Nashville and Easter

Last week Dave, Will and I left early thursday morning to drive from Northern Virginia to Nashville, Tennessee to visit Dave's sister Kelly. Since she lives out of town and is on the road a lot (www.kellyminter.com) she had not gotten to see Will since he was born.  We thought it would be fun to get away for a long weekend and since Will is too young to easter egg hunt with his cousins we knew this would be the perfect time to miss a large family holiday.

Dave packed the car the night before and by 5 am we were on the road! I am so thankful to have such a great husband who drove the entire 10 plus hours to get us to Nashville safely. It was also a good thing he drove because I would have stopped at the 15 or so flea markets that I saw along the highway. I think next time I need to drive that route with a pick-up truck :)

Here are a few pictures of Will in the car. He did great! We stopped every three hours to feed him but other than that he was in his car seat the whole time and really did not cry once!

The above pic was taken when we had to do a quick diaper change in the car at a rest stop. I thought he might like to stretch a little but as you can see he seemed pretty happy just to relax!

We got to Nashville around 4 pm thanks to an hour time change. After we unpacked we headed straight to Burger-Up for some amazing, organic burgers. If you are ever in the Nashville area you should check it out.

The next day we relaxed at Kelly's friend Mary Katharine's house and got to hang out in her new screened in family room. I wish I had taken some good pictures of this room. It was amazing! It has a stone fireplace, a flat screen TV and great outdoor furniture. We stayed on that porch for most of the weekend. Will loved being outside and  I loved not having to worry about bugs.

Friday night we went to a Good Friday service at Kelly's church. Here is Will all dressed up for the service. I had not been to a Good Friday service in a few years and it was a good reminder to me of Christ's sacrifice. We often just celebrate the joy of Easter and forget what had to happen to let us have the joyous celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

The rest of the weekend we spent hanging out with Kelly's friends and eating great food. Saturday, Dave and I took Will to the adorable little town of Franklin located just south of Nashville. Last time we visited I had gotten a set of China at an antique store and this time I found some great Ironstone pieces to add to my collection. Again, I wish I had taken pictures but I was a little preoccupied with Will and not getting him sunburned. Apparently, kids under 6 months are not supposed to wear sunscreen but I am not sure how they do that in the south. It is way too hot for pants and long sleeves!

The rest of the pictures are from Easter Sunday. I am glad we got a shot of the family!

Below is Kelly and Mary Katharine. She cooked Easter lunch for us and it was so good! All of Kelly's friends were so sweet to us and know how to make a family feel welcomed!

April is one of the funniest people I know. She kept us laughing all weekend!

Will also discovered the hammock. Whenever he got fussy we would take him out there. I think we are going to have to find a place for one in our backyard. He is hooked.

I also did a little house hunting. Dave and I have always talked about moving to Nashville one day so I thought I would show him the houses I love in case he wants to surprise me. haha

A white house with two swings and an amazing front porch. I love it! The below bungalow even had a stroller outside. I think it is meant to be!

We left bright and early monday morning to return home and thankfully did not run into any bad weather. We did however, make sure our last rest stop was at our alma mater. GO DUKES! I had not seen the new tunnel to the arts building and took a quick picture of the quad as we drove by. We wanted to make sure Will saw where he was going to go to college one day :)

And last but not least I wanted to make sure you all knew we were feeding Will. I spy a double chin.

pillow talk

I seriously have a problem. I buy way too much fabric. When I see a good deal or something I like I just grab it. When we moved into our townhouse last spring I knew I had a problem when I actually had to unpack multiple boxes of fabric (Dave I hope you aren't reading this). So now that the baby is here and getting into a good routine (thank you babywise) I decided to put some of this fabric and my extra time to good use and get crafty.

I am now making pillows!

It has been so much fun and thanks to my friend Holly and her mom, I have a great pattern to use for my pillows that makes them more like slipcovers. They can easily be changed with each season if you are crazy like me and do that! So now onto business...

Below are some of the pre-made 20x20 pillows that I have. I have multiple pillows in each pattern. The pillow in the middle (which is a dark chocolate brown on a white background even though on my monitor it is reading navy) and the teal pillows are indoor/outdoor fabric. They are $22 per pillow cover and the chevron ones on the end are $18 per pillow cover. Again I have multiple pillows in these patterns not just the amount that is shown.

