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Author: Hanna

Friday Finds #8: Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day

posted in family, Friday Finds, inspiration by Hanna on
While we had a lot of traditions surrounding the bigger holidays, growing up we didn’t celebrate these small holidays like St. Patricks day. I’m not sure if I even ever wore green on that day! However, since I’ve become a mother I’ve gained a whole new meaning of “holidays”. I want to use these holidays to create fun memories with my girls and do something a little special as a family. At the same time, the thought of decorating every inch of my house in shamrocks and the color green and making these elaborate recipes as well as coming up with gifts for everyone we know isn’t something that gets me excited as a busy mom. In fact it’s VERY overwhelming.
If you’re like me and you’re a mother chasing kids all day while juggling 50 other things or are not a super crafty person, you’re going to LOVE today’s finds as St. Patrick’s day is right around the corner! I really like how these ideas make celebrating St. Patrick’s day festive and easy while spending time with the family. And the best part…we’ve got ideas from breakfast to dinner to everything in between!

1. Start the day and surprise the kids with this “Lucky” breakfast | Thoughtfully Simple
2. DIY Bell Pepper Clover Stamp craft for kids | The Crazy Coupon Lady
3. St. Patrick’s Day Family Fort Night | Pillow Thought
4. St. Patrick’s Day Outfit Inspiration | The House in the Hills
5. Shamrock Rice Krispies Treats | Try Me Tonight
6. Anti-Pinch Polish | Eighteen25
7. Lucky Shamrock Pesto Pasta | Babble
8. The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day picture book | Amazon
I think my St. Patrick’s day is officially planned out from start to finish with this round-up! How cute is that anti-pinch polish going to be for the girls?! And forget corn beef and cabbage; the pesto pasta looks a lot more kid friendly and so easy!
What are your plans for St. Patrick’s day? We’d love for any more ideas you guys have!
-HANNA

Homemade Laundry Soap

posted in diy, home, money saving tips, tutorial by Hanna on
There seems to be a tutorial or recipe out there for just about any cleaning supply. I’ve never been one to quickly jump on board when I can just buy something for the same price or just a little bit more, especially when it will save me time. However, after watching my mom make her own laundry soap for the last couple of years and how much she is saving I decided I needed to give it a try. Not only does this laundry soap save money but it’s easy to make and works great for washing whites, colors and everything in between! Who’s ready to take the jump with me?
To make this you’ll just need a few supplies.

– 4 lbs Borax
– 4 lbs Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
– 4 lbs Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
– 3 bars of Fels-Naptha Soap
-large mixing bowl
-fine grater
– air tight container

*Just a tip, I was able to get all the supplies to make this in the laundry section at Walmart all pretty close to each other. It makes it that much easier!

Combine all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Using the fine side of a grater, grate the Fels-Naptha soap bars. Mix everything together and store in the air tight container.

Use 1/2 cup for a large load of laundry.
One batch filled three of the smaller containers that I used. It also lasts me around 4-6 months with doing laundry a couple times a week for a family of four.
Now that I’m trying some new things, I’d love to hear of other cleaning supplies that you’ve made that I should try too!
Linked To:
http://sparklesandastove.com/things-pretty-linky-party-51-features/

Friday Finds #7: Peter Pan Collars

posted in diy, Friday Finds, inspiration, sewing, women's fashion by Hanna on
1.  Paillette Collar Tee |  kristinaclemens.blogspot.com
2.  Peter Pan Collar Top |  bodenusa.com
3.  Sequin Peter Pan Collar Outfit Inspiration | Image Source
4. Factory Peter Pan Collar Tee | factory.jcrew.com
5. DIY Studded Collar Necklace | thealisonshow.com
6. Knit Tapered Dress with Peter Pan Collar | cottonandcurls.com
7. The Wendy Dress | dresscorilynn.com
Awe, Peter Pan collars… don’t you just love them? We do! It’s one of those timeless styles that portrays a very feminine and classy look. Today we’ve rounded up eight wonderful Peter Pan collar DIYs, products, and style inspirations for you to get your glam on! I myself have recently added several Peter Pan collared tops to my wardrobe, one of which I made myself. I made and posted about this leather Peter Pan collar top months ago, but thought I’d bring it back to show you another way to style it. It was one of those projects that was going miserably wrong, then turned out to be screaming success. The bird silhouette fabric is from Girl Charlee Fabrics. 
Sorry the picture is a little blurry. It was one of those moments where I had 5 minutes between laundry and making dinner, so I grabbed my husband and had him take a quick snapshot. We hope you enjoyed the round-up today and that you’ll share with us your favorite Peter Pan collar styles!

