Styling: A Client Project

I had such a blast working with Diane. 

She is slowly moving through her home and bringing life to a few places that had been "overlooked" when they moved in about 10 years ago. 

Diane asked if I would come and help use some of her favorite things and precious family pictures and display them to showcase for when she is entertaining. 

The cabinets were originally pickled so after our first meeting she and her handy man collaborated and got to work painting them white dove by Ben Moore. I am sooo impressed with their painting! Diane had the doors sprayed by her handyman and she did the rest! 

Here is where we left off right before Christmas. 

She and her husband have tons and tons and tons of books so it was a refining process for sure!! 

We just met again this last week to finish styling and discuss the next step.

 We have a few pieces she has ordered to complete her collections of top right shelf and middle left. 

Several of her crystal and hand carved glass pieces just popped against the  accent color we selected! 

Now the next step is to use this same accent color and mix it with the pearlescent paint to make her gorgeous custom mantle pop!! 

Living Room Style Board

Hello friends!

Can I just say thank you from the bottom of my heart??

Ya'll have blessed me beyond measure with all your kind words regarding a piece of our story. 

Thank you for trusting me with yours and your outpouring of support. Means the world!

Now that my head is clear, I have been thinking its about time to nail down some elements of this room. 

Here is what we are working with. 

Contemplating a cowhide rug....

there will be a treatment like in the picture over the fireplace!

and hoping for some ah ha moment on where my pop of color is going to come from!

This is obviously my rough draft board but this is sort of the direction the room is headed in. 

getting quotes this week on having the builtins made.

wrapping up switching out the electrical.

and picking out a roller shade for the back door.

Once the roller shade is installed and the outlets switched out I will be sharing pictures!

Favorite Baby Items #3

Now that we are on number three I feel like we have a little bit of an idea of what has worked well for us and what hasn't.

We did decide to start making our own baby food with #3 and suprisingly its easy, and super fun! 

The big kids have had a blast helping us make sweet potatoes, or apples and pears.

Its been a great teaching opportunity for the older two to learn how mixing things taste!

Anywho....

Our favorites this go is still our double to triple, back to single stroller.

 Throwback to our disney trip!

ride in the back, ride in the front

 pop an infant carrier in the top!

add a wheelie board and stick sister helping me push! 

This thing is amazing! 

btw... at three we finally had an AH HAH moment at the hospital. 

Dont take all those carts etc down, just grab the stroller, have the carrier attached and mommy can hold baby, and not baby in carrier. A lot less awkward and everything carried down in one trip!

The other thing we are using daily and SOOO glad we invested in with big brother is our Baby Bjorn bouncer seat! 

I actually dont have any pictures of w in the seat but trust me. he sits there often while I am working!

and... pretty much everything on this chart I made with c.

We did get a sophie replacement and this go... I would like to invest in a chew beads necklace. Mr. Whit can not seem to stop chewing on all my jewelry!

What do you use that you can't live without?

I never jumped on the rocknplay wagon but I hear I sorely missed out!

Beauty for Ashes: Five

Five.... 

I have never been a person to have a "lucky number" but this one, it seemed to be the one that I used as my guide. 

My shield, my gauge.

"In 5 years, we can financially breathe."

"In 5 years, you will have a real grown up career."

"In 5 years maybe I can really start pursing my design dreams."

You see back in March, it was 5 years that had passed since I saw 2 pink lines for the first time. 

Then I thought, no.... that was only one. 

After nine seperate tests I knew it was true.

I felt the lord whisper to me. "Give me five years, allow me to mold you, transform you, and make you and Casey into the people I want and need you to be."

What did I learn in that amount of time?

Humbling is a process, and this one simple phrase.

"Sin will make you go farther than you wanted to go, and make you pay more than you wanted to pay." 

(I have to be delicate with the words I choose to write on this matter because one day, my little girl will read them. I never want her to think I didn't love her. 

It IS because of my love for her that she is here today; so bear with me... I have also chosen to write her a special book through pictures and prayer and love notes and share with her how much we have loved her and how thankful we are that Jesus decided to make us her parents. I want this to be something for her only so she can work through the emotions privately with us, satan will use this enough to attack her so I feel that is probably the best way for us to share with her)

The drive to planned parenthood to confirm the pregnancy was the scariest drive of my life. 
I wavered back and forth between wanting an abortion, and not.... after prayer I knew the lord had instilled me with this little one.

