A Christmas Bathroom

Randomly at Midnight I got the urge to TRY and make my bathroom look more Christmasey. This is my VERY low budget attempt. I simply threw in a few red accents. I must admit, red does look quite cute with my light blue walls.

Enjoy.

3 days people. 3 DAYS!!!

A few little ornaments seemingly floating along my shower curtain...

Cheapy red towels with my light blue wall...

A couple of santas standing guard over my q-tips and cotton balls...

A wire basket of ornaments and a lil' smore make my sink sparkle....

Yeah, that's it. I'm pulling teeth here for posts. Can you tell?

Do you all decorate your bathrooms seasonally? If so, what are your favorite lil' bathroom decor tips and tricks?

Come back and see me!

~Kara

Because it's not about the decorations...

Can you imagine what she was feeling?

Carrying the son of God?

One week till his birth?

Do you think she was scared?

Can you imagine the anticipation? That's the anticipation we should have throughout the sesason. The coming of our King.

Let's dillegently focus our attention this upcoming week on the weightiness of Christmas.

I love this song....

I have traveled many moonless nights,
Cold and weary with a babe inside,
And i wonder what i've done.
Holy father you have come,
And chosen me now to carry your son.

I am waiting in a silent prayer.
I am frightened by the load i bear.
In a world as cold as stone,
Must i walk this path alone?
Be with me now.
Be with me now.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.
Breath of heaven.

Do you wonder as you watch my face,
If a wiser one should have had my place,
But i offer all i am
For the mercy of your plan.
Help me be strong.
Help me be.
Help me.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven.

Come back and see me
~Kara

I'm dreaming of a white....dress

I'll admit it. 

I like the Hills.

But I LOVE this white dress.

Swoon.

Come back and see me!

~Kara

Help!

Something is wrong with my Blogger!!!

When I try to write a post, it's in an all white, basic web page weird looking thing.

I can't even post pictures.

What the heck is happening?!

Christmas Home Tour

I've decided to hop on the Christmas Home Tour train and link up to Boo Mama's Christmas Home Tour post

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SO HERE GOES MY CHRISTMAS HOME...

Apothecary jars filled with fruits and beads on top of a stack of old suitcases...

Fake Poinsettia flowers thrown on a table. I think I should wrap these in burlap or something...

A HUGE and beautiful wreath my friend Reba gave me for Christmas two years ago. What a wonderful gift!...

A couple of wintery birdhouses sit in my window sill...

My Nativity scene I just adore. I got the whole thing for 22 dollars at a small outlet store. I love Nativity scenes. They help focus our anticipation for Christmas...

Two wreaths wrapped in ribbon hang from my kitchen doors....

Two jars with pine cones, ornaments and eucalyptus, and a STEAL of a table runner from Hobby Lobby. The gold leaf garland is at Big Lots this year for 5 bucks...

Three little damask-esque Christmas plates from HomeGoods. I love that place...

Three little birds with three little words... Peace, Joy, Noel...

My aunt makes these glass block presents. I love it!!

A few pine cones and a few old books....

Christmas presents all wrapped under the tree...

My favorite little Alleluia ornament. Another reminder of the reason....

A Cute Pearl ornament I just picked up this weekend...

My Christmas tree all done up....

And finally, a few berries brighten up a little vase....

My Christmas decoration are a little hap hazard. But I love them!

Thanks for coming along on my Tour!

Only 10 days till Christmas! And, only 10 days till my 100th post. I think I should plan something!!

Come back and see me.

~Kara

How to make a Starbucks Yarn Wreath

As most of you know, I recently walked into Starbucks and saw this bad boy. A beautiful ornament yarn ball wreath at Starbucks, and I got smacked over the head with a big ol' case of "Hey, I can make that!"

So I did. And I'm going to show you how to as well!



What you will need:
- A wire wreath form found in the floral section of the craft store. I got mine for only $2.47
- Two packages of Styrofoam balls. You can use all the same size, or varying sizes. I went for all the same
- Two colors of yarn. I found great "eco friendly" soft yarn for only $2.86 at Wal-Mart. This may be wrong but I'm not huge on red and green for Christmas. I'm more of a gold and muted green kinda gal, so that's what I went for.
- Two packages of Holiday ornaments from Wal-Mart. They are $5.00 a pack
- Your trusty glue gun
-LOTS of glue sticks.

Step One:

Start wrapping your yarn over the Styrofoam balls. The trick is to wrap in several directions to get the actual yarn ball feel. Only wrap enough to cover any white surfaces, or else you will have larger than life yarn balls. Tuck your loose ends neatly under a strand of yarn already wrapped around the ball. They will hold just dandy.

Your yarn balls should start looking like this...

Step Two:

Repeat step one with your other color of yarn.

Step Three: Roll out some wrapping paper on your bedroom floor, put on some HGTV and lay out all your goods.

Step Four:

Start by gluing your yarn balls, alternating colors to the wreath form. You can probably do a better job at evenly placing them then I did.

Step Five:

Start gluing in your ornaments. I glued two on the wreath form on each side, at the base of each yarn ball. I used a small drop of glue to also affix the ornament to the side of each yarn ball after it was places. So you will have three glue spots-

1- At the top of the ornament (where it usually hangs from) to the base of the wreath

2- One on the left side of the ornament touching a yarn ball

3- One on the right side of the ornament, touching the other yarn ball it was next to

Then, I just plopped an ornament in between each yarn ball on the face of the wreath.

