What do you think...

...your pet(s) do when you are away???

I have thought about this SO many times. Especially when we get home and our pillows from the couch are thrown clear across the room or the closet/bedroom doors are wide open when I KNOW I closed them before we left.

I've often thought about setting up a camera just to see what Kodi is up to when we are away.

Well, my dad sent this forward to me today and I just couldn't help but wonder if Kodi is REALLY doing this when we leave him at home...

Let's hope not...but it sure does make me wonder :)

Eating From a Fork...

Kodi has been VERY picky with his food lately. The only way he will eat it is with a fork. Yes, I said a fork...

He's what I call, spoiled rotten :)

Mum's the Word...

I just love Mums....especially with the Fall season in full swing.

We have a seasonal nursery around the corner that has so many pretty flowers AND they are extremely cheap. They had large mums on sale..3 for $10 and samll mums...4 for $10.

So of course, I had to get a few :)

Mum's the word!

Weather...

Now THIS is what I'm talkin' about...

LOVE this weather forecast for the week!!

Simmer Pot Recipes...

I just these Simmer Pot Recipes ALL THE TIME! They are so easy and you probably have the ingredients in your spice cabinet already. I hope all five of these recipes will make you just as happy as they make me :)

Put water in a small pot (or kettle) and bring it to a boil. Choose one of the five Simmer Pot Recipes and add the ingrediates to your water. Put your stove on low and then refill the water about every 30 minutes (as needed):

Recipe #1:

Cinnamon Sticks

Apple Peel

Orange Rinds

Cloves

Recipe #2

Orange Peel

Lemon Peel

2 Bay Leaves

Cinnamon Sticks

Cloves

Recipe #3

A few drops of Vanilla

Orange Peel

Recipe #4

Dried Lavendar

Nutmeg

Cloves

Cinnamon Sticks

Recipe #5

4-5 Bay Leaves

 Cinnamon Sticks

Cloves

I use Recipes #1 and 5 ALL the time. I kid you not, your house will smell delicious in just a few minutes! If you have any other recipes like this, please share :)

Enjoy!!

Christmas Card Ideas...

I received a fabulous offer from Shutterfly last week and wanted to share it with all of you!

I have used Shutterfly so many times...our Adoption Life Book, photo prints, custom greeting cards, and so much more.  I received an email from them this past week about their fabulous Christmas Card selection.

Here are just a few that caught my eye...

This chevron zig zag pattern is so popular right now...and I just love the bright colors!

I'm also REALLY liking the turquoise and red color combination this season.

SEE....I must really like this color combo!

And the colors for this card are well...OH SO FUN!

I haven't quite decided on which Shutterly card we'll be using this Christmas season, but I'm trying my best to narrow it down.

Shutterfly was SO generous this year, that they gave me a promotional code to share with three lucky people. This promotional code will give you 25 FREE Christmas Cards of your choice!!! What a great offer.

If you are interested in being the recipient of one of these promotional codes! Just leave me a comment (with your email address) and I'll be glad to send you the code. First come, first serve :)

Happy Christmas Card designing!!

Cell Phone Picture Post...

I don't really have much to blog about this week. I think I'm still recovering from the sinus headaches I keep having...NOT fun :(

So I thought I would just share some of the pictures I took on my cell phone and blog about that!!!

I LOVE fresh flowers and would have them in my house every single day, if I could. Actually, David would say that we DO have them in our house every single day. I just can't resist picking up a bunch of flowers every time I go to the grocery store.

The greenery still looks good from the baby shower I helped to host a few weekends ago, so I just added these pretty daisies to the greenery.

Love the ones on this shelf...they just remind me of fall and that makes me happy :)

We recently went to a birthday dinner for a friend and I picked up this adorable top from Kohl's.

It is from Jennifer Lopez's new line that is exclusively at Kohl's...LOVE all her stuff.  I actually took this picture (along with another picture) and text messaged it to a few friends because I couldn't decided which necklace to wear. I know, I'm a dork. The majority voted for this necklace, so this is the one I wore :)

Okay, I promise to have a more meaningful post next time...but to be honest, this is the normal-every-day-life-of-Lianna :)

Candy for Parties...

At the baby shower I helped to host last weekend, one of the other hostess purchased candy for the candy station. She found this AWESOME place online and I wanted to share it with those of you ladies hosting parties and thinking of creating a candy station that matches your decor.

The shop is called Nuts Online and has all types of candy to match ANY color scheme you might have for a party!

Here are some pics of what the candy that I think not only looks delicious but would be adorable for a Halloween party...

Rock Candy Sticks

Sassafras drops

Sixlets

Orange slices

Sour patch peaches

Most of the candy comes in 1 lb, 5 lb, or a 30 lb case!! The 1 lb bags start at $5.99...which I think is VERY reasonable. They have a color wheel that you can click on and see a varitey of colored candy...sure to match your party.

I can't WAIT till I throw another party...these colored candies would look adorable in some pretty glass containers of all different sizes for a party :)

Halloween Mantel...

I love decorating our mantel and Halloween is NO DIFFERENT!!

Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time getting the right look for our Halloween mantel this year, but this will just have to do for now...

I had this witch and cat that I bought YEARS ago and decided they would look adorable showcased on our mantel this year. They originaly had raffia ribbons tied around them, but I thought I would change them up and use some halloween ribbon I had in my craft closet...

I think I still need a little something else to add to the mantel, but until I can think of what that something is, this will have to do!

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin LOVE...

