Jacque Made: a place to share my creative side.

I like to give special photo ornaments to friends at Christmastime. I'll usually text them and ask them to send me a few of their favorite photos from the year and then I have them printed. I use mod podge and chipboard, which you can buy at a craft store or online. Then, I usually also buy stickers to put the year on the ornament.   First I line up the photo onto the chipboard and punch holes where I'd like to put the ribbon on it for hanging. Then, I use a foam paint brush and put a layer of mod podge onto the chipboard, and then glue the photo down onto it. Then, I add another layer of the mod podge onto the top of the photo. This seals the photo and protects, it too. I try to use smooth strokes, so the mod podge dries nicely.   Once that is dried, I add the number stickers and then another layer of mod podge over the stickers to seal them down. I add the ribbon once they have completely dried. It's best to leave them out to dry them overnight if possible...

The week after Thanksgiving I threw a baby shower for my sweet friend, Morgan. My twin sis helped me a ton by giving me all the décor and pumpkins she'd used for a shower she threw a friend a month or so before. These are some of the flowers I got for the shower at Trader Joe's. So pretty, yes? Here's the décor. Not the best light for a photo, but you get the gist. And here's the beginnings of the food table. My sis bought the decorative fans online, and the pumpkins are from Trader Joe's.  The party favors were caramels from Trader Joe's in cute little bags with gold and peach ribbons. My sis gave me these awesome wheat stalks she'd actually picked herself. And I love the little sign she designed for the favor table. I ordered sandwiches and desserts from Kneaders.  It was such a beautiful shower for a beautiful friend.

Pico de gallo is so delicious and so easy to prepare. All you need is tomato, white onion (or red onion), and cilantro. Chop them all and mix together.  For guacamole, I like to mix ripe avocado, chopped cilantro, garlic powder or garlic salt to taste, and lime juice. Then, I'll even add some pico de gallo to the guacamole for extra flavor and texture.  One of our family's favorites is chicken quesadillas. I like to marinate and grill chicken breasts and then make quesadillas.  I always add some kosher salt to the quesadillas to bring out all the flavors.   And then enjoy with pico, guac, and sour cream. Delicious!

My twin sis, Jaime, has told me for so long now that we need to go to Pigment the next time I'm in town. We took our girls there on my recent trip to San Diego, and we all loved it.    The store is full of beautiful sights everywhere you look!    They have a place where you can build your own planter with colored sands and all sorts of pots and plants.  Our girls had a blast playing with the cute colorful telephones.  How cozy is this hanging chair?!  Their baby and kid section was so adorable. All the fluffy stuffed animals, books, and toys were precious! I wished I had someone to buy a baby gift for!   And their party supplies were awesome. I was wanting one of everything. I also thought this was a great place to find teacher gifts. They had a lot of cute water bottles, soaps, wrapping papers, bags, cups, and succulent arrangements. They had this great plant wall area where you could have you...

I spent a lot of time planning for our big Relief Society dinner/Visiting Teaching Conference. After tossing around a lot of ideas, I finally settled on the theme of friendship. I saw this Mary Engelbreit illustration and quote that I loved, and it became the basis for the whole night. I had so much help from Jaime, my sis. She designed these awesome invitations and helped me so much as I planned the décor . Another sweet friend, Katie, helped me with the food.. we decided to have it catered by Kneaders. We had to go eat there to really look at everything and decide.. ;) We even tried some desserts just to be sure.. it was fun, fun!! I bought this adorable polka dot teapot there that I just knew I wanted to use. Another dear friend, Sarah, who is crazy talented by the way, went with me to Hobby Lobby and The Dollar Store with me for frames, vases, and other décor.. we found these adorable artificial fruits that ended up being perfect for the theme. I'd printed out ...