Attempting Aloha {Swap 'n' Meet Saturdays}

Hi friends! I hope you are having a fun weekend, and maybe getting some time to
kick back and relax!

I am SO excited about today's post, but before you think I am awfully narcissistic, let me explain... ;)

My friend Charlie from Attempting Aloha hosts a blog swap called "Swap 'n' Meet Saturdays each week, and I was thrilled when she agreed to swap blogs with me one Saturday! It is such a privilege to have her here!

So, I want to happily welcome Charlie to {Beautiful Nest}!

Aloha {belle & sparrow} fans! I have a confession to make: I think I may be their biggest fan. I'm a follower, and I blog stalk daily, just waiting for a chance to see the next amazing project with amazing photography and beautiful writing. ((sigh)) I truly love, love, love this blog, and I started emailing back and forth with Jenni a couple months ago about what a rock star I think she is. :)

Then a few weeks ago, I started Swap 'n' Meet Saturdays on my blog Attempting Aloha in honor of the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet (Any Oahu visitors ever been?? It's AWESOME! All who come to the island should check it out.) But, naturally, Beautiful Nest was one of the first blogs I wanted to swap with, so when Jenni left a comment saying she was interested in a swap, I was ecstatic ((like a tween at a Bieber concert who just got asked to hang out back stage)). ;)
So here I am, and I have to preface this by saying that right now my house is more of a {Lack-Luster Nest} and less of a {Beautiful Nest}. We're right in the middle of renovating our home and only have 6 months to finish the entire house, so it's a bit of a disaster. Today, however, I'm going to share a few Valentine's decorations that I've put up here and there despite the dust and hammering going on in the background.
Like all of you, I'm in love with Jenni's linen wreaths, so I attempted to make one of my own. I used a silky fabric called charmeuse, and twisted my hanger into a heart shape.
First I hung it on a bright red platter in our dining room:

But then my husband came home and told me it looked like something out of Victoria's Secret, so I decided to hang it on our living room mirror instead:

And I invented the "Valentine's Stocking" for my husband and I to put treats for our girls in on Valentine's Day morning.

And if you love flowers and burlap, here's a great way to combine the two: Burlap-covered vase! I bought a cheap $1.50 plastic vase from a party supply store and dressed it in some burlap. Sure, I get the occasional complaint from the vase about the itching, but she's so happy to finally have flowers adorning her that she doesn't mind too much. ;) And if you don't have fresh flowers blooming in your front yard, an empty vase on your table is an excellent way to send a hint to the Mr. about what to give you for Valentine's Day!

Wrap a pink ribbon around a Goodwill-find pillow, slap a flower on there and call it a day!

Lazy-mom's version of Valentine's art:

And because Jenni DEMANDED ;) that I write about our Love Display, but I have no pics yet, I'll show you what we're doing. I made this chicken wire display to show off our cards from friends at Christmas, and we've decided to share love notes with each of our family members on it leading up to Valentine's Day. So everyone checks daily to see if they got a new note on the wall. :)

Thanks again, Belle and Sparrow for letting me visit and joining Swap 'n' Meet Saturday. You have fabulous readers, and I'm excited to have the chance to meet them!

Come stop by anytime you're needing a little sunshine and sand. We LOVE tourists. ;)

Aloha,
Charlie

Thank you so much Charlie for showing us your fantastic decorating ideas for Valentine's Day! I love every.single.idea! :)

If you haven't had the opportunity to visit Attempting Aloha, now is your chance! You can almost feel the warm Hawaiian breeze on your face, it's so fun and relaxed over there!

And I always tell Charlie she's the real rock star! Check out why:



She created this amazing personalized Union Station clock~ an incredible Pottery Barn knock-off for a bare fraction of the price!




And this pillow about did me in~ it's just that gorgeous! This is on my "must-do" list.





And what little girl wouldn't love having this sweet lamp in her room?


