Indulge Your Shelf

And here's my third bookmark entry for Christine's g iveaway : I'm always inspired by lavender!

Christine is giving everyone three chances to enter a bookmark in her giveaway . So, here is my second: As you can see, I was inspired by the idea of a beach read! There's still time to enter ! The contest closes when she reaches 100 entries!

I'm counting down the days to Friday, when my husband, son and I drive to Denver and get on a plane to Indiana to attend my college graduation. I'm beginning to get very excited! Last weekend my husband surprised me with a cake, some decorations, and a large brown box from Louis Vuitton. It was exactly what I had wanted, dreamed about getting, but never expected: the last briefcase/laptop case I'll ever need, built to last a lifetime. If I look a little strange in the photo, it's because I was, truly, dazed. Speechless. This doesn't happen to me very often! I'm hoping that the briefcase will get a lot of use during my budding writing career. A couple of days later a dear friend surprised me when I pulled up to her house and saw a banner, "Happy Graduation!" Inside, she'd prepared this lovely table: She made the cake, with the basket weave icing, from scratch. She is a very talented, creative lady, and I was extremely touched. Tomorrow I...

Here's the second garden chair I put together the other day. This one was literally a $1 chair I bought at a garage sale. It used to have a cane seat but that was gone when I got it. Here's how I did it (clockwise from top left photo - click on the photo for a closer view): First I cleaned the chair with Orange Glo wood cleaner. When it was clean I realized how pretty and still in great shape it was; I decided right then that I wasn't going to drive nails into it or paint it like I did my last one. You can still make a lovely decoration, for indoors or out, without making any permanent changes. Next I took a nice round grapevine wreath and used wire to attach it to the chair through the holes that already existed from the caning. Then, I took a silverplate bowl that I had mosaic'd and attached it over the wreath. It worked out well because the bowl was already pierced around the edges so I could put the wire through it and then through the wreath. The bowl can h...

This is why it's so hard to get excited about spring in Colorado. (Sigh.)

I found this lovely wall hanging at the thrift store. It's molded in plastic, in deep relief, and even though it's dated I thought it would look great on my bedroom wall. But when I hung it, it didn't look quite right, so I decided to do something bold. I whitewashed it! Isn't it pretty? Now it looks just right for my blue and white bedroom!

You may remember when I blogged about this garden decor ch air I made last year: The chair was a thrift store find. Someone had taken an older wooden chair and done some lovely stenciling on it. The anonymous artist even stenciled the back. I bought it for $10 and removed the chair pad, leaving a nice hole for a flower pot to fit in. I then went to town adding green accent paint and covering what was left of the seat with broken china mosaic. I added some metal accents and bird house decor as well. It sat on my front porch all summer holding a potted geranium. As I said, that was last year. Much to my horror, when I brought it in after our long, dry, Colorado summer, the mosaic pieces began to fall off. I was left with this: So, yesterday I rolled up my sleeves and tried to salvage the chair. First, I chipped away the rest of the mosaic and the grout. (Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do to recycle the broken china pieces?) Next, I took a square grapevine wreath that I...