wedding beauty in newport, ri

May 24, 2016

It has been a very busy time for me. Right after a short trip to the West Coast, I attended a wedding on the East Coast in Newport, RI. On both coasts, my stay was directly on the shore so I was surrounded by all the coastal details I adore!

At the wedding, I was able to see a guy very special to me wed the gal of his dreams. This gal also happens to have amazing taste and their wedding certainly reflected it!

Today I am sharing with you a little bit of the beauty from the evening.

At the couple’s request, photos were not taken at the ceremony or reception, but I did sneak a few photos of the amazing ocean view venue at Castle Hill Inn and a couple of the gorgeous details incorporated into the décor.

I hope you enjoy the photos! You can see a little more Newport on the blog on Friday!

Thank you so much for stopping. Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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fancy watermelon salad

May 17, 2016

I love watermelon. If you read my blog, you also know I love watermelon salad. I make it by cutting chunks of watermelon and cheese (usually Feta), drizzling it with some extra virgin olive oil and adding cracked black pepper and basil. Yum!

Inspired by a local restaurant, today I am showing you how I give my watermelon salad an upgrade by turning it into a fancier ‘watermelon sandwich.’

I do this by cutting 2 ½” rounds from watermelon slices using a cookie cutter. I use the same cutter to cut a circle of mozzarella. I drizzle the ‘sandwich’ I have created with extra virgin olive oil and add some cracked black pepper. As garnish, I sprinkle crumbled Feta cheese on top and add chopped basil and walnuts. The finished ‘sandwich’ is just soooo tasty!

The same great watermelon salad I always enjoy, but a much ‘fancier’ version! It is the perfect size and presentation to use as a first course for your next dinner party!

With the great weather ahead – the perfect time to enjoy watermelon – I hope you will consider serving this winning dish to your guests!

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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family heirloom redo

May 13, 2016

I’m usually not one to post a painting project until I can share both the before and after photos.

I am breaking that practice today by showing you a couple ‘in process’ photos of a current project for today’s Friday field trip.For a friend, I am painting the only piece of furniture she kept from her childhood home after her mom passed away.

The old buffet gave me some issues right from the start…take my advice, and don’t ever paint a piece that sustained constant smoke for 60+ years! Anyway, I am getting down to the home stretch with this project . Here is a little peek. The photo below is the old and new hardware. I special ordered new pulls. Aren’t they nice? And, I think the knobs I bought look great as well!

The base color of the piece is Annie Sloan Old Ochre. After I had already painted a first coat on the entire piece, I decided I needed to strip and sand down the top of the piece. Here is a peek of it with the new finish. It felt great to get rid of that old orangey yellow finish!

I will share all the ‘after’ photos soon – once I have the piece completely finished!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope I have inspired you to look at an old piece of furniture in a new way!

Have a great weekend and remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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coastal party favors

May 10, 2016

Friends, you know how much I embrace a good theme – particularly a coastal one! SO, you can really appreciate today’s post!

I was recently challenged to create Mother’s Day favors for a party celebrating a group of moms on the California coast. Exciting! This is the type of project I love! I am super excited to show you the results of this project!

First, I got a Connecticut artisan to create my vision of a coastal themed, zippered, canvas bag. I wanted to have a really great bag and find something related to my theme to tuck inside to make it extra special.

I had imagined a metallic anchor on the front of the bags, and I got just that! How perfect are these?! And, the anchor printed lining couldn’t be any cuter!

What did I choose to tuck inside these custom creations? I first decided on some candy beach stones and packaged them in round glass-topped tins.

Next, I added an anchor shaped bookmark – a great item to have for beach reads!

As a way to utilize the new bookmarks, large baskets of gently used paperbacks in various notable titles were part of the party décor for moms to grab on their way to the beach. Fun!

I hope I have inspired you to create some themed favors of your own for your next celebration.

If you have a vision for your own design and want to contact the artisan I used, check out Ralph & Martha on Facebook!

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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may day surprises

April 26, 2016

I have done many different May Day surprises over the years. I love the element of surprise mixed with the beauty of fresh flowers – May Day combines these two elements perfectly!

This year, making my May Day arrangements, I decided I would only use the flowers I could harvest from my yard. This would have been an easy assignment in two more weeks or so, but when I went out into the yard today, I realized there are few flowers in bloom right now!

I stuck to my challenge and used the only two flowers varieties I found in bloom. I arranged them in some plastic-lined, birch bark hanging cones I discovered for $2.75 each in the Terrain clearance room.

To add a little interest, I added some variegated Hosta leaves; picking the few that were just starting to poke through the ground! Even my Lillies of the Valley have yet to bloom!

I hope I have inspired you to create some May Day surprises of your own…what can you create from your yard?

