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Author: Elizabeth Smillie

Hello there! I'm Elizabeth. Welcome to my website and blog space. All the products in my little shop are hand crafted and stem from my desire to provide creative and high quality products that make people feel lovely. I believe the little moments of life matter, every day should be celebrated, and that the beauty all around us is a gift from the Creator to be enjoyed. I'm married to a wonderful guy who happens to be my greatest cheerleader and best friend, mama to three little ones and currently reside in the heartland of America.
her pink princess party

her pink princess party

Ah, little girls. When they love something, the LOVE it, all the way. And our little princess Emma Grace LOVES pink and princesses and parties. {when asked who her favorite princess is she has no answer – they’re all her favorite!} She doesn’t really care if they’re Disney or otherwise, but if it’s a princess or pink, she is in LOVE. :) The only thing better is when it’s a pink princess – Sleeping Beauty? Score! Arielle, who wears a pink dress and has “orange hair like me!” is quite wonderful, too :)

And so, when we started talking about her birthday a few months ago, just about the first thing out of her mouth was “princess! pink princesses” {and none of us were surprised :)}

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– a tiny gold tiara for our 4 year-old princess –

I made up a Pinterest board with party ideas, and the ones she liked best were {can you guess?} PINK and had princesses in the photos. I’m not a huge fan of licensed characters, so we picked out lots of things that were more “princess-ey” than Disney-ish to try. Out of her favorites, we picked a bunch of ideas, and a few of them actually got done :)

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-a tiny gold crown adorning one of her baby photos and the crown I made for her to wear-

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– lots of pink! the ceiling pouf idea {tutorial here} came from {this} pin, the materials from Dollar Tree and the tissue poms from the kids’ room –

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– ribbon and bell wands {our Emma Grace loves these} with lots of soft colors, and enough pink to make her very, very happy –

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– the dessert table –

pink lemonade, punch, {these cookies} and {these rice crispy treats}, the princess poster is from Dollar Tree

We decided to celebrate her day with family and as we were scheduling, realized that the best thing for everyone would be to gather on the evening of her birthday, a Tuesday, for desserts and cake. I did my best to make things ahead and then set aside her birthday to love on her and get the party ready, but ah, the best laid plans :)

We did lots of loving on her {each time I would snuggle her and say “happy birthday! you’re 4 now!” she’d say, “awe, thanks mommy” with the sweetest little smile :)}, but by afternoon nap time I was running a bit behind! My sweet sister-in-law came over to help me pull the loose ends together {thank you again, Sarah!}, but one of the things I forgot was to charge the camera battery – hence some of the detail photos {like of the desserts, the piñata before it got smashed …} didn’t get taken. You’ll have to use your imaginations. :)

the Path Less Traveled: cute little Princess

All in all, it was a very sweet party to celebrate the sweetest four year old princess ever – and she was delighted. Which was the entire point of the party!

She had soooo much fun “helping” to set it up {we are still enjoying some of the decorations – I’m kind of loving the extra pink in our house :)} and I enjoyed making the things and “shopping the house” to find the decor {I actually only spent about $9 on the decorations – can you believe that?! the rest we already had around the house – score!}.

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– favor bag tutorial {here} –

I have a few how-to posts planned for some of the decorations, so stay tuned! And I’d love to hear how you and your families do birthdays – do you go all out on themes? or sweet and simple with just a cake {or birthday person’s choice of dessert}?

St. Patty’s Day Party (sneak peek)

St. Patty’s Day Party (sneak peek)

St. Patty’s Day is nearly here – 10 days to go! Here’s a {sneak peek} photo of a little St. Patrick’s Day party that I set up just before our computer went down {and I was able to get the photos off of the computer, along with all the newborn photos of Olivia that hadn’t been backed up yet – yay!!!}:

I used a bunch of things from the shop for the party: the bags, green twine, garland and chair backers, and cupcake toppers, and I’m planning a post about it to show you all the details :) It was so fun!

Quick reminder – in case you’d like to order some of these goodies for your own home or event, the deadline for ordering with standard shipping is March 12. You can order with expedited shipping after that, too, but I can’t guarantee the delivery in time :) {I know you understand} So, if you’ve been thinking of getting something, don’t put it off! :)

I’ll be back soon with more shamrocks and pink princesses! XO

How-Tuesday: Pink Princess Party favor bag tutorial

How-Tuesday: Pink Princess Party favor bag tutorial

the Path Less Traveled: Pink Princess Favor Bag tutorial

Hello everyone! Yep, it’s time for How-Tuesday again – and this time I’ll show you a {sort-of} tutorial on how I made these darling favor bags for Emma Grace’s pink princess party {I’ve got a few more posts about her party planned – it was so sweet!}. Ready?

