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10 IDEAS FOR HOME, TABLE, AND DIY

Welcome to 10 Fabulous Finds at Bluesky Browsing #38. This week I’m sharing 10 ideas for home decor, table, and DIY crafts. Including a refreshing summer cocktail and a fabulous book review.

If you love finding articles and resources that give you ideas for home decor and DIY projects or a recipe or two, you’ve come to the right place.

Think of 10 Fabulous Finds as a home decor/DIY/Craft/recipe Readers’ Digest.

In case you are new to Bluesky at Home, what fabulous finds do I share at Bluesky Browsing?

  • ideas to help you in your home decor efforts
  • a yummy recipe or cocktail
  • fun DIY projects
  • the latest trends in home decor
  • a quirky new find or two

Focusing on finding new projects, resources, tips, new ideas, and inspiration for you is my main task. I’m constantly discovering fabulous finds to inspire us. My goal is to help you find ideas for your home decor, your crafting, your home organization, and anything about home.

We have been spending the past few weeks shopping for flowers, prepping the flower beds and planting flowers in our front and back yards.

Today’s 10 Fabulous Finds is a little bit of this and that.

Ready to see this week’s fab finds?

This post contains affiliate links to products and resources you may love to have. If you should purchase anything from this site, I may be compensated, but you don’t pay a penny more.

In case you missed last week’s 10 Fabulous Finds, here is Bluesky Browsing #36.

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ON THE HOME FRONT

  1. Well, it’s hard to believe, but the 148th Kentucky Derby is come and gone. What a race! An 80~1 shot, Rich Strike, shocked the racing world. Our home was full of screaming guests as we watched the race.
  2. The party was awesome. Everyone loved all the food and mint juleps, and, of course, getting to party like it’s 2019!
  3. It took me until Tuesday to completely put all the decorations, dishes, glasses, and serving pieces back in cabinets and drawers. I did a little reorganizing while I was at it. All the red roses are still looking good for our enjoyment.
  4. In ten days Sweet Shark and I leave for Vancouver for three days before boarding a cruise ship for Alaska. Our four kids, one son~in~law, one fiance, and three grandkids are joining us (bigtime Christmas present!) So I’m in overdrive, getting home and blog ready for being away for two weeks.
  5. This week on the blog was all about DIY Summer Front Door Projects and 3 Ideas for Decorating Baskets for Summer.
post collage with party essentials and front door

DIY Summer Front Door Projects| 3 Ideas for Decorating Baskets for Summer

10 FABULOUS FINDS: IDEAS FOR HOME, TABLE, AND DIY

Here we go with Bluesky Browsing #38.

  1. Remember Emily Henderson? She was an early winner of HGTV Design Star. Since then, she’s a well~known designer ad blogger. She shared a great article about styling tricks that have weathered the test of time.

2. As you know, spring and summer are the best times to put your house on the market. My daughter and son~in~law just put their house on the market. They have been getting their home show~ready for a few weeks. Here are 7 projects that will add value to your home and 7 features that will boost your home’s value. Both articles are from Zillow.

3. If you love DIY projects as much as I do, you’ll love these ideas ~ all 25 of them ~ shared in this article. I’m gaga over pom~poms so here is one of my favorites.

4. Sweet Shark makes a delicious piña colada. It’s one of my favorite summer “out~by~the~pool” drinks. I am not above looking for other variations to give him to “test” out. This version looks yummy and sip~worthy.

5. As you probably know, I love a good DIY project. (I alteady said that, didn’t I?)I adore transforming something plain into something pretty darn amazing. These cute~as~a~button summer DIY terra cotta pots are worth checking out since they are so easy.

6. If you have ever been to New Orleans, you might be familiar with Pirate’s Alley. It’s on a mew (originally, a row of stables and coach houses with living quarters above, built in a paved yard behind large London houses of the 17th and 18th centuries. Today most mews stables have been converted into houses or shops, some greatly modernized and considered highly desirable residences) that runs near Jackson Square between Royal and Chartres Streets in the middle of the French Quarter.

When I saw this article in Veranda about the beautiful home above Faulkner’s Book Store on Pirate’s Alley, I was thrilled. Sweet Shark and I have been in that bookstore a dozen times. I couldn’t wait to see the home that a young couple has made their own. It’s quintessential New Orleans.

Click on the image with OPEN GALLERY to view all the pretty pictures.

7. Wreaths are one of the best DIY projects you can make. Have you ever heard of a flip~flop wreath? This one is so cute and unique.

wreath made of flip flops

8. I haven’t made a recipe in my crockpot in at least 15 years. It’s just not my cooking style. (We never had a crockpot in culinary school!) But for our Kentucky Derby Party, I needed one to keep my Bourbon Balls hot. When I pulled out my 35 year~old Rivel crockpot from the back of a cabinet and plugged it in, nothing happened. Kuput.

