Callie Miller, Goodness Found

We love you Valdosta

2012-04-10T17:04:00.000-04:00

Friends... we need a life update!

This happened ...

Yes, our home is for sale! We have to say 'See you later!' to our beloved home and sweet Valdosta for a move to Greenville, South Carolina. Don't get me wrong, we're super excited about Greenville - but with all the get-together's, prayers, blood, sweat, tears, laughter, and love that was had here, Valdosta is forever in our hearts.

Here's a link to more information and lots of pictures of our home! www.307HighlandPlace.blogspot.com

xoxo, Callie

Addy's Kid-sized Play Kitchen

2012-02-06T15:54:00.000-05:00

A few months back, my sister, Kristi, called. She said that she had been thinking about making Addy, my 2-year old niece, a play kitchen. I laughed. She wasn't thinking about making the kitchen, she was thinking that Z and I could make a kitchen. I gladly accepted the challenge - which meant by default that Z also accepted the challenge. We scoured the web for pictures of play kitchens we liked.

There are so many creative parents and companies who make the cutest kids kitchens - so we knew our competition was stiff!

We liked this retro kitchen from Pottery Barn.

And we liked the outline provided by Lowe's for a kitchen that would look like this (found here).

So we - and by we, I mean it in the same way as Kristi meant 'she' - Zach began working on the kitchen. Here are some of our progress pictures.

This is clearly the sink - with an under mount stainless steel sink (originally a bar sink). We also used Corian counter tops as Z's super cool boss had some left over.

Here's the fridge before doors. The refrigerator is a little over 3 feet tall.

And clearly a work in progress, the oven!

We followed the instructions provided by Lowe's when it came to the size of the appliances - however, we made the refrigerator about 4 inches taller.

As Z continued with the construction, I started playing with the 'details'. We chose to go with a sage green exterior - and used Benjamin Moore's Kittery Point Green (HC-119). I had it color matched at Home Depot.

The color on the card in the picture directly above seems a little more bold - I'd say, the color is much more like the color on the can. (But really, do you see how good my nails look? - they never look that good!)

For the interior of the oven, I wanted to spray it silver. We used Rustoleum's Satin Nickel Metallic paint and primer in one.

We thrifted almost all of the details other than the paint. For the burners for the stove, we went to a junk yard and found four 4-inch burners. I cleaned them and spray painted them black.

For the handles of the sink, I found vintage knobs at the Habitat for Humanity Restore.

Time out: Do you see that faucet above? We were having the hardest time color matching the bottom of the handles to a faucet. Apparently, those handles don't just look vintage - they are vintage!

One evening, I came home from the grocery store to find Zach being pretty mischievous!

He was removing our faucet from the bathroom sink to use for Addy's kitchen! Apparently the color was as close a match as he could find. Good thing she's so cute!

It came time to paint and I embraced my role!

We used Plexiglas for the window cut out of the oven and as shelves in the refrigerator and under the sink.

At the bottom of the stove, there is even a pull out drawer!

Paint was applied, hardware added, and everything was glued and nailed in place. About an hour before we were supposed to leave to make the haul to South Carolina, I decided that the sink just needed something extra. We added shelves to the right hand side. Definitely a great addition!

Here are some final pictures before we packed everything up for the drive.

We made it to South Carolina without a scratch to the kitchen! Addy was so excited when she saw it.

She took our orders and fed us well!

Earlier this month, we celebrated Addy's 2nd birthday - Sesame Street style. An unexpected perk of her birthday party was getting to see a bunch of little ones playing with her kitchen.

I'm just so glad that my sister thought it time to build a kitchen!

xoxo,
Callie

Bowling with Christmas Trees

2012-01-02T17:32:00.000-05:00

I hate taking down Christmas decorations. I fear the 'aftermath'. And by aftermath, I don't mean the fact that I'll probably be walking around with pine needles stuck to my bottom from sitting in a chair 'aftermath'. It's the lack of spirit and holiday cheer missing from my home that I will miss. It is, as Pier 1 put it, Blahuary.

Especially this year. I may or may not have gone overboard on Christmas decorations. But the look of a house that is so sweetly celebrating Jesus' birth with garland hanging from every nook and ornaments all over the place. I just love it.

