Thank YOU!!! ~ Fall Decor

Happy Saturday All!

Well..I survived my first week of being 50...AND, I guess it wasn't tooooo bad! lol  I have some very dear blogging and a great group of ebay friends who helped make me feel very special on this monumental day! I'd love for you to indulge me, as I thank them individually! There kindness and friendship means everything to me!

CUTE huh?
I JUST love this PINK glittery 50...from Vickie of Visuals by Vickie.  Isn't that just over the top?

Vickie also sent me some beautiful cards and wallies of roses!  I can wait to find some projects to use them on!


The next item I'd like to share with you was from Katie, of  Rose Breeze Boutique.  She did this darling tray with mosaics...all in roses and pinks and even added some pretty hearts too!  It is now sitting on my studio desk waiting to be put to good use!

Next, I received a Vintage Rooster towel, vintage post card and floral hankie from Deb of Garage Sale Gal.  Oh this sweet gal knows me so well and gave me the most PEFECT goodies I could ever wish for!

Last but never least, this GORGEOUS lamp shade, sache' of lavendar and vintage image was given to me from Bertie of Aunt May's Cottage.  This Victorian in this GIRL just feels so frilly and happy!

Each and every gift was so meaningful, special and just right! Thank you each, for thinking of me!

And..I could not let this YUMMY DQ Ice Cream cake go unnoticed...It has a Heath Bar topping and some yummy crunchy/fudgy filling.  Over the TOP goodness..and it didn't last long!!!  Hubby KNOW's how to get to this 50 girls heart!

I also wanted to add..my dear family who all live in the BEAUTIFUL state of Washington have surprised me by bestowing a ticket upon me to fly out for a visit.  If all goes as we have planned, I leave this Wednesday for a week of being with my beloved family!  I will see this amazing scenic beauty everyday...since my Mom and Dad live less than 45 minutes from  Mt. Rainier!  I cannot even put into words how SPECIAL this gift is..the time I can spend being WITH my family is *PRICELESS*!

FALL has Arrived, HERE!

This past week, I was determined to pull out my tubs of Fall decor.  I am actually getting an earlier start than I usually do and am so proud of myself for being on top of something, for once, lol!

I mainly decorate in our Family Room and Kitchen area.  These areas are both connected and are done up more in fallish colors...thus the focus of my Fall themed rooms.  I will leave this all out til Thanksgiving weekend, where I then pull out my gazillion tubs of Christmas decor.  These fallish colors give a warm, cozy feel to our room and alway LUV it most!  Now I am a shabby girl first and foremost...but when you LOVE someone, well you make concessions..and I am happy with the ones I have made.

Pictured below I am giving you some different angles in our Family room.  I have also added some individual vinettes for you to see.

I just got this HARVEST sign at Hobby Lobby and it wasn't exactly what I wanted, UNTIL....I added some BLING...gold and red glitter and some fun blingy leaves and wallllaaaa!

I added a new picture of my mantle area that I have tweeked a bit.

Now you can see by the picture below this is looking FROM our kitchen area into our Family room.  We have a dividing wall that help give our Family room a coziness, yet you are still able to be a part of what is happening from the kitchen.

Looking into my Kitchen.  Now I also am showing some recent vinettes I have created in my kitchen.  My desk, which I pictures a few post back is to the right..you can just see the blue chair.

Sorry about how dark this window picture is.  We have SOUTH facing window which means plenty of sun all day long..but NOT good for pictures.

So before you leave, I wanted you to see what would ~ WELCOME~ you if you come through my Front Door!

Thanks ever so much for joining me on my tour of my Fall Decor in my Living and Kitchen Rooms.  I hope I have inspired you to get going and add a touch of Fall to your home.

What Can I Share With You? Q&A

Hello My Dear Blogging Freinds!!!

Holly at Girls at Heart, recently gave her viewers and followers and opportunity to ask any questions they'd like to know about her.  I thought that was such a neat way to get to know other's on a different level here in blogland.  So...I asked her if she'd mind me using her sweet idea. Of course, the sweet gal that she is, she gave me permission.

As you have gotten to know me or read my blog are there things that may have sparked a question.  Feel free to ask.  I will wait for a week and then compile, hopefully a good list of questions and then answer them for you! Please dont be shy in asking. 

Did you also notice some of the Victorian Art I am showing...more Favorites.  Feel free to copy/paste these if you love them as I do.

Here's to my waiting in anticipation for your questions!

