Oh Louise!

Valentines Decor - Dollar Tree Style!

2012-02-06T14:07:00.000-06:00

I ran into the dollar tree recently (I'm sure to buy some necessary items like cute ankle socks and 500 various tubs to organize with) & noticed that they had some suuuper cute valentines items! Although I have a very love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with valentines day, I still couldnt resist!

First up, the picnic table in our kitchen eating area:

The mason jar in the middle is filled with red hots and then I stuck a few cute, soft little hearts on sticks in the red hots. Oh and then I cut the hearts off some extra sticks I had and filled the side mason jars with those. woohoo DT rules! I wish they carried mason jars though. Someone work on that for me!

Felt table runner and heart plates below are from Target - compliments of Anna. thanks mom!

I printed out these little L-O-V-E letter cards to put on each plate around the table.. corny but again, I just cant help myself! ahh

Now for the dining room table... (yes there's more - cupid threw up on my house for real)

Wooden candle holder filled with red hots and more hearts on sticks! I sure do get a lot of use out of my wooden candle holders. And for some reason I have like 4 of them in various lengths... why? I think every time I went to Canton over the course of a few years I'd forget I already had 1 (or 3) at home and would make Anna buy me a new one. oops, thanks again mom! :)

And last but not least, an easy vday garland!

I bought a pack of foam hearts at DT and strung them together with a needle and some red thread. Might sound time consuming, but I promise it only took me like 5 minutes to do!

Oook I think thats all the valentines decor that anyone can handle... I apologize to all you vday haters out there & will blame all of the above on my love for the dollar tree, budget decorating, and anything and everything holiday related. hah try to still love me! :)

Junk Cabinet Organizing on a Budget!

2012-01-25T15:13:00.000-06:00

Sooo its time for another post where I embarrass myself with a "before" photo that shows off just how disgusting I really am deep down. This time its our junk cabinet -- the cabinet in between our kitchen and tv room that contains pretty much 2 types of items -- weird, rarely used home items or benson's belongings. Feel free to judge me, cause I'm judging me just looking at the picture again...

For some reason January has become organizing month in my head, so when it rolled around, I decided this grosssss cabinet was first priority, but knew I couldnt really spend more than a few dollars to get this baby organized. Challenge acceppptedddd. (how i met your mother reference.. anyone get it? no? im the only one who still loves that show?? oh well).

So to start, I took everything out of the cabinet & got rid of what i could & categorized what was left over. Then I gathered some bins I had around the house that weren't being used and made a beloved trip to the Dollar Tree to get whatever else I needed. (love you $tree!).

I gave everything that needed to be in the cabinet a home of sort in either a bin, basket, or tupperware container & after adding some perhaps over-the-top homemade labels to the mix, my lovely little organized masterpiece was complete!

You can actually see whats in there now, wahooo! Just hoping it stays this way!

Oh & here are a couple of pics of the countertop below the cabinet.. I cleaned it off & made it a little cuter at some point during the cabinet organizing process!

Alright thats all for now... hope you are inspired to do some January organizing!!

DIY Christmas Card Books

2012-01-16T10:19:00.000-06:00

This Christmas my sister-in-law asked if I had any ideas on good ways to store/display/organize the many Christmas cards we receive each year. I didn't have any ideas at the time, but love me a good challenge so I started hunting for ideas! We wanted something cute, but that would be easy to do year after year. I googled and pinterested around and couldn't find much until my mom forwarded me a blog post one day with the great idea to make books for each year of christmas cards. I loved the idea & it seemed simple enough, so I created some covers and made my own version for my 3 years of cards... I'm in love!!

Once I tested things out and decided this was the way to go, I emailed my sister-in-law with the instructions and she began making her books.. Her house has lots of clean, pretty neutrals, so we decided to go that route for her covers and I think they turned out so cute!

So many years of xmas cards with cute family pics to look at -- love it!

As for instructions on making the books, it's really pretty simple.

1. Print your own 5x7 covers for each year on card stock or purchase them from me (see details & pricing at the bottom of this post!)

