"Arabian Flower" Tablescape

Hi everyone!

Wow, I can't believe how fast the last couple of weeks have flown by! 

Actually the whole month!

My Mom and I had lots of FUN during her visit just like I knew we would! 

Well that is after I got past the initial shock of the surprise arrival! 

When she got here I had just gotten in the shower to start getting ready to go out for dinner with my in-laws to celebrate my birthday, when I here knocking at the bathroom/bedroom door.  

Thinking it was my hubby I go to the door looking something like a cross between a scarecrow and a drown rat!  Open up the door ready to bite my hubby's head off for the persistent knocking, thinking what the heck is the problem! 

and...

There stands my Mom :-0  

Thank goodness I was at least covered with a towel!!! 

Can you imagine my shock?!!  and hers too!! LOL!

Anyway, once the shock wore off and I finished getting myself put together we all went out for dinner and had a great time!  

I couldn't have "wished" for a nicer birthday

and I didn't even have to blow out any candles!!

During the rest of Mom's visit we mostly shopped till we dropped!! Which unfortunately doesn't take much time for either of us these days! 

She spoiled me rotten with many wonderful birthday gifts,

and a girls day at the beauty salon!

We also went out to lunch nearly everyday which was also such a treat for me! 

Even though it was a bit challenging for me diet wise,

  but I did pretty good by sticking mostly to salads. 

We really had a great time!  It's too bad that it flew by much too fast though.

But I'm soooo grateful for the time we got to spend together!!!

Now... I just couldn't wait to share this

fun colorful, casual tablescape with you but I'm getting it posted LATE as I've been having trouble loading my pics,  Blogger keeps changing the format on me...

and I guess I'm a slow learner!!

These colorful hand painted plates are made by 222 Fifth, the pattern is called Arabian Flower. I thought they looked like Fall, Halloween, and French Country all rolled into one!  

The plaid woven placemats you might recognize from my last post... They are actually napkins that I folded and pressed into placemat size... tricky aren't I! 

If you were wondering what that not so yummy looking treat in the bowls happens to be.... Well, it may not look delicious but it's potpourri that really smells of delicious pumpkin spice!

These cute lil cabbage candle holders with golden yellow candles I used next to my yellow ware mixing bowl filled with this colorful arrangement of Lantana that I borrowed from my neighbors bush, along with this pomegrante filled matching yellow stoneware dish with sunflower accents on each end that I bought at Marshalls a few years ago.

The deep red stemware look almost black, but either color would make a nice compliment to the place setting I think?! 

Of course a couple of french country pear candleholders were just the ticket as well!

I really love mixing patterns, like these damask "Waverly" napkins

 with the other napkins... I mean placemats;)

The black iron scroll napkin rings were T/S finds and seemed like a nice match with the plates and the french country feel.

....and of course you know a french country tablescape just would

not be complete without what else but?    

A ROOSTER ;)  

This one is made by Bluesky.

 I'm linking up with

Tablescape Thursday

even though I know I'm running a bit late...

Well I hope your October has been fun! 

I'm so glad you stopped by!

I always love visiting and sharing with you!!!

XOXO,  Sherri:-)

Tabletop Tuesday~and Blog Break to Spend with a Surprise Visitor!

I got a most wonderful surprise for my birthday! 

My Mom flew out and came a knocking at my door totally unexpectedly!   

Can you believe it?!!

 I'm sooo happy to see her,  it has been sooo long!!

She will be here for about a week or so, and were going to be busy having
LOTS of FUN!

But I just had to share the news with you, before a take a blogging break,

cuz you know how much I've been missing her!

I also wanted to share this little Fall tabletop vignette with you first...

I found this silver plated dish at G/W, it was heavily tarnished but I was sure it was a going to be a treasure once I cleaned and polished it up! 

My eyes opened wide like a kid in a candy store as I polished it to reveal the beautiful shiny design beneath all that tarnish!!

Update... for those of you interested, I use Wright's Silver Cream

to polish my silver. It comes with a little sponge inside,

and apparently its also good for a lot of other uses too!

You can go "here"  to find out.

I added this wonderful smelling harvest potpourri (Ross) and pumpkin spice candles(Kohls) on this set of my sterling candlesticks, and favorite Fitz and Floyd rooster all on top this colorful orange and green plaid napkin to really make it pop! 

I'm linking up with Marty's

Tabletop Tuesday

Stop by there if you can for some creative inspiration!!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

I'm sure I will!!

