Trendy Tree, Yippee!

So.  I was looking for a particular glittery curly spray that I used in my homecoming centerpiece to show you where you could find it online, if not at Hobby Lobby andddd I found it!  But even more awesome is where I found it...the cutest Christmas decorating online store evah-- Trendy Tree! 




Trendy Tree has a bunch of unique thingamajigs and doodads, whatchamacallits and doohickies, thingamabobs and whatsits to decorate your home for the holidays and I love it all.  They have everything from fun, bright funky stuff to very elegant traditional pieces.




The most awesome part is that their designers have created beautiful trees with their products and listed the different pieces-- and quantities used-- so you can buy them all at once and make their tree your own!  How cool is that?  Once you have the pieces you can use their photo as a guide to put it all together and brag to the neighbors.  Presto! You are now the envy of the block. 

Now THAT's and awesome find.  You're welcome.

Oh, and about the centerpiece, stay tuned...

Dollar Store DIY- Chalkboard Tray!

Gather your Materials

• Silver metal tray from the Dollar Store (it looks like the real thing!)
• Chalkboard paint (or spray paint)
• Ribbon
• Flat, wide paint brush
• E6000 (or hot glue)
• Tape
• Scissors
• Chalk!

Let's Get Crafting!

Prime the tray by wiping it down with some Windex or rubbing alcohol.  Let the tray dry.  Now, pull out your chalkboard paint and shake, shake, shake!  The stuff tends to separate, so shake it good!



Tape around the inner edge of the platter making sure to press the tape down firmly on the edge where the paint will meet so none seeps under.

Use a flat wide brush and in long even strokes, gently drag the brush across the tray in one direction. Don't go back and forth over it, even if there are bald spots, or you will mess up the smooth finish.  Wash your brush and let the tray dry for at least one hour before adding a second coat. 

Once you're ready for another coat, shake the bottle again and paint another layer across the tray perpendicular to your last coat.  Remove the tape carefully and let the tray dry for at least 24 hours before you touch it.


While the tray is drying, make your bow.  I used wire satin ribbon, but any ribbon will look nice.  Don't worry if it isn't perfect at first.  Just tug at it a bit until the loops look the same size and trim the tails to even them up.  For a finishing touch, I always put Fray Check on the cut ends of ribbon.


You can glue the bow on with hot glue, but I'm pretty much an E6000 girl.  So, I added a bit on the back of the bow and attached it to the tray holding it together with a binder clip. 


When the board is ready, you'll need to "season" it.  Take a piece of chalk and gently rub the side of it on the entire black surface.  Then, use a tissue to wipe it clean. 


Ta daa!  Your board is ready for a dozen different uses.  Use it as a message board, menu board, inspiration board, or maybe to leave a message to Santa.  Plus, it's magnetic!  I'm using mine as a menu board for our tailgating tent on The Boulevard.  More on that to come. 

Beauty, Brains and Benefit! Part I

This year I hosted my first House Party and it was a blast! The party was for one of my favorite beauty brands, Benefit Cosmetics.  I've been using the stuff since I first discovered Benetint about 15 years ago.  I still love their quirky packaging and product names.  They're too cute. 

THE SWAG


When I got the Party Pack from House Party I was blown away! Look at all the beauteous goodness! Unbelievable. And totally free. 9 full-size Hello Flawless, brightening foundation

• 1 full-size Benetint, lip & cheek stain
• 1 full-size Big Beautiful Eyes, eye contour kit
• 1 full-size Hervana, blush powder box
• 1 full-size PoreFessional, pore minimizing balm
• 1 full-size Speed Brow, quick set brow gel
• 1 Raising Eyebrows book
• 1 limited edition cosmetic bag
• 14 vials, cards and labels for Hello Flawless samples
• 14 deluxe-size PoreFessional samples
• 14 gift bags
• 14 magnet picture frames
• 14 coupon sheets

THE DECORATIONS
I started working on these as soon as I found out I was selected as a hostess.  Which was like a month before the party date.  hee hee.  I couldn't help it.  I was excited! 



Miss Betty:
Miss Betty greeted guests on the porch so they knew they were in the right place, and later joined us inside for photos ops. Along with a tulle skirt that was once a bridesmaid outfit, I dressed her up with frosted tissue paper roses, organza ribbon, a Benefit sign (which I downloaded from House Party) and some blingy yumminess.



