~Christmas Home Tour~

I've been collecting Christmas decorations since Justin and I got married 3 years ago and all they've really decorated were the inside of boxes in our storage! I bought everything after Christmas, and immediately put it away, so most of it I had completely forgotten about! This year I was more than happy to pull out my decorations and did so the week before Thanksgiving! We had about 15 guests in our home for the holiday and I wanted everyone to feel festive and cozy!

Allison sent me a link to a blog home tour and I was so inspired to share with y'all! I so loved getting to decorate for the first time ever, that I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do!

First let's start with the mantle and all the little decorated areas of the house and then we'll move on to the trees!

The stockings were hung by the chimney that's closed off... but still! I definitely would have liked to have done more here, and I probably will next year, but I have a strict rule about buying decorations AFTER the season when you can get them for the best price. I do like the festive touches that brought our mantle up to season. I like the glitter pine cones in the pink stems so much that they might just stay year round. Is that ok?

This is our entry way table with glitter tree that I've put our cards on. I took this picture a while back, so there are a few more that haven't made it on the tree yet! Can't wait until it's full of friendly faces! I filled my milk glass bowls with black, gold & silver ornaments and a Merry Christmas sign!

I snatched these gold candle sticks from my Gram's house a few visits ago. My mom hated them, but I just love them at the opening of my dining room and living room! These glitter pine cones and tiny birds have found their perfect home in the rim.

Funny story about this tree topper. I snagged in on sale last year and never actually put it on a tree! This year when I was decorating it wouldn't stay on top of either of my trees! Can't figure out why they would make a tree topper that wouldn't top a tree, but I digress. So, during the process of decorating this topper moved from room to room, but finally found it's home on the coffee table amongst the mercury glass, feathers and magazines! Now I think it looks like it always belonged there!

This was another thrown together hodgepodge that I thought turned out so nicely! This is on the side table of the couch. It's a gold and silver garland that I fastened together, threw some cream fabric in the middle and added some mercury glass. Like the previous topper, I was hoping to put this one on my gold tree, but it was too tall and too scary for hard wood floors. (Side Note: I've never dropped so many things in my life as I have on my hard wood floors! I am getting to a point that I need to buy extra of everything because I am bound to drop one and break it!)

On to the dining room. This is our green hutch and I thought this would be the perfect place to display the only red and green decorations that I have in the entire house! Can you imagine Christmas without red & green? Come visit my house and I'll make it easy for you. One of my Christmas trees is gold & one is black... I don't even have green trees here!

I picked up some of these Santa mugs last year at Justin's grandmother's antique store and picked up more of them and the jug from my gram! Gram's have little green rhinestone eyes. They fit in perfect with all the glitter and sparkle around here!

I love glass ball wreaths, but forgot to buy balls last year so I could make my own! I ended up going to a thrift store here and finding bags of glass balls for right around $8 total. Add that to the $1 I spent on tinsel and I have a fab new glass ball wreath for less than $10. If you look at this one up close, you can see how old and eclectic all the balls are and that makes me very happy! You'll see this one again in our Christmas picture!

Here is the "Diva" Tree! This was a green tree that I got last year and spray painted black. It was $40 cheaper to buy it green and buy the paint to make it black rather than just buying a black tree! It's a 6ft tree and I love how the mesh netting and over sized ornaments turned out! Wouldn't this be perfect in a sassy little girl's room? For now it's just perfect for our master bedroom where the colors are mostly black, white and pink.

This is the gold tree that's in the living room. I die a little inside every time I see the red wrapping paper, but I didn't wrap those presents, and I felt a little wasteful to unwrap them all and re-wrap in my paper, so you must forgive just like me. It's really hard to get the full effect of the gold tree without it looking white, and if I could invite each of you over for hot chocolate you could see all it's vintage glory with your very own eyes.

Here's the entire room lit up at night so you can get a better picture. I keep wanting to apologize for the quality of the pictures, but really, I'm not a photographer with a fancy camera, so this is a good as it gets and it could be a lot worse, right?

