BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED

BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED

 Succulent arrangements seem to be all the rage lately and I have really been taken in by them myself.  After seeing so many beautiful arrangements all over blog land, it got to me,  so much it became a I got to have some!  I ventured out to Home Depot this weekend to discover there are so many to choose from.  I think I must have stood there for at least 15 minutes just trying to decide.  This is what I finally ended up with

I love the fact that you can get creative in such a small area.
I don't know about you, but I absolutely love flowers and gardening I get so lost and nothing seems to matter around me when I am doing it.  There isn't anything more relaxing and stress relieving than creating something so beautiful!

I would like to add a few more to these arrangements and will probably end up doing so, but I wasn't sure exactly how much room I had in these pots.  I see at least room for a couple more, don't you?  
 The arrangements they had at Home Depot were pretty packed together, so I don't think it would hurt to add a couple more.

 

There is just something about flowers that makes me feel good inside.
I can remember when my daughter was very small this is something we did weekly in the Spring at least once a week.   I would pick her up from day care and we would go to Home Depot and pick up a couple of  Flawfu's,  (this is what she called them)  and go home to plant them back yard.
Oh the memories, how I do love them!
 Something so simple as spending time together planting (Flawfu's)  flowers and the name she gave them.
 That I will always hold dear to my heart!

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Hutch Tablescape Makeover/Table Centerpiece

I have been wanting to change up our hutch for some time now!   Can you see why?
OK... this is just not the most eye popping appealing setting for the hutch...ALL glass boring!

Although, I do love the all the glassware it was just way to much
glass in one area and no color.



Along with the glassware my mother in law gave me she also gave me her china.  OK going to get a little mushy here things like this just mean so much to me and I will cherish all of it forever!  I had the china in my buffet hiding all of it's beauty.  (Shame on me) What I like most about this china, one it came from family and two it's simple and elegant style.  It can be tablescaped in so many different ways!

 I am calling this a hutch tablescape makeover, because I wanted to stage it up in a table setting kind of way other that just stacking it up in the hutch.

 

Although it beautiful all on it's own 

I wanted to add back in some of the beautiful glassware.
I love these dessert dishes and these wine glasses, so I incorporated them back into the hutch tablescape

 Now for a little bit of color, I took this bouquet apart and started incorporating in this hutch tablescape makeover 

Nice cover up to hide the plate stand.
 I added candles to each side of the plate and serving bowl,  to set the mood  and capture the center point  for this hutch tablescape makeover

Faux Pears were placed inside each of the dessert dishes along with a flower at each base of the dessert dishes

 I like the idea of  adding just enough color without taking away from the beauty of the china and glassware.

 You know how one project turns into a half a dozen more?  Well, that is exactly what happen!

 I then decided to change out the centerpiece on the table 

Antique sewing drawer were filled with silk flowers, faux fruit and candles

I love all the detail in these drawers

 

 

I am so happy that I took time to tablescape the hutch and love how it turned out!
More eye pleasing and not so boring!
so...now I am off to finishing all  the other half dozen projects that came up  with the
"Hutch Tablescape Makeover"

Have a nice weekend and thank you for letting me share with all of you! 

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Thrift Store Finds

Thrift Store Finds 

This past weekend my daughter and I went Thrift store shopping, and I found this beautiful piece.  It was marked at $16.00 and it just happen that everything was 50% off, so it only cost me $8.00 and that included the stand!  What a deal!  I'll take it!  I absolutely LOVE IT!

When I got home I noticed on the back it, it had a signature of Tom Wallick  2000, so...because I have this investigative mind and a need to know,  I had to Google it of coarse and this is what I found out about it .  I was so excited to find out, one he is a local artist and then  I found  an email address which I thought was his, but as it turned out it wasn't, but this nice person from West Coast Pottery, Inc was nice returned my email and provided me this information, (Thank you Ken!)  Here is what he had to say:  The piece was made by Tom Wallick. You can watch a 5 minute video of Tom on www.youtube.com by searching Tom Wallick on Crystalline Pottery. Thanks for your interest.

Tom Wallick explains in this video the fine art of Crystalline Pottery. To learn more about Tom Wallick and his artwork, please visit Westcoastpottery.net
If you like what you see here you MUST see his video it is amazing and he does amazing work!
 It's a lot different than this piece...even though I do love this piece, his Crystalline Pottery is GORGEOUS!  A Must SEE!