2. Stack your cover and cards as neatly as you can, turning vertical cards in the same direction.

3. Using 2 punchers of a 3 hole punch, make 2 holes in the top center of your cards.. I did 2 or 3 cards at a time, but I suppose you could do more if you have a fancy-schmancy hole punch.

4. Use binder rings to hook your cards together (mine are the 1" size but you might need larger ones if you have more friends than me :) -- you can find the rings at office stores and I even saw them at kroger)

**A good idea is to put your family christmas card as the first card after the cover for each year...

Once you're finished, you'll have lots of cute books to have out during the holiday season! There are many ways to display them. You could hang them on a wall...

Or display them in a cute basket... whatever works best for you!

Hope this inspires many of you to start saving your christmas cards or if you're like me, to get them out of the dusty storage closet & into cute, organized books that can be displayed year after year!

**As I said above, my christmas card book covers are available to purchase!

Here are the details:

Choose between red & green or neutral. Fonts will be as shown in the photos of my sister-in-law's books (above). There are 9 fonts used that will repeat themselves throughout the years. Covers are printed on smooth white 100 lb cover stock. ***ALL PAST AND FUTURE YEARS ARE AVAILABLE!! I can go as far into the future as you'd like! :) Email me at eleanorboynton@gmail.com with the years and colors you would like and I will send you a paypal invoice to make your payment. Shipping is free!

Cover Pricing

1 to 5 covers - $2 each

6 to 15 covers - $1.75 each

16+ covers - $1.50 each

***Free Shipping!

Please let me know if you have any questions! --Eleanor (Oh Louise!)

Crafty Christmas Idea - Displaying Vintage Ornaments

2011-12-01T11:05:00.000-06:00

Lately I've had an obsession with finding & buying vintage Shiny Brite ornaments... I've found boxes of them for as little as $2 at thrift stores near my house and have bought really cute tiny ones in the shapes of bells on Etsy - I love them all!
That being said, I kind of have a lot -- even my Christmas tree couldn't handle any more of them, so I had to find other ways to display my beloved Shiny Brites. :) Here are a couple ideas I tried out using things around my house..

Wooden Candle Holder

Perfect for our windowsill!

(with my $1 poinsetta, thank youuu home depot black friday)

Cupcake Stand

Crafty Christmas Idea - Mason Jar Snow Globes

2011-11-29T12:39:00.000-06:00

Whenever I see something expensive that I could potentially make myself, I just cannnottttt help myself and typically end up trying to make whatever it is.. many times spending way too much time in the process. But ya know what, its fun and I usually end up with something I love in the end..

Soo what did I attempt this time? These mason jar snow globes from anthropologie. Mine look pretty similar and by using things I had at home & buying a couple of mini Christmas trees, they cost me a total of about $4 for all 4 rather than the $25 - $38 anthropologie charges per jar! yay! & booya anthro.

Happy crafting & merrryyyy christmas!

Made By Sugar New Website!

2011-11-08T11:26:00.000-06:00

My mom's decorated cookie business, Sugar has a new website! She makes the most beautiful, detailed, creative cookies that you've ever seen... I promise, just look at the gallery!!
Here are a few of my favorites...

owl cookies for a woodland themed baby shower

some made with holes in them for hanging...

baby shower cookies - cute colors!

fall and thanksgiving cookies... lovin the turkey

wedding themed cookies... great for bridal showers, out of town guest bags, rehearsal dinners, favors at the wedding

and my fav of course...christmas cookies!! adorable for holiday parties at work or with friends!

Don't forget to stop by the new Sugar website to see more pics of cute cookies and to find out how to order!

Fall Wreath with Felt and Burlap Fringe Flowers

2011-09-28T10:12:00.000-05:00

Our new fall wreath made with felt and burlap flowers! yay fall!

Here's how to make the fringe flowers (use felt, burlap or whatever):

1. Cut out long strips of felt or burlap (I used my cutting board and did lots of strips at a time)

2. Stack a few strips of felt and using some sharp scissors, cut fringe on one edge all the way down. To this to all of your strips.

