Thursday, June 27, 2013

Thoughtful Thursday

The husband lost his grandfather yesterday.


Dan McCarty
June 17, 1915 - June 26, 2013

I met PawPaw when he was a spry young man of 93 and from the moment I met him I loved him.  I must have made a small impression on him as well; he never once forgot my name...even during the time I was just the girlfriend.


He was an active country boy whose hobbies included feeding the squirrels and taking his great grandchildren for rides in the wagon behind his John Deere.


He was a hard working man who will be missed by his family.

Rest in peace PawPaw.  We love you.


Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Patriotic Mantel

I have seen lots of awesome patriotic decor ideas on Pinterest lately.  It was my inspiration to begin my patriotic mantel and and to create this picture to add to it.


This piece was the finishing touch to my mantel.


I love it and I will keep it up the remainder of the summer.  I feel like the summer with Memorial Day, Labor Day, and the 4th of July is a patriotic time of the year.

The pieces on the mantel break down like this:

The larger stars I picked up at Michael's for $3.99 each.


The birdhouse also came from Michael's and it was $4.99.


The picture frame on the left I picked up a while back on sale at Hobby Lobby to frame this picture of the husband receiving a letter of commendations while he was in the Navy.



I thought it fit right in on this mantel.

The frame I painted for the print I made I picked up at Wal-Mart for three bucks.  It looked like this when I brought it home.


Much better.


One more look..


Enjoy your day!!



Linking Up:





ThePinJunkie

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Weekly Finds

I was looking for a place to get some fantastic prints and my BFF (who also happens to be a photographer) recommended mpix.com.  She is one smart lady.

I really wanted a place to order my favorite wedding picture in a pretty large size for our home.  I figured before I committed to the price of a very large picture, I might as well see what they could do with some small pictures. Behold new office art.

Vacation photos: Venice, Pisa, Arizona

I love them.  They are printed on canvas.  mpix calls these gallery wraps and I think they are fantastic!


They make my office a very happy place.


I was so impressed and in love with the quality of their work that I ordered my wedding print.


The husband and I have been married for almost five years and I have been wanting this for that long.  I love this picture from our special day.


Yay.  If you are in the market, check out mpix.  Their shipping time is also VERY impressive.



Have you made any lovely finds this week?




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Monday, June 24, 2013

Weekend Recap

Hello friends!  I had a fun and creative weekend.  I almost don't know where to start.

I picked up a three dollar frame at Wal-Mart...


...that I turned into this.


This was the last piece I needed to finish my patriotic mantel.  I love it.  If you're interested in seeing the full mantel, come visit me on Wednesday, I'll be revealing the it then.

I finished sorting through pictures that I found hidden in the garage when we cleaned out a couple of weeks ago.  I came across this treasure.


This is a picture of my dad and my sister circa 1970.  I had never seen this picture before.  Love.

Sunday we had an impromptu barbecue and look at my cutest guests!


My nephew and niece joined us for an indoor picnic.  Indoor picnics rock in Houston in the summer time.

This little beauty...


...made this beautiful work of art on my new pantry door chalkboard.


I knew my favorite kiddos would love this.  I scored super aunt points.

This beauty also arrived over the weekend.


I had been wanting to order something like this for almost 5 years and I finally did it!  More details on where I picked it up and some other items in my Weekly Finds post tomorrow.

I hope you had a fantastic weekend!!!  Enjoy your week.



Linking Up:


still being [molly]


Keeping It Simple


Friday, June 21, 2013

Insta-Friday

Wow, this week has been crazy.  I am happy it is Friday even though it is a busy one.  Let's review!

I have the house decked out in stars and stripes for the summer and I am loving it.


I need to finish one last thing for my mantel and then I will feature it on the blog.

My sister posted this great picture of my dad on Facebook from her wedding.  Sunday was Father's Day so I have been thinking about my dad a lot this week.  


I still miss him everyday...I'm such a daddy's girl.  :)  Love you Dad!