But, the time came. After all, it's after the first of the year and I was feeling the need to clean and simplify my home.

As we were putting away our Christmas decorations, I look over and see my husband talking on the phone throwing an ornament up in the air.

I looked at him with the stare of 'you know that's breakable' and kept packing. Most mom's have to keep their breakables out of reach of their children - this girl will always have to keep them from her husband. He has an extremely creative mind.

He put the breakable ornament down and walked over to the tree to find one of the impossible-to-shatter ornaments. And then I realized what was happening.

My Christmas Tree candles were lined up on the floor and he was ready to go bowling.

As I laughed and ran to grab the candles before they became bowling pins, I realized that Christmas decorations or not, my January would never be a Blahuary.

And with that, goodbye Christmas. See you again next year after Thanksgiving!

xoxo, Callie

Minute to Win It Christmas Party - Part 2

2011-12-31T11:06:00.000-05:00

Our Christmas Party this year was an Ugly Christmas Sweater party with Minute to Win It games. The post detailing the first portion of the night and the individual games can be found here.

Although the individual games were really fun and a great way to start the party, I just couldn't wait for everyone to come together to play our last three games. I would laugh just thinking about the games.

The first game was 'Face the Gingerbread Man' and the goal of the game was to move the cookie that had been placed on your forehead into your mouth using only the muscles of your face.

And some of the happy winners!

The second game was so much fun to watch - but not nearly as fun to play! Zach and I decided to demonstrate how to play 'Jingle Bell Rock'. A pedometer was placed on a sweatband that was then placed around the contestants head. Normally, a pedometer is used to sense body motion and count footsteps while walking or running. In this challenge, it was used to count head jerks. We did face-offs so the winner was the individual who had the highest number on their pedometer.

Have I mentioned that I'm competitive? Only a little bit.

Warning! The following pictures are really funny and slightly embarassing.

Zach beat me by 7 steps. Moving on.

After playing this game, many competitors wanted to exchange the sweatbands for Advil - the laughter though was priceless.

The final group game was called 'Jingle in the Trunk'.

This game was particularly hard to get pictures of because people were running all over the place, jumping around, and doing back bends. Here's Jeremy with the box strapped to his back - you can see he has successfully gotten a few bells out!

We wrapped up the evening with a White Elephant gift exchange and I just wanted to leave you with a picture of what Zach and I's gifts ended up being! My Starbucks gift card was sadly 'stolen' and I got this furry leopard stocking ... and Zach stole those Santa Claus ~~boxers~~ shorts from our friend Kim. I have a feeling she wasn't disappointed.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

UPDATE: If you're looking for the templates I used for this event, you can access them here.
The fonts used are 'Cambria' and 'Blackjack'. You can download 'Blackjack' for free at dafont.com -- this is one of my favorite fonts!

xoxo, Callie

Minute To Win It Christmas Party - Part 1

2011-12-29T12:29:00.003-05:00

Zach and I hosted an Ugly (aka really festive) Christmas Sweater party this year where everyone came ready to play some 60-second Minute to Win It games.

Upon arrival, everyone was given a score card with the location of the games on it. We had to spread the games all throughout the house when we realized almost 30 people were coming!

It was a very casual evening where appetizers and soup were ready for dinner when you wanted to take a break from playing games.

For the first portion of the night, we had five individual games set up throughout the house - the three 'living room' games were group games.

The Snowball Toss was located in the office. You can also see the 'photo booth' area behind the sign.

The goal was to throw the marshmallows, one at a time, through the wreath and land at least 10 in the bucket within 60 seconds.

Garrett did it!!

And what happens if you don't have a bucket full of marshmallows to show off? Just look as cute as Caryn by poking your head through the wreath!

The Christmas Nutstacker game was loads of fun too!

The premise of this game was to load your candy cane with the 8 nuts and then stack them on top of each other - one at a time.

In the same room, on the bed, was located 'Do You Hear What I Hear'?

In this challenge, the Christmas tradition of shaking presents to figure out what's inside was turned into a 60-second game. Using the lift, rattle, and listen method, you must arrange 7 gift boxes filled with different quantities of jingle bells in ascending order from 5 bells to 35 bells - and then note your guess of the order on your score card.

