WIWW - Hi-Low Dress

Are we still talking about all things hi-low? To be honest, I'm not really sure, but I do know that I found this handy little dress at Walmart and thought it would be the perfect addition to my summer wardrobe. That's right, I said Walmart. Every now and again I will stumble across something somewhat trendy and cute for less than $20 so I go for it!

This dress was no exception. I fell in love with the color and the hi-low style of this dress seemed to work just right for me.

For a more laid back casual look that I can wear to work and out on the weekends, I paired it with a white jean jacket, my Jack Rogers and one of my handy dandy bow bracelets.

What do you think? Do you ever find some of your favorite pieces at a bargain store? If so, which one?

Linking up with Lindsey @ The Pleated Poppy

Sunflower Picking - Burnside Farms

This summer I discovered an awesome new place. Burnside Farms is a little farm in our hometown that plants different crops of flowers in the summer and a pumpkin patch in the fall. I first found Burnside Farms when I went to pick a bouquet of tulips for my mom on Mother's Day. The tulips are gone, but they've replaced them with sunflowers!

What I like most about this place (besides how close it is) is that they offer an unlimited pass for each crop of flowers for just a dollar more than a one-time visit. You better believe I took advantage of that, and for a mere $4 I can go back as often as I like to pick fresh sunflowers until they are all gone. 

My friend and I had planned that we would go to Burnside Farms this past weekend thinking that for sure they would be open and the flowers in full bloom. Good news was that they were open, however, because of the terrible storms we had a few weeks ago, the flowers were a bit behind and only about 20% were bloomed. Good thing I bought the unlimited pass. Now next time I go there will be even more!

Nonetheless, it was still beautiful and so much fun to walk up and down the rows of sunflowers with a basket and scissors in hand deciding on which ones to cut and take home. They charge $1.50 a stem, which isn't much considering you only need 4 or 5 to make a nice bouquet.

 Another cool thing about this little farm is that they place props throughout the flowers so you can go and take fun photos. Lucky for us, Charlotte woke up from her nap just in time for us to pose her in this adorable baby Adirondack chair and vintage bike!

Even though she looks a little sad in these pictures, I assure you she was not. I think she was still trying to wake up from her nap and figure out where she was.

If you live in Northern Virginia, you should definitely go check out Burnside Farms. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram for daily photos and updates of the flowers!

Darby Smart - DIY Clock

A few weeks ago I discovered Darby Smart and quickly became obsessed. What is it, you ask? Well it's a DIY site that showcases a bunch of trendy projects that you buy as a kit to make at home. So instead of spending tons of money and time at a craft store trying to gather the supplies needed for your latest Pinterest endeavor, you just find the project you want to make and it comes in a handy dandy box!

When you sign-up you get a $10 off your first purchase which is an awesome deal considering a lot of the projects are only $19. I decided to try the monthly "To DIY For Box" and got it for three months, used my $10 off code and only paid $27! My very first box came in the mail and I couldn't wait to see what project was inside (they are special surprise kits, so you never know what you're going to get).

This month's kit was a clock. At first I was intimidated by such a blank canvas to work with, but once I read through the instructions online, I started getting ideas of how to design this clock and make it mine.

What design did I chose? That's right, I'm making a Minnie Mouse clock. Shocking?! Here's the thing, I can draw Mickey and Minnie in my sleep, so instead of agonizing over what to draw or risking messing it all up with a new design, I decided to go with what I know best. 

Always lightly draw your design in pencil before you bust open the paints. Also, you'll want to keep your design small and towards the center so as not to interfere with the numbers.

Painting definitely was the longest part of this project. I used only the colors they gave me because I wanted that clean modern look of white, black and gold. I did however, have to bust out a few small paint brushes to help me with the intricate parts.

I hate waiting for paint to dry because once I start a project, I want to finish it and just having it sit there while it dries is always torture to me. Luckily that was not the case with this paint. It dried super fast so that by the time I was done with it I could almost immediately start placing my numbers.

The numbers that came in the clock kit were self adhesive so it was super easy to apply. I simply placed the 12, 3, 6 and 9 on first and then evenly spaced out the rest. They recommended using a ruler, but I was too lazy to go looking for one so I just trusted my eye.

Once all the numbers were on, the only thing left to do was to add the clock mechanism. This was just a matter of following the simple directions on the back of the clock kit. And....done! It was THAT easy! I can't stand how cute this turned out. Not to mention how perfect it looks on my new desk!

Linking up with Molly @ Still Being Molly

High Five for Friday

I totally forgot to post this last night, so here are my high fives from the week. Better late than never, right?!

1. It seems that Milo has recently developed a higher level of tolerance for Charlotte. He chose to sit next to us and even let her pet him!...until she got a handful of his fur and then he left. 
2. One of the kids at daycare celebrated a birthday and they had a party for him. Charlotte was super excited to be included now that she's getting bigger. When daycare sent me this picture, I'm pretty sure my heart melted. I love seeing how happy she is!
3. I saw that someone had taken Lilly Pulitzer images and uploaded them to Cafe Press to make hand towels and other small items. So then, brilliance happened. I found a Google image of the vintage Disney/Lilly Pulitzer print (same one I used for Charlotte's bookcase) and uploaded it make a phone case! I had a 40% off coupon, so I wasn't going to be too upset if it didn't turn out. But it turned out great! I am so happy that I now have a unique phone case in my most favorite Lilly Print!
4. Now that Disney has Magic Bands that you wear while you are on vacation, many people have capitalized on making accessories for them. I found this one company, My Fantasy Bands that makes cute vinyl character stickers for your band. I of course got the Ariel one and I LOVE it! I can't wait to wear it on my next trip!
5. Due to a pretty uneventful week, this post is full of Charlotte. So lastly, I had to add this picture of her sporting a casual Minnie Mouse outfit for the day. 

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth for H54F!

DisneyBound

Warning: This is an extremely Disney Nerd post - proceed with caution.

For a few years now, I've seen these Disney inspired outfits on Pinterest where they modeled an everyday outfit after a Disney character. But it wasn't until last week, that my friend told me it's a real thing. People take these outfits that they create on sites like Polyvore and wear them to the parks; it's called DisneyBounding, and apparently it's pretty huge. In fact, there is a whole tumblr account dedicated to it. 

Since I have a few trips coming up, I figure why not give it a try and see if it's really all that it's cracked up to be. After all, I already subconsciously dress in Disney themes while I'm there, so this is the same thing just with a little more planning involved, right?

What I like about this is it allows me to show my Disney side without sacrificing fashion by looking like a tourist. So off to Polyvore I went to create a few looks that I'm going to give a try. 

I already own most of this outfit (shocking, I know). The goal is to actually be able to recreate these looks without going broke from having to buy tons of new outfits. The ears, bracelets, jeans and purse I already own, so I just need to get some yellow shoes and a good Minnie Mouse polka dot top to sport this look.

This Ariel outfit is probably my favorite. So much so that I would probably wear this to work. The belt, shoes, bow and dress (similar) I already own. I just need to get some fun seashell jewelry and a purple cardigan and I'll be all set! 

Nautical is so in right now so I thought I'd give Donald Duck a try. This one I don't have much for, but I think I could do it on the cheap. I just need to get a good sailor dress, some nautical earrings and reuse the yellow shoes from the Minnie outfit.

So hopefully you are still reading and aren't judging too hard right now, but I totally understand if you are. I know this isn't for everyone, but I just wanted to let my Disney nerd side out. These DisneyBound outfits give me something different to plan for and do while on my trips. Stay tuned for them in action!

Craft Room Makeover - Part Deux

The reason this is a "part deux" post is because over a year ago I reorganized my space to look like this. Since then it has been changed a few times, but today I can honestly say this is by far my favorite. When I first had my craft nook, I hardly used it so it was small and not functional. Since then, I have grown my blog, opened an Etsy shop and had a baby. Needless to say, I need a space that can do my embroidery, blog and sew all at the same time (multi-tasking at its finest).

I apologize in advance for the craptastic pictures, I was lazy and took them with my phone. Since this area gets no natural light, it is nearly impossible to get good shots even with my nice camera, so phone it was.

As much as I liked my Ikea Expedit bookcase with the attached desk, it just wasn't enough surface area. With a computer and two sewing machines, it was impossible to have everything I needed on the desk at one time. So as you can see, I resorted to switching out my machines after every project and putting one on the floor while the other one was in use. Let's also not forget that this area was long overdue for a little cleaning/reorganization.

I'm so embarrassed with how messy and dysfunctional I let this area become. I realized I was wasting so much time setting up machines and then putting them away. It was taking me way too long to complete my Etsy orders because I never had what I needed at my fingertips. So to fix this, I needed to gain surface area while not breaking the bank, so off to Ikea I went!

Less than $100 and two hours later, I had this! I'm so happy with my new space and I LOVE that it fits everything with room to spare!

To make this L-shaped desk, I bought two tabletops and nine legs. One tabletop was 78"x 23" ($45) and the other was 47"x 23" ($16). Since the first one was so long, it called for five legs ($3.50 each) instead of just four so there is a middle support. Since I'm used to crazy complicated Ikea furniture, just attaching the legs made this project seem too easy.

I didn't get the black/brown color to match my bookcase for a few reasons, the main being that it was out of stock. Another reason is that because this is such a small space, I worry that if everything was dark it would look cramped and heavy. My last reason for using the white was for pictures. Whenever I would photograph a new item for my Etsy shop I was forced to use the black background of my desk because nowhere in my house do I have a nice clean white surface. So to tie it all together and not have it look completely disconnected, I bought black legs and white tabletops. My husband calls this the tuxedo look.

Some before/after side by side pictures for comparison:

Linking up with:

High Five for Friday

I am so ready for this weekend, it's not even funny. While we had a blast last weekend down at the river, I couldn't be happier just staying home for this weekend with absolutely no plans. I have been up late every night this week sewing, so it will be nice to get caught up on sleep as well. Thank goodness the week flew by!

 

Here are my highlights from the week!

 

1. Charlotte donned her bathing suit and braved the water over the weekend. She didn't actually go in or even explore the boat since we kept her strapped in her carrier the whole time unless we were docked. But she did look the part! Selfies on the boat!
2. We've had a rough week with what I think is teething. It could also have been a cold. Regardless, my friend told me about these teething sticks so I decided to give them a try. So far so good! Charlotte really likes gnawing down on them.
3. Since this weekend consisted of a lot of boat rides, what would a high five post be without an awesome selfie of my sister-in-law and me?! This was taken after our family let us drift away on a raft and were finally rescued.
4. My crazy cat lady self came out. I couldn't resist these awesome cat outfits for Charlotte while running an errand in the mall. I can NOT wait to put these on her!
5. If you follow me on Instagram, then you already know about the real highlight of my week; meeting Gio Gonzalez (pitcher for the Washington Nationals). I went to the game with my mom on Monday night and he was signing autographs in the teams store. I of course had to stop and say hi, get an autograph and of course a picture to document!

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth for H54F!