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From the Net
This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

7 vanity tables that make getting ready extra luxurious – From Veranda

Spotted… Valentine’s Day 

Cute Cupid Necklace for $30

Eau Rose Parfum Travel Size

Heart Pillow

Favorite Instagrams!

A photo posted by @ralphlaurenhome on Jan 18, 2017 at 7:01am PST

A photo posted by Adriana (@shabby_whites) on Feb 2, 2017 at 5:08am PST

A photo posted by Muszula Timi (@viraglauravirag) on Jan 15, 2017 at 1:55am PST

A cheery spot of color is much needed around these parts of Narnia. This photo is from last year but I never shared it here on IG. I’m thinking a trip to the store to see what I can find in the floral department is much needed. 💕 Sorry, but #notsorry 😉 for jumping the gun on springy photos but I think in feeling a little blue since putting away holiday decor this past week. . . ⚜️Don’t forget to join #FrenchDecorGirls for #MondayDecorStyle. Anything home decor is welcome. 😍. Just follow the hosts – Me- @reinventedcollection . . @bellebluinteriors . . @lepetit_macaron . . @larissa_jenkins

A photo posted by Olivia (@reinventedcollection) on Jan 15, 2017 at 3:20pm PST

A photo posted by ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ᗩᑎᗩ ᗰᗩᖇIᗩ (@ana_maria_13) on Feb 2, 2017 at 10:08am PST

From the Blog

Revisiting these pretty hearted shaped macaronsI made last year. The rose raspberry filling was delicious!

Pinterest

I’d love for you to follow me along on Pinterest!

 Here are two seasonal appropriate boards… Valentine’s Day and Pink Decor Inspiration!

Valentine’s Day:

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Gucci Loafer Copycats
You may have noticed that this past Fall/Winter the Gucci Princetown loafer mules have been *everywhere*.
This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

Gucci Princetown Mule Fur Loafer

The shoes are all over celebrities and every fashion blogger out there.

They are made of leather and lined with kangaroo (?!) and cost $$$.

Below, Jennifer Aniston is just many of the celebrities wearing the shoe, but she is wearing the non-kangaroo version.

The non-kangaroo fur version below. I love this shoe! 

Gucci Princetown Loafer Slides

They make all sorts of different versions of the shoe, but again, very pricey.

Gucci Loafer Floral Slides

So naturally I began to look for similar copycat versions of the mule! Here’s what I found:

Louise Et Cie Loafers

Sam Edelman

Asos

Bass

Steve Madden – Black

Steve Madden – Brown 

Forever 21 only $25!

Shelly’s

Givenchy

Pretty Dresses
Let’s look at some pretty dresses and details…

 This dress below reminds me of my own wedding dress, the shape is extremely similar except that it is silk organza whereas mine was lace and silk tulle.

 I have always wanted to wear a floor length cape!

Breaking Ornaments while packing away Christmas

I don’t know about you all, but we have been busy putting away Christmas this week. It is not nearly as fun taking it down as it was putting it up!

This was also the year of the broken ornament. The broken ornament count is up to 5! I have not broken an ornament for years while taking my decorations this down and I don’t know what it is this year but FIVE is a lot. 

Favorite Instagrams

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Here’s to a New Year, a chance for new experiences, to spread more love, kindness and an opportunity to make many, many more wonderful memories 🥂 I can’t wait to see what 2017 will bring our way ❤

A photo posted by Carin Olsson (@parisinfourmonths) on Jan 2, 2017 at 12:41am PST

A photo posted by Kiana Underwood (@tulipinadesign) on Jan 5, 2017 at 6:47pm PST

A photo posted by caroline khoo | nectar & stone (@nectarandstone) on Jan 5, 2017 at 2:22pm PST

A photo posted by Meseiras do Brasil® 🌎💚💛💙 (@meseirasdobrasil) on Jan 5, 2017 at 12:58pm PST

A photo posted by Por Natália M. (@natalia.home) on Jan 5, 2017 at 12:25pm PST

Well, I’m out of ideas for a FIVE – so for FIVE, take a rest and break from breaking down your Christmas decor!

