4th of July with Dixie Southern Vodka
We had a little added bonus to our traditional family pool day/crab boil to celebrate the 4th of July this year. Dixie Southern Vodka sent us a bottle of their Black Pepper Vodka to try along with their recipe for Crawdaddy Pinchers. I was excited to try their vodka for a few reasons. Vodka is our preferred drink in general but Dixie Southern Vodka is a craft vodka made in Charleston, SC, where my father’s family is from. I love...
Coastal Tablescape for Father’s Day
In case you’ve missed it, I’m a little obsessive when it comes to coastal decor. I get all sorts of giddy when I see my kind of coastal stuff, as evidenced by my favorite Pinterest board, Mostly Coastal for the Home. Sadly, most of the items that make me gaga are way out of our budget. Shocker. One of the out of budget items I pinned ages ago has had me wanting to create a coastal tablescape with wannabe plates. It just so...
Hiding Christmas Gifts with Ikea
Hello again! I’ve been a little out of pocket over the past few months due the passing of my amazing grandfather, my husband’s unexpected hospitalization, me being ridiculously sick for a few weeks (I swear I caught Ebola and MRSA from the hospital #iknowiknow #buttotallypossiblewithme), and then back to the hospital with the hubs. When it rains, it pours around here. I’m trying to ease back into a normal schedule...
Halloween Decor & Lighting
Can you believe we’re already into the holiday season?!?! I was at the mall a few days ago and saw Christmas wreaths hanging in Dillards. I had to do a double take because I was sure it was still September. It wasn’t. It was totally October 4th; clearly, the appropriate date to begin Christmas decorating. Anyway, the beginning of October does provide proper timing to decorate for … ahem … Halloween. After...
4th of July Party Ideas
I have to apologize for not posting in such a long time. We’ve been dealing with real life stuff that made blogging take a seat on the backburner of life. However, as we approach the 4th of July, I remembered I took photos of our crab boil last year and decided to share a few ideas with you as I slowly get my blogging groove back. I’m sharing a good handful of ideas but I love that you could do any single one of these to...
An Easter Recipe Worth Sharing
I hope you had a lovely Easter! We had a super low-key Easter breakfast at home with my parents and one of the new recipes I tried was so good, I had to share it with you all! Actually, I’ll share them all but we certainly had favorites. I said low-key but I definitely had a moment when I wanted to do a full blown tablescape. It totally passed. I pulled out some random pink plates I’ve had for years just to add...
Easter Egg Wreath
I know I’ve been MIA for a while but after one too many unfinished projects began to pile up, and subsequently miss holiday deadlines, I decided to take a blogging break until I could get caught up to life. Once I realized how little time I had between St. Patrick’s Day and Easter, I made a decision to give Easter the shaft this year. We weren’t planning to host so I figured I could let it slide. Wrong. I got sick on...
Easy Valentine’s Day Art for Toddlers
I just wanted to share a super quick and easy craft idea that you can do with your kids for Valentine’s Day. I’m kind of in love with this easy Valentine’s Day art for toddlers idea because it make an adorable piece of art (framed or just stuck on the fridge). And I’ve been pink obsessed since the accidental creation of the coffee filter wreath. I pretty much let my 3-year-old do the majority of the...
Coffee Filter Wreath for Valentine’s Day
So, this is sort of a coffee filter wreath accidental success story. I recently discovered coffee paper garland and went bananas over the idea. I have no idea where I first spotted it but once I did, I began to see it everywhere. I knew I wanted to make my own but also wanted to do something different with it for Valentine’s Day. My original plan was to make a giant strand of the garland and hang it in the shape of a heart. I...
New Year’s Eve Appetizers
I realize we’re way past the holidays but I still wanted to share our NYE details since you can incorporate these fancy pants, at-home New Year’s Eve appetizers into any sort of celebration throughout the year and easily spruce up an otherwise mundane event (because fancy food makes everything better). They were easy and I served these bad boys in pjs, with funky hair, sans make-up. I seem to be making a baaaad habit of...
3rd Annual Italian Christmas Celebration
Last year, I posted here to explain why my husband throws our 11-year old daughter an Italian Christmas party. We don’t do anything fancy and the focus is mainly on pigging out on various Italian food while we have a casual gathering with close friends and family with a holiday flair. This year was no different aside from a few little elves running around as free entertainment. I wanted to share some of the photos and simple...
20 Frugal & Fancy Hostess Gift Ideas
I’ve seen a lot of random articles and mentions for hostess gift ideas lately. Some suggestions seem ridiculous to me while others seem brilliant so I wanted to put together my own list of 20 Hostess Gift Ideas. You are certainly never required to bring a hostess gift but it’s always a thoughtful gesture and very much appreciated. A host(ess), who has been running around like a chicken without a head all day and is doing...
