Unexpected Delights

Hey Friends! I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!  We had a very nice and relaxing weekend.  Not quite what I was expecting but such a welcomed surprise.  I was expecting to be on the go and busy, busy, busy as most holidays are.  However, the Mr. and I took a few ques from the very quirky weather this weekend, changing plans and enjoying more time around the house then I thought.  I must say after a very stressful week at work it was such a nice surprise.

Speaking of surprises, I couldn't help but getting excited when I saw this beauty pop up.  This was one of those unexpected joys from a long ago planted bulb that I had forgotten all about.

It has already started to fade some here but look how beautiful it still is.  Just gorgeous! Have you ever planted something and forgotten all about it until it blooms?  I can't even remember the name of this bloom.  All I can think of is stargazer lilly, but honestly, I just don't remember.

This beautiful plant always brings me such delight each year as it dies down during the winter and returns each summer fully of beautiful purple blooms.  It is called a Mexican Petunia and I just love it.  I have mine in a pot but have seen where some have been able to grow it in the ground as well.  I tell myself every year I am going to try some in the ground but have yet to do so.  

In my garden area by the pool I did plant several clumps of this Yellow African Iris.  I have lost a few clumps as they didn't take off quite like I had hoped.  I have clay soil here and it's quite tricky to find what will thrive and what will not.  The few clumps I do still have are hardy but hardly showy.  This is the first bloom I've been able to enjoy from these plants.

I stuck a few Blue Daze plants (two in each pot on each side) in with the potato vines in both of my Palm tree planters this year and had to remove one from each pot.  I am finally starting to see bits of blue peeking up on one side.  

I really can't complain about having to thin out this pot though because I am thoroughly enjoying the lush foliage from both the black heart sweet potato vine and the pink frost potato vine.  Both have done exceptionally well even in this extreme heat we've had.  

Hope you enjoyed seeing a few of the unexpected delights that caught my attention this weekend.  I haven't forgotten that I promised to share more boat pics with you too.  I will try and get back to that as soon as possible.  

As for me, I am headed to the Atlanta Market tomorrow for work.  We will be there through Sunday shopping our little hearts out for the store again.  It's such fun to be able to go and find things that are new and exciting as well as seeing all the new patterns and products from our usual vendors.  It's exhausting for sure but I am a shopper so its right up my ally.  Hoping I also can find a few more unexpected delights there too.  

Hope you have a great week as well!

Sincerely,

Mary

Decorating for the 4th of July?

Hi Friends!  I am wondering how many of you are decorating for the 4th of July this year?  Do you decorate if you are only celebrating at home or do you still decorate even if you will not be around?  

This photo above was one of my older 4th of July decor photos taken from a tablescape I did in 2012.  I am constantly amazed at how many times a week it gets pinned on pinterest.  I can honestly say this is probably the most pinned picture I have out there.  I guess folks must really like it.  I'm glad because it's one of my favorites as well.  

I really do wish I had the time to decorate like I used to for special occasions.  I recently shared my front door decor on my FB page because I thought that was going to be the extent of my decorating for the 4th this year.    Please excuse the dirty door and just focus on the cute flowers instead, kay?

 

But....as things often go, I got just a bit more inspired this morning and put out just a few more items to help us get that festive feeling I am craving.    

I  still didn't feel quite so inspired to go all out because we're not really spending the day at home.  Then I told myself since I have actually spent money on some of this stuff just sitting around in my craft room I really could should at least put a little more effort into it and bring some of it downstairs to enjoy this weekend as we come and go.  LOL!

So with very minimal effort I swapped out a few pillows on the screened porch and brought down a few of my older red, white and blue decor items.  Perfect for us nautical celebrating sailors!

This little bucket made it to the table this year after spending several years stored away in our old sailboat.  I only had to change out the flags which had faded a bit.   We are still undecided as to which boat we will be taking out on the lake tomorrow, the motorboat or the new sailboat, I know poor pitiful us right?  Actually, we feel very blessed to have such a delimma and to live in our lakeside town.   One things for sure, if we take the sailboat out which I hope we do, this festive bucket will be coming with us.  I promise I'll take pics of that to share with you soon if we do!

The final touch to my  very minimal 4th of July decorating this year is a trio of candles set in small red, white and blue buckets filled with corks to hold the votive candles.  I set them on the coffee table on the porch to add a little more ambiance should we end up here because the rains have washed out the evening fireworks show. 

