Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Disneyland pretties!

Many of you may not know that Disneyland has GREAT vignettes along Main Street. They are all romantic and Victorian themed and they switch things out with the seasons. So I was at Disneyland yesterday! A last hurrah before my spring break was over and I took over 1oo pictures to show you guys! lol I will not post all 1o0 at once so I will do it all over a few days. Oh I loooove Disneyland and their vignettes :)

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Sorry there is a reflection in a lot of pictures because it was really sunny!

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I hope everyone can see the pictures well enough!  I plan on keeping up with the seasons and I’ll try to take new pictures with every season and when it’s changed out. :)  This was just one large window display and a small one. There’s so much more! All the best!

Monday, March 30, 2009

Pretties

I have some pretties that I want to share with everyone! pretties 001

Some of these are old finds that weren’t posted some are new. pretties 002

This little birdie I found at Goodwill YAY! And the little plate it’s sitting on. They match each other! Little blue birdies along the rim of this plate :)

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A while ago I found these pretty jars and the shelf they are sitting on and I didn’t think of putting them together until I came home! The little jars all came with little tags on the nobs but I added the dry flowers inside them.

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I put some doilies underneath them to give them a little more visual interest.

Remember the cloche and stand that I didn’t know what to do with?

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Ta daaa. I put this lovely lady underneath. She fits perfectly :) This is one of the figurines I found not too long ago, at the same time as the little green man and the vase with the French people.

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This is the small dome I found at Michael’s and thanks to Joanne at My Little Cottage in the Making for the great idea about what to do with my broken tea cup! I’m going to disguise the broken handle by resting it on it’s side and then put a birds nest in the cup poking out! Such a cute idea huh? Thanks again Joanne!

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All the best everyone! :)

Sunday, March 29, 2009

A lamp, a dome, tea cups, and more!




I finally found myself some tea cups! Yay! And at prices I was OK with spending lol. I wanted to share some other things also. Like this birdcage! I got it at the Marshall's by my condo in San Diego. There were a 3 different sizes (large, medium, small) with each of those coming in 2 different shapes (square, rectangle)! I got the smallest one in a square shape rather than the rectangle. Inside of the all the cages is a wire perch that in the square ones went all the way across or in the rectangle it crossed one corner of the cage. I thought that by having the perch all the way across I could put a nest or a little birdie something on it. I don't have anything like that yet so I put a tea cup and saucer inside! It sits just below the perch. This tea cup was $15 at 30% off and I loved the pattern so much that I didn't care if it was kind of worn. It has little floral swags hanging from a bouquet. I LOVE it. lol I realized however that it looks pretty lonley and I'm having a hard time thinking of what to do to fill the rest of the space because it just doesn't look quite right. I have found that the perch is limiting because I can't balance anything on it. I am thinking about ripping it out somehow...


At the same time as the tea cup above I found another set! I hung this one on my tea cup saucer display that was empty!

Ta daaaa. It's got a lot of gold around all the rims and it is really delicate and dainty :) I really like this one also and it was only $8. Yay.

A while ago I found this awesome lamp! It's vintage you can tell by the cord which looks way old. I haven't plugged the lamp in but it does work, but I'm afraid that because it's old it will explode or something lol. This is an upclose of the pretty lampshade that came with it! It's blue and white flowers :)

Here is the angel person up close. It reminds me a lot of the Winged Victory of Samothrace.


Here is the statue of the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It is at the Lourve, you walk up these huge stairs into a great big hall and boom there is this amazing statue! It's huge too! I loooove this sculpture, which is why I bought the lamp :)

This cute dome I found at Michael's. Yay Michael's! There were three sizes large, medium, and small. I bought all three haha. Because I originally thought about grouping them together and forming some kind of neat thing. Hasn't happened yet so they are all spread out and covering various things. This one is the medium dome and it is covering my mini cake pedestal and another tea cup! This one came from the Cragislist lady. I put the egg on top for decoration lol.

It has a pretty little rose pattern on it and it matched the bow :) lol.


