Sweet As A Peach {Peach Themed Baby Shower}

I had the great privilege of giving a baby shower for one of my best friends, Leah, this past weekend. I've talked about Leah several times here on the blog, as she's my best antiquing buddy and we like to have lots of adventures together. We love to antique and our husbands love to golf so we are the best "couple friends!" Leah is maybe the sweetest person I've ever known. She's just a sweet spirit, with endless patience and kindness. So I knew I'd need to put together a shower for her that was as sweet as she is.

I co-hosted with our friend Megan who made all the goodies and food while I was on decor duty. We chose a "sweet peach" theme for the shower and used corals, pinks and peaches throughout the invites and decor. Leah is expecting a girl in April, and we know she'll just be as "sweet as a peach!" : )

We ordered these darling invites through Etsy, which perfectly set the tone for the night.

 

It was an evening shower (weird lighting, sorry!) and was very relaxed and intimate. I set up the buffet as a drink station with pretty paper fans on the wall. 

 

Can you spot the peach rings in the apothecary jar? I forgot how good those little things are - delicious!

 

I made this peach punch and it was a huge hit! If you need a yummy and easy party drink, this is it! I added frozen peach wedges to make it festive and keep it chilled.

 

We served all the delicious food buffet-style on the dining table. The food was incredible, including homemade vanilla bean cupcakes, individual peach pies and rosemary parmesan popcorn. 

 

I used letters from this Rifle Paper Co. banner set to spell out the theme, and what baby Wickham will be : )

 

I didn't think through the fact that peaches may be difficult to come by in February in the midwest, but I did eventually find some at one grocery store - hooray!

 

Love the gorgeous frosting on the cupcakes!

All in all it was a wonderful and fun night. I hope Leah felt very honored and blessed. We can't wait to meet sweet baby Wickham very soon!

{live beautifully}

Courtney

Latest Finds {What I'm Bringing to The Cottage this Month}

This month's hunting has yielded some fun vintage finds to bring to The Cottage sale this week. It wasn't intentional, but I seem to have found mostly boxes, crates and items with typography.

 

But I don't mind, because one of the best ways to incorporate vintage finds into decor is through interesting storage items like old boxes, drawers, totes, bins, etc. These all fit the bill perfectly!

 

The large box in the middle is an antique banana crate. The typography, wood and old red paint is amazing. ($89 - this thing is huge!)

 

I fell in love with the whisky crate the moment I saw it since Matt is a teacher. I hope it goes to a good home, perhaps of another teacher!

 

I am an absolute sucker for vintage black and white street signs and I found a whole lot of them recently! I have two eighth street signs, two eleventh and a ninth street. They'll be $25 each if I can bear to let them go : ) I also have the large C&H sugar sack, a small one and two medium size blue striped sugar sacks.

 

 

I absolutely love the old hardware on these vintage drawers. They would be perfect for stashing just about anything.

 

And last but not least, I found this gorgeous antique mirror. I absolutely love the shape, detailing and de-silvered glass.

 

I do plan to paint it before taking it to the shop. The lines are gorgeous but the wood is a bit tired, and I think it would come alive if it were white or at least whitewashed.

 

I also found this great gray farmhouse bench with a shelf below it. It has already found the perfect home at Abbe's new house under her kitchen window : )

 If you're local, The Cottage is open February 21 and 22 from 9 - 6. We're at 137 N. Oliver in Kechi. Hope to see you there!

{live beautifully}

Courtney

The Finishing Touch on the Dining Room

 

I finally got the dining room wall finished off! It had been bare and lonely even though most everything else in the room was complete. For Christmas my in-laws bought us this beautiful trumeau mirror from Pier 1. 

 

The wall is 100" across, so even though this mirror is very large in scale, I knew I'd need something else to fill a bit more horizontal space. Luckily I had a box of ironstone plates and platters in the garage {the hazards/perks of being an antiques dealer}.

 

I put these up while we were snowed in, so I didn't have any plate hangers. I made do with 3M Command Hook strips. They seem fairly sturdy, but we'll see how well they hold up!

 

Here you can see how it fills in the blank space even from the living room.

 

I'm hosting a baby shower Saturday and I think we're finally ready!

 

{live beautifully}

Courtney

A Budget-Friendly Gallery Wall

 

For Christmas, I asked for several frames I had found at Target in order to create a gallery wall in our living room. I loved the black and silver of these oversized frames and knew they would be the perfect elegant addition to this corner.

 

All the frames can be found at Target, but my mom and I found the black and silver ones for half the price at TJ Maxx. Love that! One was even on clearance for $7.50, which was even better. If you purchase them from Target, be sure to watch for a coupon in the Cartwheel app. I save so much money with this app! {black and silver, black and silver, small silver, mirrored - in stores}

  

While I loved the frames, I knew filling them could get expensive. Of course I could always use photos of us, as prints are pretty inexpensive, but I also didn't want to overdo it on the self-portraits.

 

Since I didn't want to spend much, but did want to keep things neutral and sophisticated, I got creative. I'm sure you've heard all the hype about the Waterlogue app, and it really is as amazing as everyone says. If you haven't heard, it's an app that turns your photos into watercolor paintings in an instant. I absolutely love it!   

 

I used Waterlogue to turn this church photo into a watercolor print. It is a photo I took from our apartment window last winter during a snowfall. I absolutely loved having this gorgeous church as the view out our window in our apartment (and often documented the view in different light/weather on Instagram). It reminds me of the wonderful first few years of our marriage and the time spent in our first place. I love how the watercolor rendering turned out, and it makes me happy each time I look at it!

  

I also have a love of vintage botanicals, so I found a beautiful antique pear plate and ran a black and white action on it in photoshop. Vintage botanicals and prints are one of the best ways to get free art, and I've used them lots of ways in both our homes. Kristine from The Painted Hive did a wonderful post on resizing and printing vintage prints as artwork, as well as a great source list for finding images. The pear print is from here - plate 41.

  

And one of my favorite images from our wedding looks gorgeous in this mirrored frame!

 

I also ordered this print from Lindsay Letters to fill the top vertical frame, but it hadn't arrived by the time I took these shots. {What's in there now is just the image that came in the frame so don't look too closely!}

I love how the wall ended up turning out! Apart from the frames, I only spent a couple of dollars on printing, plus the art print. All in all, a very affordable statement wall.

It adds so much personality to this corner, finishing off this side of the room.

 

What's your favorite way to fill frames?

{live beautifully}

Courtney

Updated House Tours

Hi friends, I just wanted to let you know that the house tour tabs on the blog have been updated. It seems there are quite a few new readers here {welcome!} so I wanted to make sure you knew where to find updated photos and info. You can see a tour of our current house here and a tour of our first apartment here.

We are having a snow day in my neck of the woods! Of course that means finishing up painting projects, hanging art and getting ready for a baby shower. I should have lots to share in the next week or two. Cheers to staying inside and doing some house fluffing!

{live beautifully}
Courtney