3. To make a flower that has 2 colors all mixed together, stack 2 different colored felt strips on top of each other and start to roll. When you begin rolling, fold the first 2 fringes over to make the inside of your flower. (For a flower with the middle fringe one color & the outside fringe another color, attach the 2 strips together with a dab of hot glue to make one long strip... then roll.)

4. Use a dab of hot glue to hold the end of the strip to the rolled flower.

5. Cut a circle of felt or burlap out and hot glue it to the bottom of your flower to keep it together.

6. Spread out the fringes to reveal your beautiiiful flower!

7. Put the flower on your dog's head. I suppose you can skip that step if you want though.

Hope you like our new fall wreath!

Chevron Water Bottle Labels and Caitlin's Wedding!

2011-09-20T10:17:00.000-05:00

My lovely and oh-so-beautiful friend Caitlin asked me to design water bottle labels for her outdoor wedding at Laguna Gloria in Austin,TX. Kind of hard to tell in the photo but they have an ivory chevron print in the background with navy writing that says "Cait & Chad" and their wedding date. So much fun to be a small part of their wedding!

Photography by The Nichols

And what's way more exciting is that Caitlin's wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty yesterday. Check our the post and drool over how amazing everything about her wedding was!

Pretty Fall Flowers!

2011-09-16T13:06:00.000-05:00

Last night Peter came home from work with some flowers for me... but not just any flowers, FALL FLOWERS! yayyy! This man knows the key to my heart... seasonal gifts. hahaa But really, its true. Especially when its not quite the season yet but i really want it to be... man oh mannn is he smart!

So pretty! Thanks again smart, sweet husband of mine!

Armoire Redo - Before & After!

2011-09-14T08:30:00.006-05:00

Peter's parents gave us their old armoire when we moved into our house & the plan from day one was to paint it, but for some reason I didn't get around to it until now (aka 2 years later). haha oops!
Anyway, here is the before & after..

And here's a closeup of the new handles & the lacy paper I added to the panels to spiiice things up.

The "new" handles were taken off of something else a while back & I printed the lacy paper myself, so the only cost for the project was the paint (mosaic tile by behr), about $14. Yay!

The Washroom Christmas Goods

2011-09-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

To those who know & love me (most of the time!), it is a well known fact that I'm a bit obsessed with Christmas. And for some reason the over-the-top anticipation is starting even earlier this year. These stockings and other Christmas goods from Etsy shop, The Washroom are not helping my premature Christmas giddyness!

Look how cute these stockings are... and they are handmade!

And this advent calendar...

And JOY pillow with little burlap flags... so cute!

Go check out the shop for yourself! There are also lots of cool vintage items that would make perfect additions to your Christmas list. Or mine. :)

File Cabinet Coffee Table!

2011-09-12T14:26:00.000-05:00

I saw this old file cabinet in my garage the other day & an idea popped itself into my random head.. what if I turned this babyyy on its side and made a coffee table out of it?

I had seen it every day since we moved in (the people who lived here before us left it in the garage) but I hadn't noticed its true beeeauty until now! I loved its rusty worn look & loved the color too! Soo inch by inch I drug that 500 pound hunk of lovely junk out of the garage and with the help of my buff & manlyyy husband, carried it into the living room.

After a good & thorough cleaning (years spent in a garage = nasty) I think she looks quite lovely in her new home!

Beautiful Evil Thrifty Chair.

2011-09-07T14:29:00.000-05:00

I went by my fav little thrift store yesterday on the way home from the post office. All I needed was a $1 piece of fabric & I promised myself that I would not be tempted by all the other beautiful, wonderful, evil little things around me...

I failed. Five minutes after I promised not to be tempted by things such as these, I was outside sweating and cursing trying to get the little beauty in the front passenger seat of my beetle. But I meannn, as I told Peter, I really had no choice... It was $25... TWENTY FIVE! Ahhh! Its just not right to put these types of bargains in front of my face.. I'm not strong enough!

