Author: Hanna

{Tour Through Blogland} Stripes and Polka Dots

{Tour Through Blogland} The Twins Behind the Blog

We’ve been invited by the lovely and talented Amber Tsyl from the Restless Arrow to participant in the Tour Through Blogland series.. It’s been so fun reading some of our favorite blogger’s stories and meeting new bloggers through the process. Amber is one of those bloggers that we’ve loved getting to know more! Her and her little family are simply the cutest, and her home is gorgeous! Seriously go check it out!

Just look at her beautiful kitchen… built from scratch and on a budget!

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As for us, we are thrill to be part of this series as it gives you (our readers) a glance at who we are, what we’re all about, why we blog, and what big ideas we’re working on next!

Why do we write and create what we do?

This blog was originally started when we moved over 800 miles away from each other and we wanted to have something to keep us close. Blogging was a way to share our projects and experiences with each other as well as with others. We came to realize that we want to let other mothers, women, wives and whoever else know that we’re just another couple of women out there going through the same struggles and experiences. We also decided that while we’re going through the ups and downs of life, there were things we could do to make it beautiful and inspiring!

How does our writing/creative process work?
Writing doesn’t seem to come easy for either one of us. In fact, we often call each other asking for help gathering our thoughts/feelings to make a post into something that others would want to read and could relate to. I guess you could say a lot of our creative process comes from each other, and the countless hours we talk on the phone each week. We push each other to step outside of our comfort zones, take some risks and try new things! The other part comes from our own life experiences, and also from things that have inspired us. We both live life with our eyes open to find inspiring and beautiful things that we then try to recreate and make it our own.
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How does our work differ from others in its genre?

Honestly, we’re not really even sure what our genre is quite yet! Since we started our blog less than a year ago we’ve blogged about a number of things (mostly pertaining to diy projects and sewing) and now we have a shop selling skirts! What really sets our blog apart is our unique partnership. If you can’t tell from our picture in the top right hand corner of our blog, we’re twins. When we’re together the sky is the limit. We push and inspire each other to try our best and give each other courage to try things we’ve never done before. I guess that is why we’ve tried our hand at so many different things.

Sewing Room | Stripes and Polka Dots

What are we working on?

As many of you know, we just opened our shop selling our first line of Colorblock Party skirts… eek! Since opening our shop just 3 weeks ago, that is where much of our attention and energy has been spent when it comes to our blog. Besides our Colorblock Party skirts, we have many  more plans for growing and expanding our shop, some of which are in the works right now! While our shop is still quite new, it has helped us realize where our true passion lies. We love designing, creating, and sharing fun and useful ideas, and pushing ourselves and our talents by trying new things– our shop really allows us to do that. Because of this, we’ve decided to switch gears with our blog and focus more on our shop at the present time. There is no doubt that we love blogging and plan on continuing it, but it is now taking a “behind-the-scenes” role.

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On the blog we will share our personal journeys as mother, wives, homemakers, and now shop owners. But don’t worry, you can still expect to see awesome diy projects and easy sewing tutorials as these are very much apart of our daily lives. Also be sure to keep an eye on our shop as there will be some new additions very soon!


Friday Finds #19: September

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It seems as soon as school starts there is a sudden crispness in the air as school buses drive past the house and as the girls and I watch all the kids walking home from a day at school. The excitement and anticipation of starting a new year, with new clothes, new classes and reuniting with new and old friends is apparent on their faces. In the distant I can hear the whistles and the calling out of plays at a football practice nearby and while making a quick trip to the store I walk past isles full of fall colors, decorations and with the scent of cinnamon and apple cider.  Through all of this I find myself reminiscing of past Septembers and how each one was a start of something new in my life. Even though I am no longer in school I still feel some kind of feeling of a fresh starts and excitement of watching my girls experience similar things. One of which being my oldest daughter starting Preschool on Tuesday. I’m so excited for her to learn new things and make new friends, but like most mothers out there I feel something pulling at my heart strings from it all. I can’t even imagine what I’m going to do when I have to send her off to Kindergarten or 1st grade!

So to celebrate the fast approaching fall and welcome in September with all it’s fun colors, activities and new beginnings we thought we’d do a Friday Finds around the month of September! I’m pretty excited about some of the finds myself!

First off I think this printable by Colette from “My Computer is a Canvas” sums up all the wonderful things about September perfectly!

