Christmas Mantel 2014

Hi Friends! I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with your family!

So to start the holiday hoopla going (for me, it's more of a Christmas hoopla), let me start with our mantle!


If you've been following my blog for a while now, you know I don't like our fireplace and mantel very much.

I don't like the glass blocks and the brick combined, and this will definitely be changed sometime in the future once budget allows. 

But this Christmas, I truly am in love with it.

'Why' you ask? Well take a look!

Simple Christmas Mantle

I'm in love mostly because I see the face of my beautiful kids on the personalized stockings I made thru SHUTTERFLY !

You can make your own HERE

I just love them!

I grabbed the opportunity with FREE SHIPPING and 30% discount and made these 3. I know it will be a Christmas keepsake for years to come!

I also added my crystal mistletoe ornaments to zhush it up some more!

Ready for the holidays!

I also love the Chalkboard wall art I scored from Walmart for $28!

 I think it says it all for families right?

I flanked my stockings with 2 felt trees from the Dollar Store I bought years ago and my 2 boxwood topiaries decorated with LED string light I got from Restoration Hardware!

How about you, do you have a 'Love-Hate' relationship with your own mantel like I do?

Have a Great Week!

VEL 

 Would love to hear your thoughts! Please share away...

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Simple Bathroom Art

I did a simple quick bathroom update in our basement bathroom.

It went from this...

Used left-over wallpaper from our Upstairs Powder Room

to this...

I really thought the wall needed something more. And since I'm a huge fan of Chanel, what better way to beautify this room than with some beautiful Chanel Prints!

I only used old document frames that my husband got rid of from his office and ordered the prints from ETSY from oneBLURpictures.

The seller has a wide selection of branded art prints

I'm busy now with preparing for Thanksgiving. We're hosting again with some of our friends and their families in our home. :-) Hopefully I can start sharing some of my Christmas decorations next week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

VEL

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Martha Stewart's Wall Decals

You know I have a 'love affair' with wall decals in my home right? From my kitchen...

My Dry Erase Wall decal which I wrote about HERE

to my Powder room...

Wrote about this Door Decal HERE

Laundry room...

Wrote about it HERE

 son's room...

My Son's room re-do HERE

and even Sophia's Crib....

Wrote about this beautiful decal HERE

I have used decals to enhance aspects in our home. I love that their easy to install and totally keeps my walls or things, scratch free. Plus, I can change it up on a whim!

When I heard Martha Stewart launched her own line of wall decals on FATHEAD, I just had to check it out. And of course, I wasn't disappointed. Here are a few of my faves...

Water color Chrysanthemum

Chinese Ceramics

Classic Bamboo Headboard

Geometric door panel

Shaped Headboard with Flowers

Athens Monogram

Is your head going around in circles thinking of all the wonderful possibilities?!!!

Hope you all Have a Wonderful Weekend!

VEL 

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Easy Elegant Invite

I mentioned last time that I was planning for Sophia's baptism and party.

Of course with something this important, invitations are in order.

I didn't want to spend too much, but I also wanted something unique and elegant. And so I came up with this solution that I wanted to share.

Invites I ordered

 First, I ordered from one of the most affordable printing websites - VISTAPRINT.

The invitation was $9.00/10, still too expensive for me, but after a 40% coupon and free shipping, I ended up paying about 30 cents per invite.

I then had my husband print these at home....

We used velum paper ordered from Amazon for $7.71

And after punching a few holes, and 1 roll of a 97 cents white ribbon from Walmart, 

here is the finished product!

Our easy and elegant invite!

All in all I spent less than $50 for a 100 invites ( No, I'm not sending it all)!

I already distributed this to our friends and family and almost everyone complimented the beautiful invite and of course, confirmed their attendance on this big day for our daughter's life!

Hope you all have a Great Week!

VEL 

 Would love to hear your thoughts! Please share away...


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What's going on and my son's Halloween Birthday Party

 Hi Friends! 

I feel like I've been M.I.A. for sooooo long! And I was!

The thing is, aside from being a new mom again to my little Sophia, things have been extra hectic around our household. First, during halloween I was busy planning for my teen son's birthday party! You see it was his last year in his school and he wanted to have a small celebration with his classmates and friends, so Halloween became extra busy for us. 

Secondly, a gathering this Saturday at my house is in the works since my friend priest is coming for a visit and so we have to get the house ready for a mass and this small party!

Thirdly, aside from planning for Thanksgiving, we have been busy going all around STL for school visits and interviews for my eldest son!

Fourthly, I'm also busy preparing for Sophia's BAPTISM and party after Thanksgiving!

Lastly, I'm going Christmas Crazee already and am busy prepping our house already!!! Hopefully I can show you my Christmas decorations around the house soon, I'm so excited about this one since it's Sophia's 1st Christmas and family are all coming to celebrate this holiday with us!

HEW!

But for today let me share with you the simple and hurried birthday party prep I did for my son!

I had more of those Halloween decor hangings but did not have the time to hang the others

It's a bit tricky planning a party for teens, but I couldn't help decorating still!

Cake table

What's halloween without the sweets right?

Proud of this cake - baked it and my mom made her super yummy icing! I added halloween tummies to make it more fun!

Party scene

More Candies

Drink Station

Kid-friendly fruit punch - Cranberry juice, ginger ale and frozen lemonade, YUMMY!
Oh and frozen lemon skull!

Our MENU: Pizza, chicken n' dumplings (my son's fave), Baked mac n' cheese, breadsticks
and crispy chicken

My young man!

Your probably wondering about our costumes right? We didn't do a family-themed costume this year since we all wanted different outfits but here they are...

Star Lord from "Guardians of the Galaxy" & Steve from Minecraft

My husband went as Tony Starck a.k.a. Ironman without the costume as he accompanied my young man trick-or-treating
and I was simply a mommy giraffe with my baby giraffe. :-)

That's it for now, I have a lot of blog-backreading to do, hope I can all get to see and read all your wonderful posts!

Have a Great Weekend!

VEL

 Would love to hear your thoughts! Please share away...