Stop, Look, & Link Party Week 4 & Features!

Hi! Welcome to our Linky Party - This party is hosted by Alexandra @ In Designer Jeans and Lauren @ All Things Homie. We are very excited to see all of your great projects and ideas! 

Once the party is done we will post the most viewed links and a few of our favorites so be sure to check back next week to see if you are featured.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO LINKED LAST WEEK! WE APPRECIATED IT AND LOVED LOOKING AT THE IDEAS, RECIPES, AND CRAFTING ADVENTURES!

Features from last weeks Stop, Link, & Look party:

Simply Better shared her daughters desires of the heart - have you shared yours?? Ps. I WISH we had Culvers in California :)

Turtles and Tails shared decorating for fall ideas! Cant wait to try out duplicating the leaf lanterns!

We BOTH loved:

The sweet little Owl Hat from La Valigia DiRoanna:

And how fun are these Pumpkins that are Blingy from A Casarella!? A fun and easy way to dress up a pumpkin big or small!

Thank you again for everyone's support! <3

Now its party time!

The rules are simple, promise!

** Please follow both of your hosts! **
Link back in some way.. Grab a button on the side bar or a text link on your page

Link projects, crafts, recipes, fun stories, or anything created in some way by YOU
Please do not link up other parties, stores, or giveaways

It is not required but would be much appreciated to check out other links and share the blog love! <3

The party will start at 10am! 
Have fun!

Vintage T-Shirt DIY #Fail

A few weeks ago I was on Pinterest as usual and I came across a pin that led me here:

And I got SUPER excited! I have this old vintage t-shirt form a children's hospital that was Z's thrift store find from years ago, but it is so thin and soft and simply amazing. 

I emailed Z the link and said "we so HAVE to do this!"- he was totally on board.

After reading through the instructions and going to Whole Foods, Raley's, Home Depot, and a local hard ware store I finally found the Sodium Carbonate at the pool supply store. I had to buy a 5lb bag of it but I was so excited I really did care.  *Baking Soda is Sodium Bicarbonate*

I had all of my supplies ready to go! I used a J'Adore Dior shirt which is a little to stiff for my liking but 100% cotton and I thought it would work perfectly.

Per wash load it said to use:
1/4 Cup Sodium Carbonate
2 Cups Salt
(I did a little more of each)

I got to work!

I put the machine on hot water per instructions -

And loaded it with my shirt and a garage towel, waited until the water was done loading and added the ingredients. (Salt & Sodium Carbonate) If you do not wait until the water is done loading the Sodium Carbonate will get into the air and not be pleasant. ;)

I fully washed and dried the items and repeated the instructions - three, four, five, six, and finally seven times. Thats a lot of washing and drying, not to mention salt! 

After every wash cycle I expected to see some sort of change after I pulled it out of the dryer but there was NOTHING! Finally after the last time I noticed a little fading but the shirt was not any softer or thinner. I do have to wonder if a polyester yuck blend shirt would break down faster as most of the vintage shirts in thrift stores are a poly/cotton blend. 

I was very disappointed with the result or lack there of... and definitely do not think I will try this again.

Big time DIY fail.

Stop, Look, & Link Party Week 3 & Features!

Hi! Welcome to our Linky Party - This party is hosted by Alexandra @ In Designer Jeans and Lauren @ All Things Homie. We are very excited to see all of your great projects and ideas! 

Once the party is done we will post the most viewed links and a few of our favorites so be sure to check back next week to see if you are featured.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO LINKED LAST WEEK! WE APPRECIATED IT AND LOVED LOOKING AT THE IDEAS, RECIPES, AND CRAFTING ADVENTURES!

Features from last weeks Stop, Link, & Look party:

Slouchy Autumn Beret from Hannicraft - this is perfect for the fall weather!

Fabric Covered BookShelf from Kayboo Creations - this is such a great transformation from a plain bookcase! 

Check out these super cute and easy Pom Cake Toppers from Here's to Handy Andy! Can't wait to give these a try. 

Lauren loved this cute and comfy V- Neck knitted Pullover from See Love Make:

Alexandra's pick was the Grandfather Clock painted in Mint Green from Crystelle Boutique! Such a fresh look on an antique piece -

Thank you again for everyone's support! <3

Now its party time!

The rules are simple, promise!

** Please follow both of your hosts! **
Link back in some way.. Grab a button on the side bar or a text link on your page

Link projects, crafts, recipes, fun stories, or anything created in some way by YOU
Please do not link up other parties, stores, or giveaways

It is not required but would be much appreciated to check out other links and share the blog love! <3

The party will start at 10am! 
Have fun!

