Happy Pink Saturday!

Happy Pink Saturday my sweet Blogger friends! I want to thank Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for hosting us again this week. Please visit her blog at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/ to view all the ladies blogs that are participating in Pink Saturday this week.

I think it is just delightful when we are able to take a good find and transform it completely. I purchased this black candle holder on clearance at a craft supply store for a few dollars. I knew when I bought it that it wouldn't be black for long. After I got her home I dusted her off, got out the spray paint, and got busy.

Now this sweet little birdie cage holds a lovely pink candle and fits in perfectly with the other decor! Isn't it amazing what a little bit of paint can do!

After I finished transforming the candle holder I decided to redecorate my front porch, so she would have a nice home to stay in for a while!

Isn't the statue of the fairy reading a book the sweetest thing! Sometimes I like to go outside and sit in one of those chairs with a good book of my own and a glass of pink lemonade and read with my sweet fairy. This is a great little porch for doing just that!

I hope you are inspired today to find something old or something that's not so pretty and give it a new life just by giving it a new coat of paint. It's really amazing what can happen right before your eyes! I hope whatever you do, you enjoy this beautiful Pink Saturday!

Much Love To You!

Love Tammy

Tea By The Sea

Hello Blogger Friends!
I wanted to share with you a wonderful spur-of-the-moment tea party I held on June 17th. The tea party theme was "Tea By the Sea" since my house was perfectly decorated for the occasion. I called the people I love most and invited them to come, then I sat down and made out a menu. I threw together some ideas for my table scape and everything turned out just perfectly! I was surprised that I could pull it off with less than a week of planning! You can see in the picture below all of the goodies we indulged ourselves in. The menu included:

Mini Spinach and Cheese Pastries

Fresh Fruit Kabobs

Coconutty Marshmallows with Chocolate Dipping Sauce

White Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Nut Cookies

Mom's Marvelous S'mores Scones

Lemon Curd

Tropical Trail Mix

Seaside Cooler

Hot Tea

For place cards I purchased large seashells from a craft supply store and wrote my guests names on them with blue glitter glue. I wrapped a piece of turquoise blue ribbon around a tealight candle and glued a small shell to the ribbon. I placed the lit tealight candle in each shell and it made the table "glow" with beauty.

The table turned out so lovely. I love the cool blue and white. It looks so fresh and clean. I really enjoyed this tea party and it came together so quickly and easily!

I was so thankful that my dear family and friends could make it to my party. They are the whole reason I love doing tea parties. This is my sweet friend Dena that I have known for at least 10 years. She and I met through work and I am so thankful I met her. She is a very loving and wise friend that has helped me through a lot of tough times in the past, as has my mom who is sitting beside her. I am so thankful for these strong, loving women in my life!

My mom has taught me everything I know about crafting and entertaining. I am so thankful for her example and her love in my life. I am also so thankful that we share the same taste in most things and we always have such a fun time together.

My sweet grandma Mary is also an inspiration to me. She has also taught me so much, especially about love because she is one of the most loving women I know. I love to hear her tell us stories of when she was a young girl and what things were like back then. She has been through so many hard times but still she is so loving and giving. I know I take after her in that respect and I am so thankful for her and for my mom for being a good example to me.

I loved spending time with these extraordinary women in my life and it was such a fun time sharing stories and such tasty food and drink. My mom's scones were the biggest hit at Tea By the Sea. My mom's scones are the most heavenly thing you will ever put in your mouth. These scones tasted just like a S'more! I am not kidding! They were so delicious! She left the leftovers at my house and they only lasted one day. Every time I went into the kitchen I had to put one in my mouth! I hope she will make me s'more!!!

I hope you have enjoyed Tea By the Sea! I am already planning my next tea party for when it cools off here in Oklahoma. It will be an "Alice in Wonderland" theme and I know it will be so fun! I hope you will join me!

Many Blessings To You My Sweet Blogger Friends!

