Makely

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Shipwrecked

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We’ve been shipwrecked on a deserted island.  Thank goodness they have high-speed Internet.

Between dodging local wildlife and catching our own food, we’ve had a pretty busy schedule.  Our typical day sounds something like this:  Pool.  Beach.  Pool.  Beach.  Lunch.  Nap.  Pool.  Beach.  Shower.  Dinner.  Bed.  It’s a challenge, but someone has to do it.  You can see how those blog posts I planned to write on vacation just haven’t fit into that hectic schedule.

I’ll be back on Thursday with an awesome new giveaway and fun new posts.  Until then, I better head down to the pool.  Or maybe the beach.  I hear the rescue team is set to arrive tomorrow.

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I’m excited to announce the winner of the AWESOME Scentsy giveaway from Stephanie!  If you didn’t see this note that she posted, you’ll want to check it out:

OMG WOW you guys! I’m totally BLOWN AWAY at the number of responses this has received!

Hi all! I’m Stephanie, Independent Scentsy Consultant, hosting this giveaway with Colin! Thanks so much to all of you who have already placed an order with me!

For all who have placed an order and will be placing an order soon, I will also be sending you a FREE gift in the mail! Be looking for it! If you order once this giveaway ends, just shoot me an email at smclark3@yahoo.com letting me know you entered at LWL and I’ll also send you a FREE gift as well!

Thanks again everyone! I’m just in awe and shock! What a wonderful surprise to return to after being gone all weekend!

She’s awesome, yes?

Out of the 280 entries that were posted during the giveaway time period, the lucky winner is commenter #279!

Congrats to Hilary @ Katrinka Jane!  You’re the big winner!  I’ll be sending you an email soon so you can get in contact with Stephanie for all of your delicious goodies.

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If you sent me an email and haven’t gotten a response (or have gotten a response saying, “I’ll respond soon!”, I promise I’m not ignoring you.  I’ve just tried to unplug this past week while we’ve been on vacation.  It has been nice, and it’s something I need to do more often.

Perfect Pottery Barn Inspired Peonies

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Some of the best things in the Pottery Barn catalog are not what they are selling, but what they are not.  You may remember last year that my love (and I mean LOVE) of Peonies drew me to this PB photo.

Pottery Barn

Do you see that arrangement far back in the right corner?  Let me zoom in.

If you look closely, you can see that the Pottery Barn stagers have added these gorgeous flowers to a big vase of seashells.  I was so in love with this arrangement, that I made my own mini-version last summer.

Here we are almost a year later, and I am still obsessed with that arrangement.  I’ve been patiently waiting for fresh cut peonies to come available in local stores this Spring.  Sadly, they do not grow well in my area, so I am unable to grow my own.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into Whole Foods last weekend and found tons of gorgeous Peonies waiting on me to take them home!  They were about $10 for a bunch of 5 (gasp!), but I’ve been waiting so long that it was worth the cost to me.

When I got home, I set out to put together a new and improved version of my Pottery Barn inspired Peony and seashell arrangement.  This most recent bunch of flowers had beautiful leaves and long stems, so I wanted to do something a little different.  After playing around for a few minutes, this is what I came up with:

To create this arrangement, I filled the bottom of a tall, round vase with some shells.  I then added water and my Peony stems.  Next, I poured more shells into the vase so that they filled about 2/3 of the vase, making sure they covered the bottom of the stems.  Last, I tied a little piece of jute ribbon around the vase for a finishing touch.

I love this arrangement even more than I loved last year’s arrangement.  You can do this at home, right now.  Even if you don’t have a ton of shells laying around like I do or access to Peonies, you can use rocks and any sort of long-stem flower that’s cheap.  If you do use rocks that you collect yourself, just make sure you wash them really well so bits of dirt won’t be floating around in your flower water!

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I’m sure you have been anxiously awaiting the announcement of the winner of the Quality Custom Designs giveaway.  Well, if you are lucky commenter #94, then congrats!

Congrats to Kimberly W!  I’ll be sending you an email later today so that you and Mandy can be in touch about your custom roman shade!

If you didn’t win, no worries.  I have a summer FULL of giveaways going on!  Check back each Thursday for something new and exciting from one of my fabulous sponsors.  You won’t want to miss it!