Fall Happenings/ My Life In pictures (November 2014)

 How have you been spending your beautiful fall days and cozy fall nights? 

Scroll down to see a few of the things going on around here in a 'Month of Pictures'.......

I found this pumpkin cider at Aldi.  They have the best little fun seasonal items!  It was pretty good, and Baby Girl enjoyed clinking her glass with Husby and I ;)

Apparently somebody does not share my views regarding fall decor.  I don't know exactly what the scarecrow lady did, but it looks like the Little Man won.....:D

We got a package in the mail, all the way from Idaho.  My Uncle Joel sent these homemade preserves; Crab Apple Syrup, Crab Apple Jelly, Apple Sauce, Plum Jam and Apple Butter.

Not only was I excited to receive these treats from his kitchen, but would you look at those pretty jars?  You know I'm going to be re-purposing those in some way! ;)

The Crab Apple Syrup we used right away on our Sunday pancakes, but the rest we saved for Thanksgiving.  I enjoyed having pink syrup, more syrups should be pretty colors :D

(Stay tuned for a Thanksgiving dinner post, coming soon!)

I celebrated a birthday with lots of treats!  

Baby girl made sure to put exactly 34 candles on my ice cream pie.  There was so much smoke we thought the smoke detectors were going to go off!  :D

In addition to a yummy pizza dinner, I was very excited to receive a copy of The Sims 4!  I have been playing The Sims for more than a decade now, and it is a major creative outlet for me.  I spend so much time designing in these games; architecture, landscaping, interior design, photography.....I pretty much go into every single pre-made lot or house and re-design it to my tastes.  It is so creatively satisfying!

I also got a new Christmas ornament; Ariel of the Little Mermaid.  Ariel is both my favorite Disney princess and favorite mermaid.  I still have my Ariel comforter from when I was nine years old, and yes I still use it!

Speaking of Christmas ornaments, I'll be posting soon with my holiday decor and tree decorating tips and tricks.  The last two days have been spent cleaning up from Thanksgiving/ fall and getting out all of the Christmas.  I have lots and lots to share!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Anniversary 2014

October was anniversary month for Husby and I.  Wayyyyyy back on October 27th in 1995, he asked me out on our first date.  I was 14, he was 15 and we went to a haunted house.  That same night he also asked if I would be his girlfriend ;)  

Fast-forward 6 years later and we were married on October 27th, 2001.

Now we have been together for 19 years, married for 13of them and have two beautiful children.

Annnnnnd, I still have my wedding flowers!  That's one of the benefits of using fabric flowers; they can last forever if cared for properly.  

For our first married Christmas my parents gave us a curio cabinet that now stands in our living room.  That is where I keep my wedding flowers, the red rose ring box that Husby proposed with, our wedding stemware and a few framed photographs.

Since it was anniversary time and I was feeling all romantic, I thought I would photography my flowers to share with you.  Walk with me down memory lane...........

My Wedding Bouquet

This was a large, tear-dropped shaped bouquet of white fabric roses and ivy leaves.   Woven into the roses were strands of white pears and lengths of satin trimmed sheer ribbon.

I didn't make this bouquet.  My manager at the time (Liz) made it for me as a wedding gift.  Liz taught me absolutely everything I know about floral design.  When she came into her position, and saw that I had ability, she immediately took me under her wing.  Liz would go to the library on her own time, just to find educational materials that I could learn from.  She spent hours working with me, coaching me to be my best.

The most memorable event for me was when she said, "Jennifer, a good designer can do anything, even if means designing out of the trash."  Then before leaving for the night, she showed me a photo of an arrangement that she wanted me to create (a Hogarth Curve) and told me I could only use what was in that day's scrap bucket.  I couldn't choose colors, structures or materials, I could only use what was in that bucket!  Well guess what?!?!  I did it!  Not only did I accomplish that particular arrangement, but I learned that no matter what the design challenge is, I can figure it out.  Liz gave me both skill and self confidence, and I will always be grateful!

Liz (Tina Elizabeth Peyton-Thomas), if you are out there, somewhere in California I think, hit me up! I have searched and searched on facebook, I can't find you.  I would love to hear from you!

