Wednesday, August 31, 2011

An Evening in Paris

My oldest sister, Ashley, is getting married in just under two weeks and my little sister, Mom and I threw her a Paris themed boudoir shower. It was so much fun! The colors were black, white and red and we tried to theme the food as much as possible too. (warning: lots of pictures!)

Here's the spread...
A colleague/friend of mine owns a wedding decor business and was kind enough to lend me much of the decorations, like this adorable candelabra turned-lamp. It was perfect!


I got to pull out our china for the first time ever! I forgot how much I love it. If only we had room for a big fat china cabinet to display it all!
This is actually our big ol' TV in the living room. I covered it with a damask table cloth and filled my cloche with red rose petals. The little red things scattered about are little red rubies.
And we served wine, which gave me an excuse to use our hardly used wine glasses!
Here is some of the loot. And you will notice my damask chair that I made over was the Bride's chair for the evening!
I really loved the way that the mantle came out. I used red roses, candles, white feathers and red petals to get the effect. Oh and a really cute pump! :)

For the favors, my little sister and I made every girl a red chocolate shoe and the bride a white one. I LOVE the way they turned out! And they were perfect for a Paris/fashion theme!

And THIS baby was the cake! It was red velvet with creamy buttercream frosting (made from scratch!). It turned out every bit the way that I was planning it all along! And little sister had that Eiffel tower which was perfect for the top. And Dad brought it to her from Paris which was a neat touch.
These were Escargot. We wanted the authentic French fare, which escargot is definitely a part of. But who wants to eat snails?!?! (no offense to my French friends!) So I scoured the net for a snail shell candy mold and we made them out of white chocolate! A yummy trade off if I do say so myself!
And whats a party without a Port Wine cheeseball??
Those little cookies are called Madeleins. They are a French cookie and are absolutely delish! And then of course...grapes!
This would be (in my opinion) the star of the show as far as food was concerned (second to the cake). Its Brie cheese, which if you have never tried you definitely should, topped with 4 berry jam and wrapped in puff pastry. It was so warm and gooey and delicious. And really easy to make!
We also had cream puffs (yumm!) and the staple of every good shower, cranberry pecan chicken salad croissants. Everything tasted amazing. I am so grateful of Mom and Sarah's hard work to help me pull this off!
And here is the bride opening her box of goodies for the wedding night ;) Ooh la la!
Beautiful sister with her cake! 
 Instead of making her fidget with a corsage all evening, we decided to buy her a dozen red roses.


And there you have it. The bridal shower of the year! ;) It was so much fun. I would definitely advise anyone to use this theme if they are doing a lingerie shower. It was so fun and everything was very classy and elegant. 

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

File Cabinet (fail?)

So, in my weekend project list I mentioned that we have an old file cabinet in need of a makeover so that I can actually start using it. Well...I did that this weekend. I did not finish it completely though, because I am trying to decide if it was a fail. Here is the original cabinet. (all of these photos are in our workshop so please ignore the bad lighting and mess in the background)
 I have been storing this lovely free quart of "lime sorbet" paint for just such an occasion. I was thinking how cute that it would be to have a fun, lime green file cabinet in my teal girl cave. So I busted out this can and started painting.
As I painted, I was a little concerned, but decided that it should dry a little darker/more green. Well, it dried. And I can't decide if I think its fun and cute or if it looks like one of those funky greenyellow fire hydrants. My hubby and I have been debating if we like it or if I should scrape it all off and start over. I need to scrape the paint off of the handles, etc. and may paint that part black.
So, friend, I need opinions. Should I keep it? Is it terrible? Should I lug the sucker into the room and stare at it for a few days to decide? Help! Because I am having a very love/hate relationship with it. I look at it and am so tempted to scrape it all off right then and there. And then I come back and see it with hsome natural light and its a pretty light green. Its driving me batty!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Hurricane Sky

So, our part of Virginia didn't really see much as far as the hurricane. We had clouds and wind all day Saturday and a little bit of rain, but nothing like other places saw. Saturday night I was in the kitchen getting ready to fix dinner and noticed an orange glow coming from outside. Michael and I went out and saw of of the most amazing skies that I have ever seen. So I snapped a few shots and decided to share them. The photos do not do them justice!



I just do not understand how you can look at something that amazing in nature and think it happened by chance. Every time I look at these pictures, I am in awe of my God and His love for us. I hope you all have a GREAT Monday! I was able to tackle a lot of my weekend list. Be on the lookout!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Hurricane Crafts!

So, apparently VA may get hit with a hurricane this weekend. Thus, I have cleared any official plans. And then I am sitting here at my desk thinking, I have so many projects that I want to do and actually have everything that I need to do them! So this weekend I am going ot attempt to tackle as many of these as I can and we will see what I come up with!