Hugs to you!  Sherri:)

Guestroom Makover with lil help from a Friend!

Some of you may remember the guest room I started working on with the inspiration from a bedspread/quilt made for me by my Mother. 

Well it came to a stand still for awhile until recently when
Dawn from
Cottage State of Mind 

happened to notice from a snippet of the quilt in a prior post and said

"hey I have some of that same fabric"
and that she basically hadn't figured out what to do with it yet.

Well, it turns out that I had an excellent idea for it !!

 I had been thinking that I really needed some

matching pillow shams to go with that quilt that my had Mom made for me.
See...

I had even called Mom to see if she had any leftover fabric, but unfortunately she
didn't, and of course it was no longer available in the store as well. 

So after reading Dawn's comment I sent her an e-mail to inquire about her fabric and told her the story about the quilt, that needed shams.  

and offered to buy the fabric if she wasn't going to use it.

Her being the sweet gal that she is, came right to the rescue and said,

  "You can have it"!

"I'd much rather see it go to good use than sit around here another couple of years"! 

I wasn't in any hurry for it either,

but she jumped right on it and it was at my door the next day!!! 

I was stunned!!

YOU are such a ANGEL Dawn! 

... and I'm ordering you a lil thank you gift for being SOOO SWEET!

I got the shams all made and then I transformed a seat cushion with an embroidered crewel design into a throw pillow...

Much better don't ya think?!

The seat cushion was a T/S find for a $1.50!  I took it apart removed the old worn out stuffing, washed it by hand then cut it into a rectangle and sewed and restuffed it with new pillow batting!

I also found an incredible floral arrangement at a local T/S for under 5 bucks!! 

All it need was a little sprucing up.

I cleaned up the flowers and then layered on a little acrylic paint antiquing medium with a sponge to the planter,

 followed by a little beige and and off white paint to bring out the design.

Here it is after... on top my antique trunk, along with some other pretties I shopped around the house for!

Like everything in my house... this room is it's still a work in progress!! 

 I hope you enjoyed the tour for now though!

Thanks again to Dawn for her generosity and inspiring me to get back to doing the things I love most!!

Hope you are having a nice weekend! 

Love you all!!  Hugs and kisses!! 

Hey,  I took this photo in the bathroom...

So does that qualify me to be a Bathroom Diva too?!

Guess I'd better give a shout over to Sheila at NoteSongs to see!!

Sherri ;-)

Canister Makeover

I have recently been on the lookout for some cute new canisters.  

However, so far I've seen only found

 either very pricey ones, or ones that are not exactly what I had in mind.

So I thought hey!!

Why not jazz up my old ones that I already have!

Here are my old canisters BEFORE,
(sorry I really thought I had shown the top of them in this shot).
 
I had a design idea in mind and went searching at Michael's crafts store and found these darling, very inexpensive little metal frames. 

 I then looked and looked through all the stick on labels and such that they make now and couldn't find any that spelled out SUGAR or FLOUR, so...

I decided I would just have to make my own. 

Here they are below.

After measuring to see what size they needed to be.  I used my photo editing program to get them just right and printed them out.

Now the tricky part was cutting them to fit inside the middle of the frame, especially rounding those corners. But you could probably take a plain piece of paper to practice a few times and then use it for a template once perfected.

There were only a few things needed to do this project, which I happened to already have on hand! These older glass canisters can often be found in thrift stores or garage sales.  I wanted my frames to have a blackend antique look so I dabbed some black acrylic paint on them and dabbed off a bit until I had the desired look I wanted. 

 Of course you might choose a different color to suit yourself and decor.  Oh be sure not to paint the area in the center of the frame where the label goes as it may show through. 

Then evenly brush a thin layer of glue on the inside area of the frame and apply your label. Carefully smoothing it out from the center to the edges, let dry. 

Once dried seal it by again brushing on a layer or 2 of varnish, let dry.   

Before applying your frame wash canisters thoroughly and dry thoroughly.  Then decide where you want it placed.  You could actually use a piece of masking tape as a placement guide (which I should have done), or just eyeball it (which is what I did). 

Apply the hot glue to the back of the frame.   

WARNING!  the frame will become very HOT! 

You might want to were gloves to protect your fingers! 
Once you've applied the glue quickly place it on the canister
holding the frame gently by the edges. 

Then when in place use a towel over the top of it to press it down firmly. 