So, make sure to go say hello to Charlie at Attempting Aloha~ and bring the sunscreen with you! :)

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Blessings {and Aloha}~

(Jenni)

Something New {Featuring You}

My sister and I (Jenni) have decided to do something new here at belle and sparrow. We think it would be fun to have a {Featuring You} post each week, where we show some of the wonderful things we have seen on other blogs during the week. It will typically be on Sundays, with the exception of tonight and this next week.

I am constantly amazed at the inspiring creativity I see while visiting other bloggers...

These are some of the things that caught our eye:

Have you seen these from Mudpies and Marigolds?

Burlap flowers

These are so beyond adorable, not to mention original. I can't wait to try and make these!

And how about an incredible bedroom makeover?

Erin from Where Beauty Meets Function shows how she is creating a gorgeous space without breaking the bank.

This room could be in a magazine!

After wowing us with her first basket creation, Erin from Like Grandma's has made yet another basket out of chicken wire and a lampshade! Isn't it gorgeous?

Lampshade Turned Basket

If you haven't seen her first one, you can click here to read about it.

I just love how Miranda at Just Drink A Coke took an ordinary child's shirt and made this sweet creation:

Valentine's Shirt

And as if it couldn't get any cuter, look at the sweet mini heart she embroidered on the back:

Amanda at Reloved Rubbish showed how she made her beautiful, one of a kind Stenciled Galvanized Bucket.

{Must.Try.This.}

Michelle from Emerald Cove combined ingenuity and an eye for detail to create this incredible knock-off!

Starfish Headboard

Debra from Minkee Baby Gifts has created a guest room in their small home that you will simply have to see to believe!

This idea is brilliant!

And last, but certainly not least, is this great idea from Gail from My Repurposed Life:

Board and Batten Backsplash

She shows how she made her backsplash, step by step, and the result is so lovely!

And that wraps up this week's {Featuring You}, which I must admit, has been one of my favorite posts to write up to date! Make sure to check out these beautiful blogs if you have a chance! :)

I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far, and thank you so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Getting It Together: Everything In Its Place

Today, we will be featuring Tara, from Survivin' on Sweet Tea and Love.   One of the many things you'll discover as you read Tara's blog, is that she {adores} a clean and organized home.  I hope her ideas  {inspire} you as they have me. ~Belle

First of all, I am not a professional but if I could choose any career that would fit me like a glove, I would choose to be a professional organizer.  I constantly think about organization because it helps me lead a more productive life.  I organize out of habit and subconsciously so when Belle contacted me about writing this post and I agreed, I had a hard time 1) thinking of all the ways I organize and de-clutter my surroundings and 2) condensing the post because I could talk about it all day.

Some of the things I am going to share are simple and are by no means rocket science.  Maybe you practice all of these tips in your home OR maybe you don't and need a little help.  Because every person and home is different, some may work for you and others may not.  Here are a few, condensed organizational/de-cluttering tips that have proven to work for me:

Everything has a place!

When you buy something, buy it knowing exactly where its new home will be and exactly how you intend for it to be used.  Don't buy it just because you have an urge.  When you buy it, you should get rid of something else that you no longer want or that no longer has value to you.  Also, before going to bed at night, always try to make sure everything is in its proper place.  Life will run much more smoothly the next morning when everybody overslept and is in a hurry to get out the door.

Don't cover up your furniture with stuff.

I have decorations on my furniture but no more than a few items per piece.  Remember that each decoration has its own place and a purpose (either personal value or functional use).  Also, remember that the more stuff you have, the more dust it will collect and the more time you will spend dusting.

When it comes to clothing/shoes...

If you haven't worn something in the past 6 months and absolutely have no plans to wear it, get rid of it by either donating/selling/tossing.  

If you just can't bring yourself to do that and you tell yourself you will wear it, give yourself another two months to wear it.  After those months are up, be honest with yourself.  If you actually wore it and liked it, you now have something new.  If you didn't wear it or you wore it and realized you didn't like it, remove it from your closet. 