The fourth individual game was called 'Christmas Ball' and was located in the other guest bedroom. Zach moved the furniture around so that we could maximize the space.

This game was surprisingly one of the most challenging games of the night. The premise is to fan an ornament using a wrapped gift box into a select area. From what I heard, only a few were able to do it!

And as you can see above, here's our pretty wrapped gift box at the end of the night.

And the last game... oh boy was this one fun. I choose to place 'Oh Christmas Tree' in the dining room for two reasons - 1. I needed another space and 2. If you failed and the cups came crashing down, everyone would know! How thoughtful of me.

It was certainly fun to watch!

And here are some pictures of those who took the challenge!

p.s. heres' the difference between using a flash and not using a flash. In the picture above, Rachel appears to be calmly placing the cups when in reality this is what she really looked like... Go Rachel, Go!

And here's Merlin bringing the cups down for a victory!

The skills - not to mention the outfits - of every person that came were so impressive! We have some competitive friends!

The individual games were really fun and a great start to our party. It allowed everyone to hang out, mingle, and even show off their competitive side. However, the group games (and by group, I mean, they were played in front of everyone) were a big hit. I had picked out and saved three games I thought would be the funniest to watch.

To see the group games, click here!

UPDATE: If you're looking for the templates I used for this event, you can access them here.

The fonts used are 'Cambria' and 'Blackjack'. You can download 'Blackjack' for free at dafont.com -- this is one of my favorite fonts!

xoxo, Callie

How I decorated for Christmas!

2011-12-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

Wondering how much Christmas decor can be squeezed into a small 1940's home? Wonder no more! I may keep my Christmas decor up until - well - next year! I love it so why should I take it down? Kidding of course. The pine needles everywhere make me think I was supposed to take it down yesterday.

Here's the kitchen! You got a preview in the post here.

Love these plates from Williams Sonoma! I was given a set when Z and I got married - and bought a few more in the after Christmas sale.

My little chalkboard - I change it all the time - and considering it was 72 degrees today in Valdosta, I probably should go ahead and change it from this. It's not cold outside!

For more than ten years, my mom has given the girls in my family a silver bell. Aren't they beautiful?

The Christmas cards and tree clippings above the fridge.

Let's keep going! Off to the dining room and living room!

I hung Frasier fur wreaths ($5 at Home Depot) in all the windows inside using gold ribbon. No bow... just simple.

And of course, no dining room picture is complete without a shoutout to my hubby who built our table (talked about here).

There are beautiful bronze, copper, gold, and silver antiqued glass ornaments on the table and more tree clippings hung in the lighting.

And, here's the living room. I could sit in here all day long!

How do you decorate a mantle with a TV on it? It stumps me all the time! One day, we'll figure out another place for the TV.

Merry Christmas and Merry Everything! I hope you are enjoying your family and all the holiday festivities!

Much love,

Callie

Christmas Cards galore!

2011-12-22T13:47:00.002-05:00

One thing I look forward to every year is receiving Christmas cards. This was the first year that Zach and I made one - and I'm already behind. They are ordered - were supposed to be in on Tuesday - but still haven't gotten here! I figured we could just change our 'Merry Christmas' to 'Merry Everything' so that even if the cards don't get here until Valentines Day, at least we've got our holidays covered!

Last year, I strung the Christmas cards we received under the mantle. However, this year, as I was finishing up my Christmas decorations, I thought the kitchen looked a little more bland than the rest of the house. So, here are some pictures of what I decided to do.

I used red wired ribbon with a thin gold glitter trim and just taped the ribbon to the backside of the cabinet doors. The cards are held up by clothes pins.

My clothes pins needed a little glitzing up too... so I dipped them in glue and gold glitter!

Now that all of the cards - from people who can manage to get them out on time - are up on the ribbon, my doors are filling up! Oh I love the faces on all these cards!

On my mission to spread holiday cheer, I figured it was a must that I show you a close up of this sweet fella'! Tell me he doesn't make you smile!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Callie

What happens when the Christmas Tree Man is wrong?

2011-12-15T16:10:00.001-05:00

I love Christmas time. I love that it is a time when families get together and every home seems so warm and inviting. People are in a jolly mood and there are constant reminders of Jesus everywhere.

