A Farmhouse Christmas

We're definately walking in a winter wonderland lately over at the Farmhouse! Thanks to all who came out to our Christmas Event weekend! It's always fun getting to chat with new customers and see familiar faces. With all the sweet comments about the new Christmas decor this weekend, I got inspired last night to create a few snowy friends.

The Handmade Vintage-Inspired Snowman Collection. They will be making their debut in store today! $15 each.

More pictures of vintage holiday goodies to come soon! (Or come in for a visit to see more!)

Radio Interview and Christmas Cheer is Here!

I'll be on the air live tomorrow on Home and Garden Radio on 570 am in the DFW metroplex to promote Urban Farmhouse around 2pm! Listen in for some fun design and holiday tips!

Yes, I know Halloween is this weekend, but it's never too early to start spreading some Christmas cheer! We've been working round the clock to bring you lots of handmade goodies including burlap pillows and stockings with vintage-inspired feel, mercury glass ornaments, handmade book page ornaments and lots more! Come shop while the selection is fresh!

And the Winner is....

Congratulations to Kathy Thompson! She won the $75 gift certificate to Urban Farmhouse tonight! If you haven't signed up yet...make sure to become a fan on Facebook to be a part of giveaways and new Farmhouse pieces. I'm working day and night on new pieces and accessories for the holidays...you won't want to miss out!

Facebook Fan $75 Giveaway Drawing

I want to show my appreciation to my Facebook Fans by giving away a $75 gift certificate with a drawing being held on October 10th! I'm still a "newbie" to the social media craze but since I only advertise with word of mouth, I'd love to get as many fans as possible. If you're already a FB fan, you are automatically entered in the drawing!
The lucky winner can use the gift certificate online or in the store. Click here to become a fan!
Hmm, so many fun things to spend your $75!

The Versatile Lantern....to be used throughout the year

Lanterns have become really popular in the last few years. Just skim the pages of a Pottery Barn catalog and you'll see what I mean. They are also one of my "staples" when it comes to seasonal decorating. Just see what I mean!

1. Halloween through Thanksgiving
Use the lanterns to flank the sides of your entryway admist hay bales, gourds and fall garland.

This year I used a lantern in my Halloween Mantel decor with crumpled book pages and a flameless flickering candle inside.

2. Christmas through New Year's

Fill the lanterns with candles on the porch or even inside on the bottom steps of the staircase. Tie holiday ribbon and ornaments to the handle and nestle a candle among cranberries or faux snow inside.

3. Springtime

Use the lanterns in your spring decor by incorporating bird nests with speckled robin's eggs, bright green moss and garden stones as fillers.

4. A Coastal Summer

Starfish, white sand and seashells will freshen up your lanterns for summer. Try tying thick braided rope from the handles for a nautical feel.

Halloween Inspiration

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I guess the little kid in me comes out! Here are some inspiring images. Let your imagination go wild and use everyday pieces you already have in new ways to create spooky decor!

Pottery Barn takes old book pages and twisty tree limbs to create a vintage Halloween porch scene. My neighbors had just trimmed up their curly willow trees and left the branches out for trash pick up last month. I snagged the branches and used my front porch urn to plop them in.The dollar store has the black crowes right now with wire connected to the feet that you can secure them to the branches with. Then all you need is to tear up an old book and stain the pages with a little watered down brown paint.

I get my fall garland at Hobby Lobby usually after Thanksgiving when they mark it down to 90% off! You can get lanterns like these at Urban Farmhouse for a fraction of what PB wants for them and use them in almost every seasonal decor from Halloween to Christmas through the spring and summer by changing out what you put inside. I'll try to do a lantern tutorial soon to show you what I mean!

So simple yet super chic! Apothecary Jars are also another "decorating staple" that I use throughout the year by changing out what goes inside!

Hmmm, wouldn't this look cool against my gray wall in Urban Farmhouse's showroom? I have an old cherry picking ladder and the crows....where could I get a big vinyl peel and stick tree? My wheels are turning!!!

Love the idea of spray painting tree branches black (and glittery) and hanging little bats in different kinds of scrapbook paper from them as ornaments. If only I had more free time!!! Love the white pumpkins under the console table.

Where can I get a top hat? I must have this. It would also make a great snowman hat for a vintage Christmas design.

I love the idea of using everyday items and making them fit a seasonal design. If you have black and white dishes....try this out.

very cute cupcake toppers....I think I need to have a Halloween party now! Would you come???

This takes the cake for the ultimate fantastical Halloween design. Who else you ask? Why Martha Stewart of course. There is a step by step tutorial on her web site on how to do this in your own home if you have some free time and printer. How clever!

Happy Haunting!!!

