs are sure to lure them in." So we made this little lure from a popsicle stick painted green, stuck in some green play-dough with our warning to NOT climb the ladder!

JoEllen goes on to say, "Natural materials make these woodland creatures feel at home." So we used some twigs from outside and glued them together to make a tricky ladder!

Now we just sit and wait to capture our ticket to fortune! :)

I hope you're having a great week!! I have a few more St. Patty's things to share with you so I"ll be back soon!

Thanks for reading!

Friday Funnies!

2012-02-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Okay yall, so it has been waaaaaaaaaay too long since we've had a 'Friday Funnies' post on here-like September!!!- and I don't know about you, but I just need a GOOD laugh to kick my weekend off to a great start! (although we did get some sunshine here today and it was sooooo nice-I even got my booty up and worked out, awesome!) So I hope it's okay with you if we interrupt our holiday crafting craziness for a day so we can share some laughs! I hope you find one or two that make you smile! Enjoy! (all of these can be found on my Pinterest Have a Laugh board.)

*I love the mom that actually went and grabbed her camera before helping her kid :)*

And my personal favorite :)...

Okay...NOW go and have a great weekend friends! I'm putting up our St. Patty's decor so I'll be back next week to share, talk to you soon!

Thanks for reading!

Cutting Edge Stencil Giveaway Winner!!!!

2012-02-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Good Morning! I'm so excited to announce the winner of the Cutting Edge Stencil giveaway! As always with giveaways here on Love Sweet Love, I'll let my littles do the honors...

And just in case you're in a place where you can't watch the video (although I'm pretty sure it's worth the watch since you get to see my kid almost pick his nose-don't worry I turned the camera off just in time! ha ha!) ...

Comment #26 was JODIE!!!

Congrats Jodie, email me and we'll get your stencil out to you!!

Talk to you soon friends!

St. Patrick's Rag Wreath

2012-02-22T14:45:00.001-08:00

Hi friends how are you?!?! Can I be a little honest with you? I have been feeling totally BLAH lately. Not like sick blah or like depressed blah, just...blah.

Like you've sat on the couch all day in your pajamas, watching reality tv, eating ice-cream blah.

Except I haven't done any of those things. I think I have to blame it on the weather. I'm one of those weird people whose mood is completely dependent on what it looks like outside. And outside it's been cloudy, rainy/snowy and COLD for over a week and so I just feel blah! Something about clouds and rain makes me feel tired and unmotivated. I need some SUNSHINE!!!

I will tell you though...I just absolutely LOOOOVED reading your 'pet peeves' as part of the entries for the giveaway last weekend! They were the little bit of sunshine to my cloudy week and they made me laugh, and most of them I was yelling at the computer, "I KNOW, ME TOO!" ha ha! So thank you for sharing those, it makes me feel like I get to know you, the readers, a little bit better instead of you always reading about me!

Okay, so I know decorating for St. Patrick's day isn't a super popular holiday to decorate for and you probably don't have a ton of clover decorations floating around your house-if any. Even though you may not want to go all out and decorate because it's just for a couple weeks in march, if you're looking for just a little somethin' somethin' to add to your house to bring a little of the 'luck' charm your way, I would suggest a wreath! And a simple one at that!!

Rag wreaths, I would say, are THE easiest, fastest and probably cheapest wreath there is to make. AND I would also say a perfect wreath for a fun, spunky holiday like St. Patrick's day, 4th of July, Halloween, etc. I found this rag wreath online last year and I loved the texture it had and knew I wanted to do something similar.

*Supplies*
-green circle wreath form (mine is from JoAnns)
-complimentary fabric colors (for this wreath I chose 2 shades of green and some green tulle). It'll take about 1/2 yard of fabric total, so I used 1/4 of each shade of green.
-Scissors
-embellishments

(I actually made this last year before I was blogging so you'll have to excuse the poor quality pictures of the how-to :) )
1. First you cut lots of strips of fabric-mine were about 2"x9".

2. Then just start tying them around the wreath form in whatever pattern you prefer.

This is what the back of the wreath will look like.

3. When you have it as full as you like...embellish! I hung this cute little shamrock ornament from the top of my wreath (from JoAnns).

These little do-dads are St. Patrick's picks (also from JoAnns) and I just pulled the metal pick part out and hot glued them straight to the wreath. (which seems to have worked fine since they're still glued on a year later!)

I used some fun green/white st. patty's ribbon from the dollar store to hang it with. The ribbon is just pinned using straight pins to the back side of the wreath.

I know you can't see the tulle very well in these pictures, but in person it's easier to see and I love the extra little whimsical touch the tulle adds. :)

I had the tulle and lt. green fabric already on hand, and the embellishments were purchased at 50% off so the total price for this wreath came in right at about $6. Yay! But even if you had to purchase everything to make this it would be about $7/8 to make-not too shabby right?!

I don't have boxes full of St. Patrick's nick-knacks, but you know I'm pretty much obsessed with ALL holidays and celebrating them in lots of fun different ways-including decor-so over the next couple weeks I'll be sharing some fun, easy decor, party ideas, and kid activities for this fun little holiday.

Annnnnd be sure to check back FIRST thing tomorrow morning for the results of the Cutting Edge Stencil giveaway winner to find out if it was YOU! :)

Thanks for reading!

Linking up to these great parties!

Painted Rug with stencil Tutorial and a Giveaway!!

2012-02-17T06:00:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday everyone! Have you linked up a project yet to the MEGA -21 blog linky party going on now? The party's still going strong with over 350 links so you still have time to help Crafty Scrappy Happy celebrate her 1 year blog Anniversary by linking up, or just swing by and check out all the AMAZING crafts and treats people are posting-lots of inspiration!!

I was over-the-moon excited when I was contacted last month, by Cutting Edge Stencils, to see if I would like to do a review and giveaway for one of their stencil products. They were so kind, helpful and easy to work with and I am just THRILLED with the results!

They have hundreds of stencil designs to choose from including wall stencils, all-over stencils, nursery stencils, geometric stencils, holiday stencils, craft-size stencils, and SO much more! I have never used a stencil to paint anything, so I am as NEWBIE at this stenciling business as they come so you better believe I watched this video from their Youtube channel that gives a detailed demonstration of how to use and apply their stencil about 5 times over to make sure I got it before I started!

Since living in a rental is limiting in the fact that I can't paint or stencil anything on the walls, I knew I was going to need to choose one of their craft size stencils and I spent WEEKS trying to decide what object I wanted to stencil. Pillows? Curtains? Tabletop? Dresser? Then one day after my little one dropped her yogurt on my kitchen rug (that we've had for 5 years) for the THIRD time that day, it was going in the trash and I was gettin' myself a brand new, custom painted rug...by me. :)

I had chosen to try out the Casablanca Allover craft size-small stencil and they sent that to me along with...