Family pictures inside the cottage.

Family pictures outside the cottage. It was actually snowing outside when we took this. Thanks for indulging me and looking at my house! From our house to yours... Merry Christmas!

I miss my stuff!

Have I said that out loud to YOU lately? Well, if I haven't ~ I DO! Go ahead, get on your high and mighty soap box and tell me it's just stuff, but then go put ALL of your belongings (besides your clothes) in a storage unit for the next 15 months.

Of course it's not like I haven't shopped, but it's very strange to not put my decorative touch on my home. To give me a fix I recovered some junker chairs I found at the back of a junk store.

There were 2 of these beauties for $15 a piece. Are you as shocked as I am that they were in the junk store? Like a bad mom, I had to leave them sitting in my mom's garage for the past year, but she was kind enough to return them to me. She risked life & lung couped up for 5 hours in a small space with these things!

I've been in love with this fabric from hobby lobby for years now. Maybe only one year, but I've loved it since I saw it.

I think it turned out perfect for these little chairs!

I found the silver pillows at Ross for $6.99 the same day. Not sure if they will permanently make their home on the chairs, but it's fine for now. I just realized in looking at the picture that the pattern is going in a different direction on each chair. Would never have thought about it, but I love the flair it adds!

Princeton, KY

As mentioned in the previous post, Justin & I got out of Mississippi for a night and a day and headed up to Princeton, Kentucky for Justin's grandmother's Christmas open house at her antique store. Please ignore the fact that you've already recently seen me in the shirt above, thank you! Princeton is actually smaller than Kentucky, but we enjoy going there especially this time of year, because the fall is beautiful and life is simple. And I always seem to find fantastic treasures at Antiques on Main.

Here's Justin in front of the store. Now that I think about it, I can't believe I didn't snap any pictures inside. Probably couldn't have done it justice and I was too busy looking for what was going home to my house.

First off, I found these Santa mugs and immediately handed them over to Justin for safe keeping. The open house brings the whole town out, so you have to get while the getting is good. I then snagged this beat up wash bowl and old Noel dish rag. I'm thinking this is going to make a great holiday centerpiece on my kitchen table!

Justin had his eye on this 8 paned window, and we already have several windows with glass in them, but we kept coming back to it.

I recently saw this idea on another blog and I'm going to get creative with my pane and figure out a way to incorporate it into a pot rack. New project!

Finally, I took full advantage of the Christmas love ~ my mother in law wanted me to pick something out and I immediately fell in love with this entry way table! It also came with a shelf, but I find myself without a hammer and nail, so this is how it's currently set up. Justin's grandmother was sweet enough to give me 4 milk glass plates that I hope to string with ribbon and hang on the wall.

I just realized that I'm missing a table! I found this fabulous round scallop~ey table that will be perfect once I take my sander to it and give it a fresh new coat of paint! Guess that table will have to have a post all it's own!

Happy thanksgiving week, friends! Our life is about to get CRAZY!

What's the Deal ~Long Bauble Necklace~

A couple of weeks ago Justin & I had the good fortune of going to his grandmother's Holiday Open House at her antique store. Indeed God was looking out for me when he had me fall in love with Justin who recently acquired a grandmother who owns the greatest treasure bearing antique store in Kentucky. Of course we had to make a trip to Wal*Mart during our 24 hour stay, because I forgot to pack Justin's shoes, but as it turned out, it was a 2 week old Wal*Mart and just about the nicest one I had ever been in!

As we were checking out I came across this black bauble necklace that caught my eye. There were clear ones, multi color ones, but only one black. I debated in my head and thought ~ you know, this is really fun and for $10 I think I can splurge.

It's different ~ all the little beads are tied together in a messy pattern and then tie in a bow at the top. Here it is all displayed on one of my newest treasures from the antique store. I can't wait to show off all those new treasures!

Here I am actually wearing the necklace last weekend in Birmingham.

