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Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Freshest Color Of Them All


When I say the word, “FRESH,” what color do you automatically think of?

I know it will be subjective, but I personally think of the color, “GREEN!”

Just think of the crisp crunch when you bite into a juicy green apple…..

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Now add an accent color, white to the mix and it becomes even fresher………


There are so many ways to add green to our homes. You don’t have to paint a wall, or buy a green piece of furniture. 
You can take a simple glass bottle and add some freshness to any room……..



Another simple, and inexpensive way to add some fresh green to your  home is with plants. 

Every room should have something living in the form of greenery.

Even in my own home where I already have green and white in my kitchen I still added a touch of greenery with herbs on my kitchen counter………


There are so many clever ways to add green to our homes. 
I have a dedicated board on my Pinterest page just for green. Take a click over there if you would like to see more.



Another place you can see a touch of green and white today is over at Emily Clark’s blog. 
Emily is doing a series of post where she ask ten design bloggers to send her a picture.

Todays post is all about, “What is the last thing you ordered for your home on line?”

I have already given you a hint that mine is green and white, but you will have to go over there to see the great deal of the century I ordered on line…….
Emily A. Clark
 
 

Monday, August 27, 2012

My Transition Wardrobe From Summer To Fall!



Transitioning from Summer to Fall/Winter can sometimes be difficult so I decided to get a head start on this years transition wardrobe.



 I started pulling some clothes out of my closet to see what I had to work with. 

Working with some of my existing pieces I came up with a color scheme that I am very pleased with for this Fall/Winter season…….


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 Of course these colors are added to a base of blacks and whites and some navy pieces as well.


I am a planner as you all know, so of course I pulled my clothes out of my closet, and started playing with my key pieces, and adding shoes, and accessories to the mix.

I set up a simple clothes rack in the playroom and started playing……….



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These are some of my main tops. Can you say STRIPES?!!



The pants and skirts, not pictured consist of:

  1. Black wide-legged dress pants
  2. Black tapered ankle pants
  3. Dark washed jeans 
  4. Camel tapered ankle pants
  5. Black pencil skirt
  6. Casual camel skirt

Dresses

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My dresses are a comfy jersey knit that can be worn with a navy, or a bright green sweater if it gets cool. 

Living in California our weather is not that harsh at the beginning of Fall so I can get away with a few light-weight pieces.





Accessories

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I have always been a scarf girl. I wear them around my neck, or around my purse handle. I have for years, and I feel very comfortable in a scarf.

 Plus, I find that a scarf is kind of like a pillow in a room. It can pull together colors, and patterns that might not necessarily work without the addition of the scarf, or pillow.


You can see my tanks on the left, on the right my sweaters that will pull all these pieces together.


I have a wide brown leather woven belt, black patent skinny belt, and a leopard pony hide skinny belt.
  
ACCESSORIES

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These are a close-up of the bracelets I find I wear most often when I am wearing all of the above colors. They have been tried, and true favorites of mine.

As far as shoes go I will be showing you only four pair, trust me I have more, but all of these seem to work nicely with the above wardrobe……

SHOES
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I am showing my most comfortable shoes that still have some cute factor. 


Trust me it is hard to find comfortable, and cute in the same shoe. 


The leopard pony-hide shoes are Taryn Rose ballet flats, and I can not say enough about how comfortable these shoes are.


The mustard driving mocs are also quite comfy by Cole Haan (Nike Air).


The blue, and black patent ballet flat is by Bloch, and it is a shoe I have worn all day shopping!


The upper right shoe is by Sam Edelmann, it is a bit out of the box for me with its studs, and spikes, but I love them and they are also quite comfy.

 COLLAGE OF FALL TRANSITION CLOTHES

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Not shown are cashmere sweaters in Camel, cobalt, and black.


For cooler weather I have a cute all weather jacket by Betsy Johnson…..


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I also have a long camel sweater coat, and a cobalt unstructured blazer……..


