Today I’m here to share my simple Valentine’s Day decor! I don’t go all out, but do like a few festive touches! A little pink and red sprinkled about never hurt anyone (well, not that I am aware of anyway)!
art, DIY & Crafts, entryway, Family Room, Free Printables, Home & Garden, kitchen, Seasonal & Holiday
Simple Valentine’s Day Decor
Canada Day is this Friday! In honour of this special day I thought I would repost a fun Canada Day drink idea from a few years back. Enjoy! Have a great long weekend everyone!
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This Sunday is Canada Day – which is quite appropriate given that I’m Canadian ;). … So here’s a little idea that you may enjoy tipping back as you tip your hat to this great country.
Now I don’t think I need to point out the obvious, but you probably notice that this drink is layered in red and white – just like our amazing Canadian flag. How patriotic! And gorgeous. And tasty!
I can’t take full credit for this idea though. This morning as I was feeding my little guy breakfast I had the ‘Today Show’ on in the background. Given that July 4th is coming up, they were doing a segment on entertaining ideas for the holiday. They featured an amazing layered red, white and blue drink. I thought, “hey, I want to try that” so I went to their site looking for some direction.
What I found was a section linking to favourite pinterest inspired July 4th ideas and I found the inspiration for the drink I saw – which led me to this site.
So, I got started.
What you will need for this is:
Ice
Sprite Zero
Cranberry Juice
Strawberries
First I filled my glasses about 1/3 full of ice.
Then I filled each cup about 1/3 full of cranberry juice.
Then I added a bit more ice and begain to layer. I poured in another third of Sprite Zero. The key to layering is to pour your second beverage DIRECTLY on to an ice cube so that it does not mix into the cranberry juice.
You can see the Sprite Zero hitting the ice cube above.
Here they all are with their second ‘white’ layers.
So then I went to add another layer of red cranberry juice.
FAIL! flopzilla. mixville.
I think what happened here is that the layers mixed because the sugar in my cranberry juice, was denser/heavier than the sugars in my pop. There is a note about drink sugars here. I thought I had covered my bases, but apparently not.
Oh well, on to plan B.
I cut up some strawberries and created a new red layer! They didn’t sink down as I was careful when placing them and made sure they sat on top of the ice.
And when that was all said and done we had this!
HAPPY CANADA DAY!
I must admit, I drank the one that I messed up as I typed this post. Delicous!
I’ll save the two pretty ones for Chef Kev and Chace 🙂
Have a wonderful and safe long weekend everyone. We’re off to do some fun things around town and celebrate a good friends’ birthday.
And probably drink a few more of these no doubt.
Stay in touch and follow along…
dining room, easter, entryway, Family Room, Home & Garden, kitchen, Living Room, Seasonal & Holiday, spring
Hoppin’ to it! Spring décor.
I can’t believe Spring is just around the corner! It seems like I was just putting away the Christmas decorations yesterday (don’t worry, I wasn’t). But, here we are anyway.
So, to celebrate the upcoming season and arrival of Peter Cottontail, I did a little Spring decorating. Nothing major, but enough to brighten up our place and add a little ‘spring’ to my step (groan, did I really just go there?) Of course I did.
In the kitchen I added some cheer behind the sink in the form of this awesome free printable and a little Spring cyclamen.
Come on, you know you are singing it now… #sugarhillgang
Look at my little cyclamen bud about to open up. So cute.
And no, I did not match my counter spray and dish soap to my Spring décor… but how awesome is it that they match!? It’s the little things people.
In the family room (off the kitchen) the fireplace mantel is teeny tiny (ahem, non existent). BUT, I still added a bit of Easter to it.
I displayed a little ceramic bunny and grabbed a light pink candle from my stash. To Easterfy it further I added some pom pom fringe that I had left over from my Christmas Craft Night candle holder craft. Don’t they look like little fluffy bunny tails?
Beside those is a picture of my sister Tanya. She passed away a few years ago so I always like to have her out and smiling at me.
Next to the photo I have another great free Easter printable.
I love these picture frames with the clips. I got them at Real Canadian Superstore a few years ago. The front slides out and I can easily swap out the art inside. I used them in Chace’s room at our last house but I’ve yet to give his room any real personality (Mom guilt – it’s on “the list”) so for now they are up for grabs and have come in handy on my thin mantels.
Beside the bunny print I have a ‘sister’ candle that Tanya gave me.
And, looking up I have some more pom pom trim which I strung up as a whimsical banner. Little bunny tails everywhere!
In the living room we have another fireplace. This one has a larger mantel so I have a bit more flexibility here.
I went pretty simple here too and just used what I had.
On the left I used some white ‘bark’ vases and paired them with a pretty green glass vase/pot.
I framed yet another printable (I’m a sucker for free art).
A pretty (looking and smelling) candle sits beside this print. And I love the lid that came with. Adorable!
Last but not least is another pot/bowl. I love the subtle honey comb detailing on this one.
Another area that got a bit of Easter love is one of the end tables in the living room. I simply added some faux eggs to a glass vase and put them beside my gold tree bark lamp. Because every tree bark lamp needs a vase of fake eggs (obvs).
