DIY Biz Card

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend my very first blogger conference and it was a-mazing! I'm gonna devote a whole separate post about that event later this week because it deserves a serious shout out.

One of the things I learned prior to going to the conference was that I needed to be armed with a ton of business cards to share with all of the fabulous bloggers that I'd meet. Unfortunately the cards I owned only listed my website that is in desperate need of a makeover. So, the day before the conference, I decided to make my own business cards that listed my blog and Etsy store info. I knew this was a little risky given the fact that I'd never done it before, but I'm still in a "nothing ventured nothing gained" kind of mindset. So here's what I made...


I'd love to take full credit for this design, but it was actually inspired by this gorgeous card that I saw on Flickr.


I had to get feedback from my toughest critic (my 5 year old son), who quickly bashed the entire design. Here's how his critique went:
"Um Mom, why is the bunny on the front? Shouldn't it be the hat instead? If you keep it like that people will think your company is called 'Hare & Hatter'. I think you're confused."


Ouch! I tried to sell the design to my kid another way by pointing out how artistic it is to see the hat within the outline of the hare once you open the card. His response: "Yep, you're confused".


I'm not embarrassed to tell you that I actually spent an hour redesigning the card based on the input of a 5 year old. Seriously. However, at a certain point I realized that I didn't have that kind of time and went back to the original (some would say 'confusing') design.



I spent the rest of the night cutting out the silhouette of the hare by hand, but it was so worth it!

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained...

Two months after creating an Etsy shop, I finally had a chance to actually put items in said shop...and there was much rejoicing! So I invite you to pop over to my new digs and check out the merchandise here - more items on the way soon!

My plan is to start off selling party decorations - centerpieces, banners and wall signs. But I have a ton of ideas for coordinating items that I hope to offer as well. The first items listed in the store are all Halloween-themed, but here is a sneak peek of another product line that I'm working on...cowgirls rock!

Along Came a Spider Place Cards

I started pulling out Halloween decorations this week and stumbled upon a bag of spider rings that I bought on sale last year. I'm going to see how many crafts I can incorporate the rings into this Halloween. First up, place cards of course!


These are simple do-it-yourself place cards that can be made at the last minute. I started off by printing the name on a piece of cardstock.


Then I trimmed down the cardstock, folded it in half and cut a small slit next to the name. This slit will be used to hold the spider ring.


Simply slide the ring into the slit and the place card is done!

A Pile of Pumpkins

I live in Georgia and it's still 90 degrees outside, so I'm having a hard time grasping the fact that Fall is just around the corner. My son tried to sneak a pumpkin into our cart at the grocery store yesterday, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy one this soon. I felt so bad about not letting him have it that I came up with another way to give him a "pumpkin".

I first dug up this pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter...


Then I cut pumpkin shapes out of different types of fruit...wait, this picture makes it look like I only used cantaloupe right?


However this angle reveals that I actually used cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon. I thinly cut the fruit and stacked them into a pile...


A pile of pumpkins - my son loved them!

DIY School Envelope System

It has taken most of my adult life for me to figure out that the key to stress-free living is organization! I now realize that everything should have a place to live - car keys, cell phone chargers, whatever. When there is a place for things to return to every time, then my life becomes way easier to manage.

Case in point, every time I had to send money into school with my sons it was always a major production because none of the things I needed (envelopes, pen, paper clips, etc) were ever right where they should be. Here's one example of a super simple system I now use when sending notes/money to school with my guys.

I'm sure you are all well aware of my hoarding issue by now. However, unlike the hoarders on TV, I actually use my hoarded items. I have an old calendar holder that I kept long after the calendar had expired. Here's how I converted the leftover board into a school envelope system.


In addition to the calendar holder, I also reused an old folder to hold the envelopes.


I simply cut out the shape of the flaps...


And then hot glued them onto the board.


I also cut an additional piece of the folder and attached it to the board to hold paper clips and binder clips.


Here's the finished product...


And here's the envelope that I made for school...


My guys have been in school for three weeks now and the envelope system is working like a charm...no stress!





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No Vase? No Problem!

My husband has the green thumb that I've always dreamed of having. However very rarely does he bring anything from his garden inside to adorn the house. So I was completely shocked a couple of days ago when he not only cut a small bouquet of flowers for me, he also arranged them perfectly in a martini glass no less! Here's a pic of his handiwork...


The use of the martini glass was so creative, I figured he must have been inspired by Southern Living or one of my other decorating magazines. So I had to ask. In reality he didn't know where I kept the vases and the martini glasses were sitting right in front of him on top of the bar. At least he's honest!

My husband's lovely gesture gave me the creative urge to see what other types of drinkware I could use to jazz up simple floral arrangements in the absence of vases. Here's a couple of attempts that I made with what we had laying around the house:

Grandma's Teacup - I just placed a few sprigs of flowers in the base of the cup and this was the result...



Husband's Pilsner Glass - I cut one long Zinnia stem, removed the leaves and covered the flower with water for this simple look...



I'm off to tell my husband that he's been featured on my little blog - no doubt this will be the highlight of his day!

A Pirate's Life For Me

A while back I was asked whether or not I had posted about the pirate party that I threw for my guys a few years ago. Unfortunately at the time of that party I had a really old camera that took pictures that were incredibly sub par. It turns out that the person inquiring about the party (her name is Traci) was throwing a pirate bash of her own for her little one. I had intended to recreate and post some of the things I used at my party prior to Traci's event, but I missed out...the party was last weekend. Please check out pics from her amazing party here on her new blog.

So here are some of the things we had at our pirate party...

I typically make my own invitations, but an acquaintance of mine graciously offered to do them and I could not resist because they were so darn cute!


Since my guys are still playing with Christmas gifts by the time their birthday rolls around, I have always asked people to not bring presents. Here is the adorable insert (complete with glitter) that went inside the invitation.


I really wanted to have a pirate flag hanging outside, but I was too cheap to buy the nice ones I found. So instead I made one out of foam paper. This was super easy to make - just find a picture online, print it, cut out the shapes and trace it onto the foam.


I also made "pirate ship" platters for all of the food we served. The base of the boat is actually a plastic football container I found at the dollar store. I then attached two wooden dowels and foam paper sails to complete the look.


Now looking back on this party I guess I made a lot of the items...what was I thinking? Here are pieces that I cut out of cardboard to make pirate swords...


To assemble the sword, spray paint the two parts of the handle black and then hot glue the toilet paper roll onto the disk. Either spray paint the blade silver or attach silver paper onto the cardboard (that's what I did). Finally cut a slit on top of the disk and slide the blade into it.


I decorated the chairs by tying a sash around them and gluing a pirate-themed image over the knot. So easy!


I combined two of my sons' favorite foods to make "floating pirate ships": Jell-O and pecan swirls...


I was shopping at Target last week and stumbled upon these adorable sandwich bags in the $1 section. I'm not sure why I continue to buy themed-items for a party that has already occurred, but wouldn't these just be perfect for a pirate party?


Here is a centerpiece that was inspired by the pirate party. I'm in the process of creating an updated version of this item that will be available in my Etsy store soon!



Big thanks to Traci for inspiring me to post about my pirate party - better late than never!