My best friend's daughter is getting married.  And I was going to give a shower at my home in April.  The colors were ivory and pale gold with touches of red.  It was the nearing the end of March and although there was still plenty of time I had been thinking about how to decorate.  Then came this unexpected late season snow:

With the original plans for the next couple of days cancelled I decided to get ahead of the game for once.  I had not done any shopping for supplies but looked around to see what I could come up with here at home.  The result of the first day was this mantel:

 and this entry décor:

I grabbed an old gold frame and a piece of linen and, in my Pacesetter Lettering software typed up a design using the verse on her invitation.  A left over piece of the linen and another frame that I had became the framed name.  The candle is an old jar that lost its lid, wrapped with lace and ribbon.  I took a pin out of the girls dress up trunk to finish it off.

Next came the Love banner.  It was made from this old hot roll basket wrap that was stained:

I just cut it as needed to make a pocket at the top for the ribbon and embroidered the letters which you can download at the end of the blog.

These turned out OK.  Stuck in the house with time left in the day, why not keep going?  So, I decided to see what I could do with the entryway cabinet.  My friend had the pictures on facebook from an earlier photo shoot. I hung them on a ribbon and glued some pearl beads to the top sides of some mini close pins I found in the craft room. 

I created the heart design (this design is at the end of the blog too) and put it in a frame that wasn't currently being used. 

A gold recipe book that I won as a door prize but had never used, another linen scrap and an L embroidery design created the personalized book.  I handed the cards out later and everyone who came to the shower brought them back with them completed.

Later I added some flowers, my grandmother's crystal and a few pearl strands to set it all off.  I made runners from an old gold tablecloth and topped them with some old lace runners that were in the linen closet. 

Still snowed-in the next day I made some embroidered love birds and a stippled heart which I will share another time.  There were 45 women at the shower and we had a great time.  The bride-to-be asked if she could take the hand-made decorations and use them again in the church foyer. 

Click here to download the LOVE  letters.

Click here to download the framed heart design.

I hope that by now you are enjoying spring days but are still finding time to create your own embroidered décor whatever the occasion.

Take care,

DB