I saw the most adorable idea from one of my friends on Twitter. She owns an Etsy Store called Tree Frog Creations and posted this picture of a pumpkin...

And for ONLY $6, I knew I had to have one!!!

So I stopped by our local grocery store and picked up the perfect pumpkin...

Added a little ribbon I had in my craft closet to the stem...

Then placed the vinyl on top of it..

LOVE!!!

I decided to put it on our entry table...

Now that's what I call Pumpkin LOVE!

Pinterest Organizing Ideas...

I started a new board on my Pinterest page called Organizational Ideas. There are so many clever ideas on how to be better organized and I am ALL OVER EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM!

I sent this pic to my mom to see if my dad would make one of these for me...

I SO need one of these because my jewelry is getting out of hand and I need a way to organize everything so I don't forget what pieces I have.

These next to organizational ideas make me think of my mom...she will probably try these as soon as she sees them on my blog :)

Use a tension rod under your sink to hang all your spray bottles. This leaves more room on the bottom of the cabinet for other items.

And this is absolutely CLEVER!

Using PVC pipe to hang your curling irons and cords. I think it would probably be a pain to wrap your cords every day like that, but I like the idea of having them hanging in the PVC for safety when they are still warm.

I'm telling you, Pinterest is really going to be the death of me. I have two pumpkin DIY ideas that I'm trying this week, ALL BECAUSE OF PINTEREST!!!

Wordless Wednesday...

I haven't participated in Wordless Wednesday in quite some time. But I recently saw this picture and just had to participate this week.

This is little Miss Daisy...one of my mom's dogs. Isn't she JUST PRECIOUS!!!! Mom will be having puppies soon, so make sure you check out her site, JillyBean's Shih Tzu Shoppe.

DillyDallie...

I have posted a lot lately about one of my new favorite Etsy Stores, DillyDallie! I just can't get enough of the cuteness of all her items.

Allie, the owner of DillyDallie, recently asked me if I would create some business cards for her and I just had to share them in all their cuteness...

I also made her some labels to put on her packages too and I love how they turned out...

I am getting ready to post more Christmas Card ideas on my Etsy Store, so check it out HERE!

More Christmas Designs...

...from my Etsy Store!

I need to start working on OUR Christmas Card for this year :)

MORE Halloween Decor...

I finally got around to taking more pics of our Halloween decor. I STILL haven't purchased any larger pumpkins for the yard and the front porch...but hopefully I'll get around to doing that this week.

I love the wicker pumpkin on the bar...it's so simple and goes so perfectly with our kitchen decor.

I took home all the flowers from the shower I hosted this past weekend. I made four of the same arrangement and decided to put one in our bedroom. I love how sweet this little white pumpkin looks on my nightstand.

This shelf is in our living room and YES, that is another one of the flower arrangements from the shower :)

Little stuffed pumpkins that I bought off of Etsy about three years ago...

More flowers...these are in our guest bathroom.

Someone commented on my last Halloween post that they thought it was a great idea to put the pumpkins in our guest bathroom...so I thought I would share the view of our entire vanity in the bathroom.

Once I get the pumpkins outside and on the porch, I'll make one last Halloween decor post.

Enjoy the cooler fall weather!!

Celebrating Life...

Today was a mixture of several emotions...I attended the funeral of my dear friend and co-worker, Tiffany, and hosted a baby shower for my close friend Julie. I tried to think of my day as a way of celebrating life...celebrating the life of a friend and celebrating the new life of a baby.

Tiffany's funeral was absolutely beautiful and everything that she would have wanted...afterall, she planned every detail of her funeral, right down to the color of the flowers.. The music was absolutely beautiful...our choir director from school sang How Great Thou Art which was followed by a violin solo by our orchestra director. Her family put together a precious video with a collage of pictures from Tiffany's life...pictures of her with her hubby, her sons, her family, her pets, and her friends. I don't think there was a dry eye in the church.

By far, the most powerful part of the ceremony would have to be the words that the pastor shared with all of us...Tiffany's words. The pastor visited with Tiffany and asked her what she wanted people to remember about her life. These three statements are what Tiffany wanted shared at her funeral...

1. I love Jesus.

2. Jesus saves.

3. It's okay to love Jesus.

I think these three statements speak volumes for the kind of woman Tiffany was...strong, full of faith, and a woman of God.

After the funeral, I ran home, changed clothes, and headed out for the baby shower. The shower was held at a clubhouse not far from my home. Here is how the shower went in pictures...

This is a sweet prayer that one of the other hostesses had framed for Julie...

We had a little blue candy station...

The banner to welcome Baby Blaise...

Yummy cupcakes!!! I got the cupcakes from a place called Sweet by Holly. It is a new cupcake shop in my town and the owner of the shop won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. We had german chocolate, butter cream and carrot cake cupcakes...all three were DELICIOUS!

One of the hostesses made this wishing tree for Julie. Guests could write words of wisdom and well wishes to her and the baby...



 I was responsible for the flowers and I honestly think I want to be a florist when I grow up. I just love fresh flowers and making flower arrangements :)

Here are a few pics of the mommy-to-be opening her gifts...

Julie is from Louisianna, so this little Saints onsie and hat was PERFECT for Baby Blaise!

 We had a small matte that all the guests could sign. Hopefully it will be hanging in Baby Blaise's room one day and he will know how much he was loved even before he was born.

Here is Julie with all the hostesses...Lydia, Jessica, Stacey, Julie, Tanya, and I.

What a day!!! I went from crying my eyes out to beaming from ear to ear.

It truly was a day of celebrating life.