My Favorite Bowtiques

When I started writing this post, the first paragraph was about how I was still pregnant and had my induction date scheduled. Little did I know, I'd go into labor that night! Haha! Our little girl arrived 8 days overdue, but thankfully before the dreaded induction! She's beautiful and healthy and we are completely smitten! We are so thankful!

I wanted to pop in and share about my favorite bow shops. I am not a super girly girl, but man, when it comes to Little Girl, I seem to think she needs a bow for every possible outfit. Just because I don't have 50 million shoes and a closet bursting with trendy clothes and accessories doesn't mean my girl has to follow suit. Right??? ;)

My friend Bridget opened up her bowtique last year called Hunny b's' Bowtique and everything she makes is fabulous! She makes a lot of themed bows like Disney, school, sports, etc and can customize a bow for any occasion! She also makes bottle cap pendants, bow holders, and headbands!

Update!!! Bridget is doing a giveaway when she gets to 200 facebook likes! Go check out her page and like it to see all her newest updates and bows!

I ordered a couple bows from her and LOVE them all!! Check them out!

We are big football fans in this family and this year, BOTH of our teams made it to the playoffs! Woot! (Let's not talk about the game outcomes, though, ok? Ha!)  To celebrate, Little Girl had to represent! How cute are these team bows?! The bows are on clips, so when she outgrows the headband, she can still use the bow. Love that!

We also ordered this sweet, pink chevron headband that turned out so cute!

Here's a sampling of a few other bows Bridget has made. Aren't they adorable?! Check out her facebook page and message her to order! Her prices are very reasonable and she has a great turnaround time!

Below Images Credit: Hunny B's Bowtique

I have also ordered from my friend Lexi's adorable bow shop called The Honey Bee Bowtique that she runs with her friend Katie. Hilarious that of all the bow shops out there, my favorites are both very similarly named! Lexi & Katie specialize in baby bows and have such cute seasonal choices! I needed a bow to go with Little Girl's coming home dress, so I emailed Lexi and asked her what she'd recommend. She came up with a custom bow to match Little Girl's dress! She did such a fabulous job and I love the end result!

Here's a sampling of some of my favorite bows from their facebook page. Aren't they so sweet?! Check out their facebook page!

Below Images Credit: The Honey Bee Bowtique

This is not a sponsored post! I am just sharing because I love these products!

Overdue Ramblings

Well, I'm STILL pregnant. My due date has come and gone and Little Girl is still enjoying her warm, little home. You'd think she'd be running out of womb room, but she's figured out how to stretch out her legs and stick her feet up into my ribs to gain more space. Glad I could accommodate your needs, Little Girl...cough cough. ;)

Little Man was a week early, so I absolutely did not anticipate her being late. The last couple weeks, I've been getting rounds of contractions that come 1-2 minutes apart and last for a couple hours, then subside. Such a cruel tease. I have, however, gotten so many sweet texts, calls, and messages from friends and family who are anxiously awaiting her arrival and praying for us and letting us know they're thinking of us. So encouraging! Thanks you guys! :)

So, what have we been up to while we wait? Nesting, resting, and snuggling. One day I'm a cleaning maniac, the next day I can't muster up the energy to move. But, every day, I've been soaking up lots of snuggles with Little Man. He's been super cuddly lately and I'm eating up every minute of it!

Jeremy has been helping me organize the house and check things off of our to-do list. He's amazing, I tell ya! Here's a glimpse at the more "exciting" things we've done. I did a lot of boring things like cleaning out the bathroom drawers and pantry cabinets, but I'll spare you details of those projects. Haha!

-It's totally not pretty, but I did this on the cheap... Our coat closet is roughly the size of a shoe box, so it's always bursting at the seams and a mess. I cleaned it all out and put the gloves and scarves on the door which gained us a lot more hanging space for our coats. I hung all of my scarves on a hanger and used a large Command Hook I found when cleaning out the closet (score! haha!) to hang it up. I found some colored Command Hooks on clearance at Target to hang our gloves on. I totally could have done this in a much prettier way, but this way only cost me $4 and is 100% more functional, so I'm digging it. :)

(Image credit Wayfair.com)

-We have not had any permanent furniture in the entry way since we moved in. We've tried a plant there and an old beat up end table (I would have redone it if it had been a good height), but nothing looked right. My sweet Aunt and Uncle and Grandma gave me some Christmas cash (Thank you!!!) and I decided to put it together and get a real entry table. I saw this one online and found the best price at Wayfair. It came in a couple days ago and I love it! It's the perfect size for our entry and the color matches my sunburst mirror on the wall exactly! I'll blog pictures of it in our entry later, but for now, enjoy the stock photo... :)

-My mom finished Little Girl's curtains! Jeremy hung them up and we absolutely love them! I will do an entire post on them after things settle down, but here's a sneak peek!

