Bridal Shower for Kaci

On the 14th, Noura threw a bridal shower for our friend Kaci. As always with Noura, the decorations were awesome! Kaci chose a "pin-up girl" theme, and I helped by making the hanging pom-pom things.

Dessert table

Pin up girl food labels

Lovin' her new painting of Paris!

Congrats Kaci! 

Decor Ideas I Love!

This will, again, probably be my last "Decor Ideas" post since I'll be putting it all up on my Pinterest page from now on.

These first three are from A Beautiful Mess blog.

Love that needlework on the wall!

I really need to start displaying more pictures! I think there's only one picture of us in the living room, and it doesn't even show our faces...

Cutest...

You know I love peeling paint and fresh flowers.

Cutest baby room ever!

Yard Sale Finds

Before Christmas, a neighbor 2 doors away had a little yard sale. A few things caught my eye when we drove by so I went over to take a look. I ended up walking away with these...

It was the frame I really liked on this one. 

Globes add such fun color to a room!

Another painting.

And my favorite: an old beat up scale!

I love yard sales...

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

Merry Christmas from the Little Red House! It's officially Christmas time now that I have my two little trees up...

This is our main tree, although it's only maybe 4 feet high. Mom has a tradition of giving us each an ornament on Christmas Eve that symbolizes something significant from the past year. Among others, I have an ornament symbolizing my first kiss, my acceptance to USC, my new Lebanese boyfriend, and the year after a "First Christmas Together" ornament. It's a great way to keep those memories alive. There's a story to tell with each ornament! 

Grandma gave me this tiny tree when I was in college. I put it in the bedroom and will probably take the decor off but leave the tree up all winter. It's so foresty with the burlap bottom...

Merry Christmas!

Winter Crafting

Here are a couple of crafty projects I've done this week...

Last Saturday, I suddenly came up with the idea to stick a fabric cutout of birds on a tree on my wall. I knew I could come up with and cut out a pattern that I liked, but wasn't sure how to stick it onto the wall. I experimented on the inside wall of my closet, and found that using a regular old glue stick works very well! I'm pretty sure the fabric will just peel off when I'm ready to take it down, and I can get any glue residue off with some soapy water. I wish I could get a better picture of how it turned out, but I really like it!

These hot chocolate and marshmallow-holding snowmen were Noura's idea. She's been following websites like Tip Junkie and Craft Gossip and found tons of cute ideas like these! We used two jars, cardstock for the hat brim, acrylic paint for the face, ribbon for the bowties (or use fabric for a scarf), and buttons. Don't they make cute gifts?

Here's another snowman idea I found. Snowmen are great, because you can use them all winter not just until Christmas. You use containers like Gatorade bottles to make these ones. I like the recycled paper trees next to them too. The whole scene is totally from recycled materials! Some people come up with the most creative things.

A Peak at Some Holiday Decor

Well, I think everyone might as well start putting up their Christmas decorations. You put in all that work and Christmas comes and goes so quickly, so I decided to decorate earlier this year.

This is the kind of decorating I like...

I personally like the winter wonderland type of thing more than the Santa decor.

Here's the very first Christmas decor that's gone up in my place (it's the small blocks down at the bottom)...

Mom painted these blocks to spell different holiday words on all sides. For Halloween I had them turned to, "BOO!" Such a good idea!

I'll take some pictures of my Christmas decorating when I do it this weekend.

D.I.Y. Jewelery Hanger

Yesterday I browsed jewelery holder ideas. Here are two of favorites...

I love the idea on the right so much that...

 I made one for me!

I used a picture frame that I had painted a light aqua blue then sanded to make it look vintage. I took out the glass, then nailed sticks across the back. I had previously nailed a bunch of little nails into the sticks to hang the necklaces on it. Wallah! 

No More Procrastinating!

I've stopped procrastinating finishing the unpacking and decorating in our little red house. Here's what I came up with for the living room...

My goal is to have this room feel like an old-fashioned cozy study. I want to paint the walls a dusty-rose color and get an area rug. I'm going to collect old books with the pretty covers to stack around the room. I'll keep a load of interesting library books to read and use for decor. 

I remembered my favorite Urban Outfitters catalog from fall last year and had to search for some of the pictures. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a lot of my favorites, but I like these ones. I think I'll do the bedroom kind of like these...

"Shabby Chic" Decorating Ideas

I absolutely love the decorating style called "Shabby Chic!"  Here are some (ok, lots of) examples...

Light bulbs!

You make these by melting crayon shavings on wax paper. I'm going to try this for sure!

I'd so much rather use old, worn things than new, shiny, plastic things. So fun and thrifty!