Thursday, May 29, 2014

Trending: the Espadrille


If you haven't noticed by now, espadrilles are everywhere and I'm not mad about it.  There are so many great options and they are comfortable too!    I definitely think they can be dressed up or dressed down and I love that they provide more protection than a sandal but not quite as much as a sneaker.  I chose to showcase all flat espadrilles because that is what I wear the most but there are some adorable espadrille wedges worth checking out too!



Trending: the espadrille








And here are even more options!



1 (on sale!)  2  3 (gorgeous splurge!)   4

What do you think?  Are you on board with this trend?

Happy Friday Eve!

xo, ash


Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Insta Life

I'm baaaaack!  I have been gone far too long and I apologize.  Things have been a bit crazy!  On the plus side, found out yesterday that my grades this semester were two A-!  Go me!!  Here's a little peek at what's been going on!


photo 1 (2)


safe to say I like this color combination.


photo 1(1)


photo 1


photo 2 (2)


This Mindy Mae's Market necklace is perfection!


photo 2(1)


photo 2


these sandals were an $8 Target steal!!


photo 3 (2)


red shoes


photo 3


photo 4


photo 5


I desperately need a shopping trip but this New England weather is confusing.


Hope you're having a great week so far!!


xo, ash

Monday, May 5, 2014

Insta Life & Cinco De Mayo

Here's some of my latest Instagram feed.


photo 1


close up of the necklace I wore to the bridal shower!  [Francesca's]


photo 2


pink chains [score for $4.99 at Francesca's]


photo 3


it rained too much last week and I was feelin' the blues.


photo 4


finally nice on Saturday = sandal weather!


photo 5


still nice Sunday but the wind made it a bit chilly!


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last night's perfect size dessert! [mini pie crust, butterscotch pudding, whip cream]


In honor of Cinco de Mayo, tonight we are having tacos and margaritas!! [totally cliche, I know!]



Here are some favorite festive links!


1. 15 yummy margaritas via Style Me Pretty


2. DIY Fiesta Garland via Free People


3. perfect wedge to celebrate in!


4. Chicken taco bowls!


5. If you're not in the mood to drink, how about some Strawberry Margarita cupcakes!



Are you doing anything to celebrate Cinco de Mayo?!


Happy Monday!


xo, ash

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Spring Weddings Part II - Bridal Shower

My everyday 9-5 = got in the way of me posting yesterday.  Not happy.  But it's okay, I'm here now to share the most of beautiful Spring bridal shower ever (if I do say so myself)!!!  And it couldn't have come at a better time to be able to share with my lovely readers.


The bridal shower was held at a local venue right on the water and we chose a brunch menu with mimosas (of course!).  The bride had some involvement in the shower but not to the extent she may have wanted to.  I'm a planner and I love to do it so I came up with the theme and all decoration ideas, ran it by the other bridesmaids and luckily for me, they loved it!  Anytime I bought or made something along they way I ran it by them but for the most part, the girls let me run with it.  I made quite a few DIY items and had a run-in with 36" balloons in which I won =)


balloon1 balloon2


This was day of shower.  I had one balloon in my car and my husband managed to get two in his.  Word to the wise, bring a van next time.  I LOVE these balloons though (ordered mine via Party City and had them inflated at my local store).  They are large and in charge plus just so darn adorable! They make the perfect statement and there are all kinds of ways to utilize them and dress them up!


Welcome to the bridal shower!


Welcome sign


This sign was hand drawn by the Bride herself.  Great right?!  I bought a canvas at Joanne Fabrics, blue house paint in a sample size and craft paints for the other colors.


My balloons resulted in this final look, I called it my "focus" table.  this was my inspiration.  God Bless Pinterest.


focus table


I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way it all turned out!  (sorry for the smaller picture).  The table held the cake, game cards and advice/guestbook cards and of course some other decor goodies.


tassel garland tassel garland2


Tassel garland was DIY following this tutorial and I think for my first one it came out pretty darn cute! The girls and I had a craft night for this project. My tissue paper was bought at Hobby Lobby & Michael's and the twine is from Target (dollar section, holla!)


games


We did three games, Purse Hunt, Guess the Bride's Age and Pass the Presents.  I only needed to make cards for Purse Hunt & Guess the Brides Age.  I created the cards in Word, printed and cut them.  Easy peasy.  I used pink & blue font colors to match all of the other paperie.  Pencils are from Michael's and holder is from Joanne Fabrics.


advice and LOVE


The LOVE letters were a pass down from the Bride.  She used them at my bridal shower last July.  She actually painted theses for me as a last minute thing and I'm so glad she did!  We did this invite but had flowers in one corner instead of two and the same seller also made the advice cards you see which matched the invitations.  The frame was mine from Target and all mercury glass holders were from my wedding.


From Miss to Mrs


From Miss to Mrs 2


This From Miss to Mrs banner was another DIY I made and I LOVE it.  I was going to try so many ways of making this and in the end I printed letters in a Word document (in a large, clear font), cut them out and used them as a stencil on glitter paper I bought from Hobby Lobby.  For the hearts I used this printable and again cut them out to use as a stencil (I used the biggest heart for this sign).


photo


You can vaguely see my card box in the first photo on the gift table.  It was actually a gift box for $2 from Target (score!).  I used a punch and some stickers to create the words "cards" on the front.


CAKE


Cake was made by a local baker and it was delicious!  I didn't want anything to fancy nor did I want to spend a lot (the Bride didn't either).  I got the topper idea from none other than Pinterest (here), used the heart printable again (the two smaller hearts) and hot glued them to bamboo skewers.  Super easy and I love the look.


days until sign


This is the other sign the Bride hand drew.  The canvas was originally from Michaels and used at my bridal shower.  We just used craft paint and repainted it.  She did a great job!  (another Pinspiration ;))


table setting


This might be one of my favorite shots.  The gold sequin runners, pink napkins, blue stripes!  It's just all good.  There were two tables set like this (two tables of 20).  The gold runners and blue stripe toppers were rented from a local company.  The venue provided the napkins which were the perfect color.  The flower vases were again from the Bride, used at my shower.  I wrapped them with blue striped ribbon from Joanne Fabrics and all flowers were various shades of pink and bought at local grocery stores.


flowers


close up of flowers and sparkly runners!


prizes


This was the table that held the prize gifts.  The two larger ones are a pasta basket and tea basket (bought by another bridesmaid) and the four smaller ones are all items I picked up from Bath & Body works.  We did two small gifts per table for the Pass the Presents game which turned out to be a big hit!  The Mother of the Bride wrapped them all and she did a great job!


 mimosa3


Flowers and mimosas with pink stripe straws from Michael's.


favor


Here are the adorable favors!  Mother of the bride bought them all (my original idea was just file/polish, she added anit-bac) and put them together.  I created the tags in Word and used punches to cut them out.  They came out adorable!  We set these at each place setting before shower.


and here are some fun shots!


Kel and Ash bridesmaids bride Kel Ash Shaunna


I think this was the perfect Spring bridal shower and a great addition to my wedding series!  I love the way everything came out and now I need another party to plan ;)  I hope this brings inspiration to some of my readers for your upoming parties!  big thanks to everyone involved in getting to this beautiful day!


Happy Thursday!


xo, ash

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