Thanksgiving is coming up so fast! I’m headed to Washington DC for Thanksgiving to spend it with Idan’s family; how about you?

Because I’m not always super useful in the kitchen (unless I’m baking), I thought it would be nice to bring some decor items to spruce up the Thanksgiving table a bit. We’ll see how much I actually have time to make, or how much I can realistically bring on a plane… I pulled together some cute DIYs from across the web that I thought would help make your Thanksgiving a little more fun (if pie doesn’t do it for ya)!

Corn husk candy favors – These are just darling, don’t you think? And super, super easy. These would also be a great gift for co-workers to thank them for a November well done. And they could be great place cards as well!

Leaf napkin rings – These are made pretty easily with air dry clay and add a handmade touch to any dinner table, especially Thanksgiving!

Pie-painted macarons – Oh come on, how cute are these?! Probably not for the faint of heart, but I have faith in you. You could totally buy store-bought macarons to make these, too! Nobody will ever know.

Pie Stencils – Click through for even more pie stencils where this came from (this one was my favorite out of the bunch). Super easy, and again, could definitely be done with store-bought pie (Costco makes the best pumpkin pie!!).

Pumpkin pie garland – SO EASY! And so stinking cute. I wanna eat it.

Pumpkin pie placecard boxes – Fill with candy! You can either place one at each person’s seat, or put them all together into a pie and have everyone grab one later as a treat! Also, if you don’t have a Cricut or Silhouette machine, you can always hand-write peoples’ names.

Other fun Thanksgiving things!

How to host a Friendsgiving dinner 

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I couldn’t wait even 4 days to blog about this Shabbat dinner. Similar to last year’s rooftop Shabbat, I got a call from my friend Marissa from OneTable who wanted to put together a Shabbat al-fresco towards the end of summer. After how well last year turned out, how could I say no?

The Venue

The dinner was in the garden at Christy Webber Farm & Garden–a branch of Christy Webber Landscapes in Chicago. The idea of having a Shabbat dinner outside in a garden sounded too good to be true to me; luckily, it exceeded even my wildest dreams.

The Tablescapes

I love a good tablescape. My new friends at Christy Webber Farm & Garden helped me out in this department–I had a vision and they elevated it with fresh greenery, pumpkins, and gourds! I brought the tablecloths, gold chargers, and plastic plates and silverware.

I also made the candlesticks. They are SO easy to make (exactly like these DIY menorahs from last year), and I bought the actual candles from the dollar store. I outfitted all the tables for about $20 and 10 minutes of work. You just glue the 3/4″ copper tubing  (specifically called a “coupling”) from Home Depot to these wooden blocks. If you don’t feel like making your own candlesticks, the below are just as cute!

I bought all the tablecloths, plates, plastic silverware, etc. on Amazon:

The Place Cards

I created these place cards using my Cricut (shocker), and they turned out really cute! I just cut out a square with a score line in the middle, and cut a leaf shape out on one side of them. I used a white gel pen to write people’s names, and voila! I put the place cards inside so people would see them on their way out to the garden. (See more Cricut projects here)

The Wine

I don’t think it’s a secret at this point that I’m obsessed with Chloe Wine. Their pinot grigio is my go-to, and I was so happy they offered to provide the wine for this special evening! There was barely a drop left at the end of the night. Plus, it’s so pretty!

The Appetizer

As an appetizer, I put together a cheese board made with goodies from Trader Joes. It’s surprisingly easy to put together cheese boards like you see at fancy events; I couldn’t believe how well it turned out! Shout out to my friend Lauren who helped me set up the dinner AND put the final cheese board together. I just bought all the supplies!

Everything you see here on the cheese board was about $50 total (for the food):

• 2 apples
• Blueberries
• Red grapes
• Cheddar cheese
• Goat cheese
• Gruyere cheese
• Apple jam
• Fig & olive crisps
• Brioche toasts
• Assorted crackers

The actual marble slab ($50) is a Crate & Barrel piece I bought this year. It’s extremely heavy, but I can’t tell you how many compliments I get on it. It is sooo perfect for these types of large appetizers, and I keep it on display in my kitchen when it’s not in use!

