What I've Been Pinning This Week

Hey y'all, today is a great day--first day of Winter Break!!  Woohoo!  Of course, I still have so much prep work to do before Christmas that it isn't going to feel like vacation until next week, but nonetheless, I just got out of bed, so I can't complain too much!  Here is what I've been pinning this week.  (Click pic for original source, all pics via Pinterest.)

When all of your friends are married, everyone puts on their dress on last time for a photo shoot.

Super cute bathroom decor.

Adorable anniversary pillow--perfect bridal shower gift.

Awesome New Year's DIY decoration.

Two of my favorite colors, hot pink and turquoise!

Hope you all have an amazing relaxing weekend!

25 Days of Christmas

This is one of those brilliant ideas I never would have had without Pinterest.  I have seen a couple of different versions of this idea, for all different holidays and I decided this year to try it out.  Instead of giving Mr. B one Christmas present, I have been giving him a bunch of little ones, one for each day of the month of December.  Some of the days are small things, like cleaning up after the dog, or doing the laundry.  Others are bigger things like date night at our favorite restaurant.  This took a fair amount of planning, as we both have pretty busy schedules, especially this month.  I sat down with Mr. B at the beginning of the month and found out his schedule and then planned our days around that.  I made sure our date nights or other activities were on days he had free and days he had plans, I did something that I could do for him without him being there.  Once I had my list of days I wrote out the numbers on the front of black cardstock using gold and white paint pens.  On the back of the card I wrote out what his gift for that day was.

Then I made this cute little title card.

Then I hung them all up in our dining room...

So far, he has been having a blast and we have had fun with our date activities.  I think I might do this every year!

And the Stockings Were Hung...

As is the usual for me, I came up with a totally new color scheme for Christmas this year.  Which means changing out decorations and adding to the decorations we already have.  Luckily, my mother taught me well, and I have a lot of neutral basics that can work with most different colors.  Our stockings, for example, are white, so it is easy to change up their look just by adding in different elements.  To work in this year's black, white and burlap theme, I came up with some new letters for the stockings.  I found these babies at my local craft store for like a buck each.

And gave them a coat of black paint...

And attached them to our white stockings with some burlapy rope I had lying around.

The letters were a simple and quick addition to the stockings, and yet totally changed up the look from what they had previously.  Love em!

A Tale of Two Trees

Since December is one of our busiest times of the year for work, what with grades due and concerts and performances and wrapping up the end of the semester, it seems to take us most of the month to get our Christmas tree and our decor all set to go.  Today I finally finished our second tree!  I decided to do two trees this year because I like to do a big pretty tree in my color scheme (which changes each year), but at the same time, we have collected a bunch of personal ornaments that I wanted to display.  So I decorated this little fake tree with all of our cutesy ornaments....

...and then I did our big real tree in my colors for this year: black, white, and burlap.

I made some simple black ornaments decorated with words I feel represent the season of Christmas to add a little something extra to an otherwise very simple and plain tree.  I totally love both of our trees and I think this will be a new tradition!

What I've Been Pinning This Week

Oh my y'all, this week is crawling by!  Probably because I am only a few days away from Winter Break and I.  Cannot.  Wait.  Here is what I've been pinning this week!  (Click pic for original source, all pics via Pinterest.)

Totally in love with this chalkboard wrapping!

This is just priceless.

Love this idea!

Which, recently, has been a lot!

Snickers caramel cheesecake?  Yes please!

Hope everyone is hanging in there this week!  Almost to the weekend!

Sweet Tooth

So between getting ready for Christmas and getting ready for my sister's cookie exchange party this weekend, I have been pinning sweet treats like crazy.  And it's giving me a super duper sweet tooth.  These are some of my favorite yummy pins.  I will let you know which one(s) I end up making!  (Click pic for original source, all pics via Pinterest.)

Salted Caramel Donut Holes

Mini Cannoli Cups

Pretzel and Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies

Salted Caramel Shortbread Bites

Peanut Butter Secrets

Hungry yet?  I don't know about you, but I'm doing some baking, and soon!

Personalized iPhone Case

Yay for Friday!  So excited to catch up on some sleep and some crafts this weekend!  This is my final post from last year's Christmas craftravaganza and it is definitely my favorite!  Here is the original post:



Now that all of my gifts have been delivered, I can share some of the projects I made for friends and family for Christmas.  This is one of my absolute favorites, I love it so much I will probably make one for myself too!  I made this for my sister after seeing this inspirational Pin.  The hardest part was finding a clear phone case.  I had to go to a couple of different places before I found one that was plain and clear with no designs on it, but once I had that, it was easy.

I traced my own iPhone onto a piece of cardstock and cut it out to make a template.








I traced the template onto the back of some cool scrapbooking papers and one picture.


 




I cut out the basic shape and then placed the papers inside the phone case.  I marked the spot for the camera hole and then used my razor to cut it out.  That part was a little time consuming, but if you take it slowly it is pretty easy to do.

 




The finished product is on the right in the case.  The other papers can be swapped in for the pic to change up the look of the phone.  You can match your phone to your mood, your outfit, the season, whatever you want!  I love the way this came out and I think my sis did too!