Blessings...Lorena

CUPCAKE Wedding Church Reception ~ Decorating on a Shoestring

I am joining Thrifty Decor Chick in her Before and After Party...Please be sure to check out my post below as well...I have 2 Before/After posts I have done the past few days.

Hello my blogging friends!

As I had promised over a week ago, I am finally getting my *HOW to* together of what I did to help my dear friends weddomg reception. Her daughters wedding was on Saturday, August 28th. This was a very simple yet elegant wedding. The bride is 32, first marriage and the groom is 41 and his first marriage. They both waited for GOD's very best in marriage and have such a neat love story. What an honor it was, when she asked me to help with the Church Reception decor.

So, as the picture below shows...this was what I was given to work with. Our bride is a very frugle girl who loves a good deal. She was decorating in Bright PINKs, and Oranges. She had purchased off Craiglist these floral bouquets that had been used as pew arrangments. Basically I was working with a 6" round styrafoam disc that I had to remove a plastic hangar, take off all the netting and ribbon and then tweek the roses and daisies already on the disc. About 2 weeks before the wedding we got together and worked out just what the BRIDE wanted.


I also was given some silk floral of Gerbera Daisy's, which were to be used as well. I gathered my collection of milk glass VASES as well. and began cutting the stems to the right size I needed. I made 6 differing sizes of bouquets. I then took 1 inch gauzy orange ribbon and tied them around each of the stems or vases.
Here's another look at what I was working with. Oh Yes..lest I forget...we had an very unusual way that we covered our tables...stay with me and I will show you the final product.
So here you see I am almost done with my vases and all of the arrangement I made. Hmmmmm where are my pictures of them all done...Oh goodness, did I forget to do that?
Here above, is that finished Disc Bouquet...lets got through the next few pictures and I will explain what I did for them.
I borrowed some shallow glass floating candle vases that were approximately 8 inches in diameter. The netting was from the original pew hangers and I softly filled 6 of these vases leaving a space in the middle for a glass votive candle that I turned upside down. Taking some left over 1.5 inch orange ribbon, and a tiny 1/2 inch pink ribbon...I created these to place inside my roses and daisy's. Gosh..I didn't realize how bright these colors are..they sure came out hard to see.

HERE's a look into the foyer showing what they looked when they were all set up. Can you see our unique table covers? We used the churches stock of white table clothes..but Susie and her daughter bought or borrowed vintage tables clothes from the 40's, 50's, 60's and even 70's to create what I think is a very UNIQUE table scape. Each of the large round tables had a different tablecloth which created a wonderful shabby patchwork affect. All in soft and muted tones.

We also had some smaller, taller tables that we didn't want to crowd with the round bouquets so that's where most of the Milk Glasses full of daisy's went. I did make a few extra for scattering around the area to help add to the affect we were looking for.
Here's my friends Susie or the Mother of the Bride. Early on they decided to have a CUPCAKE reception following the ceremony. Our church has a very large Foyer area on 2 sides. So we set up 3 large rounds and 2 smaller rounds on each side. Each side had there own Long Tables for the cupcakes and another round for Coffee, Tea or Lemonade. Very Simple but very elegant. Both families are quite large and they decided to throw a family dinner a few hours later for them.
Here's what one side of the Cupcake Tables looked like. We were trying to get a feel for how many plates to set out.

A shot of both sides, all set up and ready for guest!
On the day of the wedding I got there early so I could check on things and took a quick picture of Mom and Dad of the bride. Don't they look happy?

Then during the last part of the service I snuck out so I could take pictures of both of the CUPCAKE Table so you could see these Mammoth Cupcakes. They were the biggest ones I had ever seen..and as my dear hubs said, the BEST ones he'd ever eatten. And they were good! Don't these tables just look so elegant and fun?
Here's a shot of the coffe/punch table all set up.
This was for me a labor of LOVE. I just so appreciate my dear friend. And..her daughter over the years has become such a dear friend to me as well. Since I am so far from my own family, they have made me feel like I am part of their family. I was just so blessed to be able to be such a part of this entire Wedding Day.
Thanks for letting me share this with you...Lorena

My Kitchen Desk Fall Clean Up ~ AND, 2 Projects

Hi, This post is also part of my Before&After that the Thrifty Decor Chick is hosting..be sure to check her other attendees!

Hey my Blogging friends guess what I have been up to?

My sweet hubs had to make another trip back up to the U.P. of Michigan to help his family work on sprucing and scraping and priming and painting their turn of the century family home. They are readying it for the possibility of selling.

