Christmas in July pictures!

Front of the store -

One of the front window displays -

Another front window display -

A pink and green flower arrangement to match our theme -

A display for the new digital Christmas cards we have -

A wide shot of the store -

A fun Christmas tree made out of...you guessed - TISSUE PAPER FLOWERS!

Our promotional poster and more tissue paper flowers -

The cash register and MORE tissue paper flowers - I love 'em!

Another pink and green flower arrangement -

A sweet arrangement for the store -

I hope you enjoy all of these pictures as much as I enjoyed decorating! We have had an insanely crazy weekend with lots of updates, but I am just too tired to write any more.

Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend!

Blessings, y'all!

Summer window display.

I had to post a picture of our cute summer display that we had at the shop! I just love the fish float, and of course, what is summer without an Essentially Lilly book???

Momma and I worked on Sunday evening transforming the store into a whimsical Christmas in July theme! The actual event will be on Thursday, so if you are in the Middle Tennessee area, you should definitely come see us! I will, of course, post lots of fun pictures! Sorry for the short post!

Blessings, y'all!

PICTURES!

FINALLY! I finally downloaded pictures from the past 3 weeks onto my laptop! Here is what I have been up to...

spending a lot of time on my front porch with Brad in our new wicker rockers...

hosting family barbeques (and letting my mom take sweet pictures of us)

taking my floral arranging class - this is the first thing I made in class - it's a silk arrangement in an antique basket to go in my bedroom...not too shabby, right?

working on restoring this old cabinet from my great great grandparents' home - I had to trace the design on the cabinet doors - it's a long project, but it will be SO adorable when I finish!

helping my mom do flower arrangements for a friend's party - this is one of my favorites - everything came from a yard: daisy wildflowers, oak leaf hydrangeas, and purple verbena!
another arrangement with magnolia blooms - has anyone noticed how BEAUTIFUL the magnolias are doing right now???
another arrangement of lillies and roses - I love the colors!

I have been really busy for the past couple of weeks, and I am getting to do a lot of things I have been putting off for a while. I am going back to work tomorrow morning at the shop, and I couldn't be more excited! Then tomorrow night, I have my floral arranging class, and we're making WREATHS!!!!

Who's excited??? THIS girl is!

Blessings, y'all!

Is it Monday already????

As every other weekend goes, this one was packed full of craziness and fun! I had to work on Saturday morning for a workshop we held on "Family Literacy." It was a very interesting workshop, and I have lots of ideas to incorporate reading into my future children's lives! I hope they love reading as much as I do!

Saturday night was my cousin, Tye's, 4th birthday party. Did we go to Chuck E. Cheese? Absolutely not! This big boy wanted to go to Fuji, a local Japanese Steakhouse, for his birthday! Here are some pictures from the night - sadly, I did not get one with the birthday boy!

Here I am with Tessa (Tye's sister) and our other cousin, Taren -I then let Tessa be the photographer for the night - she got this great shot of my momma and Brad.
And this weird picture of me eating my Fuji soup!
My mom and I have a ritual on Sundays - we go to the early service at church, go to breakfast together and then spend the whole day doing something fun. This Sunday, we went to the Antique District in Franklin, Tennessee - which is about 45 minutes from my hometown. Here are some of the goodies I got yesterday -

I got this cute blue basket to go in the master bedroom - I plan to make an arrangement to go in it - Does this little picture look familar? It should! It's a smaller version of the three pictures I got from Stein Mart a few weeks ago. I also got this sweet little birdie and a nest to go in my room as well -

This was BY FAR the best buy of the day...I got a 1915 edition of Little Women for $15! As y'all know, Little Women is one of my favorite books, and I just could not pass this by! I can't wait to read it to my little ones!This was a birthday present from Brad, and I love it so much! It says "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul" - Emily Dickinson. It matches perfectly with our bird theme!

I have lots of old pictures of my family, and I wanted a neat way to display them - I saw this idea from another blog (Harrington House) a while back. I had the yellow berry garland, draped it over an antique mirror and clipped old pictures to it. I love it! It's so fun to look at all of them!

This is what I ended up doing on Sunday night - packing up all of this....

....to make room for all of this....

Oh, how I have missed you bright colors!!! I was so sick of wearing black and brown, so I changed out my closet and put up all of those fuddy-duddy sweaters! I'm sure it'll be 30 degrees next week, and I'll be stuck, but I don't care! Ha!

I hope y'all had a wonderful weekend! Blessings!

Spring plans.

So, Thursday is the FIRST day of Spring - YAY! I'm am so excited! Here are some plans I have for spring...

1. Celebrate my 24th birthday with my favorite girls @ my FAVORITE restaurant, Goodness Gracious on Good Friday!

2. Plant some of these...We had four hydrangea bushes planted at our old house, but we accidentally left them there! I may go back and get them! Ha!

3. Organize our office/craft room. It currently looks like this....

I'm thinking about doing something like this... (I have an antique hutch that needs to be painted, and would be GREAT for storing all my scrapbook materials).

4. Paint my laundry "closet" and make it super cute and bright like this... 5. Organize my closet (and put all my SPRING clothes out) and organize the GARAGE! EEEkkk!

So, needless to say, I have LOTS of things I want to do! Brad and I are also planning on buying a new sofa set in May, so we have been looking for different sets that we like. I really like this set - it fits so well with our nautical theme!

Brad thinks it looks too much like what we already have - I'll definitely be asking for opinions!

What are your plans for spring?

Blessings, y'all!

My "happies."

So sorry for the lack of posting over the past couple of days! Even though I wanted to update my blog and post, time just would not allow it!

I had to work on Saturday all day - my boss and I were speaking at a Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) conference in Nashville. We had to be there at 9:00 a.m. - which means I had to get up at my regular old time just like it was a workday! We were the first group to speak - which was nice - then we had a long break until around 4 p.m.

