a girls' night

After a busy wednesday morning, I rushed to the store to get flowers to make all the arrangements for the tables at Kelly Corrigans talk the next night. I over-bought on purpose because I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do. This turned out to be a good thing, considering thursday morning I was not loving what I had come up with and (after spending my morning at our photoshoot) basically redid all the flower arrangements. I did have to go back to the store for a few more flowers, but it could have been 2 or 3 more trips if I hadn't over-bought the first time:)

I had all these metal and wood boxes, as well as an old chicken feeder that I knew I wanted to use, so I just had to jump in and arrange (and rearrange) until I found the look I was going for.

The flowers were finally done and I just had enough time to jump in the shower, get myself together and run out the door to drop the flowers off. Hopefully, everyone was pleased with the end result. They all seemed quite pleased, but, honestly, what were they going to say at that point... I was definitely happy with how they all came together. What do you think?

(did you know I love burlap and twine?)

Finally, it was time to relax with all the lovely shop ladies for some drinks and a little impromptu surprise shower for our wonderful Jen who is getting married in May.

Cheers to Jen and Vance!

Cheers to such a lovely group of women to work with!

Cheers to a fantastic girls' night out!

After a fabulous dinner of bruschetta and sparkling wine, we all went to hear Kelly Corrigan speak at Xavier. She was amazing. Hysterical, witty, relevant, touching, heartbreaking. I recommend her books to anyone. Even if you don't totally agree with everything she writes about, her insights will make you think about life in a new way. Whoever you are, you will take away something from The Middle Place and Lift.

Does anyone else think it is fantastic that Kelly (we are on a first name basis now - I did do all the flowers for her event, remember?) was drinking a Guinness while signing books?

Have a lovely weekend!

Our new bed

The Willows just received our new solid iron bed in antique black today. It is truly one of the most beautiful beds I have ever seen.

It begs to be slept in draped in Matteo and Bella Notte bedding - by the way, the velvet coverlet is 50% off!

no. one prize

This trip to the flea market we decided to play a little game. Everyone had to find some fabulous prize under $10 and then we would have a secret drawing for each others finds. I think we definitely found some number one prizes.

We got a little carried away in general with our shopping this time around and had quite the adventure loading up the truck for the drive home. We only had to stop a few times to re-tie the load we were hauling (I won't go into how krista accidentally tied me to the back of the truck while readjusting our ropes...). And of all the stuff we packed in, we only lost one box that we were forced to ditch at a rest stop. That will make a good story for whoever finds that and takes it home, I guess. It was certainly another fabulous flea market experience.

After a wonderful weekend of shopping the apparel mart, the streets of the fashion district and the flea market, the beverly hillbillies finally headed home to phoenix...