Tag: pinterest challenge

Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge, Tablescapes

Penning a Fall Tableau…

French Ethereal

Welcome to this month’s Pinterest Challenge, dear friends! Our friend Cindy from County Road 407 finds a photo for us to use each month as our inspiration piece. This month we have been challenged to create a beautiful fall vignette…

If you are just coming over from Carol at Bluesky at Home to French Ethereal for the first time, welcome! I am so glad you are here and hope you consider following my blog and my other media channels.

My living room is fresh and clean with the fall cleaning I began just a couple of weeks ago, and I’m happy to share a small corner of it with you today: our lovely library/tea table over by our western facing back windows which overlook our backyard. 🙂

So, let’s get to our inspiration!

Vintage inspiration

I totally love this fall-styled table by Katie Wood at The Cottage Journal magazine which has sooo much autumnal goodness here! Katie’s table is artfully arranged with a double-handled olive oil jar filled with orange winterberry vine, a stack of vintage books, a lovely autumn-colored soup tureen, plus several prettily framed portraits! Oooh, I just noticed she copied the olive jar’s look in the soup tureen with its double handles in a second pass over her photograph. Love repeats in decor, don’t you? Just brings everything together… 🙂

A bit more fall is woven into this vignette with several tiny cream pumpkins and a few fall leaves. Love the monochromatic look!

The orange winterberry branches definitely lend their fall touch to the vignette and set the color scheme. The pumpkins add a festive look and set the scene squarely around October and Halloween time, at least in my opinion.

My tableau

Our vignette begins with finding something along the lines of those winterberries…

I found faux ones at Hobby Lobby but they were a bit pricey so I opted instead for soft autumn flowers in peach and pale yellow paired with creamy pussy willows.

How to Make Your Own Fall Foliage Vase

I arranged these florals in a French vase to mimic the winterberries in the olive oil jar from our inspiration photograph.

A sheet of heavy paper packed around the stems keeps the florals upright (what the cashier wrapped these stems with). I would have used chicken wire but forgot that I had some out in the garden shed. 😉

Pieces of green moss tucked in around the top hide the paper edges and give the vase a finished look.

As you can see, creating a little area for penning a note to a loved one is really showcased with the soft fall colors in our floral bouquet!

I’ve added my signature maiden statue for added height and its soft chalkware hue, plus more whites in a vanilla-scented candle, then a creamware mug of hot tea, play up the creams of the sweetly soft pussy willows.

The little brown jug with its little friar or monk stopper is a prohibition piece which belonged to my father’s mother and father. It plays “How Dry I Am” and it still works! This jug is another nod to the beautiful olive oil jar from Katie’s stylings for the Cottage Journal.

To the other side of our library table, I’ve added a small stack of books in soft fall colors of russet, gold, cream and a pale sky blue. Two fabric pumpkins nestle into the scene just like in our inspiration piece and add more texture to this vignette.

One vintage framed card set inside a gilded frame I’ve had since high school helps complete the tableau. After I began photographing, I remembered this little pewter candle snuffer and added it to my tablescape.

I did indeed use it to put out the candle when I was done. 🙂

The rest of the story

And here is our full fall vignette ready for me to finish writing this notecard. An old favorite story about Hazel the rabbit and her many friends in Watership Down waits to be picked up and read some more. Not a bad recreation, is it? I’m happy with this fall styling.

Thanks for stopping by today, everyone! Up next is Kim from Cottage in the Mitten whose fall vignette is absolutely stunning with her signature blue books! Do stop by and check out all of the other wonderful fall tablescapes shared today… 🙂

Thank you to Cindy for gathering us all together again! Love being part of the Pinterest Challenge crew…

Past fall PC tours you might enjoy…

One Potato, Two Potato ~ A Pinterest Challenge Food Bar
Pinecones, Pumpkins & Cranberries ~ A Fall Transition Centerpiece
Pheasant Under Glass ~ A Fall Cloche Styling

.

Enjoy the tour, blessed friends,

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
crafts, Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge

Create a Late Summer/Early Autumn Wreath from a Dollar Tree Score

French Ethereal

Hello, friends! Summer heat is still with us and fall weather is still a ways off, so our friend Cindy from County Road 407 has come up with a lovely wreath project for us to make and enjoy now here as we move into late summer. Of course, we always get to put our own spin on whatever we create for each month’s Pinterest Challenge ~ which makes each challenge super fun! My wreath will easily transition into autumn, and surprisingly, even beyond. Let’s make a wreath!

I want to say a big thank you to Cindy for creating this monthly Pinterest Challenge. It’s always a pleasure to create or decorate something new each month. If you are just coming over from Diane at South House Designs for the first time, welcome! Didn’t you just love Diane’s wreath decorating ideas? Soooo pretty!! I love the little wreath hung with all the creamware coffee mugs ~ perfection!!

.

Our inspiration

Here is the boxwood wreath made by Courtenay from The Creek Line House. This wreath’s simple style of boxwood clippings works well with all types of decor and they look fresh for a really long time.

Courtenay has hung her wreath outside on her backdoor underneath a covered porch. She has decorated around her doorway with galvanized buckets of what looks like dahlias and dusty miller, adding a whitewashed lantern filled with more boxwood shaped into large balls, and standing a small wooden ladder up against an old grey shutter.

A lovely garden-styled look!

.

A trip to Dollar Tree

I looked for some leftover pieces of a wire wreath form I had but I must have used it for another project a couple of years ago. So, off to our local Dollar Tree I went to see if I could find a wreath form there.

I found two choices. The one on the left above has a grapevine base so that is the one I chose to use.

I pulled off the styrofoam starfish and the little berries and corresponding greenery. I left the pieces which looked like boxwood as I thought I may need the “filler” if I didn’t collect enough boxwood trimmings to make my wreath.

So… Off to ask my neighbor if I could clip his big boxwood hedges! 🙂

To my surprise, his gorgeous bushes which looked like boxwood from the street weren’t boxwood bushes at all…They were hollies!

So, my “boxwood wreath” will easily transition to Christmas, as you can now see. 😉

Here I was halfway through clipping off the new growth and extra bits of overgrowth. Perfect to collect for my wreath-making project!

I felt a little like Red Riding Hood bringing a gift to her grandmother! I’m glad I got a full bag of holly clippings.

Our weather cooled off, so I sat outdoors to create. It was wonderful making little bundles of holly and wrapping them onto the grapevine with twine! (I couldn’t find my floral wire, but this worked better anyway. More natural.)

About halfway done… Did I mention that this grapevine wreath already has a round ring attached?

Oh! And it had a $5.00 price tag and I was okay with that price. However, when I got home and looked at the receipt…

Total cost: $1.09! That’s all that this project cost as I had everything else in my craft stash.

I finished it, hung it up, and thought it needed a ribbon or something… But we had to run over to my mother-in-law’s house and finish up her sprinkler retrofit/planting new bushes project there.

This was the first iteration as I had to come back and clip off the drooping “new growth” and hot glue in more of the older, sturdier holly trimmings.

That did the trick!

.

Fast forward to the next day

I had completely forgotten what the original photograph had in it other than the wreath but I am happy that my version has the same garden-inspired feel.

And I hung my wreath outside our kitchen backdoor under our patio as well. 😉 This was totally a fluke as I just thought, “Oh, here’s a door I can hang this wreath on and it’ll be shaded most of the day.”

(There wasn’t any thought as to where to hang it, honestly. I’ve been on summer break from school too long, lol! My mind has turned to relaxation mush.)

Dappled sunlight invites you to come and sit a spell! Love the reflection of the farmhouse creamware vase with its sunflowers, purple eryngium bourgatii/Mediterranean sea holly and white heath asters.

I thought of using sunflowers as my floral inspiration in this transitional summer-to-fall wreath as they really are the perfect mid-to-late summer flower plus they really love the heat this time of year.

.

Still simple to go with any decor and with very much of a boxwood-wreath-look, this impromptu holly wreath has just a touch of faux sunflowers and a creamy lace bow for a bright pop of late summer/early autumn color with lots of texture. 💜 

Thank you for stopping by today and please subscribe if you enjoyed this post. Up next is our host Cindy from County Road 407 with her post sharing a bunch of ideas for decorating with boxwood wreaths (and this post doesn’t disappoint!). Be sure to follow the links below for more inspiration!

.

Happy creating!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Holidays, Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge

Create a Simple Patriotic Vignette in Under 5 Minutes

French Ethereal

Welcome, friends, to this month’s Patriotic Decor Pinterest Challenge! I’ve created a very simple vignette easily put together in under 5 minutes of which you can recreate!

If you are just coming over from Julie at My Wee Abode, welcome! Didn’t you just love the soft red, blue & white homemade flags Julie made? Adorable!!!

Our hostess Cindy from County Road 407 has chosen the perfect photo from Liz Marie and her blog for us to take inspiration…

.

What inspired me

I love Liz’s wrapped wine jugs!!! As a teenager, I had one given to me by my parents which I loved to burn candles in using it as a candleholder, but I don’t have any currently.

Mainly, I was inspired by the American flags tucked into each jug and those I do have! 🙂 Mr. Ethereal has been redoing how we store things in the garage, and unfortunately, I came across only one little flag.

I was also inspired by the group of three jugs but four flags.

.

My patriotic vignette thought process

Not having any jugs, I thought about using lanterns instead, however, what I did have didn’t all go together. You can see the one grey woven one up on the mantel in the background here above. This would have been a perfect replacement shape for a jug…

Barring that, I chose three statuettes to replace the jugs. Pearls on the large statue add their subtle lustrous white along with the the creamy white of the blue ticking napkin added as a ground for the grouping. The little statues bring in their red, white and blue, pulling this patriotic theme together.

Even though the statues are of varying sizes, the two Japanese American patriotic figurines scream Americana and are perfect in any patriotic decor! I found these last summer and they are post-WWII pieces made in Occupied Japan. My guess is they were made during the recovery phase after the war when the United States helped Japan get back on its feet with rebuilding the country.

I found an article online which might interest you about the United States helping with Japan’s economic recovery and this quote is from it:

After World War II, the United States also understood the strategic importance of using foreign assistance and other tools to aid and rebuild post-war Japan. Between 1946 and 1952, Washington invested $2.2 billion — or $18 billion in real 21st-century dollars adjusted for inflation — in Japan’s reconstruction effort. 

US News & World Report

Next, I needed something to hold a flag since neither of the figurines has a vase attached. I chose a small milk bottle found at Magnolia Market a few years ago to hold our Stars & Stripes! The dried pinkish-red gomphrena are an added bonus and were already in place.

.

Adding a white candle in its glass vase brings in more of the white in our red, white & blue theme, while adding my favorite maiden statue gives the height needed as a replacement for which the three wine jugs had in the inspiration piece.

And that’s my patriotic vignette which was literally pulled together in 5 quick minutes! I hope this has inspired you to look around your home for items that you can round up to create a patriotic tableau for your upcoming 4th of July holiday table.

Next we have Laura from Everyday Edits sharing her American Flag door basket. I know you will love it as much as I do! As always, thank you to Cindy for creating our monthly challenge!! Enjoy visiting the other 13 friends on today’s Pinterest Challenge tour!!! Thirteen friends, thirteen colonies… You gotta love the Americana theme!!! 😉

Enjoy this patriotic tour, friends,

Barb 🙂

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Pinterest Challenge, Tablescapes

Creating a Garden Themed Tablescape to Usher in Summer

French Ethereal

It’s the fourth Tuesday of the month and it’s Pinterest Challenge time, my friends!! This month Cindy of County Road 407 has chosen a beautiful tablescape decor from a dear friend whom we lost a couple of years ago now, Michelle from The Painted Hinge. I am honoring her memory, too, as we also honor our fellow servicemen and women this month on Memorial Day…

Entryway Ideas to Spring into Summer

If you are just coming over from Laura at Everyday Edits, welcome! I don’t really have an entryway as you are immediately into my family and living rooms upon entering our home, so…

I chose to focus on the sideboard idea with my tablescape for this month’s challenge.

