2016 – Page 2 – There's No Place Like Home

November 7, 2016March 11, 2017

Fall Dinner Party

This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting my new co-workers and their husbands for dinner.

I always wonder what new friends think when they walk into one of my dinner parties, as I have a tendency to go a little over the top. Saturday Morning, I was so excited to set the dinner table I woke at 4:30 am and was able to fall back asleep. I had to get up and set the table.

I love making bouquets during the fall. I used a pedestal vase with roses, greens, and mini kale. I mixed my wedding china with my grandmother’s china.

I also had to pull out my candelabras. I know they are over the top, but I just love them. $10 for the set score at a local flee market. They make the table feel extra cozy in the fall.

I also loved all the little gourds!

Table Runner: the thing that was keeping me up early Sat AM was the table runner. I wanted something fun and fresh that I hadn’t used, but didn’t anticipate that early enough to find fabric and sew a new option. So instead I remembered I had this wallpaper laying around. I had bought it on a flash website one day, and never ended up using it. I thought it laid a nice groundwork for the table!

Menu:

Appetizer: Cheese Plate

Signature Cocktail: Grapefruit Gin Martini

Salad: Arugula, Balsamic, Roasted Beets, Blue Cheese, Walnuts

Entree: Roasted Beef Tenderloin with a horseradish cream sauce, twice baked potatoes, roasted asparagus

Dessert: Mini Lemon Meringue Pies and Mini Chocolate Lavender Mousse Pies

November 2, 2016March 11, 2017

Late Summer Pop Up Party

I love a good pop up party. I have hosted a couple ( lake michigan, bachelorette, city scape), and over labor day I had the pleasure of hosting another.

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Funny Story: the party evolved from my sisters friends seeing all my posts for parties and wanting to co-host one. So over labor day we went to my sister’s friend’s house which had the best backdrop for an amazing party.

As you know flowers are always top of mind the it comes to a good party. So we bought some from the grocery store and mixed with the most amazing dahlias from the farmers market.

Isn’t the backdrop just amazing! It was overlooking the most beautiful ravine that goes down to the river.

I just loved the fabric I found to make the table runner. The moody floral was the perfect backdrop for a late summer party.

Now this pop up was a little different from some, since we did it at someone’s house we didn’t have to haul all of the stuff to a remote location. So we were able to set the table a little more elaborate.

I just love outdoor dinner parties! Do you want help planning an event! Shoot me an email!!!

November 1, 2016

Iron Horse Whimsical Wedding Flowers

I am excited to share the delayed flower pictures from an August Wedding I had the pleasure of being the florist for! The bride and groom wanted to have wild bohemian flowers and I think they turned out just great!!

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I loved the pedestals we used to layout a great backdrop for the ceremony. They worked our perfectly.

Remember if you are looking for a florist give me a call! I love working with brides and grooms to create a perfect day.

August 1, 2016August 1, 2016

Furniture Rescue: Oak Cerused

So a while back I fell in love with this oak coursed secretary that Little Green Notebook Did….

Check out the tutorial Here. It’s amazing stuff.

So when I found this fun coffee table, for $40 on craigslist I thought it might look really cool with the same treatment. And it was only $40 so if it got messed up no biggie.

First caveat is that on Little Green Notebook, she explains that it HAS to be oak. Now I had no clue if this table was oak or not, but I knew that just from the look of it, the piece had VERY pronounced wood grain. So I figured it should work, directionally correct.

TNPLH: Furniture Rescue Cerused Coffee Table 3

So the hardest part was the stripping of the wood. It took FOREVER! And it was a TOTAL MESS! I have done a lot of furniture in the past, however I usually paint (not stain), so I usually don’t have to do a perfect job stripping down to the bare bones. But in this case you have to put in the dirty work and get it all the way down to the wood.

Also – when I asked for the metal wire brush to stripe the wood, the hardware store looked at me like I didn’t know what I was doing. But the thing is you want to use this (not sand down) because you really are trying to get the deep divots of the wood grain to become more pronounced. So it will feel like you are being rough with the furniture, that is ok!

The navy looked so cool I almost wanted to leave it like it was. I layered up 3 layers of the Shellac and then I waxed my heart away…you can also kinda see above that the wood grain was already pronounced…..

Boom! I love the way it turned out. What a great inspiration Little Green Notebook was! I love it! Not bad for $40, $20ish in supplies, and some good hard elbow grease! Love!

July 10, 2016

Door County Mini Break!

So in June we always have a lot to celebrate: My birthday and our Anniversary. So Chris and I took advantage and finally we did a long weekend in Door County. For those of you not from Wisconsin Door County is a treasure. Cute, quaint and right on the bay of Lake Michigan.

Doesn’t it look like the East Coast? So pretty!

We got that around lunchtime on a Thursday and immediately hit up the Wild Tomato. Pizza, sandwiches and good drinks. It was so delish and had a nice outdoor seating area that we enjoyed.

We stayed at the Whistling Swan. They are owned by Milwaukee’s Hinterland, which Chris and I love. So we knew it was going to be amazing. The service was top notch and the decor was inspiring.

Breakfast was included with the stay, and it was a delight.

The bar was fun to sit at for an after dinner drink.

The Whistling swan offers breakfast and dinner. We had both and each were fantastic.

While in Town we did our fair share of drinking and eating. One of our stops was the Door County Brewing Company. Local Craft Beer with an amazing wait staff. I definitely recommend a flight.

If you go to Door County definitely hit up Peninsula State Park. All kinds of hiking. We did the Eagle trail and Chris was al little unsure about it….

The whole trail was filled with beautiful views of Lake Michigan and the Bluffs.

We also went to White Dunes Beach which was gorgeous. We walked along the Lake until we found this beach filled with rock towers that people had built through the years.

so naturally, Chris built one….

We also went to Stone’s Throw Winery, which I highly recommend. Disclaimer: There are a lot of wineries in Door County, but many are very fruity local grapes, which are very sweet. However Stone’s Throw brings in grapes from California and makes wines on cite with them. So you get your traditional California Wines. They also have 2 restaurants on cite. One is a pizza brick oven restaurant which was awesome (we had lunch there) and the other was a tapas restaurant (which we didn’t eat at). Try it all! It’s a fun place!

Other notes:

Dinner: Try Parador! Tapas Restaurant. Food and service were both amazing, but I forgot to take a pic. For sure try it!

Dinner: Next time we go we need to hit up the Wickman House. When we travel every bartender/local/random stranger we come across we always ask for recommendations and this one was an overwhelming must do. Unfortunately, we hadn’t heard of it before we went, so we couldn’t get a reservation but it’s on the list for next time!

Day Time: Next time we would take time to rent a boat. This one was a short trip and we had a lot of stuff planned so we didn’t get out on the lake. But next time we would do that!

Have you been anywhere else in Door County? Where else should we go next time??

July 8, 2016

Loving Lately…

So lately I have been loving lights/sconces over paintings.

Love this space that was featured in the recent issue of TradHome. Isn’t it gorgeous!

But I don’t want to have to re-wire everything on the wall.

So I recently found this one, and now it’s on my wish list. I think it would be really cute above the art in my living room, and help lighten up the wall.

Wouldn’t that be fun? Not sure I will get them for a while, but they are on my mind!