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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Happy 4th of JULY!

What are you doing for the 4th? I'm cooking out and then heading to a tiny town near by to watch the fireworks. Does anyone have any 4th of July traditions? I would love to hear about them!

Now, Look what I found on Martha.com!
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Add a burst of patriotic spirit to summer sips with these red, white, and blue umbrellas. Pop one into every beverage you serve for an instant air of festivity. Besides doubling as stirrers, the little paper parasols help identify each guest's glass. Once you've fashioned our patterns into umbrellas, grab yourself a drink, sit back, and get ready to watch the sky.
Parasol How-ToYou'll need wooden skewers a couple of inches longer than your drinking glasses are tall. Download and print umbrella designs onto plain white paper. Cut out with scissors, then cut along the dotted line on each. Create a cone by slightly overlapping edges; secure using a glue stick or tape underneath. Poke a skewer through the underside of the cone's point.
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Fashioned from red, white, and blue paper stars, this festive garland adds a patriotic touch to a doorway or mantel. Easy and inexpensive to make, it's a great holiday project for both children and adults.

Tools and Materials
Letter-size, stationery-weight paper in red, white, and blue
Paper cutter or scissors
Ruler
Pencil
Bone folder
Mini-stapler
1/8-inch hole punch
White cotton string
How-To

1. Cut paper to 6 by 11 inches. Using a bone folder to make crisp folds, fold the paper in half; then, fold it in half twice more. Open the folded paper, and use the creases as guides to accordion fold the paper to resemble a fan.

2. With the paper still folded, find the center, and mark it with a pencil. Use a desktop stapler to staple the center. (The staple should be perpendicular to the folds.)
3. Make a mark, 1 inch from each end on the folded side of the fan. Using scissors, trim both ends of the paper on an angle, starting from the 1-inch marks and cutting to the paper's edges.
4. Fan out the paper to form a star, and bring the ends together. Staple the ends together with a mini-stapler.

5. With a 1/8-inch hole punch, punch 2 holes, one fold apart from each other. Thread cord through one hole, around the back of the star, and then through the other hole.


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This string of votives will shed a soft glow over your Fourth of July celebration. Place tea candles in translucent red, white, and blue colored-glass votives, and tuck each into a tiny wire basket.


To make a basket, cut a 21-inch piece of 20-gauge annealed wire with a wire cutter. Fold the wire in half, and crimp just below the fold with round-nose pliers. Wrap crimped end over a pencil to form a hook.

Hold the base of the hook tightly with pliers, separate the two lengths of wire, then twist tightly around each other three times.

To form the cuff that will hold the votive, use pliers to make a 90-degree bend,4 1/4 inches from the hook base, on each length of wire. Situate the bendson opposite sides of the votive, about two-thirds of the way from the bottom of the glass.

Bring each cut end around to meet the opposite bend. With the tip of the pliers, make a tiny loop at each cut end. Hook the loops to the bends; use pliers to close loops tightly. Insert votive into the circle formed.
Hang several candle lanterns from their hooks on a taut wire strung between two points. Be certain flames are not near any flammable surfaces, and never leave votives unattended.

Monday, June 29, 2009

My Kitchen

I have been looking for little Moroccan accents and here is what I have so far. I'm still wanting to hang a cluster of lanterns in the corners with the yellow Moroccan lanterns. I'm liking it MUCH better!
BEFORE
(Barn Red) YIKES

Before we moved in (Old owners stuff)
*****NEW*****
This mirror below I found discounted. I glued blue stones around the frame.

I found my sunburst mirrors this past weekend! I love them!


I love peacocks, this one above is very old. The painting is of a snapper, they painted the actual fish then stuck a piece of cloth on top and got this print from the actual snapper. The blue glass vase is from Homegoods. I'm sticking mini lights to make all the vases glow.

Accents...

(Below) I got these in Epcot's Morocco last October, I keep salt in them for when I cook...
I found these glitter gold bowls for fresh fruit and vegi's (below)


Thursday, June 25, 2009

Hungary

Last night we had our Hungarian friends, Maggie and Zholti over for dinner. Their mother and sister are in town from Hungary and I had the pleasure of making them their first mahi! It’s always nice meeting people from different parts of the world. I love learning about their foods, holidays, and how they live. I have to say they were very sweet and I hope there travels are safe while flying back home.

I wanted an American menu since this was their first time visiting the USA. I fried the fish in a flour/corn meal combination, made mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob. For the cocktail I made grape spritzers and dug out my old pink flamingo drink sticks, they don’t have pink flamingos in Hungary.

