Monday, September 28, 2015

Publish A Family History at Lulu


I have been furiously at work on several family
histories for the last two months, so blogging
has taken a back seat.  

I was reading blogs one day and someone recommended
Lulu.com for publishing their blog, as it
was much cheaper than some of the other companies.
Sorry that I can't remember whose blog it was!


I was working on my dad's history and decided to give
Lulu.com a try.  I wasn't finished yet - maybe half done,
but I sent off for a book, just to see the quality and price
for what I would be getting.


I was THRILLED with what I got back from them.  The process was
super easy, and the price was incredibly reasonable compared 
to what I had paid for printing my blog.  


What was the most incredible part of the process was how
the quality of their printing and papers improved the look
of many of my old photos.  The oldest photos in black and
white are crisp and clean, but a lot of the photos from the
70's on are so poor, yet they printed out really nicely
in Lulu's book.


I just created a word document and uploaded it, previewed it
and created the covers using their formats.  The process was
so fast.  (My next one I saved in a PDF file and uploaded it, 
as they say they prefer that.)  I did not have to add to the
margin for binding, I just did a regular word document.
Talk about easy!

This one of my dad was just under 200 pages.  Once
I published one item with them, I started getting discount offers,
so I have waited to publish again until I got another discount offer.
With a discount, this book cost me $39.  I can order one, I can order as many as I want with additional discounts 
applying after 15.  I can
also give the information to family members who want a copy and
they can get on Lulu.com and order their own copies, without me
becoming the middle man.  It takes just about three weeks to receive the books in the mail.


I just submitted two more this week.  This one is about my grandparents and great grandparents.   I designed my own cover on Picmonkey for this one - I just did an 8x10 project for it.


And my niece designed this cover for the collection of my mother's
short fictional stories.  It ended up being just under 200 pages too.

I couldn't be more thrilled with the books I have published
with lulu.com.  I have not been compensated for this, I just 
have to tell you about things that I love!!

Unfortunately, they turned out so well that I have a whole list
of more that I want to write!  This makes doing family histories fun.

I will be posting this with










Wednesday, September 23, 2015

A Little Bit of Sunshine Birthday Tea


To have one last outdoor tea party, you need
a little sunshine, and since we have been
having rain, rain, rain, a last minute
decision had to be made on whether
we were going to chance this birthday tea
in Joanne's fabulous back yard for our craft night.


She had planned such a beautiful table that we
decided at the last minute to chance it and
move it if we had to.

The Garden Fates were with us as we had a
beautiful hour of sunshine in a week of rain.



Joanne provided the setting and Laura provided the
lovely plates and serving ware.


Ahh, you can see the sun in the background!

It actually made for easier pictures and we
wouldn't have wanted to miss this lovely
double birthday tea party.

You can see that hats were provided on each chair
for us to wear.


I adore the flatware placed in the gloves with a
bouquet of flowers on each glove.  It made me feel
like a real lady.


Joanne provided her Buttercup sterling silver.

Look at the beaded edge of that glove.  How elegant.



A little crystal with antique ribbon and flowers were
a take home gift for each lady.






I just love these name tag holders that 
were purchased at a thrift shop.


Remember our last craft night and birthday party where the
dogs wouldn't pose?  Well, Winston is willing to pose tonight.
He even matches the tablescape.


Who wouldn't want to make sure we had the opportunity
to experience this, and again you can see the sun favored
us with its presence.



Joanne's husband hinged these beautiful doors together just
for this event and wired the chandeliers.

Pure Magic!



We had this beautiful cake and cookies made by 
Amy Perkins.  She made them to match one of the
tea cups that was filled with flowers for the top of the cake.


Lovely Amy even stayed for the tea.  She looks like
a bride in her hat.




I made my Grilled Almond Peach Salad.  Natalie smoke
some chicken, which we added to the salad to make
it a main dish.


Laura treated us to jams, honeys and lemon curd 
that she brought back from London.  Oh, were they
fantastic!


Jann made us cucumber sandwiches.  They were the
best cucumber sandwiches I have had.


Laura also treated us to Trader Joe's bake your own
croissants.  They tasted straight from France.  I didn't
know they had those, but we are definitely going to
be buying those from Trader Joe's.


Brenda made us scones and Devonshire cream.


This was a rosemary and sage flavored tea.  It was fabulous.
These ladies know me!  They made my tea cup purple!!


Here is the table with all of the glorious foods.




Tonight we were celebrating Natalie's birthday,



and our hostess Joanne's birthday.


I had this lovely black hat.  What a fun party.



The teacup cookie tastes as good as it looks.


The raspberry and lemon cake was the most amazing
cake I have ever had.  Aren't they just gorgeous?


This was the Halloween craft we made.
I am so blessed to have such a wonderful
group of women who are so talented and fun.


I hope you enjoyed this little bit of sunshine 
at 
Purple Chocolat Home today.

I will be posting with

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

There's a New Witch in Town Tablescape


You can tell it is that time of year when
the weather starts to cool down, at least
at night, and you start to hear 
Strange and Loud noises 
coming from the Halloween storage area
with Beaulah waking up out of a long sleep,
and wanting to get out of her box and
come up and play.


Is she ready to play?!!
She flew right up onto the table and helped set
it, to welcome our new witch that has come
to join all our other fine ladies.


Our new witchy friend is tall and elegant and so refined
and Beaulah and I decided to set a gorgeous
table just for her.


We decided to welcome her outside, but I think
the witches in the clouds must have been jealous
because thunder was rolling and winds were
kicking up, and we were getting a little worried about the weather.


Despite the broomsticks crashing overhead, we were able
to finish setting the table without any problems.


Our table matches our new witchy friend with
creams and taupes and blacks.
I found these new chevron burlap placemats 
at Target in the $1-$3 section.  We love them
topping my burlap tablecloths.


We chose my taupe textured plates in two sizes for
our plate stack and topped it with a darling
burlap wrapped votive - also from Target's $3 section.

(You know we were having fun at Target!)


A little webby fabric also tops the table, leading
up to a cute spider on the burlap wrapped votive.



I made these fancy spider napkins last year, just by serging the 
edges of some sheer fabric.  Beaulah and I both chose
the black flatware from Horchow.


These taupe goblets from Cabo were paired with
tall black goblets.


As the guest of honor, our newest friend
sits inside a grapevine wreath with a burlap
bow, also adorned by spiders.


She already feels at home, and we love having
her move in to
Purple Chocolat Home.

She was a gift from my friends Rachel and 
Stephanie, from Gatehouse 1.


Glad you could drop by before the clouds burst and
the rain came pouring down!  

Just the kind of weather most of my witchy friends adore!

Sure hope Zoulah at Red Couch Recipes
will come out to play this season.  She had
a big move to Spokane.  Even though the
sisters had to move apart, they still love to
play together.

I will be posting this with







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