the little things.

Christmas Past

April T. — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:28:07 +0000

Last year, my sister and I were tasked with throwing the annual Christmas party for our church. Usually the annual Christmas party is an affair decked in gold pillars and plastic tablecloths. We decided to diverge from tradition and go for a more homey and warm Christmas feel. There were certainly eyebrows raised when we ordered brown tablecloths for the party, but I think everything came together very nicely.

The trick to throwing this type of affair is to accommodate a tiny budget with a huge space to decorate. We decided to spend the bulk of the budget on tablecloths and wreaths. We used this tutorial from Martha Stewart to create maximum visual impact at very little cost. We also strung icicle Christmas lights from the ceiling, which created enough light that we didn’t have to have any other lights on…which really helped to set the mood. Unfortunately, we never found a good solution for covering up the awful chairs.

Here’s another party in the same space

Cyber Monday Deal {Photography Classes}

April T. — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:15:59 +0000

Nicole of A Little Sussy, is having a great Cyber Monday deal. She’s offering40% off of her online classes, including gift certificates. There are a variety of classes offered from Photo 101, Photoshop 101, and Illustrator 101 to more specific mini-courses on babies & kids, tabletop, and design. These classes have been on my wish list for a while….I think I just found my Christmas gift to myself!

Christmastime Again

April T. — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:31:13 +0000

It’s that time of the year again. With Christmas right around the corner, I’m determined to send out Christmas cards this year. It’s not that I don’t try – Actually I order Christmas cards every year, but they sit on my coffee table and inevitably get packed back up with the Christmas decor awaiting another Christmas season. But this year I’m starting early. I’ve already pulled my Tiny Prints cards (that I ordered last year) out of storage, and I’m ready to go.

Since we don’t have any kids or dogs, I’ve never seen the need for a holiday photo card, last year we got these cards. But, this year we have a little bundle of joy on the way so I’ve been perusing the Tiny Prints photo cards, and found so many great options. We’ll have to wait until next year, but I think I’ve already found a few favorites.

I also recently purchased these Christmas Party invites from Tiny Prints for our upcoming holiday party…which I’ll post more about later this week.

One final note….in comparison to other popular online invitation sites, Tiny Prints has really impressed me. The printing quality is excellent and I received my shipments earlier than expected. Do you have any favorite Christmas card sites?

Vintage Inspired Cupcakes

April T. — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:10:42 +0000

Here’s how my cupcakes for the vintage inspired wedding turned out.

They were all so delicious. I used variations of the following recipes: Lemon Cupcakes, Triple Chocolate Cupcakes, and Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Vintage Cupcake Inspirations

April T. — Wed, 04 May 2011 17:48:32 +0000

I’ll be making cupcakes for a friend’s wedding in a few weeks and I’m starting to think about the table & set up. She is having a vintage themed wedding, and I’ve found so many lovely inspirations to steal from. These are a few of my favorites, all from Style me Pretty.

Style Me Pretty

Up Party

April T. — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:15:17 +0000

Have you seen this? National Geographic did a real life recreation of the floating balloon house from the movie “Up”. The house reached an altitude of 10,000 feet and flew for an hour. This experiment will be part of a National Geographic series called How Hard Can it Be? ..coming this fall.

This totally made me smile..it also reminded me of a fun little “Up” themed birthday party we threw for my nephew last year that I never got around to posting.

We took the kiddies for an Adventure Walk at a nearby nature trail where they were able to earn their adventure badges and look for snipes. We were able to get most of our Up themed party stuff, like the adventure books and badges, directly from the Pixar Up website for free.

One King’s Lane Groupon

April T. — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 17:44:57 +0000

I love browsing One King’s Lane’s website, they have the cutest stuff at great prices. Although until this point, I’ve never actually bought anything from them. Now I definitely will. If you’re a One King’s Lane fan too, check out this latest Groupon: One King’s Lane Groupon if that doesn’t work try this one.

If you haven’t heard of Groupon, its a fun site that delivers 1/2 off coupons to your email account daily. Some of the deals are pretty awesome. The first one I bought was 1/2 off a $50 gift certificate to Nordstroms Rack!

How to throw an awesome party

April T. — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:34:47 +0000

Jordan over at Oh Happy Day, has some great tips to make your party memorable…check them out here.

Christmas Wish

April T. — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:58:08 +0000

I wish I was patient enough to make this.

Nifty DIY instructions at Decor 8

Thank You

April T. — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:30:01 +0000

I just found out that I’m the big winner over at the HWTM Cambria Cove giveaway. I’d like to extend a big Thank You to the Hostess with the Mostess, this is definitely the best Christmas gift I’ve received so far.

Cambria Cove has beautiful holiday decor, it may be a little late for this year, but I’ll definitely keep them in mind for next year.