Opulent Cottage

The Final Stretch

Hi! I have about 8,000 things I should be doing right now, but I wanted to pop in and say that I sure do miss you guys! I can't really photograph a single thing in my house right now, because it's filled to the brim with the carnage from the last month's events. Fun stuff, I gotta say. So I'm just going to share some random snaps, and random thoughts.

 

 

Graduation is in one week, and things are really rolling along. There's a sort of perpetual frenzy due to all of the events going on, but at the same time, a peacefulness that settles in, knowing that we made it. All the fun, all the fretting, all the work, it all paid off, and we're about to cross the finish line. There's nothing left to do but enjoy the last of it, and go to parties. And banquets. And cookouts. Goodness, I have never seen so many parties, and everyone's just getting warmed up.

 

 

Our musical truly was the most fun yet. Thoroughly Modern Millie was a 1967 movie, starring Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing. It came to Broadway in 2002. Set in the 1920s, it's filled with great dancing, lots of flapper dresses, and plenty of lighthearted comic lines. I loved making Abby's gorgeous dresses for the show. 

 

Abby played the villainness, Mrs. Meers, with total hilarity. It was such fun that I almost didn't cry at the end of the four performances, seeing my daughter take her final bow on her high school stage. Almost. 

 

 

I only got a few horrible snaps of the prom. I was rushing, and preoccupied, and we had hundreds of teens and parents show up at White Rock Lake for pre-prom pictures. It was crowded and chaotic, but so fun. I need to hit up Abby's FB page to see if her friends got better pictures than I did.

This dress was definitely one of the most challenging I've ever made. It's this pattern. She loved it. I have a whole new respect for pattern designers. 

I learned something really helpful last month at Hobby Lobby. Did you know that if they don't have enough of an item you're looking for, they will order it in? And still give you the sale price when it arrives? So for prom, I was able to get 10 urns, 20 large palm leaves, 30 zebra feather balls, a dozen packs of curly willow, all of the needed styrofoam and moss, and barely topped $300. My order arrived in three days, too. I love that place.  

At the dance, each table had a different brightly colored tablecloth, which I unified with tall arrangements to fill some of the space in the 14 foot tall ceilings. I ordered feathered and sequined masks to put at each table, too. (Our theme was Carnivale.) The kids all went out to eat dinner, so we had a chocolate fountain at the dance, and a gourmet soda bar. Can I just tell you that those fancy sodas cost more than beer and wine?! The kids were so sugared up by the end of the dance that they were up all night. 

 

 

And yes, we did use the tin can arrangements!! At the end of setup on Friday, I had florals left over, but no containers, and we had spent our entire budget. We were able to make nine more centerpieces with what we had! I have quite a few ziploc bags of tomatoes in the freezer now that need to be used.

 

 

Did you all have a nice Mother's Day? We ate, and ate, and worked in the yard a little. Just what the doctor ordered.

I hope all is well with you all in blogland, and I must say I'm really looking forward to catching up. I feel a little out of sorts when I haven't spent time with my peeps. But I'll have to tackle at least some of my 426 unread emails before I can hang out with you all for long :)

Wish me luck! Have a great week! Love, Andrea

A Garden Tabletop, and Thoughts on Being Organized

This past year I have meticulously packed, listed and labeled all of my out-of-season decorative items, inspired largely by this post, written by Yvonne a while back. It seems that previously, we had adopted a let's just cram this stuff in a box and get it up to the attic approach, and the chaos up there was becoming more than a little burdensome. So I have actually been organizing our belongings, typing up lists, and numbering boxes in an effort to, well, be organized. By nature I'm a little bit of a piler and crammer, so this was kind of a challenge on my part.

 

 

Unfortunately, said lists did not get printed, as we are having printer issues and hadn't decided how we wanted to proceed. I'm pretty sure you can see where this is going. Yep, when my hard drive crashed last month, I lost it all. My hours of sorting and categorizing, gone in a poof. I'm not exactly sure how this reflects upon my theme for the year, organization. I guess the lesson here is that if you're going to be organized, back up your organization. Yeesh.

 

 

With everything we have going on in the coming weeks, it's unlikely that I'll have time to get up there and go through each box. Actually, it's unlikely that I'll get up there even for a minute. So what's a girl to do, but go to the garden and bring in a few decorative items to fill in. Then, when the hubbub of musical, prom and graduation dies down, I'll bring out the summer decor and pack up the bunnies. Should be sometime around Memorial Day, lol.

