Your Whims Wednesday #170 {And Features}

Time for another Your Whims Wednesday Party!

Your Whims Wednesday

Here are some of my favorites from last week:

Red White and Blue Statement Necklace by Everyday Bijoux
 
Blueberry Cream Cheese Pastries by Summer Scraps
Blueberry Cream Cheese Pastries Blueberry Cream Cheese Pastries
 
DIY PVC Pipe Bracelets by DIY Fun Ideas

No Bake Mint Chocolate Bars by Life with the Crust Cut Off
No Bake Mint Chocolate Brownies
 
Thanks to all who linked up! Grab a button if you were featured :)
 
Featured on My Girlish Whims
 
Now... onto this weeks party!

I show off my girlish whims weekly on my blog, and now I want to see yours with 
Your Whims Wednesday!

Guidlines:
1. Link up as many projects as you would like: as long as it is one of your girly ways, you can link it! I'd love to see crafts, recipes, style posts, etc. Anything and everything feminine :)
2.Please add my button (code at the top of this post) to either your blog post or somewhere on your blog. 
3. Take a quick moment to comment on at least one other entry. We we all love comments!! 
4.I'd love if you would follow me as well :)

Two Weekends, Two Weddings and More

Today I thought I share some pictures from the last two weekends in our life, we've had TWO wedding weekends right in a row! Of course now we are done for the summer, but it sure made for a fun streak of dressing up fancy and enjoying time with friends while it lasted :)

The first wedding we had last weekend was for one of my best friends from high school. I was in the wedding along with some other fabulous ladies.  I managed to snap a bridal party selfie right after the wedding and caught us all in it! #skillz

Hubby and I snapped a few pics together while the bride and groom were off getting their photos done!

Then funny story...we thought we had a lot of time to make it from the picture venue to the reception venue since the bride and groom were taking their own photos for a bit.  So, on the way there was a Chik-fil-a and we were STARVING so we stopped in for some waffle fries! Then somehow the bride and groom finished their pictures really fast and beat us all to the reception...I was the last one to get there and help up everyone's entrance....all for the sake of some waffle fries. Whoops! (Worth it? Mhhh hmmm).

Hopefully Morgie can forgive me :) After all I made her pretty earrings she wore for the day! They are very similar to these earrings I make for my etsy shop (I also posted the DIY tutorial!)

She looked absolutely beautiful as every bride should on their big day. The reception was outside and the weather was great, overall it was an awesome day and I'm glad to welcome another girl friend into the "married club," I was the first of all of my friends to get married so it's nice to having some company now!

The day after the wedding hubby and I enjoyed some much needed time out together as leading up to the wedding he was away volunteering for a camp for Civil Air Patrol for a whole week! I know I'm a baby but I don't like being left home alone that long so I was glad to have him back,

So of course we had to go get some margaritas to celebrate being back together again. Er, at least that was the excuse I used to enjoy that margarita and avoid counting how many calories it had in it!!!


This past weekend was nice and long due to the fourth of July holiday! It was great to have a day off of work to enjoy some time at home with our little patriotic puppy. I might have bought him a patriotic polo just for the occasion ;)

We had some friends over in the evening but enjoyed some time as a couple out at a A'Dello Vineyard, a local winery we recently discovered in our town in the afternoon.

There was live music playing and this red white and blue sangaria was quite delicious!!!

Then to finish out the holiday weekend we had one more wedding on Sunday.  It was nice to just be able to dress up and show up to this wedding after being in the last one. Not that I didn't enjoy being a bridesmaid! But taking bridal party pictures SERIOUSLY cuts into cocktail hour, ya know what I'm saying?

Weddings are also such a nice time because out of town friends return.  We all started as friends from high school but many of them have ended up all over the US. I for one have stuck to my suburban PA roots and am fine with that :)

All of these holidays and celebrations on the weekends have done terrible things for my diet lately though, ugh. I might have to push my monthly update back just a little bit this month until I've had time to recover!!

Christmas in July with Tis the Season

Ok guys...there are only six more months until Christmas...TIME TO GET CRAFTING!!! Ok ok. It might be a little early to start full force crafting for Christmas...but Cousin has a new line of Tis the Season products debuting and I believe that calls for a small celebration and just a little bit of Christmas crafting in July :) Today I want to share with you...
 
DIY Beaded Burlap Christmas Trees


 Here's a sneak peek at some of the goodies in the new line I was sent to craft with:

I love Cousin's Tis the Season line because it has so many fun components that you can use for many other projects besides soley jewelry making.  So if you have sworn off jewelry making completely, don't be afraid to wander down the bead aisle of AC Moore or Joann's to get inspired for another type of craft project!  Also, the new Tis the Season line is rolling out early this month BUT if you just can't justify crafting for Christmas yet, they do have Halloween themed components as well!
 
But for now for my mini Christmas in July celebration, let's see how I made my Christmas trees.
 
Since it is July I did not think I could find any styrofoam or cardboard Christmas tree forms out at any craft store, so I decided to just make my own from a cardboard cereal box.  My Own Road has a good printout template available. I traced mine slightly larger than how it printed to make a bigger tree.

Cut out two different size trees and then roll the cardboard up into a cone shape using hot glue to secure in place.  
 
Next step is to cut out a bunch of scalloped burlap trim! I used a light colored burlap that was laminated on one side which makes it a little sturdier, but traditional burlap will work fine as well.  I drew out a template freehand on a piece of cardboard and used it to cut out a bunch of burlap strips. 

