happy valentine's day : diy for under $6

i know i rarely blog anymore. i am trying to come back, i swear. ever since we've moved to greensboro, things have changed a lot around here. i am a working mother. and when i'm not at work, i'm helping madison with homework and reading, cleaning, doing laundry, etc. i hate that my blog has gotten so neglected especially since we're so far away from friends and family. now more than ever, i want to continue to share our lives with the ones we love.

speaking of love, valentine's day is right around the corner. i wanted to share a little cheap & adorable diy for your children's valentine exchange this year. this is all over pinterest. one thing you may not know about madison is she loves lollipop's so her and i are both thrilled about her valentine's to her friends this year. 

anyways, it was so simple. just take a photo of your child with their fist out. order photos. i ordered mine from walgreen's because there are always promo codes floating around. cut a slit at the top and bottom of the fist. and slide a lolli through them. i bought mine at target. $2.50 a bag. total cost- $5.50! easy, unique, and adorable! 

thanks a latte | diy teacher christmas gift

i must give pinterest the credit for this one. i was browsing through pinterest and found a lot of cute ideas involving a starbucks gift card. i really wanted to do something like this for my daughter's teachers because i know they LOVE coffee. as like most of you money is tight, holidays tend to add up, but i wanted to do something small for madison's teachers because let's face it, they work SO hard! so, i ran into starbucks and grabbed a couple of gift cards, coffee sleeve's, and made a cute little printable. easy as 1, 2, 3. just in time, if you wanna make one for your special teacher or friend--i'm sharing the printable, all you need to do is download the image {i taped the gift card to the cardstock, and then taped that into the coffee sleeve} and they loved it!

to DOWNLOAD free printable : CLICK HERE 

diy | hand stamped salt dough ornaments

the other day my good friend sophie from the forge posted on her IG a photo of salt dough ornaments. you can follow her @theforgeblog. anyways, it got me thinking how fun & cheap this would be with madison. so i instantly turned to pinterest for addition inspiration. you can check out my christmas board here, if you're interested :) anyways, i cut the recipe in half to make it easier to knead. madison & i started with the original recipe which i found here, but it was too much dough to knead & they dried uneven. so we tried again with a small ball of dough. 

anyways, here's how we did it (plus a few tips along the way)


1/2 cup salt 
1 cups all purpose flour 
1/2 cup luke warm water 
mix flour & salt first, gradually add water. it is important to knead the dough as long as possible for the minimum of 5 minutes. 
**tip- the first attempt we did not knead long enough, causing the ornaments to dry unevenly.

next: you can dry in the oven @ 200 degrees for 3 hours, but the next tip- ours had brown spots after drying and i really wanted mine to just be natural so it popped on our green tree :) so i let mine air dry for 3 days. (you can see in the gift tag photo, what it will look like during the drying process) 

anyways, it was easy. madison loved it. we chose to do simple circles because during our first attempt with the different christmas shapes, they failed to look anything like the shape. so we went simple. you can hang them on your tree, use them as gift tags, or gift them to family for the holidays. 
first photo: taken with iphone 

diy | old vintage window frame

i love a quick & easy diy project! i found this old window at a vintage thrift store in salisbury, nc where my parents live. still haven't found the best places in greensboro yet. i was not 100% sold on the price of the window, but i have been on the hunt for a while so for under $20, an old window can make the perfect frame for your home. i love that the paint is chipping off. a beautiful addition to my home. now i just need to get my husband to hang it for me. 

 

diy | seashell jewelry box

this was a fun project with madison that we were able to actually do together. when my mom and dad went to the beach they picked buckets and buckets of seashells for the girls. so we decided to make a new jewelry box for madison's jewelry. all you do is buy a wooden box from joann's- and hot glue your favorite shells around the entire box. easy as that! 

diy | date night in a jar

when my best friend, michelle called me and said, "hey- wanna make a date night in a jar?" i had no idea what she was talking about until i typed it in on pinterest, which is where she found the inspiration for. so, last night michelle came over & we made our very own date night in a jar. it was a lot fun & the best part about it was the each of us collaborated supplies. we agreed we're going to have a "pinterest party" soon! we had so much fun coming up with fun dates for our significant others that met our lifestyle. so all credit to this project goes to my bff, michelle! {all of my photos for this post are taken with my iphone-- i apologize for my photos not being shot by my slr} here we go, grab a good friend & make your own! 


