Santa Who?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. For those of you who go out shopping on Black Friday-good for you. I am not one of those people. I did all my shopping that Monday and Wednesday and I can say that "I am done". I set up my gift wrapping room in my guest room and I am wrapping all of my gifts as I buy them. I have to mail out three boxes so it is important to me to get things bought and wrapped as soon as I can. My goal this year was before Thanksgiving and except for a couple of small items--I am finished. Here are some photos of my gift wrapping room. My mother in law was even impressed!

Isn't she lovely?

Getting Organized for the Holidays!

This fall has been very busy for me and now things are slowing down on one end and speeding up on another. As I get prepared for Thanksgiving and Christmas--I thought I would share with you what is going to keep me on task and organized.

I have to admit something, I'm addicted to planners. Planners of all shapes and sizes. You name one and I probably had it at one time or another. But recently around blog land--I heard about Erin Condren life planners. What I love the most about them is the colorful designs you can choose from and the overall happiness you feel when you see it.



Sorry for the blurry photo

 When you go to order on the website, you are given different color options and designs to choose from.

So colorful and fun to add all your day to day items. It is broken up in three sections with morning, afternoon, and evening slots. I like this because then I can divide up my day that way. I usually do cleaning items, errands, any class work I need to do. One monthly page for each month with tabs.

The back section has a zippered pouch to keep things. I added the pen loop that I bought at the office supply store. I didn't like how bulky the planner got when I put my pen in the pouch. It might be a nice suggestion to make to the company. A couple of negatives, it is a bulky planner so it's not something that I would carry in my purse but I would carry it in my tote. I don't usually carry my planner with me anyways because I put all my appointments and lists on my Cozi sight. That way I can use my iphone for my calendar and notes. Also, plan on waiting a little while for this puppy. It will tell you on the website when you place an order the estimated date it should ship--but don't go by that. These items are printed so that's what takes a little longer ( but worth the wait). You can pay more money to get it to you sooner but just expect at least three weeks.

The other items I ordered that came in the mail today are the personalized labels. I'm getting my gift wrap center organized and simplified for this holiday season. I ordered these labels because I have lots of occasions besides Christmas in the upcoming months. I love these!!

And I purchased these for this Christmas. Like I said, I'm simplifying Christmas this year and I plan on wrapping gifts in solid color paper and embellishing with these labels and ribbons. This also will go on wrapped cookies that I bake as well as bottles of wine. The possibilities are endless.

Happy planning.

Happy Fall Y'all

Has it been a while since I last posted? Yup, and quite frankly I have no real good excuse--except maybe life. But now that I've got my groove back, I would like to post some photos of some fall decorating that I'm doing around the house. I went into my attic (the one that's on my to do to organize) and found some things that I forgot I had. I set up this little vingette in my dining room.

I am still working on the family room and other parts of the house. I will be posting those as well as my front door soon--I promise.

Glam up your vanity!

Well I finally got this project finished. It's a very sophisticated room for a 16 year old. I think it looks great with the wallpaper.

The Not So Endless Summer

Ok, I don't know about you but my summer has flown by so fast that I'm scrambling to get all the projects I had planned done by next week!!! Where does the time go? I will highlight a few special places I went this summer along with some of my personal projects as well as client projects. I'm finishing up a bathroom vanity for a teenage girl. The room is beautiful and her mom wanted the bathroom vanity painted to go along with this very sophisticated girls room. I finish tomorow so I will show you the after photos but for now here is where I started...

They replaced the countertop with a beautiful granite and I primed the base cabinet as well as the doors and drawers.

I painted the basecoat with Sherwin Williams Sticks and Stones. A very pretty taupe gray color.

I then added a light coat of Valspar Metal and Patina Glaze. I lightly brushed that on so that you could see the metallic highlights.

And lastly, I mixed one part Martha Stewart glaze with one part Sherwin Williams Black Fox and dry brushed over all the surfaces.

I can't wait to show you the final product with the newly installed wallpaper.

The Finished Product

Well I finally got around to getting some after shots of the table and chairs I did for a client. Look under my paint tab to see the before. Apparently when they took it inside the house-they scratched part of it so I had to go over there yesterday and repair the damage. It wasn't too bad but it did give the chance to take some photos in their lovely kitchen.

I actually have two more painting projects ready to go so I will be blogging about those as well this week and next week.

I am very happy how the project turned out and so are my clients!!
I took these photos with my iphone so hopefully I will bring my camera over and get some better shots.

I'm linking up to these parties this week:

Savvy Southern Style

Domestically Speaking

Diy by Design

The Diy Showoff

Go check them out!

County Fair Theme Party

Well after months of planning the event that I had blogged about earlier has finally come and gone. I have to say I was very pleased with how everything went. Even the weather which had been in the 90's all week, settled in the mid 80's with a nice breeze. I couldn't have asked for anything more. I have lost count at the number of events I have put together for this but I think this was my sixth one. We host a member guest tennis event every year at our club and this years theme was the River Run County Fair.

Here are some of the photos that I took. I believe someone else took some other ones that I will try and get a hold of. Also, I will have a resource list of all the items that I used for this event.

I was able to rent these red and white checkered tablecloths and they were perfect for the theme. The large balloons I found online as well as the pennants.

I brought my retro popcorn maker from home and purchased the popcorn bags online. 

These were the welcome bags when the guests arrived. I had red towels embroidered with tennis racquets and a bottle of water and a granola bar inside. In the pocket I made a little card with the itinerary for the day and a raffle ticket.

The large centerpieces are the first place prizes. I purchased flowers from the store as well as a farmer's market where I was clipping out in the field for sunflowers and zinnias.

I found watering cans and milk cans at Michael's and used red and blue ribbons for the outside.

You can also see in the photo that I found these cute mason jars wrapped with bandannas and striped straws inside-so cute.

But I think the item that stole the show was the cake that our pastry chef made. I asked him to create a cake in the shape of a cherry pie. Fabulous!!!!

I will try and post some more photos later.