PresentPast Collection

Comforts of Home

A day at home. Just what I needed. It's been so incredibly busy for me lately and to be able to stay home and putter around the house doing normal chores is the perfect cure for the hectic pace I've been keeping. There were laundries of fresh towels and sheets to be tended to.

And yesterdays orders all packed up and ready for the mailman. Followed by a sushi lunch on the patio with a couple new magazines to browse through.

Next was watering the garden, hosing down the patio furniture, cleaning cobwebs and getting ready for the Easter celebration at our house on Sunday. Sounds like work but believe me, it was very relaxing. I took my time and puttered around all day. My sister called me during the day to make sure I wasn't working and that I was actually taking a day off. I assured her that indeed, it was a day of rest. Isn't it wonderful how comforting a day at home can be?

Suggestions Welcome

This weekend at the flea market I found the perfect Easter basket for Sweet Girl. I am thinking of roughing it up a bit though to give it a little more "vintage appeal". I started picking up a few other items to embellish it and of course, fill it up with sweets and treats.

This box of cookies came packaged with the pretty ribbon and sunflower. It's from TJ Maxx which is exploding with all kinds of spring decor right now. I haven't been there in quite some time and forgot how much "stuff" they have for the holidays. I only came home with a few things because I felt it was almost stimulation overload.

Moving on to the title of the post. I bought this lamp as you see it. I loved it the minute I saw it and knew it was going home with me. I even loved the wire frame from the long ago shade with it's remnants of fabric still attached. But then again....I thought it would look nice with a creamy linen shade and a petite ruffle along the bottom edge.

Which then leads me to my need for your suggestions. Should I recover the shade or not? I know I can trust you all to help me out on this one. You can even call me crazy for liking it the way it is. My feelings won't be hurt, don't worry.

Want to see the base up close? It has the perfect amount of rustic patina.

How about the tole painted flowers? Would you like to see them also?

Ok ladies, tell me what you think I should do with my new found lamp. Am I crazy for thinking of leaving it the way it is? Possibly. Majority votes will rule on this one and I promise to follow whichever suggestion is the largest since I obviously can't make up my mind. Thanks gals, this is what friends are for!

Pampering 101

Some women are masters at pampering themselves, others pamper their pets more than probably need be, and we all pamper our loved ones, which tends to come easy for most women. I thought it would be fun to have a Pampering Class and share ideas with each other on how we take some time for ourselves.

One of my daily pampering rituals is taking a long hot soaking bath. I'm the type who splurges on bath products while on vacation to bring home as souvenirs. They are my favorite gift to myself.

Another way I pamper myself is to sit outside in my backyard (weather permitting) and have lunch. Our landscape isn't completely finished or drop dead gorgeous but I still enjoy the birds, flowers and fresh air. This little break leaves me very refreshed and relaxed.

Finally, something new I plan on doing this year to pamper myself is to spend more time exploring. I want to visit new places, go to the beach more often, have picnics in the mountains and enjoy the opportunities to travel.

So...here's where you all come in! If you'd like to participate in our Pampering Class, just leave a comment answering these 3 questions.

1. What do you splurge on to pamper yourself?

2. What no-cost way do you pamper yourself?

3. What new way will you pamper yourself this year?

I can't wait to hear your answers and hope that we all enjoy reading and perhaps trying some of the ideas shared!  Happy Pampering!

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and wish you a very Happy New Year! It's been nice taking some much needed time off and just enjoying the holidays with my friends and family. I had a birthday as well on the 27th which adds to all the ongoing celebrations and festivities. And it was indeed a very Happy Birthday!

There are so many exciting things that will be happening in 2008 and I can't wait for all the changes. Wish I could spill all the beans right here and now, but I'm learning to be very patient. This past year has been a whirlwind of adventure and I know that the next will be just as fulfilling. I picked up this great journal calendar while I was out shopping. I don't know if I'll use it much because I rely mostly on my Treo cell phone for appointments and such, but this one was so beautiful and looks very vintage! Maybe I can train myself to use it on my desk for reminders.

So......does anyone have any New Year's Resolutions? If so, I'd love to hear them! I'm working on a very small list myself. Small because I don't want to break too many! One of the most important ones will be to de-clutter every square inch of my house. I've enlisted The Man and Sweet Girl to share in this resolution and to say they are excited would be not be accurate. It's more like they have waved their white flag in defeat, knowing that they will be forced to join the troops of Operation De-Clutter! Victory will be ours in 2008!

P.S. If some of my previous photos and posts look a little off to you it's because I've changed the format of my blog in order to bring you larger photos to view in the New Year. It's a small change I've been meaning to make and a great way to kick off another year of blogging. Hope you enjoy the improvement!

Time Flies!

I just can't believe how fast this past week flew by! We had a fantastic Thanksgiving day that ended with a dance off in my family room. I don't think I won, more than likely it was my sister since she has the best moves! I also finally got myself another car. It's taken me forever to decide what I wanted and I ended up buying one from here. I'm so excited to learn how to use the 4-wheel drive and go "rompin" as my Sweet Girl calls it. I think I'm getting the hang of the navigation system which I love!

I also spent several days with my sweet friend Fifi and the incredible art director Miss Sunday who were out scouting some incredible California hot spots for upcoming projects. These photos are from Paris to the Moon in Costa Mesa (sorry, no website). It is a magical little jewel box of a store filled to the brim with holiday goodies!

I bought quite a few things as you can imagine. Everything is so tempting! I'll take some photos of my loot to share with you.

We also stopped by Christie Repasy's home and studio. Her sister-in-law Rita, sells at the La Maison Rustique Barn and there are always some of her beautiful paintings available for purchase at the Barn. Here is a shot from one of the bedrooms which is so romantic and inviting.

