Gabrielle Messina Just a Girl

Weekend Without Mama

 Well, I can not believe that it's almost time for me to leave for Silver Bella!! I'm finally packed.... that's a small miracle in itself. Over the weekends around here, my husband works a lot. So, while I'm gone, my brother and his fiance are coming over to take my role. Adreane, his fiance, even took off work so she could devote all her time to my kids! Seriously, I am going to owe her big time! They will not be spending the night, but, she'll be here bright and early to start the day and here until daddy gets home. Since they'll be spending so much time here, I wanted to make the house a little "extra pretty". I picked up an extra dozen of roses at the market this week. That way, I could scatter a few smaller arrangements around the house as well too. Unfortunatly, they did not have lavender roses... her favorite. But, I picked up her next favorite color... pink. I also was sure to pick up a new Mrs. Myers candle in lavender.Pretty flowers! I placed these two on the kitchen table along with a bottle of French Lemonade. My brother's always loved his lemonade. I also want to make a pitcher of lavender infused water yet....As for right now, the house is clean and the laundry.... caught up. I want to make the few days I'm away, as easy as they can be for everyone at home here. So, I prepared some simple fare ahead of time that can be easily served up for lunch and dinner. I could not resist having some chicken salad on top of  Romaine for myself, as well. I made a big batch of chicken corn soup. That can be put on the stove and reheated in a jiffy. Prepared a few sandwiches for the big girl's school lunch too.  I think these, will make everyone a happy camper. A big ol' plate and stocked cookie jar of everyone's favorite... chocolate chip. Some with, some without nuts. Like I said, keep everyone happy. A certain three year old could not resist snatching one of these babies.  I picked out the girls' school clothes and weekend clothes. Because, "girl's clothes don't make sense" according to my husband. Laid their dresses out for their cousin's party too. And, even though Little Man's clothes make sense... I went ahead and picked his clothes out too along with his outfit for the party. Just doing my job to keep the hubby's sanity. There's plenty of lists around the house too. Who gets picked up when and who gets dropped off where. I'm sure you guys know the drill.

My Deer

 Wow, where have I been? It's been forever since I've posted. The time has just been slipping away from me, here. Almost the middle of November! How I do love November. The kick off of the preparations, the  hustle and bustle of the holiday season and then there's my birthday... which happen to fall on Thanksgiving this year! Oh, and this year, for me, there's Silver Bella also in November... this happens to be my first year attending and just adds to my love of November. Ok, enough of my ramblings. I wanted to share with you my very quick and easy as pie... pumpkin pie project. While browsing the isles of my local Ross, I found this cute little deer. Well, once you get past his oddly large pine cones and the antlers have got to go too!  This was how I found the little guy.
 And, after a few minutes... A doe, with beautiful vintage velvet flowers and hand dyed pink doily flowers. She has some instant vintage appeal to her, doesn't she? I love taking something store bought and making it my own. Oh, and I forgot to mention... she was a bargain too! Don't we all adore those....

A Few Finds and An October Sky

 Hello dear friends. I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend. I know I did. Nice and relaxing. We took in a Halloween parade today, went for a brisk bicycle ride... very brisk, and now, I am watchingMickey Mouse Clubhouse Choo Choo Express with my kids and blogging while the commercials are on! I am glad The Disney Channel decided to premiere it prime time, so I can watch it with them. Big, little fans of Mickey we have in this house! Yesterday,I had a chance to visit the flea. I brought home with me this little guy! Isn't he adorable in his garden of millinery, also found at the flea. I love his soft, faded colors of sage and pink.This picture is really not the best. I did not realize that until I uploaded it on my computer. I think you can still make him out though!
 Found these pretty ornaments. The snow capped ones are my perpetual favorites! I am always on the look out for them in my favorite colors! And I could not pass up that pretty gold and pink one there. Could there be a better color combination than gold and pink? I think not. The glass beads were too good to resit too, as they are larger than any I have ever seen! 

 This is my favorite ornament that I found yesterday.... may actually be my favorite ornament, period.The faded pink and all that detail! A real beauty! 
I found a big ol' bunch of these itty bitty pink velvet maple leaves. I think they were a portion of old stock. They are in perfect condition... and.... I just could never leave velvet leaves sit!! And, take a look at this fabulous sky we had while on our little ride this evening after dinner! Spectacular isn't it? Just more of Fall's splendor! 



    

Craft Room Clean- Up

 Lately, I have really been working on getting my craft room in better order. It's been a little crazy in there so I set aside some time and did it. While I was tiding, I decided to try to put aside the things I will need for Silver Bella. See what I have and what I still need to get. It's so close now!!  I decided to take my train case down from on top of my bedroom armorie and fill it up with with the things that I will be using in most of my classes.  I have put a few empty spice jars of mine that I have been saving to good use. One with glass glitter, one with some new embroidery floss and one with some rhinestones.... Waste not, want not right? Another corner of the train case... love these Pretty Tapes from One Hundred Wishes!   More new embroidery floss. The old stuff buried underneath is a tangled mess due to lots of neglect. 
I think my basket here, will be a little project for tomorrow, perhaps? The sewing patterns that have been scattered about the room found their place on a shelf.... finally. I'm glad that's over with, so on to the next project.