...a foam roller and...

...and a stencil brush-just the tools I needed!

I started with this plain, woven, accent rug from Lowes-24x40" (about $10).

I picked out a red color of paint (I used about 1/2 of one of those tester size paint containers that cost about $3-for the whole rug) that matched the red I have throughout my kitchen and got started!

How to paint a rug:
1.Pour paint onto paper plate
2.Tape stencil down onto rug (painters tape would probably be best, but I didn't have any so I actually used packing tape and it worked fine.) I started my stencil in the middle of the rug and worked left and right and then up and down.
3.Roll foam roller through paint till the entire roller is covered evenly and paint stencil applying pressure evenly.
4.Pick up stencil and move to the next spot. Repeat! (watching the video definitely helps visualize this!)
5. For the edges of the rug I laid a cardboard box down and just kept on painting, using the box to cut off the stencil. I love how the stencil just drops off all the edges (which is why I started in the middle-so I'd have that look of an unfinished stencil around the edges)
You're done!

The paint dries SO fast so you can just keep on working and don't have to wait for one section to dry before you can lay the stencil back down. AND the stencil doesn't need to be washed after every use; in fact, I didn't have to clean it at all until I was done! A perfect project for someone whose impatient and eager, and just wants to get done so she can see the final result of her hard work!

I did love doing this project because it was quick, easy and even a novice like me can read the simple instructions and be good to go and have great results; however with that being said, as far as using a stencil to paint a rug, here are some things I learned while I was going along and would caution you about...
Having never painted any kind of fabric or thick material like this before, I was unsure of how much paint exactly would need to be on the roller and how hard I would need to roll the foam roller so-as recommended in the video- I started out with pretty light coats. I found though, that the rug just soaked up that paint and using more paint on the roller and pushing harder actually gave me better results. Unfortunately I didn't realize this till closer to the end and had to go back over almost the entire rug to get the deepness in color that I was looking for. Because of this, the paint is not evenly distributed on the rug and some stenciled pieces came out darker than others. I just couldn't get them to all look exactly the same without going over the entire thing by hand with a small brush (which I was not going to do). This is in no way a reflection of the product from Cutting Edge Stencil, just my own naivety of using a stencil and trying something a little more difficult my first time using one. I still love the outcome and am proud of my first little painted stencil project!

I love the Casablanca Craft stencil I chose and am excited to try it out again in the future for another project!

Cutting Edge Stencil has so generously offered to give away one stencil of your choice of any value-up to $50 with free shipping!!-to one lucky ducky Love Sweet Love Reader! There are sooooo many possibilities with these stencils and so many designs to choose from that anybody can find something that fits their style! Want one???? Here's how you can enter for your chance to win...

1 entry-Head over to Cutting Edge Stencils website and tell me what your favorite stencil is!
1 entry-'Like' Cutting Edge Stencil on Facebook
1 entry-Although it's not required that you be a follower of my little blog to enter this giveaway, I'll give you an extra entry if you already are, or become one! :)
1 entry-'Like' Love Sweet Love on Facebook (or tell me if you already do)
1 entry-Tell me one of your biggest pet peeves! :)

Please leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry so you get all your chances to win! 5 ways to win, 5 days to enter...giveaway will end Feb. 21st at midnight. Good Luck!

HUGE linky party with Crafty Scrappy Happy!!!

2012-02-15T13:29:00.000-08:00

Today I am just THRILLED, jumping with JOY, ECSTATIC, and just darn tootin' EXCITED to have the opportunity to co-host Crafty Scrappy Happy's 1 year anniversary linky Par-TAY! I have considered Jaime one of my absolute DEAREST blogging friends since we became friends...almost a year ago!

We both started our blogs about the same time and I am just so happy to see how much success Jaime's blog has achieved and how much happiness it has brought into the crafty blogging world, and to so many peoples lives. She is truly one of those people that is just gorgeous on the inside AND the outside. If you don't know her...GET to know her, she will embrace you with open arms and a warm heart. I'm so happy for you my dear friend and wish you even more happiness and success this next blogging year!

So won't you PLEASE help Jaime celebrate by linking up your projects here at this HUGE linky party! There are TWENTY (20!) co-host to this party (meaning when you link up once it will be seen on 21 blogs-including Crafty Scrappy Happy's!!) so your projects will get SO SO SO much attention and could bring lots more traffic to your blog, so link up mmmkay?!

Feel free to link up anything and everything Crafty, Scrappy and/or Happy! No giveaways or etsy shops please.Check out other links, be inspired and make some new friends!Grab a button if you would!And check Crafty Scrappy Happy for features all next week!!!!

Valentine Scavanger Hunt

2012-02-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines day my wonderful friends!!!! I hope your day is filled with happiness and laughter and surprises, but most of all with LOVE!

I have a few fun things planned for my kiddos (cupid's visit is always a favorite!) and we're excited to do our traditional pizza making for dinner!

I just thought I'd stop in for a quick sec today (well for one, to wish you a happy VALENTINES day! :) ) to share a couple of the little valentines I've put together over the past week.

For little Miss's dance class valentine exchange we did these...

{source}

For the little Mr.'s pre-school friends we did packets of a Kool-aid with a tag that said, "you're a KOOL-kid Valentine!"

{source}

For the Mr. this week I've left little treat surprises around the house, in the car, in his backpack, etc...everyday-I'm pretty positive I enjoyed it more than he did. ha ha!

Smokehouse BBQ nuts-"I'm NUTS about you!"
Vitamin water Zero-"I have ZERO regrets choosing you!"
Sweedish Fish- "You are the best FISH in the sea for me!"
Mountain Dew- "Thanks for all you DEW!"
Beef Jerky- "Thanks for never being a JERK or giving me any BEEF, I love you!" (I know that one was a stretch, but he LOVES beef jerky so I had to throw it in and make it work!!)
Packs of gum- "I CHEWS you!"
Pack of Crush- "I don't think it's any secret now...I've got a CRUSH on you!"

{source-Lots of fun v-day ideas and free printables for a hubby at this link as well!}

Nothing super BIG, but fun all the same!

Annnnnd, I also thought I'd share a SUPER fun scavenger hunt we did for the kids last year (and we'll be doing it again tonight since it was such a hit!!).

It all started when we heard a knock at the door and found that Cupid had left us our first clue...