Date Night Giveaway

posted in giveaway, marriage by Hanna on

date night

Hey guys! We have another awesome giveaway, brought to you by Pretty Providence and all their wonderful contributors (us included). Pretty Providence is celebrating their 2 year birthday this week so hop on over and check out all the fun things and cool giveaways they have going! But be sure to enter your chance to win a “Date Night Giveaway” below before you go.

For me, date nights are important to my marriage. Me and my husband seem to always be on different schedules, so it is nice to set aside time that is just for us. It keeps us close and connected. I’m not sure what the rules and stipulations are regarding hosts entering the giveaway, but I’ll be honest…I really want to enter! Going to movies (and of course eating amazing food) is one of the things that me and my husband love to do together. It is a chance for us to get away for a couple of hours, relax, and get lost in another story. After seeing a movie, we’ll talk about it and analyse it all the way home. I know, it’s a little geeky but it is something that we both enjoy doing together– it’s our thing.

What’s your thing? What are your favorite date nights?

p.s. For all you single ladies out there…. you don’t have to be married or in a relationship to enjoy a great meal at the Cheescake Factory and a movie for FREE. Live it up!

Take Back Tuesday: DIY Platform Bed

posted in diy, inspiration by Hanna on

I thought I’d take today to share with all of you a past project that was featured on Yahoo last week.

About a year ago my husband and I made this platform bed for our daughter who was transitioning into a bed. Being our first real project, this bed came with no shortage of mishaps and extra trips to the hardware store, but all in all I am really happy with the results and Mia couldn’t be happier with her “big girl” bed!

We made this bed and headboard from Ana White’s tutorials HERE and HERE. I love how simple her designs are and I loved that this bed was low to the ground to make it easy for Mia to climb into! However, here are some things we learned in the process if any of you decided to get ambitious like us and try something like this yourself!

1.) I feel like anything I’ve built, the price that it took someone else to build it always seems to cost me almost double. In the scheme of buying a brand new piece of already built furniture, building one yourself still saves a lot of money! Basically just plan on spending a little more money. On her site she said it cost her $150 to build both beds so about $75 a bed. It probably cost us about $120 with supplies and everything to build one bed with the headboard.

2.) Unless you’re super on the ball and pay really close attention (unlike me) plan on there being some bumps along the way. I see things like this online and feel like they make it look SO easy and painless and I forget about mistakes that always are made during projects. A bump along the way of building this bed and not the first time we’ve had this problem is we had Home Depot make all of our cuts and they are not always super great at making the cuts exactly to the size you want them. This resulted in a few extra trips back to the store to get the right cuts and in one case even having to buy a new piece of wood! So if you’re having someone else make your cuts make sure you double check their measurements before leaving the store! We also made a few measuring and drilling mistakes of our own which also called for some more wood so that is also why the price to build the bed was a little higher for us too.

3.) In the tutorial they built the bed and headboard using pocket-hole screws, something we didn’t own and it was a little pricey to invest in just for this project so instead we went with countersink screws that screw flush into the wood and then I just filled the holes afterwards. This added a little more work, but definitely worth the savings.

4.) One last little tip if you ever plan on making this bed, especially for a child. For the wood that makes the ledges on the platform bed we got wood that had already rounded corners that would make it a little more safe when Mia would step off and on the bed or if she ever fell out of bed…something which she hasn’t done yet luckily!

In conclusion and minus all our little mistakes, this bed was very easy and simple to build. It took us around a half a day to build each of the bed and headboard so about a whole day in total (6-8 hours). If you’re a pro at this kind of thing it would take no time at all!…Needless to say we are not!

