Ask Anna

31 Ways to Plan a Fabulous Party: Setting a Budget

When you plan a fabulous party it’s important to set a budget. I’ll be honest, I’m not always good at setting a budget and sticking to it, but I’m working on it. Through the years I’ve learned that if you don’t set a budget then you end up spending way more money than you want to, and a party, though it may be fabulous, isn’t worth going in debt for! If you set a budget, and know how much or how little, you have to spend on everything, then making decisions along the way will be easier. If you are… Read More

31 Ways to Plan a Fabulous Party: Choosing a Theme

Today we are staring the planning process for our party! The first thing you’ll need to decide on when you are going to plan a fabulous party, is the theme. It’s my opinion that every party should have a theme. Having a theme makes every party more fun and it gives your guests something to anticipate! Even if your theme is just Candlelit Dinner & Wine party, suddenly your dinner party sounds really classy and exciting. Having a theme will help give you direction for what decorations and invitations to purchase. It will also make it easier to decide what… Read More

31 Ways to Plan a Fabulous and Stress-free Party

Welcome to the first day of my new series: 31 ways to plan a fabulous and stress-free party! I am excited about this series because I’m going to give you lots of tips and ideas for how to plan fabulous parties without all the fuss and stress! I love to throw parties, I always have, I’m a natural born hostess, however it took me years to realize that I was making it way more stressful than it needed to be. I’ve learned a lot in my years of party planning and throwing, so I wanted to share it all with… Read More

Gluten free pumpkin snickerdoodles

Hello there, Ask Anna readers! This is Sarah from Sarah Bakes Gluten Free Treats and I’m so happy to be sharing another one of my favorite gluten free treats with you! I’m pretty much in love with this time of year. The change in the weather, the colors on the trees, and the warm apple cider. Fall is my favorite season for many reasons, but the one that tops them all….pumpkin desserts! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin cookies. Makes my heart happy. Time to stock up on the pumpkin puree and cinnamon! Whenever I ask my husband what kind… Read More

When God Speaks

Today I’m going to share something a little different {well actually a lot different} than my normal tips & tricks. Today I’m going to share a piece of my heart with you, a journey that God is taking Matt and I on. It’s an exciting and terrifying journey, but it’s God’s journey, we are just along for the ride. So what is it? It’s the road to adoption. Here’s our story… On July 31, 2011, I was sitting in church during announcements, when one of our pastors got up to announce that a couple from another church was going to… Read More

How to Create a Design Board

After posting the design board for my front porch makeover many of you asked me questions about how I made it and what program I had used. So today I thought I’d give a little rundown on how I like to create a design board. Now that I’ve made over the front porch I’m itching to do the entryway, so I will use that as my example room today. Step 1: Finding Inspiration This first thing you need is inspiration. I like to get inspired for a space by going on Pinterest and searching for key words related to my… Read More

Back to School Routines for Kids & Mom {Guest Post}

A few years back (quite a few now) when my oldest daughter was in Kindergarten, I found that getting out the door on time was difficult. I had no real routines and was just “winging it” to get out the door every morning. About that time, I discovered flylady.net. Marla Cilley (aka Flylady) is a proponent of routines and “you can do anything for 15 minutes”. The concept of routines was not new to me, I had just forgotten how to create and use them. And the idea of tackling a job for just 15 minutes was freeing. I created… Read More

Front Porch Makeover Photos!

Our front porch has come a long way since we moved in just over 2 years ago. About a year ago I got sick of the tan door and painted it black and added a “welcome” vinyl to the door. It was a great improvement over the boring tan but the porch still seemed to lack in character. I kept seeing cute front porches on Pinterest and it was starting to make me crazy that I hadn’t done anything to mine yet! So… I created this design board and got to work. The first project I completed, and the one… Read More