Celebrating Home Giveaway and Freebie!

A few weeks ago I had an enormous package arrive at my house. The only packages I get are the ones relatives mail after we leave their house and most of them contain 1 lost shoe, a prized doll and a pair of eye glasses. Imagine how thrilled I was to open it and find home decor items (all of them new, not hand me downs) for me! Tamara Denke of Celebrating Home shipped me a few treasures. Included in my box of decor booty was this Bean Pot.

This big family calls beans our musical fruit... and yes we eat a lot of beans. I had to try this bean pot out on the family and behold... our 4th of July feast!

Ladies, this bakeware from Celebrating Home is fantastic! My new bean pot has now cooked rice, beans, and hid cookies from the kiddos... and it's a great looking pot. My baby loves her some beans... did I mention that the pot is just the perfect size?

My magic bean pot is one of those oven, freezer, fridge, microwave, ceramic wonder cookware items that real moms drool over... and it even has a little basket to carry it to a picnic so you look like you belong in a Jane Austin book when you show up to the garden party.

I visited Tamara's website at Celebrating Home and it's full of all kinds of home decor items. A few of my favorite are the dishes... all high end quality ceramic and beautiful designs for the dinner table or to fancy up a plain wall. Oh my gosh, I could go on gushing about the oodles of fantastic canisters and mugs....
Tamara was a sweetheart and sent our family Celebrating Home's Blueberry Sugar Cookies. At least I think she did because after I had 1 cookie they were gone. Not a crumb. My 11 year old had the presence of mind to squirl 2 away for dad and the rest have disappeared. In the words of Rachel Ray, "Yummo!" These are some of the tastiest cookies I've ever had and I bake All. The. Time.

Tamara has an ad here on Pretty Organized Palace and wants to get the word out about the great products Celebrating Home has to offer. So, we're both doing a giveaway.

• 
  
  Leave a comment telling me what products you thought were the
  best over at Celebrating Home and you'll be entered to win this Baked Apple
  candle (Deliciously scented) and another candle that I will be sad to part with
  but happy to share with one of my great readers.
  

Crazy Good Deal Alert.... $68 Dollar Giveaway!!!

If you are looking for an even better giveaway, email
Tamara at CelebratingTamara@live.com and
let her know what items you like and you'll be entered to win this
wall hanging valued at $68 and she'll ship it directly to your house
for
free! Free is better than Craigslist friends!

Both drawings will be held on Tuesday July 21 and winners will be notified on Pretty Organized Palace as well as by email.

Now quickly pop on over to Celebrating Home and poke around. Then come tell me what you think would add a great touch in your home!

Good luck!

Christmas in July and a secret

Dear Family and Friends who read this post,

In an effort to have my act together for Christmas (A mere 5 months away) it has become necessary for me to begin making your gifts early. You see, while I am pretty organized... you ought to focus more on the "pretty" part of Pretty Organized... not the beautiful definition. I'm the one that means... fairly or moderately. In other words: I don't completely have my act together.

Then I found this gorgeous beauty and I thought, "Self, you can spray paint a ceiling medallion... you can spray paint 20 before Christmas!"

And... I can sew trim on to tea towels for neighbor gifts.
And... all of those beautiful memories of summer don't have to be tossed in a box, they saddle up fine with sparkly bulbs and glittery crystals or floral for a fresh earthy winter wreath.
Christmas on the brain already? Yes! Why?!?! Because right now there are NO Christmas parties at school to attend (times 4 kids), No crazy lines at JoAnn's, No sugar stuffed children rearranging all of the ornaments on the tree and I have the time.

I'm uber Pretty Organized... that is- fairly or moderately so, and I'm hoping to make this Christmas a little calmer than last. Why... okay, shhh... I'll let you in on a secret... Promise not to laugh, hate me, or shun me because I've consequently had to cut down on my chocolate intake.... I'm training for my first triathlon. {Konk, gafaw, snort... stop laughing family and friends} No worries though... it's a Sprint triathlon-- those are triathlons for chocolate bingers like me! Race day is December 5th.... so if you visit December 6th and there's no triathlon post it's most likely due to the fact that I drowned mid way through the swim portion and my relatives are reading the will to find out who has the "laundry for 7 life sentence". If that is the case, I'll be in heaven resting, eating heavenly chocolate and watching all of you do your laundry.

House of the Future...

This cracked me up! I give you... the house of the future...


Well, ladies we're there. That was 1957... fast forward to 2009. If you have enough time... there is an extended edition, complete with video intercom and plastic light panneling:) And yes, 1 million guests visited Disneyland in their high heels, dresses, and button down shirts... those were the days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoCCO3GKqWY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVMAeSNZZz0

Back To School:: Organizing Treasures

So, my plan this summer was to clean out all of the closets. We have 7 closets. I have 7 more closets to go. With a vacation coming up and school starting the first week of August, Back to School shopping is pressing and ever more present is the Back to School organization that I need.
So how does a family of 8 win the paper chase and deal with all of the memorabilia? Well, my poor deprived suffering children all have to limit their treasures to a box. They will leave this house at 18 with a suitcase, a pillow, a good recipe book and 1 file box of their lifelong treasures.

Here's how the process works at this Pretty Palace: Each kiddo is given a treasure box for their room. It's unique and about the size of a jewelry box... yes, even the boys. These boxes are for things like MP3 players, packs of gum, prized rocks and tin foil... whatever they want to keep. They can keep anything as long as I don't see it out. This makes room clean up easier when you have all of those, "What-in-the-heck do I do with THAT?!?!"... misc. items to put away.
For school papers, scout awards, trophies and all other things prized and treasured each kid has a box. I use decorative cardboard file boxes that can be found at Wal-Mart. This is my children's lifelong treasure box. They can keep whatever they wish as long as it fits in that box. Yes, that means that they have to go through it and decide what is trash and what is treasure. Hopefully with experience and wisdom by the time they're 16 most of those items will be treasure.

