It’s been a long time coming…

We’ve re-branded!!!! We started Truly Lovely back in November of 2010. We have loved it here. We have thrived here. But after blogging for so long under the Truly Lovely name it’s starting to feel less and less like us.

Blog

It’s been a long time coming, a long time planning and scheming, but we’ve decided to take our brand and move it to a new space. Kassarie & Kayliray. It’s us, just us, as we are. What we love, who we love.

We are going to keep Truly Lovely active so our old posts, pins from our old content, etc will still be available to us and you guys, but from now on we won’t be blogging here… We hope you’ll move with us. We’d REALLY hate to lose any of our longtime blogging friends. We love you guys!

30th Birthday Present Idea

It’s about that time… my girl friends that are close in age are starting to hit the BIG 30!!! The first one turned 30 yesterday so I scoured Pinterest for a fun idea to help her celebrate this milestone birthday. I loved this Young at Heart turning 30 basket from , so I hit the stores to make my own version. You can see another spin on it from Loves of Life here.

I purchased a cute basket to contain all her birthday goodies, wrapped it in ribbon and labeled it with the young at heart saying…

“Kayce, now that you’re 30 you may be wondering where the years went. Well this emergency kit is filled with items to keep you feeling young at heart!”

Milestone Birthday Gift Idea

Then I made a little label to match each little goodie inside. I even if you’re in a hurry and don’t want to create one yourself. Just be sure to edit the name to that of your recipient. ;)

30th Birthday Gift Idea

Take a Bubble Bath – I attached it to a bottle of fancy bubble bath.
Play Dress Up – Hoop earrings and a pretty bracelet
Have a Slumber Party – That’s a pretty little satin nighty rolled into a ball and wrapped with ribbon. ;)
Drink from a Sippy Cup – How cool is the wine “glass” with a straw that I found! You could do any kind of cup with a straw though.
Draw a Picture – A cute journal.
Give Yourself a Makeover – I wrapped ribbon around a set of different lip glosses and nail polish.

Gotta say, if I were turning thirty, or any other milestone birthday, I would be thrilled to get something like this…. ;) Hint, hint… Not that my birthday is anytime soon.

How have you celebrated your milestone birthdays? Best gift received??

FYI, we’re linking this to these fun parties.

Currently…

So today I’ve decided to join in with Becky of Choose Happy’s Currently Link up for the first time… Fun fun! ;) You should join in and link up with us!

Currently I am….

Photographing… my sweet girl in the midst of her naps. I know this napping thing won’t last forever and she’s so cute when she’s snoozing!

Klara and Tate Sleeping

Klara Sleeping

Enjoying… sitting outside on our back porch with my Klara girl. It’s one of her favorite things and the weather is SO nice right now!

Klara Outside

Working on… getting my 10,000 steps a day with my FitBit tracker. I’ve been joining in some challenges with friends to see who gets the most steps throughout the week. I have yet to win a single challenge!!! Must step up my game! Anyone have a FitBit? Let’s be friends!

FitBIt

Excited for… my niece is coming to spend some of her Spring Break with us! Klara just loves her and I have missed getting to spend time with her since we moved and she moved. Anyone have ideas for fun things to entertain a teen over break??

Klara and Taylor

Loving… days spent with the hubs and Klara on horseback. He’s trying to rope more now that work has settled down and Klara is getting braver every time she gets to ride our horse, Lady. Even going a tiny bit all by herself!

Nate and Klara on Lady

What are YOU up to currently??

Host a Freezer Meal Exchange

What was the world before Pinterest… Seriously. I don’t even “Google” anything anymore. It’s right to Pinterest for me… haha. But really, that’s where I found all of the ideas for my latest girls’ night get together.

First, I saw this and thought, that would be a great way to get some new recipes and meal ideas for my family! Plus it saves yourself a ton of work and money! So I created a group on Facebook, invited my local friends that were interested and we chose a date. We used the Facebook group to have a sign up so nobody brought the same thing and we knew exactly how many meals to make.

Freezer Meal Exchange

We ended up with six girls that came, so everyone made six meals, kept one at home and brought five to the exchange. Then we each went home with five different meals to stock our freezers!

A couple things that could make things run more smoothly…

  • Everyone made a copy of their ingredients, heating instructions, etc. and attached it to their meal in some way. A couple of the girls did freezer bags and wrote the directions in Sharpie. Genius!
  • Ask everyone to bring their meals in clothes baskets! Easy carry in, easy carry out!
  • When your exchange guests arrive have them stack their meals in piles for each guest that way when it’s time to go home everyone just loads up their pile of different meals.

We had the best time just hanging out once everyone arrived. We just chatted, let our kids play and enjoyed a girls night out of the house! Well, for everyone but me. But it was nice to have guests over. ;)

I made this and served it with strawberries and apples. I also served a cheese ball and crackers, and we tried this .

Brown Sugar Fruit Dip

Yummy treats and fun times with friends! Plus now I have a fully stocked freezer with a variety of meals that I didn’t have to put together!!! Win, win, win!!!

In case you’re wondering I made this for my freezer meal to trade and we had it for dinner the other night… DELICIOUS!!!

Tell me, have you ever hosted a Freezer Meal Exchange? Have any tips for making our next one easier/more fun? What’s your go to freezer meal??

Happy Birthday Kayli!!!

Today is my sister’s birthday!!!! Happy Birthday Kayli!!!

TheColorRun2015

Won’t you show her a little birthday love by connecting with her on social media?! And send her a birthday wish, maybe… ;)  ,

Kassi’s Twenty Wishes Wrap Up 2014

If you are unfamiliar with our Twenty Wishes Project here on Truly Lovely please check out that link. So initially I had planned to link up every single month of last year. Then about September life happened. We moved in the end of October, I had to pack up my entire house mostly by myself with a toddler because hubs had already moved. It was a wreck. But, I decided I would share where I ended with my goals for 2014 and write a new list for 2015. Ladies that were participating feel free to share your final wish count in the comments below! I’d love to see where you ended up!

September through December updates are in purple. Updates for August are in maroon. July and June are in orange. May are in green. April are in pink. Updates for March are in blue. Updates for January and February are written in red.

Kassi’s Twenty Wishes Progress – 2014

 

1. Visit Disneyland with my little family.
I FINALLY wrote a post and shared some photos we took while at Disneyland. You can see that here.
We had the BEST time as a family visiting Disneyland and the beach. I have yet to sit down and write a blog post about it, but I will sooner or later. Until then, here’s a photo of the Mortensens at Radiator Springs! ;)
Only a few weeks to go!!! Getting so excited… Anyone been to Disneyland with an infant/toddler? What tips do you have for us?
Counting down the days now! Just over a month away!!!
Reservations have been made! We’re going to go with my husband’s family this coming summer! We’re nearly to the single digits for weeks until we head out for our vacation! ;)

RadiatorSprings

2. Paint my master bedroom.
Well, we moved. So I set up a completely new house… that didn’t need painted. haha.

3. Plant an upside down Mulberry tree somewhere at my house.
I planted my Weeping Mulberry Tree the first week of May! Read all about it and my other tree here!
My tree came!!! It’s actually just a little guy, sitting on my living room coffee table. The hubs and I were both sick with colds all weekend, but hopefully getting it planted will be my first to do of May!! ;)

4. Visit Build a Bear and build a bear for Klara.
In January we made a visit to Build a Bear at the Chandler Mall. We had the best time picking out a little cowgirl bear for my Klara. You can read all about our visit here.

