Easy and cute holiday cards

I always enjoy making cards for my loved ones at the holidays but boy does it take a lot of time! Last year I decided to make digital cards and couldn’t have been happier. I was able to get 50 cards with envelopes and four mini calendar cards for $9.99 through Costco! Currently they are $14.99 for a set of 50, 6 x 7.5” in size. You can create larger ones and more elaborate ones if you like.  I couldn’t believe how cute the designs were! I highly recommend making them there if you are looking for an easy and affordable Christmas card. Below are the cards I made last year. I need to figure out what to do this year as I haven’t found the “perfect” picture. I had an amazing idea for a photo but the idea got shot down by someone…
                        

                          
What do you do for your holiday cards? Hand make them, digitally make them or just by generic cards?

Recipe Review: Crispy Chicken

I remember my mom making this crispy chicken I always loved because it was so moist and I loved the crispy coating. I recently came across a similar recipe from Real Simple and it pushed me to make it. One trick I remember from my mom making it was using a stoneware piece. I recently got a stoneware platter from a friend who sells pampered chef. I haven’t used it as much as I should but it is great for making pizza and chicken. I know with the chicken it makes it a lot juicier. The recipe calls for crushed multigrain cereal flakes (I used corn flakes as that’s my moms recipe) and it is delicious! I highly suggest trying this recipe out, especially if you have picky eaters!

Ingredients

• 1 3 1/2-pound chicken, cut into 10 pieces and skin removed
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 cups multigrain cereal flakes, crushed
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• kosher salt and black pepper

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400° F. In a large bowl, toss the chicken and mustard to coat.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the cereal, 1 tablespoon of the oil, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Coat the chicken with the cereal mixture and bake on a baking sheet until golden and cooked through, 45 to 50 minutes. This time varies greatly if you chicken is frozen or thawed and how big the pieces are. I cooked my thawed small pieces for 30 minutes and it was a tad too long.

Recipe from Real Simple

Inbox out of control?

My personal inbox has been out of control for along time now. I continued to sign up for things wanting to be in the know, receive coupons, follow blogs/websites, etc. As you can imagine, it soon became way to overwhelming as I had 5,000 emails in my inbox. Often times I would briefly see it and not have time or the interest to thoroughly look at it, so they kept accumulated. I recently read about an amazing program called unroll.me. I do not remember where I initially heard the concept, but forgot to do it then and just revisited it. Essentially, it connects to your email, finds all your subscriptions( I had over 200) and then allows you to add them to your rollup, keep receiving by themselves in the regular format you are use to, or unsubscribe from them in one click. Daily you will receive a digest (called a rollup) of all of these subscriptions, instead of clogging up your email with 50 sale notifications at all your favorite stores. I was able to QUICKLY go through and identify things I no longer cared about (or really hadn’t subscribed to) and click unsubscribe and it was done. Then I added most my subscriptions to my rollup. Some emails were important enough that I wanted to keep them separate and to continue receiving them by themselves.


As you go through it, I love that it gives you a visual of what the email is. If you are interested you click on the image and it opens up the full email. From this rollup, you can easily unsubscribe, stop including it in your roll up and categorize it.


This is a game changer. I can’t wait to start living in a simplified world with my email. Now, if I could just get my client emails this organized and to the point…

PS I was not paid to post about this I just thought it was an amazing tool that others would find useful!

1920’s Flapper Costume

                     
I have always wanted to dress up as a flapper for Halloween. This year I neglected to buy a costume and was just going to wear something from a year before. I was lazy and didn’t want to drive across town to my parents so I threw together a flapper costume for a last minute party I attended. It was super easy! First I looked up flapper costumes and descriptions to make sure I had a clear idea in my head. The standard costume is the fairly shorter red or black fringe dress, but I actually read that oftentimes the dress was below the knee and above the calf. I found a perfect dress hidden in my closet that I haven’t worn in years and it was just right. I grabbed a long pearl necklace I had, looped it around my neck and knotted it at the bottom. The only fishnets I had were thigh highs and they never stay up so I went with  fun kinda lacy nylons with patent leather mary jane small heels. I used hot rollers to curl my hair, but I did see this cute tutorial on how you can do the classic bob when you have long hair!  For my makeup I did a semi dark smoky eye with lots of mascara and the reddest lip gloss I could find. I really wanted a super red lipstick but when I searched, I could not find one at my house. Now for the fun part! I made the feather headband/headpiece and it was super easy! I went to the fabric store and picked up black sequin stretchy trim material, measured it around my head making sure it was tight and had them cut it. Then I really scored when I was looking for feathers, I was going to just get one large feather but they had a huge assortment! I was able to get a clump of feathers already on a clip for $3.99! I had never been to this store before so I didn’t know how much they would really have. I highly suggest the Mill End Fabric Store if you are in the Portland area. Then at home I hand stitched the piece of stretchy sequin material together to make the head band. Anyone can do this, its easier than sewing a button. So all in all, I put together an adorable outfit for $5.11! I’m use to spending at least $50 on a costume and I hate it, so I was just thrilled with this!


                    

Hope you had a wonderful time celebrating Halloween!

Adorable Nurseries

A very close friend of mine is about to have a baby. She did an amazing job designing the baby room, everything is so cute! With all the baby talk, I have started looking at the design of nurseries. I love the more sophisticated design and not the super cheesy primary colored spaces. Here are some nurseries I am loving!


Very Rosenberry


All Women Stalk

Traditional Home (Guilliana and Bill Rancic’s nursery for Duke)

Sadly the link to this photo does not go to the correct site. Does anyone know where this image originally came from? I would love to properly cite it.


