18 months

well i cant believe its here but my baby is a year and a half old. time has literally flown since our sweet Anna Caroline was born and i have to say she is quite an independent little lady.
our little one is always exploring, loves loves loves to be outside, and within the past two weeks has really began to use quite a few words....

• mom (in a yelling voice)
• dad (in a yelling voice)
• no no
• uh oh....
• bite
• ousi (outside)
• for for (fork)
• gah gah (grammy) but the jury is still out on this one, my mom may be ma ma. not sure yet
• luke
• nicki (for uncle nick, my brother)
• baby
  

there are several others that i am not able to remember at this time, probably will have to do another post just on new words in literally the past two weeks....


no matter how big she gets, or how much she grows up i will always be there to tuck my baby in at night and say her prayers with her.

Philippians 1:3-6
3Every time i think of you, I give thanks to my God. 4 I always pray for you, and i make my requests with a heart full of joy 5 because you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. 6 And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again. (new living translation)

I Dream A dream...

okay now that you have Susan Boyle in your head and a taste of what this post is about.... enjoy what i have been drooling over for the past few days. all photos are courtesy of southernliving.com

when i have my low country home i want my super casual den to look like this!!

Okay, hi my name is jenny beth and i am an addict of expensive things, i love fine linens, and fine fabrics, and high end fixtures, however i am recovering from this addiction and daily find ways to be thrifty and not fall to my inner desire.
hello gorgeous woodwork and fabulous cabinets
creamy marble countertops, white cabinets, this is truly my dream kitchen, not practical with kids, but hey a girl can dream right??
isn't this kitchen just stunning??
this seems a little more practical for me.....
and maybe, just maybe one day we will have our screened in porch finished and can enjoy just as much as i would love to enjoy this one.
OH, My GOSH!!!! could a sun room be any more elegant???? I surely don't think so....
and this beauty of a trellis, i hope to recreate this in my humble abode!!

hope you all enjoyed these beautiful spaces as much as i did, enjoy the last little bit of your weekend before the new work week starts.

Crazy Eights

My friend Shanna, at Keepin' Up with the Moody's tagged me in the bloggy fun game of Crazy Eights. So i went to my 8th facebook album, and 8th photo and here is what i came up with.

okay so not sure why this pic is so tiny, (i am on the left, my friend elizabeth, and her college roomie Lindsay) This was a super fun weekend for me in college, it was fall of my sohomore year at bama and i drove to knoxville to visit elizabeth. She is such a sweet friend and i have truly valued being her friend, we met my senior year in high school (her jr. year) and my freshman year at bama we got really close!!! LOVE HER!!!

That's all folks!!

Picnic Party!!

My friend Kellie at This Blessed Nest is hosting a picnic today, girl... i love me a picnic, so i thought i would share with all of you one of my absolute most favorite recipes, Fruit Pizza!!
Ingredients

• first buy one package of premade Pillsbury Cookie Dough, (you can make this dough but i have found the premade cooks much more evenly)
• 1 package of cream cheese
• 1 carton of strawberries
• 1 carton of blueberries
• 4 kiwi
• any other fruit you desire.
  

1. Roll out dough onto a round pizza pan, and cook according to directions on box.
2. once cooled for 10 minutes spread cream cheese on cookie
3. slice fruit and create a decorative pattern with the gorgeous colors.
   

Viola, a quick, tasty, and beautiful dessert everyone will love and noone will forget!!

Rainy day

As I sit at home thinking about all I need to be doing outside I realize there are quite a few things i haven't blogged about. I saw my friend Shanna's word art and realized I hadn't shared the one I made with you all!!





Please disregard the aweful black cable cord...once we find an entertainment piece we like we will get everything in the den in order.. And as you can see in the background we have gotten nowhere on our dining room design...




Here is a sneak peek of my bedroom... Not quite ready to reveal but I am just so obsessed with this mirror I had to share that.




Then of course there is this... It's baby's new sleep blankie for daycare (which we will be starting next week)

Hrmmmm what else an I share with y'all while I wait on the bad weather to pass??? Stay tuned!!

Southern Weddings Part 2

Some of my favorite things to do are surrounded around the joining of a man and woman in marriage.