 Pray not!!!

 

 

Well, I'm feeling a little better about getting festive now, how about you?  Did you go all out this year, or add just a touch here and there like me?  Whatever you have or have not done, I do hope you all will find yourselves celebrating with friends and/or family this year.

Happy Fourth of July Everyone.

and

May God Bless America!

Love ya!

Mary

Dining Room Bargain

Hi Friends!  I just had to share this!  I cannot believe the bargain I picked up this weekend.  Can you guess what it is?

What?  Your not sure, because this photo is a teaser.  Yeah, I been reading blogs this weekend.  LOL!

How about now?  Any guess's?  Sorry, no it's not the flowers!

If you guessed the table you'be be correct!  Woohoo!  I finally have a real "formal" dining table.  Can you believe that?  I've had my eyes open for quite some time for just the right look and price and when it finally happens it's just about in my own backyard.  Well, in my own neighborhood to be exact.

I picked up this beauty for next to nothing at an estate sale on Sunday.  The sale had been going on for 2 days already and was down to 50% off too.  I didn't go to the sale on Friday or Saturday because I wasn't really looking for anything (wasn't in the mood) but then on Sunday when the Mr. said lets pop in I finally said okay, let's go!  Boy am I glad I did!  

It came with 6 chairs, 2 sleaves, and a padded table cover.  I immediately put the sleaves in, they were still in their original boxes too.  I really have been wanting a bigger, longer table and this one measures 95" with both sleaves in.  I have plenty of chairs to use from my other set when more guests come but I do wish I had two more matching chairs for a set of 8.  I have seen these style chairs everywhere so I am hoping I will come across two more at which point I will recover them all the match each other.  As for now there is no recovering needed as they are in perfect shape.

There is absolutely no scratches on the table and is in excellent condition.  It only took my husband a few minutes to reconsider his original, no, we do not NEED another table.  LOL!  He looked it over good and changed his mind after he realized how good of a deal it was and all we needed to do was load it up and take down the street.  Well, it was a bit more complicated then that but easier to talk him into then say maybe if it had been a store a little further away.  

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about this so thanks so much for stopping by.  Also I finally figured out I could take photos on my phone and load them right to blogger with my app.  I now have a small chromebook and no space for storing photos so this was a major advantage.  I can't believe I've had this app for years and just now figured out how to do that.  

Oh well better late then never!  Hopefully I put a few more posts out in a more timely manner now.  

Thanks so much for popping by friends, I hope you like my bargain find.

Have a great day!

Our Family Room 2015

Hi Friends!  I thought I'd share a few more updated photos of my home to attach as links on my blog. I used to have this set up on my side bar but have taken them down at some point and want to add them back.  So I've decided to add them back they need to be updated right?  Looking over several blogs I have found one of my most favorite things is to be able to quickly look through different rooms in homes for inspiration.  I confess I probably love doing this even more then looking at projects.  Sooo, if anyone else out there is like me I hope my photos will also be an enjoyment to you as well.

I've decided to start with my den since for us, it is the heart of our home.

As you will see it is one large room that stretches from the back of the house to the front.   In this photo you are standing in the front looking at the french doors that lead to our screened porch and then deck and pool area in the back yard. 

Because this room is rectangular with 3 entryways and several windows I've always felt quite challenged to create living spaces in this room that were not wasted space.  I finally over the last year or so added a small dining table that has worked out beautifully at the far end of the room.  This allows my husband and I  to dine here in the evenings at a table while watching t.v.

To further help define this area a dining space I added our antique cabinet that house our crystal as well.

I have always loved the fireplace in this room.  I would prefer to have built ins but that is one of those projects that is so far down on the list of wants.

It's hard to tell in this photo but it really is quite a very large fireplace.

On the opposite side of the wall facing the fireplace is the sofa, coffee table and club chair.  I have gone through many colors since I started blogging and absolutely love this color in this room the best.  It's so very calming and neutral.  I think it goes well with my style which I feel is a bit eclectic with a traditional and tropical type flair.  Quite a mix huh?

My coffee table and non rug are more recent changes from the addition of a puppy last year.  Funny how a furry friend can change your whole life!

In this photo you are standing towards the back of the house facing the front of the house that has a long front porch that stretches across this room and the dining room.