Love Tammy

My First Pink Saturday

Happy Pink Saturday my sweet Blogger friends! I am so excited to be joining all of you other lovely ladies that adore and celebrate the "girliest" color created. I want to thank sweet Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/ for welcoming me and for providing us with this opportunity to share our favorite pink things with one another.

I had quite an experience this morning putting together this post. I got up really early this morning (I don't even do that to go to work during the week) and started adding pictures to my post and my internet service starts acting up. I had to try twice to upload pictures and the internet kept closing the site. So I plugged the computer in and decided to sit outside because sometimes the internet works better out there. The cord kept coming unplugged and once it got tangled around Mr. Stoops. The internet wasn't working very well out there either so I finished my cheerios and got dressed and drove up to my office where I was much more successful. I hope you enjoy and appreciate my inaugural Pink Saturday post on :

HATS!

This is a child-size hat that I bought at a wonderful antique mall that is now closed. I fell in love the moment I saw it.

I love the fact that almost the entire thing is a sweet, lovely, feminine shade of PINK!!!

This is another sweet child-size hat that looks like it is probably the perfect little Easter bonnet.

I think I may add some more flowers and embellishments to this one. She needs some more PINK pizazz!





I bought this hat at a local discount store a long time ago and added ribbon and roses to it. I have worn it a few times to church and to tea parties.

It is so summery and sweet. I love the fact that this hat is also almost entirely

PINK!

Here is another PINK hat that I bought at another antique mall that is also, unfortunately, no longer in business. I can see this hat on top of a lady who lived in the 20's or 30's. I haven't worn it yet but I love to tie my hair up and try it on every now and then.

This hat is purely PINK and is covered with PINK sequins so it sparkles like crazy! Now what lady can resist anything that is PINK AND sparkly?

This is my favorite hat that I own right now. I bought it at a garage sale for 50 cents and took her home to add some beautiful ribbons, pearl garland, netting, and flowers. I have a dress that matches her perfectly and I wear them together sometimes to church and to tea parties.

I love how soft and feminine this hat looks. I can imagine a lady from a Jane Austin novel wearing this hat while she is prancing through a meadow on her favorite horse.

It was fun to take this plain hat and dress it up. She looks a lot happier now!

This is a hat I bought this summer to wear to go sailing with James. He has a small boat and has promised to take me out on the water, but he is so busy now that it might not happen this year. I have still worn this hat a few times to church already. Because it is white I can change out the ribbon and flower(s) to make it coordinate with the outfit I am wearing it with.

I know it doesn't look like much, but it is really pretty on. It is also a lot of fun to dress it up to match my outfits!

This is also a hat I bought this summer. I love how feminine and beachy it looks with the netting and that gorgeous pearl brooch embellishment. Now it just needs some PINK!

I bought this hat at an antique mall that is no longer in business and I love it because it is covered in shiny sequins.

I can imagine this hat on Jackie O. for a very special event or dinner. I have not worn it yet but maybe if there is a special opportunity I will do that!

Now I wouldn't be a true Okie if I didn't share the hat of all hats . . . the cowgirl hat. Here is my rendition all flowered up!

I personally think she needs a little more work so I'll get right on that! Maybe the next time you see her she will be wearing a little more PINK!!!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of my spring/summer hat collection and my first PINK Saturday post. Please let me know which one is your favorite!

I wish you a very blessed and sweet PINK Saturday!

Much Love To You!

Love Tammy

My Oklahoma Beach Cottage

I love summer because I know that is the time of year I get to bring out the sand and seashells and transform my little Oklahoma cottage in to a beach-side retreat.

I bought this slate door sign at a craft store on clearance. I painted it ivory then lettered it with seafoam paint. I glued on shells and glitter and now I have a sweet welcome plaque for guests that visit my beach cottage.

I love to decorate too, as you have probably figured out. I love to take all kinds of different things and tie them together to form a decorative vignette. It is so much fun for me to acquired things at all kinds of different places and then have the ability to place them together just so.

The fireplace mantle took on a beachy look when I added sand, shells, and that fun little sailboat. I really love the sea grass is the shell vase because it is dramatic, especially when you see it in person.