 

 

We have quite a few decorative accessories outside, so maybe I can keep this going for a while :)

 

Today I'm joining

Nita's Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life

Marty's Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Kim's Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Bunnies in the Kitchen

Happy Easter week! I did a little more Easter tweaking to our spring vignettes, to share with you all today. Of course I had to decorate my favorite shelf display in the kitchen nook.

Two more ceramic bunnies were adorned with festive bows with yet more of the thrifted ribbon. Honestly, I have used this in every room this Easter and still haven't even made a dent in the 50 yards!

 

Here again this year are the famed bunnies on a stick, from Pier One a few years back. (They still have them available! They are already on clearance on the web site for $2.21.) I plunked these into two white teapots that seem to have been used for everything but tea, lol.

This plate stand is usually filled with fruit for us to nibble on. I need to get to the store!

I grew some of the wheat grass in egg shells just so I could use the adorable chick egg cups in this display. And guess who found them the first day? This girl must have been craving her greens.

I was across the house and heard a loud thud, and ran in just in time to see my sweet egg cup rolling across the floor. I still can't believe it didn't break. The egg, however, was smashed to smithereens. The root ball must have been holding it together, so I just stuffed it back into the egg cup! 

Our forecast is for strong storms and damaging hail over the next 24 hours, so I ran outside to snap some photos of what's blooming today. Hope they make it through the storm!

Our climber has hundreds more buds, ready to burst forth, and look at it already! The 6 inches of rain that we had in March really made this one happy rose bush.

I babied these gerber daisies last winter and brought them inside during our few freezing nights. And they are rewarding us now! I think I'll bring them in tonight too, to save them from being pummeled. 

 

I have waited for three years for our snapdragons to look like this! I'm guessing that the mild winter we had really helped these along.

Have a wonderful Easter week everyone! I am hoping to be back later this week to share our Easter table. Thank you for coming by!

Today I'm joining

Marty's Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Nita's Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life

Kim's Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

 

Easter Mantel, and a Little Break

Hi everyone! Where did the last two weeks go? It sounds like almost everyone in the country is enjoying beautiful spring weather right now. We have spent a good amount of time outside lately, except for a few days of storms. Everyone in Texas is celebrating the 4 and 5 inches of rain that we all received, that's for sure. It's a little mushy in our yard right now, but it's a small price to pay when so many are getting relief from the devastating drought we have been in.

So on to the Easter mantel! We're keeping it simple here this year, and I have also discovered that I don't really have all that many Easter decorations since we moved on the from the "little kid" holiday decor. Plus there's really no time for shopping right now, and after writing a couple of really big checks lately for college - gaaahhhhhh - it's a shop the house kind of Easter this year. 

 

But really, what could ever be more perfect for Easter than the classic Bordallo cabbage plates? I never tire of these.

 

 

A couple of ceramic bunzers, Big Lots circa 2007 or so, 

 

 

some wheat grass in tiny pots,

 

 

and some ribbon from my stash, mixed together for some pretty spring brightness. Thrifted too, I might add! A 50 yard spool of that pretty plaid for $2. Yes, the red candleholders are still red. I figured that it will be Christmas before we know it, so I'll put painting these on the to-do list for 2013 :) Fixing up that tattered mantel is, too. 

 

 

And OK now, don't laugh. But we're already working on decorations for senior prom, and they're already taking over the house, so I'm using some of them in my spring decor.  

The second I saw Debbie's painted tin cans, the "free decorations!" light bulb came on, and I pinned these as an idea for our table centerpieces. Add $3 worth of Dollar Tree florals and some branches from the back yard, and voila, decor! 

I'm just hoping that we can consume enough cans of plum tomatoes between now and May 5th to decorate every table. 

 

In the coming months, my appearance here on the blog may be a little scarce. We're coming up on the last two months of high school with our daughter, and I really want to devote every moment to fully enjoying her activities. I know that once it's over, it's really over, and then we will be enjoying life as empty nesters! We are so happy that Abby will be moving on to college life at the University of Texas, and glad that it's only 3-1/2 hours away. Maurie has clients in Austin that he needs to call on occasionally, so she may be seeing more of us than she really wants to :)

 

Although I plan on cutting back on blogging time, I do have a couple more Easter posts that I'm working on to share with you all before the holiday. I'm also working on writing Part Two of the Slipcover Tutorial, and hope to have that up for you all this week. I promise to still pop in on you all whenever possible, too! 

