Mantel Decor and Off To See the Wizard...NYC Part 1

I haven't been on line much in the past month (except for checking email and Pinterest...couldn't extract myself from Pinterest!) and have missed reading what everyone has been doing. I'm trying to catch up on blog reading because many people are starting to post Halloween projects and I'm still trying to sort out summer. I have Friendship banner pieces to complete for Sandy and Elizabeth and several custom orders on my table. It's been over a month since I've written anything so I'll start here...(this post is long and picture heavy, just sayin')

It took me a while to tweak the mantel this year. For the  past several years I've decorated with a bird theme but decided to go with a beachy look this year. The bathing beauties from Michael's were my inspiration..I couldn't pass them by.

We do love to go to the beach but there hasn't been any time for that this year so far. We're getting ready for some big changes in the next several months so the beach hase been put on hold.

 Maybe before the year is over...

In early July, I had a chance to take a trip that had been postponed  from Mother's Day in May, due to sickness. I flew to New York City to spend 4 days with my daughter Michelle. I arrived in the afternoon and while Michelle was still at work, I had a chance to relax in her lovely condo. When she got home, she prepared a yummy dinner for us...

We drank wine and ate hamburgers and sweet home-made sweet potato fries on her cute balcony...

over-looking the busy streets of Hoboken...

The next morning, we got ready and hopped on the Path Train to take us into the city.

Michelle had arranged a wonderful surprise for me. 

This is where we went...can you guess?

Of course not, because this totally unmarked building houses, among other businesses, this woman's magazine enterprise....



Yes friends, Martha Stewart! While Martha herself was not in the building that day, a friend of Michelle's took us on a personal tour of some of the offices and behind-the-scenes places most folks don't ever get to see. I was not allowed to take any photos but I went on line and found some from Martha's website...I hope she won't mind if I share them with you.
We were able to see the test kitchen...I have never seen so many cookbooks in one place in my life!! (This just shows a small area. The kitchen itself is large, and all around the perimeter of the room, on high shelves, are mock-ups of intricately decorated wedding cakes. Emeril has his own kitchen to use when he's on Martha's show...lots of shiny stainless there.

We saw some of the editor's offices, including Darcy Miller, the Editorial Director of Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. Her office has a mammoth inspiration board that I would loved to have photographed as this is just a small part of it...

The one place that we were not allowed access to was the crafting area (BOO HOO!)
They were working on Christmas and Holiday crafts and it was all top secret. That about broke my heart!
The favorite area that we did get to walk through was the Prop House area.
Can you imagine rows and rows of dishware? So many patterns and colors...

then there was the linen area with bins and bins of placemats and napkins housed by color...

Candlesticks, serving trays, picture frames in abundance! Inside of that wide metal cabinet you see in the above pictures was drawer after drawer of silverware.

When we were finished in the prop area, we got to see some magazine layouts for future articles.

At the end of our tour, Michelle's friend Denise, presented us with gift bags containing Martha's newest cookbook, Martha's American Food, and a copy of every current Martha Stewart magazine. The cookbook is awesome!

When we came out of the building, we were greeted by this ..

A GRILLED CHEESE TRUCK!!!

 If it hadn't been 95-degrees out, we would have been tempted.

Instead, we walked to the Chelsea Market in the meat packing district

and decided on a fig jam and cheddar panini from

Lucy's Whey

Oh so good-right Shelle?

After lunch, we continued to browse the shops in Chelsea Market and couldn't leave with visiting two great bakeries....Ruthy's and Eleni's

 

We settled on some treats to take home for after dinner....

(the apple crumb cake in the back was to-die-for!)

There is more to write about this day but I'm stopping here for 2 reasons...

I can see that your eyelids are very heavy and

all of this food has made me hungry.

To be continued...

xoxo

A Little Treat for the Book Group

I belong to a book group.
Most, but not all of the women are from our church.
We meet on the second Thursday of the month at each other's homes...
rotating every month. We discuss the book we've read for
that month and we have lunch provided by the hostess.
In August David & I host a cook-out for all of the Book Groupettes,
as my friend Anne refers to us, and our spouses.

