Thrifty Southern Living

Monday, November 7, 2011

1st Trimester Highlights

I found out on September 3 after yard sale shopping with Ava & Brittany and donuts with them plus my parents & Job.

We have been wanting to add to our family for a long time! I was so excited!!!

Due Date:
May 12

Major symptoms:
Indigestion
Nausea
Fatigue
Sore chest
Gagging at the mere thought of something gross

Cravings:
Rice Krispies with milk
chocolate milk
Gummy candy
Tomatoes
Cheddar cheese

Funny moments:
Checking the weather report so I'd know how to dress Ava and me then realizing it was Chicago's weather, and it was 20 degrees warmer here- pregnant brain!
The look on Ron's face when my doctor suspected twins (it was a glitch it the ultra sound machine).

Great moments:
Getting a wonderful report from first doctor's appointment
Telling Ava the BIG news! Her first response was, "Thank you, Jesus!" She told me back in July that the baby was taking too long to get here!
Sharing the news with our family & friends.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

And then there were FOUR!

As the first trimester comes to end soon, I'm so excited to say that we are having a new baby! Baby #2 is due on May 12. Yay!!!

Last night as I was reflecting on all of our fall festivities, I realized that next Halloween we'd have a five year old and a five month old. Wow:)

Monday, October 31, 2011

Fall Family Fun

I love fall! We've had a fun few weeks of fall-ish activities, and I am trying to get caught back up on blogging! 

I got to go trick-or-treating with Ron & Ava for about 45 minutes before leaving for class. They stayed out longer and had a blast! She was thrilled about it this year.

Proud Princess with her Monster Cousin;)

On the giant slide at Mimi & Papa's church

Face painting by Nicole

Princess/Kitty?

After our church's fall festival... Ava was the potato sack race champ! They had so much fun... more face painting, pie-in-the-face competition, hay ride, bounce houses, and candy, of course!

Ava loves to pose for pics... always ready:)

SWEET!

Daddy/Uncle Ron :)

Ava's pumpkin that she took to Mimi for a 'get well happy.'

My 30th birthday dinner

Outside movie night with the McRae family

a little fall decor

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Tara's Dining Room

Last year, I made-over Matt and Tara's master bedroom, and today, their dining room with Jamie's help. There are always challenges when decorating someone's space. On this particular job, I had two: the budget and using a very large painting that they already had in the room; both issues turned out fine! At first I was stumped on the paint color because it had to compliment the painting. In the end, I chose Moody Blue by Sherwin-Williams- LOVE! Tara really wanted a china cabinet to be able to display her beautiful china, and she found one on Craig's List for $50. I found the red curtains on target.com with no shipping fee:) Everything else was from The Find! When Jamie and I can "shop" from our own store, it equals savings for the client.

{Before} They had a media cabinet as kind of a makeshift buffet, but the height wasn't working.

{Before} Neutral walls that didn't compliment the pretty hardwood floors or furniture.

{Before} Their dining room furniture is really nice and was easy to work around!

{Before} I knew adding curtains would be a huge improvement!

{Before} The painting seemed a little lost on a big wall.

{After} I love the pops of red- panels, plate, candlestick, and painting!

{After} I feel like this painting is much more "in place" now with the change of wall color and hanging it off-center for a little unexpected touch.

{After} They painted the oak hutch with black--didn't mean to do shiny but it'll get fixed someday. I do like it black though.

{After} I love seeing that we incorporated Tara's iron wall hanging, her lamp, china, and chalkboard in with our yard sale and Goodwill finds (suitcase, topiary, plate stands & plates, bird, antique books, candlestick, basket, ...).

{After} We decided to keep the centerpiece simple using a basket of Tara's and lots of Dollar Tree moss balls. It'll be easy to move for family dinners.

{After} We had one other wall to address. Tara had this large empty frame from a thrift store and the window from her grandmother's home. The wreath was one Jamie made last month.


I know everyone probably says this, but PICS don't do rooms justice! Tara was so happy with it! :)

Monday, October 10, 2011

Jeanine's Baby Shower

Jeanine is having a baby girl next month! I'm so excited! As I've mentioned before, Jeanine and I lived together when we went to community college along with Christie and Lori, freshman year, and then Carly took Lori's place for our sophomore year. Carly had a sweet baby girl in June that I finally got to see at this shower! It was great to see Jeanine, Carly, their moms, Jeanine's sisters, and some other great girls that I don't see often. I had to snap some pics of Jilly's beautiful nursery too. Jeanine's mom is very talented and made all of her bedding, ect.

Jeanine still has this framed in her craft room. I made it for her about 10 years ago. Time flies.

The shower was brunch-food themed. Grits, quiche, ham biscuits, blueberry pound cake, spice cake, breakfast casserole, fruit, juice, coffee... Everything was delicious!

My sweet girl helped Jeanine's nieces with the presents.

The beautiful mom-to-be...

Hostesses with Jeanine

J's craft room! I want one!! :)

Brittany made this adorable shirt.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Brooke's Bargains 40

Last Saturday was GREAT for yard sales! Perfect weather and lots of neighborhood sales-- too many to count! I have also found some good stuff at Goodwill lately. Here are my latest finds: