New Header — New Retro Obsession

Found the above cement planter at a thrift store. Weighs a ton, and love the shape. I painted it the color that Harleigh and I used for her dresser (that accompanied her to Statesboro for college living) and dressed it up with bad fake flowers, my newest obsession. They remind me of my grandmother's rowhouse in Baltimore, the way an arrangement (back then mostly plastic) would take center stage on a front porch or a side table. They remind me of memorial parks, where each gaudy but happy arrangement is lovingly placed by family.  They're often in restaurants thinly veiled in dust, but an attempt nonetheless to bring elegance to a tabletop. Their colors are way beyond what you see in nature. They live indefinitely. What can I say . . . they make me smile somehow.

National Thrift Store Day — A Day Late

Yesterday was National Thrift Store Day. Yay! I love to thrift. Yes, in my world it's a verb. It's what I do. My thrifting finds have furnished my home (and now my daughter's college apartment), have made me money (the $1.99 tablecloth from Goodwill that I sold on Ebay for $150.00, the $5.00 birdcage appraised at $585.00 that I might sell . . . someday), and turned many of my events into something special.

In honor of yesterday's holiday, I share with you my most recent find. This adorable vintage lampshade found at Goodwill for $4.00. Since Harleigh took her nightstand lamp with her to college, I needed a new lamp. Paired this shade with a $20 Target lamp (a simple white ceramic retro-looking one), and I think we have a winner!

Her previous black and white drapes (now also at college) have been replaced with airy lace curtains from IKEA.

For me, everyday is National Thrift Store Day!

Waiting for the Ice Cream Man

As a child back in the 60's, my summers would not have been complete without the daily visit of the Good Humor truck and the musical jingles that announced his coming (I can see the row of bells, above the rear view mirror, that came to life with the pull of a cord). This was back in the days when:
-  we rode bikes without helmets on our heads
-  played barefoot at construction sites
-  used a key to adjust the roller skates we wore over our Converse sneakers
-  went trick-or-treating, with no parents, over the entire neighborhood and beyond (including strangers' houses) THEN came home and ate all the candy, including homemade candy apples and popcorn balls
-  went in roving packs from sunrise until sunset, playing the most imaginative outdoor games ever, and came inside to bathe only when our moms called it a day by popping out the screen door and bellowing our names to come home.

And the ice cream man wore a white shirt and white pants, with a jaunty white brimmed cap with a Good Humor logo. And he was a nice guy we all knew by name. And his truck was clean and obviously his pride and joy. And with popsicles or ice cream bars or cones in our dirty little hands, we lined up, sitting on the curb, thinking life couldn't get any better. It was summer, after all.

This picture is one that my mom took of me waiting for the ice cream man at my grandparents' house in Westminster, Maryland. I'm sitting on the bottom step, in a cloth diaper and a sleeveless undershirt (we always wore undershirts back then), with my Pap Pap, who smokes a pipe, and with his graying temples and horn-rimmed glasses was as handsome as any Mad Men executive out there. I love the neighborhood gals across the street coming out as well, their sleeveless Peter Pan collar shirts.



This makes me nostalgic as can be.

And so when Harleigh and her Poppy waited for the ice cream man, there was a picture to be taken. Granted, there was no Good Humor truck with a white uniformed man (rather, it was a van of sorts with some chap out to make a living and quick to dole out a treat and move on) . And Harleigh always wore a helmet when she rode her bike. She would wear hard-soled shoes IF I let her play at a construction site. You get the picture . . . Times changed, but something as simple as waiting for the ice cream truck with your grandfather is about as good as it gets.

Pierrot

Harleigh took the picture above her bed to use in her apartment bedroom, which left a big blank space reminding me that she' gone. Wanting to put something up, but with nothing extra laying around the house, figured I'd scour the local thrift stores for a find under $10. Found just that yesterday. This lovely embroidered Pierrot picture in a gold frame. The embroidery is pretty enough, but the yarn pom poms caught my attention.

Mexican Farewell Party

Today is the last work day for two co-workers. As we do for any occasion — and do very well here where I work — we will have a party. It's a Mexican theme. I volunteered to do the flowers. Purchased Mexican groceries to use the cans and bottles as vases, then chocked them full of bright fake flowers. More pix to come of today's par-tay!

Sweet Girl Visit

She got all settled into the apartment at school. Classes start 8/22. She has a campus ministry leadership retreat next week. So this week was fairly free. She did some nesting in her new digs. Met up with some friends already back on campus. Got in some swimming and sunning time at the school's RAC.

And now she's home for a few days. Got a call from a church friend of ours who has a craft website and needed a model for an instructional video. In addition to getting paid, she also gets to expense a manicure, since her hands will be front and center. How fun is that?!?!?!

On her way home, she stopped by my office. We grabbed lunch and I snapped a few pictures. Gosh I love this girl.

