Romantic Getaway: Hotel Frederick

I always have to beg husband to do romantic things for me. They very rarely happen, so it is always extra special when they do! Gabe surprised me by planning a mid week getaway (or as he called it an "adfunture"). I woke up on and he made breakfast while I laid around in bed. Then we packed up and headed to the Hotel Frederick. I have to say, the 2+ hour drive across I-70 is very boring as far as landscape. We had a fun time talking though!

As we drove, it started to rain. And of course, the further west we got, the more the rain turned into snow. By the time we arrived in the quaint little town of Boonville, it was full out snowing and slushy!
I was excited to get up to our room and get warm and dry. The first thing I noticed when we got inside was the smell. It was marvelous! It smelled just like this natural soap I have from Herbaria. The staff were very friendly and got us checked in and took us up to our room.
The juxtaposition of the old architecture with bright colors and modern light fixtures and decor was right up my alley.
The bathroom was the highlight of our room. The black and white checkered floors were heated and there was a huge tub with jets - perfect for drinking champagne in! The bathroom was stocked with natural soap from Indigo Wild - which I discovered was the cause of the lovely smell all throughout the hotel. There were two comfy robes waiting for us when we got out of the tub.
This was a trip about spending time relaxing together WITHOUT computers/phones/tv. So we spent the majority of our time just hanging out! We did hit up the Isle of Capri casino as neither of us had ever been to a casino before. We found it depressing, and after playing a few slots, we went back to the hotel. Again, the staff were very friendly and helpful and showed us a lounge with a tv, games, and books.
The only real downside to the trip was our culinary experience or lack thereof. We ate lunch at Maggie's. The pub food was good but not great. For dinner, we had the buffet at the casino. The food was DEFINITELY not worth the price. It seemed like restaurant options were very limited.
I would love to go back to the Hotel Frederick when it's warm so we can go to the winery and walk around on Main St. It was a much needed break from work and our tiny apartment!

Giftables: Sugar Scrub & Mini Cal

I finally got my Stampin' Up stuff! I went a little stamp crazy. The first thing I made was a mini calendar. I found this calendar and tutorial on Blue Cricket Design.

My other project was a gift tag for some homemade sugar scrub. This is super easy, but the initial cost can be a little high. All you need is 4 parts sugar to 1 part oil and some essential oils to give it an aromatherapy scent (the essential oil is the expensive part). On my first go round, I used baby oil. It was VERY difficult to mask the smell...you have to use a LOT of essential oil. On my second go round, I tried olive oil. Again, it was next to impossible to mask the smell. I'm still looking for just the right oil!
No matter the smell, this stuff is great for winter skin. I use it to exfoliate before shaving and my skin is really soft afterward. Both of these make quick and easy gifts! Hop on over to Stampin' Up today so you can make adorable gifts too!

Inspiration

When I was trying to style my wedding, I looked to this photography workshop hosted by Jessica Claire for inspiration. Styled by Summer Watkins of Grey Likes Weddings, it perfectly encapsulates my design aesthetic (or at least what I aspire to). I can see this translating perfectly into interior design! Vintage, whimsical, elements of nature and books...it's so me! I love everything about it. I can't wait to move to a more permanent home so I can take this look and make it my own.

By Person Killian

By Natalie Watson

By Lisa Hessel

By Kari Sikorski

By Jenny Liu

By Jeanna Hayes

By Jessica Claire

By Jessica Claire

By Brandon Kidd

By Brandon Kidd

Button Magnets & More Wall Art

Truth be told, I would have had a craft day whether it was a snowpocalpyse or not. Yesterday was fun and relaxing, but today I needed to do something! So I did two different projects. First up, we have button magnets! This is hands down THE easiest DIY project ever. Supplies needed: variety of buttons and magnets. I got the adhesive backed magnets, but you could get just *magnets* and hot glue them to the buttons.