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Next, I think Lauren Conrad is a genius for her post on “10 September Style Tips“. She has some great tips on transitioning some of your summer clothing to work for fall!

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Lastly, one of my most favorite and exciting finds is the start of all my TV shows including my absolute favorite, “Parenthood”! Season 6 premiers September 25th! Is anyone else as in love with this show as I am?! I’m so sad this will be the last season.

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What’s your favorite thing about September?


The Cake That Never Stops Pleasing: Chocolate Eclair Cake

This Chocolate Eclair cake never seems to fail me when I bring to it potlucks, parties or when we have friends over. It’s always the rave. I myself have been know to eat at least a fourth of the pan in one sitting. In fact when my husband and I were dating we made it for his family and he started serving everyone with these tiny pieces of cake. I shook my head in disapproval and said that this cake is meant for large servings. Needless to say, everyone had seconds. I think that’s when he learned that in my family we are serious about our desserts.

Chocolate Eclair Cake

For this particular time I made this cake for a potluck that we had with a couple families in our neighborhood this last weekend. The rainy weather we had all week cleared up for the evening for a fun dinner out doors. Since moving into our house last December we have made so many new friends in our neighborhood. It has been such a blessing for our family is so many ways especially since we’ve never seemed to feel quite at home anywhere else we’ve lived. Anyway, once again it was a crowd favorite so I thought I would share the recipe today!

To get started, line the bottom of a 9×13 pan with graham crackers.  You might need to use your puzzle skills to cover the entire bottom of the pan.

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Next, in a mixing bowl mix together vanilla pudding, sour cream, cool whip and milk and pour over the graham crackers.

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Top that pudding layer with another layer of graham crackers, trying to fill in all the gaps.

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In a small sauce pan, mix together the cocoa, sugar and milk and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute then take the pan off the stove and mix in 3/4 stick of butter.

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Finally poor the chocolate sauce over the top layer of graham crackers and refrigerate for 3-4 hours before serving.

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Chocolate Eclair Cake
 
Recipe type: Dessert
What You'll Need
  • Pudding Filling
  • 1 large pkg. instant vanilla pudding
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 1 small tub whipped topping (8 oz.)
  • 3 cups cold milk
  • Chocolate Sauce:
  • ⅓ cup cocoa
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ¼ milk
  • ¾ stick of butter
How To Make
  1. Line bottom of 9x13 dish with whole graham crackers. Pour pudding over crackers. Top with second layer of graham crackers. Make the chocolate sauce by mixing together cocoa, sugar and milk in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and boil for one minute. Remove from heat. Stir in ¾ stick butter until melted. Pour over top layer of graham crackers. Chill 3-4 hours to soften crackers before serving.

Linked To:

http://www.persialou.com/2014/08/the-makers-no-32.html.

 http://designsbymissmandee.blogspot.com/2014/08/create-share-diy-and-recipe-party-19.html


Lunch Notes | by Miss Mandee

Your Designs This Time – No. 24

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Holy Cow! Where did this summer go?! Now that most of the schools have started it seems like fall is well on it’s way which I am very excited for! I’m also very excited for the end of this week! Sara and I are having a girl’s weekend with our mom and sister-in-law before everyone gets busy with the new school year. With Eric being away for work the last 2 weeks I am very excited for this little break! So let’s get get started with the week and hope that the weekend comes fast!

Once again we’re starting it off with Your Designs This Time. For those of you who are newly joining us this week or are coming back again; welcome to our linky party! We can’t wait to see what you have to share and hope we can make some new friends in the process! Before you start make sure to check out what we, along with the other hosts, have been up to!

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Nautical Baby Shower

This last weekend I threw a baby shower for a close friend of mine. To show how lame shy I am she is one of the few close friends I made in college that I stay in touch with since leaving. Quality over quantity right? We both had our oldest girls around the same time and now she is having her second which turns out to be a boy! Having two girls and two nieces and having friends that mostly have girls I’m use to the color’s pink and purple with ruffles and bows; basically ALL things girly. This shower was so fun to be able to do something new that was still super cute and that didn’t involve any of those “girly” things.

My inspiration came from these invitations Sara and I found at Goodwill almost a year ago. Neither of us had any reason to use them but they were just so darn cute to not buy! I think I’m converted to pre-made invitations since I’ve always made my own. For the actual shower I just continued with the nautical theme and colors from the invites in the decorations and food.

