Archives for March 2013

Fancy This Fridays 120 and Features

HAPPY Friday and HAPPY Easter weekend!!! Any exciting plans for the holiday??

I’m hosting a Woolite In Home Clothing and Accessories Boutique tonight through Crowdtap! Have you joined yet?? If not you should and you can have the chance to host sponsored parties too! Then we plan to host a few family members over the weekend and visit a few as well.

Before we jump into this week’s features we want to wish a HAPPY HAPPY Birthday to our sweet bloggie friend, !!! Hope you have the BEST day girl!!!!

This week the theme of our features happens to revolve around tips! We have three great tips for you linked up at last week’s Fancy This Friday’s party!

First up, word on the street is that Google Reader will be disappearing on July 1st. Sarah from SaturDIY has a few alternatives to the Google Reader for you! I have yet to receive the menacing message she talks about, but I did already switch over to Feedly just to be safe… What method are you looking at switching to???

New RSS Reader

Another blog related tip comes from Jenna at Rain on a Tin Roof. She shared 10 Ways to Make Money Blogging. I use a couple of the methods she talks about here, but a few were new to me. What is your favorite method for monetizing your blog???

10 ways to make money blogging

And our last tip of the week is NOT blog related, but completely necessary this time of the year… Jessica of View from River Mountain shares her tip for No More Stinky Shoes!! It really is genius! Click over to find out what she does… Do you have any methods for keeping cool during the warmer months?

no more stinky shoes

Here’s a Featured on Truly Lovely button for you three mentioned above! Hope you’ll grab one and share it over at our own blogs! 😉
Don’t forget each of these features gets pinned to our !! Check it out for past features and some fun ideas!!

Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.
Not the blog itself.
2. Please link only your OWN posts.
We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.
3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!
4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.
Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…
Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Have a fun weekend!!!

 



A Fancy Kitchen with Moen and the Kiran Kitchen Faucet

This post brought to you by Moen, Incorporated. All opinions are 100% mine.

I've done a few posts on my home over the life of this blog. There was the one where I made over the guest bedroom, or the one where my sister and I spent an entire weekend just painting my living room. But one area of my home that hasn't been addressed yet is my kitchen.

The overall style of my home, at least as I picture it and hope to acheive completely at some future point is welcoming. Relaxed. A place to spend time with loved ones and not feel like you should sit silently with your hands in your lap in case you accidentally touch something. I want my family and guests alike to feel comfortable but still see that I take pride in my home and its style. Back to the kitchen. If I'm aiming for the overall style of comfortable and welcoming while still looking stylish the Kiran Spot Resist one-handle pulldown kitchen faucet would be a perfect addition to my home.


The very features of the Moen Kiran faucet lean towards stylish but relaxed. It's spot resistent so that means less time cleaning in the kitchen and more time spent with your family and friends. It's fingerprint resistent so guests and family alike won't have to feel like it's one of those off limits design elements that they probably shouldn't touch. {Have you ever felt like that in someone's home? I have!}

The Kiran faucet has a high arch pull down design which makes it easy to use and perfect for washing those larger kitchen items like large pots and pans. The relex system allows you to pull out and then down on the nozel of the faucet to easily rinse things like dishes, produce, etc. Lucky for you and me the Moen Kiran can be purchased at Lowe's! And really just look at how stylish it would be in your own kitchen!!


For other home improvement ideas from Moen like their or follow them on .

Your turn: What overall style are you going for in your home?

Easter Banner

Hey loves! I hope you are enjoying Spring as much as I am! The warmer weather in Arizona has been really nice! Today I have an easy Easter craft for you since it’s just a few days away. I whipped this lovely paper Easter Banner out in just an hour one afternoon.

paper easter banner

The materials for this Easter craft all came from Consumer Crafts.

Materials:

  • Colored card stock
  • Small Clothespins
  • Bakers Twine
  • Computer and Silhouette if using a cutting tool like I did. Scissors if cutting out shapes on your own.

making an Easter banner

I purchased an Easter set of cutouts from the Silhouette store (their Easter shapes are all 20% off right now!!) and used my computer and Silhouette cutter to cut them out on the Spotted Card Stock.