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Happy New Year! I took a bit of a blogging break this week… we will be back next week with Thursday Favorite Things again! Also, full posting on Sundays and Tuesdays will resume as usual.

 I thought I would share some snaps from my Christmas shopping that I did not get to share earlier!

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Christmas Shopping!

I spotted these Gingerbread houses… aren’t they cute???

I forgot to make a gingerbread house this year… oh well.

 I spotted this super cute booth in an antique mall!

 Loved the blue crystals from a chandelier on this glitter feather tree!

 Clever tree topper…

 Cute ornament idea you could DIY at home.

 Fun tree…

 Love this snowman by Ino Schaller!

 Isn’t this glam tree fabulous? Yeah, at 4k to it ought to be!!

 I liked these silver bells… didn’t have a place for them this year.

 Christmas Outfit

Here was my Christmas party outfit, or at least a little preview of it!

 Mercury Glass Ornament Dough Bowl

Unfortunately I just bought these large mercury glass ornaments right before Christmas so I did not have time to set up a photoshoot of them! Aren’t they fantastic?

I got them at an antique mall – I doubt they are antique because I read the antique ones go for $$$ and mine were not $$$, but I like them anyway!

Rae Dunn Mug

I spotted this vignette also in antique mall.  These Rae Dunn Mugs are super popular right now – blowing up the instagram feeds, aren’t they? They aren’t *quite* my style, but it doesn’t mean I don’t like them! Maybe I’ll get one for work…

There are tea and coffee mugs, Wifey, Darling  , I woke up like this, Purr, Blessed,  Hey Girl, Mine, Gulp and Slurp, Brilliant,  Queen, and many more here!

These Rae Dunn Dog Bowls actually crack me up!

Do you have any Rae Dunn mugs?!

Happy New Year!!!

Can you believe 2016 is over?!?! I CANNOT!

I am thankful for a wonderful 2016. I look forward to 2017. Hopefully our house will be built! 

Wishing you a safe and Happy New Year!

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                         Sharing at these parties!  Friday Favorites, Five on Friday, Oh Hey, Friday!

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House Updates… Front Door

WOO HOO! We are finally done with the architect and have moved on to structural engineering!!! It has taken us 8 MONTHS to get to this point.  Now it shouldn’t take *too* much longer (like a month or two) to actually like get really rolling with things and finally see something in real life and not on paper.  Which means… decisions, decisions, and decisions are on the horizon!

So, we have to pick out our windows and doors around now so the engineer can make sure that there is enough support surrounding the selected windows and doors.

Now, our architect wanted us to have steel front door that you would be able to look through an entryway and see all they way through through another steel window into the backyard, like so… (btw all these images below are from Pinterest)

Now, don’t get me wrong, this look is TOTALLY COOL and I really like it.  Now comes the but…. but steel windows are RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE. At *least* three times the cost of “regular” windows and doors and then some.  Having a steel window or door entrance wasn’t on my “dream house wish list” but having 3 ovens was (um yes, don’t judge, when you host Thanksgiving with 40 people every year you will know why I wanted 3 ovens).  The other two main problems with steel windows are this – they are not the best at insulation which is not good in a place that frequently is above 100 degrees.  And speaking of heat, the handles for door get ridiculously hot and will burn you when they have sun sitting on them all day. That’s not good. 

So instead, I’m changing the front door to something similar to this… 

Keep in mind, we are only look at doors, nothing else, not the shape of the room or the ceiling or anything.  I think this look is more French country and is more of the look I am going for in the end.   The first look is very contemporary and I am not too sure it really has been what I have been wanting.  I reviewed my posts about French style houses and no where do I notice a steel door entrance.

 Above is another example of a flat arch French door in a different stain.  Don’t know what color I will pick- if I keep it a natural wood or if I will paint! 

So, as I reflect back on my project, I have to keep reminding myself… is this where I want to spend my money? Do I really want this specific thing or is it there because the architect or someone said I needed it?  I reviewed my “dream home check list” that my husband and I made back when we were in school together many years ago.  We have everything on our list checked off.  Steel windows/doors were not on our “must have” list. 

You can always look at the most expensive thing and say, oh I like that, but you can’t do that for everything always, right?  I think the decision not to have steel entryway has made me feel better as I realized it wasn’t what I had quite envisioned. 

