black and white striped party inspiration …

September 15, 2014

As you may have seen on my Alt Summer re-cap post in June, I had a really fun opportunity to pitch an outdoor party idea to Wayfair, and Bing!

My new home was suppose to be finished much sooner than it was, so it has been kind of crazy getting ready for this housewarming party when we just moved in about a month ago.  There’s nothing like inviting 60 bloggers to your home to give you the motivation to get things unpacked and settled.  So many projects, but it all doesn’t come together that fast.  Things are still a work in progress with the house, but I am excited to throw a party!

When I throw parties I like to have some kind of a theme.  For my housewarming party, I thought about my home which is white with a yellow door and black accents.  I immediately thought it would be amazing to incorporate black and white stripes.

I originally was going to go with black and white stripes with yellow accents, but then I thought that jewel tones would make it pop even more!

I like to make up a little color inspiration one stop spot in photoshop like the one above.

Once I decided on my colors and theme, I searched images using Bing of black and white striped parties and weddings for some inspiration.
I collected the images from Bing, and piled a ton of them into this Pinterest board.  The cool thing about using Bing as your search engine that I recently discovered while browsing around, it that with the Bing Rewards program, you can search Bing and earn rewards to redeem for gift cards, merchandise, or discounts to some really cool sites!  All you have to do is sign-in and search and it racks up your points in the top right corner that you can redeem.  Pretty cool to get free stuff for just searching the web!

I also have this fun party planning notebooks I like to use while planning my parties.  This one is from knock knock books.  It helps me organize the menu, grocery list, and even check off some of my party prep items I need to get done.

Next, I like to send out an invitation that reflects the theme of the party.  I really enjoy mailing out physical invitations, but with the amount of people I invited to this party, I decided to keep the budget for the good stuff like party supplies and food.  So, I sent out this digital invitation with details and an opportunity for my guests to RSVP on a site called whoozin.  I found this site while researching RSVP sites, and I really liked it!  I think it’s important for your guests, and especially bloggers to know who else is invited to the party, and who has already RSVP’d.   It’s always nice to see who is invited and coming especially for bloggers so you don’t accidentally ask if they are going to a party they may not be invited to… awkward.

I have been able to pick out a few fun new things that Wayfair sent for my party.  I have been using some of the items to decorate my front porch with some seating areas for my guests, and to help make the front porch cozy.

We were lucky to inherit some of my husband’s grandmothers white patio furniture that we dressed up with some of the black and white striped pillows from Wayfair.  The black and white striped pouf and yellow garden stool really helped make it have a sit down and relax feel.

These striped pillows were a fun addition to the bistro set that we spruced up with a little spray paint.

I’m excited for my guests to make a grand entrance with new and improved front porch!  I have big plans to decorate the porch with some fun tissue balls and things during the party, wish me luck!

One of my absolutely favorite things about the front porch is my hanging lantern.  When we made plans for the house, I fell in love with the idea of having a hanging lantern over the front door, so we made sure to have it wired for one.  I found the perfect one on Wayfair that went with my other existing lights.

It will be pretty exciting to see the Waffle Love truck parked down my driveway, as well as a cart serving up some FIIZ drinks.  It should be a fun party!  Can’t wait to show you more, and of course, the pictures of the actual party soon, so be sure to check back!  Cross your fingers for no rain this week!  

To see more pictures of the housewarming party, click here.


Home Decor // my studio tour

September 12, 2014

I was just going through some old photos, and I realized that I never posted a full tour of my studio here on the blog.  It makes me a little to sad to look at these pictures since we have since moved to our new home.  I sure do miss that wallpaper.  I just may have to order it for my new studio. It’s Schumaucher Birds and Butterflies.  I hung it up myself, strip by strip.  It was quite the labor of love, so it made it hard to leave it.
I loved the setup of my old studio.  It was just the right size to have two desks agains the wall.  One I used to make armelle jewelry, and the other desk for blogging!  It was perfect!
I stored all of my beads and items to make my armelle jewelry in the cabinet above that I got at Ikea.
And, remember my hutch that was my in-laws that I repainted?  It stored my large collection of bakers twine, books, a fabric stash and a few other fun vintage items.
I kept a few extra tolix stools in the studio in case anyone came over for a craft night! The painting is thrifted.
I blogged about my craft closet organization here, but here are a few shots of how I organized it with wooden dowels.
I know, I am a bit of a craft hoarder, I’ll spare you the rest of the closet, wink.
I’ve talked about my floors a little bit before on the blog.  But, they are stained concrete since this was a basement room.  There is a line of concrete paint at Home Depot that you can tint to any color you want.  You just have to make sure you clean, sweep and mop out the concrete first, then use the concrete primer, then the tinted concrete paint, then a top coat of shiny cement sealer.
The dorothy draper style small dresser I had between my desk was a classified find that I repainted to store my packing supplies.
Part of my washi tape collection.  I have an obsession with tape, and when I found these little containers at Michaels to put them in, I was sold!
I will say that I do miss walking down the hall to see that view.  Sigh.  I think I’m going to have to order that wallpaper again.  Would you recreate the same room because you liked it so much?  I am still deciding on what to do in my new studio, flooring wise etc.  I think my heart is still stuck on that birds and butterflies wallpaper.  So, stay tuned.. we will see what I end up doing.
See more of my old studio here.
Also, I am looking to partner with some home decor brands coming up with some projects and rooms I am putting together in my new home.  If you are interested in a partnership, please email me at: carolinearmelle@gmail.com
{photos by me}

back to school feast …

September 11, 2014

Back to school time is here, and I just love the tradition that Stephanie of Nie Nie dialogues has of having a back to school feast with a family theme for the year.
I realized that I never got around to sharing our Back to School feast we did a few years back on the blog.  This year with moving and all that, we haven’t gotten around to it, but I hope to continue to do it and make it a tradition!
I was able to pull all of the items out of my party box (yes, I know.. official hoaxer status)  So, it was pretty low key pulling everything together from things I already had.  
I picked up some fresh flowers from the store, and the children chose the menu of their favorite things to eat.
My kids love salmon, so we served salmon with fresh lemons, garlic herb bread, fresh corn on the cob with shallot herb butter, and rosemary parmesan potatoes.
The grand finale was my homemade fresh peach cream pie.  Seriously, during peach season, I live for this pie.  It’s just beyond amazing I must say.  
Our family theme for the year was “Go & Do.” Which is from the scripture 1 Nephi 3:7
I think a slice of lemon through the straw was a fun little touch!
Dipped wooden cutlery tutorial here.
Then, we were able to sit down as a family, discuss the upcoming theme and school year and asked each of them what they wanted to learn that year, and what we expected from them that year.  Their dad was able to give them each a Father’s priesthood blessing for the school year to comfort them, and it was off to a great start!
I just love traditions, so I hope to keep this one alive!  I think traditions are so important!  I think they make people feel secure and have something to look forward too!  I hope to create many more family traditions with my little family in the future!  
What are some of your favorite family traditions?
{all photos by me}