Streamer Curtain:
I wanted to create a pretty photo backdrop that incorporated the various shades of pink and yellow from Benefit's logo while covering up the yucky backyard. The streamer curtain completely transformed the room. Guests could see it as soon as they walked in the "salon" and it totally set the fun and frilly tone for the rest of the afternoon.

 

Place Settings:

Next were the makeup stations. The table was covered with a yellow tablecloth, a length of funky floral fabric and little votives with frosted tissue paper roses running down the center of the table. At each place setting, I set out all the Benefit goodies including little pink mirrors from Party City and drinking glasses--Starbucks Frapuccino bottles--with the cutest paper straws from Cakes and Kids Too. 

THE MENU
The menu was a mix of savory and sweet tea party bites.  All in shades of pink and yellow, of course!


We munched on cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, artichoke mascarpone sandwiches, rice krispie treats drizzled with white chocolate dyed pink, shortbread cookies with lemon icing, lemon Jello marzipan and scones with lemon curd and strawberry butter. Our party beverage was strawberry lemonade. I HIGHLY recommend the strawberry butter recipe. I could eat scones with strawberry butter forevahhh!
Check out my Pinterest board for more little details.

So, that's the set up.  Watch out for Part II of Beauty, Brains and Benefit!

A View from the Tippy Top

I love decorating my Christmas tree and I often get lots of compliments on it!  I think one of the things that makes my tree look so "put together" is its crown-- the tippy top.  A tree just isn't a Christmas tree without a topper.  My tree is very narrow and my ceilings are pretty low, so I can't make a fabulously grand crown with fruit and ornaments and giant angels, but I can still dress it up-- and you can, too.

You don't need to be a fancy designer-- just a cool chickadee with a couple designer tricks up your sleeve. I've never taken decorating classes or anything, I just pick up ideas whenever I see a beautiful tree at a department store, in a magazine or in a catalog and I have a whole file of clippings to prove it!  So, I thought I'd share an easy way to fancify your tree top featuring an awesome trick that I came up with on my very own.  Enjoy!


Step 1: Gather the Materials


Once you've chosen your theme and color palette, shop for pretty wired ribbon about 3" wide (think grand!) and some glittery floral picks, branches or anything you can add that will coordinate with your trimmings. The best "extras" have long stems that you can just stick into the tree without having to wire them on. Buy 4 or 5 spools of ribbon-- it's always better to have extra than not enough. And you probably don't want to have to run to the store mid-trimming only to find out it has sold out of your ribbon!


Step 2: Make the Bows


(click image to enlarge)
To make a topper like mine, you need 3 or 4 large bows. I make multiple-loop bows with 4 or 6 loops-- depending on the thickness and width of the ribbon. These bows are about 10" wide with 10" tails cut on a diagonal. I prefer shorter tails that don't hang all the way down the tree, but just enough to curl nicely at the top. That way there's more room to show off ornaments. If you need instructions on making multiple-loop bows, check out this Container Store tutorial-- that's basically how I make mine, but I don't do the little loop at the beginning.  The center of the bow won't show anyway so there's no need to hide the wire.  If you look closely at that second picture above, all I do is pinch the center and wrap it tightly with wire.


Step 3: Assemble the Hoop


(click image to enlarge)
Shh, here's the best part-- my super-secret McGuiver-style tree-trimming trick.  This technique allows you to attach all the bows to the tree top while keeping the top branch free for Grandma's favorite angel topper. All you need is an inexpensive embroidery hoop and some wire, pipe cleaners or twist ties. Use the wire to attach each bow to the hoop, then fluff up the bows.  Taddah!  You've just created a gorgeous bow topper that you can reuse year after year!


Step 4: Crown the Tree



Now, all you have to do is place the hoop around the tippy top and let it sit on the top branches. Step back, walk around the tree and adjust the hoop so it sits properly and doesn't lean to one side.  The top branch is now free to add your own tree topper!


Step 5: Dress the Tree!


(click image to enlarge)
Along with the giant bows, I try to find some fun sparkly extras to stick up at the top to draw the eye upward. I found these super cool picks that have curly wire covered in brown sequins. They came as tightly wound coils, but you just stretch them to make cute boingy spirals.  You can either stuff your picks into the bows so they stick up, or under the bow so they hang down. Since my sequined picks were bendable, they looked best cascading under the bow.

Finally, you can add your traditional tree topper to the tippy top like I mentioned before, or just fluff up the bows to hide the top branch. Voila! You have a beautimous tree top and all your friends will think you had it done professionally!

When you are ready to store your decorations, find a box that is big enough to hold your bow hoop without crushing it and use scrunched up tissue paper inside each loop to keep the ribbon from creasing. You'll be glad you did next year!


