Twenty Minutes

Fresh coffee in the french press and an indulgent book all about macaroons...

need I say more?

I gave myself 20 minutes today{during our quiet time}. After a morning spent at the grocery store, it was a much enjoyed respite.

Look at these beautiful macaroons

I'd like to try every single recipe in this book.

Have a great day!

xo,

Kathleen

ps - I've had some requests for a tutorial on the lampshades. I would be happy to share it. If you don't mind waiting a few days, I will put one together for you.

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Thank you to all of you who read this blog. I appreciate that you take the time to visit and as always, I thoroughly enjoy reading your comments!

God Bless!

Printing On Lampshades

Did you know that the Citra-Solv method of transferring images works on lampshades too?

I'm sure that you probably did.

I can be a little slow at times when it comes to trying these sorts of things. The idea will pop into my head but then it will take awhile before I actually get around to doing it.

So I finally did it and I like the results.

Here's another one

I love those shiny mirror-like chrome looking lamps but I wanted to use something that I already had, so I painted this one in shiny, bright metallic silver spray paint. I used an image from The Graphics Fairy - et voila - a new lamp.

Loving it!

Images for both lamp shades are from The Graphics Fairy.

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

On the Bookshelf...

I ordered Romantic Prairie Style back in October and it just arrived last week. Let me tell you, it is a gorgeous book! I am really enjoying it. The homes featured are incredibly peaceful and serene.

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I'm also reading Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman. Another wonderful book. While our family is not quite as large as Kim's, a couple of years from now, I know that I will look back and say "this is the book that completely changed my life." Everything that she writes about in this book is everything that I strive to be - only, I didn't know where to start. For example: organization. While my house is not total mayhem, there are many areas that need work. For instance, the kids' playroom. Major organization needed! There are so many projects, so many ideas of what I want to do and to accomplish. The problem is that there never seems to be enough time in a day. As I am reading Large Family Logistics, I am discovering that it isn't the amount of time that is available to me, but rather, the way that I am using my time. I am not as wise with my time as I would like to be and I am realizing how badly I need to write out a schedule for myself to keep on track. Homeschooling is another issue. It's something that I want to do, something that has always been on my heart, but I have been afraid that I wouldn't be successful at it. I'm finding out otherwise within the pages of this book. I'm going to use the remainder of this school year as well as the summer months to get myself on track and then we'll see where we're at toward the end of the summer. That is why I haven't been around much lately. I'm trying to work diligently toward my goal. I feel good about the direction that I am heading and confident that I will reach my goal.


I'm working toward calm and efficient but playful and welcoming too

lots of purging and sorting, keeping only the necessary. The things that really mean something to us.

I will reach my goal and become a better me at the same time too.

Wish me luck to persevere!

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

Little Black Dress Affair....Part II

Welcome to the party! Please come in.

{warning...photo overload ahead!}
I floated lots of grey, pink and white balloons from the ceiling and then made giant tissue paper pom poms to hang from the ceiling as well.

Remember the French buckets? Well, I made three more only this time I painted

No.2 No.2 No. 5

to represent our birthday girl's birth date of 2-25

Here you can see the table runner that I made...the one mentioned in the previous post.

I made the tablecloth out of a twin size bed sheet. I made little pleats at each corner that ruffled out so that the cloth was perfectly fitted for the table. No one had any idea it was a sheet! Twin bed sheets are only $4 at Walmart.

{This party was done on a budget}

I filled the buckets with tissue paper flowers that I made. I was going to fill them with roses, but the buckets were way too deep. You wouldn't have been able to see them.

Cupcakes

and some more sweet treats.

I swagged the chandelier with pale pink tulle

a closeup of the flowers in the buckets

more pink tulle tied into bows on the back of each chair

The flatware tucked into the napkins, all tied up in pretty ribbon. I placed these into a galvanized bucket that I found in the dollar bin at Target.

The birthday girl all dressed up for her party

eagerly awaiting her first bite of cake!

Oh yes, she enjoyed it very much!

I made favors to take home as a little remembrance of this day.
They're Hershey bars that I wrapped in scrapbook paper. I printed out a short little birthday poem on vellum and then wrapped them up with black and white polka dot ribbon.

Feel free to grab one on your way out...

and thank you so much for coming to my party!

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xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

A Little Black Dress Affair

Oh my...where has the time gone?

It's been a whole year and our little one just had a birthday! You know what that means don't you? Yes, a party. Her very first "little black dress" affair as a matter of fact.

It all started with this cute little dress that I found. I built the whole theme around this dress. Right down to the invitations {pictured at the very top of this post}

There are sooooo many photos to go along with this, I'm going to break it up into a couple of posts. I don't want to force them all on you at once.

so...

we'll start with the theme.

The dress.

It is black velvet on top and the skirt is black and white tulle. A pretty little satin bow at the waist finishes the look.

Adorable. Elegant. Timeless. Little Girl. Fun.

That's what I wanted.

I decided to go with black and white damask with lots of pink and touches of grey too.

First...the cake.

I made it all by myself. My very first attempt at a fancy cake.

When I found the damask pattern cake tattoos, I did a happy dance right in the middle of the store. Seriously.

I made a banner out of some black and pink damask fabric that I already had on hand.

I sewed a table runner out of some black and white damask fabric that I found at Walmart. {More photos of the runner in the next post}

I picked up some pink flatware and some black napkins at Target and then tied them up with a pretty pink satin ribbon. I normally prefer to use actual china and flatware but in this case, this just worked better with the colors.

I put the cake on a black pedestal that I had, and I also made cupcakes to go with it.

I found these black and white damask cupcake liners at the grocery store.

and I even found wrapping paper to match everything!

Trust me, I made sure that everything didn't look too "matchy matchy"

It was just enough of a good thing without being too much {In my opinion anyway}.

Okay...enough pictures for today. I'll be back tomorrow with more of the decorations and the birthday girl herself.

Thanks for reading along with me.

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen