Okay… I admit that I have been dragging my feet on getting all of the fall decor out. I live in Texas. It is still hot. For the most part we don’t even have a true fall season. We just jump right on into winter.   I have started my fall decorating – but I keep changing my mind! I am about to start calling it my “un-fall” decorating. So not me. I like a plan. I like having it all mapped out in my mind, leaving room for little tweaks. Just. Not. Happening.

I started my chairs decor with this….ummm no! It reminded me of those babies that have those ginormous bows strapped to their heads who look like bobblehead dolls with their neck ready to snap! Plus, those colors clashed with all of the blue decor in the dining room. I was ready to make drop cloth slip covers for all eight chairs. No, that’s not crazy at all!

I am thinking of going more in this direction. Go with what you’ve got, right!

I think that I do have the beginnings of the table centerpiece going in the right direction…just not there yet.

I started on the hutch in the kitchen.. more color? less color?

I have always loved this pumpkin tureen but this arrangement just needs some serious work!

Then there is the coffee table. I really, really want to add a turquoise velvet pumpkin…but I should be working here and not shopping!

As you can see I have nothing totally finished. So… “un-fall” decorating. Right? Which drives me crazy!

So here it is. I am telling you right here, right now- you are all my witnesses – that all will be done by the next post.  As Scarlet said: “As God as my witness I WILL have my decorating done soon!”

Until next time…..

                      Tammy

I will be joining these fabulous parties and Blogs –

I love Home Goods and HomeGoods ought to LOVE me.  ( No! They are not paying me for this post!) I personally buy enough there to keep their doors open forever.  I know – it’s a sickness, I’ll own it. Today I went to HomeGoods to buy napkins. Just napkins.  Not the only thing this girl bought. Shocking, I know! By the time I left, with multiple purchases in hand, I had already planned on how I was going to transform plain napkins into crown napkins!

So I saw this table runner. Had to buy it for multiple reasons. One – it was darn cute. Two – IT HAS A CROWN ON IT!  Three – it  was only $7.98!!! and finally – Four – IT HAS A CROWN ON IT People! You know I love me some crowns.

I found it when I was picking out my napkins. It was like a flashing neon sign was over it blinking “buy me, buy me”!

As I was walking away a woman saw it and asked me if there was another one?  I kid you not! Guess I am not the only one to love crowns. I turned to leave and ran right into an end cap with black and white dishes on it. DANG it! They were toile… and they had birds on it… to match my table runner that has birds and CROWNS on it! See how this happens?

I had this crown stamp – and a ton of others – in my stash of stuff and knew that it was perfect!

First thing is first… wash, dry and iron your napkin.

What you need to make your own crown napkins: a clean, ironed napkin, a pigment ink intended for multiple surfaces, and a stamp of your choice.

I tried my stamp out on a paper towel to make sure it worked before I stamped my napkin.. better safe than sorry.

Once you have tested your stamp and have laid your fabric out – be sure that you have something under your napkin to protect your table, then stamp away!

Here is my first crown napkin…I  love it. It has great detail and at the same time looks a little faded in a vintage sort of way…perfect! Once the napkin is dry, use an iron to heat set the the design. Your napkin is ready to use.

I decided to set my table using my new crown napkins, but couldn’t decide which of my table decor items to use with them. I could go with my standard go to black and white polka dots, crown and birds nest …

Or bring in a new black and white pattern with a floral arrangement.

Both options would look great in the kitchen eating area.

I have to admit that at first I wasn’t too thrilled with the red and yellow on the runner. I would much rather have had just the black and white. However, the yellow lets me add another layer of color and texture to the mix. Still great in the kitchen….

But what if I want to use this in the formal dining room where I have a mixture of blues? This blue napkin with yellow and white accents would be perfect to tie it all together.

As you can see I really need to make up my mind before I can set the table. When I decide I promise to share it with you.

Until next time….

                   Tammy

Check out  Flaunt it Friday #267 at Chic n a Shoestring, Stonegable The Scoop #183, and Northern Nesting.

