Ladies' Retreat 2013

I had a wonderful weekend with some ladies from my church as we all got away together for a Ladies' Retreat at Alpine Camp for Boys in Mentone, AL. It was an amazing weekend of fellowship and refreshment as we refocused our attention on our relationship with God and with each other as women in the church.

Alpine Camp is a special place, and all three of my brothers (and my brother-in-law) have been counselors there during the summer camps over the years. It was fun to go and see all that they would have experienced over the years!

 Our conference took place at the Ridge. The main meeting place was so cool! Loved the atmosphere created by the large stone fireplace and antler chandeliers! We had a great turn-out!

 The speaker this year was Pam Benton, who is a PCA pastor's wife! She was amazing, and I learned so much from her!

 Friday and Saturday nights we had a bonfire and cooked s'mores! Yummy!

 Here is the view of the main hall from our cabin on Saturday morning! I didn't get a picture of our little cabin, but we had a blast! I slept on the top bunk which was super fun!

 Saturday afternoon we had some free time so we took a long walk...first down to the "river."

 Beautiful!

 Then, beside the barn and pasture...

 We stopped along the way for some pictures in the ditch along the road! Haha!

 Chilling by the fire on a Saturday afternoon getting to know each other better!

 It was such a great weekend, and I am so thankful for the time away (and for the time with my sweet roommate...we never get to see each other because of our different schedules so it was fun to catch up! :)

February Table Decor

My roommate and I have both been so busy that we hadn't had a chance to create a new "tablescape" since Christmas, so today I decided it was time to "Valentine" our table! I found this amazing tall glass dome at TJMaxx in B-ham last visit, and I just love it! I went out in the yard and gathered some greenery and camellias and put together a little arrangement to display in the dome:

 I found these glass place cards at a thrift store recently. It's great because you can write on them with a dry erase marker and reuse them however you wish!

 I took some clear Mason jars, filled them with heart candy and put a tea light on top:

Here's the finished product:

  

 I love the reminders about what true love really is!

Happy first Monday in February!

Weekend in Birmingham (fun projects)!

It feels like I am spending a lot of time in Birmingham these days, which is quite all right with me! It means more time with my sweet babies there! When my roommate told me that she was heading there this weekend for an engagement party, I decided that I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to go with her! Kathryn had school canceled on Friday, so she went with us too! We ended up with a little "mini-bus" to B-ham because the husband of one of our friends needed to catch a ride too!! 

Friday night we sisters spent the evening together just catching up (Tom was on call). Saturday we decided that it was time to get to work on a project that Ivey has been wanting to do for a while. She loves the idea of a gallery wall of pictures and wanted to fill in this blank wall in her living room:

 The first step consisted of spray painting some frames and painting some canvas boards from Hobby Lobby. We painted one a sea foam green and the other a butter yellow. Ivey wanted to write a Bible verse on one of them and I started brainstorming how we could get it to look the best. I am not sure how this idea came to me, but we tried it and it worked perfectly!! I typed out the verse and printed it on a piece of paper in bold font and taped it to the back of the canvas. We needed a light to shine through the page (we were thinking a flashlight, but the lamp worked much better!).

 We placed the canvas on the lamp and could see well enough to trace the letters with a paint pen!

 This is how it turned out. We used a gold paint pen, but maybe a different color would work even better next time!

 Having discovered this new art form of tracing on a canvas, we decided to try something else! Ivey wanted a tree, so I just googled some tree images, enlarged the picture to the size we needed, printed it off and followed the same steps, this time using a paint brush and brown paint:

 I think it turned out great!

 Here is the wall beginning to take shape last night! We had a few additions to add the next morning...

 Here's what it looks like now:

 This picture of the bird's nest has been around a while. I took it when I first moved to where I am living now. A bird had built a nest right outside my roommate's bedroom window, and one day, I just opened the window, stuck my camera out at arm's length and snapped this one! I might have even had my eyes closed afraid that the mother bird would come swooping back in and scare me!! haha

 Ivey free-handed that HOPE on a piece of burlap material:

 Used a bird cut out pattern from the internet, cut it out of some scrapbook paper and framed it!

 It's hard to see, but I love this picture of my dad's parents before they married. Granddaddy was a navigator on a B-24 during WWII and this is a picture of him in his uniform with grandmother:

 Of course, during all of these projects, we had some loving going on too! (I can't believe I didn't get even one picture of either Thomas or "Auntie Tat." Thomas was not feeling well, but that didn't stop him from enjoying having his aunts to play trains and cars with!)

 I think she is just the cutest thing!

 She is sitting up so well now and loves playing with her toys!

A fun weekend of crafting and playing and visiting!! Let's do it again soon!

Snow in B-ham!

Last Thursday my mom and I took a quick little trip to Birmingham! We knew that there was a chance for snow, but we didn't think the roads would be bad so we headed down. We enjoyed catching up with our babies! They are growing up so fast! I love having conversations with Thomas! He makes me laugh!

Grammie with Elaine Mae:

 Early afternoon it started snowing pretty hard! It seemed like it covered the ground and the road in just a matter of minutes! I took Thomas out to see it. It was beautiful coming down! We packed up and got on the road expecting it to be heading north, but by the time we got home, the sun was out and we didn't get anything! I am glad to have had at least experienced the little bit we did in Birmingham! I love the snow!

New Year brings some new decor!

Happy New Year! All of the Christmas decor is put away, and I was so excited to come up with something new and fresh for our mantle! In case you haven't heard, the Pantone color of 2013 is Emerald! You can read all about it in the Washington Post HERE.  So, in keeping with the latest trends in color (which in my mind symbolizes fresh starts and growth) I wanted to use different shades of green. I love how it turned out!

 It all started with this little number that I found on Williams Sonoma's website for $120.00!!! If you are interested, you can purchase one for yourself here! I thought for sure that I could re-create it myself for much less, so I gave it a try!

 Here are the items I used (minus the bag of moss on the far left) 

 I cut 3 inch strips and wrapped around the base securing with hot glue:

 Which looked like this:

 I had seen some tutorials that just used the sheet moss, but I wanted mine to be more "poofy" like the one I was modeling after, so I added some soft moss all over (I like the color of mine better than the ultra bright chartreuse color from WS)

 I think it turned out really well! Mine only cost me around $15, so I was pretty happy saving a hundred dollars! :)

Finished product:

 I found this little bird at a thrift store:

 And this little one on sale at Pier One:

 Added some little flower arrangements with spider mums and some greenery from the yard:

 So what's up with the star you might ask? There's a story behind it, and it's not the only one in the house!

 The larger one is on the mantle and the smaller one is resting on my chalk board picture, along with some of the words from the song that inspired this new theme for 2013! I like to have visible reminders of God's faithfulness and his promises. In the past, it has been yellow butterflies and chickadee birds. This year, I have decided that the symbol that I will use to remind me is a star!

It all started a few weeks ago at church when an amazingly talented guy named Josh Bales led the music for worship. He sang THIS SONG, and I was caught up in the beautiful message that God's plans are so much bigger than my own! His promises are bigger than my dreams! So, in the midst of my doubting dark, I will count the stars and remember that God's promises are much bigger and better!! My roommate and I talked about it after church and decided that we needed to have some stars around our house! I remembered that one of my mom's friends had made these two stars out of apple tree branches, so I asked her if I could have them, and she gave them to me! Thanks so much!