Nautical Baby Shower Invitations

The day of the shower turned out perfectly! It was a small affair which I loved and it allowed me to focus more on details since there were so few of us and it felt more relaxed.

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The shower was in the morning so I did more brunch type foods, mini pancake stackers, mini quiche, a fruit salad and then of course some sweet things.

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Can we stop and just take in the beauty of this cake?! I’m so happy with it and I didn’t even make it! Perhaps that’s why I like it so much. I’ll let you in on a little secret about me, I’m TERRIBLE at baking cakes. I’ve never had a good experience when making one. So for this shower I knew right away I wasn’t even going to attempt! Luckily I found someone in my neighborhood that does cakes out of her home. In my desperation all I wanted was something that looked cute but turns out she can make an amazing cake that not only looks great but tastes divine! This is a cake I’m going to crave and will pay money again just to eat it.

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Now if only that little guy could come so I can hold him! I may have a weakness for newborns.

Linked To:

http://theblissfulbee.com/work-it-wednesday-no-61/

Share your Beautiful Creations – From Dream To Reality #131

http://www.persialou.com/2014/08/the-makers-no-31.html

http://lifeinvelvet.com/2014/08/thursday-style-link-party-34/


Custom Bridesmaids Color Block Skirts

When Sara and I get together we come up with some pretty crazy and ambitious ideas. Everyone else around us…our husbands included sometimes give us the “you guys are crazy” look but even when we were young we felt like we could do anything together. Aside from starting this blog and a shop, this wedding shoot was another one of those things.

We had a few comments from people after seeing the Color Block Party Skirt that they would make great skirts for bridesmaids. Of course since then we could not get the thought out of our heads and wanted to really let people see for themselves that in fact they are perfect for just that! I’m mean I would pretty much love whoever gave me this skirt to wear as a bridesmaid. Am I right?! So over a weekend, while the husbands where gone fishing and we were watching three kids we found a bride, bridesmaids, a wedding dress, made flower crowns and two more skirts and found the perfect location for a staged wedding shoot. I’m sure now you’re getting the picture of how crazy we can be! However, I must say that it was a blast and I don’t regret doing it for a minute! The pictures turned out even better then we could have hoped and this would not have been possible without these 5 lovely ladies who over looked our craziness and helped out by being our last minute models!

Color Block Party Skirt Bridesmaids

Brides dress: Downeast
Bridesmaids skirts: Color Block Party Skirt by Stripes and Polka Dots
Location: Wadley Farms

Color block Party Skirt Bridesmaids shoot

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Linked To:

http://theblissfulbee.com/work-it-wednesday-no-60/

http://www.tinysidekick.com/makers-link-party-30/

 


Your Design This Time – NO. 22

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It’s time for another Your Design This Time! We can’t wait to see what everyone has been up to! As for us, today is the Grand Opening of our shop! We have spent countless hours to make this dream become a reality and to bring to you Sara’s very own design and handmade Color Block Party Skirt! We hope you love it as much as we do! Make sure to head over to our shop and check it out and if you order today we are offering FREE shipping! (Use promo code “grandopening” at checkout.) Now let’s get to the linky party.

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The Features
Colleen from Lemon Thistle re-purposed some old copper piping from her home to make these amazing curtain rods! Now that is thrifty, and complete genius!
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Erin and Dan over at DIY Passion created this easy faux watercolor canvas, which a great way to add color (and a personal) touch to any room!

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Kristi from Making it in the Mountains shared with us a glance behind her fabulous blog, and while doing so resurfaced this beauty– a DIY wood plank clock she made herself!

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Shonee from Hawthorne and Main shows off how to make this ampersand from styrofoam… can you believe it?!

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And what better way to leave a cute little note or saying then with this cute cork chalkboard?

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 If you have been featured today, grab our button and proudly display it somewhere on your blog.

The Details

– Each week, a few of our favorites will be featured on all five of our blogs. By submitting a link, you authorize Brepurposed,

Elizabeth Joan Designs, Little House Of Four, Stripes and Polka Dots, and The Queen and Her Court to feature your project on our blogs and social media. (This includes a photo from your project’s post and a link back to your blog.)

– Link up only YOUR OWN new designs, projects, or ideas.

– No Etsy stores, giveaways, or link parties please.

– We love seeing your latest projects, and by linking up, you are giving authorize to be sent a weekly invitation to Your Designs This Time.

-Please feel free to add our button to your blog or a visible link back to the this post, so others can join in.

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