Days of Chalk and Chocolate - New Jersey Days of Chalk and Chocolate: New Jersey - All Post
Showing posts with label New Jersey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Jersey. Show all posts

Dining Room Update & Gift Ideas

Share It:
This post is sponsored by Cost Plus World Market. All opinions are mine alone. #worldmarketnj

A few weeks ago I was excited to tell you all about the Grand Opening of the new Cost Plus World Market store in Shrewsbury, NJ.   You can read about it here if you missed it. Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited to browse in the new World Market store and add some World Market flair to my home!

Was it fun?  Oh yes!  I can't wait to go back, in fact. There is so much to look at and it was hard not to buy everything!  But I'll show you a few of the things I did get!

You may remember my white china cabinet from posts way back when. It is a solid, happy little piece but it isn't working for me anymore. I have accumulated a lot of pretty serving pieces, etc and I am running out of space. 

I fell in love with the Emerson bookcase online and knew it was exactly what I was looking for when I went to World Market. She is huge with deep shelves and I knew she would work perfectly to hold my pretty things. 










The dark wood shelves compliment my wedding china perfectly and I'm so happy to have the china out where I can see it instead of stowed behind doors!


piper-platinum-emerson-bookshelf

 I preferred this bookcase over others because of its interesting details. It has these cool handles at the top and a step rail at the bottom. Very different and industrial which is what I needed in my traditional dining room! 


world-market-emerson-bookcase

details-handles-rustic-industrial

world-market-emerson

To say I adore it may be an understatement!

I also picked up a few other things!  This sweet, little vintage sign looks perfect in my bay window in my kitchen.  This window ledge is my baking area and I think this sign adds just the right touch.


kitchen-sign-vintage-pies


baking-center-window-sign


The food aisles are so fun to browse through and I scooped up some holiday treats, including some chocolate coins and  Christmas chocolates!  They look so pretty nestled in my milk glass candy bowl.


chocolate-christmas-stocking-stuffers

I also picked up a few other gifts while I was there.  My mom and aunt will love these sweet smelling French milled soaps and hand creams.




It was so fun to add some new pieces to my home for our holiday guests and to find new and different gifts to give!


Have you spruced up your home for the holidays?

Cost Plus World Market Comes to Shrewsbury, NJ!

Share It:
This post is sponsored by Cost Plus World Market.  All opinions are my own.
 


Friends, I am so excited I can barely contain myself. We are getting a Cost Plus World Market Store in NJ!!  You have no idea how happy this makes me! Cost Plus World Market has such beautiful home furnishings, seasonal decor, and ethnically diverse foods at reasonable prices.


Here are some details on the new store located in Shrewsbury, NJ!

Cost Plus World Market
490 Broad Street
Shrewsbury, NJ 07702

Store Hours:
M-S: 9am – 10pm
Sun: 9am – 9pm

The Grand Opening is on this Thursday, 12/10 and you won't want to miss the ribbon cutting at 9 AM! Plus, the first 100 customers will receive a $10 gift card!  Woo Hoo!


 In honor of the Grand Opening, Cost Plus World Market is hosting events and giveaways through the weekend until Sunday 12/13.

Free tasting and live entertainment
4-7pm Thursday & Friday

Daily Raffle Drawings Prizes include two (2) $250 World Market gift cards each day.

Spend $40 and get 2 FREE Movie Admissions (while supplies last. Limited to the first 250
customers each day)

Free tote bags for the first 100 customers in the door each day.

Join our World Market Explorer Rewards Program and earn TRIPLE CREDITS this
weekend only. See associate for details.

Plus, SAVE AN EXTRA 15% on your next purchase. Offer valid 12/6/15 – 12/13/15. Valid
at the Shrewsbury, NJ Cost Plus World Market store only.  You can find the coupon code here!


I am anxious to get into that store and look around!  There is so much to love!

Yum!   Holiday goodies make great hostess gifts and I plan on stocking up for our holiday entertaining!





Check out these chalkboard inspired pillows for Christmas. How pretty, right?  I would love to have those in my living room!


I hope you'll come out to the new store, friends!  You can finish your holiday shopping and maybe gift yourself some new things too!

Cheers!
Jenny

Teaching Jobs (getting personal)

Share It:
I don't know if you noticed that I've been a little absent this summer. It wasn't planned. I hadn't decided to take a break from blogging but somehow between running kids to and from the pool and planning vacations, I didn't have much time to publish much.  So thanks for sticking with me and reading this!  I don't mean to be a fair weather friend!  But that isn't what today's post is about.

