My magnetic idea for attaching a table skirt
I love the look of a table skirt on a table for entertaining. It gives the table more depth and style compared to a plain table cloth. I was at Party City one day I saw that they had table skirts, but they were made out of plastic, more of a throw away item. It got me thinking how I would love a table skirt made out of fabric that I could use over and over again. But how would I attach the table skirt to the table and still be able to put a separate table cloth on the top? I know they make table skirt clips, but I wanted something that was seamless looking. Then an idea hit me, magnetic adhesive strips might work if I put them on both the table skirt fabric and the actual table.
With these supplies in hand I started my project
I happened to see these ruffled bed skirts on 4 Men and 1 Lady‘s Joss and Main curator collection and instantly knew they would be perfect for a ruffled table skirt. They were exactly what I needed to try out my magnetic idea. So I ordered two in the king size.
I took apart the two 15″ ruffled bed skirts and sewed them together to make a 30″ x 17′ long ruffle panel. My finished ruffled skirt was heavy, I was afraid that the weight of the fabric would be too much for the magnetic strip to stay in place. So I decided on a whim to staple the magnetic tape directly to the table
How to make water bottle labels
I am so darn excited that I figured out a easy and inexpensive method of making water bottle labels! We did water bottle labels when my daughter got married almost 3 years ago and it was a pain. I wish I would of thought of this back then, it would of saved so much time and money. {The actual bottles have now changed to a smaller label, since I did these}.
What I got for Christmas
Merry belated Christmas! Have you recovered yet from all the festivities? I know I was beat today. We had a fun, family filled Christmas weekend with lots of wrapping, cooking and entertaining and of course lots of last minute decorating.
Santa was good to me this year, and I couldn’t be more happier with the thoughtful and generous gifts I received. Wanna know what I got?
My early Christmas present was my new Nikon d5100 camera
My favorite perfume Carolina Herrera Parfum Spray
Which I immediately put them to use for my this inspiration pin for our Christmas dinner {I even already had those cute polka dot cups to use}
Christmas tablescape
I finally got my new camera! I feel whole again! It was weird for me not to have a camera, and my iPhone camera just wasn’t cutting it. Now I get to show you some fun stuff I have done in the last couple of weeks while my camera was away! So get ready for lots of pictures in this post…
The thing I am most excited about is how I was able to re-create this inspiration picture form BHG that I pinned on Pinterest
Oh how I fell hard for this centerpiece. I just knew I wanted it on my table. I saw the boxwood wreaths on sale at Joss & Main online right after Christmas and got giddy over finding them so soon. So I anxiously waited for them to come in the mail. When they finally did, I was just a tad surprised. They were smaller than what I had expected, and I hoped that my glass cake plates I already had would work. Well, two out of the three did, and so I went on a hunt for the third, the smallest one. Luckily, it only took me 4 stores to find the perfect small glass cake plate, Pier One had just the right size
I was shocked when I found the silver bird at HomeGoods, I wasn’t even looking for it and there it was! It was if this centerpiece was meant to be
Santa Hat & Parfait Desserts
I have a lot of talents, but one of them is NOT baking. But now with Pinterest and all the eye candy of anything and everything to bake, I pin really cute desserts, as if I am a baker. So when I was going to go to my friends Christmas party on Saturday, I offered to bring a dessert. She had said that she was going to make theses Santa Hat brownies off of Pinterest but didn’t think she could find the time to make them
“No problem” I said, “I will bring them!” She was SUPER excited. I decided to follow this recipe which seemed simpler because they used melted white chocolate chips for the white on the hat
I was hoping to buy ready made brownies, but decided, like an idiot, to make my own, Well, in my baking skills kinda way, from a box mix. To eliminate cutting out circles from a large pan of brownies, I decided to pour the batter into mini cupcake pans. Fail. Where I went wrong I have no idea. I greased the pan, I pre-heated the oven, I left them in for as long as the box said. When I took them out of the oven, they were hard as a rock, and wouldn’t even come out of the pan with a sharp knife! Seriously, I am so not a baker!
I had also decided to make some Christmas styled parfaits that I pinned on Pinterest.
Oregon Ducks Themed Party
I thought I would switch things up from my regular interior design projects and show you another party I designed.
My daughters Shannon and Tara threw their Dad a 50th birthday party awhile ago. I offered to help them with the decorations and let them have the party at my house, but the rest was up to them. They really wanted it to be personal, to represent who their Dad was rather than throwing out a bunch of “Happy 50th Birthday” decor. Being that their Dad is from Oregon, went to Oregon University and is an avid runner we decided to incorporate all of them into the party decor.
It was challenging to put all these interests together without it seeming too disjointed. I of course knew nothing about the Oregon Ducks, but I liked their colors, yellow and green and thought that was a good starting point. Since their Dad likes to run everyday, I thought it would be cute to use a running shoe and grass as the centerpieces.
I bought the shoes at the thrift store, and used potted rununculas in plastic yellow pots I got at Michaels. I placed them on some fake grass to keep with my green and yellow theme.
It was Shannon’s idea to have a card that her Dad’s family and friends could write down their favorite memory and advice. I enlarged an Oregon Duck shoe on one side and the questions on the other. Super easy, I just did it in Power Point. {you can click on any picture to get a closer look}
“C” is for Carter Baby Shower
I have been MIA lately on my blog, but for good reason. I was feverishly working on the design details of the shower I threw for my daughter Shannon. I didn’t want to spill the beans on my blog on the details of what I was doing for the shower since Shannon reads my blog, and I wanted to surprise her. But I am so excited to finally show you all the wonderful pictures and details of how it turned out.
The theme was vintage and “C”. “C” because they are going to name their baby Carter, and vintage because I feel in love with the cute pictures in this 1941 children’s book I got off eBay.
I used the picture on the right for the invitations that I posted about here
I decided I did not want to do the shower at my house. Having a party at your home is a lot of work, and I just wanted a break from that, so we choose to do the shower at a local resort, The Rancho Bernardo Inn. They have the most beautiful grounds, impeccable service and the best food! Plus Shannon’s dad just happens to be the banquet manager, which was icing on the cake. We choose to do the food outside on this lawn area that had a beautiful fountain as the focal point.
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}
