The Weekender

Happy Saturday, friend! How are you?

I know, it’s been a minute. There has been so much happening over here at April Colleen and I have so much to catch you up on!!  And I want to include YOU in one of my holiday posts this year so be sure to check out the end of this post to see how this community is so important to me. Look for ‘announcement‘.

Right now it is 4:50 am and I am really trying to be as quiet as possible in my house that currently has 5 sleeping adults, 2 exhausted teenagers, 3 dogs, a fish and 5 cars in the street because we can’t park in the garage due to my latest project.

I have a full house and a full mama heart over here.

Our oldest daughter (who is having a BABY!!) and her husband are building a house and moved in with us this week (along with their two dogs) this week as they wait for it to be completed.  My son, who is in college, has moved home to continue school closer to us and my teenager has her BFF from Indy here for Fall break.

All in the middle of a huge project I am building that has added some chaos to the mix (see below).

Check out my daughter’s CUTE announcement video!!

But, I realize that this time with everyone is so precious so I won’t allow myself to feel the overwhelm of it all.

Just going with the flow over here.

I am really missing our weekly chats so I thought I might carve some time out to catch up with you. I have been feeling the overwhelm of all the things over the summer and have been grinding all the projects out before the holidays without taking a break.

Sneak peek of my latest project!

If you haven’t been following along on IG, I jumped from building my parent’s deck in July, to finishing the garage, to wrapping up all the pop-up shop displays for Vitality in September (what an amazing time meeting the Vitality community) and have torn apart the wall and sledge-hammered out all of our master closet shelving to make way for an entire new master closet from floor to ceiling…..and truly I am exhausted, LOL!

Vitality Pop-UP Shop

These are my kids that own Vitality and they are truly amazing humans. This is some of the stuff I built or created. All the arch displays, all the display cabinets, all the painting and anything else that required building or a saw. And if you haven’t shopped Vitality, what are you waiting for??

I learned how to make balloon garlands and they were SO fun and SO easy! Want me to share how to make them with you? HINT: I did not use garland tape that is wildly popular.

We also moved my husband’s entire office this past Tuesday to give our daughter and her husband a space of their own and his office is now temporarily in our bedroom…..but so is all of the crap from our master closet while I finish the build so when he has zoom calls they literally think he is in the closet.

It is a real circus over here!

The master closet is the last of the big projects for 2022! I can’t wait to share it all with you. Follow along daily on IG as I take my builder-grade closet to a masterpiece! It really is so,so exciting to have all the organization….finally!

You won’t want to miss what is coming up on the blog and I can’t wait to share!

What’s up for the holidays?

• Creating candle hoop decor for the windows
• Transforming bells and garland from boring to beautiful
• Creating a beautiful Thanksgiving centerpiece and tips from the pros
• Holiday baking
• Our favorite Christmas morning eats
• Recipe for my family’s absolute favorite Christmas Morning Coffee Cake
• Gift Guides
• My Bronco Cheerleader reunion in December. (Yes, I am dancing at halftime!)

What I am loving on IG:

Michaela made these beautiful sourdough loaves in the shape of pumpkins. Her sourdough game is STRONG!

I can’t wait to try these!

Jaclyn James has this fun twist on a margarita for Fall and it looks delicious! I can’t wait to make this.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I would love to post YOUR favorite holiday recipe this year (and give you props, of course). I will be doing a roundup of Community Favorites so please send your most favorite Thanksgiving or Christmas recipes along with a good quality photo so I can include your best in my holiday recipe guide and we can all learn from eachother! Send your recipes and photos to me at april@aprilcolleen.com.

I can’t wait to hear from you all!!

I hope you have a beautiful week ahead! This Fall weather has been phenomenal, but I think it might snow Monday (insert crying face here).