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Thursday, December 12, 2013

Tiz the Season!


Tiz the season to be jolly....fa la la la la...la la la la.....

Do I have you humming this already?

I'm not sure about you but I'm really into the spirit of Christmas this year. And it's not about the gifts. In fact, I just realized that Christmas is two weeks and I have exactly one gift bought. I have been hoping to be a little more creative this year and I have clearly been waiting for these bright ideas to come to me...instead of planning ahead. Woops.

But I've been eager about Christmas because it's our first one in our new home as husband and wife. And for the first time in my entire life I feel so completely happy that there is nothing that I want. I know, this sounds totally sickening. But it's the truth.

I just want to make our house feel like the perfect winter home. You know, the house that you envision having the perfect chair for curling up with a cup of hot cocoa, the Christmas lights twinkling and the dog laying at your feet (or in our case, on your lap) or the cozy Holiday movie nights while sharing a bottle of wine. Basically....a real life Hallmark episode. That's what my goal is this year. Making some great memories in our new home.

So that being said, I've taken decorating seriously this year. It felt like it was time to keep it true to who we are (although I felt really, really bad for the poor decorations that I kept in the bins this year. Did you ever have to sleep with all of your stuffed animals because you didn't want to hurt their feelings? I feel like that. Only I still put them back in the box and I try not to think about it or I feel extremely guilty. No? You didn't. Oh....well then I'm just a little nuts).
Anywayyyyyys......I've been taking my time and I'm still not done with a couple of ideas that I want to do yet but the feeling around here is much more farmhouse Christmas. I'm so addicted to pine tree boughs, sprigs and pine cones this year. Who knew that keeping things so simple could make such a pretty statement. And I'm crazy about book pages this year. It only took me over a month but I finally finished my book page wreath. And because it took HOURS of my life....it's staying around awhile. I've got ideas.... ;)

I have a book page snowflake project I'm trying to finish and, darn it, if I didn't see a book page Christmas tree on Pinterest that I want to make. Christmas will be over and I'll still be working on these things at the rate I'm going! But then I can just say I'm planning ahead for next year, right??

And with that...I'll show some of my Christmas spirit with all of you. I've discovered that I LOVE looking at other people's pictures of their trees and decorations, and I can't possibly be the only one, am I right?

By the way...it's also a little bit of a home tour (have I mentioned how much I LOVE our home?). We have painted a few rooms and it's been a while since I shared what the house is looking like these days.

Enjoy!


You can even see I was working on the infamous paper wreath....





The dining room is still coming together one
piece at a time.


We have a second tree in our front entrance.
Love it!




Newly painted kitchen!

Pinterest idea! Thank you "A.Z"for the inspiration!

THE wreath

I think it turned out pretty darn good!













Friday, November 29, 2013

First Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Yesterday was a day full of food and family but one thing was different. This year, I decided that we should host Thanksgiving.

I learned something.

The day goes by TEN TIMES faster when you're the one in charge. I'm so thankful that my family was willing to help me get things finished and on the table. I may have lost it and cried if I had had to do it single-handedly. Note to self: It was way harder than I thought it would be! Yet...I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I loved having my family over. It was the first time I was able to have both sets of parents and two different sides of my family together for a Holiday. It was a day I'll never forget.

I'm still kind of shocked that Thanksgiving is here and gone already. Where has this year gone??? I'm just glad I remembered to snap a couple of pictures of our table to have proof that the day actually happened. I was so caught up in the hustle and bustle that I didn't take any more throughout the day. Boo. ( Why did the day have to go so fast? )

For a first time host of Thanksgiving, I think I even made it look a little pretty. I got to use our new dishes, which happened to make me feel a little like a real grown up. I did still have some old pieces and some borrowed mismatched linens, but I'm proud. Baby steps!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. It's off to work for me but I'm counting down the days until we get to go cut down our Christmas tree next weekend!

The turkey day table with all the fixings. (Excuse the red solo cup...Pa!)
I'm wishing I had taken a better picture of my centerpiece.
I used some branches, pine cones, an antler and my white pumpkins
along with a couple of candles. Not bad for whipping it together last minute
(You think I had time to plan that out along with everything else? Ha!)