Cheap and Easy Fall Pumpkin Tower

This cute little tower of pumpkins is going to remain on my kitchen island as the focal point of my seasonal decor in the kitchen through Thanksgiving. The best part is that it took 2 minutes to assemble and cost a whopping $4.00!

After making a run to Dollar Tree, I found three little pumpkins and a strand of fall leaves garland, totaling $4.00.

Taking a wooden skewer (same skewers used for the candy kabobs at Nikolas' Dino Party), I pierced the skewer through the hollow pumpkins, making sure to tilt them a little so they weren't all perfectly lined up.

Then I just wrapped the strand of garland around the Pumpkin Tower to give it a little Uumph! I chose to stick the Pumpkin Tower in a white footed bowl that I usually use as a fruit bowl.

These would also look so cute in little black urns on a dining table or even using larger pumpkins in your pot on the front porch. Hmm, I have a big urn like this on my porch already...

Handmade Soap...You'll Become Addicted!

I'll admit it...I'm a Handmade Soap Junkie! I never knew how incredible this stuff was until a friend of mine asked me to try some. It doesn't dry my skin out like commercial soap and it smells so amazing.

I love it so much that I'm excited to announce that Urban Farmhouse now has a private label of handmade soaps debuting in our showroom this week.

Handmade soaps are made with quality oils blended with essential oils and herbs and made using the cold pressed method. The soaps smell lovely without that sharp chemical smell and do not contain animal fat, sodium laureth sulfate and preservatives.

Lavendar Vanilla

Fall Apple Oatmeal Spice

Lemon Poppyseed

After reading this article courtesy of Country Girl Gardens, I'm now even more excited about carrying the chemical-free soap.

Why Use Handmade Soap?

What Is Soap?

Created by a chemical reaction between oils, water and lye. soap is the oldest cleanser around. Although lye is used to make soap there is no lye left after saponification (the chemical reaction that makes soap) is complete. All soaps are created with lye. Different soaps are made using a variety of different oils. Both animal & plant oils can be used in the soap making process, each adding different qualities to the soap.

Conventional Soap

Most soaps available in the store today are not really soaps at all, but detergents. Detergents are a petroleum based product, like gasoline and kerosene. Detergents tend to leave your skin feeling dry, itchy and tight. Alkali, the most common irritant in soap is most often blamed for this effect. Other ingredients in mass-marketed soap have been proven harmful to human health and can cause severe skin irritations in some people. These include ingredients such as DEA, Isopropyl Alcohol, BHT and Triclosan (commonly found in anti-bacterial soap). The most common ingredient in conventional bar soaps is sodium tallowate. It is the natural product of combining tallow, or beef fat, with lye.

Tallow processes quickly, produces a harder bar of soap and is cheap and plentiful making it attractive for mass producing and marketing conventional soap.
Handmade Soaps

Popularity is growing rapidly with handmade soaps. People are beginning to discover the benefits handmade, chemical free soaps have to offer. With the common use of synthetic chemicals and studies about their dangerous effects, consumers are searching for alternatives.
Benefits Of Handmade Soap

There are said to be many healing properties of a handmade bar of soap. Those who suffer from skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema, as well as people that have sensitive skin or are hypoallergenic often find immediate relief by switching to an all natural chemical free handmade soap. Compared to a conventional bar of soap, handmade soap is very mild. Most of them are made from vegetable-based oils, such as olive, coconut, and palm and do not contain the potentially harmful chemicals found in store bought soap. Some say one of the biggest differences between commercial soap and handmade soap is glycerine. Glycerine is a clear liquid that absorbs water from the air and is a key factor in keeping skin soft and healthy. Glycerin soap is especially good for sensitive and delicate skin, and for children. Because it is a high quality by-product in the soap making process, many mass commercial soap manufacturers often extract the glycerine and sell it as a by-product to be used in higher priced beauty products like lotions and skin creams.
Handmade Soap Is Good For Your Body, Spirit and Soul

Skin is the largest human organ and is the bodies first line of defense against dehydration, temperature, infection and harmful substances. Handmade soaps give your skin the care it deserves and make bathing a gentle, soothing experience.
In our busy day to day life we often put aside the indulgences of a simple thing like a special bar of soap. With our limited time it becomes last on our list of priorities. But a fragrant, handmade bar of soap is a simple indulgence that fosters a feeling of relaxation and being pampered. Treat yourself or someone you love to the benefits of handmade soap!

Halloween Fall Mantel

It's not quite fall in Texas yet, but with temperatures starting to drop below 100 degrees lately, it must be right around the corner! I decided to drag down my "fall" bins out of the attic this morning to see what I had to work with for the mantel.

I'm actually proud to say I pulled this off without spending a dime. It's all about using what's on hand in different ways.