5. Send a handwritten letter, note or card to someone via snail mail once a month.
Yep, another area where I slacked once all things went to crazy…..
I slacked on this one this month…. But I do have several Scentsy catalogs going out in the mail tomorrow all with a handwritten note inside. I guess that counts… Maybe. ;) P.S. If you want a new Fall/Winter Scentsy Catalog message me your address and I’ll send you one too! ;)
I participated in a summer gift swap and sent a handwritten card to my new friends! ;)
Mother’s Day covered this month. Not only my own mom, but the hub’s step-mom, my nana and aunt got one too!
I literally just sat down to write this post and realized I hadn’t sent a letter for this month! SO, I got out my cute stationary and sent a handwritten card to my friend Bethani in Texas, you might know her from The Texan Pantry. Girl, if you’re reading this, check your mail in a day or two! ;)
I sent a handwritten card and printed a few photographs to my grandpa for his birthday in March, when I called to wish him Happy Birthday he said he’d received the card and was happy to see I’d sent pictures of Klara too. ;)
So far I sent two handwritten birthday cards in January and a handwritten Valentine card in February.

6. Save for and buy myself a tablet of some kind. Maybe an iPad or a Surface. I’ve always wanted one… ;)
I happened to mention to my husband that I wanted to save up for a tablet. I decided I wanted a Surface because they’re more like a little laptop and I thought that would be better for blogging. The morning of Valentine’s Day when I went in to turn on my work computer, I found a brand new Surface and a Valentine note from Nate sitting in my desk chair. Yep, I married a keeper!!! Any Surface users out there? What are your favorite apps, etc?

7. Complete my reading goal of 55 books in 2014.
All reading besides scriptures also went to the side… SO I didn’t make it. Oh well.
August didn’t lead to a whole lot of reading… Now that my daughter is weaned I don’t have a whole lot of extra time to sit and read, but I did get some reading done. I am at 35 of 55 books read.
So far I am at 33 of 55 books through the end of July.
As of the end of May I’m at 26 books read!
So far I have read 22 of my 55 book goal, putting me five books ahead. I tried putting the widget in like I always do and couldn’t get it to work right… :( But you can see the books I’ve read here if you’re interested.

8. Host and/or participate in a Google + Hangout with some bloggie friends.
So I made an attempt at this one this last month… I tried hosting one during the afternoon on a weekday and had two girls log/attempt to log on. I discovered I can’t do a hangout on my Surface which is a HUGE bummer, so I had to use my phone. Google, please make an app for the Surface!!! Thanks. But in the meantime, friends, say hey to Megan of Shaping Up To Be A Mom! We “met” in “person” via Google+ Hangout! I plan to try hosting another hangout sometime soon with hopefully more attendees! If you want an invite, comment below. ;)

9. Have the carpet in my house professionally cleaned. I know this sounds like an ought to do versus a want, but I ought to clean the carpets myself… I WANT to have someone else do it!! haha

10. Make over my guest bathroom.
Still haven’t painted, but I did change out the shower curtain and accessories. Painting is on the to do list!
This is a work in progress. I already ordered a new shower curtain and floor rugs. When Kayli is here over her spring break she has promised to help me paint!

11. Take Klara to The Color Run for her “second” time. Technically last year she was just riding in mommy’s tummy. This year I plan to take her in her stroller!
We did our second color run in Tempe, AZ back in January!! It was a blast just like last year and Klara did so well! You can read all about it here.

12. Get a front screen door for my house.

13. Get together monthly with at least one friend. Dinner, shopping trip, lunch, etc.
We had fair food with friends at the Lordsburg fair!
Klara, my sister and I had a lunch date with my new friend Tina for June! And for July we met up with friends for Luna Rodeo weekend.
We had a little BBQ at our house with my sister in law and her family this month. That’s going to have to count… haha. Its been a busy month!!
Klara and I were popular in April! We went on our first lunch date with Klara’s Aunt Brianne AND had a lunch date with our friend, Kayce! Yay for getting out of the house and seeing our friends!!!
This month Kayli and I went shopping here in town for some new TOMS shoes when the ones I ordered didn’t fit… FYI, be careful ordering TOMS online. The sizing can be really weird!!!
In January my sister, sisters in law and I went to Tempe for The Color Run, we went out to the mall the night before, had dinner and did some shopping, so I’m counting that. ;) February we went with the entire family to the steakhouse in town for my sister in law’s birthday. We took Klara with us and she got to have her first apple sauce and ‘meal’ in a restaurant. ;)

14. Visit here in Safford. I’ve wanted to go since they opened, but haven’t ever made it since it’s across town!
Done!!! You can read all about our trip to Caboose Frozen Treats here! Oh, and bonus, here’s a picture of our whole group that the guy at Caboose took and shared on their Facebook page! Yep, that’s me holding Klara on the right… squinting into the sun… haha.

