Hehehe!

Guess what I acquired yesterday???

These!

I found this set of tables on Craigslist for $50.  $50 for both of them!

My dear roommate drove to the middle of nowhere with me to claim them.  One will go in our living room as a table between two chairs.  I don't know about the other one yet...  

I think I'll paint the table for the living room a cream color with french gray trim.  

And they definitely need new hardware.  I'm hoping to get started this weekend so hopefully pictures will come soon!

Yum...

I have recently discovered Folgers Cinnamon Swirl Coffee.  I had it at a friend's house one night and was in love.

I can only find it in one grocery store in town.  I checked four others before I finally landed a container for myself.  If you like flavored coffee you should give this a try.  It has made my morning's much happier :)

My Friend...

My friend Annie has great taste!  You should visit her website and listen to her.

Sad Day...

Unfortunately the Nikon Coolpix bit the dust over Easter.  Until she is replaced (hopefully by a Canon Powershot)  this blog will be a little sparse.  Until then friends...

Happy Easter!

Christ the Lord is Risen Today!

This is my favorite Easter song! 

Hope you enjoy hunting, dying and eating your Easter eggs and celebrating our Risen Lord!

What Have I Been Doing Lately???

1. Taxes.
2. Filling out my Census Form.
3. Paying bills.
4. Rearranging the pictures on the walls in my room.  (Pictures will follow - I promise.)
5. Traveling and buying fun things. (Pictures will follow soon - I promise.)
6. Getting sunburned while hanging out in my front yard (Thank Heavens for warm weather!!!)
7. Getting ready to celebrate Easter - It's my favorite holiday next to Christmas.
8. Discovering these in DARK CHOCOLATE at Kroger: 

And Friday I hit the road again for Easter Weekend in North Alabama!!!

A real post is coming soon...I've just been busy enjoying spring.  It's nice to ignore your computer for a while :)

Wedding Showers - A Few Fun Ideas!

It's wedding season!  Well, when is it not?  I've got the wedding of a dear friend in less than two weeks and a few weekends ago a few of us were fortunate enough to get to throw a shower for the bride-to-be!  If you ever need quick, but yummy shower food here are two recipes that will be a hit.  

Fruit skewers: pretty self-explanatory.  Cube fruit and skewer it.  You can mix it up with any fruit or cheese cubes.  The shish-kabob skewers are easier to hold and don't require multiple toothpicks or a fork...and don't they look pretty on this tray? 

*Note: these skewers are great to keep by the oven because they are perfect for checking  to see if a a cake or brownies are done.  Ever worried about burning your hand on the top oven rack because the toothpick is so short?  

An amazing and amazingly easy baked brie (and when I say amazing, I mean amazing):  This was made by another hostess who was kind enough to share the recipe.  She found the recipe on the Food Network Website and I sure am glad she did!

 

• 1 (8 count) package Pillbury crescent rolls
• 1 small brief wheel
• raspberry preserves (you can use another type of fruit or make a compote: cramberrie, pear or apricot are great options!)
• 1 egg, beaten
• Chopped pecans

1. Unroll crescent rolls and fan out in sunburst shape
2. Place brie in center.
3. Top brie with preserves
4. Fold tips of crescent rolls over brie, sealing it in
5. Brush top of pastry with egg. 
6. Sprinkle with pecans. 
7. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, let cool 15 minutes before serving. 
8. Serve with water crackers, can also be served with apple slices.

*The key is to use a good wheel of brie and a good jam.  Also, make sure to brush the top with an egg wash before you bake it to get the pretty, shiny "crust" on top.

Also a must for a great shower is great flowers!  Here is any easy how-to for a quick and pretty arrangement:

Step 1: Choose your container and fill with Oasis/Florist foam.  Either pre-soak the foam before placing it in the container or make sure you continually add water to the container until the foam has absorbed absolutely everything it can.  You don't want a wilted arrangement! 

If you need to, secure the foam in the container with a piece of floarl tape.  If you don't have any one hand scotch tape works just as well.  THis is especially helpful for shallow containers or ones with a rounded bottom.  

Step 2:  Choose the tallest flowers in your arrangemnt and place them first.  This is best done in odd numbers.  They are used to provide a framework for your arrangement.

Step 3:  After your tallest/center flowers are placed you cna begin begin adding re rest of the flowers.  I prefer to cover all of the "edges" first, i.e. the area around the base of the arraignment.  Make sure that there aren't any gaps and that you can't see the floral foam!

Step 4:  Now you can begin to fill in the middle of the arrangement.  This when you get to place the fun flowers. I chose pink and white tulips and white stock.  They have some height and the tuips can droop so they are great for adding some shape. 

Step 5: If you need another arrangement here is what I did for the second one.  I essentially used the exact same process except swapped the delphinium for stock and snapdragons and switched the hydrangeas for spider mums. 

Happy Showering!

The Rest of My Room!

I believe I mentioned earlier (in my Christmas post) that I received a new bedside table for Christmas!  Here it is next to my bed.  I LOVE it.  LOVE it.  Doesn't it look so much better?

