Home Tour: Living Room.

I'm so excited to share this space with you today! Since we bought our first home and moved in this past summer, we have been buying, returning and rearranging the furniture in our place to make the space our own. Sometimes it takes a minute. Over Christmas I rearranged everything again and it finally feels like we are using this space for the reasons we like. And it feels so good :) You know, like home.

Goals for this room:
We wanted this space to feel clean, open and uncluttered. I love the built-in shelves and the painted fireplace. We purposely didn't put our TV in this room for a few reasons. First, it's open to the kitchen and I knew I would have it on all the time while I was cooking if I had that option. I love to cook alongside Giada. Second, I really wanted this room to feel like a family space, where we hang out by the fire (when Everett is asleep), where we read, work on our laptops, take naps, and stare at our yard through the french doors. I wanted to enjoy the natural light and the high ceilings. I wanted this space to be kind of dreamy and peaceful. And it really, truly feels that way now.

We all love this room for it's non-TV purposes. Everett has a big bin of toys alongside the love seat (tucked away so it's not an eyesore), so he is constantly dragging them out all over the floor and playing on the big cozy rug (which we got on crazy sale via Rugs USA, you have to check them out!) He also loves to stare out the window at all the birds in the yard. Have I told you about all the birds in my yard? I love birds. I need a bird passport.

Stevie loves to steal a corner of the couch early in the morning to read his bible. Along with a steaming mug of any kind of tea. This is his favorite way to get the work day started, with some peace and quiet and Proverbs.

I love to read in here, too, though I wish I were doing more of it. When I let myself, this is where I will stretch out for a 20-minute snooze.

What you see:
Couches: Bought with the house, and I really can't find a tag to indicate the brand, sorry!
Rug: Rugs USA
Art Print (above the fireplace): Target
Chairs: Home Goods
Pillows: Ross and Target
Blanket: Target
Mirror: IKEA
Lamp: Gifted

On the Built In Shelves:
On the left:
Art Print: Jenny Highsmith
Plant: Winter Cactus
Framed Fabric: Minted
Framed Ship Print: Jay Zinn Art
Carved Elephant from Kenya
Lantern: Home Goods

On the right:
Sailboat Photo: Stevie took in San Francisco
Gold Frame (without picture): Found on the sidewalk in New York. Such a good day to find someone else's trash :)
Peacock Plate: T.J. Maxx
Candlesticks: Gifted
Custom Name Print: One Magnolia Lane
Top Photo: Stevie took in Venice :)

This room makes me so happy. In fact, it's my favorite room in the house (which is why I wanted to share it first). We still have much, much more to do in our home, but who doesn't? It's such a process. Once we actually finish making everything the way we love it, it will probably be time to move again. Happy Monday, friends!

In the Garden, Vol. 3

You might think that this is the time of year that the garden is napping. Not producing. That's sort of what I thought might happen. Not so, my friends. Things are really getting fun out in those garden beds! I spent some time winterizing my little patch of earth and I wanted to share the progress with you.

Since we had 70+ degree weather here this weekend (in December!!!), my plants have been getting a little confused. My strawberry plants started flowering, which means they are preparing to bear fruit, but I don't want that to happen yet! It's sure to freeze here before winter is said and done, and I don't want my poor little strawberries to give up all their energy into a lost cause. I called Pike's and they told me to prune back the delicate little ballet-pink flowers. But I thought I would snap a shot for you before I had to end things :)

Aww that strawberry flower is seriously the sweetest.

Unfortunately, both varieties of lettuce (Galactic - the purple above, and Romaine - the green above) bolted from all this hot-cold weather. What is bolting? Well, it's pretty obvious when you look at them. They shoot up tall reeeeeeally fast, and then the unfortunate flower comes up from the top. In most plants, you want to see the flower, but with lettuce, that means, as my master gardener friend Dana puts it, "It's time to throw a wake, because that plant's life is over." Basically, the lettuce turns bitter and stops producing new leaves. See this little flower?

