Happy 2019, and Welcome Back to Being Mrs. Gentry

I've given a lot of thought about what to do with this space. My last post was during the summer of 2017. We had moved to a new home that spring, and now we've been here almost two years. I'd ask where the time went, but I know exactly where it was spent. Raising children, sending a baby to kindergarten, playing in the summer sun, settling an entire family into a new space, walking through trials, working on special projects outside of the home, and seeking God as He walks with me through all of it.

That is, the time was used up by living.

I have missed this space. In years prior, it has been a place to allow my more creative side to wander. Today it is looking like more of a dumping ground for my personal goals, status of those goals, and project plan of attack. Superficially, these are not overly spiritual goals, but for the believer in Christ Jesus, it is nigh impossible to separate any goal from walking with God. So it is with these, and I will elaborate more in posts to follow.

2019 Goals

Read 52 books, many of which are works that I've "been meaning to read."

Lean into Pure Barre and hit 750 club in the first quarter of the year. I have around 50 classes to go.

I'm rediscovering an old friend by picking up a tennis racket for the first time in 15 years.

Open our home to others and show hospitality as often as we possibly can, as an act of worship.

Support the teachers and administration educating my children by advocating for Texas public schools.

I'm super pumped to be writing here again, and--putting it our here right now--my goal is to post twice weekly.

Have an amazing week!

Changing Times at Casa de Gentry

Hi! There's been a lot of radio silence around here since we started kindergarten back in the fall. I didn't anticipate how much of our family's time would be taken up with school, but there it is.

But really, there's about six months of blank space here that can be filled with one big statement: WE'RE MOVING.

Yep, on February 24th we closed on this house we've lived in for almost ten years. I can hardly think about it for fear that I'll have a big, ugly cry, but indeed, we are moving. And it's to a new build, which has also taken up a ton of our time, thoughts, and energy. As sad as we are about leaving our original home, we are pumped about our new digs! We took our time to find the exact place we wanted to live yet still stay in the general vicinity, and the Lord guided our steps. We were looking for a new home for ministry, and that is exactly what He has prepared for us.


sneak peek of my new kitchen
By next Friday, we'll be completely moved out and in a holding pattern for a few short days until we close on our new home. Once we move in and have internet set up, I hope to start writing here again!

home tour from several years ago:
living room
kitchen
breakfast nook
brother's room
sister's room

Bunny Banner: An Easy Easter Craft

It's been quite a few weeks since I posted anything, and I've been missing my blog! That's weird to say. Almost as weird as that time my husband told someone that blogging is one of my hobbies. I guess it is, and I guess that's not too much worse than shopping being a hobby (which it is). Anyway, hi and happy spring!

Last week I was fluffing my house for the season and realized I didn't have much in the way of Easter decor. We need some chicks and bunnies up in this place. Preferably not the chocolate ones because I will just eat them. And preferably not live ones either, family!


I whipped up this easy little bunny banner. It's sweet and precious and easy. All supplies (except for the bunny stencil) were bought at my Super Walmart, which carries fabric again. What were they thinking ever taking out the craft section in Walmart? Glad they fixed it.



I cut my own pennant banner pattern out of poster board a few years ago and have used it several times. It was a very technical process (except it wasn't) that yielded a big triangle. I used my Silhouette to cut the bunny out of card stock, but you could google "bunny silhouette," print your favorite result on thick paper, and cut it out.

My pennants are burlap which makes a big ol' dusty mess when cut, but I love the look of it, so what do you do? And the quilt binding is found near the thread. This was a 7/8" width which was 3 yards long (and obviously I used light pink instead of red shown here for example). I used the entire length for my mantle and have a little over a foot hanging on each end.

After painting the bunnies, I tucked the pennants into the binding and sewed the whole thing, but you could easily hot glue. Then I just hot glued the cotton tails on. Definitely my favorite part!


We're excited about Easter! Every day, the kids pull the baskets down off of the hearth, throw the eggs around the living room and then...I make them pick them up. It's great practice for the church egg hunt!

