Hosting A Dinner Party at Home | Easy Centerpiece Ideas

Happy Tuesday!

I hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours was very busy, and ended with my husband's cousin's wedding on Sunday.  We had a great time, especially E who didn't get off of the dance floor the whole night!


One thing that we love to do is entertain at home.  Don't get me wrong, I love going out to eat, but there is something more relaxing about cooking up a nice meal and being at home.  I'm a firm believer in having candles lit and fresh flowers in the home, especially when people are coming over.  Lately I've been wanting to step it up a notch and also make the table we're going to eat at a little more "fancy".  I'm all about simplicity, so in my opinion a simply set and adorned table is best.

I've rounded out some of my favorite centerpieces.  Most of the things to create these centerpieces are things you probably have laying around your home.

 

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This picture was what I used as my inspiration picture for the table when we had family over this past weekend.  I thought it added a cute touch to the table and when the candles were lit it looked SO pretty.   I also made a wine bar for the dinner which worked out great.  Wine glasses, corkscrew,  cocktail napkins and of course a candle lit made the table look pretty and kept people out of the busy kitchen to refill their glasses.

Another one of my favorite centerpieces - that is easy to make is a simple flower arrangement with fruit pieces.  for this particular one, I used lemons and I thought it made the table look bright and happy!

Spray painting bottles is so much fun if you have a little extra time to do so.  They look elegant are are a fun spin on a traditional wine bottle.  They'd even be pretty spray painted with chalk paint! We spray painted bottles for our 10 year anniversary party and I loved the way they came out!  It's such an inexpensive way to dress up a table!

Speaking of wine bottles, I also love the look of candlesticks stuck in them with wax dripping down.  Simple, elegant and the candle light adds to the ambiance!

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Do you love to dress up your table when people come over too?  What are some things you've used?

Have a great day! xx

DIY Odor Eliminator Spray

Sorry for the silence here this week - it's been hard with this being the first week of school and our schedules being thrown off, by next week everything should be back to normal.

Since getting a dog, the house gets more stinky.  She runs around outside, goes for walks and gets smelly, especially in this heat!  Although I almost always have a candle lit, that doesn't help with any smells on the couch or chairs.

I decided that I wanted some type of spray for my couches and pillows - but I didn't want to get any aresol cans and spray the fumes in the house, since they aren't good to inhale.  I came across this pin on Pinterest where you can make your own Febreeze spray and I new I had to make a bottle.  It's SO easy and smells SO good! All you need is water, rubbing alcohol or vodka (but let's me honest, the vodka at home is for cocktails) and some essential oils.

I got my bottle of oil at Wal-Mart and love the scent - white linen. It smells clean and it's not overpowering at all. Don't be alarmed when you first spray, the smell of rubbing alcohol is strong at first but quickly fades and then you're just left with a soft smell from the oil.  I sprayed this on different pieces of furniture and the next day it was still smelling like the spray, so it really works!

DIY Odor Eliminator Spray

Supplies -

• Small spray bottle
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 of rubbing alcohol (or vodka)
• 1/4 teaspoon of essential oil of your choice

Instructions:

• Pour rubbing alcohol into the spray bottle, then add in water 
• Add essential oil
• Lightly shake bottle

Spray and enjoy!

That's it! Easy, cheap, easy to remake and not harmful to inhale!  

DIY Succulent Garden

I've been loving succulent gardens for as long as I can remember and while looking on Pinterest I saw how easy it is to make one.  I bought my container at Target and I already had the rocks and the succulent.  The succulent was living on my windowsill in a not so cute container so I just replanted it into this one.

Here's how you can make one:

step 1: Set up your supplies - rocks, container, and dirt. 

step 2:  Add a layer (an inch or two) of rocks

 

step 3:  Add about two inches of dirt on top of the rocks then add your succulent and add rocks all around it.  I added the rocks first before planting the succulents but found it to be a pain to add the succulent after.

 

step 4:  Arrange your succulent as you like and that's it!

This is such an easy little project to do and it looks so cute - it would be perfect to give to someone as a housewarming gift!

Happy Tuesday friends!

DIY Hurricane Vases Using Dollar Store Items

While thinking about how to decorate my sister's tea party, I knew I wanted some hurricane vases.  I love the look of them with rose petals and floating candles.  I have seen tutorials on Pinterest in the past where they're made using dollar store items so I decided to give it a try!

I went to the dollar store and picked up a candle holder - it would normally hold a pillar size, and I picked up a candle stick holder.

