Are you kidding me?
You all know my passion is interior design, but I also love weddings and events. So in order to feed my addiction of all things weddings, I have an Etsy shop that I make and sell silk flower balls and bouquets. I love my little Etsy shop and working with brides.
The most amazing thing happened to my little Etsy shop today. I got an email this morning stating I was on the Etsy front page. Are you kidding me? I thought for sure it was some type of advertisement scam. I clicked on it just in case and it was legitimate! I can not tell you how loud I squeeled. Two years I have had my shop open and never once had I ever been on their front page. Not that I ever thought I would be, there are a TON of sellers with awesome creative items, but it has always been a secret dream to be on there.
I took a screen shot since I knew it would be gone in a couple of hours. I wanted to savor it for as long as I could
Mine is the third picture on the left, the white and green ranuncula flowers. It just made my day.
I also sent out my second international order today, {my first being to Japan} to the country of Azerbaijan. Never heard of it, have you? Here is where it is located.
Dining room chair love
I have been admiring these chairs since I first saw them on Restoration Hardware
They are on special right now for $109, {not including shipping} which isn’t so bad.
But a couple of days ago I saw them at Steinmart, of all places, and they were $99. My daughter Shannon had been looking for a couple of chairs for her dinette table for about 3 months now. I showed her and Nate them this weekend, they weren’t so hot on them at first. But I told them to get them, take them home, and see how they looked. They could always bring them back if they didn’t like them.
They put the two chairs around the table and they loved them! It really tied in the wood tone of the hutch, and the open design of the chair gives the space a visually lighter feel. A perfect fit, just like I thought it would be {wink, wink}
In case you don’t have a Steinmart near you, I found them on Overstock.com for $85.99 each and only $2.95 shipping. These chairs are very versatile in style, they would look good with modern, country, or cottage decor, and believe it or not, they are super comfortable.
I’ll have some oil and vinegar with that dresser
I finally have the dresser done for the nursery. Of course I have to give all the credit to Marian of Miss Mustard Seed. I had recently emailed her with some pictures and asked if she knew any tricks to get out water stains and scratches. Well of course she did! And you won’t believe what it was…oil and vinegar. What you say? Oil and vinegar? Yep, and it worked like a charm, that woman is amazing.
Here is the dresser as it was given to us, it is beautiful piece, but just needed some TLC to bring it back to life. I love the fret work on the front and the curvy sides.
I of course thought I could hand sand it and then put a wax on it and be done. But that is never the way it goes right? These were my problem areas
This spot on the side panel
Scratches on the top
Water spots on the bottom drawer.
Marian said I needed to bite the bullet and sand it down with my sander, so I did. Then I went to her blog page for her secret recipe
Vintage Chic/Glamour Wedding Card Box
My friends daughter is getting married this weekend, and she had asked me to make a card box for the wedding. I had to come up with the style based on a little information her daughter told me what she was doing for the wedding. It sounded like vintage chic with lots of chandeliers and bling. Her colors were pink, taupe and creme. I always stress over how the bride will like the card box, I second guess myself over and over again in the design, it is totally ridiculous what I put my self through. Luckily for me the bride loved the box!
I used a LED battery operated chandelier on the top. (the battery pack is inside the lid and you just push the bottom of the chandelier to turn it on and off) I blinged the chandelier with the pink rhinestones. I had wanted to use the pink brooch on the front of the box but changed my mind and so rather than not use it, I added it to the flower arrangement on top.
I took the ribbon I used on the sides of the box and made a chandelier cord cover. To hang the chandelier I used an ornament holder and covered the base of it with the flowers.
I added the heart brooch on the other side of the arrangement to compliment the pink brooch
I wraped the boxes in burlap and added some crocheted trim and rhinestones.
Over Achiever Baby Shower Invite
I am going to give my daughter Shannon a baby shower next month. I had this idea swimming around in my head for awhile on how I wanted to hand make the invite and envelope. It seemed like it would be easy, figured it wasn’t going to take much time to make them, and there wasn’t going to be a lot of them, so why not? Well I was wrong on all points, as usual. You know the saying, don’t bite off more than you can chew? I always seem to bite off more than I can chew when it comes to making stuff. My intentions are always good and I get all excited and start doing the project, and I then I end up saying to myself “what was I thinking?” I am not a quitter, and I always finish what I started, but some day, SOMEDAY I will remember to rethink my brainy ideas.
My idea was to make a flash card style invite. I found the perfect vintage picture for the front of the card which got the ball rolling on the rest of the design. Which was my first problem. I am no graphic designer, and pulling graphics and text together seamlessly is not as easy as it looks. I seriously must of made 20 different styles, colors and fonts before I settle on the final style.
The front looks like this {they have already picked out the baby’s name}
Nursery Inspiration & Progress
My daughter and son-n-law asked me to help them design their nursery. Once they found out they were having a boy it was time to look for inspiration for the room. I am not into “themed” rooms, and thank goodness neither is my daughter. So I was trying to help her find some items that she liked and bring them all together without looking “themed”.
I first was showing my daughter all the beautiful pictures out in blog land of the board and batten that everyone is doing. Like this one
image from here
And of course she feel in love with it. Then I started thinking…which I really should of thought of before I opened my big mouth and started showing my daughter the board and batten. They just put brand new baseboards in when they did their renovation 6 months ago, and those would have to be re-done if not replaced. Plus, this room doesn’t have a closet in it, and for now they are going to forgo putting one in since a baby really only needs an armoire for the first couple of years. So if we put board and batten up now even replacing the baseboards, it would have to be torn down for the future closet. So board and batten wasn’t such a good idea, oops.
Now I had to come up with a plan “b”
I saw these two images on Potterybarnkids and an idea came to me
Steal of deal
It was super, duper hot yesterday in San Diego, mid 90′s. The kind of hot where you go to get in your car and the steering wheel is so hot you can’t even touch it! I felt as if I was in the middle of the summer in Arizona, I want my 75 degrees back.
Luckily I went out in my yard before it got too hot and picked some flowers to put in my newly purchased Kaiser white bisque porcelain vases.
I found them this weekend for 60% off at an antique store. It was a steal of a deal that I couldn’t pass up.
In case you don’t know where this tiny mantle is, it is in my office. I love decorating this mantle because I am in my office so much I really get enjoy what ever I put up there.
I put some of my alstroemeria in them, but I think the season for my alstroemerias are coming to an end, darn it! They are such a long lasting flower, I am going to miss them.
Aren’t the vases so pretty? They are white porcelain bisque with beautiful raised relief on the outside. Perfect size for my mantle. I just love the artistry of them.
Here is a close up of my terracotta birds. Found these at an Estate sale a while back. Kinda quirky but I love them.
Before and After River House Part 2
If you haven’t read part 1 of the river house before and after you can read it here
Now that we had the structural columns in place, it was time to pick the finishes . 
I figured by adding depth and texture to the outside it would take the focus away from the jut outs of the columns. So I chose to use stacked stone partially up the sides and then finish the rest with siding.
On the covered patios, we had tongue and groove knotty pine installed with a high gloss finish for the ceilings.
Then we put up ceiling fans and new outdoor lights
I used the versailles travertine pattern on the flooring on the back patios
The most challenging part was how to finish off those larger columns that held up the patios. Siding to me was going to be too busy and choppy looking, I wanted something more architectural. It wasn’t an easy task, but I had recessed concrete panels made to wrap around them.
A template had to be made and then a mold made. Once they arrived on site, they were glued and screwed into the wooden column for safety until the ledger stone went up. They were super duper heavy and it took many men to hold these in place while they were being positioned.
To finish off the panel, we had concrete crown molding made to fit.
