Today I went up to my sister Heather’s beautiful store, La Petite Fleur , in Uxbridge.  It was such a pretty drive up, with Maddie in the backseat watching a movie, and me noticing all the fall leaves.  It definitely put me in the mood for fall, and the store did not disappoint!  La Petite Fleur sells flowers and giftware.  Today I was seeing all her new fall merchandise for the first time, and as usual, I was very tempted by lots of her beautiful products.  I already have a fall wreath on my front door, but seeing this one makes me want to upgrade!

A visit to my sister’s store always inspires me.  I loved this simple arrangement for fall of nuts in a glass vase, with a candle.  It reminded me of my sunflower seeds and seed pods in apocrypha jars that I showed you here.  I think this little chipmunk might be looking for some of those nuts!  How cute would he be at your front door.

I loved seeing all her new fall products, but the real gem was all the amazing fresh flowers!  She had just returned from the flower auction, and brought back the most amazing, fresh, scented colourful flowers. 

While I was there, I watched her whip up a few amazing fall arrangements.  This one started out with a beautiful copper coloured, rectangular tin container.  After filling it with florists foam, she began “greening it up”, which is putting in plain greens as the base of the arrangement. For this one she used salal and boxwood.  After that step was done, she sprayed with “Leafshine” to well, shine the leaves.  You can order it through her, what a great thing to have on hand to add to the arrangements you make at home.  Imagine adding a little of this to your pressed fall leaves.

After the greens, it was time for the star of the show –the flowers!  For this arrangement she used a combination of kale, gerbera daisy, dahlia, agapanthus, kermit mums, asclepias oscar and celosia.

After all the individual flowers where nestled into their little homes in the arrangement, this was the finished product, in all it’s glory.  I think I might need one of these for my Thanksgiving table centrepiece! 

If you live in the area, check out her class schedule here, you could even learn to make your own Thanksgiving centre piece.  I had a great time at the flower shop today, as always, thanks for the inspiration Heather!

Last night we had the kick-off women’s ministry event at our church.  We meet every month or two for a really fun evening together.  The evening includes great food, an inspirational talk, and some kind of fun activity.  Last night our theme was “What Not To Wear”.  We had two volunteers, who we took out shopping and helped choose a new outfit that followed “the rules”.  To complete the look, we had a hairdresser offer a complimentary haircut, and a makeup artist do their makeup, and it was all revealed at our event!  Our resident fashion guru, Kate, used the book Dress Your Best by Clinton Kelly and Stacy London, of TLC’s What Not To Wear to teach us all what suits our bodies the best.

We decided to use black and white for the decor, which we thought was in keeping with our fashion theme.  I was in charge of the decor, but I don’t have much in the way of black and white, so I had to get creative.  I found some great table runners on clearance at Walmart, which we layered over simple white table clothes.   

My friend Kate had some great black and white items, including an amazing faux Zebra ottoman.  She had vases and candles, but most of the items were black or white.  I needed some pattern and some items that had both colours.  My great solution was to use inexpensive scrapbook paper to add pattern.  I was able to use my straight sided votive holders, pillar candles, and vases, and wrap them with strips of patterned paper, and add some rhinestone stickers.  I think they turned out great.  You could do this for any party theme colour, and I also love that it’s not permanent.

Since our theme was fashion, we layered the tables with handbags, necklaces and other accessories.  I also mixed in some mirror, silver, and rhinestones to add a little bling.  The front low table, holding the video projector for a power point presentation, was decorated with all kinds of accessories, and a black and white pashmina as a table runner.  Another great idea, if you need a certain colour combination for your party, look for a scarf that matches and use it as a table runner, and then you can always wear it afterward!

I dressed up a plain candelabra from Ikea, with some damask hanging crystals, found for $1.50 at Michaels.  They really helped glam it up.

Another really fun, and inexpensive detail was the chandelier wall decals.  I found them at Dollarama, and for $2 each, they sure had a lot of impact!  We dressed them up a little bit more, by adding a few rhinestone stickers.  One of the ladies said she was planning on getting some for her tween-aged daughter –great idea.

We dressed up a very plain bathroom with another wall decal from Dollerama, and a mirrored tray of soaps and creams.  A very simple white hand towel was tied into our black and white theme with the simple addition of a satin ribbon.

Our flowers for the night were very simple.  We bought a couple dozen roses, one red, one pink, and placed them in plain glass vases.  Nothing says glamorous like long stem roses.

A fun activity through out the night was a draw for beauty products.  We wanted to send the ladies home with a treat, but really wanted it to be something they would actually use.  Our solution was to buy a wide variety of items, give each lady a ticket as they arrived, and draw in groups of 3-5 through out the evening, allowing those ladies to come up and choose an item they would like.  Every one seemed to really enjoy it.