Today I walked into Ann Taylor Loft, because I was lured in with a 30% off Friends & Family coupon that was burning a hole in my pocket and look what I found!

They had them in clear, multi color and turquoise, but no black. Guess how much they cost?

$34.50

The only difference that I can see is that the ribbon around the neck that you hope no one sees was thicker! My advice ~ if this is a necklace you'd like to add to your collection try and hunt it down at Wal*Mart first and save yourself $24.50 ~ that way you can get a cute shirt to go with it!

Rhinestone in the Rough!

A few weeks ago when we were in Texarkana I picked up a Texas shirt at TJ Maxx. They only have Mississippi shirts in my TJ Maxx here ~ the nerve! Justin bought some Mighty Mend-it the other day and it came with a bottle of Mighty Gem-it and an idea was born!

I love my other rhinestone longhorn, so why not rhinestone this longhorn?

{Other Rhinestone Longhorn ~ Last year @ Okla St. Game}

So, I made a last minute trip to Hobby Lobby last week before the game to pick up my supplies ~ various sizes of rhinestones.

Then I prearranged my rhinestones on my longhorn so there could be a uniform pattern and very very carefully glued them on. I think it took around 2 quarters!

24 hours later ~ my Mighty Gem-it had sealed completely and here's the final product!

I'm very proud of how it turned out. The Mighty Gem-it is so strong that it glued the shirt together, so I had to pry it apart! All is well that ends well! I can't wait to debut it tomorrow and I'll post pictures of me modeling it for you!

What's the Deal? ~Cardigan~

I spend a lot of time {read: at least once a week, maybe a couple} shopping all the bargain stores {ie: TJ Maxx, Ross, etc.}. Not to be a bragger, but due to the fact that I have the time to browse, work in the vicinity of these places & can go frequently, I find really good deals. I also have the WORST habit of accepting a compliment and immediately broadcasting how much I paid to the entire world! If you think I look like a million bucks, then why do I feel that it's necessary to tell you that I paid $5.00? What it boils down too, is that I want you to know that you could find these SAME bargains if you'll put in the work!

Also, remember that show The Look for Less, where they'd pick a designer outfit and then find the comparable outfit for significantly less? I would be so good at that, so why not share with y'all?

This week I'll share the deal I found on my cardigan! My friend, Tiffany shared a Fabulous Find Friday a couple of weeks ago about some DARLING cardigans that she had her eye on and I could NOT get them out of my head!

This one in particular ~

So cute in fact, that I thought I'll splurge and get it, I work hard, why not. It was $68 which granted is not terrible for a cardigan, BUT I'm terribly cheap and it would be way hard for me to spend that much on a cardigan. I know... it's the charm of me.

I began to do some online window shopping to see what I could find that was comparable and I came across this ~

Cute and half the price! No lie, which if the truth be told still might be a tad out of my price range and def a splurge, but I was willing to try it out. Found it at Kohl's... FAIL. The ruffles were limp, limp. ICK!

I figured I'd check Ross Dress for Less, because it's next door to Kohl's, they've had some really good deals lately & I thought I might be able to find something that would scratch my cardigan itch! I found an all grey short-sleeved cardigan that I loved on the hanger, but didn't love the sleeves. On second thought I think it might look cute with a long sleeved shirt underneath. Instead, I came away with this one ~

Please excuse the bathroom iPhone picture, but you get the point. Typically, I would go with a solid colored cardigan, but went out on a limb with this one and I like how it works! Here I'm wearing it with red pants & jewelry, but it also looked great jeans and a black top with more black/grey/neutral jewelry. Now, it's not ruffle~y, but I've been thinking that could be remedied with some of those cute flower pins that are so in right now. Who wants to bet that flower pins will be my next shopping mission?