The Main Course

For dinner, I had Doc B’s catered. The manager at the River North location was so nice; we basically called him and said “we have 30 people coming for dinner and want to keep it light; here’s our budget, can you help us put together a menu?”, and he put together the perfect dinner. It was an assortment of salads and 2 sandwich platters. I would 100000% order from them again!

Side note: the dishes that went the fastest were the Tangled Noodle Salad and the Brussels Sprouts Salad. I highly recommend these dishes if you’re ordering from them!

The Dessert

Sadly I didn’t photograph the dessert, and I’m not entirely sure how I missed this! I picked up black and white cookies from Manny’s Deli in Chicago. They are the yummiest and I just cannot resist a black and white cookie. The key is to get a bite of both the chocolate side and vanilla side at the same time. If you don’t get that reference, please see here.

I should also mention that my friend Eshley also made 3 dessert challahs, so we were SET in the sweets department.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped make my dream Shabbat a reality!

• Effie at Christy Webber Farm & Garden for being the most gracious host I could ever ask for
• My friend Lauren for coming 2 hours early to help me set up
• My friend Eshley for making SIX challahs, which were gone in approximately six seconds
• My friend Taryn for candy-ing the almonds for the cheese board, and for taking a ton of photos when I was busy setting up and greeting people
• OneTable for providing the grant that made this dinner happen; if you’re looking to host or attend a Shabbat dinner in your city, sign up for their platform! It’s the BEST!
• All 30 people who showed up, ate good food, drank good wine, and spent the most wonderful evening together making new friends

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At the ripe age of 27, I’ve had one or two friends get engaged… or more like 20. I’ve lost count at this point! And I always get people engagement gifts–I just have to! I believe in celebrating every single special little moment life gives us–and engagement is a BIG one!

Two engagement gift ideas I use the most are thank you cards and ring dishes. I’ve heard from so many people that these two are just the best to have! A ring dish is helpful in every room of the house (and office!), so even if a friend receives a bunch, there’s always a use for them. And thank you cards! Engaged people write so. many. thank you cards. My friends always say it’s the most unexpected but most useful gift.

I also love this Chill AF Bride shirt from The Daily Tay. She makes a lot of great wedding-themed shirts, like this Married AF shirt (the original one!!), this Honeymoon Vibes shirt, and this Oh Hey Wedding Day shirt.

This The Mrs Box ring box is honestly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I am truly obsessed with these! You can also get them monogrammed if you order directly from their website.

One thing that didn’t make the graphic above that I should have put in there if I wasn’t so lazy are these tea towels! They have wedding/engagement-themed ones every year and they are always different. Here and here are two of the cute ones right now.

And a few engagement card ideas:

Do you have any other engagement gift ideas? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this post, you’ll like this one and this one. Also, if you like wedding ideas, you’ll like following me on Pinterest!

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I am SO excited to introduce you all to my friend Charlotte! She is a fellow blogger and friend who lives in Ann Arbor, where my boyfriend and her husband are going to school together. I just adore her and knew she’d write the perfect blog post–and she absolutely delivered. Enjoy Charlotte’s blog post with a delicious recipe for Guinness Chocolate Mousse–just in time for St. Patrick’s Day!

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Alright y’all, I’ve got a special treat for those of you who love chocolate… and beer. Guinness chocolate mousse is the must-have sweet treat for St. Patrick’s Day!

When Audrey asked me to write a guest post for Love Always, Audrey, I was so excited! Sure I’m a fan of the site but since Audrey and I met last fall, we’ve become great friends. Despite a shared love of blogging, we met through the men in our lives.

One of the reasons I think we get along so well is that we share a love of holidays. Sure, we love the holidays we spend with our families. Perhaps more notably though, we LOVE those holidays we get to plan parties around and bake on theme for! I’m looking at you Friendsgiving and Halloween.

I’ll leave the party planning to Audrey and stick to baking up since that’s my strong suit. And with this easy and tasty Guinness chocolate mousse recipe, it can be your strong suit too!

When it comes to baking on-theme for St. Patrick’s Day, it’s got to be green or all about the Irish alcohol. I’m not big on whisky but Irish beer is something I can definitely get behind for the sake of a drinking holiday. I’m usually a light-beer or cider girl but to get the most flavor and richness in this mousse, a pint of Guinness is the perfect beer!

