Hartstrings Clothing Review

As if Morgan didn't already have a ton of clothes, I recently got the opportunity to pick out some adorable Hartstrings clothing for for her. They had such cute things, it was hard to choose what to get! But the timing was perfect, because we needed a Christmas-y outfit.

The first outfit I chose was this adorable pink skirt. I love the dots and who doesn't like ruffles? A cute white top with a puppy & a girl finished this look off.

Now, I tried and tried to get better pictures of the Christmas outfit. She has been very hyper the past few days and would not cooperate at all! But you can still see how cute her outfit is.

I loved this black velvet skort, and since it isn't really Christmas themed or colored, it can be used for awhile. It has cute little bows across the front with rhinestones sewed on. And I thought the candy cane shirt was so sweet. The candy cane is sewed on, as well as the bow.

I am really happy with the quality of Hartstrings clothing. I can definitely see myself ordering from them in the future. And right now they have a clearance section with up to 75% off. Check it out here.

I was provided the products to review, however, all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

Glittery Christmas Art

I blogged about this last year, but I'm going to share it again. Hopefully it inspires me to start crafting again! I miss blogging!

This is a pretty easy project, but I think it's pretty cute! Especially if you love glitter, like I do. First you need frames. I went with those ugly, gold metal frames you see at every thrift store or yardsale. Even the thrift doesn't want these, they are always in a box outside with the other "junk" like McDonalds toys. You can see they were only $.25. Ignore the lovely 1990 goose art!

Next you need chipboard. Wood shapes would work, too.

And the good stuff. Martha Stewart glitter! I started to use the glass glitter pictured, but ended up grabbing my blue Martha glitter.

Glitter your chipboard! I ended up having to do two coats of glitter because I didnt like how sparse it looked with one. Painting the chipboard a matching color would probably help with that.

Purty!!

I don't have a photo for every step of this, but you just take the insert out of the frame (not the piece that has the "leg"). I used the glass to trace the size needed onto a piece of white felt. Then I glued the felt onto that insert.

After you put it back in the frame, this is what it will look like. I added the chipboard after putting it together, but it's probably better to add it before. I was in a hurry to see how they would look! Oh, and I used tacky glue but hot glue would be fine, too!

And here they are all together!

I don't have red spray paint or glitter, or I would have done some red, too!

Versona Accessories

I was recently invited to the grand opening of a new shop here in Lakeland called Versona Accessories. Today was the day! It would have been nice to grab a girlfriend and hit the shop and maybe some Starbucks BOGO, but it was just me and Morgan. She made it a little hard to browse and especially take good pictures, but I did manage to get some (photos that is, not sure how good they are).

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very pleased when I walked in. They had tons of stuff! Everything from jewelry to clothing to shoes and more. As you can see, everything is arranged by color.

I loved this blue necklace in the back left. It's one of my favorite colors and it was so sparkly! But it's not something I'd normally wear so I passed on it today. I was very tempted though!

Here's a lovely display of purples and plums.

They had lot's of cute flats and they were very affordable, too! These were $13.99. The ones on the far right were glittery! I really liked the orange ones, too.

Lots and lots of metallics.

This bowl of sparkly bracelets was really pretty, too. My camera couldn't quite capture she sparkle.

More blues, whites and silvers. Can you tell I'm partial to these colors?

Here's my little cutie waiting for the dressing room. She looks so grown in this picture, much older than two!

So he's what I ended up with. I've been looking for a green t-shirt and I loved this one! And it was only $13.99. And I couldn't pass up this sparkly black necklace.

So if you are in the area, stop by Versona Accessories in Lakeside Village. I will definitely be back! And if you aren't in this area, check our their website and see if you have one near you.

My Memories Suite Software Giveaway!

I've never been into digital scrapbooking (honestly, I hardly ever scrapbook with paper anymore either!), so when I got the chance to try out the My Memories Suite software, I wasn't sure what I would make. It's just digital scrapbooking software, right? WRONG! You can make anything from cards (Christmas is coming fast!) to art for your walls - or even things for your blog. I am a total beginner, but look at this cute banner I made for my blog:

It was quick and easy and there are tons of adorable options available. If this looks like something you'd love to play around with, it's your lucky day. Right now you can save $20! Visit My Memories and by entering coupon code STMMMS968 at checkout you can take $10 off the My Memories Suite software download and $10 to use on digital designs and papers!

