Fashion Friday: Fall Cravings

Posted on October 12, 2012 by casadeberry

I am loving all the rich colors in stores everywhere – be it home decor or apparel, deep greens, browns, burgundies, and golds are everywhere. Let me share a few pretties that have caught my eye recently:

1. Wool blend coat from Old Navy

2. Cotton peplum shell by LOFT

3. Polka dot top by Merona @ Target

4. Rose bouquet print skirt by LOFT

5. Leopard print cropped pant by Merona @ Target

6. Hooded anorak from Old Navy

7. Celtic riding boot by Etienne Aigner at DSW

8. Wedge pump by Adrienne Vittadini at DSW

9. Stargazer bangles at Nordstrom

10. Lost in Paradise Earrings at Francesca’s Collections

11. Rustic Wear Scarf at Francesca’s Collections

12. Bellini Lip & Eye Palette by Bobbi Brown

What has caught your eye from among the fall season offerings out there?

Insane Asylum sign

Posted on October 1, 2012 by casadeberry

This past weekend, my husband made an awesome sign for Halloween.

Although, considering how crazy we tend to get around the holidays, I might be keeping that sign up for a while

The backing is an old puzzle tray we had, pieces had gone missing long ago but the tray itself was perfect for this project. Steve added plain thumbtacks, then cut out the letters from foam – yes, by hand, I keep entering those Silhouette giveaways but haven’t won one yet – and then glued them to the frame. The first coat of spray was a metallic copper, then he did a wash with black paint so the pigment would settle into the crevices, and finally he added some greenish paint for a rusted, patina look.

I think he did such a great job!!! He has a lot more planned for our front yard but we wanted to share this bit for now.

So creepy!!!

Fall accent craft

Posted on September 24, 2012 by casadeberry

Recently I decided to make a little something something for the bathroom — I was walking around Daiso and saw plain wood boxes, so I grabbed one and decided to fall-ify it a bit.

Two coats of dark brown paint later — this was the bit that took the longest, waiting for the paint to dry — I added a lovely dark orange bit of ribbon I have had for a while. I used yellow ribbon to make a little flower accent and added the year in a cardstock circle.

I had leftover brown cardstock so I made a little tag and added glittery chipboard letters to spell out “autumn”. The filler apples, scented cinnamon sticks and candle were also in part of our fall decor bin, so this was a super cheap craft, I paid less than $2 for the little box and everything else I already had.

So there you have it, a little piece of fall for not much money — hope you have a wonderful week!

Birthday weekend, part 4

Posted on November 18, 2011 by casadeberry

After lunch and a nap, we got ready for dinner at Allegria.

Last year, our friends C&D had come to Napa with us and they’d gifted me a bottle of Caymus zinfandel. I decided to bring the Caymus to my birthday dinner at Allegria and share it with my hubby and our friends J&M.

The wine went perfectly with our entrees and it was a delightful dinner.

Little did I know that our friends C&D would gift me another bottle of Caymus for this birthday – score! Now I have wine for next year’s birthday dinner ;D

On Sunday, we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed home because we had invited people to celebrate with me – the party started at noon and we got home about 90 minutes before that. My mother-in-law had watched the boys for us, my father-in-law got the house ready for guests, and both of them along with my husband did all the food. I am so grateful to them!

I saw something this board on Pinterest and decided to make my own:

The afternoon was wonderful, it was so nice to see so many people from so many facets of my life. When thinking about what to say if people asked what I wanted for my birthday, I took my inspiration from the book that started my veggie garden adventure – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. For her 50th birthday, Barbara asks everyone to bring her a plant. I couldn’t do the same since her birthday was in May, perfect for planting, but mine is in November, and I was guessing many plants would not survive the winter. So instead, to those who asked, I simply asked for seeds. Any type of veggie or flower would do. And oh my goodness, I now have a serious stack of seeds for my 2012 garden! Plus other, very generous gifts that will all come in handy.

I didn’t want to blow out FORTY candles so my husband, helpfully, decided to get four “decade” candles.

My boys had tons of fun as well since they had lots of friends to play with.

It was such a wonderful end to my birthday weekend, so many wonderful friends and relatives. Despite all the whining and moaning I’ve done about turning forty, I know am a very lucky girl.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Birthday weekend, part 2

Posted on November 16, 2011 by casadeberry

My husband had planned a surprise for Saturday morning, my actual birthday. He and our friends convinced me to get up early and “beat the rush” — I am a morning person and I thought, hey, if you want to get up at 6am too, whatever. Well, the three of them were in on the secret, which was a balloon ride!

Unfortunately, Calistoga was very foggy that morning so it was canceled. Boo. Hiss. At which point my husband told me of the plans and I was disappointed but not as much as the three of them, who were so excited over the balloon ride. Oh well. It was a super sweet plan and someday we’ll go up and see the sights from way up high.

Instead, we ended up going to a winery I’d been wanting to visit for a while. If you ever get a chance, you should visit Castello di Amorosa.

image above from destination 360.com

Dario Sattui, owner of V. Sattui, built this castle in the style of a medieval Italian castle, and only produces Italian style wines. You can read the story here. It is quite historically accurate – following modern codes and regulations, of course – and it was nice to see details like the one my husband pointed out; a warming fire used to heat the rocks that made up the walls and then that heat would radiate into the rooms, making them cozier.

