Ribbon Trees

I saw a version of these ribbon trees pre-made at Hobby Lobby with my Mom this weekend and we didn’t like any of the colors or sizes but loved the idea. We decided to make our own. I want to apologize for the quality of these pictures in the post because I only had my cell phone.

First, we picked up some Styrofoam cones.

The final product picture shows only two completed trees because we ran out of ribbon and I forgot to take a picture when I completed the last one :( This project is fairly simple, just requires some time and careful hot gluing (I walked away with three fingers scorched). I first cut my ribbon by eyeballing pieces of about 2-2 1/2 inches.

The fastest gluing procedure I discovered was to glue all the ribbons in a row at the top like this…

Then go back and “loop” the ribbons and hot glue at the top. To make my tree look fuller I layered the ribbons tighter together. This also helped hide the Styrofoam underneath.

I continued the ribbon “looping” and alternated colors all the way up to the top. My Mom took the trees to put on display at the golf course she works at. I loved the way they turned out! Very easy to do just be careful of the glue gun (I suggest using a glue gun that has a low temperature setting!).

Cranberry Cocktail

My boyfriend's mom whipped up these delicious cocktails for thanksgiving. Here is the recipe...

Cranberry Cocktail

-Vodka

-Cran Rasberry Juice

-Splash of lime juice

-Frozen Cranberries for garnish

-Sugar for rim

Stylish Blogger Award

A great BIG thanks to my friend Andrea from Keepin It Thrifty for this stylish blogger award!

The "Stylish Blogger Award" Rules:

Rules for accepting this award are:

1. Thank & link back to the person who awarded you this.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pay it forward to 15 recently discovered great bloggers.

*I did 10 didn't have time to do 15*

4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their Blog Award!

 

7 Things About Me:

 

1. I have seen Cher in person at a bakery in Aspen.

2. I am afraid of mascots.

3. I love all kinds of music (except scream-o).

4. I want to visit Europe.

5. I wish I was really good at yoga.

6. I can't swim.

7. I was 9 pounds when I was born.

 

 

15  Blogs I find stylish:

 

1. Motor Cross Momma

2. 504 Main

3. Adorkable Annie

4. BigSis LilSis

5. Bles-Id

6.  Craftily Ever After

7. Crafts and Sutch

8. Flamingo Toes

9. Lemon Tree Creations

10. Make Happy

11. Military Martha

12. My Pretties

13. Texas Monkey

14. Three Men and a Lady

15. What Allie's Making Now

HOOOOOOOOO ARE YOU?

Today I'm participating in "Hoooooooo Are You?" 

1. Name 5 things you are grateful for!

1-Family. An obvious answer but one I know for sure.

2-My boyfriend. He's my best friend and I would be completely lost without him. 

3-My Dog.  

4-Diet Coke. I am a Diet Coke addict and I'm not one bit ashamed.  

5- Reading. Here are some of my favorites...

 

 

2. What is you favorite dish at Thanksgiving dinner?

Easily mashed potatoes!  

3. Do you have any family traditions for Thanksgiving?

We always have Thanksgiving with good family friends who are Japanese so we always have delicious home-made won-tons for Thanksgiving. 

4. Are you staying home or traveling for Thanksgiving?

My boyfriend and I are traveling back to Denver to be with the families for Thanksgiving and I am so excited. 

5. What else do you do on Thanksgiving day besides eat?

My sister and I always wake  up and watch the Macy's parade while we help my Mom cook and clean around the house. 

Sometimes...

all you need is a little love from a furry friend to make the day 100% better...

I'm so lucky I get to cuddle up to this little guy every night.

Free Manicure

Yes ladies… I said free. Treating yourself to a manicure is always relaxing and your hands look great afterwards, but what if you don’t have the time or the funds for a manicure? Today was a perfect lazy Saturday and while Brendan (the boyfriend) was playing some Call of Duty on his X-Box I decided to occupy myself by giving myself a manicure. First step was to round up my supplies (nail polish, top coat, acrylic paints, q-tips, finger nail polish remover, bobby pin and towel).

I first painted my nails like normal a nice festive shade of red (mainly because I couldn’t find any other color but hey I’m calling it festive).

Yes I have swollen, chubby hands. I have my Dad to thank for that one. Anyways like the “festive red”? Next is my “manicure” tip…acrylic paint!

I picked out a few colors that I wanted to use to paint a design on my nails. My “paintbrush” is a bent bobby pin. I bend a bobby pin back and use the rounded end to paint on my nails.

I decided to paint flowers because to be honest they are one of the easiest designs to paint. I first dipped my bobby pin in the yellow paint to create the center of the flower. I then painted five white dots around the yellow. I decided that I would make the center of the flower black because the yellow didn’t stand out against the white.

I painted a few black dots for a little extra something something. The bobby pin makes it so easy to make dots. When I was finished Brendan was still playing Call of Duty so I added some polka-dots on my other nails.

 

I added a top coat and moved on to paint my right hand and since I’m right handed this is no easy task ha ha. Here is the finished product on the right hand.

Yes my right hand is chubby and swollen as well ha.

This is my flower on my right hand, I think it actually turned out better than the one on my left hand. Maybe I should start doing everything with my left hand? This is how you give yourself a free manicure.

Pencil Holder

My good blog friend Andrea over at *Keeping it Thrifty* created the coolest soup can makeover. How cute is this?

So I decided to make something similar for my desk at work. I started out with this wonderful can…(sorry I apologize that this picture is so blurry, I don’t know what happened!)

After cleaning out the tomato can I removed the label. I found the coolest paper at Hobby Lobby and hadn’t know what to do with it yet until this project.

I really loved the texture of this paper. I then measured my can and paper and began to mod podge the paper to the can.

I waited for the can to dry and then decided there was still something more I wanted to add something more to it. I clipped out my name from a magazine ad (fortunately for me my name is Lauren and lots of Ralph Lauren’s ads work perfectly when I need a name label). 

Here is the final product. I had a really hard time photographing the final product because the “Lauren” label wrapped around most of the can. Here is my best attempt at pictures.

Thanks Andrea for the great idea!

Wreath Update

Ok some of you may remember my post about my heart wreath in a gold frame. If not…don’t worry here is a picture.

Anyways, I really liked the wreath and the frame together. It fit t he wall space pretty well. Problem was…My boyfriend (who I live with) wasn’t keen on the idea of a heart wreath hanging in his apartment. I didn’t really every think that the heart wreath would be too “girly” I mean it is made of sticks. I guess it really bothered him because he mentioned it ALL the time. Finally I did something about it. I replaced the heart with a circle.

Looks about the same and I don’t have to constantly hear about the “girly” heart so I guess it worked out. Now what to do with the heart wreath? It sat in my closet for awhile until I decided to “girly” up the “girly” wreath and give it to my sister for her dorm room. I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out some awesome ribbon. I wrapped the ribbon around the wreath and hot glued it in to place. Here is the finished product…

I love the paisley print on the ribbon used for the bow! I wish I had a picture of the wreath hanging but my sister hasn’t set it yet. Everyone is happy now… my sister got a new wreath, my boyfriend doesn’t have to look at the “girly” heart anymore AND I don’t have to hear about it!