Showing posts with label TJ Maxx. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TJ Maxx. Show all posts

Friday, February 12, 2016

Sharing some Love with Lavender

Hi Friends!  Since it's almost Valentines day I thought I'd share a little LOVE with you today and tell you about a few of my favorite Lavender things.   Do you like lavender?  Of course you do and I sure do too!   I love almost anything to do with Lavender.  I absolutely love everything about it!  I love the color, the aroma, the oil, the plant, the blooms, the seeds, and the texture to name just a few.   All of those previously mentioned qualities contribute to the whole calming and relaxing enjoyment I get from lavender.  Just the word alone sets my spirit right.

Somehow at some point in time I also began to associate Valentines with lavender. Maybe because when I was young I remember seeing Valentines cards with lavender on them.  Here's one I found today that is so cute!

source: Stylepinner.com

Besides being in love with the color, I really love, love, love the plant itself.  Growing Lavender here in the SC red clay that I have at my house is challenging to say the least.

 Some how I have managed to get one lone plant to survive and thrive.  This plant and another one I had in some pots on the deck for a few years before I put them in the ground.  This one loved the transfer and has thrived very well doubling in it's size.  The other one not so much.  I have tried two more additional plantings with no luck again.   I'm not giving up yet though, I'll just have to keep amending the soil until I get it right.

 I love the way Lavender looks and feels.  I especially love that you can smell the Lavender on your hands after you touch it and run your fingers though the leaves of the plant.  I have Rosemary that is the same way and smells so good on your hands.

I'm sorry I don't have any blooms to share with you today but its not quite the right season for that yet.  I can tell you if this beauty blooms like it did last year it will be stunning.    I promise to come back and share this plants beautiful purple flowers when it  does bloom.

Now if you really want to fall in love with lavender, and surely you must, because your here reading this and because I really want you too, okay?  OK!  You absolutely must try what I wanted to share most with you today.  Here's my secret for indulging in lavender.



You absolutely positively must try these lavender bath salts.  These are by far the best ever hands down!   I received these as a gift one year from my son and his girlfriend and I have been spoiled ever since.  In fact there is only one store nearby that carries it and I have to drive a little further to get this.  This brand is the only one I buy!  Aura Cacia has the best lavender aroma ever combined in a mineral salt that will sooth your spirit as well as your muscles. I've shared this brand on my blog once before in a previous post about my bathroom retreat here.   I love that it is not a bubble bath and I can turn on my jacuzzi tub without worry about bubbles overflowing everywhere.  It truly is a whirlpool of aromatherapy and a spa like indulgence right at home. 

This year I added a little something to my lavender indulgence.  I must have spent a whole afternoon searching for just the right scent of lavender soap to add to a Christmas present for my groomer.  She of course got the bath salt and some hand lotion but I also wanted her to have some soap.  I did find several wonderful homemade and organic type soaps but they were quite expensive and usually sold by the single bar only.  I kept searching and when I was at TJ Maxx I hit the mother-load of Lavender soaps.   I'm not kidding when I say I literally sat down on the floor and smelled almost every brand there was until I found what smelled like authentic lavender to me. I even had another customer who also sat down and started smelling soaps with me.  Too funny! I knew I found what I was looking for when I came across these in a beautiful box of 6.  The brand is Fiorentino, and is made in Italy. What I liked about these other then the smell was that you get more then one bar and they are just the right size.  Not too big and not too small.   I love that I can use these in the guest bath for company or in my master bath without some great big honking bar of soap that sits there forever and looses it's smell.  It feels very clean and much like a milled soap to me.  I love the cute little embossed fleur-de-lis on it.  It's so enjoyable when I go into our half bath to wash my hands that I feel like I've just given myself a little treat.  Try it, it's that good!


This morning I added more lovely lavender to the half bath with a newly embroidered hand towel.  I found this cute design online at Emblibrary and knew instantly where I would use it.  This is the last of the inexpensive hand towels I picked up to practice on from Walmart.  I think this turned out beautifully!  I do believe I am now ready to search for a few nice quality hand towels to embroider on.  I may have to make another one and do a set for in here though.  Now that I look at the picture, it looks a little lonely on that bar by itself, don't you think?

Well if I haven't convinced you yet of all the virtues of indulging in authentic lavender I've got one more small pleasure you could try.  Maybe you don't think you have a green thumb or are like me in an area where lavender is a real challenge to grow.  No problem, you could go faux!  


