Pretty Party

So we had a little party today to celebrate my friend's stepdaughter's birthday.  We had a blast.  We decided to go with a monochromatic white color scheme, because we were so inspired by this party at resolved2worship.  It is so beautiful!  

So, onto our party.  The girls were all told to wear white and we tried to make the menu as "white" as possible.  Of course we quickly learned that most "white" foods are also full of sugar, but what's a party without a little sugar?  We sugared them up and sent them home with their parents. :)  Our menu included: powdered donuts (a favorite of the birthday girl), kettle corn, deviled eggs, homemade marshmallows, white chocolate covered strawberries, milk, and of course birthday cake-you can't have a party without cake.

our chandelier from pompom balls and paper lanterns (from Marshall's)

we draped sheets (from goodwill) across the top of the pergola for a dramatic tent like effect

Place cards and favors

I put my gumball machine outside too since it coordinated so well

Special chair for the birthday girl

 "M" is for Madison

yummy!

my homemade marshmallows, highly recommend these.  You can find the recipe here from Martha.

fancy yogurt, although the girls ended up scraping off all the whipped cream and sprinkles and leaving the yogurt

 passion fruit tea...

 and I got to use my $2 garage sale teacup

another guest of honor, Scarlett, isn't she adorable?  So polite with her paws crossed....

My friend coordinated a little craft/favor for the girls...

modeling their bows...

my new orchid fit in well with the color scheme, hopefully I can keep it alive

the cake was delicious, as you can see...

Happy birthday Madison!!  We had a great time celebrating with you!  

Room for the Royals

Have you been watching the coverage of the royal wedding?  I thought I would celebrate by doing a design board inspired by royalty!  Happy Friday!!!

Sources: Rug: West Elm , Cowhide: IKEA, coffee table: homedecorators.com, Union Jack Wall Hanging: Ebay, Chevron Pillows: CSN.com, Decorative Pillow: Target.com, vase: home decorators, driftwood: amazon, drum end tables: homedecorators.com, accent chairs: overstock, lamps: luxehomepa.com, couch: zgallerie



Charleston

Pardon my absence the last few days, we were busy living it up in Charleston!  My husband and I took a little weekend getaway to one of our most favorite cities, Charleston, SC.  It's such a beautiful place, full of the best shopping, amazing food, adorable design shops, and stunning architecture.  If you haven't been you simply must go...

Here's a little taste of how we spent our weekend....

We arrived at our beautiful, historic hotel....

Did a little shopping at some adorable shops...

Visited the coolest urban outfitters I've ever seen (I think it used to be an old theatre)

inside...isn't it beautiful?!?

enjoyed some delicious gelato...

saw some of the cutest dogs...

soaked up all the beauty of the architecture...

took a ghost tour of the old jail, SO not scary and I'm a wimp...

Unfortunately it looked like this during most of our trip (which is why I didn't get a lot of pictures) but we still had a wonderful time and made the most of it....

 we stopped by this cupcake shop, we go there every time and it's always delicious!

and lastly, we just enjoyed a weekend together away...It was simply lovely.

Chevron Tray

I'm sure you have noticed by now that trays are one of the hottest new ways to accessorize.  So, I'm jumping right on that bandwagon today with a little tray makeover.  I scored this tray for a few dollars last year after Christmas.  It started out a shiny, emerald green.  It was way too much for my liking so I sprayed it silver.  Looks ok in the picture right?  Well, in real life it is splotchy and just not what I was going for.  So I gave it a second makeover.

I sprayed it with gloss white spraypaint.  Added some chevron fabric to the bottom (I didn't use anything to adhere it, I just laid it there so it can be changed out down the road).  Then, I took some glass from a free frame I had in the garage down to Lowe's and had them cut it to the dimensions I needed.  They did it for FREE!  The glass protects the fabric and allows me to use it for serving as well as many other things.  In the future I may switch out the fabric for some fun wallpaper or even wrapping paper.

So, here it is after it's mini makeover...

Total cost = FREE because I had everything on hand.  

Ask...

....and you shall receive!  Many of you asked for a template for the iphone covers I created here.  Although I'm not much of a graphic artist I came up with a few basic backgrounds to share with you all.  If I knew each of your monograms I could personalize them for you, but unfortunately I don't.  However, you can download these templates and personalize them by adding a monogram if you want to.  Hopefully this helps some of you!  The image is HUGE so you will just need to right click and download it then open and print and it should be the correct size.  I'm still a little illiterate when it comes to these things....

Right click the huge picture below and save it to get the images shown above (when you save it, it will be the correct size for printing)

For these images....

...right click the large image below and save it (it will be the correct size for printing when you reopen it)

and for these....

...you know the drill...right click and save the below image to get the images above...

and if I've totally confused you or any of you that are much smarter than me can tell me how to do what I'm trying to do please do share.  And if you need me to just email you the images I can do that too :)  I allowed a little excess around the edges so you can trim it to fit your case exactly.  Just trace it, cut it out, and remove the portion for the camera "eye" like I did in my post.