Sam's New Best Friend

Samson made a new best friend last night. He met Brinkley Short and had a blast. They did the typical butt sniffing - Sam did more than Brinkley - and Brinkley enjoyed hiding underneath a chair while Samson would climb in and out of being under it with him. It was cute! Sam kept bringing a tennis ball to Brinkley, not understanding that Brinkley couldn't throw it for him.

They even shared water - it was adorable.

This is what started the trouble that ended the night...Brinkley got Samson's "foxy" and Samson didn't mind at all...
...but Brinkley didn't like it when his dad tried to take it away from him. He snarled and growled and we decided to end the play session at that point and try again soon!

Lazy Weekend

This weekend may prove to be a lazy one. Will and I just don't have much to do! It's gloomy outside and the couch is calling our names. It's that kind of gross gray color outside now -winter. Yuck, I hate it. These flowers in our half bath are bringing a small part of spring to me early. There is so much I hate about winter - I hate being cold, and I always am. I hate the confining clothes - again YUCK.


I'm all ready for spring. The flowers blooming, wearing flip flops for the first time in months - I love freeing my toes. I can't wait to enjoy our new deck either. Will and I are going to run by Garden Ridge this afternoon to look at patio furniture. This spring I want to plant flowers and do some landscaping in our yard. I'll get to use my gardening tools that Mandy got me for Christmas. Right now they are bright and shiny new in our garage, but I can't wait to get them dirty. I want to plant some snap dragon flowers. Those remind me of when I was little. I love how vibrant their colors are and how when you squeeze them they open up and little bugs hide inside. We used to have them in our backyard on Branchwood. I even had white ones in my wedding bouquet. I'm not sure where I will plant them...

Samson is also excited this weekend. His new friend arrives today. Kerns and Chris are headed to pick up their new Golden Retriever pup right now. His name is Brinkley. Samson bought him a present last week. He picked it out himself at his favorite store, One Lucky Mutt. He even helped me wrap it for Brinkley. The paw print on the bag was his idea. He got some of his favorite treats when we were there. He loves their blueberry and banana muffin bites. They are his favorite.

Monday at Home

I'm off work today...it's nice to have a three day weekend. Will and I had a nice, relaxing, but busy weekend. This weekend Will showed me his handyman side - it was pretty cute. He, well we, hung our new sconces and our USA planked wood art from Pottery Barn (that arrived last week). We also hung our new curtains for our master bedroom and a mirror that was a house warming gift from Julie, yes way back in July. We knew all along where we wanted it, but we couldn't hang it until we knew where the curtains would stop (so we could center it on a portion of our bedroom wall). We had to buy a new collar and harness for Samson, he broke free of his puppy collar on Thursday afternoon. Samson also bought a welcome gift for his new friend, Brinkley, who arrives on Saturday (Megan and Chris's new puppy). Today I did some touch up paint work and cleaned bird doodoo off our deck - gross! Now, I am relaxing and contemplating taking a short nap. Let's see what else did we do this weekend...oh, we went to Cheesecake Factory - one of our favorite restaurants - it was very yummy! We watched some movies and I did a deep clean of the kitchen on Sunday. The weather has been beautiful - compared to the low temps we had the last week or so. I'm still ready for spring...

DIY Project - Lost Socks, Complete!

Below you will see my completed Lost Socks project for our laundry closet. The pictures really are washed out and don't make it look as cute as it looks in our little laundry corner. I know what you are thinking, I have a lot of LOST SOCKS! I know...that is why I needed this. I loose part of a match and then put it somewhere and then find the other half and can't find the first lost half...it was an ongoing cycle. I made the base for the two strips out of some thin wood I bought at Home Depot and then used wood glue to glue the clothespins down. Then I painted the whole thing with some sample of wall paint Will and I had bought. The Lost Socks wording is a wall sticker from Uppercase Living and the color is Herb Garden. I love this color green! It reminds me of the greens in our master bedroom.

I wish I could have hung the two strips straight underneath each other, but with the light switch it just didn't work that way. I could have gone higher up the wall, but then the first set would have been a tab out of reach and you wouldn't have been able to read the cute Lost Socks wording as well. I got around to putting my pine cones in my glass jars...the newest thing that they are holding!

Good news! Part of our Pottery Barn order shipped today! Sconces will be arriving soon!

