Day 165

Okay, I realize that, with this post, I am giving far, far too much of my dorkiness away ... but, I think it'll be worth it!

Get excited, a meteor shower is coming! The Geminid meteor shower, to be specific. The best times to view it will be post-dusk on Thursday and early Friday morning (2am-ish) and then again on Friday night and into Saturday morning. I know, I know, waking up in the middle of the night probably isn't your cup of tea (believe me, it's not mine either), but if you haven't seen a serious meteor shower, you are missing out!

My dad used to drag us out of bed for meteor showers, eclipses, comets and all kinds of celestial stuff when we were kids. I'm so thankful that he instilled in us an appreciation of such events, because I think I'm starting to really understand why they're so amazing -- they're a realization of God's glory on earth! I fully intend to set my alarm, tune my iPod to some Chris Tomlin and spend some time with my Maker!

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Psalm 19:1


{image: Alan Dyer via SkyandTelescope.com}

Day 164's wish

It's supposed to be 79 degrees here today. Geez ...what does a girl have to do to get a little winter weather?? It felt so so wrong to be listening to "Winter Wonderland" on my way to lunch, and even more wrong to see women in tank tops and flip flops. Oh the horror! I mean, it's December, people.

Day 160's big purchase

Oh me. Wes and I bought a car last night! It was all very exciting and very scary at the same time. We have been planning to replace Wes' Honda Accord for some time. My 4Runner is getting up there in miles, but it's been our go-to car - the one we take when we leave town, or go basically anywhere together. We like having something with that much space, so we wanted to keep it, and with gas prices on the rise, we decided to look at getting something that would help out in that area. First we were going to buy a car in September, then November, then we decided to wait until after Christmas.

On Wednesday of this week, I was driving the Honda on the way home from work, and it started acting funny. I know next to nothing about cars and really really didn't want to break down on hwy. 31 in the middle of rush hour, so I pulled over. Wes met me and drove the car home while I followed in the 4Runner. Sure enough, it's got a problem (but don't ask me to explain it!). I guess half a day of having one car between us was enough for Wes, because he starting calling around about cars on Thursday. Long (boring) story short, we came home last night with a 2008 Nissan Altima! Our original intention wasn't to buy a brand-new car, but we got a great deal, and we're both quite pleased. Now begins the oh-so-fun task of making monthly car payments!

Day 158's inspiration

Style editor Heather Chadduck of Cottage Living has great taste and a quite distinctive style. Just before she joined the crew at Cottage, they wisely photographed her Dallas home and featured it in 2004. Her Birmingham hacienda underwent quite the renovation before it met her discerning standards. I tore out pictures of her blue and brown bedroom when Cottage published it last year, and today I came across the virtual tour of the house before, during and after her remodeling efforts.

Wow, has it come a long way! It gives me hope that the cottage we can afford now (er, when we start looking this spring) can one day be the cottage we love. Don't miss kitchen - it's definitely the most dramatic and inspiring transformation. Seeing this, I might even be able to settle for some truly heinous linoleum!

{image from Cottage Living}

Day 157's exciting discovery

Keeping in line with the robin's egg blue dictionary and letterpressed desk calendar, check out this great Web site. See Jane Work carries TONS of pretty desk accessories and office supplies so nice you might actually want to go to work! I said might ...

Day 154

Today, my mom and I are hitting the Christmas gift trail. Per usual, I've been giving a lot more thought to what I want to give this year than what I want to get. Here's a taste of what's on my gift radar:


Graphic Image makes these gorgeous leather-bound dictionaries an aray of beautiful colors. What a fun gift for a college student! If a dictionary isn't your thing, maybe an address book, journal, golf rule book, agenda, photo frame, album or scrapbook in a fun color will suit you better. During the wedding planning process, I had a little pocket notebook that said "Bride's Notes" on the front. It was much, much more handy than fishing through wads of post-it notes when trying to share ideas with vendors.


In my mind, Illume candles cannot be beat. I burn the gardenia scent year-round, but the holiday flavors are incredible. I recently walked into a store burning Angel Food, and I thought they must have added food to their repetoire it smelled so delicious. And they're pretty, to boot!


Okay, so this one might actually be on my Christmas list ... I love a good calendar and I love anything that's letterpressed, so this is perfect! You can find this pretty and practical stocking stuffer at Paper-Source.