Last year I shared a post about this pretty little faux Lavender plant that I purchased at Michaels.  I shared it with you when I was showing what was the very beginning of my foyer makeover in a post titled Frenchy Foyer (click here to see).  These had just the right gathered look of fresh lavender.   I also picked up a few more different faux styles to scatter around the house.  I would love to find some dried Lavender that is not too expensive and made well to stay in tact. I have sometimes seen that the dried Lavender blooms tend to fall off easily if not handled carefully.  If you are good at being careful (which obviously I'm not) you may want to search for a dried version of lavender in a wreath or pretty bouquet.  I promise you won't regret it. There is something so enchanting and so old worldly about looking at lavender you can't help but fall under it's spell.

Thank you so much for popping by today and I hope you all are having a very cozy and relaxing weekend.  I would love to hear about your love for lavender or anything about it you'd like to share.    Wishing you all a very happy Valentines day!

Hugs and Waves!

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Silver and Gold Christmas Dining Room

Were in full celebration mode here at The Decorative Dreamers house, how about you?  We've already started the celebrations at our house last Saturday after hosting Christmas for my husbands side of the family.  It was so nice to be able to see everyone and to have been able to do so without being stressed from work this year.   I love working retail and I do miss working, but I have to say that it has really been a blessing time of year.   I have been able to slow it down and focus on the little things and that has meant quite a lot to me and to my husband as well.  He always takes the week before Christmas off and is thrilled to have me home with him this year.  He also has always been one of my most treasured blessings!



My dining room is one of my favorite rooms in this house.  I love it for so many reasons.  One reason is because of the location of the room in this house.  It is to the left when you enter our home as most dining rooms are but because our house sits so much higher then the street when you look out of the windows it overlooks the whole yard and just feels so open.  I also love that it has another door that leads into the kitchen.  Because the view is so enjoyable I have never put blinds in this room.  I do finally have curtains but since this room is so rarely used they always stay open


I also love that this room is large enough to accommodate a big table which I now finally have.  It has enough space for additional pieces of furniture for serving as well as a Christmas tree too.  When I started this tree it was primarily to showcase my collected Lenox ornaments.  I started collecting one of them each year starting when my husband and I first married.  That was in 1988 and we now have quite a full set.  I decided they would be best complimented with silver and gold and so the dining room tree came to be.

This year I added the gold angel wings that I got from after Christmas sales last year.  I actually had forgotten I had them until last week when I came across them while organizing my Christmas decor storage.  They are quite large and really pretty but I think they would have been better if I had put them on first so they would be more in the background.  I do love them though!


I read a blog this morning that talked about focusing on details this Christmas.  Not necessarily with regards to decor but with regards to special visions that create wonderful memories.  I loved this bit of advice.  I really want to do this not just for the holidays but for everyday!



I couldn't believe my luck when I went out just last week to find a new tablecloth to fit my larger table.  I found exactly the color and size I wanted at the first place I went to.  It is an off white color with silver metallic threads throughout.  I love TJ Maxx!  I thought for sure they would have been sold out already but I guess since it's larger in size I was still in luck.


Speaking of silver, this year I even made time to polish the silver.  Now mind you we will not be using this silver tea set but since I was polishing my silver serving pieces I decided to polish this set up as well.  I love how shiny and sparkly it is!



Our marble buffet table also sparkles as well this year.  It's the perfect place to display my Fitz and Floyd. I love unwrapping these pieces every year!   





 I actually have used this tray several Christmas's to serve ham.  I think I may have to retire it from serving duty though because I noticed it is starting to loose some of it's coloring around the edges.  I just can't bare the thought of seeing it all worn and rubbed off, but gosh the ham sure does look good served on this pretty platter!  



I purchased this manger scene from the Atlanta market this year.  It was from a vendor who sold handmade ornaments from Peru.  They are just spectacular.  Can you imagine making this by hand?







Okay, I just have to share this little tidbit tip I used this year.  Early in the season even before I set out any trees or Christmas decor.  I pulled several pieces of my silver serveware and displayed them in a utensil dish.  I did this so I would see them and remember to get them polished before company came.  I am so glad I did this.  I had them in another utensil caddy then switched them over to this one since I needed the caddy for silverware.  I already had this metal container and then I found a glass container I already had as well that fit perfectly.  I love this look and it matches a larger metal piece that I usually use on the dining table for floral displays year round.  I think I will now keep my serveware out and handy all the time now.  That way it gets used as well as serving a decorative look appropriately in the dining room.   



  I hope you have enjoyed the tours of Christmas this season.  I hope to do more blogging again now that I more time to do so. 

