What I Heart Today: Easy, Inexpensive Fourth of July Decorations

In case you missed Friday's post, check it out to view my recommendation for Fourth of July invitations.

Now on to more! Today let's talk about some easy, inexpensive ways to decorate for your Fourth of July party. I'm not usually a huge fan of the traditional red, white and blue but this year I'm going for it. But as an alternative you could consider aqua, red and white which is what I used last year.

Here's what I've got on the agenda for this Fourth of July:

1) Gorgeous and simple dressed up white lanterns from Martha Stewart.

 

2) I'll be mixing in some of these fun rockets made from toilet paper rolls, scrapbook paper, and ribbon.

 

3) Where would we be without Martha? Another idea I'm borrowing from her, clip art paper wrapped cans for utensils.

 

 

4) A gorgeous table setting (original pics found here and here). Similar fabrics can be found inexpensively here and here.

 5) Love the look of these red lanterns, I found a red lantern that will give a similar look at Party City for $10.99.

 

6) And last but not least we'll have our patriotic straws!

Would love to know what types of fun parties you have planned for the Fourth of July, what are your decorating ideas?

What I Heart Today: 4th of July Invitations

Call me old fashioned but I still love to send out invitations for all of my events. It drives my husband crazy, "can't you just send an e-vite?" "have you met me before?" I always answer. It's the party planner in me.

We're getting ready to host our annual 4th of July party and I thought I would share with you the invites that were in the running and the one I finally chose. There's still time for you to get your invite out too!

I ended up going with the last one "We want you to BBQ" free from Brooklyn Limestone, so far our guests have really enjoyed them.

Come back Monday and Wednesday when I'll be sharing decoration and food ideas for your 4th of July party.

 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

What I Heart Today: Washi Tape

 
Just placed my first order for washi tape! I've seen it all over Pinterest but haven't yet had a use for it.  But after reading this post over at 6th Street Design School I've been inspired to use it for my Fourth of July Party (more to come on that). I purchased my tape from cutetape.com recommended in Kirsten's post, what adorable stuff they have! Go over and check it out.

What I Heart Today: 5 Deck Chairs for Under $100 and one for $200 Just for Fun

Exciting news, we are planning a big deck remodel for this summer. We're not getting a new deck but completely redoing the one we have and getting new furniture and accessories. We're on a tight budget so I've been scouring the web for great deck chairs under $100, and 1 for $200 that I just love, can you guess which one it is?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

What I Heart Today: More Vacay

Getting ready for a special trip :) Going to be offline for a week or so. Will have lots of fun stories when I return!

What I Heart Today: My Weight Loss Journey

Since I share a little bit of everything on this blog I thought I would start a series sharing my weight loss journey with you, I hope at least one person out there can relate with this series.

I just had a baby 3 months ago, let me repeat that, I just had a baby 3 months ago. I use that as an excuse a lot, but the truth is after all the baby weight went away I was still left with an extra 30 pounds that I didn't have before I got pregnant. Add that to the fact that I was overweight before I got pregnant and I get to where I am right now. Way too overweight.

It's really hard to share this kind of personal information with the world but I'm hoping that sharing it will keep me more accountable along my journey.  My journey started about 6 weeks ago and since then I have lost 6 pounds. Not bad but I've got way more to lose so I'm stepping things up a bit. At first I was avoiding all flour and added sugar. Now I've moved on to no flour or sugar and in addition I'm drinking a protein shake and green smoothie for breakfast, a protein shake and 2 servings of light string cheese with a handful of almonds for lunch, and a sensible dinner. I'm on day 2 and so far, so good. For exercise, I'm walking about 2 miles with my sister-in-law twice a week and in May I'm also going to start Stroller Strides.

Here's the tough news. I want to lose 77 more pounds. Yikes! Can't believe I just admitted that. I want to be around the same weight I was in high school, haven't seen it since high school!

I'm still too embarrased to share a before photo but plan on sharing a before and after when I get to my goal weight. That will probably take me about a year. So here we go, join me on my journey.

Anyone else want to come along?

What I Heart Today: If I Only Had $100

I'm totally in to the neon trend right now, neon in accessories that is. Don't think you'll see me in neon pink puffy socks anytime soon. If I only had $100 I would buy this neon pink friendship bracelet from Made By Girl.

What I Heart Today: Google Image Search

Have you heard about the new Google image search? Not sure just how new it is but it's new to me. I had pinned the sign below but the pin didn't have a source to purchase the sign. I kept thinking and thinking about it. I tried to locate it on Etsy, no luck.

 

Then  I heard about Google image search, you literally input an image and Google shows you all the sites that image appears on. Here's how it works, step by step.

1. Navigate to google.com. Across the top of the page should be a black toolbar (note: I am not using Google Chrome). Click on "images."

 

2. The search box should now be updated with a camera icon in the far right of the search box. Click on the camera icon.

 

3. Here's what you should see, from here you can choose to upload the image (if you have it saved on your computer) or you can paste the image URL.

 

4. Once you upload the image or paste in the URL, Google will show you the results for your search, just like if you'd done a text search.

 

How amazingly cool is that? I was quickly able to find out that my sign is available on Susie Harris's blog. So happy to report that this great sign is coming home with me!

What I Heart Today: Spring!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great Easter, we sure did.

Everyone seems to be feeling Spring-y and color is everywhere. I'm feeling so inspired by color right now, here are some images that I keep coming back to. Welcome Spring!

 

(via)

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(via tumblr but no longer available)

 

(via)

 

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(via)

What's got you thinking Spring?

 

What I Heart Today: Easter Vacay!

Taking a the rest of this week off to spend time getting ready for Easter. But I'm leaving you with this free Easter printable from Polkadots on Parade. Happy Easter!

