Big News: Love of Character Hair Ties!

I'm so very excited to share my big news with you all! Sorry for the delay, my husband surprised me with a wonderful anniversary weekend (One Year - Woohoo!). Now that I'm back and have confirmed some details, I can tell you all one of my big business announcements: I will be selling my fabulous knotted hair ties at JLW's Holiday Galleria this coming weekend! The wonderful ladies of Milk + Honey Candles and Optimistic Elephant let me crash their booth and are going to be selling my hair ties. They have great items to sell, so I'm thrilled they let me join in.

Knotted hair ties are my favorite to pull up my hair and also to rock on my wrist - most of the time people think I'm wearing a great bracelet. I loved the idea of putting together my own combinations, and when I stumbled upon some gorgeous elastic, I decided now was the time to get this little side gig going. They are also perfect for my Little Box of Character business. I think I have some really fun packs of hair ties and I hope you agree - come purchase some! The packs include:

Starting from top left: Halloween Pack | Holiday Pack | Pineapple Pack | Lemon Twist Pack
Bottom from the left: Dance Pack | Princess Pack | Glamour Pack

You need to come check out the booth for the other items as well! Milk + Honey Candle Company has amazing smelling candles - I have one I burn in my bathroom when guests come over. Optimistic Elephant has great yoga items. I am in need of a new yoga mat, so I'm excited to check out what she will be offering. Thanks again ladies for letting me join in on the fun!

Photo via Milk + Honey Candle Company

Photo via Optimistic Elephant Facebook page

Now that I've told you what you can find at the booth, you're probably still wondering: "What is Holiday Galleria?" It's a wonderful fundraiser for The Junior League of Wichita, which is focused on the fight against child abuse - your ticket to shop goes towards an amazing cause! Here is the ticket information:

All of the events are wonderful and the general admission is a great way to just come shop! I have a lot of friends that put in a lot of work to make this weekend happen and I am excited to see how it all turns out. With that said, sorry if my posts will be a little M.I.A. this week. I'm extremely busy packaging up hair ties and will be down at HG to help out. Come and visit!

Lots of Love,

Adorable Kid Book & Fun Announcements Coming Soon!

Sorry for the week long delay in a post - I just got back from a business trip. It was great, but exhausting! In the next couple days I should be able to make a couple fun announcements about some business opportunities I'm going to be involved in, so check back and I will keep you all updated!

For now, I'm going to share an adorable book that I found while skimming Pinterest - it made my heart melt and I want to buy it just to look at. You can see more details on the writer's website: Mer Mag and you can purchase the book on Amazon.

Photos via Mer Mag

Hope that made you happy!

Lots of Love,

Olive Box in my Mailbox - September!

My September Olive Box came in the mail recently and oh la la! it had some fun items! Love getting that brown box in my mailbox...my birthday just keeps on coming!

Spoiler alert if you haven't gotten your box yet! Sharing the fun goods...

Do you spot one of my favorite artists in there...yes Rifle Paper Co. journals are in there and I'm obsessed with them! I had to take two pics to show you the two sides. The cards are fun and I will be sending those to some lucky and missed friends that live far far away! The stickers are a great way to seal an envelope and I got a whole pack of them.

As always, if you are interested in getting an Olive Box in your mailbox, click below:

Lots of Love,

Fireplace Tiles

When I was down in Florida a year ago (for the big wedding shindig!), I helped my Aunt Mary come up with a way to spruce up her fireplaces. We decided that to brighten up the room, she should paint her mantel and built-ins white (they were a medium color of wood) and that she needed to replace the tiles on both fireplaces. Pinterest was a great help for finding tile inspirations. When I came back down last spring, she was having the tile installed - I could tell I was going to love it! I was so excited to come back this past month, so I could see the total transformation. It did wonders and I'm in love with the final look...

Formal Living Room Fireplace...

