Happy Halloween!

Happy Fall, Y'all! It's been awhile-okay, FOREVER-since my last post (what can I say, infants seem to take up all of your time) but I am SO HAPPY for the cooler weather and change of season. We have started decorating for Halloween at our house and our two "major" projects turned out to be not-so-major after all. I got the idea for the rope garland in Lowe's Creative Ideas Magazine. I bought 60 feet of 3/4" rope at Lowe's, hung it around our front door then cut 20, 2-foot sections, unraveled them and tied them onto the rope around the front door spacing equally. The result is a nod to the ever-popular corn stalks without the funky smell!

I bought the stacked pumpkins from the Mt. Laurel Grocery store and stacked them without the use of a dowel rod to hold them in place. If you take some time to stack them before you buy them you can usually get lucky and puzzle piece them together and know they will work when you get them home and arrange them on your front doorstep. I find the heirloom pumpkins work best for stacking because of their flatter shape. If all else fails, you can always trim the stems of the bottom pumpkins.

The do-it-yourself "floral" arrangement is so simple! Just fill your favorite container (in my case, a soup tourine) with dry floral foam, cover the top with lime (or any color) reindeer moss (can be purchased at Hobby Lobby, Michael's or your local wholesale florist) then top with mini pumpkins. To give it that rounded look, stuff some smaller pieces of moss between the pumpkins once you get them placed.

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Spring Has Sprung!

Springtime brings warmer weather and beautiful blossoms, and that always gets me in the mood to freshen up the inside of my home with some of those same flowers. Above are some of my easy, do-it-yourself arrangements. Lately I've been choosing monochromatic colors-in the first two pictures all green or all pink-and grouping each flower variety together for a graphic arrangement with more impact. The photos of the orchids are from a baby shower I hosted. It was so easy to combine 3 orchids in my silver punch bowl and cover the tops with moss. To add to the look I placed soaked oasis floral foam in the bottom of my old silver baby cups and bowls and arranged roses and alstroemeria in coordinating colors. I scattered these on the food table and throughout the house.

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All The Best!

When I was brainstorming ideas for the title of this blog I kept coming back to a phrase my husband and I heard often on our honeymoon to Ireland 7 years ago. Irishmen and women everywhere would bid us "All the Best!" as we toured their country. This phrase was used as a greeting or a farewell almost everywhere we went, whether that was getting off a tour bus in Dublin or ordering Guinness and corned beef and cabbage from a waitress at a local pub. We fell in love with the endearing phrase and have used it ever since. It just has a nicer ring and feeling to it than plain old, "Hello" or "Have a good day," don't you think? So the name I finally decided on for this blog, "The Best from Our Nest" was chosen with the hope that this blog will give you the same warm and fuzzy feeling that phrase gives me.

This is the account of our lives, which will include ramblings about my latest decorating project, my love and knack for paint selection, clever outdoor spaces and projects, cooking (with and without kids), sewing and crafting (which I haven't had much time for lately with a 10 week old), gardening (I should be weeding right now instead of thinking about what plants I want to put in the ground next), do-it-yourself floral design and great shopping finds. The blog will also be a place where I chronicle the joys and heartaches of motherhood and making a house into a home for my family. I truly wish you all the best and hope this blog gives you the same feeling and inspiration that phrase gave us as we started our lives together!

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