And who was I? Who was I to stand in the way of the life he intended.
It was my responsibility to carry her and nurture her and bring her up!!

Two sweet friends daily walked those first few weeks with Casey and I. 

I went through every array of emotion possible.

Denial, excitement.... followed by denial. A whirlwind of how would we provide... back to thoughts of an abortion, thoughts of an adoption, then denial again. 

(People, I convinced myself I had a mild form of the flu for 9 weeks straight.) 

I eventually accepted the pregnancy and we proceeded to tell our parents.
That day I remembering not wanting to breathe.
Things were said, feelings were hurt, but the silence was the hardest.

Again... time.
Originally, before those pink lines; our plan was to get engaged in the summer and hopefully wed in the fall or coming spring.

Instead we got engaged in April and were married 5 weeks later.

We wed when I was 24 weeks pregnant.

Anna Caroline looks at our wedding photos now and asks where she is.
I don't lie to her, I tell her that she was with us in my tummy.

It pains me to say that, but I don't personally feel it is right to lie to her.

We had a very simple ceremony, where dear friends sang, the blazing sun almost suffocated us, 

and simple vows were exchanged.

That day we made a commitment, no matter what, no matter how hot of a fire, to tough it out. 

Those 7 months I was pregnant (that I knew about) I was well... a nomad of sorts.

We were in Tuscaloosa when we were engaged, moved home in June to marry and in July I returned to Tuscaloosa to take 2 final classes to graduate from Alabama.

I had several friends who offered to let me sleep on their couch. 

Abbie, Kara, Lauren, Heather, Christina, and Emily. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

I would send my morning text to see what people had going on that day, I spent my day at the library, or walking target, would wait for them to return from class or work for us to eat, shower, and study before bed and sleep. 

In the am I would grab my pillow, blanket and bag of clothes and head out for my next adventure for the day.

Just me and baby girl growing in my tummy.

Having her was not exciting for me like it was with the boys, it was relief that the nightmare of my previous months was over. 

Maybe that people would stop talking about me, and stop feeling sorry for me, the rumors and facebook friend requests, from the nosey, would stop.

I just wanted her here, and for time to heal what all had transpired.

In the moment I finally got to hold her I just remembering holding so tight, crying tears of joy, breathing a sigh of relief. 

Thinking how perfectly she was knit together in my womb.

And how long I had waited for this day. 

I remember no excitement in the room when the family came in to meet her. 

I only remember a slight lift of the tension felt.

I had named her Rebekah Caroline.

Casey named her Anna Claire.

Only minutes before trying to be discharged from the hospital did we settle on the name Anna Caroline.

Anna means gracious and merciful 

and Caroline means joy and song of happiness.

On November 12, 2008 she became the merciful song of happiness to our lives.

to be continued.

7 Months

This was your month buddy.

Your personality exploded, you started pulling up, crawling and you cut your two bottom teeth all within 2 weeks!!

You are finally feeling better from having RSV, and several sinus infections.

We continued to have problems with your clogged tear duct so the dr referred us to a children's eye dr and she recommended surgery.

We are going to wait a bit longer to see if this is necessary.

you LOVE to snuggle in the pillows to drink your bottle!

You still wear size 2 diapers and sometimes a size 3, your growth has slowed down and you are still wearing 6-9 and some 9m clothing.

and your giggle. it melts us all!!! 

we love you angel!

Cheery Coastal Update: The Kids Bath

Enough with this cold!!! 

I am ready for warmth, and windows open and no Mosquitos!!!!! 

Can I get an amen??? 

To help brighten spirits around our little piece of America I grabbed some paint, oyster shells and construction adhesive! 

Then, hubby grabbed some white/blonde travertine, a trowel and a construction adhesive mat. 

And here is where we are at! 

Details to follow! 

Beauty for Ashes a Series

The lord has really pressed upon my heart to begin to opening and sharing my story with others. 

I have started to type this post for the past 2 years and didn't have the courage to. 

I was afraid of what others would say, what they would thing, and scared to share just how much of a refining fire we walked through.

You see, god took what I considered to be this perfect life, in this perfect town, with a perfect degree, introduced me to a man I didn't know character wise exhisted. 

And then I prayed, a very very specific prayer, and he answered it. 

One simple prayer where I asked the lord to humble me. 

To take away my desires of this world and give me a heart like his.

