Lemonade Bar

Summer is almost here so it is time to whip out the lemonade!  You may remember my hot chocolate bar turned bunny bar...

Well, it got a little summer makeover!

The bottles are filled with lemonade crystals, some paper straws, and cherry Kool-Aid.  I was actually trying to find some pink lemonade crystals but I couldn't find them anywhere.  The Kool-Aid mixed with the lemonade actually tastes pretty darn good though! ;)

I purchased the bottles last fall at Decor Steals but you can also find them over at Farmhouse Decor {along
with lots of other fabulous goodies!}.  The sign is just a wooden rectangle that I purchased from Michael's and sprayed with chalkboard paint.  Chalk pens make it SO much easier to draw on little signs like this one!

 I made the labels for the bottles, punched them out and and glued them onto some patterned scrapbook paper.  I then tied everything on with some baker's twine.  If you would like a copy of the labels, you can download them HERE.  I added a pink lemonade label for you just in case!

Now all that's left to do is make a cool glass or lemonade and relax!!!  Happy Victoria Day to all of my Canadian friends!  I hope you have a wonderful long weekend!

My Sunday Sparks {No. 91}

Happy Sunday! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. We are recovering today from Connor's birthday party yesterday and I am hoping that the house will magically be put back in order.  So far no luck...

Anyways, I am just popping in today to show you some of the amazing projects linked up at last week's Creative Spark.  There were so many fabulous ideas  - I wish that I could highlight you all!  

I love this colorful flower sign from The Happy Scraps!

Laura's Crafty Life turned some dollar store baskets into beautiful faux metal baskets.  Perfect for organizing!

So Much Better With Age created this awesome kitchen office space.  My favorite part is definitely their charging station - brilliant!

How fabulous is this DIY Herb Garden from Ginger Snap Crafts?  She has a great tutorial for you too!

2 Crafty 4 My Skirt made this amazing potting bench from some old pallets.  Check out her post for lots of other pallet projects too!

I have never made my own soap but I really want to try this oatmeal goat's milk soap recipe from Essentially Eclectic.  My skin could definitely use a little love.

And, finally, my food pick of the week is these cheesecake filled strawberries from Happier Than a Pig in Mud.  A perfect, easy-to-do summer treat!

Thank- you so much to all of you that came out to the party last week.  You are ALL amazing!!  If you haven't had a chance to check out the links, you can head on over HERE and all features {past and present!} can always be found on my Pinterest board.  If you were featured here or on my Facebook page, please feel free to grab a button from the sidebar.

Wishing you all a wonderful Sunday!

Black and White Inspiration

It has taken me some time to figure this out, but I LOVE black and white together.  I used to think of myself as being drawn more towards whites but ever since I re-did our master bedroom last year, I realize that I have a bit of a dark side too.

Right now I am still working on finishing off our dining room and have continued on with the black and white trend {with a few wood tones and some color thrown in there too!}  Today I thought that I would share some of my black and white inspiration with you....

{Traditional Home}

{Harmony and Home}

{Em for Marvelous}

{Canadian House and Home}

{Better Homes and Gardens}

{Clean and Scentsible}

{House and Home}

{House and Home}

{The Bright Life}

{The Kitchn}

{Copy Cat Chic}

So what do you think?  Do you lean towards white, black or a little of both?

I linked up with Alderberry Hill, Uncommon, I Should Be Mopping the Floor, Flamingo Toes and I Heart Naptime.

Crab Cakes {cupcakes}

My little dude turned SIX on Monday and I am still trying to figure out where all of those years have gone! It makes me a little sad to see him growing up so quickly but I know that there will be lots of new and exciting adventures with each new age.   We will be having some of his friends over for his birthday party on the weekend but he wanted to bring some cupcakes to school on Monday for the whole class.  Since we are doing an Under the Sea theme for his party, I thought that I would make some "sea inspired" cupcakes as well...

When I first saw these cupcakes over at Cutest Food I knew that they would be perfect.  Decorating cakes and cupcakes is not a strong suit of mine but these guys were so cute and easy to make!

INGREDIENTS

• cup cake mix {or you can be fancy and make your own!}
• white icing {vanilla or cream cheese}
• 1 C graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/4 C butter
• candy eyes
• gummy orange slices
• gummy fuzzy peaches
• round orange gummies {I had to buy a multi-color pack for these and pick out the orange ones!}
• toothpicks

To Do

• Bake and ice cupcakes.
• Mix graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, and butter.  Sprinkle on the top of the cupcakes for your "sand".
• Slice fuzzy peach into a crescent shape
• Use toothpicks {they will need to be cut down} to add the fuzzy peach "claws" to the orange slice "body".
• Use icing to attach the candy eyes to the round orange gummies.  Use toothpicks {that will also need to be cut down} to attach the "eyes" to the orange slice body.

I just love these little guys!  Too bad they were quickly gobbled up!

Enjoy your day! 
 I linked up with Under the Table and Dreaming, Craft-O-Maniac, Alderberry Hill, Uncommon, I Should be Mopping the Floor, Flamingo Toes, I Heart Naptime, Tatertots and Jello, Whipperberry, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Love of Family and Home, The Frugal Girls, Becoming Martha, Tidy Mom, Somewhat Simple, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The 36th Avenue and Stone Gable.

The Creative Spark {No. 91}

Welcome back to another night of The Creative Spark!  I can't wait to see what you have all been up to!  