Step Six:

Start admiring your wreath because you love how it's turning out and you love the colors.

Step Six:

You will have a handful of leftover ornaments. Just layer these in wherever you have little gaps, It will give the wreath a fuller look.

Then, You are finished!!! Hang that sucker up and ENJOY your copy cat Starbucks Wreath!

Let me know if you make one! I would love to see how it looks!

Don't forget to join the Pay it Forward event! You have today until 5:00 to get in on the Holiday Cheer package!!

Come back and see me!

~Kara

Pay it Forward

Do you love getting mail?

I do.

So when I saw this post from the oh-so-wonderful, I'm sure you know her blogger, Miss Anne @ Indefinitely Defiantly . I knew I had to respond. Since I was one of the first 3 comments on her post that day, I got a little special package. I'll tell you what, It made my day!!

Here's a quote from Anne about Paying it Forward:

"It's amazing the power of "paying it forward". It's a chain reaction, that once started can be infinite. I encourage you all to be more "aware" of how you can become a catalyst in "paying it forward"."

And, Look what came in the mail this week!!

A wonderful Christmas mix...

(never mind my oddly shaped, needs to be filed nail)

Some cute address labels...

And about the cutest card I ever have seen. ..

Wanna play along?!
Well, I'm hopping on the Pay it Forward train. Would you like to receive a special holiday package from Inspired Kara? Here's how:

1- Leave me a comment telling us your Christmas wish by friday at 5:00 p.m.

2- Enjoy reading other's comments. Hopefully this will give us some perspective on what Christmas is all about.

3- I'll randomly pick three folks, get your email, and PAY IT FORWARD!!!

4- There's one condition, if you are selected- you have to pay it forward too! Not even in blog land, a simple batch of cookies for neighbor, a hand-made card, whatever you may be inspired to do at that moment. Just blog about what you did!

p.s. The Starbucks copy-cat wreath project is almost done. I'm buying the final ornaments tonight! Stay tuned for a very adorable DIY tutorial...

Here's a sneak peak....

Come back and see me!

~Kara

My Best Friend's Wedding, An Inspiration Board

My very best and dearest friend Aria is getting married in May. They are going for an outdoor, intimate, casual yet sophisticated style event. And I am lucky enough to be chosen as her MOH. I could not be more honored.

She chose our bridesmaid dress last night, from Anthropologie (let me just mention I could easily set up residence in an Anthro store). I just LOVE how it is a print, how it is unexpected, how it is just so perfectly Aria.

Here is the dress:

And here is the inspiration board I created for her based off of her selection.

(Click Board to Enlarge)

Event Vision (From Left)

Row One: Subtle and soft monogrammed invitations, a collection of thrifted and antique china will serve as place settings, the pattern of the dress, artisan chocolate as favor's (her fiance owns a chocolate company), rustic and organic feel to the food set up- olives, cheese, figs, bread etc.

Row Two: Bringing the indoor out- a shabby table nestled between two trees is the perfect place to enjoy a cocktail and catch up with an old friend, beautifully unexpected wedding florals with Aria's favorite- Anemones, a hint of color peeks through in shades of Marigold yellow, Beverage jars and pitchers of sangria and iced tea.

Row Three: Hand-crafted programs made from the burlap sacks her fiance's cocoa beans are shipped in, broken down converse, chandeliers of candles hanging from beneath the tree where they exchange vows, swap a traditional wedding slide show with clotheslines full of photographs of the couple, family and friends.

What do you think?

Do you have any unique ideas for this wedding?

Do you have an event in need of a bit of inspiration? Let me know. I'd be happy to help!

Don't be surprised if you see a few more of these boards pop up for this event.

Come back and see me!

~Kara

The most Wonderful Christmas Weekend

This weekend my mom and I did our annual "Shop till you drop" weekend. Luckily, we had gotten most of our shopping done already, so we headed out for some fun. I'm from St. Charles, Missouri and we have the most adorable down town main street. We try to make it down for the day a few times a year. It was the first Missouri state capitol and also where Lewis and Clark started their expedition. The street is full of old buildings with character, cute home decor shops and cafes. At Christmas time you'll find Santa's from all over the world, carollers, Ebeneezer Scrooge, carriage rides, lights and much more. Needless to say, you guys would love it.

BTW... the wreath project is coming along and will be a DIY tutorial post this week, but I ran out of ornaments. I'll get some tomorrow and finish it up and share. 

Warning, photo overload ahead, but I just had to share. 

Main street all lit up for Christmas.

Can you guess what this is?

It's a Chestnut!

They have a man in costume selling them roasting on an open fire! I think they taste like mashed potatoes.

I drooled over the color of this home store...

And these adorable robin's egg blue windows/doors...

Everything there made you feel the Christmas spirit, especially the fresh greens...

We stopped in front of a lit up tree for a mother daughter pic...

Mom with one gigantic nutcracker...

I thought this dried artichoke type thing with fresh greens hanging in the window was perfect...

There's even and old-fashioned drum and fife corps....

And trolley rides!!

One of the old Capitol buildings...with carriage rides!

Mom in front of the huge Christmas Tree. 

It was a WONDERFUL weekend. If you are ever in the St. Louis area, I highly recommend Main Street in St. Charles. It's beautiful. 

Tomorrow I have a cute treat to show you, and an opportunity to get a treat yourself!

Come back and see me!

~Kara