Oooh well, I'll worry about my willpower later. For now I'm just gonna go stare at my chair and smile creepily by myself. Byeee!

Back to School!

2011-08-22T11:17:00.000-05:00

Such cute notebook paper themed stuff on Etsy right now for back to school! Here are a few of my favs:

Notebook Paper Onesies from babynightnight

Cross Stitch Notebook Paper Wall Hanging from ruglesstich

Notebook Paper Pencil Pouch from PrintsNPatterns

Our Home: Mushy New Kitchen Rug!

2011-07-25T11:58:00.007-05:00

Our old kitchen rug was looking pretty bad, so I found this new one at Urban Outfitters. I love it! Although Im pretty sure thats mainly because I've been away from Peter for about 3 weeks (me in France and then him in New Orleans) & have been feeling all lovey & sappy.. haha maybe it will remind me of that lovin feeling when I'm doing irritating kitchen chores!

Oh hello Benson.

Aw he likes the rug too! Or he just thinks I'm weird for taking pictures of it.

Ok thats all for the kitchen rug turned benson photo shoot. Have a great week!

Day 15 - St Remy & La levande!

2011-07-21T20:19:00.005-05:00

Walking into the St Remy de Provence Market

Mollie buying something weird for Katelyn

crazy curly sausages!

Lunch in St Remy

Lavender fields! ahh so pretty

so many fields all over the hills

driving through a lavender route - stopped in the town of Sault

anners & mol - lavender door!

ending the trip with beer & chips at the airport.. keeping it classy!

Thanks to everyone for reading the blog and for the many emails, facebook messages, texts, etc! Love you all and cant wait to see you... Its good to be home!

Day 14 - Spending the day in Aix!

2011-07-21T19:34:00.005-05:00

Aix Market

A little rainy... and mom & mol are perhaaaps starting to hate me for taking pictures of them :)

mol buying a peach at the market... this kind of makes me see how annoying i was with the candid camera moments! whatevs they'll appreciate me later..

now shopping around at the stores in Aix... isnt this precious little westie guard dog the cutest thing you've ever seen?!? shout out to Murphy Graeber!

bloody marys for mol & me at Le Pigonnet!

dinner at Mitch - provencal cuisine! one of the best... if not the very best dinner of the whole trip!

anners's first course!

my first course!

mollies first course

moms main course - veal casserole

my main course... duck breast & an olive tapenade-ish mixture that was so delish!

mollie's main course - they made all the dishes look so prettyyy!

moms creme brulee

my chocolate molten cake with raspberry...

sorry if this grosses anyone out, but i had to show the awesome chocolate & raspberry on the inside!

mollies "peach and chocolate surprise" hahaa french restaurants love to add "surprise" to the end of at least one of their menu items..

and a little entertainment outside... so weird

cappuccino to end the night!

Day 12 & 13 - Provence!

2011-07-18T16:52:00.006-05:00

Some Laduree in the airport!

champagne at Le Pigonnet - our new hotel!

a fountain in a lil courtyard in Aix en Provence... town we are staying in

Dinner in Aix

An owl... of course Anners notices it.

anndd champagne and dessert at Le Piggg after dinner

breakfast on the patio at our hotel - so pretty!

and yummmmy

le pigg has some pretty gardens! oh and anna is pretty too...

sunflower fields!

anna and mollie sitting in the car while i take pictures... TYPICALLL

town of Roussilon

view from the cafe where we were eating!

And now Gordes... beautiful hilltop town!

and last town today... L'isle-sur-la-Sorgue - on a little river! pretty

Antiques/flea market

precious french pup!

annddd more champagne and snacks

dinner tonight in aix - provencial cuisine!

dessert mousse made with calissons - famous aix en provence candies

annddd banana and nutella mousse tartlette. awesome.

GOODNIGHT! love you all!

Day 11 - Market Tour & Cooking Class!

2011-07-16T16:18:00.006-05:00

Today we did the Cook'n with class Morning Market Class

First stop.. cheese shop.. learned lots of info about the different types of cheeses in France!