And I need to give a big thanks to my amazing husband who practically built the whole thing himself with some help from me holding the wood in place for him from time to time. He was also such a good sport, especially when my perfectionist side would come out. I couldn’t have done this without him!

DIY Magnet Board Photo Wall

posted in diy, family, home, inspiration by Hanna on
Sara and I are 2 out of 5 kids in our family. In just over five years our family of 7 grew to 15 people. Between weddings, graduations, trips and having babies there have been LOTS of moments captured; all of which my mother tried to put on her kitchen walls. Needless to say, it was starting to get really cluttered. So for her birthday I decided to solve the problem and give our mom a nice, big space to display photos of her cute grand-babies.
For many years now I have looked at this blank wall as I’ve walk up and down the stairs at our parent’s house. After looking for a solution to where all of the pictures could go, that my mom wanted to have around I couldn’t have found a better place! So last year while I was staying there over the holidays I drew up some plans of how I wanted the wall to look and what would allow for the most pictures. The magnet boards makes it easy to hang and interchange a lots of pictures, plus the ledge on top adds additional space for framed pictures.
We started by adhering sheets of metal we got from the local hardware store with liquid nails that we cut down to the size we wanted. We also put a nail in each corner to secure them. My dad and husband were great handymen for this project!
Then we framed the metal sheets with 1x2s. Going along the top we did a 1×4 with a piece of molding over that to give it some detail. On top of all of that we added a photo ledge using another 1×4 and a thin strip of wood to the front of that to keep the frames from slipping.
After caulking all the edges, it only took a couple coats of paint to complete this project.
When I was showing our mom my plans for this before I even started I could tell she was a little hesitant and didn’t really see my vision. Because I never come up with “over the top” projects that are hard to bring to reality. In all honestly thought this was a really easy project once I figured out all the measurements and made all the cuts. Plus it cost less then $100!
I couldn’t be happier with the final results and neither can our mother. She says she loves going up and down those stairs now and looking at all the pictures of her family.
After doing this project, it’s made me want to do one in my own home down in the playroom. Hum…the wheels are turning again!
-HANNA

Linked To:
http://www.thegirlcreative.com/2014/02/23/sunday-best-link-party.html
http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/106-lets-party/
http://upcycledtreasures.com/2014/02/the-makers-link-party-6/
http://diyshowoff.com/2014/02/23/diy-party-5/
http://cityfarmhouse.com/2014/02/inspiration-exchange-linky-party-38.html
http://placeofmytaste.com/2014/02/work-wednesday-36.html

Kid Approved Valentines Party

posted in crafts, family, holidays, kids, lifestyle by Hanna on

It has been a busy week getting caught up with everything after our trip to Florida! I was pretty much behind on everything; blogging included! So today with it being Valentine’s I wanted share with you a little bit of my week that included this Valentine’s party I did for preschool.

Since moving into our new house I joined an at-home preschool group that some of the mother’s in the neighborhood had already started. We take turns doing preschool at our homes 2 days a week. So far it’s been really great for my toddler for social interaction with some bonus learning and crafts. It’s been great for me in getting to know some of the other mothers around me and finding some friends for Mia.

This week was my week and it being the week of Valentines I wanted to do something to celebrate. We spent the first day doing a craft that would serve as decoration for the party later in the week and then as a Valentine to give to their parents.

I cut up a bunch of scrap paper and had the kids glue them to inside of the heart. They love stick glue so they had a good time with it. This craft was perfect for a quick and easy decoration for the party!

Yesterday was our “party” day. We started by decorating bags with foam heart for all their Valentine’s to go in. Felt stickers was something we hadn’t done before and it was another hit with keeping the kiddos entertained.
Next we played a game of “Pin the Heart”. My daughter, Mia was my model for the girl we “pinned” the heart on and my helper in coloring it.
Our final activity was decorating heart cookies and eating them. Yum!

Now that the kids were all hyped up on sugar and before everyone’s mom came to pick them up I passed out their bags they decorated earlier and we passed around all the cute Valentines everyone brought.
Once the kids were gone I spent a good half-hour on clean up while Mia ate more candy and then we had a lazy afternoon. What a great day!
Hope everyone has a lovely Valentines day!
-HANNA