the chips are on the table.... er.. walls...

so after an inspirational conversation with p.h. yesterday... i met up with him at home depot and sent him off to the power tools while i looked at paint chips. (thank you kelly - it worked!)

i really didn't have anything particular in mind when i went to look as far as what i was going to paint or which rooms they would be for. i just looked at colors i really liked and chose a few from there. once i got home i decided what they would be for and it actually (to my surprise) worked out pretty well!

these are hanging in my living room. the colors are as follows:

Martha Stewart Bedford Gray (MSL246)

Glidden Misty Moonstone (GLN34)

Martha Stewart Chinchilla (MSL264)

i am really really loving the bedford gray. it's my favorite so far but i am waiting to make a decision on this afternoon when there will actually be sunlight in the living room. i took this picture at 6 a.m. {crazy yes i know} and there was nothing but ceiling fan light.. so there may be some better pictures coming later.

these are hanging in p.h.'s bathroom. i am planning a renovation on this room this year because it is the smallest and least daunting of all the rooms. colors are as follows:

Glidden Slate Green (GLN37)

Martha Stewart  Flagstone (MSL247)

Glidden Wood Smoke (GLN40)

i love the wood smoke - it is pulling ahead but the slate green is a close second. thinking about painting the small shelf i have in there with the slate green. the plan is to have 60" tall board and batten with the paint color above it. i am going to replace the sink and vanity and there is quite a large mirror (along with the vanity mirror) that i am either going to remove or frame out. haven't quite decided that yet.

anyhoo.

these are the choices for the cabinets in the kitchen. i am thinking an antique-y white on the top cabinets and a gray on the bottom. we have dark gray laminate countertops that look like granite so they are staying. they also have flecks of silver, white and light gray in them, hence the color choices.

colors are as follows:

Glidden Antique White (GLC14)

Glidden Parchment White (GLC27)

i am having some reservations going with an antique white on the cabinets because i have an ultra white stove and microwave. {the fridge is stainless} i am afraid the ultra white applicances will make the cabinets look dingy or dirty and there isn't a lot of natural light to brighten the space up. (just a small window over the sink). thoughts?

in that respect, i am also throwing the first sample here as a contender for the cabinets. it has a blue undertone that i think might not disagree so much with the appliances. (color is Stone White by Glidden (GLC30).

and finally for the bottom cabinets these are the two samples i am toying with. colors are:

Behr Elephand Skin (UL260-5)

Behr Ashes (UL260-9)

front runner so far is ashes (on the right).

so there you are folks.. the chips are on the table. thoughts?

the plunge

so i finally put in a request with the p.h. (prandsome hince, ahem...) to go look at paint samples this afternoon after work.  it went a little something like this...

r: so before we go to sam's, can we just swing by lowe's or home depot and look at some paint chips.

p.h.: (after a long pause and exxagerated sigh...) i guess

r: its just looking at paint chips. i just want to look at colors.

p.h.: which room is it for?

r: i dont have a particular room in mind. i just want to get some inspiration.

p.h.: ooohhkkkaaayyyyy

is it really unreasonable for me to want him to go look at paint chips? i mean... im not buying gallons of paint. im not ripping out walls of ugly paneling and replacing it with sheetrock (but seriously? don't tempt me!!) i just want to look at paint colors and maybe pick one out that i like and maybe committ to painting a room in our house. no i don't know which one and no i don't know what color! but i want to dive in and get started! i am tired of watching everyone elses houses evolve! i want to do something!!

ugh. i love you darling p.h. but come on! i just want to paint!!

how do you get your husband on board to tackle projects? please share your secrets!

do you just tie him down and do it? do you ask for permission or forgiveness? when he rolls his eyes (whether really or just in the way he says something) what do you say? (in all seriousness my husband does not roll his eyes but you know what i mean...) i need his support and help in some projects but sometimes we are just on different pages. help!

sick day

so here is what i have going on today...

i hate hate hate being sick. the weather in north louisiana has been cold, hot, dry, wet... it is killing my sinuses and head. i thought i might die last night. but, somehow, i survived. mostly thanks to my amazing prandsome hince (who literally bathed me because my head hurt so bad i couldn't see straight and then held my hand and prayed for me until i finally fell asleep). today i am resting and hopefully rejuvenating.

and catching up on reading blogs... which is probably the best part of having a sick day. ;)

how to do a gallery wall like a novice

it is a nice, cold rainy day here in north louisiana. i am kind of trapped in the house with the dogs. so i thought it would be a good time to work on my gallery wall.

a few months ago i took all of my family pictures out of their mis-matchy frames. i have been waiting to catch a good sale to get some matching matted frames on sale at hobby lobby or michael's. finally a few weeks ago they had frames at 40% off and then had a coupon in the paper for 25% off your entire purchase of frames.

