Happy NYE!!

We are preparing for New Years Eve over here and as usual when I throw a party, I get a bit carried away. We are only hosting a small crowd tonight but I am so excited to pop a few bottles of bubbly and reminisce about the most amazing year EVER!

Seriously, it has been quite the year. Moved from being a contractor to an employee at my job, planned a wedding, Joe graduated and we became Mr and Mrs!! Dear 2015, you cannot top 2014! However,  we are really looking forward to focusing on our careers, settling further into married life and having a more "normal" year.

I have an obsession with glitter so naturally, I chose gold and silver as my color theme with pops of black and white. It is pretty easy to find decor in these colors at stores like Target if you don't have time to hand make many things.

Decor Ideas:

- Gold Glitter Spray
- Spray-painted Beer Bottle
- Framed Printables
- Printables for Champagne Bottles
- Paper Straws
- Gold Charger for Appetizers

One other little detail that I am pumped about is Crate and Barrel's Fortune Cards. There are 12 in a box and each has a pull tab with a New Year fortune inside. Each guest will get to pull one of these at some point in the evening.

Cheers to 2014 being a wonderful year and cheers to 2015 being even better!!

DIY Ornament Box

As Christmas holidays come to an end that means taking down the tinsel, wreaths, lights, decor, and of course the tree.  It's a sad day when the decorations go back to their respective boxes.  But I do get a sense of relief in having my home go back to normal, and the organization freak in me loves packing it all up neatly again.

It's that love of organization that made me create some ornament boxes.  As the years go on, my ornaments have overflowed from the previous box so I needed some additional ones.  I chose to stick with shoe boxes so that I could pack them into larger storage bins.  A plain shoe box is too boring so to jazz it up just wrap it in left over Christmas wrapping paper.  It's cheaper than buying a small storage container; plus using paper you've used to wrap presents adds some sentimentality.  And unlike a clear container where you can peek at the contents, the shoe box adds that element of anticipation since you're not sure what ornament you'll be pulling out next.

Great to make for your family, with each member having their own box.  Then come Christmas each member gets to dig and sort through their box to hang their favorite ornaments.  I have loved that my mom did this for us and whenever Christmas rolls around I can't wait to pull out my ornament box for our tree decorating tradition.

The boxes are easy to make and all you need for materials are:
-a shoe box
-wrapping paper
-scissors
-clear tape 

Then to assemble wrap the box and box lid separately in the paper like you'd wrap a present.  And even though you thought you were finally done wrapping presents til next year, it's worth it. 
*Note: If you choose a box with the cover attached (like my red wrapped box) it's a little trickier and will call for some additional snipping and folding, but still doable.  

Easy and fun to make this diy project will organize your holiday decorations and help preserve some great memories.

Pizza Bites

This week officially starts the holiday madness for me. Holiday parties are a blast but one must always be prepared to bring an appetizer or dish to share. If you are in need of ideas, below are the links to a few of my favorite appetizers and mini desserts from this past year:

• Homemade Mozzarella Sticks
• Mini Apple Pies
• Caprese Sticks with Bacon
• Strawberry Cheesecake Cups
• Nutterbutter Reindeer

Another one that I just tried this past weekend with my sister was pizza bites. I would suggest bringing these to a party because you will want to eat them all by yourself. However, besides the taste, the thing that I liked most about these is that they look about 5 minutes to put together. So simple and easy!!

Pizza Bites

Ingredients:
- 2 Cans of crescent roll dough
- 8 Mozzarella sticks
- 1 Package of pepperoni
- 1 Can of marinara sauce

Directions:
1. Unroll the dough and cut all mozzarella sticks in half. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Place mozzarella and three or four pieces of pepperoni and crescent triangle and roll up.
3. Place onto pan and continue until all pieces are done. Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until the crescent roll is golden brown on the outside.
4. Put onto a serving plate along with the marinara dipping sauce.

Memory Ornament Ideas

Wedding Invitation Ornaments 

Turn your wedding invite into a decoration by putting it into a bulb that you can hang on your Christmas tree.  A lot of people will frame their wedding invitation, but this is another great way to commemorate your big day.  Whether you make it for yourself, a friend, or family it's a great option for all those invitations you accumulate.

Read Lisa's post DIY "Marry" Christmas Ornaments for instructions on making these!

 The picture is the invitation ornament I made from mine and Dave's wedding.  I added the blue gems to the ornament since I had those in every one of my centerpieces at the wedding and thought it was a great way to incorporate our wedding colors.  In addition to the invitation I cut into strips, I added ribbon that we used both on our invitations and centerpieces both in the bulb and to hang it on the tree
.
Saving the Bouquet / Engagement Bulb

Lisa's DIY Wedding Ornaments talks about ideas on ways to preserve your wedding memories every Christmas.  She'll walk you through using flower petals from your engagement and wedding bouquet in ornaments to represent your big days every year!

Picture Ornaments

There are so many options that you can do with this idea.  You could make a bulb every year and choose one photo that summarizes the best thing, whether it be a vacation, family outing, birth, engagement, wedding, graduation, I mean the list seems endless.

Depending on the time in your life, it will guide your ornament making.  For example, right now people my age are getting engaged, married, honeymoons, having their first child, and first home.  Lots of firsts.  So these are a thoughtful and money savvy way to show your support for the couple as they go through their BIG life changes.

For more details on this specific ornament check out my post on "PicturePerfect Ornaments" under the Craft Corner Tab, posted on December 27, 2013.



Map Ornaments

A creative option to turn a fun memory into an ornament is to do so by cutting up a map of the location.  Whether it's where you and your spouse met, a honeymoon locale, vacation, study abroad city, etc you have countless opportunities to memorialize your experiences.

Good options for small cheap gifts, and not time intensive either. You can use an old Atlas or city maps you may have used to navigate.  Also, could go for an updated version instead of vintage look by printing a map off Google. A plus for using Google Maps is the location arrow designating exactly where the event or memory took place.  Options, options, options. Do what you think looks best while considering the resources you have at your disposable.


Graduation Tassel Ornaments
 
Graduation, the big day everyone spends years working towards is finally there.  Once you don the cap and gown, walk across the stage for your diploma, and throw your cap high in the air, those items usually get stuffed in your closet.  Yeah some hang the tassels with their high school colors from the rear view mirror before heading off to college, but soon those too are stuffed in a box.  Same goes for your college graduation paraphernalia.  The newest and super easy way to honor your success and the memories of those school days, is by making an ornament with your tassels.  This way you can bring them out once a year at Christmas to serve as a reminder of those times. Plus, you could make it to hang somewhere at your graduation party if you'd like. It's an ornament anyone could make!

Check out my post on how to make a "Graduation Tassel Ornament" under Craft Corner from May 16, 2014.