It's Time for Snow Angels in South Carolina!

What?  Did I say that?  Shut my mouth!  Girl, you know that ain't gonna happen.  LOL!  

Sorry folks, just having a little fun this morning and sharing some very common phrases or comments you might hear when mentioning snow in our state.  The weathermen are saying there are parts of SC that might get a little snow but I do think it is going to be further north then where I am.    Snow in SC is such a rare thing that we all have quite the strange love hate relationship with it. I think for the most part we love it temporarily at best.  We love short lived storms with very little ice where people can get out and play for a day or two and then it's life back to normal.  Right???

Gurrrl, you know it's true!  One of our most favorite things to do in the snow is make snow angels.  I often wonder if its more of a southern thing or do they enjoy doing this up north too?  When ever there is snow my Facebook is lit up with pictures of snow angels.  It's not uncommon to hear people say, we had so much snow we able to make snow angels!  Wow, now that's a lot of snow!  LOL!   

Now friends our winter has been so tame this year I wasn't going to do a winter mantle.  I just wasn't going to do it.  Honestly, I wasn't, noooo, not me, scouts honor!  In fact just thinking about it seemed so ridiculous to me because our winter has been so very warm this year. But then I got to looking at blogs on the internet and oouuing and ahhing and such.  Then the weatherman was on TV (every hour) suggesting that we may be getting some flurries, this weekend, maybe.  You know where this is going right?  Yep, one thing led to another!  

 I'm not exactly sure how it all came to be, but somehow I remembered these pretty little metal angel wings I purchased a few weeks ago from Hobby Lobby.  I guess my little old pea brain just put two and two together and decided I wanted to make a snow angel even if we didn't get any snow.  So I did!

I realize some of you might find this quite comical, but honestly, I love it! 

 I bought these wings because eventually I want to hang them in my bedroom.  But first, I want to attach them to some wooden boards.  I haven't had the time to finish up that project yet so they were still sitting in the bag on the dining room table collecting dust.  But not anymore!

Love, love, love this!

I am even sitting here now just adoring these beautiful wings with a great big old smile on my face. 

 After remembering the wings, I went and found the one small little bag I had of a few things I have collected for winter decorating.  I felt like the little white star wire garland was perfect for making wisps of clouds around the wings.  Maybe it's just my imagination in overdrive, but it's just so magical for me!  I can see it!  Do you see it too?  No?  Here, take another look!

Oh, now you do, that's better now, right?

Next I added just a few snowflakes here and there because it's all I had on hand in my little winter bag.  I suppose I could have gone out and bought more but remember I really wasn't decorating for winter this year.  Nooooo siree!  Not meee!!!

I then scattered a few snow balls here and there and I was done.  The cute little white sparkly styrofoam balls and white sequined balls were all purchased a few years ago at Michaels after Christmas sale.  I've used them once before.  They were all sitting there in my little winter bag too.   Sooo, I guess it's a good thing I CHANGED my mind.  

There's that word again.  My word for the year, CHANGE.  It just keeps poppin up over and over again.  I think it's going to be a great year!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I really do appreciate your visits.  If you live further up north where the snow storms are please be safe, I'll be praying for you.  I hope you all stay warm and if you get a chance to get outside and play, maybe you could make a few snow angels.

I promise it will be fun!

 Enjoy!

Hugs and Waves!

Mary

I have found my inspiration!

Hello!  It's me!  Hello...Can you hear me? Hello, from the outside!  Yes friends, I do believe 2016 is going to be a wonderful year because I have found my inspiration again.  Sorry for the tease, no this post is not about being inspired by the beautiful voice of Adele.  Though that could be partially true because I  have found myself pulling towards music quite a bit lately and feeling quite inspired by it.

This post is about finally feeling inspired and finding some direction with a few changes I want to make in my kitchen.  I absolutely love my kitchen, always have.  It's very large and very pretty if I must say so myself.  In fact its one of the rooms our guests gush over the most and want to congregate in as well.  Now mind you... all is not perfect in kitchen land, there are flaws.  Some of the flaws I just have to live with others not so much.  

Over last few days while waiting to take down the rest of Christmas I have found my inspiration.  Yes that's right, I am waiting. While I have taken down the kitchen Christmas decor, the rest of my house is still full on Christmas.  I have this crazy idea about taking things down before New Years.  I usually spend New Years day breaking it all down.  Last year I took everything down before New Years and let's just say, it wasn't a great year, Okay?   Sooo, this year we're sticking to New Year day breakdowns.    

Now back to my topic at hand before I bore you to tears.  I have spent the last few days thinking of ways to improve the cozy factor in my kitchen. I decided what I needed was curtains in the kitchen.  I need some textiles!   I love the Country French look I see in so many photos, blogs, pins, instas,etc.  I really want that look.  However, I think my look might be a bit more Country French Mediterranean, if there is such a thing.   I love florals and checks and such but I also love patterns and the colors of the sea.  My husband and I are sailors, so my heart also leans towards nautical as well.  Crazy mix huh?  Yeah, I know.  