The best way to organize shoes is to buy a shoe organizer.  They are relatively cheap and come in many different forms, sizes and colors.  

Keep your closets/pantry organized by grouping.  

Grouping allows you to quickly find what you need.  Some people group by colors but for me, I can easily distinguish color differences so I group my clothes by style.  Long-sleeve button downs together, dresses/skirts together; tank tops together, jeans together and so on.  Of course, I also have my clothes sorted by seasons also.  

You should never have so many clothes in a closet that they can't breathe.  What does that mean?  See the space between my clothes hangers?  I don't have so many clothes that they are jam-packed in there, which only results in wrinkled clothes.  They should have enough room to freely hang and you shouldn't get stressed out just looking for something.  If your clothes are packed in like sardines, it is highly likely that there are some or many pieces not getting worn.  It is time to de-clutter!

For my pantry, I group by types of foods and packaging.  One shelf is for boxed foods such as rice, pastas, taco kits, etc., another shelf is for all my canned products, another shelf is for seasonings and condiments and my top shelf is for cereal and bagged items such as marshmallows.  Among the groupings based on packaging, I also group based on kinds of food.  All of my canned fruits are in one section, canned vegetables another, canned tomato products together, etc.  Having everything organized makes grabbing what I need less time consuming than if I had to search for it.  As you can see from the picture below, I also make sure all of my products have the name visibly turned outward so I know exactly what I am grabbing.  This technique is most useful for canned and boxed products because they are mostly shaped the same.  You will notice that the Pam cooking spray and olive oil aren't turned outward.  Because I use those two products often and they get put back in the same place, it isn't a big deal for me.

Keep the paper piles down.

As soon as I bring the mail inside, I tear up the junk such as credit card offers, and they go directly into the trash or recycle bin.  I put any catalogs or magazines in their place - the magazine basket beside the recliner.  With the bills, I open and tear off the remittance from the invoice.  I, then, affix a stamp and return address label immediately, enclose the remittance portion and place it in the bill organizer downstairs.  It is now ready to be mailed as soon as I enclose the check.  

The invoice portion gets filed into the bill file in the filing cabinet and I keep those for one calendar year.  Another thing I do for organization and to know exactly where our money is going or has gone is to create a spreadsheet.  I make columns for Payment Name, Due Date, Date Paid, Form of Payment (either check #, AW for automatic withdrawal or OBP for online bill pay) and Amount Paid.  With every single bill that gets paid, I type in that information.

Tax season.

Tax season is soon upon us.  I stay organized throughout the year so when January arrives, getting my tax information together is easy.  Aside from waiting on W-2s to roll in, I am always completely ready to file taxes the first week in January.  In addition to having my bill invoice file, I keep a file for medical bills and other tax files (ex. property taxes paid) in our filing cabinet.  When I receive a medical bill, it quickly gets filed away.  Most of the time, I pay co-pays with my credit card and when I get my credit card bill, I highlight where I paid and staple the receipts to that bill and then.... file it in the medical file.  If I ever get audited, I have proof of everything.  The bill spreadsheet that I keep is also printed out at year-end so it also shows medical bills in which I've also written checks to pay.

Warranties/Owners Manuals

Again, have a place for these items.  We store all of this in our handy dandy filing cabinet.  One thing I haven't done as good a job with is keeping up with receipts after I've made purchases.  Because I like to get rid of extra paper, I sometimes end up tossing them prematurely.  Recently, we had a product break and needed a receipt.  I have decided to start stapling the receipts to the inside of the owner's manual.  Products break, become unneeded or unwanted, etc. so I try to go through these manuals at least once a year.  You will be amazed at what you no longer need to keep.

De-Cluttering: plain and simple.

It is good to do it several times a year.  Some people say you should go through your house everyday tossing 3 items from each room.  I think that is a little much unless you have tons of clutter.  If I did that, my house would be completely empty within a couple of months.

