Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

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Mother’s Day is coming up, May 9. We know how much work, worry and love goes into raising our own children, so we appreciate all the amazing mothers out there. We learned from the best; our mom was wonder woman. We owe our mother so many thanks, especially for giving us the greatest gift of all, unconditional love! Take the time to call your mom, stop by, send flowers or buy her something special.

We’ve rounded up some fabulous ideas below that you still have time to order!

Happy Mother’s Day!

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  1. Bloody Mary Pitcher with the BEST bloody mix everThe Real Dill (If you live in Colorado, you can get this at grocery stores and liquor stores): We LOVE, LOVE this Bloody Mary mix. It’s the best. And, this pitcher is the perfect match for it.
  2. Raise them kind sweatshirt: This is so cute, but also a good reminder about the importance of raising kind kids. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the competitive things such as grades, sports, making sure our kids have the best of the best, but it’s important to remember to teach them to be kind.
  3. A good book, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah: We love Kristin Hannah books. This is on our reading list. We haven’t read it yet, but we hear it’s good.
  4. Cuisinart Electric Kettle: We use our electric kettle everyday, at least 3x a day. This is a MUST for every home, and every mother or woman who makes coffee or tea. Gift this kettle with a bag of coffee, or your moms favorite tea.
  5. Vuori joggers: Gift mom with the best joggers ever!! We love these, and recommend them to everyone.
  6. Miroco Frother: Yay to homemade frothy espresso drinks at home! This is a fun kitchen gadget that froths happiness in a cup every morning.
  7. PJ Salvage pajamas: Give mom the gift of really comfy pajamas. She will look forward to bed, and feel like the queen she is in these pajamas. PJ Salvage is one of our favorite pajamas brand.
  8. Yeti wine rambler: Give mom a to-go cup for her wine. It’s dishwasher friendly (YAY), and will keep her wine chilled as she sips!
  9. Oak and Luna Name Chain Link Necklace: Chain necklaces are a favorite for us these days, so how great is this chain necklace that you can customize with names!? We would be thrilled to open this on Mother’s Day.
  10. Custom Name Bead Bracelet: We have similar bead bracelets, and we wear them everyday. It’s a great affordable gift for moms and grandmothers.
  11. Magnolia Table Cookbook or Half Baked Harvest Cookbook: We love the recipes from these two women. Some are simple, and some push us outside our kitchen comfort zone, but they are all so yummy.

 

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Joyful Holiday Photo Shoot

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We just realized we never shared one of our first and favorite photo shoots on the blog. It’s a favorite because we were able to work with our friend and photographer, Meredith Moran Photography, and because amongst all the pretty red and white details, our children were running around in the background at our parents house. It was a lot of chaos, but also a lot of laughter, and if you can laugh in the midst of the chaos, that can be a good thing.

We hope you make the DIY peppermint tray this Christmas season and find the time experience pure joy, just like the marquee lights by Saddleshoe Designs reminds us to do.

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Vendor Love:
Photography: Meredith Moran Photography | Marquee Lights: Saddleshoe Signs | Tabletop Accessories and Stationery: Fleur de Lis, a paperie 

Design a Beautiful Nursery on a Budget

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Babies are expensive, but that doesn’t mean their room has to be, too. We love the nursery Mila Mae, the newest {and beautiful} addition to our large Italian family, calls home. Sweet Mila has a lovely, special place to call her own, and her mom is sharing the details with us. Kerri designed a pretty room for Mila, without maxing out the credit card. Win, win!

Her nursery is clean and white with touches of pink…and we love it.

Here’s how you can do it, too.

1. Shop at Ikea.
We all love the affordability and chic design to be found in the never-ending aisles at Ikea. Kerr’s ombré baskets are from Ikea. They are functional because they hold toys, book and stuffed animals, but they also add the perfect pop of color for a princess’s room. The little white flower-pot tins on the dresser are also from Ikea. They help Kerri organize everything! On the dresser, she holds hand sanitizer, diaper ointment, baby powder, etc. in them.
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2. Incorporate family heirlooms.
Kerri incorporated her grandma’s dresser in Mila’s room, which holds sentimental value for her. She updated it with several coats of white paint, and painted the knobs gold. Another special touch is the dress hanging from the gold hanger next to the crib. It’s Kerri’s mothers dress she wore when she was a baby. A piece of 3 generations of women from the same family lives inside those 4 walls! The ultra-glam gold sequins hanger is from The Golden Gurl via Etsy.

