Friday Favorites// Independence Day

 Independence Day kinda sneaked up on me.... I wish I had thought about sewing some patriotic pillows and decorating my mantle accordingly. The least I can do is be inspired by other people's creative ideas! Here are some of my favorite I cam across that seamed simple to do!

Left: Mason Jars, Flag Fruit & Banner

Middle: Chalk Board & Bottle

Right: Kids Craft, Painted Pillow, Fruit

Sodear reader: How do you celebrate Independence Day? If you are not from the U.S. does your country hae/do something similar?

One Pot Burrito Bowl Recipe

I tried this amazing one pot burrito bowl awhile back. It was so easy to make and really good. Ours turned out a bit spicy because the only taco seasoning I had was "hot".

9 Printables for Couples

1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 6/ 7/ 8/ 9

So the biggest project during Christmas break was organizing and "purtifying" our bedroom. You see, we didn't have a way to hang our clothes...and well....I will tell the full story another time...but now we finally do and we are slowly organizing our little space.

I spray painted my various frames to match each other, already getting wedding pictures printed but would like to do a small collage on my only free wall....sigh....I love walls.....but I live under a roof  with slanted walls....sigh

Anyway, so I went hunting for some sweet printables I could add to my collage and these 9 were my favorite. I am still deciding on with one I should actually do.

Hmm, tell me which one you'd choose!

My Christmas Pillows

So I finished one of my goals for my time off before Christmas and made 3 Christmas pillows! I totally love the wintery/christmasy feel of my living room! Accent pillows can really give a room a new feel! ☺

So which pillow that I made do you like best? Silent Night, the one with the gloves or the polka-dot one?

Pinterest Christmas Board- Pillows

I LOVE decoration....I LOVE Christmas decorations. I am so inspired by the ideas I find on pinterest. I am wanting to sew some Christmas pillows for my living room and these 9 were my favorite. Some are of course a little harder to do than others but I still have lots of burlap from my wedding.... can't wait to make one or two pillows in time for Christmas...

What's your favorite pillow out of the 9 above?

Day Two- Crafting a Picture Heart Collage

Today I want to craft a gift with you! I have seen various ideas of this craft on Pinterest and decided to do one myself. It is a collage of different pictures that you cut out into hearts and place in neat rows on white paper.

I decided to do one with pictures of Patrick and me but there are more pictures you can use. This would be a cute gift for your mom/ parents. Take lots of different pictures of you and your parents (over the years) or take different pictures of you and your siblings and create a collage. Or do you have a BFF? How about using pictures of your favorite memories and creating a collage and surprise her with this little gift on Valentine's day!

I made all my pictures black and white but you could keep them color or maybe more of the vintage sepia look? The amount of pictures is totally up to you as well! I used 18 pictures (because two were to big for my hearts) but you could only use 12 or maybe even use 60 pictures! If you don't want to do it with pictures at all there is another version with newspaper that is really cute <here>.

So lets get started!

To make the pictures small enough I created a collage of 4 pictures on one photo and then went to have them printed out. I made myself a template heart that would be big/small enough for what I was wanting to do.

I carefully laid the heart on top of the picture and always tried to keep the faces/people in the center of the heart. To make sure you have it correct hold it against a light.

After cutting them all out use a broad ruler to put a fold down the middle to give it a 3D effect.

Lay it on your large piece of white paper and plan how you want it to look and which pictures you want them to be.

Take some Elmer's glue and put a line down the "spine" and carefully glue it where you want it.

Et Viola! You are done!

Are you going to make one? If you are...for who? With pictures or with colored Paper?

When you do one, post it on your blog and link up on the 7th! ☺ I  can't wait to see your work

<a href="http://thebluebirdhouse.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj598/Iris-photos90/Singles-Valentines.jpg" height="100" width="200" border="0" alt="true love never dies" /></a>

Stop by tomorrow too! You will find little devotional on "Loving the Present". ☺

Christmas Collection

Today it is super windy outside. The only thing we have left of snow is frozen-melted snow...you know what I mean? Well I can believe that in over a week Christmas is already here!! Today I thought I'd share just some Christmas/Winter favorites.

All pictures are properly sources on my Pinterest under Seasonal {Decoration}

Here are some funnies I saw on Facebook.

Pinterest Fun - November 23, 2012

Here are a few neat and beautiful things I found on Pinterest. I tried to keep everything in red. ☺ Red can be a beautiful fall color...or Christmas color! Any body decorating for Christmas today?

Source: bird-friends.com via Iris on Pinterest

This is just so beautiful. I wonder where this was taken?

Source: Uploaded by user via Iris on Pinterest

I just love the painted checkered wood! Even Patrick liked it. Maybe one day....

Source: sofiesnyttochgammalt.blogspot.com via Iris on Pinterest

I love owls and this would be a great storage/ decoration!

Source: westelm.com via Iris on Pinterest

Who wants to have tea with me here?

Source: turningpoint2.tumblr.com via Iris on Pinterest

POLKA DOTS!!! I love storage/decor

Source: flickr.com via Iris on Pinterest

I think this is more of a summer wreath but pretty none the less!

Source: barspaperpursuits.blogspot.com via Iris on Pinterest

Anybody else think this is cool? A great idea for a larger family.

Source: houzz.com via Iris on Pinterest

There are so many more...but which one is your favorite here?
And how was your Thanksgiving my American friends?

Birdie Fun from Pinterest

Here are just a few favorite birdie pictures I have on Pinterest. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!

Source: etsy.com via Iris on Pinterest

Source: morethanahouse.blogspot.com via Iris on Pinterest

Source: karladornacher.typepad.com via Iris on Pinterest

Source: tinywhitedaisies.tumblr.com via Iris on Pinterest

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Iris on Pinterest

Pinterest Fun - Nov 2, 2012

I have always enjoyed finding great ideas and inspiration online. If I really really liked it I would download it and save it in a file on my computer....now...I have Pinterest!

Here are a few pictures I collected this week:

Beautiful plaid skirt

Great fall/winter outfit

Beautiful fall outfit

Don't you just love these owl rainboots?

VINTAGE HAT!!!

Cute Christmas decoration

I will have to try this sometime!

Another cute birdhouse idea

country style

birdhouse

Caramel toffee dip. Mmmmm

Isn't this just gorgeous??

Cute country kitchen!

Cute bunny picture

Are you on Pinterest?