Creatively Made Home

I am so excited to share a brand new,

upcoming e-course brought to you by some

of the brightest and best names in blogging.

Please allow me to present to you,

Creatively Made Home

 Creatively Made Home is an all new e-course 

about creating a home that reflects your heart in everyday living.  

It is about inspiring and encouraging you to create and style 

a home that you and your family love to live in...

This five week online course is hosted by 5 friends 

who want to help you to define your decorating style 

so that it is a true reflection of your heart.

Creatively Made Home is hosted by:

 Tracey Leber

Sara Duckett 

 Kimberly Taylor

 Jennifer Rizzo

and..... Jeanne Oliver

Here is the jam-packed schedule for the course:

* Each week you will have amazing truthful videos from not only the five teachers but other creative women.

* Each week we will take a room from one of YOU 

and all five women will give their suggestions telling you how 

they would transform the room with their style.

* There will be 50+ project videos.

These will be incredible videos that include everything from gardening, cooking, gift giving and decorating.

* There will be written tips from each woman telling you how she starts a room, picks paint, fabrics, etc.  

You will learn where to start when putting your own home together.

* Tons of beautiful house photos from each of the five women.

* Videos that truly reflect what life is like in each of their homes.  The stuff that life is really about. 

* Each woman will share their own truthful journey about 

how they started making their home a reflection of their hearts.

* Each person registered will get an easy entertaining e-book to download.

It will contain go to recipes for beautiful and easy entertaining (they do go together), 

photos of table settings that take the stress out of having people over, 

favorite drinks and so much more (and their funniest entertaining story).

* There will be a private Facebook group to connect with other class members.

* There will be a once a week live discussion with one of the teachers!

* You will get printables and pdfs to keep and use again and again.

This course is about loving your home, loving your family, and blessing those around you...and having fun doing it.

This course will lavish you with ideas, beauty, inspiration, joy and encouragement!

Come and play house with us.

Class begins October 22.

Registration is now open!

Early registration price is $48 for the next two weeks.

After August 6 the price will go to $58

To sign up for Creatively Made Home,
go *HERE*

Have a wonderful week!

Macro Magic

I recently gifted myself with a macro camera lens,

and I've been having all sorts of fun this past week

playing with it.

It was a used lens, so it didn't cost me a bundle,

but having a macro sure does open up

a whole new world of creative possibilities.

You might not be able to tell,

but each of these objects I've photographed

using the new macro lens

are teeny tiny....REALLY small.

Which makes the clarity all the more impressive.

Yep, a good investment I think.

So ya see,

sometimes when you get up close, really close,

you see things more clearly.

Other times though,

stepping back and walking away

is what it truly takes to put it all in perspective.

See you all later in the week,

and wishing my best friend Tom a very

Happy Birthday Week!

XO,

 

Theresa Cano at Fredericksburg Trade Days!

There is always GREAT shopping

to be had at our local monthly flea market,

Fredericksburg Trade Days,

but this month, shoppers are in for an extra treat!

The one and only Theresa Cano

of Garden Antqs Vintage

is selling in Barn 6, and of course I had

to make a stop over to see my friend Sweet T.

I reluctantly embraced iPhoneography for this post,

as I left my big girl camera at home and snapped all these

with the phone.

LOVE this wide-eyed baby doll!

And I had to grab a bundle of these old letters above

from a World War II serviceman to his mom, 

raving about his new-fangled, circa 1940s camera!

This week marks Theresa and her husband Cruz's

32nd wedding anniversary, so me and the Mister took

 the Cano's out to dinner last night while they are in our town.

Not only that, but today, July 21st, is OUR

5th wedding anniversary!

We could learn a LOT from the Cano's!

{ edited to add this photo from dinner. what a great couple! }

But before I left Theresa's space at Trade Days,

she gifted me with the beautiful daisies you see below...

just 'cause! Thank you Theresa, they have brightened up

my kitchen and make me smile

and think of you each time I pass by.

I hope all of you will make the trip to 

Fredericksburg Trade Days

to see Theresa and all our other wonderful vendors

this weekend!

Weekend of 3rd Saturday
Every Month
Hours:
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Friday & Saturday
9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Sunday

 355 Sunday Farms Lane
Fredericksburg, Tx 78624

And don't forget, there's still time

to enter my Romantic Country Giveaway

 HERE

Happy Weekend!

 

 

Romantic Country, The Fredericksburg Edition!

Hello and Happy Week!

I am delighted to share with all of you
that the wonderful new edition of
Romantic Country Magazine
is currently on newsstands now,
and I am fortunate enough to have
three different features in the Autumn 2012 Issue!

 And I'm calling this issue  
"The Fredericksburg, Texas Edition"
because 'da Burg ( and surrounding areas )
is so well represented in this issue.

These three separate features have been in the works
for a very long time, so it's been really, really hard
for me not to blab about it before the issue was released.
But now that it's out, I hope that y'all will grab a copy
and see what our beautiful corner
of the Texas Hill Country has to offer!

RC did a fabulous write up on my dear friend Carol Bolton's
shop  Laboratoire de Design, using 10 of my photos.
In fact, I'm working right now on
doing the photography for their website,
so this is priority number one these days.
Working with Carol is like a dream!

But there's even more Fredericksburg love to share...
in the very same issue, our very own local monthly flea market,
Fredericksburg Trade Days, has a two page spread
featuring my photos as well.

More and more people are discovering
our little gem of a flea market, a monthly Canton or Warrenton
on a smaller scale. It's a great place to pick up super vintage finds
at great prices. Plus, we have some of the nicest dealers anywhere!

  And finally, just down the road apiece in Llano, Texas,
a photo I shot in Patricia Hamm's home was featured
in the "Looks We Love" section in a piece on tarnished trophies.

Patricia is owner and proprietor of one of my favorite
shops in Llano, Whimsey's.

But that's not all...I did an entire photo shoot in Patricia's
colorful little gem of a home, which is set for publication
in another magazine soon! I also wrote the article for this piece,
so I can't wait to share more details with you about this.

I just want to give an extra special thanks to

the now-former Editor of Romantic Country, Mary Forsell.
Mary, you are a lovely woman and a class act all the way.
It has been my honor to work with you this past year, my friend!

Wishing you all a happy week!

My Farmhouse Photos...FINALLY!

Hey, it's only taken a year, right?

I'm bettin' that some of you were thinking

I'd just made the whole thing up.

No farmhouse, just a figment of my over-active imagination.

But I feel like I've finally  made enough progress

to give you some glimpses of the living room,

or to be more appropriate to the age and era of the house,

the parlor.

Come on in.

Pardon the blown out, over-exposed photos.

I wasn't in the mood to edit, or apparently to even set

my camera properly. Oh well...

{ remember to double click all photos to "biggify" }

You see the dress form?

That will likely be removed next week,

the little side table will take its place,

and a set of tall gym lockers will be where

the side table is.

This is where I blog, edit my photos, eat,

I pretty much spend most of my time here,

and happily so!

I've received a LOT of Facebook comments about that

fabulous hand on my desk....

You can get your very own via my friend Ruth

at The Beautiful Life.  Go visit her!

My splendiferous (sp?) Carol Hicks Bolton sofa.

Thank you sweet Carol, for birthing my beautiful couch Babette

15 or so years ago. I've been a wonderful second mama to her.

Just a little bit of religious themed, mixed-media art

I whipped up from a piece of wood I got at Habitat for Humanity.

I know that it's nowhere near as good as what most of you

craftier gals produce, but I don't claim to be a mixed-media artist.

I just love this piece, as it has special meaning to me.

The little table which has a drawer on top

is placed strategically where it is just so

that Winnie, my cat, will have a place to sit

and gaze at the big world outside our window.

This lamp, tucked behind an old screen door,

formerly had a Tiffany syle shade on it.

I just felt the simplicity of this white one blended more

with the ambiance of the room.

 My suitcase vignette high atop the TV armoire.

Thank goodness for our HIGH ceilings.

And that, my friends, is it for now.

I will be sharing more photos of the master bedroom and kitchen

in the days ahead, as well as keeping y'all updated on all

my latest magazine projects.

Thanks for looking,

and have a wonderful week!

Mid-Life Crisis? UPDATED WITH TATTOO PHOTOS!

Another half-arsed post from me,

as I just pulled an all-nighter, photo editing project

for an editor friend.

Today is sort of a big day too, 

as I have a visit to the dentist,

I have an article to complete for another publication,

and.....

 sometime later this afternoon,

I'll be getting my very first tattoo,

a variation on the one you see above!

It will be above my ankle rather than on my foot.

Mid-life crisis?

Perhaps.

But it's my ( mid ) life, and by golly,

I'm gonna take the plunge.

It's also highly likely that I'll be taking handfuls

of Ibuprofen and / or Xanax, too...

I'll report back on Facebook later! 

Edited to add...

I DID IT!

And it wasn't really bad at all!

Here are the iPhone pics at the tattoo parlor...

just gettin' started. so far, so good.

got a royal laugh at my bestie Troy Rash of 

 Junk Exchange

who posted this comment to my FB wall during the tattoo...

" i can't believe you walked into a place that begins with CHAOS 

and threw your leg up to a complete stranger and said 

'here, stab me with a needle like a bazilllion times' ..

Oh, how I love my sweet Troy!

I promptly phoned him and let him hear the buzzzzz of the needle!

  And voila!

 

The finished product.

Still a little red, as it's brand new, but it's healing nicely.

Might go back later and get the Nikon logo added.

It was a breeze, I'd tell anyone hesitating out of fear,

go for it! You just sort of zone out to it and then the endorphins

kick in. Trust me, stepping on a sticker hurts a LOT worse.

No more tats for this girl, 

I think one is plenty. :-)

linking with

common ground

french country cottage

at the picket fence