1. picking out flowers
2. finding wedding dressesokay just a little side note here, this is/was my dream wedding gown, seeing as we planned our wedding in exacly 7 weeks there was no time for Monique Lhuiller to make this beauty,soooo i wore this... and i still love it,
3. I also think one of the neatest stages in wedding planning is deciding which traditions will be incorporated in the ceremony. I knew that since Casey and I had no grandparents attending (casey has a grandmother living, everyone else is deceased) we thought we would have the mothers lay a special pink rose in honor of the grandmother's not with us.
4. GIFT REGISTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello, need i say anymore, i was excited, mom was excited, and casey went crazy with that gun they give you, SCAN IT!!!! Most of the items on my registry were very practical. I think that is really becoming the trend, most of my friends have registered for really practical things, I have only had 4 friends register for china, and they are my traditional, "girly"friends.

1. childrens clothes for the wedding. Just see below. One day i hope to own a store that rents french hand sewn children'a clothing, noone wants to pay the price for such fine work but i know if there was a store that charged a deposit (for incidentals) and a rental fee, people would be all over that for children's portraits, weddings, in Mobile, (for the coronation ball)

below, these are the two sweet girls in my wedding, even though i had yet to walk down the aisle, the lady who sat up the ribbon tied a knot in it and the girls had quite a time figuring it out, (the car in the background really irks me.... whatev, small garden wedding i keep telling myself) needless to say it brought all the guests a little chuckle to get their minds of the incredibly aweful heat they were sitting in......
the dresses the girls are wearing have a really neat story to them... my mom made both of them for my sister and i to wear in our babysitters wedding when we were Allie Marie, and Mary Ira's age. It was really special for me to share that with two little girls that i had the privledge to keep. Are they not the cutest things ever???

this pic is from my friend Anna's wedding, are these not the most breathtaking wedding gown and french hand sewn {flower girls} dresses ever?? uhh just gorgeous......

and this is my sweet friend Kara's nephew London, uhh he is going to be a heartbreaker, and look at the lace both of the girls have in their dresses, (I LOVE LACE)

Sidenote: Most of the photo's shown in this post were taken by Josh Malahy Photography.
This is Josh
basically he rocks. His photography skills are amazing, and he has a true talent for photo-journalism. He IS the best! Here is a picture from my friend Haley's wedding. Josh has such an incredible way to capture a sweet moment.

What was your wedding like? Did you incorporate any neat traditions??

Sunday strolling

Yesterday the hubs and I did some serious yard work... So when baby awoke from her nap we went out for a treat!



Casey made her pay! Haha

Sweet Southern Traditions

Hello lovely readers,

Thought i would take some time to share something near and dear to my heart, Southern Weddings!!

 Seeing as i am in my first one for the summer this weekend (Lauren's wedding) I thought I would share some interesting things I learned while planning my wedding almost 2 years ago.

 Buy a few books:

My two favorite are...

My super sweet friend, H, was in college with me at Alabama, and her major was event planning with an emphasis in Wedding Planning, there was no doubt in my mind she would be coordinating my event and boy am i glad she did. The first thing we did was go to Barnes and Noble in t-town and grab some magazines, while perusing the store we found this book.

UMMMMM not only is the book absolutely HILARIOUS, it is extremely informative. Of course i purchased and ran home to read, The book follows women of the Mississippi Delta and the "must haves" of throwing a southern weddings.

Then there is the Southern Belle Primer, oh dear lord this book will have you in complete stitches, even if you aren't getting married it is a really funny light read, great for a road trip to share with the crowd.
Here are some of my favorites of the book, and things the book highlights i didn't know before i read...

• "what is considered trash or quality in the south has nothing to do with money. Some of the best families around here haven't had money for generations. The emphasis is on breeding and manners. no amount of money can make you quality of you don't act like quality. For instance, good souther belles don't place much importance on paying $400 to buy a pocketbook that's got some Italian designer's initials all over it. In the south, grandmother's monogrammed napkin rings are much more important than Gucci's monogrammed luggage. To think otherwise is just considered tacky. And around here, nothing is more tacky than being tacky." -Alabama belle discussing the intricacies of being southern

{a rundown of southern belles golden rules}

1. always wear white when you walk down the aisle (even if its for the third time)
2. never date your sorority sister's ex-husband until at least three years after the divorce. You may need her to write a rec for your daughter one day and its alot easier to find a new man than get your daughter into the sorority.
3. buy low, sell high.