Where did you put your money in your house? Now, if we want to talk about where I’m spending my money… it’s the kitchen. 

Olympics

I have been watching some of the events of the Olympics.   But I wish NBC would stop talking about stories and show more of the sports.  I think it is so interesting how every different type of sport has a specific body type that does well.  The gymnasts – petite. Runners – lean. Cyclists – big thighs. Swimmers – ripped torso. Weight lifters – big. And the list goes on.

Anyway, I just have to share this picture of Usain Bolt if you haven’t seen it already.  I love how everyone’s legs are so blurry because they are running that fast, but Usain literally has time to look back and give a smile for the camera because he is just so much faster than everyone else! I mean, imagine the other runners, literally running as fast as they possibly can, but still so slow that Usain can pose for a picture! 

image from Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Spotted…

Ok, one night while I was staying up late I found some cute Fall shoes and just had to share them!

How much fun are these Cat flats in glitter!

I think these Gold, black, and alligator print sneakers are super stylish!!!

Wait, I’m seeing a theme, cute velvet mary janes with *glitter* heels.  All the shoes I was drawn to were shiny/sparkly! 

Instagram Picks for the Week!

I LOVE Instagram… it’s the perfect social media for my attention span. 

 This last one made me giggle… a hot dog in a croissant!!

From the Blog…

I thought I would reshare this bathroom remodel! Isn’t it just fabulous??? It is in my parents’ house!! I was looking at sconces one day and showed them to my mom, she said, oh! I already own those… they are the ones below in the picture!

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It’s FRIDAY! FRIYAY! This week I have some exciting news to share…

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We got a new kitty cat!! We named her Chloe.  We rescued he from the animal shelter last weekend.  She cried the whole way home (with tears… never seen a cat cry tears).  She is estimated to be about 3 years old (although I think she is older). She has been a sweet little kitty so far. She is a Russian Blue Mix. 

She likes nap time and cuddles. She purrs all of the time.   We are slowly introducing her to the house. We’ve been enjoying our little kitty friend so far. Her pretty green eyes glow. She is napping next to me right now.

These Ugg Boots.…I want to talk about these Ugg boots I got for Christmas. At first I was a little unsure, as I didn’t want to be one of “those girls” wearing Ugg boots. But then I put them on and my feet were hugged with the softness I immediately understood why people wear them all of the time.  I have been wearing them nonstop since I got them. I haven’t worn mine outside, they are a about-the-house shoe for me, but seriously. Once you put them on you won’t want to take them off!

This candle. It was a splurge I used with my Nordstrom notes. I’ve always wanted to try this candle company. It’s by”Diptyque”, a company in Paris. The fragrance I purchased is one of their top sellers called “baies”. This scent has the freshness of roses and the smell of blackcurrant leaves. It is really nice and refreshing.It’s not just any type of rose, it uses Bulgarian roses which of course are more luxurious and have a fruity scent.   It smells so nice. Just opening the box up produces an aroma in the room. 

This French Townhouse. You HAVE to see this beautiful townhouse. The story is on Cote de Texas’ blog.  

 Here is a pic of the outside of this complex. It’s designed to look like a Parisian city block. Isn’t it darling?

Look below! It really does look like a little slice of Paris -but with better plumbing and air conditioning! Sign me up! You really need to go check it out. The condo is decorated with fabulous French antiques. Here is the link again.  Pics are from that blog post.

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This week I’ve been tidying up my blog a bit.  With the Thanksgiving-Christmas season all over, I’ve finally had some time to sit down and update my blog!

picture from Blooming Rouge

I decluttered some of the basic things that came with the blogger template. I redesigned my header for the year, too. Do you like it?? The backdrop of the header was actually the inside of the envelopes from my wedding.

I updated my About Me and also my Recipe Pages. Check them out.

Here are the links I’ve read and used. I summarized them below. 

7 Things to Remove from your Blogger Template – including getting rid of that ugly Navbar that sits on the top of blogger pages!

