Creative Juices Decor

Guess what!  We get to do another giveaway from T.Michael Studios!!! Yes, he is the guy that hand crafted my home address from a piece of historical slate found from old roofs on the east coast.  I have been so happy with that purchase.  The service, quality and price were AMAZING. Another exciting announcement is that he was chosen to participate in the Martha Stewart "American Made" competition!   Here is part of his Bio..... "I tell the STORY of AMERICA through my craft..." "Each slate shingle that comes into my studio has a history of its own and a journey it has taken.The slate is individually selected, hand-cut, carved and polished into a new form for someone who will now use it to represent their family and make a new history. Every slate piece that leaves the studio gets a "Historical Card" that tells the Story & History of the building it came from. My most recent line of Slate bread trays and serv...

Almost every year during peach season I have a friend that lets me buy a huge box of peaches and nectarines for 11.00 a box.    Is there ANY reason why I wouldn't buy them??  Of course not.    They are SOOOOOO delicious and sweet when they are in season.  I have canned peaches in the past but, well, it's not my favorite thing to do so this year I decided to make a big batch of PEACH PIE FILLING!         Honestly, you could use the filling for any peach treat.  How about peach cobbler?  YUMMM..... The process took longer than I thought it would (being domestic ALWAYS takes longer than I anticipate) but it's worth it.   Hopefully the photos are what makes a post fun cause this mama was in the picture taking mood I guess ;-)    DIRECTIONS: Brig water to a boil and drop in peaches that have an X scored around the peach.  (The X just mak...

I know, I told myself I was banned from the thrift store and here I am GARAGE SALING!   I hardly ever go garage saling but my brother (see his before and after home photos !) is an ADVID Saturday morning hit the yard sales kind of guy.  He comes home with lots of fun things and teaches his girls how to bargain with the best of them.  He'd kill me for this, but isn't he a good looking guy??  I just took this photo on our San Juan Vacation .  Good thing he doesn't read my blog (or at least I don't think he does)......and yes, he's single or I would never have posted the picture!     Anyway, back to my thrifty treasures!!! (sorry about that!)     I bought the cool globe for 5.00 The rice maker for 2.00 (I really wanted one!) The scrabble game for 2.00 The adorable skirt for 2.00 The amazing iron stand/bowl for 6.00 and the pampered chef circle pan for 1.00 (those are around 20 bucks new!! and we all kn...

In order to do THIS: (yes, the mantle really is that big!  Or maybe my head is just that small??) I had to use one of THESE: But the good news is yesterday I found this one at my local thrift store for $10.00!!!!!   YEA!!!!   You see, I can paint, but I’m not an amazing artist and my client wanted me to do a fresco (a painting on clay plaster) of antlers on her giant mantle. She gave me a plate to show me what kind of antlers she was thinking about.  In my head I was truly thinking WHY does she think I can do this??  I suppose I don’t give myself enough credit, but let’s just say I was totally nervous.  UNTIL, I realized that I could just print out her antler picture and trace it on a transparency and COPY it onto her mantle!!  (sorry, I didn’t take a photo of the transparency shining on the mantle, I had traced it with a pencil and turned off the machine) TA DA!  But the next question was, where can I...

Our last family vacation before the mad rush of starting school! This is the most memorable place in the world for me - the San Juan Islands, Washington.  I suppose the fact that my grandparents lived there since I was a young child may have helped shape that opinion! Nothing beats the adventure of hanging out where the ocean is just a few feet away.   We were always clamming,crabbing and catching shrimp.   I hope your not in for a shocker, but I am a "get my hands dirty" kind of gal.  I can stab a crab, pull apart its legs and steam them up like the best of them :-)   There are many pictures of me knee high in mud and seaweed trying to dig out a huge gooey duck clam for our dinner. Although, I don't plan on posting that picture anytime soon - ha!   On this trip I went up with my extended family and we camped at the San Juan County Park because 16 people is a lot to stay at any one persons home!! ...