Party Crashing - Bachelorette Party in the Desert!

A couple months ago I shared these colorful invitation boxes for a friend's bachelorette weekend (find details here) and a couple weeks ago we finally had the fabulous party! Ryan, the bride-to-be, is getting married tomorrow, so I felt it was an appropriate time to share the adorable decorations from her last fling before the ring.

Ryan's little sister and MOH, Quinn, did an aMAZing job planning and getting setup for the weekend. We had so much fun and went to some fab places. The decorations were adorable and I already offered her a gig if she gets tired of nursing :) The flamingo ring game we spotted on Sugar & Cloth's Instagram and thought it would be perfect with some diamonds on the rings. Definitely something I'm going to keep in mind for the future. I loved her strands of pom poms she put with the glitter Bachelorette sign and her sparkly confetti was fun on the gift table. Also, her fiesta touches added the extra touches of color needed to decorate the rented house. Here is a list of the fun places we went over the weekend, in case you are wanting some fun ideas for your Scottsdale Bachelorette Parties:

The koozies and sash were actually designed and drawn out by me. I have some more of the koozies that I will be posting in the shop soon and I'm also going to have a custom option available. The sash, I worked on with a friend who is a graphic designer with mad printing skills. Firming up a couple details and then we will also get those added to the shop!

It was such a fun weekend and I cannot wait to celebrate the big day tomorrow! Ryan and I have known each other since 2nd grade and I'm so happy she found the love of her life. How did we grow up so fast!? Had to share a couple funny kid pictures before sharing the fun bachelorette all grown up!

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

Cheers & Lots of Love,

Holiday Hosting

This past Monday night, Dustin and I hosted a small dinner party for a few friends. We wanted to do something small to celebrate the holidays and quite frankly, I had some great dishes I wanted to use! Ha, it's the truth. Last year my mother gave me the Juliska Holiday Plate set from The Plaid Giraffe and they were screaming from my cabinet "use me!"

Since the set only comes with four plates, I mixed in other salad plates that I received last year and adore. Plus, we had 11 people and I only have eight dinner plates, so some of the place settings used a pottery dinner plate (which Dustin assured me the guys would appreciate more anyways).

Honestly, I loved having the different mixing and matching on the table! To avoid people fighting over who to sit by (ok, fighting is dramatic, more like awkwardly deciding), I took an idea from the wonderful Sugar and Cloth for ribbon candy place cards. I didn't have time to hand paint them, but used a brush stroke Sharpie to give them a more relaxed feel. I love ribbon candy, but never know what to do with it, so this was perfect.

The best part about holiday hosting, is that you get to show off the Christmas decorations you work so hard to put up! Plus, your house is already decorated and you don't have to stress about making things besides your table look pretty. This year we went with a live tree and fresh garland - my new favorite. I love the smells and quite frankly, you can find pretty reasonable deals on things if you shop around. We purchased our fresh greenery and tree from Dillons (thank you to our friend, Jake, for picking up the tree with his truck!). For ornaments, I used the Radko ornaments my mother gave me from our childhood, as well as some vintage small ones I found on eBay. Lights, we love to mix and match for a festive effect.  On the greenery, we scored some amazing vintage ornaments from a little shop down the road, The Uncommon Market. Stockings are from my childhood and Santa was scored in my friend Hailey's small town at an adorable drug store, Clark Pharmacy.

In case you are wondering, what we feasted on, here is the menu. Since we were cooking for 11 people, we wanted to keep it simple. I also had help from the guests, which was so very nice of them! Hailey made the salad, Rachel made the sugar cookies, Ashley & Amy both brought the necessity - wine, and Anne made a festive sangria. Best guests ever!

To make you really hungry (and thirsty), here are some pictures...

Overall, it was a great Monday night - who knew Mondays would be so perfect for hosting? Most people are around and you get Sunday to prep. Plus, people love to have something to look forward to on a Monday. I wish we could have hosted a lot more friends, but that's the tricky thing about dinner parties. Luckily, we figured out how to put the extra leaves in the table! Maybe in a future house, we can have a giant dining room with a big table to host twenty...and then maybe I'll be able to afford a caterer :)

Amy, Hailey, Rachel, me, Ashley and Anne - fabulous dinner guests!

Hopefully you enjoyed all of our holiday details rolled up into one large post. Most importantly, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful time celebrating wherever you are and do somethings festive and kind!

