The Penthouse Goes Fall

Good Evening Friends!

I hope you have all had an enjoyable and relaxing Saturday, I know I have! After becoming slightly, TOTALLY obsessed with Pinterest, I found so many absolutely adorable fall projects! They all seemed relatively easy and cheap, so I decided I would spend my leisurely Saturday doing crafts! (And it worked out because my parents were in town to help fix our TV, so Kimmy got to help me "master the glue gun!!" :)

Pinterest had so many great ideas that I couldn't possibly accomplish them all, but I chose a few of my favorites and decided to defeat and conquer.

Project #1: Candy Corn/Candle Dish

 This was the stinkin' easiest thing in the world! Each glass holder was $1 (definitely could be re-used for my classroom someday...) and the candles were three for a $1, so I spent a whopping $3 on this fun project!!

Now that I have a nice camera, I love taking artsy pictures...well, artsy for me! haha

Project #2: Fall Wreath

 It was nice having extra hands to help me create this masterpiece!

 Again, attempting to be artsy.

 

And, the finished product!!!!

 I got the wreath at Hobby Lobby (duh)  for $3.99 and the flowers and extra stuff was all from the Dollar Store for a buck each!! (But seriously, who would know?!?!?!?)

Project #3: Yarn Candy Corn (Thank you Sarah Hambley!! See her cutie blog and awesome crafts here!!)

  I found some floral cones at the Dollar Store (yesssss!!!!) and then I got the yarn at Hobby Lobby (this was the most expensive thing I purchased because yarn is stinkin' expensive!! I think it was about $2.50 for each color). I used my glue gun (I just bought one a few weeks ago, can you even believe that!!) and yarn and brought this beauty to life!!

Project #4: Cutie Pumpkin (Preface: The goal of this project was to use black buttons, but that did not work at for me, so I had to make due with what I already had!)

 

The word "Boo" was supposed to be written out in buttons, but my pumpkin was too small, so I used scrapbook letters and it worked out just fine! I also ADORE the black and white polka dot floral ribbon! (The pumpkin was 50% off at Hobby Lobby so I got it for $5 and the ribbon was $2.99!!)

Project 5: Fall Floral Arrangement

  I had some left over flowers and candy corn from my other projects, so I created this arrangement to sit in teh back of our family room! Simple, but perfect for fall :) :)

This is now what the top of our TV looks like!! So festive if you ask me :)

Since I was being all "Susie Homemaker" for the day, I decided to cook one of the first legit meals of the semester. My mom has this wonderful recipe for Beef Burgandy that is made in the crock pot, so I dumped it all in this morning and then 8 hours later...

 A delicious meal was ready!! Oh, the joys of crock pot meals!!

  It's really a simple meal, consisting mostly of stew meat, onion mix, mushroom soup, and rice!! Yummy :)

I even produced a nice dinner setting for Cam and I :) (This can't happen often, but most of the roomates are out of town this weekend, so it worked out!!)

I had such a fun day crafting, cooking, and bonding with my parents!! I hope you can implement one, two, or all of these crafts in your own house! They are all cheap, easy, and look so great as festive decoration in the house!! Let me know if you have any questions on how to make any of these things, I would be glad to help you!!

Until then,

Brittany

Pinterest, duh

Barely any homework this week, so what does that mean?

PINTEREST DUH!!! Literally we have been on Pinterest for at least 2 hours now...it's absurd. But really, it's definitely worth it.

Chocolate chip cookies, candles, wine, pinterest, and friends. What a night.

 

 

Ahh, such a delightful way to spend a homework-free Tuesday night :) :)

 

Until then,

 

Brittany 

 

Weekend Update!

Good Evening!!

I promised myself that if I finished all my necessary homework I could get on here and blog about my weekend! Good thing I stuck to my planner and got everything for tonight knocked out! I had a great weekend with friends, family, and birthday celebrations!!

On Friday, Cam and I met D and AJ in Topeka for dinner and some much needed chat time (D turned 22 in Aug. and we never got to celebrate, so we knocked out her celebration and mine on Friday!) We went to Olive Garden for dinner and enjoyed soup, salad, pasta, wine, and fun! We decided we needed some coffee (since it was quite chilly this night) so we headed over to Starbucks. As we got out of the car, we noticed a used DVD store next to Starbucks (this was interesting because we go to this Starbucks all the time with them, yet none of us had ever noticed the store before). The boys decided it was necessary to venture in, and boy were they glad we did! They found some outrageous deals, (and by outrageous I mean 5 DVD's for $15!!!) Cam and AJ decided to buy 10 DVD's for $30 each and D bought 2 DVD's and a season of  Weeds for $15...so you do the math...the grand total was $75, BUT we got 22 DVD's and a full TV season for that price!!

All of the fabulous DVD's we got for a cut rate!!

 These were my two picks that I conned Cam into buying for me :)

 AJ being a goofer

 Awww...much better. Two of my favorites :)

 And of course Cam and I :) AND, you can't see it, but I was wearing my boots for the first time!! I of course, loved them :) :)

We had a great time catching up with them and talking about the stresses of our semester, the latest news on job offers and future employment, and our fun living situations! It was great to see them both, and we all need to make a better job of catching up more often!!

Saturday was Family Day at KSU, so the good ol' parents made the trip to K-State to visit and attend the game with me! We tailgated with Cam's family for a bit (he wasn't even there with us, but I was so glad his mom and step-dad still asked my family and I to join them!!) We unfortunately, did not get a picture with Cam's family, but my parents got to meet Cameron's grandpa and his brother, Joshua, and step brother Josh (they had already met his parents before). We had a great time chatting with them and Jill and Gary got me a Vera Bradley bag and some make-up that I just love!! Thanks again for thinking of me on my birthday! After stopping by Jill and Gary's tailgate, we made our way over to my friend Shelbi's tailgate with her family and a bunch of other Kappas!

