Easy New Year's Eve Hostess Gift

10 Easy New Year's Eve Craft Projects

Holiday Home Tour

Merry Christmas everybody! Today is the big day and I don't think I could be more excited. This is our first Christmas in our new house, which meant I got to start fresh with all of my holiday decor. Every room brought new challenges, different themes and, of course, more glitter. I've never done a home tour before, mainly because we just bought our house nine months ago so it has never felt complete enough to show you. Today is the day though, let's take a peek inside...

Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas {Under $20}

Can you believe Christmas is here already? I'm blown away at how fast this year went by. It seems like Thanksgiving was just last week. Are you done shopping yet? Whenever I think I'm done, I realize I forgot something. I'm experiencing hardcore Christmas spirit right now though, so I think I'm looking for an excuse to buy things for people at this point. 

Pottery Barn Townsend Coffee Table

I'm so happy to report that we finally have a coffee table in our living room. I haven't really talked about this on the blog yet, but our formal living room has been coffee table-less for about 8 months. It never quite looked complete in there. It was a real issue that stressed me out on the daily.

Talk about #firstworldproblems.

2013 Thanksgiving Recap

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in San Luis Obispo this year. My dad's whole family gathers at his parent's house to enjoy the holiday together. It is a big deal in my family and we usually have between 20-25 people around the table. 

Christmas Craft Fair

One of my goals for this year was to sign up for a craft fair. It was something I knew would take a lot of time, effort, and guts. {What if no one buys anything!}

Friday Favorites: Orbs & Spheres

Orb, you say?  (If you haven't already caught onto this trend, go hide your wallet now. Then, come back and drool over how amazing the following items are.)

There is a new shape in town, people.  Out with the chevrons (never!), in with the orbs. 

Black Friday: Target Deals & Coupons

This post is brought to you by Target, but all opinions and content are my own. Follow along with #MyKindOfHoliday.

I can't believe Black Friday is coming up so soon. In 2 or 3 days (depending on how hardcore you are), hoards of people will attack local stores and make a bee line for the best Day-After-Thanksgiving deals. Since I am always on vacation in San Luis Obispo for Thanksgiving week, my cousin and I have started a tradition of going to at least one store on Black Friday-eve. We don't necessarily go with any specific item in mind, we mainly go for the experience. This year we're going to bundle up and head out to Target. 

Thanksgivukkah Recipes

As I discussed earlier this week, we celebrated Friendsgiving this year, but with a twist. Since Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same day, my friends and I went all out and served a crossover Thanksgivukkah meal. 

Thanksgivukkah Dinner & Decorations

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, but we can't forget about Thanksgiving first. I will admit that I started listening to Christmas music weeks ago, but I limit myself to only that. Until November 28th, I'm all about Thanksgiving. I'm sure you've heard that there is something very special about November 28, 2013... Thanksgiving & Hanukkah!! For the first time since 1888, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same day. Since it won't happen again in our lifetime (or for another 79,000 years after that), my friends and I took this holiday very seriously and planned the ultimate Thanksgivukkah dinner party.

The Friendsgiving Tradition

It's that time of year where we gather around for the holidays, eat way too much food, throw elaborate parties and spend time with family and friends. I love the change in whether, the Christmas music and all of the festive decorations in stores. I'm partnering with Target today to tell you about one of my favorite holiday traditions... Friendsgiving. My family has a longstanding tradition of gathering at my Grandparent's house in San Luis Obispo for Thanksgiving. I look forward to that time with my family every year. However, since we are always on vacation for Thanksgiving, I decided to throw a Friendsgiving + Hanukkah dinner party this year.  If you weren't aware, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same day this year. I'll be posting Thanksgivukkah ideas throughout the week here on my blog. 

Friday Favorites: DIY Thanksgiving Table Decorations

DIY Halloween Decorations

I am going to start this by saying that I CANNOT believe that it is Halloween already. Where did this month year go?! I had so many big things planned for my blog this month, but then life got in the way. I'm going to nominate October as my favorite month of the year so far. 

Lots to share with you!

$25 Target Gift Card Giveaway + Wine Country Weddings

You may or may not know that I live in the heart of California's wine country. That statement just sounded so lame to the locals, but it's true. This county I live in is something to brag about. People travel across the world to visit Northern California. Although I don't drink wine, I sure can appreciate the beautiful rolling hills covered in vineyards as well as the benefit of our many wineries that surround us.

"Be Yourself Together" Couples Photo Contest

I'm thrilled to announce that I'm teaming up with Target once again to help promote their "Be Yourself Together" campaign. However, this time it involves a contest and prizes for YOU! 

BISSELL vs. The Beasts

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of BISSELL Homecare, Inc.. All opinions are 100% mine.