I have moved our TV several places in this room but have found that it works best here so I've always moved it right back.  Yes folks, we are those people whose den is centered around the TV.  I know shame on me right!

One of my favorite corners is the coastal corner.

I constantly redo this corner throughout the year but mostly with a beachy theme.  During the holidays this is where the Christmas tree goes as its the best place to enjoy it without overtaking the whole room.  

Well, there it is friends, our family room, living room, den or whatever you choose to call it.  

I"m glad you stopped buy and I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you have a room that is layed out like this one I'd love to hear (and see) how you have set it up as well.

I am also hoping to eventually add more rooms of my home to my sidebar.  I am still working but have Mondays off so please look for more updates usually during the first of the week.  That is if I can figure out an easier way to post pictures then what I did today.  My new computer I got last year crashed, so I am now on a Chromebook.  So today I had to insert my camera card in the computer, then upload to the cloud then to google pics which then went to an app where my picasa is.  However could not use picasa to edit for some reason only google and could not find a way to watermark photos.  Would love any advice from anyone on this as well! 

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Easter Wreath Redo/Country Living Style

 

Whoop!  Whoop! 

 With only one week to go before Easter I finally made the time to redo my Easter wreath.  Soooo, tadah here it is!  What do you think?  Pretty cute, huh!  Can you tell I am smiling from ear to ear?

 It all started because, I was so inspired by this picture from the people at Country Living magazine that I just had to give it a try myself and I had just the right project for it.

Country Living Magazine

 My old Easter wreath never really was a stand out, wow kind of wreath.  In fact, it was definitely what one would call a very subtle look.  That was fine at the time and I enjoyed it quite a bit when it was new but it didn't weather well and had seen better days.  Some of the eggs had cracked as you can see here in this photo above.

So today I gathered up my tools and got to work.  I had planned to use wrapping paper for this project but after searching around for a few days and not finding what I was looking for I decided just to use some fabric that I already had.  

I simply cut little bits of fabric in different shapes and mod podged it onto the eggs focusing on  alternating my colors and eggs around the wreath.  The hardest part was wrapping the eggs with the very small multi colored twine I got from Michaels.  This was hard because my eggs were attached to the wreath and the twine was so very small.  I finally decided to just cap the eggs off instead of trying to cover the whole egg.  That made the impact I was looking for and I didn't have to stress over getting it all so perfectly aligned.  Yes, I am such a free spirit!  LOL!

I also decided to keep the same bow I originally had but added a punch of blue to it with the multi twine.  Again because the blue and white twine was so small I opted to mix in with some natural twine to give it more structure and a bit more of a punch.  This redo basically cost me nothing since I already had all of this on hand.  I had even already purchased the small multi twine at Michaels just a few weeks before I saw this twine in the magazine.  I purchased it on sale for $.50 cents too!   

  I love, love, love how it turned out, and so much color now!!!

My Big scary Easter bunnies made it outside this year and don't look quite so scary out here any more.  I think the wreath goes with them so well now too!

Please ignore all the pollen, yall!  If I waited to clean the pollen before pictures you may never have gotten to see this redo.  We are knee deep in pollen season here, so please excuse the yellow mess.

My sweet little Maizey!  She watches every little thing I do.  Poor thing has been having a bit of time with sneezing too.  

Hope your all ready for Easter now too!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Seasonal Easter Dining Room Decor

Hi Friends!  I am so sorry I was not able to post my second post yesterday but as usual time has a way of slipping away on me lately.  I will have to make this post very brief so I do hope you will understand that this will be mostly show with very little tell.

The dining room has just a few touches as well this year.

 I kept it simple here adding my wired egg trio, some faux moss type grass and porcelain basket filled with sequined eggs.

I am hoping to added some real dyed eggs to this centerpiece come Easter afternoon.

Inside of my wired Eggs there are candles sitting in porcelain egg stands.

Here is a closeup of the porcelain bunny basket.

The hutch also got a bit of sprucing up with the sole addition of my melamine bird dishes.

I love how much of an impact the floral colorings make this time of year.

On the opposite side of the room I've set up another buffet style serving station.

How cute is this paper mache fishing bunny next to my porcelain duck?

Love him!

But I also love, love, love, this little hinged egg filled with new baby ducklings!

Oh, the joys of Spring!  

Thank you so much for returning or dropping in today.  I do hope you enjoyed your tour of the dining room in all its seasonal splendor.

Happy, Happy Easter Everyone!