"Deep in the Heart of Texas" Snow Globe

I have gift giving on my mind so I thought I would share with you one of my favorite little gifts. I received one of these a while back and now I buy one for my kid's teachers every year at Christmas. This is, of course,  a snow globe of San Antonio. You can see the little Alamo there down at the bottom. And no snow globe of San Antonio would be complete without playing, "Deep in the Heart of Texas." These cute little globes can be purchased at Saks Fifth Avenue. They run out pretty quickly every year so if you want one, get it now. They have a lot of other cities to choose from too depending on where you live. I know it always makes me smile and the kids love it too. So if you know a snow globe collector or just someone who loves their city, this might be a good little gift, y'all.

Wreath Crazy

OK. So I'm going a little wreath crazy this year. I admit it. I need help. That's the first step, right? In all honesty, I tend to focus heavily on something when I am avoiding something else. The Christmas tree...every year we think about getting a fake tree because there is always drama with the real one. Just getting it from the lot to the house in a mad rush that it doesn't dry out before we can get it in to water. There have been years where I have refused to light the lights because the tree looked so dry that I was sure it was going up in flames. Then there was the year that we brought in what I like to call blister beetles with the tree and just when I thought we had gotten them all, another one would attack out of nowhere. Then another year when I was up on the 10' ladder and a lizard jumped out at me when I was stringing the lights and I nearly broke my neck. It was like something out of Christmas Vacation. We actually looked at fake trees last year and I was horrified at the cost! I think we are going to go with a real one this year despite the impending drama. I can't wait to see what new challenge that will bring. Anyway, on to more wreaths...

Christmas Decorating Finds

I wanted to get this post out today in case anyone still has some Christmas decorating purchases to make. Home Depot has fresh wreaths and 15' pine garland for $5.00 each. Bargain! ( I added the bow. )

It's Beginning to Look a LITTLE Like Christmas

The Thanksgiving dishes are finally put away and it's time to pull out the Christmas decorations. I have a few little projects complete but just don't have the energy to face the crowds today although I'd love to go get our tree. I starting snipping some greenery from outside earlier and was dive bombed by some poor insect that I inadvertently brought in with me. We had a brief fight in which I was the winner...I think I've had enough for today. The turkey must be kicking in so I think it's time for a nap. Happy decorating and shopping to the rest of you!

Pretty Bird

How to make your turkey pretty

Happy Thanksgiving!

Getting ready for tomorrow...I don't know what I was thinking going to the coast for 4 nights and coming back to cook & clean for Thanksgiving but I'm finally in the home stretch at least for today. The cream corn and mashed potato casserole, check. House semi-clean, check. One of the tables set, check.

And the Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney With Care...

I know it's not past Thanksgiving yet but when I saw these Anthropologie stockings, I had to share. I have a couple from a few years back that I just love too that you'll see coming up in a week or so. While they are really pretty, they are not completely practical for stuffing but I hang them in all kinds of places for decoration. I know you've seen me write this before but if you haven't been to Anthropolgie, now is a great time. They have beautiful Christmas decorations and ornaments. I know when I leave there I am ready to go home and be crafty. They even have Holiday craft classes that you can take. FUN! ...and ,no, they are not paying me to write this!!! :)

DIY Map Dresser

This is a dresser that was originally in my son's room. It was all white with round wooden knobs. I recently changed up his room to a baseball theme and with the addition of a new desk in there, I had to move this dresser. I had been wanting to do a project with mod podge on furniture and thought this would be a good opportunity. I knew that this would have to go in my guestroom and the inspiration in there is the coast, my home away from home. I had to have at least one room in my house that reflected my love for the beach and all things coastal. This was the perfect place, my "get away room." I went to our local marine store, West Marine and was so thrilled when I found some ship maps of the Gulf Coast near Port Aransas.

The Bedroom and Sitting Room Project

The following are a few pictures of my mom and Stanley's Monte Vista bungalow. Like my house, things are always being "tweaked". Above the bed are two of the new additions to the room purchased at the Junior League's Ole Marketplace last month. The girl that made the sconces took an antique rosary apart and added the pearls and jewels from it to the iron sconces. What a cool idea! Now that I'm writing this it is occurring to me that maybe you shouldn't take apart a rosary, but I'm not Catholic so I don't know the rules. The picture above the bed is an old window frame with dictionary pages decoupaged and stained to give an antique feel with a series of textured white roses above the printed background. Beautiful.

Vintage Trunks

While shopping with my mom last week at some antique and thrift stores on Hildebrand, we came across some old trunks. We were looking for something to hide all of the cords next to the desk in her house and thought that a couple of these would be just perfect and create more storage for her since the desk is very open and only has one drawer. Of course, I say "OLD" trunks here and not "VINTAGE" because they didn't exactly look like this when we bought them. We had to have a little vision here as you will see in one of the photos below.  In my excitement to get them painted, I forgot to take a before picture of the upper trunk which was a strange brownish color that looked almost like laminate. The brown one was $18 and I believe the blue one was $35. We needed 2 of them to stack to hide some electrical boxes there so we bought both.

Make Your Own Bulletin Board

I had this old frame from Hobby Lobby that I was not using because I accidentally broke the glass. I decided to use it to make a custom bulletin board.

Cheap and Easy Headboard Idea

This is a photo of my guestroom. Like all of the rooms in my house, it is a work in progress. It has gone 3 years without a headboard even though I have had these shutters sitting in a closet since we moved in to this house. The original owner had these hanging in the kitchen and they were painted red. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with them until a shopping trip to Anthropologie. They had some industrial lights on sale 1/2 off and I knew they would be perfect hanging in the alcove the bed sits in. The tall shutters would hide the plug and cords perfectly.

World Market Sale

OK folks, it's here. World Market's 25% off furniture sale. Go online to print your coupon for in store or use the code FURN025. If you order online and want free shipping, there is a coupon for free shipping if you spend $150.00 or more. I'm not sure how long the sale lasts so check it out if you're in the "market" for some new furniture.
Here are some items that the Duchess deems worthy...

Happy shopping!

DIY Project 5 - Make Your Own Table Runner

I actually made this table runner with things that I had around the house so it's about as cheap as you can get. The fabric is canvas painter's dropcloth that originally came from Sherwin Williams. I bought it to make a slip cover and pillow and had quite a bit left over from that project.The stencil was bought for a painting project in my master bedroom that has still not been completed (or even started for that matter)and I used leftover white wall paint. The trim on the ends was leftover from a bulletin board project. (I will show that DIY later on.) This project took about 2 1/2 hours and included minimal sewing. (You could also do no-sew with stitch witchery.)

The Thanksgiving Table

The Thanksgiving table started with the turkey. Doesn't it always? I found this at William Sonoma a few years ago and thought it was so cute. I made the mistake of mentioning to my family over Thanksgiving dinner that first year that I thought the turkey would be something nice to hand down for generations. Well, I haven't heard the end of that since. Everyone now jokes about the, "oh so special, meaningful turkey." Well, guess what? Now it is and we laugh over it every year. :)I was also teased because someone that year had to spend the entire dinner staring at it's butt. Now at dinner "he" goes up in the china cabinet and is replace with flowers the day of the meal.

From Halloween to Fall Outdoor Decor

Does it bother anyone else that every year it seems like Thanksgiving is getting sqeezed out even more than the last year? I like decorating for Christmas as much as the next guy but , come on, do we have to have Christmas stuff out in the stores before Halloween is even over?!!! I guess I'm so sensitive about Thanksgiving because being from San Antonio, we really don't have "seasons" weather wise except for an occasional cold front. We go straight from blazing hot summer to winter. So, I just want to pretend, even for just a little while, that Fall is here (even though the weather doesn't agree). So,I said my peace and off of the soapbox for now...

After spending the day covered in old gross spider web, I finally removed all of the Halloween decorations and moved right into the Fall transition while the kids were at school. Pictured above is the new Fall porch. I kept the grapevine up and just added some eucalyptus and jute ribbon with floral wire.