I quickly bought a new slow~cooker on Amazon. Since I now have a new appliance, I thought it would be good to actually use it. A search on Pinterest revealed this post about 24 easy summer slow ~cooker recipes. I’ll have to try several out, but here are some delicious~looking tacos.

tacos

9. As I was searching on Pinterest for a way to style our new patio, I came across the picture that was one of the inspirational images for our backyard makeover last summer. It was on one blog, but attributed to @cottonstem on Instagram. When I get around to sharing our new patio, you will see the similarity. Isn’t this pretty?

lighted outdoor patio

10. BOOKS OF THE WEEK: Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

I picked up this historical fiction novel at our church library’s book sale in February. Little did I know that it was written in 2002, the first of a trilogy, and a story so engrossing that I couldn’t put it down for the last week.

Tea Rose begins in 1888 in the Whitechapel area of East London, an area known for its laborers, dockworkers, the working poor. It’s also the time when Jack the Ripper roamed the night and murdered women. It’s where seventeen~year~old Fiona Finnigan lives with her parents, two brothers and a baby sister. Already she works in a tea factory while her younger brother Charlie works in a brewery, helping their father, a dockworker for the tea company, support the family.

Fiona is a head~strong young lady whose dream is to open a shop with her longtime friend, Joe, a costermonger (fruit and vegetable vendor). They are in love and save every penny to get married and open a tea and grocery shop. Live is hard, but these two young people are honest and willing to sacrifice for their dreams.

Over several months, their lives are turned upside down. Joe makes a devastating mistake that alienates him and Fiona. Family tragedy, attempts for a union takeover, and murder result in Fiona escaping from London with her 5~year~old brother, Seamus. She lands in New York City, hoping to find her Uncle Michael with a new~found friend, Nick. Their lives will become entwined, even as Fiona grieves the loss of Joe and her family.

Over the course of months, then years, Fiona becomes an amazingly successful businesswoman. When she is required to return to London on family business in 1898, her life and those of all who knew her as a young girl once again become dangerously entangled.

When I started this book a few weeks ago, I didn’t think I could finish it by the time we leave for Vancouver on May 22. At 544 pages, it’s a daunting book (Think Outlander.). But as I got further into Fiona’s story ~ the lives of her family, her rise in the New York business scene, and her struggle with the love she still has for Joe ~ I couldn’t stop reading.

I’m one of those people who can read for hours at a time. Some nights, I did because I literally couldn’t put the book down. There is suspense, intrigue, mystery, and romance.

I finished Fiona and Joe and Nick’s story a couple of days ago. These characters will grip you. There are good people and very bad people. Happy times, tragic times, gain and loss. You will cheer for Fiona and Joe and their dreams. You will fear for their survival. I can’t urge you enough to read this story. It’s one of my favorites in a long time.

I’ll be ordering The Winter Rose and The Wild Rose, books 2 and 3.

That wraps up this week’s Bluesky Browsing #38. I hope that you enjoyed all these new ideas resources

I’d love to know what subjects you are most curious about. Let me know in the comments and I’ll search browse for them. Be sure to PIN to keep these ideas handy.

pin for later graphic in blue

In between writing posts, listening to podcasts, reading, doing various blogging tasks, walking Nola, and playing tennis, I’ll be browsing away.

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4 Comments

  1. I enjoyed all of your ideas but was aghast that you weren’t a crock pot fan! I imagine culinary school didn’t teach you to make CP mac and cheese for a potluck dinner!!! OK, in Maine, we need a lot more soups and stews for our long winters but I love chili and spaghetti sauce, too. Have started applesauce at night and awoken to a luscious cinnamon smell (the peels tint the sauce pink! Oops did I mention a handful of cinnamon red hots!). Ditto for steel cut oatmeal with apples! When I was working, it was HEAVEN to come home and have supper all ready!

    1. Kathy A, I know. I did use my old crockpot a ton years ago. I used it a lot for country pork ribs or other things that benefit from low and slow cooking. I tend to cook everything on the stovetop or oven. I use my Le Cruset Dutch ovens on the weekends, but mostly in the winter for stews, pot roast and short ribs. I do a lot of sauteing and grilling on my stovetop grill. Whether that’s from habit or how we were taught in culinary school (for restaurant cooking), I don’t know. I do plan to use the new slow cooker more.

  2. Hi Carol, What a great Christmas gift! Have a wonderful time! When do you get home? My son found an airbnb for the first half of his internship. Iwill be flying out the first two weeks in June (once I get his schedule). Love the flip flop wreath! Ask Mr. Shark for a low cal pina colada ;0)

    Happy Sunday! laura in Colorado