Late Night Shopping

Will and I had fun on Pottery Barn last night. We had been wanting this metal archway from Z Gallerie, but we didn't necessarily like how it was a mirror. So last night I was on Pottery Barn and saw this NEW archway that they just put out! Will and I decided we had to have it for above our media center. The only bad thing is it is on back order until the end of January, so we will have to be a little patient for it.

Then Will found this on sale and decided he thought it would be cool for above our dining room table - on the huge blank wall in the kitchen. So with it being more than 50% off, we decided we had to have that too.

And last, but not least, we got a set of two of these pillar candle sconces (third from left) - which will also hang in our living room.

So, I have come to the conclusion that I LOVE Pottery Barn.

Snow Day Number 1

Today is officially our first snow day of the school year. Last night they called school off around 10:00 PM. I was so excited. I needed the day to finish my report cards, which I can say are done and submitted - comments and all! The funny thing is both my sisters got snow days today too, one lives in Nashville and the other in Lexington. Both of them got much less snow than us - just a dusting. The wind chill temperature is forecasted to be -15 below zero beginning at 6:00 PM tonight, so I am hoping for another day off tomorrow - which would make for a 4 day weekend! Am I getting too greedy? So with report cards done, the house clean *pretty much*, and Samson napping behind me on the top of our over sized chair, I thought I would sit down and add some pictures and house stuff to our blog.








Meet Pierre the Pig, our newest addition to our kitchen. He is from Williams-Sonoma. Will and I have been looking for a butler pig since we lived in our apartment. We finally used part of some leftover Pottery Barn gift cards to purchase our new friend Pierre. Pierre and Samson do not get along very well.

This California Pomegranates sign hung above our stove in our apartment and it made its way to the same spot in our house. I found this at Waterworks Antiques in Washington, Missouri. I think it was like 8 bucks - but it is one of my favorite things we have.

I saw this recipe for making your house smell good on this blog . http://www.flythroughourwindow.com/2008/11/pardon-me-while-i-dote/

So, with today being a snow day, I thought I would give it a try. I didn't have any cinnamon sticks on hand, so I just used the spice from my spice cabinet. I didn't have whole cloves, but I had ground cloves from baking Julie's zucchini bread over Christmas - so far it's working well, the house smells delicious as I type. Samson even came into the kitchen to see what his mom was cooking up!


These are our newer glass canisters that we got 50% off at Hobby Lobby. They were filled with different red and gold ornaments over Christmas and on my to do list today is to fill them with pine cones that my dad gave me over the break. I wanted to spray paint the pine cones funky winter colors, but I think I decided to just leave them brown. These will be fun to fill with different things as the seasons and holidays change.

Is it really almost over?

Well, I go back to work on Monday - and so does Will. I have to say - I think I'm ready for summer already. Maybe it's the fact that we've gotten so much done with our house in the last week, or maybe it's the fact that I am sick of the cold weather....whatever it is, I'm sad my Christmas break is pretty much over.

Will and I were very busy. We hosted Will's family for Christmas Eve - my first holiday dinner to host at our new house. Then we had my parents over the following Sunday for our own holiday celebration - and to have my dad help us build some shelves for storage in the basement. We got a much needed new vacuum for Christmas and our drapes from Pottery Barn. The picture above shows the drapes, but not in our house (I wish!!). Now we just need to hang them - problem is - we don't own a drill. I keep telling Will that we need to buy a drill because I'm tired of borrowing other people's. So add it to the to-buy list: DRILL.

Two days before Christmas we decided to get the rest of our house painted, the family room, staircase, landing, two spare bedrooms and second full bathroom. We choose a very light khaki/tan color called WHICKER. It was from Lowe's. For the second full bath we chose a blueish color to match the blue and brown shower curtain we got for our wedding.

Now were are moving on to finish accessorizing the house...lamps, decorations, wall art...more curtains...you name it and we probably still need it in at least one room. Plus, we still need furniture in the two upstairs bedrooms. My goal is to have the guest bedroom finished by the Fourth of July - I'd like to have the family back in town for the second year in a row. Who knows what kind of show the neighbor will put on this year!

I also did a DIY project over break. I found it on this blog: http://allbowerpower.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/states-of-the-union/
So I decided I wanted to make my own for Auburn and STL. They turned out pretty cool, and the best part is Will loves them. He told me I should sell them.

Anyway, the fridge is full of leftovers, the lights and greenery are taken off the porch and the tree and decorations are tucked away for next year. I hope you had a Merry Christmas, now back to work!