Calligraphy Class

Last week I took my first calligraphy class here in Austin. Lauren, from Blue Eye Brown Eye, is a doll and so talented!

We learned how to hold the pointed pen, as well as practiced the basic strokes, letter forms and connections. She also gave us a ton of information on what and where to buy materials, paper and ink.

Here's a list of her future classes in case you're interested.

Linked with Meet at the Barre

5 Ways to Incorporate Tassels this Summer

Tassels are such a fun trend and I love them for the summer! Here are some of my favorites:

DIY tassel sandals // Tassel keychain // Tinsel drink tassel // Embroidered tassel shirt // Agate + Tassel necklaces

There are lots of diys out there and Etsy is also a great source (for affordable finds + to support small buisness!). I love the agate & tassel combo. And those keychains would be so fun on a clutch too!

Linked with Meet at the Barre

Gold mini pumpkins diy

I purchased a few mini pumpkins in orange and white to decorate with. I opted to turn the orange ones gold. I think it was a perfect excuse to get a little crafting done!

Sometimes a diy project is the perfect therapy. :)
What you need:
- Pumpkins
- Spray paint (I used)
- Tape (if you want to keep the stems natural)
- Gloves

And here is sneak peek of our Halloween decor:

Full post to come on Friday.

Here is a fun post for more ways to decorate your pumpkins. Love the ombre pink ones!

Hope you're having a great week!

Festive links for Friday

Happy Friday!

Halloween is right around the corner... and I haven't planned a thing. We don't have costumes, pumpkins or plans. That's what this weekend is for, right?

Here are 5 festive links to get into Halloween mode:

Doughnut pumpkins // Pumpkin pull apart bread // Caramel apple bar // Tablescape + garland diy // Halloween candy bark

I love the idea of leftover halloween candy bark. Such an easy recipe and a crowd pleaser the next week in the office! Here's a past recipe and guide for peppermint bark. So good. So easy.

To be honest, it isn't my favorite holiday. But I am looking forward to staying in with the bird and handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood. I always love seeing the fun costumes.

Linked with Meet at the Barre

Five Friday Favs

Yay for Friday!

Here are five fabulous things to kick off the weekend:

1 | My favorite fall lookbook this year is from Banana Republic. Love this look!
2 | Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites for the win!
3 | This is such a beautiful quote. Found on Victoria McGinley's blog.
4 | How cute is this pegboard diy?!
5 | Love the anniversary issue of Rue, recognizing 7 new, up and coming designers.

Hope you have some fun weekend plans ahead. We are headed to a BBQ birthday party and hopefully doing a little furniture shopping for our home! yay!
 

Linked with A Liz Adventures and Meet at the Barre

Friday's Round up + Winners

Yay for Friday and the long Easter weekend ahead!

Paris trip planning // abstract canvas // pink cocktails // spring flowers

1 // A week from today, I will be traveling to Paris! I am beyond excited! This is a trip for just my mom and I and it seems like the perfect mother/daughter getaway to me!

2 // After this lovely giveaway, I have been inspired by gorgeous abstract art everywhere. Even though it isn't the real thing, I found this gold leaf abstract canvas diy on Pinterest that has me seriously inspired.

3 // It's spring... and pink cocktails are in order. I may have to start with this pretty Rhubarb Sour.

4 // April showers bring may flowers. These would certainly brighten up our place and actually make it feel like spring around here.

5 // Lastly, here are the winners from the giveaways last week:

• $30 Art Print Credit + 1 Turkish towel  //  Winner: Natalia

• 1 necklace, 1 bracelet + 1 8x10 or 2 5x7 Print  //  Winner: Emi

• Crocodile Fold Over Clutch  //  Winner: Claire

Congrats to the winners! And thank you for everyone who participated and has supported Birdie to be!

Happy Friday & Easter weekend! Here's to a long weekend of indulgence in chocolate eggs and jelly beans.

Linked with A Liz Adventures

Thanksgiving tablscape ideas

It is seriously hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week. Where did this year go?!

It's a bummer we are so far from family this year. But the bird and I are working on putting together a friendsgiving to celebrate anyway. So not-to-worry, festivities are still in order, even in Dublin! :)

After scouring the web for creative ideas, I rounded up 5 easy diy crafts to spruce up any Thanksgiving tablescape.

1 // These mini rosemary wreaths can be used to wrap napkins, as a garland and as place cards.

2 // Use cranberry filled bags (or vases, bowls, etc...) for centerpieces.

3 // I love these pine scraps, cinnamon sticks and twine wrapped napkin rings.

4 // Gold mini pumpkins can be used as place cards, or centerpieces by filling tall vases with them.

5 // These Thanksgiving placemats have been seen everywhere, but I love the idea and look of them!

I also found this Thanksgiving Playlist for both food & tablescape prep and background dinner music.

Christmas Cards

This is the first year I have ever sent out Christmas cards! Its very exciting. So the bird and I chose a lovely photo from our wedding via Vero, our wedding photographer.

I also dolled up the envelopes a bit with address tags.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

craft paper // hole punch // bakers twine // gel pen // tape dispenser

Graduation is bittersweet

This weekend we saw my brother graduate high school. 

So proud of him and so sad to see him off. 

So bittersweet.

Instagram: birdietobe

(a little blurry... whoops!)

And here are the graduation announcements that were sent out in his honor:

Congrats!

Hope you had a fabulous weekend?

And others out there celebrate graduations this weekend?

Paper Designs

Awhile back I shared some pictures with you from my Engagement Party:

Such a lovely party!

Part of all the excitement, that day & of my wedding, has been all paper design I get to take on.

The invites and envelopes with embossing

 The menus to match

And the fun 'Will you be my' notes that popped out of these balloons:

And the disastrous workstation I created :)

So worth all dusty embossing powder that, I am sure, still resides in my keyboard!

Happy Thursday!

Tomorrow is Friday and kicks off to a long Memorial Day weekend :)

Will you be my...

The bird & came up with a unique and fun way to ask our peeps to be part of our wedding party!

We had such a blast putting this idea together and seeing it come to life at our Engagement Party.

Remember these fabulous balloons from yesterday's post?

We decided to blow these bad boys up, fill them with confetti and a little note asking them to be our...

We attached a safety pin to the "pop me" tags.

 

 We handmade the confetti from pink & silver glitter paper.

The "Will you be my" tags were attached to the balloon strings (inside of the balloon). So once the balloon was popped, they saw their notes at the end of the string.