(Black) Friday Favs 19

Happy Black Friday!  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with family, friends and food.  I certainly did, and have so, so many things to be thankful for.

Ok, niceties out of the way. Because today is Black Friday, people!

I'm not interested in battling crowds or staying up all night to save a buck, but I do have my own, much-loved Black Friday tradition.  Online shopping. I love to wake up early, have my wallet and my laptop by my bed, and spend a few glorious hours scouring my favorite sites for deals.  Like, from bed.  With coffee.  For a girl who LOVES to sleep in and doesn't get to do so nearly as often as she'd like, it is glorious.

In fact, I'm probably still lying in bed, browsing away, as you read this.  Imaginary-coffee-cup-cheers to you, if you're enjoying your morning browsing the net and sipping coffee too.  We should probably be friends.

So in honor of one of my favorite mornings of the year, here are some Black Friday online deals that you should check out!

Fav #1

Pick Your Plum.  I have to post this one first, because you must hurry!  Their Black Friday sale includes $1 washi tape, $3 bubble necklaces, and five other fab deals.  They sell out quick, so make this your first stop! Shop here (affiliate link).

Fav #2

CB2.  Coupon code SAVE15 will get you 15% off everything through Monday and they are also offering free shipping all weekend. Shop here. Here are some things that I'm eyeing up...

Gold Pig Bookends- $25.46 on sale

Cocktails First appetizer plate- $3.36 on sale

Nut Case serving dish- $6.76 on sale

Fav #3

Crate and Barrel.  They are also offering free shipping and 15% off with coupon code SAVE15. Shop here to find awesome items like these....

Bark Centerpiece Tray- $21.21 on sale

Galvanized Tree Collar- $50.96 on sale

Gold Leaves with Acorn Ornaments- $5.06 on sale

Fav #4

Nordstrom is always awesome, because they offer free shipping and free returns on every order, every day. They have a TON of Black Friday deals, and I was excited to see that some sales on Sequin jewelry were among them!  I love the Sequin bangles, and am hoping to add some hoops to my collection!  Shop all Sequin jewelry here (affiliate link), and check out my favorite deals below!

Large Hammered Hoops- $22.80 on sale

Crystal Cutout Hoops- $22.80 on sale

Small Bamboo Bangle- $28

Fav #5

Etsy.  Of all the places that I love to browse on Black Friday, Etsy tops my list.  A ton of great shops are offering holiday discounts.  Here are some that I think are especially awesome...

Sea and Asters is offering 15% off with code HOLIDAY2013 now through Monday

Tess and Ivy is also offering 15% off through Saturday with code FALL15.

Freshline is offering 25% off all of the items in the store.

Happy shopping!  If you have found some amazing online Black Friday deals, I'd LOVE to hear about them in the comments below!  Sharing is caring :)

Tablescape Mania

Alright, guys.  I know that I've been killing you with tablescapes lately.  But I have one more to share....

I mean, it's Thanksgiving week.  What do you expect me to post about? 

I was super excited when a friend asked me to help out with creating place cards for her Thanksgiving table. I mean, I'm used to coming up with ideas for my own house, but to do it for someone elses' was exciting!  It's actually what prompted me to get moving on my Sparkling Place Card Holders inspired by a set that I saw at Pottery Barn.  

I went over today to help put it all together, and thought it would be fun to show off the final result!  Here's the main table...

And the overflow table..

I love the purples and the greens.  Such fun and unexpected choices for Thanksgiving!  

Have a great day!

Adding Some Sparkle to the Table

Hey there!  Hope you had a great weekend!  I certainly did!  So great that I kind of feel like I'm already on Thanksgiving break...which is not the case! I can't stop thinking ahead to the festivities scheduled later this week, and keep forgetting that I have a few more days of real life to get through first! 

If you read last week's post about what I'm loving right now, you know that I've been admiring these jewel encrusted spherical place card holders from Pottery Barn.  But even though they are on sale right now, I would need to buy two sets to fill out my eight-person dining room table. I can't justify spending over $50 on place card holders, so I've been brainstorming ideas to make a set of my own.

Initially, I planned to coat Styrofoam balls with spray adhesive, cover them with black glitter, and then adhere some tiny jewels on top. Which probably would have worked.  But then, I remembered that I had a whole container full of  some of my favorite things on standby for Christmas......shatterproof, glittery, Christmas balls! I bought a container of 41 of these for about $9, so using 8 of them as place card holders ends up costing about $1.75. 

You'll soon be seeing these in various colors all over the house.  I fill vases with them, put them on the tree, and use them in every other way I can think of!

Turning these Christmas ornaments into place card holders was so very easy.  I used a small hand saw to cut off the very bottom of the ball, allowing it to sit flat..

...and then used the same saw to cut a slit in the very top of the Christmas ball, so that the place card can slip right in there.

This extreme close-up make it appear as if a lot of the glitter was removed when I made my cut in the top of the ball.  In person, that's not the case at all. 

