vintage goodness

I had to show y'all the adorable vintage tablecloth my parents gave Brad and I for our anniversary.

It just has "summer" written all over it! I love how the red, blue, and green pick up all the colors in the kitchen. The blue especially helps the blue glass bottle and the blue in the framed flour sack pop out amidst all the red.

I didn't think my little woven lemon worked as well with this tablecloth as it did with the cloth that used to be on the table, so I borrowed from another room for a new centerpiece.

This lovely red glass is actually a wasp catcher, but I love it too much to hang it outside. It used to reside on the hall table, but I'm really liking it on this saucer as a centerpiece. I'm thinking that if I play around with it enough, I should be able to figure out how to get a candle to stand upright inside the glass for a little extra glam at dinner time!

<3

Hattie

A little more red for the roost

I'm 26 today and I have two new birthday treats to show you that add a little extra red to the kitchen. I also received some wonderful gift cards and checks that I'll use for new clothes for me and some new decor for the roost. Thanks to everyone who made my birthday special!

Here is the little tablescape I put together with the new dashes of red.

My Grandma gave me the red glass jar, and I found the red wire basket yesterday at the Dollar Tree.

Those pink carnations are still going from the Mother's Day tea party two weeks ago! I love the texture the basket adds to the arrangement. It feels a little beachy to me as well, sort of like a wire lobster trap. My Dollar tree had them in red, white, and blue in the 4th of July section. What an awesome basket for only a buck! I plan to use it mostly as a bread basket, lined with a crisp white napkin, but it could also hold rolls of silverware, a few small books, office supplies, etc. Go get one before they sell out!

This vintage glass jar is also pretty swell. I love the funky raised design. I think this will be great for storing cookies or flour, but I can also envision it full of white tulips or daisies.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day tomorrow!

<3

Hattie

An Invitation

All the women in my family love tea, and we all love tea parties. I figure I should take that as a sign that a Mother's Day tea party is in order for this year. I have some very cool ideas for laying the table and displaying the goodies that I'll share after the fact, but today I wanted to show you the invitations I made.

I was inspired by these Target plates my mom and I found at Goodwill a few years ago. I just love how girly and vintage looking they are. I don't get a chance to use them very often, so they will definitely be put to use for the party. Since I love them so much, I thought I'd design the invitations to match.

I am very good at assembling things and very bad at drawing, so I knew I would need to start with some clip art. I don't have any fancy designer software on my computer, so I used plain old Microsoft Word.

This cute clip art was close enough to the flower design on the plates to make a good starting point. The key to manipulating clip art is a little trick called grouping and ungrouping. It is definitely worth reading the help section in word on grouping to get a good overview of this, but I'll give you the gist.

First insert the clip art in a blank document. Now, on the drawing tool bar at the bottom of the screen you should be able to select ungroup.

This allows you to manipulate every part of the clip art. You can delete elements, move them around, and change the size and color. When you're done, just click on regroup to save the new image.

I took the bee clip art from above and tweaked it to make the two flowers on this invitation.

Then I added two text box borders and matching polka dots to mimic the edge of the plate.

I had to make my own envelopes because I chose to make the invites a bit over sized.

I just folded and glued paper to fit around the invite, then folded and glued the bottom manila envelope style. The top is left open so the invitation can be pulled out by the ribbon. These will be hand delivered on Friday, so they won't have to stand up to the postal service.

So, If any of you are as neurotic as me and would like to match your invitations to your plates, or shoes, or wallpaper, or whatever, now you know how!

<3

Hattie

Paint by Numbers Love

I love paint-by-numbers. I mean I really, really love them. Before you think I have no taste whatsoever, let me clarify. I do not love creepy pictures of crying clowns. I do love campy paint-by-numbers landscapes. I seem to be really attracted to water scenes. I've managed to accumulate three legitimate paintings (all at $15.00 or less!) as well as several other water and boat pictures. Once I had several paintings, I started scouting around for a way to display them.
I found the solution at one of my all time favorite junk/thrift stores, Class and Trash in Ashland, VA.

This curtain valance had my name on it. The funny thing is that I really dislike wooden valances over windows, but I love this as a shelf. It was even already painted this great sea blue color. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the plaid in the sofa has some of the same color running through it. Side note: I'm actually keeping my eye out for a white slip cover for the sofa. Here's a close up of the valance/shelf

The jar has shells we've collected over the last few years.

The mill picture as well as the cottage scene below both came from a junk shop in Madison, VA. I can't remember the name, but it was one of those great hole-in-the-wall shops with sagging floors, a layer of dust, and piles and piles of stuff.

I think the cottage painting is my favorite. Can I please have a little white beach or lake house with a red roof and a row boat docked right outside the door? A girl can always dream!

<3

Hattie