Porch Is Ready For Spring

The screened in porch is one of our favorite places to hang out. If I open the French doors and take a spot on the hanging bed swing, inevitably the kids will come join me. The little ones are obsessed with bubbles right now and it makes this space pretty dreamy. Birds chirping, bubbles floating by on the spring breeze. Yep, it’s pretty darn magical! I do wonder when the bubbles will run out..they’ve had them since Easter. For now, I’ll enjoy the bubbles being blown outside and not on my wood floors. 

The wood stools are actually faux wood side tables from Target this year. They had them last year as well but sold out fast and I never bought one. So, I got two and then did a poll on my stories on Instagram and everyone said I needed one more. So, luckily my store had one more and I was able to pick it up.

Most of the outdoor pillows are from Target except the indoor/outdoor floral pillow from Caitlin Wilson designs. I fell in love with this pillow and I love using it as a pop of color.

The porch is one of our very favorite places to hang out! We live outside in the spring and fall here in Arkansas. It gets pretty hot during the summer but we’ll enjoy this spring weather while it lasts.

Welcome back, a Winter Entryway

Wow, this is the first blog post I’ve done in years. The entryway is the perfect place to start my introduction back to the blog since it’s the first thing you see when you enter our home. When I originally had the thought of hanging old wood furniture clamps I knew it would be either amazing or an epic fail. It came out amazing and it just keeps getting better with each season. Halloween looked awesome in here but this winter scape has my heart. The details just make me happy.

The botanical prints I picked up antiquing this summer and paid $2 a piece for them. I bought spring botanical prints too so we’ll have to see what I do with those. They are pages out of a book. The frames I found at the dollar store and because they are raised mats in them , they look more expensive than they are. The gold is just right.

The books were headed to the thrift store and I’m glad I hadn’t gotten around to dropping them off because once I took down the black books, I needed a whole bunch of neutral ones. I just tore the cover off and they were the perfect neutral I was looking for. Plus this was free! 

The tree is a walmart flocked tree and it’s only $25! Such a great price and put it in one of my old crocks with some towels. It’s comes prelit, which is such a great deal for a four foot tree.

The snowballs were from the target dollar spot (10 snowballs in a pack for $3). I added them to my basket that was hanging in the front mud room. It hangs on the old peg of the wood clamp so perfectly, like it was made just for that spot! The snowflakes are ornaments that I hung with fishing line from the ceiling. They are really light weight so I hung them with a tiny nail. It adds so much dimension and they kinda dance when the front door is opened.

My favorite addition this year is probably the saw trees. They are from a husband/wife duo that does antique/vintage shows around the country (@perspectivedesign).  I’ve followed them for years and I was so giddy when they finally decided to offer some online this year. The trees sold out in just a few hours. So innovative to make metal trees out of old saws. I love the character! 

The flocked wreath (also a walmart find) hangs from the top of the oldest wood clamp and I added twinkle lights so it would sparkle too. The entryway has been a work in progress (it was months of searching and finding all the clamps to bring this vague idea to life) but I’m so happy that my idea of using old furniture wooden clamps worked and that all these elements that I love so much came together to create a winter wonderland as you enter our home. I am happy to be blogging again because even though I’ve kept up on instagram (@cassandradesign), I love giving all the details because I love to find a great deal or share something that inspires and hope it will for you too. 

Best Day Ever Chic Campout Birthday Party

This picture perfectly describes the mood of this party. It was pretty loud!! I had to laugh to myself that we have such great neighbors because I bet we could be heard for blocks. It was a blast! The girls were so giggly they couldn't contain themselves and we finally sat on the rug to do a classic "bear hunt" game to try and gain some control of such a giggly bunch. It was SO much fun to plan this party and the reaction from the girls didn't disappoint!

My girls were born on the same day six years apart. We did a duo yet separate party this year. I had the friends of my three year old come before dinner and stay through the chic cookout and the friends of my 9 year old come for the cookout and stayed through the evening. It was the perfect way to balance the age groups and to be able to do age appropriate games/crafts while decorating for only 1 party.

