Happy Easter!

If you take these:

And add this:

You get these:

Or in different light these:

These cupcakes are made with made with Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix, which is my humble opinion, the best cake mix brand on the market! The icing is buttercream. The buttercream paired with the DH cake mix = YUM! The bagged coconut was tinted with green food coloring for the grass effect. Then I topped them with mini jelly beans. Was there some kind of secret jelly bean shortage this year? I had the hardest time finding your average, run of the mill jelly bean. Normally Wally World has gads of them but that was not the case this year. I finally found some at a grocery store this morning and they were already half off! What's up with that? I spent most of my day in the kitchen. I made the cupcakes and my dessert for tomorrow's lunch. I made the coconut cake with sour cream, sugar and coconut filing. It's best if it's allowed to sit a couple of days. I'm hoping 24 hours will do the trick. I've never made one before so I'll be anxious to taste it! It was super easy so depending on how it tastes it may be a keeper!

Our Easter weather should be beautiful! I'll leave you with one of my favorite Easter passages from the Bible:

[1] In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.[2] And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.[3] His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:[4] And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.[5] And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.[6] He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Matthew 28:1-6.

Out with the old-In with the new.

The Valentines decorations have come down and the Easter decorations have come out! I love the pieces I have on my table.

The pink shimmery fabric I got from the $1.00 a yard Wal-Mart bin. It is just pooled on the table with the unfinished (unsewn) edges turned under. The ceramic bunny and basket came from Old Time Pottery. You can't really tell from the picture but the basket has little ceramic eggs suspended right below the rim. It is so cute! I bought the eggs at the Goodwill. I bought two huge bags for $1.48 each. The colors are perfect, so spring-y! I bought the grapevine milk glass vase at the thrift store for either $5 or $10, I can't remember which. It was a little pricey but such a nice piece. The flowers are .97 stems from Wally World.

I really found good deals yesterday. This vase was marked down to .75 and the stems were were .50 each.

Jacob did my arrangements. That boy is Talented (with a capital T)! Jacob if you're reading this give a blogger a shout out! This arrangement is pink dogwoods.

I have one more thing I'd like to do before easter. I found some cute things yesterday at Ross Dress for Less. If you have on in your area you should check them out! I'm going to decorate my living room coffee table. I'll post a picture when it's done.

Wonderful Day and Yellow Bedroom

I've had a wonderful day today. My sister Diane and I hosted some friends for lunch. We had a great time. Lots of laughter which is so good for us! I made spaghetti. We also had salad and french bread and Diane made Strawberries in the Clouds for dessert! Yummy! Too bad I didn't take a picture! Since I was having friends over I spent my morning cleaning house, which in turn, encouraged me to take more house pictures. Today I'm showing our yellow and purple guest room. Yellow and purple you say? You have to remember that Mobile is the original birth place of Mardi Gras. So maybe Mardi Gras inspired my colors. Nah, I doubt that! I've lived here all my life and have never been to Mardi Gras and don't really care to go. So maybe it was the quilt that's on the bed. Or wait! It must have been the cute green tapestry chair I found at a yardsale for $15.00. I had to bargain with my husband over that chair but I stood my ground and it stayed! Whatever the inspiration... this is the result:

As I told someone the other day, disturbingly, my decorating tastes are turning to the cottage-y, Paris Flea Market chic. So many things in this room are special to me for different reasons. The bed and dresser were my Great Grandmother's. The pitcher on the dresser was also my grandmaw's. It's special because as babies my mom and her brother were bathed in this bowl. My mom is 65.



The curtains are special because they were my first curtain project! I made the panels and Mister did the cornice. I also made some of the pillows on the bed and the purple table skirt and dresser table runner.



The chair is one of my favorite parts of the room. Mainly because I love pieces with character. And I love a bargain! Getting it in my already full car after a day of yardsale-ing was the fun part. Thankfully Jacob was there to help me. Hmmm-He seems to be my partner in crime. I couldn't help myself. I had to add the crocheted arm and neck protectors. Did your grandmaw have these? Mine did. (Too, they hide excessive wear on the chair arms! Shh!)

Chicken on a Stick and More Blue Room

Mister and I made chicken on a stick last night. Oh my goodness! It was dee-lish! I came up with my own recipe and if I must say so it is quite tasty. Onions, thinly sliced red potatoes, dill pickle slices and chunks of boneless chicken on a wooden skewer, marinated in my special marinade and then dredged in flour and fried to a crispy golden brown. SINFUL! Is your mouth watering yet?

