Easy 4th of July Decor...

Seriously, it's almost July 4th??!  Well I saw these jars on pinterest and thought they were too cute and easy to pass up!

Now I always like to give credit where credit is due so this is the picture that inspired me:

and it came from here.

She explains how she made them and I'm going to share that as well.  All you need is some mason jars, spray adhesive, small flags and mod podge.  Oh and jute string is always cute too;)

Just pull your flag from the stick, spray on the adhesive, place it on the jar and then seal it with mod podge-that's it!  You now have a cute, patriotic candle holder or whatever you want it to be!

Looks good on a mantel.

And on the other side of the mantel.

Or on the front porch.

Or on the kitchen table.

Or you could even use it to hold utensils for a party.

I really like how the original poster had it lining the walkway outside with candles in it- how cool would that look for a 4th of July party!?  Or on tables at a party.  Love it!  Hope you get a chance to make these!

I need your help with something!

I need your help with something so simple but something that could really make a difference for someone near and dear to me.  My sister has her own purse company Lexiwynn designs, based out of Chicago, Illinois and she is in a contest to win a grant.  My sister and her husband work so hard every day to produce the best products for their customers and would greatly appreciate you taking just 2 minutes to vote for their business.  They need 250 votes and right now they have 211!!
So just click here  But read on to see how to-again very easy but there are a few steps.
When you click You will then see this page:LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK TOSUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY

Our Grant Pool has reached its goal of $3 Million! Now it's up to you to help your favorite small businesses by showing your Support. Log in below to search and vote.

LOG IN & SUPPORT

Already a supporter? Log in with Facebook and vote for your favorite small businesses. 

Then you will see this page (below) and you want to put Illinois as the state and Libertyville as the state.  LexiWynn should pop right up and then click support!  

For some reason typing in just the business name doesn't seem to work so just do the state and city search.  Very easy!!  This would make a huge difference for my sister and her husband's company.  Please, please help them out by this simple process!!  

No facebook info. is shared, you won't get any emails or anything like that.  

Thanks so much for taking the time to potentially make a huge difference!!

I need your help with something!

I need your help with something so simple but something that could really make a difference for someone near and dear to me.  My sister has her own purse company Lexiwynn designs, based out of Chicago, Illinois and she is in a contest to win a grant.  My sister and her husband work so hard every day to produce the best products for their customers and would greatly appreciate you taking just 2 minutes to vote for their business.  They need 250 votes and right now they have 211!!
So just click here  But read on to see how to-again very easy but there are a few steps.
When you click You will then see this page:LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK TOSUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY

Our Grant Pool has reached its goal of $3 Million! Now it's up to you to help your favorite small businesses by showing your Support. Log in below to search and vote.

LOG IN & SUPPORT

Already a supporter? Log in with Facebook and vote for your favorite small businesses. 

Then you will see this page (below) and you want to put Illinois as the state and Libertyville as the state.  LexiWynn should pop right up and then click support!  

For some reason typing in just the business name doesn't seem to work so just do the state and city search.  Very easy!!  This would make a huge difference for my sister and her husband's company.  Please, please help them out by this simple process!!  

No facebook info. is shared, you won't get any emails or anything like that.  

Thanks so much for taking the time to potentially make a huge difference!!

Screen Porch Reveal...Before and Afters!

 So a major project I've been working on this spring has been the screened porch.  To start, it was a very nice porch to begin with.  The previous owners gave us the furniture with the house and I couldn't have been more thrilled with that!  We've never had a porch before so we would have had to buy all new stuff and what they gave us was really nice.

Here's a picture I took when we walked through the house for the very first time, not knowing we would be living in it...

See, nice really!  The cushions were in great condition just a little faded from the sun, nice rug, cute colors.

I just felt it needed my touch.  I wanted white flowing curtains, a mantel of some sort, fun, funky colors.  I wanted it to be a place that made me smile, that felt relaxing but that was also charming.

We ended up using all of our curtains from our last house-they were inexpensive panels from Target so if they got wet or dirty I didn't mind.  Mike came up with the coolest idea to hang them on these poles he found at Home Depot that only cost him $2!

Here's a picture of the curtains in progress and this cool mantel I found at an antique store...

You can see the rods, they are just piping but they look really cool!  I kinda like that they are unexpected, not your typical dark traditional rods.  The curtains unfortunately were not long enough (your curtains MUST touch the floor!;)) so that's when the process started of hunting for just the right fabric to add a panel on the bottom of each one. Not to mention to recover all of the furniture.