The blue gem beaded garland and the seashells were a fun addition to the mantle runner to make it look more beachy.
I love these candle holders because I can use them over and over for different holidays and seasons. This time I used sand and shells in the bottom and put seafoam blue candles on top. The candles smell fresh and clean like the ocean air.

The color palate for the summer beach cottage is cool and relaxing, with subtle shades of seafoam, taupe, ivory, and white.

I am using a beautiful reversible quilt I got at a discount store to cover my sofa. One side is seafoam and ivory stripes and the other is more a feminine seafoam floral pattern on an ivory background. I prefer the feminine side right now.

I get so excited when I get to decorate for each new holiday or season because I love to be creative with the materials I have in my cupboards and closets. So many things can be repurposed to fit my decorating needs. I love to decorate each nook and cranny to fit the theme of the season.

If you just stayed indoors you could really imagine this sweet little cottage sits on a sandy beach somewhere near the shore.

When I come home from work my house is such a welcome sight. I feel so calm and peaceful here. It is a great place to relax and rejuvenate for the next busy day.

The kitchen was just as fun to decorate as the living room. One of the things I love about my kitchen is that fantastic window over the sink that lets so much light in.

I have a collection of wooden letters I have painted and decorated for different seasons. My beachy letters are done in seafoam and taupe to spell out the word "swim" to remind me to take time to relax and have fun every now and then.

I love to decorate the tops of my cabinets in my kitchen. Sometimes it is a challenge to find so many things that will fill them up and go with the theme. I love the mermaid that looks like she is swimming over the top of that white pitcher. She looks so graceful, yet strong.

The tablescape for my beach cottage is one of my favorites. I just love how fresh, clean, and summery everything looks right now!

It was fun to mix the white and ivory plates on my tablescape. The little salad plates are eyelet and scalloped white plates. I used my "Rose Point" dinner plates that have more of an ivory hue. I loved putting together this centerpiece too. I added glitter to the candles and sand for a little extra glisten.

I glued seashells to plain wood napkin rings then covered the shells with glue and glitter to make my own beachy napkin rings to match my theme for this tablescape.

My china hutch in the dining room is always one of the most exciting and challenging areas to decorate. I usually struggle with it but then I normally LOVE it when I am done.

I added pearl garland to each shelf of the hutch to add a feminine touch to the shells and other beachy decor. It's amazing to think that at one time all of these shells and that beautiful starfish were in an ocean somewhere and now they are helping adorn my little cottage in Oklahoma.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my Oklahoma beach cottage. I supposed it isn't too far fetched since Oklahoma actually has more shoreline than the east and west coasts combined! I hope you will leave a comment to let me know what you think and tell me what your favorite thing is about my beach cottage.

Much Love and Blessings to You!

Love Tammy

My Front Porch Dressed for the Fourth

On Sunday we celebrated Independence Day and in honor of that traditional American holiday I decided to take the roses down (I can hear the gasps now) and decorate my front porch for the 4th. I still have these decorations up right now but I plan to put the roses back in place (I can hear the sighs of relief) some time this weekend.

I had a lot of fun adding red, white, and blue to everything and using "Old Glory" to adorn this welcoming place.

I set the table like I was having a summer tea for two and used plastic red and white plates so they wouldn't get broken outdoors. I even served up some "patriotic" peach tea in stemmed glasses with etching and gold trim that I found at an antique store.

I added patriotic decorations to the backdrop ledge to make it extra festive. My favorite decoration is the lantern with the red candle and blue ribbon on the right end of the ledge. The paint is peeling and it looks old and worn.

And we can't forget about the sweets! I bought these cute patriotic cookies at the grocery store because I didn't have the time to bake my own this year. I love making (and eating) sugar cookies. Just ask Miss Maggie and Miss Lucie!

Independence Day is a very special and important holiday for all of us Americans and I am so thankful for the freedom and liberties we have here in this wonderful country. I am also thankful for the men and women who struggled and sacrificed so long ago to win us that freedom and for the men and women who are still doing it today.

God Bless America!

Much Love To You!

Love Tammy