February Instagram Dump

Hey y'all, happy Tuesday!  I don't know about you, but I am quickly becoming obsessed with Instagram.  I feel like a hipster/tourist snapping pics all around LA, but it's so fun to post and view pics of everyday life.  So this is my first--definitely not last--Instagram dump.  Some of the highlights of my February!

My Valentine's Day banner

Mr. B brought this bottle of my fave wine from one of my fave Napa wineries after a bad day.

Mr. B and our friend's little one rocking the same awesome Chucks

The tables at one of our fave neighborhood bars

Homemade mac n cheese.  'Nuff said.

Valentine's Day manicure (busted that out all by myself, btw)

Valentine's Day goodie from one of my lovely students

Of course, a trip to the happiest place on Earth

Got to go see The Gift starring James Van Der Beek at the Geffen

Love this succulent display from Rolling Greens Nursery in LA

And I finally caught up with the rest of the world and discovered the magic of Scandal.

Not a bad month!  Are you on Instagram?  Leave me your username in a comment so I can follow you!  If you want to follow me, click my cute little pink camera on the sidebar!

Bright and Colorful Peeps Display

I don't know about you, but there are a couple of things I automatically associate with Easter and spring time: eggs, chocolate, and Peeps.  When it comes to actually eating Peeps, I gotta admit that they aren't my favorite.  But they are so pretty and brightly colored that I can't help but love them.  This year I decided to use Peeps as decor instead of a treat, and they are so cute!  The set up for this is pretty easy, in order to have the Peeps out as decor, you need to seal them so the sugar and marshmallow gunky stuff don't get all over the place or attract ants.  So start by laying out the Peeps on some parchment paper:

Spray the Peeps with a sealer of your choice.  Make sure you open the windows, that stuff can be pretty potent.  Flip the Peeps over to their sides and spray again.

Flip again so you can spray the back and the other side.  Once you are done spraying, let them sit and dry for a bit.  I decided to put mine in a simple clear vase and just kind of threw them in there at random.  You could make some cool patterns if you wanted to group the like colors together, but I liked the way they looked all mishmashed.

I put the vase on our entertainment center and in combination with the spring time banner, it looks pretty cute!

Nice and bright and cheerful, but still simple and pretty.

I'm not going to lie, I might be tempted to make some Peeps s'mores with my leftovers, if I do, I'll let you know how it goes, but for now, these guys are just fun to look at!

Week in Review and a Winner!

It has been a pretty exciting week here at The Bees Times Three!  The week started out with my first guest post for my favorite blogger, my mom, over at Home Sweet Hollywood.

Then I got to be a part of Sugar Bee Crafts as the featured blogger for Mandy's Reader Feature.

My DIY tote bag was a featured project on Two Yellow Birds Decor.

I completely lost my mind and decided to list my first item in my new Etsy shop, The Bees Times Three.  Will you be my first customer?  Check it out and see!

And now I get to announce the winner of our first ever giveaway at The Bees Times Three!  Very special congratulations go to..........

Linda at My Crafty Home Life!

Woohoo!  Linda, email me here with your shipping info and personalization info.  Make sure you contact me by Monday and congratulations!

Thank you all for being part of such a great week, have a lovely weekend and I will see you on Monday!

B Family Home Tour: Atwater Village

Today I am super excited to be introducing you to a major part of my home life: Atwater Village.  Mr. B and I both grew up in the suburbs (where we now both work), but knew that the 2.5-kids-white- picket-fence-little-boxes lifestyle was not for us.  We moved down to Silver Lake a couple of years ago (where a lot of young celebs live), but it was a bit too much for us.  Loud, crazy, and lots of people and crime.  So we hopped over to the other side of town and landed in Atwater Village.  Atwater is the perfect combination of suburbs and city life.  We can walk to all kinds of cool local places, but the area is still safe and secure.  We are close to live theater and music and downtown LA, but are still surrounded by young families.  Bonus?  Within ten minutes of awesome shopping and experiences in cities like Pasadena and Glendale.  Here are some of our favorite haunts.

This is a favorite place to walk to for breakfast or lunch.  Outdoor dining, good food, and cheap prices!

55 Degrees is one of my favorite places.  It is within walking distance, the people there are awesome and friendly, and they offer a wide variety of wine flights that change each week (they also have good beer according to Mr. B).  We are regulars here, it's the kind of place where everybody knows your name...

Link n Hops is the newest addition to our hood.  It's right next to 55 Degrees, so it's another walkable place.  They have a ton of beers, plus some amazing sausages (even for vegans!).  Mostly I go there for the world's best fries with chipotle aioli dipping sauce.  Life changing.

Atwater Village has a cool history in addition to cool bars.  If you've been to Disney's California Adventure recently, their new main street is modeled after the Atwater Village area in the 1920's and 1930's.  More recently, it was home to Leonardo DiCaprio as a child, and who doesn't want to be connected to him in some (albeit small) way?

Mostly, I love Atwater Village because I love houses with character and charm.  Our house was built in 1931, and you just can't find a modern home with that classic look.  Our streets in Atwater look like this...big trees and tons of greenery.

