Tidbits: My Style

I've been thinking for awhile now that it might be fun to write up a
post all about my personal design style! 

My taste is an eclectic combination of Greco-Roman, French,
Vintage, Farmhouse and what I refer to as 'dollhouse'.  Imagine that a Roman gladiator and a French princess got married and moved into a Midwestern farm-ish house that was fully stocked with a ton of milk glass and plastic food and you would have me 😁

Take a look at the following photos to see what I'm talking about:

Greco-Roman

In my house the Greco-Roman style plays out with urns, columns and statues.  Eventually I would like to have structural columns (floor to ceiling) as well as exposed wooden beams.  I also like textured looking walls (think Olive Garden 😂), but I'm not sure if I will ever carry the theme that far.  Maybe an accent wall or two...we'll see.

French

I also find myself drawn to a bit of French style, with fleur-de-lis', rich, textured
fabrics and sort-of-ornately carved furniture.  

Vintage

To be completely accurate, the only vintage pieces that I am currently into consist of my milk glass collection.  I have my large display in the kitchen but display several pieces throughout the home as well.  I also use milk glass mixing bowls, baking dishes and drinking glasses on a daily basis.

Farmhouse

I am obsessed with the clean, sturdy look of white painted wood combined with natural accents.  Right now only my kitchen, dining and desk tables feature this farmhouse look but eventually I want white kitchen cabinets with butcher block counters.  I also prefer white appliances that fade into the cabinetry no trendy colors or stainless steel here! 

Dollhouse

What else do you call an obsession with artificial foods, plants and candles?  I call it 'dollhouse'.  Give something strange a cute name and that makes it a little less weird.....😉

**********

I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of my personal design style,
thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017

17 Piece Wedding Package - An Autumn Mix of Earthy Browns

I had a lot of fun putting together this wedding package inspired by the muted tones of Autumn!

Take a look:

This package features a combination of mums, roses, daisies, dahlias, peonies, marigolds, hydrangea, alstromeria and fall foliage in shades of cream, beige, brown, orange and yellow.

Bride's Bouquet

Bridesmaids Bouquets

Corsages and Boutonnieres

'Toss' Bouquet

**********

This 17 piece package is available in my eBay store now!

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

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017

DIY Halloween Shirts

Each year, when I take the kids to the pumpkin patch, I like to take their pictures wearing Halloween shirts.  Usually they wear something store bought, but this year I decided that we could make our own.  

Read on to see how easily you can make up a few of these yourself:

Supplies

All you need are cotton t-shirts, stencils (we used cookie cutters), 

acrylic paint (or fabric paint) and puffy paint.

I found the t-shirts on clearance at Wal-Mart for $1 each 

and the cookie cutters are from my baking supplies.

(You can click here or here  to read more about my baking collection)

Step 1

Play around with your stencils until you find a design that you like.  

Baby Girl ended up choosing a pumpkin and the Little Man went with a ghost.

You could go as simple or as complex as you like here, 

we kept things simple with one stencil per shirt 😉

Step 2

Once you have chosen your design, tape your stencil in place.  It also helps to push down on the stencil while painting to keep the paint from moving outside of the stencil.

We used acrylic paint (from my painting supplies) to cover our stenciled areas.  I painted the outline of each stencil first, then held the cookie cutter in place while the kids did the rest 😊

Note:  I also put several sheets of paper inside of each t-shirt before painting.  This prevents any paint from bleeding through to the back side of the t-shirt.

Here you can see the painted pumpkin.  

Because we used acrylic paints (as apposed to fabric paint) on dark colored t-shirts, the finished design looks more like a stain.  If a solid image is what you are going for, I recommend using fabric paint and a lighter colored shirt.

Pumpkin and Ghost

The pumpkin took three coats  of paint to look nice, but the ghost looked great after only one coat.

Step 3


Once the base colors were thoroughly dry, I used more acrylic paint to add the leaf and facial details.  It helps if you turn your paintbrush upside down and dip the end into the paint to serve as a pencil for outlining first.  Then go back and fill in with your brush.

After the details were dry, I used a gold puffy paint ($1 at Wal-Mart) to add the kids names and a little more detail to the pumpkin.

**********

And there you have it, easy to make holiday shirts for about $3 dollars! It will cost a little more if you need to buy all of the paint, but you can find small tubes of acrylic at Wal-Mart for around $1 each.

So the kids have worn the shirts a couple of times and will quickly outgrow them, now what?  You cut out the designs and add them to your holiday patchwork quilt, of course! 😉

(You can click here to see my Halloween quilt)

**********

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017

Candy Themed Birthday Party - Centerpieces

Remember these centerpieces from the candy themed birthday party?  

Well here's how easy they are to pull together:

Step 1

I gathered an assortment of clear cylinder vases in different heights.  Using the cylinder shape makes for a nice, clean look and varying the heights adds dimension and interest to the table tops.

Tip:  Go ahead and give your glassware a cleaning before use.  You'd be surprised how much dust can build up, even in a cabinet!

Step 2

Take cardboard tubes (from either paper towels or toilet paper rolls) and cut them down to fit the height of your cylinder vases.  You'll want to leave about an inch of clearance between the top of the tube and the opening of the vase.  Next fill the center of each cardboard tube (I used wadded up plastic grocery bags).

These tubes are going to sit in the center of your vases allowing you to 'fill' the containers with way less candy 😉

Step 3

Add the cardboard tubes to the vases.

Candy Filling

We chose Skittles, Starburst, gummy bears, lemon drops and mini marshmallows (all based on their coloring) to fill our vases.

Tip:  If your kids are helping or your Husby is home, buy extra candy 😉

Step 4

While holding the tube in place from the top, begin filling the space between the tube and glass with the candy of your choice.

Side Note:  You can see by this photo that I didn't have enough paper towel tubes to fill all of my vases.  No problem, taping a couple of toilet paper rolls together works just as well 😊

Step 5

Continue filling until you get to the top (notice how that inch of clearance space allowed the cardboard tubes to be hidden) and then check the vases from every side for any 'holes'.  

You can see that the vases on the left and in the center look great, but the one on the right has a few weak spots.  Just keep fiddling with the candies until you get them to settle more evenly.  You might need to add a bit more candy as well.

Step 6

Once the vases were all filled, I used decorative napkins to create a covering.  Just place a napkin on top of the vase and fold the edges down.  Lastly, add a bit of clear tape so that the napkin keeps it's shape.

Note:  These are the same napkins that were purchased as part of the party supplies, so they went with the party decor beautifully

Step 7

We can't have visible tape, can we?!?!? 😁

I used a bit of sparkly light blue tulle to cover the tape and finish off the arrangement.  

This tulle can be found in the party section of Wal-Mart for $1 per roll.  It didn't quite show in the photos, but the tulle features a subtle sparkle and several different colors were available.

All Done

Now you can store these away (someplace where the kids can't reach them) and get on to the rest of your mile long to-do list!

Fun Facts:  You know I'm always prepping early, so how did the candy hold up?
The Skittles and Starburst did just fine.
The lemon drops ended up sticking all together in one clump.
The gummy bears and marshmallows all went stale 😆

**********

Did you miss anything from the candy party posts?
You can click here to read about the invitations
You can click here to read about the decor
You can click here to read about the desserts.

**********

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2017