Friday Favorites #87

Happy Friday Foxy Friends! It's been a super long week,  Friday could not come soon enough. As usual here are some things that I've been loving.

If you missed it on the blog this week, here's what been happening.

The most important thing, The Blended Blog is celebrating it's year Blogiversary! To celebrate we're hosing a fun scavenger hunt giveaway. You could win a $150 gift card of your choice. Get to know other bloggers, answer some questions win some money. What could be better?

Other happenings on the blog:

Monday: The White Lies I Tell My Kids
Tuesday: Kids Behind The Blog
Wednesday: What I Wore Link Up
Thursday: How To Decorate Your Mantel for the Holidays

I just realized that I haven't downloaded any pictures since August, and it's now mid September...so here are some things I found while retrieving my photos off of my cameras and cell phone. I figures I should you last week a picture of Mini Fox sweeping...this time, she chose a Fox outfit...literally.

Hung out with these folks, they just love each other so much, it's so nice to see them all together and loving on each other.

My friends and I ordered some of the Kylie Jenner Lip Kits, so far I'm loving them! I actually first heard of them from Christy, and as soon as she said she loved them and had them in multiple colors (click here to find out the colors she has) I had to find out for myself. So my friends and I went in, shared the cost of shipping and we each got some. I got KoKo K and Posie K.

 

Me wearing Posie K, stayed on my lips from 11am till I took it off with make up remover at 11 at night. No joke, I was shocked and now I want every color.

 

 

Celebrated my birthday with some friends, so much fun to get out of the house and get together for a nice meal that didn't involve screaming kids.

 

 

Last one of the randoms...we went to my cousins house for dinner and a little slumber party and her husband has an arcade in their garage...I think Baby Fox died and went to heaven...he could have done that all night.

 

Of course Mini Fox had to get in on the action.

Mini Fox is officially 3! Say what?! Her party was fantastic and couldn't have gone any better! Here's a sneak peak:

Here she is, her last day as a two year old.

She wanted brother in the picture.

We decorated her door for when she woke up, she loved it! Although she had just woken up and I'm fairly certain we woke her up...but she did really love it.

We're letting our passes expire...so we had to go one more time, and of course I picked Labor Day...oops, it was super busy but we still got to do a lot.

Just me and the kids and we had a blast, I was exhausted, but it was worth it. All Baby Fox wanted to do was ride on Star Tours, but since Mini Fox is not tall enough I had to find a friend. Luckily a good friend and her family were there to take him on the ride while Mini Fox and I rode on the rockets...which she hated. This is my friends daughter, the kids are only 3 weeks apart. Aren't they too cute. I actually met this friends in the Nordstrom nursing room bathroom, LOL. We met from our shopping addiction, LOL. Friends for life.

 

Waiting in line for Star Tours, before Mini Fox and I got kicked out of the line for her being too short.

 

Then we hit up Buzz Lightyear.

Jungle Cruise

Disney Jr. Live show, the kids said this was their favorite thing the whole day, even though Baby Fox protested when we got in line.

Discovered that Mini Fox HATES the Ferris Wheel even though she was the one that wanted on it. She said maybe when I'm three I'll like it...and sure enough she woke up on Friday and said...I'm three, I like the Ferris Wheel now.

 

Had to hit up Little Mermaid for our little mermaid...

 

We had a great last trip, until next time Disneyland!

As always here are some of the videos I've been loving.

Now that both kids are fully into Legos...yes, so, so true!

This is just so funny, you can't help but laugh.

Linking up here 

How To Decorate A Mantel For The Holidays

Before I start, it's the 1 year blogiversary of The Blended Blog, we decided to celebrate by doing a fun scavenger hunt giveaway! Today is my day to find out a little bit more about me! So go check it out, and discover some new and awesome posts and maybe win $150 in the process.

Last year on The Blended Blog my mom took over and did a whole post on how to decorate your mantel. We happened to be upon the Halloween time frame so all of the decorations were for Halloween, but you could apply the theory to any an all seasons! Take it away Mom!

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Hi!  I'm Carol, aka: Sarah's Mom.  Now that my children are all grown up, my husband and I have moved to an apartment.  I didn't do much holiday decorating the first year here but I really felt the loss of the creativity and beauty and the celebration of it all.  Now I'm back to it and so much happier! 'Present' is the root word of Present-ation.  I create presents for all the holidays, for myself and anyone else who happens over to our apartment to enjoy!