Clue #1: Today is about LOVE & family & friends and giving big kisses and Hugs that don't end. If you want to find the gift from yours truly, go look in the place where you watch Scooby Dooby!
*The computer

Clue #2:
Nope it's not here sorry that was tricky, but don't give up yet that'd be too picky! I'll give you another clue & try not to be mean, go look in the place where you wash your body clean.
*The Bathtub

Clue #3:
Yay you found me you're off to a great start, keep going like this and you might steal my HEART! The next clue is hiding in a place that is cold, where you put milk & cheese so it doesn't grow mold. :(
*The refrigerator

Clue #4:
Now you've got the hang of it look at you go, keep up your pace don't get too slow. You'll find you next clue playing in Cinderella's house, but you better beware of her little grey mouse!
*Kylee's play princess castle

Clue #5:
The more that you know, the closer you get, to claiming your prize, are you ready...get set! Your next clue is waiting alone in the dark, in the place you get mail, right next to the park.
*The mailbox

Clue #6:
You're almost done now just a couple more clues, keep doing what you're doing you just can't lose! This clue you'll find where Tyler sleeps at night, when mom tucks him in under blankets just right!
*Tyler's bed

Clue #7:
CUPID'S my name, LOVE is my game, if you've had fun you have ME to blame! The gift you've been seeking is awaiting your peeking at the place where we go if we want to be eating!
*Kitchen Table

They ran to the kitchen table and found their sweet Valentine treats from Cupid. Powdered donuts and strawberry milk for Tyler (his fav) and chocolate milk for Kylee (her fav). I love that tyler's cheeks are all red and his hair's all sweaty from running around.

She was thrilled that she had a prize!!!

Thumbs up Cupid!

If you can't see she has a donut in each hand and is drinking her choc milk.

After their treat they played with these plastic hearts cupid left for them as well for almost 30 min! We found that they're almost as much fun as hitting each other with pillows!

As we were cleaning up in the kitchen we heard Tyler say, "This was the BEST balentines ever!"

I hope YOU have the best "balentines" day ever today! Thank you SO SO much for stopping by today-I love you all!! :)

Burlap Bubble Wreath

2012-02-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

Just SIX more days till the day of Lu-huuuuv! Are you excited?! Valentines day has never been a big celebratory, give big presents, go all out kind of holiday for the hubs and I...we're more of the quiet dinner and a movie kinda people...so having kids to celebrate with has been SO SO SO fun! The excitement and energy they bring makes it worth all the preparation and time I put into different projects for the holiday (like the Love Shacks-they have been absolutely GIDDY over them, so happy!!).

My little girl (3 yr. old) has especially loved valentines day since there has been so much PINK everywhere! ha ha! And I have to say, since I have one month a year where the Mr. ~~can't~~ doesn't complain about pink decorations, I release all of my pent-up girly, pink loving, mushy-gushy, love emotions from the previous 11 months and go to town! My heart felt wreath goes perfectly inside, but I wanted a wreath for my door (surprise, surprise ;) ) that was a little more......gender neutral shall we say?!

There are after-all 2 boys living in this house too, so I was looking for something that was feminine enough to make my pitter-patter heart happy, and masculine enough to keep the hubs from taking it down. :) So when I found this burlap bubble wreath on pinterest here I knew it was perfect!!

The Valentines Burlap Bubble Wreath...

The wreath was created by Amanda who blogs at My Heart's Desire and she has a fantastic tutorial, so if you're interested in making you're own you'll definitely want to check it out! And the best thing is, she has one tutorial here just for the burlap bubble wreath and a separate tutorial here for the heart burlap wreath. I, obviously :), used and followed both and I love how it turned out!

I won't re-create a total step by step since I followed Amanda's instructions exactly, but just to show you how simple it is...

I started with 3 things

1. Burlap (1 yard tan, 1/2 yard red)
2. Wire wreath forms (1 18" circle, 1 heart-both from Hobby Lobby)
3. Floral wire
*between using coupons and what I had already on-hand, this wreath came out to under $10-perfect!

To make the round wreath, you're basically just gathering, bubbling and securing all around your circle form on the inner and outer rings.

And I will tell you this, it would have been much easier(not that it was really hard, but my fingers just started to hurt after awhile) if I would have used a thinner gauge wire. I was using 20 gauge b/c I already had that on-hand, but I would recommend 24 or 26 because it will tie around your burlap and wire lots easier and give you a better hold!

This is what the back of the wreath looked like when I had finished-just so you can kind of see how I tied the wire around.

Also, with such thick wire I had some problems with it showing in some places. With thinner wire I think you'd probably be able to hide it better.

For the heart I did basically the same thing, but just made one row of "bubbles" rather than one for both the inner and outer rings.

Using a recommendation from Amanda, I took some extra scraps of red burlap and stuffed them into the bubbles on this wreath to give it a little bit fuller of a look.

Then I safety pinned the heart to the round wreath so that I can use the burlap wreath on it's own for something else in the future!

And that was it!

I love that this doesn't have to be just a valentines wreath- stretchin' those pennies as best I can! ha ha!

So are you doing anything fun with your Mr. Love or your littles for valentines day?? I would LoVe to hear about it!

Thanks for popping in, talk to ya soon!

The Love Shack

2012-02-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned last week, The Shack...Radioshack, holds a very special place in my love story.

Without it, the BOY wouldn't have met the GIRL, and the GIRL wouldn't have ever known the difference between a red, white and yellow TV cable. And most importantly, there wouldn't be two little sweet loves that call us parentals.
Whiiiich is why The Shack become fondly known to us as...The LOVE shack.

I had been wanting to create some little valentine mailboxes, similar to this idea, that I could stick a little note or treat in for my two kiddos every day until Valentines day (starting in Feb. :) ) but I couldn't find little mailboxes like that anywhere!! I came up with a few other ideas of things I could put ontop of a candlestick to create a mailbox type project and when I saw these little birdhouses in the $1 aisle at Michaels I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

Make some *Love Shacks* to house love notes for my love birds!

I love that we now have a more aesthetically appealing, meaningful object that reminds the Mr. and I of our beginnings (the old, rusted Radioshack magnet on the fridge has now met the garbage man-thank goodness!!) and we can include our kids now by making new memories with them!

I started with these 2 wood bird houses-I tried to pick one that was a little more masculine for my boy :)-and painted the one for little miss K sweet pea pink, and the one for the little Mr. metallic silver (by Rustoleum).

And because I can't just leave well enough alone, I had to add something to make them...standout. :) I have lots of glitter around my house, so I decided to add a little sparkle to the roofs of the birdhouses. I just applied a thin layer of Mod Podge to the roof and poured on the glitter (this pic is from before I shook off the excess).

And then I had a craft FAIL moment. Splotchy white glitter on pink roof=hot mess.

So I had a momentary freak-out moment, ran back to my stash of glitter and re-covered the roof with ruby red. WOW! Just the bold statement I was looking for. In yo' face bird house.

Then I dug out some glittery scrapbook sticker letters to spell out "Love Shack" on the houses.

Since I couldn't really figure out a way to put a "flag" onto the side of the bird houses-like a mailbox has-I just used these heart picks I had leftover from the dollar store last year, snapped them in half, put each of my kids initials (scrapbook sticker letter) on their heart for their shack (added a little rhinestone bling to miss K's of course) and the houses were done!