I decided to go back and post more of the blue bedroom to show some of the beautiful detail in the ceiling and some more of my favorite accessories. This is a close up of the ceiling and molding:

After searching endlessly for the perfect chandelier this one was actually Mister's idea. We went to the antique consignment store and this was not what I had in mind at all and had actually overlooked it in the store when he said "Hey, what about this one?" He added all the prisms. To me it just pops against the cornslik blue walls.

This is the view facing the closets. I love the new 6 panel doors. It makes a world of difference!This is another picture taken from the doorway. I love the morning light! This is a close-up of the bed. My mom gave me the crocheted bed spread for Christmas a couple of years ago. I made the blue pillows.

Close up of the bedspread detail and throw:

The tapestry pillow in the chair in the corner came from Hobby Lobby! I paid way too much even with 50% off. But is this not gorgeous?

Where have I been......?

For over two months! Obviously I've been too busy to blog! My poor, neglected blog! I guess we were so busy trying to finish the house before Christmas that we didn't have time to do anything else! Speaking of the house....IT'S FINALLY FINISHED! All remodeling is done (for the time being) Ha Ha! I would eventually like to update our kitchen but I'm not sure that my husband shares my sentiments. Now for a little before and after.....this is one of our guest rooms before.....

And more before..........

Now how about a little after......

I wish I had a more detailed picture of the ceiling. It turned out so well! The Mister did a beadboard paneling with trim and it is exquisite! You would never know that there is ugly cottage cheese ceiling under there. Not that I hate cottage cheese because it's in most of the rest of the house.

This collage of vintage portrait prints is one of my favorite parts of the room. I was a little nervous putting nails in the freshly painted wall but it was well worth it! And this little lady....well, her name is Josephine.

I found her at a local consignment shop. I paid around $30 for her. My mom told me I was crazy but how could you not like Josephine?

I found the drapery panels at the thrift store. Both pieces for around $17.00. They retail for around $200.00! Actually I think they have been discontinued. They are Croscill in the Napoleon pattern. I was able to have the ascot valances custom made by woman that sells on eBay. The huge silver mirror above the bed is a Goodwill find. I paid $25 for it. That's more than I would normally pay but when I saw it I new it would look perfect above the bed.

Have I told you lately that I HEART THRIFT STORES?

Today.....

Today would have been my grandmaw Vera's birthday. There are so many things I could write about her life. She was unexpectedly widowed when she was in her early 50s. She loved to travel. She loved holidays. She loved her children and her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was a wonderful cook. Not too long ago I asked mama to make Swiss Steak like Maw Maw used to make. Soo many happy memories! She had a fireball temper that could errupt at the drop of a hat. She had a wonderful Godly heritage but herself waited until several years before she died to give her heart to God. But,when she made the decision, she followed through like she did with everything in her life. She was committed to go the distance, regardless. This picture was taken the Thanksgiving before she died the following May.

Look at all the food on the stove in the background of the picture. That was how it was everytime we went to Maws. Whether is was her big yellow Pyrex bowl full of potato salad or her cornbread dressing, everyting was in abundance and everything was delicious. We miss her so much. We were not ready to let her go. And days like today it's hard all over again. Happy Birthday Maw Maw.

Vacation 2007

We got back today from an almost week long vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains.

We saw the very end of the leaf change but we still saw a lot of color! It was so pretty there. Our vacation was delayed a couple of days because my Uncle Russell died the day we were to leave town. It was a hard decision but we decided to go after his funeral service. He was 68 years old and suffered with diabetes and congestive heart failure, among other things. I still can't believe he's gone. He was always the larger than life uncle, the fun one. Not always the storybook uncle but he was my favorite. I cried most of the way to Tennessee. We got to Gatlinburg around midnight on Monday. On Tuesday we ventured to Cades Cove, a one-way, 11 mile loop around an isolated valley located in the East Tennessee section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We wanted to get there in the late afternoon and finish the loop around dusk. Our timing was near perfect. We saw deer, turkeys and even a bear cub. We had to stop our car to allow this deer to cross in front of us. Since they live in a protected environment they have little fear of humans.

We also played a lot of goofy golf. This particular course was called Davy Crockett. See the master at work....

We had a wonderful time. We packed a lot in to the time we were there enjoyingThe Dixie Stampede and The Comedy Barn along with several great meals. It was good to get away but we were ready to get back home and back to OUR OWN BED! It's rough to sleep in a queen size bed after you're accustomed to sleeping in a roomy king size bed. Well it's back to work for me tomorrow...I'll be daydreaming of the mountains......