It means it's OVER. Pull it up. Till the ground. Start fresh. Sad day.

But also happy! Because I planted some peas and beets and loooooooook!

Pea babies:

And beet babies:

Just some tender little chutes. So cute. I might have planted the peas a little too close together because they will eventually get vine-y, but see, I have this problem with spatial reasoning. I just want to maximize my earth as much as possible and smash all my plants together so they just hug and love each other. But. I don't think I'm supposed to. I'm hoping that the fact that both of these varieties are supposed to thrive through the winter will sort of cancel out the fact that everything is planted in pretty tight quarters. I'm smiling right about now. Because I just re-read that sentence.

Another thing that's supposed to rock in the winter is kale, and I am growing two types:

Red Russian Kale: (hahah it's mis-marked in my garden. I had to google it to figure out why my blue kale was coming up red - because it's not blue kale!!)

and my Blue Dwarf Kale:

I feel pretty proud of these plants, because I grew all of them from seeds. Some of the others in my garden I bought as little plants, but I grew the kale from scratch all by myself. Heart swell.

I tried to pull up my carrots for Thanksgiving, but they just aren't ready yet! Look at these cutie tops. I can just see Bugs Bunny snapping a long bite with his toothy chompers :)

The Most Improved Player award goes to the cauliflower. Yes, the cauliflower. Remember when the #*%$ caterpillars decimated my cauliflower plants and left nothing to salvage? Well, slowly but surely, ONE of those plants has been resurrected to life. It's trying so hard to live, you guys. This plant is a fighter. Check it out:
 

See that little white cauliflower head tucked inside? I'm super curious to see how this is going to go.

I might have made a rash mistake with my radishes. I'm growing two types. See, a while ago, when I planted the radish seeds, only a few actually grew. And out of those few seedlings nothing actually produced the vegetable. Such a disappointment. So I threw a TON more seed out and tried again. This time, a flabbergasting amount of seedlings emerged, and instead of thinning them out (which is what you're supposed to do), I just wanted to see all of them grow. To make up for the ones that never grew. Welllllll. Now there is an enormous mess of radish tops and I have no idea how to distinguish one radish from the next. Oops. Overcompensation problems over here. Rookie mistake.

It's also very possible that no vegetable will be produced out of this either, because the probably don't have enough room under the earth to grow. I feel like I am learning so much about life from this little garden experiment of mine. Plants need room to grow! People need room to grow! And time! And love and care and nurturing! See. I bet you're pretty dumbfounded by those insights right about now.

Okay, it's fine if you're not. I'm alone in my dumbfoundedness. Typical.

Let's ooh and ahh.

Oh, my Japanese Maple. This shot was taken before Thanksgiving and it has since forfeited all it's lovely leaves. I love you, Maple. I luh you.

I'll leave you with one last plant that was a total surprise. A camellia! These bushes are awesome because they are evergreen throughout the entire year, and they actually produce gorgeous lush flowers in the winter. We all need some flowers in the winter, right?? This bush was a head scratcher for me, because since we moved in I wasn't sure what it actually was. I'm sure glad I didn't rip is up with some of the others! I definitely had some boughts of crazy where I went outside and tore up a ton of bushes to make way for this little garden of mine. Stevie was NOT happy. But this one, this escaped my manic episode.

Camellia!

To winterize the entire garden, I trimmed some unruly weeds, plucked out all the ragged leaves that had fallen into the beds and laid down some fresh black mulch. Mmm I love some black mulch. It's so striking. When it gets to be later in the winter season, it will be time to seriously prune a lot of the plants and bushes for the spring. And probably feed them something organic. I don't really know. My google searches are so dorky, "How to make hydrangeas pretty" and "I didn't thin my radishes and now they are crazy??" It's just one big experiment, friends.

If you have garden advice, can you tell that I need some? Talk to me!