yippeeeee! i bought 18 pictures frames which would have normally cost me around $175 for $82 dollars!

so i am going to show you how i put it together and hung them on the wall. i don't know if i would necessarily refer to is as a tutorial because i am definitely not a professional picture hanger... but this is how i did it and it worked for me! :)

first thing i did was lay the pictures out on my guest bed and try to find an arrangement that i liked. i knew i wanted it to look like a gallery arrangement but i couldn't figure out how to do that and keep it all even and in rows and symmetrical like i wanted it to be....

so that was the first little arrangement. i thought it was too spaced out and i wasn't diggin the placement of the one 8 x 10 i have in this arrangement.

this was the second one. once again it felt too row-by-row symmetrical. and i was still not crazy about the 8 x 10. it felt so heavy on the top and the small pictures just feel kind of lost. i think i was scared to put them close together. i guess because i didn't think they would get along? finally i got brave.

now that is what i am talking about! :) i still have to find a picture for the bottom left picture frame but i really like this arrangement. so i kept the picture open on my camera and got after it.

so i stuck my ryobi level (if you don't have one of these you need one.. just sayin..) on the wall and turned it on to hang the first (bottom) row. it was pretty easy to get the three level pictures on there but when i tried to hang the square picture in the bottom right it got a little tricky! i couldnt figure out where to put the nail. so after a few genius unnecessary nail holes in the wall (that are luckily covered by the pictures themselves) i figured out a way to do it.

first of all you get one of these guys...

then you put it here....

and then, while holding the push pin in place, hold the picture on the wall and press the pin in hard enough to leave a depression so you know where to put the nail.

here it is after a couple more pictures are hung. i know that some of the lines arent perfect but you know what? it works for me :)

this is what happens if you mistake the pin hole and put the nail in the wrong one. this is not where i wanted the top right picture.so i just pulled the nail out and tried again. i got it the third time. ;) third time is the charm you know... 

and here it is all finished. i waited until i had hammered all the holes in the wall to straighten them up. and then...

i took a black sharpie and colored all the little spots that i hit. oops.

so once again here is my gallery wall for my family pictures.

 

i am very pleased with how it turned out! :)

what did you do on your weekend?

p.s. i am linking this to works for me wednesday over at we are that family! :)

silhouette giveaway

good morning lovely blog-land friends! :)

today my friend shelley over at

is giving away a silhouette craft cutter machine and lots of goodies to go with it! :) 

she is such a sweet sister and i love reading her blog - she is funny and sassy to boot! my kind of woman!

thanks shelley for sharing!!

natchez, mississippi

this weekend i was reminded how much i love my prandsom hince (even when he hacks my blog) when we visited a tiny historic town in mississippi called natchez.

(yes.. i was hacked by hubby while i was cooking him breakfast. sneaky little husbands!!)

 

we drove over the mighty mississippi river on this beautiful baby... 

which looks like this at night...

and you can see the lights from it shining a bright spot in the clouds literally 30 miles away. we seriously thought we were going to be abducted by aliens. seriously though. if for no other reason, you should visit natchez by way of louisiana just so you can drive over this beautiful bridge. it is a masterpiece.

there we met up with our friends jared and alina at the natchez eola hotel. this hotel opened july 1, 1927 and is listed on the national register of historic places. it has quite a history which you can read all about here.

we had dinner at biscuits & blues which is about a half block west of the hotel. they are famous for, yep you guessed it, homemade southern biscuits with their amazing buttery fruity concoction to spread over it and live blues music. we managed to spend the entire evening there until they kicked us out when they closed. we were overserved, laughed, cried, spilled entire glasses of water and caught up with good friends (who we plan to do this with more often.) the best part is we have decided to keep our destination natchez since there are so many interesting places to stay, local places to eat and plenty of things to do to keep us entertained. so maybe i will start a series about the places we visit and the things we do while we are there! :)

jared and the prandsom hince

me and alina

 we slept in the next morning and had brunch at the carriage house which is located on the grounds of stanton hall, one of the many many plantation homes in natchez.

stanton hall

and because i love food and i especially love to photograph delicious food here is what alina and i had for brunch/lunch that day...

sliders with jalapeno pimento cheese and bbq sauce

blt - thick cut bacon, spring mix and fresh tomato with brie cheese, homemade potato chips and a homemade pickle

alina had the sliders. i think my favorite thing about her meal was the adorable mason jar with the delicious bbq sauce in it. i had the blt and it was good but let me just tell you how amazing that pickle was. i happen to be quite a fan of all items pickled (pickled carrots, pickled garlic, pickled beets, dill pickles, cornishons, bread and butter pickles... i mean stick it in a jar of vinegar and i will most likely enjoy it. but this was the perfect balance between a sweet bread and butter pickle and a sharp, tangy dill pickle. i don't know what they did but it was downright amazing.

