The Js Man Cave

My mom dubbed it "the man cave" because it definitely has a more grown up feel. Jack and Jeb are loving their new room.

The Ws Room

A little over a month ago we did a massive whole house switcheroo. We moved the boys out of the biggest bedroom and Michael and I finally inherited a "master.". Will and Witt moved into what was our room, and Jack and Jeb moved to the basement bedroom. We are loving the new arrangement. Everyone is sleeping better and we feel like we have so much more space.

Will and Witt are enjoying their new room together. I think Will likes being the big brother in the room. They have become quite the pair recently. Hers what their new room looks like.

Pinterest inspiration

Last Friday night we hosted a dinner party for 12. We did it casual this time and I let everyone serve themselves. I saw a centerpiece on Pinterest and copied it for an easy table decoration. I used votives and baby food jars with tea lights. I'm still saving jars and plan on using this centerpiece again outdoors this summer.

Church nursery redo

Last fall we did a sprucing up of the upstairs at church. I took on decorating the toddler nursery. Using leftover fabric from Luke's nursery, clearance curtains from Target, and some inexpensive finds, I made curtains, bunting and some festive decorations.

Let the good times roll!

Our small group had a Mardi Gras party. So I decided to jazz it up a bit around here. We all made different dishes. I made Paula Deen's red beans and rice. We also had gumbo, hurricanes and king cake.

Impromptu Valentines decor

I finally did a bit of Valentines decorating today. Here we go. My mantel. My dining room table. And a close up of the plate on the table ( those are Valentinesy words).

A Southern White Christmas

On December 16th, we hosted Michael's 3rd Annual 35th Birthday Party.  The party is a fun new tradtion and it is basically a grown-ups-only Christmas Open House.  I changed up the menu a bit this year and decided on the theme of A Southern White Christmas.  My intention was for all the food and drinks to basically be white or golden...as you'll see, it didn't always work out quite that way, but the food was all delicious!

Before we had the opening between our kitchen and dining room expanded, we had a kids table in the kitchen.  It was nice because whenever I was hosting a dinner party, I could set my dining room table in advance and the kids would eat at their table in the kitchen.  Well, now we always eat at the dining room table, so that made things a challenge this time around.  So what I did instead was I set the table with all my serving pieces a couple of days in advance. Then I took this picture so I could remember where I was going to place everything for the party, and I could think through all the serving pieces needed.

Here's the table right before the party.

The Appetizers

Spiral-sliced ham and warm rolls, served with mayonnaise and mustard

Assorted cheeses

Kahlua Brie

Marinated Shrimp on Crackers

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Savory Palmiers

The Beverages

Champagne

White wine

Red wine

Mississippi-Bourbon Punch

Vanilla-Rosemary Lemonade

The Birthday Cakes

Layered Peppermint Cheesecake

Lone Star State Cheesecake

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Here are my Christmas decorations this year:

And now Halloween Decor

the table and chandelier

the spooky mantel

on top of my china cabinet

my front door...look at this adorable wreath my mother-in-law made for me

the hall shelf

Fall Decor

Luke's Nursery

A girl can dream, right?

The June issue of Southern Living, features a house in South Carolina.  I love the interior shots and the decor shots of the porch that are featured in this article online, but they didn't include online the exterior shot of the house...and if they did, you would see what I'm dreaming about.

If you have the issue, you can see, it has yellow siding, a red front door, white columns holding up it's wraparound porch on top of red brick supports, and black shutters.  So, I'm dreaming of replacing the metal awning roof over our wraparound porch with a real roof, held up by similar white columns.  The trim being painted white...with maybe some sort of architectural detail like on the trim of that house.  And the shutters being painted black.

I know this picture is wintery and snowy (even though it was taken near Eastertime a couple of years ago)--a far-cry from coastal South Carolina...but can you see it?  Can you dream with me?

