DIY Lit Floral Centerpiece

Here is a really pretty and simple to make floral centerpiece idea. I put these together for an evening baby shower, however they would be great for any occasion! The led lights inside of the mercury glass create a beautiful glow. Follow the detailed steps below to create your own!

First mix together your flower food with 1 quart of water. You will want to use a container with a pouring spout.

Pour water about halfway up each water tube. Place lid back onto the water tube and stick 2-3 different florals in each tube.

Place your battery powered led light strands in each of your vases. 

I found mine at Target on clearance for under $5 each.

Begin placing your florals in the vase, arranging them to create a balanced centerpiece. You may need to go back and trim different stems shorter once your have all of the flowers in place. I also used fake succulents to help fill the vase. I found mine on Save-on-crafts.com. 

Popeye Pancakes

Casey grew up eating popeye pancakes, so it has been fun to start making them for our family. The kids love watching them puff up in the oven and they love eating them even more! If you've never had them before, I would say they are a mixture of an egg dish and kind of like french toast a little bit too. They are really simple to make with just a few ingredients, and you can top them with whatever you'd like! 

Ingredients:

-1/4 cup butter

-6 eggs

-1 cup milk

-1 cup flour

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-toppings (we used powdered sugar, berries, maple syrup, and cinnamon and sugar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place your butter in a glass 13x9 pan in the oven to melt while the oven is preheating. Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and milk. Stir together the flour and salt and slowly beat into the egg mixture. Pour into the baking dish on top of the melted butter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. It will puff up and become golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and serve warm with your choice of toppings.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I love this time of year, however every year I battle against the business of the holidays and life in general. I have to limit myself with what I try to take on and accomplish. Which is also why I haven't posted anything in a while. This last year has felt crazy for us with three little ones running around, moving, and remodeling our home. We really tried to slow down a bit this holiday season to enjoy time with family and celebrate the birth of our Savior. The kids did all end up getting sick the week of Christmas, which caused lots of sleepless nights, but we are starting to get back into our daily routine. 

One thing I did want to accomplish this year, was sending out a Christmas card! I think it has been a few years since I sent one out. I wanted to capture us in our new home doing something together. So I set us up with some cookie dough and let the boys decorate cookies. My sister helped snap some shots of all of us...and it did get a little crazy. That's usually how it goes around here anyways, but there was flour and cookie dough all over the floors when we were done taking pictures. Max was crying because Hudson threw flour in his face, Piper was walking around eating raw cookie dough off the floor, and I was trying to take deep breaths. We did get some great pictures though, and the kids had fun! 

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day...

DIY Felt Christmas Pillow

 This is a really easy pillow to make with very little sewing. It is made with felt, which will not fray. I love the way it turned out and cost me under $10 to make!
(I had some of the supplies laying around the house.)

Supplies:

- 1/2 yard cream felt fabric (at least 38" wide)

-16" pillow insert (that's just the size I already had on hand)

-White thread

-Green felt leaves (I found mine at target in their Christmas decor, but you could cut your own)

-White pom poms (you can find bags of them loose at the craft store, I just had some on a strand so that's what I used)

-Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Directions:

I made a simple envelope back pillow case and because I used felt I only had to sew along each side and didn't need to worry about hemming the other sides. 

First you will need to calculate what size to cut your fabric based on the size of your pillow. For the length you will double the size and add 6. My pillow was 16" square. These are my calculations:

16 + 16 + 6 = 38"length

For the width you will take the pillow size and add .5"

16 + .5 = 16.5" wide

Cut your fabric to your size. Mine was 38" x 16.5". 

Next lay your pillow on your fabric with the right side of the fabric facing up. Fold the fabric around the pillow, overlapping it to create an envelope back. Pin along the sides where the fabric overlaps and then slide your pillow out.

Now pin along both sides and sew. When you are done sewing each side, turn the pillow case right side out. 

Arrange your felt leaves in the shape of a wreath and using a hot glue gun, glue it in place.

I wanted a neutral colored pillow, so I covered the red berries on the original garland with the white pom poms using the hot glue gun. 

7 Books to Help Strengthen Your Marriage

Marriage is hard and takes a lot of work. Lots of forgiveness, grace, selflessness, sacrifice, and love. These are some books that I have found extremely encouraging along the way! Add them to your reading list and ask your spouse to join you in reading some of them. 

1. Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas - What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?

2. Sacred Influence by Gary Thomas -How God uses wives to shape the souls of their Husbands

3. Real Marriage by Mark and Grace Driscoll - The truth about sex, friendship, and life together

4. From Anger to Intimacy by Dr. Gary Smalley and Mr. Ted Cunningham - How forgiveness can transform your marriage

5. The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller - Facing the complexities of commitment with the wisdom of God.

6. The Five Love Languages by Gary D. Chapman -How to express heartfelt commitment to your mate

7. Just How Married do You Want to Be? by Jim and Sarah Sumner - Practicing oneness in marriage

Dear Vines Giveaway

A good friend of mine has started her own business making these beautiful bracelets, and she would like to offer one to one of you for FREE! Please visit Dear Vines HERE to shop and read below to find out how to enter to win one! 

 Visit Dear Vines on Facebook or Instagram 

to find a promocode for 25% off through the end of the year!

Dear Vines also offers mini vines for little girls.

And a mens line will be coming soon!

GIVEAWAY!!!

Visit me on instagram HERE to ENTER!
To enter the giveaway you must follow @thedearvines on Instagram
and repost the giveaway with hashtag #dearvinesgiveaway

If you would like additional chances to win follow Dear Vines on Facebook HERE and SHARE the giveaway for another entry, make sure to comment below letting me know you did! 

