Be Brave Baylee

Not too long ago, I stumbled upon a story about a 15 year old burn victim who was crowned Homecoming Princess by her fellow classmates.  I was immediately sucked into Baylee's story and followed her Facebook page-Be Brave Baylee from that day forward.  I looked forward to reading the updates every evening and found myself thinking about her and praying for her on a regular basis.  On Sunday, when they posted that Baylee was being taken off of life support, my heart sank.  I so badly wanted to be able to follow her journey to recovery, no matter how long that took.  And last night, when they posted that Baylee passed away peacefully, surrounded by family and friends, the tears were unstoppable.  I cannot even begin to imagine all that her family has been through or all that Baylee had to endure.  So many times we hear that things happen for a reason, but this tragedy just makes no sense.  I find myself thinking about her non-stop today and I am amazed by all the people that her life touched.  In the 4 months since her accident, she has gained tens of thousands of people praying for her every single minute of every single day.  Although I do not know her or her family personally, I feel like I know them just from what they have shared.  And I share just a small portion of their pain but know that in heaven, Baylee is no longer in pain or suffering.  Sometimes when I am frustrated that everyone around me is having babies except me, I just remember that things could be a lot worse.  I think of Baylee who won't get to fall in love or have a wedding or have babies, and I remind myself to be thankful for having a life.  Baylee, I know that your life was cut unfairly short and in the end you suffered so much pain, but you have touched so many lives and made so many people better just by sharing your story with us.  Heaven is indeed rejoicing with you now there.  Rest in peace beautiful girl.  You have touched my life and for that, I will forever be grateful!

  

My bare minimum Fall decorating

Moving in the middle of my favorite season-Fall-means that I haven't done much Fall decorating and that makes me sad.  So today I did just a tiny bit of decorating so that I could be happy!

This crate was a thrift store find that I painted white.  I knew these brown bottles would fit perfectly in it and I just added some pine cones, red mums and a little burlap banner to it.   Now my mantle is a little more festive and fun.

I found this Thanksgiving table cloth at a yard sale this summer and was glad when I remembered I had it.  It fits perfectly on my table when there are no leafs in it.  The cornucopia napkin holder and salt & pepper shakers are the perfect centerpiece. 

A wreath my mother-in-law gave me a few years ago for my birthday is on my front door to greet any guests. 

And this little vintage fruit crate has an assortment of pumpkins in it.  The little picket fence piece behind it is the perfect touch for a sweet outdoor vignette.  I think the scattered leaves and pine needles just add a bit more charm. 

So there you have it, my bare minimum Fall decorating.  I better start looking for my Christmas decorations now so that I am ready to get them all up the day after Thanksgiving!

Finally, a house of our very own!

You may have noticed that I haven't been around much lately.  I have a good reason, I promise!  We bought a house!  Four years after I was laid off and we had to sell our house in a short sale, we finally have a house that is all ours.  We've been in the process for about a year and after a lot of disappointments and no-go's, we signed on October 20th.  We aren't all the way unpacked but I still wanted to share our new house with you.

I love my big kitchen and all the counter space and cupboards.  I also got a pantry and a bar.  We have plans to paint the cupboards, re-finish the counters and put in a new floor.   

We gained about 100 more square feet including this little bonus room next to the kitchen.  However, I lost major closet space and have no where to store my towels right now.  I am thinking of ideas as to how to store them.  Right now they are hanging out on the couch in this room. 

I also got a lovely new dining room with a built in hutch!  My dining room table looks perfect in here and we will be painting the chairs eventually.  It also needs a pretty chandelier.  I can't wait to host a dinner here soon. 

Our living room is small and cozy and I love the natural light.  The dogs love having all these windows to look out of. 

I wanted to decorate a little bit differently than our last house just so it felt new.  Cody says everyday it feels more and more like our home. 

Our house sits on an acre of land and is lined with pine trees.  We've been working all weekend to clean up leaves and pine needles.   

