Floral Design, Part I

I decided to re-work the flowers that were in this vase.  It took a lot of courage to do this since I am a known floral "plunker".  But the flowers that were in here just didn't seem right to me so one shopping trip to Hob-Lob later and decided to go for it.  Note: totally forgot to take before photos.

Here is the fabric in on our duvet cover that inspired the color direction.

I admire people who can make beautiful arrangements and I have wanted to try my hand at this for a long time.

I thought I should take some kind of class to teach me how, you know, like the floral design 101 or something, but I met a guy who was making some beautiful Christmas wreaths and he said, "you don't need a class, just do it!"

So, I did.

It turned out pretty good, I think.  I feel that I have now graduated from "floral plunker" to "floral poker."

I know there are mistakes here.  One is, I messed up on the big flowers.  Shouldn't there be an odd number thing going on?  I have four big flowers and I either needed three or five.  Also, I felt like there was a hole on the right side so I filled that with some more green roses and the little dog wood looking flowers and the arrangement isn't square to the vase, in real life you can see that.

I learned to buy more than I think I will need and to not use so much hot glue, that way I can re-arrange things later.

I'm thinking a class could be helpful.

Now where to put it?

Here by the bed?  Pretty but not practical.

or maybe here on this little turquoise chest?  umm, no, that's not right either.

Here, in this empty corner, yea that works.

This little exercise got me to thinking, what else could I do in here?

maybe add this little bird cage floral, I made this too ... but I totally don't call this arranging!  Not sure why, now that I look at this picture it seems as though that took a little fore-thought.

and now for my honey's side.  What I wish it looked like ...

maybe add a little black and creme ... ahh yea so nice.

Hello, this is real world, that fluffy floral stuff would never last ... after all he is king of the remote controls.

But hey, I do have this cute little chair and table, now to shop the house.

perfect little table, it has all the right ingredients, florals, candle, old books, small art piece (mine) and a cool lamp.

and a zebra throw.  Now it's perfect.

Happy decorating.

Salty Sister Decorates Last Years Christmas Mantle

Hey, all you blogland decorators  yes I'm calling you.  Not yelling at you but speaking loudly to you.  It is almost that time again, yes it is, to decorate for Christmas and then show the rest of the world.  That's right, it puts lots of pressure on us here, but it helps me get it done.

So, to help us get our Christmas decorating party hats on and link with this years Christmas blog parties which, by the way, start on November 30th - hello!  Where did the time go?  Ya'll, I'm still stuck in August!




The talented and oh so clever Beth at "Stories from A to Z", is hosting a linky party featuring last years Christmas mantle.

This is an easy one for me since the work has already been done.  I've always been quick to link up with a no brainer, I"m just sayin.


Okay so, this is last years, simple, clean, I don't feel like messin' with it and I got no new ideas, Christmas mantle.

I spy a little soot that needs to be cleaned up on the front, oh well it was cold last year and we burned a lot of fires.

And this little dandy was my Christmas tree from last year and the reason I am including it in my Christmas mantle from last year's post is, it was my favorite story for the whole year.

I seriously didn't want to decorate, Rickey has just be diagnosed and we were beginning our walk through cancer, so I pulled this tree out and put a few large ornaments beside it and called it good.

Danya and her family came up the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with the Grands.  I won't bore you with pictures of the kids from that weekend but know this, I'm tempted.  Anyway, sweet Sarah Kate eye spies Nanoo Christmas tree and I overheard her tell Tyler, "Oh no!!  Look at Nanoo's tree!  Let's fix it."  So they pick the little tree up, sit it on the floor and hung the over sized ornaments on the small branches.  I watched as they stood back, cocked their heads to one side and said, "oh well, shrugged their shoulders and giggled as they ran off to finish building their fantastic blankets tents.

I loved it so much that this is exactly where it set for the rest of the month.  In my memory, though, I thought the branches were all bent over Charlie Brown style, but still a great story.

Happy decorating ya'll, let's do this thing.

The Heart of the Home

I noticed that Shelia at Note Songs is having a link party on kitchens,  I love my kitchen and everybody else's too, so I decided with the cooler months coming on I would feature my kitchen and maybe some of my cooking.  Those cooking post are little tricky.

I love cooking during the fall and winter seasons, I guess we all do.  Lots of comfort food, stews, soups, and casseroles.  My poor honey wonders what happened when the summer rolls around.

Funny I used to lose weight in the summer months but not any more, nope, I manage to maintain my weight just fine even when I'm not hungry.  Thank you and darn-it.

I poured my heart and soul into this kitchen.  I knew just where every dish was going to go on paper.  I am a magazine junky and I read that the kitchen planners divide a kitchen up into zones in order to organize it. 

I think this kitchen has a very nice flow to it.  

I used hand scraped hickory for the floors.  The cabinets are made out of maple, painted and glazed, and  the rest of the wood in the house is knotty alder.  I don't know what the paint color is because this woman talked me into using a color she mixed.  It's a light khaki color but the lesson here is don't ever do that, it is impossible to match.

I wonder what Maria over at Color Me Happy would say about these color tones?
Maybe I don't want to know.

Yes I left my Christmas decorations up all year.  They're pretty.

I chose a sink from Kohler with the half divider, I love it, so many times I struggled with a pan too big in my old sink.  I love the brown color too, I was tired of looking at stainless sinks and I was worried that I would scratch up a pretty white one.

View at just after sunset.

View in the daytime.

My handy and oh so clever brush holder.

I've talked about it before, I NEED to do something with the top of this vent hood!!!!  I can't decided what I want to do, I like so many things.

The two column like things pictured here are my pantries.

No too much of a look inside, they need a lot of cleaning and organizing. The one on the left stores all the food and the one on the right houses an assortment of dishes, coolers, platters, paper towels, etc.

Dishes my Mom made for me.

I like it in the chair in the kitchen.

So that's it.  Pretty huh.  Except for the vent hood, I must do something with that soon.  Maybe before Thanksgiving.

See ya.  :)