Everyone is So Creative!

Happy Friday! It's been a really hectic week and next week is gearing up to be awful so I'm very excited to enjoy the weekend... 

Throughout the week as I've really enjoyed seeing every else's creativity here are some of my favorites...

Hungry Happenings  displayed this hysterical roach covered popcorn on Tip Junkie...they are chocolate so they only roaches I would tolerate and would be perfect for Halloween or April Fool's Day or pretty much any day if you have a little boy. :)

Me and My Boys featured this Birthday seat link up by Freshly Completed

This is adorable! I LOVE it! 

Burton Avenue displayed this adorable spider web garland on Southern Lovely. I love the detail of this!



Spider Cap! Yes Please!



And of course I love me some Pinterest....here are some of my favorites this week:

Polka Dot Cake?!? LOVE!

Grilled Swordfish

I love when my husband grills anything. It's his hidden (not anymore :) ) talent! He can cook just about anything and it's always delicious. Tonight we decided to grill swordfish and it was absolutely delicious so I had to share! Plus I love using my Savona Woodworks serving board. They make such beautiful and unique boards that are like little works of art. If you are interested you can check them out here: Savona Woodworks 

My husband and I  have this thing...I'll marinate or season and he'll grill and then we both get to share the credit!

Here's what I did (Not that much): 

Got Three Swordfish steaks and patted dry with a clean paper towel.

Brushed each side of the fish with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, lemon juice & Add a dash of salt and pepper. I have an obsession with garlic salt so I used that but regular salt would be fine too.

I topped each steak with a slice of lemon to place on the grill, the lemon slice not only looks super cool, the lemon juice cooks right into the meat and is SIMPLY delicious!

I let it marinade for about 30 minutes and then let Brian do his magic: He grilled on each side for 3-4 minutes and placed the lemon on the top each time he flipped. Brian's grilling tip of the day, don't rotate the meat too much, just once is fine. It keeps the meat tender and oh so yummy!

And because it was just so cute, I had to show you what Andrew was doing! Yes, we had to plate and serve the plastic vegetables too! So adorable!

Here are some other great things Savona Woodworks offers:

How cute is this little guy?

SERIOUSLY! I WANT ONE OF THESE!!!

Happy Fall!

It's no secret that I LOVE fall! I love the cooler weather, the colder nights when I can snuggle up in my blankets, the great comfort foods, the beautiful landscape and of course the holidays! Today, when I drove thru the Starbucks drive-thru I was happy to discover that my Pumpkin Spice Latte was back! Oh how I missed it! (Even if it is $4! ) I know it's not quite fall yet and the tempurature outside is still 100 degrees but the site of that drink on the menu made me want to start decorating for Halloween. My husband stopped me before I brought the boxes in from the garage but I was able to start my first Halloween craft of the year.

At a trip to Dollar Tree  (There is a new one by me and it's big and beautiful!) I found these great mini baking cups. They had spiders, ghosts and pumpkins and I needed all of them! I made three topiaries and painted the wooden dowels. I put them in a bucket that I already had and added fog (or cotton balls).

 I finished each flower off with a ribbon and the whole look off with a sticker that I got from Michaels!

Yeah!!! I love the holidays!

  

I Love Hair Bows!

I found this great towel rack a few months back in Target's dollar section for $2.50. I picked it up for my nieces since their bathroom is decorated in a monkey theme.

I loved the facial expressions of the monkeys. A few weeks ago I went over to  take my niece to school for family day a knew that towel rack needed to be transformed into a BOW HOLDER! My nieces have tons of adorable bows but they are in a large basket and it's very hard to find which one you are looking for without dumping the entire basket on the floor.

This is a great solution and it's very cute too. The best part...it was so simple to make!

Here are the Supplies I used.

1 - 1 Robe/Towel Rack

2 - 1 spool of ribbon, I used 1 1/2" thick ribbon

3 - Glue Gun

4 - Staple Gun (For Extra Support)

Step 1: Glue a strip of ribbon in the center of each monkey head, I was able to use the screw as a guide. I added a single staple to each of the ribbons for extra support, but make sure not skip the glue part or the ribbon will rip.

Step 2: I added a bow to each monkey...Afterall it is a bow holder and I thought it made the monkeys a little fancy.

Step 3: Add Some Bows & Hang!

Here's a few of the bows I made to add to her collection:

  

Nifty Thrifty

After a couple weeks without yard "sale"ing we were able to hit up a few this weekend. Although this weekend seemed like we got there just as someone else was taking the great bargin or find. I hate it when that happens! I wish I would never have known what I was missing. I did find a few great things! Here's a couple of items we picked up.

The first was these great candlestick holders ...breaking the bank at $1 each!

I loved the antique look of these calendars and as soon as I heard the price I knew I had to have them. Eventually I'll probably be cleaning them up a bit, but for now, I added cake plates to the three and created my very own three-tier stand which worked great to hold my husband's cookie birthday cake!

My next find was a whopping $10. This bench seat will be the perfet spot to store our shoe basket. We can just take a quick seat as we put them on! I don't have any white furniture and the cushion needs at least a good cleaning but the paneling matches my dining room table perfectly. I was very excited and was extra pleased when I found out it was of solid wood!

  

From Trash to Treasure

With summer just about over....the flies around us are insane! We live on old dairy farm land and the cows aren't that far away so it's been a constant battle to eat outside (and sometime inside, still teaching my little one the door does not stay open!) without sharing your meal with a few flying friends.

My sister lent me some food covers she had picked up at the dollar store, which has been great and allowed us to enjoy outdoor bbqing!  One small issue they are hideous! Some had plastic flowers, some had cheap little ribbons ... all were ugly!

I knew I had to do something about those flowers and since I'm obsessed with buttons and polka dots...I tore them off and replaced them with.... BUTTONS!

Awww...Much Better!

Happy 2nd Birthday To My Little Man - Part 5

Well after five days, this is the final post on my little man's birthday. I have to admit I'm a little sad to be done with this party. I had planned and crafted for so long and it just went by way too quickly. The good news is I've got two more birthdays to celebrate this weekend. Coincentenly my two favorite people were born on the same day!  

I'm a big believer in making sure that favors are age appropriate so when my husband built toolboxes for the goodie boxes I knew that the babies coming to the party wouldn't really go with the somewhat sharp edges so I found these great trucks at Michael's for $1.00. I filled the back with puffs for the little ones to enjoy and they were perfect.

For the older crew members we gave them a hand crafted toolbox (painted the colors of the party and topped off with measuring tape ribbon that I found on sale at Joann's. I loved these toolboxes so much and the fact my husband made them made them that more special. The hard hat tags were the same ones that I used for the food tags but these labels read "Thanks for joining my crew. I hope you DUG my party!"

As a last minute idea, to thank my amazing family for all of their help, I made them Drew's Crew t-shirts and hats that they wore to the party. I love the Avery Transfer Paper! I bought 4 x 6 sheets of it and it was perfect. I wasn't sure if the hats would work out but I was able to pick them up for 75 cents a piece at Michaels so I had to try. I got the adult shirts at Michaels too for $2.50 and the little girls shirts at Walmart for $2. This was my first time using the transfer paper and at first I didn't have the iron hot enough so make sure yours is turned all the way up. For lighter t-shirts they require that you flip your image prior to printing so keep that in mind. I wrapped the t-shirts up with a small tag and handed them out when my family came over for cake and ice-cream on his actual birthday! They were a hit!

As a final comment about the birthday, I'd like to thank my amazing family who over the past few months put in countless hours painting, sawing, crafting, baking and cleaning to get ready for the big day. I love you all! And I love how much you love my son!