I hope everyone is having a wonderful thanksgiving.

The table is set, the pie is done and soon we'll be sitting down to a wonderful rack of ribs with the family.

Love you all!

Hey guys!

I've been busy around here lately, but have neglected to take pictures. I know.....I'm horrible.

Here's the dining room and message center in the house right now.

I moved stuff  around and I'm really loving all of it.

There's also some sneak peeks here and there too. :)

 So here's the message center - complete with awards and artwork and school announcements. I moved the tall branches that framed our front door in the foyer to over here to help connect the whole vignette. Its also safer  for  them here. Boys are destructive. :)

 So here's a look from the foyer into the dining room. You can see that I have fabric in the extra chairs. Its all the same fabric, but I only felt like folding 3 yards of the 15 yards  in there. Oh well. You can also see some paint chips on the wall. Yep, I want to paint the dining room again. This  room has been such a PITA to get right. I don't hate the way it looks right now, but I think the dining and living rooms need freshning, hence the new fabric. I have many, many plans for this room. You're going away in May, right honey? ;-)

 I  don't know if you guys remember this mirror from when I moved it out of the butler's pantry area (now the message center) and when I moved it out that area I propped it  up against the wall in the dining room and left  it there for about a month. H had great fun watching himself be a goofball in the mirror, and was quite displeased with me when I decided that I was going to prop it up against the wall on the buffet. I love how the mirror helps  open up that wall visually. I even like that it doesn't match the buffet.


Here's the table. I pulled out the denim runner that I made years ago and then topped it off with my pewter pitcher, dogwood branches and all of my glass and crystal candlesticks and hurricanes. I love how everything comes together. What I don't love  is that my candles don't seem to want to stay in said candlesticks. Oh well.


 Here are just some pretty shots of the table. I'm just playing with the camera. :)

And here are the color swatches. Which color do  you think I'm going to go with? I received my free Valspar paint sample today, and I can't wait to see how it looks on the wall!

See you guys later!

So last year I had a stroke of brilliance and I am going to share the goodness again this year! I hope you guys enjoy!

Well the baking is in full swing to get ahead of the roasting tomorrow. My hands are so dry from all the hand washing, but while waiting for all the baked goodness to get done yesterday So I decided that needed some new napkin rings. I busted out my old napkin ring projects and moths flew out.  Hrm. Ok so its been a while, but never fear. I have a plan! So on to the show!
Stuff you'll need:
3" Cinnamon Sticks - I got my cinnamon sticks from Buckland Farm Market and 5 packages of their whole cinnamon sticks made all 6 napkin rings. Each napkin ring is made up of 13 or 14 cinnamon sticks. I got all of the cinnamon sticks for less than $8.
Jute

What you'll do:
Cut a length of jute about a yard long, then separate the jute into individual strands, like floss.


Tie your jute strand around your first cinnamon stick. Not like this:

But like this. Have the cinnamon stick knotted in the middle of the strand. I used an overhand knot (I think).  I placed the knot towards one end of the stick.

Then loop the strands around the next cinnamon stick and knot that. Continue until you cinnamon sticks will go around a toilet paper roll.



Isn't that a lovely picture? Devlin pulled it freshly empty from our powder room. He's so sweet. He's also very managing. How many pictures do you see Super Mario Galaxy jammies in?

So after you get all of the cinnamon sticks tied, you need to take another strand of jute and tie the other ends of all the cinnamon sticks together as you did before.

Once both sides are knotted then just bring the ends of your cinnamon stick row together and tie the jute strands around the opposite stick and trim the ends close.

Enjoy! This really didn't take any time at all and I'm enjoying the subtle fragrance from them. :) What do you guys think?  Oh! and don't worry if the jute breaks {and it will} just tie the broken strand back together and keep  going. You won't notice. Strands broke on every single one of my napkin rings.


Have a great day!

I've had some fun these last few days with a few simple Halloween projects.

I then decided to put most of them on my mantle. One did get moved to the sofa table. :) So without any ado, lets get this motor started.
 So here's the mantle and I'm loving all of the different elements to it. I had most of the ingredients on hand, but what I did buy was the creepy fabric (Dollar Store find!) and the black beans and the great northern beans (just over a $1 at Walmart!).  The chrome skulls I painted up last year, along with the monster vases.  I had the spanish moss from other decor projects, and oh did you see the wreath that I  layered over the paper wreath? I'm so in love with that wreath, but more on that later. ;)

Here's the sofa table, that is in the direct line of sight from the hallway to the mantle - so it always gets included in the decorating. This year I bought another paper mache' skull from Michael's and took the glittery black glitter glue and covered the skull in it. Dana gave me the ginger jar a few years back so I stuffed it full of moss and then placed the skull in it. Love that effect! On the other side, is my glitterfied pumpkin from a few years ago, and just some left over glitter black leaves from the wreath project.

So now onto the ins and outs of  the mantle and table. Just some close ups, and maybe some more commentary.
 I love this little ghost vase. I should really get some pictures with the lights on. Why do all the good ideas come to me as I'm typing up the posts?
 A quick visit  to the Graphics Fairy got me some appropriate Halloween pictures. I love her site. She's got such great graphic finds.
 I layered in some more moss and then placed a  skull on a candlestick a la Shakespeare. Some more Dollar Store decorations litter the moss and the mantle. I love their creepy little touch.
 Here's a closer view of the wreath. I'm going to share how I made this wreath tomorrow, but first I'm going to give you a closer close-up. :)
Love me some marabou! Oh and glitter. I mean its really no secret that I have a glitter fascination - so the glittered leaves and spider are the perfect touch, especially since I fear spiders in a way big way. The only time I'm not afraid? When I'm holding a hammer.

So  tomorrow I'm going to share the super simple steps for the wreath, but I hope you enjoyed the quick tour today!

Well yesterday I showed off last year's wreath and tablescape. For this year's tablescape, I used what I had.

I didn't iron the tablecloth, and I didn't really deviate too much.

The wreath from last year is back on our door.

So with out further ado, lets get this motor started.

Here's this year's table!
My favorite part of the 4th, besides the food and family, are the fireworks after they've exploded and the sparks are drifting slowly back down. How they get softer and softer, until they finally just go out.
So I tried emulating that with all of my soft candle glow :)

BTW - lots of pictures. :)







Oh I almost forgot my little red cabinet!
 There's the strawberry pot of hibiscus and 4th of July colors :) I love this flower arrangement
Just another close-up.

Well I hope guys enjoyed, because I had a lot of fun lighting all those candles and bringing everything together.

So yesterday I posted up the spring mantle, and I am loving all the sweet comments on it. What the pictures don't show is how long the mantle, console and dining room table sat in disarray.

I try to not to buy anything for any of the scapes that I do around the house. So in the theme of reusing here's the spring tablescape.

I tried to make it a little manly because of Dad's day coming up, but because I did miss Mom's day I did end up including a few feminine touches.

So tell me what you guys think!
 The ruby glass plates are from my MIL. Can anyone see them being used in say a month or so? :)
 These rocks are usually down in a candlescape, but Harrison has decided to sprinkle them all around the house, so I decided to rescue them from him and put them on the table. :) 
 Birdcages! I love those birdcages. :)
 I decided to layer the copper and silver platters I have. I like the effect :) 
And the sideboard. I love this little cabinet. I decided to set it up for drinks in my PB tray.

So what do you guys think? I think I did good, even if I do say so myself. :)

Have a great day guys, I am so excited about tomorrow's post. :)
TTFN
Heather