Tips for success:

• The recipe calls for you to ‘temper’ the heavy cream into the egg yolks. This is just a fancy way to say carefully combine. If you pour all of the warm heavy cream into the eggs you might end up with scrambled eggs. To temper, pour a small amount of the heavy cream into the eggs while whisking constantly to combine (and gently elevate the temperature of the eggs to match the heavy cream). Once well combined, pour the rest of the heavy cream into the eggs. And voila! Now you’re an expert on tempering.
• Playing the waiting game. Once the mousse ingredients are assembled, you’re going to need to leave it to sit for a few hours. You could eat it right away but that time in the fridge will allow the air that you whipped into the heavy cream has a chance to combine with the chocolate in the custard to produce that amazing texture we all love.
• Mousse is such a rich dessert that I always prefer smaller servings. That being said, this recipe will serve as many as 8 people in small ramekins or as few as three in larger bowls. I divided my last batter into two large bowls for my husband and I and then two adorable Guinness mini pints for photos. But also for late night snacks when I want just a taste of chocolate.

Enjoy!

The post Guinness Chocolate Mousse appeared first on love always, audrey.

I should also note that many of these gifts are from Anthropologie, which is my go-to for aaaaany gifting needs. CB2, West Elm, and Crate & Barrel are good ones as well!

Stay tuned for more holiday gift guides!

Shop all of these items here:

If you liked this post, you’ll like this one and this one.

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Which of these gifts would you want to receive yourself? Comment below and let me know!

The post Host/Hostess Gift Ideas For Thanksgiving appeared first on love always, audrey.

Yep, that’s right. You’ve seen me talk about my trusty Cricut machine before a few times (here and here for example), but while getting in the spirit of Halloween, I went a liiiiiittle crazy.

I’m obsessed with Hocus Pocus (obviously, who isn’t??) and decided to go with that theme for a few decorations. Supplies I used for my Cricut Halloween decorations:

• Cricut Explore Air 2
• A pack of black card stock
• Some black and gold vinyl scraps
• 2x plastic pumpkins (on sale at Michaels)

These pumpkins were inspired by these ones by Lovely Indeed! I bought the pumpkins from Michaels on sale and used some vinyl scraps to put the quotes on them. I did all of this, by the way, while watching Hocus Pocus, which I own on DVD. Obviously.

These bats were super easy to cut out! I used a pack of regular black card stock which I also purchased at Michaels. The wall art is DIY’d by myself–who knows what song that is?

See? Told you I was watching the movie the whole time. The banner was made with the spell that the witches put on Thackery Binx to turn him into a cat. I put some little cats in between to really get the message across, ha!

SVG file for this banner (and the cats!) is here.

Instead of buying plastic spiders, this year I opted for making my own with my Cricut. I cut out a ton of little spiders using this SVG file, and put them in the spiderwebs that I had already stretched all over the apartment!

I also taped some of the spiders inside lamps so it looked like they were crawling literally everywhere.

Candles. Candles everywhere. This pumpkin candle holder is so cute and festive for the whole season!

That guy lurking in the window has nothing to do with Hocus Pocus, but he’s one of my all-time favorite villains:

The Oogie Boogie man from The Nightmare Before Christmas! Since I didn’t have paper large enough to cut him out completely, I used 6 pieces of paper and once they were cut out, I taped them together. A little hasty but at night when it’s dark out, it looks really spooky!

This one takes a little more skill with the Cricut to make sure all the sizes line up properly, but if you’re experienced then you’ll know how to do it. Here are all 6 SVG files!

Save it for later:

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What other Cricut Halloween decorations ideas do you have? What should I start thinking of for next year?

P.S. If you liked this post, you’ll like this one and this one!

The post I Decorated My Entire Apartment For Halloween For Less Than $20 appeared first on love always, audrey.

OK FINE. I have embraced that fall is upon us. It really, really took me a while (and a lot of making faces at PSL signage surrounding me everywhere) but I am HERE, people. My body is ready.