This place is breathtaking, and to someone who a) likes wine, and b) is a history addict, visiting Castello de Amorosa was a great experience.

My husband at the entrance of the castle.

The banquet room

My husband chose to have the wine & chocolate tasting. Honestly, this day just kept getting better and better! Our guide, Alene, was awesome, full of information, engaging, etc. After the tasting, we headed over to Joseph Phelps because our friends C&D had set up a tasting for us there.

I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow

Thanksgiving Mantel

Posted on November 14, 2011 by casadeberry

As you might have seen in my silly turkey garland post, our mantel has been de-Halloween-ed and is now ready for Thanksgiving. But last Thursday the boys and I made a little something to add up there.

I got the inspiration for this from pinterest, of course, but I decided to make this craft with stuff I had on hand.

I have been saving glass jars for the past few months, I’m trying to replace plastic food storage as much as I can, and I had a few pasta sauce jars that weren’t all the same size but they worked in a group.

Then I added a band made of scrapbook paper, created the letters and border on Photoshop, and added some curling ribbon. The contents of the jars are dried out corn husks and stems from my backyard.

I think it looks nice atop my dark mantel:

As you can tell, my boys have started to pick off some of the poor turkeys’ eyes and even one of the faces (look to the right end of the garland). As long as they don’t eat them, I’m fine with it The dried sunflowers on the right are also from my backyard, we got tons of seeds, so yummy!

Hope you have a great Monday!

Thanksgiving Craft: Turkey Garland

Posted on November 9, 2011 by casadeberry

I saw this cute place setting craft at my favorite paper store

Source: paper-source.com via Claudia on Pinterest

and I’d been thinking of making a garland with my oldest, so I decided to make a variation of this cute turkey. I had all the materials except the eyes, so that was $1.99 spent.

First I punched out the body out of brown construction paper and cut tan triangles for the beaks:

Then my boy added googly eyes – we thought that would be a lot more fun! I asked him to go crazy coloring with oranges and reds on yellow paper, for the plumage.

Some of them looked silly, and my son said he wanted to make them all different because people are all different

Then we taped the turkeys onto orange curling ribbon:

Et voila! Here is our beautiful, fun, and very silly turkey garland!!!

I love walking into my house and seeing this fun garland that my son and I made together. He loves doing crafts with me and I am planning more Thanksgiving fun – hope you enjoyed our Turkey Garland!

Holidays a deux

Posted on November 2, 2011 by casadeberry

Something my husband and I have always made sure of is spending time together, even during the madness of the holidays.

Even if it is just for a few minutes while the kids are (gasp!) watching a video, it is very important to us to have some time to chill and talk about what’s going on in our lives, what our plans are for the next few days, to make sure we’re in sync and not forget anything in our busy schedule.

We don’t have fancy china or a lot of heirloom pieces but I like to set a table for two with items that mean a lot to us:

The runner on top of the off-white tablecloth was made by my mom. The yellow napkin underneath the leaf and mug on the right is part of a set made by me. Yep, I sewed a set of 16 napkins because I loved the color of the fabric I found. The three little pumpkins in front were purchased at my youngest’s pumpkin patch field trip, and then the boys and I painted them with a clear glaze, then sprinkled glitter on top. They look so sweet and remind me of the fun I had with my boy that day. The ORB-painted candlestick is my on of my beloved fleur-de-lis candlesticks, which I found on sale at Goodwill. The little ceramic holder (you can see it better in the second pic) was gifted to us full of yummy almonds last year, after we ate the almonds I couldn’t part with it

Some hot chocolate and good conversation makes for a nice break – we are lucky that my mother-in-law watches the boys often for us, and we get to spend some quality time together.

Featured at Comin’ Home

Posted on October 29, 2011 by casadeberry

My bloggy friend Donna at Comin’ Home is a wonderful lady. She always has a kind word and good advice, and I love reading her posts, so I was delighted when she included my fall wreath in her recent post about fall decorating.

I love the bottles with the reeds she included and my boys are going to make a Thanksgiving garland much like the one she featured.

Go check out Donna’s post, it has many ideas for fall decor that are easy to do and are sure to autumn-ize your home. Is that a word? It is now ;D

Fashion Friday: at the Pumpkin Patch

Posted on October 21, 2011 by casadeberry

This time it was time for me to join my youngest and his class on a field trip. We went to one of our local pumpkin patches and had a blast. We’ve gone to Uesugi Farms a few times with our boys and we’ve always had a good time. They have hay rides, a train, a pumpkin lab to see the growth process, and my personal favorite, the honey booth. Not to be confused with a booth babe, the honey booth had lots of different flavors of honey grown in the farm itself. I tried two and they were yummy. My boy was less than impressed but I think it was more the texture of it that made him wrinkle his nose.

This morning was super chilly, so even though I love the cold weather, I brought along a knit scarf to keep my neck warm.

Later on it was a bit warmer so I was glad to wear this super light chevron-stripe top. We each got a pumpkin and I bought some small white pumpkins at 3 for a dollar. We were happy to be home but had a wonderful time with our friends and classmates.

Have a great weekend!

Casa de Berry

Category Archives: fall