 I just want to give you a little heads up that there will be a few changes to this link party in the near future.  I really do appreciate all of you coming out to party with me each week and I am always looking for ways to promote your wonderful ideas even more.  I am so excited to share all of the details with you but I just have a couple of things left to work out!  Stay tuned!

This week I showed you some Spring changes that I did in our front entry... 

...and I shared a sweet memory album to write little notes back and forth between you and your kiddos.  Remember to start that communication while they are still little! :)

There was also a free printable that could be framed for a nursery or baby shower gift.

*****************

 Okay, so now it`s your turn!! What have you all been up to? Feel free to link up anything that YOU have created - crafts, DIY, scrapbook projects, organization ideas, decorating, recipes - anything goes!

Want to link up?

• Link directly to your specific post {not the homepage}.
• Please add The Creative Spark button to your post or blog {the code is in my sidebar} OR place a text link at the end of your post. I would love for you to help me spread the word!
• Follow along with Facebook to see if you have been featured throughout the week and pop back on Sunday for my feature post.
• Check out some of the other fabulous links. A few nice comments always inspires us to create more!

Spring Front Entry

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and all of you wonderful Mother's had a very special day yesterday!  I had a nice sleep in, breakfast in bed, and some hand made goodies from the boys.  Perfect!

We have had some beautiful weather around here for the past couple of weeks and I have been happy to spend some time getting the front entry spruced up for Spring.  We still have a lot more that we need to do {which primarily involves painting and a whole lot of weeding!} but I thought that I would show you where we are at....

I headed down to Home Depot last weekend and picked up some flowers.  I made up a couple of hanging baskets and filled the planters that we already had from last year.  I also added some lavender plants to a wooden basket {love that smell!} and placed some more plants in an old watering can.  I still want to get a couple of small trailing flowers to add to it but I'm waiting to see if these ones survive. :)

I also did a little Spring sprucing on the inside too...

I painted the bench last year with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in pure white.  This year I added a bench pillow and this bird pillow that I absolutely had to have.  {You might recognize it from my Facebook page! }

I found this ladder at an antique shop and brought it home for a Christmas display.  I have been meaning to paint it since then but I kind of like the unexpected pop of red.  It's not a color that I usually have so I am thinking that it might stay for a while.  I picked up the planter on the top at Superstore.  It's filled with mint leaves which will come in handy for some summer ice tea!

 We have a coat closet in the hallway for all of our coats but it is quite full and we don't really have any room for guest's coats.  This coat rack was kind of an impulse buy {I seem to have a lot of those!} but it is working out quite well!

The boys bought me some lilies for Mother's Day and I added some lilacs from the yard.  It smells heavenly...

The flowers sit on top of our Ikea shoe rack that we purchased last year. This thing holds a ton of shoes and I love having everything away out of sight {although I am still trying to train my hubby how to use it!}

Even though it is summer, we still have the pebble shoe tray out tucked behind the door.  Wet shoes are year round around here - whether it is from the rain or from running through the hose!

At some point in the next couple of months, I am planning on painting out all of that oak trim white.  This is one project that I have wanted to do for years but have been dreading!  We have a very open floor plan on our main floor so there will be A LOT of it to do.  The job has been started in the dining room though so there is no turning back now....

Anyways, I hope you have enjoyed my little tour of the entry way.  Of course, now that I am all ready for Spring, the rain has returned.  Fingers crossed that it is not for long!

I hope you have a wonderful week! 
 I linked up with Under the Table and Dreaming, Craft-O-Maniac, Alderberry Hill, Uncommon, I Should be Mopping the Floor, Flamingo Toes, I Heart Naptime, Tatertots and Jello, Whipperberry, Design Dining and Diapers, Love of Family and Home, The Frugal Girls, Becoming Martha, Tidy Mom, Somewhat Simple, The Shabby Creek Cottage, The 36th Avenue, Stone Gable, Lil Luna, Savvy Southern Style, The Gunny Sack, Lolly Jane and Today's Creative Blog.

My Sunday Sparks {No. 90}

Happy Mother's Day! I hope all of you wonderful mothers are being spoiled today and receiving lots of love from your little ones! {and grown up ones too!}

I'm just popping in today with some fabulous features from last week's Creative Spark.  As always, there were lots of amazing ideas linked up

Happy House "spring-ified" her living room.  I am loving all of the colors!!

How cute is this DIY cork trivet from Live Laugh Rowe?  There are so many possibilities!

Get the scoop on how to make your own homemade dishwasher detergent over at The Seasoned Homemaker.

Sweet Little Gals made some fruit flavored water.  It looks so pretty - I must try!

This beautiful vintage crate centerpiece was also from Sweet Little Gals.  The colors make me smile. :)

The Wilderness Wife created this awesome zipper pathway. 

If you have been looking for a farmhouse table, City Farmhouse shows you an easy way to build your own!

Better With Age turned a closet into a fabulous butler's pantry.  So smart!

 
And, finally, for my food pick of the week, check out this homemade granola from Natasha in Oz.  Package it all up for a cute {and healthy!} gift idea too!

Oh, and I have to show you my very favorite feature of all...

{photo from Maddiegray Photography}

Thank- you so much to all of you that came out to the party last week.  You are ALL amazing!!  If you haven't had a chance to check out the links, you can head on over HERE and all features {past and present!} can always be found on my Pinterest board.  If you were featured here or on my Facebook page, please feel free to grab a button from the sidebar.

Wishing you all a wonderful Sunday!