I also repainted my dresser this fall.  My poor dad - I borrowed his power-sander to get the old paint off and it was returned with a nice coating of pinkish dust that just doesn't want to come off completely... I used Benjamin Moore's Bavarian Cream (left from another project) and was very pleased with the color.  I'd still like to find some hardware in oil-rubbed bronze to match the bedside table. 

Here it is with a new lamp and some new accessories.  I added two pieces of McCarty Pottery, a tray for my perfume and a dish to hold the jewelry I wear every day.  

I also love to collect antique blue Ball canning jars.  I have several in my room and they make great vases and pencil holders.  

Here are some others on my mantle with a few more pieces of pottery. 

I am still on the search for a painting to hang above the fireplace.

The only space left in my room that I'm not quite happy with is my desk and the club chair beside it.  They are both too cluttered/ugly to show right now, but hopefully that can be fixed soon. 

The Story of My Bed: Part 2

ll, this is what my bed looks like now, but this hasn't always been the case.

Over that Christmas break when I made the headboard (2005) I also made three Euro shams for my bed.  

They matched the dresser and bedside table I had painted during the previous summer and were the inspiration for my brown quilt and peachy-pink and white polka-dot sheets.  

(My rational for the 5 years old-esque polka-dot sheets was "I won't always be able to have polka-dot sheets so I better enjoy them while I can")

I even made the lampshade you see in the picture to make even more matchy-matchy.   And that was my room from my senior year of college until now (4 years). 

Sometime in the past 2-3 years I saw these pictures of  a guest bedroom featured in Cottage Living that I absolutely fell in love with.  I was immediately drawn to the color scheme - calm, yet cheerful and fun.  

The plotting began of how to turn my brown and peachy-pink room into something inspired by this oasis.  It's been a long time coming folks.  And I mean looooooong. 

When I moved into my current bedroom I painted the walls a light cream with a yellow tint (Benjamin Moore Historic Color #6 - Windham Cream).  That was two years ago. Last year I found the fabric used on the lampshades in the article.  It is Waverly's Essence in Spa.  

I've seen it at many shops in person and on-line in several colors.  I ordered enough to make two Euro shams, cover a desk chair and make an extra pillow for the club chair in my room. 

Two Pillow shams down, now for a bed-skirt, duvet and two more shams.  The bed-skirt was found at Anthropologie.  
 

It is from their Cirrus bedding collection in creme.  It might actually be my favorite part of the bedding.  Next, while going with my roommate to babysit I spotted a beautiful yellow quilt in a baby nursery.  It was similar to the pattern I was looking ( the yellow fabric used in the Cottage Living article is beautiful, but out of my price range).  The tag read Pottery Barn so I said "eBay!" 

And sure enough I found two standard size pillow shams in Pottery Barn's Eliza Baby Bedding for a whopping $.99 + shipping each.  Yes - under $15 for both. 

While I was pleased with the shape my bed was taking I wanted something with a little more pop than just blue and yellow and to also avoid the excessive matching from before.  Enter Anthropologie - specifically this awesome dishtowel.  

 

 I made a pillow out of it!. 

I'm still debating about what kind of duvet cover to get.  I LOVE this one from West Elm and it would look great with my bed skirt, but might be too much with the three patterns of pillows.  

On the other hand, I've had the thought in the back of my mind to replace the yellow shams with these (also from Anthrolologie's Cirrus collection) and maybe add a monogram in blue to match the euro shams...

...something to think about, especially for a guest room one day.

And I have finally moved on to cream colored bedsheets.   

The Story of My Bed: Part 1

Once there was a hurricane.  Her name was Katrina.  She destroyed the coasts of Mississippi and Louisiana.  After the storm a group of people (including my mother, the trash-hunter) went to Biloxi, MS to help the people of a church clean up and begin to rebuild.  Now my mother knew I had been looking for an old door or mantle to turn into a headboard.  As she was cleaning up outside of a home she noticed a bulldozer about to take on a huge pile of trash.  In the claw of the machine was a lovely, albeit beat-up door.  She ran wildly screaming for the operator to drop the pile of trash.  The door was rescued from the trash heap and made it's way back to Huntsville, AL and was stored in my old playhouse until it's surprise reveal when I came home for Christmas (2005). 

A trip to Lowe's, trim and bucket of paint later we went to work on converting the door into a headboard.  My tireless father patiently listened to my extravagant dreams of what this door could be and then turned it into an actually functional headboard.  After an interesting trip transporting it back to Auburn, where I was still in school, and some help unloading it, I had a headboard.  

*Note: when your father ties your new headboard to the top of your SUV for a trip down the interstate, make sure he uses rope to actually tie it down, not bungee cords.  I thought my car was either going to take flight or the door was going to fly off and murder my brother in the car behind me.*

Side Note*
Here is a picture of my mother and another dear friend made during a series of trips to the MS coast (long before I ever knew I would be moving here).  They are washing the communion table from a church destroyed by Katrina (the inscription says "Do This In Remembrance Of Me").  

