A NEW BLOG!

Hello friends! Happy Friday! Today I'm excited to share with you a brand new blog! A new space too! I invite you to visit me over there from now on! I hope you'll join me on this new adventure! To visit the new blog go here:

www.andreaworley.com

Coffee Date:: My Heart & Changes to the blog.

Hello Friends. 

I'm so glad that you're joining me for coffee today. I'm excited to share with you my heart and some exciting changes to the blog. Watch the video to hear all about it.

Coffee Date 2-14-14 from Andrea Worley on Vimeo.

Follow along with on Instagram @andreamworley during this time. I'll be updating there until the relaunch of the blog.

linking up today with Alissa from Rags to Stitches. 

A Day In February 2014

It's been a while since I've recorded what an average ordinary day in our lives is like. I'd like to start doing this again once a month just to have my own records and look back on this season of life.

Our days are pretty much the same everyday. It's pretty quiet around here most days. Here's a little peek into what life is like in the Worley House on an average ordinary day.

A Day in February, 

02.03.14

Zane didn't sleep the best the night before and he was awake around 4:30 am. I crept into his room and tried to rock him back to sleep, but after I looked at the clock and realized it was now 5:30 and he hadn't fallen back to sleep I decided it wasn't going to happen and I made my way downstairs to "start" my day.


Today it was a full pot of the French Press kinda day, hoping coffee will wake me up...mmmkay! 
8:00 am Ava is awake, comes down not wearing anything. Pants optional in our home. After some play and nagging she finally goes upstairs to get dress and have some breakfast later. 
9:00 am Zane decides to tear apart my cupboards. Who needs toys anyway? While he's playing I finish cleaning up breakfast, and put dishes away from the night before.
10:00 am I lay Zane down for his morning nap.

During this time Ava sits and watches some cartoons for a bit, before we start on some school time. 

While Ava is occupied I sit down to finish writing my grocery list and meal planning for the week. Then it's school time for Ava while Zane is still sleeping.
12:00 pm Zane wakes up from his nap, and I get the kids lunch. 

More play time after lunch for these two. We usually also go across the street and visit my Grandparents as well quickly. 

12:45 pm we whipped up some Valentine cookies this afternoon. Nothing fancy, just some Pillsbury going on here for my girl. She loved them because of the hearts on top!



2:00 pm it's nap time for Ava and nap #2 for Zane. It's always hit or miss with these two for the afternoon nap, but today I got lucky and they each slept for two hours. 

During this time I like to get stuff done. Usually house work, blogging stuff, I answer emails during this time too. And...sometimes I just sit and relax. 

4:00 pm Kids are up, and it's time to start making dinner. I set Ava up with some coloring and puzzles to keep her occupied. Zane gets a pre dinner snack at this time. 

5:00 pm Hubby is home. He plays with the kids while I finish setting the table. Then we sit down for dinner. 

5:30 pm I head off for my nightly run, the kids stay with Hubby and they play & clean up dinner.



6:00 pm I'm back from my run and we start bath time for both kids.

6:30 pm We read stories together and pray together as a family.

7:00 pm both kids are in bed.

After they are in bed for the night it's time for Hubby and I to hang out. We love watching t.v. together.

10:00 pm Bed time. 

Valentine's Day Brunch Place Cards

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, one of the special things about these little holidays that I love is doing fun little things for my family and kids to celebrate. Last year for the 4th I cut pancakes into star shapes and Ava loved it! I thought I'd take that same idea and make us a fun Valentine's Day brunch. 

Using my Evolution and my Sweetheart Embossing folders I made some cute little place cards. I also used the mini letterpress papers. 

I love the texture that the embossing folders give the cards. Beautiful little hearts, I also used the Tape It kit to cut some hearts and write our names on them. 

A fun idea I like doing is take baking cups and filling them with fruit, or little treats for kids. My daughter loves them because they are small containers she can hold and she loves all the colors of baking cups we have.

Using a heart shape cookie cutter I cut heart shape pancakes, added some fruit and a glass of orange juice. Wah-la we have a fun Valentine's Day brunch. 

