Met Monday

I hope you had a great weekend! I am joining up with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for another Met Monday. This week I am featuring a client's new home in a town called Rescue, CA in the foothills of the Sierra mountains. She moved in back in August and I have been travelling up about once a month to help transform her home. She has a lot of items that she moved so we used all she had and try to be very selective in this process. The first room we worked on was as she calls it her Hawaiian room (AKA Jenna's room, her daughter) . This is the room right after she moved in. She has many pieces of antique furniture, very beautiful pieces, so we reused all her pieces.


She had this beautiful iron bed an bedding. She is a Pottery Barn lover, hence the bedding is from Pottery Barn and the red polka dots sheets. The Hawaiian print over the bed had been re frame with a bamboo frame. The lamp you see is a Tommy Bahama lamp with a bamboo shade. We did change the window treatment here adding a bamboo shade to both windows and changing the sheers to matching green on all the windows.

Here is the other side of the room before.
Here is the other side of the room and after. This dresser is beautiful with a marble top that coordinates with the side table that the lamp sits on. Of course she has many, many accessories and I tried to limit what she put on the dresser.

This is the wall opposite the bed. We put up the shelves and added all the Hawaiian themed items that are her daughter's including her daughter's graduation picture. Again the dresser is a secretary desk with a side chair. (another antique). Of course we had to add to the chair a crab that played Under the Sea and danced. (a little crazy) but that is her style. So the only purchase in this room which you do not see is the new frame for above the bed and new bamboo shades for the windows.
When hanging art work or photos around shelves like these, use different sizes and shapes to create interest and keep your eyes moving. all the frames do not have to match exactly but they should coordinate together.


She likes themed rooms and all the items she has purchased over the years. The other guest bedroom which will be the grand children's sleeping placed when they visit is the "Disney room". So again this is the vacant room.
This is the same side of the room with a high boy dresser and mirror. It is opposite the twin bed.
Here is the bed all dressed up with all her stuffed Disney characters. The bedding is a batten burg lace comforter and pillow shams with a red bed skirt. We loved the lamp in the corner that we found at a consignment shop about 6 months ago. It goes well with the print above it.





I love this Antique dresser. We had to polish this dresser and clean it up. We used lemon oil for that. It had been stored in an attic for lack of room in her other house. It is mahogany vanity dresser with a swivel mirror. It fits well with the Disney decor and reminds me of the Haunted Mansion decor. She had many Disney "Cells" that we incorporated into the room along with a few posters. As you know try to create high and lows with your accessories and always use odd numbers for more interest.It took us one full day to complete these two rooms from start to finish. Cleaning and polishing as we went. It was so much fun to do and we laughed while trying to move some of these pieces around. Since they are antiques and all solid wood they we pretty heavy. We did add some cellular shades to the windows that were ordered the day after we put the room together.
I hope you enjoyed seeing these room put together. I thoroughly enjoyed working on them. I stay for two days helping to unpack and put rooms together. I will post more of them at a later time. Thanks for joining me today and also to Susan from Between Naps on the Porch for hosting. Check out her blog for great transformations.

Expressively
Sofia

Tablescape Thursday/Wedding Planning

Tablescape Thursday/Wedding Planning

Here we are again for another Tablescape Thursday thanks to Susan from Between Naps on the Porch. I had said in an earlier post that I would share some photos of the Wedding that I helped to plan on October 3rd. I thought today would be good for sharing these photos.

The wedding took place at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It is a beautiful old hotel rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake and opened in 1909. This year is the 100th anniversary for the hotel.
I will show you a few designs of tablescapes for the place card, cake and breakfast buffet the morning after the wedding. First let me show you where the ceremony took place.

This is called the Sunset Court on the second floor of the hotel. The hotel staff set the chairs nicely accordingly to the bride and my specifications. There is an atrium for the ceiling so natural and mood lighting occurs nicely in this area. We added some florals on stands down the isle as well as rose petals to line the runner. The palm trees were a great backdrop for the ceremony area. In the center was the unity candles that the mothers and then bride and groom lite. It was beautiful.
Here is where the cocktail hour took place. This is a before shot of the place card table.

Here is the same table with the floral arrangement and place card and favors arranged on the table. The floral had fall flowers, tall curly willow and pears.
Here is the gift and guest book table. Instead of an actual book to sign the bride wanted to use note cards and a box to hold advice and good wishes for the newly married couple. The wired bowl was for gift cards. This picture takes place before the guests arrive.



