Giraffe Baby Shower

blue-yellow-giraffe-baby-shower-outdoor-party

We made a trip to the zoo last week, and the giraffe’s were a favorite among our kids. The tall beauties have been loved by Jessica’s son for a long time. Thanks to Sylvia Strauss of Special Events and photographer Finishing Touch Roelien Visser, now we know they can be the inspiration behind a pretty baby shower, too.

Sylvia was inspired by the blue and yellow color of the striped flower pots on the table. Of course we love the DIY details, such as the wool letters and the spray painted plastic animals.

blue-yellow-giraffe-baby-shower-outdoor-party

 

yellow-blue-giraffe-baby-shower

blue-yellow-giraffe-baby-shower-outdoor-party

 

blue-yellow-giraffe-baby-shower-outdoor-party

blue-yellow-giraffe-baby-shower-outdoor-party

blue-yellow-giraffe-baby-shower-outdoor-party

blue-yellow-giraffe-baby-shower-outdoor-party-cupcake

blue-yellow-giraffe-baby-shower-outdoor-party

blue-yellow-giraffe-baby-shower-outdoor-party

blue-yellow-giraffe-baby-shower-outdoor-party

VENDOR LOVE

Venue: Mountain Breeze Stellenbosch
Cookies: Krummelkuns
Decor & Planning: Special Events
Photographer:  Finishing Touch Roelien Visser

 

DIY Typography Decanter

booze-cheers-bar-diy-decanter

Nordstrom is one of our favorite places to shop. The shoes, the fashion, the return policy, the cafe – we love all of it! We noticed a fun Booze Decanter and Stopper throughout the holidays, and we never quite stopped thinking about it. Thankfully, we were able to re-create a DIY Booze decanter with our Silhouette cutting machine, and our minds {and bar} are at peace…at least for now.

Materials:

Instructions:

Assemble empty glass bottles you can transform into DIY typography bottles.

empty-glass-bottles

Design your labels with the Silhouette software. Print according to package instructions.

Once the vinyl is cut, remove the excess vinyl around the words, and place Frog’s Tape over the words.

cheers-gold-vinyl

Pull the tape up, and the words should be attached to the tape.

booze-gold-vinyl-green-tape

Press the tape and words onto the bottle, and get all the bubbles out with a straight edge {we used a credit card}.

booze-gold-vinyl-green-tape-decanter

Pull the tape up from the bottle, and the vinyl should stay in place on the bottle. You may have to use one finger to press down on the vinyl if the font is thin and it comes up with the tape, but we didn’t have to on this project.

booze-gold-vinyl-green-tape-decanter

Once all the tape is removed, you should have a new DIY typography decanter. Fill with alcohol and say cheers!

booze-gold-vinyl-green-tape-decanter

For this project, we took it one step further and got a little Typography happy! We couldn’t do just one bottle! This DIY project makes for a really fun addition to any bar, and a great hostess gift.

tasty-cheers-booze-bottle-decanter-bar

booze-gold-vinyl-green-tape-decanter

cheer-blue-bottle-diy-decanter-water-entertaining

tasty-booze-cheers-diy-decanter-bar

Not only did we create several bottles, but we couldn’t have a bottle that holds alcohol without actual alcohol in it. With St. Patrick’s Day several days away, we ventured into making our own Bailey’s Irish Cream. My girlfriend, Kacey, made a delicious batch of our favorite Irish cocktail for a birthday brunch recently, and we couldn’t believe homemade Bailey’s could be so good. We’ve revamped a couple of recipes to make our homemade version, but most are similar.

Homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream
adapted from several recipes

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup + 1 tablespoon Jameson Whiskey
  • 1 pint half and half
  • 1 can Eagle’s Condensed Milk
  • 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 1 tsp. instant espresso mixed with 1 tsp. boiling water

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend. If you don’t blend for 30 seconds or more, we found that our Bailey’s had some chunks from the cream, so continue to blend until smooth.

Keep in a sealed glass jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Give it to a friend as a gift this St. Patrick’s Day, too!

homemade-baileys-irish-cream-tasty-bottle-clover

 

 

Ladies Bachelorette Weekend at the Beach

ladies-weekend-bachelorette-party-beach-balloons-friends

There are so many things about this photo shoot that make us happy. Not only do we love the girly bachelorette party happening, and the custom gold foil shirts with numbers on the front and Mrs. on the back, but also the candid beach shots and the tradition behind the whole thing {keep reading}.

These women make us…
1. want to take the time away from our busy lives to make special memories with our girlfriends
2. remind us that we’re never too old to play with balloons on the beach
3. before there was a Mr. in our lives, there was a Ms./Mrs. by our side

We’ve been blessed by amazing girlfriends in our lives, and what a gift it is. Never underestimate the power of a good girlfriend. When you surround yourself with smart, strong, respectable, kind and honest women that bring out the best in you, you are surrounding yourself with joy, friendship and love.

This is such a cool story to go along with these beautiful photos from Linda Fourie Photography, so make sure you read it in Lizanda’s {one of the ladies} words.

We are a group of friends from University, and when the first one of us got married, we pledged to have a weekend away dedicated to each one of us, where the Bachelorette does not know about anything, and gets surprised and spoiled.
 
Margot was the last of the seven to get married, so we decided to have a shoot to celebrate the last weekend and our friendship. 
 