Last week was the last get-together of our Book Group until September.

We are a fun-loving bunch of women (15 now!) 

I took my camera with me last week to snap some pictures and ended up having so much fun that the camera never came out of my bag. Oh my!

Over the summer, we don't have an assigned book to read, we just read for pleasure and then when we gather in September, we can each suggest a book for the coming year.

I love this group!

We have a good time, sure, but it's so much more than that.

We are like sisters, laughing together, praying for each other and sharing Christ-centered  fellowship.

I decided to make a book marker for each of the ladies. They can use it over the summer and then put the list of books we decide on for next year on the back.

I used all layered digital elements...playing with digital images is a lot of fun!

Our book for June was the one pictured, Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B Ross.

It is the first of a series and we all enjoyed it very much.

I already ordered the next few in the series from my favorite source

found HERE.

Half.com is a great place to show for used and sometimes new books.

Getting together once a month gives us a chance to share information

that is useful or fun. This is what I learned last week from Lois.

When you buy fresh berries (I had cherries), rinse them off and then

fill a large bowl with cold water and a small amount of vinegar.

(I used 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar)

Pour the fruit into the bowl and let it soak for a while.

Drain the fruit in a colander but don't rinse.

Line another bowl with a paper towel and dump the drained fruit

in the bowl. Refrigerate.

Doing this will keep the fruit about 3 times fresher than

just washing the fruit. Try it. The fruit does not have any taste

of vinegar, either.

Now I have a question for you. Do you take your own picture for your blog profile and Facebook?

My daughter-in-law is an expert at that

 hold-the-camera-away-from-you-and-take-your-own-picture thing.

I spent waaaay more time than I should have working on that today. I finally got so tired of looking at my own double chin and crow's feet that I gave up.

Maybe that's the trick...that 20+ year difference in our ages!!

Now if you really want to see some cute pictures...how 'bout these 2?

Charlie is 4 1/2 and Miles is 19 months.

We miss them lots!

xoxo

Joyce

Some Pre-Summer Randomness...

A few things showed up in my mail...or in my cart at Sam's Club this past week..

This gorgeous pillow cover from Dear Lillie...

(photo from the web-store here)

And here it is in our family room...

This is one of the 2 wing chairs we had reupholstered before Christmas. I bought them at a house sale 10? years ago and they and a matching ottoman were $75.
Here is a "before" picture...they were pretty tired

 I love them now...very neutral.
I also put the summer slipcover (a Pottery Barn steal on eBay a bunch of years ago) on the sofa, hung the summer quilt (this is not a handmade quilt but a manufactured Country Living throw. I just couldn't resist the colors!) and put out the garden pillows. The sweet little Home Sweet Home pillow was from my friend Marie, of Spun By Me.

  

I went to Sam's Club to buy a roasted chicken and these magazines jumped into my cart. When you

 are addicted to  enjoy magazines as much as I do, it's nice to get them at a big discount.

Are you enjoying all of the wonderful fruit that is showing up at the farm stores?

Our local farm, Soergels, had their wonderful strawberries when we stopped the other day..

OK-I guess that's enough yumminess for one week.

XOXO

joyce

Collage Swap

Some friends and I recently completed a Bits & Pieces Collage Swap. There were 8 who participated, 4 pairs of partners. The challenge was to create an 8X8" art board or canvas collage for our partner incorporating their likes in terms of color and style. Everyone made wonderful works of art and if you follow the links at the bottom of this post, you can see them all.

 My partner was my blogging friend, Mary of Thyme To Spare.We have done some one-on-one swaps before and Mary has sent me lovely gifts over the years. She is a wonderful paper crafter and a good friend.

This is the beautiful canvas she created for me...

Mary knows that I like soft colors and the base of the canvas is painted and stamped.

Each little square is like a work of art...my favorite hydrangeas and peonies are featured in addition to pale pink seam binding, a nest and bird and bits of crocheted lace and buttons. Great care was taken in creating this piece and I will treasure it!

Mary also included some fun supplies...

Mary knows me pretty well don't you think?

Of course I had to chuckle when I saw the canvas at first because our tastes are very similar...

why we were good partners. I thought I would give you some step-by-step pictures

 showing how I created Mary's board...(feel free to run and get a snack and a cold drink)

First, the supplies are gathered...

the background of the board is vintage looking ledger paper.

The the scalloped squares are added....I don't measure, I just eyeball the placement

Then the fun of assembling begins...M is for Mary of course

Birds and nests

some vintage buttons and a vintage looking flower...

I used 3 images of garden fairies to represent Mary's 3 Granddaughters, printing them twice and making them dimensional...

So much fun to create...

Now on to the other swappers.

Please take time to visit the other ladies and feast your eyes on their collages.

Everyone did a wonderful job and I'm so happy to be friends with all of them!

Marie of Spun By Me

Linda of Grace Filled Moments

Nan of Bubbles of Joy

Susie of South City Hues

Jo at Hybrid Simplicity

Laurie at Laurie Star

Aren't they all wonderful?

xoxo

Joyce

We Were Flocked! Yes, you read that correctly!

The Youth Group (teenagers), of our church, is trying to raise money to be able to attend an ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Youth Gathering in New Orleans in July. (Why anyone would want to be in New Orleans in July is beyond me but I get it...I'm old)

Anyway, right now they are sneaking going around to homes in the parish and Flocking people....

Last Saturday evening, I was passing from the family room to the kitchen when a flash of pink in our front yard caught my eye! I went to the door and saw this crazy flock of flamingos planted there!

The way to get rid of eliminate  a flock of flamingos in your yard is to pay a donation to the Youth Group to have them taken away....and sent to some other unsuspecting yard. It was hard to give them up. They looked so cute and colorful in our freshly mowed lawn that I didn't want them to fly away.

Good Luck kids! We hope you raise lots of money for your trip!

(Is it fair that my husband has better legs than me???)

More pink!!!

Today I went out and cut some peonies before the rain comes and beats them down...

I LOVE peonies...they just don't last long enough for me!



xoxo

Joyce



Say it With Letters...the OOH LA LA Project

This is the latest Design Team Project for Say It With Letters.

I can't believe that we only have one more to go before our time is finished.

I will be sorry to see this end-I have enjoyed every project and challenge and Deb Damboise, the owner and Head Honcho at SIWL, is a dream to work with!

This month, we were each given a 12-inch Eiffel Tower shape. At first I wasn't sure what

to do with it...paint?...paper...? Oh yeah, I'm the paper person.

First, I traced and cut the tower shape using black scrapbook paper with French writing in white.

I used Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the tower.

Then, I decided to combine the French shape with my love of dress forms...VOILA!

(I'm trying to impress you with my command of the French language-oui?)

I tried several of my dress form stamps but didn't like the way a stamped image looked.

Ahhhh...Tim Holtz to the rescue! I used my Sizzix Tim Holtz Sewing Room Bigz die,

seen here, cut once using black cardstock and then carefully cut again using patterned paper.

I cut off the "stand" part of the form on the patterned paper piece, leaving just the "body" section.

Pure silk narrow ribbon in a dreamy pink was used at the waist as a sash and floppy bow.

Decorative hat/corsage pins were added as a final touch.

I added a copy of a vintage perfume bottle label behind the dress form

and a little pearl flourish.

What do you think?

I think this piece will be very much at home in my craft studio

 with all of the other "girls".

Tres Bien!

Please be sure to stop over to Say It With Letters and see the other

designers projects. Stacy has a cute baby gift tutorial using this same Eiffel Tower.

You can find an Eiffel Tower to call your own right here in Deb's Etsy shop

XOXO

Joyce