Thanksgiving decor and newly painted furniture

I'm so excited.  Hubby painted my furniture!  I know I could have done it myself, but he does it better!  Just in time for our Thanksgiving family holiday.  I just love the results. 

First up is our coffee table.  It's oak.  I love cottage/shabby and I have wanted this table to be white for the longest time.  It turned out fabulous!  Here a before picture:

And here it is white:

The next thing he painted was the entertainment center.  I hesitated to go to any trouble because we wouldn't want to keep it if we got a flat screen tv.  Now that it's painted, I don't even want a flat screen tv!  I hated the cabinet so much that I couldn't even find a picture to show you the before.  Here is a partial of it with Christmas from last year:

And here it is now:

The candles on top are from our centerpiece on Thanksgiving.  The girls helped me make them. 

I printed the letters and we glued them on.  Apparently, I can't spell.  I was short one candle.  Luckily I had something similar in my cabinet, whew.  I loved how they looked on the table and wanted to keep them out. 

This idea would be great for any occasion, you can spell anything you like!  They are sitting atop some small liquor glasses.  You could use wine glasses, really any kind of glass.  And, you could make them different heights with different glasses if you wanted to.

The hearth in our living room is the center piece of the house.  For all these years, it's been the setting for prom pictures, family pictures, it's just so pretty.  It was built by the lady who first lived in this house.  She made many rock walls outside too.  When my in laws first moved in to the house many many years ago, the rock fireplace was beginning to crumble.  So, they put a few beams around it to stableize it.  I would like to put up some crown molding, but in leiu of that, hubby painted it white.  The only "before" I could find was from a few Christmases ago and you can hardly see the whole thing...very brown.

And, NOW it's white:

 

I'm really looking forward to putting up my Christmas decorations with all this fun white!

But before I do, here are a couple more Thanksgiving/fall decor to look at:

 For Thanksgiving, I realized that I didn't have enough dishes for 13 people.  I thought about getting dishes at the thrift store and doing mix and match china, but I just couldn't find the right things.  And, it was going to be expensive!  Then, I found these great dishes....wait for it.....at the DOLLAR STORE!  

What a find!  The table was so pretty.  I had an old table out in the shed that was a pretty good match to our dining room table and I borrowed chairs from my MIL.  

The centerpiece was the candles and in between we put little tiny pumpkins.  My granddaughter and I carved a place to put a little tealight candle and we filled in with some fall leaf decorations and pine cones from outside.  

Things I would change for next time.  First I would take more pictures.  I wish I had made napkins and place setting signs for people to sit.  

All I had to do was set the table, since my son did all the cooking.  I'm happy with the way things turned out!

Pumpkin Flower Arrangement

inspiration pic

I saw a picture on Facebook of a pumpkin flower arrangement and I wanted it so badly!!  Here is the picture.  I wish that I could tell you where it came from and give credit where credit is due, but I don't know.  

It was just one of those "wish" kind of wants.  I wouldn't want to spend the money on real flowers and then they wouldn't last.  And, a pumpkin will go bad after a while too. 

But.....a fake pumpkin and fake flowers.  That would last.  In fact, I could use it year after year.  I looked at flowers in the craft store and nothing was calling to me.  So, I let it go.  

But, it just kept coming back to my mind.  I bought a pumpkin and I thought I would just cut the top off.  The label said "carve-able"....even better!  I didn't buy any new flowers.  I decided to use my stash.  That's what it's for, right?

 I asked hubby to carve it for me.  He was happy to do it. I bought one of those round balls in the floral department to hold the flowers. 

I went to my flower stash and pulled out everything that looked "fall".  I just started to stick flowers and some greenery in until I was satisfied.

 

 

Here is the result.  I love it!  I look forward to pulling it out year after year. 

Happy Fall decorating!! 

If you enjoyed my fall decorating idea....here is some more inspiration for you....Pink Saturday!  Click here and read all about it.  

Baby Shower

I was so excited that my daughter allowed me the honor to host her baby shower.  She has a number of friends who would have been happy to do it.  So....I wanted to make it very special.

