(Above is a little sneak peek.)

I’ll be creating four Halloween projects for Better Homes & Gardens, along with three other amazing bloggers: Kathleen of Twig & Thistle, Liz of Mabel’s House (who also announced her pregnancy yesterday!), and Suzonne of Urban comfort. Our first project will appear in the October issue of Better Homes & Gardens, and the subsequent three will be online at BHG.com. I’ll share the first project with you in early September when the issue hits newsstands.

© 2010, published by Making it Lovely as Halloween Projects with Better Homes & Gardens | 17 comments

The weather even cooperated for us.

Oh look, an elephant! Too cute, right?

That vase is actually a teapot, but it’s adorable when filled with flowers.

Eleanor was a gracious host, thoughtfully opting to skip her nap so as not to miss a moment of her party.

She was in a good mood the whole time though, despite being tired toward the end.

I ordered a cake for the party, but I asked for it to be left completely plain with just pale pink frosting. I wanted it to be a blank canvas, but the bakery apparently thought that I meant “smash a bunch of crumbs all around the edge, and pipe some frosting shapes as a border around the whole cake”. Oh well. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with it anyway; I just knew I wanted to decorate it myself.

I made Eleanor’s silhouette out of chocolate for the cake. I melted chocolate chips in a sandwich bag, snipped the end, then laid parchment paper over a template that I had printed out to size. I did the best I could, piping the outline first and then filling it in, and I placed it in the fridge afterward to harden. I also wrote “Happy Birthday Eleanor” in white, lightly scratching the letters in the frosting with a toothpick first as a guide. The cake was not perfect, but it was fine. The guest of honor seemed to like it quite a bit.

© 2010, published by Making it Lovely as Eleanor’s First Birthday Party | 121 comments

These birds may be a little odd, but they’ll be perfect as Thanksgiving decorations. At ten cents each (for a total of $0.32 after tax), I figured I may as well grab them. They would have been $93 had they been full price. Isn’t that crazy? They’re way too weird to have paid full price! ;)

© 2010, published by Making it Lovely as Thirty Two Cents Worth of Thanksgiving Decorations | 33 comments

The Balch Family is set to beguile
decked out in vests of argyle
while Brandon regales
with holiday tales
they wish you good tidings in style

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as Happy Holidays | 90 comments

I’ve already shown you what the tree looks like undecorated…

And I gave you a little glimpse of it with ornaments…

Now I have the rest of our tree, and a few other holiday decorations to show you.

A white dove rests near the top.

Presents are nestled in below.

A sparkly pillow sits on the couch.

Stockings have been hung from the dining room buffet.

Our deer are out, as always.

I’ve even decorated the light in the dining room (inspired by Brooke).

Really, I can’t believe I hesitated to buy the pink Christmas tree. It fits in so perfectly here.

We had some people over yesterday for a little family celebration. Brandon’s sisters brought cupcakes, complete with cupcake stands! Apparently they are available at Target, though I could only find them in silver on the site. The gingerbread men are cute too – Brandon’s mom made them with pink frosting for us. :)

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as Cupcake Stands | 22 comments

© 2009, published by Making it Lovely as A Glimpse | 35 comments

I love it.

I do wish the lights were clear, but I can change them eventually. At night, the hot pink lights take the tree from kooky and fun to over-the-top bordello! Also, the 7.5′ version would have been a better height, but it would have been far too wide for the room. We ordered the medium-sized “wooden” tree stand you see in the photo, hoping that it would add some height. We only got a few extra inches from it, but it does look nicer than the wire stand that came with the tree.

I can’t wait to see what the tree looks like when it’s all decked out with ornaments!

I ordered a set of vintage silver bells after Laura posted them on the SCOOP, and I figured they would do nicely in the center of the wreath.

I added a silver bow and the two pine cones back in and hung it from a silver ribbon. The whole thing could have used a little more fussing, but I fixed it up and had it hanging within fifteen minutes. I had to work quickly!

Well I’ve gone ahead and ordered a pink Christmas tree of my own. I’m pretty excited!