My Big Day and Weekend

Last week I shared that I was celebrating my 60th Birthday

Well as it turns out when we headed downstate to have dinner and see the family my husband had been up to making behind the scene birthday party arrangements!

We arrived at the restaurant and I walked into a very unexpected surprise birthday party!  Some cousins, sisters, my kids and grandson were all there! 

After I got done welling up with emotions I took a few pictures.

Our son, wife and grandson came in from Pennsylvania which was the biggest surprise! 

Our grandson made the rounds- he was intrigued with Uncle John's hairy beard!

The food was wonderful- steak, seafood, pasta- all delicious!

After we ate we went to my Mom's house.  My sister Jen and daughter Chelsea had helped Dan set  some of this up.  The cake came from a local bakery and was a creation based on flower pot idea I had shared with Jen a while back.

The top was loaded with flowers over 3" deep and the cake was a delicious lemon flavored cake with lemon mousse.  

Jen had set the table up with copies of pictures with a "Through the Years" theme of me.  The picture I am holding is from a family trip back in the early 1960's when we visited the hometown of my Dad in Calumet, Michigan.  Jen and I were standing by the little town sign.

My 94 year old mom and our 6 month old grandson!   

My sister's and I ages 60 to 74!

We always take some kind of group photo.

The next morning I went through mom's linen drawer and decided to put a blue theme table together. I couldn't find the Easter deco so this was the best I could come up with.   I would liked to have filled the glass handled candy dish with faux Easter eggs and added some candy to the little crystal candy dish.

I found this starched hat that was laying in the extra bedroom and propped it up as though it was an Easter bonnet!

We drove home on Saturday and the kids stayed through Tuesday morning.   They brought this new seat that you strap to a chair which worked out great. 

I forgot to take a picture before we ate but we had delicious steaks grilled outside, mashed potatoes and a big salad.  We shared a bottle of wine too!  That tablecloth is from Pottery Barn this year.  It washed up afterwards beautifully! 

Joey has learned to boost himself  up and roll over.  He has cut one tooth and a 2nd is nearly through. He wants something to chew on all the time.  He's handling it pretty well.

Getting him relaxed for bed. 

I love this face! 

These are some flowers that were on the coffee table at my Mom's that my daughter brought.  I left a half dozen at Mom's and took the rest. 

Well that's a wrap of my 60th Birthday party and weekend!

Happy 60th Birthday To Me!

Hello everybody- happy Friday!

I'm tooting my own horn to say that I am now the big….

60  60  60  60  60  60  60  60  60 60

Heading downstate to be with my Mom & Sisters.  

So thankful to have them all to celebrate with!

Ok, ok, ok so…..

For some time now I've been wanting a new chair to replace my red coral print chair.  Dan was looking for something special for me for my birthday and suggested we go look for a new chair.  

The arms have become a bit tattered and I was just tired of the coral print.  Our daughter will be the recipient of the chair so it's going to a good home.  We started looking in February and I finally zeroed in on what I wanted.  To my surprise it came in a week ago (only 4 weeks) so I was very happy about that!

So here she is in a more neutralized color and an ottoman to go with it!  She swivels and rocks like my old one. 

 She's made by Norwalk  in Norwalk, Ohio and her style name is Sophie!

Her companion ottoman is called Addison!

I've been slowly working to give the room a little more modern look yet still keeping a classic traditional style going.  The fabric has a creamy white background with a golden/brown stitched design on it.  It will be super easy to mix this with various trends that I may go through.

After a couple of days went by I made my mind up to try a garden stool for a small accent table.  I didn't want to get anything too large so it wouldn't take up a lot of space.  I searched a bunch on the internet but ended up at my local Pier 1 store that had just the right look- and it was on sale! 

As it turns out the top of the garden stool isn't real level and when I would put a drink on there it tended to lean towards the center which made me nervous.  I toyed with various thoughts on how to make it work better and then I remembered this wood charger that I had.  Fortunately it's nearly the same size and goes quite well with it.  I added a few rubber feet under it to keep it from sliding.  

 The new pillows I picked up recently and showed in a previous post fit on the chair nicely too.

So that's my new chair and ottoman birthday gift!
❤❤❤❤

This is however my fantasy dream/wish...

This is what I really really really want but I can't fit it in the living room!  Ha, ha!  Truthfully though this has been a dream I've had for a long long time….perhaps by 65??

I thank God for 60 wonderful birthdays and I sure hope to have many, many more!

Remember the 1970's catch phrase "you're not getting older, you're getting better"!  

I'm going with that one!  

I'm looking forward to a great weekend and wish you all the same!

Kitchen Update and a Grandson Visit!

We recently made a trip to visit to see our son, daughter in-law and grandson in Pennsylvania.

While there I got a chance to do some shopping.  They have some larger malls and lots of stores that I don't have near me and one place I enjoyed visiting was Crate & Barrel.  I saw this cute server piece and decided to bring it home with me.

 It has two natural marble trays with little rubber feet underneath so you can also use them as serving trays on a table separately.  They call it the French Kitchen Marble 2-Tier Server.

They had three of them on display which gave me the opportunity to chose which one I liked best.  

 I also picked this small striped bowl from C & B and incorporated it into my little vignette on the tiered tray.

  I found these two Polish Pottery pieces on another shopping venture that I figured would go well with my arrangement too.  I have a coffee mug that looks just like the little creamer.  I'll have to set an Easter egg on the egg cup soon!

 Last year my sister sent me the two little pig salt and paper shakers which I adore and they are also from  C & B.  The cow creamer is another Polish Pottery piece I already had. The metal measuring spoons were hanging on a little rack on the wall but I removed it.  I'm gearing up to paint the kitchen a new color that I still have to decide on.  

Though this is a serving piece I will also be using it as a decorative display piece!

I had to rearrange the whole counter and removed a couple of pieces.  I'm now using the basket to hold potatoes and onions.  The metal platter is from one of our Pennsylvania trips a while back made by Wendell August.  They are hand forged and you can watch them hand embossing them in their work shop.  The basket came from Juliska's website on one of their sales a while back but last I knew it is still available.  

 The blue vase was found at Pottery Barn.  It's called the Pamela vase Medium Blue but I can't find it on their website so I think it's an older piece that just happened to still be on the shelf.  It's going to look great with flowers from my gardens in it!

 I also moved the coffee station over to this counter area and it's working out nicely there.

 I found this nice compact metal cooling rack at the same store with the Polish Pottery.  I'm keeping it by the stove to set hot things on and I've used it many times already!  It's made well and heavy duty so it's going to be a workhorse piece in my kitchen.

I set this salad plate on it to give you an idea of it's size.  

Last week I changed out all the door/drawer pulls to satin nickel.  We started out with bright brass when we remodeled the kitchen in 1996.  Then in around 2010 I changed them to dark bronze which looked great with the wood but recently I decided to change to the satin nickel to go with the stainless appliances.  

Last but not least the star of our visit!

Our little grandson is such a sweetheart and this is his favorite spot to play.  He can tap his feet against the end where there is a keyboard which plays music and grab the toys above him.  It's a great interactive toy encouraging the development of various skills and muscles too!  When he rolls over they have more toys for him to work at getting.  He's also starting to scoot so before long he'll be on the move!

This was just after our arrival after an 8 hr. drive.  Joey was tired and ready for bed.  He's cutting his first teeth right now and we all know how rough it can be for him and the parents!

Dan is enjoying being a Grandpa.  Good times!

Can't wait to see him again!

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Celebrate & Decorate