What's the deal? How much did I pay? ~ $9.99.

my other half

When other bloggers write about their other's halves and they ask questions like "isn't he so hot?" or "don't you think he's so sexy?" I always feel mega oooooooogggged out, because that's a uncomfortable question to answer! I think your other half is perfect for you, but sexy? I'll stick with my man! I promise not to ask you any questions about how great Justin is, if you will allow me to brag for just a minute...

I woke up Wednesday morning and felt like the Lord really laid on my heart to do a random act of kindness for one of our customers. I pictured her face and fully planned on passing the word onto one of our employees so they could complete the task. As it turned out, I had the pleasure of completing the task and one random act of kindness turned into 3 for the day. By the end of the day, my heart felt so full. It made me think ~ why don't I do this everyday?

That day Justin and I had to go over to TJ Maxx to find him a new belt and we did our TJ Maxx divide and conquer routine. He goes to his side to look at his stuff and I go to mine. I started with the purses, and the racks were full to the brim. I think I looked at all 9,000 of them and a few caught my eye, but one in particular. Justin and I eventually met back up and he told me what he had found and I told him what I had found. He found 2 Express sweaters for a great deal and I had found a Kate Spade purse for a good deal, but not exactly in my purse price range.

Then I kept thinking about the purse. It would be a perfect splurge, because it was practical and classy. It was the perfect size ~ not too big, not too small, but still we've been on a savings kick and it felt nice to be socking away money to our savings account. I told Christina about it & she said ~ GO GET IT! We deserve nice handbags! Instead I went home and cleaned house.

Justin got home an hour or so after me & came in and played NCAA Football while I cleaned and chatted on the phone. Once my cleaning was complete my phone chat turned into a mini happy hour, so I had a couple of glasses of wine. Finally, around 6:30 I got off the phone and came in and gave Justin a big smooch, which prompted him to request that I change into something sexy. I argued that yoga pants and an old sorority t shirt were most certainly sexy, but gave in and headed up stairs.

Look what I found on my pillow...

It's the purse I saw at TJ Maxx! There are some people in this world that would write the note on the receipt, because they'd want you to know how much they spent, but I already knew what it cost, and knowing Justin, he just needed some paper.

The best part of this gift was not the actual purse or the sweet words Justin wrote to me {which were both beyond gracious}, but how he got it. Instead of using "our" money to buy the bag he used a GiftCard that he had received as a gift and was saving up for Beatles RockBand. And when I saw that, I burst into tears. Seems as though random acts of kindness work both ways. I am overwhelmingly grateful that my partner in life has such a deeply kind and thoughtful heart and not just where me and my purse lust are concerned.

Thanks for letting me brag & letting me show you my cute new purse!

Old Timey Note Card Box Ornaments

I've been trying really hard to wait until after Christmas to buy any Christmas decorations, but I keep running into things at the stores that beg me to take them home. Since the blessed holiday is in a couple of days, I thought in lieu of playing non stop Christmas music I'd just share with you the decorations that have taken up residence in our home.

For today I'd like for you to see the darling old timey note card box ornaments that I found!

The Seasons Greetings at Christmas

I found this first one in Austin and loved it immediately. I think it's a perfect ornament for me, because it looks 100 years old, has lots of glitter and it's an old box of note cards. There were two at the store, but I only got this one because I'm frugal and because it didn't look particularly Christmas~y.





I threw my frugality out the door when I got back to Kentucky and stumbled upon two more ornament treasures.

With Every Good Wish

Since we don't have a Christmas tree, I think these make perfect additions to our bookshelves. Looks like Christmas art to me!



Now if I could just find 50 more of these on sale the day after Christmas I could have an entire tree of these little jewels next year.

Unearthing the Treasures at Uptown Antiques, Downtown Flea Market ~ Texarkana, TX

For me a trip to Texarkana isn't complete if I don't make a special trip to Uptown Antiques, Downtown Flea Market. I discovered this jewel of a store 6 years ago. It was the summer of my junior year of college and I was about to move into my very first unshared room in an apartment. Previously I had shared a room with my college roommate, Katy, for 3 years on borrowed furniture from the dorm and the village. Of course that kind of thing is ok for college students, because you're young and do stupid things, but can any of you imagine living in an apartment now that was already furnished? Ick!

