Something borrowed, something blue

We went to a wedding yesterday and it was so lovely!  It had been a while since I had attended one and I had actually forgotten how much I love them!  When Steve and I married 8 years ago, I remember the loads of gifts that covered our tiny one bedroom basement apartment, seriously we could hardly walk anywhere!  But one gift stuck with me, it was simple but elegant and very thoughtful.

My friend Anne had taken a basket and filled it with some wine goblets, sparkling cider, and Milano cookies.  I just loved it, it was so simple but really great to come home too and enjoy a candlelit soak in the tub with the basket!

So I decided to mimic this gift.  You can make it to (very quick, I was pressed for time, so this helped) for around $25.  Much cheaper if you shop clearance!

*Trendy basket - $10
*Wine glasses - $5
*Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies - $3
*Sparking cider - $3
*White Tissue Paper - $1
*Wire sheer ribbon - $2

So I just stuffed the tissue paper in and nicely set the items in, then I took the sheer ribbon and laced it around everything, I did use scotch tape to tape it in places, it was super windy and I didn't want to chance it blowing away.  I also had a couple beeswax candles that I threw in. It was fun and all together took about 5 minutes.

Whispering Grace Note Cards

Each week I thoroughly look forward to participating in the Blog Party over at Everything Etsy

One day we were doing a photo shoot of a family at a place we call the water shed, it is a green park built by the utility company here in town made with natural resources. A beautiful unique place! 

My family was enjoying the area and snapping shots while I was doing the shoot and my five year old bent down and wanted to take this picture, so Daddy helped her! We think these make very unique one of a kind note-cards to send friends, etc. These could be customized as invitations, etc. These can be found in our Etsy Shop

Wordless Wednesday

I discovered wordless wednesday from Just Jingle

Comfort Food

Well our first day of spring was enjoyed by snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain.....you get the picture. So todays menu  included comfort food.  Quick and Easy Chicken & Noodles.  I just threw most of the ingredients in before church so I didn't have much to do when I got home.

In your crock pot add:

7 cups water
7 chicken bouillon cubes
3 chicken breasts (frozen is fine)
1 small diced onion
2 large carrots diced

Cook on high 3 hours, then remove chicken breasts, shred into bite size pieces and keep warm in microwave or oven.  Add 4 cups of frozen egg noodles to broth onions and carrots, cook on high for 30 minutes, add chicken back, stir and serve.  I mixed up some mashed potatoes and served this over tators!!!  Very comforting on a cold blistery spring day!!! ;-)

(note-card give-away coming soon, stay tuned!!!)

Newest Photo Creations

I am so excited to be a part of the Blog Party again @ Everything Etsy again!!!

I have some new prints available that I would love to share, these are available as 5 x 7's in my Etsy Shop MariesCottage but we can do notecards, larger prints, and more at your request!

This lovely red barn was down a very lonely country road, I had to cross two low water bridges (with no sides) to get to it. I love the windows in it, would be so neat remodeled into a house!

This photo was taken by my husband as we were standing in a field and it was near dusk, thus the title Horizon dusk, found in my store here.

On the way home from our photo taking venture, Steve got this shot of a crow at the stoplight intersection, I gave it a polaroid tint, and we titled it Solitary Crow, found here.

And this old storage shed I loved the distressed red paint on it, titled Covered in Red !

I have been busy this week improving and adjusting my Etsy shop, I received some wonderful advice from a fellow Etsian RhondasTreasures to make sure and have Shop Policies, that is something that I had not done, so today I filled out my shop policies to help ensure future buyers that their business is safe with Mariescottage.  If you have not done so yet in your Etsy shop I highly recommend it!!!  Have a wonderful day!!!

Pretty & Unique things

Today I want to share a few pretty and unique things that are aesthetically pleasing to me from Etsy.....the talent that abounds there is just fascinating to me, even the photographing of vintage items is at times absolutely outstanding!

This is an antique Columbian family metal scale from havenvintage. Her shop is wonderful and the colors are brilliant on there!!!! Something for everyones home! I was happy to be featured in her recent treasury

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=119398

April in Paris Old Paper and Roses Antique Ephemera Collage 8 inch Background for Altered Art/ ATC Digital Collage Sheet by Tattered Vintage, their shop has some wonderful images!!!  Click here

I also fell in love with the Five Dollar French Market, I love these candles with the hand stamped french text!!!

And the simple elegance of this little girls gunne sax white dress, I can just see a little girl running through a field of spring flowers, with a crown of flowers adorning her head!  Click here to visit this wonderful shop

And these amazing soaps that are a piece of artwork within themselves. These are called Celtic Clover Oatmeal spa soap, wow I cannot wait to try them, her soaps are amazing! catherinefilippelli

Lastly!

These just scream dainty loveliness!!!!!  Salmon sweets silver earrings from the wonderful shop Lilyja who was so kind to include me in her recent treasury as well!!  

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=119004

Sunday was a day of double blessings for me!!!

I hope to post later today on my weight loss as I said I would, have a beautiful day ALL!!!!

Spring Goodness

Today is pretty rainy, but we have experience some wonderful spring-like weather this past week and I loved it!

I love all the things that come with spring, the new flowers, the first blessings of spring, tiny bits of life peeping out here and there, and the wonderful smells and the cool breezes.

While visiting my mother there were some sweet tiny lilac crocus' presenting themselves and I just had to photograph them.  I am offering them as notecards in my etsy store, but it is available as a print of any size as well!

One thing I like about this photo is the crocus directly under it looks like a mirrored image but it is not, and I love the tiny specks of pollen as well.

Mom has an old rusty red vintage bicycle leaning against one of her trees and it was beckoning to me to take a picture as well.  Those notecards found here

As a kick-off for our notecards within the next week we will be holding a give-away for six of our notecards! Stay tuned and enjoy a wonderful weekend!!!

Simple & Sweet Card line by MariesCottage

This post is in response to the I Made It! Blog Party and Giveaway @Everything Etsy



Well as I have been absent I have been working on a few things.  Weight loss is a "big" thing I have been working on, I have lost 22 lbs. and am very thrilled, I will try to post about my weight loss in detail soon!!

Secondly I have been working on adding my photography in my etsy shop and creating a note-card line with some of my favorite prints.  Hubby and I both really enjoy photography so all of our work is original and by us.

Some of our work is featured in a restaurant here in our town, Neighborhood Pizza & Cafe and that has been really awesome for us!!!

These note-cards are of a rusty blue/green chair, hubby took this one and I just love the colors and everything about it!!!  Found in my shop here: Sit a Spell (title of these cards)

A bundle of vintage lace that is actually for sale in my etsy shop but when I saw the pic of it I just loved the simplicity of it so I changed it to a dramatic sepia and voila a perfect note-card to send with your etsy orders, makes a wonderful gift, or just to send sweet notes to a special friend!!! I titled this line: "Old Lace but no Arsenic"

And nothing is sweeter than a child helping out, holding a handful of bantam eggs from our sweet black frizzle bantam cochins!!!  I title this notecard line "my hands are small".  These cards are found here.

Let me know what you think, we are thrilled about these and super excited about adding more, many ideas rolling around in the brain, usually it's just time needed to make it all happen!! Have a glorious day and thanks for reading!!!