15. Figure out a system for organizing and saving the baby clothes and items that Klara has outgrown.
So I finally took care of Klara’s newborn to 12 months clothes! I purchased two of the under the bed soft plastic organizers from Wal-Mart and sorted through her old clothes discarding anything that was stained or something she never really wore. The rest got put into the organizers and stuck under her bed. I’m saving them in case we have another girl someday or if someone close to me needs the clothes. Plus I’d like to save some for Klara for her future kids like my mom did for me. ;)

16. Get tickets for and attend the 2014 National Finals Rodeo.
We went!!! It was AMAZING!!!! The noise was a little loud for Klara but we were able to go with some good friends and take my mom and dad for the first time! SO FUN!!!
This is a work in progress! We have a hotel booked and everything to go to Vegas for the NFR ACCEPT the NFR tickets… So friends, if you know of anyone selling theirs, we are in the market for four. ;)

17. Build a container garden of some sort for my backyard.

18. Pay off my credit card. I’m SO close!!! I’m sure I can have it all paid off by the end of this year.

19. Take a photography class or workshop.
At the beginning of March Kayli and I attending a photography workshop held at the local college by Impact Photography Group. They are a husband and wife team that is well known and highly popular in our area. We both learned a ton of good information and can’t wait to attend the next one they host. that I took the afternoon of the workshop putting to use some of the new things I learned while attending. It’s straight out of my camera, no editing involved other than adding my watermark. Yep, so worth it! If you’re interested in seeing more of my photography check out my website or .

20. Throw a surprise party for someone.

So there you have it! My wishes for 2014… A lot left undone, but that’s what happens I suppose. What are your wishes for the coming year, month, week? ;)

Shutterfly Wedding Save the Dates

I love Shutterfly… We use them for our Christmas cards every year and I am always pleased with the quality and look. I just found out that Shutterfly also does Save the Dates!!! For real, pretty personalized wedding stationary that you can order online and have shipped right to you OR have them ship directly to save you a little wedding planning stress!! Every bride I know needs less stress, so that’s a win and a lovely Save the Date card to make your wedding day more memorable for you and your guests… WIN WIN! The card shown below, a 5X7 Scallop Trim Save the Date is one of my absolute favorites!

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I am dying over their entire large design collection! They are a high quality card that come with matching white envelopes. You have the choice of a flat, ¾ fold, or tri-fold format. Then the sizes you can choose from, 6×8, 5×7, 4×8, 5×5, 4×5, are all perfect for grabbing your guests’ attention when they arrive in the mail.

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Did you notice that you can add a little something to the back as well! An engagement photo, your names, both! Love that you have that extra space to share something with your guests!

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Another little detail I am really digging is the Foil Stamped Designs like the Save the Date wording on the card above. Really makes it pop!

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Shutterfly’s save the date cards come in several trim options:

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The ticket trim like those shown above are so classy! What trim option would you choose for your Save the Date Cards??

Did you send Save the Dates for your wedding? I think it’s important to give your guests a heads up and I love that you can do that with these Shutterfly cards all while expressing your personal sense of style!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Shutterfly. As always the opinions I share here are 100% my own. If I didn’t really love it I wouldn’t share it with you. ;)

 

St. Patrick’s Day Burlap Wreath with Monogram

I guess I’m just in a wreath making mood… ;) Did you see my Valentine/Spring wreath? Well here’s my St. Patrick’s Day wreath for March!

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I followed this . I looked on Pinterest and found a couple of methods but that one looked the easiest and it worked fine for me! You can get the green burlap from any craft store. They even have it at Wal-Mart. I used a roll and a half because that’s what I had, but you could use more and make it fuller.