I chose to go with silver, red and black colors for Tyler's shack, for ONE because my husband would have died if their was pink anywhere on his sons birdhouse (I was already treading on thin ice with that as it was :) ) and TWO, because after seeing the metallic and black together I felt okay adding GLITTER to his because it reminded of a tuxedo! That shiny metallic and black just says STUD to me, ha ha, so I added a little black "bow-tie" to the front of the candlestick I had painted black to finish off the look.

That's when I went back and added a pink bow to the roof of Kylee's shack, to add just one more touch of femininity and compliment the look of the stud standing next to her ;).

Both candlesticks were purchased from a thrift store over a year ago for .50 each (and I painted them red and black for this project), but you can find glass candlesticks at the dollar store year round! They are glued to the birdhouses using E6000.

Since the holes aren't quite big enough to stick a treat in (without losing it!), I'm just sticking a new "love note" inside for each of them everyday! They just eat this stuff up, I love it!!

So happy that 2 little buckaroo's turned into this...

I dare you not to have "Love Shack" stuck in your head all day now. You're welcome. :) Have a fantastic weekend, see you back here next week and thanks for dropping in!

Hugs and Kisses Gumball Machine

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

Hi friends! First I just wanted to say thank you SO much to all you sweet girls for making me feel like I'm not alone on the momma guilt wagon last week! Your thoughts and kind words were so encouraging and I realized 2 things:

1. I don't need to be so hard on myself all the time and
2. I shouldn't write blog post while under the influence of heavy medication.
'Nuff said.

Sooooo....how bout a little PINK to perk you up?! This was the perfect little project for me this weekend to get me out of my *rut*...I mean how can chocolate not heal you?!

Want to whip up one of these for yourself, or a friend or neighbor? Here ya go!

I found this idea through Pinterest, and it's originally from the blog Dandelions and Dust Bunnies, but when I saw it I thought a Valentines version would be so cute!

Supplies:
-4" terracotta pot ($1-Michaels)
-terracotta saucer(.79-Michaels)
-glass bowl ($1-dollar store)
-wooden doll head ball (.25-Michaels)
-1 bag of Hershey hugs and kisses (about $2.50-Walmart)
-Spray paint in color of choice (already had mine, but it's about $3 a can at Home Depot for the Rustoleum brand-my FAVORITE!!)

First I painted the pot, saucer and ball pink. I almost went with red for the "gumball machine" (like I was shakin' it up getting ready to spray my pot and almost had to flip a coin because I couldn't decide), but decided I wanted it to be a little more light and flirty, so I went with Rustoleum's Sweet Pea-eeeek love!

I used some scrapbook stickers I already had in silver and red (purchased from Hobby Lobby) to write out
Hugs & {kisses} on the pot (and make sure to flip the pot upside down!).

Then I just used some E6000 to glue the glass jar to the upside down pot, filled it with some hugs and kisses and tied a pink, grosgrain ribbon bow around the middle.

Then I glued the wooden ball to the underneath side of the saucer and stuck the "lid" on the top of the glass bowl (I guess you could glue the lid to the bowl but I chose not to-I have to be able to access my chocolate! :) )

And that's it! A little something simple and cute to add to your decor, or a cute gift to give to a friend!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, I'm so so SO happy you're here! Talk to you soon!!

Mom Guilt.

2012-01-27T14:26:00.000-08:00

Mom Guilt.

This week I feel like I've done nothing. Well you know...

I saved superman by gluing his arm back to his body,
I found Rapunzel's long lost shoe-underneath a slice of stale cheese...which was left inside the play kitchen refrigerator for what I would guess (from the texture and color) to be at least 3 days old,
I built a lego batcave in no less than 1 hour,
I attended a dance recital in my living room where the dancer danced to 'Jingle Bells' (a Christmas cd that got left out of the christmas box) over and over and over,
and I'm pretty sure at one point I made a pretty dang good pot of Macaroni & cheese so you know...
it wasn't nothing exactly.

But I've been SO sick this week that I feel like a literal BUMP on a LOG! I look at my house and I just cringe! I look at my laundry piled up to way past overflowing, my kitchen sink full of dishes that I just have no desire to empty, the toys just pushed off to the sides of the room so the kids could go to bed because the thought of having to actually clean their rooms makes me want to dive into a cave, and I look at those 2 little faces and I just feel...guilt.

I didn't play with them enough, I didn't want to crawl out of bed to play princesses and pretend I'm the evil queen that locked the princess in the dungeon, I let them watch hours and hours of TV,-and the fact that I can't even put a number on those hours because I honestly don't know- makes me feel even more guilty.

Even though the hubby's good to try to relieve me of my guilt by telling me that it's okay our kids know all of the characters on spongebob square pants (seriously? dumbest. show. ever.) and haven't eaten a vegetable in a week because I'm sick, I STILL feel guilty.

So by day 3 of having body aches so bad I couldn't move my neck and chills that kept me dressed like I was living outside, on the streets, in the Arctic, and a sore throat that completely obliterated all attempts to break-up fights between the littles because all I could do is whisper (and seriously whisper??...I wouldn't even take me seriously.), I crawled out of my bed because of GUILT. And I played, and I laughed-in a freaky ghost movie kinda way-and I drove kids to preschool and dance, and made dinner, and looked for toys and turned off the TV and worked on reading and writing with them, and read every library book we have (and yes, they are 2 weeks over-due glad you asked!) and woke up to do it all over again the next day. Why?!?!

Mom Guilt.

I think, especially as woman-and I think this is true even if you don't have kids yet-we are so hard on ourselves. We think we have to know how to sew and cook and bake and have a doctorate and never yell at our kids and serve our neighbors and fulfill religious obligations and be an attractive wife with dinner on the table at 5:00 and be in perfect shape and have children that behave like angels and be running at full speed even if we're sick. :) Not ONLY do we have to do all those things, we have to do ALL of them perfectly, ALL the time.

Why do we put all that unnecessary pressure on ourselves?! Is the Woman Police going to come arrest us for not sewing every clothing item our children wear, or for not baking the perfect pie for our sick neighbor, or for weighing an extra 5 lbs because we love cheeseburgers? I think I must think that because I worry about not being able to accomplish all the things I want to do. So I have to focus on this thought:

I can do everything I want to do. Just not right now. One thing at a time.

I think that's why finding balance, and making sure I'm doing other things with my time besides crafting and blogging, has been so important to me this past month. AND I think that's why this week has been so hard because I've been trying to be the perfect mother and I let mom guilt take over when I should have embraced the few ways I was being a good one (like when I turned OFF spongebob-chalk that up for a winner mom moment! go me!)

{source}

Sorry for the very real, un-edited, edition of the Angela brain dump today. I think I'll feel better next week. :) And I've got a few projects on the docket for the weekend so I'll be sharing those next week! Have a great weekend!