Day 153's disturbing news

Don't leave us, Tommy Tuberville.

Day 152

Wes and I spent two days this week getting our Christmas tree up, and the process stirred up lots of memories for both of us. For me, it started at the tree lot. We always had live trees when we were growing up, and as soon as I stepped out of the car and put my face into a Fraser Fir, I was instantly transported back to childhood. They say that smell, more than any other sense, triggers memory, and man, do I have some great memories of Christmas.

My mom really knew/knows how to do Christmas right. She'd make a pot of soup, or something equally appropriate, and put on her and Dad's old LPs of Bing Crosby, Gene Autrey and Nat King Cole. Dad's job was to get the tree in the stand (not so easy, as we found out this week) and then to set the mood with his pipe. He only smoked it twice a year: once as we decorated the tree and then again on Christmas Eve. I can recognize pipe smoke anywhere (again with the scent memories!).

When we moved to Tennessee, things really got out of hand. There was a lot more space to decorate, and we added an entire second tree. We spread the tasks among the three of us. BA helped mom with the trees, Allison did the snow village and the snowmen in the breakfast room and I usually put the garland on the stair rail, over the front door and on the mantle. I don't think our house ever looked better than it did at Christmas, and I really really wish we had thought to properly document it last year. I don't think any of us actually thought Mom would have sold the house and moved to Birmingham by now! But I digress.

Naturally, when it came to decorating our first tree, I emulated what I learned at home. I made chili. I turned the TV to the "sounds of the season" channel (man, I miss those LPs). And I insisted that we have a real, live tree. Which wouldn't have been such a big deal, if I had remembered that a hack saw is absolutely necessary when setting up a tree. One quick trip to K-mart, and we were in business. I took over Mom's job and strung the lights, all 470 of them. Then we realized that we didn't have ornament hooks. Whoops.

So most of the decorating was put off a night, and we finally got the tree wrapped up last night. If I do say so myself, it looks great! Wes' mom has been collecting ornaments for him since he was born and my mom has been buying them for me for my birthday (she gets them on sale after the holidays - smart!) since I was in high school. No first-year empty tree for us! I'm not one to subscribe to the thought that a Christmas tree has to be totally matchy-matchy (or that anything should be, for that matter), but boy do we have one eclectic tree. There are at least two plastic M&M people, soccer balls of all imaginable materials, a couple of wooden rocking horses, some pretty silver balls, my collection of blown-glass ornaments of all shapes and sizes and much, much more. Though I can't promise that the plastic M&Ms will make it onto the tree next year, for now, it's absolutely perfect. I can't imagine a better way to decorate our first tree, than to have it completely covered with what we both love.

(this tree is from Southern Accents, pictures of our tree coming soon!)

Day 150

War Eagle!

Whew, what a week/weekend. Quick recap: Little Rock was lots of fun - as spending time with the Joneses usually is. Geography dictates that we don't all end up in one place very often, so it was great to spend time with them. We rounded out the weekend with a trip to Auburn to watch the Tigers trounce the Crimson Tide for the sixth, count 'em SIX, time in a row! We both grew up in North Alabama with lots of redneck 'Bammers (none of whom actually went to the University of Alabama - I can tolerate those kind), so beating 'Bama once is a thrill, six times in a row is an absolute treat.

Unfortunately, I left the Plains without two very, very important items:

1. I guess all of that furious clapping was too much, because I lost a stone in my wedding band (again), and had to leave it with my sister to be repaired by the jeweler there. I feel naked without it.
2. Somewhere between Toomer's Corner and our tailgate (what, a mile maybe? maybe not ... ) I lost most of my lucky "Beat Bama" button. I still have the metal pin, but it just doesn't have quite the same effect on it's own. That button saw Auburn through six straight wins, so I might have to wear the metal pin next year, just in case.


Wes and my cousin Jess found a, ahem, more creative way to illustrate the winning streak

Day 143

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wes, my sister and I are headed to Little Rock in the morning for a little holiday-prompted family fun. My other sister is flying in from Colorado Springs, and it will be the last time we get to see her before she departs for the middle east, or east Asia, or wherever Yemen is. Although it'll be our first real holiday since the wedding, I don't anticipate it to be much different than the last few. Well, except for that whole sleeping-in-the-same-room thing.

In honor of the holiday, take a look at this 360-degree view of my current favorite dining room. The rest of the home is pretty great, too. Enjoy!