My Style

Your personal style is a mix of 2 specific styles:

75% Wine Country Style

25% Mountain Lodge Style

Wine Country Style

Tuscan sun, here we come! The Wine Country style reflects the feelings evoked by the seaside regions of Europe such as the South of France, Spain, Italy and Greece. The style manages to be both refined and casual, such that you can mix beautiful antiques with more rustic wrought iron or wood and the result is both sophisticated and cozy.

Furniture is large and comfortable, colors are bright and cheery, and regardless of the color palette the spaces almost always feel warm. You can easily translate the style into the perfect family environment but you can just as easily emphasize the more formal pieces and make your room the perfect adult getaway.

Ok, I think this is pretty much me. I like warm, cozy, antiques mixed with formal, and color.

This was fun. Thanks for sharing April.

Cookie Master

I love making Chocolate Chip cookies!!! I have such fond memories of when I was a child and my mother making them for us. I made them for my kids and now I make them just for my BIG kid. The good part about being "empty nesters" is that you don't have to share the cookie dough with anybody. What is your favorite cookie to make???

My BIG kid....

31 years ago....

...today I promised God to love one man in sickness and in health, rich or poor, until death do us part. I have always viewed my vows to Stan as a vow to God which I do not take lightly. In 31 years there have been MANY ups and downs, changes, arguments, apologizing, laughing, holding of hands (through happy and sad times), hugs and kisses. Last year, on out 30th anniversary, our wonderful children surprised us by coming to town, taking us to dinner, and giving us a night out on our own, then time with them again the next day before they all had to leave to go home. We were blown away by their generosity and love. Then in April, God provided a marriage cruise for us to go on. The time together and the scenery was amazing. Both events are imprinted on our hearts and will be talked about as great memories for years to come. Fast forward..........today, our 31st anniversary, we will go and pick up Mark's truck from being repaired (new transmission, not one of the happy times) and go to the Trackside Grill for a nice quite dinner. But, it doesn't matter as long as we are with each other. I know this sounds a little sappy but it's my anniversary and I'm feeling sappy :) For you bottom line people, here's the point...... How did we get here? Three things to remember, 1) Love God MORE than you love your mate, 2) Grow yourself in the Lord and let the Lord grow your mate, and 3) Forgive, Forgive, Forgive and Forgive again. What's next? On to year #32 :)

Tah Dah......

I know this has been a long time in coming but I kept waiting until we got a lot done. The kitchen is 98% finished. We still need to paint the window over the kitchen sink, and finish up some shoe molding but other than that we are done. Now on to the Dining Room. Hopefully this room won't take very long. Just need to paint and get a rug made. All in all, we LOVE all the changes and are so grateful we had the opportunity to do this. Thanks for your patience, enjoy the pictures....

breakfast nook

new cabinet for breakfast nook

view of kitchen from family room

new canisters my "decorator" found, thanks Debbie, they are perfect :)

view from hallway to family room, Ginger enjoying the fire....

Ginger in front of the fire...she is sooooo happy.....

view from front to to dining room

view from kitchen to dining room

Fun times.....

I know I haven't blogged in quite some time so please forgive me. I will try to do better in '09. I did want to share some fun photos I got of Savannah. She spent the night with Grandmama and I got to feed her dinner. Now mind you, I don't have much on hand to eat these days since all my children are not at home anymore so she got what I did have. Homemade macaroni and cheese and chocolate pudding........yum, yum. Plus, I let her feed herself as she likes to do. She is so much fun and a real joy to my life. Enjoy the pic's.......









p.s. house pictures coming soon.......

Christmas Memories....

Since Jennifer asked for others to share their Christmas memories it started me thinking....What are my Christmas memories? These are from my childhood, they are a little different but yet special to me. I grew up in Miami, Florida and both sets of my grandparents lived in Jacksonville. Every other year we would travel to Jacksonville to spend Christmas with our grandparents and 3 of our cousins. My Nanny (my father's mother) had a SILVER Christmas tree set up in her family room. On the floor was a mechanism that turned a round piece of plastic that was made up of four colors, blue, red, green and yellow. There was bright light that shined through the plastic and it was pointed at the tree. Therefore as the colors rotated through, the tree changed colors. I have often thought how cool that would be to have an updated version of that Christmas tree. My granddaddy (my mother's father) did the traditional tree. As a child it always seemed so big and I can tell you it was perfect. Every light and ornament was hung just so and I always looked forward to seeing "granddaddy's tree". At home I remember my mom baking lots of cookies. We would have batches of Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal (some with no raisins just for me!), Date Bars, Thumbprint cookies and Crescent cookies. She would make up tins of these cookies and share them with the neighbors. But, one of my favorite things my parents would do with us is have a designated night where we would all pile in the car and drive around the neighborhoods and look at the Christmas lights. It was a huge, big deal to put up Christmas lights in Miami. It seemed like we spent hours driving around and seeing all the lights. Then we would go back home for some hot chocolate. Yum! After moving to Georgia my parents started the traditon of having us share what God had done in our lives during the year and we would share this on Christmas Eve. What a special time this is and what a blessing to know that God is at work in all of our lives. Merry Christmas!!!!

Remodeling and Christmas....

One thing I have learned throughout this remodeling experience during the Christmas season is how much I truly love Christmas!!! I somehow didn't think it would bother me not being able to decorate my house or bake all those fun cookies I make at this time of year but I have realized I was wrong. I do miss all of those traditional fun things we have done through out the years even down to hanging the "Griswald" lights on the outside of the house.

But the end is in sight. This week we get cabinets in, the fireplace installed, counter tops, and hopefully plumbing and electrical. Finishing the wood floors will be the very last thing done. I will say that we have been truly blessed in how it has all come together. Although we are tired and ready to have a neat, clean and orderly house, this is our dream and we are grateful to be living it.
floors ripped up, back wall removed (notice how there is not insulation in the outside wall) I guess that is how it was done in 1964.

our future fireplace.......just off the kitchen



wall before opening was cut from front room to dining room


after opening was cut out.....



wood floors, sheet rock on back wall of the house (with insulation underneath :)


this is where our refrigerator and a small cabinet will go



this window is being replace with a solid pane picture window, and it's hard to tell from this picture but the colors are a beige and chocolate