It's So Fluffy I'm Gonna DIE!

These little guys are pretty much the cutest thing since forever. 

Love this idea so much. I saw this over at Love From The Oven and had to give it a try because her tutorial was awesome....and who doesn't love peeps?

It was super easy. I was worried about the marshmallow peeps melting from the chocolate, but they were magically A-ok. I ended up doing two thinner coatings of the white chocolate bark so that the peeps eyes and colored sugar were covered completely. I also used some minty green nonpareils, multi-colored nonpareils, and some pink sparkle sugar as my decoration.

My favorite part about making fun stuff is giving it away. These little lovelies went to a co-worker and her family. But...I have another package of peeps waiting to be bedazzled!

I'm linking up to:

Weekend Wrap Up Party

Shower Banners

For my SIL's shower, I also made a few custom banners to match the {Country Love} theme.

The first one was (obviously) the name of the bride and groom. It was made with purple lettering on white textured cardstock mounted on violet cardstock. The shape of each pennant was a theme repeated throughout the shower (on favor tags, other banner, and gifts). It fit perfectly on the hostess's beautiful fireplace and was a great photo backdrop to remember the day!

The second banner was for the food table. It also used the same pennant shape as the first banner, but used the more western-style font (same as the favor tags).

This was my favorite banner. I just love the chunkiness of the letters with the swirly shape of the pennants. 

One tip for creating the banners: When putting them all together on ribbon, use a table and connect each pennant separately. This way, you can control the arc shape of the banner. If you don't connect each one separately, the ribbon may not set straight when you hang them. 

Favors and Fire Investigation

My beautiful sister-in-law had her bridal shower recently, and I was able to travel back to Rockwall to participate in the festivities! The inspiration for her shower theme was found via Pizzazzerie. It is acutally Dooby Design Group's {Country Love}. 

For her wedding, my SIL's colors are royal puruple, silver, and white. For her shower, we added in red as an accent color. I remember that by the time I made it through planning to my own shower, I was almost sick of my color scheme. The apple red complimented the royal purple and white beautifully.

I was in charge of the favors for the shower. I knew something with a country-ish feeling was in order. I decided on using mason jars decorated to include a homespun plaid with silky ribbon and a custom tag.

I found the fabric at Joann's on sale. I used 1/2 yard of each fabric to create 12 circles of each color. The circles were approximately 7" in diameter and cut with pinking shears.

The ribbon was 1/2" wide ribbon from the floral department at HobLob. I used about 2' of ribbon for each bow. The ribbon was held in just the right spot by some photo mounting squares placed on the edge of the mason jar lid. 

The custom tags were approximately 2 1/2" tall and 2" wide. I used a swirly tag design with a western-style font to keep with the theme. They were made using my Silhouette cutter. 

That thing is uh-mazing. 

Each mason jar was finished with a color coordinating plastic spoon. In the future, I'd like to find some eco-friendly wood utensils, but with traveling and all I was good to get what I got!

The contents of the mason jar were two different trifles. The first one was a Strawberries and Cream Trifle. The second was a Death By Chocolate Trifle. I'll post the recipe and tips for creating individual trifles at a later date, but believe me that it was DE-licious. 

In other news...Travis was approved to take the fire and explosion investigation certification exam. Just when we thought we were done with testing....

And yes...I said "we." It doesn't matter what anyone says, studying is a joint effort when you're married. I've made a bajillion vocabulary note cards in my married/dating years for subjects I never thought I would/wanted to study. 

Engineering - check. Law - check. Safety engineering - check. Legal ethics - check. Bar exam - check. Fire investigation - in progress. 

Thankfully, he only has a week to take the exam and postmark it. This will be a quick one! Back to studying for me.

I'm linking up to:

Weekend Wrap Up Party

Ferrys and Freeways

This weekend was crazy. Travis was in Dallas on business on Thursday and Friday. I actually realized on Wednesday that I had the next Monday off work. So, I decided to drive to Rockwall to see my family and then just drive back with Travis. I say "drive to Rockwall" like it takes 20 minutes...ha! It's actually 6 hours each way.

I got to spend time with my SIL and MIL working on wedding invitations for my SIL's wedding in May. I helped design the invite and coordinate the papers, etc. I helped with the maps, and I may have a tutorial on how those are done in the future. They turned out really cute!

She has a very creative eye and designed her own response cards, labels, and programs! 

In other news: I'm always skeptical about new shoe styles. I've always been this way. Last summer when "top-siders" came back I could not fathom spending $75 on one pair of shoes. Especially since I wasn't sure if I'd actually wear them much. 

The solution? "Ferrys" 

Shoe Carnival :: Solstice-leather

The term "Ferrys" comes from a combination of the words "faux" and "Sperrys." Turns out...I loved them! Wore them just about to death. 

Today, I decided it was time for some new ones. I made my way to Shoe Carnival (I'll explain this later). Browsing through the Ferrys it struck me. Why not just buy Sperrys? $75...that's why. 

Shoe Carnival :: Bluefish-leather

But wait! I'm at Shoe Carnival. Quick price check, and they actually sell for $59.99. Hold up. What's that I just heard over the loudspeaker? "Take $10 off any pair of shoes over $49.99 purchased in the next 10 minutes." 

Yes, please, and thank you. I've never made a faster decision when purchasing shoes. Done and done. Final purchase with tax was $54.11. Ferrys would have cost me $43.28. So...for true-to-life name brand Sperrys, I paid $10.83 more. Worth it? Time will tell. 

Flower Pins

So, it's been a while since I've posted on here. Here are some projects I've been working on.

There are literally hundreds of tutorials for and DIYers out there making fabric flower hair/accessory clips. For some reason I always thought, "Yeah, those are cute, but I don't think I can really wear them." So...in true me-fashion, I decided to make one for someone else. My lovely sister-in-law is getting married in May, and I wanted to send her some sweet gifts in the next few weeks in preparation for the wedding.

After making them I realized they're actually really cute. I tried a few on, and I think I'm going to give them a shot this coming work-week.

Here was my first attempt at a cute one. This one actually went to a co-worker for her birthday!

Perhaps I'll wear this one to a game... Wreck 'Em Tech!

 My khaki and black pin for work.

 It's really not that bright. I think I'll wear it with red shirt and brown pants...

 Some fun white flowers.

Fabulous Family

Travis and I have been thoroughly blessed with a great family. Both of our families are so close, and we definitely make tons of memories!

First Christmas this year was with the Morton/Lincoln/Wells Christmas Eve Extravaganza!

The whole gang! 

 Pops with daughter and granddaughters!

 Nonnie with daughter and granddaughters!

 Sisters!

College hand signals. 

(I do believe I have the best one!)

Next up was the Wells/Harbison Christmas Morning Magic!

Love how the boys couldn't stand to put their food down...even for pictures!

Another Diaper Cake!

Over the Christmas holidays I was blessed with spending some time with my sister-in-law and mother-in-law. We put together a diaper cake for my SIL's best friend. Her little boy Kolby is already so loved!

We went with a blue and brown polka-dot theme, and I think it turned out wonderfully! I am so fortunate to have married into such a wonderful family. We had a blast over Christmas!