DIY Projects

I love this idea of framed objects. I want to steal this idea for sure!
(via: Oh Joy)


Love this painted dresser, especially the distressed look so its not so 'in your face'...
(via: decorology)



My mother in law has a very similiar buffet. I'm talking her into painting it, just not sure what color yet....also love the instant wall art with the framed grasses
(via: bellevivir.blogspot.com)
actually her buffet (the off-white piece of furniture) looks ALOT like this one, but is currently really dark brown -- love the clear glass knobs...

sweet picture frame with silk flower, fabric background and other do-dads added...

beautiful vignette using an old wooden crate (I just found one at a tag sale the other day that I can't wait to use) makes a perfect place for jars and to organize a bit...

(via: johannavintage.blogspot.com)

What a fun idea that you could do with any picture frame and add coordinating ribbon to match the room that its going in -- or just do every color like this one!

(via: decorology)

Another great picture frame idea, you can never have enough shelving...

(via: countryliving)

Happy treasure hunting!

Land of Enchantment

Consider this the doorway to my mind...

By the end of the day...

Have a wonderfully enchanting day!

(Sorry I do not know the sources for these photos, if you do please let me know)

As Promised....

I could hardly wait until my husband got home yesterday (well actually I had no choice) to help me move the newly refurbished table and chairs into the house and kick our old one to the curb (literally)!! I am completely and utterly in love with our Freebie! I'm so grateful to those people for giving it to us.

love the detail on the chairs.....

I had to arrange a new centerpiece of course....and in case you have not been to Michaels recently - go there now, run, do not walk! They have a HUGE selection of their collections on clearance right now, 70 and 80% off. One of them is their Le Jardin Collection which I love (the brown tins for under $2)....

Unfortunetely our little lady is not quite so neat in the chair area. I already spotted jelly on it last night, so I will have to purchase some chair pads, not exactly my style, but necessary at this point...

pretend not to see crumbs on the floor...

Happy treasure hunting!!

Blogs I Love!

There's no wonder why I don't get enough done around here...this is why. The latest...most awesomest blogs. I can't get over how many talented people are out there and how generous they are to share their awesome ideas! Both of these gal are incredible photographers, own on-line shops and are just amazing at pulling vintage treasures together. I am in awe.......complete awe!

Heather Bullard
Sadie Olive

Right Place, Right Time

Sometimes you just happen to be at the right place at the right time and today was just one of those days! Some kind strangers were nice enough to give us this beautiful table and chair set which is exactly what I have been wanting for our eat-in kitchen area for a long time. The top of the table needs some refinishing work, but I am on the job! I hope to have my old set out by tomorrow!

Sorry for the dark pictures, but right now its in our garage and really dark in there.....

4 chairs with woven seats (they told us there were 4 more chairs but they have misplaced them. If they find them they are going to let us know!)

I love the detail under the seat....

Nice legs!!

I wanted to make sure and post some before pictures, since I always forget to do that. I will post more when I get it inside. -- Thanks to the kindness of strangers.....

Hope Jewelry

There is a cause I feel very strongly about. If you would like more information about it, click here

There is something we can all do, something you already do, that will make more of a difference than you can imagine. You can shop. The organizations who design, produce and sell the jewelry and accessories available at Hope Jewelry are committed to helping women and children- those starting new lives, those currently being exploited, and those who are in danger of becoming victims of trafficking and slavery. Our purchases support their efforts and enable them to expand their reach and help more victims.

Here are some of the beautiful items they sell.... sorry but I'm in love with the purses especially the multi-colored ball one. But, they do have jewelry too, hence the name "Hope Jewelry"!

Little Pretties

via: beautiful things to share

via: camillesoulayrol

The Ins and Outs of Party Planning

I am by no means a professional party planner, but I do play one in my fantasy world...

Ways to get inspired for party ideas:

Pick a theme. What the guest of honor likes will usually give you a big clue. For instance, when I would plan baby shower's for our church members I would find out the theme of their nursery and use that as the theme for the baby shower. That way in case there are any decorations or favors they love and want to take home they will look perfect in the room!

The internet. The internet is by far the largest resource for party ideas. A few of my favorites are marthastewart.com, plumparty.com, birthdaypartyideas.com, ilovelollipops.com, hostesswiththemostess.com. And then there are blogs, there are some mighty talented people out there with lots of cool ideas, just type in a topic and you will be on your way!

Start with the most grandios ideas you can think of. I learned this trick while doing wedding floral consultations with brides. Think of everything you could possibly think of that would make your event a dream. and I mean everything. the crazier the better. Now write them all down. It is easier to start at the top and work your way backwards (eliminate) than it is to start from the bottom up.

For example, for my daughter's Cinderella party I thought of a horse and carriage. Way out of the budget so I began to think of other ideas and came up with borrowing a friends horse for free (a really really nice friend by the way) and having Prince Charming riding on it carrying Cinderellas glass slipper on a pillow.

Or there was the Thomas the Train train party when I had Sir Topham hat himself come to pass out the party bags. My husband happens to be bald and look like him when wearing a top hat and a navy blue suit.

Or there was the Ironman vs. Transformers party. We found 2 people that let us borrow their sports cars to park in the driveway. One was a yellow convertible corvette (a Transformer) and the other was a silver corvette (like Ironman's sportscar). FREE. For a bonus they took the birthday boy for a ride.

