Event | Woodland Themed Baby Shower

A couple of friends and I threw a woodland themed baby shower for one of our great friends! Here are a few pictures from the shower. This was the perfect theme for her shower, she and her husband love the outdoors, you can always find them camping, hiking or on a new adventure in the wilderness! 

{Click here to check out a cute Sweet Beginnings Bridal Shower}

Decorations were so easy but so cute! I made pendant banners out of brown paper and cut the words out with my mother-in-laws Cricut machine! I also bought a roll of twine from Hobby Lobby with the 40% off coupon! I also made my own white tissue paper pom poms in two different sizes and hung them with string from the ceiling.

Our food menu consisted of Chicken Salad Croissants, Chips and Salsa with Guacamole, Spinach Cashew Salad, Bow Tie Pasta Salad, Fruit Kabobs, and a delicious Grape Ginger Ale drink. A huge thanks to Jodee and Candace for making most of the food, everything was delicious!

We decided to go the a dessert/candy bar for refreshments, because the more desserts the better of course! We had cupcakes, donut holes, Smores' Chex Mix, nuts, and variety of neutral colored candies! A few recipes are listed below, just scroll down!

This cake Jodee had made from one of her neighbors was absolutely amazing! We had her put the carved V on the front for the soon to be baby Von.

I made the most soft a delicious chocolate cupcakes with an almond frosting! Sincerely Sender made the adorable Woodland Animal Toppers.

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
2 Cups Flour
2 tsp. baking soda
4 Tbsp. coca
1 Cup water
1 Cup granulated sugar
1 Cup Mayonnaise
2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, baking soda and cocoa. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat sugar, mayonnaise, water and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until well blended. Pour batter into cupcake cups and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Frost and enjoy!

This Smores' Chex Mix is not only delicious, it absolutely so easy to make! It went perfectly with the woodland theme! There are a bunch of different recipes online, I kind of modified some that I found. Here is how I made this!

Smores' Chex Mix Recipe

Golden Graham Cereal

Chex Mix Cereal

White Chocolate Chips

Semi-Sweet or Milk Chocolate Chips

Mini Marshmallows

Mini Chocolate Chips

Spread out the Golden Grahams and Chex of your choice on a cookie sheet. I lined mine with parchment paper, less mess! Melt the white chocolate chips and chocolate chips, I use the double boiler method. Once melted drizzle all over the cereals on the cookie sheet. (I put my melted chocolate in 2 different ziplock bags and then cut a hole in the corner. It worked perfectly!) Before the chocolate chip drizzle dries, sprinkle the Mini Chocolate chips and Marshmallows so they stick. Once dry break into pieces and enjoy!

Fall + A Painted Nest = DIYs

If you are like us, you probably cannot crunch one more leaf under your foot or walk by one more bag of those scented pine cones at the craft store, without being bombarded with a bunch of DIY ideas. If you can't come up with any of your own, feel free to borrow ours or borrow from the one million plus, Pinterest has to offer.

With one of the best holidays ever just around the corner, we thought we'd give you a few dinner table ideas and a few other ideas to dress up your home and get everything ready for Fall! Please know..all these crafts are totally easy and VERY inexpensive. We completed most of them by gathering from our neighborhood and with a newborn and a two year old "helping"....in other words, IF WE CAN DO THIS, SO CAN YOU!

A fancy, elaborate table setting might not be very impressive to the the younger crowd, so we thought a kids table with a coloring craft might be a good alternative and help keep the nice meal from turning into a food fight. We found this cute kids pine cone crayon holder on the cutest party blog you'll ever visit. Amanda over at Amanda's Parties TO GO has the cutest ideas for every type of party you might consider throwing. A few Novembers ago she made these darling crayon holders using a pine cone turned sideways. Can't even imagine how big of a hit these will be when the little tikes sit down for their Thanksgiving feast. We also love the corn husk goodie bag for dessert, that means more pie for the adults :)

Now that the littles in your family are happy, spend a little time for yourself. Here are a few simple ideas to adorn your adult table come Thanksgiving. All it takes is some leaf  and pine cone collecting with your family, a gold sharpie, and real good penmanship. 