• what a finger bowl is... back in the day these bowls were used for cleaning your hands before dessert, who knew?? {they contain rose petals or lemon peels floating in the water, you are to dip your right hand then pick up the doily with the left and once finished this signifies you are ready for dessert. they surely didn't teach me that at cotillion.
• There are 12 official Silver patterns

1. francis1
2. grand baroque
3. burgundy
4. rose point
5. buttercup
6. chantilly
7. strasbourg
8. acorn
9. old master
10. eloquence
11. chrysanthemum
12. repousse'

these are just a few of my favorites of this book. Honestly i could write for days on this... ahhh the joys and charms of being Southern.... by the grace of god.

Bedroom Design Highlight

I have been wanting to highlight my friend Candace's bedroom remodel for some time now. For her this has been a work in progress over the past few months and i think the room is absolutely adorable. {Candace is pictured above(on the left) with my sister, Ainslie (on the right)}I met Candace through Ainslie when they were very young, both of them grew up cheering and competing and even though they cheered for opposing teams they always remained friends and since in college they have become wonderful friends.

{don't you love the tray sitting on this bed?? the tray

and the bedding are from my fave store in memphis

BellaVita, the bedding is Pine Cone Hill}

Last February, Candace started babysitting for me when I went back to work. AC was a tiny 3 month old and I was so comforted to know my sweet precious was being taken care of by someone I knew and trusted. 

Since Candace has been keeping baby I have discovered we both LOVE to decorate, so before we make any changes to the house I always ask her opinion and she is always eager to help. 

She helped me with decisions in our bedroom, {not quite ready to reveal, but getting close} Anna Caroline's bathroom, the den, and now baby girl's room. 

Slowly but surely the house is coming together just the way we want and I am so thankful to have Candace's help along the way. Here are a few pictures of her adorable room she has designed and executed all on her own.... so proud of her.....

The Grace sign above has been my inspiration for something i have wanted to do in Lil bit's room. 

Long story short the word grace has wonderful meaning to me and is a very special name. 

Originally I found the name Carolina Grace and sooo fell in love with it, my grandmothers best friend was named Grace.

 Mrs. Grace passed away in September of 2008 while I was pregnant with AC and i thought since she was my "living connection" to my grandmother; who passed away when I was in sixth grade; it would be a neat honor to her. We eventually decided to use another name but I wanted to create this sign to remember our planning and preparation for her arrival.

The pink piping on the linen fabric is a great effect on this chair.... love it.

Oh and these shutters, i just have an incredible love for them... These are from a little store here in town! Its a super cute antique shop and this shutter is from a home being restored off the english country side somewhere in Great Britian. Ummm... your gorgeous, i love you and the stories you carry, good lawd, I have a soft spot in my heart for history and antiques.

Hope yall enjoy, i am trying to find my jump drive to load pictures from our trip to Birmingham, AL.

A Day to enjoy our surroundings

pre-post side note... i am trying to work on my photography skills, i think these three pictures show how once i am "looking through the view-finder" things get better... snowflakes and bleeding hearts make my heart swoon......
Okay, promise to try and not get too sappy on this one... Two weeks ago the fam and i packed up for Birmingham, AL for a weekend get away trip. This was exactly two years (to the weekend) casey proposed to me in the botanic gardens in birmingham; so we thought after our tuscaloosa trip to the paul bear bryant museum; {casey had never been} we would show baby where daddy proposed.
After we got there i decided this was quite the prime photo opp, for well, everything, enjoy the photo's we had a blast.
okay again, photo skills.. in the works, hate the lighting but i mean come on.. look at those ruffly socks, a chubby painted fingernails, and those puckered lips.
then ya know... smiles turns to frustration and hunger.... quickly.....so tears and tantrum turn to giggle again.
then of course a little game of monkey see monkey do, if you cant tell this little bit does EVERYTHING.. her daddy does. so stinkin' cute!!