7 Places to Find Free Photos to Use on Your Blog – very useful for stock photos… and they are FREE!

A Simple and Attractive Search Bar Widget – do you like my search bar? This is how you get it (or very similar minimalist ones)

some coffee for your blogging

How to Enlarge your Popular Posts Thumbnails – I totally hated Blogger’s popular posts widget so I removed it a year ago.  I found a way to customize the pictures and make them much bigger!

How to have a Pretty Preview of Your Instagram Pictures – I’ve been working on growing my Instagram following.  Follow me here @LePetit_Macaron. You can see the pics to the right.

How to Move your Page Tabs or Navigation Links to the Top of the Page! – I moved the page tabs to the tip top of the page to make the blog seem a little sleeker.

Don’t forget to follow me… 

I use bloglovin’ to read all of my blogs that I follow… follow me on bloglovin

I frequently use instagram to share a snap or two… follow my pretty pictures on instagram

Tweet tweet, follow me on twitter at Le Petit Macaron

Follow me on pinterest… I have a gazillion boards. 

And follow me along on google plus. If you don’t use google plus, google gets you more hits than I think any social media site because… google search engines put google plus searches up first! 

 I’m sharing my Friday Favorites at the following link parties… link away and have some fun!

Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Five on friday at A Liz Adventures, Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM
Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com 

We use affiliate links in our posts and our site. This means if you make a purchase using these links, we may earn a small commission. You don’t pay a cent more than you would otherwise! Our full disclosure is available under About.

Alright peeps. I am back with Friday Favorites. I took a little bit of a hiatus during the Christmas season… mainly because I blog Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and I had too many posts for Christmas and had to bump Friday Favorites.  I guess I could have blogged even more frequently, but this is a hobby for me, not a job!

Let’s get started…

Barbour coat…
I got a new Barbour coat for Christmas! I am so excited about it! My old raincoat was falling apart. This new jacket is wonderful and much warmer than my old one. It is a Barbour Beadnell jacket… it is made of a waxed cotton that allows the rain to drip right off and it has a corduroy collar at the top to draw the mist away from your face. I got the Rustic color, as seen below in the next two pictures…

As you can see, Princess Kate (okay, I know her title is actually the Duchess of Cambridge, but if you marry a prince you’re a princess in my book!), anyway, Princess Kate wears one too!

Apple Watch

Ok, I had a very good Christmas. I got an apple watch too.  My favorite part of the watch is the simplest part… the Mickey Mouse face. Mickey dances by tapping his foot to every second as he keeps time. Every time I look down at my watch I smile! Plus, the health apps are pretty cool too. I like how it tells me to stand when I’ve been sitting too long. This is perfect if you have an office job! 

The exact one I have is below, the rose gold sport version. The band is a little more purple in real-life. To be honest I think I’d rather have a navy band or a different color, but this one came with it so oh well! 

And now… TV shows I’m watching (BESIDES Downton Abbey, which I wrote about HERE earlier this week).

Galavant

Returning with its second season to ABC, the musical comedy fairy tale is about a beautiful hero named Galavant, who embarks on his quest to marry Madalena. But he loses Madalena to King Richard. Madalena has overthrown King Richard and now Galavant and King Richard have started on their own journey…

BASICALLY… if you liked “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” You will like this show. That’s the short version.

Mozart in the Jungle

This show is only on Amazon Prime. It is about a new conductor coming to the New York Symphony and also an up and coming oboeist.  If you like symphonies, you will like this show. I love all of the classical music in it!

Don’t forget to follow me… 

I use bloglovin’ to read all of my blogs that I follow… follow me on bloglovin

I frequently use instagram to share a snap or two… follow my pretty pictures on instagram

Tweet tweet, follow me on twitter at Le Petit Macaron

Follow me on pinterest… I have a gazillion boards. 

And follow me along on google plus. If you don’t use google plus, google gets you more hits than I think any social media site because… google search engines put google plus searches up first! 

 I’m sharing my Friday Favorites at the following link parties… link away and have some fun!

Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Five on friday at A Liz Adventures, Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM
Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com 

We use affiliate links in our posts and our site. This means if you make a purchase using these links, we may earn a small commission. You don’t pay a cent more than you would otherwise! Our full disclosure is available under About.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week? I’ve been SUPER BUSY and so once again I’m including some pretty pictures from instagram!

Love this choux pastry turkey!