She does not have a theme for her baby room and I had trouble coming up with a theme for her shower.  She picked out these cute invitations and I decided to use them for inspiration.

 

So began the hunt for decorations that were blue and white, checked and polka and elephants.  I was so stumped.  I was in a party store and I actually wished for decorations that were blue, white and elephants in a theme, so I wouldn't have to create anything.  I turned a corner, and lo and behold, there they were.  

Blue, elephants, they had plates and napkins, plus all sorts of decorations.  Anything I could possibly want.  And, guess what?  I didn't want them.  All I could think was that they were kind of cheesy.  And, they just didn't seem personal.  So, I went back to coming up with ideas to make the party special and personal.  Unique.  Not a party in a bag kind of party.  

I knew that I wanted to put balloons out front.  And, I saw some pretty banners on Pinterest that I wanted to copy.  I searched for paper to cut and make my banners out of.  I found some that would do, but not perfect.  And then.....my neighbor, Kelli (who is also one of my daughter's best friends) stopped by to tell me that she had an idea for making banners.  Wow.  We had the same idea.  She came over and we made these pretty banners.  She made the paper herself with photoshop and cut them into triangles.  We punched holes on each side and threaded some ribbon through.  I found some baby diaper pins to hang them up on my umbrellas.  

I loved this shower.  I couldn't have done it without help.  Kelli helped me make the decorations and on the morning of the shower, Meghan showed up early and put them all up!  

Meghan also took charge of the games and prizes.  How lucky am I?  I told her that I really don't like some of the games that they play at showers and she agreed.  The games she came up with were fun!  We all guessed with a piece of yarn what size my daughter's belly was.  Mine was about double what it should have been!  We also played a memory game with a BIG baby bottle filled with baby essentials.  And the gifts were terrific.  Woo Hoo!

That's Kelly in the Stripes and Meghan in the solid blue.  

For the shower, we had a brunch.  I made two casseroles, one was bacon, eggs and hash browns.  The other was french toast.  Mmmmm, brunch is my favorite meal. I set up the food in the tent.

 Kelli brought the "fruit baby", which was a huge hit!

Jesi made the most wonderful and beautiful cupcakes.

I put them on the cart.

I set up the bar with mimosa punch (non alcoholic in honor of the mommy to be).

  The punch was yummy with orange juice and ginger ale.  I froze some orange juice in cup cake tins to make huge ice cubes that wouldn't dilute the punch as it melted.

I also made big cubes with lemon slices for the water.  And, clear ones for the apple juice.

For dishes, I thought about getting paper plates, but then I found clear glass at the thrift store for only fifty cents each and I found a clear mug at the dollar store.  Somehow these just seemed the perfect fit.

We just visited and played a few games.  Kristen found this vintage shower game that I just love!

Stork Bingo!!

One BIG surprise was that her friend, Terry, from her work came all the way from the bay area.  I knew that she was coming, but I left it for a fun little surprise for dear daughter.

My daughter's friend Stephanie, had a baby just a couple of months ago.  Here is Meghan holding him.

 

My daughter was wearing "our" shoes.  We "co" bought these a while back.  I haven't worn them yet.  Aren't they cute!

 

I had three kids myself and never once had a shower.  I don't think I ever even went to one either.  Did we do this kind of thing back then?  I never know what to buy people, so I love the idea of a gift registry.   My daughter used Babies R Us.  I made her promise to NOT look at the registry so that she would be surprised. 

 

I set up a table with a vintage table cloth for the gifts and we sat on the deck for the unveiling.

My girl was like a kid at Christmas.  How fun!!  Her friends and family were beyond generous.  I can't wait to see the nursery all set up.  

I had the doggies on the deck all morning and they were dying to get close to the people.  When we came down to the deck, they shied away.

I took this picture of the girls and when I posted it on Facebook, they noticed little Pookie under the couch, posing for the pic!

A princess needs a crown.  I found this perfect little tiara for her.  

We packed her up.

And filled up Terry's truck and off she went to get hubby started on putting things together.  Lucky guy.

When it was all over, I didn't want to take down the decorations.....ever!

It was a great time.  Now let's have that baby!!