'Heart-FELT' Wreath

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time there was a boy.
He was smart and CONFIDENT and had a serious case of mackdaddyness.
He had a fabulously romantic, fLaShY job at The Shack...Radioshack.
He liked computers and cars and Napoleon Dynamite.
He met a GIRL. He fell in love.

Once upon a time there was a girl.
She was blonde and FLIRTY and had a serious case of single-itis.
She had a fabulously romantic, fLaShY job at The Shack...Radioshack.
She liked fakin' bakin', dancing and going out.
She met a BOY. She wasn't sure.

He KISSED her. She laughed at him.
He played hard to get. It worked.
She fell in love.
They dated. They broke up.
They dated.
He sat next to her on her little brothers bed, held her hand, and asked her to be his FOREVER.
She said no.
He cried. She cried.
He left.
She changed.
He asked her again.
She said YES.

7 1/2 years, 2 kids, and thousands of kisses later they are still in love and she still wants to be his forever. Sometimes he's not so sure. (ha ha just kidding-I hope!!!)

Love. Such a small word that holds so much meaning it can make you experience every emotion the human body can feel.

I know some people detest Valentines day, but for me it's one day a year I can SHOWER my family with love. I hope I show them everyday how much I love them, but I will happily take one extra day to be ridiculously, over-the-top, mushy, gushy and lovey!

I love LOVE! I love hugs and kisses and hearts (as you've probably noticed that's what's been used in all my decor!) and that I get to decorate with those things one month a year! When I saw this Valentine Heart last year on The Idea Room I was inspired to make my own little version...

Amy uses a heart styrofoam form, but my craft store was sold out so I just picked up a block of styrofoam and Mr. Sweet Love cut me out a heart shape. :)

I used about 1 billion more felt circles that what's pictured below. Ha ha! Seriously...SO many felt circles!

I did this before I was blogging so I don't have any step-by-step pictures for this one, but I made another felt wreath for Halloween, and I did a detailed tutorial that you can find here. (And a Fall one here.)

Amy also just did a solid red felt, but I got a little crazy and did red, hot pink and light pink.

It ended up being more long and narrow, than wide but I like that it fits kinda snuggly right up into my window frame. :)

What about you? Do you detest Valentines day or are you a sucker for love? Either way I'll still love you! :) Hope you're having a great week, thanks so much for stopping by!!

Linking up to these great parties as well as:

DIY Valentine Candy Jars

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Well I promised you a little XOX, and the only thing that can make LOVE sweeter is...candy right?! So today I've got a quick-SO easy-DIY candy jar craft!

I started with 3 glass canisters from Hobby Lobby (I bought them when they were 50% off so they were only $2 each), 3 candlesticks (from the thrift store .50 each), pink and white valentine taffy from the dollar store and red vinyl.

I spray painted the lids of the canisters black (they were originally silver) as well as the candlesticks and glued the jars to the candlesticks using E6000. Then I filled the jars with candy, cut the letters XOX out of red vinyl using my cricut and stuck them on the jars. Done!

If you were in the crafty blogging world last year there is no way you missed Amy's post-from The Idea Room-on her Tissue Paper Rosette Balls (or kissing balls). It BLEW up the blog-o-sphere and I for one am a big fan of riding on bandwagon's so I whipped up a few for myself!

Amy's tutorial is perfect so since there's no need to re-invent the wheel, I'll just tell ya I used:
-3" Styrofoam balls (a pack of 6 for about $4 from Hobby Lobby)
-a roll of white and pink crepe paper ($1 each)
-100% of my patience (felt like I should have been paid $100 an hour)
-1 bag of peanut butter m&m's (.79)
-and a few dozen episodes of Modern Family (priceless)

I love these so much I'm almost tempted to whip up a few more...except it wouldn't be whip up it'd be...pull my hair out, 500 3rd degree glue gun burns, ~~500~~ lots more m&m's...ya I'll think I'll just keep it as is. :)

Anyone shocked I haven't shared my Valentine wreath with you yet?! Don't worry it's already made and hung and made of...felt! (surprise surprise :) ) Aaaaand I'll be sharing it soon! Have a wonderful Monday all you Lovelies!

Linking up to these great parties as well as:

DIY Valentine Framed Artwork

2012-01-20T12:26:00.000-08:00

Haaaaapy Friday my friends!! Can you believe we're already heading into the end of January?! With the kind of weather we're having in my neck of the woods it feels more like spring than winter (which is TOTALLY A-OK with me!) since we've had hardly any snow this year (in comparison to years past-compared to...Texas we'd be a winter wonderland :) ).

Okay so I'm pretty darn tootin' excited to show you a project I created last year for Valentines day. It was before I was blogging, but I was thinking about starting a blog last Feb. so thankfully I do have some step-by-step pictures for you if you're interested!

It's not very often that I do a project without completely copying a tutorial I find on a blog or Pinterest, and it's even less rare for me to come up with an idea all on my own, so I'm pretty proud of the fact that I thought of this just by sitting in my garage starring at a tub of old "house decorating stuff".

DIY Valentine Framed Artwork

The supplies I used were old picture frames, scrapbook paper, vinyl, square glass coasters, and E6000 glue.

First I picked 3 different size picture frames, took the glass out and spray painted each of the frames black.
Then I came up with 3 different Valentine phrases I wanted to use for each picture
-LOVE me tender
-Be My Valentine
-Save the Date: 02-14

I had 10 square glass 'picture' coasters (the kind you can slide a small 2x2 size picture into) just collecting dust, so I came up with a different layout for each frame with my coasters and phrases and got to work.

For the 'LOVE me tender' frame, I cut the words 'me tender' out of black construction paper using my cricut and used double sided tape to tape each letter to the scrapbook paper (from Hobby Lobby).

I cut 2x2 squares from pink cardstock and cut the letters L-O-V-E out of black vinyl (using the cricut) and placed one letter in the center of each cardstock square.

After I slide them into the picture pocket on the coaster I used E6000 to glue them where I wanted them onto the glass for the frame and let it dry/harden overnight.

Then I just slid the scrapbook paper behind the glass put the frame back on and I had my own customized Valentine artwork!

I followed the exact same steps for the other 2 pictures, just changing up the phrases and placement of the coasters on the glass.

The 'Save The Date' and 'Saint Valentines Day' are cut from construction paper and the hearts, and numbers are cut from vinyl.

I pretty much do not do a craft without adding some sort of bling-a-ling to it! :) For this frame I added a couple white rhinestones to the letters V, N & E (on the outside of the glass) to give it a little something different.

And remember, even if you don't have a cutting machine you can always just use scrapbook stickers to get the same look!

You could get really personal and creative with these if you used phrases you share just with your husband or kids that are special to you. What a meaningful craft this could be! Wish I would have thought of that last year, but I still like the way these turned out!

Next up...a little XOX. ;) See ya soon!