I don’t know about you, but there are times when I want to shake things up a little in the decorating department. Okay… let’s be honest, with me it is more often than not! Thing is – I don’t  always have a lot of extra time to pull it all together. But it can be done. Today I want to share with you what I call 15 minute decorating.  You know, the little things you can do in a short amount of time to decorate your home. Today I am working on a floral arrangement.

Peonies are some of my favorite flowers! I saw these and decided that these were perfect for what I had in mind.  Nothing to big, low ,but with a lot of impact.

I try to shop what I already have before I buy anything new and this vase was one of many that I have stashed.  Oh, come on, you know you all have a ton of vases gathering dust somewhere in your house! Don’t you?

I didn’t want to see the stems this time, so hiding it was my best bet. I had this black and white scrapbook paper that I thought would be perfect. I just wrapped the paper around the vase, using glue dots to attach the paper to the vase.

One tiny problem… I wanted the stripes to go horizontally and the paper didn’t quite go all the way around.

So I added this piece of scrap ribbon. Not bad, but a little plain.

So I did what I always do when I need to add something – I added a crown.  Shocking, I know. Y’all KNOW I love crowns! This crown can be a pin or hung on a necklace. I just took a piece of small black ribbon and ran it through the necklace loop, then taped the ends of the ribbon inside of the vase.

TA DA!! Instant bling.

I wanted the flowers to just sit just above the vase. I held the stem up to the vase to get a good idea of how long the stem needed to be and using wire cutters, cut the stems off.

The peonies were pretty large so I only used three flowers for the arrangement.  After cutting the stems I just plopped them into the vase and did a little “fluffing”.

I honestly don’t think it took me 15 minutes to put it all together.  Super easy! The only hard thing about it was deciding where to put it!

I made it for the kitchen table….

But it looks pretty good in the guest room too! Hmmm… where to put it?

Until next time…..

                Tammy

Early in the month I shared with you my Easter/Spring table scape with the promise of sharing my Easter Kitchen Table  with you …. Ladies and gentlemen….(drum roll please!) here it is, along with a few other kitchen Easter surprises!

Just in case you missed it – this is my Easter/Spring centerpiece.

This year I am trying to tie in the existing decor with my holiday decorations.  Who wants to spend days changing everything out when they could be painting furniture? Me! Me! Oh, ME!

My St. Patricks day table used green, gold and black.  I really liked it.  Since it had a lot of the colors I would use for Easter I decide to keep a lot of the same things.

I changed the centerpiece.

I kept the placemats, charger, plates and napkin.

I added a beautiful soft yellow flower napkin rings and my favorite Easter decoration of all time, duck and bunny salt and pepper shakers in white and the same soft yellow as the napkin ring.

That’s it! How easy was that? Just a few simple changes and my table is ready to roll.

Here is a shot of the entire table.  I left off the silverware and glassware because let’s be honest – I DO leave it set as you see it, but I DON’T  leave the silverware or glasses on the table on a daily basis.  I like that I can pick each place setting up as a whole and move it to clean. Easy peasy. Just keepin’ it real for my peeps! If that makes me bad, so be it.

Of course my kitchen wouldn’t be complete without my chalkboard art…

I’ve shared this sweet little bunny with you earlier, but couldn’t resist showing him again… so. darn. sweet!

I used this as my formal dining centerpiece last year. I loved that little rabbit so much so I HAD to use it  somewhere. I think it is perfect on my island… I have a few more small surprises tucked here and there around the kitchen – a faux chocolate bunny, a tiny basket of eggs, birds nests – just little things to remind me that spring and Easter are really here.

So how about you? Are you going all out on your Easter decor this year or are you like me and are scaling back a bit? I’d love to hear!

Until next time…..

                       Tammy

Woo Hoo! It is the First Day of Spring. Finally! Take that you crazy groundhog! Also, Happy Birthday to me! Yup, I am a true spring chick. I love this time of year. For me, my birthday starts it all off. Warmer weather, Easter, flowers blooming, baseball. Hey, it’s almost flip flop weather y’all!