A little housework

While we were in Mississippi, we had a little work done on the house.  Back in October, when I (finally) had my chandelier hung over my dining room table, we discovered that the previous owners' chandelier hung from a massive hole in our ceiling (much larger than your typical light fixture hole).  So, we knew we needed to patch that hole.  Well, once we were thinking of making one patch, we decided that the entire ceiling in the dining room and living room need to be redone...too many patches and poor dry wall seams in the past.  So, we had the ceiling redone and when we got home we painted it a white with a touch of a blue tint...you can seen the ceiling color better in the second picture.  While we were going to have such a big mess, we also had the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room opened up.  Before (here's a link to when I first painted the kitchen green) it was just a doorway.  Now it is about twice as wide and provides much easier flow....I think we'll especially like it when we have company.  Since I was opening up the two rooms, I repainted the kitchen a blue color, a couple of shades darker than the dining room ceiling, so the two rooms would flow better (I still have my apple green accents in the kitchen).  We love our new opening.  I still have some paint touching up to do...you can see above the molding...it was actually unlevel at first and we had to have the workers come and level the doorway, and the molding is just primed...I need to find the right white.

 While in Mississippi, we went to the Premier Prints Fabric Outlet, and I found this paisley and stripe to make new curtains for the kitchen...I'm still going to do something different on the windows over the sink...but haven't quite figured that out yet.  Thanks Mammy, for the fabric!  I love the new look.

 Mammy also found this cute outdoor fabric for a bargain and gave it to me.  I have been revamping my outdoor pillows.  The aqua blue is perfect with my rockers and swing and the yellow with the house.

 And I can't wait to work on my next project: Luke's room.  I LOVE the fabrics we got for his room.  We'll be adding these fabrics to a few things to accent the blue, khaki and brown scheme already in the room.

Day 19: Boo!

Obviously I don't have enough recipes, decor and parties to blog everyday, and I skipped a day and synced up the days with my other blog...so today would technically be Day 18...but this will be easier for me.

We pulled out the Halloween decor today.

Day 11: My new book

I got this book for an early birthday present.  She is one of my favorite columnists.  I can't wait to read it!

Day 3: Fall on my dining room table

This is my September fall arrangement. October will have Halloween, and November will have turkeys.

Summer projects

Last spring I started a redo of the boys bedroom. I painted their walls, made new curtains and pillows and I repainted the thrift store chest of drawers. Well, I'm about done with the makeover. I repainted the boys' other chests...I had painted them so cute a few years ago and had vehicles hardware, but they had long ago scratched them up and the hardware had started falling apart. So here is the much needed facelift. Originally I had planned to sand them down as the next step...so they would be blue but the other colors of paint underneath would show through, but I kind of liked the fresh clean solid color look...so for now that's how they are.

We've had the same bedding in our bedroom since we got married. So I've been looking for a change. I found this blue quilt at Target for next to nothing and that commenced the transformation. Then while in Dallas I looked at fabric stores for a fabric that stood out to me. Well, I found one...I fell in love, but it was $12 a yard...I know to many that is a bargain...but not for me. So I wrote down the name and designer and went on my way. Well, I ended up finding it on Etsy for $8 a yard (with shipping). So I splurged and bought the fabric I was in love with. This week I finally did something with it. I made drapes and pillows. You can't tell in the picture...and well, the sun is too bright and I can't get a good picture right now...but for the bottom of the drapes I cut up my old red twill drapes from the Pottery Barn and I used the same brown pompom trim between the two fabrics as I did on the pillows. And for another frugal find...I lined the drapes with flat bedsheets I found for $6 a sheet at Walmart...no, it isn't blackout lining, but it works well to line the drapes so they hang prettier. So our new bedroom has a new quilt, an antique quilt from Michael's family, our red quilted euro shams we bought on our honeymoon and my new drapes and pillows. I'm loving it.

Hall organization

I know I promised pictures a long time ago of my new hooks and bench that Papa built for me. I have absolutely loved it. The boys coats, helmets and backpacks stay corraled here. They have a spot to put on their shoes. I still haven't found the perfect baskets for underneath. I plan to store winter hats and gloves and also their knee pads for their bikes in some baskets, but nothing has struck me to work yet. I finally have spruced up the bench with a few pillows and a cute little sign on the shelf. I still think the shelf needs some sort of artwork or something taller behind the "Home" sign. I'll keep looking. But thanks, Papa, for your hard work. It has been great.

My now $23 chest of drawers

I bought this chest of drawers for $13 at the Habitat Store.

Now, $10 in knobs and a fresh paint job later...

Still a little rickety, but it functions. And looks so much better.