Fascinated with Hats and Fascinator's

Kate Middleton Dutchess of Cambridge.

Kate Middleton looks good in just about anything – including traditional British hats, particularly the Fascinator. Worn at fancy society events, the Fascinator headpiece is an alternative to a full brimmed hat and often includes feathers, flowers, and beads. It’s often placed on the side of the head or at the back.

Where would you choose a fascinator? In certain occasions where you might think about wearing a hat you can wear a fascinator instead. Hats can sometimes crush or damage your hair style. However, most times your hair may be styled around the look of your fascinator. Or should you have a smaller piece it can be added to the hair without fear of damage or having that crushed hair look. 

Many hats use pins to hold a hat in place. You do not want to harm yourself should they slip. A single comb is all that is needed to keep the fascinator on your head for long periods of time without pain. Fascinators have been kept in place with hair clips as well, plus can be placed on a headband. 

Where should the Fascinator be placed? The old fashioned rule for hats was that a lady always wore her hat on the right side of her head so that her beau on her left arm could see her face when they were walking together and, also he could draw his sword with his right hand if necessary without removing her hat at the same time!

We don't need to worry about those rules any more thank goodness, although the right side of the head, and tilting forward, remains the most popular side to wear fascinators although covering your parting is a good idea too if you can.  Having said that the smaller fascinators or hair accessories can also be worn at the back of the head too. Wondering how to make your own Fascinator? There are some ideas here.

Hats, headbands or fascinators, Kate Middleton the Duchess of Cambridge has made wearing headpieces fashionable again. 

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The Royal Wedding Free Printables

Princess Katie Doll and Ball Gown

Picture courtesy of Family.com

The Royal Wedding,  Prince William and Kate Middleton will be married on April 29th in Westminster Abbey.

What little girl doesn't like a Princess story?  Celebrate a Princess wedding with your little girl Print out the cut outs, place on card stock and let her dress her princess Katie doll. 

A Princess needs a Tiara

Photo courtesy of Family.com

Princess Kate's Rose Tiara printable for your little girl's princess doll.

Find cute printables on Family.com. My favorites are the Princess Kate Paper Dolls and Printable Tiara! 

Thanks to LivingLocurto For bringing this and other Royal wedding ideas.
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Delicious Potato salad recipe

I love Paula Deen's recipes, they are easy to make and delicious! I found this potato salad recipe just in time to serve at my Easter dinner this year and it was a big hit!

Photo courtesy of Paula Deen

I improvised a bit and changed the recipe, when making this salad I used 5 red potato's, 2 kielbasa links, celery and green onions chopped,  the dressing I used was italian dressing.  It served 6 people. I boiled the potato's for about 30 minutes to keep the potato's firmer otherwise they become to soft and turn into mashed potato's. I cut them in cubes, boiled the sausage links for 45 minutes, sliced one whole link into tiny pieces put in with the other ingredients and put the leftover one sliced around the honey baked ham.  

The menu consisted of  breads, cheeses, pickles, olives, cherry tomato's, the potato salad and the honey baked ham for a delicious early Easter dinner/brunch. It was absolutely delicious and easy to make! I sliced a few slices of the honeybaked ham for my daughter who doesn't like it warm or baked, before I baked it for 30 minutes to get the glaze melted.

Paula Deens recipe is here..

Spring and Pinwheels

Pinwheel Hairclip Tutorial click on picture.

Spring and pinwheels, they just go together, they are cute and fun. Children love to run holding their pinwheel on a stick as the wind whirls their litle  twirlie delighting them.  The adorable pinwheel pictured above is made of fabric and is a hairclip for your little princess. Thanks to Mother Huddle Blog for sharing a tutorial for you to copy and make. I like easy no-sew crafts.

The fabric pinwheel could be used on a throw pillow, as a hairclip as shown, placed on a board and framed for a little girl's cute room theme.  What other ideas can you come up with using  fabric pinwheels?  

