Happy 4th of July!

Last years 4th of July long weekend was much different than this years will be.  We spent 2 days on the beach sunning ourselves, then a BBQ with friends followed by a stunning fireworks display.  This year, will be furniture shopping and painting.  With the move in countdown to 9 days, we are busy bee's.  Hopefully we can take some time for a beer and some fireworks.  For those of you who are greater Boston area locals, we go to the Newton fireworks display.  They are seriously impressive for a suburb!  But the Big Kahuna of displays is, of course, Boston.  So without further adieu, lets check out the mastery of the pyrotechnicians behind the rib-cage rattling, tummy-rumbling, awe-inspiring show.

Fathers Day Card

Every. Single. One.  of my family members makes cards for each other.  Except me.  Or at least I didn't for a long time. {I like to think of myself as fairly well organized but cards always managed to be an uber last-minute thought.  Sometimes an after-the-minute thought...}  Until I found out that all those tear-jerking, sentimental notes I scribed into the witty, Target-purchased cards were relegated to the circular file, destined for the recycling plant after the fact. How dare they!  Their response was a shrug and "then make your cards..."  Heartless I tell ya... heartless.  Needless to say, I began making the cards.  One big reason I never made cards was that I thought to myself "I'm not an illustrator like Mom or Joe or a photographer like Dad, the only thing I can draw are fashion croqui's and technical flats.  I can't draw that on a card."

via

  So I bought them.  Then I found the wonderful world of craft paper and how to manipulate it.....

Happy Day-o-Mom

Scanner has bit the dust... don't judge that I took a picture of a picture.

For the beautiful lady that carried me for all those 9 months and hung around, having fun with my brother and I ever since. <3  

From the photo booth at Joe and Molly's wedding.

Got Mom hanging plants galore like she wanted {no bouquets for her!} and taking her out to a Turkish restaurant for din-din just the two of us. And picking her up a cupcake from a special favorite bakery!

And to all you Mommy-Nesters: I hope you all get everything you want today, because you deserve it!

Tea Parties and Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Happy St. Paddy's Day Nesters!  All one quarter of my heritage is celebrating today's very green day.  I hope you will too! {Responsibly of course!} With Winter coming to a close, there are few things I will miss about the doldrums of the season.  The perma-cold hands, the bundled up, motion preventing layers, sitting in a freezing car, waiting for it to warm up… none of those are fun, however… they do make me reach for a nice hot cuppa tea like nothing else.  I've talked about my romance with kettles here.  But that really is just what aids my tea habit.  I love tea.  I drink it almost every day {on the extra sleepy days, I reach for the coffee instead}  Specifically, Mr. and Mrs., Earl and Lady Grey.  {With two lumps of sugar and a dollop of low fat milk please!}  And I've always, ALWAYS wanted to have a garden tea party.  I'm not entirely sure if it's the "tea" part or the bite sized treats or the ultra feminine ambiance… but I am dying to have one!  So I am having one right…. now.  Since I have no lush garden, nor any specific occasion, it will remain a virtual tea party.  So, welcome! And with pinkies a-waggin' I say "CHEERS!" and let's indulge in these glorious shots of whimsy and splendiferous summertime…

via

Recovering from Christmas

Heya Nesters! Today I got to stay and work from home, thanks to a huge "Nor'easter"- as we New Englanders call it. Take a peek out my kitchen window that I took yesterday morning. 

Nesters, meet Kevin- My Kitchen Chicken.  He was a joke birthday gift form my girls and I laugh every time I look at him.

Wild, right? I know. Shoveling out was... interesting.

DIY Project: The Plight of the Stockings

Heya Nesters!  As mentioned before, I had many DIY projects underway for Christmas gifts and couldn't show you until after the wrapping-paper-ripping was over.  I couldn't ruin the surprise! After all, occasionally family members do stop by the ol' Nest. Anyhoo, one day in November, I got an email from Pottery Barn advertising their Christmas stockings.

via Pottery Barn

Since I had already been hemming and hawing over what homemade gifts to churn out I thought, "What a better gift for a new family {Joe, Molly and the Raz} than a family of matching homemade stockings!"  HA! How wrong was I?!

I think I have a problem....

I'm totally and utterly addicted to lamps.  It's got to be a disease right? Lampitis? Viral Lampolisys? I used to see a shirt, then dream about it for days until I finally hauled back to the store and got it.  Well nowadays, I've been following the same pattern, but with lamps.  You remember the No. 5 Target lamp I was stalking a while back, right? 

Christmas is the time to say I love you!

Good Morning Nesters!  As we all know, the holidays are the time to share with our loved ones and show them how much we care.  And hot-diggity-dawg I am hooked on my boyfriend, Matt, of which you've all heard.  Schmultzy isn't it?  I know. It's terribly cheesy but it's true. He's got me hook, line and sinker. And I like to think, he feels the same. But around the holidays I felt the need to express it more than the every-day.

We look freezing here because, well, we are.  We went to Zoolights at the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, MA to embrace our inner children and ended up dodging the millions of other peoples outer children that were apparently on the attack.  All the while freezing our little hienies off.  But it was worth it for the lights.

DIY Project: Advent Calendar & Cans for Comments Update!

Welcome back from the holidays, Nesters! I hope Santa was good to you and that no of the family members were strangled after a wee too much egg nog. With Christmas over and done with, as promised, I am going to embark upon showing you a plethora of DIYs.  Here is number uno.  