Some Kappa's with our dad's for Dad's Weekend!!

 The parents and I. Good thing the humidity was at its finest so Kimmy and my hair is lookin' realllll goood.

 Some Kappa Seniors...holla!!!

 A view of the stadium from our seats

 KSU pride baby!! (This is probably my last KSU football game as an undergraduate...weeeird).

Sunday was my birthday and my parents were still in town so I decided to take them to Manhattan's best breakfast place called "The Chef." (I personally had never been there, but I had heard great things so I figured we should give it a shot!) They told us the wait would be 45 minutes, but it was a beautiful morning, so they gave us  some coffee and hot chocolate and we waited outside (and, the wait only ended up being 20 minutes which was AWESOME!)

Mama and I by the front door posing with our hot chocolate and coffee!! (Note: The grey sweater I am wearing was a birthday gift from my parents from Target!)

Breakfast was DELICIOUS, and would have been well worth the 45 minute wait!  It was reasonably priced and great food, so I definitely recommend it to any Manhattan dwellers! (And, I'm not even a breakfast person, so that is saying a lot!) Not only was it good, but it was also on Cam and my bucket list so now that is something we can mark off! When we got back home, these were waiting for me...

  BEAUTIFUL fall flowers from Cameron! He knows me well...flowers are my weakness :) :)

Sunday night I was fortunate enough to have some friends come to Houlihan's to celebrate with me over a scrumptious meal!!

  I have some gorgeous friends, do I not?

Cam looks overly excited to be taking this picture, which NEVER happens!!

 The boys all seemed to congregate at one end...hmm...they were probably busy having boy talk!

Overall, it was a FABULOUS weekend! I got to see so many friends and family and I was able to participate in a ton of fun activities! I hope your week has been off to a marvelous start!

Until then,

Brittany 

Teacher Bridal Shower! :)

Good Afternoon!

This past weekend we held a bridal shower for the beautiful Ms. Sarah Hambley. To check out her blog, click here! We decided to make her shower "theme" teacher centered since she is a soon to be teacher, and everyone needs good things for their classroom! We made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby to gather all the necessary supplies and then came back to my house to start getting crafty!

The kitchen table consisted of lots of hot glue, ribbon paper, scissors, and magnets!!

 We bought these adhesive stars and used them as name tags!

 This is the "Date Jar." Each person got two pieces of paper and they got to write a date idea on the paper. Sarah read them at the shower, and she can keep them at her apartment and when she and Mitch get bored, they can pull out a date idea!! So fun :)

 The cute banner we made to hang in the doorways! We gave them to Sarah afterward so she can hang them from her blackboard in her classroom someday!

 We found some cute teacher themed paper and used that for the banner! All the  pages were so bright and fun! (Please excuse the TV in the background..I'm sure it was either HGTV, Lifetime, or TLC knowing my roomates the way I do :)

 These were the favors we made! We took the little roses and hot glued them to lace and added a magnet to the back! Practical AND cute! :)

This was our table when everyone came in!

 

 Of course I found a use for chalkboard labels :)

 

 Everyone at the bridal shower in front of the house!

 

 All the lovely bridesmaids! :)

 

 The beautiful Bride-to-be and I!!!

 

 

  By the way, all of these pictures were taken with my new camera so the quality is GREAT!!!! I hope you enjoyed them and got some good ideas for the future!!

Until then,

 

Brittany

Crafty Things

So in case you haven't heard, wedding season has ARRIVED!!! I have so many friends tying the knot within the next year, and although that is a great thing that is sooooo exciting, it is hard to find good, creative gifts for everyone! I have attempted to become more crafty as of recently because who doens't like a homemade gift? Here are a few of my recent projects that were given to the dear Sarah Hambley whose wedding is in a mere 33 days!!! We hosted a teacher themed bridal shower at my house today, so here were my contributions.

It is a crayon teacher wreath! 

Unfortunately I don't have any shots of me putting it together, but it is so easy! Here are the supplies you will need:

-2 embroidery (sp? Sorry, it's late!) one big and one small

-3 48 packs of crayons

-LOTS of hot glue

-Ribbon

-Wooden letters

1. Place the small hoop inside the bigger one

2. Lay the crayons on the hoop to get the spacing right (this can be tedious, but it's worth it for everything to be centered!)

3. Once the crayons are in the right place, start hot gluing them down. (I only glued two at a time so the glue didn't dry out on me!)

4. Once the crayons are glued down, all you need is embellishment! I painted some little wooden letters for her last name and added some ribbon, but I have also seen it done with stickers as decorations! Whatever you want will look great!

I was so excited to put Mrs. Gardner on her wreath!! Soon she will be married, and soon she will have a classroom full of her own kiddos!! :)

 Since I was feeling crafty, I figured I should knock out another teacher idea that Ms. Hambley could use in her classroom!

 

All you need are some good ol' #2 pencils...

Some hot glue...actually, a LOT of hot glue..

And a whole lot of patience...

And you will wind up with this! A pencil flower vase!

Unfortunately, the back of the vase didn't exactly turn out according to plan, so I created this little sign to cover up the blemishes!

I had so much fun creating some things for the future Mrs. Gardner's classroom! I hope she can find some good use for them when she has a room full of her own kiddos someday soon :) Stay tuned tomorrow for a post chuck full of pictures from our "Teacher Themed Bridal Shower!"

Until then,

Brittany