Starting at the base of one of your Christmas trees, wrap the burlap trim around the cardboard cone and secure in place with hot glue.  Keep wrapping and glue the trim on going up the tree making sure to overlap each piece enough so no cardboard peeks through. 

 
When you reach the top of the tree, add a big glob of hot glue to the top of the cone and stick a Tis the Season snowflake charm in the hole.  

 
Repeat the same process for the smaller tree and glue another snowflake charm on top. Don't they look so pretty??  If you like to decorate with more neutrals, you could just stop here for a more elegant look.

If you like a little more bling though, it's time to deck the halls! For the sake of my Christmas trees I dissassembled this cute little jingle bell vial charm to get at the jingle bells inside!

I used the jingle bells and some glittery red stars from another strand of Tis the Season beads as ornaments.
 
Just a little dab of hot glue will work for attaching each charm

Attach all the charms and then voila! Deck the halls and fa la la, your Christmas trees are done :)

This is such a cute little project any one can do - no jewelry making skills needed!! It also comes together pretty quick, only a couple of episodes of Revenge on a Saturday afternoon and these were done!

They were fun to make too...now I really do have an itch for more Christmas crafting!!

Fresh Flowers: The Easiest Way to Suck up to Women

As a young, married woman there are two times a year I can count on getting flowers.  Once on Valentines Day, and once on our wedding anniversary.  We are still fresh enough into our relationship that my husband Shawn knows that on these two significant dates, fresh flowers are expected and required unless he wants to put up with some serious whining from me!!  My flowers normally arrive while I am at work. I work with a lot of people older than myself (and consequently who have been married much longer) who joke about how they just don't bother with flowers anymore, isn't young love sweet, yada yada.  They kind of play it up as being trite and even a slightly trivial/excessive gesture, but it really doesn't bug me.  Why? Because I'm the one with a beautiful vase of flowers on my desk and come on, would my coworkers really think it was so excessive or would they really be dissapointed if their husband had flowers delivered to them out of the blue??? I think not!

I know mostly girls read my blog (after all, it is called My Girlish Whims) but just in case any men are reading this I'd like to let you in on a little secret.  Regardless of what your girlfriend/wife/significant other may say, fresh flowers are ALWAYS a good idea!!! Any girl is lying if she claims otherwise!! There is something so traditionally romantic about the gesture of having flowers delivered, you'd think more men would pick up on the fact that this is a very EASY way for us ladies to warm up to you.

I would also like to insist that having fresh flowers delivered sometime other than Valentines Day or an anniversary gets extra bonus points.  For example, last week my husband was away for an entire week volunteering with the Civil Air Patrol at a week long encampment. Now, I am glad my husband has a hobby and an activity he enjoys but lately it's been taking up WAY too much of his time and has been making me grumpy.  He's been gone a lot of weekends in a row at conferences and camping trips and it all culminated in him being away for a whole week and I was ticked off about it!! He knew I was annoyed so he did come home for one night in the middle of the week and said he was sorry and would not commit to so many events in a row anymore, but there is only so far a "sorry" goes when you are sitting home alone by yourself for the fourth night in a row and throwing yourself a pity party ;)  I know Shawn couldn't come home early like I really wanted but he COULD have had flowers delivered to me just as an extra way of saying, hey I know you are unhappy with me right now and here is a physical item to show you that I really am sorry.  I'm not saying I would have forgiven him on the spot but I definetly wouldn't have been so ticked off anymore haha :)

It's a simple gesture but something that is super easy for a guy to do no matter how far away he is from you since internet sites make it so easy now! For example, Fresh Flowers offers a wide variety of floral gifts and arrangements with SAME DAY delivery available.  So he doesn't even have to give his romantic gesture much advance planning :)

Fresh Flowers offers many different options for whatever occasion is necessary: some bright and cheerful flowers when you just want to bring a smile to her face....
 Or a single rose with a bottle of some bubbly for those moments when you really need to say I'm sorry I left you for so long and I promise to make it up to you but in the meantime here's some alcohol for you to drink so you forget how mad you are at me right now.  What, you don't just love everyone in the world after half a bottle of wine or bubbly too??? ;)


Fresh Flowers makes it EASY for guys to suck up to us.  And you know what? I'm ok with it being easy, as long as it involves me getting flowers in the end! If you feel the same way be sure to like Fresh Flowers on facebook to help send a little hint hint to your special someone!

This is a sponsored post but all opinions are 100% my own

Your Whims Wednesday #169 {And Features}

Time for another Your Whims Wednesday Party!

Your Whims Wednesday

Here are some of my favorites from last week:

Wood Shim Star by Vintage Gwen


Aztec Clay Pendant by The DIY Dreamer
Aztec Clay Pendant - Tutorial using Sculpey Soufflé Clay

Fabric Flag by Sew Sweet Vintage
how-to make an American flag with scrap fabrics
Lemonade Shandy by Hello Little Home 
Lemonade Shandy: The Perfect Summer Refresher | Hello Little Home #drink #cocktail #beer 
 
4th of July Count Down by The Life of a Craft Crazed Mom
 
Thanks to all who linked up! Grab a button if you were featured :)
 
Featured on My Girlish Whims
 
Now... onto this weeks party!

I show off my girlish whims weekly on my blog, and now I want to see yours with 
Your Whims Wednesday!

Guidlines:
1. Link up as many projects as you would like: as long as it is one of your girly ways, you can link it! I'd love to see crafts, recipes, style posts, etc. Anything and everything feminine :)
2.Please add my button (code at the top of this post) to either your blog post or somewhere on your blog. 
3. Take a quick moment to comment on at least one other entry. We we all love comments!! 
4.I'd love if you would follow me as well :)