Thursday, June 14, 2012

Made by Little Hands {Father's Day Ideas}




Does anyone really know what to buy their father?  I know I spent years not knowing.  That’s why as a kid I fell into the same gift pattern many do and bought my businessman father ties for every gift giving holiday there was. 


At first I tried to find nice ones, but later when I was old enough to realize he only wore them because he had to and not because he wanted to...I got a little cruel.  I would find ties with the craziest prints or the ugliest color combinations and give to him with a straight face and innocently ask if he liked them.  The poor man would gush and wear that ugly tie at the breakfast table the next morning and surprisingly was still wearing it when he walked in the door for dinner.

Years later, when I finally started to get to know my father as a man with interests outside me and my brothers, gift giving became a little less formal, but I often kept the tradition alive by wrapping his concert tickets or DVD box set in a hideous pink tie.  Last Christmas he even started giving them back.  Each one of my brothers and I got a tie in our stocking.    My brothers were going to give theirs away but I took them home instead.  I figure with a few more holidays I’ll have enough of those old ties to make something like the tie wreath I recently found on Pintrest.

But until then I need to find a way to incorporate a tie into this year’s father’s Day gift.  And while I found tons of cute ideas including one where children paint their handprints on a white tie, my favorite was a simple greeting card made from scrapbook paper.  Using a legal size patterned paper, fold to look like a dress shirt then adding a knotted piece of paper for the tie.  (The exact instructions can be found on marthastewart.com). 

Just remember, no matter what you give him, your dad’s sure to gush and use it proudly, but it just wouldn’t be Father’s day without a little bit of patterned silk.  Even if you just use it to wrap a six pack.

Love you Dad!
Jenn.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Landscaping Diva

As a new homeowner I think I was a little clueless about the work in takes into making a flower bed. I had been looking up landscaping and had in mind what I wanted and my dreams of the front yard that would welcome guests to our home. Lots of flowers and potted plants and an overabundance green, something like this......




So when my husband told me that he would like to add some landscaping to our BARE front yard, I was thrilled to add a little color, and to finally add some yard art from Annie's Metal Outlet! Here is a little look at what we were starting with....


Within 5 minutes of shoveling up the grass that was DEEPLY rooted, I was over the color and adding yard art. I was okay with the bare, easy, and pain free front yard that we had started with, but with my DETERMINED husband by my side we were getting it done! And boy did we, 7.5 hours and one horrible sunburn later we now have a flowerbed. It is not pinterest professional garden, but it is definitely a start, and hopefully in the years to come I will develop some sort of green thumb!



Robin :)

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

5,000 Pesos Winner!

We love all of our Brownstone fans!!! The winners of the 5,000 likes 5,000 pesos contest are Britney Le and Phuong Ka for the referral, you each have won a $181.58 Gift Card to Brownstone Village that is now available at the front counter. Thank you to everyone who participated and make sure to look out for more contests later this month!!

Monday, June 4, 2012


I am easily one of the least creative people in the entire world.  I always have some big idea and then never have the means to actually do it…or the patience.  Like a pretty large majority of the population, I have fallen victim to Pinterestitis-the belief that I can be crafty and make something wonderful out of a paper cup, some thread, and a little homemade Mod Podge!  Not really, but I was feeling “inspired” the other day and saw about 10 random vases just sitting in our house.  They are currently serving no purpose and we are trying to redecorate our bedroom so I figured they would be perfect on our shelves, which are also being refinished, but that project isn’t going quite so well J.  Anyways, this is super easy for anyone!  I bought three different acrylic paint bottles from Hobby Lobby that coordinated with my bedding.  I squeezed 6 big globs (2 of each color but make sure you alternate them) right in the bottom of a vase.  When I flipped it over, I started to slowly turn the vase to give it a slight swirl effect and then just turned it upside down onto a piece of cardboard overnight.  Super easy and quick!  The next morning, I had my own “artistic” pieces to put on the shelves.  I did each one a little different and even finished one off that had a lot of bare glass by spraying metallic gold spray paint inside of it.  So while I may not be creating any masterpieces anytime soon, I am pretty pleased with my cheap, fun, easy, pizzazzed vases.  Also, sorry about the low-quality pictures…Maybe I will have better ones when I get the shelves done and put the vases up J

Tara