I had my once in a lifetime wedding almost 15 years ago, but I’d love to create a luncheon with this wedding as inspiration.  Peonies, blue glass, turquoise ribbon.  It takes my breath away.

Head over to Style Me Pretty to see more.

And can someone please help me find a turquoise cake stand like that?  Wow.  Gorgeous.
What are you inspired by today?

Hopeful Homemaker

My number one mental/emotional health challenge right now is gray skies.  They’re really getting to me in spite of all my efforts to pretend that it’s sunny.    On a gray day last week I said to my husband, “I want to paint something a bright color.”  (I actually wanted to paint three or four things, but I didn’t say that.  It might have worried him.)  He argued that it wouldn’t change anything, that happiness is something we choose no matter what the weather is outside.

And while I agree with him wholeheartedly, I must also argue that color and paint can start us down the road of cheerfulness on ugly days.  So I fed the family dinner, watched my husband leave for some meetings, let the children play (what is spring break for, after all?) and got out my paint brush.

The formerly all-white cabinet in my dining room got a little makeover.

Not only does the blue look spectacular, the white now pops and the entire piece suddenly has nicer lines and more character.

I’ve always loved the look of shelves painted a contrasting color on the inside.  I’m not sure why I’ve never done it before, but now I’m eying all the shelves in our house.

The dining room is north facing and in the center of our house, so it really gets very little natural light.  I love the butter yellow on the walls for that reason.  It’s the perfect color for the room, and helps to lighten it up.  Now, however, I’ve got a gorgeous splash of paradise in the middle of the room.

I pared down the silver pieces on the shelves.  I’ve got an idea brewing for them, but for now this is great.

Even the view from the kitchen is improved by this reflection in the mirror.

And when I come downstairs this is the first thing I see:

My favorite little gravy boat now enjoys a place on the shelf.  I like how it looks against the blue.

Yes, happiness is a choice.   But paint sure helps.

Jennifer

The color orange is growing on me.

On a canvas this size, one can’t help but be impressed.

“Never keep the curtains drawn, lest you should miss some glory of the sky.”    -unknown

It’s another gray, rainy day this morning, but my curtains are open just in case something wonderful happens.

Have a great Monday!

Jennifer

I’ll be honest.  I’m not a fan of Las Vegas.  I can think of a million other places I would vacation first.  When I ended up there early this week I really didn’t do any exploring.  I mostly stuck to my hotel room and worked on things that are important to me.  I can shop anytime.  I can’t be alone anytime.

I didn’t frequent many places, but one thing I noticed in the hotels/casinos I did end up in was the dim lights.  It seems they forever want you to live at dusk there… it must dull your awareness of what time it is and how long you’ve been there.  Imagine my surprise on Monday morning on our way to breakfast in The Wynn to see something like this:

There was light back in there, and pastel colors, and flowers!

I had to get in there!  It’s called The Buffet, and I must now admit that I have a favorite place in Las Vegas.  I didn’t have my camera with me, so we ate somewhere else that morning (and discovered my husband’s new favorite smoothie) in order to go back Tuesday with the camera.

I was not disappointed.  The Buffet has 17 different food stations with an impressive variety of food.  Everything we tasted was delicious.  There are large rooms tucked back in the restaurant and off to the side, but we requested a table in what I’m calling the garden room.   Eight huge arrangements line this room, reaching from floor to ceiling.  The ceiling is arched with a glass ceiling and lots of mirrors high on the walls.  I estimated that each of these arrangements was around 20 feet high.  To get a feel for how big they really were, notice the scale of the tables and chairs next to the arrangements in the picture above.

Flowers, succulents, fruits, vegetables all used in incredible ways to create the most amazing artificial arrangements I’ve ever seen.  The bananas were my husband’s favorite while I loved the light fixtures:

I loved the use of lavender and succulents as well.

My husband insisted on taking somewhat blurry pictures of my left-handed self eating breakfast.

I think the arrangement below (on the right) was my favorite.  I love the balls at the top, the red tulips beneath, and the pots of trailing succulents.  Gorgeous.

But really, what made each arrangement so beautiful was the variety in them all.  Next to one another there was much to admire, compare and contrast.  It was all so beautiful and I kept wondering who the designer was.

This one was drenched in flowers.  So beautiful.

I found a lot of online food reviews for the Buffet, most of them positive.  Our experience was a good one; we would definitely go back.  In my mind this experience was about more than the food.  I didn’t feel like I was on The Strip.  This restaurant was a place of light and beauty.  Atmosphere was a huge part of my experience.  It was the most fun I’ve had eating out in years. (Or maybe I was just really relaxed after 36 hours away from my children.)

I admit I didn’t want to leave.  I wanted to sit and read a book just so I could look around at all these awesome flower arrangements and be surrounded by such color for a while.  I commented to my husband that I must be flower starved, and he reminded me that I have 250 tulips coming in the spring.  It’s a start.

Last night I dreamed that I created centerpieces for a party with this room as my inspiration.  Wouldn’t it be fun to re-create something similar?  Lots of inspiration there.  You could go a dozen different directions with this.

Have a great day!

Jennifer

White, with all its subtle shades and textures.

I conclude, again, that there is no color as magnificent as white.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Hopeful Homemaker

shared at The Inspired Room

I couldn’t help but pause and appreciate the subtle differences in their color.

The words “I’m not a brown girl” have come out of my mouth many times, meaning that I don’t love it enough to want it on all of my walls, or on the exterior of my house.  I just love other colors far more.  However, when I see all these shades of brown together, they are beautiful to me.   It’s almost like looking at a paint swatch, but much prettier because it’s a naturally occurring variety.