Check out these fabulous tree tops by truly talented ladies. Thanks for allowing me to share your pics, chickadees!


click on Sue's photo to read her post

click on Annette's photo to read her post

Kraphti Dez's amazing over the top tree toppers

Special thanks to Annette at netteandjimmy.blogspot.com, Sue at ineedmom.blogspot.com, and Kraphti Dez

The Tree is Up!

(click image to enlarge)

Christmas has finally come to our house. The tree is up! If it weren't for the Angel Party, it probably wouldn't be up for another week! The party was last weekend and although it was hectic getting it all together so soon after Thanksgiving, it forced me to get my decorations up. Now, I can sit in front of the tree with a blanket and a cup of Mexican hot cocoa!

This year's tree is red, gold and brown. It combines most of the colors of my 2007 tree, red ornaments and some metal roses from Mexico. I've had those quite some time, but it's been a while since I've decorated with them.


(click image to enlarge)
I also have a new lion ornament! Every year, I go to Neiman's and buy one fancy ornament for the tree and I was pretty excited that they had a toy lion ornament. I love that they have the signature NM butterfly and year tags on each of their ornaments. The butterfly on the tree is in memory of my Grandma Clara and the gold cross is from my sorority sister, Candy.

I'm really pleased with this year's tree and I hope you enjoy it, too.  Have fun decorating yours!

Parade of Trees

I was recently looking at old Christmas photos and thought a tree parade was in order since I haven't shown them off before (they were pre-blog).  Soooooo, put on your woolies and mittens, pack a Thermos of hot chocolate, find a prime viewing spot and enjoy!

2006 Tree



click to enlarge

2006 was our first Christmas in our first house.  I was so excited that we finally had a "proper" Christmas tree room instead of our den/living room/dining room in our apartment! 



We bought a tall thin artificial tree so it would still look full with the few ornaments I already owned.  I had been collecting lions--my sorority mascot-- since we got married and had a handful of red heart ornaments, but that was it.  With just a couple boxes of red balls, I had enough trimmings to cover the entire tree.  So, the first tree was the "Red and Gold, Lion and Hearts Tree".  I thought it really looked nice in our newly painted living room with dark red and gold walls.  I added Michael's C3PO ornament since it matched!

2007 Tree



click to enlarge 
In 2007, I decorated the tree with my lions, ornaments in shades of gold, copper and brown and animal print ribbon.  I also added 4 new lions to the tree.  When I put away my Christmas decorations, I separate the tree trimmings by color and store them in big tubs.  That way, it's easy to pull out just the colors I plan to use.  This time, the red box stayed "up stairs".



I always match my gift wrap to the tree and I found some beautiful metallic paper and flocked paper at Container Store that I mixed with different bows and ribbons.

2008 Tree





Last year, I was shopping and saw some gorgeous blue ornaments with brown and gold accents, so I decided to go with those colors for the tree and wrappings.  I used all my lions and gold ornaments and added some blue glass balls and jeweled ornaments.  It was an unusual, but very pretty color combination.  I think when I do this one again, I'll add some blue ribbon.





I also added a new lion, which I bought at the London production of The Lion King musical.  I just love it.  It gets a prime spot near the tippy top!

So, there you have it!  A parade of Christmas trees past.  Hope you enjoyed the show!

Gingerbread House

Once upon a time, I made a gingerbread house for a contest only to find out that Wilton decided not to host a gingerbread house contest that year! Pooh! Anyway, contest or no, I still have an awesome gingerbread house and love to show it to friends.





Well, imagine my delight when I found out that Martha wants to see our gingerbread houses and she's having a contest for the best one. So, of course I uploaded my photos to her site and am hoping she'll love them.




Everything on the house is edible, only in theory, and all the decorations are made of fondant. They are pretty much rock hard now and the house weighs a ton!




Update: Not sure whatever became of the Martha contest, but my little house was featured on the Food Network Canada blog!  Awesome, eh?

Fiesta Friday- Fast Times

Last month my girl Christy had a totally tubular birthday roller skating party. Talk about a blast from the past! I had not been in a roller rink since high school (for a "retro" roller skating party) and I was rushed back like Martie McFly to Izod shirts, Vanderbilt jeans, grosgrain ribbon belts and penny loafers! Wow. The look of the concession stand, the smell of the old carpet, the sound of wheels on the rink, the hokey pokey totally brought me back. The only difference was this time, the keeper of the skates asked "roller or inline?" I suppose not many kids use roller skates anymore, because they were, like, practically brand new! I was totally relieved because I was not at all interested in putting my foot in some nasty 30 year-old skates. Gag me with a spoon!