Husby's Boutonniere

I made this with a white fabric rose, ivy leaves, white stephanotis and a tiny bit of gold ribbon.

My Sister's Maid of Honor Bouquet

I made this and the other bridesmaid bouquets with red roses and ivy leaves.  I also added a few tiny seed pearls here and there.  The Maid of Honor bouquet was the only one to feature the gold tassel.

Maid of Honor Bouquet

I added pearls everywhere!  

My dress was a princess style ball gown with lots and lots of tulle in the skirt,10 layers to be exact, and I wore three petticoats underneath.  Each petticoat was trimmed in yards and yards and yards of white lace that my Granny sewed on for me.  I added pearls to each and every point in the lace, on every single yard of fabric.  The train was five feet long and I wore a cathedral length veil that was 9 feet from the top of my head to the end of the dress.  To the veil I added sequins that matched the sequins on the bodice of my dress.  It was beautiful, and I will always remember my Granny at her sewing machine as she told me that I would be the 'belle of the ball' :)

Fun Fact:  After all was said and done, the dress weighed about 20 pounds!

This is how the tables were decorated at our dinner reception; white table cloths, red and white fabric rose petals, faux ivy leaves, faux stephanotis blossoms and gold heart-shaped confetti.

I have a wedding memory box where I kept the VHS recording of the ceremony, photography negatives......yes, I said VHS and negatives!  Inside I also keep the leftover table scatter that is pictured above.  I love that I can go to the closet, open a box and pull out the decorations that we used for our actual wedding.

The photo above is also a page right out of my wedding scrapbook.  I used a white sheet of paper to represent the white table cloths, and glued all of the table scatter in place.  Now I have a little representation of our wedding tables right in an album!

  

A Side Note:  This scatter was also used on the white aisle runner at the church, and as part of the Bridal Shower decor.  

For the Bridal Shower I used long lengths of tulle to criss-cross the room similar to the way one would use streamers.  To each length of tulle I glued this mixture of scatter.  You can see how when designing I like to continuously repeat the same theme.  From the Bridal Shower to the Rehearsal Dinner to the Ceremony to the Reception, the same colors, textures and types of flowers were repeated over and over again.  This gives cohesiveness to the overall design.

And did you catch me?  I keep saying; "I...I...I"  Yep, it's true.  I designed my own Bridal Shower...Wedding...Baby Shower...Baby Luncheon.   People like to host these parties for me and I'm all, "Thank you so much!  Don't worry about decorating or purchasing any of the items, I'll take care of it!"  When really I should be standing in a circle of designers-anonymous saying, "Hi.  My name is Jennifer and I can't relinquish creative control.  I think about design all the time, sometimes I get so inspired that I can't even sleep at night.  I have notebooks and papers everywhere, I'm always writing down ideas. I can't go anywhere without mentally redecorating the space that I'm in"....and so on and so forth.....  Hahaha!

Anniversary Dinner Table

Here you can see how I put those leftover decorations to good use.  The fabric petals, leaves stephanotis and gold confetti were happy to rest on top of our green tablecloth.  I also added a few miniature golden wedding rings tied with gold ribbon.  These were left over from our wedding programs, which were rolled into scrolls and 'sealed' with the rings.

Baby Girl had a lot of fun using these decorations to dress up our dinner table ;)

Bonus Pic:  Wedding Bells

When I was going through my albums.....(yes albums, as in most people have a wedding album, I have three and a scrapbook).....I came across this picture of some bridal shower decorations.  I thought I would add it here to show you how simple plain white paper wedding bells can be dressed up.

I found the wedding bells while treasure hunting with Granny (hee hee) and they came in two sizes.  I used gold spray paint to lightly mist the bells here and there before stringing them up with lengths of white tulle.  I also added tulle bows, faux ivy strands and gold curling ribbon.  Each string of tulle had one large bell and one small.

Here they are hanging in my parents garage before the Bridal Shower.  I'm sure my Dad loved the additions to his 'man-space' hahaha!  He was a good sport though, never complained ;)


I had a lot of fun going through my memories.