I had seen {these and these} sweet treat bags on Pinterest and knew that they’d be perfect for sending the favors home with Em’s guests. {the favors were these molasses crinkle cookies – Emma Grace frosted them herself :)}

the Path Less Traveled: Pink Princess Favor Bag tutorial

 to start with I used a pair of scallop scissors to even off and pretty up the ends of some brown sandwich bags.

the Path Less Traveled: Pink Princess Treat Bag Tutorial

then I used my multi-stamp that I use for all the hand-stamped things in the shop and some pink ink to stamp some 4-inch doilies with “thank you for coming!”

the Path Less Traveled: Pink Princess Treat Bag Tutorial

next, I used a glue stick on the edges of the doilies and sprinkled them with some bright pink glitter {so girly and princessey!}

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the last step was to pop the cookies into the bags, layer the doilies on them, fold over the tops and secure with a staple {I was hoping to punch holes and tie them with pink twine, but I was running behind … my sister-in-law ended up doing this step for me. Thanks so much Sarah!}.

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There you have it! Some sweet, simple, glittery and pink favor bags for a pink loving princesses birthday party :)

I’m really looking forward to showing you the rest of the details from her party! <3

cute things coming!

cute things coming!

Ah, Friday again :) And it’s March!

the Path Less Traveled: cute things coming!

There have been lots of cute things happening around here – some of which include a Princess party and Baby Girl turning 3 months old :) – and there are more coming! One of the big things, though, was that we got a new computer {a Mac – we made the move over from a PC last Sunday after ours died}. My husband was even able to rescue most of the photos and info off of the old one, and I’m soooo thankful {I hadn’t backed anything up since last fall – eek!}! Anyway, it’s been a full week. :)

Now that there is a lovely computer up and humming on the desk again, I’m planning to bring you some cute How-Tuesday posts, add a few things to the shop, and even show you a little bit of green that I played with for St. Patrick’s Day {shamrocks, anyone? :)}

One last thing before I sign off – have you heard of Birds & Honey? {if not, you really should click over to her site – so gorgeous!!!} I’m so excited to tell you that she’ll be giving us a guest post later this month!

How has your week been? Can you believe that we’re already welcoming March? That means we only have 3/4 of 2013 left … what?!

sweet little things

sweet little things

I LOVE custom orders. Sometimes it’s a bit tricky to get the customer’s ideas transferred from “idea” to “reality”, but I always love them. Here’s a sweet little something that I was working on for a baby girl’s first birthday:

bright scallop garland from the Path Less Traveled

The baby girl’s mama contacted me with an idea board and a request for 6 3-foot long garlands, and we were both pretty tickled with how they turned out!

Do you have a vision or idea that you’d like to see created? Contact me and we’ll talk about it!

 

<3

 

 

 

psst … there’s a huge sale going on!

psst … there’s a huge sale going on!

overstock(affiliates)

 

Are you familiar with Lisa Leonard and her line of handcrafted jewelry and home wares? No? Oh my, are you ever missing out!

She creates gorgeous pieces, and today {today only!} is having a SALE! Use the code “overstock25” at checkout for 25% off of your entire order, including sale items!

Now is a great time to find that special gift for a friend’s birthday {and Mother’s Day is closer than you think!}, a keepsake for a wedding gift …. or even pass this on to your Sweetheart with your wish list! :)

 

Happy shopping!

*Please note that this sale does not apply to non-handmade items such as gift certificates and polish cloths.

 

update, anyone?

update, anyone?

Anyone besides me notice that there haven’t been any *ahem* blog posts this week?

I have so many excuses … some of them look remarkably like our children {it still amazes me that we have THREE …um, what?!}. Another, quite massive one, is that our computer bit the dust last week. So sad. I’ve been keeping up with the shop on the iPad that John gave me for Christmas {so, so thankful for it right now!}, but it’s been a bit crippling to not have a desktop to work from!

Anyway, I had planned to tell you all about our Valentine’s Day, do a How-Tuesday about some of the Valentine’s things, tell you about planning a princess themed party for our little girl and so on, but it was not to be. Of course, if we’re able to get the photos off of the old hard drive, I might just do all of those things. :)

So, how have you been? Did you have a lovely Valentine’s Day? Are you itching for Spring? Can you believe St. Patrick’s Day and Easter are just around the corner?

