Valentine's Galore!

I've been a slacker this year regarding Valentine's Day - I still have some to finish and send! If you're anything like me and plan on doing some last minute crafting this weekend, these links will definitely help!
Happy creating!

Check out papernstitch's Weekend Links: V-Day DIY Edition for all sorts of crafty goodness
(I especially like the papercut template over on kind over matter!).

Everybody likes garlands! Especially a mini-heart garland from I Art U.

Twig & Thistle's Naturally Sweet Valentine Stickers have been making the blog rounds. Only natural I'd post 'em, too!

For general lovely inspiration, check out these gorgeous hearts from A Creative Mint.

Always appropriate in our house, some Valentine ideas for the nerd in your life.

A cute little printable card from on hand modern.

I haven't met a person yet who didn't like cupcakes. And cupcakes with heart toppers? Even better!

Lovely printable cards from Dizzy Wizzy.

Post-its and stamps: All you need to create these darling Post-It Love Notes from eat drink chic.

Making something sweet for those you love? You need these DIY goodie bags from WhipperBerry. Or these brownie bags from Twig & Thistle.

It's always good to have crafts for the kids - and aren't these coloring pages from Feeling Inspired just oh so cute?

Eat Drink Chic offers up some darling Valentine ideas. You've got to check out her Je t'aime mini cards and coffee cup wrappers.

For the not-so-sentimental among us, head on over to mmmcrafts for a  valentine schmalentine printable card.

The perfect wrapping solution for your Valentine gifts from Kellie Medivitz.

Also making the blog rounds, Kate Spade's e-valentines.

And to catch all the things I've missed (and maybe some repeats...) head on over to poppytalk's Best of the Web for V-Day.

Happy Happy New Year!

We're officially in 2011 now and today is a gloriously typical winter day in Southern California, with rain rain rain coming down. I was lucky to get out with Sammi this morning for walk in the drizzle before it started coming down in sheets that blow sideways.
The hubs and I are enjoying a mellow day inside with coffee, hot chocolate, and some weekend crafts. He's working on plans for a shelf to go above my desk and I just finished up this baby shower banner for a friend. Isn't it cute? It also includes baby's last name (not shown) and I'm sending it to her with some twine and mini clothespins to hang.

I'm off to relax and enjoy my last day before I head back to work early tomorrow morning. Have a wonderful day!

Weekend Recap

I'm a little behind... this recap is actually from last weekend. These past weeks have been so crazy-busy that pictures from last weekend didn't make it to my laptop until today. Whoops!
This current weekend is just as busy as last weekend and at the rate I'm going, you won't hear about it until Christmas!
Regardless, the hubs and I hopped in the car last weekend to head south and meet eight - yes, eight! - of his friends at my favorite place - Disneyland!

It's snowy and Christmasey and full of Holiday Spirit and I love love love it!

I want to make one of these for the birds that live in our tree!

The Hubs went home after Disneyland but I stuck around LA to hit up Unique LA and Renegade with my mom and sister on Sunday.
I always feel awkward taking pictures at these shows so I didn't take very many. I did get to meet Danni from oh, hello friend - she had booths at both Unique and Renegade so it was a treat to meet her. I said hello and then followed it with something incoherent and crazy like, "oh my gosh i've been following your blog forever and you have the cutest blog and i love your stuff and your wedding was darling and your mom is so cute and i pray for her all the time" and she was sweet and gracious in return. I bet she gets that all the time...
Anyway.

I always seem to gravitate toward paper goods and this show didn't disappoint. A few of our favorite booths belonged to:
Sycamore Street Press
Joie Studio
Paper Pastries
Dee & LaLa
RockScissorPaper
luludee
The Art of Brittney Lee

Some images I snapped: 
A fun little acorn tree - love the red baker's twine.

Encountered this little guy as decor for a booth. Don't you just want to scratch behind his ears?

LOVE their booth and business! What a cute little scooter!

The day was surprisingly clear and warm for December in LA. 
How amazing are these views from the penthouse?

You can see all the way down to the port of Long Beach!

Also love this turret -

And this super-fun bike rack - 

I hope you're all having a great weekend! I'll try to be better about my recaps... maybe a resolution for the new year...?


All images by me. Please don't use without asking first. Because they're just that awesome.

Weekend Reading: Online Edition

Going Home to Roost presents Celebrate: A Winter Project Magazine

Sweet Paul's 2010 Holiday Issue

Creature Comforts presents Gifted: A Holiday magazine and gift guide

Lonny gives us a Mini Holiday Issue

Images link to source.

Forced Laziness

I have a 'To Do' list a mile long and was in the middle of getting things done when a certain grey cat decided he wanted to use my lap as a bed. In an effort to practice patience, I let him... and now I'm stuck at the hubs' desk. My feet are freezing but my lap is warm and I just can't bear to disturb this cuteness. What better opportunity to clear out my Google Reader!

Here's a cute little list of some of my favorite recent blog posts from around the web:

Make your own Tiny Birch Bark Canoe

Gorgeous Holiday Gift Wrap Goodies

Win a pretty print from Pamplemousse

Sanitize your toothbrush for just $30

Lovely blog posts to help you get inspired for the holidays

Spotlight: little ellie - win a pouch!

Do-It-Yourself Doily Garland

I seriously love Amy Atlas. Holiday Perfection

A cute little dusty mantel

Great gift idea: Christmas Bundt Cakes

Take-Along-Treat #5 from Leo on the Loose: Peppermint Bark. Yummmm!

