baby love!

h  a  p  p  y    m  o  n  d  a  y! ♥

Today was a pretty gloomy, dreary Monday here in Toronto but didn't feel so bad. I had a great day! I'm absolutely loving my new job and it was another amazing day at work, and I also got to go to the Penguin Random House office for a Spring Book Launch

This past weekend was very eventful! I feel like we had the perfect mix of fun with family & friends, time together, and chill time (those are the best kinds of weekends) I hosted our monthly girls night at our house so that I could host a little surprise baby shower for my bestie. She's going to be having a baby boy in one month - so excited! 

I took some photo's of the little set up. It was a beautiful sunny day and as always, just perfect to hangout with my bestest friends and shower my #1 girl with love.

I've been to a lot of baby showers at this point and although this one was a bit different because it was so small and at home, I thought I'd share a few tips.

* Don't stick with just one colour! I mean even if you know the sex of the baby, it's still fun to put a spin on the colours to add a little spunk! Carly is having a boy so I chose light blue, mint green, white and yellow as the colours and thought it was nice and bright for Spring.

* Keep it simple! It seems like the evolution of the baby shower means you don't really play many games and the gifts get opened later on. It's nice to just spend time with everyone there, eat, chat and hang. We got to watch Carly open her gifts since there was only six of us, but when it's a larger group it is nice to take that out of the equation.

* Collect the cuteness! I'm one to stock up on cute napkins, plates, and decor as I see it. It's nice to have a mix of different decorations and ones you really love. Sometimes when I'm in search of something really specific I can't find it and wish I had stocked up when I saw it! Nothing worse than regretting not stocking up on cute stuff (lol)

Sneak Peak! - Craft Room

h a p p y     s u n d a y ,      b a b e

// So, we've officially been in our place for over a month now! Things are really coming along and we're so excited about the progress we've made so far.

My craft room is looking cute as ever, and although it's not 100% finished and exactly where I want it to be, I am really really loving it so far! I find I am spending a lot more time in there than I did in my old craft room, and it's so exciting. I love spending time in there while working on blog posts, doing some hand lettering, writing lists and making cute things.

I snapped some photo's of  cute by jules headquarters! Looking forward to sharing more photo's of our new home with y'all ♥

(a very cute) $5 DIY gift idea!

Happy Friday, Cutie!

I made this sweet little planter a few weeks ago and was so happy with how it turned out! Since we are very quickly coming up to CHRISTMAS, I thought it would be a fun time to share this sweet and (very very) simple DIY idea! 

I really think this would be such a cute little gift idea. For a co-worker, friend or as a little thank you/hostess gift! And let's be honest, doesn't it feel so great when you MAKE something special for someone? I always love that and find it so thoughtful

You only need 5 things to make this happen:

1. A mini pot (this is from the dollar store! it costed $1)

2. White paint (I used white acrylic paint)

3. A black sharpie

4. A plant or succulent

5. More soil, probably (to get that baby lookin' fresh)

I painted the pot white and did three full coats. Once it dried I drew the eyes and lashes and smile on with a black sharpie. I found this cute little succulent at one of my favourite local markets in our hood in Toronto (it only costed $4!) So what I am saying is that you can make this for $5-$7(ish)dollars

Yay! I am looking forward to decorating our place for Christmas this weekend. ♥ - it's been such a crazy couple of weeks and I am so excited to make this place extra merry. We've got a super busy weekend ahead (including a wedding & the toronto santa clause parade!)

Life is good. Happy Friday! :)

making gifts cute - adding that extra sparkle*!

Well hello there! I am not too sure if you guys knew this about me already, but...I really love CUTE stuff! (that was a joke, because obviousssssly I do)

One of my favourite things ever is spoiling people I love. I just can't help it - I love to shower my friends, family, husband and co-workers with special things to make them smile. I especially love making my own little gifts, and taking a simple and ordinary gift and making it extra cute with all the adorable fixin's

My go-to gift add ons that can make any kind of gift really sparkle are

• gift tags
• confetti
• stickers
• bows
• ribbons
• clothes pins
• glitter
• washii tape
• paper bags

And of course, you have to stock up on the cutest, prettiest gift bags, tissue paper, wrapping paper and boxes when you see them! I've always got stuff on hand for when I need to prepare a gift for a special occasion. My favourite place to get gift wrap used to be Target (rest in peace Canadian Target) but now I find a lot of my goodies at Homesense, Winners or Marshalls

For me, I always love to add that extra magic touch to a gift to make it special. I always do this for wedding day cards we give as well! I put it in a paper bag, add a little confetti bag with a clothes pin and a custom message, usually with a heart shaped tag too of course! 

You can make a bottle of champagne look cute-as-can-be with some ribbon, a tag and some extra pizazz. I love giving the mini rosé champagne bottles out with a paper straw & tag attached (like in the top photo) 

I am also a huge fan of gift boxes. What is more special than a box filled with someone's favourite things? This just never fails and I find it's also pretty cost effective. Homesense has the cuuuuuutest boxes you can use for gifts that can be part of the gift. At the end of this post you can see a gift I gave to one of my besties Jordan. He loves all the same things as me - cute, sparkly, rainbow, happy, awesome things! So, naturally I filled a gift box with all kinds of confetti and glitter and put his favourite candy, as well as some little gifts inside! Loved how this turned out!

I am excited to get some Christmas shopping done, and of course I love wrapping Christmas gifts! I will do a post all about Christmas gift wrap too! ♥

Sparkle Sleepover Party!

When my sister-in-law Linds told me that my niece Ivy chose "Sparkles" as the theme for her 5th birthday, I must admit I was pretty much jumping for joy! The theme was a sparkle sleepover - the girls came over in their jammies with their favourite stuffy and we had a mock sleepover party (actually the cutest ever)

I've helped decorate and do Ivy's parties for the past few years and it's something I look forward to every year. She's basically the cutest, sweetest little girl and I love her with all my heart! ♥ I happened to have a lot (I mean a lot!) of glitter lying around, especially from all the wedding crafting.  The general idea for decor was just a mish-mash of fun, sparkles, balloons, confetti and all things colourful.

Here's a little break down of what we did for Ivy's 5th birthday!

The Party:

* We made necklaces! (or some of the girls did depending on their attention span!)

* Listened to some sweet tunes! (the kiddies all went crazy for roar by Katy Perry)

* Ate some veggies, popcorn, juice boxes & pizza!

* Put hair chalk in the girls hair for a little spunk!

* I had this cute face glitter/sparkle I put on the girls cheeks!

* We watched The Jungle Book (original disney) while I painted their nails sparkly!

The Treat Bags:

* Bracelet

* Heart stickers

* Gushers

* Bouncy Ball

* Little ring

* Smarties

* Kazoo

The party was a success! Ivy was a little cutie pie as were all her friends and they were all so good! Me, my bro and my sis-in-law were all pretty exhausted at the end but it was such a success. Here are a few little snaps of the set up and the treat bags I put together ♥ :