Blog

June 6, 2014

NATIONAL DONUT DAY!

National Donut Day: a sacred holiday here at Love & Lion. Want to make your donut binging legit? We have lots of free printables and donuty ideas for your shindig right over……

HERE

Celebrate with your loved ones and appreciate the sprinkley sugary delectable power of the donut.

June 4, 2014

COZY CORNER FOR NOA

My friend, Amy, is having her second child soon (yippee!) and wanted to create a special space for her older daughter, Noa, since the baby will now have Noa’s rocking chair.

Here are some ideas for a cozy corner perfect for reading and dreaming.

TENT 1 / 2 / 3

COMFIES 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

FRIENDS 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

PILLOWS 1 / 2 / 3

MAKE IT PRETTY 1 / 2 / 3

READ AND EXPLORE 1 / 2 / 3

GOOD READS 1 / 2 / 3

We love doing inspiration boards- let us know if you have an idea for us!

-L

May 30, 2014

SUMMA SUMMA SUMMERTIME – OUTDOOR DINING

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You guys! Its summer, and all I can do is think about outdoor dining. Well…. not literally, but it is kind of my fave! Even when my husband and I are scouting out a place to eat lunch or dinner, my first comment is usually “who has great patio seating?” It truly is one of my most adored thing in life…. dining al fresca.

We have been hard at work on our kitchen (I can’t wait to share), however, that has left us with not much time or dolla bills to whip our tiny little backyard and slab of a patio into shape. I am patiently waiting and dreaming in the meantime. Here are some inspirational pics that I can’t stop staring at. I love that outdoor dining (decor) doesn’t have to be “expensive” or even look a certain way. Globe lights are a must though! I just adore the family feel that comes with dining outside. Don’t you ?

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^^ Dying dying dying over this gorgeous pergola with the baby swing attached! ^^

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Enjoy your weekend loves! Grab a cocktail, and enjoy it outdoors with great company!

May 27, 2014

THE ULTIMATE SUMMER SALAD

Hey you guys!! Hope you had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend! We sure did! It is quite surreal to sit down and breathe in just what it means to have FREEDOM. It sounds so cliche to say, but I truly am grateful for the men and women that fight for our freedoms and put their lives on the line daily! Their wives, husbands, kids and parents are just as much of a hero as they are themselves. Thank you thank you!!

I wanted to share my new favorite salad recipe. I threw this together for a party we attended yesterday and amazed myself. I am not super adventurous with salads, but definitely want to start trying to be. You guys!!!! This salad….. you will be SO happy you gave it a try! It has the sweet fruity flavor mixed with the spice of onion and tomatoes. Love love love it!!! It was a hit at the party, and I must add that I even had a helping at breakfast this morning….what???

What you will need….

1 16 oz. pkg. of Spring mix salad

1/2 of a small seedless watermelon

1/4 of a red onion

1 16 oz. pkg. fresh strawberries

1 4 oz. pkg. of crumbled goat cheese

half of a 10.5 oz pkg. of golden snacking tomatoes

Dressing of your choice!

( I prefer a balsamic vinaigrette and the fuji apple dressing from Panera was a hit at the party. You could absolutely just do a small pour of EVOO and toss the salad and love it just as much. The fruit adds so much flavor!!)

How I made it….

** I made mine for a party, so it is pretty large! Feel free to just layer these things in a much smaller bowl with smaller portions for your own personal salad!**

In a large bowl, layer spring mix, watermelon, tomatoes, onion, strawberries. Do this THREE times. Then, on the top of the salad, add all of the goat cheese! It will work its way down to the rest of the salad. ENJOOOOY!

-J

Oh…. and here we are with our littles over the weekend!!

^^ after church on Sunday! -J ^^

^^ Digging for Roly Polies in the garden! -L ^^

May 23, 2014

PAINTING PARTY AT THE VINEYARD + GIVEAWAY WINNER

Our party “throwback” this week is my daughter’s “Pom Poms & Painting” themed 2nd birthday party. Amara still enjoys painting so much! We kept it fairly simple by holding it ~~not in our house… whoop whoop!~~ outdoors at a beautiful vineyard. I assembled basket lunches for the adults, boxed lunches for the kiddos with juice boxes and canned sodas and called it a day! Of course we bought wine as well…. I mean, we WERE at a vineyard.

I set up a painting table with a place setting ( 3 sheets of watercolor paper, an art smock and a paint set) for each little guest. Tags and invites done by Lauren at Rock Paper Scissors.

Follow our simple DIY party hat tutorial here. I additionally added some poms to each hat. I hand -dyed some in water color water to get the pastel look.

I actually cut circles out of one of Amara’s many paintings at home to make tags for the boxed lunches! It just made it all that more personal.

I filled clear paint cans ( found at Joann’s Fabric Store) with different colors of tissue paper to resemble “paint” and stocked each can with $1 items. My favorite favors were the mini paint sets!

I set up a dessert table with some sweet treats! I hot glued pom poms to the front of the table cloth to go with the theme.

homemade cupcakes with DIY cake toppers. I simply cut stripey straws into thirds and hot glued pom poms to the ends…. voila!

Rice crispy treats on a stick dipped in candy melts. These were much harder to make than I thought they would be, but they were a hit so they were worth it!

My favorite thing of all is the “year of instagrams” banner I did. I watercolored little flags, glued them to mini paper clips to label each month. I loved this banner so much!!