Autumn Decor

Now that the evening frosts have turned all of the flowers in our yard black, I had to come up with a solution to cheer up our increasingly more drab yard. So... I picked up some gorgeous burnt orange leaves and rich fall toned dried gourds to create little gourd topiaries to flank the door.

Pearly Girly

In search of inspiration for the perfect wedding guest outfit recently, I headed to the trend report on the Neiman Marcus website... What I found was that the runways this fall were filled with gorgeous pearls. I picked up some inexpensive pearl pieces and a black dress from H&M for my version. The dragon was an unexpected accessory- My son insisted we bring it along. Dragon = The new Chihuahua?

Inspiration

My Version

kommen Sie bitte in

We decided to stay home to get a few things done at home instead of heading to the lake for the long weekend. One thing I really wanted to tackle was the front step. The front entry is important, and I felt that ours was seriously lacking. After a quick trip to Benjamin Moore I went to work. Here is the progress so far...                                                              

Before

After

Black and Blue

My love affair with the color blue began quite young. Recently however my passion for the color has grown. All it took was seeing it's strength when paired with a little black dress on Roxy of 'The City'. My favorite place to put it now... Nails.

It just tastes better...

After several days of rain I was able to check out the garden today. Everything has grown so much! A ton of peas are ready to be picked and the carrots are now pinkie sized. My son and I did a little mini harvest and sat in the kitchen and feasted on our baby veggies. They definitely tasted better than any other veggies I had had before. Must be little red hen syndrome. 

Amuse Bouche

When asked to choose my favorite course of a meal, I would have a hard time choosing between the hors d'oeuvres and the dessert. There is nothing like goat cheese crostini or caprese bites, and who doesn't like saying 'Would you like some amuse bouche and vino?'. However, there is definitely something to be said for a rich glorious Bernard Callebaut mousse. So... when planning my husband's thirty-first birthday party it was critical that I come up with something great for the beginning and end of our meal. I started with  a dish of caprese bites, sun-dried tomato kalamata olives, and cheese, and ended with Dairy Queen Oreo ice cream cake. It was all delicious. Take a peek...

Jungle or Garden?

The garden has turned into a jungle! The perfect combination of sunny and rainy weather has created an absolutely huge tangled mess of green where my perfectly neat rows used to be. I tried to string up the two rows of peas with stakes and string, but the weight of the vines and baby peas proved to be too much. I also tried to hill the potatoes, but they have grown so high that they have overtaken the beans and spinach real estate. The spinach has already gone to seed, and the tomatoes have grown larger than their cages. A little chaotic. I need to try to tidy it up a bit, but already the yield has been great! We have had several spinach, butter lettuce, and romaine lettuce salads. My favorite is spinach from the garden, raspberries and cranberry raspberry vinaigrette from the farmer's market and roasted pecans. Mmmm.