I love this photograph of Michelle’s antique sideboard decorated with a garden theme. All the ceramic pots with fresh basil, cilantro and a bunch planted with violas and pansies! Adorable!!

Some pots are also filled just with sphagnum moss. So love the card file creating little planting pockets!

I also love the neutral color palette.

Entryway Ideas to Spring into Summer

Here is another closer look at her tablescape ~ so many things to catch your eye!!!

***

What I pulled for my decor interpretation

Well, let’s look at what I don’t have: no vintage scale, no wire strawberry baskets, nor a card catalog file (though it’d be a great addition, especially now that I work in a school library!).

I do have books and little things for risers. I chose some wood rounds and a small concrete pilaster for my tableau.

I also chose the one little drawer that I do have as a holder for seed packets. This drawer was accidentally left out of a small desk we sold and which used to be in my daughter’s bedroom. It fit perfectly between the two trundle beds she had in her room at the first house we owned in California.

We replaced that vintage desk with a larger more contemporary one as she grew into a teenager.

For my table, I began with a large tobacco basket, then began layering with all the things I’d see out in my garden.

I love a neutral color pallet, tooThe teacups are what I’d take out to the garden, lol! 😉

My passion, my style

On the left side of this tablescape, I’ve set up my maiden statuette with a little French mask and those two teacups. She wears pearls because pearls are something I enjoy wearing.

Adding wood elements like the inspiration piece

When we were first married and lived aboard Camp Pendleton, California, I found this long coffee table at the base thriftshop where I worked. I sanded it all down and had new legs put on it turning it into a sofa table. It is a Danish maple piece from the 1940’s which had a horrible finish on it before, but now that it has this light stain on it and has been waxed much over the last 30+ years, it is a favorite piece of furniture of mine!

It’s so nice having this large wood piece already as it brings a lot to the table (forgive the pun!). 😉

Having the small wood drawer plus the painted wood tobacco basket also add their own rustic wooden touches.

I planted up two pink begonias in the glazed pot so this becomes my greenery.

The tiny bits of blue in the flowers of the chintzware teacup add the final nod to the upcoming patriotic holiday. 🙂

***Please forgive the mess in the background. I am still working on creating a slipcover for that green plaid wingchair. I changed my mind mid-project which is why it isn’t finished. An upcoming post! 😉

And that is my small tablescape, friends! Simple, elegant, me… Thank you so much for visiting today and I hope you will consider subscribing. I don’t pitch myself very often but I guess I should do that a little more. 😉

Summer is almost here, friends!! Let’s take a look at the table Carol from Bluesky at Home has created for you! I know it’s going to be good. <3

Everyone’s links are below for you to come back to as needed.

Big hugs from North Texas!!!

Enjoy!

Barb 🙂

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge

A Spring Basket for Our Shed Door

French Ethereal

Happy Pinterest Challenge Tuesday, friends! I missed the cutoff for this month’s official Pinterest Challenge with Cindy of County Road 407 and friends, but I thought I’d share my post with you as if I were with the main group anyway…

The challenge this month was to create a spring door basket and I immediately thought of creating one for our shed’s entry door. I love its nine lights ~ so similar to the window panes here from the post Simple Front Door Decorating Ideas by Karen from Sanctuary Home Decor.

The basket Karen created here has blush peonies combined with deeper pink tulips, dusty miller and what looks to be fresh eucalyptus leaves ~ really beautiful!

Realistic faux blooms

For this basket arrangement, I chose four soft pink rose buds in place of the inspiration photo’s tulips. For the peonies, I used several shades of faux pink rose blooms plus dried baby’s breath and eucalyptus sprays.

These realistic blooms came from Ralph’s, a local grocery store near where we lived in Murrieta, California. These blossoms even have realistic thorns which are poky just like the real thing along their stems! They were the perfect choice to take the place of peonies, plus, they fit in with my style.