Shopping details:
Dishes (Annie Glass, Anna Weatherly & Juliska) - The Plaid Giraffe
Striped Napkins - Kate Spade
White Napkins & Napkin Rings - The Plaid Giraffe
MacKenzie Platters - The Plaid Giraffe
Dresser - Pottery Barn Kids

Lots of Love,

Party Crashing: Art Party!

When you are 8 years old, your birthday is the highlight of your year. You work hard to come up with a theme that defines some part of your character and you want it to be fun! I was lucky enough to work with one of these 8 year old girls to come up with her party favors or party takeaways as her mother likes to call them. The best part? She had an art party! I always loved having arts and crafts at my parties (still do!).  My goal, make pink boxes full of art supplies that were girly and had a touch of bling.

The party sounds like it was a success and the party goers were adorable. The boxes were filled with a miniature art canvas, paints, art apron, hair tie and plastic paint can filled with M&Ms, topped off with a art lollipop.

Happy birthday Annaston! So glad you party was fun and the takeaways were a success!

Needing party favors for your upcoming event? Make sure to contact us!

Lots of Love,

Kitchen Island Reveal!

I remember looking through our house during a showing and telling our realtor that this kitchen was screaming for a kitchen island. It is a large kitchen for our neighborhood - which was definitely a selling point - and there was a big open space in the middle. The way the cabinets lined the walls and doorway placements, it seemed awkward to have a kitchen table. Plus, storage and counter space were definitely still a need. For entertaining, we hated that our guests had no where to sit while we prepped food (or as my friends are probably thinking, Mary rarely cooks, she needs a place to sit while others make the food!). Here is a look of the before, right when we bought the house:

Definitely dark and needing some life. Our first makeover, seen here, focused on getting the cabinets and walls painted to lighten up the space. Then after a couple years of back and forth on how we wanted to do the island, we finally decided to tackle the project ourselves! We wanted it to be a permanent structure, not a cart, and for it to have a lot of storage. Budget was also important and why we decided to do most of it ourselves (with the help of Dustin's dad - the best!). Find the details of cabinet purchases and mounting here and here. Since we saved money going with unfinished cabinets, we were able to splurge on the Cambria Torquay Quartz countertop I'd been dreaming of. The countertop details can be found here. We wanted an island that looked finished, pretty and had the touch of character we love so much. To finish up the island after our last updates, Dustin and his dad added the corner pieces and put trims along the floor. We purchased them at hardware stores and had to make sure they were the correct size for our look. Definitely wasn't the easiest project we have done and it took some time, but in the end, we couldn't be happier with the results!

It completes our kitchen. I honestly can't remember what it was like not having the island in the middle of the room. The many months of having unfinished cabinets in our way, painting the cabinets, waiting on the countertop, etc. were totally worth it. We are in love and have enjoyed prepping meals with our new space and eating together in the kitchen. I am happy with the choices we made and how they mesh with the rest of the kitchen. One day down the road we will probably update the other countertops and add a back splash, but for now we are very content and happy with our space. Now we just need to have some people over, so we can entertain! Maybe I can convince one my friends to teach us how to cook something delicious or have my grandma teach my friends how to make pies! I feel a Love of Character workshop in the making...

Couple extras, I wanted to share what I like to use to quickly clean up our kitchen space. For the safety of your countertops, you want to find an all purpose cleaner that is safe for your specific material and that smells clean. Since our other countertops are granite, I use granite safe cleaners. The smell of the JR Watkins All Purpose Lemon Cleaner is perfect. Extra touch, light up a favorite candle. Mine currently for the kitchen is the Voluspa Prosecco Bellini candle - who doesn't love the smell of brunch bubbly? I also wanted to share that Teddy got a dish upgrade to go with our new kitchen space - didn't want him to feel left out.

Special shout out to Dustin and my father-in-law for all of their hard work on this project. They made it happen and did a beautiful job with the finishing touches. It looks like a custom island built perfectly to fit our kitchen - and fitting a kitchen with uneven floors is no easy task!

Shop this post:

JR Watkins All Purpose Cleaner | H&M Faux Marble Bowls | Serena & Lily Chevron Stools | Urban Outfitters Rug | Voluspa Prosecco Bellini Candle

Lots of Love,