I finished my chalkboard pantry door and I love it!! 


My grocery list has never been cuter.  I can't wait for my nieces to see it next week.  They will have fun with it.

The husband and I have been riding our bikes in the evening and one night it rained on us.  It was fun to ride in the rain.


We weren't dancing, but we were living.  :)

Sammy is always very happy it's Friday...look at that smile.


Have a fantastic weekend!!!!



Linking Up:

life rearranged

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Florence Recap


Florence was beautiful.  The city, the art, the food.  The David alone is life changing.


Okay, this is not the marble David, but I was not allowed to take pictures of him.  This one is a copper replica.  Here is the marble.

(source)

This one is life changing and was by far the most amazing piece of art I saw in Florence.  The detail in this statue is insane.  He has veins in his hands, arms and feet.  It is breath taking.  The David is located in the Galleria dell'Accademia and he is waiting around the first corner you turn.  When you go into the museum there is a large room with paintings which we spent some time in and then you exit into a long corridor room.  The space is massive, because, honestly the David is massive.  He is 17 feet tall and is standing on top of a tall pedestal (which he deserves).  When you enter the second room you are at the opposite end from the David.  Once you turn your head and realize he is there, there is nothing you can do besides stop in your tracks and stare in awe.  It is that amazing.  There are no words.

Since there are no words, I will transition to telling you about all three museums we visited in Florence.  All of them have amazing art work.  We visited Academia, Uffizi and the Bargello.  As I mentioned the Academia houses the David.  The husband and I kind of felt a little sad for all the other art that is displayed there.  We spent about 3 hours in the museum and most of that time we spent circling the David and viewing it from different angles.  Life. Changing.

The Uffizi houses some of the most amazing paintings in the world.  Including Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.

(source)

The Bargello has amazing sculptures.  Most of which are carved from marble.  All are mind blowing when you think about how they started as massive pieces of rock.

Like I stressed in my Venice Recap post, I HIGHLY recommend that when you are visiting places like these you buy your tickets online in advance.  The husband is a planner, and I love him for that.  We arrived in Italy with tickets for all these places in hand (or at least paid reservation slips that we exchanged for tickets).  Doing this saves SO MUCH time.  The lines for these museums were blocks and blocks long.  We were able to pass those lines right up.  Take some time for the planning before you go.  You will not be sorry.

On to the city.  Oh, the city.


Hello Gorgeous.


I miss you.


The Arno River flows through the city and it is beautiful.
 

The day we visited the Academia we walked back from the museum to our hotel over the course of the afternoon.  The museum was not close to the hotel, but it was a great way to see the city.  We ate at the restaurant on the right under the green awning over the river. Fantastic view!


 We saw lots of town squares with beautiful buildings and churches.



These newlyweds were very popular on the river.


Our most amazing dining experience, for so many reasons was at Il Santo Bevitore.  For one the food was amazing.


Second, one of my college roommates grew up in Florence and her friend owns and runs this amazing restaurant.  I highly recommend it...call them, you will need reservations.

(source)

The service was amazing and we were seated outside on this cute patio.  We chatted with the other couple that was out there and they were very nice.  It was a lovely evening.


And finally, our hotel.  The Hotel David.  I cannot not say enough good things about this hotel.  It is no wonder it is number one on TripAdvisor.


The hotel is precious, the staff is wonderful, the price is great, breakfast is included, and they have happy hour on the patio each evening.  If that was not enough...they welcome you with a hand written note and tiny cake in your room...


...there is a pretty well stocked fridge and snack bar in your room that is complimentary and they have an honor bar downstairs.  When it is not happy hour you can make the drink of your choice and just write it down.  This was definitely tied with one other hotel as my favorite from our trip.  I loved it.  The extra bonus surprise?  A washer dryer...that's right, we left Florence the half way point in our journey with a suitcase full of clean clothes.  Thank you Hotel David.  We enjoyed our stay.

Selfie at the Uffizi.



Ah, Florence.



Have a great day!!