We cannot even tell you how easy and how much we love our cinnamon scented pinecone garland. We found the pinecones at Smiths grocery store on sale for $3.99. Each Garland took one full bag. Measure a piece of twine to desired length. Be sure to give yourself a little lee-way, you'll be wrapping and knotting your pinecones in place. We didn't worry too much about getting similar sized pinecones or the amount of space left between each cone, the imperfection gave it a good rustic look and who really cares when it smells so nice.

The next DIY requires some sort of small pot, a pine cone, twine, and some greenery to embellish, we used some moss we had lying around. Simply create this pine cone topiary by setting a pine cone in a small pot and surrounding with greenery. Complete the project by tying a twine bow around the pot. Ta Da!

You likely have our next DIY pinned on one of your Pinterest boards. We certainly did. We created this Thankful Tree by collecting twigs from our backyard and raiding our scrapbook closet! Spend a night with your family writing things you are all thankful for on the mini hearts! We love how cute it looks paired with this bold wall in our entry way!

Feel free to email us if you have questions! We'd also love to hear about and see all your easy Fall crafts!

As an added bonus we have two FREEEE downloads available for your tasting and viewing pleasure!

NUMBER ONE, in our family we LOVE Wassail. We usually wait to enjoy it on Christmas Eve, but we thought maybe our Nesters might like to incorporate it into their Thanksgiving menu, so for a delicious hot drink, download our wassail recipe below. Even if you don't intend to drink it (BUT WHY WOULDN'T YOU), it'll make your house smell like the most delicious thing you have ever smelt. Even my hot drink hating husband likes the way the house smells when I've got wassail simmering on the stove!

November- Wassail Recipe Download

NUMBER TWO, an 8" x 10" Fall print will add a festive touch to your home decor. If you're like us, we love switching out a print or two to correspond to the holiday at hand. Simply download and print from home or send to your local print shop! Frame it and hang or prop or rest it in a easel or whatever else you want to do to display! Hope you enjoy :)

November- Subway Art Download

Who's Who Wednesday I Willow & Wildflowers

It is a rainy, drizzle day where we are, so we need some cheer! Today we want to spend our Wednesday introducing you to seriously the cutest floral shop EVER...Willow and Wildflowers is located in Bountiful, UT and we love that place...major!

Their little shop is nestled inside this old home turned fabulous. They not only have the most beautiful floral arrangements, but they always have a huge selection of home decor, sure to make any living space a little better. You may even stumble upon a few Painted Nest furniture pieces if you happen to stop by the shop!

Willow and Wildflowers is the only place we'd ever turn to if we had a wedding coming up...In fact, they are who we turn to for ALL our floral needs. Mindy and Kelly always know to how to take the bride's dream and make it come to life. Please enjoy the pictures below of some of their beautiful work.

Visit Willow in person at 371 North 200 West - Bountiful, UT  or online at www.willowandwildflowers.com. They are also in the process of joining the blog world at www.willowandwildflowers.blogspot.com

Events | Old Church Wedding

Well, we had a chance to help decorate a wedding a couple weekends ago and we wanted to share the finished goodness! And you won't even believe it, but we made our own floral arrangements. All of them....I know.

This small open house was held at a LDS Church on about 8th East and 4th South in Salt Lake City, Utah. The church has been around for years and has such beautiful little details. The beautiful venue made our jobs fairly easy. Please enjoy this little recap!

A Painted Nest has the perfect pieces to create a fun gift area!

One of the bride's colors was purple and you should have seen how purple the tree welcoming the guests was! What a perfect touch. That frame is a favorite ikea purchase.

                           Lanterns lined the walkway, with little bouquets tied to each Shepard hook.

We picked up cheap purple fabric scraps in various shades from a local fabric shop.

Another Painted Nest piece utilized as the sign in table.

We were pretty proud of our first time tapping into floral arranging! We woke up early and hit up costco and purchased any bouquets with purple!

Tip: We used mini rubber hair elastics to bustle the tablecloths. Easy way to manipulate length.

The reception area had 9 gorgeous windows. All framed with this gorgeous dark wood, we added some pictures, topiarys, and muslin columns. 

To see another wedding utilizing refinished furniture by A Painted Nest visit:

http://livinwithboy.blogspot.com/p/wedding.html