Inspiration: All Good Things Are Wild and Free

Today I thought I would share some beautiful images from one of my facorte tumblrs, All Good Things Are Wild and Free.

image via all good things are wild and free

Oh, Audrey!

image via all good things are wild and free

Love this look! 

Lately I have been LOVING these colors. 

There are tons more beautiful pictures, and some great quotes, too!  So go ahead; go enjoy it now!

~Lori

Minor Obsession: Salvaged French Doors

It's been quite a week.  All of us have been sick, except my husband (I don't know how he does it). It has been extremely hot yet we are trying to finish little projects around the house.  Today alone we managed to: paint Gwenna's dollhouse (need another can of spray paint, though), paint the office ceiling, weed the veggie garden and sew buttons on some new throw pillow covers.  All of this on and off as my son got a piece of food stuck in his esophagus and my daughter's need for "cuddles" became priority.  Really, that isn't even the half of it.  I'm not complaining.  On the contrary, I am grateful my son finally got the pesky crumb down and my daughter wanted me to sit with her.  My office ceiling is painted and my daughter's dollhouse is almost finished.

via pinterest

Now I am going to relax (maybe fold laundry) and watch Some Like it Hot.

What's next you ask?  Well, since you asked, the office still needs new base board, new slipcovers will be in the works, the playroom ceiling needs to be finished, my mom needs help painting her bathroom, a friend bought an old piano she wants to paint a fun color, and Lori's room needs to reach completion.  Also, I need to apply for a job posting at a local university and sign my kids up for swimming lessons.  Yup, there is much to do.  I love summer!

The next chance I get and the next few dollars I can scrape together I hope might net me a set of salvaged french doors similar to these.  I would prefer they have more glass instead of the solid lower portion, but these are so charming and would add a ton of character between our entryway and office.  I am on the hunt!

DIY: Blue Planter

Mary McDonald post here

Back in May, I did a post on L.A. based designer Mary McDonald and fell in love with this gorgeous outdoor space.  The colors  are beautiful; I love how the blue pops against the setting.  In an attempt to emulate this style, I decided I need to add some of those blue accent colors.  I went searching for the perfect planter for my patio, and found one.  I needed it to be pretty big for the meyer lemon tree that I bought.  Unfortunately, one side of the planter was cracked and the glaze was chipping.  For $100, I expect the whole thing to be perfect.  So I began another search, but I couldn't find anything.  Time was of the essence, because my poor little lemon tree was quietly dying on the patio. 

Buy it online

After a lot of fruitless searching (ha ha), my Mom told me that she had seen some large planters at Walmart for under $30.  Unfortuantely, they didn't have the planter in the color (blue) that I wanted.  What's a girl to do?  Two words.

image via

Spray paint.  Before working with Rebecca on this blog, if I would have found that perfectly sized, perfectly priced planter in the wrong color, I would have pouted and left the store without making the purchase.  Lucky for me, I have been picking tips up here and there from Rebecca. So instead of walking out of the store with nothing, I walked out with one green planter and two cans of Krylon Fusion spray paint in blue. 

Here it is: my perfect blue planter.  I think it turned out pretty well, no?  I put the finished planter, with my little lemon tree tucked safely inside, on a little plant stand with casters so that I can wheel it around the patio when it gets bored and wants a little adventure.  Just kidding.  Meyer lemon trees do not typically do well in the desert but at our fantastic local nursery, one of the guys told me that his friend successfully grows Meyer lemon trees by keeping them in pots on casters and rolling them into the garage when the weather turns cold.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this tip works for me.  (Thanks, Quartz Hill Nursery guy!)

Alice in Wonderland Birthday Part 2

I took this picture to include in the invitation that my friend, Hyo, made for me.  I wanted it to have the flavor of the party I was preparing for: pinks and blues, daisies and white rabbits.  I wanted that classic Alice in Wonderland feel that was elegant and playful at the same time.  

Didn't the invitations turn out lovely?

In this post I mainly focus on the party events and not so much the decorations.  If you would like to see that post click here  but here are a few...

The birthday banner is made from felt, scanned fabric onto paper (I only had a small amount of the inspiration Alice fabric), daisy chain ribbon from Joanne and skeleton keys sewn to larger crochet daisies.  I will do a DIY later on this!

I bought and borrowed tons of vintage tea cups.  I then stuck them everywhere: sconces, candle sticks, anywhere the little ones couldn't break them.

I decided that my vintage desk would be the perfect cake table for our Alice party.

Thank you for the beautiful and tasty cake, Mom (Grandma)!

These were the yummiest fruit tarts.  The recipe is on pinterest here but grandma added the chocolate "eat me" to garnish.  

I stamped cheap blue plates and cups with key images.  Yellow polka dot napkins were the perfect addition.  The daisy cup was borrowed from Lori (along with many other things including the dress I wore). 

Ice- cream cone teacups made by my friend Hyo and mushroom meringues made by my mom...thank you both!

All the food cards...I should have printed these out if I had thought ahead!

Brie, monterey jack and ritz

I wish I had pictures of all the food!  There was so much...my friends pitched in and made things for the party.  That was such a help because I just couldn't get to it all.  I did make some things like a caprese salad that I forgot to bring out.  One thing about a morning party is that there is a lot to cram in early.

Lemonade anyone?

The giant flower garden was a fun whimsical touch.

250 ft of fabric bunting sewn by Grandma

I wanted to have a game called "painting the roses red" but I realized that that red paint might not go over so well with all the party clothes.  The next best thing was to have two massive topiaries (Lori's) and two teams: white roses and red roses.  Each team tried to race the other by putting their roses into the tree quicker.  It was tons of fun, and talk about competition; these kids were playing for keeps!

It was close but the white team won!

The kids had so much fun coloring their shrinky- dinks (do you remember those?).  It goes along perfect with the Alice story because they got to watch their pictures shrink in the oven and then put them on chains to wear as necklaces.  Even my 7 year old son wore his!

Aren't they great!  My mom came up with this idea and it worked perfectly.

Gwenna enjoying her peanut butter sandwich.

These two were just too darn cute!

I ended up bringing most of the food outside...

I cherish these pictures and I am so glad I had these precious moments with Gwenna at her party.  It is so important not to get too busy with entertaining; easier said than done.

Croquet

A cuddle with Grandma.

This game turned out to be really fun once I figured out how it worked best!  I call it the "move down" game:  Tea cups are placed in front of every chair and then the music starts and the kids walk around the table and when the music stops they sit down.  They then turn over the tea cup in front of them and whoever had the mouse, wins!  They LOVED this game and we played quite a few times.

All the kiddos got bubbles as prizes for the games, so what is better than a bubble break?!

Cake 

I love this picture!

By this time it was so hot out!  The kids ditched the long table in favor of some shade.  Who could blame them?

favors

Each child got a handmade "Take One" bag filled with daisy grow kits, their necklace they made, either an "Alice" storybook or paint book or counting book (depending on their age) and some rabbit crackers.  I always figure they have had enough "junk" by the end of a party so I try not to put more into their goodie bags.

Gwenna wanted to give each guest their bags and say "thank you."

All My Girls!

Thank you my friends for all your help in making this a very special day for all of us, but most especially the birthday girl, Gwenna!  Happy Birthday little lady!!!

DIY posts still to come on the bunny cake platter and birthday banners!