Linens & Loo Roundup

I was so pleased that Jen from iHeartOrganizing featured my linen closet on her Linens & Loo Roundup this month. I was scrolling through the blog a few days after she did the post and read, "Ashlee" and thought well that's funny someone else spells my name the way I do, only to find this...

Then I thought, wait a minute that Ashlee is ME, I'm Ashlee and that's my closet! I feel honored to be rounded up with so many amazing ideas. So thank you to iHeartOrganizing for the feature. I couldn't be happier!

 

My Not Quite Spring Mantel

So it turns out my "spring mantel" was only good until Easter, which lead to the creation of my "not quite spring mantel" the other day.

I was home from work and decided to put together a mantel that I could use until summertime just with things lying around my apartment.

My Tools
Tissue paper
Old containers (vases, glasses, tins)
White decorations (we all know I have a surplus of those)
Large white paper
water color and acrylic paints
Construction paper
Tape

I started with the flowers. I knew I had a few sheets of hot pink tissue paper and had always wanted to try to make tissue paper flowers. (Click here for a great tutorial from 33 Shades of Green.) They were fun to make and I played around with the different size ratios and cutting techniques (hint, the way you cut the tip determines what type of flower it looks like). I went for peonies or large garden roses.

Next I cut a stem off some pretty flowers my boo got me and threw it in the tall vase so that flower wasn't floating.

Then I grabbed some watercolors (blue and green), mixed them to make the teal and painted a few strokes. I used gold acrylic for the line across, pinned it up with tacks and there it was.

The top of the wall felt lonely so I made some old school paper chains with construction paper. I devised a little paper tassel to polish it off.

So that's it. This should tide me over until the next fun holiday theme (fourth of July?) I'd love to see what you do for those in-between seasonal mantels!

Chicken and Waffles Party

I got to put my new waffle maker to the test on Saturday for Jason's chicken and waffle party. Here are a few pictures...

What a fun weekend! Now it's going to be the beginning of yet another wonderful week (fingers crossed.) Happy Monday everyone :)

Sweet Little Abode

The day has arrived where I can finally link to my mom's new blog! Sweet Little Abode is alive and kicking and I'm so excited to see all of her amazing posts and DIY ideas.

She kicked off her first post with a DIY pillow feature. One of her biggest strengths is the way she can take a project from vision to completion with the blink of an eye. She never uses patterns when she sews, and she has such a knack for just looking at something (whether it's a piece of furniture, craft or home decor) and figuring out how to engineer it herself. I hope you can check it out and stay tuned for a lot of creativity and inspiration from the most artistic and talented woman I know!

In other news, it's FRIDAY! I had a wonderful time celebrating boyfriend's birthday yesterday. We had a lovely dinner sitting outside on the patio, just chatting and enjoying the cool spring air. I'm not sure why it was so chilly for Arizona actually now that I think about it, but no complaints here because the waiter brought me not one but TWO blankets (only in Arizona does that happen when it's 75 degrees outside). Tonight I'm off to put the finishing touches on his birthday party tomorrow. I can't wait to show you pictures of all the decorations on Monday. Happy weekend loves!

Gift Idea for Girlfriends

Continuing on with the week of birthdays, here's a tip for an easy, fun and personalized gift for your pal who loves herself a glass of wine at the end of a long day.

An easy way to glam up a bottle of wine is with a personalized wine label. I just leveraged the design from the Red Stamp card I created to make a label for this bottle of Chardonnay.

Add a sweet little quote and a birthday message and voila! An easy, personalized gift for your girlfriend that loves herself a nice glass of vino.

My Favorite App of All Time

My favorite app in the entire world on my iPhone is Red Stamp. I use it for everything! I don't even know where to begin talking about all the ways I use this app. Let's see...

• I love to make birthday cards for friends and relatives that are far away, then I either text it to them or post it on their Facebook page.
• For nearby friends and family I design the cards, print them out on 4x6 photo paper and then paste them on a matching card and envelope. So cute!
• I email them to co-workers on their birthdays or when they're very ill. It's such an easy way to make someone feel special!
• I make little labels for party settings, print them out and put them in crisp white frames. 

Here are a few cards I've made just to show you how beautiful, clean and modern the design options are.

Ooh and you can also order cards to mail to your loved ones for just a few dollars. This app is so pretty and such a great way to connect with your favorite people. Love!

The Month of Birthdays

This month is infamous in my life for being filled to the brim with birthdays. In the next two weeks I'll be celebrating boyfriend's birthday, mom's birthday and three good friends' special days too!

I'm planning a chicken & waffles birthday for boyfriend on Saturday (even though his actual birthday is Thursday) and I've been doing lots of wrapping and card making to celebrate everyone.

I started working on decorations for the party which means drawing on my chalkboard wall of course! Jason suggested a big, fancy birthday cake...

Tonight it's off to dinner at Searsucker to celebrate the first of all the birthdays. I love celebrating the people I love, it's gonna be a great few weeks!