And even better, how would you like the chance to WIN the software? One lucky reader will win a free download of the My Memories Software Suite.

Here's how to enter. Please make sure you leave a seperate comment for each!
1. (MANDATORY) Visit My Memories and let me know the name of your favorite kit.
2. Become a follower of my blog, or let me know that you already are.
3. Follow My Memories on Twitter.

Giveaway will remain open until 11/21/11. Good luck!!

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

We love Melissa & Doug toys! My girls especially love the play food. Morgan has been playing with their pizza set non-stop lately. And with Christmas coming up, how would you like to earn a 25% off coupon so you can get some of these awesome toys for your kids?

Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North "Poll!" You'll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting!

Blake's Football Party

Finally! I'm posting about Blake's birthday! I didn't expect it to be this hard to juggle working part time, blogging, taking two classes and home life - but it is! Sorry for my lag in posts.

We celebrated Blake's 10th birthday on 9/25. The boys had a blast! He chose a football theme again this year, but instead of one team like last year, he wanted all teams. They do sell team specific party supplies, but that would have been way too expensive, so we chose brown & green for the colors.

Thankfully his birthday matches up with the start of football season, because we found several types of football themed food. Like these football Ritz crackers. I picked up the football plate on clearance for $.50 at Joann's awhile back.

I found these brown & white candy sticks at Party City. But we could have skipped these, none of the kids ate any.

A couple of bags of football Oreos turned in to chocolate covered football Oreos. My piping is far from perfect, but everyone loved these!

I also made little chocolate footballs. These went pretty fast too.

I found a big tub of football pretzels at Walmart.

And of course we had chips to snack on. I found these bowls at the Dollar Tree.

Mike and Blake made these goal posts on the table. They are made from PVC and Blake got to do the spray painting. Thankfully we had that bright yellow left over from Layla's birthday.

We thought about doing a football field for the cake, but in the end I decided on cupcakes instead. I figured it would be easier and a better way to get more teams represented. The images I used on the cupcake toppers came from Designer Graphics and the brown cupcake liners came from Caroline92101.

I found the fringed streamer on clearance for $.25 at Party City. This table was for the pizza when it arrived.

I found the two small footballs at the thrift store for $.25 each. I never thought I'd actually buy can koozies! The big football in the middle is a bank, I just took the end off. The green & white straws came from Big Al's Collectibles & More. I thought about paper straws, but these were way cheaper & the boys don't care anyway!

We made this chip stadium out of cardboard & aluminum foil. It was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. Yea, theirs is better, but also huge and I'm happy with ours.

This didn't get used, but I'm showing it anyway. Most of the boys play football together, so we set up what equipment we had in an obstacle course, much like they use sometimes at practice or camp. We had the cones (not shown) and a ladder...

Hurdles...

And even a tackling dummy.

But the reason those ended up not being used was Mike painted a football field! The boys were literally out there all day. We had to drag them back in for cake & presents.

But it started storming so that helped get them in! We used that time to open presents. It was quite chaotic. Thankfully the screen porch kept them out of my house.

It let up some and they were back to football.

But then we had to drag them back for cake.

While it was raining, Blakes' Playstation was brought out to help keep them busy. As you can see he could hardly take his eyes off his new Madden game. The black & white candles were leftover from his Totally Gross party, and they reminded me of the referee's shirts.

Here's a closeup of the cupcakes. I'm really happy with how they turned out, even though frosting all that grass was a pain in the hand!

And since I love brightly colored cake so much, I decided on a neat surprise inside the cupcakes. The inside of the cupcakes match the team colors on the topper! Like the Dolphins one above - it's teal & orange inside!

And this Steeler's cupcake is black & yellow.

Instead of pre-scooping the ice cream, I let it melt a little & them molded it into a football shaped silicone pan. We had chocolate & vanilla.

And we can't forget the party favors.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing football in the rain. And sliding into a giant mud puddle!

I love this group shot of the boys. It took a few tries though!

Linked to:
Tailgate Throwdown 2011, Look What I Made at Creations by Kara, Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, Friday Favs at Naptime Crafters, Delicately Constructed Friday at delicateCONSTRUCTION, Show & Share Day at Just a Girl, Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Talent Tuesday at Vintage Wanna Bee, Too Cute Tuesday at Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts, Hookin Up with HoH at House of Hepworths, 4th Annual Party Party at My Insanity, CSI Project Birthday Party Challenge