Easy Valentine Tissue Tassel Garland

Earlier this week I got a little bored during naptime, which is code for "I was procrastinating the laundry." I realized that I didn't have any Valentine decorations up on my mantle so I began feverishly googling an easy idea using stuff I had on hand. Thus I found myself trying my hand at tissue tassels.


Now previously this has been kind of a final frontier craft for me. I figured that there was no way I could get tassels looking exactly how I wanted them and would probably tear the tissue paper up in the process. I was only half wrong. The tassels weren't quite how I wanted them, but they were passable, and I did not tear up the paper. At least not the majority of it.

I used this tutorial from HGTV, written by The TomKat Studio, which is a really fun party blog, if you've never checked them out before.


I posted on Instagram (follow me here!) that this is one of those crafts I would heretofore rather pay someone else to make. Mostly because I couldn't feel my fingertips after from rolling all those little paper tassels up. It felt like I rubbed my fingerprints off.

That probably won't stop me though. Those red and white tassels are just begging for some dark blue friends to join them in cheering on our guys and girls in the Olympics starting tomorrow!

Scenes from a bridal shower.

We threw a bridal shower for one of the student ministry associates at our church last Sunday. We've been enjoying leftover punch for the past couple of days. The fruit punch, pineapple juice, and ginger ale kind. Yum.

It was a fun morning for a super sweet girl!

The entry table.

I have since lost the source where I found this idea
for the pinwheel letter, but my friend Ashley put it together.
It turned out so cute!

I bought that lace tablecloth on a cruise to Mexico when
I was a junior in college, and I think this was my very
first time to use it. Sad, huh? It's so pretty!

Cupcakes were from Central Market, and I cut the cupcake cups with my Silhouette.
Next to it are some brie and strawberry pastries made using this Eat Yourself Skinny recipe.

One of the other ladies made the beautiful the floral arrangements,
and the table was layered with a tablecloth, a runner, and doilies.
The R was just a craft letter I bought at JoAnn's and wrapped with a spool of lace ribbon.

The beautiful bride, of course!

I'm here. Somewhere.

My sweet, pensive boy on his 2nd 4th of July. He loved the fireworks.
One would think that having a mid-week holiday would mean that I was completely rested and on top of things all last week. One would be absolutely wrong. I'm not sure exactly where or which day I got behind on (possibly Monday) and even an extra day off for Independence Day didn't help. In fact, I even took Friday off to try and get caught up. (That's code for I cleaned my house. I perform all my own stunts around here. I'm talking squeaky scrubbed-with-a-toothbrush showers for all.)

Some of my running around was for a wedding shower in my home last Saturday. It was absolutely lovely due to the fantastic help of the ladies in my church. So after that, plus a 3 hour nap (!!!) on Saturday, I spent most of Sunday getting myself back in line. Discipline! That's what I need. Laundry done, fancy serving pieces back in their places, and my hidden junk back in plain view where I can't forget about it. And catching up on Bible study and blogging.

I'm thankful that God's mercies are new every morning. Today marks a fresh start to the week. Here's hoping your Monday rings fresh and new as well.

Wedding Shower Fun

I'm helping host a wedding shower in early July and what better place than Etsy to look for invitations? A quick search for "custom wedding shower invitations" led me to the above. The bride described her wedding as "vintage, with pops of mustard yellow, sage green, and some pink." I thought this totally fit the bill. And it reminds me of the opening sequence of the Gwyneth Paltrow movie adaptation of Emma by our favorite, Jane Austen, of course.

"Now I need not call you Mr. Knightley. I may call you my Mr. Knightley."

LOVE.

But back to the invitations, the design was done by Yellow Brick Graphics. They have so many beautiful designs to choose from, and Mickenzie was so fast with her responses. When I asked her the best way to have FedEx print these, she e-mailed me back with a pdf that had two invitations per page in place of the original one invitation jpeg. I thought that was so sweet. They were printed on ecru paper and mailed in craft paper envelopes.

