Summer time, Beach time!

Between the craziness and the laziness my blog is suffering from major neglect. I still love you, blog! I still love writing and reading!

Here's a little update: We went to the beach! Last week was a furlough week for us and what better to do during a week when one is not being paid than to go somewhere and spend money!?! Not much is better, that's what! We tend to go to places where there are lots of things to see and do (Savannah, Seattle, Chicago, Asheville, etc), but this year we decided we wanted to go somewhere warm where we could sit around and not be pressured to see/do/eat everything. We settled on Myrtle Beach after we went to Priceline, bid on and won four nights at the Sheraton Convention Center hotel 2 1/2 blocks from the beach for $55 a night!!! Can you believe that deal!!!

We swam and sat under a big beach umbrella and watched people and watched the Wednesday night fireworks at the 2nd St. pier and ate and hit TJ Maxx and Ross on the way in and went to MagiQuest (I read about this online and, being a Harry Potter fan, SO wanted to go...hubs humored me, bless him...we were definitely the only people over the age of 12 without kids in tow)...

The 2-story castle at MagiQuest

(Photo: lickyoats)

...and went clubbing one night (we discovered techno music makes for super fun dancing; for real!) and cruised Ocean Boulevard looking at all the hotels and houses and got "HOT NOW" Krispy Kreme doughnuts and went shag dancing at Fat Harold's...it was such fun, and we can't wait to go back. I have lived in South Carolina my entire life and have never been to Myrtle Beach that I know of (except a 2 night stay 9 years ago at Garden City Beach just down the road). I'm glad I've remedied that problem.

I really enjoyed driving along Ocean Boulevard looking at the larger fancy houses and smaller fancy houses and cute beach cottages on the north end and hotel after hotel afterhotelafterhotelafterhotel (really, its crazy) on the south end, many of which have that kitschy-retro vibe and have been around for years. My favorite was the...

(Photo: Cary Scott Photography)

Cutest sign!

This trip only increased my love for the beach. I just know that someday I will have my own dreamy little cottage by the sea, and until then I will fill my house with shells and sand and these beauties that I can make with my own two hands...

(Photo and wreath: Paint, Decorate, Design on the Cheap)

(Photo: Heather Bullard)

Cindy has a tutorial for making a shell wreath like hers.

(Photo and wreath: Cindy at My Romantic Home)

In other news I'm very excited to be going to Vegas(!!) for my friend's wedding this weekend. Yay for weddings! I've never been to Vegas, and this will be a very short trip, so I will definitely have to go again and take hubs with me.

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Here's hoping you are having a lovely summer time!

Mother's Day 2008

This will be the 3rd year that I will have a Mother's Day brunch to honor my mom. I say "will have" because this year it hasn't happened yet. We spent Sunday with the hub's mom, and Mother's Day Part Deux will be this Friday.

Two years ago I made all the food, packed it in an elaborate system of insulated bags with cold packs and hoped it would make it through church (I was helping with the children's service, so I couldn't skip it) and the 35 minute drive to my parents' house. It did! And it was delicious. I took much of the menu from Food Network's suggested Mother's Day Menu 2007: Strawberry Bellinis, Fresh Fruit and Mint Salad, Orange Glazed Blueberry Scones, Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Frittata, green salad using lettuce hubs grew, maybe roasted asparagus (can't remember...) and I think there was a dessert, but I don't remember what it was...in any case Mom felt very special which was the point of the whole thing.

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So this past year I thought, "Why not run that play again!" except this time I worked it out for Mom to come to me...it was a huge endeavor to transport all the food, and thankfully she didn't mind making the hour drive if it meant she didn't have to cook, wash the dishes, or wait in line for 2 hours at her favorite restaurant.

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I had recently discovered Tracy's delightful blog Notes on a Cottage Industry, and I just loved all of her tablescapes and cute banners, so I set out to do something really cute a la Tracy for my mom.

I set the table and printed the menu and place cards the night before, because I knew having the table ready would be a great comfort when I was freaking out trying to get all the food done (not to mention all the last minute house cleaning) the next day. Pretty much I dealt with the food and hubs scurried around getting the house all squared away: THANK YOU, BABE!