These cheeses were aged on wicker which is why they look all prettyyy like that

Next stop, butcher shop to buy our meats... they cut the meat each morning & sell out 95% by the end of the day. cool huh? fun meat facts. woohoo!

dont be fooled by those sweet little lit up horse heads... its NOT a happy place.. its a horse meat shop :(

anna making a claw like the chickens. she'll do anything i tell her to, muhhahhh

live crab!

live razor clams! mollie was touching them & they would move afterwards... creepsies!

where we bought our fishies

fruit we bought for dessert... pretty red currants

a little espresso to get the partay starteddd

anna was really proud of her carrot cutting skills

we convinced our chef to prove the sharpness of his knife by shaving his arm with it.. haha & it worked!

sisters at the stove! & a raw fish getting mollie in the neck. muhah.

filleting our fishies!

i skinned the fish just as well as he did! woohoo my only skill in the kitchen!

our sauce for the veal & sweetbreads (yes we ate sweetbreads... eek)

little potato "fish scales"

apertif

lots going on!

first course - veal, sweetbreads, pureed potatoes, & creamy vegetable delicious sauce

greens with garlic

drinking some vino while doing my sauce stirring job...

main course... mussels, a white fish i cant remember the name of with potato "fish scales" and some delicious buttery sauce

and now for the cheese course

kinda starting to get a little ill at this point... but we pressed on!

now dessert... lemon curd that we made... fresh fruit with sugar & orange zest... and a crumbly topping we made with flour, sugar, butter, & almonds

bon apetiiiiiit! & goodnight!

Day 10 in Paris - "Lets go to st germain de pressss!"

2011-07-15T15:30:00.009-05:00

First of all... Happy birthday Myra!

Hope you have a great day... my mom, sis & I send our love from Paris!!

Morning walk through the Tuileries

Anners soaking up the paris sun

Louise Boutique!

lots of pretty spots walking through St Germain

lunch at this cafe by the Seine

Croque Monsieur

French Onion Soup

quaint little street we passed walking to the Marais

really cute Paris shop.. Les Touristes

pretty pretty

Place des Vosges

little Parisian watch shop where mom & mol got watches

mol's cute watch

i dont know..

space invader! abbie, no banksy art sightings yet!

dinner at west country girl... crepes crepes creeeepes galore. yum.

now for the sweet crepes... roasted apple with caramel and salted butter, nutella, & flambee!

loooove & goodnight!

Day 9 in Paris - Happy Bastille Day!

2011-07-14T16:55:00.004-05:00

Also... HAPPY BDAY TO JB! Hope it is a WONDERFUL day. :) Wish I was there to celebrate!

lunch at Fontaine de Mars

Obama ate here one time apparently!

eggs.. yum

polenta.... capery sauce

printemps

printemps - rooftop bar!

laduree macaroon - violette!

thats right... a bus that says suzanne! simple pleasures..

salted caramel lolipops from a la mere de famile

a little thai food in paris? a little smoking of the chopsticks? sure!

candy for the bastille day celebrations...

anners drinking some bubbly on the patio of our new hotel.. watchin the bastille day celebrations

candy and chamapagne, mmmm

suz force feeding candy to mollie... jeff are you sure you know what you've gotten yourself into?? :)

gooooonight! and cheers to bastille day/ jb's bday!!

Paris Day 8 - Farewell Left Bank!

2011-07-13T16:28:00.006-05:00

Today was our last full day staying at our hotel by the eiffel tower on the left bank! Tomorrow (Bastille Day) we will head to the right bank to stay at our new hotel near the Opera. woohoo!

park monceau

nissim de camondo museum

such beeeautiful furniture... i really want that table. unfortunately its one of 10 like it in the world and 2 are at the met in nyc! mere, go grab one for me..

so much pretty china!

and awesome kitchen..

place de la madeleine - lots of fooooodie shops!

eating lunch in the fauchon wine cellar

TRUFFLE restaurant and store! the smell was overwhelming but amazing..

got to taste test a black truffle oil & a white truffle oil

so many pretty doors in paree

rooftop of the galeries lafayette

montmartre & sacre coeur in the distance

rooftop bar!

mollies new best friend... the puppy at our hotel.

we needed a little break from french cuisine so we went to cafe carmine for some pizza!

oh & we got a little added bonus -- glow sticks in our cocktails. so strange... but awesome!

big foamy wonderful cappuccino = foam 'stache

gooooodnight... sweet dreams... love you all!