 

Today I'm joining 

Marty's Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life 

Linda's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Kim's Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Newbie Reunion Party at Debbiedoos

Spring and Easter Tablescapes, Revisited

I haven't pulled together my Easter tablescape elements yet this year. I don't even really have the theme quite in mind yet, other than Yellow. Yellow hasn't been done here for Easter, and it sounds so refreshing and bright!

Please come with me and revisit some tablescapes done in past years here at Opulent Cottage. We'll start with an Outdoor Easter Table. This was the first year I had acquired my parents' Metlox Pink Lady wedding china, set with silver, shabby candlesticks, and some sweet pink striped napkins.

 

 

I still swoon over these pretty coffee cups.

One of my readers' favorite tables was this pretty romantic lunch table, using the black and white toile plates from Tabletops Unlimited. The original post is found here.  

 
 

 These plates are no longer available anywhere that I have found, but they do pop up on Ebay every now and then. Just in case you're looking :)

 

This grocery-store purchased Churchill and sweet pink roses would be lovely for a spring or Easter luncheon. This tablescape was inspired by the beautiful book Tabletops. (Original post here)

 

It's hard to conjure anything prettier than a teapot and pink roses.

And always perfect for any spring gathering, the classic Bordallo cabbage plates are such a lovely compliment to yellow roses and ivy. Original post here.

 

This could be recreated with the painted pears from yesterday's post!

 

Thank you for coming by to see my past tablescapes! I may share a few more next week, also, and am hopeful that I will have our Easter table to show. Today I'm joining:

Debbie's Springtacular Tablescapes at Refresh Restyle

Susan's Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch

Shirley's Tablescape Party at Housepitality Designs

Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper

Judy's Swing Into Spring at DIY Be Design

Repainted Beaded Fruit for Spring

Who else has seen these pretty Pottery Barn pears? They are sold as vase filler, and are only $16 for a set of six. But how about an easy way to copy these without going to Pottery Barn, and for free?

 

 

You'll need some old, unused plastic fruit. We all have these beaded fruit hanging around, don't we? I actually didn't, because I foolishly gave mine away, but one of my neighbors put hers in a big box on the curb last month, so I snagged them! 

Paint your fruit with some bright green spray paint (you could also use craft paint). This is Key Lime from Rustoleum. Wowza. Kinda hurts your eyes, doesn't it? We'll fix this!

 

They sort of look like horse apples right now. Love those, but that's not the look we are going for today. 

Mix 1 part Burnt Umber craft paint with 2 parts glazing medium. Brush it over the whole pear, then wipe off with a paper towel. The paint mixture will settle into the space between the beads and tone the color way down. 

Instant improvement!

Add more of the paint/glaze mixture at the top and bottom, to make the pear look a little more realistic. They will be really imperfect, which is totally OK! Nature isn't perfect, which is part of its beauty :)

I had a little fun recreating the Pottery Barn photo, too.

So dig in those Christmas boxes, find some old fruit, break out the craft paint, and make yourself a little bit of spring today! 

I'm joining:

Kim's Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Judy's Winter Blues Wednesday at DIY By Design

Gina's Spring Craft Party at Random Thoughts

Roeshel's Project Parade at DIY Showoff

Stephanie Lynn's Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming

Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

It's A Cinch Party at Thistlewood Farm

Copycat Tabletop Garden

One of my favorite articles from the winter 2012 Lowe's Creative Ideas for Home and Garden magazine was Tabletop Gardens. (You can sign up here for the magazine, it's free!) The tabletop saucer garden was my inspiration for this month's Copycat Challenge at Debbiedoo's and Marty's Spring Cloche Party. 

 

The supply list for this project is:  2 pendant light cones, a 16" terra-cotta saucer, tiny plants, river rock, seashells, and coral. Easy enough! But y'all know I wasn't ever really going to run over to Lowe's and just buy all of this, right? The Horror. That would just be No Fun At All. No, we're going to thrift for it! Dig plants out of the yard! Search the attic for what we already have! Now that's what I call Fun. 

First stop, Goodwill. They always have random, odd assorted glass globes (or pendant light cones, as specified in the Lowe's article). For $2.99 each! 

Next stop, the back yard, for a cutting of ajuga, and some lamb's ear. 