Now on to the weekend!

I’m excited for this weekend to get here, this is the first weekend Jim and I have been home to enjoy each others company. I already have my menu planned out for the week. I’m grilling rosemary balsamic glazed lamb chops, Jumbo shrimp marinated in lime juice and Caribbean seasonings, and a beer in the rear chicken. I’m excited to use Allie’s recipe for this chicken, hers always looks so wonderful. I’m also planning on doing more housework and hanging my string lights I got for the outdoor patio. Here they are below.


I can't believe next weekend is July 4! What's everyone's plans? I have somthing in the works...HAPPY THURSDAY!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

WEEKEND

First I want to start off and say I have a fantastic blackened fish recipe for your grill! To get the recipe click here: http://classygirlsgrill.blogspot.com/ I made this last night and it turned out GREAT. IT was the best Mahi Jim and I had ever eaten. I have to say CONGRATS to my Jim, they won the fishing tournament this weekend! YEAH!!! :)



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I wanted to share some of the stuff I got over the weekend with you. Some pictures are from my IPHONE, better pictures are to come.

This picture below is of a lantern I got, mine is silver and I painted it turquoise, I have it outside with my new patio set and it looks great. NOW, I wish it looked as good as the picture below. Maybe one day ;)


I GOT IT! My dream patio set. This picture doesn't do it justice but at least you can see the colors. It looks so much better! Our old patio set was huge and took up our whole outdoors space. Now I can grill and not worry about being burned because the damn chairs were so huge!


Moroccan leather yellow lanterns. I only stuck one up there so far. These have a unique story behind them. They are so different and are going to go great with my lantern cluster I will be hanging up there this weekend. Can't wait to share the pictures of the finished kitchen! FINALLY everything is coming together :)

I also got:
Hanging light bulb kits so I can light up all my jeweled toned vases that are above the kitchen cabinets (each one was $1.00 at the scratch and dent section in IKEA) Usually they run around $10.00 a piece
Hanging light pendant for outdoor patio ($10.00 on IKEA scratch and dent section!, normally their $50!)
2 jeweled toned kitchen rugs ($9.99 at the Ikea sale this weekend)
It was a blast shopping this weekend, it's the first weekend since Labor Day that I have been home. This weekend I'm doing all the house stuff that needs to be done. Finally the kitchen should be complete! Can't wait to share the pictures with you guys!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

SHOPPING DAY! WOOHOO!

First let me start off and say I'm in love with this patio table and chairs below. I'm waiting for it to go on sale because I can't pay full price for anything. It's a Bohemian style high bar mosaiced table from Pier 1...PLEASE GO ON SALE THIS WEEKEND...PLEASE!!!

Here are the stores I will be hitting up today:

Pier 1 (To visit my patio set and to see if it's on sale)
Ikea (Their having a HUGE SUMMER sale this weekend)
Patio World (to see if I can find mosaiced patio furniture cheaper)
Homegoods (Pillows, lanterns, and rugs)
TJ MAXX
Marshalls

It will be a busy day, I will take pictures if I find any good finds! :) WISH ME LUCK!

Friday, June 19, 2009

GRILL FRIDAY!

If you want somthing easy and fast to grill, CLICK HERE!


Thursday, June 18, 2009

Things I'm on the look out for!

A unique mirror...
These are flower push pins, you can position them in any pattern, I think these were be great in a bathroom.
Lanterns

More lanterns, I'm hanging a cluster of them in the kitchen


A unique floor lamp...

A Star burst Mirror...

I love the one above, this one below is just an idea

Glass door handles/knobs
I'm looking for jeweled tones for the kitchen

Glass Ice cube knob..love this

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Shower

Mom and I had a blast decorating for Brandi's shower. I couldn't have done it with out her. It was a great time and we look forward to meeting Ms. Bree! Here are some of the pictures below!

Shower Girls

Mom and I...Thank you for your help MAMMY :)


Brandi and I





Glad and Lime arrangements


Lanterns
We used umbrellas from my wedding




Her grandmother made these dresses 30 years ago, very vintage :)


Mom made this arrangement from greenery outside in their yard, she did a good job.

Old piece of china with a rose arrangement (mom made this as well) :)

I printed the pictures I took and made a table scape out of them



Monday, June 15, 2009

Brandi & Bree

This past weekend my mom and I drove up to Tallahassee for Brandi's big baby shower. I was in charge of the decor and mimosa's :) It was a beautiful shower and I will post the pictures this week. For now, here are a few pictures I took while up in Tally 2 weeks ago. They turned out so good!


Baby Bree arrives next month!