What I've been up to...

Hello All!

So...wow...it's October.  Were you all aware of that or did it sneak up behind you and whack you in the head like it did me?  LOL!   In the spirit of making lemonade out of lemons, due to the Government shutdown, I have some time on my hands to get caught up.  That's the upside of this experience; otherwise, it's scary.  I'm praying for resolution and hopefully before it completely derails our finances and those of the other 800,000 some feddies along with the nation.  Ok, enough of that and onto the things I've been up to this summer and early fall :)

Jenna and I made this cake:

Why is it special?
Because it's all fruit :)

Jenna found the recipe on Pinterest and we were pretty excited to try it.  It was delicious.  (oh, and the cake plate was a thrift find!)

I thrifted this dish:

and had it re-plated:

I wanted to actually serve in this dish but I wouldn't have been able to in its thrifted condition.  Now it's just too gorgeous to use...ha ha, totally kidding.  The plating was pricey and it isn't something I will be doing for awhile.  This piece is just really special.  I can't wait for the holidays to bust it out for shrimp cocktail :)  Look at the feet:

The dish is marked "Crescent Silver."  Things with fish feet or a nod to nautical, I love.  Like this:

Don't know where it's going, or if it'll get painted but I *love* it!!!

Jenna celebrated her 25th birthday on August 15th.  We took her and her best friend Michaela (on left) to lunch:

The day was absolutely lovely!

I've done a little crafting in between; a gal at work got married so we threw her a "Mrs." shower (considering the couple eloped!).  Her favorite flower is a peony so I made a bunch of these out of Bazzill cardstock and the Giant Flowers Cricut cartridge Shelly got me (thanks Sis!!) :

I spent my lunch hour decorating the conference room and these were left over.  I didn't take any pics of the conference room-- mostly because it's an office party and no matter how cute the decorations are, it's still an office party --LOL-- but I didn't want to forget about the flowers!  I thought they were so pretty.

Another co-worker welcomed a new puppy into their home so I made her this:

There are 30 puppy size wee wee pads, a receiving blanket (don't all puppies need a blankie?), 2 Greenie chew bones, a couple of toys and some gourmet treats from Petco in this "pupcake."  And once I had it all arranged, I wrapped it up like an Easter Basket:

Breaking Bad ended :(

More thrifting...

Hissing black cats!  Instant love.  It was chrome-plated but had pitted badly so when we had the silver plate dish done, we asked about this piece and the guy told us he could do an (inexpensive!) acid wash on it.  It came out very smooth and I painted it with Rustoleum hammered black.

Another instant *love* find!  Isn't he cute?

and he's a bank!

I have also filled the antique hexagon cabinet...like a dozen times...and I can't decide what to put in there!  

The only shelf that hasn't changed is the bottom:

A real Tridacna Gigas half clam shell, star fish, and a signed Anderson Design Studio pottery sea gull that I fished out of a bin at the Richmond Goodwill outlet.

Oh!  Jenna and I joined Weight Watchers.  So far, I've lost 17 pounds and Jenna has done even better.  We like the structure of the Points Plus program and going to the meetings.  We've also been enjoying making healthier meals and thinking up delish desserts (our favorite time of the meal - LOL!) that don't cost us lots of points.

So that's all for now.  I'm linking up!

Elizabeth & Co., Be Inspired Features and Link Party #89
Sir Thrift A lot: Thriftasaurus!

Take care,
Lisa