EVENT INSPIRATION: 8 TIPS FOR A FUN-FILLED EASTER BRUNCH…

Easter is a family-filled time of celebration and festivities. And whether or not you’re religious, it’s next to impossible not to join in on the fun! If you’re planning an Easter event for friends and family, here are a few tips and suggestions:

1. Use your china. Play with your china. Mix and match your china!

2. Florals and cupcakes. Need I say more?

3. And lots of other mini foods…

4. Hats. Especially for the kids!

5. Speaking of kids, give them there own happy place.

6. But don’t forget the adults…

7. Simplify…

8. But never let your guests go home empty handed!

Of course, if you want to add a little extra pizzazz, I say go for the gold and add lots of bunnies! Preferably real ones….

I couldn’t resist.

Hope you have a happy Easter ya’ll!

A BIT O’ PICKIN’ & SOME DECORATING.

Well hello and I hope everyone had an excellent weekend! I spent my weekend picking up a few things for my new space over at Greenwood Antiques (more on this below…) and, of course, finally picking out and decorating the Christmas tree. I’m not quite finished with the latter – I’ll be adding a few handmade pieces throughout the week – but the lights, the bulbs, and ribbon are on and my home officially feels like Christmas. Hallelujah!

But, back to Greenwood! Greenwood Antiques has a bit of a Old Lucketts Store feel, but without the fan base….(yet!). It’s located on a beautiful country road with views of the mountains galore, and wineries and orchards located just around the corner (pictures coming soon). It’s quite heavenly, actually, so if you find yourself in the Charlottesville area, I highly suggest that you stop on by – 7572 Greenwood Station Rd., Greenwood, VA. I’m sharing a space with a friend that has her own fabulous pieces (I will have my portion of the space up and running in January) and we’d love to see you! Here are just a few things I managed to pick up over the weekend that you will soon find in my space…

An old industrial arrow, and some iron (and incredibly heavy!) horse heads.

Yet another industrial piece and a chippy green wire basket!

A concrete foo dog (don’t you just LOVE foo dogs??!) and industrial iron letters.

I also picked up a couple of furniture pieces that I’ll be refurbishing soon.

Now, onto Christmas! I wanted to keep things fairly simple this year, and went with a white, gold, and silver theme, with a few birds thrown in there for good measure:

(I’ll be adding a handful more bulbs and some handmade vintage sheet music ornaments…)

Unfortunately, the twinkle is lacking in this daytime photo, but you’ve got yourself the gist of it!

Tell me, have you managed to get your tree up and fully decorated yet?

A VERY MERRY GIFT GUIDE: THE HOSTEST WITH THE MOSTEST.

December is a month of celebration, for life and love, for the joys of the year behind us and hope for the year ahead. For many of us, December actually IS one big party, or rather, many, many little parties.

And if you’re anything like me, you’d be absolutely and terribly mortified showing up to any one of these parties without a gift in hand. Of course, per #5 in the Random Facts About Me, I’m the second worst procrastinator I know! So in typical fashion, I’d be running around like a crazy person 30 minutes before said party in a desperate attempt to find an acceptable hostess gift.

BUT, since I have vowed to keep my cool this December… procrastinate less, shop more (not for myself, unfortunately), and have that perfect gift at the ready, I’ve decided to throw together a very merry gift guide for myself and all you other crazies out there!

Without further ado:

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10

And for all you DIYers out there, here are a few more adorably frugal gift ideas:

Create a DIY chart with your own holiday message! You can find a tutorial here and an actual chart maker here.

Purchase a few wood heart cutouts – found at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, or most local craft stores – paint on chalk board paint in a color of your choosing, drill a hole, and attach ribbon. Viola, you’ve got yourself a perfect hostess gift!

This one is for DIYers and non-DIYers alike! Grab yourself a boxwood wreath and a festive ribbon and you’re done. If you’re feeling a little more crafty, add some berries and clip on a small, white bird.

And if you’re the hostess this year, hopefully you’ll find yourself with some fabulous goodies

Cheers!

DIY THURSDAY: SHEET MUSIC WREATH & A GIVEAWAY!

Don’t you just love Thursdays? With the holiday season quickly approaching (I can’t believe it’s already the end of October!), I thought I’d share with you a quick and easy project that just may help with your holiday décor…

I’m sure many of you have seen Miss Mustard Seed’s sheet music wreath:

When I first set my eyes on this adorable wreath, I fell a little bit in love, so I set out to make my own.

First, I loaded up my makeshift work station (aka my living room floor) with all the items I needed:

1. A stack of vintage sheet  music (which I happen to have BOXES of…)
2. A glue gun and glue
3. Ribbon
4. Scissors
5. Pine cone (optional)

Really, that’s all it takes! Now, some of you may be wondering where in the world am I going to find vintage sheet music? To help you along with this little problem, I will be giving away TWO large stacks of vintage sheet music for TWO lucky readers! The how and the when is revealed at the end of this post, so read on my friends!

After I had all my supplies on hand, I began by folding and carefully ripping a few sheets into eighths (you’re welcome to use scissors, but I happen to like the distressed affect ripping gives). With a few more sheets I then did the same with fourths and then with halves.

Once I had enough pages torn, I folded each set of eighths, fourths, halves, as well as full pages into cones, using the glue gun as needed.

I continued to fold these miscellaneous sized pages into cones until I had enough to my liking, and then the fun really began!

*Please note: if you happen to be doing this project on a surface you do not want to get glue all over, make sure you lay down a mat, newspaper, scrap piece of paper, what have you, BEFORE you get glue gun happy in order to protect said surface!

Per Miss Mustard Seed’s wreath, she may have begun by gluing her largest set of cones together into a circular shape to create a solid foundation, and then proceeded to layer each varying size set of cones over that to get the final product you see above. I, on the other hand, wanted to go for a slightly more disheveled look, and so began with the smallest set of cones, using a cut out circle as my backbone…

This is the backside of the wreath in progress (and I was actually working on newspaper, but moved the wreath to the carpet for picture purposes only!)

I then began vaguely layering each varying size of cones into the gaps, using plenty of glue in the process, until the wreath was to my liking. Once all the cones were in place, I glued a small pine cone into the center just for that little extra oomph, and glued ribbon onto the backside to hang. And the final product….

Viola!

I just love how it turned out! Of course, this wreath could stand on its own anytime of year, but with a little added garland, it would make the perfect holiday décor. You could also consider making miniature versions of this wreath as Christmas tree decorations, or to use as a bow for those special presents.

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Now on to the important part!

TWO lucky winners will receive a large stack of vintage sheet music for your crafting pleasure. All you have to do is follow me via Facebook, Twitter, or email (or all of the above), and leave a comment below each time you do so. I will select two winners at random.

This giveaway will close on 10/28/12 at 11:59 EST. Winners will be announced on Monday!

If the wreath wasn’t inspiration enough, here are just a few more things you can do with sheet music…

If you weren’t one of the lucky winners, you can purchase stacks of sheet music from my shop

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