Shhh ~

I've got a lovely sponsored giveaway coming up on November 1st.  We'll be starting the month off right and it is just in time for the holidays.

I think you will really like it!  So watch for my giveaway post on Monday, November 1st!

And just because I need to have at least one picture in a post ~

Image: Pottery Barn

And there is still time to entire my Birthday Giveaway going on until midnight, October 31st!

A Quick Copy ~ Fall Table

I found this picture on the Pottery Barn website and after taking a really good look at it, realized this centerpiece would be so easy to recreate.

I already had two of these open-ended hurricanes.  I also had some Fall filler.  I put my hurricane on a small dish {one of those little cheese ones that come with a gift basket} in a Fall color, because I have to remove mine from the table or move it around quite a bit.  I added my filler trying to recreate it similar to the PB picture.  You can see there are gourds, pumpkins and leaves. 

Inexpensive and easy!  You could probably just use your "extra" or left over decor to fill these.  I used the leaves I still had left over from the dollar store hurricane project I did here.  I already had the filler.  Mine didn't cost me anything to put together because I had it all on hand, but you can get the leaf bundles from the dollar store and probably the filler, too.  I think I got my filler from Michael's last year.

This would work well on a tabletop vignette, dining table, shelf, or a countertop. 

Yellow leaf dish came in a Fall themed basket I won from a raffle {along with a reddish one}; the dishes are from Kmart's Country Living collection; the charger is from Pier 1; placemats from Pier 1; napkins made by moi; glassware from Kohls.

Leaf bowl also came in raffle basket; candles are from Kohls; faux Mum bouquet from raffle basket; leaves on table from Dollar Tree; and the candleholders are glass pieces found at Goodwill that I glued together.

Don't forget to enter my Birthday Giveaway!  It ends at midnight on October 31st!

Linking up with:

Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps On The Porch
Vintage Inspiration Friday:Setting A Fall Table at Common Ground
Vignette Friday at Color Outside the Lines
Make It Yours Day at My Backyard Eden

A Birthday Giveaway!

**This Giveaway Has Ended**
Hooray for you!  My birthday is on Halloween and I am having a giveaway to celebrate! 

Image from The Weed Patch

I have been purchasing some new Christmas ornaments the past few months to be used on a little tabletop tree I bought on clearance last year at Michael's.  Since this tree will be in my kitchen and be a red and white peppermint theme, I am buying ornments that are kitchen related and/or red and white.  This giveaway is for an extra ornament that I picked up just for one of you!

It is this beautiful Coffee Diva!  Isn't she divalicious?  I think she's even a little sassy!  I am assuming she's coffee, but she could be a hot chocolate diva.  I do need my coffee in the morning to function and I think she definitely lets that be known.  She stands 5 inches tall {from her head to toe} and is about 3 1/2 to 4 inches wide.  She comes with the red ribbon already attached.

She's got a plateful of goodies, some whipped cream and you can see the "steam" coming off the top. 




How to win:

You do not have to be a follower.  Just leave me a comment below telling me what your morning drink of choice is that helps you wake up.  

Additionally, for a second entry, you can blog or tweet about this giveaway; just come back and leave me a link in a second and separate comment.   You don't have to have a blog to enter either.  Just leave me an email address to contact you at {like this spam proof way: kathyp (at) creativehomeexpressions (dot) com} if you should win.

This giveaway will end on November 1, 2010, to give everyone time to enter up to and through my birthday!  I will announce the winner sometime during the day on November 1st, using random.org.
**This Giveaway Has Ended**

Evalyse Goes To Goodwill

This should be entitled "Evalyse Goes To The Plaza", but grandma hasn't won Lotto yet! 

Well, it was bound to happen.  This weekend I went out with my daughter and granddaughter, and in our quest to find some lamps for my daughter's apartment we hit Goodwill {and Pier 1 as they had some on Clearance}.  We saw a few possibilities but came away with these darlings.

I have a small shade that I picked up at the Restoration Hardware outlet over the Summer for the smaller lamp.  She will use this on an entry table/shelf by their door so when they come in they can switch a light on.  I will be spray painting this little one black.  It had a paper shade, but it was crap so I threw it out when we got home.

We also found this larger more solid lamp {no shade} in a sage green color.  It would be okay "as is" but I will also be spray painting this lamp black.  It has a little crack in the base, but once I fix it up, it will be hardly noticeable.  Both lamps are wood.  I'll pick up a shade at Target for this one.  She decided to go with black on these lamps to go with the black one we purchased on Clearance at Pier 1. 

Of course, we couldn't leave without my looking things over and I came away with these items.

A brand new cloche!  It has a gold band along the bottom that seems like it is painted on, so I may just paint over it or see if I can attach ribbon or something.  It would be great if I got lucky and it just peeled off smoothly.

This cheese dome.  The dome itself is plastic and that hit the garbage once I got home.  I really wanted this for the wood base.  A clean up, some Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint and I have a base for my new cloche.  If I can find a wood candle stick somewhere along the line, I'll glue that to the bottom of the base to give it some height.

Lastly, I found this wooden dish/tray/stand/thingy.  I had seen this on someone else's blog awhile ago{maybe Thrifty Decor Chick or Beneath My Heart} and it was spray painted ~ white, I believe.  I'm not sure if I want to go with Heirloom White, ORB or black with this one.  So, I'll think on that one for a bit.

Update: I managed to get these pieces spray painted {except for the large lamp which I patched up with wood fill} on Sunday.   The smaller lamp is now black.

The wood base from the cheese platter/dome is now Oil Rubbed Bronze.  I still need to deal with the gold rim on the cloche before I pair these two up.



My favorite so far is this stand, which I painted in Heirloom White.

Not sure where it's going yet, but for a picture I put it on my kitchen table. 

Evalyse loved everything we got!  Although someone got a little cranky when we were waiting on line; but that's only because I didn't have my breakfast.  : )  It was lovely to spend a little time out shopping with my girls!

Linking up with:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Bobbypins Boardwalk Bragfest

Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous

Balancing Act

Today I'd like to share the living room of a client I have been working with.  They are a lovely young family who had moved to a new and larger home.  When I came into the project, the client already had furnishings in the rooms; either new or existing from their previous home.  We decided to tackle the living room, dining room and entry first.  Today I'd like to share a portion of the living room with you.

Here is a "before" picture of the living room as it appeared when I first visited.  Accessories and wall decor have since been added.  The items in the picture above I had just brought in when I realized I didn't have a "before" picture of this corner, so imagine them not there.

Everything looks very nice and the furniture is new.  There are two large openings {from the entry and also between the dining room} in this room, as well as two walls of windows.   Not a lot of solid wall to work with.  The client was not sure what to do in here, but knew she did not spend a lot of time in the room and wanted to change that. 

The pictures above show what I suggested to the client on the design board, as far as corner bookshelves and an accent chair for the wall across from the seating, as there was nothing on this side of the room.   It seemed a little "heavy" on one side due to the furniture and window treatments. 

Here are some "after" shots of this corner.  {I do need to get some shots of the room in its entirety}.

I added some accessories {below} and I'll be bringing over some of my "donate" books to fill some space for now.  The client will be looking to get some books to fill it with.



Here it is with the accent chair.  I chose a leggy chair so that it does not visually take up space, yet it does allow you to sit and be a part of the conversation area or find the book you are looking for on the bookshelves.

This custom piece was done fairly recently as you can see the shims are still in place and I set the shelves up when I arrived.  Some books and a few more accessories and this spot will be done.  I suggest leaving some space available for new books that come along or new accessories you want to add.  The client just loves it and has spent more time in this room just looking at the bookshelves than she did before they were even there! 

Sometimes people are intimidated by accessorizing.  I'm planning a future post where I will talk about accessorizing bookshelves, using these as an example.

Linking up with:

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch

Vignette Friday at Color Outside The Lines

Yard Sale Find & Fix Up

First off let me just say that I spent most of yesterday giving myself a headache and heart burn.  For almost a year I've been using Windows Live Writer to draft my blog posts and it has been wonderful.  Recently when I've clicked on it, it comes up with a box that there is a "Newer Version".  Saturday I decided to just get it already to stop the box from coming up and instead of getting the "newer version" I now have no version of Live Writer!   It wouldn't be so bad except that I had three blog posts drafted in there and now have no way to get them!  I've got the hubster on it, but meanwhile I'm trying something to circumvent the issue and at least get my drafts.  Until then, this post is being drafted in Blogger.

In addition to the headache and heart burn, I went to a yard sale on Saturday morning.  I don't normally do yard sales, but I went to this one because it was actually being held to raise money for a young man that my son knows from work that has cancer.  Apparently, he had been in remission and now it is back.  Added to that, his mother died last year.    A very sad situation so I wanted to go and give what I could.  I wound up purchasing two items and put the rest of the money I had brought with me toward raffle tickets they also had.  One of the things I got was this witch's shoe.

And this clock, the style of which I've seen be reinvented into a cloche.  The base on this is ceramic.

It took a coat of Rustoleum's Universal Oil Rubbed Bronze very well.  I then used a piece of scrapbook paper to cover up the bottom and the three holes left behind from the clock's mechanics.

I have saved this picture because I thought it would be great to do a vignette like this under it.

But as it is getting closer to Halloween and my daughter hates spiders anyway, I decided to just stick an extra nest and egg under it for now.  {BTW, the bird plaque/print behind it is for sale in my boutique}.

Linking up to

It's So Very Creative at It's So Very Cheri

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch

Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous

Weekend Wrap Up at Tatertots and Jello

Halloween Around My House

Too many pictures for words.  I think I’ve noted where I purchased things, in the event anyone is interested. 

 Spell books from Amazon.

 
  
 Bag of little plastic skulls from Dollar Tree.

The spell books are printed as if the pages are aged and notes have been made in them.  What looks like handwriting {below} comes in the book that way.

 
Decorating in the kitchen, because it can get pretty scary in here even when it’s not Halloween!  Eat my food at your own risk!

A dollar store tray with a dollar store wood oval painted with chalkboard paint.  I used these at my daughter’s Mad Hatter Tea Party Baby Shower, too.

I can’t remember if I got the candy corn towel set from Target or the dollar store.

My new outdoor lights are going up as I type this. I got the Halloween stake at Michael’s last year {on clearance} a week before Halloween for 40% off.  The monogram flag I just got from Hobby Lobby online with a 40% off coupon.

I like the flag tucked in this Lantana that I tried for the first time this year.  I know it is used in Florida, but it just took off for me here with the heat and humidity we had this year.  If I knew it was going to get this huge I would have bought more, first off, and second, I wouldn’t have put it right by the door.   I will definitely buy this plant again.

I know.  That picture and what I said above has nothing whatsoever to do with Halloween decor.  I just wanted to show it off.

The witches hat below I just stuck on the lamp.  I found that in Target’s dollar section.

I also found this plastic skull at Target.  I’m thinking of cloche-ing him.  He’s probably the scariest thing I have in my house right now {except for hubby, when I tell him I’d like to work part-time now. Please}.

 A beautiful witches hat ordered from Sara at Sara’s Sweet Surprise.  The detail is just gorgeous and I love it! 


That’s all for my Halloween decor!   

Linking up to Color Outside the Lines for Vignette Friday.