Anyway, I digress. So, taking advantage of my time being freed up..I decided to bring out my FALL decorations. But..as things would have it...I went off on a rabbit trail and landed in my kitchen. Do you ever get the urge to REALLLLLLLY open those cupboards and say...HOW did this get so messy? Well, I know I should NOT have done that but I did. So right now, yep, right now, everything is in disarray and with good intentions I am plugging on..cause hubby's coming home tonight.

In this midst of all of this, Yesterday I was brain storming. Due to hubs still trying to find work in his field, there is just no money to do those things I have been dreaming of in my kitchen...like granite countertops, a possible back splash and possibly painting or restainingg my cabinets. Okay...back to my story. I was looking at my very own Kitchen desk space, that I REALLY do use a LOT. I just wasn't feeling it or liking what I was seeing. Off I went to rummage in my storage room that I keep for my painting treasures and came out with some fabulous finds. I love shopping in my very own home...doesn't cost a thang!!!

Lo and behold I found this. It was some type of chalk board all done up in white but I just didn't like the panel insert. Up to my Studio I took this piece.

I took the whole thing apart. I found some left over batting for the panel. Using my favorite tool in the world, my glue gun, I secured the batting to this panel. I cut a piece of my remnant WAVERLY Cabbage Rose Toile I had and glued that around the panel.

Oh..if I don't say so myself a much BETTER improvement!
I then painted the entire piece a Barn Red. I just LOVE red and this just made a huge impact on this piece. What do you think?
What I can KICK myself over is..I found a CORK Board and added batting and then hot glued my WAVERLY Cabbage Rose All Over. It turned out so well I could not wait to hang it...BUT YOU GUESSED IT...I plumb forgot to get before/after pictures. Can ya use your wonderful imagination, pullleease? shew, thanks. The jury is still out, I am toying with adding some deep red/burgandy gimp? Love to hear what you think.
Here's the Cork Board close up.
Do you see that Blue and White plate? I cleverly used it to try and hide an ugly white cord.
Oh that turquoise chair is another on my TO DO List. I am planning on painting it black...just need to get it outside to do so. I am determine to wait tho on that and finish my kitchen and family room....
Here's a close up shot of this are and cleaned up a pretty!
Thanks for stopping by. If you have some ideas let me know, I LOVE hearing from you!

Blessings...Lorena

FABULOUS Thrifting Finds! ~ C'mon In and See

Hi Friends!!!

First off, do you like my new look? There are some neat blog free backgrounds that other bloggers have so graciously offered. I love anythings ROSES as you know so I changed to this one cause its so right up my alley! LOL

Okay...I have a few things that I have picked up today and last week I thought I'd show you. When this girl gets the urge to go Thrifting...nothings get's in my way..not even feeling crummy cause of allergies!

I nabbed this metal can because of the...ROSE's...YEP I sure do love 'em and I have a small collection of these round cannisters.
I also found this darling, petite silver 2 tiered tidbit tray. Not quite sure if I am going to keep it or maybe offer it up in my etsy store..still thinking on this one.
Next four pictures are my ULTIMATE, FABULOUS finds! I LOVE bone china too...and of course ROSE's!!!! So when I find these 8 inch plates they just cry out to me!
Then there's this sweet saucers whose cup is gone a missin'...I am sure I can find a space on a wall somewhere just for it!
Oh my, its so hard to see the sweet forget~me~nots on this handpainted Cookie plate but the colors are so pretty, soft and muted.
Last, but never least..is this pretty handpainted violets plate...isn't this just LOVELY? I sure think so!
A darling Angel Duo..will go well in my RED Powder room which is full of angels and cherubs...I almost put these back, so glad I didn't!
In my kitchen I have a more English/French Country theme...so I nabbed this napkin holder..99c..not to bad huh?
Red, really is one of my favorte colors to have in a room...it just POPs and is a happy color. Growing up when I would be down, I'd wear red to cheer myself up. I almost didn't get this cause I didn't realize it said $4.99...the sweet lady waiting on me said..I want it off my shelves, I price these items and would rather see them go to a good home...so I paid .99C..this will probably go in my Red Powder room
And I thought $3 for this denim jacket was a steal...and loved those CHICO's goucho style capri's for $4 wasn't bad either. Plus these are a rich caramel color (my camera didn't capture the right color)..YUM!
Then I just couldn't pass up this Snowman/girl...got some Christmas ideas...we will see how they turn out..could be a before/after some day!

Well..thanks for letting me share!

Blessings...Lorena