I love the way these turned out and can't wait to see how the shower turns out!

More Dishing on Dishes

If you're just joining me today, you may want to back track to yesterday's post where I geek out about my dishes.

This next set is somewhat controversial in the 2000s so I want to hear what you think about this topic in general. I know a lot of people are choosing not to register for formal china, and I understand why, but I'm nothing if not a traditionalist. And honestly, I'm sad that we've lost a bit of formality in today's culture, but that is entirely another topic for another day. {See also: wearing hats in church. Or church dress, in general, now that I think about it.}

My formal china is plain but leaves me many options to mix and match. The pattern is Lenox Solitaire which is an ivory china with a platinum band. My Grannie might not approve of this, but I run these through the dish washer after I use them. After the dry cycle, I just run a dry cloth around the platinum to polish up the edges, and they are none the worse for it.

I received service for 12 when we married, with most of the place settings coming from Brad's and my grandmothers and aunts. We use them when we celebrate major holidays (we designate a time to celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving as just our small immediate family) and celebrations like our anniversary or another special occasion. I most recently pulled them out on New Year's Eve. There were children present, and they ate off of them too. The only piece I'm missing in this set is the coffee pot and some of the accent luncheon plates.


This last set is Spode Christmas Tree which is a ubiquitous pattern, but I love it. It's clearly seasonal, but we absolutely give them a workout during the stretch from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I have Christmas plates coming out of my ears (something like 25-30 dinner and that many more salad) because I like to use them for parties during that time. My secret to owning that many? I loaded up the day after Christmas on Dillards.com when they were something like 50-75% off. I probably did that the year we married because I was especially addicted to stockpiling dishes then.

I chose mugs over teacups because those get a bit more use at my house during that time of year. For the past few years, I've added one serving piece per year as a little sussy to myself during the Christmas season.


I also counted and have 6 casserole dishes, so either I have some hoarding tendencies that I need to deal with or I intend on having a very large family. Obviously, there is no point to having this many dishes unless you're going to use them, so you won't be surprised to hear that I don't pull out paper plates unless we're going to be eating outside or something.

My favorite thing, without a doubt, is cooking up a meal to serve my friends and family on pretty plates. My dishes are nothing without memories to go with them.

{Tell me what you think about formal china in the comments!}

Dishing on Dishes

I realized the other day that I have a little blurb in my bio regarding how I love to collect dishes, but I've yet to talk about them!

Even when I was a single, I thought it was important to have a well-dressed table. I thought my roommate and I should be able to serve our guests in style with matching dishes. That was when I started collecting my first set of china, complete with matching serving pieces.

Fast forward a few years to my engagement to Mr. G. The time had come to register *squeee* for fancy china and everyday dishes. I mean, that's part of the whole wedding deal that girls dream of, right? Somehow I ended up with a nicer everyday set than than formal, such that my husband's grandmother asked him what he was going to do when he accidentally broke one of our plates. He called me to relay this conversation the night before one of our showers in his hometown. I said, "Did you tell her that you're going to replace it if that happens?"

Anyway, my kitchen post got me thinking about my china. Because somehow I have 4 sets of dishes up in those cabinets. FOUR.

That's a lot of plates.

I love dishes--enough to mention them in my "About Me"--so you know it's serious. I could write an entire blog about dishes. My favorite style is transferware. I love to collect them, add to my current sets, ponder what other sets I might want to collect and how I'd set that table, research discontinued pieces... How I have escaped blogging about this obsession, I have no idea.

First up is my favorite--absolute favorite--Spode Tower pink everyday dishes. They were discontinued back in 2007. While the scene in the middle is so very serene and pretty, that is usually covered with food, and what is left are the gorgeous flowers and scallops on the edge. Plus, it is pink, and well, I love pink. I probably have service for 16 in this pattern, complete with serving pieces down to the tea set. The tea set is my very favorite.