Thank you for stopping by!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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‘beachify’ your bottles

April 22, 2016

The weather has finally turned here in Connecticut and I am loving every warm, sunny second of it!

For Friday field trip today, I am taking you into my wine cellar. (Not really, I don’t have a wine cellar – although I do keep a bottle of wine in my cellar!) But, I am showing you a bottle of wine!

Warm weather not only makes me smile, but encourages me to find summer enhancements that also make me smile. A super simple one is to add a shell garland to your summer wine! A glue gun and a couple of shells (or beach glass) glued to a piece of twine create some easy summer décor! Just glue a shell – preferably found at the beach – onto each end of a length of twine and wrap it around a bottle!

These make great warm weather napkin rings as well!

If you are giving a bottle of wine as a gift, you can even roll a cute summer dishtowel (maybe a lobster or crab motif) around the bottle and tie it on with the shell enhanced twine!

An easy way to add a feeling of summer and a smile! :)

Happy sunshine! Thank you for stopping by!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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recipe for love

April 12, 2016

I recently went to a really fabulous bridal shower hosted by the future bride’s mom – with some help from the gals in the bridal party. Today, I am sharing one of the activities created for the event.

When I walked into the shower, I noticed wooden spoons tied in gold ribbon graced all the place settings. They certainly seemed appropriate for a bridal shower; particularly for this once, since both the future bride and future groom are great cooks!

But, it wasn’t until a little later into the shower that the true purpose of the spoons was revealed. These spoons were meant to hold each guest’s ‘recipe for a happy marriage.’

Fine point permanent markers were passed around to guests and each spent some time creating the perfect ‘recipe’ for the bride-to-be; recording it onto a spoon.

What a sweet idea to collect the sentiments of all the guests!

bridal shower spoon pleasure in simple things blog

The groom’s mom’s message to the bride-to-be. :)

After the bride-to-be chose her three favorite spoons, the bridal party displayed them in a shadow box and awarded prizes to the authors of the three chosen sentiments. Priceless! (With a little more time, maybe the spoon handles could be dipped in metallic gold paint or gold-leafed as part of the permanent shadow box!)

I hope you are inspired by this sweet ‘recipe for love.’

Please stop back on Friday when I will share some of the wonderful decor from this shower. I can’t wait to reveal the fabulous venue!

Thanks for stopping by. Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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snow in april

April 5, 2016

The first day of spring has passed. Easter has come and gone. This morning it snowed!

For me, the snow seemed so poetic. April is National Poetry Month. All I could think about on my way to work, driving in the snow, were some of the great poems by Robert Frost, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ogden Nash…

There are so many wonderful writings about snow…in poetry, as well as other readings. Thinking about this reminded me of a recent book group meeting. I was reminded of how often I come across beautiful phrases while reading contemporary fiction.

With all these thoughts of poems and beautiful writing, I thought I would try to inspire you during this month of April to take notice of a poem, or even a phrase, that really speaks to you.

I am including a few photos from this morning’s snow and a quote from a reading to help inspire you to also take note of some special words during April.

Thanks for stopping by.

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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fabric herb tags with grommets

March 29, 2016

You may remember I used grommets on some of my holiday gift tags this past Christmas. They create such a wonderful detail on a simple tag! Today, I am using grommets again on tags, but this time on fabric rather than paper.

Adorable tags can be created using scraps of fabric, letter stamps, and grommets. The tool for applying the grommets cost only a few dollars at your local craft or fabric store and is available in many sizes. Once you own this simple tool, you will find so many ways to use grommets! The only piece of equipment you will need, in addition to the grommets and the grommet tool, is a hammer.

I cut little flag shapes from my fabric scrap and rubber stamped onto them the names of my potted herbs. Adding the grommets creates the perfect little detail to add some twine for tying the tags onto the handles of my herb pots!

As you can imagine, these tags have some wonderful applications! Using them as place cards and tying them onto napkins is a sweet way to use them. The ties can be made from natural twine or in a color to match a specific table décor. They make sweet gift tags to personalize a wrapped gift. Or, a number of them can be used to make a banner for a birthday cake. In planning a wedding, they can be utilized as escort cards.

I hope I have inspired you to make up some fabric gift tags! How will you use them?

Thank you for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

P.S. To see how I used the grommet tool to create sea glass gift tags, click here.

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this year’s easter grass

March 25, 2016

For today’s Friday field trip, I am sharing a couple of this year’s Easter grass plantings. You know how I love to plant grass for Easter! No empty container is safe from my grass seed!

This year, I am loving these mint colored tin containers I found in Terrain’s clearance room! I particularly like the ones with the black rim and handles – so cute! And, they pair so well with my candy stones!