What I’m Loving

I am constantly coming across things I love and give me inspiration for our home.  Here are a few things I have saved recently:

Loving it - July
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I love the happy green of the Chinois Mirror from Horchow.  It is listed as sold out now, but I am envisioning something like this over our mantle in the den.

 

I have been working on the third upstairs bedroom recently – I’ve decided on a navy and coral color pallette.  Ideally, I would love a ceramic table lamp like this Paris Lamp from Home Decorators, but for the time being I have painted a spare lamp base and paired it with this lamp shade from Target.

 

I don’t use mid-century style in our home, but it doesn’t mean I don’t like certain aspects of it.  This Reeve Side Table is beautiful with a marble top and pecan-finished base.  If I had the budget, I might just add them on either side of the loveseat in our den.

 

Our loveseat and sofa are generous hand-me-downs and are still in great shape, but are not what I would buy if I walked into a furniture store tomorrow.  I am really partial to the Charles of London arm style on chairs and sofas.  It isn’t a big, oversized rolled arm but it’s more than a modern-looking square arm.  This Melody Loveseat from Haverty’s might be on my short-list if we were in the market for a loveseat.

Memorial Day 2014

We got to throw our first Memorial Day cookout in the new house yesterday.  We had a few more people and quite a few more kids this year, but I felt like we had plenty of room.  I set the food table up in the breakfast area and put the small table in the living room for extra seating.  I had a lot of fun with the decorations this year.  Behind the food table, I hung a cluster of paper fans (that I actually found on clearance after Christmas).

We did our standard low-country boil and Bradley added a few racks of ribs from the BGE this time.

At the entrance, I hung the wreath I’ve been working on for the past week.  I found the tutorial for the wreath here and the felt flowers here.  I also put our bocce ball set in a cute red metal basket from Target by the front door.

I used my red polka dot tablecloth on the foyer table, with a little lantern I had painted blue at the old house.

 

On the mantle I strung up some paper fireworks I made following this tutorial.  This was probably my favorite project I worked on for this year’s party.

Favorite Sweet Treats

On average, once or twice a month I get to volunteer as green room host at our church.  The job consists of setting out the food provided by whatever restaurant is catering that day, restocking the drink fridge and candy bowls, making coffee, and in general making sure that all of the musicians and production volunteers have what they need when they aren’t on stage.  I enjoy trying out new recipes that I find from blogs through Pinterest on the 30+ people each time.  It gives me a lot of feedback and I know whether or not to keep the recipe for future use.  I thought I would share some of the recipes that have been the biggest hits – you may notice a pattern that most involve Oreos.

 

 

Oreo Pudding Cookies by The Girl Who Ate Everything

 

 

 

Cookies and Cream Rice Krispie Treats by Cooking Classy

 

 

 

 

Homemade Kit Kat Bars by Serious Eats

 

 

 

 

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Sandwiches by Two Peas and their Pod

 

 

 

 

Oreo Truffles by Kraft Recipes

 

 

 

 

Cookies ‘n Cream Puppy Chow by Whisk Away Your Worries

 

 

 

 

Cookies & Cream Bars by Willow Bird Baking

 

 

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Sugar and Spice Baby Shower

The last of the three cousin showers I helped with happened last weekend.  It was the only girl shower that my mom, cousin and I got to plan.  We went with a Sugar and Spice theme, which is wide open for interpretation, but I found some cute inspiration online.

 

For the gift table, I hung a dozen white tissue honeycomb balls and a sugar and spice, everything nice banner made using this kit from Rifle Paper Co.  My cousin made the adorable diaper tricycle on the table.

We used a lot of pretty cut glass dishes on the food table – I made chicken salad on croissants, sugar donut muffins and pumpkin spice muffins.  I also put out some sugared peach candies and rock candy sticks.  My mom made sugared and spiced pecans as well as a fruit and angel food cake trifle.  My cousin made chocolate-dipped oreos and Strawberry Lemonade Punch.  She also made the white tutu that we used under the cake stand.

Above the drink table, I hung a set of the Martha Stewart Pink Accordion Lanterns.  On the table, I added my gold sequined table runner that I use at my New Year’s Eve parties for a little extra sparkle.  I also rimmed the glasses with light pink sugar sprinkles and set out some pink and white striped paper straws.  The flowers came from mom’s yard.

Bradley nailed the design for our invitations (my inspiration came from here).  I love the way they turned out.

UGA Bulldogs Baby Shower

At the beginning of February, my mom, cousin and I threw a UGA Baby Shower for my cousin’s wife.  We decided to go with tail-gating foods for the menu.  I had similar elements at the first shower I threw with this theme, but I had sold the decorations from the first one, so I had to recreate and alter the ideas to fit this one.  This shower fell on moving weekend for us, so I forgot to dig out the good camera – these pictures were all taken with my iPhone and it shows.

I twisted black and red crepe paper streamers together for the gift table backdrop.  Then I hung a onesie in an empty frame using ribbon and tiny clothespins.  The red and white houndstooth tablecloth is actually some vintage fabric I got from an etsy seller a while back.  My cousin built the amazing diaper four-wheeler for the mom-to-be.

For food, I made BBQ sliders with cole slaw and brownie ‘footballs’.  My mom made ‘southern caviar’ (black eyed pea/corn dip) and cut up a watermelon.  A friend of hers also made little bulldog mints for the party.  My cousin made bacon-wrapped little smokies.  The food was a big hit.

For the food table, I found a UGA tablecloth and on top of that put a piece of astroturf carpeting that I had cut from the large roll at Home Depot.  I made the football garland out of brown felt and white cardstock laces that I cut on my Silhouette machine.

I made a pennant banner from red and black cardstock and got the red paper fans on clearance at Walmart after Christmas.  We served tea, water and Pineapple-Lemonade punch.

Bradley designed the invitations for us.  I wanted it to have the feel of an admission ticket, but we decided to increase the size so it would fit #10 size red envelopes.