Paris Day 7!

2011-07-12T16:29:00.005-05:00

i didnt think it could happen.. but we got a little tiny bit tired of the chocolate pastries. strawberry tart for breakfast anyone?

or how about a quiche au fromaige? yes please!

le bon marche! classy & fun department store. especially great when its raining in pareeee!

mol being sad cause she cant buy this purse...

le bon marche pretty escalators

the home section of le bon marche mayyyybe made me drool.. ok it did for sure.

le grande epicerie de paris - big food store right behind le bon marche - love my little arti man!

la cuisine de bar for lunch

they use bread from la poilane (famous parisian bakery next door) to make delish sandwiches.

coffee with a little cookie spoon on the side... i think i'll have peter recreate this for me every morning for breakfast when i get home! thanks love.

arc de triomph!

ummm precious tiny french chihuahua. "excuse me, madam... how much for your dog??"

Le Grand Colbert for dinner!

oysters for our appetizer... and some escargot (bottom left corner) too!

famous for their roasted chicken

creme brulee... on fiiiiire. awesome.

mollies hot chocolate tray!

andddd a cappuccino to end the night..

another perfect day in paris! love everyone.. bonne nuit!

Day 6 in Paris - Hello Mr. Steves...

2011-07-11T16:21:00.006-05:00

about to have a coffee & pastry picnic by the seine for breakfast.

Colette - kewwwwwl store. the beginning of our long stroll throughout the right bank... also the first of many design sponge recommended stores that we hit up! fun.

really pretty fancy clutches! in a shop by the jardins du palais royal

jardins de palais royal

really big cute dog! yay

lunch at VillaLys -- cafe overlooking the jardins du palais royal

shout out to my terries... there was also a window that said "terrybly summer" - awesome.

Dehillerin - foodie store!

all soooorts of foodie & chef supplies.. really neat.

BHV hardware section where they have the cute paris street numbers!

Cafe Constant for dinner - one of our favorite meals for sure...

omg artichoke hearts & mushroom salad! I MUST MAKE THIS AT HOME!

tartare of oysters, seabass, and salmon with ginger and lemon - omg delish.

duck and potato pie with crispy apples & green salad. also amazing.

we hated it all. clearlyyy

profiteroles - anners fav!

vanilla rice pudding.. me & mols fav.. i cant even begin to explain the goodness.

love & goodnight!

Paris - Day 5!

2011-07-10T17:44:00.002-05:00

Marche Raspail Outdoor Covered Organic Market - only Sunday mornings!

cute eiffel tower soaps... sorry, i cant fight the tourist in me!

breakfast - chocolate... again...!

Luxembourg gardens -- ahh so pretty!

me and mol at a fountain in the luxembourg gardens

lunch at a cafe in the gardens

mol, suz, & me

cocktails at the meurice hotel bar 228 on rue de rivoli - so fun & fancy!

cocktail that suz & mom each got... champagne mojito i think!

mollies cocktail... vodka, ginger, and tabasco... gotta give her credit for trying something out of the box! the waiter told us AFTER she ordered that he's only seen big burly men order this drink... hahaa!

dinner at Relais de l'Entrecote - steak & frites place - sooo good & found it on Yelp again!

all they serve is steak and frites so when you get there they just say in broken english.."uhh steak.. medium ok? ok!" and then they bring you this deliciousness. mmmmm

and then you think you're full and you couldnt possibly eat more... and they bring you another round. and you decide... ok, maybe i could fit a little more. when in PAREE right?!

i cant remember why... maybe cause the frites were so delish she just felt the need to chug??

Love everyone! Goodnight!