One last look at everything. There's a few things in the pic that I didn't show you yet but I am saving them for another post! All the best everyone!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Recipe Exchange Thursday

I am participating in Recipe Exchange Thursday on Just a Gal's blog. This is a recipe for Chicken Salad Contessa from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, on the Food Network. I don't like mayonnaise but I love chicken salad LOL I think that is so weird of me. But anyway this is one recipe I really like. I made it for my mom the other day and she couldn't believe that I made it haha. On the website people can leave reviews and I love that about Food Network because sometimes things don't go together quite well. So in fact many people advised to use only 1 tsp of salt and to halve the mayo which I did just to be safe and I posted the optional way to do it in parentheses on here :) If you want to add more you always can but you cannot take it out once it's in there so this is a safe way to try it first lol. This takes a little more work but it is worth it. And it is so much healthier because you eat in on lettuce instead of bread :) Enjoy

Ingredients:
  • 2 split (1 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on (1 1/2 pounds)
  • Good olive oil
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup pecan halves
  • 1/2 cup walnuts halves
  • 1/2 (or 1/4 of a cup) cup good mayonnaise
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves, divided
  • 1 cup green grapes, cut in 1/2
  • Lettuce leaves, for serving
Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts, skin side up, on a baking sheet and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside until cool.

When the chicken is cool, remove meat from the bones and discard the skin and bones. Cut the chicken into a 3/4-inch dice.

Meanwhile, place the pecans and walnuts on a separate sheet pan and toast in the oven for 7 to 8 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool.

For the dressing, mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, 2 (or 1) teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Fold in half the chopped tarragon leaves.

Place the diced chicken in a bowl, add the pecans, walnuts and grapes. Pour the dressing over the chicken and toss well. Sprinkle the remaining chopped tarragon leaves on top, and serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.


I hope everyone who wants to try it enjoys it! I think it is a great think to eat around now. I don't really know how the rest of the country is fareing but in southern California we have skipped Spring and we are now in Summer so it's hot lol! And this is cool and creamy :)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Pictures

I have quite a few little pictures and paintings in my room. This drawing and the painting below were done by an artist in San Francisco.

She had a few of these "Victorian" type ladies and I really like how they were a blend of vintage and modern. A vintage theme but with a modern feel and colors. The one below is an oil painting on a piece of wood so it is kind of random you can't really frame it lol.

If you can't tell... I like Victorian things...and I love silhouettes. I just wish the background was white but it is meant to look like beige canvas. I have always loved silhouettes and cameos.

This is, I'm told, an Italian style frame. It is metal, says made in Italy on the back and has a picture of flowers in an urn.

This is another Italian frame the picture of this one is a group of Renaissance women lounging around in a garden.

This is another silhouette that I love. It's a picture of a Victorian lady sitting under a tree with her parasol and her husband or gentleman caller is approaching behind her with flowers. Sooo romantic :)

More Victorian stuff yaaay lol. It's a picture of shoes! Victorian shoes to be exact. I haven't had a chance to hang it up yet.

This is what it says at the bottom. What I loved about this picture too is that the frame is pink and matches the print!

This shoe is my favorite.



This is a picture I got at Ross yay. It's a shelf of teapots and doilies. I haven't had a chance to hang it up either mostly because I don't have room on my walls lol.

I actually saw a teapot recently that looked like this one.


I love all these pictures they remind of all things romantic. And I just want to wish a happy anniversary to my boyfriend Taylor, 3 years today!

What kinds of neat pictures, and things of the like, do you have?

Friday, March 20, 2009

China painting with Nona Margret

My great grandma loved to paint china. She had her own kiln and paints and when I was a little girl she would let me pretend paint with her. I wanted to share a few of her beautiful pieces with you. My mom thinks that this is a cheese sprinkler/shaker type thing, but it reminded me of the hatpin holder I just bought. It's a little hard to tell because I took this photo in the dark with the flash on but it has four little gold feet.

She signed everything with her Italian name which was Domenica, even though she didn't like her name because no one could pronounce it. So she called herself Margret and those close to her called her Maggie. This is a huge pitcher she painted. Everything she painted had roses and gold. All her pieces looks very romantic and Victorian. She was born in 1912 so I think that style was still very "in" when she was growing up.


This is the large pitcher close up. I think the reason why I love Victorian and romantic decor now is because of her influence. Her whole apartment had her beautiful painted china and other romantic things.

This pitcher is still really large but just shorter compared to the other.


This is a picture frame she did and yes that is me LOL, I was in fifth grade so around 10 or 11 years old.

More roses :)

I think this piece is so dainty and I love it.

This one she actually dated, for a few of them she did that. It says 7-93 in case you can't tell that it's a 9.

I added the doily to make it look more dainty.

This is my Nona (grandma in Italian) Margret. I love her and miss her so much. I hope everyone enjoyed the china painting.