my husband also got the blt but instead of the "t" he asked for a fried egg on the sandwich. our waiter thought he was crazy and laughed at him. however, the chef (chef bingo starr, who alina and i swear has been on the food network) personally visited our table to see who ordered the egg on the sandwich. he said, and i quote:

"i originally had an egg on that sandwich when i made the menu and my wife thought i was crazy. man - i love that shit!"

please excuse the language but it had to be included so you could get the full effect. and we happened to be sitting next to a table of quite well-to-do fancy older women who heard this ghastly comment and twittered and blushed when he said it. it caused quite the stir!

do you ever do a quick weekend trip? where do you like to go? if you ever get the chance to visit natchez i highly recommend it!

i am linking up at tatertots and jello's weekend wrap up party today!

organizing my closet

my closet has been seriously bugging me as of late. i had way too many clothes stuffed in there that i did not wear any more. it also just seemed more cluttered and therefore claustrophobic because it was way smaller than any other closet i have ever, ever had.

here is the before:

and a close up of the top

i didn't get a shot of the shoe section before i started cleaning those out but it was pretty much a big jumbled mess down there.

i know you are supposed to start by taking everything out and going through it but i would rather go through a closet full of clothes and sort through things one piece at a time. one of the many blessings about my personality is that i am not a sentimental person so i don't usually keep things/clothes/items of any sort for a sentimental reason unless it is very very important to me.

you might find it shocking, but the first thing to come out of the depths of my closet where it was essentially bunched into a ball was this...

why yes. that is my wedding dress. you can now find it here. i am selling it on craig's list. i haven't had any bites yet but i am hoping that someone who is looking for a wedding on a budget will find it to be exactly what they are looking for! :)

anywho. back to the closet decluttering. first thing to get organized was the shoes. i got rid of several pair of old navy dollar flip flops. seriously? why do i keep those around season after season? they are one dollar. why don't i just wear them for the summer and then chunk them?? i also got three new pair of flats from maurice's to replace the two pair i had nearly worn the sole out of. this is how it turned out:

ahh. so. so SO much better. what you can't see (and what i can't take a decent picture of) are the 5 pairs of boots to the left of that shoe rack that are all standing up straight and at attention thanks to packing paper i pilfered borrowed from work.

i packaged up two garbage bags full of clothes. i really thought i was pretty brutal with the selection process. if i hadn't worn it in at least a year gone. if it didn't make me look or feel fabulous - gone. if it didn't fit - gone. if if made me feel bad to get rid of it because it was  gift from so-n-so or because i bought it on a special vacation i tried it on. if it didn't give me an immediate "yes" to categories two or three - gone.

i feel about 100 pounds lighter every time i look in my closet now! (too bad i am not actually a few pounds lighter for actually getting rid of things that really don't fit!)

ahhh. i still have a few things to do i would like to organize them either by color or style. i am thinking style since i can't really see into the dark depths of the sides and probably won't wear anything i can't see immediately when i open the door. that way i can put all my short sleeve and tank top shirts in the back during the winter and then replace them with long sleeves and sweaters in the summers. hmmm. decisions decisions.

as for the bags. i am kind of a bag junkie. it falls in the same category as magazines (seriously, cannot walk by the category section at a grocery store or pharmacy. trouble. need help.). i just cannot pass up a good bag. and like a seventh grader who feels cool having her name embroidered on everything... most of my bags are personalized. i also had several bags that belonged to my mother (namely vera bradley limited edition pink elephant bags...) so really i can't get rid of those. plus i like them and i use them on a pretty regular basis. but i did make a decision to get rid of anything that did not have my name on it that i don't use regularly. here is the top of the closet now.

i also organized a few of my magazines (storage and organizing magazines no less!) in my magazine holders.
oh.. so that is what those are for! lol

i think sadie likes it.

wow. sorry about the glaring flash there. lighting was terrible and i am still playing with all the different settings on my camera :)

i am linking to beneath my heart and her closet makeover party!

a little bit of goings on round here

ive been a bit absent lately. you know, sometimes life gets in the way of good blogging... but sometimes good blogging can get in the way of life too. so in my defense, i have been busy doing things... not being lazy and just not blogging... here is what i have been up to...

lets start with halloween weekend



dad, aunt kay and me

here we have my dad and aunt kay with me at a local pub called enoch's. they came in for the weekend to help us do some stuff around the house and in the yard. remember the post on this door? well we finally got it sanded, painted and attached to the bed. i have pictures somewhere... forgive me because i don't know where that somewhere is. as you will see.. it's been a long couple of months.



