My Christmas Sideboard

Just used things I already have around the house.

Lingerie Shower Decorating!

I had so much fun decorating for a Lingerie Shower today, for one of the girls in our church.
Caryn is our Shower Coordinator, but since she and her mom were working today, I went over and did some of the decorating.

Caryn had chosen to do the shower in our youth building, so over I went, toting along lots of items from home to use.

The throne for our princess to open her gifts.

The backdrop is the youth's ping-pong table which is left folded in the corner. I certainly couldn't move it, so it became the perfect backdrop wall. I just covered it with a large black tablecloth, then layered a red table cloth in the center with a black scarf draped across the top.

The table in front of it is a simple card table which I covered with another red cloth and placed a mirror and pretty pillows on it.

We added Candles on this table, just didn't get pics of them before everyone arrived.

Then, on the way out I realized that when everyone arrived they have to walk through the coffee shop (which is in progress right now) and in that area is the kid's large pool table. Now it's great for the youth activity nights, but it just doesn't look good for a Bridal Lingerie Shower. So.....what to do?

I had an inspiration. I rushed home, went to the hall closet, loaded my car with some goodies, and this is what I came up with to hide the eyesore...(pool-table).

And here's the bride to be opening her gifts.

What fun we had! And She was such a good sport about all the teasing.

Can't wait till November when I'll be decorating another sweet girls Wedding Shower in "Vintage Parisian" theme.



Monday Morning Blues? No Way!

The only things blue about my Mondays are the sky above, pretty blue dishes and the blue of my husband's sparkling eyes.

I love Mondays. It is the day that Rich and I spend together. Pastoring a church is such a joy, but with that joy comes the need to have one day a week totally devoted to doing what we love. Sometimes that is antique stores, other times we spend the day shopping at thrift stores, the mall, and hobby stores. One of our favorite things to do on Mondays is sleep in, then meander our way to town, eat something wonderful and then spend time browsing or reading at book stores. We love the Half-Price Book stores in Houston. I have found some wonderful books in those stores.

On one of our recent outings, my hubby surprised me by purchasing something I've wanted for a while. He made the statement that he needed to run in Lowes for a minute and came out with a wooden wagon with wrought iron wheels for the front deck. He knew I wanted one for my Autumn Decor. Can't wait to fill it with some mums, pumpkins and such. Here it is with my sweet baby girl posing for me. Isn't she a darling.

GOTTA LOVE THAT SMILE!

Family Room Redo for Autumn

Today was a beautiful Saturday. Not a cool one, but sunny and pretty. I got up before hubby and son, cleared all the walls, the decor from the furniture tops, moved my furniture around in the family room and did some Autumn Updates. I told you that I'd post more photos as I did additional decorating so here they are.
I went with whites for summer this year so I'll show you some before and after (Summer and Fall).

Summer Whites

to

Autumn Hues

I've had this small sideboard / server for about 10 years now.

Summer Whites deck it out in front of the windows. It just seemed

to make our home a bit cooler somehow.

And here it is, in it's new place against the wall, decked out in Autumn Splendor:

I'm not quite done with this yet. I'm going to add more Autumn leaves

and some mini white light strands. Also will be putting a swag over the oval mirror.

My husband loves antique radios and has lots of them. 

This is my "portable fireplace" which was my Christmas present two years ago.

Since I can't have a real one, I was determined to have one of these. Above it's dressed for

Summer with white lace, and accessories.

I had fun decorating it today, with a wicker dress form, lots of browns and golds for Autumn.

I like the reflection in the mirror.

I purchased the wonderful scarf that's under everything at a flea market yesterday

for only $2.00. It is very pretty. The scarf on the wicker dressform, is an

Autumn one I've had for years.

Here are just some random pics of other areas and closeups of different vignettes.

This beautiful candle was $9.99 but because it had a big scuff, the store marked it down to $1.00.

No problem. I just wrapped gold ribbon around it and wah-lah...looks grand!

Here's a tip for you. If you love beautiful candles for decor, but like me, want to burn them too,

there's an easy way to have your candlelight and never burn your decorative candles

down. Simply put a tea-light candle on top and burn that.

Well, "Toodle-Doo" and thanks so much for stopping by.

Autum display

Autumn Lover

Are you an Autumn lover? I must confess that I am. I love the cool weather of course. I became engaged in Autumn, just a few days after Thanksgiving, twenty-five years ago. 

 I love decorating our home for all the different seasons, but the Autumn decor is my favorite. Christmas is my second favorite, but it seems that there is so much pressure and stress around that time of year for me. With the church activities every year...(hubby is pastor), Christmas decorating is done in a hurried frenzy it seems. But with the Autumn, I can relax and enjoy, take several days starting the first of September, and then our home feels so inviting with the all the reds, golds, burnt orange, ivory and browns. It smells spicy and yummy with all the scentsy burners, candles and potpouri.

Today, after a week of almost complete bed rest due to a herniated disc in my back, I was able to decorate my sideboard by creating an Autumn Vignette. Then I rested for a couple of hours and did the china cabinet and made some vignettes in the kitchen area also. I even made one for the top of the fridge. And, I went ahead and did a tablescape as well.

We live in the church parsonage which is a double wide mobile home. We hope to buy or build our own home soon, but until we do, then I am content to make this home that the Lord has provided, a place of joy for my family to come home to. Be thankful for what you have and don't bemoan what you don't have. Just make what you have beautiful.

Mr. Rooster was given to me by some friends in our church. I really like him, but they didn't. Not into the rooster thing I guess. I was glad to take him off thier hands!

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The plates came from Ross. Aren't they adorable?

The Atumn Sideboard. I love creating vignettes. Fun and Pretty.

Below is the China Cabinet

In the pic below, you'll see a vignette in a basket. I have a Bose Ipod dock/ Player which we kept on the bar/counter area. by putting it in this basket along with a small lamp, candle and a bit of floral, it will now be easy to pick up and move out of the way when arranging a buffet here. This counter is opposite of the dinning area and very convenient for serving buffet style.

I hope you've enjoyed my little bit of Autumn Bliss. I'll be posting more photos of our Autumn Home Decor as I get more done.

Hope you are having fun preparing your home for Autumn.

My First Posted Tablescape

My middle son was off work yesterday, so he dropped by our house for lunch and then he and his dad hung out for awhile in town.

I made a simple, but very tasty meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli  and my hubby's favorite side dish, yellow hominy.

The pictures are not the best since I just grabbed my phone to take some quick shots before the guys sat down to eat.

This tablescape photo shoot actually includes food on the table. (I had forgotten the napkins until after the pictures were taken but used yellow ones to go with the color scheme)

Got the awesome vase at Marshalls. The elephants from Ross and the candle holders from Hobby Lobby.

Those awesome white serving bowls came from Ross.

Love my fun elephant plates that I picked up at Ross the other day. They had only 4 of these and one larger dinner plate, which I am using as a serving plater for this meal. The black chargers were bought on our travels and I can't remember where I got them. The silverware came from Target. Love the shape of the spoons.

Ha! The meat loaf on the larger dinner plate/platter!

The table as a whole.

A little closer view of the plates.