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3. Add DIY details.
We love DIY details, and although Kerri said she is not a big DIYer, she did manage to spray paint dollar store animals with gold spray paint. Animals are a favorite for little kids, so with the DIY gold animals, Kerri added a childhood favorite with a touch of glam.
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4. Buy handmade items from Etsy.
Handmade items add warmth and authenticity to a nursery, plus it’s always great to support small shops. The driftwood wall hanging with tissue paper tassels is from Fleur Lux and the beautiful gold pillows in the crib are from Kerri’s talented friend at Bright July.
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5. Incorporate color, texture and culture from travels. 
The world is a grand and beautiful place with bright colors and a vast array of textures, so it’s nice to bring memorabilia from various cultures home. Plus, its unique decor that can’t be found anywhere else. The authentic Mexican blanket hanging from the side of the crib was a gift Kerri’s parents brought back from Mexico. The impact is big, but the price tag was little – the blanket was just $5.

Thanks for sharing your room with us today, Kerri {Marco and Mila, too}. We love you.

 

Big Hero 6 Party

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Just in case it wasn’t obvious to you, the 3 kiddos above are superheroes. They are smaller in size than their favorite Big Hero 6 characters – Wasabi, Baymax and Honey Lemon – and they don’t have the ability to fly on an armed marshmallow man, but they are brave, kind, smart and amazing kids who possess their own superhero powers.

We celebrated the superhero in them, and all their friends at a Big Hero 6 party this summer. After all, it is one of our favorite animated movies. Even Jessica’s girly, sparkle-loving, princess-adoring daughter loves the kids superhero action film.

So, we invited family and close friends to join us for outside, yard games and a special drive-in movie showing for a Big Hero celebration.

It’s all in the details, so here they are…

DIY Honey Lemon-ade Stand

While Gabriella was all-in for a Big Hero 6 theme, something had to be pink and colorful, and well, girly. She wanted to dress like the scientist character, Honey Lemon and host her own Honey Lemon-ade Stand. Jessica created her stand with a DIY balloon arch made with a Balloon Time helium tank above her new, red Wayfair table adorned with ribbon.

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Drive-In Movie with DIY Cardboard Box Cars

The DIY cardboard box cars were the hit of the party. Each kid had his/her own car at the Big Hero 6 drive-in, along with a ledge to hold their popcorn and candy. Since the party was in the daylight, we opted for a drive-in movie theatre in the garage. There was a bonus we hadn’t even considered – while the kids were at the DIY drive-in movie, the adults enjoyed some kid-free time upstairs.

The cardboard cars were made with cardboard boxes, duct and packaging tape, white paper plates {wheels}, black paper {wheels and grill}, green paper {license plates} and red paper {break lights}.

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No drive-in movie is complete without a concession stand. We transformed packaging styrofoam into a backdrop with colorful wrapping paper and photos of the Big Hero 6 characters.

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Yard Games

Before the kids sat to watch a movie, they played various yard games to release their boundless energy.

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We transformed our favorite Bucket Ball game into Baymax Bucket Ball. The game was played with the same rules, but players tried to shoot the ball into Baymax buckets filled with water, instead of plain, white buckets. To make the Baymax buckets, we simply cut circles from black card stock, and taped them with a large piece of clear packaging tape. The tape also made the eyes waterproof.

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Another fun game was Go Go Tomago Disc Toss. We bought hoola hoops, and hung them with rope in-between large trees. Players tried to score points by throwing the ‘Go Go frisbee’ into the hoola hoops.

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It’s not a party until you break open a piñata. Jessica bought a soccer ball piñata, and retrofitted it with red, fringe tissue paper and black eyes to make it a Baymax head.

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Favors/Details

Kids went home with white pint containers with DIY baymax shirts inside, balloons and their cardboard cars.

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Jessica’s hubby carved a DIY microbot for authentic Big Hero 6 decor. He made it from packaging styrofoam and the kids helped us by painting it black.

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Red lollipops were also a detail in the movie we re-created with wrapping paper sticks {spray painted white} and red plates glued to the top.

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Invitations were custom-made by Jenna, of course. We went with a modern, clean approach and added a playful Baymax balloon. You can buy the invites here.

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VENDOR LOVE
Invites: Fleur de Lis, a paperie
Balloon arch: Balloon Time Helium Tank

 

DIY Hanging Wall Art

Words to live by…

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See all the details on how we made the back to school-inspired DIY hanging wall art on Momtastic.

Thanks Fleur de Lis, a paperie for the adorable printables!