I lined the rim of the candlestick holder with Super Glue Fix All

Pressed the candle holder onto the candle stick

And there you have it!  Your own hurricane vase for $2, amazing!  They looked so pretty, especially at dusk when lit with the floating candles.

Gotta love an easy DIY!

Lingerie Shower - Tea Party {Weekending}

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend!  Sorry for the silence on Friday, my computer broke.  I'm now using our MAC laptop, which is going to take some getting used to.  I loved my old computer and knowing all of the Window's shortcuts.  This computer is way faster though, which is awesome!

 This weekend was great and memorable one.  We hung out with a lot of friends and family and on Saturday I threw my sister her lingerie party.  I can't believe her wedding is 2 weeks away!  Wow!

While planning her lingerie party,  I knew I had to keep her taste in mind.  She's a very reserved person and can be a little shy, so I had to do something that she would love and would be comfortable doing.  She loves tea, and going to High Teas, so I figured I'd throw her a tea party lingerie shower.  I loved the idea because I was able to make it super girly and soft.  I chose a beautiful invitation from Pinterest and went with the color scheme of gray, peach and green.

 

Everything came out as I envisioned.   The party was a "garden party" in my back yard.  I made simple arrangements out of peach carnations and green mason jars.  Anyone else love carnations as much as I do?  I find them to be so pretty and they make such full arrangements.  I also made some hurricane vases (tutorial tomorrow) and filled them with rose petals and floating candles.  My mother-in-law has all of these vintage tea cups, saucers and trays so we used those and I think they made the tables look beautiful.

I loved the way it came out and so did my sister, which is all that matters, the only regret I have is not taking pictures with my good camera.  These were all iPhone shots as people were showing up.


Hope you all have a great Monday!


linking up with Biana

Easy (and cheap!) Wreath Tutorial

I've always wanted to be a DIY'er, but have also been scared to try crafting anything in fear that I would mess it up. I've also always wanted a wreath, and not only do they tend to be expensive, they also seem to be easy to DIY, so I thought I'd put my fears aside and try making one.   It was very easy, and fun to make and I think it turned out pretty well!

What I used:

• Store bought wreath
• Wooden letter
• Moss mat
• Super glue
• Metal key
• Wire edge ribbon

The first thing I did was cut out my letter from the moss mat.  I did it by simply holding the letter to the moss and cutting around it.  Easy peasy! 

Once I cut it out, I hot glued the moss to the wooden letter. 

The bow was also easy to make because it's a faux bow.  I cut a long strip of the wired ribbon I got and fold each end to the middle and hot glued it.
 

Then I scrunched up the middle to give the bow effect.

After that, I cut a smaller strip and folded it in long ways and glued it to the center of the bow.  Then I cut two long pieces and glued them to the back of the bow and overlapped them a bit to make the bow's strings on the bottom.

Once I finished I glued the bow to the top of the wreath and positioned my moss letter and key where I wanted it and glued that on as well, and wah lah!  She was done!

 

I loved the way it came out. It's very reminiscent of the decor in the inside of my house, light colors with pops of brighter colors.  My style is very simplistic, so there isn't much on it.  You could add more though to make it a little more decorative if you'd like.

I really enjoyed making it, and now I don't think I'll be as intimidated to DIY things myself.

Spray Painting Bottles

For our 10 year anniversary party, I told my family I wanted to take care of the decor.  There had been these gold bottles I had seen on Pinterest and I wanted to recreate them.  I'm no DIY expert, but these bottles seemed so simple even a caveman could do them simple enough that I could do them and not mess it up!

First, I took off all of the labels on the bottles.  I did it, by soaking them in oxiclean over night.  Some came off easily, and others I had to scrub a bit.

After all of the labels were off, we went to the store and picked up some Rust-oleum metallic gold spray paint.  This is the first time I had ever spray painted, and let me tell you - I think it could become an addiction, there were so many colors!

We stood all of the bottles upright and went to spray-town, which was so. much. fun! I felt that the coverage was better when I sprayed from left to right, instead of up and down.

In the Florida heat, the bottles didn't take more than 30-45 minutes to dry.  And they looked so pretty, funny how wine, beer, and spaghetti sauce jars could be transformed into something so pretty looking with just some paint!

 

I wanted the bottles to sit on something.  We had wood in the garage from a tree that we had cut down a while back, so I asked my husband to cut it so I can sit the bottles on top of them.

 

I love the way they came out!  It was classy and also a little rustic - perfection! 

Don't forget to come back tomorrow and linkup for Wino Wednesday!  Can't wait to hear what wines you've been liking this this month!