And there was the pirate party. Along with the party invitation I sent each child a key. They were to bring the key to the party, they didn't know why (and I had extras in case they forgot). Sent them on a treasure hunt and once they found the treasure trunk each child tried their key to see if they could open it (oh the anticipation was killing them). And low and behold the birthday boy's key opened it and it was filled with candy and toys.

Have a plan. Figure out how your party will play out before hand. This is very important. You must keep the party moving along, especially for children. Have your activities planned out. And if there is extra time at the end of the party that's fantastic, but at least no one is sitting around for 3 hours waiting for the guest of honor to open their gifts in case they need to leave.

Daily Treasures

"Every day is a gift, that's why they call it the present".

I'm getting side-tracked from parties for a moment. I had to post my treasures from today courtesy of my local Goodwill. Now I know some of cringe at the thought of shopping at second hand stores, but for me it allows me to buy things that I would not be able to afford if I would have paid full retail price. So go for it!

This beautiful corral was just $4.....

Paper towel holder $3 and napkin holder $2...
Cute apple wreath $3...

Gorgeous Pottery Barn frame, brand new $3....
But the best find of the day was by far this HUGE rug, which apparently my living room is too small for, but somehow I will make it work. It must be a 10x14. It was $23 (after my coupon). teehee......Happy Shopping!!!

Star Wars Party

These week I will be posting some party ideas, lots of party ideas actually. The question I get asked most often is "How do you come up with all of these ideas?" so I decided to share some insight as to how the party planning process works in my brain. scary thought I know.

First up is Star Wars. We did this party yesterday for my son's 6th birthday. We have this thing for dressing up for parties, I don't know why but we sure love it and the guests love it and most of them are more than willing to participate too!

We played a few games. I pinned a small clothespin to each person and then told them not to say the word "lightsaber" if they did then someone could take their clip. The adults would say it on purpose of course and all the kids would come running to take their clips. The person with the most clips at the end of the party wins a prize. Lots of fun.

Then we played Star Wars charades. We split into 2 teams, had the adults act out the Star Wars word and the kids had to guess, well the adults ended up guessing too because some of them were hard, then the kids wanted to act them out. Lots of fun too oh and did I mention FREE!

The other activity we did was "make your own lightsaber". I have a picture of that so I will tell you about it in just a bit.....meanwhile enjoy some pictures.....

**magnetic letters that are always on the fridge**



**treat bags w/Princess Leia cinnamon buns, Darth malt balls, sucker, tattoo and lemonheads

**R2D2 that my mother in law fashioned from a trash can and bowl, both of which I found at Goodwill and the arms are made of linguine boxes**

**I think balloons always add a lot of punch for a little money, I just tied them to my son's Star Wars toys**

**Homemade cake with toy decorations. very easy to use what you have around the house on your cake. and the squirt bottles of icing come in really handy for decorating. and sprinkles makes everything better. I decided not to add any wording to the cake - I think I would have really messed that up! leave well enough alone, right?!

**wire basket tower that my son spotted at Goodwill and told me we could put his cupcakes on it, great idea! I found packages of Star Wars thumb wrestlers at Party City and thought they would be perfect cupcake toppers. no need to put one on every single cupcake, just enough for each child.

**Death Star Doritos**

**Asteroids which were actually GIANT cheeseballs and these metal signs come in handy for labels or they can hold pictures. You can buy them at alot of specialty home decor stores

**Yoda Soda

**Wookie Cookies

**We also had Padme Pizza and pretzels

**Poster of planets that I got from Michaels and used on the front door then added a sign

**You are here (on the sun ~ er in Arizona, same difference)

**turned our empty frame wall into a Star Wars gallery and exchanged our family pictures for Star Wars characters, very funny. I just printed the pictures off the internet

**I turned jars that I always have on the coffee table into terrariums with little Star Wars characters. I saw this idea on Flickr

**Now lets introduce some of the characters....

Queen Amadala, this is a friend of mine

**and mini Queen Amadala (my daughter)

**from left to right Asoka, yoda & C3PO. Asoka's outfit I found at a thrift store, purchased new tights and dyed them light blue. Her headdress I purchased online. Yoda's robe came from Goodwill and we dyed it brown. I made the headpiece from some green fabric. C3PO's costume I made from gold lame' fabric, one of my son's costume belts and purchased the mask online.

**Darth Vader

A friend of ours borrowed my son's mask and I believe made the cape from a skirt, very clever!

**Make your own lightsaber. I used the cardboard rolls from wrapping paper, inserted 5 gallon stir sticks which are extra long, Home Depot gave them to us, wrapped the whole thing in tin foil then covered with red, blue or green cellophane. It gave them a really shiny effect.

**Clone Trooper

**Princess Leia. I made this costume from a top and skirt I found at a thrift store and sewed the 2 together to make a dress, used a belt I already had and some boots. My hair happens to be long enough to make the cinnamon buns! Oh and I spray painted one of my son's toy guns black to complete the ensemble.

**Chewbacca's costume made from some furry fabric, a belt that my son had and a purse that my daughter had. The mask was purchased online.

May the force be with you