I also happen to really enjoy decorating my house for Christmas. As soon as we returned to Valdosta after Thanksgiving, I was on a mission to find our Christmas Tree. Zach and I stopped by Lowes, saw their great prices, but were in the mood to support our local economy - so we walked out the door and directly into the Christmas Tree lot in the Lowes parking lot. We bought our Christmas tree from the same place last year.

We picked our tree, haggled for a good price, double checked the height with our 8' 4" ceilings, and brought that puppy home.

When Z stood the tree up outside, I started laughing because I just knew it was too tall. Z didn't think so... after all, the christmas tree lot man had measured it at 7.5 feet tall with room for the base (which we had taken with us).

Next thing I knew, this was our tree.

Did you see how far the tilt of the base is? Oh my.

It may just look like a few branches need to be sawed off - but in all actuality, we had to take off over a foot because my angel needed room to soar her wings.

We sawed limbs off for almost an hour - albeit, with a kitchen knife! The Christmas Tree lot man's wife told us any ole butter knife would trim the limbs. False.

Two days after this stunt, I pulled the knife out of the butcher block to find that Z had just returned it to its home without washing off all of the tree juice. My role in life as a wife is validated more and more everyday.

And, tada! Here's our tree - sawed, lit, and bearing all our ornaments.

This was our tree last year with colored lights (we alternate every year - white for me, colored for Zach). Let's see how long this rotating lasts :)

I think we're improving!

xoxo, Callie

What Motivates People

2011-12-13T13:50:00.000-05:00

This video may challenge the way you think about what truly motivates people. Very neat video - especially if you like the UPS whiteboard commercials!

Much love,

Callie

EmersonMade Cyber Monday Deal

2011-11-28T13:41:00.001-05:00

When I find a deal that is too good for me to pass up, I feel obligated to tell you about it - and today, is such deal.

I have always been a fan of EmersonMade clothing and accessories. Everything made by this company is of great quality and super classy. However, as I look through their site, I'm always reminded of how great my taste must be - by that, I mean that my taste is so good, I can't afford a thing!

Enter, the Emerson Tweed Jacket. I've had my eye on this jacket for over a year. It's simple but different enough that I could wear it with black pants, jeans, khaki's - really whatever! I've always thought it would be my 'go-to' jacket.

It has been on my birthday and Christmas wish lists, however, at $238, I always moved it down the list because I had much more affordable, pressing wants.

Enter, a really really great deal! Today, everything in the store is 30% off - INCLUDING gift cards. All you have to do is use the code 'MarvelousMonday' at check out.

If you buy a virtual gift card and get 30% off and then turn around and use that gift card to buy the Emerson Tweed Jacket at 30% off, you can score this great jacket for only $116.60. That's over $130 off. Or look through the rest of the site - it is full of great goodies!

Like this cute blouse.

And this leather and brass belt.

Have fun!

p.s. if you decide to take advantage of this great deal, I'd recommend calling the company to make sure you'll receive your virtual gift card in time to make your purchase by the end of the day! Their number is 603-319-8361.

And, let me know if you score a great deal too - at EmersonMade or elsewhere!Much love,
Callie

Always something...

2011-11-24T17:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Picture from the Rifle Paper Co.

There is always, always, always something to be thankful for - today and everyday, you're it!

xoxo, Callie

Back to School for Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T13:45:00.001-05:00

Remember my sweet friend Chelsea? She invited me to read the story Llama Llama Red Pajama to her class (as mentioned here) back in October. Because she knows that I love her kiddos and that I would be happy to come see them anytime, she invited me to play 'mom' and join a few little kids for craft time during their Thanksgiving party last week.

This is T (a Callie appointed nickname) and we are overachievers.

You see, Chelsea gave us a kit (using the kids hands and feet) to make a turkey. We followed the directions - until we realized that our turkey definitely needed a baseball cap and some glasses - just like T!

It was a really cute craft that all the kids loved doing. However, there was one more craft that I think the kids 'gobbled' up. (cheesy, I know)

Our next mission was to make a candy turkey. We used chocolate icing as the 'glue', oreos, chocolate candy corn, a malt ball, and mini chocolate chips.

