Our Chic Cottage is growing by 2 feet!

Gardener Guy and I are expecting a baby in February and we couldn't be more excited! (Well, I think the Grammas are more excited but don't go there.)

I will post photos of sharing the news with our parents!

This means I will take a maternity leave in the middle of my new Kindergarten job, which I am nervous about but I work with a great staff so I am not worried!

For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him. 1 Samuel 1:27

Baby D love and all of mine!

Family Room Inspiration

Houston, we have inspiration.

Finally.

It has taken me awhile to decide on what inspired me for our Family Room. This room opens to our whole house, so I had to allow for flow between rooms but wanted to define its space as well.

Here is what I have come up:

Color strip, Sign, Coffee table: Pinterest; Sectional: Max Homes; Dresser: KFD Designs; Josette chair, pillows: Pier 1; Ribba frames: IKEA.

As you can see, I am into painted furniture right now. The greens and blues are continuous throughout our house. I'm loving the pops of yellow and red.

Family Room love and all of mine!

Good News and Bad News

Do you want the good news or bad news first?

Ok good news:

I found this inspiration photo on Pinterest that I love for our kitchen.

In this Cottage Kitchen I love:

-the white countertops with the muted cabinets.

-the open shelving with the white and glass dishes on display.

-the white paneling on the ceiling and the crown molding.
-the brushed nickel hardware.

Right now we have Honey Oak cabinets and white countertops.
I bought paint this week, Soft Juniper by Glidden, a subtle jade color for the walls, very similar to that in the picture.

Ok bad new now:

I have been staining our Honey Oak cabinets for the past few weeks to a darker Walnut. Please don't tell Gardener Guy I want to resand, prime, paint and seal all over again.

Just our little secret, ok Punkin?

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And just for giggles, here is my inspiration for our Master:

(photo from Pinterest)

Soft Juniper for two, please!

Cottage Kitchen love and all of mine!

I Guess You Heard

We've moved!

We have been so busy packing up and unpacking and getting settled. Pictures to come, I promise!

For now, enjoy a scene from our Mother's Day Extravaganza last weekend!

New House love and all of mine!

Bienvenidos!

On Friday, we met up with our realtor to let my family have a sneak peek at our new place. It was fun to get Mama and Haley Beth's perspective on decorating and using the space.

So continuing on our inspirational tour, moving past our front porch, welcome to our (use your imagination people!) entry way!

Each inspiration piece was a jumping off piece to the next. In so, I tried to unite the pieces without matching the pieces.

All were Google images except: Pillow-Pier 1. Ribba frames-Ikea. Bowl-Anthropologie.

Front Porch Inspiration

After day dreaming a bit about this little lady a little too much, I've decided to put my thoughts down in Paint. I'd thought I'd give you a virtual inspirational tour starting with our front porch today! Welcome to our casa! From top left. Young House Love exterior paint. Fan, Fern, Wicker set, Black shutters from Home Depot. Red doors found on Google. Inspired love and all of mine!

I'll Put The Ensure On Ice

Today I turned 23. And don't worry, I beat you to it -- I'm putting the Ensure on ice. (King of Queens anyone?) Gardener Guy treated me to pizza after my night class, a night of The Office (until the National Championship comes on).

In other news: I'm saving all my green gifts for this little lady:
A new(ish) Chic Cottage!

We've lived in our current Chic Cottage for almost a year. It's going to be hard to move out of this place and living so close to my parents but it's exciting making plans. Plus, most of my memories are up at the Big House anyway, so they will still be there. And no worries Mama -- I will be in town for Saturday morning coffee!

We are still in the process of closing for this house, so if all goes through, we will be closing and moving in by the end of the month!

Planning love and all of mine!

Spring Break Inspiration

T minus 7 days until we leave port on a Carribbean cruise with the whole Chic family!

Here is my inspiration:

Gardener Guy and I have been working since January (Ok, ok I started 2 weeks ago) working out each night and eating much healthier ( = No pop! No snacks! Lean meat!) with the cruise as our motivator. GG has lost 30 pounds and I have lost a quarter of that.

Pictures are sure to be coming!

Cruising love and all of mine!

Chic Sista

I have a Chic Sista.

Ok 2 actually, 2 Baby Chic Sistas. My Baby Lisa hooked me up with a precious header.

Love it. Love her. Plus, check her out here to see her remixing the bridesmaids dress she wore at my wedding.

Baby Lisa: want to work on a button for me? Of course that means I will need to step up my blogging game.

