West Coast Weekend

Just returned from working and weekend'ing on the west coast.

 It was incredible - great sights, food, wine, company, and the best -

Zero Humidity.

More pics to come...

Affordable Art Source: Gallery Wall by SS

Art is one of those personal things that it is an investment in your home. It can be hard to find a 'good' piece that fits ones style & aesthetic and also within the budget. 

Since buying our house, I have enjoyed finding original, affordable pieces that we can enjoy and interchange throughout our home over the years.

That's the case for this inexpensive, modern art source.

The talented Sarah Swanson of Flourish Design + Style has created watercolor paintings of all sorts of colors and patterns.

Best part? $10 a pop.

A Creative Day

Design Indulgence's bar

Two Ellie's kitchen

 

Check our her incredible Etsy shop here.

I recently purchased this piece and it was in my mailbox yesterday after work. Gotta love coming home to a new piece of art after a long day of work! 

BIG Birthday's

Today is a special day. The two most important men in my life, JH and Big Pops both celebrate their birthdays. It's also my uncles {dad's brother} birthday as well. Yea, I know. It's interesting weird how we all share birthdays around our family.

John's only request for his bday was not to be featured on LTK. He got a fishing rod instead.

So, HAPPY 31st Birthday to the sexiest, sweetest, wildest husband I know:

And HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY to the cutest, funniest, most supportive Dad I know:

This pic is a little dated but too good not to share.

Let the celebrations begin!

29: Time to live it up

So, Tuesday I had a birthday. And while the number is nothing special, the age actually is. It's a wrapping up, coming to the end, closing of a chapter kind of age.

29. Last year of my twenties.

It's funny how you begin your twenties in one state of mind - college, class, dorms, partying, shackin', traveling ...and finish your twenties in somewhat of a different state of mind - job, career, travel, weddings, husbands, houses.

Well, at least for me.

But what's even funnier is while I started and ended the decade in a different place, I'm still {for the most part} doing the same things at 29 I did at 21.

The twenties are accepting. If there are things you're still doing at 29 that you did at 21 but shouldn't be doing, you can get away with it. It's ok to figure yourself out, change jobs, drink too much, spend too much, date and break up and marry. It's also ok to find your dream job, grow your family, and actually stay in on a Friday night, if you want to.

That is what your twenties is for; to make decisions, to make mistakes, to go and do, see and be seen, grab life by the horns and run with it.

With all that said, I'm embracing this year. I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing for the past 9 years.

How is that for a preachin???

Here is my birthday week in celebration....

icecream cake from my bestie coworker, LBS

cute husband

Birthday dinner and Limoncello shots with the girlz

Cheers!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Lil Sis as well. She made her debut 23 years ago on my 6th birthday and while I may or may not have thought it at the time, it's still my best birthday present yet to this day. Love you Lina.

DIY: Chevron Table Runner

I admit I have a mild obsession with Chevron patterns. They are all over my pinterest boards and saved in most of my inspirational files.

Being the amateur table setter that I am, I searched high and low for pretty table settings on pinterest for our Easter Celebration.

I kept coming back to these two pretties...

Bellasimo & Bella

Pinterest

Then I hit jack pot and found this tutorial

...and from there my attempt at another DIY was born.

{Insert rolled eyes from husband & comments like 'can't you just go buy one'. I'll admit it's not that he isn't supportive, he's just a clean freak and has seen my too many of my diy attempts gone bad, so he isn't easily sold. Not to worry, this one left him impressed}

Supplies Needed:

Drop Cloth: I had on hand so free for me but total cost $10

Duct Tape: Had on hand but no more than $5 to buy

A fun color spray paint: $4.98

No sew tape from Michael's: $3.00

 Time to get started...

-Lay drop cloth on flat surface. Cut desired width for runner. Standard size 12 to 14inches. I didn't measure, just went for it. Sorry no pics.

-Flip over. Use your no-sew-tape to fold over the raw edge and tape in place.(this stuff is amazing for those that don't know how to sew)  Once again, I was so focused, no pics.

-Flip back over and begin taping your Chevron pattern. I just went for it. I know can you believe it? I'm sure you're thinking, really you the rule follower didn't use a pattern. But I'm telling you when the total project is less than $15 how much damage can you possibly do?

Here it is all taped in it's glory...

 Not gonna lie, this process was quite tedious. It doesn't require much thought or measuring, just lots of time tearing tape and placing properly. Probably 30 minutes to an hour.

And here it is all ready to be sprayed...

First coat down ...

Tip: I learned from the YHL team to apply many thin and even coats. I applied maybe 4 coats.


And here it is the next morning after a night of drying..

Lastly, completed and on the table...

Success without any fails. And even better, the satisfaction of doing it all by yourself.

I think it turned out quite pretty and it really was a painless process. I know this sucker will get all kinds of use.

Working my way to being a DIY Diva.....

An Easter Celebration with Everyone

Easter was special this year. Not that it's not always, it's probably the most special holiday of the year in that regard, but we changed up our holiday tradition.

Since it was Master's weekend and Master's Sunday is not only John's favorite day of the year, but according to him also a non travel day. With that made known, we extended an open invitation to both sides of our families to join us for church and lunch at our house afterwards.

Being that Easter is a Big Celebration of Life we decided to expand our little gathering and include two of our dear family friends were in town as well. Making that a total of 15 peeps in our little rancher, dad said it best ...'Dear God thank you for this special day and for the celebration of your son's life and thank you for bringing so many loved ones together into the smallest house in Buckhead' !

Luckily for me, everyone brought the feast and I was just in charge of setting the table.

We missed those that couldn't make it, especially our siblings, but it was definitely an Easter for the books.

Note: my knife setting is improper and the tulips are wilted. I forgot to put water in the vases. Oops.

 Always fun to bring out the China

John's bloody mary bar fixins'

MBT Homemade Cake

The best Blessing of all - Godsis announced thru cake pops baby Dean is a GIRL!!

Weekend

Wow, it's already Wednesday.

Bloggin' sometimes sneaks away from you.

I jetted off for the weekend to celebrate my dear cousin's upcoming wedding. Living in NYC she wanted guaranteed sun, so we escaped to this fabulous boutique resort. It was delightful & FUN. And I got to see my sister who I hadn't seen since Christmas.

pic (obviously) from their website

Here is the bride dressing the part. We kept it classy.

My other cuz, her sis & MOH, did such a great job with all the details & accessories. These were delicious cupcakes from a local bakery that devoured at all hours of the night.

The cousins

sister.

(who claims she didn't have a 'hurt head' all weekend.)

***************************



After a long weekend of sun & fun, I then carried on the getaway to one of my most favorite events of the year with husband, brother, & his gf...

It's a tradition like no other, and we had a blast. In fact, John says he added a nice contribution to our 'china cabinet'. That's 32 cups just in case you're curious.

It was the perfect weekend filled with lots of family quality time.

Doesn't get any better than that.