Also love this watercolor cat monogram/crest! I would love one of these!!

A swiss chalet…

A Thanksgiving macaron tart? WHAAAT? I need to try this!!

A beautiful bride in a beautiful dress and veil…

Alright, that will do it! Next week will be light on posts, I’ve got shopping and baking to do!

We use affiliate links in our posts and our site. This means if you make a purchase using these links, we may earn a small commission. You don’t pay a cent more than you would otherwise! Our full disclosure is available under About.

I’ve been super busy with work and I am studying for an upcoming test, so for Friday Favorites I thought I’d share some pretty pictures from Instagram this week!
Do you have an Instagram account? If you don’t, I suggest joining! It’s full of such pretty pictures. I can browse for hours.

This dress below was worn by Marie Antoinette…

You can follow me on instagram here.  Next week I will likely do the same for Friday Favorites as its test day that day and I don’t have time to do anything else! 

Sharing at: Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Five on friday at A Liz Adventures, Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

We use affiliate links in our posts and our site. This means if you make a purchase using these links, we may earn a small commission. You don’t pay a cent more than you would otherwise! Our full disclosure is available under About.

Happy November! I can’t believe it’s already NOVEMBER! It was so hot all October and then right on cue it started pouring and raining all day November 1! It hasn’t rained here in FOREVER.  It was so nice! I actually had to turn on the heat in the house last night! Good now I can finally wear some sweaters!

Thanksgiving baking
My husband and I have been busy testing out recipes for Thanksgiving. Below we were playing around with cranberry brie bites.. they were really good! The recipe we used we will make a few minor adjustments, but I think they will work well! *AND* we can make them the day before which is nice!

Time change
I posted this on my Facebook… I have been getting in my Pjs by 7… my body clock is so confused!  I also sleep more since it is darker longer, do you?

Another Puzzle Down
Finished another puzzle recently… ta da!

Pretty Flowers

Husband bought me some pretty flowers as we’ve both been working 6 days a week and haven’t seen each other in like FOREVER… came home late one night and saw these sitting there!  Aren’t they pretty? They are spider mums in a burgundy color… I’ve never seen them in this color! They are also pretty big, like 5-6″ across in diameter!

Origami Owl
Have you ever heard of Origami Owl?? Well I have and I recently purchased this “living locket” as they call them… they are customizable lockets that you put little charms in.  You can change the charms depending on your mood.  The one I bought is a keychain which I think is so much fun!  I have an eiffel tower as I love Paris, medical symbol as I work in medicine, an initial, pink stones because I like pink, and because Christmas season is coming upon us… a Christmas stocking, gingerbread house.  The starting “base” is a little bit pricey but once you have on the charms are pretty inexpensive and would make great stocking stuffers!

I had to include a range of things you can do with origami owl because I think it just so clever!No, I don’t work for them and I don’t get paid anything for writing about this.  

You can make yourself a teacher lanyard… holds your name badge, how cute is that?? A lanyard would be perfect for nurse too!

 Or for the coffee lover….

 Or a Thanksgiving themed one…

 or a Halloween themed one…

A Christmas themed one… you can make a necklace, bracelets, keychains, lanyards, pins… so much variety!

You can find some retired charms on eBay and some non-name brand charms too… look how cute these nursing themed set is that I found on Ebay! You can find cheaper charms on eBay but they may not be made by OO.

You should check out Origami Owl… it would make a great Christmas gift for someone!

Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Five on friday at A Liz Adventures, Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

We use affiliate links in our posts and our site. This means if you make a purchase using these links, we may earn a small commission. You don’t pay a cent more than you would otherwise! Our full disclosure is available under About.

Happy Halloween everyone! I’ve rounded up a few of my favorite Halloween pictures – pumpkins, costumes, party ideas! 

