A Christmas tree.

Today I went to JoAnne's Fabric to get some ideas.

All of the Christmas decor was 50% off.

I spied a darling frame with a Christmas tree in it.

Even with 50% off it was $12.50. 

I decided I could make my own.

I covered a frame in burlap and hot glued rhinestones and buttons on.

Such a fun easy project:)

I love going to get ideas:)

Do you have a fun craft idea?

I'd love to hear about it!

Happy Wednesday.

~Dena;)

The wedding.

Good Tuesday morning:)

In September my college roommate asked me to coordinate her wedding.

I got married while in graduate school at 22 years old.

I was super busy and was getting married in a different city than where I was.

This has been such fun:)

She was happy to let me plan all of it.

It was like I was getting married:)

It was truly an honor.

She got married at the Oaks Pioneer Church in Sellwood.

What a darling church.

The girls had rose petals in their baskets and handed out roses as they walked down the aisle.

She wanted no flowers at all but I made her carry these:)

Here is the huge vase.

And that cake...... ahhhhhh so pretty.

Beaverton Bakery did it and of course there was plenty of cream cheese frosting inside:)

I usually am not a fan of red but this turned out beautiful.

The center pieces were simple.

I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to be a part of such a special event!

I hope you all have a great Tuesday.

~Dena:)

Getting ready for Christmas.

Happy Monday to you all:)

I hope you all  had a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

Our family had such a great day.

Friday was a perfect weather day to take down Thanksgiving and start putting up Christmas.

                                 My friend Anna made the G wreath for me.  She is so talented!

Don't you just love the ice skates?

I found this huge vase at a garage sale in September for $5. 

On Saturday I was responsible for a friends wedding and this vase was perfect!

When I can figure out how to get the pictures of the wedding on here I will:)

I found these white stars at Goodwill for $2.99 and decided to fill the vase.

I have more to do but it is a start.

I would love to see your holiday decorations!

~Dena:)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our family is truly blessed!

I am thankful for:

Thank you to all of my friends!

  You mean the world to me:) 

 I am so lucky to have all of you in my life!

It is so much fun getting a table ready:)

The leaves are on the plates for us to write what we are thankful for.

Such fun to get out the nice silverware that I inherited.

Now I guess I should go get the turkey in the oven.

And shower!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

~Dena:)

Thankful garland.

Happy Tuesday:)

I found a cute idea for Thanksgiving on a blog and decided to give it a try.

I must admit it was difficult to find a semi dry leaf but I did.

I traced and cut out five leaves.  I put two holes in each leaf and strung rope through each.

You can cut out however many you want.  I did the number of people in our family.

On Thanksgiving day have each person write on the leaf what they are thankful for.  If you put a date on them you can get them out and add to them each year.  It would be fun to have garland and leaves ready for each family that is coming to Thanksgiving.  They can take it home for next years decorations:)

I hope you stay nice and dry today!

For those of you not in Oregon reading this, we have gotten at least 2 inches of rain since last night.  We are getting out our rain boots.

~Dena:)

Fabric & a staple gun oh yeah:)

Good Monday afternoon:)

Hold onto your hats everyone, it is a rainy, blustery day!

My hubby and I went on our usual Sunday outing to get his soda and my smoothie and don't ask me how but I talked him into going to my favorite store.

I spied this stool for $6.99.

I have fabric left overs so out came the handy dandy staple gun and:

A great stool for the attic:)

I love that simple fabric and a stapler can totally transform a piece of furniture.

What have you changed with fabric?

Happy Monday to you all!

~Dena;)

Sammy's Flowers and Pottery Barn oh my:)

Good afternoon to you all:)

What a treat to look at all of the flowers:)  Can you smell the stock?  There is nothing better than the smell of stock!

Sammy's has moved to NW 23rd and it has its own parking lot.  There flowers always last a long time.

Sometimes you get so lucky at Pottery Barn:)  The Pottery Barn off of NW 23rd has much better sales than the one at Washington Square.  It is difficult to see but I got two pillow covers normally $19.00 for $6.99 each.

I decided to use one on my kitchen island.  It is perfect for this spot.

I used the other as a pillow.

I hope your Thursday is wonderful.

Enjoy your night!

~Dena:)

Look quick! Clean cabinets & drawers:)

I spent last week getting my kitchen together. 

I thought I would share the fruits of my labor before the kids mess it up again:)

This is the bench at my kitchen table.  Before I decluttered this was full of old Play dough, kids art work from 9 - 10 years ago, dried up markers, generally a huge disaster.  Most of the contents of this went into the garbage.

I love that now all of my platters are in one place and I can pick without breaking everything:)

My food pantry oh where do I start?  I think I through away three garbage bags full of yuck from these cabinets~

Do you guys have this problem where kids put half eaten things back in the pantry?  Food wrappers?  Empty boxes?

This is my cook book and tea area.  I had tea bags in here that I bought when we moved into our house 14 years ago.  I think the garbage will smell wonderful!

This cabinet has all of my white china and my coffee stuff.  I am embarrassed to say that I had a lot of coffee on the shelf!  I will make an effort to rinse that scooper before I put it away in the morning:)

I gave away to Goodwill nine wine glasses, seven cups and two mugs.  Can't you feel the cabinet sighing in relief.

At last I can find big serving spoons:)

Oh and I had to put two opened wax paper boxes in the storage closet.  Hmmmmm, why did I have three opened boxes of wax paper?

I don't even remember how many lids and plastic containers I got rid of because none of them matched.

And look, I have four thermoses!  I kept buying more because I couldn't find any.

I can actually  move this corner caddy in a circle now:)

I filled two grocery bags full of Wayne's "stuff".  Things like a box of screws, duct tape, tools, caulking, glue.  All of these were thrown in here and ready to fall.  I am now asking myself why we need two lean grills.

That plastic bowl in the front is full of measuring spoons.  Do you think I have too many?  Again, I kept buying more because I could never find one when I needed it.

Yes, I do have a lot of white plates!  If you ever need to borrow any, you know where to look:)

This concludes my cabinet and drawer show.  I am so happy to know where everything is in my kitchen:)  I know I still have a lot I could get rid of but it is a great start:)

I hope your Wednesday was a good one.

~Dena:)