I love this image. The tan arm with blonde peach fuzz. The handmade bracelets. The James Avery ring.

Sophomore Year

This year the girlie is moving into a duplex with three other girls. What fun it's been to work on decorating their place, making sure we have all the furniture we need, moms putting in their two cents, dads doing all the heavy work and electronic "stuff."  

While the communal spaces have been tackled with gusto, the decor of Harleigh's bedroom has been chipped away at with great detail and love. She wanted a French Provincial Bohemian Chic room. For the door to her room (and Emily's room, which is also on the second floor), I found these letters at Michaels. They rang up at a penny a piece. Really, one cent each. And so an H was put onto Harleigh's door and Emily has her E to put up. (Not really French Provincial Bohemian Chic, but for a penny, they're cute.)

While the other girls' rooms look typically Target-flyer dorm room, Harleigh's is much like her . . . true to who she is, a nod to vintage and hippie-girl. She found these two wall hooks at Pier I.

We brought her chair from home and the thrift store dresser (originally black and white and now a peachy pink with gold hardware).

Her bedroom curtains from home are perfect for this dormer window. And a desk we bought from a graduating senior fits into our theme. The chair pad needs a new cover (a faded yellow gingham just doesn't work for us), but that will happen soon enough.

Harleigh really wanted a wall treatment. The thought of trying to paint her room in a day was a bit daunting, and stencils are so iffy in terms of the finished product, so I came up with the idea to do a hairline stripe on the existing ivory walls. We did the treatment on one wall. Easy peasy. I used gold Elmer's Painters' Pens and a piece of foamcore cut to a 7 1/2" width to use as my guide. It literally took me an hour to do. And gave just the right amount of elegance yet understatement to the room. 

She brought her jar of "fireflies" for her nightstand.

And Justin Bieber finds a place in the dormer window area, with a vintage Hanson poster front and center. French Provincial Bohemian Chic meets I'm-19-and-still-loving-my-heartthrobs.

I found this bedskirt in a thrift store. With the mauve ball fringe it screams Bohemian Chic.

The painting gifted me by Julie fits in perfectly with the feel of gold and florals.

And the bathroom that Emily and Harleigh share (the size of her bedroom at home . . . it's huge) has a picture of the four roommates. We pray for a wonderful year for the girls, filled with friendship, laughter and growing as women of God.

Bryson Baby Shoot

Had the honor of photographing the adorable baby boy Bryson. What a cutie. So many expressions. 

Bryson actually struck the below pose on his own. I do believe he was channeling Sears Portrait Studio.

Bird Bath

Julie gave me this lovely bird bath and I just love how it makes my front garden look like, well, a garden (as opposed to the sun-baked island that it really is).

Mandy and Todd's Wedding

I'd been holding back on featuring the June wedding I worked on so that Ali, the photographer of the wedding, could work on having it featured on one of the big wedding sites. Well, hold back no more! Mandy and Todd's wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty!

Go here to see the mention on their main page.

And then here to see the wedding in all of its yellow, papaya red and coral glory!

The sewing for this reception was by far the most fun. Yard after yard of fabric (good upholstery fabric no less) went into runners, pillows, and accents. Heaven.  It was a very modern and elegant wedding with the bride handling an impressive amount of the DIY projects.

The entrance table when you entered Greystone featured a vase covered in her signature fabric. The florist, Tulip, was wonderful to work with!

(Note UGA Hairy Dawg in the background. He showed up for dancing, pictures, 

and to remind everyone what school rules!

Mandy had some frames on hand that mimicked the yellow fabric and so we utilized those. 

Here on the gift table.

Even the outside patios got a little fabric accent with these squares.

Adjacent to the dance floor, window seats provided extra seating.

I sewed all the pillows using the yellow signature fabric and a floral one. 

Two pillows, using a coral shade of cotton, sported their B monogram.

I had this designed by Laura Gosnell (who also designed my business cards!). 

I enlarged the monogram on the copier, cut it out and then traced it onto the fabric.

Used acrylic paint mixed in a lovely ivory shade with fabric medium.

Such a great keepsake . . . pillows. 

For the runners on the small tables in front of the window seats, I created geometric ends (to mirror the geometric pattern on the fabric). There's not a picture here, but the giant runner I made for the food table is in her yellow signature fabric. The ends of that runner was the same but instead of square shapes they were circular (again, to match the pattern on the fabric).

I've never used the below birdcage for any event. 

But it was made for this one, as the clover shape in the lattice matches the yellow fabric pattern!

The florist filled the feeders on each side with flowers. So pretty.

It held all the envelope gifts.

The cookie table had a papaya runner, and the cookie jars (straight from Walmart) boasted cardstock signage on  floral fabric that I Mod Podged to the glass.

All photography courtesy of Ali Harper Photography!