Monogrammed Napkins

My niece, Lauren, is a lawyer by day, but I think secretly she’d rather be doing some crafty, like monogramming. Litigation, oh that’s all well and good, but she also has a creative side that she recently decided to pursue by buying a honkin’ sewing/monogram machine off Ebay (a Viking Husqvarna Designer SE) and she has been monogramming up a storm ever since. Which is fine by me, cause I get nifty items like monogrammed napkins for my dining room.

When I was home at Christmas, I witnessed the magic of the monogram machine and saw it in action. She also had bought up some items that she found deals on with thoughts of using them for personalized gifts. I spotted these pretty beige linen napkins with black borders in her stash and asked begged her to do them for my dining room for Christmas and she agreed.

She was backlogged with a few other things, so they just arrived in the mail this week and I was overjoyed with how they came out. Aren’t they pretty?

Thank you, Lauren dear, I just love them. They really go perfectly in my dining room. They are so pretty, I almost hate to use them.

Speaking of my dining room, I think this year will be the year for a few changes in there. I’m planning to add some molding below my chair rail and I have officially decided to lighten up in there and paint over the red! I know, it’s a pretty color, but I feel the need for a brighter dining room and I think I’ll enjoy the change. So that’s another DIY project on my list, one I haven’t done before, but I keep seeing so many girls in blogland doing moldings, I figure I can do it too. Not sure yet on the paint color, but it will probably be a creamy beige color. I tossed around the idea of light blue last year, but I got my blue fix in my downstairs guestroom, so the dining room will be a good spot for neutral. I really think my dark wood table, china cabinet, and sideboard will really show off much better against lighter walls. The toile drapes will stay, as will the seagrass rug. Changes, changes!

Look what’s blooming in my window! One of my neighbors gave me a small amaryllis plant from her big one last summer and I’ve faithfully watered it and now it’s bursting with 2 blooms. How fun to have blooms in the winter. I will move this one outside during the summer months and back in for Winter.

It has been a few years since I did that framed mirror in my old house, so I had to refresh myself again on the best process for it. You will get to learn from MY mistakes! They are both up, so I'll share those next week. I ran into a few problems with the first and I'll tell you all about what NOT to do with yours. So, if you think my projects always go perfect, I can tell you they don't. When you're doing a project, you have to allow for snags that happen along the way, but I think I've fine-tuned the process now. And I'll just tell you, I've changed my method of hanging them. Forget the Liquid Nails. Too messy and slow to dry. It seems that the hot glue gun is the best way after all! Stay tuned for details on Monday.