Opulent Cottage

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

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

Our New Slipper Chair Slipcovers

When I first spoke of doing new slipper chair slipcovers, several of you emailed me, in horror, that I would consider covering our red chairs in a neutral color (you can see them here). Trust me, I haven't completely lost my mind! There's really a plan behind this madness.

 

Here's little history on the chairs. They came to me in 1997 when a friend pulled up in front of our house unannounced, carried them in, and said "I bought these chairs at a sample sale today. You need them. They're your color. And by the way you owe me 80 bucks." Seriously, I got both of these for just $80. 

 

They had really brightly striped cushions, and the red cotton that you still see below was on the base. I lived with them for a while, then decided that I was done with the stripe. I bought what I thought was enough fabric to slipcover both chairs, but never got any farther than the cushions, as I had not gotten enough fabric. Of course, when I went back for more,  it was sold out. These two fabrics matched at that point, so it was okay. But too many years sitting in west-facing windows led to this

They're gross. Seriously faded, and filthy. Aren't you glad I never showed this before ? :) 15 years of kids, animals, and family living will do that. It's really time for an update! When I realized that I had pinned white slipcovers over and over again, I knew I was ready to make the change. 

What a difference! I love them!

And again, this neutral base gives me more opportunity to change my pillows and accessories on a seasonal basis. They look great with the Christmas plaid pillows

And the Pottery Barn knock off sweater pillow (from a $2 thrift store sweater!)

 

Ticking stripes and toile would be an option, too.

How fun will it be this spring to make some vintage tablecloth pillows! I have wanted those forever, but they would never have worked with the old fabric. I can't say enought about how crazy I am about this fabric, the washed and bleached canvas drop cloths. This entire chair was done with a two-pack of drop cloths, purchased for $15. I was initially concerned that they wouldn't be light enough, but once on the chair, they appear lighter than the fabric actually is. It's a great cross between white and ivory. I really could not have chosen a worse time of day to take these photos, but I hope you get the idea.

Ugh, now the rest of the room looks horrible! I think I just created a few more projects for myself  :)

 

And while I do have a good amount of sewing experience, I truly feel that even those of you with just basic sewing skills could do this. I photographed the entire process, and hope to complete an organized tutorial in the next few days. Once you all see how simple it really was, I hope you'll be tackling your own slipcovers.

 

Thanks so much for coming by to see my new slipcover! I'll finish the second one tomorrow, then you all will probably get bombarded with more photos of these chairs than you ever thought possible.

 

News Flash! Part One of the Slipcover Tutorial is up, you can find it here!

 

I'm joining:

Diann's Thrifty Things Friday at The Thrifty Groove

Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at Laurie Anna's

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

Tisha's Show and Tell Monday at Delectable Home

Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Kim's Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Paula and Patti's What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants

Judy's Winter Blues Wednesday at DIY By Design

Sherry's Open House Party at No Minimalist Here

 

It's Almost Spring!

Is it too early to start springifying the house? I sure hope not, because the Valentine's decorations got put away this weekend, and something had to go up :)

Sunflowers always put me in a sunny mood. Believe it or not, I have had these for two weeks. Cheerful oranges and other produce brought out thoughts of spring, too. Although I'm losing part of this display tonight after we eat these artichokes!

My red Pier One birdie plates were paired with a sweet plate that my mom gave me awhile back, and some green canisters. Do you think those are spring onions, or leeks on the light green one? Another favorite thrifting find, I love to bring it out in the spring.

The ivy that I have been rooting is growing and happy! Now that we are probably past any hard freezes here in Dallas, I'll plant these outside and start a new batch. 

Have a wonderful start to the week, everyone! Thanks for coming by to visit.

Love, Andrea

I'm Joining:

Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper

Tisha's Show and Tell Party at Delectable Home

Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Nita's Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life

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

 

Valentine Touches

Valentine's Day is always extra-special for us, as it's also our wedding anniversary. But this one marks a milestone -- 25 years! With our busy lives right now it doesn't really make sense for us to get away, so we're spending the holiday together as a family. I'm looking at it as a sort of four day weekend, with some fun outings, all of our favorite recipes, and plenty of treats. 

 

In the kitchen nook I set a simple table for us to enjoy the next few days. As a base I started with this floral tablecloth, which is actually a thrifted Pottery Barn sheet! 

I added some pretty roses in a tea pot,

A few candles for an evening glow,

and some dessert dishes, awaiting one of the many treats I hope to make for my family.

Some red berries, gingham ribbon, and a sweet ceramic heart decorate a simple twig wreath over our living room mirror. I bought two more of the dollar store kalanchoes, and I think I'll paint up these clay pots with something Valentine-ey. Wouldn't red and white checks be cute?

I'm so ready to start baking some yummy treats and desserts! What are you doing for Valentine's Day?

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

Sherry's Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Honey's Potpourri Friday at 2805

Farmhouse Friday at Laurie Anna's

Cindy's Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Laurie's Valentine Party at Bargain Hunting with Laurie

Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper

Tisha's Show and Tell Party at Delectable Home

Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Nita's Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life

Valentine Party at Dear Lillie