Let's take a closer look at that pie. Oh pumpkin, I love you.
And I love my cake plate (thanks mom!)...it works for pies too!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Hello...Goodbye...

No I'm not quoting The Beatles.

It's time to say hello to winter and goodbye to fall. And it's not even Thanksgiving yet. I hate when Thanksgiving is this late. I normally hold tight to my beliefs that Christmas decorations should wait to be seen until one holiday is finished and another begins. But this year I'm itching to get things up. So far I'm technically staying true to my own rule....there are no Santa's or stockings or Christmas tree's up yet. I only have a few appropriate things up that are more deemed "Winter" than "Christmas".

So I think that's totally acceptable. Yep...

Today (and my excuse is that it was a gorgeous day and why not take advantage, rather than putting things up in freezing cold temperatures...) I sadly took my outside fall decor down. The pumpkins were already shriveling, my straw-man was becoming frozen to his bench and all of my mums were brown (how do people keep those things alive anyways???)

Then up went the winter decor. Or the start of it. I have a few things to search for yet. It's actually kind of fun when you start a little early. I have time to get things the way I'd really like. You know....like the things one finds on Pinterest. How did we decorate before Pinterest? If you don't Pin, don't start. It's an addiction. It's worse than watching trashy reality T.V. If you are in the mood for fashion...pin. In the mood for food...pin. Decorating...pin. You get the idea.

Anyways....since winter is coming and I never got to show off some of my fall stuff, I'm going to share some of the pictures I took a couple of weeks ago when it was sunny and sweatshirt weather...oh, those were the days.

 I had the husband wait to put this up until
after my last name was officially changed.


I attempted to take a picture...

Handsome little dog

My straw-man. Best idea ever. Have a friend assist, have some wine,
create a straw-man. And laugh our butts off.

Fall colors.

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. I'll share my decor soon! What great ideas are you putting up this year for the holidays?

Sneak peek: A new pair of flannel sheets.
The bedroom is even getting a "winter"look
thanks to a whoppin' $25 at Wal-Mart.
(I hate admitting that I was there)

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

31 and One Day!



Happy birthday it was. I told my husband that I didn't want or need any presents this year and that I just wanted to pay my credit card off (from the "baby" dogs emergency surgery in the midst of wedding planning). However, I was given the sweetest card with a pretty thoughtful gift. Inside he put money and a note that said "for clothes only". Now if that isn't the way to a girls heart, I don't know what is!

I also made myself an incredible dessert. (Yes...I know, I made it myself. My husband is great....but a baker he will never be.) But these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bars are worth getting up off the couch and baking for. I Googled until I found something that I had all the ingredients. I was feeling very, very, very unambitious on Sunday and now that we live in the boonies....I didn't want to go to the store. That's how lazy I was. And yet, I found the energy to whip these babies up and they were delish! Martha Stewart knows what she's talking about!

I had a short day at the bridal salon but took this incredible dessert to work to share with my coworkers. And while I mentioned to a fellow coworker that it was my birthday on Monday, I had no idea that she would bring me flowers! What an incredibly generous thing for someone to do!

My afternoon was spent working on a DIY wreath made out of book pages. This might be the most time consuming project I've taken on. I've put hours into this thing already and I'm NOT even CLOSE to half done. It better look amazing when I'm finished!

My birthday was topped off with dinner, drinks and great conversation with my husband and parents at one of our favorite local restaurants. It was a wonderful, relaxing night and with the help of my friend Dirty Shirley I accepted being another year older.

But MOST of all....

THANK YOU to all of my friends and family for their birthday wishes on Facebook. We ALL know that I am a FB junkie. And sometimes (and by sometimes I mean not very often, but once in a great while) I try my hardest to stay off it because I know all that social media cannot be good for the mind. But yesterday it made me feel like a million bucks. I had SO many people wishing me a great birthday, it was absolutely mind blowing. So THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

And for the friends that text me yesterday, you're awesome. You know how to make a girl feel loved.

I cannot believe how unbelievably happy I am. I truly hope that I can make someone smile the way you all made me smile yesterday (and still smiling today).

I am BLESSED!

Monday, October 28, 2013

Savannah!

Our honeymoon was awesome. The end.