Next up is a recent addition to my collection: my grandmother's Johnson Brothers Blue Willow. Last fall, my grandmother moved into a nursing facility, and these came into my possession. I grew up eating big family meals off of these, so they are very special to me. I remember my grandmother explaining to me how to tell the difference between Johnson Brothers pieces and the other Blue Willow set she had in her original collection. (We talked dishes, my Memaw and me.) This is such a beautiful, classic pattern, and a treasure trove of memories to me. I have some serving pieces on my wishlist to complete this set. Right now I have service for 10.


This post is getting so long so I think I'll save the other two sets for tomorrow. I know you're on the edge of your computer chair. While you wait for the second half, give me the scoop on your butler's pantry. Is Chinet your favorite set? Are you waiting until your kids get older for the dishes of your dreams? Are you still collecting pieces from when you got married?

I love to talk dishes!

What's Cookin' in my Kitchen

I'm linking up with Kelly's blog today. It's all about kitchens!

I love this room! It's probably almost as big as the living room, which is one of the main reasons we loved the plans for this house. In a big party, most of the ladies end up in the kitchen anyway, so there is a lot of space for that to happen. I had the builder put in all cabinet level counter-tops rather than a higher bar top because I'm a shorty, plus it makes for more serving space in here.

The arched doorway leads to a hallway back to the entry hall, the garage, and the laundry room.

A closer look at that side. I made the chalkboard. Here's the makeover.

I think I've probably failed Martha's Cooking school a dozen times or so. You can't tell here, but most of my
cooking implements are pink. If there is a pink option, I usually choose it.

What's a kitchen without a dance party?

That little bowl is where I deposit my jewelry while I'm cooking.
I got tired of taking it off all over the place and forgetting where I put it.

My counters are of black granite. They show dust like nothing else, so this is the place
that I most consistently wipe down. Pretty much everyday.

The view back into the living room.

A view from the hallway to the garage. That is our dining space over there, which is
washing out pretty spectacularly due to the morning sun.

I have some decorating work to do in here (which I'll get to eventually), but it works for us for now! Today I'm cooking a pot roast and making a casserole with squash and onions straight out of my dad's garden.

Friday Favorites: Amazing Cleaning Products

Since it's not all sunshine and Kate Spade bangles around here, I thought I'd share my favorite cleaning products. I think I've mentioned before that I do my own home-ec stunts, short of taking out the trash and the floors. (My love does that, and I'm grateful.) Here are two products that I won't go without:


Comet Bathroom Cleaner. If you have glass shower doors, you should make friends with Comet Bathroom Cleaner. No more scrubbing the glass! You simply spray it on, then wipe it off. The soap/hardwater residue wipes right off. It works better than the Magic Eraser, and you can quote me on that. I know this because I spent a year trying everything under the sun to keep that door clean after we moved in.

Bar Keepers Friend. I do not keep a bar because we don't drink anything stronger than Dr. Pepper. But I do keep this cleaner because it works amazing wonders to clean up my stainless cookware and my stainless sink. Seriously, the bottom of your pans can look like they are stained forever, and a couple of wax on/wax off motions with BKF makes them brand new. I used to use Comet powder, but this just works better. It also smells terrible, so there is a trade-off there. (Note: I like the smell of Comet powder. It reminds me of my childhood. Maybe that is weird, but my mom kept a clean house.)

I was not compensated to review these products. They were just on my mind as I scrubbed away Thursday night after putting the baby to bed.

Go forth into the weekend with a sparkling home!

Easy Birthday Banner

Quick Note: Amy over at Total Tippins Takeover has a fun giveaway from Willow House. Go over there and win it!

As I was prepping my house on Friday afternoon for our company that evening, I realized the house was wanting in birthday decor. I love birthdays, so how could this be? I didn't have time to get the baby loaded and off to the party supply store, so I started racking my brain for ideas. In the age of Pinterest, none of us should have any shortage of ideas, amen? I headed to my little craft closet and took inventory. I have almost an entire bolt of burlap that my aunt gave me leftover from my cousin's rehearsal dinner last summer. I decided to put some of it to work.

