Deck the Walls

Let me tell you a story about my friend, Beth. She is the best. We were roommates (along with three other girls) during my senior year at college. She was in her final semester and only had one class! (one class!) But that's ok. It worked out well for the rest of us. She would bake us cookies and talk to us when we came home from school. She was the momma of the house and we loved he

Momma Beth is still one of my favorite people on the planet and, even though she lives far, far away, I've gotten the chance to visit her a couple times over the last year. Last time I was in Tulsa she introduced me to my favorite coffee of all time (Topeca Coffee). This time, we met up again at Topeca, husbands in tow, to share a giant french press of perfectly roasted coffee and catch up.

She also surprised us with a really fabulous wedding gift. She found an old St. Louis penant in an antique store and had it framed. It's just perfect! We just hung it up over our sofa in the living room (along with some still-empty frames). I love the way it turned out! Thank you so much, Beth and Ben!

Christmas Wreaths

This weekend my friend, Kara, had a wreath-making party! It was a great idea and I hope it becomes a holiday tradition. A group of ladies gathered in her dining room over mimosas and coffee, armed with glue guns, burlap, and felt and got crafty.

We started with blank wreath forms. Some people covered theirs with fabric, flowers, you name it - we used it. I covered mine with strips of green and red felt and then attached a few holiday bells. Simple and, hopefully, classy.

I love they way my wreath turned out. It brings a bright spot of Christmas cheer to our front door.

Old Lady Hands

Good news: St. Louis Police Officers are really nice.

Bad news: We got robbed.

Having someone break into your home really sucks. I don't like thinking that some punk has been walking around my house. Standing on my floors. Touching my stuff. Ew. Jerks.

Good news: The police came really quickly once we realized that we'd had unwanted visitors. They listened to our story and took note of the missing TV and cameras. The commiserated with us over the dumped out drawers and tangled jewelry box.

Bad news: Even though they dusted for prints, they didn't find any. The little jerks must have worn gloves. Sneaky punks.

While officer Katie was working away trying to find finger prints that didn't exist, her partner, our pal, Officer Doug, offered to take our finger prints in case, God forbid, something bad happen to either of us and we need to be identified. Well, we had nothing better to do while the Crime Lab was touring our house so why not?

Ten finger tips inked and two palms rolled. Officer Doug looks at my prints and then back at me.

Officer Doug: Can I ask you a personal question?

Me: Sure.

Officer Doug: How old are you?

Me: Thirty.

Officer Doug: Hmm...

{Pause}

He continues: Well, it's just that we don't usually see age crinkles like this in women until they are at least 50 or 60 years old.

Officer Doug (trying to recover): I mean, you look great for your age.

What?? I look great for my age? What age is that? Did you really think I could have possibly been in my fifties? Thanks mister.

Christmas-time is here!

I love decorating for Christmas. I love the tradition - unpacking my favorite ornaments from my childhood and re-telling the same stories about the time that Aunt Annie gave me a certain ornament or my friend Betsy made me another. This year, we're going a bit non-traditional in our house which is normally not my style, but with a tight budget and two dogs (one of whom is a bit rambunctious), neither a real tree nor an artificial one were in the cards for us.

We were thinking of picking up a rosemary plant/tree from WholeFoods to decorate/cook with during the holiday season, but since we already have rosemary planted in the garden it seemed like it might be a bit of a waste. They smell lovely but are only about 12" high and wouldn't hold many decorations in the end. I was a bit discouraged and thinking we'd have to be tree-less when I came across this brilliant idea on (you guessed it!) pinterest.com: Make your own Christmas tree out of a tomato cage!

So, $4 and a trip to Home Depot later, we have our own DIY Christmas Tree! We ran our lights vertically on the cage and that seemed to make it more tree shaped. All in all, a super simple project that helped make our living room full of Christmas cheer.

Day 10: Something I made

A while ago I put my pinterest.com habit into practice and made a pretty awesome chalkboard for our kitchen. We're crossing our fingers that someone gets us the masonry bits off of our Home Depot registry so that we can hang it up!

Pizza & Plates

Last night we ate some very delicious end of summer pizza on our new plates!

Goat cheese. Yum. Yellow Zucchini. Yes, please. Sliced cherry tomatos. The perfect pop of color. Not only was it tastey, but also so pretty on our fabulous and newly gifted white dinner plates (Thanks Sarah, KC and Mel!).

A Woman's Touch

Slowly but surely I'm making my mark on my future home. Justin has a great taste on his own, but it's been so much fun to dream about how we can make our home welcoming and comfortable and start to add my own touches.

A while back we moved the couch from my apartment over to Justin's for more seating, but it was super cramped with both of our sofas - that didn't really fit - in the living room. A couple weeks ago, on a secret trip to Costco, Justin found the perfect solution.  The new "love seat" is really two separate chairs that sit together to make a love seat. It is perfect for the space constraints of the living room and goes so well with the sofa with one of the sofas we already have.

Now comes the fun part - throw pillows! I found the most beautiful fabrics at Hawthorne Threads and the just arrived this week. I can't wait to get sewing!

April's almost over?

This month has flown by. And, in case you're counting, there are only 181 days left until our wedding. We've been busy around the house getting the garden ready for the summer and planning for the fall. Coscto has seen us often and we've made good use of the Volvo.

Planting blueberry bushes,

And building rose beds,

And potting Ranunculus,

And putting in new flooring in the kitchen and basement,

And keeping an eye on these trouble makers.

We could all use a nap.

The house is really coming along. I simply cannot wait to live there.