Here's a picture of the finished product.

And, let me introduce you to J-man - who was much more interested in eating the chocolate icing than making his turkey! I took on the challenge and feel as if I performed fairly well. At least our turkey tasted good!

Another successful outing with Chelsea's class. She's a great teacher and thank goodness, she let's me come play for a little while.

p.s. I did volunteer myself for story time after lunch and read the kids Arthur's Thanksgiving by Marc Brown.

It was a really sweet Thanksgiving story with a great ending.

xoxo,

Callie

Thanksgiving Table

2011-11-23T09:25:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving is just around the corner - actually, tomorrow - but Zach and I were able to celebrate our Thanksgiving dinner with friends this past Wednesday night.

We had a guest list of 18 and for a 'family' dinner, I felt certain we should all sit together at one table. You see, at previous dinners, we're divided between the table in the kitchen, the dining room, and people sitting throughout the living room and anywhere else a seat is available. But this dinner was different. It's Thanksgiving.

However, knowing how our house normally looks, there was just no way we could get 18 people around our dining room table.

Take a look at how we normally look with our fall decorations up...

As you can see, there is no way to fit 18 friends around that table. Here's one picture of our living room, as is, for maximum impact of the coming change!

From my perspective, a little swith-a-roo was needed! My plan... switch the living room and the dining room, pull chairs from all around the house (and even snag a few from my mother-in-law... thanks!) and add two extra tables to each end of our dining room table.

And guess what? It worked!

So, do you remember where our couch was sitting along the long wall in the living room? It moved and the buffet replaced it! Here's the couch sitting along the wall in the dining room under all those frames.

And the over-stuffed chair sitting where the buffet normally sits.

My favorite part of the switch was the long table that took over our living room. I loved it.

You can see now how we moved the gate-leg table to the corner (for drinks) and the buffet took the place of the couch (for food). Zach made sure I knew that he could not sit on the buffet to watch TV. Thanks goodness we have more than one TV in our house.

Everyone had a place setting - but they did not match. Some people had beautiful ratan chargers and others had gold. Some people had burnt orangeish-red napkins and others had wheat colored ones. And the plates were different too... we mixed in old china with new(er) china. And as you can clearly see, the different types of chairs were mixed around the table. I loved the fact that everything didn't match.

You were introduced to my 'Thankful Tree' in a past post (found here) that served as the centerpiece of the table. The fabric runner that spread the length of the three tables, well, some of it was left over fabric from a chair I reupholstered, and the middle piece of fabric, is a scarf I wear in the Fall! I found the brown pumpkins at Target in the $1 section and the bulbed garland of pumpkins and berries came from Hobby Lobby during their 80% off Fall decor sale. If you're catching what I'm throwing out... this was all very affordable!

As you can see in the pictures above, everyone had a pine cone at their place setting with their place card!

I used the same Martha Stewart place card template, as I mentioned here.

I used the same template for place cards for the food and drinks - just made them slightly bigger.

And here's a picture of the table all lit up.

And the best picture of the night... our friends!

The food was incredible but the company was even better! I am so thankful for having a home to host friends in and the friends to fill it. Zach and I are incredibly blessed.

xoxo,

Callie

Linking to:

The Project Queen

2011-11-22T08:56:00.001-05:00

Guess what my loves?

The Project Queen thought the 'Thankful Tree' was a cool project and so she FEATURED it on her blog. I'm shocked and honored! How cool is that!

So, feel free to click over and peruse the wonderfulness of her cute blog.

Click here for the direct link to my mention!

xoxo,

Callie

Here's to Forever!

2011-11-21T22:48:00.001-05:00

One year ago, yesterday, I married my best friend and the man I have been praying for since I was a little girl. Little did I know how much fun marriage could be and how blessed we would be as a couple.

Here's to forever!

p.s. I've said it once and I'll say it again, I highly recommend marriage!

xoxo,
Callie

'Thankful Tree'

2011-11-17T18:59:00.000-05:00

Last night, Zach and I hosted our CrossPointe Life Group over for Thanksgiving Dinner. We had a great time eating and spending time with one another. The food was delicious - thanks to each and every one of you who cooked! I have a lot of pictures to show you... but I really wanted to show you what I have named the 'Thankful Tree' - it has become my very favorite thing in my house.