I am at work so I can't make this list comprehensive but:
-Rehabilitate (paint, etc.) an old filing cabinet andfilethebills
-Chalkboard or just paint a little oval frame that I have
-Create artwork on my spare canvas!
-Create my sister's serving set for her wedding in two weeks
-Refinish that darn coffee table!
-Create artwork for the office
-whateverelseIgetinto :)

I can't wait! :)

AND!!! I am going to try do do all of this...without spending a penny!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

I have the bug and 100 posts!

Okay I know I have not been the best little blogger lately, but I have a serious itch to do something seriously fabulous without spending serious cash! After peeking at Craigslist the yesterday, I feel super inspired. I may have to sell some belongings to get yardsale money!

Does anyone have any ideas for free projects that you can do around the house? I know that I see tons of them here on Blogland. I'm just scared if I start hunting I may want to do it all!

SO! After posting this post, I realized it was the big 100! I may have to do something fun.... :)

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Craigslist finds!

I haven't done one of these in a while and had a little free time. So I thought I would scour craigslist for you guys! Here are some of the goods I found!

This cargo sofa would not match our decor AT ALL. But it would be a CUTE daybed in a little boys room! And its Fa-REE! Here's the goods:
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And What about this Rosewood upright piano? Even if you didn't tune the thing, it is very classic and beautiful! And also FREE!
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This thing..it kind of looks like a squid. But its really neat to me! Paint it white and reupholster that cushion and you have a super unique piece! $75
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Oh my gosh...I LOVE this one. And they only want $50 for it!!! If only we had a formal dining room :(
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Seriously...someone please buy this. Just so I know it went to a good home. I love it.
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I really like the shape of this dresser too. $150 in Altavista.
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And this clock is really awesome. Its antique, but totally still has a modern appeal.
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These two banana leaf chairs would add a lot of texture to a room. I think they would look better as accent chairs, but maybe with the right table!
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These chairs would be PERFECT with that shabby-chic dining room table! $50 a chair is not bad either! Considering they are Broyhill and are fresh out of a box! Even if you bought 6 of these and that table, thats only $350 for a new dining room set!
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I hope you are all inspired. I know it made me want to do some serious shopping/decorating! Unfortunately, BOTH of our cars had to go into the shop this week. So spending money on furniture will not be happening. :) I just love to look!

PS-I have an AWESOME Paris themed bridal shower to share with you very soon!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Coffee Table Rescue

A few weeks ago, Michael and I grabbed this coffee table off the side of the road for fa-ree! It doesn't look terrible in the pictures, but it is pretty scratched up. And there is a TON of poly on it that I am going to have to sand off. 
 I love its shape. And its very sturdy. The lines are clean which is what we like. The plan is to paint it black to match other pieces of furniture that we have down there. I just need to find the time! :)

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Hampton's First Birthday Cake

So, I have made this little guy's baby shower cake, his baby dedication cake, and now his first Birthday cake! I'm starting to feel like his personal baker :) But I have no problem with that! There was not a theme for his party, but rather blues and greens with polka dots. First, there was the essential baby smash cake!
 And for the main cake, his mommy wanted it shaped like a 1.
 I was initially going to leave it just the icing. But I felt like it needed something more. Walmart just happened to have curling ribbon in the exact colors that I needed!

 Overall, I am really happy with the way that they turned out. Happy Birthday Hampton!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Who Doesn't LOVE Cheesecake??

Just to further prove how far behind I am on blogging...My mother-in-law really likes cheesecake who doesn't?!, so I try to make one for her whenever she comes to town. (She came a month ago...) Last year I did an Oreo cheesecake and it was good. But this year I wanted to step it up a bit. I found an amazing new recipe that was not very hard at all. I would share it...but its somewhere in my kitchen and I forget where I found it online! I didn't want just plan cheesecake, so I was going to top it with fruit. Then my husband decided that it would be even better to swirl strawberry into it! This is what came out of the oven!
The trick is to put a large pan with about a quarter of an inch of water underneath your springform pan. As it bakes, the water will evaporate, keeping the cheesecake more moist and preventing that awful crack that is so hard to avoid with homemade cheesecake.
I popped the pan off and voila! An amazingly delish strawberry swirl cheesecake! If I find the recipe...I will share it with you! Promise!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Our New Guest Room

I know a while back I mentioned that we were playing musical rooms and that the old office is now our guest room. I just now realized that I have not shown you guys updates of that room! Everything that we used for it (except the new bed frame and one small can of paint to finish it) we already had. I will have to get better full-room pictures for you sometime, but here it is so far.

This is what you see when you look down the hallway. Its the view from the open door.
 And the naked area here between the closet and doorway now has the cutie little shelf below on it!

Okay. I know....this post was not super exciting. But at least you have now seen our new guest room sort of! I promise a better post is forthcoming...at some point!