End of May

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

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?

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

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

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

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!

Happy Memorial Day!

Saturday while I was cleaning up around my apartment I realized how much I love moving things around and playing with my toys things.  It's the same exact feeling I had as a little girl when I used to play house and that's when I thought "you're never to old to play house".   I think "playing house" is a lot more fun that "cleaning house", don't you?  It's all about your attitude, isn't it?

Thanks to Amber at The Shabbee Chick for adding this new little quote of mine to my header that she designed awhile back!  

Hope you and your family have a wonderful Memorial Day and let's remember all the brave men and women that have lost their lives defending our wonderful country!  

My First Dinnerware & A Giveaway!

Do you remember what pattern your very first dinnerware you ever bought was? I do, I was 18 years old and my soon to be mother-in-law took me shopping to pick out dishes. It was 1979 and everything was harvest golds and browns back then. You would think that's what I would have bought but I didn't! I fell in love with classic white dishes! They were Pfaltzgraff Dinnerware and the pattern was called Heritage. That teapot above is from that set I bought in 1979! I no longer have the dishes but I still have a lot of other pieces to this set; a casserole dish, butter dish, mugs and a gravy boat. I still love this pattern 30 years later! I guess that's why it's a classic, it never goes out of style!

Amazingly someone from Pfaltzgraff, not even knowing that above information contacted me yesterday and offered a giveaway to be hosted on my blog! Because of my contract with advertisers on my blog, I must host this giveaway on my product review blog so click here to enter the giveaway.

Also, there are some issues going on with blogger and Microsoft Internet Explorer so if you are getting weird messages when you are trying to open up blogs, it's not a problem with your computer! I read on the Blogger website that they are working on the problem! Hopefully it will get resolved soon!

Love this...

One of my readers emailed me a link to a beach cottage on the Better Homes & Gardens website. Wow! I love this home! I suddenly want to paint all my walls white! Somehow I think if I did that it would just make my apartment look more like an apartment and not at all like this.

I thought about making a mirror with shells on it like the one above for my bathroom but I decided not to do it but now that I see this I may reconsider! I love those blue dining room chairs, I may look for a soft blue and white toile fabric and recover mine.

You can see more photos from this cottage on the BHG website, click here.

Thank you Chris! You sure know my style!

Lemons!

What do you do with all these lemons? Just kidding, those are fake!
I did make some lemon bars with real lemons and they were good! I used Ina Garten's (The Barefoot Contessa) recipe.

Lemons, butter, sugar, fresh eggs and flour...

turns into a yummy treat...and made my coworkers very happy! The recipe is on the Food Network website...just click here! Hers look a lot better than mine do though!

I am thankful for...

Yesterday, my friend Kim came by my desk at work and said she had something for me! She slipped a small green drawstring bag in my hand. I opened the bag and found this "Thought Rock". If you've read "The Secret" you may remember the part about carrying a small rock in your pocket to remind you throughout the day to be thankful for everything you have. Well, this is so much prettier than carrying a rock around! She told me her cousin and her husband just started a business making these. I loved it so much I just had to share it with all of you! I think this would make such a great gift for the person that has everything! You can learn more about these and how your purchase benefits a wonderful organization that helps families. Click here to visit their website!

Even through difficult times, we have so much to be thankful for!

Let's go to Santa Cruz!

The weatherman said it was going to be HOT this weekend so Lauren and I headed to the beach on Saturday morning because it's usually cooler over there. Since we know on hot days like this there is usually bumper to bumper traffic going to the beach which can turn a 30 minute trip into an hour long (or more) drive we left at 10:00 am. We still hit a little traffic but it wasn't too bad.

We found our place in the sand and laid out our blankets and then I walked down the beach alone...Lauren thought lying on the beach sounded like a better idea. Flocks of these big birds kept going by. They were so pretty! I saw more of these than I saw seagulls which was unusual.