My inspirations were two pink scrapbook papers from the Martha Stewart collection at Michael's: a cream and light pink toile and a sparkly, deep pink. From those I pulled together a pink, white and silver table color scheme punctuated with plenty of sparkly glass. I used a plain white table cloth and white plates as the backdrop. The bouquet of gorgeous pink tulips (Mom's favorites) at the top of this post was the main attraction with candlesticks, silver Christmas ornaments (use what you got!), silver votive cups and a collection of vintage pearl and rhinestone earrings providing the rest of the table decoration. I rummaged through my jewelry to find several bracelets that fit the color scheme to serve as napkin rings and put placecards printed on that gorgeous sparkly pink paper at each place.

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Even Mom's gift had a dash of fuchsia.

The menu card was printed on the toile paper.

We had:

Champagne Lemonade

Tuscan Salad

French Toast Casserole

Chicken Sausage (although I think I used turkey instead of chicken...)

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Strawberry Salad Ring (It's actually called Strawberry Mold...and I just couldn't type that on my beautiful toile menu card. And of course I decided at the last minute to make it in a square dish instead of the ring, and no way was I reprinting that menu card :) )

Chocolate Mousse

Cause I'm mean and want to show you pictures that will make you drool, take a look at the French Toast Casserole.

Oh, yeah...it was even better than it looks. It's a Paula Deen recipe, so you can be sure it is going to be sinfully good. After it was all said and done the dish was scraped CLEAN.

The final touch on the whole shebang was this cuuuuuute (if I do say so myself) "Mother O' Mine" banner fashioned after one that Tracy made for her mom. I alternated the two inspiration papers and strung the letters on a black ribbon.

Mom loved her event! She is just about the most gracious guest you will ever find, and she oohed and aahed over everything and just made me feel so good. We two plus Dad, brother and hubs had a great time eating some great food (thank you, Food Network!) and celebrating our mom/mom-in-law/wife.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you!

Prettying Up My Pumpkin!

Thanks to Jen at Sanctuary Arts at Home for hosting the Pretty Your Pumpkin event!

UPDATE-10/9/08
Finally here is my pretty pumpkin! First I have to thank my husband for his great help in making my pumpkin the prettiest it could be. Glitter doesn't like staying inside the lines (which is one reason we love it, right??) so there was a fine layer of orange glitter over the entire thing when I was done. As I pondered how I was ever going to get that extra glitter dust off, he lept into action.

Extra long extension cord? (for taking the party outside) Check!
Hair dryer? Check!
Small paint brush? Check!

And he proceeded to ever so gently blast away those errant bits of sparkly-ness. Thanks, babe!

Here's what I started with:




Check out that price!

And for the main event...Ta-da!

You can't really tell from the picture, but that stem is all sparkley black and so pretty!



It ain't perfect, but boy is it pretty!

Here's a little bit of my Halloween decor. I'll have to show some close-ups in another post.

But for now I'll leave you with this guy...he's got his slightly droopy eye on you.

Original post-10/8/08:

Oooo, time got the best of me, and I'll have to finish my post after work today, but here's a little sneaky peek to entice you to come back and see my pretty pumpkin!

Autumn Recipe and Tablescape Exchange

Heidi of Foxgloves, Fabric and Folly has put together an idea exchange to celebrate the beginning of fall (the best season of them all!). Head over to her round-up to check out more Autumn themed tablescapes and recipes contributed by some great bloggers.

This is my first Autumn tablescape! I just got excited about DIY nesting this year and the wonderful ladies in blogland have inspired me to make some beauty happen every day using things I already have or things I can get on the cheap, so I'm learning slowly, but surely.

My ode to Autumn is very simple (so simple, in fact, that I forgot to put out glasses...). I've had the feather wreath, napkins, cream pillar candles and jewel tone fruit for a couple years. More recently the candle holder and orange pillar candle came from Pier 1 (half price of course!) and the little pumpkin candles came from Cracker Barrel.

Look at the detail on these plates; love these.

And here's my little secret about them; can you believe that price??

What is a table without something delicious in front of you? This perfect-for-fall recipe is from Epicurious, and it is indeed delicious: Butternut Squash, Rosemary and Bleu Cheese Risotto.