If you have a huge de-cluttering project, take baby steps.  Don't try to conquer it all at once or you will get bogged down and likely give up.  Work on one room at a time or even smaller, work on one area at a time.

The simplest way to de-clutter is to make three piles:

1) Keep pile - Items that you actively use, are in good condition, have a specific place in your home and have real value go into this pile.

2) Trash/recycle pile - If it is broken or no longer being used but is not good enough for selling or donating, it goes here.

3) Donate/sell pile - If it no longer has its own specific place, is not being actively used and won't be but needs a good home, this is the pile where it belongs.

Just remember that to organize and de-clutter, you MUST be willing to purge.  If you aren't, you are only moving clutter from place to place.  And, boy, does purging feel good! 

If reading this post inspired you, be sure to stop by Tara's Blog, for further inspiration, and if you'd like, share the news about this event with your readers.  Hope you all have a fantastic Friday!  

{Thanks Tara, for sharing with us today tips on how to organize effectively.  We're so glad you were able to be a part of this event.}

Ruffled Felt Heart Wreath

Hi sweet friends! I hope that this finds you having a good week!

I am sorry that I did not end up showing you this craft after all last night. I finished it on Sunday, but it's almost funny how many things have gone wrong trying to finish this post!

Now I don't know if it is this way for you, but I have found ideas are like building blocks, one on top of another. You might try something, which leads to trying something similar, yet completely different. :)

I hope you are not tired of ruffled felt wreaths, because I wanted to show you this:

As I was making the {larger} gray felt ruffled wreath, I was thinking of how I could make a similar one, only with a Valentine's theme.

I thought that a heart shape would be a good start...

{What you'll need}

12 inch gauge jewelry wire

Felt~ about one yard

Ribbon for bow

Ribbon to hang wreath

Awl

Pliers

Fabric Scissors

Glue gun/glue sticks

I used the same jewelry wire as before to make a wire heart form. The heart at this point was about 12 inches across the center. I like this wire because it is so easy to work with.

I cut three inch wide strips for this wreath...a lot of them!

And just like last time, I used an awl to create holes, spaced three inches apart.

{The amount of space between the holes you make needs to be the same as the width of the strip.}

I just kept poking holes spaced about three inches apart on each strip.

Weaving the felt onto the wire...

I kept weaving it, pushing the other folds down as I added more strips.

When it was nice and full all the way around, I twisted the wire ends together to make a knot.

{I used a length of ribbon and looped it through the wire" knot", then tied the ribbon at the end. I just slipped it around so you couldn't see the ribbon tie, and hung it up by the nice end.}

Now at first after making it, I twisted the ruffles around to make it look less streamlined and perfectly placed, like I did with the last one.

But for some reason, I didn't care for it that way. So I untwisted most of it, so the folds are fairly even.

I think it's just a matter of personal preference...

I made a large bow for it too, although I now see I didn't quite get the length right on both ends...

The complementary tilted photo...must have one of those.

{For some reason, I love angled pictures.}

A super close up photo...

If you want to read about either the miniature wreaths, or the other ruffled felt wreath, you can find that here. I just opted to do a tutorial and supply list on this post as well. :)

I am linking this to the following parties:

The Shabby Nest

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Tatertots and Jello

Freckled Laundry

Funky Junk Interiors

French Country Cottage

Under the Table And Dreaming

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you have a beautiful Thursday! :)

Blessings to you~

Jenni

You've Got Mail! {A Valentine's Idea}

Well, I was supposed to show you a Valentine's Day craft, but I am not happy with the pictures I took. So I will have to wait until tomorrow for this. But I have a fun Valentine's Day idea for you instead tonight! :)

Two years ago I happened upon some darling little metal mailboxes while shopping at Target, in the dollar section. I thought it would be fun for each of us in my family to have one. I could imagine sneaking little surprises into their mail boxes as the days lead up to Valentine's Day. I knew what a kick our kids would get out of this, and so I bought four of them. (My husband and I don't mind sharing!) We actually started this barely past New Year's up until February 14th. It was a complete hit! And our kids enjoyed giving everyone else mail, too! I talked about this on my other blog, Nest to Keep, when we did this, but realized I hadn't shown it here. :) (If you click on the the blog title, it will take you to the original post.)