Back in January I shared how I decorate in the “off season” using our entry as an example. The entry table got a little bowl/platter of these eggs too!
Hippity Hoppin’, Easter’s on its way! Anyone else infused a little Spring or Easter at their place?
Stay in touch and follow along…
Oh Autumn. How I love you so. You with your cozy lattes, crisp leaves and amazing colours. Let me celebrate by making you a wreath. And then keeping it for myself and hanging it on my door.
I made a wreath.
It was really easy and really inexpensive.
I’ve always loved wreaths but find some of the pre-made ones to be really fussy and garish. I like them simple – in look and skill set!
So, when walking by Michaels craft store a few weeks back I noticed that their ‘seasonal picks’ (those fake flowers and greenery) were on for 50% off. I was particularly drawn to a faux pot of flowers because of its amazing Autumn colour. The price was right at $10 and I knew I could pop the flowers off and use them to create a wreath. I grabbed a smaller flower spray for contrast as well as a wire wreath form and was on my way.
You don’t need much to make this kind of a wreath. My supplies were simple – spray paint (explain in a moment), a glue gun, wreath form, and flowers. Ignore the wire snips. I had grabbed those but as it turns out, these flowers simply popped off. For some flower picks/sprays you may need the wire snips to cut the flowers off though.
When I set out to make the wreath I wasn’t exactly sure how I wanted it to look. I thought I may want to have a bit of the wreath form show and create a really modern looking wreath. I had some gold spray paint on hand from when I updated our powder room so took a quick moment to coat the wreath form. If you follow me on Instragram you may remember seeing my spray party.
Once that dried I popped the tops off the flowers…
And started arranging. I didn’t glue anything down at this point, just played with my options. I tried several different layouts…
nope.
me no likey.
no thanks.
blech.
Sigh. I didn’t like any of them. Nothing was working for me. I didn’t have enough of the large flowers to make a nice full wreath and all the imbalanced designs just weren’t doing it for me.
So I decided to back to Michaels and bought another pot of the larger ones. They were still on 50% off but I was able to use an additional 25% off coupon that week. Nice!
To attach them to the wreath frame I simply glue gunned each one on. Here is a little animated gif of it all coming together…
After I secured both the large and small flowers on, I was done!
I hung it up easily using a “Command Hook” that was already on the door from an earlier wreath.
Here are a few close ups. I love the colours. Autumn has the best colour palette!
And that’s it! Easy and festive.
My love affair with Autumn continues.
Have you made any wreaths lately? What is your favourite season? Are you obsessed with Autumn’s colour palette like I am?
Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!
Happy weekend everyone!
I know that Valentine’s Day has passed, but as promised by my sneak peek (if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook), I still had one more Valentine’s idea to share.
I whipped up some fun little Valentine’s for Chace’s teachers last minute!
As you can see, it’s a simple little monster, holding a big heart. In the centre of the heart I placed a chocolate heart which I attached with a glue gun. I made sure to only use a tiny bit of glue (so as not to melt any chocolate) and made sure the foil around the chocolate was nice and closed on the back.
If you’d like to make your own next year, I created a printable as well.
You can download it here.
I did some with gold hearts too – just for variety 🙂
And that’s it. Super simple – and cute!
I hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day and are busy enjoying your weekend.
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope you all have a day that is filled with squishy sugar treats, an abundance of kisses and that you all get suffocated (in a good way) by warm hugs.
Now that that (slightly disturbing) wish has been thrown at you, let’s talk about the Big Day.
If you follow me on Facebook then you may have seen the photo that I posted of the little Valentine’s Day table setting that I left for my three Valentine’s this morning (Chef Kev, Chace and Belle).
But what you couldn’t see is that inside that ‘xoxoxox’ bag, there was a special mug that Chace made for his daddy…
That’s right. He made it himself ;).
Let me explain. It all started with this really cool ‘design your own mug’ kit that I stumbled across at Starbucks last week.
As you can see, the mug is a graphic black and white, and the style of the mug is big, straight, chunky and masculine. Hello perfect gift for Daddy!
The pen came with both a white and black tip, so you can doodle and draw to your hearts content (pun intended) on both the black and white surfaces.
Once your design is finished, you ‘bake’ the mug in the oven for 20 minutes (I think it was at 325° but don’t quote me on that). This sets the ink in place and the design is on the mug forever :).
So, earlier this week Chace got busy designing his mug before bedtime. He took it very seriously.
How awesome is it that he decorated the handle!? “Look mommy, I’m doing a pattern”. That’s my boy 😉
Chace went off to bed at this point, and I took care of baking the mug and setting the ink. Once out and cooled, we had this.
One side of the mug has his name on top, and a bike below.
The flip side boasts a heart (middle) and a flower.
And of course, the pattern detail. Love this.
I think we are going to have one happy daddy this morning… and one proud Chace.
Have a great Valentine’s Day everyone! xoxoxo.
Hello
I'm Elaine. A graphic designer, mommy, wife and blogger. I have trouble sitting still and am always looking for a project. Follow along as I post about life – in a pretty and creative way of course.