And the house look like this...small, but adorable and unique.

Given that our house is only two bedrooms, at some point in the future (when a little B comes along) we will have to move.  We have talked about moving to Orange County or back to the suburbs when that time comes, but the thought of leaving this lovely little neighborhood is kind of depressing.  For now, this is our home, and we will enjoy every single minute of the beauty that is living in LA!

If you entered the Target gift card giveaway, make sure to check back later this afternoon when a winner will be announced!

It's An Exciting Day!

Happy almost Friday dear readers!  I'm so excited today because so much fun stuff is going on!  The $50 Target gift card giveaway is coming to an end, but you still have time to enter so make sure you check it out!

Some super cool news, my DIY tote bag is one of the features this week on Two Yellow Birds Decor!  How exciting is that?!?!  A very special thank you to Jill for including me this week!



And........the most exciting thing.......since I received so many awesome comments on the tote bag, I decided, why not get crazy and list one on Etsy?  And so I did!  You can now order a personalized monogrammed tote bag of your very own in my new Etsy shop The Bees Times Three!  Head on over and get to ordering!

Spring Fashion

Because I'm lucky enough to live in beautiful So Cal, I'm already dreaming of my spring wardrobe.  We've had quite a few sunny days in the past couple of weeks, and now I am ready to go shopping!  Here are some of my favorite looks for this spring.  (Click pics for original source, all pics via Pinterest.)

The good thing about spring clothing shopping: good motivation to work out!  If you want to see all of my latest style obsessions, follow me on Pinterest!

Check Me Out!

Hey y'all!  I'm a busy girl today, you can see me in two different places!  I'm so excited to be guest blogging for my mamma over at Home Sweet Hollywood today.  Make sure you stop by and leave her some love!

Later today I'm also going to be posting at Sugar Bee Crafts for her Tuesday Reader Feature (won't be up until later tonight, but make sure you stop by to check it out!).

And don't forget to stop by and enter the Target gift card giveaway, you still have a little bit of time left before we pick a winner!

I'll be back tomorrow with some cute new spring fashion ideas!

DIY Spring Time Banner

Happy Monday lovelies!  Hopefully your weather over the weekend was as perfect as ours here in sunny So Cal, putting you in the kind of mood I'm in: ready for spring!  I decided to make this super cute and easy banner to celebrate the upcoming season and it turned out to be just darling, and it only took about ten minutes to put together!

I already had this twine hanging on my entertainment center holding my Valentine's Day banner, so I decided to use it and the mini clothespins and just update the decor.  I gathered a bunch of different colored papers, some plain and some patterned.  I used a flower shaped paper punch and then hung them up on the twine.

 The flowers look so bright and springy and add a pop of color perfect for this sunshiney time of year.

A nice bright way to start off the week!  If you haven't already, make sure you check out the giveaway ending this week for a chance to win a $50 Target gift card!

B Family Home Tour: Living Room

Hello and Happy Friday!  Don't know about you, but I am ready for the weekend!  I have a couple more rooms of our house to share with you over the next couple of days.  I don't plan on making too many changes to our living room, but there will be some small updates.

One thing I love in our home is this big window looking out on the front yard.  We basically have no entry way, so there is this bookcase/bench there to hold some of our shoes and things.  This bench will definitely be getting an update!

We painted one wall in the living room purple for some punch and since many of our accessories are purple and green.  This is the Ikea couch that everyone in my family owns.  Pretty sure ours is the oldest, and it is starting to really show its wear and tear...may be time for a new one soon!

We have a teeny tiny end table because that's all we have room for, plus a coffee table (also from Ikea) and an ottoman with storage inside.

Above the couch is a gallery wall of wedding pictures.  I feel like this needs something more to make it complete, but not sure what yet.

Over our TV is one of my favorite projects, silver sparkly letters spelling out "Love".

Our TV rests on two Expedit bookcases (from Ikea) made a little fancier with fabric attached to the back.  This is typically where I display my holiday decorations.  One thing I am not good at is styling bookcases/shelves so I am going to try to change this area up a bit to make it more exciting.

These windows are on either side of the TV.  These curtains are actually shower curtains and they work, but aren't anything special.  I love this chair and the purple, green, and gray pillow as it ties all the living room colors together.

And this is basically the reason why I wanted to see this house when we were first looking to buy.  I absolutely love these arches (leading from living room to dining room and the mini one leading from dining room down the hallway).  The character is totally California Spanish style, and that is one thing I love most about our home and our neighborhood.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, and don't forget to enter our awesome giveaway before you go!

Giveaway!

Hey y'all!  So excited to be offering my first Bees Times Three giveaway to you today!  Earlier this week I offered a DIY tutorial for these cute little tote bags, but today I am going to give one away to one of my lucky readers!  I will personalize one of these bags with your initial and complement it with one felt flower in the color of your choosing.  If that weren't a sweet enough deal, the bag will come stocked with a $50 Target gift card!  Happy entering!  I will be announcing the winner on the blog next week!

 

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