Then it was just a matter of measuring my bakers twine (I used a yellow and white twine) to fit across my mantel. I hung the twine on the mantel then used the clothes pins to hang each of my Easter cutouts across the twine. Easy as that!!

Easter Mantel

Using the spotted card stock was fun because it gives each of the shapes a little added dimension. OH! And quick tip if your trying to hang something lightweight with small clothespins like these… Make sure the clothespin is all the way down on the twine, then barely stick the cutout into the clothespin. Otherwise the weight isn’t distributed right and everything flips upside down!

how to make an easy Easter banner

Your turn: Do you decorate for Easter? Do you go the traditional pastel route or mix things up some other way???

Speaking of Consumer Crafts, this is the last week to get entered into their Pin It to Win It Contest!! Don’t miss out because you could win up to $500 worth of craft supplies from their site!!!

Linking this here and here and .

P.S. Hope you enjoyed this post! If so, we’d love if !

Pen Pal Exchange


Did you ever have a pen pal when you were growing up? Someone you exchanged letters, cards or postcards with? I know I did as a young girl and it was something I’ve always remembered and wanted to do again! We all get crap mail most of the time so wouldn’t it be fun to have something exciting to look forward to getting besides all those bills, flyers and grocery ads?! We think so!

Chrissy from A Lil Dash of Diva and I have teamed up to bring you a Pen Pal Exchange!

The Rules:

You must send your Pen Pal a letter, card or postcard at least once per month during the exchange period

This is meant to be a letter, card or postcard exchange only. There are no packages and min/max amount of cash to spend. If you want to send a small trinket to your Pen Pal that is totally up to your discretion but it is not a requirement or even a suggestion.

If you have a child who would like a pen pal, please let us know and we will do our best to pair them up with another child to partner with for the exchange.

The exchange period will last 3 months at a time. Our hope is that you will connect with your Pen Pal and make a new friendship that will blossom and grow over time. You are encouraged to connect through following your pen pals blog, Facebook, Twitter and any other social media you’d like. You can exchange texts and emails too if you’d like but none of these are required to participate!

*If this first round goes well, we will be continuing with another round with new PenPal partners.
*Please help us spread the word about the PenPal exchange!



Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Fancy This Fridays 119 and Features

WHOOT! It’s Friday!!! 😉 How was your week?? Have you shared your 20 wishes progress with us yet?? Interested in writing a list of 20 wishes you hope to accomplish and joining us??? You can do both here.

Here are the features from last week’s Fancy This Fridays party! Since Easter is next Sunday we stuck with an Easter theme today! All the features are fun things you can whip up this week just in time to celebrate on the 31st!

First up, Natalie of Sophisticated Yellow shared the most adorable Easter Bunny Napkins!! The little tails even come off for washing!!! So cute!

Bunny Napkins

Next up Kathy from Life on Lakeshore Drive shows us how to make a FUN Easter Egg Centerpiece!!!

Easter Centerpiece

And Teri of A Creative Princess shared this cute Easter Egg Framed Wreath!! Perfect for Easter and Spring, yes!?!

Easter Frame Wreath

Have you made any fun decorations for Easter this year?? We wanna see them and anything else you might’ve fancied up below!!! Or if you have fun Easter decorations and/or ideas from last year we’d love to see those too!

Here’s a Featured on Truly Lovely button for you three mentioned above! Hope you’ll grab one and share it over at our own blogs! 😉
Don’t forget each of these features gets pinned to our !! Check it out for past features and some fun ideas!!

Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.
Not the blog itself.
2. Please link only your OWN posts.
We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.
3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!
4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.
Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…
Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Have a fun weekend!!!



Twenty Wishes Progress Link Up – March

Hey dolls!!!
It’s 20 wishes progress report day!!! I a so excited to see the progress each one of you is making on your list!!! If you’re new here, check out why we created the 1 Year 20 Wishes project! If you have yet to link up YOUR 20 wishes list, we would love to invite you to write one and link it up with us below!!!

Truly Lovely

Truly Lovely

 

You can see my progress here.

We aren’t requiring you to follow anybody, visit anybody, or anything else really. The point is for you to have a place to share and work towards accomplishing those things you really want to do. Although, we do hope that if you’re looking for a new bloggie friend you’ll check out the ladies in our list… We love them all and you will too. :)

OH! And if you’d like to invite your friends to join in, please do so! The more the merrier!!!