From there I dug through my floral stash for some river rock and pea gravel, leftover from a project last year. I also found some reindeer moss, shells, and tiny pine cones. Finding a clay saucer had me stumped though, until I realized that it didn't make sense to use that anyway. For this to  be sitting on my kitchen table or coffee table, I needed something more waterproof as a base. I substituted a glass tray that we already owned. 

 

 

This was so fun to put together. I laid a layer of pea gravel, then started playing around with the placement of my plants.

The easiest way to secure the tiny plants was in peat pots, which I tore in half to reduce the height.

Sprigs of the newly rooted ivy went into each of the globes, and the lamb's ear and ajuga were nestled into the tray. I love the variation of texture in each little plant.

Another layer of pea gravel went in, along with some river rock, the tiny pine cones, and some glittered shells. I made sure to camouflage the peat pots with the larger rocks and some moss.

 

It would be nice to have one of these in every room, made in different types of containers. I have been trying to add more live plants to our home, due to their ability to clean pollutants and toxins from the air. I'll probably just water this with a spray bottle, and be sure to set it outside (or in an east-facing window) once or twice a week to get some sunlight. 

Total cost, $6 for the two globes :)  I hope you'll try a tabletop garden of your own! 

You'll find this and so many more ideas at

Debbiedoo's Copycat Challenge

Roeshel's DIY Project Parade at DIY Showoff

Stephanie's Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming

Tisha's Show and Tell Monday at Delectable Home

Nita's Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life

Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Marty's Spring Cloche Party at A Stroll Thru Life

Beth's Tutorials and Tips at Home Stories A to Z

Donna's Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors

What Happened to Spring?

It's cold, rainy, and blustery. Mother Nature sure has a sense of humor! Just when I was feeling confident enough to start checking the temperature of the pool, it will be in the 30s tonight. The water was only up to 62, by the way. That's still a little too chilly for me. OK, a lot too chilly.

 

I needed something to cheer me up, but only had a bit of time to devote to a new project. So I whipped up a couple of new bright, springy tea towels for our kitchen, one with some sweet old-timey y0-yos, and one with scraps of vintage grain sacks,

and put a few plaid bows on my wheat grass. I saw this idea at Pam's Simple Details blog, and couldn't get mine planted fast enough. It has only been 6 days! You could almost stand here and watch it grow. The second batch of ivy is rooted and almost ready to be planted, too.

Come back, spring! I miss you already. 

I'm joining:

Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Honey's Potpourri Friday at 2805

Heather and Vanessa's Inspiration Friday At The Picket Fence

Sherry's Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper

p.s. I was totally sidetracked by a school project this week, but will be back next week with Part Two of the slipcover tutorial, I promise! Thank you all again for your wonderful feedback on this project.

A Simple Spring Mantel

We're lucky to be having a sunny, warm, throw-the-draperies-open kind of day. The kind of day that makes it nearly impossible to stay inside and complete one's chores. I gave myself 15 mintues to do a little springifying, then get back to the mundane Monday morning tasks. sigh. 

 

I ran next door to "borrow" and few branches from my neighbor's Bradford Pear tree. They are all nearly in full bloom everywhere in Dallas, and just gorgeous.

 

My helper couldn't get to the ladder fast enough, to see how she could be of assistance. Or should I say hindrance?!

 

I plopped the branches into a weathered French flower bucket, and grabbed a few plates and glass hurricane candleholders.

 

The twine-wrapped candles made their way onto these tall candleholders. Does anyone else think that maybe I should paint these white? Then antique them? I like the sort of simple*elegant*Frenchy feel that's starting to come together here, but that red doesn't work for me.

Or maybe I should use the old baluster that I trash-picked last month to make some of these. Love the little feet.

 

source

 

I wish everyone a safe, weather-free day today. My heart goes out to all who have been so devastated by the violent storms we have had here in the US. 

 

Today I'm joining

Marty's Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Shannon's Spring Mantel Party at Fox Hollow Cottage

How to Slipcover a Slipper Chair, Tutorial Part One

Thank you all so much for the rave reviews on our newly slipcovered slipper chairs! As promised, here's Part One of my tutorial on how to make a simple skirted slipcover.

Remember, this is what I started with. Too many years sitting in front of our west-facing living room windows had left these chairs faded and tattered.