new chapter halloween party

here we have a picture from our new chapter halloween party! new chapter is the name of the bible study group we lead on tuesday nights. it started out as a college aged ministry but has evolved to include lots of folks in our church who just kind of dont fit anywhere else. dont you just love halloween parties? we have a witch, an escaped convice who managed to run through the woods without tearing up her tights, sookie stackhouse, a soccer referee, ms. fly like a g6 and a whoopie cushion. what a variety! this is an annual thing and it is something that my husband and i really enjoy doing every year because this is how we met most of our friends before we moved here. always fun! :)

jordy, abby and kade

that sunday night at umyf (united methodist youth fellowship for those wondering) we split the youth up into groups and gave them each three rolls of toilet paper and a box of aluminum foil and told them to make a costume. we had some really good creations (wonder woman in the middle here and a beauty queen on the right) and some not so creative ones (a police officer on the right - all they made was a badge and a flashlight out of aluminum).

now for november...

mccall and her sign in table

the first weekend in november was my sister-in-law's first wedding shower which i was a hostess at. i teamed up with a couple of friends to buy her a living stone which is the large tile in the center of the picture with their names and wedding date on it. in east texas, where they live, getting a living stone for any event is sort of the thing to do. they are made by a girl i went to high school with and they are absolutely beautiful and can be custom done to say anything you want. her website is http://www.thelivingstone.com/ and i really think you should check it out.

i honestly don't remember the second weekend in november. my memory has completely wiped it out. so to keep it colorful... here is a picture of me rooting for the oklahoma state cowboys. go pokes! :)



sorry if it hurts your neck :)

the third weekend in november we had another shower for the bride and groom. honestly i was so busy planning and hosting the darn thing that i forgot i didnt have time ok i just forgot to take pictures. but for a visual it was a football/northwestern state university themed shower. everything was purple and orange and we played flag football after the meal. it was really a lot of fun.

then was thanksgiving and yall. i am not going to lie. we went to my in-laws house and i did not get out of my pajamas for 4 whole entire days. it was bliss. needless to say... i did not want any pictures documenting that.

that brings us to december.

the first weekend i went home and helped the lovely sister in law make centerpieces. we used about 100 mason jars and all sorts of different shiny fillings. each table got three jars and a mirror. they were simple, beautiful and really really cheap. in fact, we went garage saleing and got something like 15 jars for $2.25. for realz.

we also tied tags on all the ornaments for favors.



brudda and sista in law

the weekend of the 18th was the actual wedding. it was fast and pretty and i am not sorry it is over. :) i love my brother and sister in law but my wedding was enough to plan. im glad i don't have to plan any more any time soon :)



me and the bride-to-be

this picture represents quite a bit in the hawthorne household. when i went to my first prom as a freshman and my mom was taking a zillion pictures i got sick of smiling and made this lovely face. it was her favorite picture of me besides the one of me in the slutty santa outfit i had done at hollywood portraits but i will spare you the gory details there. i took this picture many times in many dresses and finally in my wedding dress. when sister in law had her bridals done, in memory of mom, she couldnt resist and took one too. so of course i had to have one of us together. i forsee a three-sectioned picture frame in my near future. :)



me and my pransome hince

hubs and i got a few good dances in. we love to dance together :)

and now into january we go.



my aunt kay and my mom

my aunt is probably going to shoot me for putting this picture on here. i have been cleaning out and decluttering in honor of the new year. i found this picture of my mom and aunt kay in the process. they were sisters from another lifetime. they went to nursing school together. they both drank sweet tea and smoked cigarettes. they were both left handed. they shared a soul. it was an amazing experience to grow up with them. but this picture represents their friendship to me. it was so simple and pure that just for them to be together was enough.

getting ready for my trip to spain!

i have never been outside of the united states except to visit mexico and go to st. lucia on our honeymoon. this spring, thanks to my daddy, i will be visiting europe for the first time and i am THRILLED to say the least. (sorry for yelling at you but it is that exciting to me!) i will be flying into madrid to see my friend liz who lives and works in segovia teaching english to young children. we will also visit scotland while i am there. squeeeee!

sweet potato soup

i live in north east louisiana.  around here, the sweet potato plant is king. you can get the freshest, most delicious sweet potatoes in the world. mine come from oak grove (the one in the north, not the south) and still have dirt on them when they get to my house. literally my inlaws must pick them before they come visit. they are amazing. in an effort to use them all i came up with sweet potato soup. in my rush to make it of course (once again) i forgot to take pictures. but let me just tell you how delicious and creamy it was. this post is already pretty lengthy so i will post the recipe tomorrow in a separate one. the best part is....

sweet potato pancakes and bacon

i used the leftover soup to make pancakes the next night. divine.

so that is a wrap up of what ive been doing lately when i haven't been blogging.

what have you been doing?