I knew I needed indoor/outdoor fabric that was fade resistant, water and mildew resistant and I knew I needed a ton to cover all the cushions and the curtains.  The pineapples just weren't doing it for me anymore, I needed more color so this is what I ended up using:  

I also purchased some fun yellow chevron for the rocking chairs.  I know how to sew but I have never done slip covers and I wanted them to fit nicely and look "professional" so I decided I'd add zippers.  Let me just tell you that I have never poked myself with so many pins in my life!  Slip covering is HARD!!  


So there was definitely blood, sweat, and tears involved in this project.  Would I do it again after this?  I'm not so sure about that.  It wasn't easy but maybe it makes it that much more enjoyable when I can walk out in the morning with my coffee or at night with my glass of wine and enjoy this space in our house!

So here it is now in all it's glory, the screen porch- Adrienne style;)...

It's hard to see but I added the blue polka dot to the bottom of the curtains-waaay harder than I thought it was going to be but it finally turned out the way I had planned.

So before....

And After...

We had this rug in our dining room and it's an indoor/outdoor rug that a certain dog liked to pee on so I steam cleaned it and I really like it out here-so far no dog pee!  Now I just need a rug for our dining room;)

This yellow mantel was a great find- I got it for $70.  I cleaned it up and put a protective coat on it but I liked the pale yellow so I didn't change that.  Mike nailed it to the porch so it's nice and secure. I think this will be fun to decorate for all the seasons!

I had this hanging in our other house and have not been able to find the perfect place for it in this house...until now!

Just some fun summertime stuff.  Ainsley painted the seahorse- I love it!

My attempt at chevron art;)  And of course starfish because I just love starfish!

These were in the attic holding fabric so I brought them down and put some of B's toys in them.  Bennett loves to play out here and it's perfect because we can all be out here and he can play with his toys-just another room to live in!  

Another view of the room.

I ended up having lots of extra fabric so I recovered some pillows and cushions for the patio.  Pillows I can handle but big bulky cushions are not fun.

 We have had this table and chairs for 11 years and it's seen better days but until we get a new set I think the cushions give it some life;)

So there you have it, my porch reveal!  Hoping to start a new project soon- turning the playroom into Mike's office and his little office he has now into a mudroom!  This will involve Mike a ton more though so it could take awhile;)  Stay tuned!

Linking up to this summer mantel party!

Bennett's "Nautical" Birthday Party!

This past weekend we celebrated Bennett's 3rd birthday with his nautical party!  I did a crab theme for his first, we didn't do a party for his 2nd so for his 3rd I decided to combine new and old decor and I think it turned out cute!  As usual I'd been planning for months but when the day finally arrived I barely had time to take pictures- at least good ones of all the cute stuff but here's what I got... and by the way the weather was PERFECT!!  Any time you take the risk to have a party outside it adds to the stress level but we could not have had a more perfect day in June!!  (Also thanks to my friend Jeff for grabbing my camera during the party and getting lots of great shots of Bennett and all the kids!)

 The candy bar!  Lots of goodies for Bennett's guests!

Big kids took home crab cookies and a bag of candy and the littles took home a shovel and pail filled with summer fun stuff.

The crab cookies I attempted to make turned out pretty good although the claws wanted to fall off but I know the kids didn't care! 

The food table!  

Mike cooked sliders on the grill and we had popcorn (red,white and blue-found it at Walmart!), peanuts, salad, fruit salad and corn dip.  Lots of pinterest ideas on this table!  A lot of the decor is actually from Bennett's bedroom and since his birthday is always around Memorial Day red,white, and blue things are easy to find in the stores.  Fabric drops were from my Lil Sis stash. 

Having the salads in these big jars was great to keep the bugs off...another pinterest idea;)

More red/white/blue and crab/nautical decor.

Bennett with one of his favorite people...Grandpa;)  

How sweet is he?!  You can see that he's looking right at the fire and sure enough right before I blew out the candle (because he wouldn't) he took his little hand and reached right for the flame-does it every time!

On a side note, in the background you can see all the drinks- We put them in our big wheel barrel and it worked great and looked really cute too...pinterest!  Highly suggest this for your next outdoor party, perfect size, rustic look-you gotta try it!!  

Kid madness!

Bennett's favorite set of triplets!  He's particularly fond of Sadie in the middle;)

My sweet 3 year old!

Having fun in the bounce house!

Ending the night with a sweet kiss on the cheek for his cousin Elle;)

So another birthday goes by and another party in the books.  It was a good one for sure!  Thanks to all who came out to celebrate with us!!