Life lately

Hey there Tuesday.   Our life lately has been BUSY.  Ava got sick last week and then she had mid terms at school so she spent all her free time studying.  G and I have been SO busy with the start of the new semester. We are hoping this week things will calm down a bit.

Last Wed I went to an annual meeting for our town's Main Street organization.  Two of my friends-Faith and Stephanie-are on the board.  I'm so proud of them!  

 

Last week I made this cute little monogrammed plate for Valentines Day.  I'll have a full tutorial tomorrow on crafty Wednesday.

 

Ava had two basketball games this weekend.  I'm so sad but I missed both because of work :-(. Graig was able to go to one and Grandma Jan went to the one so I'm thankful she had someone there at both games.

 

 

Saturday night G and I went to dinner  with my dear gal pals to celebrate my birthday.  It was such a fun night.  I love these ladies and I'm glad we were able to catch up.

 

I hope you have a great week.  We are already looking forward to the weekend because we have a few fun things planned. 

Xoxo

Crafty Wednesday {Valentine Decorations}

This week I decorated for ❤Valentine's Day ❤.  I always love pulling out my decorations every year to see what I have.  I always like to ydecorate the hutch in our dining room. I like decorating it because it's easy and you can see our dining room from all the others rooms on our main floor.

This year I used some woodsy, earthy elements along with my usual red and pink.

 

I got this picture at Hobby Lobby and I absolutely love it.  I'm thinking about leaving it out all year long when we move to the tiny house.

 

I got the felt banner from Etsy.  I love getting it out every year.

 

My apothecary jars filled with wine corks and pods from a sweet gum tree.

 

 

I also have this festive wreath that I hung on the mirror in our dining room.

 

I love decorating for all the holidays throughout the year!  I still have a little decorating to do but mostly I'm done. Next month it's my turn to host Book Club and Bunco so I like for our house to look cute and festive.

Happy Wednesday!

Xoxo

What's up Wednesday!

Today I am linking up with Shay, Mel and Sheaffer for What's Up Wednesday!  They do this link up once a month and we all talk about what we've been up to for the month.  I think I'm going to love doing this!  Because this has been a fun and busy month for us.

What we're eating this week...Well I am doing a fitness challenge through the Y so I have been eating lots of fruits and vegetables and meat.  I prep my meals for the week on  Sunday.  This week I did an egg bake for my breakfasts and for lunches this week I made taco salads.   I've been doing SO good with my eating but last night my dear friend Heather dropped off a chocolate peanut butter cake as a belated birthday present for me.  It was delicious! 

 

What I'm reminiscing about...I am going to Florida in March to Disney and I cannot wait to see my family (see what I'm excited about below).  While I am there I am going to spend a weekend with my dear friends Rachael, Sara and Melany.  I can't wait!  Last year all of us went to Daytona Beach and it was so fun!  This year we are going to St. Pete.  Here is a picture of us from our trip last year.

 

What I'm loving...I love cozy, quiet nights at home.  One of my new year's resolutions was to slow down and relax and I've been really trying to relax and enjoy hanging out in my favorite place...my house :) 

What we've been up to.. in January we celebrated my birthday and G's birthday, we've watched Ava play a lot of basketball, and we've been working on getting our tiny house ready for tenants.

What I'm dreading...Thankfully I'm not dreading anything this month;) 

What I'm working on...My to do list is full-work is busy, I'm working on planning our craft nights for Branch and Bloom and I'm working on a Mardi Grad fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club.  


What I'm excited about...I am SO excited to get together with my Dad and sister in Florida in March.  We are going to Disney and I can't wait.  This will be our fourth year going and we always have a great time.  We all live far apart-me in NY, my sister in Texas and my Dad in Illinois so it's great for us to get together for a week of fun in Florida!  Here is a picture of us from our trip last year.

 

What I'm watching/reading...I'm reading three books right now and I'm loving them all.  I'm reading a Man called Ove for my book club, The life-changing magic of tidying up because I love all things related to organization  and The Residence which is a non-fiction book about the staff at The White House.   

 


What I'm doing this weekend...yoga class, happy hour with friends and a birthday dinner with G and my. Eat gal pals.  

What I'm looking forward to next month...We don't have much on our agenda for Feb.  I am looking forward to quiet, cozy nights at home.  

What else is new... We are loving having Anne our exchange student living with us.  She is a doll and fits in perfectly with our family.  She will be with us until the end of March and we are planning a few fun events and trips while she is with us. 

 

Can't wait to see what you've been up to!

Xoxo

Craft Night {Wine cork planters and cork boards}

My friend Rachael and I have a craft business called Branch and Bloom.  Once a month we host a craft class and Thursday was this months class.  We have a Facebook page and we post all of our events there.  We have a lot of fun planning each and every class. 

 

This month we made wine cork planters and cork boards. We wanted something cute and simple for January and this was the perfect craft.  We needed 50 corks per person for this craft so we ordered our corks in bulk  from Amazon.

 

For the wine cork boards we got yard sticks from Home Depot for $1 and we spray painted them white.  Then our crafty ladies just had to add their corks to their yard stick.  We sat out bowls of corks so people could mix and match and find the corks they liked best.

 

Here's one finished craft and Rachael has one in progress.

 

The second craft people did was wine cork planters.  We drilled holes in the top of the corks and each person made 5 little succulent planters.  I ❤❤❤ the way these turned out.  

 

 

It was a great night. Everyone loved their wine cork creations! 