Then gently peel back the towel a little at a time because a bit of the glue may attach to the towel and you don't want it pulling off your frame.  A bit of the glue is probably going to squish up through your label.

So when it has dried and hardened it can easily removed by

using a pointed exacto knife (as shown above). 

The top was a piece of cake.
Simply remove the lid and the plastic rim and cover with approximately 3 light coats of spray paint. Allowing paint to dry between each coat. When you hold it up and can no longer see through the paint you've got enough!

Here's a look at them all filled and looking pretty on the counter. 

 From now on I will be spot cleaning the outside with some glass cleaner 

and will have to use care when washing the inside. 

Btw, this whole project only took about an hour or so!

Have fun, and thanks for taking the time to stop by!

 As always, I appreciate your sweet comments!

Hugs, Sherri:-)

I'm linking up with Cindy for
"Show and Tell Friday"

and also with....

Susan from BNOTP for

"Metamorphosis Monday"   

Oh and a NEW meme 

"Motivated Monday"

At Pam's from

"Be colorful"

Please stop by and visit their blogs and the others participating for some

wonderful inspiration!!  

Eight Cubed "A getting to know you game"

Im playing along today with my friend

Pat at "Gypsy Heart" 

in a get to know you game called "Eight cubed"

that she is passing on from another blogging friend. 

Here is her quote about the game:  

 Eight cubed is where Eight people get to answer Eight questions and then tag Eight of their friends with Eight questions of their own. Get it? Got it! Good!

Yep, I think I Got it Pat...

Here are my answers to your questions below, and I think like you did,  I'll just see if there is anyone else who'd like to play along instead of

doing the tagging thing.

1.  What is your favorite time of the year and why?

I would of had a different answer to this question when I was in my 20's because back then I loved the Summer and spending hours baking in the sun trying to get a great tan!    But funny how things change... I can't stand HOT temps in the Summer now!!   So I'd have to say spring, because it feels like a time of rebirth with so many flowers blooming after winter.   I also love the fresh smell in the air when the sun comes out after a spring shower !

2.  Tell me what your most special dream for the future is.

Besides good health,  I'd have to say that I always dreamed of taking family and friends on a private chartered yacht to the Mediterranean!  Hey were talking DREAMS here right! lol!  Okay, a more realistic dream (I think) is getting my kitchen remodeled.

3.  Do you prefer TP (toilet paper) over or under?

Okay I used to be an UNDER/ TP person, then Oprah did a show once where someone asked her that question, and she said she was an OVER person, and she made it sound so much better that I switched, and have been an OVER person ever since!

4.  Would you prefer to cook or make reservations?

Now this is an easy one!!  R-E-S-E-R-V-A-T-I-O-N-S!!  After cooking for my family for soooo many years, eating out is such a treat to me!  But when I was younger I REALLY did enjoy cooking and trying new recipes!!

5.  I'd love to know your most memorable holiday ever!

Years ago when my family still lived close by, I used to always put on Easter celebrations.  One Easter that stands out is one where my hubby had just bought a video camera and we video taped everyone that day having fun and acting silly!

6.  What is your favorite item of clothing?

Hmmm, I guess it would have to be the cool and kinda funky t-shirt with some butterflies and beads on it that I recently bought with my 10.00 off coupon from Kohls.... Thanks Kohls!!!

7.  Coffee or tea? 

More of coffee drinker in the winter, and an ice tea drinker in the summer.

8.  If I came to visit, what would we do?

Uhhhh....lets see, well if the weather was nice we'd sit and talk alot over coffee, tea, or something out on the patio.  I'd probably want to take you to Nevada City, one my favorite places to go to for a drive, some shopping, and lunch.

If you want to see what it's like there you can go to this post I did last year...
 "Fun Day in Nevada City".

Okay, now here are my eight questions to pass along to anyone interested in playing.  Please play!  I think it will be fun to get to know ya'll better!   If you do decide to play along please let me know so I can come by to see your answers, Okay? Okay?!

1.  What are three words that best describe you?

2.  What is your favorite snack?

3.  What place would you most like to visit? why?

4.  Heels or flats?

5.  What is your favorite thing to do?, (besides blogging)

6.  Early bird, or night owl?

7.  What's something you've always wanted to do but haven't?

8.  What are your favorite smells?

Thanks for stopping by an playing along! 

Have a great day!!

Hugs, Sherri:-)