We have a well and a septic tank.  The water is a little stinky so it will just take us some time to figure out what we need to do to fix it.  Having our own home with property and a well and septic is really new to us but we are loving it!  

We will be painting the outside of the house in the spring.  Deciding what color to paint it might be the hardest part! 

Cody absolutely had to have a shop and this shop is so big and perfect for him.  We have room to park our camper and with all the pine trees, it feels like we are up in the mountains.  Can you see that little shed?  That will soon become my craft room! 

Cody is making the deck into an outdoor kitchen.  Sitting on the back porch is so peaceful.  We are looking forward to having people over to enjoy it with us.  And look who we have right out back!  These cows are intrigued by the dogs and I love having them right next to us.  Though we aren't deep in the country, it definitely feels like we are! 

We have so much more unpacking, decorating, painting and organizing to do.  I promise to show you more as we get it done!

Rest in Peace Molly

My parent's had to put their fur baby down last night.  Her liver was causing her problems and when my mom looked in her eyes, she knew Molly was ready to cross over the rainbow bridge.  As soon as I answered the phone last night and heard my mom's voice, I knew what was happening and I broke down in tears too.  This year has been a rough one for our family when it comes to loss and this just added more heartache.  

Molly was 13 years old and lived a long, wonderful life.  She was buried next to my brother's dog Muttley and will always be remembered.  We love you and will miss you Molly Marie.  Rest in peace my sweet, furry, chocolate sister.

Showcasing Idaho, my home state!

Last week was a big, busy week but I have some fun stuff to show you!  The College I work for inaugurated its 13th President who also happens to be its first woman president.  We started out with Founder's Day on Wednesday, which also happens to be our 125th year.  There was cake and a sparkling cider toast.  No, I didn't make this cake but I did make the topper!

On Thursday we had the actual inauguration during the afternoon.  After the very formal ceremony, there was a reception for the public.  I made very simple centerpieces using the new stemmed glasses from The Pioneer Woman's new collection at Wal-Mart.  The purple glasses were perfect for us and I am sure we will use them for many other things. 

Yellow carnation and babies breath were inside the glass and a pretty gold garland went around the base.  I also made the programs pictured below. 

But my most favorite thing of all of this is the centerpieces I made for the Inauguration Dinner.  The new president wanted to highlight our beautiful state of Idaho as best we could.  She wanted Idaho Salmon, Idaho potatoes and local veggies on the menu.  I was in charge of making sure the centerpieces were Idaho-centric as well! 

I thought of a lot of different things and finally settled on this.  They turned out amazing!  I found vintage labels from fruit orchards right here in our town.  I scanned them and printed them off in different sizes.  Everyone in my office was tasked with saving all the tin cans they could.  Once I had all 39 cans collected, I went about pasting the labels onto the cans.   

I ordered succulents off of Amazon which I highly recommend!  They came perfectly packaged and ready to plant.  We took a Friday afternoon to plant them in the cans which was really fun.  We also needed table numbers so I took small pieces of tree stump, hand printed the letters and asked the boy in the office to drill holes and insert paper straws in to them.  

Last but not least, I put all of this on a slice of Idaho wood, went around campus clipping some leaves and berries off of trees and set it all up.  The centerpieces were perfect and the new President loved them!  This was such a fun project and I felt so happy to help show the out of towners just what an amazing state Idaho is.  We also served all Idaho wine and gave out wine stoppers as party favors.  

My first Inauguration was a huge success!

Linking Up With:

Amaze Me Monday

Cooking & Crafting with J & J
The Art of Homemaking Monday
Show & Share
Vintage Inspiration

Teacup Exchange

What's the best way to help add something to your collection?  Join an exchange!  I joined Stephanie at The Enchanting Rose for her latest teacup exchange.  I only have 8 teacups in my little collection, but I am slowly adding to it and it is so much fun!