Last fall I finally made up my mind to try my hand at making risotto. I'd never eaten it but had heard such good things about it and had to try making it myself. I live in a bit of a rural area and arborio rice was nowhere to be found so a brief internet search assured me basmati rice would be a reasonable substitute. It turned out wonderfully! It even made delicious leftovers.

My changes:
--used Basmati instead of arborio rice
--referred to Betty Crocker's trusty veggie cooking chart and microwaved the butternut squash to soften it up before chopping. Have you tried to cut one of those things raw? It's way hard and a hazard to my fingers' health.
--didn't use the whipping cream in order to cut down on a couple calories

Pulled out all the stops and made the roasted pear and walnut salad Epicurious suggests to go along. Verdict: easy and yummy.

If you were here right now I would serve you a big bowl of risotto at my Ode to Autumn table. Enjoy!

Building a Display

I recently complained to hubs that our small town left much to be desired in regards to the potential to find good stuff at yard sales. My little town must have taken offense and decided to prove me wrong because we promptly found this trunk waiting for us in a driveway no more than 50 yards from our front door.

And it was only $20!! Did we have anywhere to put it? No! But it was pretty, and we NEEDED it! I mean, look at it! The flower design on the outside,



the cute little pictures inside the lid,




the tray top just waiting to be filled with treasures with always valuable storage space beneath.



So we tossed the 3 vintage paper mache Halloween lanterns also scored at this sale for $5 total into the trunk (I KNOW! What were we thinking leaving those fragile gems to roll around inside the trunk in the back of our car like that??? Believe me, I've definitely kicked myself once or twice since then) and hightailed it home. We don't know where it will live permanently, but it is comfortable for the moment on a bit of open wall space in our living room and it has become a new decor venue for me to play with.


We aquired our new toy around July 4th so for my first display I went with a bit of a patriotic theme:




See that metal fan in the front? We got that for $3 at another yard sale the same day as the trunk! It was dirty, but we could see what a cutie it was, so hubs took it apart and cleaned it up, and we are so proud of that thing now. The barn star in the back was $10 at Ross; the candle holders are actually old feed scoops that came from a local antique shop (the shopkeeper gave us the idea to put candles in the scoops...cute!); the silver orbs are actually Christmas ornaments that were bought 50% off at Bath and Body Works at an after-Christmas sale; the small silver vase was a gift from my husband found at the same local antique shop; and the blue cup on top of the cake plate is a votive holder made of wire strung with deep blue seed beads and wrapped around the cup's metal framework. I bought it at a bead shop in Charleston, SC, when I was in either middle or high school and have just now begun to actually use it...I was a bit of a miser when I was younger with all my "special" things stuck in boxes...silly...

I've enjoyed this display for several weeks, but I've been itching to change things around. I knew I wanted to steer away from red and royal blue as they don't really mesh well with the pear green walls and deep teal end tables. So I started with this:

(bird from Pier 1)

which was nice, but not quite right...we need some color...let's try this wine bottle (yes, I know, I need to get those pesky labels off that bottle, stat)

Ok, I like it, but that bottle can't hold down the color fort on its own. Let's shop the house and bring in some back up.

Even better. But I can't call it done yet...

So I stick in a feather wreath, a teal necklace in a jar to add another bit of my feature color, and a silver tray. I like it! It's still not perfect, so I'll be messing with it a bit more I'm sure. Have suggestions? Do tell!

By the way there are some items I have to applaud for playing those all-important support roles. See the little wood box holding up the feed scoop candle holder in the middle? My man has a cigar box collection that I've commandered to spice up my displays. That trophy cup was looking kinda short behind that hunk of shell, so I put these little guys to work, too:

These coasters were a gift in honor my weenie dog Oscar. Thanks, guys! That trophy cup looks much better. (Red front door in the background...love my red front door. Yep, the man made that one happen, too. He's great :) )

I had such fun arranging and rearranging and running around my house to find things to put out. As I work toward beating the clutter monster so that my whole house sports cute displays like this one I will enjoy dreaming up new looks for this little corner. Wait till you see what I have in store for Halloween; it will be SO cute!