 

Next month we are going go

Our weekend

This weekend was the perfect weekend it was a balance of fun and work and friend time and family time.  It was a great weekend!!!

Friday was G's birthday!  He doesn't like to make a big fuss over his birthday and he wanted dinner at home so that's exactly what we did.  We had a quiet dinner at home before we went to Ava's basketball game. 

 

Friday night Ava had a game.  I always love watching her play.  She plays her heart out each and every game.    Her team played a tough team and they lost :-(. Ava's friend M took some pics of her during the game.  I am so grateful to her because she captures some great shots ❤🏀

 

 

Saturday I woke up bright and early to go snow tubing with my friends for my annual joint birthday party with my dear friend Jenni.  This is our fourth year doing a joint party.  The first year went  bowling, the second year we went to a trampoline park, last year we had a fabulous 40th birthday trip to Cooperstown and this year we went snow tubing at Hunter mountain.

Here's a collage from previous years ❤

 

And here we are this year👏🏼❤. Don't mind my sweaty head 😬. We took this pic after tubing and it was quite a warm day on the slopes-50 degrees.  

 

Here we are on top of the mountain ready to tube.  As you can see there was NO snow so thankfully they make their own. 

 

Anne (our exchange student from Denmark) came with me and she skied while we went tubing.  Sadly Ava couldn't go she had basketball practice in the morning and then a game in the afternoon. 

 

We had lunch in the lodge and then headed home. It was a gorgeous day!

 

We raced home after lunch so I could get to Ava's basketball game at 4.  She played good and her team won!  Yay!!!!!!!!

 

 

Sunday I went to see The movie Jackie with some friends.  I'm trying to see all the movies that were  nominated for an Oscar. The movie was done very artistically and focused on Jackie during the first few days  after the assasination.  It was tragically sad.  Honestly I didn't love the movie but Natalie Portman was fantastic in her role as Jackie  I was happy to hear this morning that she was nominated for an Oscar!

 

After the movie I raced over to our new (tiny) house and helped G clean up a bit because we have tenants moving in on Saturday for three months.  

We bought a new sectional for the tiny house and I love it!

 

 

Here's a picture of the kitchen.  I adore the white cabinets.

 

 

Our plan is to move into the tiny house in May and rent our house out as a baseball rental in the summer.  We already have 11 out of 12 weeks booked-yay!!!  We would like to stay in the tiny house next year while Ava is abroad since its in town and so much closer to our work.  I'm praying our current house gets rented for next year so we can live at the tiny house.  

I hope you had a great weekend.

Xoxo 

Friday Favorites

Today I am linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea to share my Friday favorites.  I am soooo happy it's Friday!   We have some fun things planned this weekend including snow tubing and a surprise party so I can't wait to get the weekend started.  I have lots of favorites this weekend so here we go....

1-Last night Rachael and I had our first craft night of the year!  Our friend Julia came and we had a great time laughing and talking together.   It was a great night :)

  

2-Ava's bff Lennon turned 16!  So while I was at Craft Night Ava and her friends were eating sushi to celebrate Lennon's sweet 16.

3.  F in blue is a regular at my aqua aerobics class.  Her great-granddaughter in pink takes swim lessons at the same time as our class so I got a picture for our Y facebook page.  Four generations in the picture-so sweet!!

 

4- I love, love, love books so for Christmas I got this book for my girlfriends because I heard it was a great book about organization and I am LOVING it so far!  I am hoping to get through this book this weekend.

5-I have been loving essential oils.  This one is my favorite for bed time. I put a drop on my neck when I am getting ready for bed and it helps me relax and go to sleep. I love it!

 

6-  I am also loving these two modern planters I got at Target.   They were only $5 each!  I love inexpensive, cute decor items.  I got flowers for my birthday so I split up the flowers and put them in both vases and they are on our dining room table.  I love the way they look.

 

Happy Friday!
Xoxo

Life lately

Our life lately has been BUSY...it's our season of life right now and we are trying to enjoy each and every second.

Ava is in the middle of her basketball season.  She has great teammates this year and she  is loving high school basketball.

My friend L takes pics at all the games.  I love this one she took of Ava and her team. We will be at basketball all weekend because Ava has games on Friday and Saturday.

 

 We have our first Branch and Bloom craft night of the year tonight!  We are making wine cork boards and these adorable wine cork planters. 

 

Ava's friend M is in a photography class and she did a photo shoot with Ava on Monday for her class.  This one is my favorite.  I'm going to get it made on a canvas. 

 

My birthday was last Friday and we celebrated with Ava's two bff's and our exchange student with a cake at home after Ava's basketball game. 

 

That's our life lately.  I hope you've had a great week!

Xoxo

Crafty Wednesday {monogram plates}

Well hello Wednesday....this week is FLYING by for us.   But today I wanted to share these adorable monogram plates I have been making with my silhouette vinyl cutter.  They are SO easy to make and they make the cutest gifts.  Before I had my vinyl cutter I got vinyl monograms on Etsy.

A few weeks ago I got together with my friend V and we made these adorable plates.  The permanent vinyl is like a sticker and sticks to the plate.

I made these tartan (love!) plates.  I got 6 of these plates for $5 after Christmas at TJ Maxx.  I love the way they turned out.  I am going to use them until Valentine's Day and then but them up for next year.



My friend V did a dark brown monogram on white plates.   Hers turned out great too!

 

These monograms hold up pretty well you just can't put them through the dishwasher.  The monograms are perfect for adding a little flair to your everyday dishes.

Happy Wednesday!
Xoxo