Autumn Decor

Share It:
I tell myself each fall that I am not going to decorate. Molly's birthday is on Halloween and it is the start of the busy holiday season. Each year I promise to reduce my load, streamline things, make it all simple. But alas, I never do that...not ever!  The truth is I adore autumn and I love celebrating each change of season.  One of my favorite things about living in NJ (besides Taylor ham and Jon Bon Jovi) is how we are treated to true seasons and the changing of them is always thrilling!

I used shades of orange in some areas, shades of neutrals in others, and some of my tried and true favorite pieces set together to create vignettes around the house. 



 











But no one decorates like Mother Nature!
 


Hope you had a great weekend!  Our week ahead is super busy!  Two Halloween parties and parades, Molly's birthday on Thursday plus Halloween stuff, her friend party, her family party, a dentist appointment, my own doctor appointment, whew. And who knows what else will come up. So if I am MIA that's why!  But I'll be around again soon.

Cheers!
Jenny

Our Wedding

Share It:
Our 8 year anniversary is today, August 7th.  I thought it might be fun to go down memory lane and post some pictures from our day!  Jim is the best and I dig him in a big way!  It was a beautiful day filled with friends and family!

Oh,  and remember, I'm a Jersey girl 100% so it was a techno, 90's freestyle dance music reception. We did get introduced in our reception to some Metallica song because, well, let's just say Jim and I wouldn't have been friends in high school. 

I made my ring bearer pillow. Should have started a blog back then!

The reason I bought this dress

My sisters were my matrons of honor.

hubba hubba

Goin' down the aisle with my daddy.

Gettin' er done

And done!  Mission accomplished! And it kills me that my ring bearer there on the end is now 16, a life guard, and buff.

A little toast

I love this picture except that my pit cleavage is lapping over my dress. Thanks Mr. Camera Guy for helping me out with that.

Not sure what to say. Parking lot. Sign. Me. Jim.

The grounds of our reception hall (which is almost near The Brownstone for all you RHONJ fans!  But they were way out of our price range.)

Mint julep cups, hydrangeas, and little boxes filled with chocolate. Perfection!

I asked for a dark chocolate cake and I got beige. Eh, cake is cake so it went down alright. And I wanted a natural cake topper but this was just too, let's say, bulbous.

Bringing the beat back with my favorite guy who was an outrageously good dancer in his day despite the fact he was a metal head in his youth.

Double french bustle!

I got my girls, a disco ball, some beads, and a husband somewhere around there!  The best way to celebrate!

Then we scatted out to Hawaii for 2 weeks and had the time of our lives! 

Hope you enjoyed my little wedding tour! 

Cheers!
Jenny

DIY Mercury Glass

Share It:
I have been trying to find a store around here that stocks Krylon's Looking Glass spray paint for months now. I love all the DIY mercury glass projects out there that you all are doing and felt woefully deficient as a DIY blogger that I hadn't done one yet. I mean I mastered the tissue paper pouf, the ruffle wreath, and the monogrammed pillow, but I hadn't yet made my own mercury glass. sniff. And y'all were kinda rubbin' it in with all your "Hobby Lobby this" and "Hobby Lobby that." We don't have Hobby Lobby here. We have Taylor Ham (pork roll), full service gas stations only, and farms (did you know that? NJ is crazy filled with farms) but no Hobby Lobby. It's ok though. You didn't know.

Anyway, I finally found it at my not-so-local Ace Hardware! Oh yeah, rock on with my bad self. So I grabbed those $2.50 candle holders I bought at Target and WHOOPS. So I grabbed the one $2.50 candle holder I bought at Target and made my own mercury glass. I heard you whisper "finally" under your breath.


I used a combination of tutorials I found on the world wide web.

 Mix up equal amounts of vinegar and water. Spray your whatever with a bottle or your fingers.  I used fingers. Don't over wet your object. The drops are where the inconsistencies in the shiny parts will be.


I used 5-6 coats of Krylon's Looking Glass spray paint. This paint is thin and goes on quickly. I used short, light sprays.

Coat 1

Coat 2

Coat 4
 Then I used a few tissues to blot the droplets. The paint will come off wherever the droplets are. I also rubbed in a few areas to have larger areas where the color will peep out and look inconsistent. I then sprayed more paint here and there so it wouldn't look even.



I am really happy with it and need to get back to Target to get another.




And this paint is a ton of fun to play with!  What else can I turn into fake mercury glass?  I wonder...

Cheers!
Jenny