Married Mondays: Birthday Week

This week is a busy one with my mother's birthday starting the week and my husband's birthday finishing the week.  I am thrilled because I absolutely love celebrating birthdays.  I don't believe in just a day either...I say get as many days to celebrate your birthday as you can. I have personally managed to celebrate mine in the past for about a week but a weekend is a definite must every year. 

This weekend, we packed as many fun activities and food in the two days as possible.  Mom and I had a girls day on Saturday that started with shrimp and grits at Big Bad Breakfast followed by a birthday pedicure.  A birthday pedicure is very similar to the traditional pedicure but when you say "birthday" before anything it just makes it that more special!  So we had birthday coffee, birthday pedicures, birthday shopping, birthday wine....then ended the Saturday with my husband joining us for a drink on the balcony of City Grocery followed by dinner at Ajax. 

Sunday, my mom's actual birthday was spent by the pool and then the day ended with a dinner my husband and I hosted at our house for my mom and a couple of friends. In our almost four months of marriage, Ed and I have hosted several dinner parties. We are a great team getting these parties together.  For my mom's birthday, Ed took care of all the balloon blowing up responsibilities. Yes, any activity where he can use a machine makes him happy so he happily used his air compressor (I hope that is the right name of the machine) to fill our house with balloons.

The evening was unseasonably cool so even after we spent the day decorating, we all congregated outside on our deck and enjoyed my husband's boiled shrimp accompanied by my green bean bundles and rosemary roasted potatoes.

It is a wonderful weekend celebrating my mother.  Now we are all way too full and trying to eat light the rest of the week just in time to gear up for my husband's birthday weekend!

Fall Feelings

Thrifty Decor Chick (Inspiration for our outdoor display.)

Last night while cooking dinner, my phone beeped. It was a text from my mother that read, "I just got a fall feeling." Yes, we celebrate the feelings of the upcoming season in my family. I get excited when any new season approaches.  I get painfully excited when summer starts to appear because I long to get out of my winter blues.  And even though I know winter blues follow after fall I still love the warm comfort of autumn. 

Mom and I started calling these feelings "Fall Feelings" when I was a child.  The phrase is used to describe feelings that can wash over you at any time of the year but are particularly strong around this time of the summer leading into fall.  A warm, cozy feeling that makes you happy is the best description of a "Fall Feeling."  Any unexpected event can give you the feeling. A certain savory smell of food can bring it on.  A cool breeze on a late summer afternoon can remind you that cooler temperatures are coming.  Talk about football plans definitely make you feel the approaching season.  Or just simply the surprising golden lighting of a day can make you feel the warmth of autumn.

I thought mom and I were the only two that felt this way until about 8th grade when one of my friends used the same phrase. Later in college, another friend used the phrase.  So maybe you all know what we are talking about.  Or if not, maybe after reading this blog you will start to recognize these feelings. I hope so because "Fall Feelings" are definitely one of life's little pleasures that everyone should enjoy.

This year I am particularly excited about enjoying my first fall as a newlywed.  I love the rental house we have because I think it is a very "homey" type home and lends itself to lots of fall decorating.  I am already brainstorming ideas so that I can be ready to decorate when the calendar changes to September. Pinterest is my go- to for all kinds of ideas.  These are some of my favorite ones so far. I hope looking through these pictures gives you a "Fall Feeling" today! 

I love this wreath from Etsy.

I first saw this idea in my cousin's house. From: womansday.com

I want to try this craft!

Definitely want to use this idea for the table top behind the sofa.

Married Mondays: A Reflection Dinner

I attended a conference this past week in New Orleans and the keynote speaker told a story about her and her husband at an upscale restaurant that they go to once a year. They get dressed up, make reservations and take a notebook with them to dinner.  They only go once a year as a treat and a time of reflection of their relationship.  They use this special time to make notes on what was beautiful and what worked as well as what did not work in order to do better in the year to come. I have heard of many couples doing a reflection over the past year but I really liked making the occasion a special tradition.  What other married traditions do you like?

Married Mondays: The First 100 Days!

Today marks 100 days of married life!  I remember the excited I felt when we finally hit 99 days until our wedding.  Those 99 days were packed with parties and wedding preparations but the time seem to slowly drag until the big day. Now 100 days after our wedding, the time has sped by.  These last 100 days have been filled with all types of events in our lives, both happy and sad. We have had exciting times and social times, however, we have rarely had one mundane moment because we have stayed so busy.

I have learned a lot in just these three months of marriage and I am excited to see what the rest of the year will bring. Reflecting over the last 100 days, I have learned the following:

The Hardest Year? Not so sure....
They say the first year is the hardest.  Well we have made it through 100 days so now only 265 more to go and we are out of our first year.  But I don't think so far it has been that hard.  Sure there have been times that we have learned to adjust to each other but most of the adjustment has been relatively easy. Summing up the mood for the last 100 days really would be more like fun and not hard.

