Weekend of Crafts-Card Tree

The first of my weekend projects turned out pretty cute the Holiday Card Tree idea that I found on Pinterest.

I started off by taking our holiday cards and tracing circles of different sizes onto them, cutting them out.

(some with fun edges and some with plain straight edges).  

Then cut away a triangle piece so that the circles can be rounded into cones.

Cut a Styrofoam ball in half to serve as the base, and stick a small dowel rod in the center.  Then start placing the cones (largest to smallest) on the dowel and top with a bow!

You can shift the cones around on the rod to ensure that it is spaced out correctly.

  And this is the finished product-super easy and a cute way to keep cards each year! And it can now serve as a decoration.

It took a total of 15-20 minutes to finish it up and at the same time you cut down on the clutter post-holiday!

Next up? a revamp on an old pair of heels (to replace the cape project-let's just say that project got started and just didn't come together quite right....)

Happy Monday!

Well ladies and gentlemen we've officially started October!! Can you believe it? That means that next month is Thanksgiving and then Christmas?! WOW the year is just flying by.

My desk is ready for the fall season though as I brought little pumpkin for all of my little recruiters for a festive touch to the area.

And what made my Monday even better? I walked in to a little present from Bethany our office manager~apparently she just couldn't pass this up when she saw it this weekend and she knew I needed to have it :)

This little beauty will be joining me in my weekly manager's meeting (professional aren't I?)

I love a week that starts out with a little something to make you smile! Happy Monday!

Grapefest

As I mentioned earlier today, this past Saturday Rene and I went to Grapevine, TX to attend Grapefest. It's a nice relaxing day of walking around and the largest people's choice wine tasting in Texas so that means lots of fun! It was nice to enjoy a little wine and relax away from work and school stuff to say the least. We're getting much better at this whole self photo thing aren't we?

My favorite part of Grapefest (aside from the wine of course) is that you get pick up lots of fun wine themed decorations for the house! We added this one in place of some wall decals by the sink that had started to peel.
My favorite item of the day though I must say is this little piece of art work....

Does this make us one of "those" dog people? I sure hope not-plus who doesn't love an Aussie with a glass of wine right? I mean it looked too much like Stitch to pass up!

Getting Closer to Fab!

As of this morning I got all the front portion of my cube covered in pink and white....

I like having a bit of color now all I need it to get a couple frames rather than having the wedding pictures pinned to the wall...and also change out my calendar and other pieces of the "regular office supplies".

Add to that....today there was some revenge in the office my recruiter David arrived today to a desk covered with glitter

And then next to him Dustin's cube was toilet papered overnight.....

You've gotta love holiday weekends and short work days in our office....I'm thinking though that the cleaning crew might hate us tonight.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas -- Decorating Time!

OK so no the decorations won't be hanging up anytime soon -- I'll wait until the day after Thanksgiving....but I have completed my inspiration board for decorations this year. We will be going with a red and green classic theme. Now it is time to start crafting, I might even break out the sewing machine this year!

Dreaming of a White Christmas in November?

OK well maybe not a "white Christmas" but as of the start of November I have been trying to figure out what or rather how to decorate this Christmas (which will happen the day after Thanksgiving at the Blanco Home).

While I love our tree and how it is a collection of ornaments that we have received over the years my collection of Christmas decor is a bit of a mix and match group.

This year with the nice changes around the apartment in terms of decorating I have decided that I want to leave the tree as is but look to make a more uniformed decorating style.

So this week I have made it my goal to create some inspiration boards and layouts as to what I want to do around the apartment...then of course what craft projects I need to get started on!

Updated Master Bedroom

We finally got around to buying new bedding for our room! We had been saying that was the first on the "update list" once we got married but somehow the money went to the living room, dining room, and guest room. So a couple of weekends ago we start looking all over for something new.

I have been a bit picky when it comes to bedding, I just never seem to have the bedding that just makes you want to jump into bed all day and comfortable looking. I loved the pattern of our last bedding but must admit that the comforter was not nice to sleep with so it ended up rolled up at the foot of the bed each night. And I just could not bring myself to spend $300-$400 on bedding when I know that eventually we may get a larger bed once we move into a house and again need to buy even more bedding...

So after lots of looking, I finally was able to find something I liked! At Target nonetheless! And we only spent about $200!

(Not the greatest photo, I know)

It's clear that Stitch and Nala both appreciate the new bedding too!

We went with a duvet cover and got a down comforter so its warm but not overly warm in the summer and cozy in the winter. We used the dark brown from our current window treatments for the accents of the bed skirt and throw pillow and went with a dark red sheet and throws. I love our new bed now, its super comfy!

Now all that is left is to finally order our wedding photos on canvas so that we can hang them on the wall, and buy some new lamps, or lamp shades and officially "finish" the bedroom.

As promised here are some pictures of the upgrades and changes to our apartment.

Let's just say this our kitchen was so very lack luster that I don't even have picture of it anywhere. Here's the new re-vamped look....our new decor theme is wine as you can tell.

The flooring is all new as well and I prefer it much more to the white linoleum which it replaced!

Stitch's new favorite place has also become the new flooring in the kitchen.

DINING ROOM BEFORE:







AFTER...
We are still working on this one, it needs some more!

LIVING ROOM BEFORE:

AFTER:

This may be the biggest change yet! And pretty much finished room-I am very happy with it now.

Isn't it great that if you clean up a bookshelf and add a nice vase of fresh flowers it is something completely new?

Next up we are planning to do some changes to the master bedroom (just decor-the colors will remain the same), master bathroom, and guest bathroom....

Busy Days at the Blanco Home

It has been a busy couple of weeks at the Blanco residence...but busy in a good way! I have been talking for a while now to the hubby about wanting to make some changes to the decor around the apartment. And finally we started to make some progress!

Of course it did help that we were renewing the lease on the apartment for the 3rd year and decided it was time to point out some of the things we wanted changed.

Today will finish the last of the apartment projects that the contractors have been taking care of (carpet cleaning, new flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms, and a fresh coat of paint) I could not be happier with how things are coming along! It's almost like a new apartment!

Photos hopefully will be posted this evening so you can all see the transformation from year 1 in Dallas to today!