It was HOT on the beach so we decided to go up to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and walk around. I love the Boardwalk food but I was good and didn't eat any this time, not even the deep fried cheesecake....(yuck)

We never go to the beach without going on our favorite ride, the Giant Dipper! I grew up riding this roller coaster and now so has Lauren. She loves it as much as I do! This weekend was it's 85th Birthday. I've been riding it over 40 years! When I was a kid, my best friend and I rode it 21 times in a row!

I took my camera with me on the roller coaster. Here is a picture looking back as we are going up the big hill...

Here's a shot to my right at the beach...I guess I wasn't holding the camera very straight! lol

I wanted to get a shot of the huge drop but the guy in front of me blocked my view... After we left the Boardwalk we had lunch and then drove around to look at the pretty homes. This one is right on the edge of a cliff. This photo was taken looking out the car windshield so it's not very good...

That house is right on the road but look at their backyard...

Here's a better shot of the great view they have...

This is a little further down the road...

This house is amazing. I got out of the car to take some pictures of this closer up...

I'm snapping away and as I get a little closer I see something move and realize there is someone sitting under that umbrella watching me! OH NO! I was so embarrassed. You can barely see him, he's behind the bush (click on the photo to enlarge it). I still wanted to get some more pictures so I got behind a bush to take pictures of the side of the house so you could see how huge it is...

This is just down the street, that house above is on the left, they have such a great view...

Here's another pretty house with a great ocean view. I would love to sit out on that top balcony and have my coffee every morning! Dreaming...

Here are some pretty ocean shots from further up the road...

I hope you enjoyed your visit to Santa Cruz, California!

New Tassels & A Giveaway Winner

I added a couple new tassels to my etsy shop this week. The top one is a pink and blue with really pretty blue/cream toile ribbon.

I also have a new brown and green bird tassel for sale. Just click here to visit my etsy shop.

The winner of the birdcage tealight holders is....

Susan~The Little Yellow House!  Thanks to everyone that entered!  I'll be doing another giveaway at the end of the month.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! It's supposed to be hot here, in the 90s. I prefer the 70s and 80s but I guess I should be happy to have nice weather even if it is too hot! I made drapes for my living room about a month ago and I still need to hem them so that's one project I'll be working on this weekend! I also need to clean out every closet in my apartment! You would be shocked to see what a mess they are!

A Quick Bathroom Makeover

My very tiny downstairs powder room isn't completely done yet, I still want to hang a chandelier in there to replace a globe ceiling light but I thought I would share what I've done so far.

Since this is just an apartment I'm limited with what I can do. If it were my own place I would have put beadboard around the bottom of the walls and painted it white and painted the blue above it.

I didn't like the plain cabinet doors so I made a skirt to cover them and used Velcro to attach it. The skirt was made from a white sheet and I attached ribbon to it with the iron on hemming tape.

The curtain which was just a couple dollars came from a thrift store. It's a "Simply Shabby Chic" originally from Target. It's so sheer and pretty and lets a lot of light in the bathroom. I would love to get some small shutters for the bottom half of the window to hide the ugly aluminum window frame. I swore I'd never live in a place the was built in the 60 or 70s with popcorn ceilings and aluminum window frames but here I am trying to make the best of it!

I was looking for something else to hang on the wall and I found the perfect piece at Marshalls. I love this shell made with blue glass mosaic.

Below is the piece I showed you awhile back that I made. I used an old frame I already had and some old vintage linens and just hot glued the starfish to it. Since I had everything on hand it didn't cost a thing!

Here are some photos of what it looked like before this easy makeover. I didn't get a picture of it with the original mirror in it though. It was one of those big flat frameless mirrors that are attached with clear plastic holders. I found this mirror at the thrift store for $17, it still had the "Bed, Bath and Beyond" price tag on it and was originally $99. I painted it white...of course! You can see the ugly ceiling light below that I want to replace with a pretty petite chandelier that will reflect in the mirror.

