Friends and Fleas

So, yesterday Katie, Cindy  and I went out to do a little wedding brainstorming/shopping. Our friend, Madeleine invited us over to her house to "shop" through her stuff to see if there was anything we would like to use for Katie's wedding. She had thrown her daughter a backyard wedding at their home and had some things that Katie and I had been talking about.

She had a LOT! We're borrowing some shepherd hooks and glass jars to hang from the hooks and in trees.

We're going to have just plain old jars, but I wanted to show you a shepherd hook in case you didn't know.

She also had these silver trays that she painted with chalkboard paint to write food choices on. We borrowed those...

She also had a bag of umbrellas, how smart is that!!

There were many other things that she had but I won't go through the long list of it all. After we rummaged around at her house, she took us to lunch at la Madeleine's a lovely French Country eatery and bakery. My sister and I used to go and I remembered the real butter and cream flavor of the chicken pot pie...they didn't have it, but I got quiche Lorainne and some potato soup (there was the real butter and cream flavor I was looking for!)

Madeleine then treated us all to dessert, she got a variety of things: lemon, fruit and creme brulee tarts, chocolate parfait and my favorite, chocolate chip cookie. After lunch, she took us to a great shopping center filled with catalog/online stores. They are the stores that I very rarely see except in catalogs and online. We went to Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn. They are great inspiration stores. I usually don't want to pay their prices, so I look and try to reproduce in a cheaper way. We were able to get a few ideas.

Madeleine then took us to some great second hand shops where we got more jars and silver trays and books for next to nothing. One of the stores is called "The Classy Flea." It is fabulous! There were windows and shutters and all sorts of fodder for artistic inspiration. Too many ideas, too little time!!

It was a great day!