I finished by adding in a simple place card that I drew myself using a metallic marker and ink pen. I love that you could insert any type of place card that you like! I'm loving how it look as is, so I'm going to hold off on adding jewels on top for now.  I think doing so might be messing with a good thing.

I can't wait to see them on a holiday table!!

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Friday Favs 18

Ah, Friday!  I can feel the exhaustion in the air.

Here are some awesome things to keep you going until it's time to sleep in on Saturday morning.

Fav #1

Rachael Ray Tools and Gadgets 3-Tier Wooden Stacking Salt Box.  I've been wanting a salt box for a while.  It would be so convenient to have my coarse salt so easily accessible, and I like how this one also has room for ground pepper and other seasonings.

(affiliate link)

Fav #2

Nachtmann Slice 10-Inch Vase I love this gorgeous, modern crystal vase. Wouldn't this be gorgeous with cut tulips or other fresh flowers?  I love a simple, crystal vase, and this one is just about perfect.

(affiliate link)

Fav #3

Little Baby's Ice Cream.  Mr. M. and I attended a friend's wedding reception in Philadelphia recently, and had the good fortune to try Little Baby's ice cream, which was being served for dessert.  YUM.  I missed a good 15 minutes of the reception because I was too busy swooning over my ice cream to do much else.  The flavor selection was interesting and unique, with unexpected flavor profiles.  I couldn't narrow my options down to just one, so naturally I tried two. I pretended one was for my husband, but let's get real--it was all me. Sweet Potato Burnt Marshmallow was excellent, but it was the Earl Grey Sriracha that blew me away.  Something about sweet ice cream with a little heat in the finish was just amazing.  Check them out here, and if you are ever in Philly--make sure you try some for yourself!

Fav #4

These jeweled place card holders from Pottery Barn.  Aren't they gorgeous?  They would make any holiday table sparkle!  I have some ideas about DIY'ing a set, but you can buy them here.

Have a great weekend!!

Holding at Thanksgiving (Holiday Tablescape)

A bunch of my fellow bloggers have been posting fabulous Christmas decor and craft ideas for the last few weeks.  And while a part of me is totally jealous, I'm just not ready to go there until after Thanksgiving has passed.  I'm holding at Thanksgiving for now....sort of like how I'm holding at 29, no matter how many 29th birthdays I need to have in order to stay there (3 so far).  Eventually I'll need to give it up and move on to the next great thing, but for now Thanksgiving (and 29) are working for me!

So as part of my Thanksgiving excitement, I caved and created a Thanksgiving tablescape this week.  Why do I say 'caved', you ask?   Well...because I'm not hosting Thanksgiving.  So I didn't really need to create a table at all.  But it just looked like so much fun, so I went for it!

Since this project was all about enjoying the process and getting a few fun pictures, I decided that I absolutely WOULD NOT spend a dime creating this table.  Which both limited and expanded my creativity. It was fun to figure out what I could create using only what I had on hand!

I started by fashioning a no-sew table runner, using the white curtain remnant that I used when re-covering a lampshade.  I simply draped it across my table, folding the raw edges underneath and topping it with my Thanksgiving centerpiece.  I did not have place mats that suited any of my color scheme ideas, so I decided to go without, and use only colored chargers. However, I don't have a full set of eight of either ice blue or silver chargers, so I decided to use four of each. 

Selecting dinnerware was easy, as I only have two full sets of eight place settings.  I chose my simple, transparent brown set, since it worked with the natural elements that I wanted to bring into the table better than my teal stoneware.   Napkins were also an easy selection, as I only own one set of cloth napkins. 

I also own only one set of napkin rings.  However I didn't want to use those, so I got a little creative with toilet paper rolls.  I cut a few toilet paper rolls in 2 inch wide sections, and then rolled each tube in a length of light blue tulle.  The tulle was wider than my toilet paper rolls, so I tucked the unfinished edges into the tube, and tied the tulle in place with a length of jute twine.  Once my napkins were threaded through the holders, I tucked in a few pieces of natural-colored ting-ting that I have had lying around for years.  

For place cards, I simply cut 8 rectangles out of two pretty blue and white scroll-design greeting card covers from a box of blank greeting cards in my stationary supply.  I wrote the names on each piece of card stock using a black ink pen and my best cursive, and then stuck each name tag to a wine cork, using two-sided tape.  Each place card nestled nicely into the 'nest' of ting-ting tucked into each napkin ring.

From there, I embellished the table with two silver candlesticks, each with a white mini-pumpkin on top, some votive candles in varying heights (using napkin holders for stands), and some more natural-colored dried floral items from the bouquet of ting-ting that I used in the napkin rings.

Considering I only used what I had laying around the house, I was pretty pleased with the results!  It kind of makes me want to have a dinner party this weekend, just to get some use out of this beautiful table.

Are you planning a Thanksgiving tablescape?  Would you create one just for fun, or am I the only crazy one?!

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