if lily could talk

 sleeping soundly.

"oh, hi mom."

"you must be here to rub my belly."

 

"thanks. you can go now."

DIY Bridesmaid's *or brides* Survival Kit

**spoiler alert!** bridesmaids gifts below :)

For the last couple of months I've been collecting things as I find them for a "bridesmaid's survival kit" to give to my girls before the wedding. I guess I've been collecting for too long because I went to check my stash the other day and it was exploding. So I decided I've finally gotten enough to put together the baskets for my bridal party. 

Here is everything stuffed into a box. 

 I laid it all out and tried to make sure I didn't forget anything!! When I first thought to make this, I searched everywhere online for a comprehensive list of anything & everything that you would need on a wedding day... but I never found one. So here it is: the ultimate bridal party survival kit {list below}

Supplies: 

-mini nail files {1.25/3 pk. - B&BW}

-pack of 5 mentha lip gloss {$3/each - B&BW}

-clear nail polish {.94 cents/each - Walmart}

-hand sanitizer {$1/each - B&BW}

-lint roller {.94 cents/each - Target travel section}

-mini hairspray {.99 cents/each - Target travel section}

-juice box {$1/4 pack - Dollar Tree}

-24 pack of tylenol {.97 cents/each - Target pharmacy section}

-mini sunblock {.97 cents/each - Walmart travel section}

-compact mirror {$1/each - Walmart}

-wisp travel toothbrush {$1/2 pack - Dollar Tree}

-granola bars {$1/6 pack - Dollar Tree}

-mini lotions {.50 cents/each - Target clearance}

-love mints {$5/2 - Victoria's Secret}

-teasing comb {$1/8 pack - Dollar Tree}

-q tips {free - linen closet items}

-bandaids {free - linen closet items}

-tampon/pantyliner {free - linen closet items}

-safety pins {free - craft room stock supply}

-sewing kit {free - craft room stock supply}

-hair pins {free - linen closet items}

I made some of the items out of things I already had. I wanted to buy sewing kits, but they're expensive and come with every color. My girls' dresses are black so they don't need any other colors. I just took some paper scraps from other wedding projects and cut a little slit in the sides. I wrapped about a foot of black thread around it and slid it into the little grooves. Then I poked a needle through the paper and added some punched out flowers. I used the same paper scraps for the hair pins, rounding the edges. I also found a few safety pins and tied them together with ribbon. 

 Here's some more linen closet items. Some bandaids & q-tips tied in ribbon. I also wrapped a thong pantyliner around a tampon and tied it with a ribbon... ya know, just in case! :) {is that tmi?}

 I found that it was cheaper to buy some things in mini version combo packs and split them up... like these lip gloss packs! These are the best! They are minty tasting, but not too sticky! And they are super glossy. 

 I also found it was cheaper to just buy a regular sized bottle of tylenol. It was $1.50 for a travel pack of 8, but in the pharmacy section they had a full sized 24 count bottle for under $1.00. 

 These super cute "I love BLING" hand sanitizers are on sale at Bath & Body Works {leftover from Valentines Day}.

 These are also the yummiest! But there is probably a cheaper place to get mints if you have a lot of people to buy for {maybe tic-tacs?}. 

 Sunscreen is necessary for our outdoor wedding... maybe! I mean - it DID snow 2 inches here today! YUP- we're in a winter weather advisory on April 19th. ugh. 

 Here it is all separated. 

 I found these cute boxes a while back from the Target $ wall. Can you tell our wedding is black and pink?

I printed the labels from microsoft word onto thick card stock and taped them to the boxes. 

 And here it is all completed!! I love them! Now the hard part will be not adding to them in the next 6 weeks! I can't wait to give them to my girls! This would also be fun to give to a bride-to-be at a shower and wedding season is fast approaching!

Now if you think of anything I missed......... don't tell me. just kidding. tell me! I'll just promise not to go out and buy it {unless it is totally necessary of course!!}

Partying here today: 

Blue Cricket Designs

lily lost her womanhood and deserves some snuggles

please excuse me while i take a bloggy break for the evening. lily the spoiled yorkie is recovering from an overnight stay in the puppy-hospital and is quite bummed about no longer being fertile. i think this girl deserves some cuddles.

 i mean, how can you say no to this face?

if you need me, i'll be snuggling on the couch with a handful of treats... just in case.

Easy Flower Girl Sash

So there are only six weeks until my wedding! Which means only six more weeks of wedding projects and six more weeks til I will be back to home-decoring it up! {and trust me, my 'to do' list is pages long}

ahhh... thanks for your patience :-)

Anyway, see this cute girl just hammin it up? She is my sister. YES, I have a 4 year old sister. So she naturally took the role of the cutest flower girl. everrrrr.