Family Room Fireplace:

Photos via me

I love how she picked similar tile, but the different colors for each room.  The white also made a huge HUGE difference because it made the room brighter and more modern. I tried really hard to find a before picture because she didn't have any...this picture of my cousin and I from seriously 6+ years ago was the best I could do:

Ha, so ignore the people and check out the darker wood in the background - painting it white was such a nice change! The tile on the fireplace in the family room had leaf imprints and the one in the living room had white squares - both look more chic with the subway style tile. I love that seaglass subway tile in her family room and might figure out a way to incorporate it into our house somewhere. It is so chic and classic!

Lots of Love,

How To: Paper Art

Believe it or not, I still have projects from Florida to share! Seriously, we did so much while I was down there. This one is a simple craft project I helped my cousin Emily with. She wanted a cheap way to add some color to her apartment walls, so she asked me to help her with covering canvases with fun paper that worked with her furniture. It is seriously an easy project (if your stapler is nice to you!).

Materials:

• Canvas (however many you want & the size you want - we did 12x12)
• Fancy Paper (suggestions for my favorite places are below)
• Stapler & Staples - standard

The most expensive part of the project is most likely your sheets of fun paper, but those are only around $5.00 usually! For canvases, check out Michaels for their bulk packs, plus they usually have good coupons. 

How To:

• Cut your paper down to the size of your canvas, but leave enough room to wrap around the edges.
• Fold in the edges like you are wrapping a present - look at the corners below.
• Open up your stapler, so you can press it into the paper - make sure you press down really hard and avoid the canvas staples.

That's seriously it! So easy and I think they turned out cute:

I like mixing busy patterns with simple patterns - having the florals with the chevron & polka dots. Since my wonderful Aunt Mary is a paper hoarder (in the best possible way), the cost of this project was around $10 for the canvases. How cheap is that! If you want a more formal look, you can also frame your pretty paper like I did in our office.

Paper is from Paper Source - here is a similar print.

My favorite spots for gorgeous paper are as follows:

1. World Market | 2. Paper Source | 3. Paper Mojo | 4. Rifle Paper Co.

If you have a blank wall or some paper that you are loving, this is a great way to show it off. Get to it!

Lots of Love,

Little Box of Princess Character

I decided I had to share the contents of the Little Boxes that I put together for a special order! Baby Lillie (whose totally not a baby anymore, I'm just having a hard time accepting it!) needs birthday presents for upcoming birthday parties, so she put me to work! I was so excited to work on boxes for little girls because who doesn't love all things pink and pretty. I think they turned out really cute and I hope the little ladies all love them...

Box #1:

Box #2:

 Box #3:

 Box #4:

Photos & Boxes via me

I've loved doing these boxes for little kids to give as gifts for birthday parties and I have some fun goodies to use in them! If you are wanting something fun, unique and full of things to keep a child busy, then let me know. You can check out more information on my Little Box of Character page and you can also e-mail me at fortheloveofcharacter@gmail.com or Facebook message me on my page!

I even spiced these ones up with some fun trim:

Lots of Love,

Love a Good Welcome!

I can't believe I forgot to tell you all about the aMAZing welcome basket my Aunt Mary put together for me in the guestroom! She made it so personal and full of wonderful things - love it all. When you welcome your guest with something, it makes them feel that much more special. I wrote about what to have in guestrooms when I had guests come stay in our new guestroom for the first time. Well, she blew me out of the water, that's for sure!

What a welcome! Looks so fun - great way to display necessities and frills! The tray is from one of my favs, Social Manor.

Her packaging inspires me.

Great idea to tie ribbon around the towels and look at that adorable wrapping on my Starbucks card - presentation is perfection!

She even remembered fresh flowers, which she put in her adorable glitter vase she made.

My Aunt Mary is seriously the nicest, most thoughtful person! It means so much to me that she was so excited to have me come and wanted me to feel extra special. Hope this inspires you to welcome your guests with some gusto!

Side Note - look how adorable my cousins' babies are:

Lacy & Logan made quite the wonderful mess with their confetti pops I gave them!

Logan was very excited about his Little Box of Kid Character!

Lots of Love,