Inspiration Boards

If you love DIY, sewing, and crafting blogs as much I do then you've probably heard of the blog I Heart Naptime.  The site is full of ideas and tutorials for everything creative, along with recipes and decor projects. Their goal is to make creativity and the DIY mentality a priority while paying close attention to costs and saving money. A couple weeks ago, the creators of I Heart Naptime came up with an amazing new site called The Inspiration Board. At first glance, you might wonder how that could be any different from another little site called Pinterest. Ah, allow me to explain.

Like Pinterest, The Inspiration Board is all about creating collections of images and ideas that fit into a similar category and can be used to get ideas or to find inspiration for something--anything: cooking, building your dream home, remodeling your kitchen, taking your dream vacation, etc. The Inspiration Board is a way to use those images you've collected from Pinterest, your own personal photo gallery, or literally anywhere else on the web and create one cohesive idea board. You can add text, frames, and other embellishments to prettify your board and then you have the ability to share it anywhere. I've been having a lot of fun using it because, for me, it brings my various ideas I've found on Pinterest together and lets me create a more complete picture of what I'm looking for.

So here's what happens when Pinterest and The Inspiration Board have a baby together:

Click on each number for image sources: #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5

This is a board I made based on ideas for Charlotte's birthday party (yeah yeah, I know it's not until June and it's only going to be a small gathering of people but still). I had pinned a bunch of ideas to a board with pictures I liked and ideas I thought were cute but they weren't all centered around the same theme. I had ideas for the milk & cookies party, a vintage-y fair/carnival theme, and another set of pins focused on a girly looking farm theme (I say girly looking because if I just looked for "farm themed party" I got mostly pictures of John Deere tractors and other farm equipment. Um, no).

Here's the board I came up with for the county fair/carnival theme:

Click each number for image sources: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, and #7

After doing the first two boards, I realized I'd included a lot of the pins that were related to the farm idea (there weren't many), so I didn't make a separate board for that one.

So I think I'll come up with a way to use the milk & cookies with the carnival idea. I love the colors in the carnival board--all the reds, aquas, and yellows. The colors in the first board are pretty, but a little too pastel/pink overload for my liking...my favorite idea from that board is the glass bottles of different milk flavors. I'd like to find mini Mason jars (or something similar) and serve those, since most people probably don't want a large glass of milk on a summer day (except Charlotte).

Thoughts?

~Stacy

Holiday Movies

The never-ending week is finally coming to a close. A peaceful, relief-filled close. The event that I've been consumed by organizing is over (it went very well, despite several interesting twists and turns this week) and my biggest 2012 work projects are submitted and out of my hands. I am SO happy to check these things off my list and move into Thanksgiving week with a clear head and much less stress.

My plans tonight? Watching this:

This is not only one of my favorite holiday movies, but it's one of my favorite movies of any category. This is one of the few movies that is just as funny in its edited-for-TV format, but assuming there aren't children watching you have to watch the unedited version. There are few scenes funnier than Steve Martin's f-bomb laced tirade at the rental car counter in any movie, ever. It's a must see, and Steve Martin is an excellent swearer.

While I'm on the topic of movies, and since I started writing this post with no plan or purpose in place ahead of time, let's talk about the best holiday movies out there. Every year there are tons of specials and movies that are usually quite terrible (Hallmark Channel, I'm looking at you. Hitched for the Holidays and A Bride for Christmas are just two of the gems on this year's roster. Seriously?). And there are the classics, like It's a Wonderful Life, that are universally loved (I have a confession. I've never seen It's a Wonderful Life in it's entirety. I tried once and fell asleep. I'm sorry.) Here are my favorite holiday movies, in no particular order:

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Click for image source

Ok, I guess this list is in some kind of order because Christmas Vacation is, hands down, my favorite. I can (and do) watch this several times during December and never get tired of it. I'm not a huge National Lampoon's fan otherwise, but this movie is fantastic. Also, I want to live in the Griswold's house.

Elf

Image source

I saw Elf for the first time in 2003, when it came out. I was in Buffalo for a work event and had an entire evening to kill by myself. I went to see Elf, thinking it would be a good enough way to pass the time, not at all expecting it to be legitimately funny. I loved it so much that I took Chad to see it again when I got home, then bought it when it came out. We had a New Year's party that year and had a bunch of friends over and we put Elf on in the background but everyone ended up watching it from beginning to end. It has some of the best movie lines ("Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?" and "You sit on a throne of lies", to name a few) and is one that I could watch any time of the year.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Aww, who doesn't love Charlie Brown? This one is a classic and reminds me of being a kid and excitedly looking through the TV Guide to find out when all the Christmas specials were on. It's a short and sweet story about the true meaning of Christmas, complete with an adorable beagle and excellent music. What's not to like?

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Another childhood classic, this 1964 claymation story of sweet little Rudolph is still around and still just as good as I remember it (unlike some movies, which I watch as an adult and shudder. They shall remain nameless.). 

A Christmas Story

It just wouldn't feel like Christmas without Ralphie and A Christmas Story--especially because it plays all day long on TBS on Christmas Day. If you live near Cleveland, you can actually tour the Christmas Story House and Museum, which includes tons of props and memorabilia from the movie--including the Leg Lamp!

There are more (some guilty pleasures, some not), like Love Actually, Four Christmases, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Home Alone (the first and second ones only), but these are my top 5. What are yours?

~Stacy