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? 

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? 

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

Happy First Birthday Zane!

Today is a really special day for our family. One year ago today Zane came into our world and completed our family. I remember that day just like it was yesterday. I was up at 5 am having what I didn't know what back labor. By the time we got to the hospital I was at 8 cm and he was born 39 minutes later. He came so fast and he hasn't slowed down since. I should not be surprised that he hit every milestone so fast.

Zane, 
Today is your birthday. I can not believe how quickly this year has gone by. I remember sitting in the hospital the day you were born thinking how complete our family felt now that you were here. Today, I feel that emotion still. We are so complete with you. You made me a mommy again, you made Ava a big sister and your Daddy's boy! 

We love you so much! I love your laughter and your giggles. I love that you have the same simple in your chin just like Daddy. Your are such a lover and a cudler and are always by my side. 

You love your sister and chase her around. I love watching you guys play together. Your smile is big and bright it makes my heart so happy. Today is just one of many days that I am so proud to be your Mommy. I feel so blessed that God has given you to us, that he's allowed me to be your Mommy. You are a blessed to our family and we couldn't imagine life with out you. 

Although my heart is bittersweet to see you grow up, I am praying for you that you would grow to be strong in the Lord. I pray for the boy that you are becoming and the man you will be. God has many great things for you. We love you so much baby boy!

Mommy & Daddy.

Holiday Greetings with Cardstore.com + A Giveaway for YOU!

Happy Friday friends! Today I have a special treat for you! Have you sent out your holiday cards yet? Don't worry it's not to late. I love sending out our holiday cards each year, I also love getting them in the mail from our friends and family too! 

With all of the design and paper options these days holiday cards are little pieces of artwork too. I love finding fresh and new designs to make our holiday cards better than the year before. Enter Cardstore, they have tons of great designs. 

They have tons of great options for your holiday cards. You can narrow down your search by filtering through options like size, colors, and amount of photo options to name a few. I really like the one above with a 'year in review' and this one below with simple "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." 

Once you've chosen your card you can then personalize it by adding your own photos and text. You can change the font and size to make it even more personal to you and your family.

Once you're done you preview your card front and back before ordering. Once great feature I really love is that you can address your cards right there on the site and have them mailed to your recipients. 

I chose this simple black and white card with this cute saying on it. I really loved the saying and thought it was a perfect Christmas and New Years card mashed all together. 

Not only do they have great holiday and Christmas cards they are a full service card shop! With birthday cards, announcements, and other cards there's something to fit all of your needs. 

Today Cardstore is offering one lucky Worley House reader 20 FREE cards! If you haven't yet sent out your cards this is perfect for you! Please use the Rafflecopter below for your entries. This giveaway will run from today until Monday at 12AM. Winner will be notified via email. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To connect and find out more about CardStore find them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter. 

Products and or services were exchanged for the purpose of a review, as always all thoughts and opinions are my own. I only review products that are a fit for my lifestyle and those I feel my readers would benefit from as well.

Our Christmas Advent Calendar

This year I was excited to introduce some new family traditions into our home. One of which was adding a Christmas Advent calendar. I whipped up my own with some supplies I already had around the house and added some fun activities for us to do. Here's how I made mine. 

The supplies I used are listed above. The paper bags were a purchase from Pick Your Plum. I made mine for 25 days ending on Christmas. I used index cards to write each of our activities on. 

Then I used the silver seals that I got in the dollar spot at Target and wrote the numbers on them. After I was done I punched a hole in them on the side.

I grabbed some ribbon I had on hand, cut them in strips and looped them on to the cards. 

Repeat the steps till all your ribbons are tied and place the cards inside your bags. 

I used bakers twine and clothes pins to hang them up. 

I found these awesome gold bows at Wal-Mart and added them to the ends of each string. 

We've been having fun so far doing the activities on the cards. Here's the ideas that are on each card; 

1. Decorate the tree
2. bake cookies
3. hot cocoa & stories
4. send out Christmas cards
5. take a picture in front of the tree
6. build a gingerbread house
7. set up Nativity scene
8. write letters to Santa
9. drive around and see Christmas lights
10. buy toys for children in need
11. read the Night Before Christmas
12. make candy pretzels
13. make paper snowflakes & watch ELF
14. wrap Christmas gifts together
15. go see Santa
16. make festive garlands to hang up
17. go to a tree lighting
18. make Christmas gifts for Ava's teachers
19. make a festive holiday breakfast
20. paint our nails red
21. make a snowman
22. pay for someone's coffee
23. watch Christmas movies with the cousins
24. make ornaments
25. read the Christmas story of Jesus' birth, prayer and open gifts

Carving Pumpkins with #PumpkinMasters

Carving pumpkins is always on the list for Fall activities for many families, ours too! I also love painting pumpkins as well so we do a mixture of both a lot of times. Pumpkin Masters sent me a box of goodies to help get me started in our carving adventures. 

Couple things that I love about these pumpkin kits, the carving tools are safer than using kitchen knives, plus they come with all sorts of patters to use as guides. They have all sorts of kits; one for kids, surface carving kits, punches that you can use too. Pumpkin Masters kits can be found at your local grocery stores, craft stores and Target.

We chose to do the surface carving kit, I loved the swirl pattern one. So we cut out the design and taped it to the pumpkin like the instructions said. 

Even though these tools are safer than kitchen knives, I would still caution supervising your children with these kits. 

Once you have your design all taped on, using the tools trace the outlines of the swirl design. Then using your carving tool, carve the surface of the pumpkin. 

Hubby got in on the carving action as well, especially when my hand started cramping with all the swirls in the carving pattern. Ava loved the feel of the pumpkin after we did the surface carving. 

She proudly placed it on the porch with all of our other pumpkins.

Pumpkin Masters is having their very own carving contest on Instagram & Twitter. 

Simply tag your images with #pumpkinmasters2013 see full contest rules here.

Have you carved pumpkins yet this year? Would you like to WIN a Pumpkin Masters carving kit as well? If you'd like to be entered to win a carving kit of your own leave me a comment below telling me what your fave Fall activity to do with your family is! I will choose a winner Tuesday! 

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.