Normally I would do a bunch of separate posts about how much I love fall (basic much?) but this year I wanted to do somewhat of a fall mood board with all of my favorites for the season. I did something similar for Valentine’s Day this year and really loved creating it – I think this is going to be a regular occurrence over here!

Let’s start with music. Hit play and read on.

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I normally have trouble embracing trends but I am all over everything this year. Mules? MINE. Velvet? PLEASE. I’ve fallen for over-the-knee boots and bought 2 pairs last week. I can’t wait to dress them up!

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I’m proud to say I accomplished quite a few things on last year’s fall bucket list so I’m just going to tack a few more on for this year…

Host a chili cookoff 
I effing love chili and cornbread and have been dreaming of hosting something like this for AGES. Maybe this is the year! Also, if you’re interested here is my go-to chili recipe.

Go apple picking… again
Apple Holler is so great and only about an hour outside of Chicago! My friends and I went last year and it was a freaking blast. Definitely going again this year!

Go all out for halloween
Tori and I are going to host another halloween party which gives me ample opportunity to decorate. I already have a lot of plans for decor, especially now with my Cricut machine in tow! I’m thinking a Hocus Pocus theme…

Hike Starved Rock State Park
I’ve never been here but have heard it’s gorg in the fall. Who’s coming with me?

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And last but not least…

Pumpkin Salted Caramel Thumbprint Cookies // Mini Chicken Pot Pies // Curried Carrot Soup (one of my all-time favorite recipes) // Southwestern Loaded Sweet Potatoes // Roasted Broccolini // Slow Cooker Brisket and Onions

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What are you looking forward to about fall this year? What should I add to my bucket list? Let me know below in comments! Happy fall everybody!

The post Don’t Be Afraid To Catch (Fall) Feels appeared first on love always, audrey.

If you’re anything like me, you have 8+ weddings per year lined up. I guess that’s just what being in your late 20’s looks like… right? When it comes to gifting, I typically like to pick something off of registries that the wedding couple will remember me for. I don’t want to just pick out some towels… I want to get the couple something that, when they use it, they’ll say “oh, remember Audrey got us this!” Is that narcissistic? Maybe. We’ll circle back on that one.

One gift that I’ve been drawn to a few times actually kills two birds with one stone; it’s not only a gorgeous keepsake, but it crosses one thing off the couples’ massive to-do list. This is truly a unique wedding gift–any guesses?

Their wedding guest book.

Gifting your friends their wedding guest book is the perfect present for numerous reasons:

1. It provides a reason to print their gorgeous engagement photos. Otherwise they might be doomed to live on a hard drive/Facebook forever, and who wants that? (P.S. there’s a whole new post on this aspect of it coming soon – stay tuned)
2. It takes some stress off the couple’s plate. With all the planning that a wedding takes, the guest book is likely the last thing on their mind – and they will love you for crossing something off of their list.
3. It’s a keepsake that they will cherish forever. Plus, it’s beautiful and could (should) grace their coffee table for years to come.

When it comes to printing companies, I am completely brand loyal to Artifact Uprising. If you haven’t heard of them, they’re an indie book printer (wayyyy better than Shutterfly or Walgreens in my opinion). I adore them for a few reasons:

1. Their products feel professional. They are really well made, and are the perfect keepsakes.
2. The company has gorgeous branding overall and they tug at my design-lover heartstrings.
3. They are always innovating. I swear, every time I check their site they’ve come up with a new way to preserve memories — whether that’s with prints, photo books, framed photos, calendars, baby books… the list really goes on.
4. They’re environmentally friendly.
5. Their products are minimalistic and made with purpose.
6. Their website is easy to navigate and it’s not difficult at all to make photo books!

I can’t wait to give this particular book to my friend Addi for her wedding – I just know she will love such a unique wedding gift! Making the book itself was easy – I imported all of her engagement photos to Artifact Uprising’s website, the clicked and dragged the photos into the book.

I was able to change the layout of each page, and I was also able to crop the photos, zoom in/out as needed, flip the photos horizontally if they made sense at a different angle… the options seemed unlimited! I was also able to view the entire book all together to make sure it was seamless.