The plan would be that Linda would start taking ‘stalker’ photo’s of us in a local coffee shop. It was really funny when Margot said “Guys, I swear that woman is taking pictures of us!” So she was quite happy to find out that we had a shoot planned.
 
We just had fun walking around Hermanus and Linda, our photographer, was great!
ladies-weekend-bachelorette-party-beach-balloons-friends
coffee-shop-ladies
ladies-coffee-shop-south-africa
ladies-coffee-nail-polish-girl-time
girlfriends-pink-balloons
ladies-bachelorette-party-linda-fourie-photography
bachelorette-t-shirt
ladies-bachelorette-party-pink-balloons
ladies-bachelorette-weekend-beach-pink-balloons-linda-fourie-photography
happy-pink-balloons-beach-fun
ladies-bachelorette-weekend-pink-balloons
beach-scene-pink-balloons
bachelorette-party-beach-fun-balloon-release
pink-balloon-release-beach-fun-ladies-bachelorette-weekend
ladies-bachelorette-weekend-beach-pink-balloon-release-linda-fourie-photography
beach-pink-balloon-release-ladies-bachelorette-weekend
ladies-bachelorette-weekend-pink-balloon-release
bachelorette-weekend-day-at-the-beach
beach-fun-ladies-bachelorette-weekend
ladies-at-the-beach-linda-fourie-photography
Vendor Love
Photography: Linda Fourie Photography
Location: Hermanus, South Africa
Coffee shop: Oskars Delikatessen 
Beach: Harbour and Grotto beach

 

Poke the Rainbow Activity for Kids on St. Patrick’s Day

rainbow-st-pattys-day-pot-of-gold-clouds-kids

St. Patrick’s Day is a favorite among adults to raise a glass with Guinness or Jameson in hand. For kids, it’s all about the leprechaun, a colorful rainbow, wearing green and the gold. We made an easy, fun and non-candy Poke-the-Rainbow activity for kids on St. Patrick’s Day.

The rules of the game are simple. Each child takes a turn to pick one cup to poke through. Once the leprechaun is found, everyone can reach for the gold. The best part…everyone walks away with a treat. Who will be the first to poke the cup with the leprechaun?

Important side note: this game could be really fun and adult-friendly with each cup filled with a mini shot of Irish liquor. Cheers!

Materials:

  • plastic cups {white}
  • napkins in every color of the rainbow
  • pot and gold coins
  • white tissue paper
  • mini leprechaun or photo of leprechaun
  • non-candy gifts such as bead necklaces, buttons, bracelets
  • rubber bands
  • foam core board, white
  • hot glue gun and glue
  • stickers, shamrock cut-outs

Directions:

Randomly place the non-candy items in the cups. Pick one special cups for the leprechaun.

st-pattys-day-beads-cups-treats

Cover each cup with a napkin, and wrap a rubber band around the top.

rainbow-red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple-napkins

Once all the cups have colors, arrange in a rainbow-like pattern on a foam core board, and glue all of them in place. Glue the bottom of the cups so the top of the cup is facing outward.

rainbow-red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple-cups-napkins-clouds-poms

Make white tissue paper clouds, and glue them on the end{s} of the rainbow.

rainbow-st-pattys-day-pot-of-gold-clouds-kids

Write, stencil, glue or stick letters on the foam board for simple directions.

rainbow-st-pattys-day-pot-of-gold-clouds-kids-leprechaun

Set up in the classroom {this will be a hit if you’re in charge of this year’s classroom party} , or at your St. Patrick’s Day celebration, and make sure the pot of gold is under the rainbow.

pot-of-gold-st-pattys-day

rainbow-st-pattys-day-pot-of-gold-clouds-kids

rainbow-st-pattys-day-pot-of-gold-clouds-kids

rainbow-st-pattys-day-pot-of-gold-clouds-kids

rainbow-st-pattys-day-pot-of-gold-clouds-kids

DIY Tropical Leaf Eggs

easter-eggs-tropical-leaf-diy-wood-tray

We are seeing green! The color is not exactly visible on the snow-covered ground outside yet, and we know Colorado has more snow in her, but inside we have Spring fever. We’re dreaming of warmer days, and the vibe is showing up in our eggs. We love the clean, modern, tropical eggs that adorn our kitchen this year. Here’s how you can do it.

easter-eggs-tropical-leaf-diy-wood-tray

Materials:

Directions:
Step one: Tape a piece of white tissue paper onto a piece of cardstock.

white-tissue-paper-green-tape

Step two: Print a photo of palm leaves on the tissue paper. We were able to print 9 at a time with our printer without editing the file {thanks for sharing the file, Studio DIY and Balloon Time}.

easter-eggs-tropical-leaf-diy-wood-tray

Step three: Cut the leaves out in small circles, leaving some white around them.

Step four: Paint a small amount of Mod Podge on the egg where you will place the photo.

Step five: Press the photo of the leaf down gently onto the egg. Try to get out all the wrinkles by pressing down on each of them to smooth it out.

easter-eggs-tropical-leaf-diy-wood-tray

Step six: After about 2 minutes, paint a thin layer of Mod Podge on top of the leaves, and the surrounding area. Do not swipe the paintbrush too many times over the leaves, or it will make the ink run. Just paint it enough to cover it with a thin layer.

easter-eggs-tropical-leaf-diy-wood-tray

Step seven: Let the eggs dry, then display.

easter-eggs-tropical-leaf-diy-wood-tray

 

easter-eggs-tropical-leaf-diy-wood-tray