Lake trip success

We are officially sore and tired, which means that our first trip to the lake for the summer season was fantastic. We jet skied until we couldn't ski anymore. Oh yeah there was relaxation sun and fun too!

Here is Rory talking advantage of the morning glass, and the lack of early risers.


Me!


I got a great tan too!

Quick craft

Lavender is one of the best fragrances Mother nature has given us. It's a calming scent, that relaxes you when tense, it can help with insomnia and it even has antiseptic properties.
I use the essential oil of this little purple flower often in body oil & bubble bath, I spray a homemade room spray of lavender on our bedding and I love the way sachets fit perfectly in a drawer and make everything in it smell sublime.

With extra linen from a few projects I plan to make a few sachets for my drawers and even string some up with ribbon to hang in my closet.


I embroidered a couple simple lavender flowers on one side of the sachet.


Filled with dried French lavender.


The fragrance is so strong and wonderful, I will enjoy these little pillows for long time.

Coffee with Chicory & Beignets

Oh yes, this was good. Rory and I were given a can of Cafe du Monde chicory coffee a couple months ago, and then like fate we walked into a Cost Plus World Market two weeks ago and Rory found a box of their famous beignet mix.
He totally freaked and has been saying "beignets and coffee?" to me every night since. Apparently he used to have these when he was a kid and was dying for them again. So we whipped up a batch and brewed a cup, and had ourselves a Friday night!

Flight to Idaho

I just got back from a trip to Idaho to visit my close friend who just recently moved there. I got to hitch a free ride with my bro who was flying there for work. I was nervous at first, but quickly realized I was having a blast. The plane is great, comfortable fast and so much easier than flying commercial. I think I am spoiled now.


We spent a day on the lake, it was beautiful.


One of the larger lakes from the air.




It is good to be home as always, although I am now back to work.

I won!

What?!?!? I have never won something so big before, and I am so excited!!
I found this fabulous website recently that posts daily articles on everything to do with domestic life it is called Domestic Ease.




The post that they did on July 8th absolutely changed my love for patterns. Look at how beautiful these are.


Here is the post on the contest winner, (ME)

Thank you, Thank you!

I should have been working

Yes that's right on Tuesday during working hours I had a brief moment off and drove half way up the mountain to a single day only Estate sale where I found these big Talavera pots. The Ginger gar is huge, and the vase is so tall an narrow I am not sure what I am going to do with them yet.
Here they are currently, but I have a feeling they might make their way outdoors soon.

Fast table runner

After staring at inspirational photos I have had saved for months of burlap table runners, last night I had the time to make ours! I made it out of linen of course, because I had a lot left over from the coffee sack pillows, and I love working with linen more than any other material.
I love the way it creases, it hardly needs pins when sewing.






Tonight we enjoyed our dinner of Coq au Vin and crusty bread with our new runner. It is plain and casual but fancies the very rustic dining table up just enough.

Baby cake

A diaper cake is not something I would have ever thought I would make, but this is actually my 3rd. They are a little silly and nothing new, but as I am very dessert oriented in most things I do and I love the incorporation of cake for a gift that really has nothing to do with cake. I recently asked a friend of mine who is a mom what moms-to-be really need for a baby shower gift, her answer was diapers. Now you can't really give a box of diapers just wrapped up with paper, now can you?
This is much prettier, and I incorporated two other gifts on to the cake.

A cute and soft organic monkey blanket and two great big 100% muslin dribble cloths, which one of them is in the pattern of pink cupcakes.

Fiesta cookies

We had ourselves a little Fiesta today, celebrating the finish of our bathroom and officially having our housewarming party. It was a great time, we enjoyed the sun, pool and hot tub with a group of our friends. I had decided long ago to not cook for the party and relax so to we had it catered, but I did want to do the dessert because well, that's my thing.

So I got some cute fiesta themed cookie cutters and went wild with them. I made a butter shortbread cookie dough, and iced them with poured fondant icing in pineapple and lime flavors. The little sombreros are my favorite :)







Good morning, I posted late last night and wanted to add these little treats to my cookie post. Here are a few of the wonderful housewarming presents we received. A couple of my very closest friends had a fab vacation in Mexico very recently and they picked up some authentic goodies for my kitchen, how perfect do they know me?
I just love these hand painted yellow Talavera spoon holder and napkin holder, and best of all I needed them!


Oh and how adorably cute are these hand embroidered pot holder gloves? They are almost too cute to use, but definitely worthy of me finding a spot to hang them for display. Thanks ladies!


Also a couple stopped by for a brief visit and a bite to eat, I wish they could have stayed longer but they brought over a great bottle for us to enjoy and this handmade gift that I will use in my art room. It is a handmade walnut wood stand that holds 10 inspirational cards that I can change out when I need a little encouragement. Right now I have it on "Create" on my craft table. What a great little gift!