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So there you have it! My Fall wardrobe. When winter hits here in California I will be wearing more of the cashmere sweaters, and a pair of brown leather ankle boots.


I will be carrying this bag for winter……….








This is a re-issue by Fossil and it is a new addition to my wardrobe. I can’t wait until cooler weather shows up so I can pull this baby out of my closet!!!



Fall is just around the corner, have you started working on your Fall Closet yet?

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Can We Talk?

   
Sunday is a good day to think about things in life, don't you think?!

Today I was thinking about blogging and how it has changed since the arrival of Pinterest.

In some ways the changes are great, and in other ways, not so much!!

One of the ways I think it has changed, and not for the better, is the lack of communication between bloggers, and their readers.

I know I have found myself not reading as many blogs, and commenting less, and less. On my own blog I see fewer comments than ever before.

Comments are a bloggers life-blood, it is one of the things that keep us writing. We need to know that our audience is out there, and that they are enjoying our efforts.



This all came to mind today when I was visiting Joni at Cote de Texas. She always does such a thorough job on her research, and always gives us such insight on the subjects she is writing about.

I realized I had not visited her wonderful blog for awhile. I also had not left a comment for a long time. I truly felt a bit guilty so today I left a comment telling her how much I appreciated the time and effort she put in the beautiful post she posted today.

I looked back at some of my old blog post, and I found a post about non-bloggers commenting. I would like to share that with you all today, if you don't mind.....




.........Sometimes we just need to talk about blogging. You know the ins and outs of this mysterious and wondrous place we call blogland.

While visiting with a couple of my friends a few weeks ago a discussion about blogging came up. One of my friends has a blog, and the other loves to read blogs.

Little did we know there would be many questions that would come up from time to time that there just would not be any answers that made any sense. We all agreed.
 There was one question that came up that did have an answer……  
“Is it alright for a non-blog author to make a comment on a blog?”

Let’s face it, we were all readers before we were writers of blogs. I think we all became captivated about what we were seeing and reading in blogland, and that prompted our own desires to become blog authors.


My answer was, “Of course!” After all, comments are like food to blog authors. Without comments it is hard to have enough energy to come up with what it takes to write a blog.

At first I was a bit surprised at the question, but then I had to think back when I first discovered blogs.
 I remember thinking that I did not have the right to have an opinion since I was not part of this new found group of people called, “BLOGGERS!” 
 It all seemed so special and wondrous to me.


I honestly felt that I should just keep my opinion to myself, after all they were the one’s that were putting all the work into writing the blog, I was just sort of a voyeur looking in on their world, unbeknownst to them. 
I could quietly enjoy looking on, and  I could have an opinion, and no one would ever know. It just seemed to be the right thing to do at the time.


Source: None via Kathy Sue on Pinterest

As time passed, and I read more, and more blogs I realized that maybe, just maybe my comment, or opinion would be valued by the author. Still unsure I was hesitant to comment.

Once I finally felt as if it was alright, and the only reason I felt it was alright is because I discovered that other non-blog authors were leaving comments. 
 I finally started leaving comments, and making my presence known to the blog author, and fellow readers. 
A wonderful thing happened!! I actually developed some amazing friendships with like-minded people. Now this is something that is missing when commenting does not occur.
Source: None via Kathy Sue on Pinterest


Eventually, as you all know I started writing this blog. I am now on the other side hoping that my readers will feel comfortable here, comfortable enough with me and what I am writing about to leave a comment to let me know they were HERE!!
Whether you are a reader, or you are a blog author, “WE!” need, and want your opinions, and comments.

You, the readers are  what keeps me writing! Without you, and your feed back this journey would pretty much be meaningless. 
I for one have had so many wonderful experiences here, in blogland because of you wonderful readers.

So, I am here to tell you. Yes!! by all means, please leave a comment whether you have a blog or not!!

