I had such an amazing time at this weekend's Lovely Happenings event! It was truly the ultimate girls' day filled with fun people, fabulous decor and a fun mimosa and bloody mary bar! Seriously, the perfect Saturday!

I was apart of the DIY category for the event where I hosted a donut decorating pumpkin bar! Bringing two of my favorite things together :) I took a fun and bright twist on pumpkin painting by decorating pumpkins with colorful paints, glitter and other fun "sprinkle" options.

A huge thanks to everyone who stopped by my table and had fun painting donut pumpkins with me too! Everyone had their own spins on the DIY project which made it that much more fun. 

If you didn't have a chance to stop by my table or for those of you that couldn't make it here's a rundown of how you can create your own donut pumpkins! Because let's be real, everything is better with sprinkles and glitter right!?

The Supplies:

• Mini pumpkins

• Acrylic paint

• Paint brushes

• Mini pom poms

• Gem stickers

• Glitter glue

• Tacky glue

Get to Painting!

No matter how creative you think you are this DIY is for everyone! There's only 3 steps!

1. Clean off the pumpkins -- wet wipes work awesome for this

2. Paint the frosting -- I left a circle around the stem so the pumpkin would look more like a donut. Then paint as much "frosting" as you would like around the top of the pumpkin. Depending on the color you pick you may want to do a few coats.

3. Pick your "sprinkles" -- You can paint on sprinkles with other paint colors, use glitter glue or glue on mini pom poms or gem stickers!

This DIY project is totally perfect for any upcoming girls night or Halloween get-togethers you have coming up too! 

And that's a wrap! A HUGE thank you goes out to the co-founders of Lovely Happenings Rachael and Jaclyn -- who are easily two of my new favorite people -- for inviting me to be apart of the Fall event! <3 :)

Is there anything better than a wine night with your girlfriends?! I don't think so! Luckily thanks to the awesome team at ANEW Wine I got to treat some of my best friends to an evening of just that!

I was really excited to try out their wines too because the it's actually from my home state of Washington! Shout-out to the Columbia Valley! Bringing all of my favorite things together for one night -- home, friends, and wine <3

We got to try the ANEW Rosé and the ANEW Pinot Grigio, both wines from 2014. I tend to favor wines that are light so both of these appealed to my palate. ANEW's wines are described as refreshing and rejuvenating and I would say both fit that description well. They were the perfect combination of being crisp with fruity notes. I can be a little picky about Pinot Grigios and I have to say I really enjoyed theirs. 

Of course no party is complete without some fun decor! I had fun making some prints to match with the vibe of the wines. You know it's going to be colorful if it's coming out of my studio!

The weather for our evening really couldn't have been much better. You never quite know what you're going to get in August in NYC so we lucked out on the perfect summer temps. To make sure our wine stayed the perfect temp too, I popped a few frozen grapes in each of our glasses. I picked up this tip from Pinterest and love it because it doesn't affect the taste of the wine and keeps the wine chilled just right. It makes the glasses look kind of pretty too!

Some of the ladies enjoying their wine!

Even Scoots joined in for our fun, sans wine of course, he has a few more years before he hits the legal drinking age ;-)

For the evening's pairings I picked  a wide array of cheeses, fresh fruits, crackers and some other tasty bites. If there's one thing I've learned from various wine tastings, it's how much of an impact the food pairing can have on the taste of the wine. I always think it's fun to compare the differences between the taste when paired with different items. The pairing suggestions (see below) also suggest trying the wines with seafood or cream-based dishes, which I'm sure would be totally delicious! You have to try the Pinot with strawberries or the Rosé with the brie or the gouda. LOVED those combos!

We had such a fun evening! I'll definitely be picking up some of their wine for future wine nights, especially with Fall TV nights just around the corner ;-) The prices are super reasonable too, which is always a plus! 

All of my friends were super excited they got to head home with a little goodie bag too! Cheers to ANEW Wine! Thanks for such a fun evening :)

Make sure you check out their website for more information on where you can pick up some of their wines and make sure to "like" their Facebook page!

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**Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. ANEW Wine provided me with wine and other promotional materials in exchange for a blog post. This post and all opinions stated are based on my own ideas and honest experience with the products and have not been influenced based upon the sponsorship.

Well hello everyone! I'm so excited about today's post! Now that the sunshine is here to stay (it's been in the high 80's all week) it's officially balcony season. I moved into my apartment at the end of last summer in August so this is going to be my first full season with outdoor space and I'm so pumped about it!

If you've followed any of my home decor posts in the past you probably know that I LOVE color -- bright, fabulous, bold colors! I'm also a big fan of patterns and definitely not afraid to layer. So it probably won't surprise you when I tell you that my goal for my outdoor decor was to have one of the brightest balconies in the city. And while I haven't seen every patio and balcony in the city, I'm going to go on a limb and say I think I nailed the color part ;-)

Something I had been looking forward to all winter was the second the weather turned for the better so I could pick out new flowers for my planters. So as soon as it warmed up I headed to the farmer's market as fast as I could!

I've always loved Gerbera Daisies so I decided they were a great choice for my planters! I've never had much of a green thumb but I also decided to give my go at a little garden this year too. I picked up romaine lettuce, strawberries, basil, mint, a mini tomato plant, and some lilac! 

I had to plant things a little closer because I was tight on space but I got a really great deal on plants so I decided it wasn't too bad of a spend if I ended up killing everything. I mean I've killed succulents before.. so I wasn't setting the bar too high.

Without further ado, onto the decor! I switched things up a little this year to make the space a little more functional for the way I like to use it.  

That included buying a couple of lounge chairs to make the space a little more comfy! I love coming home and just relaxing outside and these chairs are perfect for that. Plus I can easily fold them up and slide them aside when I want a little more open space.

Right now I have 3 distinct little areas. My lounge chairs, my bench and then my table. Also not pictured are my BBQ and fire pit in the far left corner.

Here's both chairs in action when Chris is out on the balcony with me! Good news too! My plants are killing it!

And guess what! My first strawberries came in and I cut some of my lettuce and have used it for a couple of dinners! Just call me urban farmer Anna ;-)

I can't wait for many more nights out here this summer! Hope you guys enjoyed my space!