What are you planning for Valentine's Day? How do you like making holidays special for your family?

If you'd like to scoop up some goodies of your own from Lifestyle Crafts, 

Use code WORLEYHOUSE for 20% off your purchase from Lifestyle Crafts. 

Go here to shop.

Handmade Valentine's Day Gift Ideas

I love finding handmade shops. I love that there's a person behind these shops making their dreams come true. Putting their passions into each product they sell. There's so many great and unique artists on Etsy. I've rounded up a few of my favorite handmade gift ideas for Valentine's Day. 

Throw pillow / Metal wall art / Oversized shirt / Organic Modern Baby Toddler Girl Valentines Day Mini Heart Arrow... / Heart Headband | Valentine's Day Headband | Gold Valentines Day Heart... / Boy's, Girl's Bow Tie, Newborn, Baby, Child- Hearts, Valentine's Day,... / Valentines Day Package / Red heart Mug Cozy, Cup Cosy, Mug Warmer knitted, ecru color, button,... / Red Heart Ceramic Bowl by RossLab - handmade pottery retro romantic...

Don't you just love those sequin hangers from Pearls & Pastries? They are so fun! What are some of your favorite handmade shops? What kinds of gifts are on your Valentine's Day wish list? 

Coffee Date

Hello Friends, Happy Friday!

Coffee Date Feb 7, 2014 from Andrea Worley on Vimeo.

I'm going to follow Alissa's lead, and ask if you have any questions for me that you want answered leave them in the comments below or email me andreaworley@live.com

If we were having coffee today what would you tell me? How's your week been going?

Linking up with Alissa from Rags to Stitches.

Office & Guest Room Makeover Inspiration and Blank Slate.

I've been working on making over my guest room for the last couple weeks. During the last year this room has served primarly as our guest room, and a place where I keep all my craft supplies and sew in there from time to time. My parents were the last guest to stay in there over Thanksgiving, but with a queen size bed and a sewing table set up it was getting kinda cramped. 

So we decided to get rid of the big bed in there, and make this room more into my office/ guest room. We don't have guests often so I think a smaller bed or pull out sofa is what we're going to put back in there. 

I've been saving my pennies, and used my earnings from my garage sale to start buying things for the room makeover. To see more of my inspiration & ideas for this space visit my pin board here. This room is small, but it has a decent size closet for storage. I want the space to be light, bright and airy with lots of white, icy blues, soft pinks and touches of gold. I've already been gathering some inspiration and pieces for the room, you can see where I'm going with the mood board below.

I love Ikea for simple storage solutions, you can't beat their prices on some of their office stuff. Last weekend I scooped up some shelves to add to my office, and some simple white boxes and magazine files to store more things in. 

The gold table is from Target and I found it on clearance back at the beginning of January, it quickly went into my cart at $24.99! I'm still on the hunt for the perfect couch to add to the room. It needs to be able to fold out into a bed so when we do have guest they have a place to sleep. 

Here's how the room looked once we cleared everything out of it to start from scratch. 

The view looking in from the doorway, and as you can see below the closet as well. So we're starting with a pretty blank canvas. 

My goal is to DIY this room for $500 or under! I'm pretty sure with my savvy skills I can make it happen. Check back later in the week to see the progress I've made in this room. 

Have you attempted any room makeovers lately? 

Our Christmas High Light Reel

I know it's February now, but I made a promise to myself this year that I would put those editing skills to good use and make more family videos for our family. So, in that spirit here's our Christmas high light reel.

 

Do you make family videos for your family? 

Heart Gifts to Make Yours Flutter

Happy Feb. 1st! Do you love Valentine's Day too? 

I love any sort of holiday really, but Valentine's Day is a special fun extra day to tell the ones you love how much you love them. 

Today I've rounded up some of my very fave heart related items that I've seen in stores and online. Any of these would make great gifts for your friends, co-workers, that party hostess too!

Red cookie jar / Melamine serving tray / World Market heart measuring spoon / Sur La Table steel cutter / Green accent pillow / Three quarter length sleeve top / Jeffrey Campbell cut out flat / Valentine's Day Felt Garland Banner "Love You So Much" 5' / Embellished Valentine T

What's your favorite gift to give on Valentine's Day? 