Favorite Carved Pumpkins

Here are my 3 favorite carved pumpkins I found online.  How cute is this minion??

source

I also love these black cat pumpkins! The eyes light up at night!

source

And how cool are these porcupine pumpkins?!

source- Martha Stewart

Favorite Halloween Party Ideas
One, how cool would it be to recreate the floating candle ceiling from Harry Potter? Um, AWESOME. You can do it by using old toilet paper and paper towel rolls along with faux candles. You can get the tutorial here

picture source here

Also, if you’re throwing a party, I think this Halloween playlist seems pretty good.

source

Favorite Halloween Food

There are literally *tons* of cute Halloween themed recipes out there.   My favorite is still these caramel chocolate apples from Between Naps on the Porch. Look at how cute they are!!

source and recipe

Favorite Animal Costume
Have you seen the video of pirate cat? If not, you need to watch it. The cat even walks like it has a wooden leg but I think it’s really walking slowly as its plotting its revenge on its owner!

Favorite Costume…
If I were to dress up this year I would dress up as Professor Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter.  She’s got a cool witch hat and you could play with a wand. How fun!

Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Five on friday at A Liz Adventures, Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

We use affiliate links in our posts and our site. This means if you make a purchase using these links, we may earn a small commission. You don’t pay a cent more than you would otherwise! Our full disclosure is available under About.

Apple Picking

This past weekend my in-laws visited and my husband and I took them to go apple picking! It was a lot of fun!  Although, I thought the farm we were going to was u-pick, but instead they had all the apples already picked in bins.  Oh well, the apples were still YUMMY and we had the best fresh pressed apple juice and an amazing apple cider donut.  After the apple picking, we went home and baked a homemade apple pie! You can get the recipe HERE, it really is the best apple pie ever.

So the pie top crust ripped a little bit… oh well… it still tastes good!

Mackenzie Child’s Christmas
We got the MK Christmas catalog in the mail this week and I had so much fun flipping through it.  Here are a few things I am thinking about…
I like these Christmas candles, aren’t they fun??

 I like this chef pig ornament... for *years* in my bedroom as a kid I had a little pig animal that sat in a doll’s high chair and wore a chef’s hat (a Halloween costume from one year) and this pig totally reminds me of my childhood! But WHYYYY are the ornaments so expensive??

In fact, they had this cute little piggy ornament wearing MK boots which I loved but I didn’t buy it because it was too expensive.  Now I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get it. I have an eternal search on eBay for it but alas, no luck.

I will most likely get this JOY banner. I think it is really really cute. 

Everyday I’m Puzzling (get it, like the song?)
Had fun putting together this 1000 piece puzzle this weekend! Do you like to puzzle?  Doing puzzles is something we tend to do in the Fall and Winter when it starts to get cold out and when it’s dark by 6pm.  I realized I really like the Americana scene puzzles… each little area of the puzzle has a little scene you can work on which is fun. I bought a lot off of eBay… I swear, eBay is like the best place to shop. Mom always said, “Never Pay Retail”.  The only downside of buying puzzles off of eBay… pieces *may* be missing. Oh well! I guess that’s what you get a bargain!

Fall/Winter Fashion

Here are some things that are on my fashion wish-list, although to be honest it is still in the 80s here! I think a cape would be super fun to wear this Winter! Like the one below… 

I ‘ve had my eye on a Barbour coat for quite some time, but since it hasn’t rained here in like 5 months I can’t really see myself getting a raincoat. Although, El Nino is supposed to come and drop a bunch of rain so maybe I will need a new rain coat.

And, not that I need any more shoes, but I love the LL Bean boots.  If I still lived in the NW I would have these already… but since I don’t, I will just stare at them instead. *contains affiliate links below

Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Five on friday at A Liz Adventures, Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

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Has another week flown by? Here are my favorites from this week!

Pumpkin Festival
This weekend we went to our local ranch and checked out their pumpkin festival!  How much fun!  Look at all of these pumpkins??? I’ll just share a few pictures… I think I’ll share the rest in another post during Halloween week!

 Antique Show
This past weekend we went to a local antique show.  The show was pretty small.  I had fun looking at silver patterns.  Someday I intend to buy a set of sterling silver, but I just don’t know what pattern to choose!  I think I have narrowed it down to these two:
The one below is “Versailles” by Gorham.  What I like about this set is that every piece has a different motif on the handle which I think makes it very interesting.

The other set I quite like is “Francis 1” by Reed & Barton.  What I noticed I like in sterling patterns is I like them to be ornate and over-the-top. I feel like if you’re going to dine with sterling, the pattern should be a bit over-the-top because dining with sterling IS over the top. There are some other rarer patterns of sterling I like too, but these two are much more common and are much easier to get a good bargain from an auction.

