Acorn Cookies

I saw these little Acorn cookies somewhere online and had to make some for our Thanksgiving gathering.  Aren't they adorable?

I'm happy to say that they are so simple!  All you need is miniature Nutter Butter cookies, Hershey's kisses, butterscotch chips and peanut butter (creamy) to glue them together.  Delicious!

Be Thankful

We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house for our friends that don't have family in the area.  It's turning out to be quite a big group!  Last year we had about 8 and this year we are up to 12.  I've been working on a few Thanksgiving crafts over the last few days.  My first project was to make a sign for the Fireplace.  I considered the phrase "give thanks" but decided I liked "be thankful" better.  It serves as a reminder to all of us to BE THANKFUL not just this week, but every single day!!

I decided on the size I wanted my letters (400pt) and printed them off on my home computer.  I cut them out and planned to use them, but decided I wanted thicker paper, so these letters ended up being used as stencils.

Here are the letters before adding the finishing touches...

 

Here is the finished project.  I'm happy with the results!

And here is our Thanksgiving table setting.  I'm thankful for warm food and good friends!

Pumpkin Patch

We got together with some friends and headed out for the pumpkin patch.  It was quite rainy, but i have to say the mud added to the fun.  After picking the perfect pumpkin, we headed back to our friends place for some great food, company and carving.

Pretty Pictures

Our DIY Wedding

We decided on August 31st because it was a Blue Moon.  I found out after the wedding that most people thought the moon was actually going to be blue....While that kind of Blue Moon exists, the moon on August 31st was named blue because it was the second full moon in one month.  It was beautiful! Picture is courtesy of Brud Giles Photography

The sky was crystal clear (and chances are more likely that you'll have a clear night on a full moon evening for unknown reasons) It was perfect for our Star Gazing area in our front yard.  I found a beautiful hand knit king size blanket at Goodwill that we used as the blanket.   This picture doesn't do a very good job of catching the detail.  People used this space all night long.  If I could go back, I probably would have added some small side tables (maybe tree stumps?) 

  Here is the cover of the itinerary that we handed out at our rehearsal dinner.  We had the stamp made and used it on our envelopes for our invitations as well. 

It wouldn't be a wedding without beer mugs!  We purchased these online in bulk for MUCH cheaper than it would have cost to rent them.  Plus we kept several for future gatherings..

 I collected vintage plates from different Goodwills/vintage stores all over Portland for months before the wedding.  It was really fun picking them out! The catering was all done by Phresh Catering- Their food is local and organic.  They did a great job!

We picked up some paper mache letters from Michaels and I covered them in Moss for the back fence.  I was really happy with the result.  However, I wasn't happy with the flowers.  It was my fault because I wanted the most fragrant flowers possible and that was pretty much my only request.  I did explain the somewhat vintage theme and that I wanted greens...and I thought I said gold, but I ended up with yellow.  I think some gold flowers would have looked much better.  I specifically asked for lilies, but I wasn't happy with the yellow lilies.  I think I would have preferred more pods and berries.

We brought out a couch and some side tables.  It was the most popular space of the evening.  

Dancing under the blue moon.

This was a sign that guests saw as they were arriving.  I made it with a little chalkboard paint

and felt stickers.  Photo courtesy of Jeanine Thurston Photography.

Photo courtesy of Jeanine Thurston Photography

I ordered the glasses online in bulk.  It ended up costing a little over $1.00 each.  I ordered the chalk stickers online as well.  It made the project very easy!   Photo courtesy of Jeanine Thurston Photography.

We had a great little sitting area on our front porch.  

Photo courtesy of Jeanine Thurston Photography

 

Our dining room was one of the food station areas.  It was especially beautiful 

when the sun went down. Photo courtesy of Jeanine Thurston.

A few of the little details.  We made hanging mason jars for around the yard.  They were really beautiful.  I got the idea off of Etsy and my husband suggested we make them ourselves.  We added green mung beans to the jars and got a couple of dozen battery operated candles from Pier One.  This photo is also courtesy of Jeanine Thurston photography.

My husband and his niece (our flower girl).  This is one of my favorite pictures.  Thank you Jeanine!

Dining Chairs

It's taken me six months to find chairs for our dining room.  I loved the beautiful green on these chairs, but unfortunately it didn't go with our dining room.  Paint is a magical thing! 

Getting to know your home

After you have lived somewhere at least six months, the walls start to talk.  You know exactly what you should do to make the house feel perfectly balanced for you.  While I loved our Navy Blue dining room, I was really struggling with trying to balance the three adjoining rooms.  I decided that the room was meant to be a darker grey...and I was right!  It is as close to perfect as it is going to get.  Now we continue our search to find the perfect light! 
The color is Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal - HC-166

 

When we got the brass chairs, the room was blue,  and the chairs were perfect.  I'm now wishing we would have gotten the black steel chairs instead.  That is the way it goes! These will have to do for now.  Too much other furniture to worry about!

I'd like to find a large Oval Mirror to put over the fireplace.  I feel like we have too many square and boxy things.  An oval mirror will add a few more layers.

The adjoining fireplace room is painted with Valspar Vintage Gold and we love that color as well.  

DIY Wedding Invites

For those of you that know me, you know how much I love paper!  Making cards has always been a favorite hobby.  I learned that not only is it a hobby, it's an obsession!  I have a hard time working on anything else once I bring out all my paper and pens and scissors.

I knew I wanted to design our wedding invitations.  I found a lot of different invites on-line, but all were pretty detailed and required expensive software.  I downloaded the free trial of photoshop and spent hours playing with the design.  I learned so much about photoshop that I never knew before!  I also learned that I loved it!  I could have spent six months on the invitations alone.

I used vintage Post Cards as the RSVP and had the stamps made at Zazzle.com to mimic a vintage post card.  I'm really happy with the results!

Our Yard - Before and After

Here is a grainy picture of our yard last year.  It was so much work and there wasn't much open space to just lay around in the yard.  We wanted to get rid of the chain link fence and all the other stuff that was so much upkeep.....and we did!

And after....

In the near future we will add a garden bed and a birch tree.  We are so happy with the new space!  I can't wait for summer BBQs.

And here is a picture after the sod had a chance to root.  It grows like crazy and looks more like a carpet.  I'm so glad we decided to use sod and not plant seed.  We are really happy with it.