Here is the set up of the cake table. The cake was beautiful. Fresh flowers were place on the cake after it was placed on the table. We added votive candles the throw away bouquet and the champagne flutes and cake knives for the couple.This is a picture of the centerpieces for the guest tables before they are placed on the table. Since I was in twenty places at one time on this day I did not get a picture of the guest tables set for dinner.

The wedding was beautiful and everything went off without any problems and on time. They were a very happy couple. The next morning, we had breakfast for the guests. It was held in the French Parlor of the hotel. This is such a beautiful room and over looks the garden court of the hotel.

We reused the centerpieces from the wedding for the tables at the breakfast. These centerpieces were great because we were able to use them in three different places. The first was at the ceremony.

Here is the buffet table for breakfast. I added rose petals to the plate table and arranged the floral and gave some height to the table as well.


Here is the arrangement given some height on the buffet table and in the background is a leaded glass window overlooking the garden court below.
Here is a picture of the Garden Court from the window . Isn't it gorgeous.
Another picture of the buffet table from a different view and again the interior windows that open and look to the garden court.

This was truly a dream wedding, beautiful location, very well planned (I did that mostly), and wonderful bride and groom. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share this day with you all. One last picture of the Anniversary cake in the lobby of the hotel. This cake was done by Ace of Cakes!.
Wow that is all I can say, this cake is incredible. Every tier represents a decade of the hotel with different features of the hotel recreated in this cake. Thanks again to Susan from Between Naps on the Porch for hosted. If you would like to see more pictures of the wedding you can go to Peter Bruce Photography. He did a wonderful job photographing this special day.
I had such fun being the wedding planner for this couple!. Any one else need a planner?

How are you all doing? I hope you had a Happy Halloween! I am joining up with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for another Met Monday and another transformation for me.
After moving my daughter into her new apartment in January (See post in Jan and Feb. 09) We need some accent pillows. We purchase two at Marshall's for 10.00. We added them to the room but it was not quite right.
So I decided to take the left over fabric from the window treatments we had made and make a couple of pillows.

I have to say I do procrastinate when it comes to getting out the sewing machine. That is not my first love. I did finally drag the machine out and made two 20" pillow covers. I used the check fabric, the brown window treatment fabric and purchase some coordinating ribbon for 2.99 for a spool. I purchased two spools of ribbon. I made one pillow with the check fabric in the center, and a board of brown. I then took the ribbon and outlined the entire square with it. I made a envelope type opening in the back to slip the Marshall's pillow in.

The second pillow, I made slightly different, taking half the check and half the brown, using the ribbon two separate the two fabrics and added three buttons that I made out of the check fabric.
Those were simple to make with button covers that I purchased at Joann fabrics for 3.50 for the kit. Here is a picture of the second pillow. Sorry I do not have a picture yet of the first pillow. My daughter took that one too quickly.
I think it turned out nice and goes well with her window treatments. Shown here and in an earlier post.
I still have the sewing machine out as I need to change up two more window treatments before I put that baby away. Wish me luck!.

Thanks for stopping by and please make yourself at home and browse around a bit. Also don't forget to browse around Susan's at Between Naps on the Porch as she is always happy to host a Met Monday.

See you again soon
Expressively
Sofia

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE

Happy Halloween everyone. I hope you have a great and frightful day and evening.
This is a picture of my neighbor's decorations on their front lawn and my front porch decor. The front door wreath and the three tier pumpkins were featured in Southern Living Decorating year. I look at both and recreated with a little spice of my own.

This is my neighbor's front yard welcome and front porch. Quite a difference from mine. Much more freightful. Which do you prefer, festive or freightful? I know my choice!



Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
Expressively
Sofia

Tablescape Thursday

I am hooking up with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for another wonderful Tablescape Thursday. Today I am going to tell you about a baby shower that my daughter had for her friend at our home. My daughter with a friend's help put together a menu, games, and party favors for this wonderful day. Their theme was Mommy's "Little Pumpkin". It was given in November of last year and I have been just waiting for fall to share the tablescape with you.


As you see here, I love adding layers to a party tablescape it makes it more interesting and you fit more food items on the table. Of course, lots of pumpkins, baby teddy bears covered the table.This cute little bear was the centerpiece for the table. He was bought at Pottery Barn kids and part of the money that was paid for him was donated to a children's hospital. I thought that was perfect. I also like to add picture frames with family photos to the table to make it personal.
I took small square boxes and created some baby blocks wrapped in orange tissue paper. There are clothes pins in one vase for one of the games to be played at the party.


Here is a close up of the table and pumpkins. I also used ribbon, fall leaves and colorful fabric to create the levels and interest.


We also decorated with a clothesline filled with baby clothes and the baby's last name to welcome the baby.

This was a cute little t-shirt that I could not resist.



This was the mom's chair for opening gifts. It was so nice outside we actually sat outside to eat and open the gifts.

This was the dessert table. We had a cake, a fruit salad and cookies. I love putting apples in the tall vase.


Decorated in the same manner with a center pumpkin, leaves trailing down to the wonderful desserts.

This was the cake. Unfortunately it was ordered before the theme and color scheme was picked. It was still cute.

Well I hope you enjoyed my tablescape Baby Shower. We enjoyed decorating and hosting the shower. Do come back again soon and enjoy all the other tablescapes at Between Naps on the Porch. Thank you to Susan for hosting another great one!

Expressively,

Sofia

DayBed Part II/Met Monday

Hi everyone. Sorry I have been gone so long. I was a wedding planner for a wedding that happened on October 3rd. It was wonder but had taken up most of my time. I hope to post pics of the wedding on Wednesday.


As for today I have the daybed saga part II. I finally found bedding and pillows that I liked as well as one piece of art work so I have joined up with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for a Met Monday. As seen on August 30th the daybed went a partial tranformation with a new coat of paint. Now it has new bedding and a fresh new look.
Tada a brand new look for the bed. The comforter came from JCPenney Cindy Crawford collection. It was a pretty good price and then of course I had a coupon and free shipping. It came with the two shams bedskirt and comforter. I am going to cut the bedskirt and make a window treatment out of part of it. The smallest size was a full size so I had to make adjustments to fit. It shams need to be stuffed a little more for me. The three pillows with the buttons are from Pottery Barn. The yellow were on sale for $11.99 for the covers and $19.99 for the red. I suplurged a little on that. The bolster pillow I made from a $5.00 bolster and leftover fabric I had. I also had leftover tassel fringed which I tied the pillow with. The colors work perfectly together.
I found the sunflower print at Ross store for $12.99. That was a good deal since the framing has such an intricate pattern on it.

I also tried to spruce up the top of the computer cabinet. I added pictures of my children, a frame I got for free, which a printed an S for my name and put in it. Also the hat box which I already had, a white final also in my home not being used and my new favorite Party Planning book.

This is the room as you would be looking into it from the doorway. I replaced the black and red lamp with a lamp from my bedroom also not in use at the moment. It goes well in here. The second hat box is being used to raise the lamp and another free picture frame on the end table. I also had a piece of leftover sheer fabric with a leaf patter which I placed on the table.
Ok that is my makover for this Met Monday. I hoped you enjoy and love the colors as I do. I hope to complete the window treatment and add shelves soon!
See you then. Watch for my wedding post coming soon!. Again that you to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for hosting the Met Monday transformations. Be sure to enjoy everyone's.
Expressively
Sofia

Daybed tranformation

Hi everyone and thanks for joining Susan from Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday and Rhoda at Southern Hospitality for Bargain sale finds . I have been away from the computer trying to finish a room I started a couple of months ago. I am also busy with a wedding planning job I acquired a while back. Life sometimes gets in the way of progress. I recently acquired from a friend this daybed to be put into my daughter's room and make into an office/guest room. The daybed I felt would fit well in the room and take up less space than a full size bed.

I did not like the white and brass look however for my purposes, so I decided to change the color and style. This is the daybed before. Very country and cute. It went well in the room and home it was in.I decided to update the iron and finials to fit the decor in my home which is Italian/Mediterranean country. So I went to Home Depot, of course and started with two cans of espresso color spray paint. After I was done with that I still was not happy with the color choice.

So back to Home Depot, and Michael's to find a Bronze spray paint and a Copper Spray paint. I started to mottle the sprays together to give me a patina of bronze and copper over the dark brown. It gives a lustre to the plain brown paint. It is hard to see the colors in the picture but it works, especially with the new finials I found at Calico Corners for 50% off for two.

In this photo you can see the bronze and copper patina a little better.
I hope you enjoyed my transformation so far. Now if I can just find some bedding! I'll just keep looking. Keep your eyes looking for me also. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out Susan at Between Naps on the Porch and Rhoda at Southern Hospitality

Expressively
Sofia