merry christmas to you!

love,

a white christmas in tennessee

wrap it up

I found and put to use the perfect gift tags.  You can download them for FREE here. Have I mentioned how much I love free things??

I'M BACK.

I’m in a predicament. I have been CONSUMED, and I mean CONSUMED, over the last month with other things besides my blog. I didn’t forget about it at all, but I never found the time to sit down and write a post about why I have stepped away for so long. So, here I am before you: apologizing for neglecting you. To tell you the truth, I think I have a pretty good excuse for my absence.

It’s been tough deciding what to do with this blog. I feel like once I started getting my readership up, I let it go. I’ve debated giving it up. I’ve had so much fun sharing on it that I hate to do that. I have so many exciting things coming up that I am going to try to tap into the creative side of my brain once more and rev up the blog. I won’t have nearly as many ideas, nor the time, to put into posting everyday like my original goal, but I want to have fun with it. When I feel like posting, I shall do.

In the meantime, let me catch you up on my life:

I shut the door of my apartment and departed Washington, DC for the last time as a "part-time citizen" on October 30.  I started my new job on Nov. 3.  I am now in Nashville full time.  Although I miss my DC friends and my lavish DC lifestyle dearly, I'm glad to be home.  I spend A LOT of time at the office now, but the environment is so much fun that it flies by. 

JP and I took another trip to Ann Arbor for the Michigan vs. Wisconsin game. As always, we had so much fun with the Orlowski's.

I've had dinner with a friend almost every night since I've been home.  My goal since I've been home is not to eat out alone, which I have succeeded at.

A few good things have happened: my sister came to visit, Thanksgiving, MamaJean's 80th birthday tea party, JP's family came into town, and, I asked my bridesmaids! 

I am having a Maid of Honor and three bridesmaids, so I sent each one flowers at work with a card that read: 

They all said "YES"!

And here to pleasure you on this SNOW DAY (!!!), I decided to take some photos of Cash baby. He didn’t like it very much – neither the snow nor the photo sess.

(not a fan.)

junkyard find

A few weeks ago, while my parents were visiting some dear friends in a small town in New Hampshire, my mom and her friend headed to the DUMP.  "Why?" you may ask - because that's what my mom does.  She goes to garage sales, the flea market, the dump, Goodwill and scours Craigslist.  She is also the "Take Back Queen".  She constantly has a trunk full of "take backs" because she is an impulsive buyer and regrets it when she gets home.  Consequently, I inherited ALL of these fine traits.

When my mom told me that she got me a treat inNew Hampshire, I was instantly thrilled.  Since her friend that she was visiting is an established fine artist, I knew it had to be good - and it was.

I now present to you the two original framed prints that my mother found in at the dump in New Hampshire:

Aren't that FABULOUS?!?

Things that make me smile: Sonic diet cherry limeade.

There is not much more refreshing than a diet cherry limeade with ballpark ice in a styrofoam cup.

ahhhh...

kaitlyn + keith

We enjoyed celebrating Kaitlyn and Keith's engagement this weekend at the Brock's house.  Below are some highlights:

We had lots of DIY projects for the decor.  One was spray painted mason jars:

I didn't have enough mason jars, so I made JP eat spaghetti for dinner all week :)

I tapped the lips of the jars down, then spray painted the inside.  Afterwards, I learned that tapping the lip was not a neccessary step. 

Because the gold can be opaque, I then spray painted the inside white.

My next project was spray painting pumpkins:

 

After wiping them down and taping the stems, they turned out perfect!

We also made various banners for the party...

And the final product...

KAITLYN & KEITH

&george

Kaitlyn is so creative. She picked out a wine that describes each hostess, wrapped in the cutest tea town and a heart shaped cookie cutter.

The wine that she gave me is a red organic wine.

Perfect.

Things that make me smile: Wagon Wheel

"Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show


Wagon Wheel is "our song".  Every weekend during college, JP and I danced the night away when this song came on at our go-to bar.  He suprised me last week with tickets to see Old Crow Medicine Show at The Ryman - on New Years Eve.  Have I mentioned that he gets the best surprises?

Things that make me smile: a good pen

I am going to start a new series: things that make me smile.  I originally planned to do one big post, but then decided there were too many and it all depends on what is going on in my life, the weather, my mood, time of the the year, yada yada yada.  Then I decided I would post something that makes me smile everyday. Let's get real: That may never happen.  So, I say: I will post something that makes me smile as often as I can - and I am going to TRY to do that every weekday along with a regular post- but don't hold me to it.  Here we go:

1. a good pen.

A good pen almost always produces good handwriting (as long as my hands aren't cold and I have at least 3 sheets of good padding underneath my paper).  My favorite pens have varied over the years, but my favorite pens at the moment are: Pilot Precise V5 Rolling Ball (at least fine or medium tip) and a good ol' fashioned felt tip pen.  For some reason, I always seem to write better when it's in red.

ps: I am also going to try to start labeling my posts.  You can go ahead and call me a blogging pro!

first purchase

whenever i decide that i will stay in one place for over a year, this will be my first purchase:

isn't the script beautiful?

it could, however, make a great housewarming, wedding or christmas gift.

i've been doing a lot of spray painting lately...

and I've become OBSESSED.

(More info on these projects coming next week.)

 This guy loves to bake in the sun while I spray away.

 Then he gets high off of the fumes and flips in the grass.

Still flipping...

You can see his toes in the air back there.

Those little toes make me really happy :)

bricks

i love franklin, tennessee. especially downtown.  i hope to live there one day - just not in a spooky house, which may be hard to come by. i think these bricks are my favorite part of franklin:

My great-grandparents, Nan and Papa:

NAN ALLEN WAS TOUGH AS LEATHER, SWEET AS HONEY

1904-1994

JOHN POPS ALLEN

SHORT IN STATURE

TALL IN LOVE

My grandparents best friends:

BOB AND EDITH KEITH

50 YEARS

9/11/51- 9/11/01

 And MamaJean and Daddy Don's brick:

DON AND JEAN BRACEY

FRIENDS FOREVER

1991

(Their brick was covered by a flower pot, so we had to move the pot and cleaned up the brick as best we could.)

i love that my family has made its mark on franklin.

PS:

Cheers to the miners, their families, the rescue workers.  Hooray for Chile!

Toasting with Hallie and Hall as the 33rd miner was rescued.