This little methods has allowed my kiddos to have control over their stashes and keeps me sane and organized throughout the school year... well, mostly. Alright, it's pretty organized around here but please don't come peeking around my house around dinner time because it looks like feeding time at the zoo.

How do you win the paper chase?

French Linnens... a phonetic tribute.

Oh ello... dahhhhlings! Eets soo gude to av yew eer at my palAce. So. You want to see how mooch mooney ze Fronch pay for zer tabelcloss? You reemember zees peekture?

Wi. Zees is the $485 tabelcloss zat vill make you frans weep in envy and shem if zay speel zer wine on your tabelcloss. It is called Le Pivoines by Beauville. Zo. Eef you buy zees linnen, you must nevair sellve wine. Wine makies your 'ed woozy.

You like zat linen? Come, I sheau you more dahhhling... Ooo... zee spell cheque ees note too appy aboat my fronch. Oh well, I'm French and that enough. No?

Madam, if you are going to 'ave guests to your soiree, zees might be a gude idea if you are looking for somsing to accent your sweeming or ocean tseem. Love zee stahfeesh.


Een Fronce, vi love to decowate wees romantique fleau...ral pattans. Zees bedding is manifique... no? Wi. Si. Ooo wrong lahngeege, par don mi.

Zees flowairs POP. Preety no?

And... eef you steel av mooney leaft, zer ees a bootiful robe zat goes weeth zees towell set... for only $265 American dollars.

Vell... (cough, snort, choke) AHEM... This here palace is a come as you are, always welcome, not uptight, no worries if ya broke it, hope my 1 french looking linen is CLEAN kinda house. $485 is what we spend on repairing a fuel pump for our 12 passenger van and $265 is ALMOST what we spend on keeping this house 78 degrees while it's 115 outside in the Arizona sun. Still, it's fun to see how much my good taste might cost if I weren't so desperately creative.

No French were harmed in the making of this post... Characters in this post were fictional and any likeness to real French individuals is purely coincedental and highly unlikely given my poor phonetic accent.

Fancy Tablecloths

Well, can you guess which of these tablecloths holds the $485 price tag? My shweethaht friend Nester girl is doing a crash course on fabric so you might want to head over there to hear all about how NOT to spend a TON of moola on a table cloth and still have it look fabulous.

I like looking at the finished product. Isn't this dessert table cloth delicious? It's even ironed... I never iron my linens unless the President is coming and even then... well,.... nope. I'll iron my linens when Jesus comes.

I love a good clean line cloth... these tucks make round look modern unlike the flowing tablecloth below... which yes, I also love.

And... Ooops! How did that get in there?!?! Dinner for 8 anyone? Is there any wonder why I dislike taking pictures of my house? I mean, just to get that table clean took me half the night and the floor... well, Happy 4th of July to me... I'm still working on it. Ooo... but stay tuned this week because there is an empty basket on that table that houses the most WONDERFUL gift a reader sent me. I'll show you soon!

Ahh... your eyes can all rest at ease now. This table cloth is casually elegant... and I think I'll paint my chairs 2 different colors some day because I love this shot.

Spring green... love this fun print. Will someone please tell my what on earth those 2 green egg things are there on the ground? That's a far stretch for photo staging... a green chair, a plant, the Hulk... something besides 2 green blobs.

So which one of these table cloths rings up just below $500? Take your guess... I tell you tomorrow!

So THAT's what it's called... Etageres

I'm embarrassed... Feeling a little like a decor dunce... Readers, please assume that I have been living under a rock. Sometimes changing diapers and living on a diet of Cheerios, PB&J crusts, and chocolate chips creates new vocabulary words for things we like.

For example: That picture up there has been a triangular shelf corner thingy to me for a long while. OR... I might have called it a vertical decorator shelf majig. Gramaticians, gramarians, and homonym police... please avert your eyes... I am not joking.

Thingys and Majigs are great descriptive words unless your trying to read off a measuring tape to your husband and it's neither a half or a quarter but rather, "2 smallest majigs after the 3rd middle size line thingy." Husbands find that vocabulary completely useless and perhaps painful.

No, until today I thought this was just a fancy tall skinny shelf deal. But, dear readers it is not. It has a name and all ya'll decorator divas and design savvy friends are rolling your eyes and shaking your heads in disbelief that I didn't know it.

This fancy shelf is called an Etagere. French? The official definition: A piece of furniture with open shelves for displaying small ornaments. (Duh) For the record... Blogger spell check hasn't caught up with the chic vocab either.

So, now you can all rest at ease and invite your girlfriends over to check out your new Etagere or finally find one on Craigslist because you know what it's called.... or I just revealed my total dorkness today.

Honestly, Did you know that word?

A few things I know...

I know this country was established not by coincidence or chance by because God willed it. I know that His way is to allow all men freedom to make choices and that very principle gave fire to our Forefathers to Declare the Colonies independent of England.
I know the men who established the Constitution were inspired of God to create a near perfect document and that they did so with the thought of our generation in mind... perhaps I was there watching that historic occasion just as this artist portrayed.
I know that this country will remain free so long as our people live righteously and follow Him. God has always been with His people. I pray our leaders will seek inspiration often and that our people will use their energy and prayers to support and elect good public servants.

This bold statement I share with you on the eve of our 4th of July celebration. God Bless America and God bless all of you wonderful women who share the blessings of this great nation.