I needed something simple - no time for the sewing machine! I always have to budget at least 30 minutes to wind the bobbin and thread the needle. I am sad in that respect. I made a quick little template from poster board that I very randomly keep hidden behind the hutch in my dining area. As for the template, I eyeballed it. Thinking that I would want to fold the top over whatever I used to string it together, I gave a little extra length.

Using my rotary cutter and self-healing mat, I made quick work of the banner flags. No one is more challenged than I am in the skill of using a rotary cutter. But usually even I get straighter lines than I do with scissors.


After my cuts were made and I had ironed my fold over at the top, I pulled out my faaaaaabulous Christmas present from my parents. A Silhouette Cameo!

(My cutting sheet is extremely dirty. I should work on that.)
One tip I found online for the Cameo: if your paper is tearing when you pull it off the sticky mat, blot it with a clean old t-shirt to lessen the stickiness. That worked for me.
With one sheet of card stock, I cut out 'happy birthday' to create a stencil. I just eyeballed the letter position on each flag and used silver glitter glue on the stencil because that's what I had on hand. After the letters were on, I grabbed some jute and spaced the flags to my liking, then hot glued the fold to create a little sleeve where I could adjust if needed.

When I hung it up on my mantle, I decided it needed a little color, so I ripped some scraps from my scrap bag and tied them on. In the end, a happy birthday banner in 30 minutes, made with things I had on hand.

A little hard to see the glitter in this light.

And where was little Jack during all this, you ask?

Rearranging the pantry, naturally.

Flea Market Makeover: Chalkboard

Before: a found custom framed piece of art.
(yes, someone custom framed this.)

After: a chalkboard for my breakfast nook.

I am super impressed with how well chalkboard spray paint works. It actually feels like a real chalkboard and not some weird sprayed on substance. I am even more impressed that two cans of spray paint (gold, for the frame) turned this not treasure into something that retails for upward of $100 at Ballard Designs.

And then there were three.

I don't even know where to begin this post. I guess I'll start from my week 39 update.

All week long I had irregular contractions. Starting Sunday morning, I woke up in a bit of pain from them so I stayed home from church. I made it in to work most of the week, but Tuesday I didn't get there until lunchtime because I had woken up with contractions. Thursday I went to the doctor completely expecting her to induce me or something because I was having quite a bit of pain in my hips, swelling, and of course the irregular contractions. No dice. She did an exam (which hurt) and told me I was on the schedule for induction March 7 (4 days after my original due date). But she told me that she thought I would labor, rather than see March 7th. When she said that, I was determined to do anything to encourage this boy to come on out before that date.

Thursday also happened to be my last day of work. I had some days to take before I started my maternity leave, so Friday I slept in a little longer than normal, got up and got dressed to start running some errands. I figured I probably had over a week to get everything done since my brother and I had both come a week past our due dates and supposedly your labor is similar to your mom's. As I got ready I noticed I was having contractions again, and they were quite a bit closer together than they had been in the past week. I started timing them, but they were 10 minutes, 7 minutes, 12 minutes...you know, nothing that made me feel the need to change my plans.

I decided to walk as much that day and weekend as I possibly could. I went to Wal-mart and filled my buggy with nothing but junk food. I walked from one side of the store to the other, having contractions off and on that seemed to be getting stronger. I ran through a drive thru for a beef burrito for lunch but decided I didn't like it, so I only ate half. I would end up regretting that later.

That afternoon I decided that I would have more fun timing my contractions at the movie theater than sitting watching soap operas. I headed to the mall to watch The King's Speech with a Coke Slurpee and some Junior Mints. During the movie (excellent, by the way), the contractions slowed down so afterward I decided to walk the mall. In the last two weeks of my pregnancy, my right hip had begun to hurt so badly that I was walking slowly and with a little limp, so I'm sure I was quite a sight. After 30 minutes, of that I headed home.