This is my apartment mantel~ Starting with a blank canvas:

When decorating a mantel you'll want to measure length and depth, so you know how large/small decor pieces can be used ( i.e. narrow mantel means you have to use narrow items).

Take note of what is hanging above your mantel (i.e. mirrors or pictures), You will have to decide if you want to cover it, remove it or work around it.  In this case we are going to work around it.

Next step is to decide if you want the height on the sides or the middle of your mantel. Because of the picture, and not wanting to move or obstruct it, I've decided that I want all of the height on my mantel to be on the sides, going with short décor items in the center.

Take your creative base: In this case it is a table runner, but you could use anything for your base (even a bunch of napkins on the diagonal if you are trying to find stuff around the house). For example this was another table runner I found on clearance last year at Michael's. I didn't end up using it because it was too short for the look I was going for.



Now that I have decided I am doing the height on the sides, I need to figure out what I want to be the center of the mantel. This is going to be your anchor and where you start, I just love witches, so mine is a little flying witch.

Find the middle of the table runner and then anchor it to the mantel. Make sure that the bottom is even and straight across. In this case I'm looking at the spider webs on the end to make sure those are straight.

Once you have that, you're ready to move on to the outside with the height. I found these cute signs and decided to stack them. Sometimes it take a few tries, but just keep trying.

Now that we have one side we're going to work on the other side.

See in the first picture, when I place them side by side, there is no depth or variety. To change that I found a little candle holder and I put it under the man pumpkin, doesn't it look so much better when the man is slightly taller than the woman?

So this is what we have now. My table runner, my anchor and my two outside height pieces. By the way, my husband was a football player and I was a cheerleader, both in high school and college so these "dolls" were a 'must buy' for me!!!!

Since there are two height things on the right (man and woman pumpkins) I decided to add something with the same height to the signs.

So now the mantel looks like this:

The next layer I decided to go with a pumpkin pillow on the left and a little sign on the right. Again, the sign on the right was a little too low, so I put a jar under it to give it some height.

Coming right along.

 Next I wanted to add something that was somewhat the same- a "set." While these look different, they are both sparkly pumpkin candles.

The outsides are the same height.

Now it sort of looks a little plain right?

Let's add another layer, in this case some leaves I found at Micheal's on clearance last year. 

Left side, this really takes placing the leaves down and then moving my decorations to sit on top of it.

The right side: I made sure that I covered the jar that is holding up my sign.

The last and final step is unexpected, but totally necessary. Some call it adding confetti, I call it adding sparkle. I just want to fill in the tiny blank spaces. I found some pumpkin ornaments and then just confetti'd them around to fill in the spaces.

 The finished project. See how the dots of "confetti" adds another layer that isn't expected?

 Advance note: You can always add lighting as well, but that would have been done right after the mantel cover was placed.  Don't forget to test lights before building/placing décor items. Battery operation? or electrical? Think of plug availability....

Sarah and I went into Pier One and found these things you could use for your confetti or sparkle. I personally have given up on glitter....forever, but they are cute! {edited to add: They are no longer available but I wanted to keep it in the post to give you an idea of what "sparkle" you can add.}

Have fun creating 'presents' in your home!!! Sarah and I would love to see your creations!

Post your links in the comments below.

Click here to check out my mantel that we did last year.

Don't forget to go enter into the giveaway! It only runs until Friday!

Linking up here

What I Wore - Striped Cowl Neck Dress

Happy Wednesday Foxy Friends. Is it just me or is this week CRAWLING?! I always think the week after a short week just goes so much slower! Anyway, I got this dress* at the Nordstrom Anniversary sale, and have no worn it yet. Katie wore it for her first day of teaching this year, and it made me want to wear mine too.

It even has pockets, what is better than pockets?

I saw Missy Sue had this on her IG and had to try it. I just love the way it came out and it gave me a new way to do a messy bun, sort of. Since I have yet to master the messy bun, seriously.

Of course Mr. took my pictures and had to take this shot...when does he not?

 

Before you go, make sure to go over to The Blend Blog to celebrate our 1 year blogiversary! We have a fun scavenger hunt going on right now to win $150 to anywhere you want!

 

 

What have you been wearing lately? Link up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Linking up here

*I did buy these with my own money, but linked products are affiliates and I will receive a small commission if you click on it. Thank you for your support!