A Merry Affair: February 2013

I Love Pallets

It is getting warmer here in Norther California so I decided to start working on our patio. The side of the house was full of pallets, I have read lots of tutorials of taking your every day pallet and turning it into some pretty nifty furnature, so I thought I would try it.

A bench for the girls. Take one pallet and cut it in half, cut one of the halfs in half and screw it all together!

Americana wall art. Paint some pallet boards and connect them with two boards in the back.

Our Pallet table, super easy! Add some legs and you are done!

Our little patio made from pallets!

Our furnature has been built so now the hubby is going to stat on his special project-painting the cement patio!

A little birdy told me you would be my Valentine

I love chocolate, and so does the rest of the family, so you know there will be pounds of chocolate exchanged February 14^th at our house. But chocolate disappears (very quickly at our house) and we wanted to make sure that our loved ones had something left over to keep for some time. So we made some special keepsakes for everyone we love.

Birds were our theme this year, the girls and I painted bird houses for all of the adults. We lucked out and found the house on sale for just $1. We copied and attached a vintage bluebird valentine we found in Great Grandmas trunk to each of the houses. For the kids are hand crochet owls in their favorite colors!

Bird houses painted and glittered by the girls

The snuggly owls crochet for each of the kids

I found this vintage valentine in Great Grandmas trunk, it is perfect for the bird houses!

Valentines decor at the Aller Farm

I love the valentines prints you can find all over the internet, print them out, frame them and add a little holiday love throughout your house!

My great grandma owned a florist shop back in Kansas, part of my inheritance was hundreds of vintage vases like the valentines one in the picture

Vintage crystal full of roses and a hand painted sign

Valentines slip ccovers for my throw pillows

We love Valentines day around here. When I first started decorating I had store bought streamers and giant cardboard hearts. As time went by I built up my collection of vintage decorations and hand made trinkets. We have found ways to incorporate our every day things with our favorite holiday goodies, like our vintage scale full of hearts.

Our decorations are easy to put up and take down so we will be able to transition to St. Pattys day on the 15^th!

Alice in Wonderland

Later this year our first baby girl Julie, is turning 5! I have no idea how this happened, one second she was a baby the next she is a 5 year old! The last two years she has had very small parties (a popsicle party and a rainbow pancake party-what can I say she is a creative kid) so we told her she could have a big party to celebrate such a big age, and she chose Alice in Wonderland. I will admit I may have had a little influence in this choice, I have been wanting to plan an Alice in Wonderland party for a while so I knew how to sell it.

Julie loves bright colors, knickknacks, clutter, and general fabulousness so an Alice in Wonderland party is the perfect fit. The party starts at the front door where guest are greeted with some mini ‘eat me’cookies (so that they can fit down the rabbit hole), inside the house we will have a huge table set up full of mirrors, hats and gloves-so that our guests are dressed for the party. As our guest walk through the hosue they will see brightly colored paper lanterns, a table full of rainbow ‘drink me’ drinks-with matching straws of course, and giant paper flowers.

Julies birthday is in September and our yard gets sunny and hot, so her party will be held under a set of white patio covers with tulle curtains attached to give it a more private feel. Inside are more lanterns, flowers and pennants, bright, gaudy and eccentric seem to be the mad hatters style! A huge table will be set for all of our guests. Books, flamingos, feathers, teacups, and flowers will be down the center of the table, instead of having a separate food table we will have all the food placed on towers throughout the table.

Daddy has already been working on giant cut outs of characters so that guests can pose and take pictures, and big brother Jayden is planning a Cheshire cat scavenger hunt and flamingo croquet game.

There is lots of time before this party so we can make a weekly trip to the good will to search for tea cups, tea pots, and other fun trinkets for our table!
We also havent figured out our gift for our friends so any suggestions would be welcome!!

A fairy picnic

Birthday party planning starts months in advance around here. We start with an idea, hunt for inspiration, sketch, list, prep and then execute. For Jemma Bellas 2^nd birthday we have decided to throw a garden fairy picnic. Here is a sneak peak at her invitation and our inspiration board.

We are currently in our prepping/collecting stage. We have sketched out a party in the middle of the lawn. Overhead is a tulle canopy (suspended with clear fishing line), underneath is a long table covered in moss (we have already begun growing our moss “tablecloth”), atop are wooden chargers cut from logs, mini egg cups full of flowers, and of course fairy dust. For seats we have flower pillows and log benches! We are planning a simple menu of sandwich rolls and salads, flavored lemonades and flower cupcakes.

Jemma Bellas invitation

Tulle, cupcakes, flowers, and fairies are just a little bit of our inspiration for this fairy picnic party

An International Baby Shower

My baby brother and his wife are stationed with the Army in Germany. When he called to tell me last year that he and his wife were having a baby I was thrilled and sad. I didn’t want his wife Kim to miss out on all the exciting moments that happen during your first pregnancy so we decided to throw here a party, thousands of miles away. Our family and friends brought all of their gifts over to our house to show them off and pack them up. We guessed the due date and babies size. Played some “how well do you know mommy and daddy” games, ate some food, and then decorated our boxes! 12 flat rate boxes later we were ready! We packaged up the decorations (baby Jeremy has a jungle theme room so we decorated with animals), the answers to the games, and all of our presents and shipped them across the sea!

My brother Andrew and Kim went into labor before the boxes arrived but baby Jeremy got to come home to some major love! It was a great idea, it made Kim feel a little love from home and it allowed us to get together and celebrate the new addition to the family –even if we haven’t met him yet!!

Chocolate chips for our guests, packaged in boxes from Germany

Facts about Mommy and Daddy

Yummy carrot cake

Flags for the babies room

Baby Jeremy, it now hangs over his bed

Gifts for the guests

Packing time

Notes of love

Pink Baby Shower

I know, who throws their own baby shower?!?! In my defense my sister in law and best friend hosted my shower, I just decorated :)

Mommy, Julie, and baby Jemma (In the belly)

Jemma Bellas nursery is decorated with pink cherry blossoms, so we thought we would take that theme and use it to decorate for the party. Melonie and I started by making tissue paper flower balls (so easy!!). We then started making the paper accents, our baby banner, labels for the food, and water bottles. Melonie handmade the gifts with pink scrapbook paper, tulle, and chocolate. We then made a visit to our favorite French bakery in town and bough some yummy cakes and lemonade!!

My best friends and the ladies in my family joined us for baby games, yummy and gifts!! It was an amazing day.