Monthly Archives: November 2011

Nov30

“Christmas Decorating With Lauren” Ruffle Tree Skirt

Posted on by
Standard

Top of the morning to ya! I’m having a wonderful Wednesday morning, hope you are too.  I was looking through some old pictures and found this one of our first Christmas tree.

This was when we lived in our apartment.  Ahh, I love those memories.

Today, I’m going to share a tutorial with you that I can’t fully lay claim to.  I found this tutorial on Miss Mustard Seed’s blog and tried it for myself.  I have never owned an official tree skirt before this year but have always used a Saree Joel bought me while he was in India.  So, I super excited about this tree skirt and I have to say I think I created one of the cutest ruffle tree skirts San Marcos, Texas has ever seen!  It reminds me of lingerie from the 1920′s!  I do have to warn you if you plan on making a ruffle tree skirt set aside 3-4 hours because it is pretty time consuming.

I put my own spin on it, instead of using all one material like Linen, I alternated with burlap, lace and scraps of material I already had.

If you don’t have scraps of material and want inexpensive material, you can buy a twin size flat sheet from Wal-mart.

Here is the link to the tutorial on Miss Mustard Seed’s blog.  Enjoy!

DECORATING TIP: Choose a color scheme for your tree and use that to determine the ornaments you use.  Hang unconventional items like I did with an old spur or antique door hardware.  I made sure these items kept with the style and color scheme for my tree.

With love,
Lauren

Nov29

“Christmas Decorating With Lauren” Vintage Photo Ornaments

Posted on by
Standard
“Christmas Decorating With Lauren” Vintage Photo Ornaments

Ok here we go! I’m so excited to share this series with you.  This series will consist of tutorials for simple holiday decorations and some of my holiday decorating secrets.  Today I will show you how I made my vintage photo ornaments.  It is super simple and I just love the way it looks in my tree.

You will need:

wire christmas tree hooks
small clothes pins (from Hobby Lobby)
vintage photos

First, take your vintage photo and a clothes pin. Clip it to the top of the picture in the center.

Second, take your wire hook and hook it through the spring in the clothes pin.

Finally, hang your vintage picture in the perfect spot on your tree.

DECORATING TIP: Hang colorful christmas balls toward the center of the tree, toward the trunk to add color and give your tree dimension.

Stay tuned for more Christmas Decorating With Lauren.

With love,
Lauren

Nov25

vintage christmas tree

Posted on by
Standard

Hi everyone, I have missed you! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We had a great day here in the Lowry home.  Last night we drug our mattress into the living room, fixed a plate of cheese and meats, poured a glass of wine and kicked off the Christmas season with one of our favorite Christmas movies.

I decided after Market On Belvin to slow down so I took a break from blogging and have been trying to put my house back in order.  As I enter into this holiday season I have decided not to get caught up in the busyness of the season.  I have had enough busyness for the year therefore, I plan on spending the next 5 weeks, resting and enjoying all the wonderfulness of Christmas!

I have been working on some Christmas decor goodies I plan on sharing with you.  I am going to do my first series of blog posts called “Christmas Decorating With Lauren.”  In this blog series you will see tutorials and ideas I have done around my house.  My hope is that this will spur on your own creativity and draw you into the excitement of the season.

I know today is a big Christmas tree decorating day so I wanted to share mine with you.  We bought our 9ft., pre-lit tree last year after Christmas when it was 90% off. We were so excited to finally open it this year so last Thursday we pulled it out of the attic, heated some cider, turned on Bing Crosby Christmas music and started setting it up.  As we did we noticed the lights had been cut in several places.  Joel said he could re-wire where it had been cut but after further discussion we decided that could be a possible fire hazard so we resolved to cutting the lights out of the tree.  I don’t know if you have ever seen the lights on a pre-lit tree but they are braided into every branch!!!  What we thought may take an hour took three!  By the time all the lights had been cut out we were so frustrated and tired that we left the mess and went to bed.

Now, a week later it is finally decorated and I can’t wait to share it with all of you.

I wanted a tree this year that would keep with the vintage style of our 1920′s home so I turned my creative juices to my family’s old photos and sheet music.

The colors I chose are red, gold, white, cream and beige.  I mixed rough textures like upholstery webbing with sparkly red and gold balls.

I even added things like an old spur

and antique door hardware.

Stay tuned for my decorating series!

Did you know I offer holiday decorating services? For more information contact me at laurenlowry04@gmail.com.