It's amazing how much of a difference paint and a few other accessories can make!

I put this on Rate My Space! Click here to rate it.

Update: The paint is Behr Paint (from Home Depot) in "Bleached Denim"

Cute, cute apron!

Isn't this cute? As you can see, my daughter Lauren loved it too! It was given to me to write a product review but I need to comply with the advertisers on my blog and do this on my product review page so click here to hear more about this cute apron.

Market Umbrella Cover

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Last Saturday I thought I would just whip out a little cover for my patio umbrella. That's what I told myself..."I'll just whip it out in no time at all." I don't know why but when it comes to sewing I always think it's going to take about half the time that it actually does. I guess that's a good thing because if I really knew how much time something like this would take, I would probably never pull out my sewing machine!  

To make it, I used a queen size flat sheet that I bought on sale at Marshalls.  I cut it in a circle about the same size as the umbrella. (I know it doesn't look like a circle but it is) I then used the fitted sheet which I cut in strips to make the ruffle.  It sounds so quick and easy, doesn't it?  Well, not for me.  Hours were spent on this!

I have it draped over the other umbrella cover because I don't plan on keeping this one out there all the time. I think the sun would destroy it rather quickly.  I'll just use it on the weekends or if I'm entertaining. 

I think it looks a lot cuter than the plain beige one!  Don't you?  

May Giveaway!

It's time for my monthly giveaway!  To kick off my first monthly giveaway I have these two tea light holders.  They are really cute, they look like little bird cages.  I originally bought these for my bathroom makeover and I spray painted them in Heirloom White and then I ended up not using them. Since I painted them, I couldn't return them so rather than donate them to the thrift store I thought maybe someone would like to win them.  
They are meant to hang on the wall and they have a small cup to hold a tea light candle.

If you would like to win them, please leave a comment by Thursday, May 14th  by midnight Pacific Time.  I will randomly pick a winner on Friday morning.  If you don't have a blog, please be sure to leave your email address so I have a way to contact you if you win. If you prefer not to leave your email address in the comments section, you can also send me an email to be entered  (cindy95131@yahoo.com) . I almost forgot to mention...because of shipping costs this giveaway is only open to the U.S. and Canada.

For those of you who would like to host a blog giveaway on your blog, please sign up with Mr. Linky below and make sure you link to the exact post of your giveaway...don't just put a link to your blog.  Also make sure you link back to my blog so your readers can enter all the giveaways! 

PLEASE READ:  DO NOT USE MR. LINKY TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY, ONLY USE IT TO LINK TO A GIVEAWAY ON YOUR BLOG!!!!  To enter the giveaway leave a comment in the comments section!!!! I'm going to delete anyone who doesn't follow these rules...sorry!

Will I hit 1 Million visitors today?

This is sooo exciting for me...I think I may reach my 1 Millionth visitor sometime today!!! It's too bad that I won't know who it is and that I can't make the horns blow, the bells ring and confetti fly out of your monitor if it's you but just know if there were a way for me to do that I WOULD!!! Look right now at the counter on the top right sidebar...if it is exactly right on 1,000,000 then you are THAT person...so just imagine the horns, the bells and the confetti! And also imagine that you have won a $1,000 shopping spree for my online store! I know what you're thinking. "What online store?" Oh I forgot to mention that I bought the domain name for an online store which will be coming soon!!!! The shop name is a secret for now but it doesn't have "Romantic" or "Home" in the name! It took me forever to come up with a business name but I'm really happy with the one I chose. And no, I'm not really giving a $1000 shopping spree...that was just a joke!

To celebrate both these huge milestones I'm going to be hosting a giveaway party once a month, every month for the next year! It's my way of saying thank you to all of who visit my blog! I'm also going to be putting up a Mr. Linky on the 2nd Monday of every month for those of you who would like to join in and have a giveaway on your blog too! I'll have that up on Sunday along with my giveaway for this month. The giveaways can be something small, even something that belongs to you that you no longer want and would like to pass on.

