Sarah Jane Studios

I came across the most adorable line of prints this morning (via pinterest, of course) and the more I looked at this website the more I loved. Here are a few of my favorite prints from Sarah Jane. These would be stunning in a little gallery wall in a nursery, for all of you moms out there! However, I think any room needs a touch of whimsy, and these would do that job perfectly. I'm inspired!

To see more of this shop, check out the website here. 

Have a wonderful day! xoxo

Birthday Wish List

Wow, I cannot believe it is already the second week of November! Since it is my birthday month, I wanted to share my lust list at the moment. This year for my birthday, I am asking for only "practical" things- like shoes, clothes, accessories for the home, and money towards a new sofa. Very practical, right? Things I will use EVERY day! No more jewelry for me this year! Here's the list.

Frye Boots

a new watch is practical, right?

New end table for the sofa

Tie Neck Blouse

I'm sure there will be more to come (just being honest!)....

Sweet hubby- those are actual links you can follow through to ;)

Chicken Stew for the Soul

Last night my sweet husband made us this stew for dinner. Soup/stew just sounded good because we both have some sort of cold after the weekend. I'm sure it has nothing to do with tailgating at 9 am at Carter Finley Stadium on Saturday (GO PACK!) 

Anyway, this recipe comes from my girl Christy Jordan and her cookbook Southern Plate. Christy says,

 "Please make this chicken stew. Its that good. Its so good that it actually bothers me to think that some of you might only look at the photos, read the tutorial, and never make it. Its so good that if I could, I would seriously arrange a time and place for all of us to meet up under a tent somewhere in the middle of the country just to serve you this chicken stew."

SOLD. 

CHICKEN STEW

Ingredients:

1 chicken

2 lg onions, chopped

7 cups water

4 cups canned tomatoes

6 med.potatoes, peeled and diced

3 Tablespoons sugar

2 cups frozen or canned whole kernel corn

2 Tablespoon butter

5 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons pepper

Directions:

-Cook chicken until done in water. Remove chicken from broth and discard skin. Separate meat from bones and shred meat.

-Dip off as much fat from the broth as possible.

-Simmer potatoes in 1 cup of broth in covered saucepan until done, do not drain. Mash potatoes slightly, keeping them lumpy.

-Add corn, onions, tomatoes, sugar, salt, and pepper to broth.

-Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

-Add potatoes and chicken and simmer slowly with lid off for at least 45 minutes.

-Right before serving, stir in butter and let it melt. Best if made a day ahead and reheated to serve.

(Y'all did expect butter to be in the stew right? We are in the South! haha)

Christy says to make a day ahead but we had ours the night of, and will be having those leftovers for lunch today. She also says it freezes well, which is great because Stephen and I are not good about eating leftovers for days at a time. I already packed up two containers of the soup for the freezer to have on another cold night. I also made some Crescent Rolls (round kind, love those) to serve with the stew, but I think mini saltines would have been great too. 

Everything I have made by Christy has been SO delicious and she somehow understands we don't want to spend a fortune at the grocery store and spend all night cooking. She makes it simple. Her dishes are southern and they remind me of something you would expect your mom to whip up. If you do not have her cookbook, I highly recommend it!!

Have a great Tuesday! xoxo

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to my best friend, a fabulous, wonderful, beautiful, caring and lovely mom! I am so blessed to have her as my mom and she deserves a wonderful day today. We had a great time together this weekend and I wish I was still home today with you! Love you Mom!

I also want to wish my sweet, beautiful friend Ashley a belated Happy Birthday, also. We were
 fast friends from the minute we met at orientation at Meredith, roommates, bridesmaids in each
other's weddings and now she is a fabulous mom herself.
Somehow in the craziness of last week I lost track of the date!
Happy Birthday Ash! Love you!

us back in the day!!

I am trying to fend off a cold and hopefully will be feeling 100% soon. Have a great day!

Friday Finds

Sparkling Pear and Cranberry Cocktail

this is amazing

hot toddy season is here!

time for paperwhites! Can't wait to try these this year!

Happy Friday!! xoxo

Desk Reinvention

Over the last couple of months, we have been moving furniture from one room to the next. This involves letting it sit in the hallway for weeks at a time, moving it to the garage, moving it back inside, moving it back to the hallway because it needs a place to go...you get the picture! When we added a bookcase in the man cave, we turned it into more of a sitting room than an office and the desk had to go. Then, I started my closet clean up and I had an idea to use his old desk in our closet as a vanity-type-built in of sorts. Here is the desk in the closet before- it is dark and hard to see any of the pretty woodwork in a shadowy closet.

I did barely any prep work and lucked out. I just primed it with a latex primer and used BM Linen White in semi gloss finish, the same color as the walls. Painting it was SO easy- I picked up a high density foam roller made for doors & cabinets and it made this painting quick and painless. 

So, here is what the closet looks like today....

Sorry for the poor lighting- it is still a little dark in there, that is the next thing on the list. So here are the details...I made an obvious hardware change for these sleek brushed stainless pulls, available at Lowes- they were the most expensive part but well worth it.

I also found some chevron drawer liners from the Container Store and lined all of the drawers with it. I just wanted something fun and these fit the bill. They are non adhesive but have that "stick" to them so my jewelry stays in place and neat, even when it is laid out in a drawer and I am opening and closing it. 

Other additions to the closet include a new striped rug from Crate and Barrel. I had a gift card with some remaining funds and it was the perfect size for the closet. The horizontal stripes make the closet seem wider, and I am all for that! I also bought a little white cube ottoman at TJ Maxx last week. It must have been delivery day because I have never seen our store this full of so many great finds. It was a steal and it opens up for more storage-another place to stash my stuff!

I'm not going to lie, I loved styling this also. I adore little trays and dishes to hold my jewelry, so I relocated them here instead of my nightstand. The teacup was actually my place setting at my bridesmaids luncheon so it is near and dear to my heart, and I love my jewelry in it! I am also a collector of fashion and decor books and have lots of them throughout our house.

I really am enjoying this in our closet and I love that we had a space to use a piece of old furniture that we otherwise would have had to give up! It is pretty to look at when I am in the closet picking out something to wear- we all know we need some inspiration some days!

What do you think? Good reinvention of an old desk?!

This is linked to:

Pumpkins and Fur

Here are my precious "fur babies" all dressed up for Halloween last night. I tried to resist the urge to put them in costume, but I saw these Saturday and grabbed them. They were 75% off- how could I not!? Plus, I have never seen such a large dog costume for our sweet boy. Dixie is loving the fur on hers! 

 They were very cooperative dressed up, but only because I bought them some Halloween treats that I made them wait for!

Yesterday morning on pinterest, I also saw Boo dressed up as a pumpkin, ha!

Tucker's costume was a XXL though!

We also celebrated two friend's recent engagement, as in they got engaged right before they came over for dinner! He wanted it to be a total surprise and she was definitely that! We had a great time all celebrating together and passing out candy to the masses of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood.

It's day two of Christmas decorating and I am beyond exhausted. Night night!