Christmas in the Stores

What? Christmas before Halloween? YES, please. I love Christmas. Christmas decorations are the cutest, so why should they be up for the shortest time of year? Makes no sense to me. The second Halloween is over I start putting up Christmas. I confess, I may be listening to some classical christmas music right now as I’m typing this up. Any who, we’ve been debating about what to put in our big giant windows that face outside this year.  I’m debating between two things… a giant Christmas wreath or a giant star.  They are around the same price. What do you think? 

iPhone Cases

We’re due for new iPhones next month so I thought I’d get a head start and look for a new case for my future phone.  I need a case for my phone because I drop the phone all. the. time.  I am going to get the rose gold iPhone 6s this time.  Here are some that I’ve got my eye on… although I just discovered on zazzle there are a million billion cases to choose from. Vote for your favorite below…

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Birthday Cake

My aunt’s birthday was this weekend and we brought her a birthday cake.  It is called a “Princess Torte”… the outside is covered in a layer of marzipan. It is filled with white chocolate whipped cream, vanilla cake, and layers of raspberry filling. Um, YUM! Isn’t it cute with the sugar flower??

Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Five on friday at A Liz Adventures, Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

We use affiliate links in our posts and our site. This means if you make a purchase using these links, we may earn a small commission. You don’t pay a cent more than you would otherwise! Our full disclosure is available under About.

More Pumpkins from our Garden!!

Since I posted the Fall house tour this week, my husband and I actually harvested more pumpkins from our garden… I thought I’d share them with you. I love the blue-gray pumpkins we planted, they are the “Jarrah” variety.  So much fun!!

 Some other baby boos in white and orange, and then some white pumpkins that didn’t get nearly as big as we wished! Boo indeed!

Pumpkin Gourd

Several weeks ago we went to a gourd festival at our local produce ranch just down the road.  They had all of these vendors selling these hollowed out gourds! We liked this little Jack O’lantern gourd and took him home with us! 

New Teapot!

Remember last week when I wrote about how I love Tea Forte’s pumpkin spice tea? Well, I realized I didn’t have a proper teapot to brew my tea in!  This in a Mackenzie Child’s teapot that brews 4 cups of tea! So instead of having 1 cup of pumpkin spice tea I can now have 4! Yes! It came in a little set with a small sugar and creamer too.  You can check it out here. I think the teapot would make a nice Christmas gift for a tea-lover!

Do you drink your tea with milk/cream or do you drink it plain? I like mine with milk!

I rode a pony!

Oh, so I forgot to write about this last week: I rode a pony! yes, one of those “kid” pony rides at carnivals where they go around in circles. Well, I’m a big kid at heart. And I totally loved it!  I had never been on a pony before.  My pony was all giving me the side-eye, thinking, “Why do I always get the “heavy kid”.  YeeHaw!  

Juliska “Forest Walk”
Juliska came out with a new pattern for the Fall called “Forest Walk”.  The pattern idea came actually from a walk in the forest… apparently the owner’s family went for a walk and grabbed items in the forest.  When they came home they assembled them on the table, and voila! A new pattern was born inspired from the items picked on the forest walk!
I had been looking to see the pieces in person but my local Juliska dealer didn’t get them in yet! I finally found it in downtown San Francisco! I think the pieces look much better in person than online!

picture I took from downtown SF Neiman Marcus!

 I really like the look of the plates… all stacked together! The plates and bowls seem handmade but they are not.  See how cute the pattern looks all stacked up together?

 And how much fun is this pitcher with the antler as a handle?

The only thing though, when you take the plates away from the stack and leave them separately on the table, they seem kind of boring and empty in the center. The little bread plate is cute, but the dinner plate is really boring except on the edge!  If I didn’t already have a china set for Thanksgiving (Spode’s “Woodland”) I would consider this set! You can purchase Juliska “Forest Walk” here.

What do you think of the new china pattern by Juliska? Are you in or out?

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Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Five on friday at A Liz Adventures .Friday Favorites at the Diary of a Real HousewiveOh Hey, Friday! at September FARM