Summer Wreaths (2015)

I'm spending most of the day baking for Baby Girl's graduation party, but I wanted to take a moment to share with you a few of the gorgeous summer wreaths I have been working on.

Check out the summer beauty:

Summer Sunflowers ($20)

Nestled into lush ivy on a grapevine base, these sunflowers bring sunshine to any entryway!

Orange Flip-Flops ($25)

These summer sandals are surrounded by yellow roses and magenta daisies.

Red Flip-Flops ($25)

Bright and colorful blooms paired with red flip-flops make this doorway bright and cheerful!

Purple Flip-Flops ($25)

These 'flippies' are settled into a lush bed of summer garden florals.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the wreaths pictured here, you may contact me at:
Jenniferadamsflowers.gmail.com

(Supplies are limited, so act fast!)

I'm going to head back into the kitchen now, I've got a huge pile of chocolate cupcakes that need my attention :D  I'll be back next week with photos from our celebration, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Treasure Hunting! (Spring 2015)

With cold rainy weather, the Easter/ Mother's Day holidays and even a local marathon, treasure hunting has gotten off to a bit of a slow start this year.  So far Baby Girl and I have only been able to visit about three garage sales each weekend, but we have still been able to find a few treasures.  Take a look at these pics:

Milk Glass Vase

I almost passed this little vase right up.  Usually I prefer to collect clear glass vases, but when I saw that this one was milk glass I decided to buy it.  It was only $1 and I realized that it would look great with the rest of my collection!

(The florals in the background are part of my spring decor.
You can see more of that by clicking here)

'Fine China' for the Play Kitchen

We found this little ceramic plate at the same sale that had the milk glass vase.  Baby Girl thought it would be fun to collect some 'fine China' for her play kitchen.  Since it was only .25 I agreed.  Besides, It's an adorable miniature plate!

In fact, it looked really good as a jewelry holder next to the (real) kitchen sink, but I was honorable and put it with the play dishes ;)

Mermaid Ornament

I found this mermaid for .25 in a bin of Christmas ornaments.  I have this idea in my head that one day I will have a bathroom decorated in mermaids.  I thought this lovely lady would make a great start for a collection...until Baby Girl saw her...this little mermaid no longer belongs to me! :D

 Pears

I have a few miniature pears that I put out in the fall, but nothing like these.  These pears are large, heavy and look/ feel very real.  I like the way they are weighted as they can stand up nicely on their own.  These were .50 and I added them into my summer decor.

(The white ceramic cake stand was a treasure hunting find from last year.  You can read more about that by clicking here.  Or see how I use it in the kitchen by clicking here)

 Lemons & Grapes

This was another play kitchen find for Baby Girl.  At only .05 total, these made a cute addition to her play set.

 White Geranium

This adorable little faux geranium was also .50.  I thought it looked nice and summery, so I left it in the kitchen for now.  It looks really cute with my summer strawberries nearby.

(Summer update photos will be coming soon)

Peaches

I found these peaches at the same sale as the pears.  They were also .50 (for all of them) and are so realistic.  Like the pears these are also weighted nicely and include just a touch of peach fuzz.  These are my favorite find so far, as I have never before seen a faux peach!

(The milk glass pedestal bowl is an old treasure hunting find.
You can read more about it by clicking here)

If you have been keeping track - that's $3.05 so far - a great start to the season!

I hope you enjoyed this treasure hunting update, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Mother's Day (2015) - How We Celebrated

I had a great Mother's Day! Baby Girl and I spent Saturday morning treasure hunting (photos coming soon) and then Sunday was spent with a whole lot of relaxing.

Husby is good about making sure I get to sleep in every Sunday, but this time he made breakfast in bed too.  I actually lazed around and watched HGTV while he did the cooking.  Then he and the kids brought me food, cards and an adorable Kindergarten gift (that you will see below).

Family Humor:  If Mommy gets breakfast in bed, the kids think it's a party!  They were both in bed next to me before I even got all of my food.  Then they sat there like two little birds each waiting in turn for bites of my eggs!  I called out to Husby that he didn't need to bother with serving them individually, as fast as they were eating up my breakfast he could just add their food to my plate too! :D

-Read on to see photos from my weekend-

Polka-Dot Box

Mother's Day weekend started early for me when I came home to find this adorable gift (from my Mother & Father In Law) waiting for me.  Can we just take a minute to admire the polka-dots and the 'rose' bow? Two of my favorite things right there!

Stained Glass Seashells

THIS is what was in the box!  It is a stained glass piece created by Papa himself!  My entire master bathroom is decorated in seashells, so this fits in perfectly.  Right now I have it hanging in front of the big mirror, but one day (when I have one in my bathroom) I'll hang it in front of a window.  If you think this is beautiful now, you should see it with light passing through the glass!  I can't decide what I love more, the watery blue sections of glass or the Nautilus - that's the big seashell in the center.