Felt Advent Calendar

Merry Christmas from Temporary Nest!

I just wanted to take a moment on this Christmas Eve to thank each and every one of you for your readership and kind words.  Your constant source of of inspiration and motivation keep me doing projects and writing this blog every day. So without further adieu: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

But that's not all!! I have eye candy for you all.  But this time, it's pretty and its actually candy...

The Peanuts Gang!

Ok well maybe not peanuts exactly... maybe more just nuts in general.  Does anyone else have trouble getting presents for their grandparents around the holidays?  I am lucky enough to have 2 of my grandparents alive and kickin' at 85! WOO! But they are impossible to shop for.  They have every single thing they would ever need.  EVER.  So just as a little token, every year I've gotten them each a bag of Lindt Chocolate.

But this year, that's a big no-no.

Fa la la la la -Remix!

Heya Nesters!  I started gathering my goodies for Christmas before Thanksgiving and first showed you this vignette.

But I got a nice little {on clearance} addition at Target over the weekend! YAY!

The Pre-House Guest Dance!

Heya Nesters!  We are quickly encroaching D-Day Christmas day and 'tis the season of house guests.   Which translates to: AWWW FREAK OUT!  

Joe and Molly are coming to stay for Christmas and I've started my prepping.  In the meantime, I've made a list of how to get yourself prepped for your visitors.  Let's boogie....

Baking Bonanza: Attack of the Gingerbread!

Heya Nesters!  Welcome back to Monday! I believe we are officially so close to Christmas now we can taste the egg nog.  Speaking of tasting things, I decided to have another baking bonanza last week.  {Get ready to ingest some calories via osmosis.}  After slugging down my fair share of Dunkin Donuts gingerbread coffee I started thinking about making the real-deal.  Cookies, that is. 

The CSN Giveaway Winner is....

Courtney :)

Who would get the Teamson Kids Safari Animal Stool with Giraffe Coat Rack.

How cutie is that!? Great choice!

Congratulations Courtney!  I'll be shooting you an email shortly to give you your gift! I hope you and the kiddo's enjoy your new stool and coat rack! 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS NESTERS!

Babys' First Giveaway!

Heya Nesters! Happy Friday!! It is getting closer and closer to Christmas and boy oh boy has the gift idea barrel been scraped  clean this year.  My wonderful boyfriend is the hardest person to shop for ever.  He loves electronics {electronics I cannot afford to gift to him} and his parents got him a Netbook last Christmas.  I thought, "Since I can't afford an arcade cabinet, what better present for this Christmas than a really nice leather laptop messenger bag?!" He has an old canvas bag from college and it doesn't have much padding to protect the computer.  So I was checking out the bags over at Luggage.com and they have SO MANY to choose from it's insane.  After weeding through the hundreds of bags {leather and other}, I fell in love with this Kenneth Cole one. 

Stalking... Um Stocking...

Heya Nesters!  I don't know that I've ever impressed upon you guys how desperately I want a mantel. I'm talking I have dreams about having a mantel to adorn. It's sick.  I peruse Craigslist constantly looking for a free one that I could somehow jerry rig into my apartment. {Where would I put it? I have no idea but I would sleep on the floor if that's what it took.} And that fanatical obsession desire has only grown stronger with the holiday season and the introduction of stockings to my life again.

I wish this was my house.... but nope... its not...

Christmas Spectacular!

Heya Nesters!  One day down and only 11 to go until D-Day Christmas.   I have a smidge less time before I need to be complete considering one of the bigger surprises is for my brother and sister-in-law and they're going to be crashing here. I can't exactly relegate them to the bedroom while I wrap up my present making. So for me, its only 10 days. {Holy Crap-ola.}  What's more appalling than the lack of time, is the bomb of sewing-guts that went off in my living room. I can't wait to show you pictures once Christmas is over.  Horrendous is the only word that comes to mind.....

Via HGTV

Yeah... imagine the exact opposite of that.  Mmmkay?

Wrap 'n' Roll

Heya Nesters! We're back here on Monday morning. The weekends are passing by much too fast. Did you realize we are a mind blowing 12 days until Christmas. Can you believe it?? I know. My head is spinning.  I am almost fully wrapped {Of course, with the exception of a couple of items that are currently being shipped thanks to the wonders of the interwebs.} but it got me thinking about my choices of gift wrap.  I always try to pick ones that are multi-functional but they also end up being super girlie..... Oops! 

 

Can- Do Attitude

Heya Nesters!  I have been MIA lately. I fully admit it and I am so sorry.  Christmas time is demanding as usual, and with my efforts to make presents I have been a smidge overwhelmed.  But what would the holidays be without being overwhelmed, right? So I'm a little late on the uptake but I'm going to participate in Cans for Comments!! For the remainder of the month of December, for each and every comment I receive and for all the comments I've already received this month, I will donate one canned good to the Salvation Army's local food shelter.   That means so far we've got five cans!  I promise next year I will start on Decemeber 1st!  We all need a little pick-me-up sometimes, especially around the holidays and in these economic times.

So please, leave some comments and lets fill a grocery bag!!  {A reusable one of course!}  

A special thanks to Holyoke Home and Moon Walk for the nudge in the right direction of helping out a great cause during the holidays.