I hope you enjoyed my trip back in time, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Thanksgiving Decor: My Printables (2014)

Thanksgiving day will be here soon, but there is still plenty of time to add a few printables to your holiday decor!  Keep scrolling to see the the printables I made last fall:

(Inspiration for each of these was found on Pinterest)

Be grateful

Give thanks

Eat pie

I found some pumpkin themed copy paper that I liked and decided to use it for this printable.  It was so easy to type this up, print and frame.  No stickers or paper layering was necessary, the pumpkin detailing of the paper was enough.

I think I purchased this package of copy paper at Hobby Lobby, but it could have been Wal-Mart or Dollar Tree.  I buy packs of copy paper all the time for projects like this, and to substitute as scrapbooking paper.  It's a cost effective way to add seasonal or themed details to your projects or scrapbook pages without having to purchase a lot of stickers or specialty papers.

Tip:  Copy paper is usually available in the rectangular 8.5 X 11 dimensions, while many scrapbooks come in larger, square sizes.  You can still use copy paper for these albums, you just have to get a little creative.  I like to keep in place my plain colored square album pages, and then layer a piece of the copy paper on top.  I place my pretty paper diagonally for added visual interest.

Another Tip:  Printables don't have to be framed, you can also easily incorporate them into your scrapbook albums.

Thankful:  The way

I feel when

I think of you

This printable I typed up onto cream colored copy paper and layered on top of a rustic brown piece of scrapbooking paper.  I added a few pumpkin stickers and a cream/ gold piece of matting before framing. 

Please excuse the glare, no matter where I moved the frame I could not get it to photograph properly!

Bless the food before us,
the family beside us,
and the love between us.

I printed this one onto cream colored paper that I layered over a golden toned background.  A couple of leaf stickers and it was ready to frame.

Hope you enjoyed my printables, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Thanksgiving Decor (2014)

As soon as Halloween ended I removed all of the 'spooky' from my fall decor.  Since it is now November, I also added in a few Thanksgiving touches.

My Pumpkin Pie Ceramic Plate

I purchased this pie plate a few years ago on clearance.  I love pumpkins and I love all things to do with baking, so this plate had to come home with me :)  It has a recipe for pumpkin pie printed inside as part of the design, but I have never followed it.

Do I make pumpkin pies?  Yes...from a can...:D  

I love baked goods; candles and wax cubes that smell like desserts, cake and cupcake ceramics, pie plates, muffin tins, cake pans, I even have pajamas with cupcakes all over them!  But when it comes to actual baking; I'm a box and can kind of girl.  It's just how I roll ;)

Miss Scarecrow

Several years ago I was wanting a scarecrow and had been looking for them while treasure hunting with Granny.  One day I came home and this little scarecrow girl was waiting for me, Granny had found her and dropped her on the porch :)  She has held up pretty well, considering the kids love to play with her.

 You want to know what's really, really scary?  Leaving a room and coming back after a few minutes to find a three foot scarecrow standing in the middle of the space, when she wasn't there before.  Baby Girl used to play with Miss Scarecrow like she was a big doll, and leave her all over the house.  I can't tell you how many times I almost jumped out of my skin! :D

Autumn Bowls

I found these bowls for $2 the very last day that I went treasure hunting this year.  We had just decided that my side of the family would be having Thanksgiving at our house this year, and I needed appropriate dishes.  I stopped at a garage sale and there they were, just waiting for me ;)

Vintage Glass Bowls

After the garage sale I stopped by my parent's house and my Mom gave me these bowls.  They used to belong to one of my Great-Grandmothers and my Mom thought I would like to have them.  They make a great addition to my decor!

Amber Colored Glass Jars

Mom also gave me these glass jars that used to be in my Granny's bathroom.  My parents bought them for her a long time ago and she used them for cotton balls and q-tips.  Normally I prefer clear glass, but these work well with my 'fall' things.

I'm going to wrap things up here for now, but I have a bit more Thanksgiving that I will share before the month is over.  In the meantime, how you are preparing your home for the upcoming holiday feast?  You know I love it when you send me your photos :D

Hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Fall Hand & Foot Print Art 2014

Recently I shared the print art that I have framed as part of my Halloween decor, today I am sharing my 'fall' pieces.

These cute little pumpkins come out for September and November, take a look!

(Inspiration for each of these was found on Pinterest)

Baby Girl's Pumpkin

A simple orange painted circle and brown stem were all it took to create a pumpkin for this piece.  A bit of green paint on Baby Girl's hand and we stamped on a 'leaf'.  I used a Sharpie to add in the details after all of the paint was dry.

Little Man's Pumpkin

This year marks the first ever Fall season for the Little Man, so I wanted to add his footprint to our holiday decor.

Should have been pretty easy to do, right?  Nope, he's a strong and determined little booger, and stomping that foot just once wasn't enough.  He made sure to give a good stomp on me too, right on my cream colored leggings!  It came out in the laundry, but I'll always remember the determination that baby had to carry out his wishes :D

That determination is also the reason he 'paints' with his feet and not his hands; there is no way that child is letting me make anything resembling a hand print!  Maybe in the future.....

Design Tip:  Always, always. always pay a little more and get the washable paint/ markers/ etc. for the kiddos.  Your walls, furniture, carpeting and wardrobe will thank you ;)


I hope you enjoyed my cute little prints, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Grandma's House 2014

It's another busy week for me, and a suddenly cold one too!  I am in the mood for some warm, sunshine filled views, so how about sharing these pictures from my Grandparent's house?

A few weeks ago my family spent the day together eating, relaxing and enjoying each others company.  Of course I snuck away to take a few photos!

My Grandparent's 80 acre property is composed of farmland, gardens, a small vineyard, orchard trees and open plains, all nestled into the banks of a lazy river.  It is beautiful, take a look:

As usual, I refrained from adding a watermark from these pictures.  Feel free to use and share as you would like :)

Hope these photos brought a little sunshine into your day, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

My Life in Pictures (October 2014)

It may be a few days into November, but today I'm sharing my 'Week in Pictures' for the last week of October.  It was a busy week, but a lot of fun!  

Take a look:

 I found the time to sew on this years Halloween quilt patches.  

I made the time actually.  I was gathering all of the Halloween decor to pack away when I realized that I forgot to update the Halloween quilt...oops!  :D

 We carved pumpkins.

The pumpkin on the left belongs to the Little Man, the one on the Right is Baby Girl's.  She designed it herself with the nose on the side of the face.  I think it's important to honor the creativity of the artist, so there you have it; a very 'Picasso' like Jack-O-Lantern!  :D

 I made up a little bag of 'ice cubes' to go with Baby Girl's Elsa costume.

The faux ice cubes are acrylic table decorations made by Wilton, and I found three containers of these for $3 the last time I went treasure hunting.  Since Baby Girl wants a Frozen themed birthday party next year, I bought them and stashed them away.  Then I realized I could use some for the Elsa Halloween costume!

I layered a couple squares of tulle on the counter top, added a handful of 'ice' and tied with blue ribbon.  I made the ribbon in a long loop so Baby Girl could carry it on her wrist.  She loved it!

 Halloween Surprises

The Great Pumpkin left a couple of treats for the kiddos in our house on Halloween morning!  Little Man got a shirt and pants set and Baby Girl got a new Berenstain Bears book.  They each also got a few of M&Ms.

 Snowy Hair Clips

My two little Elsa girls (Baby Girl and my niece) enjoyed their custom made hair accessories.  My niece was able to come down from Chicago for Halloween, they loved Trick-Or-Treating together!

Lots of candy was collected!

And, we even squeezed in an anniversary celebration!

In honor of my anniversary I'll be posting soon with pictures of my wedding flowers.  Since they were made with artificial flowers (of course), I still have them ;)

Also coming this month: Thanksgiving Decor and Celebration

Hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Beautiful Table Settings (And A Lesson in Frugal Living)

 My Granny taught me everything I know about treasure hunting, she was the master at finding items secondhand for astounding prices. Here is a little bit of the background that drove her to be such a frugal woman, as well as how I have put my own spin on her teachings-

Growing up in rural West Virginia, Granny's first experience with poverty was the very home she was born into.  They did not have running water, electricity or even toilet paper.  In her own words; "We lived like we were camping."

