M and M night Barbara's version

Barbara is a much better story teller than me. Go here to hear her version of our M&M nights.

Plus here are some great pictures she used in her blog.

The YaYa and LaLa glasses.  the Memory pillow below.

Thanks Barbara for the great memories and more to come.

Martini's, Memories and M&Ms

Our tradition.  When Barbara and I have a child getting married we have a fun night a couple evenings before the big event.

I started the tradition when her first son got married.  We traveled to Hot Springs, AR.  I met her in her hotel room and brought white chocolate martini's and a bag of M&Ms.  We laughed, we talked and reminisced.  It was the calm before the storm of fun wedding activities.  It is now known as our M&M night.
We added another M to the mix this year, we talked about our menopause moments :).

She brought me a fleur de lis martini glass the weekend that our second daughter was married and M&M's of course.  

So for the past weekend I made very special glasses with an etched treatment.   I have always wanted to try glass etching and since I am planning on being called LaLa for my grandmother name and she is YaYa for hers, we now have personalized glasses.  My gift to her for the night included the glasses, M&M's and a heart shaped pillow with the word memories printed on it. 

Etching is easy, but I had to apply the etching cream four times to get the look I wanted.   I used letter stickers from Michael's and applied them where I wanted the clear glass to remain. I smeared the base of the glass with the etching liquid and left on the glass for way longer than the instructions stated.   Rinsed of with water and peeled off the stickers once I achieved the level of etching that I desired.  

The pillow was perfect, sorry I forgot my camera.  But it was vintage looking and had burlap stitched on it, with the word memory printed in the center.  Which was a major theme for her daughter's wedding.  Another successful, fun M&M night together.  And we each have a single child left to have weddings!  So at least two more M&M nights.

PS - The martini's were pink of course.  Lemon infused vodka with cranberry juice. 

Just a few more of the photo shoot

These are Ashley's shots.

Ashley Mitchell 

I provided the bouquets, head piece and got invited to come along for the fabulous shoot. The first photo also shows her mother's dress that she changed into half way through the reception.

See Ooohlala Florals for more too.

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Caitlin's Bridal shoot

I can finally show some pictures of the bridal photo shoot that I provided flowers for.  It is my best friend's daughter and she and Kevin got married last weekend. I had to keep the photos secret.

Go here to Ooohlala Floral  for more posts of the shoot by Ashley.

The photographer is Ashley Mitchell of Dallas.  These are my picture, but you can see her great work at her site.  Caitlin's dress was a one of kind Priscilla of Boston.  The linen was from France I think.

I helped throwing ribbons over the tree and the set up for the seated photos. 

It had beads and feathers and her wedding theme was natural and vintage.

It was a great day, fun but three hours in the heat.  Poor Caitlin, she was a trooper. I made three bouquets for the photo shoot the above and the two below.

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Gone a bit...

Heading to Louisiana to a friends daughter's wedding!  But wanted to give you a sneak peek at some of the flowers for the wedding. Who says guys can't have a something creative and fun to wear.  Love these boutonnieres.

Ooohlala Florals

More to come... The bride has envisioned an eclectic, vintage feel to everything. 

Here we come Louisiana, yes two weekends in a row.  We were there last weekend for another wedding. Snapped this state flower picture below.  Southern Magnolia. 

Corner retreat update

After some of your suggestions from my previous post...

Much better!

A touch of greenery makes the area fresh and summery, a plant under the table too.
Candlelight will be cozy. 

Changed one pillow, now two with ruffles.  Perfect spot now for iced tea.

Before

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Ten minute change of view

I had everything at the house already and my girl's were over for Mother's Day.  So I asked if they would help me fix up a neglected corner of the back yard patio.

Before

Chairs from office, rug from kitchen, table was in garage, wrought iron piece in between chairs was outside already.

Now what to put on the table?  Any suggestions?

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What is it?

I know your ten year old children will not even know what this is.  But, we all have those ugly phone wall mounts.  If you are like me and went cell phones only about three years ago you have this problem.  What to do with those ugly wall mounts?

