What We Wore with Mia Bella Photography

I am so excited to share the second What We Wore outfit in our series with Mia Bella Photography.   You can check out the fun photo shoot from last week HERE. 

I highly encourage you to check out more beautiful images on Mia Bella Photography’s website and Facebook page.  See the bottom of this post for a special offer for D.I.Y. Louisville readers.
 

Last week I wore an outfit that was right on par with the way I dress most days of the week for school, work, or coffee with friends.  For this week, however, I took advantage of my photography day with Jilli to wear something a little less casual.  I’ve been in love with similar pleated, feminine skirts for so long, so when I found this one on the Target clearance rack recently, I snagged it for $11.
I paired it with a vintage silver clutch that once belonged to my mom (thanks mom!), and a handmade silver chain necklace and rose quartz bracelet by Robin Chard.

Shirt:  Old Navy

Skirt & Wedges:  Target

Denim Jacket:  DKNY (old)

Earrings:  Handmade by Kim

Silver Necklace & Rose Quartz Bracelet:  Handmade by Robin Chard

Silver Clutch:  Vintage, gift

 

Kim and I post our outfits here to show off our thrifty and handmade wears. Plus, we like cute clothes. We link up each week with The Pleated Poppy and Whatever Whenever Wednesday and Not Dead Yet Style and Casual Friday with a bunch of other bloggers in blogland doing the same crazy stuff we are. If you're dropping in today, please say HI! in the comments - we'd love to come check out your blog! 

I’m trying to figure out how else I can wear this skirt into the fall and winter.  Black tights?  A blazer?  (Ok, so I don't even own a blazer.)  Any suggestions?

 

~julee~  

 

Would you like to book your own session with Mia Bella Photography?  Mia Bella Photography specializes in senior, family, and newborn portraits.  If you’re a Louisville local, Mia Bella Photography is including a free 10x13 image when you book a photo session and mention DIY.  Visit Mia Bella Photography for all the information you need to book a photo session today.  This is a limited time offer, so hurry!

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D.I.Y. Louisville Halloween Party

The D.I.Y. Louisville group got together for a little Halloween crafting party this year.    Kim led the group in sculpting pumpkin and ghost charms made from polymer clay.  We also noshed on delicious Halloween treats, met new friends, and held a costume contest.  Miss Happy Pink passed out treats and sponsored one of our great giveaways of the night.  As you may have guessed by now, the DIY gals love Halloween!

The group working on their clay charms.

Everyone’s charms are unique.

Goodies and treats from Miss Happy Pink.

Miss Happy Pink as Hello Kitty.

Craft E Magee came dressed as – what else? – a Craft E Magee doll.  So cute, and she won the costume contest, too!

Schlemiel, schlimazel, hasenpfeffer incorporated!  Kim & Julee – A modern day Lavern & Shirley.

We have more pictures up on our Facebook page if you’d like to stop by and take a peek.  Happy Halloween, DIY’ers!

Kim & Julee

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Good Fortune: Fortune Telling Game for Kids

For my daughter’s Halloween party, I had the idea for bring in Madame Good Fortune to tell good, positive fortunes for the girls.  The girls at our party were ages 9-11, and while I thought that they would enjoy this, I had no idea that it would turn out to be the biggest hit at any of my parties ever.

I needed someone to play the part who would also be able to think up creative responses quickly.  Luckily my good friend Robin was perfect for the role and willing to play along.  Between the two of us, we came up with this sort of on-the-fly good fortune game.



To play:  Print out cards with the words Love, Beauty, Wealth, Friendship, Truth, Travel, Adventure on them.  (I have a free printable HERE that you can print.)  Adhere these to black cardstock so that you can’t see through them.  Lay them face down on the table, and let the kids turn over 2-3 cards.  Their good fortune is based on the cards, in the order they are turned over.  For example, if Truth and Love are selected, their fortune might be something like Keeping truth in your heart will always lead you to love, or You love with a true heart.  To engage the kids, you can ask them if they know an example of how this has happened in the past or may happen in the future.