Oops! I Forgot to Pick My Battles
Our biggest fight was our silliest.  I can't believe that I am even admitting that we fought over the existence of ghosts.  No, I am not kidding.  We could have argued over politics, religion, money, even food but instead we had a heated debate over spirits.  I can be a very determined person. Unfortunately, my determination in this heated discussion really cost me credibility points and sleep.   So moving forward, I will make an effort to make sure I pick my battles and not include those that involve spirits...whatever kind of spirit that might be!

I Actually LIKE to Cook!
I am so much more domestic than I ever thought I would be. I love to plan the meals and cook new things.  I am loving my new hobby. No longer do I just pin ideas, I actually try them.  This blog has benefited and will continue to do so in the future as I write about my pinterest adventures.

Southern Living Magazine
I am insanely clean. I thought I was clean before but now I realize that I take order to a new level.  My husband is also neat but can let a lot more slide than me. I don't think this is going to change about myself because I feel less stress when things are in their place. I can come home and relax when I consider everything to be pretty.

I read the perfect line the other day about being content at home, "Return everything  back to start before you leave a room."  Ed is starting to understand this characteristic about me or at least deal with this part of my personality.  He probably still thinks I want to live in a museum. I tell him, "No, I don't want to live in a museum. I want to live in Southern Living magazine!"

Marriage is Different
Enjoying a Sunday morning breakfast the other day on our patio, we talked about the first 100 days of marriage.  Both of us agreed that marriage is different.  We knew it would be but never before grasped what that would mean. The difference is hard to describe.  Right after I got married, a friend of mine who had been married a few years looked at me knowingly and said, "It is different, right?"  The shared understanding glance that she gave me was like an initiation into a private society that only the ones that cross over to this world of matrimony understand.  I returned the knowing look because someone else got it.  She understood that all this happiness is so genuine and at the same time so hard to describe.  I ask my husband how he would describe the difference and use the word comfort which is the word that I often use as well. So to attempt to describe the indescribable: to be married for us moves us from a dating love to a deeper love. Our dating love was so special because it led us to marriage but after marriage the love turns more comforting and is on a deeper level. I guess the comfort comes from knowing that you move from being someone's girlfriend to being family.  And family is forever.

Can you tell we are happy? Cheers to the next 100 days!

Married Mondays: Introducing Lu Lu La La!

We have a new addition to our family!  A one and half year old toy poodle named Lu Lu La La or Lu Lu for short.  I found out about her on the 4th of July.  Two days later, mom and I drove a short 45 minute drive to pick her up from a very loving family that realized they just could not give her the attention she needed.  So she is our new doggie child and we are loving spoiling her!

Married Mondays: The Curtains Martha Stewart Would Hate

Since getting married a little under three months ago, I have discovered the very domestic side of me.  While I have no desire to be a Martha Stewart, I have accomplished a lot of home projects in a few short months. However in my projects, I definitely "Casey-fy" the process. For example, if Martha Stewart wanted a new roman style shade for her tiny half bath she would probably first raise a sheep, then take the fur from it, spin it into fabric and dye the fabric. From there, she would then proceed to cut perfect lines and sew it into a beautiful, quality roman shade that would last for years. However, Martha Stewart most likely does not have a tiny little half bath like I do and no one has time for a Martha Stewart style life. 

So what does a newlywed do who wants to make her bathroom cute with a very tiny budget and no sewing skills?  She goes to Pinterest and YouTube to learn how to do a no-sew curtain!  She buys fabric from fabric.com for a great price. And that is just what I did. However, this newlywed has no measuring skill or logical way of thinking when it comes to home projects so way too much fabric arrived!  No-sew pillows will be the next project. Yep, the entire house may have to be decorated in this material.

But I did it!  Martha Stewart would turn gray with disdain at my method. I cut my fabric with some cheap scissors and the lines were jagged and crooked.  I used stitch witchery instead of a needle and thread but realized I am very good at the no-sew thing!  The hem is of excellent quality just don't pull at it. And yes, there may have been some safety pins involved but I believe that since safety pins were invented  they should be used. Martha would have done the whole curtain process from sheep to window in probably 20 minutes. My no-sew roman shade took me about 2 hours but it is up and exactly what I wanted.  I am so proud of myself and my dear sweet hubby loves it too.  So all you not-so-domestic goddesses out there know that you can do this too!  The front looks great and no one should be looking at the back of curtains any way. 

The Before...curtains were fine but not the style I wanted.

Getting ready to cut. This part is when I was really nervous and wondered can I do this but then remembered I had a plenty more fabric in case I made a mistake.

After measuring and cutting the fabric, I pinned the fold to make sure the hem line was straight before adding the stitch witchery.

What you use when you don't sew.

I carefully followed the directions on the stitch witchery package and it worked!

I hemmed the top section with a big enough space in it so that a rod could fit through it.  I then pinned two pieces of ribbon around each side.

More pictures of my little beach themed bathroom to come...