These Italian guys are helping me out.  Find a canvas painting or decoupage a family photo over a canvas maybe.  No nails needed, this one just slipped right over the ugly jack.

tada! I love these two!  We also love not having the home phone message light on for the messages that we never listened to.  

Gender Reveal Party

If you haven't been to one of these parties yet, they are so much fun.  Go if you get a chance.  Ann Marie and Michael, just like everyone now, had to find out if they are having girls or boys or one of each.  Remember they are expecting twins.  

She invited a few folks over.

Come and go said the e-vite.  From 6:30, but the reveal would be at 7:00.  HINT: if you go to one of these, no one can really wait, so they may start a few minutes early.  Don't be late.

She had a few signs and some refreshments.  We all got to place our vote.  The final vote was boys 5, girls 6, one of each 8.  

Inside these boxes were helium balloons in either pink or blue.  Almost best part they let the grandparents unwrap the boxes.

Here is the video link

  Here is the happy Mom and Dad to be, they are having two girls!  

Melissa brought three presents for whatever the results were.

The next day I had a little reveal at my office.

For video download, I had to save to youtube and then link back?  Is that the only way to add to a blog?  If you know an easier way let me know.

GIRLS!!! SISTERS!! GIRLFRIENDS!! 

If the video didn't open, copy and paste below to view.  UUUGGHH.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyx_IF_r1Qg&feature=youtu.be

Curtain tutorial kind of

Dining room window treatments are finished.  They really took no time at all, because I was careful and made no mistakes this time.  Almost sewed the wrong sides together but caught it just before I started sewing.

The fabric reminds me a of a watercolor the way the pattern seems watered down.  The colors blend well with the entire room.  The wall color is a perfect blend to the background color in the fabric.

I always use lining. It saves the life of your fabric from fading and reflects the true colors of the fabric.   It makes it nice too, that the lining is always a bit shorter on the sides of the designer fabric.  When you sew your sides, you just have to overlap the lining a bit on one side to make the edges have a perfect overlap when you iron them.

Here is a panel with sides sewn, turned inside out and ironed.  I am measuring and ironing the tops and bottoms before I will hand stitch them.  You could do the whole project with stitch witch iron hemming. (if you don't like the sewing thing)  I have used iron on stitch witch when I don't want stitching to show on a hem.  

I stitched down both the top and bottom hems.  It did not show through to the front.

Broke out the hardware next.  Again best place, best price was at Cutting Corners in Dallas.  

Super easy to install.  I measure three inches from the ceiling because I wanted the curtains to go all the way up.  I didn't use the molly bolts that came with the brackets and it was just as tight a fit.  Does anyone really use those plastic mollies?  Screwed them right into the sheet rock.  

Which way is the correct top of the pattern?  Left side or right side? I went with the one on the right.  I thought the heavier green tear drop should face down?  

 I did not make a pocket, but used upholstery pins.  I gathered on the ends first, next the center gather and then in between the center and edge pin on both sides of center.  That was five double pleats for 54 inches of fabric.  The pins slipped right over the rod.

I was so glad I used the round ball finial.  My choices where fleur de lis, leaves or a swirly pointed one.  But I really wanted the curtains to take center stage. 

I'm so very pleased with how they turned out.   Curtains are the earrings on windows don't you think?

Now the kitchen window awaits her new treatment.

Just in case you are wondering the whole project was less than $70.00.  This fabric was originally $25 a yard.  It was marked down and then half of that. I happened in on a super special sale.  So at $3.00 a yard I was able to make the curtains really full.  I usually cut the 54 inch fabric down the middle.  But used the whole width for these.  7 yards, $21.00!!  

Take me out to your trailer

Makes you want to have one of these to travel and play in.

I found this little gem while flea market shopping.  Brandy gave me permission to take a peek inside. 

That squirrel would scare me.  But everything else is just perfect.
I hope she really knows the little girls in this picture.  How cute are they, how cute is this camper?

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