Category Archives: Party Time

Christmas: People Think They Know Us!

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Design Build Love

This year, I guess people really thought they knew us when they went gift shopping… and I guess they do!!! Around here, while we love gifts, holidays really aren’t about the gifts! With busy lifestyles, we don’t always get to spend as much time with family and friends as we’d like, so the holidays are one of the few times where everyone sets aside the “to-do’s” to spend some quality time together. And, while we had the most amazingly fun time with our families and friends, we are just amazed by the gift selections and just had to share them!!! This was a Christmas of tools, decor, party supplies, and clothes!!! No complaints here!!! Oh ya… and here are some fun pictures of our family and friends! WE LOVE THEM!!! The uncles might get the award for uncles of the year!!! They were total troopers and somehow were convinced by our adorable nieces that it was okay to paint their fingernails blue and pink! Get ready to give up your “man-cards” boys!!! Oh ya, and we bought our little guy his first ever 49ers jersey!!! What’s up Michael Crabtree?!?!? All in all, it was an absolutely unforgettable Christmas! DID ANYONE RECEIVE A TOTALLY UNEXPECTED GIFT THIS HOLIDAY SEASON? ANY CRAZY FAMILY STORIES THAT THEY’RE DYING TO SHARE??? (pretty, please!!!) Blog this! Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Tweet about it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Bookmark in Browser Tell a friend

Posted in Celebrations, Cool Things, Life, Party Time | 4 Comments

$7 DIY Multi-Holiday Table Centerpiece

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Design Build Love

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, then you know that Eric and I ran away to his family’s cabin and then to Southern California the other weekend after I completed one of my law school exams. While we were at the cabin, I managed to scour the area for some awesome (and free) pinecones! I had been mentally planning our dining table centerpiece and with a plethora of pinecones at my fingertips, I just knew that they had to take center stage in this project! Free + creativity is always good, right? Don’t you LOVE my camo! Anyways, I ended up collecting quite a few by the end of the weekend and it was safe to say that they pinecones had tons of natural character, complete with sap and all! Once home, I got them lined up outside, grabbed some metallic spray paint, and went to town! Once the pinecones were complete, I turned my attention to my $2 Target pumpkins. I decided to spruce them up a bit too! So, I grabbed my handy wedding tulle and added some flare! With the pinecones and pumpkins dressed, I attempted a few arrangements and finally ended up with this: And the one spare extra-large pinecone found a home on our living room’s coffee table. Here’s the cost breakdown for this project: Spray Paint ($3.50 each) Seriously… that was IT! We only spent $7 for this project! Here’s where all the other stuff came in: Pumpkins: leftover from Halloween ($2 each) Wicks in Wine Bottles: purchased on our Labor Day getaway ($3 each) Completely FREE ITEMS: 2 hexagon mirrors mom didn’t want, tulle from our wedding, pine cones from the cabin, wine bottles that we actually drank I’m sure there will be many revisions to come, but I am loving … Continue reading

Posted in Celebrations, Dining Room, DIY, Painting, Party Time | 12 Comments

My Awesome Wine & Beer Tasting Birthday Party

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Design Build Love

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, my birthday didn’t just consist of a weekend getaway; Eric and my mom spearheaded a proper party celebration with some help from my friend Rachel. Now, this wasn’t a surprise party by any means, but this was my first birthday celebration in my adult life that I didn’t have a hand in planning! For this control-freak/former event-planner… this was foreign territory! In the end, it was almost like a surprise party! Eric took the lead to get the ball rolling. He hacked my email account and sent out an Evite to the people he believed I’d want there! How sweet is that!!! I seriously had 43 printed pages of contacts in my personal gmail account and he went through each and every one! If that’s not dedication and love, I don’t know what is!!! Then, he broke down the details of the party. I had mentioned that a wine tasting party sounded fun, so he took that and ran with it! After some discussion with my mom, they decided to do a wine and beer tasting party since some the guys are big wine drinkers! In the Evite, Eric and my mom told all the women to bring their favorite bottle of wine ($15 limit) and all of the men to bring a 6-pack of their favorite micro-brew! Then, he decided to make things a competition!!! Ya, we get competitive up in this house on birthdays! After all… this is a “tasting” and what’s the point of a tasting if you don’t have a winner! We even had official score cards and bought prizes for the winners! Eric, my mom, and Rachel took care of the food. But seriously, I was so pumped about the party that Eric let me help with the menu planning … Continue reading

Posted in DIY, Food, Life, Party Time | 2 Comments

Travel, Celebration, Inspiration, Love

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Design Build Love

Ok, I suppose my tardiness is a dead giveaway since I noted above that this was a birthday and anniversary getaway and your heard about our anniversary here. Well. Forgive me. This post just hasn’t seemed to write itself. BUT, here it is. On a platter. Just kidding… that is my cake. Our anniversary and my birthday are exactly one week apart, and my birthday happens to almost always fall on Labor Day weekend, so inevitably, we try to take a little trip each year to commemorate both moments. This year, we went to beautiful Monterey, CA. Not only is this place a beautiful example of the California coastline, but it also happens to be home to the infamous 17-mile drive, on which Pebble Beach Golf Course sits… ya, it’s that infamous. People pay to drive for 17 miles. Where else do you get that? Anywho, the weekend couldn’t have been more amazing. This is going to sound bad, but while driving there, Eric and I realized that the last time we went out of town by ourselves was for our “mini-honeymoon” on Labor Day weekend two years prior. Talk about ridiculous. Couples out there reading this… don’t. do. this. Not that we’re having issues or anything, but the weekend quickly taught us how desperately we needed a weekend away alone and how much we need to make the mini-getaways more of a priority! Seriously people, mini-trips like this really don’t have to cost much at all, so there is really no excuse! I mean… look at these smiles! So, you ask, how did we spend our glorious weekend away? We relaxed, we ate, we biked, we walked, we shopped, we wine tasted, we gawked at amazingly stunning (way-out-of-our-price-range) houses… just basically put that track on repeat! And, in the … Continue reading

Posted in Celebrations, Get Inspired, Life, Our Love, Party Time, Travel Inspiration | 2 Comments

When the Boys are Away, the Girls Will Play!

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Design Build Love

YUP, it’s true! And Eric totally knows it too! I LOVE my girl-time! I seriously have been blessed with some of the most amazing girlfriends in the whole world too! They are all very different and we’ve all done completely different things with our lives, but for some reason, we just work! Maybe it’s the variety that keeps it interesting?!?!? I’ll just go with that! Anyways, remember way back HERE, when I said that Eric ran off to the cabin with the boys, WELL… that cued my girls night planning! Last time we had girls’ night, it was winter, so we cozied up in the living room next to the fireplace and ate hor devours and drank yummy wine, talking the night away! It. Was. Perfect. This time around… the weather is totally different like 50 degrees different! So, this time we planned for wine and hor devours around the pool! Absolutely. Perfect. I decided to co-host a girls’ night with my girlfriend Rachel (seen here) to mix some of our friends, since we both think we have wonderful friends! In the end, we had about 10 girls poolside. Sadly, we didn’t take pictures… except for these few… Our little Ollie stole the show as usual! BUT, the food, drink, and company came in a close second! It was a great time! Safe to say that our lack of pictures was due to just that… having too good of a time! So thankful for those amazing girlfriends that really just round out making your life blessed! LOVE YOU LADIES!!! ANYONE ELSE HAVE A SHOUT-OUT TO THEIR FRIENDS? DO THEY TOTALLY MAKE YOUR LIFE WONDERFUL TOO??? Blog this! Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share … Continue reading

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Life, Party Time | 5 Comments

Eric Turned 30! It was a GIANT Weekend!

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Design Build Love

Yup, that might be a terrible play on words, but it truly was a GIANT birthday, like a full-on two-day celebration! Yup, I love the hubby, what can I say! The basics of the weekend: Saturday- SF Giants game with a small group of eleven Sunday- Birthday BBQ and swim party at the house for our family and a few close friends Now, as a bullet list, that doesn’t look like much, but when you look back at our to-do list and what we actually accomplished… it was a lot! BUT, how can you really appreciate a celebration if you don’t have to put a little work into it! Suffice to say we did our best to meet our to-do’s but definitely got the most important ones done… like the food! To sum it all up, the weekend was an absolute blast (filled with what I now lovingly call… the comedy of errors- i.e. whatever could go wrong, did go wrong)! So, without further a-do, this is what it looked like (thanks to cell phone pics and my sister-in-law, Brittany’s camera- ya, more on that with my “comedy of errors post”)… SF Giants Game Part of our group! Eric and two of his brothers Eric and his dad (ain’t he handsome!)… Please ignore the nasty old hat he INSISTED on wearing! Me and Manda poundin’ fists/ drink holders! Eric’s dad rockin’ the fist! (He’s the glass artist who did our custom wedding party gifts and our hanging glass piece from our House Crashers Episode!) Eric’s cousin Matt and his beautiful fiance Amanda Now… Doug’s rockin’ the fist! Let’s just say this bad boy got passed around! Our Seats! Right ON the field!!! There is actually a GIANT slide inside that Coke bottle for all the kiddos! How fun!!! We sat … Continue reading