I often jokingly refer to pulling weeds as "redeeming creation" and it is.  So is restoring a door that was almost rendered useless and now holds up my bed.  It is my reminder that seemingly meaningless jobs are reclaiming creation for glory. 


"He comes to make His blessing flow.  Far as the curse is found..."

Bruschetta

Well, I tried the recipe I talked about here and it was FABULOUS.  

Probably my new favorite appetizer/snack.  It tasted just as good as it looked in the movie and was pretty easy!  Here is the recipe and I recommend frying the bread like they did in the film. 

You Twit!

My Thoughts Exactly!  Read the entire article about why Twitter shouldn't be of concern to the President here. 

"If Obama can’t keep track of his own Justice Department’s adoption of the Bush Administration’s abuse of the state secrets privilege — as his press conference Wednesday indicated, I sure don’t want him worrying about whether Twitter search is any good or not. Yes, Mr. President, please do order your minions to find innovative ways to communicate with citizens, open up the federal government and be more transparent. We love that. But don’t Twitter. Just be the President."

Olympic Flowers

OK, this just makes me proud to be an American...even though it's about Canada.  

Read this story and it will make you smile and maybe not mind the mums so much :)

Baby Blues

Baby Blues...how are they doing?  

Not quite as good as they were in this picture 24 years ago, but OK nonetheless.  

Well, today is the 7 week mark.  As of week 6 I am in the clear for my retina re-detaching, so they tell me.  Of course, it could always detach again due to some other cause, but not from the tear that caused this detachment.  Oh my eyes, my eyes.  My left eye is still a little red and still a little dilated...we are patiently waiting for that to go away, but I am enjoying a new pair of sunglasses to help with the problem.   

And yes, those faded turquoise counter-tops can still be found in my grandmother's kitchen. 

Side Table Love

While flipping through the new issue of House Beautiful last night I came across a picture of the cutest side table. 

I love the style and color and immediately started of thinking of places in my house where I could use it.  I typically don't even bother to see where such furniture comes from (because i know I won't be able to afford it), but this time I glanced to the side and did a double-take when I read Kmart. That's right - Kmart.  It's part of their County Living collection and is currently on sale for a whopping $69.99.  If there was a Kmart in Jackson I would be purchasing it this afternoon. 

I also started thinking about how I have a similar table left from college.  It's the same size and shape, but it's black and has a normal top.  How difficult would it be to find a cute tray, say, this one, and attach it to the top?  Maybe that's what I'll do next weekend... and wounldn't it be fun to mix it up for summer with this one?

FYI: New Fashion Find

Just to let you know...I found this at Target.  Yes, Target! 

Doesn't it remind you of this top from J. Crew from last year?

And (for those of you who are vertically challenged like me) they carry petite sizes on-line :)

Puffs of Color

If you haven't seen Anthropologie's new pics on the website take a look.  They use one of my favorite party/decorating projects to liven up the photos!

To see how I've made and used them in the past read this posts!  or this one :)

And I just might have to get that fun gray and white top!

If you can't say something nice...

Well, I've finally found something nice to say about someone in the White House and I think she deserves the recognition. 

I recently read this article about our First Lady and her vegetable garden (it really is a great and informative article - you should check it out).   When the current First Family moved into the White House one of the First Lady's projects became planting, maintaining and using a vegetable garden on the White House grounds. 

She, along with the help of the White House's assistant chef and other White House staffers, tends to the garden.  In it's first year the garden has yielded over 1,000 lbs. of vegetables and herbs.  The article states the the White House chef's have used the produce in meals served to the First Family and White House guests.

The First Lady has been able to use this as an aid in her platform against childhood obesity.  She has appeared on Sesame Street talking about the need for healthy eating and has had numerous groups of school children to the White House Garden to teach them about gardening and healthy eating.  Not only do I appreciate her concern for the health of our nation, but I love the economic and social benefits that are promoted by growing your own food!  I grew up with a vegetable garden in the back yard and our freezer was always packed with vegetables that my grandmother had put up for the winter.  Not only does it save you  money, but there is something so satisfying about eating what you've grown yourself.  It proves the value of hard work and wise spending. 

I haven't planted vegetables in a few years, but I have kept an herb garden for the past four and have more than gotten my money's worth!   You can buy a pack of fresh basil leaves at the grocery store for $3 or you can buy a small basil plant for $3.  If you care for the plant it will grow into a small shrub and you will have more than you know what to do with - I currently have so much frozen pesto that I made from the basil that I don't know when I'll use it all up!

I could also go off on seasonal eating, but that is another post for another day...

The article also states that this is the first large-scale vegetable garden to be on the White House Lawn since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden in the 1940's.  In those days gardens were a necessity to feed your family and helped supplement war rations.  Here are some of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's advertisements I found from the campaign. 

 

Wouldn't a copy of one look cute on a kitchen wall...maybe along with these?

By the way, the White House also has beehives that produced 134lbs. of honey...maybe it could be bottled and sold to help pay off the national debt?  I'm just sayin' :)