Seriously, that's all there is too it. Before, we had ridiculous Elvis magnets. Yeah, it was fun to change his little outfits, but our fridge looked hideous.
And now it's darling! Eventually, I would like to make more with different colors. But for now this will do.
The second project is a "why buy that when i can make it" project. I saw this cool felt wall decor on etsy. For my version, I used an old shirt and some thick white fabric that my grandma gave me. This project is also pretty easy, but it is tedious. First, I stretched the shirt over an embroidery hoop.
Next, I made 5 medium sized flowers and 3 big flowers out of the white fabric. This is the time consuming part because I had to trace each petal and cut them all out, then glue the bottom of each petal, THEN glue them all together. Probably 50% of the glue ended up on my fingers.
Lastly, I arranged the flowers in a cascade over one side of the hoop and hot glued them down.
It matches my bathroom perfectly! So I hung it above the towel rack. Ét, voila! C'est tres mignon, n'est pas?

Ice Day!

As soon as I heard that we were expecting a blizzard of epic proportions, I crossed my fingers that today would be a snow day. And it is! My daily computer ritual involves checking gmail, facebook, and craftgawker. Here's the thing about craftgawker: sometimes you find one jackpot of a post that leads to MORE posts and blogs. And those lead to more, etc., etc. Today I fell down the craft blog rabbit hole. Poor husband has been trying to get my attention for the past few hours. Finally he resorted to video games (boo hoo, I'm sure he's heart broken). Here are lots of blogs with free things for you!

Lollychops has a variety of cute downloads, from gift tags to patterned paper

My Owl Barn has an adorable (and customizable!) 2011 calendar

Free Pretty Things For You is the place to find vintage freebies

Feed Your Soul is a "free art project" where you can download pdfs to create instant art

Over at Just Something I Made, you can find tons of downloads. My favorite are the cannister labels!

Creature Comforts has lots of lovely freebies and projects

Easy Wall Art

I have been making weekly trips to Hobby Lobby in the hopes that canvas will be on sale. Even though canvasses haven't been on sale, I haven't had any trouble finding other things to buy at Hobby Lobby. I digress, though. On a "just looking" trip to Big Lots, I stumbled on a set of TWO canvasses for $6!!! I bought them so I could finally reproduce a project I had seen on Blue Cricket Design. I decided to use gray and yellow (my favorite color duo) to match our bedroom and hang them above our bed. Don't mind the crappy pictures, they were taken on my new phone.

You can see the tutorial and the original art here.

R-Lo and Auj: Craft Day, or "Hold Me Closer, Tiny Tailor"

Finally, a day off! I "slept in" (which is now, sadly, 8a.m.) and took about an hour to wake up. I started reading a book, but I just couldn't get into it. So I decided to do my other favorite day-off activity - crafting! I figured my friend Auj would be up for some refashion projects, so I invited her to bring some old clothes and shoes over to see what we could come up with. I planned on doing 2 things: a men's plaid shirt refashion, and a bleach pen shirt design. The bleach pen shirt seemed like the easier of the two, so I went ahead and did that first. Success! Then it was time to move onto the men's shirt refashion. It pretty much involved cutting off the sleeves, creating a new neckline, and adding ruffles. As a non-sewer, this seemed like a pretty good beginner's project. At first it went well...I mean, cutting is easy! But when it came time to sew, it was a disaster! The thread kept bunching up in crazy ways or getting caught in the bobbin somehow, or breaking (seriously?!?). I tried for hours and could not manage to make a ruffle. At this point, Audrey had made some super cute boots and a bleach pen shirt. She brought in her Singer Tiny Tailor (her mom found it for $2 at a garage sale!) so we could try the ruffles on her machine. That too was an epic fail. It was the most confusing bobbin set up process I have ever experienced. Finally, we gave up on sewing. On the bright side, I know how to thread my machine and put in a new bobbin. And we came out of it with some cute new things!

Audrey's bleach pen desgin: a super cute owl!

Boots made from old flats and sweater sleeves.

My bleach pen shirt design

And my headband!!!!!!!!

I have another craft day planned for tomorrow with L-Mo. I'm hoping it yields much better results!