Homecoming Dress

  At our pizzeria, we are fortunate to have a few really great high school students working for us. Their homecoming games and dances have taken place over the last few weeks. I love that the girls tell me every last detail of dresses! That is something that is always interesting to me, no matter how many years I've been out of school. They will also come into the shop for a quick hello, right before their off to their dance, so I can see them and their dates dressed to the nines!  All this excitement over dresses, prompted me to dig out one of my old dresses from homecoming, my first homecoming in seventh grade. I love it now, still as much as I did then. And, really, I'm not sure why I have in all bagged up in the back of a lonely closet. I really should have in hanging somewhere I can enjoy looking at it, at least from time to time.
Pretty and pink vintage inspired details were too hard for me resist even then. The layers of luscious tulle too! Pink, and frilly when all my friends and classmates were wearing dark and straight. I stood out like one of those pink sno-ball desserts! I was always the exact opposite, the one to have the felted wool purse when the other girls were coveting each others latest Coach bag. I attended a Catholic school, where we wore uniforms, so, I had to express my individuality through accessories and the few dress down days I would live for! When senior year rolled around, to I was voted best dressed, not because I looked like everyone else, but, because I was not afraid to be a little different than the rest.
Funny, I was also voted best hair too and now I wear my husband's hat more than he does, because it's just easier than doing it everyday. It matches that felted wool purse pretty well too....   I guess lots of things change. I am the first to say I am not a fashion plate, really never thought of myself as one then either.  In fact, most any day you will find me in a white tee and a pair of jeans with sandals or ballet flats. My new uniform of sorts, I guess. And, as I sit here typing this, my little curly haired daughter "paints" my face with a brush dipped into a cup of water, I can't help but hope my kids will not have the need to be like everyone else, but, rather be their own unique person, through all aspects of their lives.

To the Farm

Following dinner last night, we headed to one of our very favorite spots. A family farm that actually sold their produce and goods to my great grandparents corner grocery store in the 1940's! So happy that it is still there and has not ben developed like so, so many of our farms have been. We are lucky enough to have this wonderful farm minutes from our home.  We browsed their beautiful pumpkins and gourds, all piled high.

But, browsing is not why we came to the farm. 

 We came to pick apples. Some of which I have already made into a Rustic Apple Tart. I could not wait to sink my teeth into a "just picked" apple.  A certain five year old with a new hair cut could not wait either! She had two... in 10 minutes! 
Little Man... with his new hair cut too, was off and running in the orchard! We picked a lot of apples. One and a half bushels exactly. Some for us and some to share with family and friends. We will be back for other varieties too... just as soon as they are ready!  Onto the pumpkin patch, to pick our own of course! Little Man was helping me pick out my pumpkin.
 Searching for, and examining potential, perfect pumpkins.

Got it! 
 She had in her head, her idea of a perfect pumpkin. She took us all on a wild goose hunt for it too! Finally... found it. Perfection... just lying there not even needing to be cut. Pretty sure he had his sister's pumpkin confused with those tasty apples he had earlier. Meet the Pumpkin Family. Daddy, Mommy and our three little pumpkins!        Why was I so hesitant to let simmer go when fall is surely one of the most beautiful times of year? Every season surly holds it's own unique magic. And we found fall's magic last night! 

Silver Bella Apron

I am attending Silver Bella in November! I have wanted to go for the past two years. Finally, this year, the stars aligned for me. The theme is aprons. And, now with Silver Bella only six weeks away, I decided it was high time to finish the apron I started(ever so slightly) in the summer. I had procrastinated far too long on this little project. Even though, I am trying really hard to begin to gather some things for the big event, stuff has a way of piling up at the end and this is one less thing I now have to worry about.  The material is from a well worn, well loved slip I wore as a little girl. The color was perfect, not bright white, rather an off- white and the fabric was already very broken in. Perfect for the shabby look I was going for. I wore this slip every chance I had, growing up. I can still remember the day my mom bought it for me. My brother and I had out pictures taken at Sears and I wore the matching dress. It had a matching corset too! I incorporated some of the dress into the apron. It's the ribbed fabric at the waist up there. Originally, along the hem was some rather wide lace trim. I decided to tear the lace off. I like the look of the frayed edges with just a bit of lace around the hem now. And the trim at the waist was an antique store find. I swapped the lavender ribbon that was threaded through it, in favor of a pink velvet ribbon. The really pale vine detail was part of the slip already. I just stitched some vintage rose buttons on the vine and pinned on a pretty flower in a divine shade of pink!  I think I am finished with it. I was debating on adding some more things to it. But, I think I will leave my hands off of it.  Rosie's modeling it right now...... her with her size negative 5 waist. Well girls, I am headed to my baby cousin's baptism! Have a beautiful Sunday! 