Last weekend was D-Now at our church, and since we knew we'd be close to Baby Jack Day we didn't make any official commitments to be there. Friday night Brad headed over to where his Sunday school class was staying, and I decided that it would be more fun to hang out with my class than sit at home in pain. I was still having contractions, but they weren't regular...some at 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 9 minutes, etc. It was good to see the girls (and boys!) They are such a joy, and it lifted my spirits to be with them!

Around 10 PM, I decided to head home. I had been enjoying talking to some of the other adult leader ladies for a while, but it seemed like the contractions had kicked it up a notch. I started timing them once I got in the car, and the first two were 3 1/2 minutes apart. Whoops--might've stayed a little too long. B texted to ask how I was, and I sent back, "You need to meet me at the house."

We timed them for about 40 minutes before paging my doctor. I don't know if I've mentioned this on the blog, but my doctor is in Dallas--which means I'd be delivering over there too. She told us to head on over.

Calling the Doctor.

We got there a little before midnight. I had progressed from my doctor visit the day before, so my doc decided to keep me and gave the orders that I could have my epidural whenever I was ready. My contractions were staying anywhere from 3-5 minutes apart, and I was ready for some pain management. They had me hooked up and comfortable so fast, and I was amazed at the relief. Modern technology is truly amazing. The anesthesiologist who hooked me up was a longhorn. My nurse had told him we were Aggies. I laughed and said, "Maybe you should've waited until he was done to tell him that!" He talked me all the way through the procedure and had a great bedside manner. After it was over and life was so much better, I told him he was the best longhorn I had ever met! By then it was around 2 am, and our parents were on their way to the hospital.

I labored for about 17 hours before I started pushing. It was an incredibly long day, and I hadn't had really anything of substance to eat since lunch and not much then. Of course I wasn't able to get much sleep because I was excited. Around 2 PM I began pushing. A little over 2 hours later, our boy made his miraculous appearance into this world. It was by far the most amazing moment of my life so far. When he made his first cry (and boy, was he mad!) Brad and I locked eyes, and there were just NO WORDS. None. Nothing could describe it.

I delivered at big Baylor in downtown Dallas, and praise God, my doctor was the one on call this past weekend. Once I started pushing, she was at the foot of my bed for all but maybe 20 minutes. She was wonderful. The nurses who took care of me were so awesome. The L&D nurse assigned to me all day was so kind and was on top of every request I made. If I was in pain, the nurse anesthetist was responding in less than 5 minutes. My night nurse in post-partum was a super star. She had just come on shift when I was transferred up there, so she got to walk me through the worst of the post-partum stuff. I have a new appreciation for nurses, most definitely.

So that's the story of how Baby Jack came into this world. Next up, an infinite number of posts on how incredibly special and wonderful this little boy is.

The Only Thing Missing is a Boy Named Jack.

My Aunt Sheri and I sewed the bedding. She tackled the bumpers while I made the crib skirt. The framed pic is actually a blueprint of a P-51 Mustang fighter plane, a workhorse for the US during WW II. Your history lesson for today!

{I still can't believe I made a crib skirt. Move over, Ma Ingalls.}

Close up of the mobile over his bed. It's one of my favorite things in the room.

{Until the boy comes, that is.}

The pillow was made by the mother of my very dear friend, Hilary. I ♥ it so much because it's awesome and reminds me of her sweet family. The quilt was made by Jack's Nana (B's Momma) and is beautiful--a wonderful keepsake. Bunny comes to us from FAO Schwartz in NYC courtesy of Sugar (my momma) and was one of the first things we picked up for Baby G last August.

{Filled with love.}

{But I know it should not stay filled while the boy is in there, in case you were worried.}

Picture a mirror hanging over the dresser in that huge blank spot. You can see Jack's first baseball glove sitting on top of the dresser. His Grandaddy picked that out (my dad.)

{Also, Corduroy is my favorite childhood book. It's on the top bookshelf.}

That's Jack's big boy bed with a framed blueprint of a Boeing B-17 Bomber.

