Sweet Surprises

There is nothing better than a bit of unexpected sweetness in life, don't you think?  Over the last week I've had a couple sweet surprises come my way, the first being these beautiful Paint by Numbers paintings I received from my fabulous Aunt Jeanette.  

Jeanette is one of the best vintage shoppers / interior decorators / treasure hunters I know.  She proved it the last time we visited her in Portland, OR.  She knew all the best vintage shops and with her help, I found two of the best vintage dresses of my life!  So it's no surprise that she had these two gorgeous paintings in her home.  I had told her I was collecting Paint by Numbers and if she was looking to off load some of hers to send them my way.  Well, imagine my excitement when I found these two lovelies waiting on my doorstep last week!  I love them and they add so much to my "collection,"  which, until last week consisted of two paintings.  

The second lovely surprise of the week was that my blog friend Lizette nominated me for the Liebster Award!  Lizette writes a wonderful blog called Creativity Lizette and I am just honored that she likes Lilac & Lace enough to recognize me in this way.  Thank you Lizette!  

As part of the award stipulations I am supposed to answer 11 questions from Lizette and then give 11 new questions to other blogs.  But I am kind of lazy, so rather than write out all my answers, I made a little video.  Now isn't that a lovely suprise?  Y'all get to hear my beautiful voice!  Enjoy!

 

What We Did on New Year's Eve

It was a nice and quiet affair...The boy and I spent New Year's Eve at my brother's place, eating food with our friends and playing Apples to Apples.  It was really fun.  And even despite the low-key festivities I still did my hair in a festive up-do and donned a glitter star crown.  Cause if not on New Years when is a better time to wear a star crown? 

source

Hope you had a fun and safe evening too! 

Hello and nice to meet you!

Just wanted to post a quick note to all of you who have come over from Megan's blog. It's so nice to meet you and thanks for all the lovely comments! I love making new blog friends!

Paso Robles part duex: Kristin's Birthday

So as I mentioned before, the boy and I recently made a trip up to Paso Robles with my parents in celebration of my friend Kristin's 30th birthday.  I've known Kristin since I was about 4.  We grew up together as next door neighbors.  We spent our childhood playing with My Little Ponies, reading Babysitter Club books, loving the New Kids on the Block (yes, embarrassing) riding horses and generally having a great time together. 

It was so nice to get to spend the weekend with her, our families and some of her oldest friends!  It reminded me just how lucky I am to have friends like Kristin! 

the whole gang

Shelia and Kristin

My Parents and me and some bearded man I don't know

(Thanks to Kristin for putting these photos on Facebook...I wasn't being a good camera lady!)

something sacred

I have been trying my hardest to clean up my hard drive (one of my 29 before 29 goals) and in the process I found this...

Such a happy picture and a special day.  Liz, I miss you!

Top 5 Halloween Costumes by Lily!

I am so happy that the lovely Lily from the blog Just Because by LeeLee was kind enough to write a special Halloweenie Guest Post for me!  Enjoy!

Hey!  I love Halloween!!!!! 

My name is Lily btw, and I blog over at Just Because- but this special day, I am posting on Heather's blog.. yeah! ^^ so anyway.. any excuse is awesome to dress up! so at least once a year we go out as a special character and party all night long.. :P 

I love seeing silly costumes. My last 5 Halloweens have been in Miami, FL, so I usually go to South Beach (Lincoln Rd) where there's tons of people walking and admiring other people's costumes before the party- you see crazy costumes!

There are not a lot of variety of costumes out there, luckily I know how to sew. Two years ago, I was at a party dressed as what I liked to call "The REAL Snow White" made by me- and two other girls were there dressed as the naughty-version of snow white - it was funny- we took a picture together. :P

I would like to share with you today, some of my favorite costumes - 

Top 5 Favorite Halloween Costumes! 

1. Rainbow Bright and Sidekick Twink

2. Pixels

3. Terrance and Phillip and Lego people

via

via

4. Alice in Wonderland

via

5. Real Life Lichtenstein Comic Girl

I can't wait for Halloween!! :)

twitter tea party

I'm going to totally rock this twitter tea party and I hope you'll join me.  There'll be a very special giveaway from Red Ribbon Fox you just may enjoy.  Hope to see you there!

Scenes from a wedding shower....

My dear friend McNally had her wedding shower this weekend.  Me and the other bridesmaids worked together to throw her a fabulous shindig (the girl made out like a bandit when it came to gifts!)  Here's a little peak at the day...

How was your weekend?  Hope you had a fun and relaxing time! 

Giveaway from All Things Chula!

Our next giveaway comes from Valerie and her etsy shop, All Things Chula.  (Chula means cute in Spanish, again perfect for my Fiesta de Blog!) 