This morning I am thankful for an unexpected visual treat.  It’s uplifting to appreciate the color in ordinary things.

What color have you noticed lately?

Hopeful Homemaker

Today I’m thankful for the gift of fresh fruit, oranges to be exact.

They looked so beautiful with juicy sections glistening in the sunlight.  I love the many shades of color.  Things like this seem so simple, but when you really look at them you realize what a composition they are in themselves.

They tasted as sweet as they looked.  Mmm.  Not many things better than a sweet, juicy orange in the winter.

What simple thing are you thankful for today?

Well, about an hour later, Kate left a comment on the post, which was so kind of her, and although I have absolutely no idea how she found her way to my post, I do know that her comment led me directly to her website.

And I think I can say that I now have a new favorite designer to watch.

Let me back up.  A few weeks ago a new Crate & Barrel catalog came in the mail, and I devoured all the pictures, as usual.  One in particular was torn out of the catalog and kept for 2 reasons:  1.  I want these!  2.  Inspiration.

Did you see these too?  And do you like them like I do?

I mean, I’d like several in each color, but if I had to choose, I’d take the aqua ones.  They’re beautiful and affordable.  You can buy them individually or in sets of four.   Hello!  Can they get any cuter?

Back to Kate Spain.  You see, not only is she responsible for the gorgeous quilting fabric that I’m currently in love with, but imagine my delight when I read a few posts on her blog and discovered that SHE is the designer of those lovely Loire plates, the very plates I tore out of the catalog,  from Crate & Barrel!  She also designed these awesome melamine plates.

Wow!  I was so excited to discover that two different products which I’m so drawn to are designed by the same person.  Cute stuff!

Well, it gets even better than that.  She’s currently giving away one layer cake from the Verna collection, and some totally cute gift bags and takeout boxes for a second winner.  So hurry on over here and get in on the fun.  You have until March 20th to enter.

And thank you, thank you Kate for sharing your awesome designs!  I love them.

Hopeful Homemaker

I will freely admit that the beauty of a hyacinth combined with its heady scent is wonderful.  Yet after years of quietly repeating that quote to myself, I must say I’ve found that many different flowers feed my soul.

This week it was tulips.  They were a $5 splurge at the grocery store.

I love the way tulips are both bold and delicate at the same time.  Strong but fragile.  Graceful yet dramatic.

They’re so tall and straight and pretty when they’re all closed up, but then they begin to open…

and the drama and beauty merely increase.

People are like that.  Most of the time what’s on the inside is even better than what’s outside.

I like the way these two ended up leaning on each other.

This week my tulips reminded me to have an open heart, to accept each day for what it offered, to find beauty in what I have.  Sometimes we need beauty as much as food to remain truly alive.  Flowers really are food for my soul.

Which flowers feed your soul?  Please share!

Have a beautiful weekend!
Hopeful Homemaker

Posted at The Inspired Room

I just finished a quilt that I made just to try machine binding.  It’s a quilt-as-you-go strip quilt, which means it’s quick and simple.

I’m loving the aqua, red and white color scheme with tons of polka dots.  Those three colors (and the dots) are among my favorite things right now.  I’m calling it my Aqua Dots Strip quilt.

I found the binding tutorial on a great quilting blog, Red Pepper Quilts.  The tutorial is here.  Four years ago when I started quilting, I took a class on binding and I’ve been finishing my bindings by hand ever since.  I usually cut my binding only 2 inches wide because I like a really tight, neat binding with no gaps inside it.  I enjoy this process, but it takes many hours and thousands of stitches (think 8-10 stitches per inch around a 400 inch perimeter).  I strained my elbow a little carrying my baby’s car seat, so stitching by hand has been irritating it some lately.  I’ve also found that sitting down to do some hand sewing is much harder when you have 3 or 4 children dive into your lap every time you sit down (not to mention the fact that there’s so much cleaning to do that you don’t feel like you CAN sit down). So this tutorial got me excited, because I’m at a point right now when I’d LOVE to be able to fully finish a quilt on my machine.

Here’s a peek at one of the nicer spots on my binding after reading the tutorial.

Don’t worry, there were other spots (several of them) when I completely missed the binding and had to go back and fix it.  All in all, I’m pleased.  This is definitely harder than it seems, because you stitch from the top but the binding you’re stitching is on the bottom so you can’t see it at all.  I pinned pretty well and had my machine on the slowest setting.  This method will take some practice, but I think it’s worth getting good at.

The fabrics I used in this quilt actually came from a little quilt kit I purchased a long time ago when I thought that our last baby would be a boy.  For some reason, for years I really felt like we’d end up even.  Well, that didn’t happen, and these fun fabrics were still in their bag.  The binding was a great excuse to whip it up, especially since it’s a pretty small quilt (baby size).

I taught myself a great lesson in this quilt, which is that haste does NOT produce quality.  The strips weren’t cut perfectly when someone assembled the kit, and I didn’t bother to fix them.  I also was so intent on finishing it quickly that I didn’t stop and rip out a couple of mistakes… which means that the stripes in the quilt aren’t completely straight and that there’s some curve to one end of the quilt.  Oh well.  I think the quilt is still cute, and it’s certainly going to be used, but I won’t be giving it away as a gift or anything like that.  I really don’t feel like it’s a reflection of the work I’m capable of, or of the attention to detail that I usually have when I’m sewing.  Good reminder, since I’ve got like 10 quilts I’m really anxious to start!

That said, the purpose of this quilt really was the binding.  I’m definitely going to work at mastering this one!  Here’s one last look at the quilt after it had been through a rinse cycle and then the dryer.  I do like it!   I love the happy colors and the dots.

What do you think?