C week! C is for Cornicopia

 There is something to say about decorating for Fall.
The warmth of Fall colors is so inviting. The muted reds, the pumpkin oranges, the warm yellows.
I love pulling out the cable knit throw blanket to snuggle under with a nice cup of honeyed herbal tea.
The overall implied coziness of Fall is what makes it so great.

Years ago Mom asked me to help her put together a Fall center piece for her dinning room table.
I picked out the supplies and made the arrangement, she footed the bill.

Fast forward a few years.
I now have the Cornucopia arrangement and the dinning room table.
What can say. Mom is a very giving and generous person.

I have had to add and take away from the arrangement, but to this day it remains a favorite piece of mine. It even gets lovingly tucked away in the ceder chest in the interim, while other seasonal decor is either in plastic bins in the garage or shoved in garbage bags up in the attic.


Also this year I added a corduroy table clothe, & rattan runner for texture.

I have seen these candles on the bloggishere a lot lately and thought I'd give it a go.

You might be able to burn the candle for a few hours, but I am not that careful, so these will stay just the way you see them.

.
Here's a little easy peasey tutorial. Hope this helps!

I linked to the following:

 

here!

here

           

The deffinition of a Mom Cave

I am entering a great giveaway over at Between Naps on the Porch.  She is an amazing Blogger with a plethora of tips and ideas on things like:
~Decorating
~Tablescaping
~Before and Afters
~DIY Tutorials
~Thrifting
~Antiquing
~Historic Home Tours
~Gardening
Go check her out!
So, when I received an e-mail from her saying that she has partnered up with Home Goods for a Mom Cave giveaway, I was super excited to say the very least! They are graciously offering a gift certificate to a lucky winner to help spruce up their Mom Cave.

Do I qualify on the "Mom Cave" part?

Let's see.


mother:

NOUN
1.female parent: a woman who has a child, or a female animal that has produced young
2.woman acting as parent: a woman who acts as the parent of a child to whom she has not given birth
3.originator: a woman regarded as the creator, instigator, or founder of something
4.origin of something: the cause, source, or origin of something
"Necessity is the mother of invention."
5.protector: something that protects and nourishes like a mother
6.good or bad example of something: something very big, good, bad, or extreme, or particularly noteworthy in some other way ( slang ) ( sometimes considered offensive )
"a real mother of a headache"
7.taboo term: a highly offensive term for somebody regarded as objectionable or contemptible ( taboo )
TRANSITIVE VERB
1.take care somebody with tenderness: to look after somebody with great care and affection, sometimes to an excessive degree
2.give birth to baby: to give birth to and bring up a baby
3.bring something about: to give rise to something

Ok.
Check on the Mom part.



cave
definition:
1.large underground hollow: a large, naturally hollowed-out place in the ground, or in rock above ground, that can be reached from the surface or from water

Ummmm.Well. This might be a loose interpretation of a cave.
But, I do feel like this is where I can go to do numerous things.
Relax.
Learn.
Plan.
Tune out.
Just plain old me time.
Yep.
This is a Mom Cave.
So, I will share with you my Mom Cave and what I dream about having, to make it a more complete and "me" space.

"How can a $250 gift card to Home Goods help you create your own 'Mom Cave'?"

 I would finally be able to have a space that I designed with just me in mind. I would love to draw together different design elements to make the space feel  more cohesive. ( being all wordy makes me sound like I know what I am talking about, even though we all know I have no design style other than O.C.D! )
Winning would also allow me an afternoon of unmitigated, guilt free shopping. Just being honest.

(These next few things I found on the Home Goods website will help share my vision with you.)
From this:

To this:
Yeah. That's the ONE.
From this:

To this:
Can we say storage heaven. The baskets, the boxes, oh my.
Or any of these lovelies. I love the natural texture of the woven bins. They can be used for a multitude of things. Paper stuff. Office supply stuff. My photography stuff. Stuff I don't want anyone to see....the possibilities are limitless.
Clear turquoise glass? Nuff said. This is definitely a statement piece. And the one thing my Cave needs is LIGHT. Badly.

From this:
The back wall and doors are screaming for something.
To this:
Now that's a perfect inspiration board or two. I am thinking that if I find something similar it would work hanging from the cabinet doors .Cork on one side. Chalkboard on the other. Divine.


A little of this, a little of that. I love how silver can really help brighten up a space. And candles add a nice ambience.

From this:

To this:
These would work just fine if I do say so. The perfect pop of color.

Even if I don't win,I now officially have a wish list and know what to look out for.
Especially that chair. 
When you are  at Home Goods and if you see it.....call me. ( I said that with a fake hand phone gesture to my ear )
I would owe you one.

B is for Body language

This week I was able to go on my first ever field-trip with my baby girl Gwenna.

We went with our pre-school group to a family owned farm over in Gilbert and,

since it was a ways away we all decided to carpool to save on gas and plus its just more fun getting to visit with someone you might not see a whole lot of otherwise.

I had the privilege of riding with the lovely Laurie and her kiddos. She is one gorgeous girly and so fun to talk to.

Anyway the weather was lovely and the day seemed to be filled with promises of adventures and future memories.

Or so it seemed.

 

Laurie, having a baby boy about 18 months old, brought along her stroller to push since we would be doing a lot of walking.

Gwenna innocently asked if she could push the stroller since the baby was out and walking around.

And that's when the trouble began.

 

The stroller somehow became an extension of herself.

She wouldn't walk away from it unless she had the reassurance that no one else would touch it.

 

-Lets look at the cow.

The stroller looks at the cow also.

  I nicely cropped out the stroller at the expense of cutting her in half also.

These little piglets were so cute that I really wanted one. Even though I sometimes feel like I already have four little pigs as it is.

 

-Let's ride the tractor.

The stroller couldn't ride, but was safely waiting for her anxious return. Trust me, she was not happy about it being out of sight. Someone might touch it.

Brave little Brooky sitting on the bench.

 

 

-Next, lets take some pictures by the pumpkins- so Mommy can feel like this was worth the $10.00 and since you won't do anything else because that would mean leaving the stroller and heaven forbid anyone else should get a turn pushing the now very popular and highly requested stroller among other 4 year olds and even the suggestion that you take turns or at the very least share a handle has brought tears to your eyes and I want photographic proof that we did indeed go on our very first field trip together which you won't remember because you are all consumed with this new obsession that has made your My Little Pony collection seem like a long forgotten dream and which you will talk about for the next week straight to the point of which you even convince Daddy to get out your old baby stroller so you can push it around the house and scrape up all the walls and even more surprising to even take it to the store with us and push you around in it even though Daddy is slightly embarrassed that you are a 4 year old in a baby stroller and now even I am slightly regretting having gone to the Farm in the first place even if it meant missing out on the missed photo opportunities.

 

 

I tried to get her to let it go long enough to take some photos.

Her body language says it all.

Anxiety.

Look at that hand! So tense!

Way beyond tense. Even the foot is in on it now. It isn't even worth showing her fake smile, it was terrible. Painful.

Here it is not so bad. But again, body language. Someone else was thinking about touching the stroller. Her hands are saying " I will rip off your head if you touch it..."

So I distracted her with a giant squash I said was as big as a baby. Then she wanted to hold it like a baby. Oh look. In the background. The stroller.

Brooky also held the Baby sized squash. She said it was an ugly baby and dropped it. I agreed.

With the ugly part. Not the dropping a baby part.

Well, only if it's as ugly as this squash.

Kidding!

Imagine if my mother had felt that way.

I would have been a dropped baby.

Dropped many many times. I looked a lot like this baby squash.

So, no. I do not condone the dropping of any babies.

Even ugly squash babies.

Or ugly babies that look like squash. ( Thank you Mom  for never dropping your baby that looked like this squash either.)

 

 

I said this was probably the Mommy squash.

 

So she did what she does to her own Mommy.

She walked all over it, and was very ungrateful for the time and energy the Mommy Squash put into making her a special Halloween hair bow after she begged and begged for one.....oh, wait.

 

On to more contrived photos.

Body language people! You play the expert here and tell me what you think she is thinking about. She is darling though. I will give her that. It is the only reason she gets away with the stuff she does. Well, and maybe because I love her too.