Chic Sista love and all of mine!

Different Blue Chair

A picture is worth a thousand words. So since there are about 14,000 words, I will limit mine.

Before and "In Progress" Photos of our 1st Love Shack!
Please tell me you can tell the difference between our Befores, and our "In Progress" right? Ok, whew!

By the way, that is different blue recliner. Scout's honor. Even though I wasn't a Scout, I can give you Scout's honor because I ate 2 whole boxes of Girl Scout cookies in January and February. There I go rambling again.



Apparently, microfiber couches do not photograph well. Like they make us look filthy, but they are clean!



Valentine's gifts from Gardener Guy and Daddy!

Sloppy Joes for dinner!




In Progress love and all of mine!

Daddy's Girl

It wasn't until later in life that I heard this story. But boy, that Daddy sure new what he was doing.

My Daddy always sent his girls roses on Valentine's Day, even when we were very young. It was always a treat at school to receive roses, but I never knew why he did that, except that he was a great Daddy. But, Daddy sent us roses so that when we got a boyfriend, and he sent us flowers we wouldn't think it was anything special because our Dad always did that for us. Well, it's kind of ironic that the 1st boy that sent me flowers, married me 7 years later.

"I don't need your flowers, my Daddy sends me them."

And that is why I am a Daddy's Girl. Oh yeah, I love you too Mama!

Valentine's Day love and all of mine!

PS. Yes, I double dipped this year: Daddy and Gardener Guy sent me roses, and yes I love them both.

Papoose

Gardener Guy's cousin and her husband are parents again to a beautiful baby girl. Baby Ava Grace. I just love that name, so now it is off of our baby name list.

Anyway, I have Baby Fever, no not Bieber Fever, Baby Fever thanks to all of these adorable babies in our families and at church.

Gardener Guy says no, but that is neither here nor there.

In my sorority, my "daughter" was my Papoose because she always wore moccasins. I found these on Old Navy, perfect for a real Papoose.

Baby love and all of mine!

Meet Virginia

Ok, well not Virginia.


But, meet Phoebe.
Ferocious, Fiesty, Phoebe Ferrari.

I'm working on uploading a video of Phoebe playing with her cousin Harley who lets her romp and play all that she wants. Her big sister Jasmine, not so much.

Puppy love and all of mine!

Land Lord's Daughter

think: Coal Miner's Daughter. Even Bubby thought that was pretty clever so you should too!

As much as I would try to deny it, I am a Land Lord's Daughter. See this was the diamond in the rough we started with a year ago.
I have primed, painted, and repainted, schlaked and accent painted, primed,and painted a lot in our Love Shack.

This summer, Auntie J helped me paint our Living Room and hallway Tea and Cream. We left two walls Country White until I could decide on an accent color. You know when there is a giant sock pile in the middle of the room and it's horrendous, but after a few days you get used to it so it stays there? You don't? Well that happened many-a times growing up. But that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, I grew to ignore the 2 white walls until the past week. Last week we had a snow day and I worked up the courage to paint it by myself -- Gardener Guy despises painting. What do you know? Paint's frozen. Apparently, you can let it thaw out once. So I took today off for a much needed mental health day. Paint was thawed and ready to go. I used every last drop of the gallon finishing up those two walls and it looks great! I have a little too much tan going on right now so I'm looking for cream colored curtains to go with my Robin's Egg Blue drapes, and to break up the tan on tan action. Wish my legs had too much tan going on, but why go there?

BUT before I could even paint today, I got out my Land Lord's Daughter kit and showed mold who was boss. You see, our furnace went ka-poot. So we installed a wall unit that hooks up to our gas line and heats our house wonderfully. (And I don't have to carry in wood for the wood stove.) The down side to the wall unit is that it puts a lot of moisture in the air. So each week, I take my clorox mix and scrub scrub scrub our baseboards where the moisture collects and grows, well, mold. "BLACK MOLD!!" Just kidding, I'm a good tenant, right Daddy?

So mold is cleaned up for now and paint is drying! I also am working on painting a small shelf in our dining room and searching for inspiration on how to decorate it, without cluttering it. I hate clutter.

Gardener Guy promised me a trip to HomeGoods tonight, it will be my first time and I am hoping to be inspired!

And just to prove to you I bear my title, Land Lord's Daughter, in good nature, here is a picture of the Land Lord with his clean-up crew away from fighting mold.
Yep, my eyes are closed. :)

Land Lord love and all of mine!