These guest books start at $139. You pick the fabric, the foil, the layout, the album size, and the paper that goes into it (all of this might alter the price depending on what you choose). Check out the guest book options here! Oh, and they recommend these pens for writing in guest books. And if you want some gift wrapping ideas, click here!

Love Always, Audrey readers get 10% off this unique wedding gift now through Friday, September 22nd! Use code AUDREY10 at checkout. 

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If you live in Arizona and love her engagement photos as much as I do, her photographer is linked here.

Artifact Uprising did hook it up with some site credit in exchange for this post, but I promise that all opinions are my own and this is a company I truly use and love.

If you liked this post, you may like this one, and this one.

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Pin it for later:

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One type of gathering that I love above all others is Shabbat. If you don’t know what this is, Shabbat is a weekly holiday for Jewish people (you might recognize it as the Sabbath). For Jews, it’s 24 hours every week from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown when you eat, drink, and just relax. It’s a time of reflection from the previous week, and a special opportunity to put your phone down and connect with people IRL. One tradition that comes from this weekly holiday is Shabbat dinners every Friday night, which I love hosting because of who I am as a person. Although I don’t host or attend every single Friday night, I deeply enjoy it when I do, both on a spiritual and social level.

A few months ago, my friend Marissa from OneTable (a non-profit dedicated to funding Shabbat dinners for 20 and 30 year olds) reached out to see if I’d be interested in planning a summer-themed Shabbat dinner that would be open to 30 people of Chicago’s Jewish community. At the time, I was absolutely swamped with planning bachelorette parties, helping with wedding planning, and personal trips. Plus, work was insanely busy at the time and I was working wayyy more hours than I normally do. But something (something crazy) inside of me just blurted out “OF COURSE! I’d love that!”

I am so glad my crazy self said yes to this.

This past Friday, 30 wonderful people gathered for a rooftop summertime sunset Shabbat dinner that I will never forget. Here’s how I made it happen (and how you can, too):

Decorations

I sourced all of my decorations from Paper Source. (Are you surprised? You can see other parties I’ve thrown with them here, here, and here.) I got to preview their new Endless Summer line with this dinner (plates and napkins specifically), and to say I love this collection would be an understatement. Everything in it is so gorgeous – the colors are fantastic and I love all of the citrus and floral graphics! Everything in the collection complements each other so nicely, doesn’t it?

When people walked in, they saw a string of place cards and name tags with their names already on them (which I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of). I put the place card in front, and then used a mini clothespin to attach a name tag for them as well! And then I used the same clothespin to fasten them to the string. I then had everyone put their place card where they wanted to sit for the evening so they could save their seat while mingling!

We taped these coral paper flowers to the table and they looked so cute.

One thing I really recommend putting on the table is a set of Table Topics. It’s a pack of cards that asks fun questions for you to discuss as a group – it’s a great way to get meaningful conversations going! I have a set on my dining room table at home, too.

I used these blue tile tea towels (say that 10 times fast) to add a little more color and texture to the table. I love the tassels at the end of them! I also put down blue wrapping paper on top of the white tablecloths for a few reasons: a) it looked pretty and b) people spilled wine on the paper instead of my tablecloths. Win win!

We used this tray as a Challah tray and it worked out perfectly! And now it’s in my living room housing all my candles. Double duty!

This little “party” bottle opener is like a sneaky, multifunctional piece of decor.

Food

I ordered all the food for the evening (excluding dessert) from The Pasta Bowl. This is one of my all-time favorite restaurants in Chicago because it’s quick, inexpensive, and freaking delicious. It was actually Idan’s idea to call them for catering because we always see their little red catering cars driving all over the city! Their catering manager, Jay, is extremely easy to work with and very responsive. I would 100000% order catering from them again!

For dessert, we got Stan’s Donuts and put them on my donut wall (remember it from this post?). I re-painted the donut wall to match the other colors of the night and it complemented everything really well! Visit this post for instructions on how to make it (it’s super easy).

The big chocolate cake came from Costco and is honestly one of my favorite desserts of all time. It always reminds me of Matilda and every time I see it, “you must eat the entire confection!” comes into my head. Anyone else? Bruce Bruce Bruce!