QUESTION:  I have a bit of a dilemma that I hope someone will help me with.  My son has restored one of my older more expensive laptops that crashed many years ago.  It is now totally restored and free of any old pictures and virus's too.  I could use it again to blog but am very concerned to do so since I have been through several laptops that mysteriously developed virus's that caused them to crash totally.  I have also recently deleted several blogs I followed because they were causing my blog feed to be filled with strange blogs that were not only phishing but some that were x-rated.   I currently use a chromebook but am unable to use photoshops (Picasa) on this without a great deal of hassle.  I have been using my phone for photos and my blogger app to post them, then editing the words on the blog with my chromebook.  If I go back to my laptop I can use my camera for better photos and be able to edit them and tag them as my property which is important to me.  The question I guess I have is how can I prevent these virus's from creeping in again.  I am hoping some of you will take the time to share what measures you use to prevent this from happening.  I am interested in hearing what you do not just with malware but with anything you can do on blogger to prevent this as well.  

As always, thanks so much for stopping in again today. I really appreciate it and hope you'll come back again sometime if you'd like.

  Most importantly,
 I want to wish each of you a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!
Jesus loves you!


Thursday, August 23, 2012

Southern Mediterranean Dining

Hey Bloggers!  I am taking a break from my break!  :)  LOL!

You see, I have to because I've got something to show you and I need a little help with a decorating decision as well.  Things have been quite hectic around here lately in more ways then you can imagine.  So... I will do my best to keep this post from being "all over the Map" but it's going to be hard.

First off, if you have children you know it's back to school time and that always means scrambling around to get things done in short order.  This year was no different, except that we sent our youngest son off to college.  He is going to be local at USC, that's the University of South Carolina, not California yall!  Woohoo!  Go Cocks!!!  Anywho, he moved into the dorms last weekend and starts his first day today. I am so proud and happy for him that I just had to include this update in here too.

Here's my precious college boy the night before he moved out.  Looking pretty happy huh?   I will update you with dorm pics another time.

With such a quite house around here in the evenings I am already finding myself dreaming of beautiful dinners for two in romantic and exotic places.  Oouu La La!  Except, with a schedule and budget that doesn't allow for much travel right now I've decided to try and create one of my own.

Welcome to the Mediterranean South Yall!

This setting may not be anywhere near the beautiful shores of Greece, my ultimate getaway island, but it's a great way to spend an evening at home don't you think?

I first fell in love with these dishes a few weeks ago at a resale/antique store.   I really wanted them, but they were selling them only as a huge set for $125.00.  Seriously?  I only wanted a few and something told me I could find them for much less.  Imagine my shock when the just a few days later I did find them for much less and sold individually at TJMaxx.  I was only going to buy four of one size but decided to go for it and get four plates and four salads.  You will see more on that and why in just a bit.

These beautiful iridescent oyster plates are clear and made of glass.  I found them early this summer at Marshall's.  They were sold as a set of four.  Instant love!  I have been wanting to use them all summer and have even purchased other dishes to use with but haven't gotten to creating that setting yet.  

My newest flatware is from Gibson purchased at work, Stein Mart.  The hammered look reminds me so much of bubbles and the water.

Speaking of bubbles, I thought my beautiful handblown purple goblets from Mexico that I got from Novica were the perfect touch for this setting.  So sorry for the crooked picture here, my photo skills seem to be lacking tremendously lately.

And to top it all off, I brought out the blue bubble glass napkin rings again.  They look really cute paired with some of my newest summer napkins also purchased from Stein Mart.



I threw in a few shells to capture that island feel I am craving!

And you should know I had to have my sailboats in here too!  Can you imagine going on one of those Mediterranean charter sails?  OMG! One day I pray!



My poor little crepe myrtle blooms are so beaten down by all the rains we've had lately.  The good news is I am off today and it looks like the sun is coming back out!

So what do you think?  Does it look vacationey enough for ya?  Hehee!
I think it will work just fine!  Now I have a secret to tell ya about these plates though.  They are going to be very short lived as far as dining with them goes.

Why? 
 Because I have other plans for them that's why!  

You see my bloggy friends, I did not just buy these dishes to eat off of....oh no!  I bought them specifically to use as wall decor.  And that my dear friends, is where I need your help.



I want to add them on the wall here on each side of my picture in the den.

Since I cannot figure out exactly which way I like them best.  I decided to make a few imitation plates to see how they look on the wall before putting in the nails.

Option no.1 has one of the larger plates in the middle with two smaller plates above and below.

Here's a few more further off glances to help you decide.



And this is option no.2.  I would only use the smaller salad plates and place two on each side.


So which layout do you like best or do you have another suggestion.  One set up seems very bold to me and would make quite a large statement.  The other seems more subtle.  I am just not sure how much I want of a statement I want because I certainly do not want to detract from the picture.  What would you do?  I would love to know!

Here's a final look at the two options.  Pretty cool! 
I love Picasa!

I am joining the following parties today.  

I hope I hear from you soon.  Have a great day everyone!