Day 747

After the wedding, I headed down to Fort Morgan, Alabama for a few days with my dad's side of the family and a few friends. It was fun to have a few kiddos to play with on the beach, and despite my desire to play photographer with 5-year-old Hunter and 3-year-old Casey, there were too many kites to be blown and holes to be dug in the sand to sit still. I did manage to get a couple of good ones, I think.

Day 746

I'm back! The wedding was absolutely beautiful and just completely perfect. Really. My sister and her husband were just a blur of happiness all day long (hence the above photo). My few days at the beach were a lovely and fitting way to end the event, and I hope I'll be back later to share some of that. In the mean time, here are a few snippets of the day.

Day 740's pretty

Little sister's wedding weekend is finally here! We'll be spending the weekend with family and friends celebrating their blessed union, then it's off to the beach for a few days of what I'm sure will be some much-needed r & r.

Happy Weekend!

Day 739: the one that got away

Photo by Architectural Digest

Well, really the one I left behind is more appropriate. I've been dying to hang a lantern over our dining room table -- dying! The brass chandelier that's there just isn't doing it for me (though I do want to spray it white and put it somewhere else) and I think a lantern is the way to go.


And I'm not the only one. Domino (above) liked the idea, too. How great is this room? Love the round table, the chairs with the fun checks on the back, the stacks of books and the cheerful curtains. Maybe replace the coral with some fluffy hydrangeas and I'll move right in.

Interior design by Stephen Knollenberg

Lanterns work in traditional or more sleek, modern spaces. All three of these look similar, but the rooms are so different. And yet, it works in all three applications, I think.


Last weekend, while browsing an antique store in my hometown, I spotted this beauty: an old gas post lantern. The dealer had a note attached (with the photo at the top of this post, actually) suggesting that it be removed from the post, rewired, and hung indoors. Hello! That's exactly what I would want to do. It was old and crusty and perfect, but I hadn't exactly planned to drop $200 that morning on something that would still need some work. But that may have been a total steal -- I don't exactly have a frame of reference for antique lanterns, and I have no clue what it would cost to have it re-worked.

But now of course I'm regretting leaving it behind. Dad? Are you out there?? Christmas is but a few short months away, hint, hint!

Day 738's sneak peek

The guest bedroom (unlike some other projects) is coming along nicely. Which is a good thing, since our house guests will be arriving in just a couple of days! I deviated a bit from the original plan -- which is pretty standard for me -- but I'm still pleased with it. I'm a bit nervous to reveal it given all of the "hype" I have created, but here's a little peek nonetheless.

{please excuse the dusty floors!}

Day 737's DIY blunder

Surely I'm not the only one who occasionally (er, perhaps slightly more often than that) struggles with projects, right? "Struggle" might be a slight understatement with my latest: making roman shades out of mini blinds.

I saw this project on Little Green Notebook on the very first day I found that blog. I declared Jenny my DIY Hero and have been dying to try it out on one of the 4,276 windows in our house dressed in lovely mini blinds. You can get the directions for the project here, but the gist is that you cut all but the lift strings on the blinds, remove the bottom and all but enough slats to create the folds, then put it back together and attach fabric to the front. It sounds complicated, but wasn't too bad. That is, it wasn't after I ruined one set of blinds by accidentally cutting the lift string -- good thing we have plenty of extra sets.

They looked great and raised and lowered like a dream, but since the fabric was a pattern, I wanted to add a black-out liner. So I bought a few yards in Fayetteville over the weekend, thinking it would take just a few minutes to glue it to the back. That part was true, but when I hung it back up, things started to fall apart ...


Um, that wasn't exactly what I was going for! Clearly I need to glue the liner to the top, but that won't solve all of my problems.


After some raising and lowering and trying to encourage the liner to fold properly with the fabric, I realized that the lift cord is preventing that from happening (because it is in between the liner and the fabric), and is causing the major bunching action you see here.

I think I can salvage this one by cutting the liner along the lift string and re-attaching it in three pieces, and now I know I need to line the fabric before attaching it to the shades next time. Live and learn, right?

Day 736: more UK kitchens

This time from Henry Gordon Jones. The mix of cabinet and counter finishes is interesting. What do you think?

Day 736's hometown tour

We spent the long holiday weekend at my dad's river house near my hometown (or what I consider my hometown, at least): Fayetteville, Tennessee. In high school, I thought I was a displaced city girl. And now that I live in "the city" I really enjoy time spent in the country and have all sorts of romantic fantasies about what our life would be like if we moved out of town. Maybe we would live downtown and have a little bed and breakfast in a big Victorian house. Or I could have my little store and Maddie could come to work with me every day. Or we could have a little farmhouse with a big garden and a couple of miniature ponies (because they are so dang cute!). Isn't the grass always so much greener on the other side?!


But I digress. We started the weekend with dinner at The Restaurant, which is kind of in the middle of no where, but has great food. Dad and his wife Ellen know the owners by name, and that a reservation is a must if you want to dine on Friday or Saturday nights.


I headed into town on Friday morning to hit up my favorite spots before meeting everyone for lunch. Sir's Fabric is always a must-stop. There is room after room of remnants, and you'll be hard pressed to find anything over $5 a yard.


On the West side of the square, Magnolia Mall is sure to delight.


I can always find something I need to bring home in a place like this.


In the front windows are buckets and barrels full of marbles. Mom used to bribe us with a bag of marbles each if we behaved while she shopped.


Next door is Dragonfly Gallery, which is full of local art.


Lunch at O'Houlihan's is a requirement for any time spent in Fayetteville. It's a charming little sandwich shop with a beaded board ceiling and schoolhouse-style pendants. It's also where I bought the blueberry tea I served at my sister's shower last weekend.


They have the most delicious German Chocolate Upside-Down cake in the world -- they use pecans instead of coconut, and top it with a raspberry sauce. Delightful! Unfortunately, they were so busy on Friday that they sold out of cake before I could reserve my piece. Tragic!

The rest of the weekend was spent lazing around on the river, but I let my camera battery die and couldn't document any of that. I guess we'll just have to go back for cake and pictures another time.

Day 732's lovely photos

I loved Brooke's recent post on Blueprint Bliss about her "other loves." Yes, if you are reading this blog (and/or Brooke's) you probably love interior design, and duh, so do I. But we all have other loves. Brooke has inspired me to remember my other loves, and remember that I can talk about them here, too.

One of my more random loves is for beautiful food photography (are you still with me?). Maybe it's because I work in the company of some great food stylists and photographers, and can appreciate the work that goes into one little photo, I'm not sure. But have you ever tried to photograph a meal that you prepared and were particularly proud of? It's not easy to make food look appetizing in a photograph. And to make it look beautiful is definitely a skill.

A recent favorite is Jewels of New York, an effort by two young New Yorkers who combined their passion for food and lifestyle design. Did you spot the pretty Wedgwood basalt creamer?




The next two images belong to Jen of Simply Breakfast. I've mentioned her before, and I am so glad she's back in action. Her photography is so lovely and simple -- it inspires me to pair down. She photographs more than food, and you can purchase her work through her etsy shop.




So, there you have it. I hope we can still be friends. And I hope you'll bare with me as I share some of my "other loves" in the future. Maybe you'll share yours, too.

Oh, and speaking of food, I made the lemon-scented blueberry cupcakes this week. De-Lish! So good, actually, that I had to send them to work with Wes so that I wouldn't finish them off myself!

Day 730's anniversary

Today is our two-year anniversary! As much as it seems like our beautiful wedding day was just yesterday, it also seems like we have been together forever. It's hard to imagine myself without my husband, and I am grateful that I don't have to.