I got the M from the Wal-Mart craft section and painted it with Extreme Sparkle paint in Emerald. Love the glittery look! I embellished it with a few clover stickers, also from Wal-Mart in the cards section.

StPatricksDayBurlapWreath (2)

The whole thing took me less than an hour to make including drying time on the paint. Yay for quick wreaths and a rainy day project!!!

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Do you decorate for St. Patrick’s Day?? I’ll be honest… this is my only decoration so far!! ;)

FYI, we’re linking this to these fun parties.

Rustic Valentine’s Day and Spring Interchangeable Wreath

Friends!!!! I’m still here, I know it’s been a LONG time, but sometimes, life just happens and the blogging doesn’t. But I am BACK today with a craft for you!

We have moved again, long story, ask me about it sometime, but long story short, we’re in a new place for awhile and our pretty red front door needed a wreath! Since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner that’s what I went with…

ValentinesDayWreath (6)

Materials needed:
Wreath form
Burlap ribbon
Pink Handkercheif
Scissors
Glue Gun
Flowers
Not pictured: Twine, scrapbook paper, alphabet stickers, glue dots

ValentinesDayWreath (1)

Step 1: Wrap your wreath form in burlap ribbon. I wrapped mine twice because you could see the form through the ribbon with just one layer. I also glued each end on to make sure the burlap stayed put with hot glue.

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Step 2: Create your wreath hanger with the pink handkerchief. I just cut a strip from the square and glued it to the wreath form, then tied a bow at the end so it would hang from my wreath hanger correctly. Then I reinforced the glue with tacks to make sure it held.

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Step 3: Embellish your wreath with flowers. Again, YAY for hot glue! I just glued each of my flowers to the wreath form.

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Step 4: This was where I had planned to be finished initially, but decided the wreath needed a little something more to make it more holiday centric and just finished. ;) So I cut some little pendants out of pink scrapbook paper with my Silhouette, tagged them with some black alphabet stickers and made a little LOVE banner! I strung it across the wreath with pink twine (glued the pendants on with glue dots) and gold tacks.

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Step 5: Since I’m all about multi-purpose these days, especially after moving twice in three months… Less is more! I made a SPRING banner using blue scrapbook paper and different pendants that I can change out on the wreath after Valentine’s Day!

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So tell me? What have you been up to these last few months?? Comment below with the link to one of your favorite posts as of late… I can’t wait to catch up with everyone!!!

FYI, we’re linking this to these fun parties.

It’s Christmas Card Time!!!

One of my favorite holiday traditions is making and sending Christmas cards to my family and friends. I love to receive them too… The ones with photos or a little recap of the year are definitely my favorite. Then I display them on the cute Christmas card display I crafted a few years ago as part of our annual holiday decorations.

The last few years I have had my cards printed at Shutterfly. Every year I choose some of my favorite family photos, upload them on the site, choose a fun holiday layout and my Christmas card shopping is complete.

I would love to have the time and patience to craft a unique holiday card for everyone on my list but I just don’t. That’s why I’m loving the ease of Shutterfly’s holiday cards. This year the layout I chose is called Scrap Happy. You’re able to choose the number of photos you want on the card, personalize everything with your names of course and really make it your own! You can even choose to have them addressed by Shutterfly and MAILED if you want!! Hallelujah can you say time saver?!?!

ScrapHappyI’m not including an actual photo of our cards yet because I haven’t sent them out… It is still a little early I guess since we haven’t even passed Thanksgiving… ;) But it’s the PERFECT time to get YOUR cards ordered for this year!

Right now Shutterfly is offering free shipping on orders of $39 or more (just use the code SHIP39) and a whole slew of other special offers.

Do you send out holiday cards? Are you a craft your own or order online kind of person??

Disclosure: I received my holiday cards in exchange for sharing my honest opinion. As always the opinions I share here are 100% my own. If I didn’t really love it I wouldn’t share it with you. ;)