Pure Organization Project #8: Tupperware Storage

I have to be honest with you:  I'm fading fast on the organization.  I'm sorry I never got Mr.Linky up last week & especially sorry that I haven't been able to check out everyone's projects. 

Last week was a crazy week for sure, but I'm having trouble seeing how it's going go get any less crazy now that I'm back at work with 2 little ones at home.  SO, in the interest of sanity (my own of course ;)  I'm taking a teensy chill pill about the Pure Organization.  They won't be every week.  (There I said it!)  I just can't make it all happen right now.  There may be 2 in a row and they may be every other week or I may have a good month and get them all in, but I just need to take some pressure off right now.  I hope you can understand & since you're all usually extremely sweet, I'm pretty sure you will ;)

But, I do have one for you this week!  Organize & purge the tupperware.  This one came out of pure necessity.  When all of our tupperware was clean & unused, it got to this:

Eeeeeek!   No joke.  We'd made a bunch of meals & frozen them for when the baby would be born, but when we ate the meals, we had way too much tupperware!  (Add that to the inherited tupperware from family who'd dropped off meals.)  Anyway, here was our drawer before:  lots of the lids and bottoms had no mates...

And here it is now:

Ahhhhh so much better.  I ditched all the mateless pieces (recycled them) and put the inherited stuff in a bag to return, and now it's feeling so much better.  The key is this:

I kept one of the mateless containers and filled it with all of the lids for easy matching up.  Makes it so much easier! Good luck on this one if you join in!!

xoxo,
lauren

Candle Makeover

I am joining Susan today for Metamorphosis Monday at her site Between Naps on the Porch.  I had a nice hurricane candle holder I recently purchased at Walmart on clearance for $2.50.  I displayed it last week with shells in it .  Pictured below. You can see that post here.

 I thought I would make it over for a spring table. 

 

The first thing I did was place a bed of sheet moss in the bottom of the candle holder.

 

I had a nest from Hobby Lobby that I had purchased.  It already had some ivy and berries on it and I stuck fern leaves in around the back of the nest.

I fitted the nest down in the candle holder with the ferns trailing up in the back.

  

 

 

Then I placed a simple pillar candle down in the nest.

You may also place a flameless battery operated candle in this arrangement.

And there you have a candle makeover for a spring woodland table.

Please go on over to Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday and see all the great makeovers.  I am also linking to Make It for Monday over at Cottage Instincts.  I will also link to the  Before and After Party over at Thrifty Decor Chick.

 

Days 3, 4 & 5 of the Better Homes & Gardens Shoot

I thought I'd give you a play-by-play of the last 3 days of the BHG Christmas photo shoot at our house...

The photographer, Helen Norman (above), and her assisant Fj Hughes (below) shot the house on Wednesday and Thursday.  They arrived both mornings around 8 AM or so.  (Just having had a baby, it's really hard to get going in the mornings:  getting a shower & getting dressed sometimes feel near-impossible.    Justin was really spit-uppy and I made sure not to carry him over the camera equipment...  eeek )

I had so much fun working with them!  Helen has a great sense of humor (hysterical) and always made sure that we knew what the next meal would be.  (A woman after my own heart!  But she made a really good point that when you're on a job like this it's easy to forget about meals and then people get cranky & sloppy from being hungry.)  Fj has a 3 yr-old daughter and a 3 month old baby girl, so we had a lot in common.   

Below, Fj is holding the coco bead chandelier OUT of the shot.  (how sad for my chandy!  a bit too wild for BHG I think ;)

Jessica Thomas-the stylist- (below) was amazing.  The detail that's put into each & every shot is incredible.  Most shots took an hour plus to shoot (some less, some more.)  You'd be so surprised at how much thought is put into each shot.  And I'm talking about a photo of something as small as a Christmas ornament or a plate of cookies.  They made sure everything was perfect.  No unsightly tree lights or wires showing, etc.  It was awesome to watch.  A very precarious cookie kept falling over in one shot and we all had to stand perfectly still so as not to move the floor at all.  The sunlight kept going in and out of the clouds and Helen had to shoot at just the right time as Fj watched the clouds and let her know what the sky was about to be doing.  Craziness.  Jessica (below) has such an eye.  She made sure that each and every shot had a "story."  It was different than it would have been had we been shooting for a 100% design magazine vs a lifestyle magazine.  The shots weren't about the furniture or the room, they were more about what's going on in the room:  the people, the activities, and Christmas of course.  The room is more the backdrop for the story vs. the focus of the story.  (But of course the rooms had to look perfect in order to help "tell" the story.)

Joanna Linberg (below) is writing the story.   She also assisted Jessica in getting all of the props ready for the shoot and was AMAZING with Christian.  (He will be SO sad when he learns that "Miss Joanna" and "Miss Jessica" / The "Homes & Gardens Ladies" are not coming back tomorrow.  I've been using them to get Christian to do things:  i.e. "Miss Joanna wants you to brush your teeth."  hee hee hee) You know when you meet someone and they just exude goodness?  That's Joanna.  She's so young and has worked so hard to get to where she is. 

We were in a few of the photos and Christian did such a great job.  He was such a good little kid throughout the whole process & really followed directions well.  ("Ok, now go on your knees and giggle." etc..  He had so much fun!) 

Below is a picture of my kitchen shelves being emptied so Jessica could style them.  I LOVE what she did and am sad to see the things go!  She used a combination of my own things, some props from the Meredith prop room and some thigns we found at On a Whim and Lucketts. 

On the last day, at the end, we started running out of daylight.  Daylight is so important, because if you lose it, the photographers have to light the space and the look is totally different.  (not as pretty at all either!)  That crazy cookie kept falling over and then it was time for our family portrait.  Justin was crying and we had to get the shot as quickly as possible before the sun went down.  Definitely felt the pressure but it was so exciting!  Ps-  I think I TOTALLY scared Jessica before we met.  We'd been doing a lot of the prep over the phone/ emails and I told her multiple times how excited I was about the shoot.  (She does this ALL the time and so was not nearly there with me ;)  When some extra Christmas ornaments arrived for the tree, I got teary (give me a break- I just had a baby!) because they were so perfect.  I called Jessica and told her how much I loved them & how excited I was she was like, "Ok,"  (probably like "what is wrong with this girl?????!"  hahah)   Jessica is awesome at what she does& just so much fun and I'm honestly surprised everyone's not this nutty around her. 

On Day 5 (Today) Jessica & Joanna packed up everything from the shoot & put our house back in order.  (FedEx will pick all of the boxes up later this week to send them back to the Meredith Studio and back to the companies they came from.)  Jessica & Joanna also (as they did all week long) helped take care of Christian & Justin, and Jessica even made Christian a peanut butter & jelly sandwich for lunch.  Finally, we said our goodbyes and Christian waved at our new friends from the window. 

Below, here we all are at the end of the shoot.  Everyone was so good to Christian & Justin.  (Helen below, with my little guy.  He loved them all so much. )

I'm really going to miss them all.  It was such a fun crazy week.  ...Such an awesome experience and I just feel so lucky to have gotten the chance to work with such talented, sweet people.  I wish we all lived closer. 

And I can't wait to see the spread next November!!!  (Feels like forever away!!!)

Have a great weekend!!

xoxo,

lauren

**update**  I should clarify that they used a lot of our own things:  my urns, cakestands, plates, stemware, silverware, pillows, blankets, ornaments, accessories, etc...  but supplemented them all with some extras & of course more Christmas things  (Our trees & garlands were long dead) and food. Jessica worked really hard to make sure that the items they brought in worked with my style & blended seamlessly with what we already had.   :)  so much fun!!

Romantic "Irish" Lace Placemat

With Ireland on my mind for March, I thought I would make these placemats.  They remind me of all things romantic and Irish lace.  

 Materials:

For 4 placemats you will need:

3/4 yd. of  44"-45" wide fabric (linen works great)

7  3/8 yds.  of 2" wide flat lace trim

thread

 

I had a really old pattern for this, but all you need is a placemat (mine was 13"x19") to pin down for a pattern and you are set.  Lay your pattern out with the width of the fabric and cut out 4.

 

Pin the wrong side of the lace trim to the right side of the placemat having the outer edge of lace along raw edge.

 

I went on and sewed this in place starting the seam out from the edge of the width of the lace.

 

Here is the placement of where I stitched that seam.

 

 

When I sew the next piece of lace; I start in the corner where the two pieces of lace meet to sew the next piece of lace in place.

Miter trim at the corners.  Start and end at one corner using the fabric underneath as a guide.  Leave yourself enough lace to create a seam for this.

 Turn under and lap the ends at the corner, so that it looks mitered.  Stitch close to inner edge.

 

I have already stitched this seam, but I am showing how I sewed it.

 

On the wrong side of the placemat trim within a 1/4" of stitching. 

 

You can now trim the lace that is sticking out at the corner.

 

After you trim it, it will look like this.

 

Now, you will trim all the fabric away under the lace within a 1/4" of stitching.

 

Press all trimmed edges toward placemat.

 

On the right side top-stitch placemat close to first stitching, catching the raw edge in back and sewing it the way you pressed it.

 

You have now have made a lovely "Irish" placemat.

I am linking this to Cindy's My Romantic Home Show and Tell Friday.  Please go to her site and see all the wonderful things bloggers have been doing to make their home romantic.  I am also linking this to Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative.  Please go over over and check out all the great entries there.

 

Tablescape Thursday

I am joining Susan for  Tablescape Thursday  at Between Naps on the Porch.  One of my favorite colors is robin's eggs blue.  I have been wanting to paint a room in my house this color for years.  I haven't gotten around to remodeling the room yet, but I did make a spring tablescape today with that color.

 

I have just a little table for two.  It would be a great table for treating your Mom on Mother's Day.  

 The picture on the wall is framed vintage postcards by Harrison Fisher.  The postcards were printed in a series called 'The Greatest Moments in a Girl's Life.'  I have a whole post about the postcards if you want to learn more here.  

 

The salad plate I bought at TJMaxx.  

 

 

The brown transferware is Royal Stafford.  I got this plate on Ebay.

I made the napkins and the placemats were from TJMaxx also. 

I have often made a chicken in this little dutch oven.  I discovered it is vintage and made by Le Creuset.  If you want to read about this piece you can read here. 

 

The swan is a doorstop.  I think it is too pretty to put on the floor.  

 

This little planter is a McCoy piece.  I love the texture that looks like an old tufted sofa.

 

And last, but not least I set everything up on this little tile top table my husband and I bought when we first got married.  The top is ivory tile with forget-me-nots on each corner tile.  After almost 20 years with 3 rough boys the table has had some wear.  But, I can't get rid of it.

Because one of my two oldest boys crawled under it and wrote I love Mom and I love Dad.

Please go over to BNOTP and see all the wonderful tablescapes.

 

White Wednesday

I am joining Kathleen at Faded Charm for White Wednesday.  I have some really great smelling paperwhites blooming in the house.  They are so delicate.  I am just so tickled to see anything bloom!

 

Next I have a little porcelain doll.  This was my doll and since I had all boys they never played with it.  The lovely pillow my Mother made.

 

I can't wait to start putting my seashells out for summer.  I love all shell related items.  Even though my house is not anywhere near a beach, I decorate with seashells generously in the summer.  I hope you go over and visit Kathleen at Faded Charm for all the lovely white things.