While I love being outside and working in my yard this time of year, I also try and bring some of that color and spring feeling into the house. One way to do that is with a spring/Easter table centerpiece.

Here is what you are gonna need…

A little fluff. You know the “filler”. I like to use natural seasonal things and some natural elements.

Fresh flowers or plants. If you can’t do fresh then use realistic fake ones.

A container to hold very thing . I like to corral everything so I can easily move it to clean.

I started with a crown – what else? I think that another important thing in your arrangement is varied heights or as Christopher Lowell ( HGTV’s first decor diva) used to say “lifts and levels!”.  The lifts and levels don’t have to be pretty, you’re not going to see them. Today, I used a small dish turned upside down.

I placed my cute rabbit on top of my lift. I had already given him a sassy black and white plaid bow and placed greenery and robins eggs in his backpack.

Next, a live plant and this awesome burlap cabbage flower. I placed them in a triangle. Visually this gives it texture, weight and symmetry. In other words – it looks good!

Place the “fluff” around the “triangle” that you just created to hide all of the stuff you don’t want to see and talk about texture? This crushes it. Be sure to go all the way around, especially since this is going on the table as a centerpiece. No empty spaces, no ugly spots.

If there are any empty spaces or holes add greenery or moss to these spots. Also, add in any extra small seasonal items – like the robin’s eggs I added here – to finish out the centerpiece. I wanted to tie my centerpiece in with the colors of the kitchen so I added a black and white bow to the front of the centerpiece.

I am done! Simple and easy.

Here is a shot of the side…

And a shot of the back… NO ugly spaces!

If you were paying attention you can see that I have been playing with different place settings to see which one I like the best. Decisions, decisions!

As soon as I make up my mind all I have to do is set the kitchen table and I am ready to rock spring and Easter! I will be sharing part II of my kitchen table soon!

Until next time……

                         Tammy

Top o’ the morning to you! I love St. Patrick’s Day. I do. Rumor has it I have been to a lot a few Paddy’s day parades. Some I may or may not have been dressed up like a gypsy Queen ( thank you Sweet Potatoe Queens!) I love the beads, I love green, I love how everyone just wants to have a little fun for one day.  I love the thought that I might find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow… I MIGHT!

I just don’t decorate for it like I do other holidays. I usually do my chalkboard and buy a few tiny gifts for the kids, hit a parade and call it even. This year I want spring to get here so badly, I thought I would make a little extra effort in hopes that it will come a little faster!  Today I am going to share with you my St. Patrick’s Day decor.

Remember these? I found these last month at HomeGoods and fell in love with them.  I don’t usually like green but I am kinda thinking that this emerald green is the bomb diggity! ( It may even show up in room redo later this spring…) If you read my earlier post you know that I bought these with no idea where or when I was going to use them. Well, this is it baby! Perfect for St. Paddy’s day!

Ta Da! This is my kitchen table where we eat everyday.

I started with some emerald green placemats that I got at Marshall’s last year.

Gold chargers – Get it? Gold at the end of the rainbow -what else?

Then my white dishes that I pretty much use with everything.

Followed by the new napkins. I used some of my parade beads for a napkin ring, just wrapped them around the napkins. I stuck a “lucky” coin in the beads for a little fun!

I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on my decor and ya know that I love to use what I have when I can. So the parade beads were used along with the “lucky” green and gold coins that I have acquired over the years. I picked up a cheesy green pot at Hob Lob for a few bucks. I really wanted a clover  plant to go in my pot but I guess here in Texas people consider clover a weed so good luck finding clover at a nursery. Instead I went with another plant that reminded me of clover.  I love the tiny white flowers!

Of course I did a St. Paddy’s day chalk board art. I couldn’t resist adding various stuff from my parade days to the frame.

Not bad for spending  under $20.00 for my St. Patrick’s Day decor!

One last thing… my outdoor flag. I KNOW  – funny, but wrong. I couldn’t resist!

I will leave you with one last thought…

May Your Pockets be heavy

Your heart be light

May good luck pursue you

each morning and night

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

until next time….

                       Tammy