Here are two different options of curtains I've been playing with that I could use in my kitchen. I've tacked them up to see if I would like having curtains before I invest in rods.   Both would work very well.  The lighter florals are some panels I had made for my dining room some time ago.  While I do like them I would need to alter the tops some as I'm not crazy about the plaid on them.  It's not a problem because the french doors are shorter then the window were so I've got the fabric.  The darker floral is yards of fabric I purchased years ago and never knew what I wanted to do with it.  I can see real possibilities here with both fabrics.  What do you think?  I also plan on strolling through some stores soon to see if anything else catches my eye now that I know exactly what I have in mind.

I have moved the smaller table over on the wall where the bakers rack used to be and love it.  I've got plans for shelves above this table.  I went to Hobby Lobby the other day and found some brackets that I just adore and they were on sale too.  I think the rustic brackets will go well with my chandelier and a few other accessories I have throughout the kitchen.  I chose brackets because I want to make a shelf that is deeper then most of the standard prepackaged display type shelves you see around.  Also they will be less difficult for hubby to mount.  Less difficulty means less fussy, and I like that!

Here's part of what has gotten me so bogged down with figuring out which direction to go in here.  I have these beautiful frenchy looking swivel bar stools that I just adore.  I have been searching for a way to bring them into the whole look without totally having to redo everything about them.  I would love to repaint them and my first thoughts were to paint them black.   

However, If I repaint them black then the seat cover is just not going to cut it.  I really don't want to have to redo the seat covers because well they are fantastically done.  They are a vinyl coated fabric and piped out and I just will not be able to recover these myself and don't want to spend money on having them redone professionally right now.    So how to mesh this look together has been the big question in my head for some time.  That is until.....I found my inspiration piece!

Did you notice it earlier?  I had it right in front of the drapes.  Ladies, I am so excited about this piece!!!   I also found it at Hobby Lobby.  I bought it fully intending to put in the den above my TV.  I had it sitting here in the kitchen and suddenly, I knew I would need to bring this color in throughout the kitchen to pull it all together.  I even think I can use this color of sea blue green on my bar stools and it will coordinate with the seat covers beautifully.  Can you say....Eureka?  This was definitely a Eureka moment. That's how I feel!  I already have several small splashes of this color throughout my kitchen but it's so drowned out by the black.  I just need to pop it back out again in a few larger splashes!  

Of course, now I've got to also find the right paint to use that matches this color.  Lucky for me this little iron piece will be easy to haul to the paint store for the exact match. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself to get started.

I love when a plan comes together, don't you?  Yes, you do too....I've seen yours and they are beautiful!  I just want to thank all of you again who inspire me so much with what all you do.  I love seeing your photos and getting inspiration for myself. That is so much of what this blogging is all about for me.   I hope maybe to share a little inspiration as well from time to time.  

And because I thought you might like to hear the music too....

Now, if you don't mind, I've really got to run because you know I just can't hold back any longer.

Have a beautiful and blessed day friends, even if it is cloudy and rainy outside.

Hugs and Waves!

Mary 

My New Sofa Print

 Awhile back I posted about needing inspiration on what to do with the area above my sofa?  You can go here if you missed it.  Well, after thinking it through I decided what I really wanted here was a larger picture. As a rule of thumb I typically don't buy art unless it has some specific meaning for me.  It's just the way I've always rolled.  But needing  wanting a big substantial piece of art to make an impact above the sofa was not going to be cheap for what I like.  So, I searched and searched for just the right deal and... 

...look what I found!  Now that really is a nice great big print, isn't it?

Just look at the size of this thing!  And oh my stars is that one big beautiful frame or what?

What, you say?

  Come on!  Don't you see the value in this?  Well, I certainly did! 

 Of course the picture does leave a bit to be desired though doesn't it?  LOL!  I had you going there didn't I? 

 However, I just could not pass up this picture from Hobby Lobby's clearance isle.

I especially couldn't pass it up when I also found a print that I loved too.  To my delight the print was the exact size I needed to fit inside the matting perfectly and was on sale for half off.  All I needed to do was change out the pictures.   It was a little easier said then done but went fairly smoothly and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. 

Here's a few closes up of the print after I finished putting it in the frame.  I bet you can see why I like it so much now right?

This photo shows a close up of how well the existing matting coordinated with my new print.  

Not to bad for just under $55.00 Total!  I think it was a steal considering the original picture was priced at $199.99 before it went on clearance.  I couldn't find anything wrong with this frame though some of the others did have some damage, but not all of them.  They had several of these on the clearance isle so I am assuming it was the original picture (art) that was not selling. 

Here it is on the wall above one of my sofa's.   It has the sailboats that I was looking for and even has a bit of Tuscan feel to it too.  I love it!

I am still thinking about if I'm going to add anything else to each side of the picture.  I've got plenty of sconces I already own that I could use but am not sold on the idea just yet.  Since I'm not sure if I want to do that or anything else we are just going to enjoy it as it is for now.  

I thought I'd share this with you all today for

Metamorphosis Monday.

Because this really was quite a BIG change for us in the den now having a great big picture in here.  I especially loved that I was able to do this on budget and share it with you as well.    I know most of you do this already, but always think outside the box when looking at framed art.  Sometimes the values is all in the frame.

Thanks for stopping by!  Let me know what you think okay?

Have a great week!