Lemonade Dreams & Gerber Daisy Wishes

I love this time of year when I do most of my tablescaping outdoors. The weather has been lovely here and I love taking advantage of it! Imagine a laid back feeling, sipping lemonade and discussing the days events with your family. Casual place settings and beautiful centerpieces, silverware, yours for the taking, displayed in a milk glass dish. Easy breezy dining, rosemary chicken , green beans, and strawberries are on the menu (Thanks for cooking Justin!)

Having fun with Big Huge Labs! :)

Tablecloth:Vintage bedspread (My Grandmother's)

Yellow Dinner Plates: Big Lots

Dessert Plates: Goodwill

Glassware: Nell Hill's

Silverware: Gift from MIL

Wicker Bottles: Nell Hill's

Milk Glass Pieces: Thrifted

Lemons and Daisies:

Combination of Hobby Lobby, Michael's & Joann's

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you're inspired!

Concrete Planters & Hurricanes

Hi everyone!

I've got another project to share with you, I just love this one!

The 80 pound bag from your local home improvement store, can conjure up several projects. The kids and I have made the classic 'stepping stone in the cake pan' project a couple times, which is a lot of fun. However, I have been wanting to make some small concrete planters for a while now...I had seen a project on the Designer Guys show, where Chris demonstrated making planters using stainless steel mixing bowls for molds. It was a great project, and I went on the hunt for stainless mixing bowls. I soon discovered that they were a little out of my price range. Plastic seemed to be an affordable alternative. The ones I selected (from Walmart) were a set of four nesting mixing bowls for the low, low, price of 3.50...that's a little better.

Here is what I used:

Standard Quick Set Concrete from Lowe's (under 4.00)

Bucket (to mix concrete in)

Water

Paint Stick

Something Weighty to

hold mixing bowl down: bricks, rocks, etc...

Nesting mixing bowls

Non-stick Cooking Spray

Rocks and Pebbles

Teenage Son (Optional, Husbands work too)

Mix a bucket full of concrete using your Teenage Son (or Husband).

Follow the directions on the bag of concrete, making sure the consistency is kinda like pancake batter.

Spray cooking spray on the inside of the largest bowl. Pour concrete into the bowl about mid-way. Using a smaller bowl in the nesting mixing bowl set, wiggle it into the wet concrete. Be sure to spray cooking oil on the outside of the smaller bowl. It will come up around the sides naturally. Weight it down, it will not stay if you don't. It will just push out. I found that even the weight of water worked too (the bowl on the bottom, pictured below)

Now is the time to decorate what will be the edge using rocks, pebbles, etc...anything you want. Living here in Missouri, red rocks are in abundance, so that's what I used, right out of my back yard!

Let it dry overnight. Gently remove the top bowl, turn the planter over and it will come right out, leaving you with this:

Now you are free to plant as you wish, I used more rocks in the bottom of the planter for drainage.

I love the look of them!


I decided not to plant in all of them, and use some for hurricanes. I just so happened to have some glass vases that fit in the planters. I want to make a few more to line my entire pathway! How fun would this be for a party? I really love the looks of this! I added some sand to catch the wax, a candle, some moss and some shells! So I took a little of my NC life and a little of my MO life and joined them to create a great looking hurricane!

Loverly!!


Maybe a centerpiece on your patio table?

Or maybe a couple on your steps?


I couldn't resist adding a picture of Daisy, she patiently waited for me to get done with my project and photographs way after the kids had gone!!



Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are inspired! This is a fun and easy project! I hope you'll try!

Carmella's Garden Party @ Southern Fried Gal

Colorful Tablescape

Blue skies and sunny days make for beautiful luncheons outside! I love to photograph outdoors, you can't beat natural daylight for great pictures!

You might remember when I made my ruffled burlap runner....

It's finally making it's official debut ! I love all the colors! All my faves!

I recently found these fantastic dessert plates at a roadside flea market that I just couldn't pass up. They are from Villeroy & Boch, manufactured in Luxembourg, pattern: Acapulco. I love the pattern, birds, and of course the color! Don't they just make you happy?

I paired them with an apple green dinner plate (Big Lots, last Summer) and Pier 1 charger plates (Found at Goodwill)


I was having more vinyl number fun...June 1 is my birthday, I decided to throw in a subtle birthday theme!

Blue goblets, that my dear friend Judy gave to me, love them!

Citrus and hydrangea centerpiece, super simple. The lemons and oranges are in a recent Goodwill find. The vase that the hydrangeas are in, is also Goodwill find that I spray painted Pumpkin Orange (Krylon). It was a not so hot color to begin with, but looks great in orange!

Fun and festive!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are inspired! If you would like to view additional photos of this table scape, check out my photo stream on Flickr!