I made the “Shabbat Shalom” cake topper with my Cricut (SVG file for your use here!). I know I talk about it all the time, but my Cricut is literally my best friend and I think every crafty person should invest in one if they can. There is no limit to the things you can make with it! To make the topper, I just cut out the letters and used rubber cement to adhere the letters to some skewers. Super super easy.

More Cricut craft ideas here and here.

Drink

I absolutely love Chloe Wine and was ecstatic when they offered to provide the wine for the evening. The rosé was a huge hit (no surprise there) and of course the bottles are beautiful and added even more decorative charm. Thank you to the team at Chloe Wine – the wine was, as always, fantastic! You can see another post where we drank all the Chloe Wine here. I’m truly obsessed with this stuff.

Location

We actually found this venue on Airbnb. We were searching high and low for a private rooftop space for weeks and finally came across this amazing apartment space. If you are looking for an event rental space, I highly recommend checking out Airbnb and Splacer (which we didn’t find until after already booking the rooftop, but it’s just as cool).

Overalls from Alice and Wonder, where else?

I used these gift labels as name tags. Worked out perfectly.

Taryn took a looot of the pics on this post. Thank you T!! Love you <3

My heart is so full. I love hosting Shabbat and this night was absolutely perfect. Thank you to all who attended – and if you’re Jewish and interested in hosting your own Shabbat dinner, visit OneTable here.

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Thank you so much to everyone who made this Summertime Sunset Shabbat possible:
Chloe Wine
Paper Source
OneTable
Michael Brown, Alyssa Barrett, and Marissa Freeman for helping me set all of this up! I couldn’t have done this without you.
Taryn Rosenberg for taking a ton of photos!

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When Pocky asked me to put together an easy dessert bar idea I said HECK YES as fast as I could. Do you blame me? I need some color in my life, especially in the form of sugar. Yes, I eat pretty healthy normally, but it’s all about balance, right? Especially when I’ve already done a Whole30 challenge this year… I’ve earned some sweets!

I can’t tell you how easy this dessert bar was to put together. It would be perfect for a baby shower, bridal shower, brunch, random Tuesday, etc.

Here’s what I used:
– A donut wall (keep scrolling for instructions)
– Some serving platters (these, these, and these specifically)
– Some candy jars (less than $10 each at Target)
– A water carafe (this was $3 in the Target dollar section… I know right?!)
– Some fun treat bags with washi tape (treat bags also from Target)
– Paper plates (c/o Paper Source)
– Fresh ranunculus from Trader Joes
– Candy, donuts, cookies, and Pocky

You want your guests to take home treats, right? I know I don’t like to have all of it sitting in the house after everyone leaves. Except I shot this post myself and it’s still all in my apartment… ANYWAYS. Treat bags are a perfect way to make sure everyone takes their share home!

I feel like this is Homer Simpson’s dream blog post.

Pocky sticks just beg to be arranged in a fun pattern, am I right?

Banana, strawberry, and cookies & cream flavors of Pocky, all lined up in a row.

Cookies c/o Matt’s Cookies. Thanks friends! Also, my roommate was super jazzed about us having a real life cookie jar from now on. It is the ultimate test of self control. ;)

My washi tape collection was put to good use!

How cute is this candy pedestal jar??

All signs point to a sweet day. ;)

This donut wall is almost too good to eat. Almost.

Here’s how you make it:
– Buy a piece of pegboard from Lowes or Home Depot (I think this was like $10)
– Buy a few wooden dowels (check to make sure they fit in the holes) and have someone at the hardware store cut them into 2.5-3″ pieces (I had to do this part myself with Home Depot’s wood-cutting station, but it was pretty easy, promise!)
– Using a mini paint roller, paint your pegboard in your desired color (pink, duh)
– Space out the pegs (I did them 6 holes apart each) and hammer them in if they don’t fit easily
– Hang your donuts and ‘gram the heck out of your new donut wall!
Bonus: stick some pretty flowers through the holes (randomly) to add even more color! 

I got the DIY instructions originally from Oh Happy Day.

What do you have coming up that you could make a donut wall for? I’d love to see pictures!

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This post is brought to you by Pocky, a treat that I love to enjoy. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep Love Always, Audrey running!

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