Feel free to grab the graphic above to use on your blog if you are joining in on the giveaway party. I would like to thank Amber from The Shabbee Chick Designs for designing this for me. She also designed my blog and I highly recommend her!

I'll be away from my computer most of the day today because my department at work is going to an off site meeting at a winery so I'll probably miss seeing that counter click over to 1 million! You know I'll be thinking about it though!!!

Meet Linda!

I'm sure many of you already know Linda from Linda's Blue Gate Blog. She makes these gorgeous yard conservatories from old windows! They are perfect for inside and out! Someday I'm going to drive to Texas just to buy one!
She even made one with a fairy garden inside. I really want to make a little fairy garden someday!!! She is also the creator of these beautiful fork chandeliers. You may remember mine in my big birdcage. I'm so happy to announce that she has started her own etsy shop to sell these!!! I also wanted to share this window in her guest room with you! I LOVE THIS!!!
Linda has some really exciting news....her yard conservatories are featured in the June issue of Romantic Homes Magazine!!! I can hardly wait to get my copy! Congratulations Linda! I'm soooo happy for you!!!

This and that

My little cherub collection is growing! Last month I went back to Move it Elsewhere and bought the cherub plaque in the back...thanks to Esther, one of my readers who saw me there and reminded me that I had written on my blog that I wanted to get it! I'm so glad I did! Thank you Esther!

Most of the pieces only cost a few dollars at thrift stores and on eBay but when you put them together as a collection they look a lot more expensive!

The one above was from eBay. It's one of my favorites!

I have these in my big blue cabinet under the stairs and as I was taking these photos Beau was sitting on the stairs supervising me. I usually take him out for his morning walk about this time and he looks mad at me for taking pictures instead of walking him!!!

I also have to share my beautiful delphinium that is blooming on my patio. I planted this in a big pot along with some other plants a couple years ago and every year I get more and more blooms! This is one of my favorite flowers...well, after hydrangeas, roses, lilacs and foxgloves.

As you can see from the counter on my right side-bar that I'm getting really close to my millionth visitor! YAY!!! To celebrate I'm going to be having a monthly giveaway on my blog....once a month, every month for a year! I'm also going to put up a Mr. Linky so if you would like to join in on any given month and have a giveaway on your blog you can log in with Mr. Linky...I'll have more details soon!

Supper Clubs

UPDATE: I'm slipping this in here...I just put my dining room pictures from yesterday on HGTV's Rate my Space. Click here to see and rate.

I've mentioned on my blog a couple times that I belong to a supper club and every time I mention it I get lots comments and emails wanting to know more about it so I'll explain how I found my group, how you can find or start one in your area and how it all works...A few years ago I saw a TV segment about supper clubs. At the end of the segment they said you could go to the Cooking Light website to find supper clubs in your area. It sounded like so much fun that I went to the website right away and found a new group forming in my area so I joined in. That group lasted about a year and then we stopped getting together because everyone's schedules were too busy and we could never find time to get together. It was fun while it lasted and I really missed it so about a year later I went back to the Cooking Light website and found an existing club that was looking for 2 new members. This club has been around since 2004 and I joined it a little over a year ago.

Some groups are couples, or a mixture of men and women or singles. The group I belong to consists of 6 women. We get together every-other month and we take turns hosting it at our home. The host picks the theme and we stick to healthy cooking, using recipes from Cooking Light, Eating Well, etc. We occasionally go on field trips to eat out or go to special events.

When we get together everyone brings a dish. Most of the cooking is done at our own homes but occasionally you'll have to finish up something or reheat something at the host's home. We all bring take home containers to divide the leftovers up.

If you are interested in finding more about supper clubs you can visit the Cooking Light Supper Club Hub by clicking here, or you can go directly to the Supper Club message boards to either find or start one in your area by clicking here. Once there just, click on your region to begin.