here is what you will need: a jar, craft sticks, different color electrical table, a sharpie marker, and a fun label. since i love my readers so much, at the very end of this post you can go ahead and grab the label i made for our jars! just click on the image at the bottom! 


so all you really need to do is come up with tons of date ideas that match the color! for example, for our white sticks were dates @ home, cheap things that do not cost a lot of money or no money at all-- such as massages, write each other a note, pick a movie on netflix, etc. you just keep coming up with tons of ideas that match each other! write them on the stick and add the corresponding color to the top & then the fun part, decorate your jar! so go ahead and make one, it's a fun way to decide right on the spot on what to do tonight with your hubby or significant other! enjoy :) 

 click here to download milliemorganmedia's version of the label

{i am so sorry with my lack of posting-- i have been busy with some new photo shoots and prepping for some upcoming weddings so lots more fun stuff to see over here at milliemorganmedia, i hope you continue to read} 

diy | easter table runner

today i made an easter table runner {a gift for my mother in law} it was a cold & rainy sunday- a perfect day for crafting & sewing. {photos taken with iphone--pretty good quality, don't you agree??}

diy | leap day outfit {or saint patties day}

today is leap day. today is also my brother-in-law's birthday! so happy birthday, chris! at school, madison was required to wear green for her "leap frog" day party at school. they had so much fun all in their matching green, it was so cute seeing them all together in green. thanks to my sister katie from avery & anderson for giving me a heads up on this tutorial from dana made it. easy fabric dyeing. so cute. i love how adorable this simple t-shirt turned out and mostly that the threading stayed white. thanks katie for sharing! madison & i also painting wooden balls light green together, which turned into an adorable necklace. i must admit she looked adorably perfect today for her leap frog day party and the best thing, she can re-wear it on st. patty's day! so if you want this little outfit for your kiddo, you can do it for st. patrick's day in a couple weeks. loved her little smile today. 

diy | business card holder

i just got a re-shipment of my business cards. i used a real simple design and ordered tons of them but needed something cute to put them in, so i followed this tutorial to make a fabric diy business card holder. something cute that i can just keep in my purse or camera bag. i am always running into people at weddings asking for my business card so now i have something adorable to pull out that really shows my creative side. i just used scrap fabric but would really like to buy fabric in the color scheme of my brand and make a different one. but, this will do great for now, and is even perfect for those nights out when i just need my id or debit card. too cute! 

diy | heart crayons

this tutorial was not only my first tutorial but one of my first blog posts ever. you can see how to make heart crayons here at my original post & of course, we made them again this year to pass out to madison's friends at school. she loves making these & cannot wait for her valentine's day party tomorrow at school.  anyways, here is how ours turned out this year. and thanks to my sis for letting me know that my diy heart crayon tutorial is the first three images on google, yay me ;) and i couldn't be any more proud of my little peanut...she wrote her name over 20 times. happy valentine's day...it's not late to make some crayons for tomorrow! and just a reminder-you can find out how to make them here. also, i love you all so much that i'm sharing the card to print for free. download, have your child write their name, cut, and send to school with your crayons <3 click here to download. 

diy | valentine's day shirt & headband

this morning, i had some inspiration from my sister's gorgeous shirt's she made for her kids. you should really check them out over at her blog, avery & anderson. i was about to run to target to get madison a little outfit for school on tuesday- but kate's blog inspired to me to simply make my own. i thought, i already have everything to do it, so why not give it a try? i usually do not sew shirts and this was my first applique. they were right, it's not has hard as it looks. i also made her a heart headband based off of one i made a few days ago for a newborn photo session. i am not sure why-- but i just love valentine's day. maybe it's because my husband proposed to me on valentine's day?? maybe it's because now that i have a daughter, i can do the same little things on the special day that my mom did for me growing up? either way, i cannot wait for tuesday! make a simple heart headband for that special little girl in your life <3 

goodness, i cannot wait to get madison dressed tuesday morning-and here is the cute one i made for the recent newborn session that i did, no worries- i will be sharing more pictures soon. the baby girl was born february first, so the entire session was themed around valentine's day and love. so i made this as a gift for the new baby <3 the last photo is just a sneak peak of how cute it looked on her tiny head. love.