I know, I know... it doesn't look much like a tree but you'll like it too when you read some of the tags on it. Last night it was the centerpiece of the table but today, it changed to be a Fall staple in my home.

Everyone wrote what they are most thankful for on little tags and then hung it up on the tree for everyone to read while eating.

I made the tags based off of a Martha Stewart place card template (you can find it here). The actual assembly of the 'tree' was fairly easy... a vase, some pumpkins and gourds, and a few branches from outside. I love that one of the branches even has a few leaves left on it!

As I walk by - and avoid catching my hair in a branch - I'm reminded of all the things I, and my friends, are thankful for. Here are a few...

What would you write on your card? How many cards would you need?

It really provides the perspective necessary for 'thanks-living' during Thanksgiving!

xoxo,
Callie

Love these blogs! Linking to:

What does Clemson say?

2011-11-02T10:00:00.000-04:00

We've all said, 'Go Tigers' in our days but this might be the cutest 'Go Tigers!' I have ever heard. What about you?

You know what makes this cute video even better? The manly voice heard at the beginning is my wonderful brother and... he's a huge Gamecock fan. Oh the irony!

xoxo,
Callie

My Favorite Pastor on Halloween

2011-11-01T11:33:00.000-04:00

I have SO much to update the blog world on, but while I prepare those posts, I thought I'd share this picture.

Since I know you're all wondering what my dad looks like on Halloween as he tries to scare the children that stop by my parent's house - your curiosity is over.

Introducing...

I'm not sure who he is supposed to be either ... but I'm confident, you're loving this picture as much as I do! Don't you wish you would have brought your children by to see him? I'm trying to convince him to preach on Sunday like this!

p.s. Mom, be careful when you send me pictures - you never know where they'll end up :)

xoxo,
Callie

My Top Ten

2011-10-19T12:26:00.000-04:00

Happy Hump-day y'all!

Since you heard about my love for Pinterest here, I thought I would share my Top Ten list from this week!

What's my excuse again? 100-year old, Fauja Singh, became the oldest person to complete a full-distance marathon when he finished a race in Toronto. pinned here

I'm thinking about making this cake for our church cake auction. Thoughts? pinned here

Beautiful hair color, pinned here

Reminds me of when I was a little girl and my mom made us sleep in rollers! pinned here

Love this fall outfit. I think I really like gold. pinned here

I like her outfit - black and brown together! pinned here

Less messy smores! Just plain cute. pinned here

Everyone needs a tree house... this one takes the cake! pinned here

Seriously, this could entertain me for hours! pinned here

Love these wreaths on the window! pinned here

xoxo,

Callie

More power to you!

2011-10-17T15:59:00.000-04:00

From time to time, I love sharing neat inventions I find. I explained here that inventions always bring fond memories of my Dad's creative mind.

Here's a clever one for charging your phone or iPod. The U-Socket is an upgraded outlet that fits a standard socket - is easy to install - and has two USB ports. You can charge your phone without unplugging a necessary lamp or clock! I love creative people.

It is $25 and available at www.fastmac.com.

xoxo,
Callie

Llama's in pajamas!

2011-10-07T10:23:00.000-04:00

Georgia went all out to read for the record yesterday!

Read for the Record is a national campaign to bring attention to literacy and was an attempt to set a world record for the largest number of people reading the same book on the same day.

Throughout the day, thousands of students were read the cute book Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney. It is a rhyming story about a baby llama who is scared after his llama mama tucks him into bed, goes downstairs, and does not respond immediately when he requests water. He begins to fret that his mama is gone - only, she is busy with a phone call. All ends well, with mama giving baby llama two kisses and tucking him back in bed for the night.

My sweet friend, Chelsea, is a Pre-K teacher and asked me to be the 'celebrity' reader for her class. This is Chelsea and her hubby, Garrett. She's pretty and a really great teacher.

After I broke the news to her that I am not a celebrity but would gladly read to her class, we were all set.

And let me tell you, those kiddos are so cute.