Our 2015 Thanksgiving Catastrophe
I posted Turkey Day tips here a few weeks ago and gave a glimpse into the direction I was going with decorating for our first time hosting Thanksgiving (and for 40+ guests to boot!). I normally wouldn’t share after a holiday because you would all forget about any helpful tips by next year. But this. Looks like a grande ole’ time, huh? Come now. Come along on this fun journey of mine to see if you want to learn from me,...
Thanksgiving Planning Tips from Frugal Fantasyland
As we near Fat Pants Day, I find myself hosting our first Thanksgiving Dinner together. We will have both families in our tiny little house. Eek! At nearly 40 guests, this should be an interesting soirée, to say the least. Whether you lean towards over the top formality or towards a super casual family dinner, planning is a must. If you know me, you know that it’s simply not in me to have people over and not do something...
Top Christmas Decor Picks from Pier 1 Imports 2015
This post has absolutely nothing to do with anything I’ve done aside from walk into a Pier 1 store this weekend. And no, this isn’t a sponsored post. I was scoping my favorite stores for Halloween clearance deals and of course got sucked into drooling over the Christmas stuff. Duh. I was over the moon to find so many rustic and neutral options! And then the Pier 1 sales person told me it was all 20% for a few days. Oh boy....
Black & Silver Halloween
Just in case you aren’t yet sick of hearing about my dislike of all things Halloween, this post should get you there. A few weeks ago while we were decorating for fall and Halloween, I just couldn’t bring myself to put up our usual kid-friendly decorations. All that orange. It’s just so unserene to me. I have no problem admiring traditional Halloween decor in the homes of others. But my life is a little too stressful...
Halloween Burlap Spider Wreath
I think I’ve made it pretty clear in previous posts that I am a huge fan of burlap and other natural and neutral decorating materials. When I discovered the fun burlap owl ribbon at Wally World and made my friend her fall owl wreath, I also happened upon some burlap spider web ribbon. I decided I could use this stuff to make myself an understated Halloween Burlap Spider Wreath. Easy-peasy, right? Pfft. Making the burlap wreath...
Burlap Fall Wreath with Owls
While shopping for an RCA adapter at Walmart last week, I naturally found myself in the holiday aisle and happened upon some adorable owl printed burlap ribbon. My oldest daughter’s best friend happens to love owls so I went all craft-crazy and grabbed enough stuff to whip up a burlap fall wreath with owls for her (and her mom, who loves to decorate for fall). I used orange, brown and the owl ribbon plus a wire...
4th of July Crab Boil {Party of 4}
This past 4th of July was a little different for us. We decided to take a break from hosting a gathering and to simply enjoy a private day with our little party of four. I wanted to do a 4th of July crab boil instead of our usual BBQ style outdoor holiday. The day before, we both started to get the itch to have people over but we’d already agreed to host a private affair and had already purchased the crab legs and other food which was...
A Pinterest Fail: Easter Egg Craft
We were able to host Easter last year and I was SO excited to bake and cook and decorate and craft…Oh the crafting. Please enjoy my Pinterest Fail Easter Craft… The chunks of glue look nice, huh? Here is a slightly less pathetic angle… This was my inspiration found on Pinterest…to wrap an inflated balloon with glue soaked string to create this: I wanted much larger eggs to hang from our pergola in lieu of paper...
St. Patrick’s Day Ideas
I don’t think I’m even Irish (we have some questionable roots) but there is no denying that St. Patrick’s Day is flat out fun. And my husband actually IS Irish so that’s just lucky for me. Green beer? Awesome. Don’t drink? Corned beef and cabbage rocks. Don’t enjoy the food? Watch other people who drink too much beer make asses out of themselves. It’s a win-win. Admit it. And on a more PG...
Quick DIY Valentine’s Day Banner
Okay, I must admit that I got super lazy with this banner idea. I knew I had all the supplies needed to construct it but couldn’t find the gumption to actually make this ridiculously easy DIY Valentine’s Day banner. Pretty sad, right? But alas, I managed to muster the energy to do this super hard (pfft!) project that took all of 30 minutes. What a trooper… I hand cut burlap into very poor excuses for triangles. I...
Another Intimate New Year’s Eve at Home
Round 2 of our intimate New Year’s Eve Celebration.
Meet Miss Frugal Fancy Pants
Kara is a self-proclaimed Martha Stewart wannabe with the taste of an aristocrat and (thankfully) a penchant for bargains. She hopes to inspire you to live life beautifully and affordably while laughing at her expense along the way.
Check Out My Etsy Shop
 |
 |