I also have a few suzani pillows that are 18x18 and they are also $18 per pillow cover.

Below is some of the fabric in stock. Please contact me (megenminter@gmail.com) if you would like pillows out of these fabrics. Fabric is limited so first come first serve on what is in stock but I can always order more but you will just have to wait a little bit.

Lastly, I would also love to make any pillows out of fabric that you provide. Please contact me (megenminter@gmail.com) for pricing as it depends on size, pattern etc. I can also provide pillows forms if needed.

Thanks for looking/shopping! My buddy and I have been having fun making pillows for you! (I promise those wet hands have not touched any of the above fabric!)

A few things to remember about turning 4 months

You have gotten so BIG. I cannot wait to see how much you weigh at your 4 month appointment. Mommy loves your chubby legs and everyone is commenting now on your big cheeks!

You are really laughing at mommy and daddy when we do something silly. You don't just give away your smiles but like to save them for something really important or funny but you always smile at us when we come to get you after your naps.

You LOVE your fingers. No longer are you crying for your pacifier but can settle yourself down with a finger or a fist. You also love to chew on your toys now. You might be starting to get some teeth!

One of mommy and daddy's favorite things to do is listen to you talk to yourself. A night when we put you down you talk yourself to sleep and we love to listen through the monitor at your silly conversations. Sometimes you even laugh at yourself!

You are the best sleeper! At 2 months you started sleeping through the night but you were still getting up a little early for mommy. Now you wake up at 9am or later! Mommy loves that you are her little sleeper.

           {Will's new favorite chew toy and mommy's favorite animal.}

                   Happy 4 months buddy. I love being your mommy!

someone has curly hair like his momma

The other day I discovered Will has curly hair and I have to admit I am little excited! Someone had asked me recently if his hair was curly or not and I did not really know the answer since I always brush it after bath time. The other day I decided to let it air dry and not brush it to see what would happen and here is the proof of the curls!

I asked my mom to bring a picture of me at the age because I had the exact same curly mohawk at three months. I will try and remember to post some pictures next week when she visits. I am still hoping Will's hair will lighten as he gets older just like his daddy's did but I guess we will have to wait and find out. Below are a few more pictures of his crazy hair. At least his momma has curly hair and can help him pick out the right hair products and shampoo when he is older!

wall stencil

I had a baby shower for a friend the other day (pictures to come soon) and some of the girls were asking about my dining room wall stencil so I thought this would be a good time to do a recap of the details for those who are interested.

When Dave and I first moved in a year ago we painted the living and dining room walls contemplation by Behr. It is similar to silver sage available at Restoration Hardware but I think contemplation has more blue in it which I love. The living and dining room are basically one large room divided only by a header so I wanted to add something to make the dining room seem different without overwhelming the small space.

Dining Room Fall 2010

I had purchased a stencil last April from royaldesignstudio.com to use in the powder room but the idea of having to stencil around a toilet and sink seemed overwhelming and not fun. I decided to try it in the dining room instead and I love how it turned out. I think this achieves a similar look of wallpaper but was a lot cheaper and I can just paint over it if I get tired of it. The stencil is called fabric damask and the stencil color that I used is lime light which is a shade lighter then contemplation. I started at the very bottom of the wall and just eyed where to place each stencil. I found this easier then having to map it all out first and to be honest I am not sure I have the patience to do that :) I also used a foam roller which worked great and was a lot quicker then using a brush. The only complaint/struggle that I had was paint seemed to build up on the stencil. Thankfully that happened on the wall which is mostly covered by the mirror and buffet. This might not have been an issue if I had done it all the same day but with a newborn I had to wait and work on the stencil when Dave was home to help watch the baby so this project took a few days to complete. Sorry these pictures are a little dark but it has been raining a lot here in Virginia.