Throughout the book, you see baby llama's beautiful quilt. I took the opportunity to teach my class what a quilt was and then after reading, I handed out coloring worksheets of quilts I had made. We sat at the table, colored, laughed, and shared crayons. I was just getting ready to teach about counting and the alphabet, shapes, and colors, when Chelsea cut in and said it was nap time. And as interesting as shapes and colors are, those cuties sprinted to the blankets and we're ready to go to sleep before I opened up my lesson plans. Guess I'm not smarter than a Pre-K'er - nap time always wins!

Thanks, Chelsea, for letting me play teacher yesterday!

If you have not had the opportunity to read Llama Llama Red Pajama, you should. It's available online here!

xoxo,

Do you pin?

2011-10-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

By now, I'm assuming most of you have found the beloved site, Pinterest. If not, welcome to a heckava lot of fun.

On Pinterest, you create virtual inspiration boards that you can then 'pin' pictures to with a note about why you love it. A few of the notes about my 'pins' may or may not read something like, 'oh this outfit is perfect for a Clemson game' or 'get in my belly' (p.s. that would be a picture of food/dessert) or 'Perfect Thanksgiving place card'.

I. Love. It.

Here's my 'I want to wear it' mood board. If you see me in an outfit that looks like one below, promise me you won't mention that Pinterest is now dressing me. mkay? I'll keep it a secret if you do too.

I have boards for home decor, very future kids rooms, food recipes I want to cook, desserts I want to eat, so on and so forth. In my head, I have already remodeled my laundry room three times, the master bedroom twice, and redone both guest bedrooms about six times. It's great! If you happen to be my husband reading this... I haven't started any work just yet!

Here's a glipse of my 'Home Sweet Home' board. Oh, happy day.

I even have a board for all the things I swoon over called, 'I'm Ready to Buy You'. Thus far, I've not bought a thing. Good girl.

If you decide you have 5 or 50 minutes to spare perusing this site, I'd highly recommend it.
And when you do, you can find me so we can keep tabs on each other's latest crush.

If you are already a fan of Pinterest, make sure we're following each other - you can leave me a comment below if I need to get my act together and follow you too. I love you to pieces and want to see what you're up to!

xoxo, Callie

The Saga of Urns

2011-09-30T10:00:00.001-04:00

I love urns.

Not the kind that hold dead people – this was a real conversation when I told someone I loved urns – my friend thought I had some kind of weird infatuation with the canister that holds our loved ones remains. I don’t. But I do love the kind of urns that sit on your front porch, or inside your house, and boast beautiful plants and flowers. Some people call them planters, but I prefer, urns.

Because when you own a house, you should own a few urns, I was on the hunt. I had actually been on this hunt for a while but was slightly disgusted by the price tag of such urns.

One day, on a hunt for something else, I stopped by Michaels. Low and behold, there on the side walk were two somewhat hideous greenish gold urns on a deep discount. Like, they were priced at $70 a piece, and then had a 60% off discount, and then an extra 40% off plus tax. That should make them about $18 a piece. What a steal!

Greenish gold urns were not what I was looking for – however, I happily walked away – or if you saw me at Michaels, you might say lugging - my urns to my car knowing I had extra black spray paint in my garage.

I called Zach to let him know I had another great project for us to work on so be ready when I get home! I jumped out of the car and went to town with black spray paint. I have a special place in my heart for spray paint – it’s just so easy.

This is where the saga of my urns begins.

First, my yard savvy husband warned me about painting the grass. I didn’t think I would. I did.

Not a big deal, right? Grass grows. (I actually thought about grabbing green spray paint to spray over the black – no one would ever know!)

Also, because I bought deeply discounted slightly ornate urns from a craft store, my urns were not equipped with the essentials for outdoor living. From reading this post on Young House Love, I knew that my urns needed good drainage. Yet, mine were without holes in the base. Another easy fix!

Zach offered to drill holes in the bottom of the urns and even snagged some gravel for me. We were set.

As Zach was drilling in the holes, I kept reminding him that if he drilled too close to the decorative edge, I feared the urn would break. After all, they were super cheap and likely not made for strenuous circumstances.

Zach said it wouldn’t happen. It did.

The drilling occurred a little too close to the decorative part and chipped the urn. I didn’t take a picture of this part seeing as how I was running around the house trying to find glue that would mend my broken urn. I figured Gorilla Glue would be perfect for the job.

