Sweet Tute Tuesday #1-Milk Glass Stars

Hello FaBuLoUs friends!! Ok, so there was a little mis-communication for the guest post that was to be posted yesterday so I apologize for the lack of a Monday post, but I'm making up for it today with a special edition of Sweet Tute Tuesday-TWO Tute Tuesday! That's right-2 fun posts today!

Two Tute Tuesday-Tute #1:The first idea for you is my last addition of 4th of July decor. If you've circuited the blog world for the past couple weeks you've probably already seen this cute idea, but I stole the idea for these Patriotic Milk Glass Stars from Madigan Made. These stars are made from DOLLAR STORE candy dishes-I know, read on I'll tell you how she did it cause I just gotta share the love on this!


Also, I displayed them next to this 4th of July Printable from The Crafting Chicks. I've seen about 10 different printables floating around and this one is my favorite and it just so happens the blue matches my star perfectly. Thanks Crafting Chicks!!


Okay, so back to the stars. I bought 3 star candy dishes from the $store. I used red, white and blue spray paint (all of which I already had) to coat only the inside of the glass. Using light coats of paint and then sort of swirling the paint around the inside, is the key to making sure you don't get streaks or runs of paint. P.S. I love the design on the bottom of the glass!

The paint that inevitably gets on the outside of the star (from the overspray) I just used acetone to take off. This way you really get the milk glass look!


A tip from Madigan Made was to put a dollop of hot glue on the tip of each of the bottom points of the star to keep it upright. Without the glue it leans forward just a tad.





So easy, So cheap, So perfect for July!


Catch ya back here later today with a tutorial for a year-round decoration in your home! That is, after we swim for a few hours, play some games and I smooch on that newborn baby a little more-remember I'm on vacation!! :)

Feature Friday

Today I'm a little sad. Okay a lot sad. We just finished packing up my best friends house and waving goodbye to her and her family for their move to a new home. I'm so happy for the opportunity they have to move into a brand new beautiful home, that they have found great employment for her husband and that they will start a new adventure, but I will miss her and her little princess (who is the same age as my daughter) SO much!

Having a husband in school for awhile now, we've had our fair share of goodbye's to close friends, but this is the first time that it's not just me that will be sad. My little ones are in love with my bestie and she is the first person they want to share exciting news with and she loves them almost as much as I do! Life will be more different than I care to imagine without her here and I hate this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing our relationship will not ever quite be the same as it has been. We'll miss you Mimi!!!

Onto happier things (cause goodness know I need it today!) I'm thankful for these projects that gave me a little pick-me up this week! Check out these beauties some of my followers are doing!

How fabulous are Charcoal and Crayons Seashell stars?! These would look great just about anywhere so I'll definitely be looking for cool seashell's next time we're at the beach!

I love The Gunny Sack's Family Wall hanging! I always think to use vinyl lettering for projects like this, but I love LOVE the method she used-go see!!

"Facelifts" is one of my current craft obsessions-I'm not sure my garage can take any more thrift store golden finds!!-so naturally I was in love with My Wonderfully Made's table facelift!

Here's another beautifully done up-cycled project! Redefining C's Escape sign makes my heart go pitter-patter!! I love the hint of blue throughout that just makes me want to...escape! Gorgeous!

I would give just about anything to have a craft room and I am DETERMINED to see that happen sometime in my life! ha ha! You HAVE to go see the amazing job Sew Woodsy did constructing these Modular Shelves in her craft room. This would be pretty much exactly what my ideal craft room would look like. Love it!

Thanks so much for stopping in, make sure to stop by these awesome blogs and leave them some Sweet Love! Have a great weekend everyone, I'm headed off to the sunny warm-ok HOT-city of St. George UT for the coming week but I'll be posting lots while I'm gone-including a fun guest post on Mon that I promise you will NOT want to miss!!

Distressed Wood Flag

I've had so much fun putting together a few things for the July 4th Holiday this year! After some shopping around the house, an up-cycling of a given-to-me-old-window, and a few hand-made crafts this is what my mantel looks like now (but it could definitely change! ha ha!):


I thought I'd share 3 of these quick and easy crafts you could whip up yourself before the celebrations begin!

1. Distressed Wood Flag


First, Mr. Sweet Love and I cut some strips of wood from what was originally a 1x2 -.87 @Home Depot. (and yes I said "I"! I have to say I love using power tools, :) but I only do it when he's home because as much as I trust myself to use them, I don't trust myself alone in bloody situations!) I spray painted 7 red...


...and 6 white.


The idea for this actually came when I found this piece of wood at DI (the thrift store) for .50 and knew it *wood* work perfectly (I know that's only funny to a select group of people...humor me) for the star section of an American flag.


After I had all my materials ready I came across THIS wood flag while perusing a linky party and was so excited to find an easy tip to creating the stars-my way was going to take much longer! Use star stickers, paint it blue and then peel off the stickers once the paint has dried. Genius!


And I actually used just a little tester size jar of paint (and only about 1/16th of the jar) I found at Home Depot for $1, in Navy Blue, for this instead of spray paint since I didn't have the color blue I wanted. (shocker I know!)


I then just used wood glue to glue each strip of the flag together, as well as the wood star block to the stripes.


I loved the flag, but the colors were a little bold for my mantle since I was going for more of the deep red and blue look. So I sanded the whole thing down to distress it a bit and then added a layer of stain in Dark Walnut. It actually turned out a little *too* distressed for my taste. Looking back, I probably would have used a lighter color stain ( I had both Dark Walnut and a light oak on hand, but opted for the darker one) but all things considered, I LOVE it!




Since I knew I was going to be distressing it, I didn't want it too perfect or symmetrical looking so we made each of the stripes a different length to give it a sort of waving type look. Well, that's what we were going for anyway! ha ha! What do you think?!


Not too bad for under $5 is what I think! ha ha!


2. DIY Declaration of Independence

This is what is in the center of my mantel above and the full tutorial is posted HERE from when I blog swapped with Crafty, Scrappy, Happy. There are just 4 simple steps and will cost less than $2!

3. DIY patriotic frame


I got this idea when I saw this gift bag at the Dollar Store! I just cut the front off the bag and used the ribbon handles taped to the back of the frame to hold the frame in place behind the glass.


Easy peesy and the color matched perfectly for my mantle! yay!


Everything else on the mantle was things I already had around the house (recognize the bean balls back in the corner?! :) ) to fill in the space around the main decorations. Now, bring on the BBQ, the swimming, the fireworks and the celebration of the beautiful, FREE country we live in!


I do have one or two more simple decoration ideas to post so make sure to check back soon! I hope you are enjoying your sunshiney, warm summery days as much as I am! Thank you so much for spending some time with me today!! Don't forget to enter my 200 follower giveaway going on now! Love yall!

Linking up at these parties as well as:

Thankful Thursday=GIVEAWAY!!!!

Today I am thankful for Y.O.U. That's right, every single one of my 200 and 2 followers! It is so fun to have an outlet. Someplace that I can share my creations, post inspiring ideas from other talented crafters, and write!

I started my family blog about 4 years ago and love keeping our family life in a journal-of sorts-for my kids to have and remember when they grow up, but I started Love Sweet Love just for myself. That sounds so selfish! ha ha! But it's true. I love to create and am so THANKFUL that there are people who enjoy what I do, and what I write, and I just think it's the biggest compliment in the world when someone becomes a follower of Love Sweet Love! I love doing this and wanted to thank you for taking the time to come check me out, leave me a sweet comment now and then and follow along on my journey, so I am SOOOO excited to host my 2nd giveaway today!!!!!

And I'm even more excited that I'm teaming up with Kristine and Britney from J&M's Eye Candy to bring you today's 200 follower giveaway! When Kristine approached me about providing the loot for today's giveaway I literally squealed with delight! They are a new blog out here in crafty blog-o-sphere but have totally been tearin' it up! You can also find them on facebook or uploading all sorts of GORGEOUS things to their etsy shop!

Today, J&M's Eye Candy has offered, to one of you LuCkY Love Sweet Love followers a chance to win your choice of one of these 3 bubble watches pictured below, as well as one watch face (a $25 value!!) I can't even tell you how much I wish I could win!!!




I love giving you lots of chances to win so here are some ways you can enter (and please leave a separate comment for each of your entrys)....

• 1 entry for being a follower of Love Sweet Love (it's easy to follow along if you're not already-just click the button above the followers that says 'follow')
• 1 entry for being a follower of J&M's Eye Candy (they post EVERYday!)
• 1 entry if you tell me one of your favorite shows on tv. Mr. Sweet Love and I love to watch hulu together at night, but all our shows are over for the summer so we need some good ones to get into! It can be a past or present show-anything we could find on hulu or netflix!

This giveaway will be open through June 30th at midnight! A winner will be chosen and posted on Fri. July 1st! The good news doesn't just stop there...the fabulous Britney and Kristine have so kindly offered 10% off anything in their etsy shop to all Love Sweet Love readers, just use code LSWEETL10 at checkout!!!

Good luck! I'll be back later {tonight?} with my July 4th decorating post that was planned for yesterday-oops! :)

Sweet Tute Tuesday-Blog Swap with Crafty Scrappy Happy

Once upon a time there was a blog named Love Sweet Love and a blog named Crafty Scrappy Happy. LSL thought CSH was SO cOoL and insanely talented so LSL left her a quick blog comment and CSH wrote her back the sweetest email! LSL knew from that moment CSH was going to be a great friend (I mean we both have a daughter named Kylee!-mine is the human type and hers is the canine type) and after a couple of back and forth emails she asked CSH to be her bloggy BFF to which CSH replied "of course!". And the rest is history. ha ha! Did you keep up with all that?!

I really am SO excited to have "met" Jaime through the blogging world and she really has become the sweetest friend and I am thrilled to be blog swapping with her today! And with that I'll let her TAKE IT AWAY...

Hello Love Sweet Love friends, I am so so so honored that I get to "meet" all of you today and take over Angela's blog for the day! I am Jaime from Crafty Scrappy Happy.

I am a crafty, DIY, girl on a budget who has become a crazy blogger because of the AMAZING people I have met via blogging! I just adore Angela, like really really can't say enough wonderful things about her and how much I wish she was my next door crafty neighbor/best friend forever.

I LOVE to drool over things that I wish I could spend a million dollars on and then make my own version (or at least attempt to)! I adore meaningful projects. I must note that I have started to dabble in furniture up-cycling—which is quickly turing into a new obsession of mine!! I also love to come-up-with-and-try new crafty “techniques” todays project is one of them!

Have I mentioned that I would LOVE SWEET LOVE for you to stop by my blog---I love making new blogging friends!

With out further ado here is my project for you today:

{Up-cycling glass bottles into vases/candle holders}

The total project takes about 10 min when you have all of the supplies collected!!! I love quick and simple!!!

Here is what you will need to make the vase/candle holder:

-old glass bottles

-nail polish remover

-cotton strong (I used the green yarn pictured below)

-a lighter or matches

-a sink full of cold water

-sand paper

Here is what you do:

-wrap the cotton yarn around your bottle 5-6 times, tie and cut ends.

-take the yarn off and dip in nail polish remover

-light on fire ****please please be careful****

-rotate bottle in circles as the yarn is on fire for about 20 seconds so that all parts of the bottle warm evenly

-submerge in cold water and watch the bottle parts separate

-use sand paper to smooth rough edges

Kind of a fun technique right?

And I like the beach-y message in a bottle feel to the project----my house is all sea inspired at the moment so i think I will for sure find a home for these fun glasses!

Buttt I couldn't just stop there.... because I am in LOVE with making my own candles and have been looking for a perfect container for my new lemon grass summer sent----trust me it is heavenly!

I got the wax and wicks from Swan Creek Candle Outlet---it makes buying candles super inexpensive when you make them! The entire container is $10 and it will make two small sized mason jars, but the smell is really what gets me!

**I am most definitely not trying to sell a type of wax, just wanted you to know what I used! :o)

This part seriously takes 4 min.

-One min. to secure the wick to the bottom of the jar-I used glue dots, but hot glue works great also

-3 min. to heat the wax and pour

{Then I just added an old candle holder I had up-cycled awhile back to give the candle different look--I just added a little hot glue to hold the jar and candle holder together}

{And this is where my little project sits in my house for now}

I just want to say thank you once again for letting me take over one of my favorite blogs today---it has been an honor!

I told you she was AWESOME! Her home literally looks like it walked out of a Home Living magazine-you have to go see! AND she's got a fantastic giveaway going on now for a coffee sack for all her followers, don't miss out!

Head on over to Crafty Scrappy Happy NOW to see what project I did for her blog! Here's a little hint:


Tomorrow I've got some 4th of July Decorations to share with you, I think my house is finally ready for the 4th! See ya then!

All about {not} Me Monday

I really try to get my posts up early in the morning throughout the week, but our weekend kinda kept going into today since the hubby was off work and the weather was BEAUTFIUL today (cloudy, rainy and cold yesterday :( ) so we had to take advantage and we played ALL day today! (as well as worked on a few craft projects!! Gotta take advantage of that great spray-painting weather!) so NOW onto All about Me Monday!

Which will actually have nothing to do with me today, but rather {first} my mom and {second} Mr. Sweet Love.

I am SO excited to wish my mom a VERY HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY!!!!!
I took this photo 2 weeks ago while we were waiting for my little sisters baby to be born at the hospital!




For a little tribute to my mom on this blog, I thought I'd share with all my Love Sweet Love readers a portion of the post I wrote on Mother's day on my personal family blog:

***I'm also so grateful for a mother who taught me what the word mother truly means. She is the greatest example in the world for me and my greatest fear is that I won't be able to be the same mother to my kids as she was to me. Her love and support in all I do means the world to me and I'm so glad that Jesus gave me her (the last part is in reference to a story about my little boy I wrote in the same post:) )***

She now has FOUR grandchildren and has been at the hospital for each baby that has come into her family. That is the kind of person she is. Dependable, compassionate, positive, helpful, thoughtful, loving and encouraging (to name a few :) ). I kinda love her a lot!!! Happy Birthday Mom!

Our Father's day (although rainy) was perfect! Great church service, long naps, steaks on the grill for dinner with our best friends and a sweet gift from the kids (ie ME) :).

*photo edited using picnik
*Poem: Walk a Little Slower Daddy

I know I blabbed on and on a *little* on Thursday's Post about how fantastic he is, so as to not be too lovey dovey (I'll save that for our anniversary next month:) ) I'll just suffice it to say he's a stud. A total, off the charts, all around S.T.U.D. And my kids are pretty much the luckiest darn kids around. They think so anyway...






Love these "outtakes"! :)






Thanks for sharing a little of my life with me today! I'll be back here tomorrow with a BLOG SWAP with one of my bloggy BFF's, so you'll definitely want to stop in and see her fantastic project! Have a good night sleep friends!