Coffee Date: Friday Musings

Coffee Date Jan 31 2014 from Andrea Worley on Vimeo.

Happy Friday Friends, Let's Have coffee!

Tell me one awesome thing that happened in your week. 

Linking up with Alissa today from Rags to Stitches.

Functional Ways to Display Your Vintage Glassware

If a collection is defined by owning more than one of something, than I for sure have a collection of vintage dish ware and glassware in my home. I love finding pieces that are unique and special. Most of mine have come from my Grandmother, and a few I've found on my own at antique stores and thrift stores. 

If you have pretty glassware like this I think it's best to display it and actually use it. Here's a few functional ways that I like to display and use mine.

My Grandmother gave me a bunch of milk glass plates, one of the ways I like to use them is to corral my hand soap and lotion next to my kitchen sink. 

Glasses and cups are great for storing stuff, I use these in my office/craft room to hold all sorts of things. They are fun because you can see what's inside since they are clear and they are pretty too!

I use a trio of these milk glass stands and plates to house all my bracelets next to my jewelry box. They are pretty yet very functional because I can see what I have right there in the mornings when getting dressed. 

I have these saucers in my night stand drawer to keep together my hair ties, bobbi pins and lip stuff for night time. Ps- this night lip balm from C.O. Bigelow from Bath and Body Works is the best for nigh time. 

And lastly, I have another plate near my sink in my bath room for my rings and other things. Especially handy at night when I wash my face. 

Do you love vintage dishes too? How do you display yours?

Monday Morning, Sick babies, Give Me Jesus + Coffee.

Sunday my kids woke up with running noses and coughs. Today the baby was awake before the sun was up. 

Crying and not feeling his best. Today calls for lots of Jesus and coffee. I already feel like I've been up for a million hours and it's only 10 am. It sure feels like it should be 4pm. 

I don't know about you but I don't like when my kids are sick, it takes a tole on the whole house. But it's a good reminder to slow down and take care of what matters most. 

Did you watch The Bachelor Wedding last night? I did, it was so awesome to see a Christ centered wedding on t.v. and it was beautiful. 

This morning I read this post and it challenged me even more about this community, I hope it encourages you as well. 

Happy Monday friends, how was your weekend?

How Will I Thrive This Year?

Well we're 23 days into the new year. How are you doing with your goals and resolutions you made this year?

My word of the year has been ever present on my mind, it's a good daily reminder and measure for me this year. 

It got me thinking a few weeks ago; How will I Thrive this year?

It's one thing to say I want to Thrive, but it's another to really figure out what that means for my life. So I sat down and thought about some goals, things I wanted to do better, ways that I wanted to grow this year and how I was going to accomplish that. 

• More time with Jesus. 
• More dates with my Husband. We're getting a baby sitter and making it more of a priority.
• More pursuing friendships that matter. Last year I got really hurt in some of my relationships and put way to much energy into ones that didn't matter, this year I want to pursue friendships that will draw me closer to Christ through our friendship.
• Less comparison, more JOY.
• Taking a break from social media on the weekends and enjoying more UN distracted time with people. 
• More time feeding my creative side. I want to spend time creating in new ways and try things I have always wanted to like painting. 
• More journaling for myself. I have a journal I write in every year and for the last couple years I've been writing less and less for myself personally. This year I want to renew that passion.
• Travel more.
• Take my kids to Disneyland. 
• Laugh a lot more! 
• Finish decorating our home. I've been so indecisive about decisions, but this year I want to make our house a home for our family. 
• More entertaining in our home. I want our home to welcome the people we do life with. I love connecting like this, and want to do it more this next year.
• Continuing to focus on my health and fitness.

How are you taking steps towards meeting your goals this year?

Fun Ways to Dress Up Your Party Invitations

I love sending out paper invitations for parties and gatherings. I think invitations set the tone for your events and I love picking out pretty ones to compliment the design and feel that I'm going for. I've had so much fun the last three years designing and picking out some of the prettiest invites for my daughter's birthday parties! If the invitation sets the tone of your party, then the envelope is also an extension of that. 

