End of May

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Can you believe it's the last day of May already?  Time just flies by!  I can't believe Lauren only has a couple more weeks of school left and she will be 17 in just 6 short months!  My mom always told me that time goes by faster the older you get and she was right!!!  

Last night Lauren and I had some friends over for a BBQ and we had a blast.  After dinner we played cards and then we played Scrabble.  I haven't laughed that hard in awhile!  I forgot how much fun Scrabble is!  

As you can see these photos have nothing to do with this post but I had fun making them with some of my photos!  

Have a great last day of May! 

French Inspired Pillows

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Click on photos to enlarge

Aimee, one of my readers, just released a line of French Inspired Pillows.  I thought they were so pretty!  

She sells them on her website and on etsy:

www.AGardenToRemember.com
www.GardenAdornments.etsy.com

Plans for the weekend?

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I really don't have any thing planned for my blog today...ya know sometimes it's really hard to come up with something 5 days a week.

Luckily Beau likes to do some modeling and he was more than happy to help me out with a little photo shoot. He's a really good model...look how natural he looks!

...and then he said modeling is hard work, and fell asleep! So what are your plans for the weekend?

Table for Two Under the Tree

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Last year rather than a patio dining table I opted for a settee and a coffee table and it worked out great but I really missed eating meals outside so last weekend I moved the coffee table aside and put a small round outdoor dining table in it's place. Now my daughter and I can eat our meals outdoors again!

I got so excited about having an eating area outside that for our first meal I decided to make it nice and pretty! Uh huh....any excuse to play with dishes!
I brought out my nice linen and lace napkins and my little bird napkin rings that I picked up at an antique faire a few months ago.
I even hung my big birdcage from the tree! I also layered lace tablecloths on the table...
and picked some flowers from the garden for the centerpiece...
and brought out some fluffy pillows...
and some pretty dishes...
and enjoyed the warm California weather and some yummy grilled salmon with my daughter. And we've eaten out here every evening since! If you want to see more tablescapes please stop by to see Susan's ~Between Naps on the Porch blog!

I'm also joining in on Rhondi's Porch Party. Since I live in an apartment I don't have a porch so I hope it's okay that I used photos of my patio!

Filoli - Part II

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Yesterday I showed you the gardens of Fioli, today I'll share the wonderful gift shop and inside the mansion. First the GORGEOUS gift shop...

Outside the gift shop is a small nursery where you can buy plants...

You probably won't believe this but I didn't buy a thing!!! So now to the inside...this place is HUGE! It's 36,000 sq. feet with 43 rooms excluding bathrooms and store rooms!

The Ballroom was my favorite room. It had two huge crystal chandeliers!

Wouldn't you love to have a huge window like this in your kitchen!

On the way home we stopped by Stanford Shopping Center, which is right next to Stanford University. We didn't go there to shop though...we went there to go to Sprinkles to get a cupcake!

It was a really hard decision for me, it came down to banana or coconut. I ended up with coconut and it was the best cupcake I've ever had!

The bad thing is I can't stop thinking about it! I want another one!

Filoli Gardens

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Last Saturday Lauren and I went to Filoli Gardens. It's a beautiful place and less than 1/2 hour drive from our apartment. If that house looks familiar it because it was used in the opening of the old TV show Dynasty. It's also been used in a lot of other TV shows and movies.

Through this garden gate is the most amazing garden...

This is part of the view you see as you walk through the gate. These photos do not do it justice! (That's Lauren on the left in the photo above.)

This birdcage was so beautiful! There are two doves in there sitting on top of the wood birdhouse.

The foxgloves were so beautiful!

This is the view beyond the garden (above).

This pathway was so pretty with the flowering trees overhead.

Tomorrow, I'll show you inside the home and the beautiful giftshop!