Another version of pinwheels, a paper flower pinwheel thanks to Alphamom

Spring Flower Pinwheels by Alphamom

Simple to make out of cardstock and dowels.  Imagine them in your garden, or in a vase, as party favors, put them on skewers and decorate a cake, what about a garland or a wreath?  Use your imagination and tell me what other ways you would use these adorable flower pinwheels. Than head on over to Alphamom's website and see how easy they are to make. 

Woman's Day Magazine had another pinwheel project.

Picture courtesy of Woman's Day pinwheel project.

This project would be great for a 4th of July celebration. Made of paper and attached to a straw.

There you have several ideas for making and using Pinwheels!  Have fun this spring and summer!

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Organizing and Decorating

Several months ago, out of necessity I began an organizing project in my bathroom, it was a success, since than I organized, closets, linen closet,dresser drawers, and the largest of all the organizing projects, my home office.

What's interesting about that is that it was easy to do one at a time as opposed to trying to accomplish it all at one time or imposing specific time limits.  Moral of the story, begin somewhere and the rest will follow. 

Since completing those projects I noticed that certain areas in my living room looked bare and unfinished, it was time to redecorate my mantle and mirror display area.  I had a snow picture by artist Thomas Kinkade above my mantle for a few years, I also had a collection of Kinkade accessories given to me by my daughter for different occasions. It was time to make a change.

My inspiration came from a blog hop dedicated to mantle's.  I went from this

Plain and simple mantel with Kinkade snow picture.

I took down the picture, found a mirror hidden away in a closet, took my angel collection and designed a new more spring look for my mantle.  My original idea was to have it all white and yellow but the mirror and candlestick holders are silver, my angels are blue, a pretty look so for now they will stay that color until I can freshen them by painting the angel and mirror white and get white candlestick holders. 

Silver mirror, Candlestickholders, Angel collection.

Than I went on to decorate the mirrored display area and added some of my favorite crystal pieces

I like Rose Bowls so I have several of those, different sizes, large and small. Crystal vase and Angels. And a crystal, antique creamer, one of my mom's favorite pieces.

Crystal pieces.

So out of one organizing project I was able to clean, organize, sell items in a garage sale and redecorate my mantle and display case.



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Some of my favorite Family heirlooms

My Mom gave me this adorable set of china, with colorful dots and flowers, china from Germany, I also have a matching Pitcher. The other set next to it is gold trimmed floral china. Both sets are antiques.

I love family heirlooms that have meaning and I can pass down to my oldest daughter. I can remember seeing my Mom lovingly display these in her built-in hutch.  They were her pride and joy. I now display them in my hutch.

This other set of china isn't a complete set, it is gold trimmed with flowers in the middle.

This was another favorite china set my Mother enjoyed. I was glad to inherit this set as well and I treasure them, Both sets are now heirlooms I will pass down to my oldest daughter, I know she will cherish them as I do. She too has a sense of family and heirlooms, the importance of them.

Thanks to, and linking to:

 http://romantichome.blogspot.com/ for sharing her family heirlooms!!

http://www.sistersofthewildwest.blogspot.com/

Fabric flower tutorials

Picture courtesy of http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com/2010/09/fabric-flower-tutorial.html

Thank you Shelley!

I have been searching for tutorials on how-to make fabric flowers. I wanted a no-sew, easy to make flowers for broaches on handbags, clothes, headbands, sofa pillows etc.  I finally found a blog that posted 5 different tutorials that featured no-sew fabric flowers at LivingLocurto.

Thanks to all the creative ladies for sharing their tutorials and ideas. Most of the fabric flowers are made by rolling the fabric, with RA in my hands I found it difficult to roll the fabric and keep it in place while rolling it. I was delighted when I saw thehouseofsmiths.com tutorial I thought, I can do that! 

For folks like myself who have a level of difficulty doing crafts yet really enjoy doing them we always look for those crafts that we can enjoy and yet find them easy to do. I did a Easter centerpiece for my Easter table, and I was able to make a wreath, napkin rings, it felt good to see the finished result.

Obviously my next project, after a garage sale this weekend will be to attempt to make these flowers.