I had no clue what he would be calling me to, and asking me and my sweet husband to walk through.

I didn't know the pain I would endure, and the blessings that would abound. 

But he did, he knew my heart, he knew Casey's heart and he chose us.

Beauty for Ashes, garment of praise, take this heart of stone

Make it yours!

Connor Turns 2

Update in the Entry and A Plan

When we moved into our home back in July I had an awesome vision for our entry.

Here are some of the ideas I was thinking about for this space. 

Still strongly considering painting the walls a cream white and doing high gloss white trim. 

 image via houzz.com

The banister is not just exceedingly sturdy so we have contimplated ripping it all out and installing more of a modern railing. 

Our layout is this exactly in the two rooms shown. 

I like both of these styles therefore I am torn. 

image via house beautiful

image via gretchenopgenorthdesigns.blogspot.com

We are planning to rip up the carpet on the stairs, install wooden stained treads and install a carpet runner. 

The likelihood we get to this before next fall is pretty slim. 

We have hit some major obstacles in this home and soooo many things were missed on the inspection report/discovered once we moved in that we will be fixing alot of behind the scenes things first. 

BUT..... one thing we CAN do in the meantime is update some lighting.

I fell in love with this fixture back in the spring.

We saw duplicates at places like Home Depot and Lowe's but I knew this was the one the space needed.

The entry is so small and needed some charm. 

We found it for a steal of a deal at the local Pottery Barn Outlet!

And just in the few weeks it has been hanging we have gotten quite a few compliments on it! 

The shadows it casts are Soo pretty!!

So glad I held out for the one I was really wanting!

New Year. Coming Clean

Let's start out this new year on the honest foot!

Not the my life and house is perfect, and squeekly clean foot, the honest one.

The little honest voice you often silence to keep you from saying the thing you shouldn't. 

You know... the one that says, "Your but really IS too big for that dress."

So..... 2013 was the hardest year of my entire existence. 

I dealt with alot of the "ish" and "such" in the silence and confines of my overly messy house. 

Truth really is.... my house has been soooo far from a blog post since we moved it that it's not even funny. 

Like could barely get it together enough to get the laundry done, kids fed, and work.. messy. 

It's embarassing but true. 

So.... when your messy... you see mess and start cleaning out. 

Around May I spoke with my friend Sibi, she said something so profound. In so many words she said: "You know Jenny Beth, this year is going to rock you, it already has, so do one little thing you can that YOU can allow to rock you. Sell everything you own. Get sold out for Jesus."

I took her literally.... 

If you live in Memphis, you have seen me on the resale pages, selling everything I own. 

If you shop the awesome Sugar Plum Consignments, you probably bought alot of my clothes, shoes, belts, bags, and coats I took there. Over $500.00 worth of stuff I wasn't using.

If it has no tangible purpose in my life... its gone. Down to those pesky paint samples. 

By June I plan on only having 10 boxes in my attic. 

Yes 10.

And you know what I learned through this process??

It's hard to sell your favorite Lilly shift dress that you fit into when you were a size 4 and thought life was totally going your way.

And it's hard to sell your favorite Tory Burch wedges, even if they slightly don't fit.

It's harder to sell all your designer jeans because since having three babies your body is trashed and hips and spread and ... uh, NOONE wants to see your crack at the playground.

You know what else? 

Selling all these things, to be sold out for Jesus, so Satan can't use your Kate Spade bag as a deterent to go do ministry work, because you are afraid one of them will steal your bag.

IT'S A BAG! 

Ya can't take it to heaven!!!!

So if you keep said bag, and it does get stolen.

 You have been brought to a place of true understanding, true rawness, of caring more about people and their hearts than your perfectly ensembled wardrobe and your bag. 

I think the hardest thing...

Is seeing people soooo consumed with these things when you realize, hey... a Gucci is just a bag, as much as this 20.00 seersucker diaperbag on my arm.

Your perspective changes, that stripping away of the things you thought that mattered, they help you see what truely matters. 

It's that phone call you never made.

Or that friend you thought about at a traffic light today but you didn't send her a "I was thinking about you text."

SO my beautiful personal highlight of 2013 was being sold out for Jesus. 

And for those of you who want proof... 

This is my closet. 

Sold out. Down to bare bones. 

And proud to rebuild the wardrobe only after I respect and rebuild my body.

2014.... I will be sold out for Jesus through intentional living. 

Please Join me.

What's your resolution?