Linking up to these great parties as well as:

Ballerina Birthday Party

2012-01-17T13:41:00.000-08:00

I'm SO sorry this is getting posted a day late! I've got an extra {cute} 3 year old running around my house this week, and now I'm seeing what it'd be like to have a 4 year old and twin 3 year olds all under the same roof...wow! Let's just say I'm not getting quite as much done as I usually do ;).

Buuuut I am so so so so so excited to show you what I've been working on the last week and over the weekend because our Ballerina Party was a complete success!!

Like I mentioned before, little miss K turned 3 and for her first 'friends party' requested it be a Ballerina party. Oooohhhh I couldn't have loved putting this together more!

Since I won the 'procrastinator of the year' award in 2011 (awarded to me by myself of course...anybody else have one of these trophies layin' around?) I thought...why change my ways? In some weird, completely irrational way, I work better under pressure so I put myself in a tiny box of 6 days to plan, create and execute this party. Whew! And I have to say, I only had one meltdown (day of party...I'll explain) so I'm gonna go ahead and chalk that one up for the win category. Booyah!

First I started off with the invites. Of course when it was 5 days, 23 hours, lots of minuets and counting, I had to turn to my dear creative friend Pinterest for ideas and boy did she come through!

I took the idea for the invite from THIS blog and came up with my own little rendition of a Ballerina invite. On the blog I found she has a step by step video you can watch if you're really interested in making one, but here are a few of the pictures I took making a simple ballerina dress using:
-cardstock bodice form (free template found here)
-square of tissue paper
-thin, white ribbon
-double sided tape

After you have folded your square of tissue paper accordion style, you use your double sided tape and adhere it to the front of your bodice attaching the tape right at the waist. You'll want to make sure the folds are spaced evenly to get a pretty skirt form.

The tape should be about 2" so that you have enough to have some on the back.

Turn the dress back to the front and fold down the top half of the tissue paper. Then kinda smoosh (my spell check is telling me that's not a word, but since it's quite possibly the best word in the English language I'm gonna have to rebel) the tissue paper lightly with your finger-you don't want to flatten it completely, just smooshed down enough that the top layer will lay nicely (yet poofy) over the top of it.

Next, f0ld down the top layer of tissue paper and gently give it a little crease to secure the fold.

Now, using the tape on the back of the bodice lay the middle of your ribbon across it.

Turn it over and tie the ribbon into a bow and you're done!

I then used a piece of double-sided tape to attach the dress to the invite.

The invite itself, is a 6x4 pice of light pink cardstock. I used brown ink to darken up the sides and a strip of white ribbon, layered with sheer pink and white polka dot ribbon, across the top. I had some brown scrapbook stickers on hand so just layed a letter K on top of the ribbon for little miss K. I finished it off with 2 hole punches on the top and a matching pink/white polka dot ribbon run through.

The back of the invitation had all the party information:

Then it was time to decorate! On the front door I hung little miss's ballet shoes, using white grosgrain ribbon, behind the coffee filter wreath I had out for Christmas.

I loved the simple little touch adding something personal to her added to the party!

Inside I opted to decorate with...flowers, balloons and food!! I wanted the atmosphere to be frilly, soft, pretty and GIRLY! I went with pink and white for the colors of the party with pops of yellow! I'm a "pop" kinda girl. Two colors just bores me, I have to have something that says, "HELLO!" ha ha!

Using the tutorial found here, from All Things Thrifty, I made these tissue paper pom pom balls to hang from the ceiling, and I have to say I was really disappointed with how they turned out.

The tute wasn't super specific-as far as telling you what kind of wire to buy-so I bought something that was too thick (thanks to the advice from the cashier at Michaels-boo) and the tissue paper didn't bend and fold right because of it SOOOO I didn't get the look I was going for, but it was alright.

My tip to you...the thinner gauge craft wire the better! I would suggest maybe a 24 or 26 gauge.

But back to the food table...the main event of course! :)

Starting on the right end...pink donuts!

Okay they weren't totally pink because apparently to get custom iced donuts you have to place an order (procrastination rocks) so I bought every single donut they had with pink anywhere on it!

Above that we had cotton candy (I hate cotton candy, but love the fluffy texture for the purposes of a party! And 2 dollar store bags filled 10 cones!)

I made the paper cones for the cotton candy using a sketch my husband came up with that made a cone shape and scalloped scissors to trim the edges (can I admit that for the life of me I could not draw a 3d cone shape that worked?! Geometry was NOT my subject. I did however pass cheerleading so...whatev.)

In the back corner I placed a bouquet of yellow, white and pink flowers in a pink vase I found at the thrift store months ago! I added 4 pink rhinestones to the top and white ribbon around the middle and pretended they were just for me.

Going up the center of the table were glass bottles of kiwi strawberry (snapple) juice that I added a slice of lemon to and a yellow straw (smoothie straws so they're thicker-from Walmart). And to tie in the strawberries on the cupcakes, I added a bowl of sliced strawberries in the center as well.

Worst moment of the day. My meltdown. Over cupcakes. But first I'll give you the good news. I made a cute cupcake stand for the birthday girls' cupcake (idea from I heart Naptime)!!

I started with a glass candlestick from the dollar store, a .50 wood piece from Hobby Lobby, some clear gloss paint and yellow paint from Rustoleum. I always spray paint my glass with some sealer first so that the spray paint sticks to it better. And then spray painted them both yellow.

Using some scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby, I cut a circle the size of the top of the wood circle and mod podged it on.

Then I used E6000 to glue the candlestick to the wood.

And because it was in some serious need of frillyment, I added pink adhesive rhinestones around the edge of the circle and a little ribbon bow around the candlestick.

Back to the tragedy. Baking. WHY do I try?! Why?!

And the worst part is...I didn't even bake them. Mr. Sweet Love did!

I left the "icing" of the cupcakes till the day of the party because I didn't want them to get hard and crusty. Let's just say...what was supposed to be white icing, turned pink, then blue, then purple and then what can be described in the nicest words possible as 'dusty rose' pink. Then the attempted pretty icing swirls on top of the cupcakes turned into diarrhea looking blobs and the icing bag exploded 'dusty roseness' all over my hands, shirt and face. Awesome. I salvaged what sugar mess I had left and slapped it on some of the cupcakes with a knife and a grrrr, and opened the fridge to see what else I could do. I found some whip cream and some strawberries and tried to make something edible (and not completely revulting) of the ingredients that were left and still sanitary. Next time, if there IS a next time, I will be buying cupcakes. Just so you know.

Moving on :). At the back of table, to add a little height, I made some pink and white lollies. (I love this tutorial for making lollies if you're interested!) This one is a 3...for her 3rd bday.

And this one has her name and some sticker ballet shoes (from Hobby Lobby).

