Easy DIY Centerpieces

I’m trying to face the fact that college is starting again for my sister-in-law, Haley, which means I now have to mother my children by myself most days (ha ha), but honestly we will very much miss her company! We’ve whiled away the whole summer together playing with the girls, working on projects, and just hanging out and it’s never the same without her.

Before she left, she asked me to help her make some centerpieces for her new apartment. In the interest of full disclosure, I was not very much help- between running Lilly back and forth to the potty, picking up endless piles of toys, and spending hours in the hospital with Grace, she kind of camped out in our family room and made them all by herself- which was great because they turned out so well!

Here’s how to make your own:

DIY Jeweled Stick and Candle Centerpieces

• Glass Vases
• Fake Sticks (from the floral department of any craft store)
• Glass gems stones
• Wire
• Floating Candles

First cut the sticks to be two inches lower than your vase heights. The sticks float when water is added (not what we’re going for here) so attach gem stones to the sticks by wrapping the wire around the stones and the sticks- this is tricky, use the intersections of branches to help support the stones as you wrap the wire around and around. The stones will weight the branches down.

That’s it! Pop the sticks back into the vases, add water (leaving an inch gap at the top) and drop in the floating candles.

I love the idea of changing out the candle/stone color for different seasons- how cute would peppermint candles and green stones look for Christmas time? Or white and pink candles for Valentine’s day?

Have fun at school Hay Bay!

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We had a lovely family weekend again enjoying very every day things with the girls and just having fun together. Brandon and Lilly are the closest of buds lately (which is the cutest thing ever) and Grace is finally adjusting to her astronaut/personal steam room helmet. We had so much fun “thrifting” (for the first time ever) on Saturday morning and spent a wonderful Sunday morning at the castle park with the girls. Pleasant, calm, happy family fun. I made cute cupcakes for a family party, and also made the best mug cake I’ve ever tried (recipe to follow). Round that out with my first pumpkin spice iced coffee (target k-cup hooray!) and life is complete. It doesn’t get much better than this.

(I’ll be posting a quick how-to on the cupcakes this week if your interested in knowing how to make them yourself!)

Serious Sunday movie watching…

Garden fresh strawberries for breakfast.

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Lillyisms that I’m loving:

“I’m havin’ a pwobwom!” (ehem- that would problem to us english speaking folk- arms crossed, foot stomped)

“Am I gonna wear my unders? I love unders! Can’t pee in my unders, Mom.” (talking about her very first pairs of big girl undies hehe)

“Did you and Daddy get congratulations?” “Did Howwy and Matt (friends of ours) get a congratulations on the beach?” (she keeps mixing up the word wedding with the word congratulations)

It never gets old, this learning to talk business 😉

And tonight, when your kids are in bed, when your laundry is folded (or not), when things are finally quiet and you are waiting shamelessly for the True Blood season finale to come on, make yourself a cup of 3-2-1 Cake and wish yourself a happy Sunday. You know you wanna…

*Mix one whole angel food cake mix with one whole brownie cake mix in a gallon zip lock bag. Add 3 Tablespoons of this mixture, and 2 Tablespoons of water to a mug and microwave for 1 minute- get it? 3-2-1 cake? Thanks Aunt Sandy!*

Carry your mug of chocolate airiness back to the couch, put your feet back up, and enjoy.

Cheers!