Happy Monday, Everyone!

Monday Ramblings

Our simple Christmas wreath made with leftover garland that I floral wired to a grapevine wreath and embellished with beads, floral picks, and a bow I had leftover from last year. Easy peasy!

Just wanted to pop in and wish you all a Merry Christmas!!! We decided to do Christmas today in case Little Girl decides to come early. It was so fun! I love soaking up quiet, family days. I even made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and a full Christmas dinner for lunch...at 9 months pregnant. Who da mom?! What What??? Hahaha, just kidding. Of course, it helped that Hubby washed the dishes and I bought a premade pie and frozen rolls... Massively pregnant women are allowed to cheat. Oh, what am I saying? Anyone is allowed! :)

I also wanted to update you on what this blog will look like for the next couple months. I may post a random post here or there when I'm up to it, but otherwise, I will be taking a hiatus from blogging until after Little Girl is born and we are in some kind of rhythm again. I will miss blogging, but will definitely still be keeping up with all you bloggers--probably at 3am when Little Girl is hungry. ;)

We already have a big project planned for the new year, plus a few smaller ones. Can't wait to get started on them after the holidays and new baby craziness slows down! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! 

Nursery Gallery Wall

Well, friends, I'm officially full term in this pregnancy--just over two more weeks until my due date. Of course, this made me panic and start nesting like a crazed woman because Little Girl could come any time, right?! Haha! Thankfully, the added pressure helped us finally finish hanging her gallery wall. It's small and nothing fancy, but we like it!

(Yes, the door frame was actually built into the house crooked. Don't even get me started on that!)

Obviously, we need some newborn pictures of Little Girl to add to the frames, but you get the idea.

Frame Sources: Both small frames are from Target. The large frame is from Michael's. The shaped frame is actually a cheap wooden plaque from Michael's that I picked up for less than $2. I used Modge Podge to attach a piece of cardstock to the front to give it some color. I'm either going to use those little photo corners or double sided tape to attach a photo to the middle. Easy and so cheap!

Artwork Sources: The letter C is from my friend Heather's shop, What is Perfect. I LOVE it! The watercolor is a print from Katie Daisy's Etsy shop that I've been swooning over. The Bible verse is just something I typed up in Google Docs and added an inexpensive bird clip art to the bottom from Petittatti's Etsy shop.

All that is left to do in Little Girl's room is hang the ceiling fan, change out the gold hardware and off white outlets and switches, and hang the curtains. My mom made Little Girl's curtains and is bringing them with her when she comes to see Little Girl. Can't wait to show them to you!

That's all for now! Have a great afternoon!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

This is our second year getting a real tree and I LOVE it! I'll never go back to fake! Of course, our old fake tree was the most pitiful tree on Earth, so it's not much to compare. ;) 

Last year, we got our first real tree from Home Depot. It was not really a very romantic experience to dig through a pile of trees, but we were afraid of killing the tree and wanted the return policy. Haha! 

This year, we went to a Christmas tree farmer and had a great time picking out a tree. This tree is so full and fresh! The farmer had just cut it down the day before we bought it!

Over the years, Jeremy and I have come to a good comprimise on how to decorate the tree. I love matchy matchy and he loves random. We've hit a good middle ground that we both love with silver ornaments and red garland, plus lots of sentimental ornaments. We love the mixture!

I saw this Christmas tree skirt at Lowe's and loved it! It's the first tree skirt I've seen that I loved and thought was absolutely perfect and exactly my style. I stewed over it for a month, then finally decided to spend the money on it. So glad I did! I was able to repurpose our scalloped tree skirt for our advent tree. 

