Bridal Luncheon For My Daughter Ellie

Next month my sisters and my sister in laws are giving a bridal luncheon
for my daughter Ellie. Her is a picture of the invitation.

The event is at my sister Helen's house, which I have never seen. Excited for that.
As you know, March can be a tricky time of year, it can be cold, windy and maybe warm.
Today it was 60 degrees, but a snow storm is coming tomorrow night in the higher
elevations along with 30 to 50 mile wind gust. My sister Beth said they are all wearing
dresses, very spring like. I decided to go for something more practical. I have been burned 
several times when I had a cute dress to wear to an event in May and had to cover it up with
a borrowed or unfashionable jacket. I saw this outfit on Eloise's website in Charlottesville
and created my own on my budget.

It was a beautiful navy floral blouse and slimming black wide leg pants. Floral blouses
are very in this season and this is an outfit i can wear to work.

The high waist wide leg cropped pant I found at Ann Taylor for under $100.

The blouses I found on Amazon for a dirt cheap price, the blue was the one that I
wanted for the outfit, but the yellow one could work two and was so darn cute. They
both have cute details and look very expensive.

,I spotted these cute kitten heel mules by Issac Mizrahi with the pearl details at Stein Mart
and thought they would be so cute with the cropped pant. I am kinda excited about this
new more feminine wardrobe. After spending the winter in turtlenecks, tights and boots,
I am ready for florals, color and a more feminine look for my transition to spring. So I did
a little more shopping.

This pretty dot sheer blouse was in Sundance's clearance catalog and I found a cute blouse at
my TJ Maxx with lots of ruffles on the sleeves and back of the blouse.

I am ready for spring and a more colorful wardrobe to go with it.

What I Have Been Up To

At my local Foodlion a couple of weeks ago I spotted this beautiful
Hyacinth near the flowers.

Please excuse the blue paper, I couldn't find a pot big enough to hold this but boy did
it make my kitchen smell good and the blooms bring a little Spring to the room.

Remember this picture, after organizing my closet, I read an article about these new
storage bins that Walmart carries for Better Homes and Gardens and I found a few at
Home Goods.

The beaded handled baskets are three sizes from Home Goods and started at $5.99'
the two gold pattern baskets are from Walmart and were around $9.97 each, love the
clean look.

I was running errands  in Waynesboro and ran into there Walmart to see what they had
that the Staunton one didn't have. I need two more baskets for my pocket books.

This is what the ones look like from the Staunton store in the box.

The top picture shows the old plastic containers I will repurpose in my kitchen cabinets.
The bottom picture shows the big plastic containers with my pocket books in them.
Here is what I found in Waynesboro to replace them with.

These are the ones that I saw in the article, love the tassels, they are also by Better
homes and Garden. The even hold more than the old plastic containers. I love the
look of mixing and matching these baskets. This gives my closet a more elegant look.
On to my next project.

New Year Means New You and Less Clutter

It is a new year and a good time to time to clean out the clutter.
I am starting with my closet. As I am doing my cleaning, wiping
down the shelves and wiping the base boards, this is good winter
cleaning, I am pulling things to donate or list on ebay. This is a time 
when there are a lot of people who rely on places like Goodwill for
warm clothes, gloves and hats. I no longer ski so it is a good time to
donate ski gloves and hats.

  I will also do a little reorganizing and straightening.

I am lucky enough to have a walk in closet with a dressing table, so I need to keep
it clean and organized. I keep the door open because there is no heat or air conditioning
in there and the big window adds light to the back hallway.

I have had the shoe shelves and those plastic bins for years, I would like to find
a more attractive and eco friendly type of  bins or baskets to freshen my look up.
As I move from room to room cleaning, I will continue to declutter my house. What
a great way to start the new year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

It has been a whirl wind of a holiday season. With Thanksgiving so close to Christmas,
I feel like I am flying by the set of my pants. I found out that my former father in law
came down with pneumonia on Thanksgiving day and was hospitalized. It was pretty
much touch and go and he passed the Thursday before Christmas. His funeral was Friday,
just after Christmas. The service was at my old church, St. Mary's, and my daughter Ellie
was helping with a lot of the preparations, including the Star Gazer Lilies on the alter. I
bought some for my kitchen, I live fragrance and the color.

 I got some sweet gifts from my children, a wine pamper box from Ellie.

And a framed picture of her engagement picture taken on Monument Avenue
with she and Wes.

A lovely orchid from my son Edmund from Chadwicks Orchids.

A sweet little glitter angel from my aunt.

And a last little celebration to send 2019 out and bring 2020 in to the new year.
Champagne and asparagus, herb cheese endive bites.

More blogging in the new year, 2020.

Decorating My House for Christmas

I do not do a tree in this house, there is no room for one. I emptied my Christmas
tubs and decorated the house  with my homemade garland and my favorite ornaments.

Every dish or bowl is filled with Christmas. each room has a little Christmas.

This really puts me in a good mood, you have a little glitter all around the house.

I did a little more decorating this year than I did last year, I hate when it comes time to
put it away.

I will end this post with a picture of the pretty triple  flower Paperwhite that I found at
Harris Teeter.

Christmas Decorating

So it has begun, today is December 1st, it is time to put the pumpkins away
and start decorating for Christmas. I decided to start on the front porch, I found
my decorations from last year and went out on a mission to find some greens. I
was driving around looking for nandina or red berries, but decided that tresspasing
on someone property might not be a good idea. So I headed to Lowes and found a wreath
and fresh cut greens for sale.

The ribbon came from the Dollar Tree and I may add more berries to fill the urns out.
I thought they looked good until I looked at my pictures, I see a few holes. My tacky
decorations are the red light bulb solar lights.

I just thought they were so cute, they are a lot bigger than they look here. Next, I will
start on the inside.