Wedding News

This is my daughter and her family. They are getting married in March of next year. So lot's of plans and excitement going on here. 

Of course I've got her set up with a wedding planner, more sticky notes than she knows what to do with and tons of Bridal magazines. 

She is planning a small formal intimate ceremony and reception. Elegant and romantic. Her colors are Eggplant and Gold. We're going to make it brilliant with crystal and mirrors so there is lots of sparkling light. 

We're thinking of something like this for the ceremony:

we will not have the flowers, it will be crystals, pearls, grapevine and ribbon. 

The plan is to make the arch somewhat like this:

She doesn't like the buckets, not sure yet what we will use instead, maybe planters. But she does like the Hydrangeas. 

Nothing will happen until she books the venue, which she is dragging her feet on. A lot of places are already booked up so fingers crossed that she will find something. 

I am very excited, it has been a year of weddings, I got married in April, P's business partner got married on June, and P's best friend will be getting married this winter. Love is in the air! 

Fairy Village

I'm a little late, but I saw that back in May a lot of people in the blog-o-sphere were making these Fairy Villages, so last weekend I gathered up all my supplies and made this one.

I bought the little birdhouses at Dollar Tree and cut a doorway in each one and painted them in bright colors. I still want to make a flag for the top of the houses.

I made a path out of glass pebbles also from Dollar Tree, and the Dolphin Statue is from an old wind chime that self destructed.

I banner is made from some take out chop sticks, a cord from a broken necklace and I cut out the paper triangles and stamped them with the words happy day.

Some black river stones are balanced between the houses, a couple of ground covers and a "tree", and an enormous mushroom in my favorite color rounds everything out. I still want to add a table and a couple of chairs or maybe a hammock. I'm still waiting for the right idea to hit me.

For now it's living on the dining room table, but I want to get a small table to put it on in front of the window.


In the meantime, Fairies Welcome!

work and Play

So my son built me this table-shelf. It took a couple of weekends and we had to take it apart and redo it once, but I'm really happy with it.
I drew a picture of what I wanted and Patrick bought the supplies and we all helped but Sam did the bulk of the work.
There used to be a rusty 55 gallon drum topped with an old wooden pallet in this spot. This looks so much better and more useful too!


I still need to paint it. The wall is white and that won't change because it's vinyl siding. The porch posts and ceiling is turquoise and the door is deep purple. I love the look of the wood, but I think it needs some protection. I'm still trying to decide between painting it all funky and bright or doing a stain.

I have a lattice to add to the back, it will give the table a little bit more stability and give the Mandevilla vine something to climb on. Mine is red and pink, gorgeous. I don't have a pic of mine but here's a stock photo




I planted it right in front of the porch so it can climb the post and then the lattice. It will screen the back porch from the neighbors yard and give a bit of privacy and shelter from the rain.


And here is our latest project; we're making a mulched path from the driveway/front door to the garden. We were wearing a path there anyway, so I decided to pull up all the grass and put in a path and ground cover.



The path will be on the left of the picture and goes between the Crepe Myrtle and the rose bed in front of the house. By the driveway it will be about 4 feet across and narrows by the tree to about 3 feet and then widens again in front of the house.

Between the path and the front garden which is the garden on the right of the picture will be ground cover. I have Ice Plant, Sedum and Stone Crop. I'm also going to do some oregano; it spreads like crazy and smells great when you brush against it.


We got all of the large area in front of the door by the driveway done before the skies opened up and dumped gallons of water on us. We had a great time relaxing on the porch and watching the rain.

The Crepe Myrtle has MORE baby birds! The first batch hatched and grew and flew away and about 3 weeks later I noticed some activity and we now have 3 new baby Mocking Birds. They just hatched Saturday. So fun to hear the peeps and see the bright yellow-orange wide open mouths sticking up out of the nest. She built it just above my eye level so really easy to watch.

Next weekend we'll continue to dig up the pathway and put in the edging and mulch and plant some of the ground cover.

In the meantime, we've been taking advantage of the late summer sunsets and going to the beach after work one night a week. I love living close enough to the beach to do that. It's about a 40 minute ride and so worth it. I would love to move even closer but Patrick's not going for it. I'm going to keep working on him.

Sugar Skulls

So this is what I've been working on this afternoon. I got 2 white glitter skulls from the $1`store and made my own faux Sugar Skulls.

They're still in progress, I want to doodle all over them, just fill up all the spaces with pattern. I got the last 2 white skulls in the store. I may have to go looking for another location and see if they have any more.

Before and after:

I want to do more on the eyes, but not sure what yet. I'm going to live with it a couple of days and see what comes up.