(You can see the rest of my master bathroom decor by clicking here)

Wildflowers

Husby made sure to bring me a big bouquet of wildflowers.  I don't know what these are, but they smell soooooo good!

Family Humor:  When Husby asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, I told him I would like it if he found me some flowers.   It was after spending a day in the woods mushroom hunting that he came home covered in dirt with a huge bouquet of these.  He said he had to climb down into a ditch to pick them, but he got the job done.  He is so awesome!  :)

(You can read more about the pretty vases they are in by clicking here)

Pencil Holder

Baby Girl decorated this beautiful pencil holder at school.  She made sure to take it out of her backpack and hide it under her bed until Sunday.  (I know this because she asked me not to look under her bed or behind her bookshelf in her room - I made sure not to look or notice anything!)   She also made me me a few beautiful cards.  The cards will be going into my scrapbook, but the mug now sits proudly on my desk. I love it!

Dinner

I didn't have to cook dinner either, Husby took care of that by grilling chicken shish kabobs with lots of veggies!  He created an Asian inspired marinade this time by mixing up teriyaki and a few other seasonings - it was really, really good!  And since he grilled them outside, the mess was minimal ;)

That was my wonderful Mother's Day weekend, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Canning Jars to Pretty Vases

You may remember from one of my fall posts that my Uncle Joel sent me a collection of his homemade preserves.

(You can find that post by clicking here )

The goodies came in these really pretty canning jars that I wanted to repurpose in some way.  I decided to upcycle them as a set of adorable vases for the kitchen.

Read on to see how easy of a project this was to complete!

The jars in their original state.

When it comes to metals I'm not a big fan of anything 'cold' looking.  That means no silver, platinum, etc.  Instead I prefer warmer tones like gold, bronze or copper.  Since the hardware of these canning jars were silvery in color I decided to apply a quick coat of gold spray paint.

Side Note:  You don't have to keep and use the hardware, the jars would function perfectly fine as vases on their own.  I preferred to keep the hardware in place as it adds texture and a bit more character to the overall look.

Painted and ready to go!

As soon as the paint was dry I screwed the tops back on and the vases were ready to go.  I can't think of an easier project!

Tip:  If you spray paint your hardware and want to keep it looking perfect, I recommend handwashing your vases after use.  Mine I went ahead and tossed into the dishwasher this morning, I'm interested to see what kind of petina they will develop.  And if I don't like it, no big deal, I can always just repaint them.

Filled With Flowers

Here you can see the lovely jars-turned-vases being put to good use.  Husby brought me a big bouquet of these wildflowers for Mother's Day and I couldn't wait to see how they would look in three of these little jars.

I loved having this trio of vases on my kitchen counter all Mother's Day weekend, as well as a few other little surprises.  I'll be back next week with photos from how we celebrated the holiday.

Until then, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Cute & Easy Teacher Appreciation Gift

You may remember from this earlier post that Baby Girl will be graduating from Kindergarten very soon.  Of course I am proud of how much she has grown this school year, but I am also completely amazed at how much she can now do.  This child is adding, subtracting, multiplying 10's and reading at the second grade level!  That kind of learning doesn't just pop out of nowhere, it is cultivated by a very talented teacher.

 I've been wanting to give my thanks to Ms. Sandberg for some time now.  It was hard to turn over my precious first baby to the school system, but Ms Sandberg cared for her wonderfully!  Since last week was teacher appreciation week at Baby Girl's school, it was the perfect opportunity to say thank you.

 I sifted through Pinterest looking for ideas for teacher thank you gifts.  I saw a lot of floral bouquets and potted plants with tags that read "Thanks for helping me bloom!" I really liked the wording, but I wanted to come up with a gift that would be easier to get home (no vase of water to spill) and didn't need immediate attention (no plant to maintain, water or transplant).  I also wanted it to be a lasting gift that was (at least partially) useful in the classroom.  I came up with this:  A bouquet of flowers (seed packets on pencil 'stems') arranged in a coffee mug vase - perfect!

Keep reading to see how easy this was to put together.

 Supplies

A ceramic coffee mug, pack of 12 pencils and a dozen seed packets were all we needed to put together this thank you gift.

Side Note:  You could certainly choose any kind of seed you wanted; flower, herb, vegetable.... but I stuck to flowers.  I wanted the arrangement to look like a big bouquet of flowers so I chose my seeds based on their packaging.

Step 1

Simply tape a pencil to the back of a seed packet.