Additionally, we had a selection of colored beads.  At the end of the encounter with Madame Good Fortune, the girls each selected a bead.  The color of the bead represented another fortune.  Here are a few that we thought of:

Red:  You love with a true heart.
White: You are guided by the stars.
Green:  Your beauty comes from within.
Blue:  You are a true and loyal friend
Amber:  You are grounded to the earth.
Purple: You will achieve what you set your mind to.

Afterwards, we used jewelry wire to turn the beads into rings so that the girls could wear their good fortunes.


Both of these ideas can be easily adapted and expanded on for your group.  Have fun thinking of your own good fortunes!

~julee~

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Ghouls Rule Halloween Party

Last weekend my daughter had a Ghouls Rule Spooky Sleepover for the girls in our neighborhood.  My daughter picked out the theme; her request was “skulls, but not scary skulls.”  Okay.  My take on that was glittery skulls are automatically un-scary.  Since the party guests were all girls ages 9-11, I wanted to give the party more of a glam Halloween feel.  I stuck with a purple, silver, and black color scheme, and limited the décor to skull heads and skeletons. 

You can see that I didn’t go overboard with the dessert table, as there were only six guests.  We limited the desserts to graveyard pudding cups and skull-shaped cookies, which my daughter made all by herself.  I hope you can appreciate their 9-year old flaws, but our inspiration comes from HERE and HERE if you want to see picture perfect images.

The plastic skulls came from the $1-store, and I spray painted them silver.  I filled these candle holders with sticky eyes and plastic spiders.

For dinner I served monster-eyes lasagna cups and bones-n-blood (breadsticks and marinara).  We also had blue tortilla chips and grape koolaid.

The centerpiece was a purple glittery skull on a vintage cake stand.  I set a place setting for each girl using a chalkboard placemat with their name written on it and coordinated dessert plates.  The deep color of the koolaid was perfect in the plastic goblets with the black and white paper straws.  I also found these RIP nail polishes that were just too perfect to pass up, and used bangle bracelets as napkin rings. 

It would have been easy to go overboard on the skull/skeleton decorations because there are some really cute things out there, even at the $1-store.  However, spending only a few dollars on a few key decorations (and borrowing the black glitter skeleton), I was able to keep to my small budget without sacrificing the ambiance I was trying to achieve.

As always, if you have any questions, just ask!

Happy Halloween, DIY’ers!

~julee~

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Great Day Live

Alternately titled, The Day Kim and Julee Didn’t Totally Blow It On Live TV

Kim and I were invited to show a Halloween party set-up on the local morning show Great Day Live.  We are both super chatty and we lean a little to the goofball side, but click on the video to see how we act when we’re trying really hard not to humiliate ourselves. 

We were so excited to be on the show today and had a great experience!

Are you planning a Halloween party this weekend?

~julee~

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Welcome Great Day Live Viewers!

Thanks for stopping by to visit our blog!  You can keep up with all of D.I.Y. Louisville’s group events and meet-ups HERE.  We also post daily on our Facebook page.

Follow these links to find the projects we discussed on the show:

 

Spider Party Printable Set

 

Chalkboard Placemat

 

Coordinated Party Plates

 

Chalkboard Picture Frame

 

Spider Halloween Party

 

Monster Halloween Party

 

Happy Jack-o-Lantern Party

 

Party Planning Tips

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What We Wore with Mia Bella Photography

We are so excited to be partnering with Mia Bella Photography to bring our What We Wore outfit photos for the next few weeks.  Mia Bella Photography has long been a sponsor of D.I.Y. Louisville, creating our amazing blog banner and promotional photographs.  Kim and I are big fans of the beautiful images captured by Jilli Worth and we have cheered along throughout this year as her dream job and photography business have taken flight.  I highly encourage you to check out more beautiful images on Mia Bella Photography’s website and Facebook page.

 

Sweaters worn over my summer dresses are my favorite way extend their wear into fall.  We all know I love a good cardigan, but lately I’m loving the look of a chunkier sweater over dresses.  I’m also loving that the yummy selection of colored tights are plentiful this year.