We had soooo much fun. I wasn't brave enough to get on the rink, actually I was smart enough to stay off the rink. Note the picture of Diane in the middle-- she started with roller skates, but quickly figured out that she was safest on inlines. I wonder if in roller skating you are liable for pile-ups that you have caused accidentally like in snow skiing. Anyway, back to the party...

I was amazed at the number of wicked partiers who took to the wood like they slept with skates on. Then there was one poor guy who could barely stand up and kept falling over and over and over again. But, the dude was determined to "shake it all about!"

I helped Christy out by making the invitations and party favors. I looked all over for some roller skating party invitation ideas, but came up without a one. So, I found a photo of some rollers skates online and used that as a template to make a pattern. I added some legwarmers with different neon papers and a cute pom. I probably would have gone with a bigger one, but the invitation still had to fit into the padded envelope. Remember the giant poms that had a jingle bell in them? Those were totally kickin'.

We saved money by using some of my decorations from my 80s prom party. We created a photo booth with balloons and mylar curtains from the party. (Note to self, blog about 80s prom party.)

Christy wanted to give out a party cd with rad tunes to all her guests, so the hubster made them for her and used a scan of the invite for the cd sleeve. I was super excited to find these pencil pouches at Target in tubular colors and knew I had to have them for the cds. Then, I saw the pencils and the candy and before I knew it, we had wicked party favors!

The roller rink referee/dj played the greatest big hair and new wave hits and everyone looked so fine in their 80s gear. It was a regular Breakfast Club: the prep, the stud, the valley girl, the Square Pegs and the Jersey girl (direct from New Jersey in all her rad Lita Fordness!) I put together an outfit complete with slouchy black suede-ish ankle boots, white leather studded belt, black legwarmers and fingerless lace gloves. I bought everything but the lace gloves, not in a thrift store, but at Target, on the shelf, brand new in 2009. That's scary. I also found some really cute Betsey Johnson jewelry and narrowed the choices down to the animal print cross necklace and animal print heart and bow dangle earrings. I had a pair of earrings very similar to those when I was in jr. high.

It was a laaaate night, well past curfew, but Christy pumped us up with Mountain Dew, Capri Sun, Fruit Rollups, Sushi (calling Molly Ringwald!), giant pickles in a jar (a la roller rink concession) and tons of delicious candy and snack cakes! I personally enjoyed a PB&J Uncrustable, a pickle, some California rolls, Capri Sun, a Mountain Dew and some Pop Rocks. Let's just say I ate like a bird the next day!

Happy 35th, Christy! You're like totally rad and 2 cute 2 be 4 gotten! LYLAS!

Easter at our House

This year, I wanted to give a Mexican flair to my Easter decorations, so I used pretty Mexican crepe-paper flowers and cascarones (confetti eggs) which are a huge Mexican tradition. No self-respecting Mexican Easter celebration would be without them!

Angel Party Turns Ten!

This is the first of two posts about the Angel Party, an annual shindig I throw with friends each year to celebrate the holidays and collect gifts for a local nonprofit. This year was the 10th Anniversary of the party! In honor of the momentous occasion, I wanted to add a few new goodies. Here they are in all their heavenly glory!





I created this door sign with a pair of giant angel wings, some chipboard letters, gold glitter and beautimous gold ribbon. So simple and really gorgeous. I love how it turned out.





I decided to use a white theme for the Angel Party this year. These snowball table decorations were super easy with Styrofoam balls in various sizes, craft glue, fake snow and a little glitter. I used a red table cloth and silver and white ceramic serving dishes. I also scattered some "pearls" that my friends, Christy and Jenny pulled off of some Christmas berry floral pics.





The first time a guest attends the Angel Party, she is given a pair of wings in the form of a cute little brooch. Every year she returns, she gets a little gold star to add to her wings. This year, everyone who attended also got a little gold bell in honor of the tenth anniversary.





Another Angel Party tradition is the party favor that each angel leaves with at the end of the evening. Every year, I give everyone an angel ornament for their tree. Sometimes, the ornament has a spot to write "Angel Party" and the year on it. I bought these plaster ornaments and painted and glittered them myself. I wanted to keep a white theme this year, so I painted them in white and pearl paint and sprinkled pearl glitter on them. I think they are super cute!


Tune in for more Angel Party fun!