To make the pots, I just picked up 2 medium size ones from Micheals (.89 each) and spray painted them white. I stuffed some green styrofoam floral filler in the bottom of each pot and topped with yellow lemonhead candies. The lollies are attached (with double sided tape) to a skewer and stick right into the green floral stuff inside the pot. So simple but I love how much they add to the table!

On the left side of the table I had pink popcorn (white stove top popped popcorn with white chocolate (turned pink using food coloring) drizzled over the top of it) in little popcorn boxes I made, using this template, some scalloped scissors to trim the edges, and then tied a pink satin ribbon around the box.

The stands that the popcorn and cotton candy are sitting on were made from dollar store platters and candlesticks. Take a plastic platter...

...and a glass candlestick and use E6000 to glue together. LOVE the fun color possibilities of this by just using different color cans spray paint!

In the back left corner I added a candy jar I made for my Easter decorations last year. It's just a dollar store candlestick (I swear by these!) glued (using E6000 of course!) to a glass jar I found at a thrift store for $1, that I had spray painted yellow and then filled with pink candies. You could use gumballs, but since it's around Valentines they had lots of pink candies to choose from!

And last but not least, some PINK rice krispie treats! I was going to make my own from this recipe, but luckily it's valentines so they had boxes of these already made and they were cheaper than 1 box of rice krispies cereal!! Deal!

I really love how the whole table came together!

We have a fairly small kitchen-for party throwing anyway!-so I had to set up 2 card tables in the center of the kitchen to eat at. It was a tight squeeze but 3/4 year olds are pretty tiny so it worked ok.:)

I added another vase of flowers to the table, as well as pink plates, white napkins, white dollies, and wands (all purchased from the dollar store!) for each Ballerina.

My FAVORITE thing on these tables though, were the water bottles and the little bowls of lemonheads. Those little "pops" of yellow made me ridiculously happy.

I had the lemonade for the girls over on the food table, but I know some kids are pretty picky about what they eat/drink, so I decided to add some water to the tables and used the mini water bottles (8oz) and strips of yellow polka dot paper.

Just in case the magic of how to adhere paper to a water bottle blows your mind :)...you just place double sided tape on one end of the paper, stick it to the bottle, wrap it around the bottle and place another piece of tape on the end of the strip and attach it to the bottle.

My other favorite (can I have another favorite?!) thing were the placecards I made for each little ballerina. I pretty much exactly copied the one I found here. When the party was winding down I had the idea to double the use of the placecards and use them as thank you cards as well!

Since it was just cardstock folded in half, I just quickly opened up the placecard, wrote a thank you and stuck them in their favor bags before I handed them to the parents. I love getting more than one use out of things.

I love how the party turned out and little miss K was in absolute HEAVEN, but there are a few little details I had planned on doing that I just didn't have time to get done (maybe next time I'll give myself a 7 day window instead of 6...probably not). Like I would have loved to make a cute Happy Birthday pennant banner to hang on the food table and I wanted to make ballerina cupcake toppers (the same ballerina dresses that were on the invites, just stick a toothpick to the back of them to stick in the cupcake) and matching tutus for all the girls, but as the week was coming to a close I had to pick a few dreams to let go of. sigh. If only...ha ha! But you probably wouldn't have even noticed those things if I hadn't said them!

**Just in case you're trying to gather some ideas for your own ballerina extravaganza here are some of the games/activities we did (our party was an hour and a half)**:

1. As the guests arrived we decorated foam tiaras (from the dollar store) with princess stickers, glitter glue, markers, etc.
2.After doing cake, treats and presents we played 'Ballerina says'. Like Simon says, but Ballerina says twirl, jump, hop,etc. and if a player does an action when ballerina doesn't say they have to sit down.
3.Then we played Ballerina Relay.
split the group into 2 teams. Have a basket of princess stuff on one end of the room (opposite to where the 2 teams are lined up). Each basket should have an item for each member of the team. You could use princess dresses, shoes, necklace, ring, purse, feather boa, tiara, etc. The first person on each team runs to the basket puts on an item and has to run back to their team. They then remove whatever item they put on and the next person in line has to put that item on, run back to the basket and add a new item. Repeat until all items have been put on and the first team to empty their basket wins.
4. Next to calm them down a bit we played a fairy trivia game. I had a list of 10 questions about different princess/fairy movies or stories and whoever got the answer right got one m&m.
5. Then we made candy bracelets. I used twizzler pull aparts for the bracelet form and a few different candies that had holes in the center (lifesavers, gummy lifesavers, sour lifesavers, wintergreen lifesavers, etc.) to slide on the bracelet.
6. Then we played freeze dance where we turned on some ballet music (using Pandora) and whenever the music stopped they had to freeze. If you don't freeze you have to sit down. We had little girls that didn't quite understand this so mostly we just kept dancing when the music was on and when it turned off we'd wait for everyone to freeze before we turned it back on again.

I think the girls had a really good time and they loved that they got to dance with their wands throughout the party AND take them home! Yay for girly parties and YAY for it being over! ha ha!

Happy Birthday my beautiful Kylee, I hope all your wishes come true!!

I promise my next post will have some valentine goodness!!! Have a wonderful day, thanks for stopping by!!

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Birthday Sneak Peak...

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

My *baby* turned 3 a couple weeks ago, but since having a birthday a couple days after Christmas isn't conducive to party throwing (read: mom is way too burnt out to put a party together) we're having her party this weekend.

For our kids first and second birthdays we just do small family celebration/parties and when they turn three they get their first FRIENDS party! I kinda feel like when they're 3 they actually "get it", as in...are more interested in the actual present they get rather than just wanting to play with the cardboard box it comes in, use a fork to eat their cake rather than their fist and can actually play the party games rather than be forced to pin the tail on the donkey they can barley walk to. I feel like, for as much work that goes into a party, they better be old enough to appreciate it! :) Ha ha!

Sooooo....that being said I have been having so much fun this week putting together my very first, VERY girly party!! Eeeek I just can't even tell you how much I L.O.V.E. having a girl!!!! I've done dinosaurs and Superheroes which were both a LOT of fun, but I have to say this has definitely been my favorite party to plan! I won't share the whole thing till after it's over but I thought I'd share a few sneak peak pictures of some of the things I've been staying up WAY WAY too late putting together this week....do you think you can guess the theme??? :)

Have a wonderful weekend! See ya next week friends!

Welcome 2012!!!

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my friends how are you?!?!?! It has been so weird to go from posting almost every day for the last 3 months, to nothing the past three weeks, but we had a WONDERFUL Christmas break together as a family and I hope you enjoyed your holiday as well!!!