Deck the Halls.

I had a LOT of fun decorating for Christmas this year. We have a new home, the first house we've ever lived in, and it feels really special to be able to make this space completely our own. Before Thanksgiving, I spent a lot of time getting our trees (yes - we got two!!) up and decorated, getting presents wrapped, and hanging the stockings. There is something a little bit magical about "decking the halls" for Christmas, isn't there? You've got to have a hot beverage to return to over and over again, while you assess the progress of your work. And you've got to have Amy Grant Christmas songs in the background, because, I don't know. I just always have. Thanks for programming me, Mom. And you've got to have that wriggly little toddler clobbering around, ready to tear into the presents at any moment, because he just makes it all the more exciting. We had to let him open at least ONE. Because we are the parents. And we get to make that call :)

Shhhhhh! Stevie doesn't know that the stockings actually have gifts in them yet :)

Little target finds. Aren't they the cutest?

I might have made them kiss.

Thanks to my sister Rachel for taking these pics. And fishtailing my hair. She's so talented.

Present time!

He loves Elmo these days!

// Woodland Stockings - Pottery Barn Kids // Ornaments - Mostly Target // Tree Topper - The Nest // Hand-Lettered Print (Bottom Left) - Jenny Highsmith //

I hope your Christmas decorating is going merrily! We might do a little more on the outside of the house. Having Stevie climb up on the roof makes me nervous, but a few lights in the bushes couldn't be all that bad :)

Merry Christmas friends! Have fun decking your halls!

P.S. - A Christmas giveaway you don't want to miss.

Our Thanksgiving!

We had the sweetest Thanksgiving this year in our new home. I am so unbelievably grateful that I had the opportunity to host my side of the family. My sister and her hubby and kids came and stayed with us, which was the BEST, and I got to soak in all the family moments I had been craving for such a long time.

I got to introduce my nephew to the golf cart, which he begged to ride over and over. I get it. Everett's first words in the morning are, "waffles?" and "g-ride!" (which is what we call the golf cart, ha.) So we drove the g-ride all over this town, and thankfully, we had wonderfully strange warm weather to enjoy so much time outdoors.

The meal went off without a hitch (mostly), and it was a fun twist to set a formal table for the meal. I don't think my family has ever sat down to a formal meal together. We just aren't formal people. But it was so fanciful and fun, it made me wonder why we have waited this long to do it. I had to look up on Martha Stewart's website how to actually set a formal table, and I was definitely missing a few necessary items (who has 10 mini butter knives??) but it didn't matter even the tiniest bit.

There was one moment when we were all sitting around the table, having dessert, that I found my mom staring into her coffee cup. "I never got to drink out of these as a little girl," she said, so softly, I almost missed it. She was pensive, but elated. She shared the memories of her parents and their parties, using my grandmother's china, and the years of hand washing each dish when the party ended. But she never got to enjoy the fancy dishes herself. So she was pretty excited to be sipping her coffee and eating her pie, kind of like having her cake and eating it too :) Oh, my sweet mom.

My new brother-in-law Chuck joined us for all the Spencer shenanigans.

Because who doesn't want to dive into a basket of toys while staring at the glittery Christmas tree? Smart little lady.

Macaroni and cheese was the only Thanksgiving food this kid would consider. Which is on his face. Am I failing as a parent??

The beautiful people.

My mother is nuts.

Sooooooo newlywed, Am I right?

JUST COME BAAAACK.

They are the best grandparents. I'm so happy for these kids to have them.

My sleepy little heart and soul.

We didn't do anything out of the ordinary for Thanksgiving. We ate, took a walk (this year we also took a g-ride :), then had some dessert. Then we just hung out. It was so simple. It was an awful lot of work, but the kind that is so satisfying and filled my heart all the way up.