 

 

Dress:  Target Brand, thrifted

Sweater:  Target

Tights:  Target

Belt: Thrifted

Boots:  Old Navy, thrifted

Vintage Locket:  My Grandmother’s

Bracelets:  Claires

Handmade Wooden Ring:  Uncommon Handmade

 

Kim and I post our outfits here to show off our thrifty and handmade wears. Plus, we like cute clothes. We link up each week with The Pleated Poppy and Whatever Whenever Wednesday and Not Dead Yet Style with a bunch of other bloggers in blogland doing the same crazy stuff we are. If you're dropping in today, please say HI! in the comments - we'd love to come check out your blog!

Do you try to extend the wear of your summer dresses into fall?  Are you loving the colored tights/leggings trend this fall?

~julee~

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Make It: Coordinated Party Plates

Using scrapbook paper is an easy way to turn clear plastic plates into coordinating party décor.

To make, cut a circle from the scrapbook paper the size of your clear plastic plate.  Use a small amount of clear glue on the edges of your paper and adhere to the underside of the plate.  That’s it!

Happy party planning DIY’ers!

~julee~

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Chalkboard Placemat from Poster Board

Using poster board as a chalkboard is one of our favorite DIY projects.  You can see our original post where I created a full-size chalkboard from poster board HERE.  Chalk on black poster board writes and wipes off just like on a chalkboard.  Loads of fun and endless possibilities for crafts.

When I was looking to add a little something extra to my Halloween table setting, I knew that a chalkboard placemat was a fun and perfect choice.  Poster board is inexpensive and you can get 4 place settings from one sheet.

All you need to create these placemats are black poster board, scissors, and chalk.  Rectangle or square placemats are cute on their own, or you can use the printable template I’ve created HERE to make the scroll-shape placemat.

The printable template is only half the size you need.  To create a full size placemat, you will need to print the template, fold the poster board, trace the template on the fold of the poster board, then cut.  If you don’t want creases in your placemats, use this one as your new template.  Alternately, you can print the printable twice, cut, and tape the edges together to create a template of the full size placemat.  Which may actually be easier, but it didn’t occur to me until just now.  Hello.

I have zero drawing skills.  Proof that you can erase and  draw on the poster board over and over and over again?  It took me six tries to draw that spider web up there.

I think these would also be perfect at the kids’ Thanksgiving table.  (And maybe the big kids table, too.)

Happy Halloween, DIY’ers!

~julee~

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Vegetarian Lasagna Cups

I’ve seen these delicious little lasagna cups floating around the internet so I set about to create a vegetarian version.  These come together nice and quick and I think they’re pretty versatile for filling with whatever veggies you have on hand.  For us, I use two veggies that I know my kid will eat:  spinach and roasted red peppers.

Vegetarian Lasagna Cups Recipe

You’ll need:
1 package fresh spinach (1 package of frozen spinach may also be used; thaw, squeeze out all excess liquid)
1 jar roasted red peppers, chopped
1 package wonton wrappers
4oz ricotta cheese
2cups mozzarella cheese
1cup grated parmesan
1 cup marinara sauce
Fresh basil leaves (optional)

(Please note:  This is a pretty good measurement guide, but depending on how cheesy, saucy, and full of veggies you prefer, the measurements here may be more or less of what you’ll use.)

Start by blanching your fresh spinach.  Squeeze out all excess liquid.  Combine it in a bowl with the diced roasted red peppers.  This is your veggie mix.  Add extra veggies if you wish.



Spray your muffin tins.  Line the muffin tins with 2 wonton wrappers so that the entire opening is covered, and the edges are sticking out. 



Fill the cups in this order: parmesan cheese, optional basil leaf, mozzarella cheese, veggie mix, ricotta cheese, marinara sauce, parmesan cheese.

Cook at 375-degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Let cool before removing from muffin tin.



I have also successfully made these ahead and frozen in the muffin tins.  Remove from freezer and let thaw in the fridge for 1 hour, cook for 10 minutes at 200-degrees, increase the oven temp to 375-degrees and cook for another 20 minutes.  Your cooking time may vary, however.



Have you tried any muffin tin recipes?  How did they turn out?

Enjoy!

~julee~

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