Close up of the Damask pattern

There are a lot of amazing new stencils available at Royal Design Stencils (dying to use silk road suzani) that I wish that I could use them all over my house but I have to admit I am not sure if I have the patience and time to ever do this again given the amount of work that went into it. It is also definitely not perfect which I can live with but this might bother some people.  I do love the overall effect though and I think it makes a huge impact! Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

living room wall makeover

The first apartment my husband and I lived in had a fireplace with a tile surround but no mantel. Growing up in an older home with ornate fireplaces this seemed really strange to me. I started to look for mantels while shopping at antique and junk stores and found a beautiful LARGE mantel that had been removed from a historic home that had been destroyed by a fire. The mantel was a steal due to some discoloring caused by the smoke but other than that it was in perfect condition. I knew the smoke damage would not be an issue since I wanted to paint it white. I was able to use it in our first home and am so excited that I was able to get it out of storage to use it again in our current home three years later.

 a view of the living room taken on moving day May 2010

 mantel all dressed up for Christmas along the above small wall

We do not have a fireplace in our townhouse that the mantel could cover so I decided to lean it against the wall and use it more as decoration. When we moved in a year ago I had planned on putting a mirror in the opening and a piece of artwork above the mantel (inspiration from Eddie Ross's blog). However, now that I have a little one I am already starting to think of him crawling and playing and being a boy which makes me nervous to have glass right at his height. Maybe I am being a little overly cautious and considering Will is only 3 months I probably don't have to worry about it breaking for awhile but all I can picture is the glass coffee table that my brother and I broke when we were little and the glass that went everywhere. I would really like to avoid that if I could. Now I am thinking of painting the opening with chalkboard paint because I think he will put that to better use then a mirror :)

mantel as of last month

I love the mirror above the fireplace which is another antique store find that was gold and got a fresh coat of white spray paint (you can see it gold in the above Christmas picture).  I had originally intended to put some sort of cabinet for storage on this wall but since our living room is on the smaller side the chair in the above pictures would have blocked the cabinet. I love how the mantel adds interest and I can still walk behind the chair! Of course I still need to anchor the mantel to the wall before Will starts to pull on things so maybe this would be a good project for the month of April. Dave are you reading this :)

my favorite picture

I just found this on my computer and had to share. This was taken minutes after Will was born and Dave was able to hold his son for the first time. This will forever be one of my favorite photos :)

And just in case you wanted to see one more picture of Will here is one we took on his two month birthday. Yes we are one of those parents who have to capture every moment. After all he is our first :)

A Bridal Shower

About a month ago I gave my dear sweet friend Katrina a bridal shower.

She is such a special friend to me and I could not wait to celebrate her upcoming wedding (which just happened this past weekend! yay for the new Mrs. Young!). A few of her wedding colors were pink and teal so I decided to focus on those two colors for the shower.

One of the items that she really wanted to use as table decorations at her wedding were mason jars so all of her family and friends started collecting. My husband's family has gone to Deep Creek Lake the past few summers and my mother - in- law is an expert antique shopper and has scouted out the best places to shop. I was able to get a handful of jars for her much cheaper then I would have been able to get in Northern Virginia. They did not have lids so I am sure this is why they were cheaper but since she put flower arrangements in them lids were not a necessity.

I love flowers and knew that I would use them everywhere that I could. Thankfully I live close to a Wegmans and I think they have a great flower selection for a reasonable price. Flowers really make all the difference in my opinion.

Below is a picture of the mantel all dressed up for the party. I found the lace wedding bell garland at the dollar store of all places. I placed it behind a home-made banner that I made out of card stock and twine. I got the mantel 4 years ago at a junk store in Norfolk, Virginia while visiting my parents.

I was so excited to use my collection of glassware and cream china that I have collected over the years. The table runner was from a good friend's wedding. I love the this Waverly fabric pattern and have a bunch in stock if anyone wants something made from it!

A friend of mine made the oreo truffles you can see below on the dessert bar and I am dying to get her recipe. I will try and remember to post it once I get it from her because everyone needs to try them!

The cupcake flags were so fun to make. I had gotten this love stamp at Michaels in the dollar rack. I simply stamped it on label paper and then cut it out and folded it over a toothpick to stick in the cupcake.

 

GO DUKES!

The below cups were made again with a stamp and label paper. An easy and inexpensive way to dress up dollar store cups! Aqua napkins are from Ikea.

 

So thankful for my friendship with Katrina. We lived together right after college before I got married and I loved being able to share that year with her. She is the most selfless person I know and I am so blessed to be able to call her my best friend.  I hope everyone has a Katrina in their life :)