When everyone left the house the next day, things were so still and quiet. I found myself really sad, so I curled up on the couch and watched Everett play in the living room while the TV was on. But you know what? That boy came over to me, reached up so I would put him in my lap, and he just rested there with me. Thumb in his mouth, he just sat in my lap without wiggling, squalling or doing the hundred other boy-ish things he normally does when I take him captive and make him sit with me. On this day, he just rested in my lap, leaning his head against my chest, and I could finally breath really deep. It was the most calming moment with my little boy. And these are the ones, the little nuggets of time that life is all about. It's not about the monumental Thanksgiving and all it's glory, it's about the string of bitty moments that wrap the tree in the whitest of light. No one can take those lights away from my memory, and no one can replace the glow in my heart from this holiday. And even though I'm sad Thanksgiving is over and my family is dispersed across the southeast once again, I am the luckiest girl because I have this boy (okay, boys - Stevie counts!) who reminds me what this life is all about. Thanks boys. You're the best ones to me :)

I hope your Thanksgiving was the sweetest, friends.

P.S. - Stay tuned for my holiday gift guides, launching this week! xox

The Thanksgiving Plan.

Good morning! Are you ready for it friends? Thanksgiving is ON. It's 4 days away. I've been compiling my lists, recipes, cleaning to-do's and cooking to-makes and taking inventory of my supplies and dishes for weeks. I am a crazy person. I should have opened with that.

This is the first Thanksgiving that I have ever hosted.

I AM SO EXCITED.

Okay, I'll be honest. I'm a smidge-bit overwhelmed, too.

Like, how do I set a formal table? And um, apparently I should be tablescaping?! What is a tablescape, for real? I NEED CLOTH NAPKINS. Do I have enough water glasses? I don't have a pie server!

I'm not really trying to host the most perfect Thanksgiving dinner ever. I'm just aiming for decent food and you know, a clean bathroom. My family is cool as can be and doesn't require fanciness or formality, thank goodness. But still - I want it to be comfortable and for everything to go smoothly, as far as the meal is concerned. I wanted to share my plan with you friends, especially for those of you who are hosting or cooking something up yourselves.

The Dinner Menu:
- Turkey (bravely prepared by my parents - I couldn't take the pressure of the turkey and a clean house :) Cop out, I know.
- Stuffing & Gravy (via Williams Sonoma here, because I'm not trying to be some kind of hero and prepare absolutely everything from scratch. I'm a real human girl.)
- Cranberry Sauce (it's so easy to make it from scratch you guys, PLEASE try it this year!)
- Roasted Vegetables (something like this)
- Macaroni & Cheese (something like this)
- Mashed Potatoes (normal-ish kind)
- Sweet Potato Souffle (a much healthier version of this - let me know if you'd like to see the update)
- Rolls

The Dessert Menu:
- Pumpkin Pie (duh.)
- Traditional Apple Pie
- Dutch Apple Pie
- Pumpkin Tartlets (make them!)
- Probably ice cream too.

I am not preparing all of this. My mom, my sisters and myself are pulling this meal together, thankfully. But if you are still looking for some guidance on your menu, how to prep for the meal, and some tips and tricks for pulling off a Thanksgiving meal, here are a few resources I have found insanely helpful:

*Williams Sonoma's Guide to the Easiest Feast Ever.
*Williams Sonoma's Thanksgiving Tips & Tricks.
*The Pioneer Woman's Thanksgiving Recipes Galore
*Real Simple's 15 Tricks to Making Thanksgiving Easy
*Designsponge's Guide to Making a Magnolia and Fruit Garland for the Table

And in case you want to get fancy for your shindig this year, I've been crushing on this modern nude manicure, this hair blogger's Youtube braiding tutorials and this guide to dressing your family for the holidays.

What are you making this year? Are you trying out anything new-fangled or sticking with the tried-and-true basics? Do youhave any resources to share with the class? Pinterest has ruined me for Thanksgiving :)

Good luck with all your prepping, shopping, planning and executing! xox.