Our Supper Club started a blog shortly after I joined and you can see what we had for brunch along with some of our other meals (click here). Each person updates it with their recipes. It's been a great way to keep track of our get togethers.

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll answer them in the comments section.

Sunday Brunch

Yesterday I hosted a Sunday Brunch for my supper club.

There are 6 of us so to make it more comfortable I put one of the extra leaves in the table even though it took over the whole room. I dream of someday having a formal dining room with enough room to fit 12!

My car broke down on Friday (the fuel pump went out) and it cost over $1,000 to fix so I was happy that I had enough roses from my garden for the centerpiece. I'm now on a spend-no-money-on-frivolous-things phase until I can replenish my bank account with that money! Bummer!

For the centerpiece I also used a small cake stand that I bought at a garage sale a couple weeks ago. I filled it with shells and a strand of pearls. I used candle holders for vases and I filled them with sea glass to hold the roses in place.

My supper club has a blog so as soon as we have all the photos and recipes up there I'll let you know. The food was really good and it was such a relaxing time just chatting, eating and drinking mimosas!!!

Bedroom Makeover

I was recently contacted by someone at Traditional Home Magazine asking if I would spread the word about a sweepstakes they are having that gives the winner a $20,000 bedroom makeover!  So in case you are interested, here is some more information....

The Traditional Home Bedroom Sweepstakes is underway now and ends June 21, with the winner being announced around July 2. It’s free and the best part is that people are allowed to visit the site every day and enter again and again. You can enter the sweepstakes at http://www.traditionalhome.com/bedroom/

The winner will receive a professionally designed bedroom plan plus furniture, flooring, mattress set and bedding from vendors Darryl Carter Design, Thomasville , Scandia Down, Armstrong Floors and Vera Wang by Serta.

Good luck to all that decide to enter and if one of you win, I would love to know!

Why I Love Blogging!

I'm joining in on the Beautiful Blogging Party that Joy from Cupid's Charm is hosting today. We are all sharing why we love blogging.

This should be easy because I really love blogging. I love it more than I ever expected to! It's become such a huge part of my life now but when I first started this blog I wondered if I was setting myself up for failure. I really thought it was something that I wouldn't be able to keep up and to be honest...I really didn't keep it up for the first 2 years. I started my blog in 2005 and it took me a couple years before I really started posting every day and enjoying it! Now, here I am today with my 672nd post and almost a million visitors! I never saw that coming when I first started this!

Blogging has made some of my dreams come true! REALLY!!! If it weren't for my blog, I would have never been featured in Romantic Country Magazine, or the San Jose Mercury News. Even being on HGTV's "Rate my Space" was indirectly because of my blog. It was through blogging that I first heard about Rate my Space. If someone would have told me a few years ago that I would be in a decorating magazine, in the Home & Garden section of the Mercury News and on HGTV, I would have NEVER believed them! I actually still find it hard to believe!

Even though all 3 of those things were like a dream-come-true, the best part of blogging is YOU!  I had no idea there were so many wonderful like-minded women all over the world! I love getting to know you through your comments, emails and even meeting some of you in person! I know there are many lurkers out there and I think of you often. Before I was a blogger, I was a lurker. I would read lots of blogs but I never felt comfortable leaving a comment. It seemed to me that it was a small circle of friends and it felt awkward to join in. So, I just want to say to all my lurkers...PLEASE join in! Leave a comment! I know you are out there! Just say hi!

To those of you that are considering starting a blog, I hope that you do and I hope you find it as rewarding as I have! You can go to www.blogger.com and it's really easy to start one and it's free!  Feel free to email me if you need help with it!

I would like to thank all of you who visit my blog because it just wouldn't be the same without you! I would just be talking to myself like some crazy woman!

Please stop by Joy's blog and see all the other bloggers joining in. It should be interesting to read why other bloggers love blogging.

Thank you Joy for hosting this! What a great idea!

(The photos in this post are just random photos that have been on my blog in the past.)