Her second experience with poverty was the economic struggle surrounding the depression and World War II era.  When her family heard on the radio that the war had finally ended, they went outside and danced in the road. :)

Her third experience was as a young, recently divorced mother of three.  In her own words; "I was so poor that I couldn't even afford 10 cents to buy myself a cup of coffee.  I decided right then and there that I would never be poor again".  And she never was ;)  Granny used every means of frugality she could think of to get herself on track financially.

Once on track, one of the first goals Granny had was to purchase and own something nice, and she decided upon having a set of fine china.  One by one, she purchased each piece of china separately ("down at the A&P") until she had a full set.  She never used the china though, and ended up giving it to my Mother when I was a child.  My Mom ended up giving it to me about 10 years ago, and I chose a few pieces to keep for display.  The rest I sold in a garage sale (with Granny's permission), it just seemed fitting ;)

Granny's 'Black Rose' China

With hard work, long hours and creative purchasing, Granny became quite comfortable financially.  However, she never stopped 'garaging' (as she called it), and she never stopped teaching me as much as she could.

I was a good student and learned well, but to Granny's frequent frustration I had a different set of rules than she did when it came to making purchases. 

Granny's Criteria:

The item must be usable and it must be cheap.

 My Criteria:

The item must be in good condition, economically priced and it must be pretty (or have the potential to become pretty).......I also have a whole list of things I refuse to buy secondhand, like underwear (shudder) or food items, but we won't even get started on that.  I'm sure she's in Heaven right now getting annoyed with me, because she would buy anything!  :D

Now remember I said how her criteria only included price and the use of the item?  Well that brings me to the discussion of table settings.  As a child we would go to Granny's house for a large family meal every Thanksgiving.  There was plenty of good food to choose from, and she even made sure to have 'fancy' drinking glasses.....complete with the Arby's fast food restaurant insignia.....that's right people, she went and bought Arby's glassware from a garage sale.  Here she had a complete set of real china, but was using fast-food glassware!  From a design standpoint, it was traumatizing...:D :D :D

So while it's always wise to be frugal, it's also possible to be money savvy and create a beautiful home.  Over the last few months I have shared many examples of lovely glass ware that I have found treasure hunting, but today I wanted to share with you my best secret yet: Dollar Tree table settings!  For real ;)

Dollar Tree has a nice selection of pretty glassware you can mix and match to create beautiful table settings.  And of course, everything is always priced at just $1.  Take a look at my collection so far:

 An Elegant Looking Table Setting: $4.25

One of the best things I can say when creating a beautiful table setting is don't be afraid to mix and match!  I love gold, I love fresh, bright white and I love glassware!  I could easily have stuck to one color, but mixing and matching is so much more fun.  Here I have mixed gold, white and glass, but you could mix within these items as well.  Maybe a couple different styles of dinnerware or more than one color are better fitting to  your style. The possibilities are endless!

 Gold Charger

A whole lot of years ago I bought these on clearance at Wal-Mart.  It was right after the winter  holidays and these were sold in boxed sets of four.  I can't remember the original pricing, but I was able to get them at $1 a box.  That's .25 each!

 White Dinner Plate - Dollar Tree

These are actually melamine (a type of hard plastic)!  Dollar Tree has white dinner plates in ceramic as well, but I loved the brightness of these.  Plus, I like to have a non-breakable option for a busy table ;)

 Glass Dessert Plate - Dollar Tree

 Wine Glass - Dollar Tree

 Drinking Glass - Dollar Tree

 Glass Bowl - Dollar Tree

Glass Serving Bowl - Dollar Tree

I will be adding glass dinner plates and white bowls to my collection over time.  Even though they are only $1 each, I like to buy one or two at a time whenever I visit Dollar Tree.  It reminds me of Granny and her collection of the fine china ;)

A helpful hint:  Don't be discouraged if you visit Dollar Tree and think that the glassware looks dull or dingy.  The pieces are just a bit dusty from the cardboard containers used to ship them.  As soon as they are taken home and washed, they shine beautifully!

How have you put together a beautiful table setting?  I would love to see your holiday tables, send me your photos and you just might end up being featured on the blog ;)

Hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014