So what do two girls do while they're in Nashville???

GO SHOPPING, OF COURSE!!!

I didn't buy much - everything is in that in between stage of winter and spring. I did buy a cute dress at Gap off the sale rack for a whopping $10!!! My kind of deal! We ate at Cheesecake Factory for lunch, then shopped some more! We didn't get home until nearly 6 p.m., so needless to say, I was wiped out.

Since I worked on Saturday, I got to have yesterday off! It was so nice outside - but extremely windy! There was so much trash that had been blown into our fence row, so I did a little work outside. I also did a lot of cleaning and reorganizing - I got all of our spring and easter decorations out, too! I have been buying little things here and there from places like SteinMart and TJ Maxx for the house, but I have been so busy lately, that I have not put them all out! So here are a few of my happies that I finally put out yesterday :)

This is the little blue donkey planter I got a few weeks back from The Old Feed Store in Woodbury! I think it's too cute, and my little sponge fits perfectly in it!

I got this adorable plate hanger from TJ Maxx for $7!!!! I love the forks and spoons on it! My fiesta dishes fit so nicely! I love my fiesta dishes - I have them in all different colors, and I love to set my table and mix and match them!

Here are a few of my bargain items that I picked up from Marshall's one day - two frames (I think they were each $3.99!) - I put a picture of my granny, my Granny Willeford, my mom and I from way back in the day in one - in the other frame, I put a picture of Brad and I the day after our wedding at our breakfast in our chairs that had a flower-covered "L" and "B" on them, and three of my bubble glasses that I collect (they were each $1!!!!). I love finding bargains - especially when I live with a tight husband! Ha!

This is a springy arrangement I actually had in another room - I moved it into the kitchen by the door! I love spring colors :)

These are the placemats that Brad's grandmother made for us when we got married - she made us a set for every season, and I love to set them out on the bar!

Here is our dining room table all decorated for spring! I love my little bunny centerpiece! The placemats and napkins are yellow seersucker, and they were a wedding gift from a cousin! I don't have my plates out yet, but once I get them out, we'll be ready for spring!

Sweet little bunny and a nest filled with eggs in the family room.

I've been trying to make our master bedroom feel more romantic and cozy - here is what I've done so far...

I got a set of three of these tin pictures - each of them have a different type of nest and egg on them. (Our bedroom is chocolate and robin's egg blue - thus the love of birds and whatnot).

Here are all three together by the bathroom door.

I set some old books, antique brass candlesticks, a brass hummingbird and flower, and a sweet painting with a girl and a bird (got it for $20 at an antique store - someone worked hard on it!) on top of our dresser.

I put an old frame above our bed, and I then I added some keys that I got from SteinMart...I think it looks pretty cute! Notice anything else new?????

If you guessed lamps, then you are RIGHT!!! I saw these lamps on Sunday at SteinMart, and I went on and on about them to Brad. They were a very good price, but I was afraid Brad wouldn't like them. I told him to go by there after work and check them out - and then if he liked them, we would get them! I got a text message from him while I was in a Junior League meeting - he said they only had one left, and he figured I wanted both, so he opted out. Anyways, when I got home, I found both of them in our bedroom! I was so suprised! I love them so much! They have a little bird and a nest with eggs on them! They match so wonderfully!

What do you think???

Sorry this is so terribly long, but I got so much accomplished yesterday, and I HAD to brag :)

Blessings, y'all!

Party Flowers!

Since I had a couple of requests about how to make the paper flowers, I thought I would dedicate a whole a post to them! I have to give credit to the wonderful MARTHA STEWART for these. When I was planning my wedding, I found an article about these flowers in the Martha Stewart Weddings book - they looked fairly easy, and I thought they were adorable! For my wedding, we did them all in red and yellow (my wedding colors), but for the United Way event I'm planning, we did them in red, yellow, blue and a couple in green. They are so easy to make, and I hope to see y'all make some as well!

Step 1 - you will need about 10 sheets of 20"x 30" tissue paper (you may have to order this from a wholesale place - I ordered mine from Nashville Wraps). Lay the paper out flat in a stack.

Step 2 - Make 1 1/2" accordian folds as shown below.

This is what the paper will look like when you finish making the folds.

Step 3 - Fold an 18-inch piece of floral wire in half, slip over center of tissue, and twist to secure.

Step 4 - With scissors, trim both ends of the paper into rounded or pointy ends. I did a pointy end on this flower.

Step 5 - Open up the creases so it resembles a fan.

Step 6 - Separate layers, pulling one piece of tissue paper from the center one at a time. (Make sure you are very gentle during this part - you don't want to pull too hard, or you will rip the tissue).

This is what the flower will start to resemble as you are pulling the layers up.

Step 7 - This is what the flower looks like after you have pulled all the layers up. They may have some holes, or they may not be completely rounded, so I always give mine a good shake to fluff them out.

Here is a completed flower - I have it hanging from the ceiling here. Isn't it adorable???

This is what my parents' house looked like for most of the weekend - this is only a small section of the flowers - the whole house was covered with them!

This is a big arrangement my mom and I made - we attached the flowers to some curly willow branches and stuck them in a huge vase. I think it's the cutest thing I've ever seen! I just wish we would have thought about this for my wedding! Now here are a couple of pictures from my wedding. We lined the outer edges of the tent in the yellow and red flowers, and then we filled the ceiling with white paper lanterns. I loved everything about my little southern country wedding!

Hopefully my directions weren't too complicated! I hope y'all will all make these flowers - just make sure you show me what you did with them! I'm off to decorate for our big event that is TOMORROW!!!! I am going to take lots of pictures so I can show the final result :)

Blessings, y'all!