Happy Belated Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day, whether you are a Mother or not I hope you had a relaxing weekend!

(photo via instagram: @katiecarranza)

I had a great morning & then the car battery was dead right as I was loading stuff up to head to church. And then later that night as I put my son to bed, he woke up with vomit all over his bed & I got to spend the majority of my night doing that over & over again. It was a Mother's Day I'll never forget! And not in a good way! ha!
BUT I was in charge of doing some decorations for our church's luncheon for women on Sunday. So I real quick wanted to share a few shots of the decor I did.

I made that giant flowing book-page sign and I was in LOVE. And one day I'll take some good pictures for a tutorial, rather than shots I took on my phone on a raining day.  Petite Party Studio is my newest addiction in party supply, and I'm lucky enough to have them a few minutes away. The fringe & small honeycomb balls are from them. 

I also whipped out this "tablecloth", which I am excited to use over and over again.  I put it in quotes, because it's just a simple piece of muslin that I painted words onto with watered down black paint.

Also, follow me on snapchat (which for some reason is suddenly becoming popular with bloggers?), but I often share some fun stuff (creative and personal). My name is katiecarranza.

Happy Monday!

Cinco de Mayo Decorations

My last name is Carranza so obviously it'd be a shame if I didn't get some full on Cinco de Mayo festive decorations happening....and not a day too soon! 

Super Simple Subtle Easter Decorations

What's that? You want some poorly lit photos of my super simple subtle Easter decorations?! Well today is YOUR lucky day, my friend! That's exactly what this post is! Happy Tuesday!

Halloween Entryway Table

Today I'm sharing a few pictures of my entryway table all decorated for Halloween! A lot of it was created using supplies form Martha Stewart & I'll be sharing a fun tutorial next week!

Who else is in the Halloween spirit?!

best places for printable nursery art.

I love decorating with prints, especially in my son's room.  I wanted to share a few of my favorite places to get free printables specifically for nurseries.
go here for another post on my favorite places for everyday printables.

on to baby has a great range printables from nursery prints to shower invites and best of all, you can personalize them with name & color right on the site!

eighteen25 came out with 2 adorable nursery subway prints here & here.

mr printables has a wide selection of printables from wall art to activities.

mormon mommy blogs is where I got the "I am a child of God" print, & they have many other LDS printables.

Spring/Easter Decor

Here is my Easter/Spring decor in our living room

framed subway art from Eighteen25 blog

spring tree tutorial here

Spring Tree

I was in my local dollar store the other day and as I was about to leave, I saw a cute little tree begging to be re-done. (I have seen a similar one at Target for 2.50 as well) So I grabbed it and some little white flowers that were 2/$1.

And yes, I did take these photos in my bedroom- since I have a nasty loud cough & wake my son up if I'm anywhere else in our home!

So take your little tree and spread those branches out, then pull off your flowers.

I put one flower on, then put some hot glue on the branch, then put the other flower right on top.

Keep putting those on until it's as full or bare as you want it.

And to finish it off I grabbed some moss I had on hand (also from the dollar store), and hot glued that on!

I think it is super cute & only cost me $1.50! Score!

P.S. Stay tuned to see how I used it in my Easter decor!

St. Patricks Day Decor

I love St. Patricks Day.  It siiiiiiiings to my Irish roots!  

Side fact about me: My full name was Kathleen Anne. Pure Irish, along with each of my 6 brother's first & middle names.

I remember growing up and my dad making green scrambled eggs in the morning on St. Patricks day.

And so, I must of course, decorate for this holiday.

Do you have any St. Patrick's day traditions or decorations in your home?

Current Halloween Decor

I love to decorate for holidays, but mostly for Christmas!  Since I currently don't have a whole home to decorate, I thought it might be nice to give our room a festive Halloween feel.

I centered everything around a black framed mirror we already had.  The only things I bought were the candy & the frame. (Both on sale at Target.) I thought the frame would be good, because then I can simply change it out for each holiday/season!  Everything else I already had.  Let me break it down...

Those little jars were wedding presents & originally intended to flour, sugar, etc., but we aren't using them for that right now!  One has candy pumpkins (my FAVE!) & the other has candy corn.  That up there is some bunting I made with paper I already had.

I simply cut out the sized triangle I wanted with cardstock, then with each paper- folded it and cut!  I used a hot glue gun (because it was already on) and put some on the fold & the tip, but the baker's twine down & folded the triangle closed.  Easy- peesy! 

Ahh...my favorite part!  For this, I combined 2 tutorials I found online...

eighteen25 & All Things Thrifty.

I took my fancy rubber-glue-gun-pad-thing (my glue gun came with it) & free-handed the letters  I wanted. One at a time, and immediately put silver glitter all over, then waited for it to dry and peeled it easily right off! Now- hot glue isn't the best medium for glitter to stick to. (esp. the thick glitter), so don't be too touchy and handle with care.  After cutting out my paper, I glued the letters. Then, I found a clip-art of a bat online & cut two out of black cardstock, as well as a moon out of yellow.  The bat's bodies are only glued, so their wings could come off & give a 3-d feel to them. 

Next, the bucket!

I used this tutorial from Elise Blaha's blog to create the pumpkins. She hangs then, but I added some green ribbon on top to use them for an "eye-level" decor.  I love them & my husband was even impressed! He said they look like they took a long time..which they didn't! Maybe that's why I love them so much...they were REALLY easy! I promise!  Behind the pumpkins are 3-d white letters (R & K) from out wedding.  

Well, there you have it!  A little decor to get us feeling spooky!