I'd love to host a Winter Ice Skating Party!

Music to Create To: A Holiday Sampler

A must-read, great message

More gorgeous printable freebies from a favorite blog

*Drool*


Happy reading!

25 Days of Freebies!

Benign Objects has a fabulous project going on over at her blog. She's running 25 Days of Freebies from all over the web! Currently on Days Three, Four, and Five, the posts started on December 1st and will run all the way until Christmas. So fun!

So far we've had:

Gift tags (you can never have enough!)

 

  

Sweet Printables

and Happy Holidays Cards

and more to come!

Head on over to Benign Objects for details - and be sure to subscribe to her blog to see her updates for the rest of the month!

Images via Benign Objects.

A 30th Birthday Hoedown

The forecast was rain and the day dawned wet and dreary... but that didn't put a damper on our fun! Last Saturday we hosted a little hoedown to celebrate my 30th birthday. Despite the rain, we had one heck of a day! Bandanna banners, cowboy cutouts, friends playing horseshoes, and lots of sweet tea - doesn't get much better than that!
Here are a few pictures of the day -

A Birthday Girl and her Dog

A Cowboy Couple - my sister helped make the awesome cutouts! She outlined them the weekend before the party and then we painted them using random paints I had around the house from a previous project. They were a hit!

Yeehaw! The party is here!

Waiting for all the candles to be lit. There were quite a few! 


My mom made sure I got the slice of cake with the '30' on it. 
And I even blew out all the candles on the FIRST try!

Sheriff Dad, who came early to help. He and the hubs set up the photo-op tent, and he made the fantastic bandanna banner on the front of our house. Then he played photographer all day!

Yeah, this picture was all the Hubs. I had nothing to do with it. Sammi did make a new friend, named Dakota. Our friends recently adopted her from a local shelter. Isn't she sweet? I'm not sure how she felt about this whole picture thing...

 
Aren't my parents darling?

The hubs was so amazing with everything he did to get ready for the party, we promised to lessen the reward for his arrest. And to keep him alive... as much as possible.

Sweet tea tastes better with stripey straws in mason jars.

The rain meant a few people bailed on the party but that also meant we had enough room to move the party indoors. We cleared out the sunroom (thank goodness for a garage that will hold all our furniture...) and set up tables inside. My mom had the fantastic idea to use bandannas as chair covers. Genius!

Get some grub!

 













And be sure to snag a slice of cake. My amazing friend, Christina, brought us Texas Chocolate Cake from Jeannine's Bakery in Santa Barbara. It was perfect - looked great, tasted even better! (Wow, that's a lot of candles...)

Don't forget to grab a favor on your way out! Little bags of gold for the road.

And with that, have a rootin' tootin' Thanksgiving weekend! Yeehaw!

Card Makers, Unite!

Do you love to create handmade holiday cards?
Do you love to send and receive them?
Me, too!!
So head on over to Brooklyn Bride where you can sign up for the 4th Annual Holiday Card Swap! Send and receive up to five handmade cards from people all over the world. She's also incorporating an (optional) recipe swap.

You have until the end of day tomorrow (Wednesday) to sign up.
What are you waiting for?


 Banner via Brooklyn Bride.

Thankful for...

Thank you so much to Twig & Thistle for posting the link to these lovely "I am thankful for..." printables over on Silverbox.
Head on over here to print and make your own.

Images via Silverbox.

Free DIY Downloads from West Elm

First spotted over on Amy Atlas, these downloads from West Elm are just in time for holiday entertaining!
I'm partial to these cologrful tags from their Graphic Suite:

And these darling animal menus from their Animal Suite:

Click here to hop on over and check out the entire collection!

Stamp It

The holidays are approaching (whether you like it or not!) and it's time to start thinking Christmas cards, gift wrap, and festivities.
You can use them on your cards or even on the front or back of your envelopes - here are some of the latest stamps I'm loving from Paper Source.
You can check out the entire collection of holiday stamps here.

This wreath stamp would look lovely at the point of your envelope flap:

Love the font and flourish on this Most Wonderful Time stamp:

These would make cute little borders - around your envelope or even on a gift tag:
String of Mittens















 Holly Flourish

Lights!

Click on product titles for image sources.

Sneak Peek!

We're having a rootin' tootin' birthday party soon to celebrate my 30th and I've spent my Veteran's Day getting some little details taken care of.
Signs!

Silverware!

Savory favors:

More to come in just a few weeks!

To Keep You Busy...

I don't know about you but this week is crazy! I have something scheduled pretty much every night of the week, except tonight. So what did I do? Made a batch of cookies, cleaned up the sun-room, vacuumed half the house and then hit Costco, Trader Joe's, and Vons after the Hubs got home. I think we're pretty much stocked for the Pumpkin Party on Sunday so no more runs to the store for me! Ta-da!
To keep you entertained while I'm attending more social activities than my brain can handle, here are 50 Halloween Crafts from The Long Thread. We only have a few more weeks to be Halloween-y - how many can you squeeze in?

Image via The Long Thread.

Creature Feature: We heart owls!

Just stumbled upon this darling little blog, My Own Barn, via Crow & Canary.
Shivani has created the most amazing calendar that you can customize and download to print - completely free!  The images are the result of a collaboration between Shivani and artists from all over the web.
Read the story and create your own calendar here.
(They'd make great gifts as we approach the holidays!)
Sneak peek:

Images via My Own Barn.