 JUST KIDDING!

I have so much that I want to share but here's the catch....I'm trying to type on an iPad. Me. A total keyboard freak. I really need real buttons. No joke. It took me long enough to learn to deal without a mouse when I upgraded to a laptop. Jeesh...and I'm the techie of the household.

So here's the deal. I'll do the best I can and when I'm at my wits end and cursing at this fancy piece of technology, I'll say goodnight.

The first question people ask us when they hear we went to Savannah is "why?"

The reason is simple. History and sightseeing. We didn't want to spend a week just laying on a beach getting drunk...(we're saving that for the future). We wanted something fun, charming and relaxing all in one. We most definitely got it. There was more history than we could even imagine. And there's nothing more relaxing than walking around the squares talking and having fun with your best friend. As much as I enjoyed this trip it is hard to put it into words. So I'm going to share what I thought was the best part of all....the sights.

Be prepared, I took hundreds. Really. I'll do my best to limit myself to the good ones.

(I've already switched to my laptop....who the heck knows how to upload photo's to a blog from an iPad??)


Paula Dean's restaurant. We had fried chicken and spicy greens. But
most of all, I liked the building.

The courthouse. Pretty Impressive.

Love all the brick buildings.

Gigantic barges were a norm.

Just pretty. Old

One of the many cool fountains that were in the city squares.

Fort Pulaski. So much history. Can you imagine this
being a drawbridge?
I could still sense the cannons and soldiers
that once called this place home.

Cannon holes from the day that the fort was seized.
In those days this fort was considered indestructible.

It took 30 hours to conquer Fort Pulaski.

One very old blue door. The architecture
was absolutely incredible.

Forsyth Park.
(Tony wouldn't let me jump the fence to run through the pool. :)

An old house that we were able to walk through.
It's actually an antique store but I loved the house!

Anyone read Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil?
This is the Mercer House where the murder happened.

Winter in Georgia? A photoshoot took place.
If I heard correctly, I heard it was for Vogue.
I want to know if anyone's seen it??

 Stone walls, stair and buildings were everywhere.

More old architecture. Who knew I liked architecture so much?

Atmosphere in the old house we got to walk through.

Long staircase. I wonder how many
people have walked up and down those stairs
and used that banister to steady themselves.
Slaves? Maids? Madams? Town folk?

A monument in Forsyth Park.

Color in Forsyth Park.


Savannah also had a Victorian era. The homes and
colors are beautiful and breathtaking.

Colorful

Colonial Cemetery. It used to be one of the largest
cemetery's. It's now a smaller "park" which means
the city of Savannah is built on thousands of bodies.

The haunted house in daylight. This is the one that
has had mulitple owners but no one has lived there
since 1973. It was built on top of the slaves
"grave yard", a pit where all the slaves were thrown
when they were dead or thought to be dead.

Because General Sherman and his troops knocked over numerous headstones
during the civil war, many of the stones no longer match with the graves.
To honor these people the headstones (that were not broken)
were mounted to a brick wall. The impact is powerful.

One of the signers of the Deceleration of Independence.

Many of the deceased were taken from this world
by Yellow fever. I'll let you Google that. It's grotesque.

Married at 11 years old.

The most photographed Victorian house in Savannah.

My favorite place we saw. Wormsloe Plantation.


Remains of the original "plantation" at Wormsloe.
It is said that the builder, Noble Jones, was
a founder of Georgia.

I did get to dip my feet in one fountain!

Another fountain in a square. 

Tybee Island lighthouse. It was rebuilt 4 times.
The original was built by Noble Jones of Wormsloe.

In the ocean!

Posing at Tybee beach. There was a sign that said to stay off the rocks.
I'm such a rebel.

The last day was spent on the beach. What
a beautiful day it was and gorgeous surroundings.

I hope you enjoyed some of my photo's. Due to my blog having some technical issues I wasn't able to share any of this with you until today! But woo hoo! It seems to be working with no errors tonight! I have so many more photo's but I'll end with these today. Maybe some others will sneak into some of my future posts. I cannot believe that it's been a month since our honeymoon already. How time flies when you're crazy busy with a new job and finally decorating a home....and of course having fun!

Have a great night everyone! See you all soon!