Now the mailboxes came out again last year, as this has become a tradition in our home. However, this year I replaced them with new ones, because a couple of them had lost the part that opened in the front, because it was made to come off. One mailbox we can't find entirely. I was planning on us making some, which would have been fun.

But then I saw these...

{Mailboxes found at JoAnn's; $3.99}

They are almost identical to the ones I found at Target, but a little bigger. (And the front part does not come off, which means they may last longer!) They also had larger ones, in pink, blue, green, and white. I just liked the smaller ones best, even though they only came in white.

It is easy to add names to little slips of paper or card stock and slip them into the label holders on the front.

This year we are waiting until the first of February to start using the mailboxes. And the kids know to check their mailboxes when coming home from school...is the flag up?

One day it's a cute pair of V-day socks, or a little note. Sometimes~ okay, often~ it is a piece or two of candy.

I will be stocking up these next couple of weeks, and planning out each day!

{I can't wait!}

Thank you for stopping by and letting me share this with you! I hope you are all doing well! And tomorrow I will be showing you that craft. Really. ;)

Have a good night~

Jenni

Behind the Scenes at {Beautiful Nest}

Hello friends! How was your weekend?

Maybe it was like mine, and just not quite long enough? ;)

BUT I am excited to tell you a couple of things about what's going on behind the scenes here at {Beautiful Nest}...uh, I mean belle & sparrow.

You see, after much thought, my sister and I have promoted "belle & sparrow" to our blog name. Originally we had chosen that as our blog title, but changed our minds. However, we both feel that this new name more clearly reflects what this blog is all about!

{Two sisters who are also the best of friends, journaling their adventures in homemaking! (This includes, but is not limited to: crafts, sewing, cleaning, cooking, baking, gardening, parenting, home improvement, renovation, and woodworking.}

So technically, we have changed the name of our blog, but are keeping {Beautiful Nest} as a kind of subtext. This is for a two reasons: it lets you know you're at the right blog; and it has become a part of who we are here, so we want to include it as a part of our blog banner text. The two phrases just go together.

Our blog address remains the same, and whether you call it {Beautiful Nest} or belle & sparrow, it will still take you to the same place! Our one concern is that you all still feel at home when you visit here, even though we have changed the name of our blog.

So, what do you think of this change? You can be honest with us, I promise! :)

Secondly, I have been learning my way around Photoshop Elements, thanks to both my husband and our 13 year old son! They are really two peas in a pod, and are naturals at anything computer related. Me? Not so much. But they are patient with me as I learn the ins and outs of blog design.

My son and I made the new banner you see above, but are not done with it. We installed what we had so far, because it was "good enough" for tonight. It's a start.

Don't be surprised, though, if the pictures are completely different tomorrow, and the font, too! I am still playing with the pictures! We also still have to make a font for the navigational bar, which is where my sister Belle comes in! So it's kind of a group process at this point, until we get exactly what we want for our blog design!

The thing is, I am getting this, and finding that it isn't as difficult as I first thought! The next time I want to mix things up, I will be doing it by myself...it's so satisfying to learn something you always felt was beyond your abilities.

I'm not saying that the banner we have so far is by any means professional. But I believe if I practice at this, one day it could be. Maybe I have found something I could be good at?

These are my thoughts anyway as I type away tonight.

What are your thoughts on all of this? I'd love to hear what you think~ about what we have so far for the blog banner or the blog name change, or any of this! :)

{I cannot leave you without at least one picture!}

Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit! I {Jenni} will be back tomorrow with a Valentine's Day craft! Have a restful night!

Blessings,