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Category: inspiration

The Pinterest Challenge: 6 Pins in 6 Weeks

posted in crafts, diy, inspiration, money saving tips, recipe, sewing, women's fashion by Hanna on
We love Pinterest. It is by far the best place to get inspired, no matter what your point of interest is. The hours seem to fly by scrolling through the endless supply of pictures that we fill up our inspiration boards with. But, for all the time we spend pinning various projects and recipes, how much of those pinned items do we actually complete? My answer… probably less than 10% of them.  In realizing this outrageous statistic, Hanna and I thought we’d bring back an idea that circulated through the blogosphere a couple of years ago; it’s called the Pinterest Challenge. Basically, you choose 6 pins to complete in 6  weeks. Pretty straight forward right? We’ve rounded up 9 awesome bloggers to join in on the challenge with us and invite everyone (not just bloggers) to join in too! 
Here is what we both have planned to complete over the next 6 weeks:

As I mentioned before, we have some great bloggers who are also taking on the challenge. They are:
Corey @ Tiny Sidekick
Megin @ VMG 206
The Sisters @ Sisters What!

Keep tabs on our progress over the next 6 weeks and get inspired by following our “Pinterest Challenge” board on Pinterest! There will be many awesome crafts, recipes, projects, and inspired ideas completed over the course of the challenge, so don’t miss out! Join in on all the fun by participating in the Pinterest Challenge with us! Send us a picture of your completed pins to share with everyone! 

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

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!

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!

Friday Finds #6: Metallic Love

posted in faith, Friday Finds, inspiration by Sara on
This week has been a roller costar of emotions for me, but I’m ending it feeling truly blessed and happy about life. After getting home from my trip, I was feeling pretty tired and sick…literally. I had one day to rest up and was then hurled back into life and a busy schedule. We managed to push through work, midterms, and a nasty case of the stomach flu—and needless to say, we’re alive. I feel disappointed at myself when looking back on it now. I started the week feeling tired and wanting the people around me to feel sorry for me. As the week progressed and the workload seemed to keep piling up, I became touchy and worst of all; a complainer. In my pathetic state I happened upon an article that has helped me view life a little differently. The article is titled, “Living a Life with Peace, Joy, and Purpose”—intriguing right? To accomplish this goal, one of the things that the author suggests is to NOT complain.
He states, “Life isn’t always fair. That’s a fact. But it’s always charged with marvelous opportunities if you know how to find them.”

Days might completely suck, but my life doesn’t.  My life is amazing, and I am forever grateful for the love I experience, the joy I feel, and the countless blessing that I receive each day.
Anyway, thanks for letting me share my “ah-ha” moment of the week. On a lighter note, I certainly can’t complain about today’s Friday Finds theme of “Metallic Love”. Just as we’re a little obsessed with stripes and polka dots, we’re as equally obsessed with almost anything metallic! Why do we love them so much? Metallics are considers to be neutral meaning that they pair nicely with almost anything, and they easily give any space or outfit that added “wow” factor.  Below are some of great metallic pieces that have caught our eye lately:

1.   DIY Gold Geometric Lamp Tutorial |  by Sara M. Dorsey Designs
2.   Bronze Desk Chair | by the OPAL Design Group
3.   Metallic I-phone Case | from Amazon
4.   Metallic Glass Jars Tutorial | by A Beautiful Mess
5.   DIY Metallic Fridge Magnets | by KOJO-Designs 
6.    DIY Metallic Pencil Skirt | Cotton and Curls
7.   Metallic Skinny Belt | from Old Navy
8.   Embroidered Metallic Pillow | from West Elm

If all of these wonderful metallic finds didn’t fill your craving, take a look at the touch of metallic I add to my home with my DIY Silver Lamps. 
I hope all of you have a fantastic weekend and I challenge you to smile!
“Life is not all that bad. You will soon learn that everybody has problems and nobody wants to hear about yours. Put those things aside and smile. Have a good sense of humor… I will tell you a secret of how to wake up in the morning with a smile on your face no matter how you feel: go to bed with a coat hanger in your mouth. Remember, a good sense of humor helps you greatly.”

– SARA

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

Friday Finds #5: Valentine’s Gift Ideas

posted in family, Friday Finds, friends, holidays, inspiration, marriage by Sara on
Last year, my husband Eric stayed up late the night before Valentines making me a flower bouquet from Hershey’s Kisses and tissue paper and leaving these flowers around the house with little notes. If you knew my husband you would know he is NOT a crafty person so this gift meant a lot to me. How sweet that he would take the time to make something for me since that’s what I enjoy? I’m hoping to top his gift this year, but with the holidays just getting over and a husband that just had a birthday my brain is strained for thinking of a good gift that is meaningful and affordable.Not to mention finding a great gift to spread the love with all the other special people in my life. So for our sake and yours, Sara and I have rounded up some pretty awesome gift ideas for all those special people in your life.
1. “Because I Love You…” Dry Erase Board | by Drawings Under the Table
2.  Mr & Mrs Coupon Book | by Day Spring
3.  “Open When” Letters | by The Dating Divas
5.  Felt Fortune Cookies | by “The Martha Stewart Show”
7.  Heart Balloon Surprise | by Oh Happy Day
8.  “You Are Golden” Printable Valentine’s | by The Crafted Sparrow
If you have any other ideas please send them our way! Also be sure to check out our Valentine’s Day board on Pinterest for many more cute ideas!
-HANNA