Come out and play Baby Jack! Your room is waiting for you!

A Very Merry Un-Birthday

A few weeks ago, the Girls' ministry at our church had a Mad Hatter Tea Party, and I volunteered to make and decorate cookies to go with the theme. I've always wanted to learn to decorate cut out cookies, but to be quite honest, I've never been very good at step 1--actually cutting out the cookies and having them maintain their shape getting them from the countertop to the cookie sheet.

I did a little bit of searching and came across this recipe on "Bake at 350" linked on the Pioneer Woman's blog (of course she would have the answers!) for cookies. You don't even have to refrigerate the dough. It was good and thick, and even I, the cookie cutter challenged, was able to work with it.

I also used this recipe from Bridget at "Bake at 350" for royal icing. It calls for meringue powder which I thought was safest since last time I checked I'm not supposed to be munching on raw egg stuff. (And yeah, I don't bake cookies that I can't eat.) It worked out well, and I think with a little bit of practice I'll get the hang of it.

{I started with the pink. You can totally tell they were the first I tried.}

The cookies were pretty plain at this point, but later on (and I didn't get a pic--bummer) I wrote "eat me" on some of them. You know, like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party!

Next time I will add a little bit of almond extract to the icing, and I probably won't leave the cookies in the oven quite as long. We like our cookies a little softer in the middle than these. Overall, I love how they turned out!

Ladies' Luncheon 2010: Childhood Memories

A few weekends ago was the annual Fall Ladies' Luncheon organized by our church's Women's Ministry. This is my 3rd year to decorate a table, and I love doing it. Part of the fun is seeing what other ladies come up with as well. The theme this year was "Childhood Memories." I wanted to pick a fun, girly, and pink childhood memory so mine was "Playing Dress Up."

My table that morning was made up of some sweet friends. We enjoyed quiche, fruit parfaits, and lots of fun fellowship. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and so I have all of one pic from the day.

This was our table before the event began. The centerpiece in the middle was made by Central Market, and it's arranged in a silver plated urn that I found at Salvation Army a couple of years ago for $10. I must tell you that the day I found it was one of my proudest thrift shopping days. The pink glassware was borrowed from my Grannie and anchored with some of my Spode Tower pink dinner plates. All the other fun "dress-up" stuff on the table came out of my own dress-up stuff. Makeup, pearls, a pink feather boa {of course!}, gloves, and crowns. (For some reason, my Co-Workers have supplied me with numerous crowns. Hmm.)

I handmade the place cards for each place setting. Starting with a doily, some pages from Pride & Prejudice (I have a copy for every room in my house, so this one won't be missed, I promise) and ending with a chipboard initial for each lady at the table. I am dangerous with a hot glue gun--just ask my index finger. After searching every craft store in FW I didn't find silver glittered chipboard letters, so I hand glittered these. I was pleased with how they turned out and now have mine blinging up my office space.

As much fun as it is to plan and execute something as fun as this, the best part is a morning of girl talk with friends!

Arts and Crafts

I've been really lazy had this project on hold for quite some time now, and my mom has been after me to finish it up for her.


I love the different ways people are taking remnants from old houses and making them new again. Older architectural elements from homes are showing up all over design blogs and mags. Everyone's going green, even in their home decor.

{this one's hanging right off our entry}
While I was painting this screen, I imagined the home it might have come off of. In my mind it is from a quaint little town where kids rode their bikes up and down the sidewalks in summer. But in reality it probably came off of a demo in the middle of big city to make room for another service station. Such is the world today.

{Here's yours Mama--come see me to pick it up!}

At least now it will have a lovely new home.

Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Someone's got a birthday tomorrow.
We're celebrating with friends tonight--that means cake!


Recipe found {HERE}.

DIY - The Chair

I picked up this chair at Canton, and added a little bit of love, some paint, and new fabric. I'm so pleased with how it turned out! I like it in three different places in my house, so now I guess I'm on the hunt for more chairs to makeover.

BEFORE

AFTER