What I Heart today: Weekend Rewind

Guess what we did this weekend?

 

If you guessed dyed Easter eggs you would be right.

 

I've got a couple of Easter projects lined up for this week. We'll be enjoying Easter dinner at my mom's house along with 20 or so other people (big extended family). Here's what I'm bringing.

This fun silverware

This delicious orange creamsicle fudge

What are you doing to get ready for Easter?

What I Heart Today: Good Design Ain't Hard to Find

And so goes another edition of "good design ain't hard to find." You know I'm thinking I should rename the series "good design ain't hard to find...at Target" since I feature so many Target finds. Sue me, I love the place, and it has a Starbucks, enough said.

Today's find, ombre at Target, I love it so!

 

I'd use the heck out of that tray this summer, and for $9.99 you can't beat it with a stick. But what would you use the bowls for? They look so good stacked together I wasn't sure how I'd use them. Thoughts?

What I Heart Today: Easter Dessert

Still hunting around for an Easter dessert idea? Got some time on your hands? Check out these great Jello rainbow Easter eggs I spotted on Thrive via Catch My Party. Do these guys have some time on their hands or what? But um, I kinda wanna make them. We'll see.

 

Not quite up to the task of individually injecting a million Jello flavors? If you order ASAP you can still pick up this great cupcake kit from Hey Yo Yo on Etsy.

 

What I Heart Today: Rug Tape

Am I the only one who hadn't heard of rug tape? A few months back a friend of mine was in town who used to be in the interior design business. She helped me move a few things around my house (isn't it great to have a second set of trained eyes on things?).

One of the things we did was move a large 8'x8' rug into my dining room. I didn't have a rug pad for it, because one that large is pretty spendy,  so it had been sitting downstairs rolled up. So my girlfriend told me about rug tape, it's a double sided tape meant for laying rugs that won't hurt your floors or your rug. My rug is a flat weave and it worked awesome!

Here's how I did it:

1. Folded back the edge of the rug.

2. Applied the rug tape to the edge of the rug.

3. Attached to the floor and voila! No more tripping over the edge of the rug!

 I purchased my rug tape at amazon.com.


P.S. As a new blogger I'm really trying to get used to taking more pictures as I do things so that I can share them with you. I also need to pay more attention to detail, looking at this picture I can tell the rug may have needed a little more straightening out before taping the edges down.

What I Heart Today: Good Design Ain't Hard to FInd

That's right, I'm back! Sorry for the hiatus but I now have a beautiful 7 week old baby boy (insert oohs and ahhs here). He's a wonderful, sweet baby and I'm so glad he's joined our family.

I'd like to rejoin the blogging community with another installment of "Good Design Ain't Hard to Find." It's so nice to find great design in the little things in life.

Have you been trolling the aisles at Target like I've been lately? Target is one of my favorite outings and a big deal when you've got two kids to wrangle. You may have noticed my love for all things chevron, and if you haven't you will soon. And what do you think I found in the tissue section at Target? These great chevron tissue boxes!

What I Heart Today: Toddler Bedroom

Eeek. I'm sharing my first ever inspiration board with you today, I hope you like it. I'm pretty excited about it.

I'm updating my daughter's room from nursery to toddler bedroom. For Christmas Gracie got a big girl bed that she has yet to sleep in (she's still in her crib which happens to be in our room). It's time, oh it's really time to get her into her own room and her brand new bed. Mommy can't wait. Daddy is really sad.

Sources:
1. Land of Nod
2. Loopzart
3. Danish Modern LA
4. Hirondelle Rustique
5. Back two pillows: Caitlin Wilson, Front pillow: Honey Pie Design
6. Ikea
7. West Elm
8. Third Floor Design

What I Heart Today: If I Only Had $100

If I only had $100... I'd buy this too cute for words handbag for $58.00 from Nordstrom. Only I'd buy it in orange, ok maybe I already did :)

What I Don't Heart Today: Sick Family

We have been a house full of sickos since late last Thursday night. As everybody says "it's going around." Well I sure wish it would stop hanging around here.

On top of being sick we had to move everything out of our upstairs to have carpet installed (photos coming soon).

I wonder if I wouldn't mind being so sick if I had this bathroom to be sick in :)

(Martha Stewart)

What I Heart Today: My Little Man

Last weekend we hosted a sip n' see for this handsome guy.

Ever heard of a sip n' see? Me neither until a few months ago. It's something they do in the South rather than a baby shower. They host an open house after the baby is born so everyone actually gets to see the little bundle of joy, and they sip on a few cocktails while doing it. What's not to like?

The theme for our sip n' see was "Little Man" and I wanted to share how it all turned out.

First, to make it easy on myself I started out with this printable party package by joyess designs for modernprintables.com.

 

It had everything you could possibly need in it, invitation, thank you cards, decorations, it was just perfect. I would normally design my own party printables but with a two year old and a seven week old I decided to go a little easy on myself.

Here's what the invite looked like.

Here's how the party table looked.

 

This was a largely Pinterest inspired party. Here's some of the things we served that you've probably seen floating around Pinterest before.

This sangria was awesome, a little out of place in March, but still awesome. Will definitely be my go to for entertaining this summer.

 

(sangria)

We served my husband's famous, handmade margaritas in half pint mason jars and it was a huge hit!

 (mason jar drinks)

Mini mac n cheese was also a huge hit

(mini macs)

(pizza bites)

And last but not least, one of my favorites, the mustache straws. I made them myself but this photo and the idea came from the Etsy seller linked below.

 

(straws)

See my entire planning board on Pinterest (and follow me too!)

It was a really great party with family and friends. Bye, bye awkward baby showers, I'm sold on the sip n' see. Now you just need to have a baby for an excuse to throw one!