See you soon! Hopefully with all the regular types of posts, including pretty photos and shop updates :)

 

<3

 

p.s. we now have ad space on the site! we currently are limiting it to people and companies that we’ve worked closely with, but are planning to open it to others that fit well with our aesthetic. feel free to let me know if you’re interested!

Friday shop update

Friday shop update

Yes, it’s Friday once again, which means it’s time for a shop update! My, how this week has flown by :)

first off, I have a couple of darling photo shoots to share with you:

the first one was a Valentine party styled by Birds & Honey and featured on On To Baby – Mona from Birds & Honey asked me to make up some pink and gold glittered things for it, and it was super cute. I loved making the custom cake toppers and things, and am actually thinking of adding versions of them to the shop – we’ll see!

the second was styled by Wilmarose Orlanes of Lovely Jubilee and, again, turned out really gorgeous! She used our vintage heart garland and confetti in the vintage valentine themed engagement shoot, and I love the images they captured.

the Path Less Traveled: Vintage Music Note Garland

next up – we’ve been working on getting some more of my favorite items from my Etsy shop listed here, as well. The most recent ones to be added are the Music Note Vintage Garland, the Sweet, Love, XO, and Baby cupcake toppers. I hope you love them as much as we have!

As you go about your shopping this President’s Day weekend {do you shop President’s Day sales? any good deals you’d like to share? :) }, I’ve created a coupon for you to use for FREE {don’t you love that word?!} shipping on any order over $2 from the shop – just enter the code “PRESIDENT” as you check out. :)

A darling set of 12 cupcake toppers, these “LOVE” heart cupcake toppers are made using hearts cut from vintage book pages and are double sided.

and lastly, the winner for the question/giveaway! Congratulations to Jill M. from the facebook comments! I loved reading all of your thoughts and ideas, and they’ll be really helpful as I’m planning and brainstorming what to do next. Thank you all so much for taking the time to give me your ideas! I’ll be having another giveaway soon, to stay tuned :)

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day, and have a wonderful President’s Day weekend!

happy Valentine’s day!

happy Valentine’s day!

the Path Less Traveled - valentines day-some flowers for you <3-

Happy Valentine’s day, lovelies! I hope that you’re enjoying it, whether you are celebrating with loved ones or on your own :)

Just a couple little reminders – the coupon code for 15% off of your entire order from the shop (BeMine) expires tonight and the question/giveaway ends tonight as well. Take advantage of them while you can!

Have a lovely day! And I’ll be popping back in tomorrow with some gorgeous images and a shop update :)

<3 xo

p.s. I noticed last night that the last few posts say that my husband John wrote them – doh! I was signed in under his account without realizing it and now can’t change the author name … ah well, live and learn, right? :)

hearts everywhere

hearts everywhere

Today I thought I’d share a few photos of our home, which has {apparently} been subjected to an explosion of little red {and pink} hearts for Valentine’s Day <3  {warning: you are about to see a ton of photos!}

These little red hearts are showing up everywhere, from the clock by the front door …

the Path Less Traveled: hearts everywhere!

…to the shelf next to it …the Path Less Traveled: hearts everywhere!

{the heart wands in the vase can be found here and the “this is love” printable (free!) here}

…to the plates on our kitchen walls …the Path Less Traveled: hearts everywhere!

…and then everywhere in the dining room! the Path Less Traveled: hearts everywhere!

the Path Less Traveled: hearts everywhere!

the Path Less Traveled: hearts everywhere!

{the love note tree tutorial is here, and the frame garland can be found here}

the Path Less Traveled: DIY love note tree

{it really is amazing how much impact a simple little pack of hearts can have!}

the Path Less Traveled: hearts everywhere!

…even the bathroom got heart-bombed! the Path Less Traveled: hearts everywhere!

Last, but certainly not least, there’s even one on the door in from the garage to welcome my Sweetie when he gets home from work <3the Path Less Traveled: hearts everywhere!

There you have it! Hearts everywhere. You can get a similar result with just some tape, hearts and maybe a few doilies <3

p.s. I’m still looking for ideas to make this Valentine’s Day special for John and me – do you have any ideas you’d like to share? We’ll be staying home with the little ones, and other than decorating for it, I’m coming up dry!