Here is part of her studio in Laguna Beach which is filled with her incredible paintings.

She has a very large workroom in the back with antique frames hanging all over the walls waiting to be filled with her artwork and large work tables with prints and canvases in various stages of completion.

She was just as sweet as can be and was so kind to let us snap, snap, snap lots of photos. There were lots of other shops and locations but I don't have very many photos to show you. I brought my camera with the best of intentions but completely forgot to take pictures because I was sidetracked by my shopping! I'm so excited for Christmas this year I can hardly stand it and all those stores filled with holiday finery was just the inspiration I needed. Let the decorating begin!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thank you all for leaving such wonderful comments of your Thanksgiving blessings. I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving with those you hold dear!

There have been some jewelry items restocked in the shop. The Fleur De Lis necklace, the Good Luck Charms, the Parisian Charms and the Bebe necklace are back just in time for your holiday shopping and arrive to you beautifully packaged. There will also be new items added and several that have been continuously "sold out" next week. Thank you dear customers for keeping me so busy! I appreciate each and every one of you!

Fall Goodies Winner

We have a winner! Using the Random Number Generator, which has been generously provided by Violets Are Blue, our lucky commenter was Traci Thorson of Everyday Moments! Congratulations Traci, please send me an email with your mailing address and I will get your Fall items on their way to you!

Reading all those comments was such fun and I appreciate all the congratulatory wishes on my Blogiversary. I wanted to answer a couple questions from your comments. The apple picking day was in Oak Glen, California. They have lots of different orchards and a couple small shopping "villages" to spend your day enjoying the season, um...and the pie. Another question was where do I get all my ribbons? Lots of places, I have a slight addiction to ribbon and buy it everywhere. But, the ribbon used in the last post was from Costco. They have giant rolls (50yds) for around $5-7 bucks and a beautiful selection of holiday colors.

I wanted to share a little bit about my new Canvas Prints. My friend Tara, of Bella Pink also sells a line of Canvas Prints and it was her idea for me to sell them too. She admired my photos and told me that I should be selling them as artwork. She gave me the information on the printing of them, she referred me to the company that makes the gorgeous ceiling tin frames and has encouraged me to do more. The reason I'm sharing this information is because sweet Tara received an "anonymous" (which really isn't) email from a "concerned" person wanting her to know that I was copying her. Tara actually got a laugh from it because it was her idea! Together, we spend lots of time chatting about our businesses, future projects, plans for growth in our companies, advertising, and new product lines. Basically encouraging one another. Believe me, there are lots of women business owners out there that band together to help one another and encourage each other to succeed. Strong, smart, positive and creative women that make being in business a true blessing. So here's to all of you, may your business ventures be successful and the friendships you make be a blessing to you and those whom you call Friend!

Recap and a New Week

Well, where to begin? It seems as though I've been swept away in Dorothy's dream and Kansas is but a faint memory. The magazine photo shoot was on Friday. They were here all day setting up their equipment, styling the areas to be photographed and getting so many different shots. I really enjoyed working with them, they were all so kind and made me feel very comfortable, not to mention they had a great sense of humor which can put a girl at ease!

Here's a pile of props and their bag of tricks to make my home look like no one really lives here. We just sit around sipping lemonade (watered down Kool-aid) and smelling our fresh cut flowers (which they provided) and living the life of leisure. I've got lots more photos but I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just leave the teaser at this and will let you know the publish dates and magazines and such when it gets a little closer.

This weekend, Sweet Girl had a Cross Country race in Malibu at this beautiful college. It had been raining the previous day and morning of the event, which made the race an obstacle course of gigantic mudholes!

There were kids running around with no shoes because they had been sucked off by the mud! There were one shoe on, one shoe off kids, and kids with only socks flapping around their muddy feet as they raced to the finish line.

Sweet Girl managed to keep her racing flats on due to double tight knots. You should have seen the kids slipping and sliding down the hills absolutely covered head to toe with mud and huge smiles from ear to ear! I believe there were 34 schools that participated and that means at least 34 school buses that probably regretted having to take them all home!

Our girls team walked away with the 2nd place spot and Sweet Girl came home with a medal. But more importantly, she said it was the most fun she'd ever had on any course! Sweet Victory.

The last few weeks have just flown by and I'm excited to get started on my new week. I'm finishing up last minute details on the shop update, and can't wait to start doing some fall projects that are on my list. Oh how I've missed baking, gardening, grocery shopping (if you can believe it!) and relaxing. All things on my New To Do List. Looking forward to sharing them with you!

Fresh Ideas & A New Day

I couldn't sleep last night.  It could be because I haven't slept in a week and my body forgot how to rest.  My mind was racing with so many new ideas.  The kind of things you think about and say to yourself "why didn't I think of that before"?  So, after hours of thought, I decided to get up and write them all down before I forgot!  It was like a fresh wave of creativity had been unlocked!  And this morning, I can't wait to get started. 

I know I owe you all a Sneak Peek post, and I also wanted you to know that I will be announcing the opening of the shop very soon. Just had a slight set back with Bella's injury.  But she is on the mend and Mama's on a roll! I'm off to get busy. I'll see you soon with updates!

Mid-Week Hello

Nothing like a little mid-week pick me up!  Wanted to share with you my latest Flickr Favorites. So when you need a little break, click on over for some inspiration.

And take a look at this cupcake! It's GIANT! It reminds me of the cupcakes that you can buy here.  This softball was found at my local grocery store.  Those bakery ladies are making sure they keep track of the competition!

With a cupcake this size, you'll have to find someone to share it with. Of course, I don't think that would be a problem!  See you on Friday for another Peek!