All the way from New Zealand came a package just for me!  Shane from Roses, Lace & Brocante sent me this beautiful teacup with sweet yellow and purple flowers and a pretty green trim.  I don't have any in this color so it's perfect! 

She sent a fun New Zealand tea towel, cupcake papers and picks, gingerbread, chocolate fish and a beautiful shabby chic style magazine.  I can't understand the words, but I can understand the beautiful images inside! 

This is a Royal Albert tea cup and is so dainty and sweet.  I need to get something soon so that my little collection can be out on full display for everyone to see. Thank you Shane for such a wonderful and generous exchange!

I sent a teacup to Kelly from Dreaming of Vintage.  I had the hardest time finding the right teacup and when I finally saw this one, I knew it was the one I'd been waiting for! 

The pretty pastel colors are so unique and the little flower painted on the inside of the cup sealed the deal.  Kelly says that in the sunlight, the cup glistens! 

There wasn't any real mark on the bottom to tell you the brand of this cup so I am not sure who made it.  I just know that it is a lovely little set! 

I also made her some tags using upholstery webbing from an old, old chair that I salvaged.  The age on the webbing is very neat and is pretty stiff still so it worked great for these tags. 

I hope you enjoyed your goodies Kelly and thank you Stephanie for the wonderful teacup exchange!

Look what I found!  I have been wanting some of these vintage metal chairs for awhile and when a friend posted her mother-in-laws yard sale on Facebook with a picture of 4 of these, I told her I would take them right away!  This will be a fun winter project for Cody and I, we just need to decide on a color!

Linking up with:

Tea Time Tuesday

Friends Sharing Tea

Tea Cup & Mug Exchange #7

I've been busy making centerpieces again!

Oh boy have I been busy at work!  So busy, I haven't had time to work on my own things so I thought I would share all the centerpieces I have been putting together lately.  Our first big event of the new school year was our 125 Year Kick-off Celebration.  It was a big party for all of campus and was held on Labor Day.  We had a band, a DJ, a rock climbing wall, inflatables, yard games, food, drinks, a photo bus and giveaways.  The centerpieces were the newest purple mason jars filled with paper straws.  I bought purple and gold paper straws and made little flags with our 125 logo on it.  Four out of the 16 centerpieces were stolen...should I take that as a compliment?

This week was Homecoming at the College and I did centerpieces for 3 different events.  The first one was on Thursday night and it was an awards ceremony so celebratory centerpieces were requested.  I had a small budget and needed to use fresh flowers.   

I put both of these centerpieces together for a little over $12.  We have a nice inventory of vases so the only cost was the flowers.  Our colors are purple and gold in case you hadn't figured that out yet! 

The wine tasting event centerpieces were put together at the last minute but they are one of my favorites.  I spent nothing on them either!  I took wine glasses and filled them with wine corks, set it on a wood slice and placed some sparkly plastic grapes around it.  They were a hit! 

Friday night was the Dinner Under the Lights.  Neat lights were hung out in the quad and there were 2 sides set up with banquet tables.  There was only supposed to be one table but a lot of people came so we had to change our original plan. The sunflowers were picked on the side of the road and the other flowers were purchased.  I put together about 26 centerpieces in various sizes of these glass lanterns from World Market.  Some had flowers and some had candles.  I hear the dinner was beautiful! 

We have a new president of our college and I will soon be sharing my centerpieces for her inauguration dinner.  Her only request was that I showcase Idaho as much as possible.  It took me a while, but I have finally figured out what I am going to do and I can't wait to show you after the event!

Today is my birthday and this is what my office looked like on Friday.  I got a gift card, a pie and they bought me a birthday princess tiara to wear at the football game yesterday.  Cody is making me finger steaks for dinner and tomorrow my work friends are taking me out to lunch.  I am definitely spoiled!

Linking Up With:

Five Star Frugal

Submarine Sunday
Amaze Me Monday
Cooking & Crafting with J & J
Show & Share
Roses of Inspiration