Giveaway ENDS December 14th at 12am.
Winner will be chosen using random.org.

Make Your Own SNOW

Came across this fun winter activity at Growing a Jeweled Rose, along with lots of other great kids activities! You can make your own snow with items you most likely already have at home. My boys loved it, especially the part where you make them foam and grow by spraying them with vinegar! 

 You will need:
-Shaving cream
-Baking soda
-Vinegar, in a spray bottle
-Glitter (optional)
-Sensory tubs

 Place the baking soda in the tub.

Add some shaving cream and mix it together. The "snow" should start sticking together.

Spray your snowballs with vinegar and watch them foam!

Christmas Jar

We've officially begun decorating for Christmas at our house! We are not hosting Thanksgiving this year and I couldn't wait any longer...especially after finding some fun Christmas decor at Sweet Salvage this weekend! I found these amazing gold glittered vintage ornaments there. They are from the 50's. I just LOVE them! The jar I bought at Design Lab in downtown Mesa and have been rotating what I place inside of it with each season. I collected pine cones from our yard and you can find details below with how I covered them it white shimmery glitter.

 I love these battery powered LED lights! Perfect for lighting up a jar! I simply used 3M tape to stick the battery pack to the lid of the jar. You can find them at Target and Michael's, however they are cheaper at Michael's especially if you use a coupon! I also used a strand to wrap around some antlers.

To make your own shimmery pine cones and Christmas Jar, here is what you'll need:
-1 large glass jar with a lid
-1 strand of battery powered LED lights
-3M tape
-Ornaments
-Pine cones
-Tacky spray
-White glitter (I used a martha stewart brand)

Directions:
Set your pine cones in a box and spray with the tacky spray. Sprinkle with glitter. Spray another coat of tacky spray overtop of the glitter. Let dry. Using 3M tape stick your battery pack to the lid of your jar. Once your pine cones have dried, fill your jar with ornaments and pine cones. Wrap the LED lights through your pine cones and ornaments.

How to Save Your i Phone From Water Damage

A couple weeks ago my i phone was thrown into the toilet... by my one year old. I saw the whole thing coming when she grabbed my phone and made a dash for my bathroom! In my head I just knew if the lid was up it was going in the toilet. Sure enough as I chased in after her there is was at the bottom of the toilet. I frantically started grabbing at it and it took me a minute or two to get it out because it was wedged in the hole of the toilet! You can read below exactly what I did when I got it out, because somehow it turned back on 24 hours later in full working condition!

-Power off your phone as quickly as possible.

-Remove the case and any protective screen covers. 

-Wipe the phone dry and use a q-tip to absorb any water in the plugs.

-Fill a plastic ziploc bag with rice and place your phone inside. 

-Seal the bag and make sure your phone is surrounded by rice.

-Wait...this is the hard part! Wait 24 to 36 hours before turning your phone back on. And before you turn it on make sure you see no sign of any moisture. If you do put it back in the rice and wait longer!

I do not have the best patience so my phone showed no signs of moisture after 24 hours...so I turned it back on. It worked! If I had the self control it might have been best to wait 36 hours...just to play it safe...but I didn't. I wasn't sure if the bag of rice trick would work, but it did! So thankful that we didn't have to replace my phone!

Another thing you can do is check your phone for water damage by checking for the “Liquid Contact Indicator” locations as shown in the image above from Apple. If your phone is showing red it is indicating water damage. This would also affect your warranty. 

Amy's Fall Themed Baby Shower

This weekend I worked with a few friends to throw our friend Amy a baby shower. She is expecting her second little girl, Autumn anytime now! Amy is due with Autumn on Thanksgiving, so we thought a Fall themed shower would be perfect! We had the shower outside and the weather was beautiful! We served soups and salad for lunch and pies for dessert. As favors everyone took home a homemade pear butter. You can read and see more details below!

Piper's 1st Birthday

 Can't believe our sweet baby girl is already ONE! The year has flown by, and I think I say that every year when the kids have a birthday. We were planning to have a small dinner party for Piper's birthday with family and close friends. However, the plans changed when Hudson came down with the stomach flu that morning. It was a bummer we didn't get to celebrate with friends and family, and eat all of the food that had been bought and prepared. However, Piper didn't know the difference! I did still take some pictures that I wanted to share. It was fun to plan a party with pink this year! 

 I made mini carrot cake cupcakes and a pink ruffled cake. You can find a tutorial for the pink ruffled cake HERE. I used striped paper straws and yellow tissue paper to make little candles for each cupcake. Also perfect for the birthday girl's cake!

 Made a yummy apple cider sangria, recipe HERE.

Perfect adult drink for a Fall party!

We went with the "mini" theme for her 1st birthday.

These mini crab apples were perfect! Found them at Fry's.

We also made mini meatball sandwiches for dinner.

 Put together a large veggie bowl full of "mini" cucumbers, peppers, carrots, and tomatoes.

I filled the bottom of the bowl with grocery bags and paper towels to keep the veggies up higher in the bowl. I was inspired by the veggie bowl served at True Food!

For the centerpieces I decorated with gold mason jars, pink and peach florals, white and gold pumpkins, and succulents.

I bought the sweet handmade crown for Piper to wear on Etsy from Tilly Tilda.

 Made this tissue paper tassel garland. You can find a tutorial HERE.

I bought some pretty tissue poms from Petite Party Studio in down town Gilbert. I plan on reusing these by hanging them in Piper's room.

For party favors I made homemade play dough (recipe HERE) in three colors. I placed three rolled balls of each color in small mason jars and sprinkled with gold glitter. I used a free printable from Tomkat Studio, HERE.

Happy 1st Birthday sweet Piper!