(I left the pencils un-sharpened, the wider base made it easier to keep them in place later on)

Front View

Here is what the seed packet on a 'stem' looks like from the front.

Side Note:  Personally I would have chosen pencils in various shades of green to serve as my stems, but Baby Girl insisted on a pack of orange, red and pink.  Since this was just as much a gift from her I thought her preferences should be honored ;)

Added Sentiment

To make things a bit more special, we took the time to add a little note to the back of each seed packet.

This one was written by Baby Girl herself.  It reads, "Thank you for teaching me math".  Awwww :)

A Dozen Fowers

All lined up and ready to go!  

Whenever possible, I tried to match up my pencil color to the coloring on the seed package.  It's those little details that keep your composition from looking cluttered or thrown together.

Step 2

Add a bit of tissue paper to the coffee mug.  The tissue will serve to hold the pencils in place as you create your bouquet.  We chose blue to complement the pattern of our mug, but any color is fine.

Step 3

Start adding in your 'flowers' by gently inserting a pencil here and there as you see fit.  Continue adding pencils throughout the mug to create a full and round bouquet.

Tip:  If you have enough tissue paper in the mug, your pencils will stay in place nicely.  If your pencils are falling over, you might want to add more tissue.

Side Note:  I drive Baby Girl to school myself and walk her to the door, so I was able to help her carry this arrangement inside.  If your child rides the bus, or otherwise travels on their own, you may want to tape the pencils in place.  Another option would be to nestle the entire arrangement into a gift bag.

Step 4

Add your tag.

Our tag was a simple handwritten note, but you could really get creative here if you wanted to!

The Completed Arrangement

I was very happy with how this appreciation gift turned out; cute, colorful and meaningful!

Not to mention very easy to put together ;)

As always, thanks for stopping by
and...

Thanks for helping ME bloom!!!

I really appreciate all of my readers, all around the world!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Rainbow Pizza Party: The Invitations (2015)

I just a couple of short weeks, Baby Girl will be 'graduating' from Kindergarten! 

(I'm just now starting to get comfortable with the fact that she is in kindergarten, and here she is almost done!)

Baby Girl has done an excellent job with her first year of school and we are very proud of her. She deserves a celebration, so I asked her what kind of graduation party she would like.  Her response was to have a 'rainbow' party with grilled cheese, Doritos, pizza, chicken nuggets and corned beef......(corned beef????  Hahaha!)  We ended up settling on a rainbow party with pizza and Doritos ;)

Once our theme and menu was decided it was time to start planning!  

Mamaw purchased the rainbow decor party items (which I'll be sharing with you soon-thank you Mamaw!) and I  got to work designing a rainbow themed invitation.  Check it out:

Step 1:  Invitation Wording

The first thing I did was to figure out what I wanted the invites to say.  I did some Pinterest searching and combined a few different ideas to inspire this verse.  

I typed them up and printed them out before trimming them to size.   The selective color printing is my favorite part:)

In case you can't read the wording in the photo, here it is:

RED, GREEN ORANGE & BLUE
HARD WORK MAKES DREAMS COME TRUE!
JOIN US FOR A RAINBOW PIZZA PARTY TO CELEBRATE
__________'S KINDERGARTEN GRADUATION!

DATE___________
LOCATION________

Step 2:  Scrapbook Paper

The next thing I needed to do was to figure out how to make the invitations more rainbowy...(that's a real word now, you heard it here first!)  

I searched through my scrapbook papers until I found this bright and colorful sheet - perfect!

 Step 3:  Glue & Glue & Glue :D

I lined the wording sheets up on the scrapbooking paper and glued them down.  

(Don't worry about the excessive margins at this point, once everything has been trimmed down it will be awesome)

 Step 4:  Trim

You can see here that I went back over each invite and trimmed down the rainbow paper.  It gives the invitations a much cleaner look.

 Step 5:  Stuff

When I was looking through the kids craft bin for the glue, I found this left over rainbow confetti and added it into the envelopes.  I think confetti adds a festive and fun touch to any invite.  Now when the envelopes are opened, the party begins ;)

And there you have it; cute and simple rainbow invitations.  I hope you enjoyed this rainbow party post, come back soon for the rest of the celebration!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Peaches & Cream Roses (17 Pc Package) 2015

Mother's Day will be here soon, so today I am sharing a wedding set
picked out by my very own Mom!

Take a look at the beautiful floral combination hand-picked:

White & Peach Roses

Bridal Bouquet

Bridesmaid's Bouquets

Pin-On Corsages

Boutonnieres

'Toss' Bouquet

17 Piece Package

This 17 piece package can be found in my eBay store.

Want to see what else is currently available?  Check out my eBay store here

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015