My Halloween Decor

The cooler weather has set in. Summer's shorts and tanks have have been replaced by jeans and jackets. Fall squashes have found their way to our dinner table a handful of times already. Mums have been planted, the petunias are now history. I have even had a craving for pumpkin pie. I decided that since October is knocking on our door, it was time to pull out some Halloween decorations. I really do not go all out on Halloween decorations, partially because I do not use orange in my decorating. So, I just try to creep-ify what I already have. A birdcage with dead roses inside...(any other time of year they are "dried", this this time of year "dead" works better would'nt you agree?) 

A teenie tiny, sightly spooky hand is creeping out of the cage. Maybe the creepier part is that the hand's not a Halloween decoration at all. I keep it out all year long... just not in the birdcage.

An apothecary bottle, was a recent flea market find. Some miniature, faux gourds from the dollar store have been given a little makeover with some pearly paint, sparkle and flowers. 

 I left just enough orange peeking through the pearl to hint at the season. 

A silvered glass pumpkin was a perfect find last year. I have found one this year also, slightly different and put it in the family room. Love this. Sewing pattern flowers are favorites anytime of year. But, their neutral tone, perfect for fall in my opinion. 

Another hand... I was actually thinking of doing my entire buffet in hands. I have a few scattered throughout the house, they seem to be fairly common in antique stores. I thought maybe all grouped on the buffet table they may be somewhat "spooky" .... maybe next year.

Leftover nut cups from last year's Halloween party, have found a home hanging on the arms of my kitchen chandelier, along with a glass glittered horseshoe.

A white pumpkin in a favorite urn, that I got while my husband and I were on a getaway a few years ago, looks a little more Halloween- like with some moss from the craft store dripping from all sides. I usually like to work some faux cobwebs into my decorations during the fall. This year they are particularly hard to find. Maybe I just won't clean for the next few weeks....  let the spiders handle decorating.

Pine Cone Wreath...Woodland to Winter Wonderland

   

    Over this summer, while wondering around our home, or while visiting a park, the girls and I gathered pine cones. I gathered pine cones rather, they were pirates in search of gold coins. By the end of the summer, we had amassed a very large stash of pine cones.  I wanted to use them in a way that our family could enjoy them through the years and remember our summer walks.While in Michael's the other day, I noticed some glittered pine cone picks. Really, I knew I could make much prettier ones, by using glass glitter and would also be able to put the the gold coins pine cones to use. I decided that we should make a wreath with them for Christmas. I did not leave the girls out of this process. They were big helpers, too.

We had a variety of sizes and kinds of pine cones. My oldest "painted" the pine cone's tips with white glue. My youngest very carefully rolled them in glass glitter.

The glitter was littered with some very pretty natural elements! 

I just sort of, nestled them into your run of the mill, pine wreath, making sure to keep them tight and use all the sizes for variety. After all, variety is the spice of life! I did not wire anything, the good 'ol glue gun came in handy once again for this project. Just be sure to have plenty of spare glue sticks on hand, as this project seemed to really eat up the glue.

Vintage bits and bobs, some velvet strawberries, foofs of tulle, (scraps really, left over from other projects were just bunched into little "poofs".... Just goes to show you, throw nothing away.) and vintage Christmas ornaments were added to spruce up the wreath. Feathery,velvet leaves, plucked from one of my very first hats have finally found their home on this wreath also.

Of course, you could also buy the scented pine cones if you don't have coniferous trees in your area. I took some a spray bottle filled with water and a few drops of wintergreen essential oil and misted the cones to give them a pleasant, festive scent. You could use whatever fragrance you wish. Vanilla, cinnamon, peppermint would all be perfect scents for this holiday wreath. It is almost completed, just a few final touches here and there and a rather large mess of hot glue strings and glass glitter to clean. It does seem a little early to be thinking of Christmas already, but the season always has a way of sneaking up on me, as prepared as I always think I am, it's just a fact!

Run, Don't Walk! Simply Shabby Chic on Sale!

As I was strolling the isles of my local Target, I happily stumbled upon a clearance on the majority of Simply Shabby Chic bed linens. I was able to pick up an all white duvet for seventy five percent off! That is one of the shams up there. Pretty ruffles no?

Pintuck details of the duvet cover make my heart sing! The price makes my heart sing louder. Only eighteen dollars! This will be a perfect weight for next year's spring and summer months.

Stacks upon stack of white frills. One can never have enough white ruffly sheets can she? I added three sets to my cart. One for each of my girls' beds and a set for me, of course! These were also seventy five percent off! 

My final purchase is this beautiful quilt. We will use it for picnics, fireworks, the beach and things of that sort. A real steal at only twenty two dollars! It is a really heavy duty, cotton quilt. I am sure we will have it for years and years. Now, I can finally replace the hideous quilt we have been using for far too long! With all these things being on clearance, it made me wonder if they are discontinuing the line. Gosh, I hope not! Now, hurry, off to Target and get yourself some deals!

xo