Our Love Tree

We finally planted our little magnolia tree in our back yard. For over a year, it lived in a pot. It is much happier now in the ground.

The reason that it means so much to us is that it played a big part in our wedding ceremony. Instead of doing a unity candle lighting, we had a tree planting. Now of course we didn't actually "plant" the tree during the ceremony, I mean I was in a white dress.

We did however add jars of soil to the tree. Alan's jar had soil from his parent's yard and my jar had soil from my parent's yard.

Now our tree gets to live forever at our very first house, the house that we built together.

Office Art

We have really been buckling down trying to get the office presentable. It is just time. We have now been in the house over a year and the office is the most neglected room. Last weekend, we did find the fabric we are going to use for curtains. My next center of focus is now art! We have the couch in there along a big blank wall that is just crying out for some art. So I went online and started pricing some prints and art that I liked and would fill up the wall nicely. Let me just tell you that the cost (not even including the frames!) was in the 500 dollar range. No, thank you!

Instead, I went to Michael's and spent 9 dollars on some nice drawing paper. I already had the paints and brushed around the house. I was ready to paint! I found inspiration all over the Internet and made sure to use colors that worked well with the fabric. Here are some of the things I painted.

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I still have 4 paintings that I need to do. Not only was it fun, but it saved us hundred of dollars! I even got all the frames from Michael's when they were 50% off and I had a coupon for an additional 25% off. I love it.

Bennett's Birthday

Happy Birthday Bennett!!! Today is Bennett's 1st Birthday! It is crazy to think that he joined our family back in October, but I can't imagine not having him around.

In honor of his first Birthday, I decided to make him a present! I had some left over blue fabric around that I thought would make the perfect bed for him to hang out on in the living room. He already had a bed, but it was now too small for him.

I cut out two 28 inch wide circles using the very scientific method of a sharpie and a 14 inch string. It worked like a charm!

I also cut a 4 inch strip to connect the circles to.

Then, I got out my trusty sewing machine.

And stitched each circle to the 4 inch strip. I left a small opening to turn it right side out and to stuff it with.

I used the stuffing from his old bed with some stuffing I took out of an old pillow to fill it. Once the remaining opening was hand stitched closed it was ready for him!

I will admit that at first he was content to just sit next to it. After we put him on it a few times with a toy though he understood that it was his. Now he loves to hang out on it. First Birthday is a success! And the best part is that I made it with stuff I already had around the house. Love you Mr. B!

Office Fabric

After the rough week last week, Alan and I had a pretty good weekend. We celebrated Father's Day with my Dad at the Lake. And we were even able to make a stop in Decatur at Willow Tree Fabrics. We even found the fabric we are going to use for the office!

The window in there needs a lot of love. As you can see I even got Alan to agree on a fabric that has some coral (pink) in it!! Who would have thought. I always was thinking a floral for the curtains in here because I wanted to bring in a lot of color. I had made two different mood boards for the office. Both featured a floral, but Alan seemed to like the board without any coral in it. You can imagine my surprise when he picked out this fabric at his favorite. So, of course we got it.

I just love it. I know the fabric is from Fabricut the style is the Singing Tree in White and Bright.

I also grabbed a curtain rod from Target and some drapery clips to hang the curtains. I guess now it is time to get the sewing machine out and make them.

We also found the yellow fabric at Willow Tree as well. I think it will be the cutest pillow on the couch. I just love this color yellow. I am so excited that we are now working on some of the "pretty" parts of the office!

A Rough Week

Ever have one of those weeks? The kind of week where nothing seems to go right and it's a miracle when you make it to the end? Well last week was one of those weeks for us. Rough. So I took a little break from blogging and just tried to make it through. We survived, but I will give you an idea of the kind of week we had. One night after dinner Alan started mowing and weed eating the front yard. I was inside working on various other projects when I heard a loud pop. When I went to investigate the noise, this is what I found.

Alan kicked up a rock with the weed eater and it shattered the glass in our front door. This is the very reason that he wears eye and ear protection while doing yard work and I stay inside. He felt terrible, but accidents sometimes happen!

The insane part is that it continued to pop and crack for the next 30 minutes, but it never fell out.

I am thankful that no one was hurt and I am also thankful that we have double paned safety windows that don't shatter all over the ground. Only one of the panes broke, the inside pane is fine.

But I am NOT thankful for Bennett peeing on the ground right as I am taking this picture. Just pour salt in the wound, Bennett. You can see him right near the impact point, caught in the act.

We laughed a lot after all of this and called our families to recount the story. Worse things can and will happen with home ownership, luck for us a little broken glass was an easy fix. Because we built the house we just called the company that installed our windows and doors and got it all fixed up. I am still thankful that week is over though and we are starting a new one!

Signs {Little Girls}

{Little Girls} is the latest sign in our Etsy shop! I thought {Little Boys} was just so cute that all the girls out there needed an option too! These were some of my favorite things to do growing up (and even now!). Check it out in the shop.

Signs {Lake Rules}

It is Wednesday! Half way through the week. I just realized that I have never shared our original {Lake Rules} sign. I shared the green background with you, but the blue was the first and by far one of our most popular signs. It is available in our etsy shop.

Asheville, NC

For our first anniversary, Alan and I made our way up to Asheville, NC for an extended weekend vacation. We ate, shopped, and relaxed. Every place we ate was amazing! The Asheville area was really fun. We found some fun shops and the Biltmore was beautiful. Here are some pictures from the trip.

The Tupelo Honey Cafe and the Early Girl Eatery were two places we ate for lunch. Yummy!

We brought some fun treats home for Bennett from Three Dog Bakery. He loves them!

We spent hours at Tobacco Barn Antiques.

It was a huge old tobacco barn that is now filled with treasures. We were in heaven.

We also spent a day at the Biltmore. We got the audioguides for the tour and it was so worth it! I just wish we could have taken pictures of the inside.

We ate lunch at the Stable Cafe which use to be the stables at the Biltmore. Our table was even in one of the stalls!

The gardens were beautiful at the Biltmore and more expansive then I thought.

We also took the tour of the winery on the grounds.

And what is a wine tour without a tasting at the end!

It was a great trip and a wonderful first anniversary. I would go back!

Introducing {Accent Table}

Good Morning Lovelies! I still haven't gotten back into the swing of things since we got back Monday from our Anniversary trip to Asheville, NC. I need to go through all of our pictures and share! It was a wonderful trip. We even found some new goodies for our antique booth that I hope to put in this weekend. But in the mean time, here is a new little accent table that is now in the booth. Oh, how I love Paris Grey. I hope you have an amazing weekend!