The food for the night was finger foods and appetizers.  I purchased small disposable plastic serving pieces and forks, plastic shot glasses, and some black and white cupcake liners. We used all these little pieces to serve the food in individual serving sizes.  I think it looked really great.

The drinks included a delicious punch and some mineral water, as well as coffee and tea.  I loved the black and white straws.

It was a wonderful evening filled with laughter, great food, and amazing people.  With women like this in your life, life really is a party!

Yesterday I made homemade oatmeal cookies.  They were so yummy, and the perfect comfort food for a cool fall evening.  I used the Joy of Cooking recipe.

Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg  (I usually leave these out)
• 1/2 lb butter, soft
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup raisins (optional)
• 3 1/2 cups rolled whole oats

   

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cream butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.  Beat in eggs, and vanilla.
3. Add in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, into butter mixture and mix well.
4. Fold in raisins (or chocolate chips or chocolate covered raisins) and oats.
5. Spoon by tablespoon full on to cookie sheet.                   
6. Bake at 350°F for 6-9 minutes, until just golden brown.

After dinner, my husband and our two little girls went for a walk in the forest behind our house to collect some fall leaves.  After the walk we sat on the deck, and admired the forest as we sipped warm tea and ate cookies.  The perfect fall evening.

Happy Fall!

I’m linked up to the Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello, and Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge and the Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming and the Fall Festival at This Blessed Nest and Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design

Yesterday my friend Connie’s Mom celebrated her 50th Birthday, and her daughters helped throw her an amazing party!  The party was held at a local restaurant with yellow decor, so Connie took her cue from there and went with yellow decor for the party, with a little rainbow thrown in to suit her mom’s personality.  Connie made a beautiful birthday banner, with scrapbook letters, and a tissue paper enhanced 50.

Deb is a rocker chick, and in several bands, so the party room had instruments set up so Deb and all her musical friends had a chance to jam throughout the night.  The musical theme was extended to the cake, which was an amazing cake piano. 

The centre pieces were beautiful vases with yellow mums floating in them.  Connie also enhanced some simple votive holders in a similar shape to the vases, with ribbons, and yellow scrapbooking flowers.

Guests were also invited to leave a loving message for the birthday girl, that was later made into a keepsake book.  Tags were provided, and could be hung on the tree. 

Deb likes to clown around on the weekends, as a part time clown at children’s birthday parties.  Her daughters incorporated her playful personality by including fun loot bags for the guests.  The bags contained temporary tattoos and instructions and balloons for simple balloon animals.  The loot was in a clear cellophane bag, with a custom label of the birthday girl looking her best!

Beside the loot bag basket, was an amazing candy buffet! 

Throughout the night, guests could also come up to a photo booth;  a camera on a tripod, with a great collection of props.  The props included wigs, hats, funny glasses, moustaches, a smile, and vampire teeth on a stick, and a couple empty wooden frames.

Everyone had an amazing night celebrating the life of an amazing woman.  Happy Birthday Deb, and great job girls!

Autumn is here, in all it’s red, yellow, and orange glory.  I’ve been adding the autumnal touch to the dining room.

I made this simple “tree” for my front console table, and I think it adds a lot of drama.  I used some twigs, harvested on a walk in the woods, and added some paper leaves.  I made the leaves out of scrapbook paper, and hot glued them randomly to the twig.  I used a a small band of scrapbook paper around the vase as well.

On the cabinet in the dinning room, I added a Thanksgiving garland (Canadian Thanksgiving is much earlier than American), some pretty ribbon, and a silk leaf garland.  I love the layered effect.

I made the “give thanks” banner by cutting out circles with my circle cutter, and adding cute brown scrapbook letters from the dollar store.  Amazing what you can create with a little paper.  The circles have small holes punched in the top, and are threaded on to a gold satin ribbon.

I love to dress up my everyday candles with a little coordinating ribbon.  Such a simple detail to add.  The little wicker pumpkins have tops that open, and for Thanksgiving one year, I added one to each place setting and put some Lindor Jack-o-lantern truffles inside.

Another  idea for this year might be to buy the Favor Leaf Bag for each person, in yellow, orange or red, which is filled with an assortment of truffles.  Or how about some Laura Secord Maple Cream chocolates for each person?  So yummy, and a great way to add fall leaves to your table.

On my dinning room table I added a cream runner, and some glass containers filled with natural elements.

The large urn is filled with sunflower seeds, and the smaller one has some seed pods and acorns in it.  If you wanted to do something similar as a centre piece or on a mantel, I think any kind of nut would look great, and if you didn’t have urns, you could use simple glass vases of different heights.  I put out my antique turkey, he has so few occasions to come out of the cupboard, and he loves to strut his stuff!

I also used some of my new amber glasses as votive holders.  I found them on clearance for a steal, and can’t wait to use them for a fall dinner party.

With the temperature outside falling, it’s nice to come inside to a little fall too.  Happy weekend decorating!

This post is linked up to the Fall Open House at Hooked on Houses.