The book wreath is what pulls everything together for a Vintage Halloween feel. You can get your own book wreath at Urban Farmhouse. This wreath will transition from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas through New Year's simply by changing the rest of the mantel around it.

Old book pages were an impromptu filler inside this lantern with a flickering flameless candle.

My trusty chunky pillar candles serve as stands for the platinum pumpkins I've had for years. Now they look like brand new accessories simply by placing them on the candle pillars.

Dollar Store finds include glittery skulls and black crowes from last year's store display at Urban Farmhouse.

Love this vintage candy black cat bucket!

I also grabbed a wooden planter crate that I've had sitting on my kitchen counter top and filled it with  scrap pieces of burlap. Then I layered in some wooden pumpkins, dollar store pumpkins and an iron jack-o-lantern to create a seasonal display on my coffee table. Again, these were all pieces that I've collected over the years, but found a way to freshen them up a bit this year.

Hope you'll find ways to use some of the great accessories you already have laying around your house this year in your seasonal decor!

Roar! - A Retro-Inspired Dinosaur Party

As my "soon-to-be four year old" and I sat down to plan his upcoming celebration, one thing was made very clear to me...the theme was to be Dinosaurs and that was NON-NEGOTIABLE! I've had some tough design challenges in the past, but as I soon discovered, there aren't many choices for "cute prehistoric lizard decor." I decided that I could make the theme workable with a great color palette and that led to the retro feel.

We decided to have the party at a local toddler gym where Nikolas and his friends would get to jump, run and play dino games with the teachers until their hearts were content. This theme would make a great backyard party, but unfortunately in Texas, it's just too hot to be outdoors in August!

I'm a big fan of home birthday parties, but I have to tell you that the last two parties that we've had for Nikolas have been so much more relaxed knowing that we didn't have to deal with clean-up or making sure the house was perfect beforehand, only to be a mess two hours afterwards. I was actually able to be a "part" of the festivities instead of playing hostess the whole time. The girls that ran the class were amazing with the kids and kept them entertained the whole time with songs and games.

My mother-in-law and I had a blast putting together the special touches that really personalized the party for Nikolas. We started with purchasing this fabulous cupcake tray at Michael's. I had a 40% off coupon and it only cost $12 after the coupon. I plan to use it for a ton of different events and it folds up compactly for storage.

 

I ordered the cupcakes from Sam's Club. They really are the best cupcakes as far as grocery store cake goes. We used to order custom cakes for his parties and they were over $100 every year. The buttercream frosting on these babies is so rich and the best part is that you get 30 cupcakes for $12. Can't beat that!

I made the cupcake toppers to match the invitation and theme of the party in the red and turquoise colors. I just hot glued the printed circles to candy sticks that you can find down any baking aisle in a craft store.

For party hats, I got the basic red and blue dollar store hats and hot glued on a cotton ball that I rolled in silver glitter. My favorite idea that I had seen in a craft magazine, was to take a tin baking cup and use it as part of the hat embellishment.

I made my own soda, juice and water bottle labels. I realized that next year I need to use glossy photo paper because cold bottles sweat and make the ink run on regular paper labels....oopsy!

I had big blue and red galvanized buckets that we use in Nikolas' playroom for toy storage. They held drinks and party favors.

My favorite part of the party prep was making the Candy Kabobs! These were so much fun to put together and I literally screamed when I came upon the cute Dino Gummies at CVS Drugstore. They were the perfect topper for the Kabobs!

We secured these fun party favors to floral foam in big plastic pails from the dollar store and covered the foam with jelly beans to make for festive centerpieces.

These were a last minute decision. I found these gigantic marshmallows at CVS the other night and thought I could find a way to use them on the cake table. I had seem something similar on another party blog but wasn't sure how they got the sugar crystals to stick. Literally 15 minutes before walking out the door to set up for the party, I decided to try it. I dumped the blue sugar in a bowl and red sugar in a seperate bowl. I ran the marshmallow under the sink to moisten it and make it tacky for the sugar to stick. Then I rolled each end of the marshmallows in the different colored sugar to create these fun "Sweetivore Treats!" They were quite the hit!

For party favors the kids got a dinosaur book, dinosaur finger puppets and a candy kabob. The books and puppets were a great find down the dollar aisle at Target. I wrapped them in cellophane and tied a little matching tag on that said "Thank you for coming to my Party!" with a pteranadon flying past.

I think my lil' sweetivore had himself a grand time at his 4th birthday party. I will never forget how fast these years go by and I count my blessings everyday to have such a beautiful, silly, smart and sensitive little soul in my life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEET BOY!

August 28, 2006

3 lbs, 4 oz.

4:21 p.m.