I [heart] NYC

We are finally home and back to reality but our vacation was AMAZING -we spent five days in New York City! While there was a lot we did not see, there was a lot we did see! This post is just to share our adventure with you. Our hotel was about three blocks from Times Square- we had a great room [small] but had a kitchenette, a great view, and a rooftop terrace! Oh and we had the best weather!

This was my first trip to New York City and Z was right, the city has such an amazing energy to it. 

View from our room: 

 View from the roof top - concrete jungle for sure!

Our adventure started in Times Square. We actually spent a good amount of time there just people watching over a few days... it is definitely sensory overload.

I even got a picture with NYPD ;)

The Empire State Building as the sun set...

We used taxis cars when going short distances but we had a map and figured out the subway trains pretty easily!

The other plus of our hotel was that it was litteraly in the center of the Garment District - which means we were able to go to Mood Fabrics! [My obsession with project runway yet again]

We even explored lower Manhattan and the Financial District.

The Freedom Tower is really amazing

We did not get to see the actual 9/11 Memorial park due to construction still taking place and lack of tickets. 

The day that we were there was the one year anniversary of the Occupy Wallstreet - it was really neat to be able to witness American freedoms in the flesh. 

 and of course the Merrill Lynch Bull :)

We had dinner at Buddakan in the Meat Packing District - famous for hosting Carrie & Big's rehearsal dinner on SATC movie <3

We ventured all over the Upper East Side and 5th Ave., Central Park, the East Village, Little Italy (best dinner ever), and Soho too! My favorite part of town was definitely Soho, the atmosphere was much more relaxed but still very posh will nice shops and restaurants. We will be planning another trip back hopefully this winter to see some of the things we missed and to enjoy the cold weather!

Of course I could not pass up having breakfast almost every morning at Dunkin Donuts...

I hope you enjoyed our adventure :)

NYC Project Runway Experience

Greetings from NYC! We finally made it on our much anticipated vacation and are absolutely loving it. I cannot wait to share our experience with you when we return but I had something super exciting this morning that I could not wait to share! 

I met Ven Budhu from Season 10 of Project Runway - check out his twitter! 

I am obsessed with the show!! 

VEN IS SUCH A NICE GUY!! 

Z saw him walking and we pproached him pre coffee and he right away introduced him self and said how nice it was to meet us.  We had an in-depth conversation about the show and its progress thus far! It was so neat to talk to someone from the Project Runway and I can't believe I actually met someone from the show, as I said before - I am obsessed! 

Ven is a very talented designer who is skilled in tailoring and is genuinely a nice guy. I am happy to have had the opportunity to have met him today and wish him the best of luck! 

I am rooting for you Ven! 

Stop, Look, & Link Party Week 2 & Features!

Hello! Welcome to our Linky Party! This party is hosted by Alexandra @ In Designer Jeans and Lauren @ All Things Homie. We are very excited to see all of your great projects and ideas! 

Once the party is done we will post the most viewed links and a few of our favorites so be sure to check back to see if you are featured.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO LINKED LAST WEEK! WE APPRECIATED IT AND LOVED LOOKING AT THE IDEAS, RECIPES, HAPPY DOGS!

Features from our first every Stop, Link, & Look party.

Check out the DIY Photo Canvas from Teenah's Projects! Looks fun and easy! 

Making My Apt a Home revamped old furniture into a dog bed AND storage! Such a good idea!

Back to the Basics! Shared DIY tea gift ideas - Would make a great favor for a tea party!

Lauren's pick was the Anniversary Card Project form Heinz 57, using cards from your wedding to frame a picture is so special!

Alexandra loved the Sticky Bread recipe from Sew Fantastic  
 A sweet and Yummy breakfast!

Thank you again for everyone's support! <3

Now its party time!

The rules are simple, promise!

Please follow both of your hosts
Link back in some way.. Grab a button on the side bar or a text link on your page

Link projects, crafts, recipes, fun stories, or anything created in some way by YOU
Please do not link up other parties, stores, or giveaways

It is not required but would be much appreciated to check out other links and share the blog love! <3

The party will start at 10am! 
Have fun!

Pinterest to the Garage

In the words of my husband, Z, I like to bring Pinterest to our garage. I wish that statement was false, but it is not.. In fact it is VERY true. I have the habit of deciding to start a project then procrastinating and putting it off taking my sweet time to finish it. SO when I found this cute little couch on good ol' craigslist - 

I knew we needed it. I have been looking for a love seat/ double wide chair for our office but everything I have found was at least $600+. But this little guy was only $40! 

I immediately contacted the seller and it was still available! So that night I talked to Z to get his take on it, and as always he 100% supports my adventures, even though I have no knowledge in reupholstering furniture. It can't be that hard right? 

BUT because my track record seems with finishing projects is pretty slow moving I gave him my word that I would have this project done in 90 days! 

Today is day 60!

The first thirty days I didn't make much progress [procrastination at its best] but in the last thirty I have!

I have the whole thing almost down to its bare shell. 

Only the arms to remove. Annnd from all of my research this is the hardest part because of the million staples. 

I have ordered fabric samples and I'm off to get new foam - so hopefully in 30 days I will have a newly reupholstered love seat to show you! 

I will also be posting two step by step tutorials on how to remove the existing fabric/foam and attach new - tufts and all! 

<3

Oh emm geeeee.... I am so happy it is friday!

Oh emm geeeee

I am so happy it is friday!

This week has gone really well -  I was able to post a few great projects I have been working on, made progress on a few others, AND co-hosted my very first linky party! Oh annnnd I rediscovered the world of twitter [apparently my account was deleted due to major inactivity]. 

On wednesday I even completed my mission impossible task - i was on my way pick up the kid from practice [my REAL job is a personal assistant/house manager/nanny]  when I got a call and had to run home real quick after- no big deal right?! Wrong! I had a pie in the oven that had 19minutes 43 seconds left!  Luckily work and home are not too far away - and i made it home and back to work and the pie was only a little brown. :)

So anyhoo back to my original thought. I am glad it is friday! Today i have had to deal with a lie, a broken window shade, and a huge leak upstairs that is leaking down to the lower floor! Yikes! Repair man is here currently so hopefully it is almost fixed. 

One more hour! Oh and the best part - next Wednesday, Z and I will be on our way to NYC- Holler!

<3

Stop Look & Link Party!

Hello! Welcome to our Linky Party! This party is hosted by Alexandra @ In Designer Jeans and Lauren @ All Things Homie and this is the first one EVER for us. 

We are very excited! Once the party is done we will post the most viewed links so be sure to check back to see if you are featured.

The rules are simple, promise!

Please follow your hosts
Link back in some way.. Grab a button on the side bar or a text link on your page

Link projects, crafts, recipes, fun stories, or anything created in some way by YOU
Please do not link up other parties, stores, or giveaways

It is not required but would be much appreciated to check out other links and share the blog love! <3

The party will start at 10am! 
Have fun!

Tuscan Centerpieces

Here is part two of my Dinner Under the Stars dinner! 

I used inspiration off of Pinterest and had references from a fabulous lady, who had done a Tuscan themed party for her husbands 60th birthday party. 

I am VERY happy with how they turned out and they were really quite simple to make. 

To start I went to Home Depot (or any hardware store really) and purchased a whole lot of terra cotta pots in varying sizes and the clear plastic plant liners- they are about two inches tall and I bought 4" ones for my 6" pots because I wanted to put them inside so I wouldn't lose moisture from the hole in the bottom*. 

* That hole drove me bonkers! I couldn't find pots with out them, even at the craft stores, and I even tried to plug them with clay but it was a no go - I finally found the plastic liners to be the best option. 

 AND I used water gems - they are pretty amazing! 

They retain the water - which worked great for my shallow liners and for transportation. 

Anyhoo, on to my actual centerpieces... I started by lining all of the pots up on our table.

 Then I put the liners in each one and about a cup of water beads - a bit more in the larger pots.

Then I started to add my flowers. I did it in layers, my base being sunflowers and moving onto greens, calla lillies, daisies, etc. I tried to stay in the warm colors given the theme. I might want to mention that I ordered the flowers at Trader Joes for a few years so I had an idea of how many of each. 

BUT I WOULD RECOMMEND DOING A TEST RUN FIRST - Buy some flower that you like or would like to use and use your pot [or vase] and fill up. Then count the flowers used and multiply by how many you will have. 

I ended up making almost 35 flower pots in different sizes so I used a huge quantity of flowers. 

After a few hours and lots of trimming stems they were full! There was no rhyme or reason to my placement - I just put them where I thought they would look pretty. 

The touch that made these centerpieces so special was that each one had fruits or vegetables on kabob skewers (found at the grocery store)

 As you can see I used:

 lemons

baby artichokes

baby bell peppers

mini zucchini

garlic

I also filled mini terra cotta pots with fresh veggies to place around the yard and on the bar.

I know this is ALOT of foliage and veggies - but NONE of it was wasted! The centerpieces went home with a few guests and the fruits and veggies were taken too and eaten the following day :)

Once I had all of my prep done it was time to box it up and transport it!

Then place on the tables with the Wine Bottle Numbers from my previous post.

Once the candles were lit and the table tents placed [I made those too] we were good to go!

The event was really hard work but I thoroughly enjoyed myself, it was great to be able to use my skills and really put my abilities to the test!