12.29.2010

bed time

My bed time is usually some time between 10 and 11.
With no work or school to get us up we have been sleeping in. Unfortunately now I am having trouble getting to bed before 2:30. Even as a little girl I was a night owl.

How about you? When left with no schedule to follow to you like to wake up with the sun or sleep in?

(It is 2:23 so I am going to try to go to sleep now)

12.25.2010

a merry christmas

We had a wonderful white Christmas here in Nashville. My son made a video of the last 24 hours. I thought some of you might enjoy a little peek into our Christmas.

12.21.2010

wishes

I am going to sign off for a few days. I wish all of you a time of joy and peace.
I didn't get around to sending out cards but if I did they would be from this talented artist.

12.19.2010

elf

I know that I am a little late but I saw this move for the first time tonight. I loved it! Sitting by a fire watching a movie as a family, all nine of us, knowing that there is no school tomorrow ...it doesn't get a lot better than that.

12.17.2010

the nutcracker

This weekend we will be watching my favorite ballerina dance in the Nutcracker.
She is also my daughter and she is a bon bon. There is nothing like watching the art of ballet to put me in the Holiday Spirit.

How about you? Is the Nutcracker part of your Holiday traditions.

12.16.2010

toys

I am thrilled to be guest blogging over at Lilac and Grey today. Please stop by and see my favorite toys for the Holidays. (As a mother of 7 I have a lot of experience in the field)

Hope you are all having a joyful Friday!
xokc

12.15.2010

friends and family

I am not sure if any of my family reads my blog but you are my friends. So if you would like to enjoy 35% off any of our goodies just enter the code: "thirtyfive" at check out. This will end tomorrow 9pm central.

Please feel free to share this with your blog's friends.

I hope your lists are getting smaller and your days merrier!

motif magazine

We were so excited to be in the new motif magazine. (the gingham elephant) All of you vintage fans will be in love!

PS: You can win one of our dresses over here.

12.14.2010

party boxes

http://dsharp.bigcartel.com/product/letterpress-yule-log

little elves

I am not doing very well on my personal list. But at the office we are right on schedule.

I did have to hire some extra help.

A little something for our favorite trunk show hostesses and stores etc.

12.12.2010

first snow

It only takes a little snow to make us happy here in Nashville.
We are not guaranteed one every winter.
It makes it hard to find Jack.
It is nice to have a hill in your back yard.




All the pics were taken by my hubby.

christmas clip art

I am loving this vintage clip art wreath from The Graphics Fairy. Now I just need to figure out how to use it.

Goodwill for me

Yesterday late in the afternoon I headed to one of my favorite thrift stores, the goodwill outlet. It is not for the faint of heart. It is a step down from your average goodwill but everything is sold by weight and is at least half of what it is at a regular good will.
I picked through loads of boxes to find as many old ornaments as I could find. Could you ever have too many? My daughter grabbed most of the blues and reds to go with her union jack vibe room.
I was thrilled with my leftovers.

Got these two plastic candy canes.

The bottle brush trees (from an earlier goodwill excursion) love to sit around our table. I love the added sparkle from our vintage ornaments just right for Sunday morning breakfast.


12.10.2010

Happy Birthday Caroline

At the office we love a reason to have a party. Today we had a party to celebrate Caroline's Birthday.
I found two boxes of bottle brush trees at Goodwill that made the table look very festive.
Of course we use our napkins.
I had been wanting to try this recipe and this was the perfect event. We all loved it. It is my new favorite winter salad. (Roasted Butternut Squash salad with warm cider vinaigrette from the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics.) I served it with some of my home made whole wheat bread and mimosas.

12.06.2010

a little more Christmas

I am not very good at keeping them alive but at 99 cents each I couldn't help leaving home depot with out 6 poinsettias.
I love my faux holly garland that I have had for years.
This is what NOEL looks like with 7 children. (The "E" is in the large to be glued pile)
I have never meet a bottle brush tree that I didn't like. I am going to be adding some to the store in the next few days.
With decorations finished I can concentrate on a few goodies for my little ones. If only their lists didn't keep changing.

12.03.2010

It's begining

We always get our trees and decorate the day after thanksgiving.
I love getting all of the goodies down from the attic. Little touches here and there.
Most of my ornaments are from my favorite thrift stores.
I have a thing for tinsel trees.
Some of my favorite were made by my very talented children. These were made by my 17,15,13 and 11 years olds when they were respectively in Miss Donna's 4 year old class.
All photos by me.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend. We have two friends staying with us. One I haven't seen for 16 years. It should be fun.

12.02.2010

thanksgiving

I thought you might like to see a couple pictures from our thanksgiving. It was just us and my mother in law. My girls were in charge of decorating the table.
And they insisted that we get dressed up. (I was very happy in my jeans.) Charlotte is wearing the dress she had me make her for her graduation. It is our Gigi dress (much shorter).
We only eat in the dining room twice a year so it feels very special. If you have little ones stop blinking because they that's how long it takes for them to grow up.

11.29.2010

sunday's winner

is Jill said...

Too cute. My Gwen would be so pleased and proud to carry one your purses!

saturday's winner

is A&J said...

Don't have a blog, but I shared this on Twitter:

11.27.2010

friday's winner

is Summer Lee said...

My daughter and I bake together all the time! We would both love the adorable matching aprons!!

thursday's winner

is Carol R said...

ooh la la!

sunday's giveaway

This is one of my favorite things to give to a girl. When we go on a long trip I usually put together a similar assortment of goodies for my own girls. They feel so grown up carrying a purse and the treats inside will keep them busy on the journey.

For 10 extra chances post this on Face Book or put it on your blog.

saturday's giveaway

Today you can win your favorite KH women's dress. Post this on your blog for 10 extra points to win.

11.25.2010

friday's giveaway

Today you can win our mother and daughters apron and this cute wood cookie set.

wednesday's winner

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving. Wednesday's winner is:
Julie said...

party dress with smocked hearts. My Claire loves pink and hearts. This dress was made for her!! She is my 3rd girl, so she has not had many new dresses. She would look precious in this.

Julie let us know what style and size dress you and your doll would like!

thursday's giveaway

Happy Thanksgiving! Leave a comment to win any of our night shirts. Post it on your blog for extra chances.

For this week only all of our night shirts are 30% off. They make a great Christmas gift.

11.24.2010

tuesday's winner

Three Little Brown Kids said...

Beautiful!

I am very thankful as I sit on the computer in our kitchen. My 17 year old boy has decided to bake a cake with my 5 year old littlest girl. She rides on his shoulder when they get things from the pantry. Life is by no means always this sweet but I love it when it is!

wednesday's giveaway

Today we are giving away any children's dress and a matching doll dress. Just leave a comment and tell me your favorite. The doll dress fits 18" dolls.

If you don't win ..for the rest of the week we are giving away a doll dress when you purchase two children's fall dresses.

11.23.2010

a winner

The winner of Monday's totes....
jandjhome said...

Count me in.


tin can treats

A while back I shared how my girls (and clothing) were in a photo shoot for tin can treats. The photographer Tech Petaja has put a bunch of the photos on his blog and I am blown away! Go check out the rest of the pictures and all of Tech's beautiful photography. Makes me want to get married again...to the same man of course.

Lucky for me tin can treats is available for weddings, parties and events. Melodie at tin can treats knows how to do a vintage party better than anyone.

tuesday's giveaway

I am having so much fun putting together these giveaways. Today I am giving away this long necklace and two bracelets. I love to wear fun jewelry and have lots of my favorite colors to choose from but I find myself grabbing my wood jewelry most often.

Leave a comment to win. Let me know if you blog, FB or tweet about it for extra chances.

Even if you don't win....this week when you buy one bangle we will send you a second for free. Just enter code Tuesday at checkout.

11.22.2010

monday's giveaway


Please leave a comment for a chance to win one of these wool totes. If you are a blogger and share about the giveaway you will get 10 chances to win. We will pick Monday's winner tomorrow night.

Lots of fun giveaways all week long!

Even if you don't win our totes will be 25% off for the whole week.

11.21.2010

home

My 15 year old daughter loves to read and write. She rarely lets us read her work but today she needed my to print something out so I couldn't help but read it....

This photo of our home was taken by Bjorn Wallander for Country Living.


The Place I Call Home

by Charlotte Hughes

The house on Estes street hides behind the unruly bushes. The broad black drive slides up to the large garage that still has a strobe light that goes off when the doors slam. Up the stairs past the wall of letters you reach the small yellow room that connects the two parts of the house. It is not in the middle of the house, that’s the front hall, but it is too pretentious so we come in the back. The front hall is for running through when you realize you’ve forgotten something. It is for rolling up the rug and sliding across in your socks. It is for walking past the living room, the one no one really lives in until Christmastime. Past the front hall is my favorite hall, the hall with the magic window and tall shelves full of old leather books from centuries past. It leads to the bedrooms, all but one and a half of them. Each bedroom is different. My parents’ bedroom is cream with a massive wooden bed that is always warm and soft, no matter what. My sisters’ room is pink, crammed full of blue sleigh beds and scattered with clothes. Sophie’s room is snowy white and immaculate: the sharp edges softened with fluffy comforters and small sheepskin rugs. Underneath the house there are more rooms and more hallways. There is a soft cream room with a house and a secret garden to play in, and a hard grey room with washing machines and a projector. It is where we watch car chases and bank heists and love stories and battles. Hidden in the corner of this room, behind old garage doors is a bed. It is a half room, just a bed and a closet. This is where my brother stays when he is home from school. On the other side of the house, on the other side of the yellow room is the kitchen. It is a big room, it has to be. It is where we spend our time: where we bake cookies for school and make bread for lunches, where we eat spaghetti and hamburgers and sit and read by the fire. We eat around its round wooden table and curl up in its massive white couch: a couch where there is no uncomfortable way to sit. Right off of that room, the room we truly live in, is my room. My room is a deep blue sea, changing colors with the light, anchored by the rust red couch and soft white island where I sleep. It is an unfinished room for sure, but no room is ever truly finished. The empty expanses of wall are places to plan and dream and think about, places that are not truly empty, just waiting. It is where I go to escape the loud noises of my younger siblings and think for myself. It is where I go to escape in dreams so realistic I wonder if they actually happened. In my room I can be my own person and think my own thoughts. But it is only one room in many. The hallways sprawl to other rooms with pianos and coloring tables and shell cabinets and guitars. Rooms that I do not visit except on occasion, rooms that are pushed from my mind because even it cannot keep up with the daily changing attitude of my house.

11.19.2010

hand me downs

At the age of 10 our family moved from Miami to Long Island. I loved it. Even now as much as I love Nashville and don't want to move, when I find myself up North I feel at home.

Growing up a girl named Cornelia Guest would give me some of her hand me down clothes because she was a couple years older than I was. I can still remember a camel cashmere sweater that I loved.

Well zoom ahead 35 years and Cornelia is selling her home.

The home, Templeton, that also belonged to her mother C.Z. Guest.
I am not too old for hand-me-downs.
I totally understand if she doesn't want to give me the whole house.
I would be happy with some of the lettuce leaf porcelain.
All of the photos are from Habitually Chic. All or most were taken by Douglas Friedman for Harper's Bazaar.