With love,
Lauren

Nov14

Reflections

Posted on by
Standard

I’m in complete awe!  I could not have asked for a better first Market On Belvin.  The day was a complete success and now I am filled to the brim with gratitude.  My cup runs over!  During worship this morning I told Joel I was going to go sit at the feet of Jesus.  I went to the altar and sat.  As I sat and processed these past two weeks I felt like I had  just climbed Mount Everest, I was so exhausted!  But as I rested, like Mary at Jesus’ feet, I was restored.  Truth was spoken over me and I saw my Daddy smiling, so pleased with his daughter.  As I reflect on this weekend I see that God used this amazing event, a gift directly from His hands, to draw me closer to him.  That is what Market On Belvin was for me, a chance to know my Father more.

I want to give a huge THANK YOU to all my friends/vendors who worked so hard to make Market On Belvin so incredible, I seriously could not have done it without you!  It was amazing to see my house turned into a store! I love you all so very much and thank God for you.

I have a long list of thank you’s I absolutely have to give so here it goes. I would like to first thank my amazing husband for sticking with me and supporting me, you love me so selflessly and are truly my best friend, we make a great team!  Rachael Baldwin, a columnist for Ask Miss. A, for her amazing article on The Rescued Home and Market On Belvin, my dad, mom, brother and sister for all your help and support, I love you so much and my friend Calli Swindle for her countless words of encouragement and prayers.  I also want to thank my vendors, Courtenay Kehl and her mom Leta with Blue Chelsea Treasures ( you can find their amazing handmade jewelry and goodies at Wimberley Market Days), Amy Smith my fellow blogger at Bliss On A Budget, Becky Ball and Callie Ecret with I Choose You Ministries,  Mary Owens with Key to the Kingdom, Sandy Ramirez with Bloom Street Designs and Top Drawer Whimsies, Sarah Davis and Emily Watson with The Hungarian Peddler on Etsy, Julie Anna Hammett with Julie Anna Photography, Rachael Ayers, Marsha Davis, Jill Swihart, Nicole Yonker and Kate Patterson.  Thank you again from the bottom of my heart!

Ok, so I’m sure you are ready for the pictures.
Without further delay may I present to you Market On Belvin.

Me and my mommy.

Here is my booth.

The other vendors displayed their goodies so beautifully.

Thank you to all those who came out to shop and support, you made the day so much fun!

With love,
Lauren

Nov8

Table Talk

Posted on by
Standard

I’m trying to think of something clever to say to start this post but nothing will come to me….  My brain is fried! I got up at 6:30 this morning, put on my running shoes (well, hypothetically because I do not like runnning) and jumped back into the race I have been running for the past week.  The finish line is a smashing, awesome market on Saturday and I can see it in the distance but the only thing that stands in the way is the pile of projects on my dining room table!  Market On Belvin is less than a week away and everything is coming together but I don’t think I have ever worked this hard in my life!  I can’t wait to see what God does!!!  Here is a sneak peek of a couple of things you can purchase on Saturday.

A ruffle tree skirt.  Isn’t it so girlie!

And Christmas bunting.

I also wanted to share a table I did for a customer.

The customer liked this table from Williams Sonoma.

So, I took this table

And did this.

Have you checked out my decorating services? Click here to see my pricing.

Market On Belvin is this Saturday, November 12th, 9am-2pm, 1203 Belvin St. San Marcos, TX.
Hope to see you there and maybe even meet many of you for the first time!

With love,
Lauren

Nov2

British Columbia and Washington

Posted on by
Standard

Hi all! I hope you had a fun Halloween, we didn’t celebrate by dressing up, which is something we really love to do, because we were in Seattle.  So in memory of Halloween’s passed here are some pictures I thought you would enjoy:)

Here we are as old people. Kinda scary, we look like our grandparents!

Nacho Libre and the nun, Encarnacion.  Joel was such a champ to follow through on this one!

Last year we were our good friends, Ted and Becky Ball.

 So fun! Can’t wait until next year.

After our trip to Vancouver we drove to Seattle for a few days of rest.  I just have to say Washington is soo beautiful and I am so grateful we were able to experience it.   Here are some pictures from our trip both Vancouver and Washington.  I kind of went crazy with my camera, so there are a lot of pictures.

The colors and landscape were incredible to see.

This is the view from Ayo and Luna’s apartment.  Amazing!

What a good looking crew.  Don’t you think?

Driving through the mountains was incredible.

It was so fun to see famous sites around Seattle like Pike Place Market and the original Starbucks.

I was so inspired by all of the color and texture.  I just couldn’t wait to get back home and start creating.  Ideas of how I can bring nature inside and add more texture to interiors have been racing through my head.  So here I go, it is a day of creating for me!  Take care.

With love,
Lauren