Kassi’s 20 Wishes Progress – March 2013

Now that March is in full swing, the first day of Spring is only a day away, we’ve all taken down the green from St. Patty’s, etc, etc… It’s time for ANOTHER 20 Wishes progress report! :) So here’s my progress as of March 2013! If you have yet to join us, please check out this post for the what and why, then write up your 20 wishes and come back here on Wednesday, March 20th to link up your list! Everyone else, can’t wait to see your progress on Wednesday!

{Progress for March are this color and in italics. Progress updates from February are this color and in italics. Progress updates for progress report one are red and in italics.}

Here’s a button for those of you that have yet to join and those of you that have yet to grab a button! 😉

Truly Lovely

Truly Lovely

 

Kassi’s Twenty Wishes List for 2013

1. Read 50 books, just for fun, that I WANT to read. {So far I’ve read 17 books putting me 8 books ahead of my 50 book goal by the end of the year. Granted, I know with baby coming in July there won’t be much time for reading in the second half of 2013 so I’m really trying to get as many in as possible now. Also…. If you click over and take a look at the books I’ve read, there’s no contest that any of them were books I didn’t WANT to read! No have to reads going on here!!! Whoot!}

 

2013 Reading Challenge

2013 Reading Challenge
Kassi has
read 17 books toward her goal of 50 books.
hide

 

 

 

2. Take a trip up Mount Graham. (I’ve lived here a year now, think it’s time to start checking out the local sites!) {Still haven’t gone, but the snow is starting to melt on the mountain, so maybe sometime soon!!}

3. Make a scrapbook of my trip to Australia. (I’ve had the photos since um… 2003…. oops….)

4. Participate in a Color Run! {My sister and sisters in law ran with me in the Tempe Color Run in January. I still plan to do a whole post, but again, waiting on the photos from the sister in law that took her camera…. haha! Until then, here’s an Instagram of our team after the run!!!}

5. Host a girlfriends’ dinner party in my home. Invites, menus, the whole she-bang!

6. Build my photography portfolio to include 10 different sessions. {I’m up to 8 sessions now! I have one wedding for sure booked for June and several other quotes out hoping for bookings in the next few weeks!}

7. Make a photography website and FB page with those 10 sessions. {I just launched my website!! I purchased the domain  (www.kassimortensenphotography.com) and set it up last week! I’m working on getting the 8 sessions I have added to the page. Be a dear and go check it out, yes? And maybe follow…. 😉} {Facebook page is done!!! Won’t you be a doll and like ?!? Oh, and check out my sweet new logo c/o while you’re there. 😉}

8. Attend an AZ blogger event.

9. Makeover my master bedroom.

10. Visit a winery and do a wine tasting.

11. Plant rose bushes in my backyard.

12. Take a 2 year anniversary trip just me and the hubs.

13. Private wish. (This is something I REALLY, really, REALLY wish for, so I don’t want to jinx it… When it does happen I’ll share what it is.) 😉

14. Makeover our guest bathroom.

15. Plant an upside down Mulberry tree somewhere at my house.

16. See George Strait in concert for his final tour. {We have a hotel room booked for the night of the concert!!! It’s just over 2 weeks away!!} {We have tickets!!! Kayli, our mom and I will be seeing George in April!!!}

17. Take a photography class or work shop. {I just purchased an online digital photography certification class via Groupon!!!}

18. Download a Book of Mormon reading app of some sort and read at least the first half! {I downloaded Book of Mormon Chapter Tap, it’s an app for $0.99 that lets you check of each chapter as you read through. So far I’m well ahead of schedule!}

19. Visit Build a Bear and actually build a bear.

20. Host a holiday for my family including a traditional dinner.

So there you have it! My 20 Wishes progress as of March 2013! Don’t forget we hope to mark all these wishes off by next December!
See you back here on Wednesday with your progress, yes? :)

 

Fancy This Fridays #118 and Features

Happy Friday lovelies!!! Here we are in the middle of March already!! So, that means it’s almost time for another 20 Wishes check in!!! If you’ve already joined us for the 20 Wishes project, get your progress posts ready to link up next week! If you haven’t, we would love to have you join us!! You can find out all about the project and why we started it here. You can also see my current progress here. I’ll have a new March progress post for you next week as well! Then, write up your 20 wishes and link it up with us next week during the progress link up!