The other find was this pot....OK, I had no idea what it was,  let alone this funny little funnel in  the middle of the pot was for,  but I do know,  I had like 2 people following me asking and wanting it...AW NO..it's mine!   Not because I knew what it was, but I just like IT!  Not knowing what it was and because these two people were so interested in it, it made me want to know more about it too...so back to Google I went and this is what I found out about this piece...

(My cost was $7.99)
It is a clay pot with a funnel in the middle, a unique cooking apparatus that is the product of generations of local kitchen wisdom. We are talking about the Yunnan qiguo, or the steamer clay pot

 When food is cooked in the qiguo, steam from the food is captured and retained within the pot, hastening the cooking process and making it a more efficient energy source. It also acts very much like a pressure cooker, which both concentrates the flavor and tenderizes any meat.

Steam-boiled chicken. A special pottery steam-boiler is used in preparing this dish. The boiler is put into a larger pot in which water is boiling. The meat is heated by the steam that is channelled by the nozzle in the middle into the main chamber of the boiler.

It has been used to treat distinguished state guests on many occasions, winning acclaims from former U.S. President Richard Nixon and Queen Elisabeth II of the U.K..source

 

OK...now what is more fun?  Buying something just because you like it?  Or, not knowing and finding out what it really is?   I say all of the above!

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Adding Color with Pillows

Happy Monday!  Every time I look into my living room all I see is one color and no life,  kind of  blah! Have you ever done this?  I have been doing this for a while now!  I wanted to add some color, but not sure what color I wanted to add.



 I finally decided the most inexpensive way to add color would be by adding some pillows to see exactly what color would look and work best.      

I made this pillow with cloth napkins on clearance for $4.89 at Target and 3 pieces of felt for .89 each to make the flowers, the buttons I had.

I made this other one with upholstery fabric I found at Joann's which  was on the clarance rack for $8.00 a yard

so... for around $18.00 for both, I was able to recover some throw pillows

and add some color to the living room.

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Antique Vanity Re-Purposed to Night Stands

Antique Vanity Re-purposed to Night Stands  

In my last post,  I shared what I have in store for our extra room.  Yes, I am at that point in life where it has come time to face that  my baby is no longer a baby, Yes...empty nest syndrome!  I have heard how hard it is and now I can validate that...It's probably one of the hardest things I have been though and going through!  Maybe, it's good I only have one I can't imagine going through this more than once!  OK, sorry got a little personal there.  OK, back to the extra room, the extra room will now be our guest room.  As I stated in my last post I created this mood board in what I envision the guest room to look like.
When creating this mood board I searched for items and furniture similar to ones to what we have already...

I am starting with these end tables, which use to be part of a vanity,  I  purchased these pieces  because I really liked them even though it was missing all the other parts to the vanity with the intention of using them for night stands.   This isn't how they originally started out looking,  I had striped them of the old paint and then they sat for a long time bare, until my Dad wanted to use them... and he just painted the tops of them black and added this hardware....sorry Dad, but really?  these are antique pieces!  Gotta love him!

When I had Mr. OMT pull these out of the garage, I discovered the tops had bubbled and the wood  was spiltting, ugh!

First, I removed the top layer of wood and ended up sanding the black off of the pieces, with what I understand is really not necessary when using Annie Sloan chalk paint, but I wanted to make sure all the black was removed and this being only my second time using this paint, I wasn't sure it would completely cover the black.

 

the color used was Robin Egg

I love the detail in these pieces

I then applied a dark walnut stain and then lightly sanded them following the wood grain

and then waxed it with a minwax wax.
When I finally found a place close enough to purchase this amazing chalk paint the place did not have but four colors to chose from and no wax at all :(
 the wax ended up working out, I think quite nicely!
I did a little distressing and add the knobs

I found these knobs at Old World Market, I love that store.

 

 

 

 

 

ok... here's the problem I am facing, do you see the light pink wall behind it?
Now to convince Mr. OMT we need to paint!

 

 

Now that these are now done and I am loving how they turned out,  I will be moving on to the dresser next.   The dresser will be done in old white.

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