March Book Giveaway

**** This giveaway is now closed. Thanks everyone! This month's book giveaway is “The Vintage Table – Personal Treasures and Standout Settings” by Jacqueline deMontravel and the Editors of Romantic Homes Magazine.


This is perfect for all you tablescapers or wannabe tablescapers! The photos are really beautiful and there are lots of tips.


All you have to do to enter is leave a comment. That's it! Everyone is welcome to enter including people outside of the U.S. Please leave an email address if you don’t have a blog as I need some way to let you know that you won.



You have through Monday, March 1st to enter and I’ll announce the winner Tuesday morning.


Have a wonderful weekend!

Rooster Salt & Pepper Shakers

Hi everyone! Tomorrow is my daughter’s 18th birthday so I will be taking a little blog break for the rest of the week. We like to prolong celebrations when it’s something as huge as turning 18! We have a fun filled next few days planned.

I’m going to post the March book giveaway a bit early. So look for that on Friday the 26th and I’ll leave that post up through Monday, March 1. For those of you that are new to this blog, I have a book giveaway at the beginning of every month. I don’t do giveaways from outside sources. I like to giveaway things that belong to me or that I’ve picked out especially for you. This is my way of saying thank you for reading this blog when you have so many to choose from!  I really enjoy sharing parts of my life with you and I appreciate how supportive and kind you all always are!


But in the mean time, I though I’d share a few photos of my favorite dish thingie with the latest arrangement of dishes inspired by some salt and pepper shakers.


I found these great vintage looking rooster salt and pepper shakers at TJ Maxx. Aren’t they cute! I love that they look old and worn and have that red checkerboard band around the top and bottom.



I have so many favorite dishes but I really heart these red and white harlequin dishes! I think they go nicely with the checkerboard pattern in the shakers. That's a vintage dish towel underneath it all.



Have a wonderful week! Don’t forget to come back for the book giveaway and I’ll be back with a new post next week.

Table Top Tuesday

 
Hi everyone! I did a little re-arrangement in my kitchen that I’m linking to Table Top Tuesday. Marty is the new hostess of this fun Linky Party.

Actually, my “table top” is the window valance that I found in my neighbors garbage last year. Some of you might remember that I hung it in one of the doorways of my kitchen. I hadn’t changed my display on it since I originally hung it.


But I found this little metal "butter" cup for 99 cents at Goodwill a few weeks ago and thought I’d like to do something with it. I was hoping to find other’s but haven’t so far.



Then I found a small wood tray and these two plates at Hobby Lobby. All of them were on clearance!



I put them all together with the two little roosters I found at a thriftstore last summer that I use alot so you've seen them alot LOL!



I bought this cute little egg bucket at Hobby Lobby (it 50% off so it was $3).  I’ll be able to use it lots of places.





I think that whole display cost me about $11 and everything that's there can be used in my living room or dining room as well. Stretching those decorating dollars!

Please stop by  Marty’s blog  A Stroll Thru Life to see all the other participants, she’s always such a wonderful hostess! The party is all vignettes anywhere in your house – it should be loads of fun and very inspiring!



Thanks for dropping by today and have a great week!

Afternoon Coffee Break

Don't you just love rituals! Every afternoon when my daughter was in school she would come home and I’d have a cup of coffee and she would have a cup of tea or hot chocolate and she’d tell me about her day.

Now that she’s  finished with High School we have Afternoon Coffee Breaks where we have some one on one time and talk about what we’ve been doing that day or just random things. On the weekends my husband and I always stop to have afternoon coffee, sometimes our daughter joins us sometimes it's just the two of us.

We always have a little something sweet with our coffee. Coffee needs something sweet and yummy don’t you think? Most of the time it's something I've baked. Now and then  it might be something we picked up at the grocery store, sometimes it's Starbucks (but not too often).

Last month I made this delicious Root Beer Cake. It’s really easy to make. I would recommend that you make it a day ahead as it’s very moist and I found that it was actually better the next day. It’s nice to have dessert that’s good the next day and the next!


This recipe is adapted from one I saw in  Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Magazine.

Root Beer Cake
1 box of Spice Cake mix
1 teaspoon rum extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Root beer

• Preheat oven to 350. Spray a bundt pan with nonstick spray.
• Make cake according to directions on the box except substitute root beer for the water. Add the remaining ingredients. Bake according to box directions or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let it cool.
• Dust with confectioners sugar.

Enjoy and have a lovely weekend!

The Jane Austen Pillow

Hi everyone! I thought I’d show you all another little thing I bought from etsy and a few changes that I made in the Blue Toile Room (otherwise known as the Guestroom/my office/my husband’s dressing room).


I’m a huge Jane Austen fan! So when I was looking at etsy I was pleasantly surprised to find a seller that makes little sachet/pillows with quotes from various JA books.


I had to get one! Isn’t cute! I just love the quote too - it's so true. Plus the back of it is blue and white toile (toile and Jane Austen - how could I resist). This is from etsy seller Anna's Trunk.


I recently painted a mirror I got at Goodwill and hung it above the bed (some of you may remember that this is the one that was still in the box from Bombay Company and gold).


Here are a few other pictures.







I'm waiting for the weather to warm up to paint the furniture on the other side of the room and then I'll show you the whole room. I have so many things that need painting! I'm so ready for spring - even I am starting to feel a wee bit blah with all this cold, rain and snow!

I hope you are all having a wonderful week so far and thank you for all the lovely comments about my new tassel! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one "under tasseled" (love that!).

Tassels

Hi everyone!  I love all the cute tassels I see all over blogland. You know the ones with the cute bunnies, birdhouses, nests etc on top. I guess you could say I’m deficient in the tassel department! I don't have a whole lot of them. I’ve had this harlequin one for several years.


I have this one that’s really a Christmas ornament that I purchased at Michael’s on clearance.


I liked the chenille tassels and the black and yellow harlequin  ribbon. I think I might have paid $5 for it.  I saw quite a few Christmas ornaments this year that would make great decorative tassels.


Then there was this guy that I found at Goodwill last year and re-made into this.



So last month was my  22nd Wedding Anniversary and my Husband asked what I would like. My reply was that I’d like to buy a few things off Etsy – namely a tassel!



After looking at pages and pages and pages of tassels (something like 30 pages of tassels)...I chose this one. It had the colors I was looking for, was cute and would fit in with my decor AND was reasonably priced.

I'm so pleased with my tassel! You know me, I’m not a shopper. It’s actually really difficult for me to pay full price for anything so it really has to be exactly what I want if I do so. 



Isn’t it perfect! I love it and I  may have to teach myself the fine art of tasseling so that I can have a few more! I bought my cute tassel from Heather’s etsy shop Butterfly Genes . 

Shopping etsy was so much fun! Much more fun than shopping at a regular store. I bought a few other things that I'll share with you in the next few weeks. I think this was one of the best Anniversary gift ideas (I may request the same thing for my birthday)! 

Thank you for dropping by today and have a great week!

We Got Snow!

Yep, snow is fun when you rarely see it! This is the most snow I’ve seen since moving from New Jersey. It’s truly unbelievable to see so much snow in Atlanta. Enjoy the pictures!



It’s really lovely to  hear the children outside enjoying playing in that white stuff! It’s such a treat for them.




Even my 17 year old (soon to be 18) went out to play in the snow!



Those of us lucky enough to not have to be somewhere today are enjoying our snowday!




I think Maxie enjoyed the snow more than any of us! Those of you with dogs know how funny they are out in the snow.





Comments are off. Enjoy your weekend. See ya Monday.