All Women Stalk


I Heart Organizing

The Zhush

Michaela Noelle Designs

Which nursery do you like the best?

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween by kjpeterson8 featuring holiday decorations

Pumpkin and Halloween Decorating

Decorating the house for the holidays is always fun! A lot of decorations can be a bit cheesy though so I wanted to create a look that wasn’t too cheesy or creepy. I really don’t like carving pumpkins so after a bit of inspiration {previous post} I decided to paint my pumpkins with gold polka dots. It was super simple, I washed the pumpkin, then had to remove some of the stem as I picked them from the pumpkin patch and then used a gold sharpie paint pen to paint polka dots of various sizes directly on the pumpkin. Note to others, do not ask your boyfriend/husband/significant other to help remove any extra large stems as they may decide to use an angle grinder and chop nearly the whole thing off (luckily not my fingers!)




                     


In the above photo, I used a picture of some pumpkins I took a few years back and did some  photoshop editing to create the look I wanted, printed out and framed. Then in the white frame I printed out a Halloween subway art printable I found last year. Sorry, I’m not sure the source right now, but there are lots available via pinterest.

In case you missed my previous post, check out the adorable burlap stenciled Halloween sign I made. Happy decorating!

Color Series: Orange

This color series I am featuring orange as it is halloween (AKA orange) month! Some of you may be over the pantone color of the year 2012 tangerine tango or orange as the plain folk call it. But I am not! I absolutely love the bright color and think it can be used as a main or accent color in many spaces. Check out these spaces that use orange and let me know if you love it or hate it. In case you missed the first of the color series check out Gold Love here.

The Hills are Livin

The Zhush

Better Homes and Gardens

Belle Maison

Mix and Chic

Comfy Cozy Couture

Live.Like.You

Burlap Flag Halloween Sign

Update: I just came across this amazing tutorial on making a reversible banner so you can use it for two holidays! Score! The next banner I make will definitely be done this way since it is so practical.

Burlap is cheap, only if you buy it by the yard and not in pre-cut pieces. The craft stores are smart and have seen the burlap trend catch on so they sell smaller pieces ready to go with a hefty upcharge. When I went to Joann’s the burlap I choose was under $4 a yard and I had a 40% off coupon I used. I purchased 2 years with an intent to use it for some other projects.
What you need:
1 yard of burlap
a small paintbrush
acrylic paint
twine, rope, ribbon, cord, etc.
Letter stencils of a size that works with the size of flag you are making
scissors
a piece of paper, pen and ruler ( or a computer and printer)
paper bags or something to cover your work surface

First, draw or make on the computer a flag shape on an 8 1/2 x 11” sheet of paper to create a template. You can do whatever size you like but this is what I did mine on. My printer is not currently working so I just measured the mid point of the 8 1/2” size and used a ruler to draw up to the opposing corners and cut, pretty easy. Use this template piece to cut out your flags on the burlap. I am a perfectionist by nature but I have learned to let it go on a lot of things. This is one, the flags will not all be perfect in size and have straight cuts. Its really note a big deal to have these little flaws especially on burlap.
Next, cover your work surface with paper bags or something so you don’t get paint all over. Decide on the location you want your letters to go and keep this consistent across every flag. I used a magazine (couldn’t find a ruler during this step) to create a line from the bottom of the letter to the next flag to determine placement. Holding your stencil over the burlap, apply the paint in a tapping or stippling motion, being careful to hold the edges tight. I was a little worried while I was doing this as I couldn’t see the clear stencils very well and I didn’t tape the stencils down so edges would lift up. Mine still turned out pretty perfect (shocking for me!). Now lay them out to dry. Feel free to play with the amount of paint you use. Doing lighter and darker spots would create more of a printed or stamped look. Or try doing it light all over to give a more aged look. I would suggest washing each stencil right away so you remove any signs of paint. I waited until I had done four and it was a pain to remove it, at least on the type of stencils I had. I would also suggest purchasing stencils that are any color other than clear. The clear against the burlap was very hard to see when you were trying to apply the paint.


Once the paint is dry you can gather up your flags and whatever material you are using to string the sign. I used a twine I found in the beads section at Michaels, that they referred to as cord. I didn’t have a big enough needle to thread the twine through so I just poked the needle through the burlap to create a wider hole to put the twine through. As you are doing this, make sure you are consistent in the placement of the holes on each flag.Thread the entire flag. My twine began unwinding so I dipped it in a bit of melted wax from a candle to make my own needle out of it and it worked so much better. When you are done, find a fabulous place to hang your new sign!







Think of all the things you can make these signs for:

• baby announcement/showers/births
• nurseries and Children's rooms
• everyday home décor
• other holidays
• weddings, showers and bachelorette parties
• parties or events
• lemonade stands
• Your child's play areas (theater, grocery store, restaurant, whatever else)

What have you been making with burlap lately? I would love to hear some other ideas!

Decorating Pumpkins

I don’t know about you but I do not enjoy carving pumpkins. I mean who really wants to deal with that cold, gooey mess? Not me. I found some inspiration for decorating my pumpkins this year without having to carve them!
Studded pumpkins

Small Shop Studio

PaperLili

Washi Tape Pumpkins

I Heart Nap Time   

 Babble
Chevron pumpkins

My Sweet Savannah
Spots and Dots

Brown Eyed Girly Girl


Think Crafts

Monogram pumpkin

The Butlers

Glitter Pumpkins-this is actually epsom salt!

Davis Day By Day

Now I will have to figure out how I am going to decorate my pumpkins without carving them!