Hot Cocoa Bar

Last month I had the extreme honor of hosting a personal shower for one of my dearest friends, Lindsay! Around the time I was starting to plan the shower, I noticed different hot cocoa bars circulating on Pinterest and thought that would be such a fun setup since the shower would be in December. For the spread, I offered a couple different flavors of hot cocoa, a variety of toppings, and a mix of cookies and cupcakes. My Keurig was setup near the table so the guests had quick access to hot water. They aren't pictured below, but I used craft twine to attach tags with each guest's name on each mug so they wouldn't get mixed up throughout the night. Overall, it was a hit! If you're ever planning a party/shower/event during the winter months, I highly suggest having a hot cocoa bar! It's an easy, affordable, fun treat for your guests and there are so many creative ways you can set one up (just search hot cocoa bar on Pinterest). Enjoy the pics!

You still have January and February of this year to try out your own hot cocoa bar! I'd love to hear/see your ideas! Thanks for stopping by!

"J-O-Y" to the World {pt. 3 | Christmas Decor '13}

In the 3rd installment of my "Christmas Decor '13" blog series (here are pt. 1 & pt. 2), I'm featuring one of my favorite Christmas DIY projects, a "J-O-Y" display. We recently moved my great grandmother's piano into our house, and I remembered something I had pinned on Pinterest that came from this blog that inspired me to make this display for it. 

Target had the perfect wreath to be the "O" and anchor for this display, and thankfully Hobby Lobby had the perfect sized wooden letters for the "J" & "Y". To differentiate the two wooden letters, I wrapped the "J" in cream-colored yarn and stained the "Y" with left-over stain used on the crown-molding of our house. To complete the display, I added a red tablecloth, burlap runner, gold tinsel, and a couple of sparkly red decorative boxes. I was happy with how it turned out and am already thinking of different ways I can display "J-O-Y" in our home for Christmases to come! 

I have about two more posts to go in this series, so stay tuned! I wish you the best in your last few days leading up to Christmas! I'm having to remind myself to make time to stop, breathe, and remember the true meaning of Christmas! Have a blessed weekend!

Suitcase Surprise {pt. 1 | Christmas Decor '13}

Over the next few days I'll be featuring some of our Christmas home decor! Reed and I are loving our first married Christmas season together. We were so excited to get our first Christmas tree that we bought one and had it decorated before Thanksgiving (I may or may not have teared up in Target when we found the Christmas tree)! After that, I was quickly inspired to decorate the rest of our house, which you'll see in later posts - so stay tuned!

This wall is located to the right of our fireplace.The clock, shelved "E" (a handmade wedding present from one of my best friends, Katie) , mustard vase & black chest stay up year-round at our house. Updating this area for Christmas was actually pretty simple! I swapped out the florals for something  more seasonally appropriate and festive and created a "Christmas suitcase" to take the place of the "robins egg blue" suitcase that we normally have displayed. The chevron runner (one of many from our wedding) was the perfect color combination and pattern to bring this space together!

Both the mustard vase and these florals came from Hobby Lobby. I love the variety of color, texture, and dimension in this Christmas/winter floral arrangement.  Oh, and I'm grateful that Hobby Lobby features their floral stems for 50% off every other week, although these floral stems fell under the "Christmas" category, so they've been 50% off every week recently! 

I was inspired to create this suitcase after doing something similar for our wedding (we used a larger suitcase with wooden letters spelling out "CARDS" displayed on our gift table). The red suitcase is from Hobby Lobby, as are the wooden letters and gold spray paint I used for the letters. I hot-glued the letters to some craft twine and hot-glued the ends of the craft twine to the insides on the suitcase. Even after Christmas is over, I can simply close the suitcase and display it somewhere else in my house instead of storing it away with the other Christmas decorations. 

Filling the suitcase was my favorite part of this creation! The majority of the "filler" came from Target. The red and neutral pieces are used year-round in other bowls/vases throughout the house. The "E" and "wooden/gold sparkly star" are ornaments I bought individually at Target - these pieces helped break up the monotony of the round decorative balls and ornaments, as did the "snow-covered pine cones" which came from Target as well. 

Thanks for stopping by! If this post provided your with any inspiration and/or helped you create something special for your home or a gift for a friend, I'd love to hear about it, see your creation and feature it on my blog! Feel free to email me at laelewing@live.com.

50th Birthday Party

Both of my parents turned "50" this month - for my mom, it's TODAY! :) In honor of this milestone in their lives, I wanted to throw them a joint celebration with all of our family. Naturally, I turned to Pinterest for ideas...

One of my favorite ideas was creating a poster commemorating the year they were born, which in their case was 1963. The poster was more than a decoration though - it proved useful for a game we played later in the evening that involved trivia about the year 1963. Those that paid attention to the poster definitely had an advantage! 

Another Pinterest idea I had fun executing was the floral "50" inspired by this pin. I photographed my own execution of this project and plan to blog about it soon! What I loved about this craft is that it not only anchored the theme of the decor, but it was also a souvenir that my parents got to take home after the party! 

The party favors ("the 50s are HOT!") were another Pinterest-inspired idea - Hot Tamales! :)

One idea that I came up with last minute was to have all the guests write down "advice for turning 50" or a short message to my parents. We photographed each person &/or couple holding up their sign so I can compile them to give to my parents later on. Here are a few of my favorites...

Happy birthday, Mom & Dad! I'm incredibly blessed to have you as my parents! I love you! :)

Thanks for reading! If you ever have a 50th birthday party to plan or know someone else who will, I hope this post will provide some inspiration! 

Chevron in the U.S.A.

My best friend Katie and I have a tradition of making each other creative gifts for our birthdays. Our friendship has spanned over ten years, so coming up with new ideas every year can be somewhat of a challenge! I'm sure the countless hours I've poured over Pinterest since it's inception subconsciously played a part in this year's creation, although I don't recall a specific pin inspiring it.

During a recent trip down memory lane - aka Facebook photos - I was quickly reminded of how many amazing trips Katie and I have been blessed to experience together. Our entire class got to visit Washington D.C. in 6th grade, and six years later we headed back East to Boston for our Senior Trip. Extracurriculars like choir, sports, and our favorite - shopping - have led us to Memphis, Colorado Springs, Joplin and Dallas over the years. 

In an attempt to create something to commemorate all of our travels, I finally came up with this ...

I found this chevron pattern printable template to be helpful in tracing the chevron print I used on the canvas. The cute pink push pins are from Target, and I included the leftovers in her overall gift (along with this fun notepad) in hopes that we can add more to the canvas in the coming years! :) 

Do you ever make gifts for your friends' birthdays? If so, I'd love to hear your ideas, so please leave a comment below! Thanks for reading! 

-Lael

Dallas, 2011

Boston, 2008