Psst. I saw on a blog this week where the grandkids called their Grampa, Coach. How absolutely adorable is that. He's not really a Grand-pappy Papa Poo guy anyway, he's a Coach.

La La Love You

La La Love You.
La La Love This.
It's a play on my name, and I love plays on names.
While I'm at it, I love names too.

Adorable in a nursery right?

I'm a reading and English teacher, so I'm loving this too!

And if I could quilt, I would try one of these on for size.
A pillow might just have to do. I can handle a pillow.
I have been honing in on nurseries around blogland and love those that don't look like they were ordered in one giant set online from a big distributor.

All of these adorable items can be found on Etsy:
SparklePower shop.

La La Love and all of mine!

Psst. No Baby D news. I'm just expanding my decor inspiration.

We're On the Map!

Get a load of this!

We're on the map, minus a small spelling error, but still! How neat is this pillow?

Enter to win one here.

Home town love and all of mine!

Walk By Faith

From the time of my 1st Lola disaster this fall, to my run-in with the deer, literally, and then gabbing about the weather ... I have been very aware lately.

I don't have a tattoo, and have lost interest in pretending I want one, but in college I had thought about it. I wanted to get, Walk by Faith (2 Corinthians 5:7), on the arch of my foot. Over time in college, I continued the walk and forgot about the tattoo.

Lately I have been aware of how God is walking with me. Did I lose you yet?

Last night, I got a call that my meeting in another town was canceled in the morning. I'll be honest, I was bummed. I would have gotten to sleep in an extra hour, an extra hour! I grumbled and groaned and went to work on time. I rescheduled my reading time with my students, who I had previously canceled for the meeting. And in the first 2 minutes of working with my student I realized that God had canceled my meeting for a reason so that we could take a walk.

Without revealing too much on the internet, my student revealed to me some abuse in his home. After talking with my mentor teacher and the student's classroom teacher about his revelations, I contacted our Social Worker. She contacted services and steps are being taken to protect the student and siblings.

My heart broke for the student this morning who was brave enough to open up trust another adult, and I am so aware and thankful of His mercy and compassion. Remember, He is walking with us.

Compassionate love and all of mine!

100th Post

100th post and a snow day!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.


Wishing I was here though.


PS. I started P 90 X workout today and it kicked my patootie. Next time I see the ocean, I will be one happy girl in one smaller dress size.

You Know What He Did?

I love that part. "You know what he did...?"

Warning: Unless you want a conversation with Little Ears about privates parts, you might want to watch with Little Ears out of the room.

Ok, so that was a terrible attention grabber to transition to deep thought, but I love that part, "You know what he did...?"

Enter transition.

Mama and I despise Winter.

Well, see the problem with Winter is that it lasts for so long. Take last year, it started early in October and hung around well into March. Much too long if you ask me. Also, Lola has already begged and pleaded with me to move South, she hates Winter even more than I do! Snow plows, hail storms, 14-point bucks... The Big Guy must know this about us, and He must know that I have been struggling with many parts of my job and I didn't need to worry about commuting all Winter 40 miles in snow and ice one way for 5 months.

"You know what He did?"

He held off Winter ALL THE WAY UNTIL JANUARY! And warmer weather is in sight! I know this is a rare mild Winter and I couldn't be more thankful that it fell this year.

Go ahead, watch that clip one more time. That little boy is too cute not to.

Warm weather love and all of mine!

Young House Love(r)

Do you read Young House Love?

John and Sherry are a husband and wife blogger team that are DIYing their 2nd home. They are fabulous and funny, and their daughter Clara is just a doll baby.

I love their style and have been working on saving design inspiration photos and projects. Here is their Projects Page. Also, they are all about designing on a dime and saving up for splurges -- just what I need to be reading about!

Don't tell Gardener Guy but I have bookmarked the Baby Business tab in their projects. Hehe.

Young House Love and all of mine!

Coveting

Uncle PB Kisses taught class Sunday morning and we talked a lot about coveting.

Coveting (or lack thereof) is easy to explain in Sunday school when you don't want your kids to covet a new bicycle or Barbie or something.

I'm currently battling my coveting of a new job: namely a Kindergarten job for my alma mater. Every morning I drive by and imagine pulling into the parking lot (even though the sun hasn't even come up because I have to leave so stinkin' early in the morning) and unlocking my classroom door to prepare for day with 5 year olds. Thanks to Daddy, I have an overactive imagination that no reality could ever live up to.

Contentment > Covetousness

Wish me luck.

Contentment love and all of mine.