I snapped this quick photo while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her. I thought about including it in my 4th of July spreads, but I felt this milestone deserved it's own page.

This page came together so quickly. Normally, I spend half an hour just sorting through supplies, pulling items I may or may not want to use. For this page, I knew which papers I wanted to use. I grabbed them and a few star embellishments and I was off to work. Since I was only using one photo and little embellishment, I used depth to add visual interest, in the form of pop-dots behind the photo.


The crepe paper circle is actually from a Valentine's Day embellishment. I ripped off the heart sentiment and covered it up with the chipboard star. I love being able to re-purpose supplies, These inkable Heidi Swapp alphas have been a new favorite of mine. A little gold ink and voila! A perfect color match.

I still need to add journaling to the page, but it will most likely go on the back, because there are just too many words to fit on the front. Plus, I feel like the words would take away from the design in this instance.

Do you ever favor design over journaling?

XOXO,

• spider webbing and spiders - $2
• Heidi Swapp Marquee Pumpkin - $5
• Eyeball gumballs - $2
• White pumpkins - $6
• Owl ornament - $2

 The candlesticks, books, clipboard calendar, frames, Lindsey Letters print, and glass bottles, I already had. This mantle will transition into my Thanksgiving mantle using many of the same pieces.

The only item I made was the foil sugar skull print using my Minc foil. I found the free PDF here. Alexis of Persia Lou has a great tutorial for this over on her blog here.


Do you have a place in your house where you decorate for the seasons?

I get to have two Christmas tress this year, and a mantle....you bet I'm excited!

XOXO,

We spent  last night decorating Zoe's mailbox for her class valentines while singing along to Guardians of the Galaxy. We used a pre-cut box from Michael's and lots of items from Crate Paper's line Hello, Love. Zoe's favorite item were these glitter stickers.

The original quilt had all sort of beautiful machine quilting on it, however, after re-appliqueing all those pieces, I just wasn't up for that task. I decided just to tie this quilt. I used the same method as my Briar Rose quilt.

Even though it's still in the 90's here, I am looking forward to snuggling up with this quilt during the holidays with hot cocoa and a roaring fireplace. Last year we were blessed with snow, so I can only hope for a repeat this holiday season!

This project is part of my creative goals for the year. You can read more about those here. You can also follow my sewing Pinterest board, where I keep my dream projects and patterns.

Like all years and all people, in 2014, we have had our ups and downs. This year has felt so broken up into pieces, just based on what has been happening in our circumstances. I feel as though this year has been 3 separate years, each defined by different moments, good and bad.

I am grateful for so many things, and could list pages and pages of things, but I will stick to just a few highlights for this year.

1 Emily McDowell Card - This is the card Ryan is getting for Valentine's day. I bought another card of Emily's too. I love the honest sentiments and her hard lettering and illustration.

2. Godiva strawberry milk chocolate truffles  - These truffles are amazing! I bought them to save for Valentine's Day, they didn't make it more than a few hours in our house.

3. Julep Betty - I got this as a treat for meeting a health goal, and it's such a beautiful glitter nail polish.

4. Lindsay Letters - I have dreams about owning lots of Lindsay Letters canvases, and hopefully one day I will. I having been eyeing this one for a while now. So sweet for Valentine's day, or anytime of the year.

5. Socks - My mom started the tradition long ago of giving us cute socks for Valentine's Day and now I do the same for Zoe. These cute socks will be a big hit with Zoe.

What are your valentine favorites? Anything you are hoping for?

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

This year was our first year at home, just the three of us for Christmas. We had plans, but due to illness and work schedules, those plans of grandeur turned into a quiet celebration instead. Our families celebrate Christmas very differently, and each year as we've attended the alternating styles, we still hadn't really decided what we wanted to do for ourselves, when it was just us. We created a mash-up of the old and the new for this year.

I'm wasn't sure if Zoe will be allowed to wear her costume to school on Halloween, and I wanted to make sure she has something festive to wear.

I purchased a plain black t-shirt at Wal-Mart for around $4 and I bought a fat quarter of orange fabric for the face. I made a Jack-O-Lantern face in Illustrator, and used this method, to cut the fabric backed with Heat n' Bond with my Silhouette. I ironed the pieces on by hand and will be sewing them down around the edge before I wash it.



You can download the free Silhouette file here. For personal use only.

If wanted to accessorize the outfit, and took some small scraps (1/2" x 1-3") from my arrow quilt, and tied them around a hair band, making the perfect scrappy hair tie.


Turns out Zoe will be wearing her costume to school and we actually just got the last pieces of her costume in the mail last week. she's super excited to already. Just two more weeks!

XOXO,
Holly & CO

For the cookie party this year, I wanted to make some goodie bags, with non-edible treats for the kids to take home. I have been wanting to try out this Silhouette Tattoo paper for awhile now, and this was the perfect occasion. I used dingbat fonts and Photoshop to create these simple graphic temporary tattoos.

Tips:
1. Cut as much white space off as possible - the way these printable tattoo sheets work, the white space is a tattoo as well. The less white space, the better the tattoo looks on. I cut mine out by hand, Alternatively, you could also achieve this by using the Silhouette print and cut feature
2. Make sure you let the ink dry. I left mine for 30 minutes before I put the adhesive sheet on top.



Download the free printable here. For personal use only.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

I remember as a kid my favorite thing about carving pumpkins, was the pumpkin seeds my mom roasted and we snacked on for the next few days - if they lasted that long.

She would rinse them and salt them with Lawry's seasoning salt. But this year, I wanted to switch things up a bit and try some new flavors....Can you believe my husband had never tried roasted pumpkin seeds until I started making test batches? Seriously, he's glad to have me around to introduce him to culinary delights like these.

Smoky Chipotle Pumpkin Seeds
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
4 tsp. Smoky Chipotle Tabasco
4 tsp. water
2 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. smoked salt
1 tsp. kosher salt
dash of black pepper

Mix ingredients together until seeds are coated. Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet either greased or lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp. smoked salt on top. Bake at 275 for 30 minutes or until crunchy.

My husband is obsessed with this Tabasco sauce. I bought it for a recipe I found on Pinterest and he fell in love. What would we do without Pinterest? These seeds aren't spicy upon first taste, but it's definitely a building heat, the more you eat, the spicier they become.

I've already made several batches, I didn't even get a picture until my third batch, and I'm anticipating they will become a new household favorite.

How do you roast pumpkin seeds? Are you like my husband and have never even tried them?

XOXO,
Holly & Co.