Today I want to share with you some fun ways you can dress up your envelopes before you put the stamp on them and hand them to the post man! 

1. Envelope Wraps
These adorable address wraps are a fun way to put the to and from on your envelopes! With fun designs on both the front and back and tons of options to choose from you're sure to find one that suits your personality. 


Do you love washi tape? I do. Over Christmas I was telling my sister about the wonderful world of washi, she'd never heard of it before. I had to do my sisterly duty and show her all the fun things you can do with washi tape! 

If you're like me you have a few rolls of washi around your house. Mines been sitting in tin buckets in my craft closet for sometime now. Then I discovered this cute little washi tape dispenser, you can hold tons of washi and big plus is that it's a dispenser so you can tear it off and use it when you need it. 

Also, these can be stacked on top of each other with the center pole. So if you're collection is ever growing you can just stack other dispenser on top and call it a day! Pretty clever huh?

2. Seal the back with washi tape. 

I love using washi tape to seal the back. No nasty glue taste, and it's much prettier. WeR has tons to choose from, see them here.

3. Use stamps to embellish.
I love using fun and clever stamps to embellish my envelopes. You can get ones with fun sayings or phrases or pictures too. I like these Doodle Stampers that you can use to run along the edges. I used the XOXO one below.

Did you fall in love with the washi tape dispenser? Or the envelope wraps?

Good news, use code WORLEYHOUSE for 20% off your purchase on any of these items and more at the WeR Memory Keepers website!

Do you like to send out party invitations? What's your favorite way to embellish your envelopes?  

Zane's Winter ONEderland Birthday

We celebrated Zane's first birthday while we were in Iowa with family. We were so excited to celebrate his big FIRST birthday with a Winter "ONE derland" party! It was the perfect theme considering he was born just a few days before Christmas and we were going to be in Iowa knee deep in snow. 

This is gonna be a little picture overload post, get excited! Here's peek inside his party. I went with the colors red, blue and white. I saw these printables in the TomKat Studios shop and knew they'd be perfect for his party. 

I designed the invitation myself. I love the way it turned out, and I love the winter theme. 

I filled theses Kraft boxes with fun favors for the kiddos and added these thank you tags from The TomKat Studio with ribbon. They turned out really cute and the kids loved them. 

Dessert tables are my favorite! I loved putting together some simple things for his table. Lots of sweet treats and homemade sweets for this table. Everything was really simple, just the way I like it. My sister made these cute pretzel rods for the party. 

I filled red + white stripe baking cups with different cookies and placed them on the table. 

This cake, man let me tell you about this cake! It's the best cake I've ever had in my life, and it was made by the same woman who made our wedding cake almost 7 years ago! She's wonderful and if you live in Central Iowa you must have Andrea Rouse make your cake! 

I showed her the printables and the invite and she came up with this wonderful design. I usually don't love cake, but hers is the very best. I added some toppers to decorate the top of the cake.

I filled bags with Carmel corn (also from The Tomkat Studio) and put those on the dessert table as well. 

I've been taking monthly photos of Zane, just like I did with Ava and we had those hung up at the party so everyone could see his monthly growth progression. I love adding personal touches like this to the party. 

Our Family.

Happy Birthday Zane!

I wanted to do a fun craft with the kids, give them something to do and also something fun they could take home. I decided to make North Pole ornaments. I mixed silver glitter in some Epsom salts to use as the "snow." 

The kids filled the ornaments, and then we added a red stripe straw to act as the North Pole. They had a lot of fun with them, and everyone enjoyed it. 

They actually turned out really pretty it was such a fun craft to do with the kids who came to his party. 

Zane's smash cake.

He really went for it and it was the cutest thing. At one point though he was on total sensory overload, as well as sugar I think. But it was so fun to watch him eat his first cake. 

BIG thanks to everyone who came to his party and shared this special day with our family. 

If you're looking for party sources they are listed below;

baking cups, blue stripe bags, red stripe straws, printables: TomKat Studio
Kraft boxes: Pick Your Plum
Cake: Cakes by Andrea