Now, onto the features from last week’s Fancy This Fridays linky party!

Since the weather is warming up here in AZ, I’ll have to save this fun Touch Screen Glove tutorial for next year… But perhaps it’s still chilly where you are, so Marissa of Rae Gun Ramblings shows you how to make your own!

touch screen gloves tutorial dualed-007

Next up, I think this wedding card by Linda at Paper Seedlings is so fun! Don’t you just love the little truck!?!

wedding truck 1

And last but not least, Leah of Grace Lee Cottage made over her linen closet! She made cute labels all without any special equipment and I think they look awesome!!!

bathroommakeover-001

Here’s a Featured on Truly Lovely button for you three mentioned above! Hope you’ll grab one and share it over at our own blogs! 😉
Don’t forget each of these features gets pinned to our !! Check it out for past features and some fun ideas!!

Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.
Not the blog itself.
2. Please link only your OWN posts.
We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.
3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!
4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.
Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…
Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Have a fun weekend!!!



Win Your Craft Wish List!

Hello there lovelies!

Have you ever just sat and thought about what you would buy if you were given up to $500 to your favorite craft supply site?? Well, if you haven’t, now’s your chance! Consumer Crafts is hosting a Pin It to Win It Craft Wishlist Pinterest Contest!

It’s easy to enter! All you have to do is pin the top 10 items on your craft wish list for a chance to win up to $500 in craft supplies from ConsumerCrafts! Make sure you complete the following steps to enter the contest:

1.       Follow ConsumerCrafts on Pinterest:
2.       Follow Truly Lovely on Pinterest:
3.       Create a Pinterest board called “Craft Wish List”
4.       Go to ConsumerCrafts.com and pin 10 craft supplies you’d like to win
5.       Enter the link to your Craft Wish list board and complete your entry here: http://pages.email.consumercrafts.com/pin-it-to-win-it/

Hurry, entries must be received by March 31st!

I’ve already created my pin board and entered the contest, so if you’re looking for a few ideas, feel free to . Or for more fun craft ideas and supply suggestions Like Consumer Crafts on Facebook or check out ConsumerCrafts on Pinterest!

Fancy This Fridays #117 and Features

Happy Friday!!!!

So, before we dive into the features from last week’s Fancy This Fridays party, have you entered our current giveaway?? This week is Kayli’s birthday week so we celebrated with a $50 Shabby Apple gift card giveaway!!! {Kayli’s twitter handle is , in case you wanna tell her Happy Birthday… *wink wink*}.

Next, we have been hovering between the 17th to 19th place for weeks now… Won’t you take a second and vote for us? All you have to do is click the button for your vote to count. Thanks!

And now, onto this week’s features!!!

First up, I think these tea cup candles from Alyssa at Create, Imagine, Dream are so fun! They seem easy enough to make and would be a fun favor at a tea party themed party of any kind, don’t you think?!?!

teacup candles

Next, sticking with the vintage theme of the candles, how about a pretty vintage dresser makeover! Love how this one from Lani at Simply Fresh Vintage turned out!

vintage dresser makeover

And it’s finally starting to feel like Spring here in AZ…. Maybe even early summer it’s been so hot… Anyway, this pretty Spring Wreath from Kathy at Life on Lakeshore Drive caught my eye! Love the color!

Spring wreath

Here’s a Featured on Truly Lovely button for you three mentioned above! Hope you’ll grab one and share it over at our own blogs! 😉
Don’t forget each of these features gets pinned to our !! Check it out for past features and some fun ideas!!

Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Now onto this week’s party!!!

Fancy This Fridays Rules:

1. Please link directly to the project post on your blog.
Not the blog itself.
2. Please link only your OWN posts.
We prefer to see what YOU have been up to… not someone random.
3. Please grab a button and display it somewhere on your blog. On your sidebar, on your posts, on your linky party page. We aren’t picky!
4. We would LOVE if you would comment on at least one other link.
Just pop over and say “Hello, coming by from Truly Lovely”, or something more clever… You know…
Truly Lovely
Truly Lovely

 

Thanks for linking with us lovelies!!!
Have a fun weekend!!!