While Zach started working on the second urn, I threw some gravel in the first urn, filled it with soil, placed the flowers, and packed in a little more soil. I was slightly impatient so I didn’t wait for the glue to dry before I started watering. The chipped off piece kept sliding around and wouldn’t stay where it was supposed to.

I may have, for the first time in my whole life, been a little impatient. Everyone can have one of those days, right?

Quietly in the background, I hear Zach laughing. The laughter got a little louder and then louder until I realized it was deliberately louder so I would hear. Through my huffing and puffing, I finally just had to ask what was going on.

Well everyone, apparently my urns WERE intended to be used exactly for the purpose I bought them as – at the very bottom of each urn, there was a hole plugged by a rubber stopper. All Zach had to do was pop that plug out and there was the most perfect drainage a girl could ask for.

There were holes in the pot all along. I thought I was being so DIY savvy.

In my defense, the second urn did not get the added holes and I prefer having a few little pee spouts around the base so I can see when I’ve watered enough.

Thank you. That’s all.

Much love,

From Squirrels to Twigs

2011-09-27T15:51:00.001-04:00

When I was in 4th grade, my family moved to Greenville, South Carolina. We settled into a quiet neighborhood and started to meet everyone who lived around us. My family soon found out that we not only had human neighbors, we had squirrel neighbors that lived a little too close for comfort. As in, they were doing a great job of chewing our chimney away from our house and taking up residence in there.

My dad consulted experts on safely getting squirrels to move out, tried stinking up our house with moth balls, smoking them out with small fires, and then burning them out with big fires - all to no avail.

My dad and brother finally settled on a different plan. The squirrels had declared war on our house and it was only fitting that the men of the household fight back. After a few times of my brother and dad propping up their BB guns through the kitchen window, all was calm again. Squirrels happily took up residence in the backyard instead of in the chimney.

Apparently, my dad missed those days of BB gun adventure.

A few weeks back, I returned to Greenville to see my family. It's one of my favorite trips because I absolutely adore my parents, brother-in-law and sister, my niece, and all of our great friends. Greenville was my home for 15 years.

I walk in the house, holler to let everyone know I'm home, and hear my dad call for me to come to the back deck. My dad was on a mission.

This mission was different, he was no longer shooting at squirrels. Rather, he was crouched down with his BB gun propped on the railing, shooting at a twig that has sprouted from a massive oak tree. Can you see the twig below?

Maybe he forgot that trees have branches? Apparently, this twig was a slight annoyance to him as it was the only twig sprouting below the tree cover (you know, where all the big branches above droop down and cover).

Comically, I can't help but wonder what our neighbors think when they see my Dad shooting at a tree in the backyard. Luckilly, my mom's plants mostly cover him from sight unless you're inside the house. I wouldn't want everyone to know about our family quirks!

I am happy to report that my Dad is a good shot.

Dad = 1, Tree = 0.

Much love,

Fairwell Summer - Hello friends!

2011-09-22T15:50:00.000-04:00

I mean seriously, where have I been? Zach and I had a great summer - and apparently, so great, I forgot my manners on letting everyone know what we were up to.

Thank you for all of your sweet comments acknowledging the fact that I have dropped the ball and that you'd like an update! I love you and the fact that you love me back!

For the past two weeks, off and on, Zach and I have been watching two sweet kids. I thought I'd go ahead and share a picture of what happens when we all ride in the car together - I'm driving and Zach is 100% of the time requested to ride in between their two car seats.

They love Zach.

Also, this picture is from the last time they spent the night - but I just wanted you to be aware of how great at building tents/forts we are. Growing up, this was one of my favorite things to do. I always felt like I was in another world where no one could find me... even if I was just in the living room. The kids (and Zach) loved rummaging through the house for the best tent making supplies.

(cough... the office has been updated since this picture... cough... potential blog post coming up)

After the kids left for school and Zach off to work, I may or may not have curled up underneath the tent and zipped up my sleeping bag - only to realize that I was the only one left to clean up the fort that now consumed my office and I had a video conference call in 20 minutes.

Zach has since decided we'll be waiting to have kids of our own. So I am now accepting all offers to watch your children. Email me :)

Much love,