The entrance to the "Best Day Ever" Chic Campout!!

This is the invitation for the “Best Day Ever” Chic Campout! It included a felt navy background with a cream sewn tent with gold letter individualized pendant banner and all the party instructions! The party colors of coral, navy and gold were prominent on the hand-made invites! I think that it’s a special thing to share a birthday with a sister and we made it super special this year!!

The girls hula hooped to their hearts content.

Hands were traced on coral fabric then ironed onto a navy blue chevron print fabric and then stretched into embroidery hoops. We added the caption “I am 100% original” in gold fabric pens. So chic!

We even had a special table and size appropriate chairs for the little ladies to eat and do their craft project!

I can’t believe I never snapped a photo of their finished product. It was so cute and the girl’s loved that each one of theirs was perfect and unique to them because they are all “100% original”! Love all these little ladies…..we had fun!

The yummy food table complete with an oversized frame with a picture taken on their birthday (4-days prior). The fruit Kabob’s had coral and navy sticks to match the party’s color scheme of Coral and Navy. The ruffled cakes are on wooden pedestal to set-off the campout theme. The grass is real wheat grass that I sprouted for Easter (which was the following day). Perfect timing! The food was simple campout food of Hot Dogs, chips, potato salad, fruit Kabobs and crisp potato chips in individual berry baskets.

Even the drinks were in the color scheme family of coral and navy. Such simple yet yummy food!

Girls getting their hot dog from the grill master and then filling their plates with yumminess! Love your funny face Abbie!

The fruit was made easy to eat with coral, navy and gold Kabob sticks. Some were polka dot, solid or floral. So cute!

We braided leather headbands with their names punched in a oval piece of leather. Feathers were hung from the side of their leather punched name. I was so impressed that the girls all knew how to braid and they didn't need a ton of help. Perfect age appropriate craft for 9 year olds!

The girls were serious about their braiding! It was probably the only time it wasn’t organized chaos! They were so cute and helped each other finish!

Then it was time to blow out the candles! Brooklyn was so excited about blowing out all her candles! So cute!

Yummy coral ombre, ruffled icing cakes! They were a huge hit! But, after just making s’mores and playing kick-the-can, nobody wanted a big piece! LOL

By the time it was present time, the sun had just set. The girls were so excited about what they had picked out! So thoughtful!

Brooklyn’s favorite gift was a card that had stickers in it. She got to place them in her card and she loved it!

Group shot of the older group. Even their brothers couldn't withstand the fun and came out to enjoy the festivities. Everyone wearing their leather/feather name punched headbands! Such a fun bunch!

Now that I've finally blogged their birthday, I'll show all the behind the scene of how I made everything because when you are on a tight budget.....everything has to be DIY. LOL (I used this picture printed as an engineering print in that oversized frame above the food table. Love this picture of my precious girls!) I even reused the tarp from last year's Art birthday party as part of the large tent. Until then....

Fabric, Fabric and more Fabric

My baby is officially out of the crib (now that she’s three) and the antique child’s bed is being passed down. I wanted to do a little room update for their shared birthday. I decided to make quilts for each girls bed for their birthday. It’s now past their birthday and one quilt is at the quilters and the other quilt needs a little more sewing to complete, then I will drop it off at the quilter’s when I pick the first one up. Not quite done for their birthday but I didn’t give myself enough time. Two months is NOT enough. haha

My friend Pat is a master quilter and she took me under her wing and showed me the four best quilt fabric stores around. My head was swimming with fabric choices. I finally settled on these fabrics and a design off of the cover of Pat’s Quilters magazine for the first quilt for my oldest daughter.

I chose very fun and colorful monochromatic fabrics. I wanted this quilt to go with the colors of their room but be one that has lots of colors. My younger daughter’s quilt’s design is technically a “scrap” plus sign quilt off of pinterest. I bought enough fabric to sew my older daughter’s quilt and have enough fabric to do my younger daughter’s quilt in a different pattern but same fabrics. This way they can be similar yet unique. Perfect for these two who share the same birthday!