I'm making my slipcovers with prewashed and pre-bleached Finish Factor canvas drop cloths from Lowe's. You can read about how I pretreated them here. To start, I took a few minutes to pre-plan the layout for cutting, as I hoped to waste as little fabric as possible. If you are buying yardage for your slipcovers, I would really encourage you to make a paper pattern (or use an old sheet) to help determine the amount of fabric you'll need. For this project I'm sort of winging it, due to the inexpensive nature of this fabric. I have done several projects with these drop cloths, and had a few extra remnant pieces already. If I was working with client fabric, or more costly fabric, I would definitely have made a complete pattern first, or traced each pattern piece onto the fabric with tailor's chalk.

 

To start, I traced a crude outline of the side of the rolled back of the chair. Yep, that's leftover butcher paper. Told you I'm a waste not, want not kind of crafter. This piece is only going halfway down the side of the chair, lining up with the seat, as the pleated skirt will attach to it later in the process.

 

 

Cut it out, adding a rough 1 inch seam allowance. Rule #1 when making slipcovers:  leave plenty of extra fabric allowance when cutting! You will be able to trim any excess away later, but you sure can't make it grow back if you cut it a little small. 

 

 

Cut your first piece, then, if your fabric has a right side, flip your pattern over to cut the second piece. 

 

 

Next up is piping. You don't have to add piping, and if you don't want to make it, you can use purchased piping. I happened to have leftover cording, and remants of the canvas, so I chose to make mine. I won't go into detail here, but you can find instructions on making piping all over the internet. 

Pin the side piece to the chair, and fit the piping all around, pinning it to the fabric as you go. Good thing I had a plentiful seam allowance, because I was really close in a couple of spots.

Unpin your side piece from the chair, then sew on the piping. Use your zipper foot so that you can get as close as possible to the piping seam. Pin it back to the chair again to measure for the center panel.

 

Mine was 26 inches across, and 58 inches up and over the top, to the floor. I cut a large piece, 28 inches by 64 inches. Remember, cut extra! This allows for a 2 inch hem at the bottom of the back of the chair, also.

 

Now you will need to pin it all together -- inside out. Once again, I temporarily pinned the side pieces on,

 

 

and laid the center piece over, pinning it to the side where it meets the piping.

This is the first time that you will have to make a judgement call about exactly how snug, or loose, you want your slipcover to be. Be prepared to have to pin and repin several times! If you can't get it off of the chair, it's too tight. Loosen it, using a little less of your extra seam allowance from the center panel. See how I have pinned along the stitch line of the piping? You'll still want to make sure that you pin along that line, because this is where you will sew it together. 

 

Carefully remove your fabric, and baste it all together. I used a long 4.5 stitch on my Pfaff sewing machine (not sure what that translates to for American made sewing machines). I say baste because it's likely that you will want to remove and restitch at least part of your slipcover once you try it back on the chair. Sew the seam with the side piece facing up, as it allows to go along the same line of stitching that you sewed the piping on with. (If you're not using piping, this won't be important.)

 

Turn right side out, and wiggle it back onto the chair. Go slowly! Don't force it too quickly and risk tearing your seams. Here's my first attempt -- not too bad! 

 

But see these puckered stitches? They're not that bad, but I really wanted to have a smooth seam. I fixed these, then restitched the seam to secure it. Now we're done with the main part of the chair!

 

 

I'm going to break this up into several steps, partly so that this doesn't become the world's longest, most exhausting blog post :) and also because I forgot to take a couple of photos, and I'm going to have to finish the second chair and re-photograph some of the steps! Good thing I have two chairs, haha.

For Part Two, I'll show how the skirt comes together. I know it looks like it could be complicated, but it's just so easy, you won't believe it.

I hope this makes sense! If you have any questions, email me at andrea(dot)haywood(at)sbcglobal(dot) net, and I'll be happy to try to answer them. It's my hope that soon, we'll be seeing photos of your new slipcovers! I'll be back soon with Part Two.

Joining:

Diann's Thrifty Things Friday at The Thrifty Groove

Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Heather and Vanessa's Inspiration Friday At The Picket Fence

Karen's What Have You Redone at Redoux

Honey's Potpourri Friday at 2805

Sherry's Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

Jen's Weekend Wrap Up at Tatertots and Jello

Donna's Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors

Roeshel's DIY Project Parade at DIY Show Off

Stephanie's Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming

Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Tisha's Show and Tell Monday at Delectable Home

Beth's Tutorials and Tips Tuesday at Home Stories A to Z

Sarah's Before and After Monday at Thrifty Decor Chick