The Mr. started his FIRST day of Classes for the LAST semester today and so we're finally getting back into the routine of having a routine. Oh how I love my structure! :) It's nice to be able to do nothing for awhile and not feel guilty for going to bed early, spending a whole night watching movies, keeping the kids up WAY too late hopped up on nothing but sugar, buuuut I have to say by the time the "vacay's" over I am SO ready to get back to my nice, organized, OCD life! :)

Sooooo, I've spent the last week trying to get ready for the next 5 months. Organizing, goal setting, new years resolutions...just kinda all of that. I'm not a 'resolution' kinda gal per-say, but when I feel like my life is about to spin out of control because there is SO much going on, so many un-knowns, so many changes a comin', I do whatever I can to keep that spin in a hand-reaching radius because I'm a big fan of being in control. (I'm getting better :) ) And what I CAN do-amidst all the spinning-is prioritize, make lists, make more lists, and balance-super important while spinning and kind of the key to NOT falling :).

My 'Goals for 2012' list consisted of six things. Some are things I just want to accomplish by the end of the year, some are things that will need to be done weekly and some are things that I need to do everyday. A couple of them are for my own personal growth, a couple of them are specific to my kids, but most of them include things that will benefit my whole family and our relationships.

I realized after I had made my very short list, that if I truly wanted to achieve these goals balance was going to be the key. So THEN I took my 7 day week, a list of all the things I need to do in a week to be working through my goals, and a calendar and planned out what "goal" per-say, I'll be working on each night. I guess I'm telling you all this mumbo-jumbo so you kinda know what to expect this coming year here on Love Sweet Love.

If things work out *perfectly* :) week to week I'll have posts coming up on Tuesdays and Fridays. Maybe if I find a little extra time here and there I'll post randomly another day during the week or if some weeks are weird the days will shift a little, but the goal is for my craft blog to have new projects posted on those days!

I know that's not very much, and I hope you're not disappointed or think I'm a slacker, TRUST me I wish I could craft and blog every day-ha ha, but I really want to focus on my kids this year and make sure I'm doing absolutely EVERYTHING I can be doing to help them grow and learn and have FUN!

My little boy will be turning FIVE years old next month which means I only have 7 months with him before he goes to Kindergarten!! I don't want to look back once he's in school and think..."when did he grow up?!" I want to think..."I was there for all of it, I watched him grow up!" So during their 'quiet time' during the day (they don't nap anymore so they have quiet time in their rooms) I would usually blog, but I'll be using that time this year to be doing some one-on-one learning activities and projects with them so I will only be crafting/blogging at nights now, and even then there are a few other things I need to be doing with my nights to achieve my balance and get some of my goals checked off so I won't be blogging as much as I was at the end of last year. I hope you understand and will still come back every week to see what's going on!!

Aaaaand believe it or not I am already all decorated for Valentines day :) so I have lots of mushy, gushy, PINK love headed your way the next couple of weeks!!! I have all of January's posts and most of February's planned out so start gettin' excited and get those hearts of yours ready for some serious LOVE!!!

Know what else I seriously love?!?! Shabby Apple!! If you haven't already burned through all your Christmas cash, make it go a lot further by spending it at Shabby Apple because they are kicking off the New Year with 20% off SITE WIDE!This sale last the entire month of January. Use code NEWYEAR at checkout to get 20% off. Just click below to start saving!!

Happy Shopping! Thanks so much for stopping by on my first day back in the new year, talk to ya soon!!

Merry Christmas {and a Happy New Year!}

2011-12-16T08:15:00.001-08:00

Well friends it's that time. Mr. Sweet Love is DONE with his finals. This semester has been the hardest semester he's had at school, which consequently means it's been the hardest semester for our family (and yep we live our lives semester by semester. every 4 months we change our routine, our schedule and sometimes where we live! Who else knows how that is?!?!) which is why you can imagine that I am SOOOOO excited this next semester will be our LAST semester of school eveeeeer!!!

There are actually A LOT of benefits of having a husband still in school when I take the time to really think about it and count our blessings (versus being grumpy that he is studying ALL the time :) ) but my absolute favorite thing about being married to a student, is that we actually GET a Christmas break. THREE whole weeks of a husband, daddy, laundry connoisseur, chef, movie buddy and snuggle time. (okay I made that last one up just to make the hubby squirm) But really I can't even relay to you in words that are in the English language how happy I am that we have three weeks of peace and a stress free life! Being that this is our last semester of school I don't forsee having 3 straight weeks of 'hey what you wanna do?...I don't know, what do you wannna do?...I don't know, what do you wanna do?" ever again, so I'm going to take advantage of this time with my family and sign off the blog until January when Mr. Sweet Love's locked back up in the library.

I have about 4 other Christmas projects I did that I wanted to share with you, but just didn't have the time to post about so I guess those'll have to wait till next year-sorry! Instead we'll be...having family here, celebrating my little girl's 3rd birthday, wrapping presents-after I finish buying them!!!, finishing our '12 days of Christmas' for our neighbor, going to Salt Lake City to see the lights on temple square, baking our eyeballs out, going to a couple movies (my favorite way to waste money! :) ), and lots and lots of sleeping {and snuggling}!

Merry Christmas!

From my family to yours.

Framed Ornament Wreath

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

"It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags!"

We LOVE LOVE LOVE How the Grinch Stole Christmas movie at our house and even though Mr. Grinch is TOTALLY right when he says Christmas "doesn't come from a store"...I doooo have to admit that a big, sparkly bow catches my eye and pretty little boxes all done up in festive love makes my heart beat a wee bit faster. :) So I'm sorta lovin' this *wreath* I made from an old frame, some dollar store ornaments, $ store jingle bells, and $store ribbon-coming in at a grand total of $4-because it's sparkly and festive!

I actually made this last year before I blogged so I don't have any step-by-step tutorial pictures, but it's 100% simple. I spray painted an old frame red and hot glued ornaments (pack of 5 for $1) and jingle bells (pack of 9 for $1) all together in a sort of 3 tiered circle. I wanted it to have some dimension to it so I did 3 "layers", just hot gluing the ornaments side by side and the bells on top of the ornaments.

Then I looped the ribbon between the top 2 ornaments to hang it from the frame and tied the rest of the ribbon up into a bow.

Love!

But before you get too attached to that look (because I'm sure-after 4 pictures-you have already bonded with my wreath) I must tell you that it's actually inside now hanging on my window frame because I put my white coffee filter wreath outside when I finished it.

I kinda loved that it looked like a pretty little present just hanging there on the door though. :)

Thanks for stopping in today, I'm SO happy you're here!! Now I'm off to finish addressing and sending out my Christmas cards! Have I mentioned that I loooooove Christmas! I hope you're enjoying these last couple weeks of December and not letting the stress of the commercial side of Christmas get to you so you can really enjoy and appreciate this season of giving and trying to be more like our Savior whose birth we are celebrating. I have to keep reminding myself...if it's not a "have to" thing, DON'T worry about it!

How do you stay focused on the true meaning of Christmas amidst all the bustle around you??

Linking up to these great parties as well as: