Saturday Mornings

This morning I was in the mood for a little thrifting/trashing/hunting. The morning started out a little slow but I quickly picked up momentum and my first purchase was this manly dress form. I have his mate that I'm "antiquing" I'll have to name them...any ideas? This darling tea cart was a steal, the owner had it recently powder coated in this cream color - it folds flat and it's just great, very sturdy. The straw hat is so adorable and it's in the original hat box - on the side it even says "summer navy straw". I'll research the box and label in the hat to learn more. I have two of the tiered pieces and I'll be getting them on etsy very soon!

The blue shelf just looks so chippy and cute. Not my color but I know someone else will love it. It was kind of a blue morning; cute blue sewing box, blue shelf...it's gloomy outside today and I'm hoping the sky will turn blue soon!

The porcelein shoes are cute and I'm going to replace the ties with ribbon. The little glass salts have hens on two and ducks on two. The frame/stand will be great with a mirror in place of a photo!

So here is my workspace in the garage - I think I need to spend some time in here cleaning up a bit! Have a wonderful weekend!

Our Fundraiser ~ 3rd Annual!

I think I have finally recovered from our fundraising event! This was our 3rd annual Wine Tasting at our home. We raised $5,500. for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in Mission Viejo. Our team Judy's Angels was started 7 years ago after we lost one of my BFF's to melanoma. We could not have had such a successful event without the support and generosity of so many...we were truly honored to have the Winemakers below come down and be a part of this. Jeff Munsey from Sort This Out Cellars, Darren Procsal from Atlas Peak and Jeff Stewart of Buena Vista - they donated their fabulous wines and amazing visits to their wineries! My BFF's Jill and Darlene - we co-hosted this event along with my hubby and our BFF Debra

Chuck and his wife Susan (my husband works for Chuck) were there to lend a hand. The smoked gouda cheese he was slicing was addicting on the warm cranberry bread.

Chuck kept asking me for sharp knives...

Just some of the wines we were pouring

This is Debra - check out her new blog - she's an amazing artist.

We prepared all of the food ourselves; bruschetta, olives, cucumbers with feta cheese, cheeses galore.

Skewars with buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh basil and of course more cheese!

It was and exhausting and emotional night we will never forget - 80 + guests in my yard and it looked so beautiful!

Apron Love

A quick post tonight...it's been a busy week. You see my husband and I and my BFF's hosted a fundraiser at my home Saturday night. It was our 3rd annual Wine Tasting Fundraiser for our
Relay for Life Team for the American Cancer Society. I'll post about it with photos later this week - I'm tired and a bit drained for the event but good news ~~~~ we raised $5500. WAHOO! Now for a little Apron LOVE! I found this cutie at Pier I tonight - we were getting dinner at Pei Wei and stopped in to Pier I for a quick browse - sooo cute! They only had one at this location but are due to get more in - you need to pick one up

My Mother's Day Present!

About 2 weeks ago I sent my hubby an email hinting to him that I would very much like the Farm Chicks new cookbook "The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen". Well a funny thing happened the next day; someone that I know from my company asked me to help out with a situation involving a reservation that he had made for a family friend. I was happy to help - not a big deal, he was now in another state and he needed a voucher for this friend. I asked him to email me the details and I would take care of it. He sent me the details and I did not pay too much attention or make a connection with the name of the guest...I confirmed back to him that all was taken care of - end of story? No...the following day I came into the office and had an email from Serena Thompson thanking me for helping out with the arrangements...as I scrolled down in disbelief it was indeed from Serena of The Farm Chicks! I sat and stared at the screen for a few minutes - I have followed them for a long time and have purchased goodies for myself and friends from their wonderful web-site. I emailed her back letting her know that the day before I had asked my husband for their book (I even emailed her a copy of the emails he and I exchanged). Well I had the pleasure of meeting Serena earlier this week and she brought me this!!! YIPPEEE!

She even signed it for me :)
Have you ever looked forward to meeting someone that you admire only to be disappointed by the expectation that you had of them? This was NOT the case - Serena is the most gracious and sweet lady you will ever meet, really lovely in every way and I only wished we could have spent more time with each other. I won't be able to get up their way for the show in a few weeks but I am definitely planning to visit Serena and Teri next year! If you don't have this book already (maybe I'm the only one that didn't) run don't walk to pick up a copy - it's lovely! The recipes are wonderful, the photographs are gorgeous and the stories of how they started their dream are inspiring to say the least! Thank you Serena for the wonderful gift!

Saturday Finds & Mother's Day

Well Saturday was the annual Lake Forest Garden Club's boutique and plant sale. It usually takes place the day before Mother's Day and these ladies have such an awesome event. Whatever I have bought and planted has thrived and you can't beat their prices. I bought 4 huge ivy plants for $2. each, a small hydranga and a few other plants that are new to me but I only spent $16. for all of the plants. Their boutique was awesome, just look at the darling chandy that I bought - it's hanging over my dining table now out on the patio. I embelished it a bit with crystals and darling shades. I luv it! I also found the cute little iron gate things and a metal caddy.

Mother's Day was wonderful! My guys made a scrumptious brunch; fresh raspberries, strawberries and blackberries with sweet cream. Smoked salmon and peppered salami...

my husband's homemade banana bread...I must have bought two dozen bananas last week because everyone in my house was making smoothies...we ended up having about 12 left over that could only be used for one thing...nana bread.

and a yummy, yummy frittata with feta cheese, tomatoes and garlic chives.

My guys are the absolute best! We had a wonderful day browsing shops in Fullerton and having a late lunch. Jake the Blog Dog agrees it was one of the nicest days ever!

Peddlers Market & Friends!

The Peddlers at Piecemakers was a great day! The weather was practically perfect and the apple pie for breakfast is always a plus! I brought along a couple bigger pieces with me Saturday morning and I was pleasantly surprised when they sold almost immediately. Here's a little peak at my booth in the setting up stage. When I set up Friday evening there were definitely some early shoppers browsing our spaces and when I came back Saturday morning the sweetest mother and daughter came by and bought my chippy potting bench!

Janice of the Faded Cottageand her mom were such dolls! They come for every show from Las Vegas and shop and shop and shop! Below is the cute chippy potting bench that she took home - not sure how she managed to pack it in her car but where there's a will there's a way!

I also had a visit from Lidy of the Little French Garden House who stopped by for a quick hello before she went home to get ready for the amazing baby shower she was hosting - the gorgeous photos are on her blog. My friend Laura also had a space and she was introducing her line of shoe huggers - as soon as her web-site is ready I'll add the linky - they are really cute and the fabrics they chose are wonderful! It was an awesome day and I'll be back there on August 1st for the next Peddlers Market! I don't have many shows on my agenda for this summer - it's just too hot...

Happy May Day!

Happy May Day! It was a wonderful day indeed! I set up my space for tomorrow at Piecemakers Flea Market in Costa Mesa. For any of you in So. Cal it's located at Harbor and Adams ~ West a few blocks at Mesa Verde. There are over 100 dealers that will be selling tomorrow and my sneak peak this afternoon was delightful. I'll try not to shop too much LOL! I'll be there bright and early with plenty of goodies! My day started out with a very surreal email that I'll share more about in another post but someone that I very much admire in this crazy/fun business of ours will be in my neighborhood soon and I look forward to meeting her in person very soon. Enjoy the weekend!