Adding a sweet sign was the cherry on the top. 🙂

Just planted ~ one Proven Winners Supertunia Vista Bubblegum! Eventually, it will more than take over this pot.

That’s my version of this month’s challenge!

I wish we hadn’t been so busy with car troubles, two IOOF meetings last week, a dog who wakes up every night (seven times last night… 2 1/2 hours I was awake) making me a groggy human during the day… I would have remembered to shoot these photos a lot sooner and make the cut-off! Oh, well! Next time. 😉

Enjoy the big tour, friends. I’ll link over to Cindy’s blog for everyone on the tour. <3

Big spring hugs to you,

Barb 🙂

Gardening, Holidays, Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge

Two Spring Chair Ideas to Inspire!

French Ethereal

Welcome, dear friends!! This month’s Pinterest Challenge has us creating a fun Easter-time Spring Chair. Yes, a chair ~ totally fun and unexpected! Our host and friend Cindy from County Road 407 has found a really fun idea from Jamie at Anderson + Grant!

Our inspiration ~ what I see

Welcome to everyone coming over from Michelle at Thistle Key Lane for the first time! Isn’t this beautiful antique chair so pretty with this gorgeous woven harvest basket filled with tulips, a sweet rabbit scouting the scene, and a soft white afghan cascading out of the basket and over the chair Lovely!

I loved it so much that I thought It’d be fun to create a couple of spring chair ideas to inspire you in your springtime decorating.

Love Cindy’s springtime Pinterest Challenge graphic!

I shot these photos with my cell phone so they are a bit fuzzy and I apologize for that. Since then, I’ve shot only with my Canon. 🙂

My first Spring Chair & Basket

I began this sweet vignette with a Longaberger cake-carrying basket set onto a chair I bought from my longtime friend Kathy. I recovered it with fabric from a dress I wore back in the late 1980’s to one of my brother’s weddings. I filled this basket with a small glass cake plate used as a riser for Momma & Baby rabbit.

Nestled in with our rabbits, I’ve scattered some soft green shredded paper used as Easter grass, glossy bright plastic Easter eggs, and a spring bouquet of mums and other flowers my husband just bought me! He’s a keeper… 🙂

The last thing I added was a lace curtain I hang up in our bedroom every year for summertime. I love its softness plus it added dappled light. Here this curtain adds its softness and texture to the scene!

Now let’s check out our second Spring Chair out in the Garden!

Our garden

Over the past four seasons, I have worked really hard creating small planting beds around one of our backyard oak trees, under the primary bedroom window and out here along the edging of the western and southern fencing.

This spot is against our new garden shed/greenhouse (how I am using it) and faces south.

Let’s check out Chair #2!!

Since my roses aren’t in bloom yet, I brought out some dried roses and set them inside our flower girl’s basket.

This outdoor spring basket vignette has lots of texture

This chair came as a set with a small end table we picked up at last summer’s end-of-summer sales. I call it my Titanic chair…

All of the dried florals add their own special fluffiness and refinement…

The sun was rapidly going down when I came out to film after school last week. It had rained the day before so everything was fresh and clean! And here is our second chair.

One of our cement rabbits came out to play, too. A little nod to Jamie’s sweet cement rabbit! In the background, one of our David Austin climbing roses is being trained upwards on jute twine. Fingers crossed it grows more canes on the other side!

The vintage tablecloth takes the place of the white afghan in the inspiration photograph. Sorry the whites are blown out. I had some trouble getting the light balance correct while photographing.

And those are my two second chairs for today’s challenge. 🙂 I hope you’ve enjoyed both of these chair stylings! If you like what you see, please consider subscribing to my blog and following French Ethereal on my other platforms. Thank you for stopping by! <3

Up next is Niky from The House on Silverado and her green vintage chair looks absolutely adorable with its floral bouquet and sweet rabbit! Please see below for links to visit everyone on today’s tour.

Happy spring, friends!

Barb 🙂

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Gardening, Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge, Tablescapes

A Spring Garden Lantern + A Little Story…

French Ethereal

Hoppy 4th Tuesday, dear friends! Our friend Cindy of County Road 407 has challenged us to create a Spring Lantern for this month’s Pinterest Challenge, and boy do we have cuteness inspiration ideas on overload for you…

Welcome, everyone! If you are coming over from Carol at Bluesky at Home for the first time, an extra big welcome!! For anyone who has never been to one of our Pinterest Challenges, Cindy finds a photograph for us to recreate in our own way, and we run with the idea.

Ann from On Sutton Place has created our inspiration tablescape this time. She has used a couple of white lanterns filled with coconut fiber bunnies, some easter grass, and a sweet pitcher of pussywillows. I personally love all the white!

How did I begin my Spring Lantern?

I began by sorting through my box of spring decor, of course! I looked at everything and pulled some things out and put others back.

I went to Hobby Lobby looking for an new lantern but they weren’t on sale, and I just didn’t want to spend a lot. So, I pulled out the lantern I used in a previous Pinterest Challenge to use again. 🙂

I didn’t come home with a new lantern from the store; however, I DID come home with these cute flower-strewn Easter eggs, some fun paper carrots, and a new vintage-looking sign!

Love ’em!!!

So, I set down this grey tobacco basket and began tucking in shredded green grass, then I added a tree cut as a base for my lantern, and picked a bunny and the whole lot of Easter Eggs to put inside the lantern…

That’s when a story popped into my head:

The Story ~ BunBun’s Jam

BunBun, our sweet little girl, busied herself bringing in Easter eggs to fill her glass lantern garden greenhouse. She worked diligently and swiftly prepping for the year’s early morning Easter delivery of eggs to good little girls and boys of the town.

She was so busy bringing in all of these freshly painted eggs, tucking them here and there inside that lantern greenhouse, she didn’t think about how she was going to get herself back out the door again once those eggs were all indoors…

All of a sudden, BunBun realized that she was stuck! Poor little bunny…

What was she going to do? She’d really gotten herself in a pickle this time.

Meanwhile, her friends were busy outside…

Ducky and Princess Chicky-Poo were busy with spring gardening. They were planting more carrot seeds, seeing that the fall-planted ones had grown so well (and they were still picking those delicious carrots to eat!).

The rabbits were busy setting out spinach starts, a few chive seeds, as well as some daisy and Texas bluebonnet seeds for future picking! The rabbits especially love purple flowers for their dining table bouquets!!!

Looking up and hearing BunBun’s muffled voice and seeing her tap-tapping on the glass, they quickly realized her predicament. The group thought swiftly and hatched a plan. They would lift one corner of the glass lantern so their friend could slip underneath without disturbing the carefully placed eggs.

“Okay, on three!” shouted Ducky to the others. “One, two, three!!!” Everyone grunted a bit while paws and palmate feet slowly lifted the lantern side skyward.

As the glass house was tilted up, BunBun slid down and underneath. She was free! Cheers arose from this gaggle of friends! Everyone hugged BunBun, and she hugged and thanked each friend in turn.

They celebrated BunBun’s release with a cream tea and, of course,…

a slice of carrot cake. :)’

*****

Thanks for stopping by, friends! If you haven’t subscribed to FE, I’d love it if you do. We swing back up to Cindy at County Road 407 next and I know you will love her lantern idea!! And please stop by all of our friends and check out what everyone has created for you.

Big spring hugs from North Texas,

Barb 🙂

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Holidays, Pinterest Challenge, Recipes

A Rosy Valentine’s Cake to Bake

French Ethereal

Happy Almost Valentine’s Day, dear friends! If you are coming over for the first time from Carol’s place ~ Bluesky at Home, welcome to my blog, French Ethereal! Our host Cindy from County Road 407 has graciously allowed me to jump in last minute. I had Covid over the past couple of weeks and so happily I feel great now (those vaccines DO work!). I was excited when Cindy gave us our assignment this month to create a simple Valentine’s Day recipe.

Here is mine…

Yes, I used one box cake recipe and it turned out moist, chocolatey and delicious!!

I do make a lot of scratch cakes but this time it was all about making it easy! When we get so busy with life, a simple box cake is the easy way out, my friends.

Just like the box cakes my mother used to bake during my childhood, and I’d sometimes make for my own family, these are basically NO FAIL Betty Crocker and others are tried and true.

Easy peasy, as Cindy herself likes to say!

This baking center is inside our kitchen island. Ever since our first house, I’ve loved putting all of our baking things in one area! So convenient. How about you? Where do you store your baking goodies? What do you put in your kitchen island?

Which cake pan to use?

I have 8″ heart-shaped pans, which I have used in the past, and I have smaller heart-shaped tart tins, too. However, I thought it would be beautiful and fun to our rose bundt pan.

All of the years I was in the Victorian Tea Society in Riverside County, California, I had a couple of friends who had rose pans and their cakes looked so chic when dessert was served.

I was soooo excited when I found one a couple of years ago! It really turns out a stunning cake.

Just spray baking spray all over the inside, add some flour inside and tap it all around and into the grooves of the pan. Dump the excess flour out, bake at the prescribed temperature, and after 42 minutes baking in the oven, this cake was done!

And that’s all there is to this Rosy Valentine’s Cake! If you are starting here with me, we circle back up to Cindy at County Road 407. I know you will love Cindy’s Valentine’s Day extremely cute cherry pastry envelopes recipe idea! Adorable!!! <3

Don’t forget to follow the trail of posts below to see all the great recipes from today’s participants. Lots of fun ideas to create!!

More fun Valentine’s posts to enjoy…

If you’d like to check out some of my past Valentine’s ideas, here are a few to enjoy…

A Rosy Valentine’s Day Tea
A French Valentine’s Tablescape Set with Love
Happy Valentine’s Spot of Tea Alfresco

Happy touring, dear friends!

Barb 🙂

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Holidays, Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge, Tablescapes

Pumpkins, Pinecones & Cranberries ~ A Fall Centerpiece

French Ethereal

Happy Tuesday, dear friends! It’s the fourth Tuesday of the month and you know it’s all about our monthly Pinterest Challenge. If you are coming over from Carol at Bluesky at Home, welcome! This month Cindy of County Road 407 has picked cranberries as our theme. I thought about making something yummy, but then I thought maybe I’d make a beautiful fall centerpiece…

Our inspiration piece comes just from a beautiful photograph Cindy has chosen and we were given free rein to do anything we were inspired to create, bake or decorate!!! I love themes like this as we can go with whatever feels natural to us.

Love love love Cindy’s new PC logo!!!

I hadn’t shared many fall posts this season, between work and meetings, I’ve been very busy with IOOF events (fundraisers) and spending time with my mother-in-law. It is nice to create something beautiful for fall and have it be an inspiration starting point for you! 🙂

Transitional Fall Centerpiece Basket

I’ve chosen to make a fall centerpiece using pinecones, pumpkins and cranberries. As I was heading to bed one evening, that phrase popped into my head and I got up to write it down (so I wouldn’t forget). I am really excited to share it with you!

I think this centerpiece basket makes the perfect transition between early fall’s pumpkin-y oranges to Thanksgiving time and beyond.

Here’s what I pulled from around the house and purchased to make this basket:

  • a rattan basket from my collection
  • three mini pumpkins from outside our front door
  • pinecones in various shapes and sizes
  • a wood round as a lift
  • a fall candle
  • wire cutting pliers
  • a cranberry spray from Hobby Lobby (cranberries have little “stars” on their tops when they are picked fresh from the fields)

Beginning the arrangement. Wing chair re-covering project in the background.

I began by putting in pinecones in the traditional Christmas tree shape (the usual ones) and some of the elongated ones I saved from visiting Georgia several years ago when I went to High Point Market.

I found the elongated ones at Biltmore Estate, actually.

Next, I added in the little pumpkins I pulled in from out front ~ you’ve seen these guys already in last month’s Fall Front Porch challenge ~ and layered them around the candle.

Love these little pumpkins!

I bought three sprays of large cranberries but only needed one. I used a pair of wire cutters to cut off pieces with a length of stem to tuck in between the pinecones.

This was fun because you can put as much or as little as you like! Since I used (1) candle, (3) pumpkins, it seemed logical to use (5) small sprays of cranberries. Odd numbers always work well in decorating, don’t you think?

Let the decorating fun begin!

Then it was time to decorate the table. I brought in some books with fall colored covers, dark pink mums in their nursery pot from outside, and a small capital with two ceramic figurines who are also dressed for autumn.

And that’s how I chose to use cranberries in my transitional fall centerpiece. I hope you like it!

Next, we swing back up to Cindy from County Road 407. I know you will enjoy the festive autumn garland Cindy has created with cranberries! You’ll find everyone’s posts linked below to come back to visit.

Happy fall decorating, friends,

Barb 🙂

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge

Front Porch Fall Fix-Up ~ Two Ways!

French Ethereal

Welcome to this month’s Pinterest Challenge, friends! Our host Cindy of County Road 407 has picked a wonderful porch for us to use as our inspiration. Our photograph comes from Rachel and Kevin Quenzer at Sugar Maple Farmhouse…

Fall front porch decor and inspiration

Fall Front Porch Decor Inspiration

If you are just coming over from Laura’s at Everyday Edits, isn’t her porch pretty with all of its pumpkins?? Love it!! I personally have been sooo looking forward to this one (PC) as even though our front porch is small, it’s big on heart! And with the end-of-season sales, Mr. Ethereal and I picked up a new set of all-weather wicker including two chairs with back pillows and cushions in a soft teal, matching ottomans, plus a small table to set in between.

But first let’s talk about today’s challenge, shall we?

Taking a good look at our inspiration photo, Rachel and Kevin have several pieces of:

  • warm wood-toned furniture
  • throw rugs and pillows with stripes and nubby textures
  • shocks of corn stalks and potted fall flowers
  • and, of course, a massive amount of cream and orange pumpkins!

2019 ~ 3 Easy Steps to Decorate a Front Porch for Fall

Here is how our front porch looked the first fall after we had moved in. I’ve been feeling pumpkin stacks for a couple of years now, but this year I think we will change things up a bit!

Look #1 – Our Fall Front Porch

I’ve made a big change to our front porch wrought iron chair since last fall by painting it! So this is Look #1, with just a simple pumpkin displayed on this chair. Striking all on its own!

Loving this!

Here in North Texas, pumpkins are just becoming available, so I used only a sprinkling of Baby Boo pumpkins and the one big Connecticut Field pumpkin on our front porch. Mr. Ethereal picked this big guy up at Costco for me. He’s a keeper! <3

Here’s our first look in full! The basket of little Baby Boos wasn’t in place yet but you will see them in just a couple of photos… 🙂

These urns are planted with yellow lantana (2 plants this side, 3 in the other), blue lobelia (1 each planter) and three pink pentas in each. Loving this color combination!

The flowers I’ve used are both real and faux. From a YouTube gardener I follow, I learned a basic rule of thumb when gardening is to plant flowers, perennials and shrubs which bloom in blues, pinks, yellows and orange. I think I’ve ticked all the boxes here colorwise!

When I arrived home from work last Friday evening, a small Carpenter bee was hovering by my front door. Guess he liked this color combination, too!!

Look #2 – Our Fall Front Porch now

Just by changing out the chair, we have a whole new feel to the front porch! The teal of the pillow and cushion on the new all-weather wicker chairs brings out the blues in the two lobelias, making them much more visible now in the planters. We found this set of two wicker chairs (my Titanic chairs!), two matching ottomans and a small round table combination as a great end-of-season buy at Lowe’s! 🙂

Simply changing out the chair really gives a whole new look to our front porch. Adding a soft throw brings a little more of a fall look as well as a bit of the soft carpet look from our inspiration photo. That’s my fall front porch two ways, friends!!

Now let’s check out Carol’s from Bluesky at Home. I know you are going to love how her porch turned out! Thank you for visiting today and I hope you will visit everyone on today’s tour. <3

Happy fall, y’all,

Barb 🙂

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter