Jen's Beach Wedding Vintage Rhinestone Centerpieces & Candle Holders

Good Sunday to ya!

Here's what all the Centerpieces looked like for a week before the wedding - it was like living on an orchid farm and little by little all of our regular everyday stuff got stashed making room for everything wedding.

Two days before the wedding we filled the containers with sand so you couldn't see the pots insisde at all - during our 'Morning After' Brunch we emptied the sand cuz I think the sand was suffocating the orchids.  Bought the orchids at the Farmers Market and they were gorgeous!

We had so much fun making these - a few months before the wedding I started to buy up all the glass containers at the Thrifts and we decorated them.  They cost me like 2.99 a piece.   We wrapped them in twine (got a huge bolt at a garage sale for a buck)  then we lined the twine wrap with rhinestone trim, and added vintage rhinestone jewelry and shells to each side.  I've been collecting vintage rhinestone jewels for as long as i can remember - brooches, necklaces, earrings, shoe clips, sweater connectors,  bracelets, and buttons, and didn't know it, but this was what I was saving them for....

Started off with this mess - bringing all the little drawers out to the table to figure out exactly what to do!

Went downtown and bought these bolts of rhinestones

separated and organized everything

painted and decorated the shells too

then decorated all 4 sides of the vases

we used these shorter and taller containers for candles and flowers all over the place

Two nights before the Wedding we set up the tables and started checking stuff out

Our vision was coming alive - I was standing on the band's stage...

NOTE:  About a month before the wedding, we decided to paint the kitchen.  Can you imagine?  We emptied the entire kitchen out, laundry room too, lived with everything spread across the dining room and further, painted and spruced up, then put everything away with 3 weeks left till the wedding.    Crazy, but so worth it!  

I'm blogging that right after this...

Jen's Beach Wedding & Freshening Up The Little Bathroom

I'm just diving in because you gotta start somewhere...

 I've lurked around your blogs during the wedding prep mostly checking in in the middle of the night when many times I awoke in a panic and had to look through stacks of papers to make sure I had paid some bill or turned the sprinkler off in the back.  I couldn't shake the feeling that I was forgetting something - all the time.

Jen's Beach Wedding was perfect, I'm a happy Mom and I love Ryan very much - this couple got it right.  We planned and prepped the Wedding and at the same time spruced up this old place on a $0 budget and had the biggest blast of our lives.   We did it all at the same time, that's how we roll better under pressure I guess - no time for being confused, disappointed, or pissed at anything including how much things cost.

I left you at sending out the Invitations about 8 weeks before the wedding.  We shifted into high gear and of course I got some orders for Chandeliers and sold some furniture so I had to continue to take care of biz and while biz has been slow - it picked up - wouldn't ya know it, and we needed the $$$, so late into the night I was beading Chandies, and mr.bh was in his studio wiring em up.  

Once biz was under control, I started with painting the little bathroom.  The vanity countertop was ugly yellowish marble that I painted about 13 years ago and it needed a freshening up too.  The floor was green stone tiles with cement grout and I decided to paint it all gray.  I was unsure how but determined - and figured if paint didn't work - I'd get a rug.

Now that I'm looking at these pics I'm thinking I should add a little color on the raised panels of the vanity doors - yeah?   Hmmm.

I used Porch and Patio paint from Home Depot and got a can of light gray mixed up - perfect at the store, but at home it was too dark so I added some white for a lighter marine gray and it was much better. Phew!  Done.

I used Epoxy paint on the marble sink top - love it, and you would never know, and it takes wear, tear and abuse - 13 years worth.

I used a nice wide brush, and it worked! Much better - don't you think?  

Ok one project down...a ton more to go.  

Photo of the full bath tomorrow - 

AND the Wedding Centerpieces tomorrow...

Every night after dinner we'd meet out on the porch for a much needed glass of wine or a couple shooters to discuss the dailys and plot the plan for the next day.  PS We agreed on most things, disagreed on some things, but the only thing all of us ever argued about was the GUEST LIST. Enough said.

Thanks for not forgetting about me...and if you're here come see our Chandeliers and everything Beach House at the Rose Bowl every 2nd Sunday of the month.

See you tomorrow with our Centerpieces, Candle Holders - and then the Kitchen Sweep Up. 

Marsha

Beach House Bath - Painted White Tiles & Closet Markers

Welcome to my Beach House Bath.  One of my favorite bloggers, Sarah over at a beach cottage, was blogging about painting bathroom tiles and asked for comments if you've tried this before - I've taken the plunge - many times.

Here's my bathroom now after a complete makeover on a tight budget a few years ago.  No before photos - but it was built in the 1940's so you can imagine it was really tired.  The tiles in the shower  and on the countertop were peachy/pink with grey trim and we painted them white - you cannot tell that they are not original white tiles.  They are in perfect condition, they clean up with Windex, and they look just as new and fresh as real white tiles look.  I swear, you cannot tell.  Even in the shower, they're new and fresh every single day.  EVERYONE is shocked when I tell them they're painted.

Built in the 1940's, original heater heats up { your legs } instantly - we took off the chrome plate, cleaned and polished it and left it - why not?

Added a curved shower rod which is surprisingly more roomy -

These floor tiles were in the tile store's stock room - saved money by not having special order - we did it all ourselves - easy enough and didn't take long -

True 40's tub - looks brand new -

This photo - I'm in the bathroom you can see the closed door with a long mirror on it.  The star mirror is over the toilet.

Of course, a Chandelier -

Snapped the linen closet which is right outside the bathroom in a joke of a hallway - and I hope you can see the markers.  Right after we got married we went to Lake Tahoe, where we did some antiquing and junking.  Mr bh found these really old linen closet markers that are etched on mirror backing and we bought them for our "home we would one day have." I was impressed that he appreciated details like that.  

I came home pregnant.

 

  

There's a Guest Towel marker too and I love them.  

In the past, I've painted ugly dark tan bumpy tiles white, never had a chipping peeling problem, even with the bumps.  Our little bathroom had a horrible yellowish/greenish marble counter top that I also painted.  It's been 15 years, and just recently I saw a few chips, decided I should probably redo it, but I haven't yet.  It's not THAT bad.  That was before they made special paint for this so I used epoxy appliance paint.  It worked.

Oh - and I always spray the paint to avoid brush streaks - just sayin.

Now, I gotta get back to applying strands of rhinestones to large shells for Jen's Beach Wedding.

Take care - have a great weekend, we're shopping for shoes and doing some cake testing - thank heavens because Jen and I are starving.

I'm joining the party at Cindy's Show and Tell Friday 

Aqua Glass Jars & The New Beach House Dining Room Chairs

Good Morning -  This old wire rack basket with the aqua canning jars was my reward for a successful date with the taxman, oh yeah the taxman.  

I get so ridiculously nervous as tax day approaches, hoping and praying that I have paid attention to every detail, penny, receipt, check, note, and bill to come up with numbers that I present to the taxman.  And my taxman wants everything in the computer, so that's just hugely time consuming for me, and I don't do it often enough, so it piles up and I do it all in one month.  Every year I promise I won't do that anymore, but every year I do the same thing. 

Now, I'd rather do this.

 So when it's all done and the taxman leaves, I leave.  I hit the thrifts like a bat outta hell because I have at that point not shopped guilt free for a while. Always thinking, "I should be at home doing paperwork and taxes" can wreck a perfectly good stop in.   

So I hit my favorite junk shop - and there were these jars in the rack with a few more on the side, just waiting for me to knock down everyone standing in my way to get them without making myself too obvious or someone closer just may nab em first.   They were mine and they came home with me.

The next day I went down to the Farmer's Market and couldn't resist these pure pure white iris's - in these jars on the dining room table with the light hitting them through the blinds first thing in the morning - it just all feels so good.  This is what I see across the house when I leave my bedroom first thing every morning - 

While I was loving looking at the photos of this aqua turquoise beachy blue glass, I was noticing something bothering me.  Yeah, I'm tired of the dining room chairs.  I've loved these chairs from the moment I spotted them at Sally's - a big wood table with 6 chairs and 2 arm chairs with the little wings that I loved, they were white with french caning, the whole thing was perfect.  I paid $250, covered the seats with white denim - done.  There's a photo of the dining room on the right side of this page - and you can kind of see the chairs in the background -

But now, I'm ready for a change - so I dragged in all the old folding wood beach chairs that I've picked up at garage sales, flea markets and thirfts, and set 8 chairs around the table. 

Loved it.  I like the look with 8 chairs and I like it with only 6 too - and the beauty is that they're folding chairs - easy to store a few extra, and I don't think I've paid more than 10 bucks a chair.

White Roses from my garden 

So I am loving the new chairs - mr bh, my son, and I played musical chairs last night testing them all out, they're all sturdy, somewhat comfortable - I added a cushion to a couple - really really love the even more casual look -

I'll take some new photos of the whole room as it is now, and show you tomorrow - 

I'd love to know what you think of the chair swap

blogged to join rhoda - southernhospitalityblog

Beach House Porch, Mantel & Jen's Wedding Invitation

Day 84 - Here's my little beach cottage - and I do mean little...couldn't get great photos today but I think you can get the idea...

We'll have frames with fabric creating a topless tent { I didn't want a tent tent }to give us privacy, even though the neighbors are coming, market lights strung from the trees on the street to the porch in a triangle pattern, up lights on the trees and a Chandelier above the dance floor.  I'm standing on the driveway which is lined with topiaries that will have twinkle lights in them, and that will be our bar and hight cocktail tables area...

When you walk in the front door, the first thing you see is the fireplace mantle - I never ever know what to do up there, but I looked at some of my favorite books, and checked out some blogs and took all the good ideas that included stuff I already had, and came up with this - it'll do for now -

The pink rose is from my neighbors garden, and the twigs are from the walnut tree next door -

Today I found the bottle on the left end of the next photo - I was so happy because I was on the hunt for exactly one like this one for the marriage ceremony.  It's the perfect old aqua message in a bottle with an old metal stopper at the top.

When we started to look at invitations I fell off my chair a few times at the costs - wow, I really got a quick education in the whole printing world.  It ain't cheap.  Nothing is. Even if you do it yourself on the computer you've got to buy the cardstock and the ink or toner, the envelopes etc. or pay Kinkos to print each side, including return addresses.  No matter how you look at it, it's going to cost - so for us, after we went round and round, pricing out DIY and going to 4 different stationers and through probably 100 books, we found this one that we loved and went with it.  We were thrilled when we got them, and I figured we were VERY lucky to find something we loved for not that much more. No printer jams no ink problems, just order, pay and receive.   For me, A Bargain -

I had to take the photos of the invitation outside so you could see it - the heavy card stock has a pearlized effect that I love, the inside card is white that reflects silver, and the wrap stock is like heavy matte gold that reflects like platinum. 

Bottom left corner says shoes optional

The response card is also white with a little silver reflect -

So, what do you think?

They haven't gone out yet, so you're getting a sneak preview -

Next we're making Beach Parking passes, tagging flip flops, Program fans, wrapping silverware etc etc etc etc etc.

See you tomorrow -

I'm hooked up with asoftplace - check it out, you'll be glad you did -