Country Living Book Nook

Sunshine is a fairly surefire way to feel HAPPY, don’t you think?

I know I’m always happier when the sun comes out. Maybe because we don’t get quite enough sun around here to fill up our happy tanks year round. As I always say, sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy. :-} Even though summer is supposedly on its way, we can’t always count on SUN here in Seattle. So I’m thinking the next best thing to the sun coming out is to dress up a room with a little summery cheer.

Are you with me?

HELLO, HAPPY BOOK NOOK!

OK, so that book nook (above)? Is that fabulous or what? That fabric and paint has HAPPY all over it. The perfect place to kick back and enjoy a good summer novel! I’d be ever-so-happy in there. Wouldn’t you?

Country Living

HELLO, HAPPY SWING!

And how relaxing would it be to snooze on that hanging bed on a nice summer evening? I can almost feel the sway of the swing and the breeze zzzzzzzzzzzzzz lulling me to relax and drift off to sleep. Even if it wasn’t a hanging bed, the fact that it is painted a bright coral? Completely HAPPY.

Southern Living

HELLO, HAPPY LIVING ROOM!

This room is all dressed up in its summer finery of color and pattern! How could you NOT smile in a room like that? HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY. I love that it retains a cozy feel by the way the furniture is arranged, but still feels as alive and happy as the summer sun shining through the windows. HAPPY = Seeing this room.

Country Living

HELLO, HAPPY BREAKFAST NOOK!

And last but not least, I’d cast my vote for this room as the HAPPIEST breakfast nook, ever. The cushions are just the right plumpness to draw you in for some OJ and some tasty summer berries with your cereal. And the light fixture? The bright little yellow tulip candle holders are happy all by themselves. This whole space is bright, cheery and yes, full of HAPPY.

So how do you get the look of HAPPY at your house?

Start with 3 coordinating but not matching colorful fabrics for pillows or curtains and/or a bright and cheery paint for a furniture piece. Spread the happiness around the room. Enjoy!

Do you crave a little more HAPPY in your house in the summertime like I do?

An (in)RL Craft & Chocolate Party!

Hey everyone! How was your weekend? Mine was jam packed and I’m all worn out from hosting several events this weekend, but I had a lot of fun! If you have to be worn out, it might as well be for something fun — and especially when it is something worthwhile, right? That is what I always say. My life is always hard work, but I love most of what I get to do so it rarely feels like work!

So what was I up to (among other events) this weekend? I’m glad you asked.

Some awesome friends and I from church put together a Craft and Chocolate Party for ladies in our community! Can you say CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN? Oh yes. It was that kind of party.

Our event was a part of the (in)RL conference for (in)courage. We hosted a local meet up at our church, Voyage. It was our first real community event as a women’s group, and we think it turned out really great if we do say so ourselves! We had a great time planning it and even more fun at the event!

So what did our meet up look like? Disclaimer: I’m a home decor blogger so of course, I’m guilty of taking pictures of everything but people. That is what I do. Forgive me. There were people there, I promise, and they were lovely. I’ll talk about them too because people was what this event was all about. But first, the details of how the party came together. I do like to set the stage for people to relax and have fun together!

I love putting together party details, but I definitely have to keep things simple.

If I get too bogged down in preparing for an event, I don’t enjoy the process or the party. I have a great group of ladies (who I adore more every day) who brainstormed with me and helped out tremendously, which made the event so much better and a whole lot of fun for everyone! That is what community is all about, working together side by side for the good of the team! Love that. Thanks ladies.

Because I don’t like to get too overwhelmed in preparing for an event, I just go with the flow on a few fun themes and see how they come together. My goal is to make a party fun and memorable by creating a feast for the senses and plenty to do to keep us active and talking to each other.

In shopping for the party, I focused on having a fun spring color scheme to tie it all together.

The colors were woven through everything from our cute little polka dot paper plates I found at Target, to our delicious packets of Tazo tea and fun fruity cold drinks to our springy TJ Maxx tablecloths, loads of fabric scraps for our craft making spring flower pins, and the absolutely gorgeous tulips and flowers we had in mason jars throughout the room.

To enhance the ambience, I bought two fruity smelling candles and had them lit throughout the event. And then of course, with the chocolate fountain bubbling all afternoon, the room smelled pretty much what I imagine heaven will be like. Our food table was filled with all sorts of delectably tasty morsels!

We set up several stations throughout the room with beverages (I used metal buckets with ice for the cold drinks), a food table in the middle with our chocolate fountain, and a crafting area with several tables filled with scissors in mason jars, glue guns, needles, thread, buttons and a fun selection of fabrics with samples and instructions on how to make flower pins. People could use patterns and instructions or simply wing it like I did.

Either way, all the flower pins turned out really cute. I wish I had taken pictures of everyone with their flowers! but once the party started we were focused on getting to know each other and crafting. Wish I would have stopped everyone for a photo, though. Next time I will! Or I’ll make someone else be in charge of the people photos.

This is the flower pin I made all by myself, my FIRST one EVER! Yes, I’m pretty proud. I made it in about four minutes, it was so easy! It is VERY imperfect, but maybe that gives it a little charm (right?), so I was pretty tickled with it. I’m not crafty, as you know, so making something like this was a rare accomplishment for me.

Everyone had fun making their pins and they were really adorable! I think it was the perfect craft for a party like this because you can’t really go wrong even your first time making one. It was fun picking out fabrics and working on the pins together. We were able to chat as we worked around project tables and ooo and ahh over everyone’s pins!  It was a big hit!

I made several new friends I really hope I’ll be able to connect with again (about 50% of the people there were friends of friends!) and all in all, it was one of my most fun parties ever!

And that was the whole point of (in)RL. To make new friends and connections in our own local community!

We have a small new church, so this event not only helped us to reach out to other women, but it was fun working together with our women’s group to host our first real community event. We really do have a great group of ladies who are all the hostesses with the mostess and I’m excited to see what we can do together as a community in the coming months! We’ve got lots of plans to keep our community growing and thriving.

Wish YOU could have been there to craft and eat chocolate with us, that would have made the day even more PERFECT! Maybe next time?

Coming up this week! Lots of fun stuff.

Easter Egg & Spring Decorating Ideas

These leaf print Easter eggs are QUITE adorable, aren’t they? I want to make them.

And, I still love the tea stained blue speckled eggs I featured last year.

Do you dye Easter or spring eggs?

via Apartment Therapy,  find the instructions on Family Fun 

And if you want even more Easter Egg decorating ideas, check out these Subway Art Easter Eggs and Washi Tape Easter Eggs!