Every year, we purchase a new ornament that represents the year. Love this one from the year we bought our first house. :) 

These snowflakes are some of my favorite ornaments! They were my grandparents and have hung on their tree ever since I was a little girl. My grandma gave them to me a few years ago and I love hanging them up each year. 

Every year, my hubby plays this little game where he sneaks his Darth Vadar ornament up to the top of the tree when I'm not looking. He insists on it being the highest ornament on the tree. He only gets his way because he's over 6 feet tall and can reach higher than me. Haha!

One of my favorite things is to turn of all the lights and snuggle under a blanket with some hot cocoa and admire the lights on the tree! Only 13 more days until Christmas! 

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick and A Thoughtful Place!

Simple Christmas Dining Room

I've shown you the fireplace mantel and our advent tree, so figured I'd continue the Christmas tour of our home. :) Today's stop is the dining room!

I kept it super simple because that's what I like and what is comfortable to live with. We eat dinner in our dining room, so I knew whatever I put on the table needed to be easily slid to the side while we eat. I also tried to keep it pretty neutral since the dining room has a lot of soft greens and blues. Here's what I came up with! 

The centerpiece is a simple white pitcher and platter with Christmas tree clippings and silver holiday picks leftover from a wreath I made last year. 

I love the joy sign! I found it at Target on sale this year and it was my only purchase for this room. It came in a faux vintage finish, but it didn't go well with our home, so I taped off all the little lights with painters tape and my sweet hubby spray painted it with silver glitter paint. I love how it turned out!

I used some extra garland to decorate the buffet and added a few leftover ornaments to fancy it up. 

I don't leave the table set with plates and silverware, but I just had to play with the place settings. So fun! For everyday, I just put the napkins with the ornaments and tree clippings directly on the placemats.

We hung the gallery wall in Little Girl's room today, so I'll be back soon to show you pictures of that! 

Linking up to Hi Sugarplum and Thrifty Decor Chick!

Christmas 2013 Mantel

I'm so so so excited to share our fireplace mantel with you! It may not seem that exciting to you, but let me tell you, I'm ecstatic about it!

If you read this blog, I'm sure you've gleaned that we try to be very frugal. We will wait..and wait and wait and wait...to buy things until we have the cash saved and it makes sense in the priority order in our budget. I've had a vision in my head for years now of how I want our Christmas decor to look. Little by little, we've slowly purchased different elements to make that vision come to life...almost always on after Christmas sales where we scored some killer deals. One year was the star for the tree, another year was the beaded garland, another year was a giant box of silver ornaments, and so on.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, this year, all of the elements we've been collecting for the past few years came together and the vision I had in my head came to life. It's exactly what I wanted and was worth the wait!

I just love it! The antique window is by far my favorite part! We tried to make a window frame with super cheap wood last year, but the wood was too cheap and wouldn't cooperate. It kept splitting and ended up going in the trash. Lesson learned--don't be too cheap when buying lumber. :)

My friend Julie mentioned that I should check out a nearby antique shop and see if they had any window frames. She, my friend Amy and I met at the antique shop and found this awesome window! All of the glass was in tact and it was only $15! My sweet hubby spray painted it white for me to freshen it up because the paint job was pretty beat up. I plan to keep it up all year and change out the wreath according to the season. I love it!

I made the Christmas trees last year and stored them in a closet inside the house during the year. They held up really well! The boxwood wreath is from Trader Joes and was only $10! Thanks to Chelsea from Two Twenty One for posting about them on her Instagram feed! I've been wanting a boxwood wreath for years, but they are usually around $40! This will be an everyday wreath for in here, even after Christmas is over.

I found the stockings after Christmas at Kohl's last year. I love the cozy cable knit! They actually have an initial on them, but Kohl's only had a couple letters left and not the ones we needed. Since the letters aren't really our initials, I just turned them around. I wasn't too worried about the letters being correct because these are just for decoration. Jeremy's mom cross-stitched our names onto stockings and those are the sentimental ones that we use.

The vase with flowers is an after Christmas clearance steal from Pier 1 several years ago. The sparkly frame was a cheap Michael's find from last year. We picked up the garland where we bought our Christmas tree and added a strand of lights. I love twinkle lights!

So cozy! Love it!

Linking up to Ten June, Thrifty Decor Chick, and the Humble Brag Link Party!