Readers are what gives me the energy, the want-to, the desire to keep writing.
If you feel you need permission, please feel as if you have been given permission………

I so appreciate all of you that take the time to not only read, but to let me know how you feel about what I am presenting here on my blog.
 I actually find it a bit hard to express how much it means to me.
Just know this……. As long as you are reading and commenting I will be writing.

I can only hope that you are still……..



“Enjoying the Process” Of:

Following along with me in blogland,




 

Friday, August 24, 2012

Great Ideas For The Weekend!

 



It is that time of the week again. The WEEKEND!!! Woo- Hoo!!

Are you ready for some mind boggling ideas to shake up your weekend?

Here we go……….



I just had to start with this sweet idea!! These plastic flutes from the dollar store are great presentation holders for cupcakes.

Depending on your color scheme for your party you can customize these for your own personal need.


If you are serving punch at the same party don’t go for normal ice try these over sized flower shapes made out of………

The bottom one is a liter soda bottle bottom! Genius!! Love this idea!!

Now for some special decorations take an ordinary balloon and do something a little special by……..


…… putting a marble in them before blowing up and they will hang upside down. 

I love white balloons in all different finishes. One other special touch if your party is at night, add a glow stick!!!!


Speaking of lights!



Fill any inexpensive lantern with a string of white lights and hang around your yard or in a tree. Can you imagine these en masse’, amazing!!!


Now let’s get down to some practical ideas……….



Are you like me and you poke holes in your rubber gloves? 

Well, cotton balls to the rescue!!!! Just poke a cotton ball down in the tip of the finger and they will be protected from sharp fingernails!! So simple!!

My reader NanaDiana just wrote a comment and she puts some baby oil on her cotton ball in her garden gloves and she gets an oil treatment for her cuticles. Brilliant Diana!!




Don’t you just hate paint splatters on your face when you are painting something above your head? Make a paint guard with a plastic bowl lid!!! Now, why didn’t I think of that?



My hubby is really a very handy guy, but there is one thing he is not very good at…. Caulking!! 

You know the saying, if a little will do good a LOT will do better?!! Well, that is his method when caulking, and you all know that does not work.

This looks like the perfect remedy, tape using two pieces of tape, and caulk your line between the two pieces of tape. Voila! Not too much, and a perfectly straight line!!!


This next idea actually comes from ME!!!! I did this in our kitchen re-do. We had the typical 1978 cabinets. I decided to paint them but before I did the painting we adding some skirt molding and feet to the bottom of the cabinets.

Guess what I used for the feet? Shelf Brackets, turned upside down. Inexpensive shelf brackets!!!!




Each bracket cost $2.00!! I think that was money well spent, don't you? If you would like to see more of my kitchen you can go to the top of my blog and take a tour of my home!!



For those of you that have a pony wall in your home, or plan on having a pony wall, how about some extra storage? Brilliant!!

Have you ever wondered if some of the ideas you see on Pinterest will work or not? Well, some brilliant person is writing a blog specifically dedicated to those ideas that Did NOT work called PINSTROSITY!!


When your kiddos would like to earn some extra money by doing chores around the house give them this envelope with chore cards that have instructions on how to do the chore, so they know what you expect, and the amount of $$ it is worth. Brilliant idea!!

Well that is it for this weeks installment of Great Ideas!! 

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

 

AAAAH!! That First CUP Of COFFEE!!!

   

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It is true!! I always look forward to that first cup of coffee in the morning. It is quiet time, me time, gathering my thoughts time.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I can only become human, and coherent after two cups of coffee.


(This is where you will find me sitting in the morning)

When the weather allows I will sit out on my front porch, watch the sprinklers and wake up with my coffee in hand. 

 I will hold the cup close to my face rubbing my hands on the warm cup, while letting the aroma float up over my face.......
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I am weird like that!! It is kind of my morning ritual. I am not sure when this all started, but it is nice time of my day.

Me, my coffee, and the morning air.


Excuse me I think I need to go and get  one more cup of coffee. 

Wishing you all a wonderful Friday and a Happy Weekend.

Do  you have a  morning coffee ritual?