I've been seeing all these cute "flower girl" t-shirts to get for the rehearsal dinner.... but did you see that girl? I don't think she's going to appreciate being forced to wear a tshirt at any point in this wedding when she could be "fancy". So out with the tshirt and in with the pageant-girl sash!

All you need is a craft cutter, ribbon and a scissors. For the ribbon, I used a durable ribbon that was 2 1/2 inches thick. It came from michaels for 3.50 (40% off) but there is tons of it! It is almost like a vinyl type of material, so it will hold through anything!

I used my silhouette with the font "Not His Angel" {free from kevinandamanda.com}.

Anyone else have a computer from the 80's like me??? I could really use a mac.

I almost never use transfer paper. I have it, but I just don't use it. I find that on most surfaces the silhouette vinyl works perfectly fine without it because it is stretchy and thin.

I just plop the whole piece of vinyl down and rub in the letters/designs really well. Then I peel back the outside border back, pulling it down as far as it will go towards the original surface.

{i'm very thankful i have a picture of this because i have a feeling that sentence makes no sense at all!!}

Done!

I added a little bow with some hot glue and here it is! I think it'll be so cute on little miss flower girl.

This whole project took about 10 minutes. tops.

My mom and I also made one for her bff's 40th birthday that said "40 and Fabulous!". I don't have any pictures of that one, but it turned out really cute as well!

I'll post pictures after the big day so you can see this little baby in action!!

Here's where I'm linking up today!

nontraditional DIY bridal party totes

well, first off. let me say that if you are in the picture below, you should probably stop reading this post!

and for the rest of you, aren't my bridesmaids pretty?!

So on to the post! I found these adorable totes at Michaels a long time ago. I loved them and thought they'd be perfect for my hot pink & black damask wedding!! They are meant to be scrapbook totes, so they are really thick and durable. 

 They also have a flat bottom, so they stand up on their own. Well, I passed on them because they were too expensive. But recently I went back and they were on sale for only $4.99! So I bought them for my girls as opposed to the "traditional" plain bag that has "bridesmaid" embroidered somewhere.

 But since it is for the wedding, I thought it'd be cute to personalize them! So I used my silhouette and vinyl to cut out "Bridesmaid" and "Maid of Honor" {of course using one of the awesome fonts from kevinandamanda.com- this one is HOWSER}

 I think they turned out SO cute! I used the vinyl because, let's face it, not everyone wants to be carrying around a bag that says "Maid of Honor" on it when they're at the mall. So I figured that after the wedding they can peel them off and have another new bag! But they are durable enough to hold up for as long as they want them to. However, if you wanted them more durable the heat transfer paper would work perfectly!

 I love the black wording over the pink bag. And let me tell you, when you buy a roll of silhouette vinyl- it seriously lasts forever. I have used my hot pink vinyl a million times and it barely looks like I've touched it!

Here are the 4 of them. I plan to fill them with fun stuff for the wedding day, including a "Bridesmaids Survival Kit" that I'll be sharing shortly!!

 

And a closeup.

Alright well back to the wedding projects!!

new spring decor... without any new purchases!

Today I was organizing the cupboards in my hutches and I found a bunch of fun stuff I forgot I had! So I decided to finally add some spring decor to the house {even though it really doesn't feel like spring yet here}.

{please excuse my couch pictures... i've been a lazy crafter lately!}

I'm sure you have one a million of these hurricanes lying around somewhere. It seems that everyone in the blogosphere has made them. They were one of the first thing I made for our new house and to be honest, I kind of hate them. Mostly because it was also my first encounter with gorilla glue and I used waaaay too much, ending up with this lovely yellow ring around the bottom.

I cut the paper to fit the size of my hurricane and then just taped it right onto the glass since the back would be hidden.

{like I said, lazy crafter}

Then I cut out the letters "SPRING" and some circles on my silhouette. I've never cut out paper, so it took me like 4 tries to get the right thickness. {note to self- follow directions next time}

I glued them right on and taped white ribbon to the back. I also very carefully taped the ribbon to the top of the window trim with a tiny bit of tape {sorry, babe}.

Do you appreciate my neighbors house super close to ours?? Yeah, me too.

I stuck the greens inside of the paper covered hurricane. The birds are from Michaels last year on clearance for about $1.00. I just added the pink ribbon to match. I mean it is SPRING time... I think it's the one time I can get away with decorating our house in pink.

I apologize for the unbelievably terrible pictures. It is really hard to take a picture of anything on this window.

{do you like how my neighbors house matches my wall color exactly. that was totally not planned!}

And a closeup so you can see. I think this will be easy to change out to say "SUMMER" so maybe I can get away without changing it for a while :-)

HAPPY SPRING!!

Linking up here this weekend!!