An avid scrapbooker and paper-wizard, Valerie has kindly donated a pack of her paper butterflies (100) to one lucky Lilac and Lace reader!  These lovely paper pretties are the perfect embellishment for scrapbooks, art journals, cards and crafts of all kinds.  So check out Val's adorable blog and enter to win! 

You know the drill...
To enter:  Leave a comment below with your name and favorite insect (you must have one, c'mon!)  For extra entries you can:

1.  Become a follower on google, facebook or bloglovin

2.  Tweet about this blog party on Twitter

3.  Blog about this giveaway/blog party on your blog

Be sure to leave an extra comment with links for each of the extra entry items you complete!  Good luck!   

Tex-Mex Salsa Recipe from Carly

Carly from All this Grace and Charm, is one of my favorite newly found bloggers.  Not only is she a fellow red-head, she also has amazing style and is a flat out fabulous writer.  In perfect blog fiesta fashion, here's her recipe for....

Easy Tex-Mex Bean Salsa  (yum!)

Via http://www.basicallymyra.com

In art school, downtown Chicago, I had a roommate from Texas. In fact, as it turned out, she and I had attended the same elementary school in Texas during a brief stint in which my Midwest-bred, single father was relocated to Dallas. But that's of no relevance here. Except, of course, to cite that I have a thimble's worth of Texas cred. (Or, at least enough to sling around southern-sounding phrases like, "a thimble's worth.")

This roommate cooked almost exclusively from a worn, family recipe book, containing any number of highly delicious, easy Tex-Mex dishes. When I moved out of our apartment at the end of Sophomore year, I photocopied a few of my favorites... This salsa is one that I make for almost every casual party I have. Folks can't get enough of it, I've memorized the recipe:

2 cans black beans

2 cans white (shoepeg) corn

1 can Rotel

Juice of 2 limes

1 jalapeno, chopped

Cilantro to taste

Fajita seasoning to taste

Mix beans, corn and Rotel together. Add lime juice. Add jalapeno. Add cilantro. Add fajita seasoning (this makes the salsa, so don't skimp on it).

Visit me at All This Grace and Charm!

No Sew Bows DIY from Megan!

Super cute DIY project...I'm definitely going to try my hand at this one!  

Hi Everyone!

It's Megan from Lovely Miss Megs here!

I hope you are all having a great day and are super excited about Heather's blog party. I know I am!

So I think what needs to happen first is a BIG thank you to Heather for letting us be a part of this awesome celebration. Congrats for reaching 100 followers!

Alright, now on to my post. At first I was stumped on what I could write that would be interesting for people to read. I must have gone through a dozen different ideas before I realized I should keep it simple and stick to what I know. So without further adieu I give you my tutorial on making no sew bows for your hair/ clothes/ purses, etc. It's the perfect craft for beginner DIYers, or those of us that only have a short period of time to get creative during the day.

Approximate time to make: 7 minutes

Things you will need:

1. Scissors

2. Ribbon. (I prefer the wired type so my bows hold their shape)

3. Glue gun ...don't forget the glue sticks!

4. Alligator clips. I got mine at Sally's hair supplies

5. (optional) Embellishments for the middle of the bow

1. Cut a piece of ribbon twice the length of what you want your finished bow to be.

2. Take both ends of the ribbon, fold them into the center and glue in place.

3. Fold the ribbon length-wise 3 times like you would a paper fan. Put a little dot of glue in between each fold to hold it in place. Only put the glue in the middle portion as this is where your bow will be gathered. (see picture)

4. Cut a small piece of ribbon and fold it so the finished edges line up lengthwise. This will become the center of your bow. Wrap it around the part you just gathered and glue into place.

5. Take your alligator clip and glue it to the back of your bow. If you are using a clip like I did make sure you apply glue to the bent side not the flat one.

Congrats, your bow is done! You can leave it as is, or you can embellish it like I did with a button in the middle. Also if you used wire ribbon feel free to fluff up your bow. Or if you like the flat look better that's cool too! It's all about personal preference.



Now you can wear your bow however you want! I tend to wear mine in my hair or on the collar of my shirt.

Well, I hope you all found this tutorial helpful! If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at: megansoares@hotmail.com or drop by my blog to say hi! I love making new friends!

Finally I'll say it again, cheers to Lilac and Lace for being such an awesome blog!!!  You are such an inspiration and I love watching your blog grow each day.

Take care lovelies!

Playlist from Kellie!

Hi Everyone! Kellie here from ...on the brink of something beautiful (at getthewordsout.blogspot.com). I'm so glad that Heather asked me guest post, cause well- I love her blog and blog parties!   {Kellie, the feeling is mutual!}

Since it's almost summer, the only thing on my mind seems to be music and the music I want playing on my ipod...so here are some songs on my list right now. Hope you enjoy them! And don't forget to stop by my blog and say hello!!!!

-Kel