All this said to say, I needed a bed and I had a shabby junky style, so I headed over to the Uptown Antiques, Downtown Flea Market and found a beautiful headboard and foot board hanging on the wall.

The Junk~Tastic bed cost me a grand total of $35. It now makes it home in Allie's spare bedroom and I just love when I visit and get to sleep in my old junky bed again. Isn't it just perfect there? I can tell my bed is very happy now which makes it very hard to ask for it back. Except I bought two shabby chairs there back in May that will go with this bed perfect and I'm thinking one day the three of them might have to meet under my roof.


The other day Justin and put on our digging gloves and got to work. I think if I had the time and the money I could do some serious damage, but luckily I was there an hour before they closed and their prices always reasonably coincide with my cheap nature.

In one of the rooms I found this beautiful table cloth folded nicely in the corner by some old rickety fans. I picked it up and instantly loved it, but shied away from the $12 price tag because it's so close to Christmas. Ten minutes later I came to my senses and the table cloth never left my arms.

It has a few stains on, but I wouldn't dare wash it! I think it shows the mileage that this cloth has seen and makes me wonder about the people who have pulled up chairs round it's table.

As you can see, the stitching is impeccable, and I think it goes perfectly on top of the quilt that covers our tv stand in our bedroom.

The next treasure I unearthed was tucked away on a far back shelf. It's a tall skinny santa with two creepy little elves. At this point in my shopping trip I had 2 Christmas decorations total and I loved his appeal.

His appeal being that he was a darling find for $4.50 and no one else will have a tall skinny santa quite like mine!

The Top Layer Tradition

This was the cake that my mom picked for our wedding. In picking and choosing my battles for the wedding I gave my mom the entire reception so I could have the ceremony. Not fair to me? Maybe not, but while I would have done my reception different I cared more about the elements of my wedding and those details made my wedding intimate and beautiful.

Here's the cake at the reception. Pretty, huh? It's Italian cream cake with cream cheese icing and those flowers are PINKITY PINK!


As you well know, it is customary for the bride and groom to feed each other a bite of their cake, and I wish it could have been a big old hunk of cake, because a bite wasn't enough. For this special occasion I was able to convince my Non-Cake-Lover of a husband to partake in the time honored tradition.


Is that not the tiniest excuse for a piece of cake you've ever seen? The point is he tried a little piece and obviously did it with a smile on his face! I wasn't as happy, because this is all of the cake I got to eat as well.

One year later... the time had come for us to partake in the unfreezing and eating of our cake. It got me to thinking ~ why do people eat year old cake anyway? Is it for luck or prosperity or the key to not getting divorced? I asked a couple of my newlywed friends if they ate their cake and neither of them did, and like me thought that surely the not eating of the cake meant a big ole hex on marriage longevity and bliss.

I did a little research and it turns out that back in the olden days people baked huge wedding cakes and freezed the top of them and then served them at the christening of the birth of their first born around the year anniversary of the wedding. Since the majority of people are waiting longer than their honeymoon to try and start their family people now just eat the top because that's what people used to do.

Unfortunately, I didn't find this information out until AFTER I took a bite in hopes to make our marriage the happiest and longest marriage EVER. I'll admit, it wasn't bad, but all I could think was year old cake... year old cake... year old cake. And I had a 2 day old BabyCakes By Angie sitting across from me in the kitchen.

With that information, I no longer feel bad for throwing the cake away after one bite, and if you are waiting for your 1 year to roll around, you shouldn't feel bad either about clearing up space in your freezer! I mean unless you have a christening where you'll need some cake.

Some people do arts and crafts...I wish I was one of 'em!

I've had a major creative itch that I haven't been able to scratch lately and it's killing me! At this point I'd even take writing pretty quotes with my nice pen if I had it! Last time I was home it was warm enough to sit outside and sand down old furniture and then I'd repaint it. I think I still have one old chest of drawers to do, so you can bet that I'll be bundling my hiney up and heading outside immediately and get to crafting.