Pick Your Plum Inspired Birthday Party

If you don't know what Pick Your Plum is, then you might consider me a hoarder. If you do, then you understand why I can throw together a birthday party in a matter of minutes. We threw a little shindig for my friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago, so I decorated our dining room with a dessert and candy bar using Pick Your Plum goodies that I've collected over the past year or so. 

No Spendtember: Debt Free at 23

I'll start this post off by saying that I am no expert. I really have no fool proof method, but I'm going to throw some tips out there that worked for us, so maybe they can help you. I'm approaching my 25th birthday (20 days!) and cannot explain how great this past year has been without any debt.

Here are my tips on how we became debt free by age 23:

No-Sew Fabric Bunting in Less Than 10 Minutes

I'm going to show you a really easy craft today. See this amazing fabric bunting? I found a shortcut that makes this so easy to make. 

DIY Classroom Crafts

I spent a solid amount of time helping my friend, "Double D", decorate her first grade classroom this summer. Having absolutely no knowledge about teaching, I didn't realize how much work it was! However, we made the most of it and it turned out great. 

Spoiler alert: there is an "Elementary School Musical" video at the end of this post!

Be Yourself, Together.

I'm so excited to announce that I am partnering with Target for their Target Wedding campaign. Of course, just like everyone else, I am obsessed with Target. I make at least one trip a week there and search every section for new products while dreaming of purchasing everything I want for our house. Even though I am already married, it was so fun for me to create my dream Target Wedding registry. 

DIY knock off Taylor Swift glasses

Source: RED Album Art

As you have now heard, my friend and I got backstage and front row tickets at the Taylor Swift concert a couple of weeks ago. A girl's dream come true. One of the many things we can attribute this good fortune to was our outfits. I talked about our custom heat press shirts already, so today I'm going to show you our DIY knock off Taylor Swift cat eye glasses. 

No Spendtember: Grocery Shopping on a Budget

Second to our mortgage, the category that we spend the most money on every month is FOOD. There are only two of us, but we spend so much money on groceries and eating out every month. Like so much, it's almost embarrassing. 

How we got backstage & front row tickets at a Taylor Swift concert.

Today I'm going to tell you about one of the greatest days of my life. First, I have to admit that I'm almost 25 years old and still obsessed with Taylor Swift. Luckily, I have a friend, we'll call her Double D, who is equally obsessed. 

If you want to get backstage at a Taylor Swift concert, you have to get creative with your outfit; Daisy Dukes and cowboy boots won't cut it.  We used my heat press to create matching t-shirts with quotes from Taylor Swift and T-Pain's "Thug Story" rap video. We weren't really going into this expecting to get backstage, so we weren't nearly as dressed up as some of the younger girls, but apparently it worked. 

No Spendtember: How to make money while spending money.

Who wouldn't want to make money while spending money? Today I'm going to show you how. No joke. 

No Spendtember 2013: Are you ready??

I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's almost September already! Do you know what that means?? 

No Spendtember!

Recent Projects: Heat Press

I don't know if you've heard, but the latest crafting craze is HTV (Heat Transfer Vinyl). Of course, I jumped on that bandwagon right away. With lots of input from many other crafters, I purchased a PowerPress Heat Press on Amazon a couple of months ago. 

DIY Coffee Table with Interchangeable Tabletop

You guys. I'm really excited about this. Let's start with the fact that you can change out the tabletop for any occasion. That's just fabric under the glass, so it's super easy to switch out whenever you feel like it! 

Vinyl Pantry Labels

Is it just me or do you also get totally mixed up between powered sugar, sugar, flour and Bisquick?  Ok, well I have that issue because three of these substances are in containers that make them look exactly the same. 

Repurposed Credenza Tutorial

I don't know if you've noticed yet, but as I reveal more pictures of my house, it is becoming apparent that white is by far my favorite decorating color. White on white on white. We bought this credenza from World Market for our old house. It used to be a dark brown wood color {see below}. Great at the time, but not so much anymore. Our new house has a built in TV nook, so we repurposed this into a piece of furniture for our master bedroom. 

DIY Farmhouse Table Benches

Did you see those amazing benches in my DIY Farmhouse Dining Room Table post? Since I wasn't willing to take on the tutorial for the table, I decided to write up a tutorial for the benches. Once you get the first one down, the rest are cake. We made 6 total, but only used 4 for the table. These sit two people each (especially when 2 are pushed together). 

DIY Farmhouse Dining Room Table

Have you ever been in the market for a dining room table? If you have, you know how expensive this vital piece of furniture can be. Not only do you have to buy the table, but individual matching chairs as well!

We have a rather long space to fill in our dining room, so it was hard to find the perfect table. Plus, I wanted to be able to seat a lot of people and the idea of buying 10 chairs was overwhelming to me.

Obvious answer... DIY.