Relaxed and Fun

I love relaxed outfits for shopping or hanging out at home.

All from J.Crew (I'm nothing if not loyal)

Simplicity

I love these simply beautiful rooms.

Courtesy of BHG

Nesting

I love the real couple home tours on The Nest.

Something about seeing a regular couple with a gorgeous home is so inspiring. Don't you think?

White After Labor Day

Loving these pants and this top.

All from J.Crew (of course)

Christmas Decor Revealed

The majority of my Christmas decorating is complete. Here's a look.

The Wreath. My sister and I made this wreath. Well I designed it and she actually made it. I mixed lots of old ornaments and came up with this combo of matte gold, silver, purple, green, brown and white. The wreath turned out so gorgeous that I decided to change my original silver and white color scheme to match the wreath.

The Centerpieces. I filled a white platter with snow filler and then topped it with a candle and extra ornaments. Then I filled my mercury glass hurricane with extra ornaments. For my kitchen I filled a glass canister with cookie cutters and white ornaments. I paired the canister with an oversized mercury glass ornament and small Kate Spade votive.

Wall Hanging. I spray painted this old frame white. I removed the inside of the frame. I then tied small ornaments creating this little swag and hung it inside the frame. So cute!

The Tree. This is still a work in progress because my mom is making my tree skirt. I used clusters of ornaments to decorate the tree and then supplemented with my favorite mercury glass ornaments.

Mint & Gray

Love this outfit!

All from J.Crew

More Christmas Ideas

A good friend of mine, Hope, asked for some more Christmas decorating ideas. Since she is one of my dearest friends I am happy to oblige. Here are some of my ideas that have inspired me this year...

Unique Color Schemes. I love the pink!

1. Hang clusters of ornaments on your tree. Gather groups of glass ornaments and finish off with ribbon.

2. Small tree as a centerpiece.

3. Decorate with extra ornaments.

4. Hang wreaths in the house.

5. Decorate with flowers besides the typical Christmas flowers.

6. Decorate unexpected areas of the house.

7. Use lanterns.

Hope asked for specific help with centerpieces. I searched and searched and these are my favorite ideas.

1. Beautiful grouping of candleholders with snow, mini ornaments, etc.

2. Branches decorated with ornaments

3. Grouping of silver candlesticks

4. Cake Stand filled with antique ornaments.

5. Christmas Carnation Ball. A cluster of these on a platter would be beautiful or just one on a buffet.

Gifts displayed in unique ways. Most of slave over gift wrapping so why shouldn't these be part of our decorations.

Think outside of the Christmas Tree Box. I love this cluster of silver trees or try a tabletop tree!

Pics from Country Living, Making It Lovely, Southern Living, Martha Stewart, Pottery Barn, Domino

Holiday Gift Wrap

Happy Black Friday! If you are like me you are out shopping.

On a side note, I love wrapping Christmas gifts. I usually opt for paper that I can use year round if I have extra. I love simple solid paper with a cute embellishment. Here are some cute ideas I found online.

Also if you want to find a use for that extra paper, check out this wreath below. How cute would this be to make with scraps from holiday paper.

Ideas from (from top to bottom): Better Homes and Gardens, Calla Magazine, Real Simple, Country Living, Paper from Kates Paperie and Gift Tag from Tiny Prints

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday!

Chris and I are getting up early to run to burn off the desserts and macaroni and cheese we will eat later. After that I will watch the parade. I especially love the broadway shows. Then we head to my grandmother's for Thanksgiving dinner. Hope your day is wonderful!

My Wreath

My sister has started making these gorgeous wreathes out of ornaments. I dug through my boxes of old ornaments, purchased a few and then she and I sat down and made a wreath for my wall. Actually she made it and I supervised and kept her dog from eating the ornaments. Don't you love it?

I will try to have some better pics when I reveal all of our Christmas decor. It's nighttime so I had to use my flash but I had to get this post up because I was so excited!

Paint Your Wagon

Painting as been a huge part of our renovation. I honestly could never see a paint brush again and I would be fine with that. Nevertheless I so have some experience painting and here is what we did and what we use in our house.

1. Ralph Lauren Paint. I really like their paint colors. The colors are unique and perfect. They also have subtle differences between shades that can make a world of difference. You can see the paint colors we used above. We used Coastal Beige in the common areas of the house, Hopsack in our bedroom, Orion Gray in our kitchen and Picket Fence White for the trim in Interior Satin. For the walls we used Interior Eggshell, which is the RL equivalent of flat.

2. Shur Line painting tools. They sell large paint pads to use instead of rollers which really cut down on having to do a second coat.

3. FrogTape. I saw this on television and decided to give it a try. Normal painting tape has a lot of bleed through. FrogTape cuts down on that. I do have to say that it doesn't work miracles so if you are working with uneven surfaces (horse hair plaster for instance!) there still will be some bleedthrough but if it's a flat surface this stuff is great.

Those are our painting tips!

I Need A Break

Thank goodness that today is a start of my 5 day holiday weekend. The blackberry is put away and it's all about Christmas decorations, baking and shopping with lots of blogging mixed in. Some holiday projects are forthcoming!

Don't you just love that room?

Mac & Cheese

I love this recipe. I adapted it from Martha Stewart's lighter mac and cheese recipe.

MAC AND CHEESE

Ingredients

1 Box Macaroni

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

5 Slices White Bread

3 Tablespoons Butter

6 Cups Milk, Cream or Half and Half

5 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour

Cayenne Pepper

Thyme

Salt

Pepper

2 Cups Shredded Extra Sharp Cheddar

1/2 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

For Bread Crumbs: Place the bread slices in a good processor and pulse until just crumbs. In a small saucepan heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. Once melted add it to the bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring water to a boil and add macaroni. Cook until al dente.

Meanwhile, combine flour and 1/2 cup of milk in a small bowl. Whisk until combined and set aside. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the remaining butter. Once melted add the remaining milk (cream or half and half) and the flour mixture. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a low setting and cook whisking frequently. Cook until the sauce thickens, 5-8 minutes. The cooking time will be longer if you use a lowfat milk and shorter if you use cream. Add the cheese, cayenne pepper and thyme. Stir until cheese melted.

In a large bowl combine the macaroni and sauce. Pour into a 9x13 casserole dish. Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Thankful for You

Kelly at Fabulous K had a fabulous idea. Since it's Thanksgiving and we are all thinking about what we are thankful for it's a great time to let our blog friends and visitors know how thankful we are for them. I am so thankful for each of you for stopping by my blog and I adore all of the comments I receive. My blog is less than a year old and I am always amazed at how much it has grown thanks to all of you.

Please leave a comment and let me know that you stopped by and so I can be sure to stop by your blog as well or if you don't have a blog, I would love to meet you. This is especially for those of you that haven't left comments because I would love to know that you are here. Again, I appreciate all of you so much and I can't wait to meet those of you I haven't met already!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Tuesday!

Nighty Night

Anthropologie has the cutest PJs I have ever seen!