Next on my list of projects is to recreate this piece of art seen on DearDaisyCottage.

How darling and colorful, right? When I'm at Gram's next week I'm going to go on a treasure hunt for old jewels to add to the tree! I have the perfect frame for this that's much heavier and ornate than the frame above, but still beautifully old and junky. Since I only have 2 ~ Yes, 2 Christmas decorations TOTAL I hope to be through before Christmas Eve! Well, 4 now if you count the stockings I purchased for us today.

After that project I have decided to learn to sew. I was further encouraged on this notion when I found out Saturday night that Ryan sews and she did her own curtains! I found this gorgeous fabric at Hobby Lobby the other day and thought that's my cue... I have to learn! It's not perfectly matchy match, because it a little muted from our main bedroom colors, but I think it will be nice accent. So, Ryan want to come to Kentucky in a few weeks? I'll meet you at the gate with wine!

Thankfully, Mom is graciously giving me her old sewing machine if I can find room for it in the car. My plan is to get really good at curtains and hems. The curtains would bring new life to my house and learning to hem would bring new life for my 5 foot 1 self and all my pants! AHHHHHHHH~ 7 more days until arts and crafts bliss!

Christmas List

My mother-in-law asked me for a Christmas list for me and Justin on Saturday, and I was like HALLELUJAH! The only thing I hate as much as wasting money is getting presents that I didn't ask for. I know that's not the Christmas spirit, and it's the thought that counts, but what about the gifts that there was no thought put into and now you're stuck? A Christmas List would have solved all of those problems and curbed much disappointment. And a list can still have an element of surprise... make it long enough and vary the prices and you'll have no idea what you're going to get!

Here are the things on my list. Mom, don't worry ~ I'll be emailing you the real thing.

1. Mercury Glass - I just love the look of mercury glass, and I put it on my list last year and didn't get one cingular piece. It's at the top of this years list, so here's hoping. I'm not picky either, I'd like ornaments, vases, candle sticks, any and all pieces will be welcome in my home.

2. Black sequined fit flops - I've been singing the praises of the Fit Flop since I made my first Fit flop purchase back in April. I know I'll only spend $9 on my dress flats and $50 on flip flops, but I have worn those shoes every day since purchase. If that's not $50 worth of use I don't know what is. The problem I face is I wore my black ones to paint in and they look ratty, so I need the sequined ones to look NICE.

3. Black Sweater Boots - Of course I am not asking for the UGG version of these, and for all of you who were surprised to know that Wal*Mart has cute shoes, you should see these too. I think these are so cute, and for all intents and purposes I would be perfectly happy to have the $23.99 Wal*Mart version. However, that's just too much to pay for them on a regular old day.

4. iTunes Gift Card - I've said it before, and I'll say it again ~ gift cards are way underrated gifts! Christina got me a Wal*Mart gift card for my birthday and her husband thought it was soooooooooooo BeJanky, and I thought it was so thoughtful. I have mentioned Wal*Mart twice in this post... y'all are probably starting to think I am a redneck. I digress...I would definitely use this for all the sweet APPS and new songs for the ole iPhone that I always feel bad spending a whole dollar on. {but I have an iPhone...yeah, I hear ya on the irony thing...}

5. Stemware - Justin and I received all of our dishes and silverware, but didn't get a lick of stemware for wedding gifts! Fortunately, he has a pretty set of regular glasses, but I want the pretty stemware I picked out. I can already picture my beautiful table set with my dishes and stemware and mercury glass! I want to go home!

So there you have. The Top 5 things I want for Christmas, and really that's about all I can think of right now. Mom said and I quote, "All I want is for you and Justin to be here." I'm trying to figure out a way to wrap us up and put us under the tree. Be careful what you ask for!

Now I need to know... what are the top 5 things on YOUR list?