Purge

One of the not-so-exciting parts of moving in with my new husband was consolidating our possessions.  I don't think that either of us was as diligent about purging as we should have been.  Now all of our stuff and both of us are here in the same place, and apparently we have boxes of things that we don't need. 

This lead me to wonder why it's so hard to let go of some physical possessions.  My boxes of books were heavy!  I'm quite positive that I'm not going to reread the Carlos Fuentes that I've been toting around since my freshman year of college.  However, every time I see that book it reminds me of one of the best summers of my life, the summer that I studied abroad in Mexico.  I just can't bear to part with it or many of my other books from college.

Then there are the things I can't imagine why I'm holding onto, like the box of Disney VHS cassettes.  Yes, I said VHS cassettes.  I think at one time I thought they would be collectible.  They're collectible, alright - collecting lots of dust.  I registered for a Craigslist account about 2 weeks ago.  Why haven't they been listed for sale yet?  I really don't have a good answer for that.

El Cheapo Florist

For whatever reason, I feel that if I'm having people over then I have to have some fresh flowers.  I wish I could afford to have fresh flowers every day, but unfortunately I did not hit the Lotto last week.  Flowers are expensive (I should know, I just bought a bunch for the wedding - the biggest expense after catering). 

Borrowing some wisdom from one of my mom's best friends, I have found that you can stretch a dollar by foraging for items in your own back yard to add to your bouquets.  At my last get together, I bought bunches of sunflowers and daisies from a local florist that sells them for $5 a bunch.  I cut some ferns from the yard to add to the daisies.  To augment the sunflowers, I gathered some dried lily pods from the pond and some magnolia branches and made a really nice arrangement.

I spent $10 and ended up with 3 arrangements and one flower for a small bud vase.  At that price, maybe I can afford to have flowers around more often.
 

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

At the urging of various family members, my husband and I hosted an open house at our new home last weekend.  I didn't set out to have a theme, but when we stumbled on some Wizard of Oz invitations at Hallmark, a theme was born.

I really forgot how much I love that movie, and having a theme really spurred my creativity.  I crawled the net searching for ideas, and borrowed some from different blogs that I checked out.  Check out some of my photos:

Due to sorry picture quality, you probably can't read the sign, "Ding Dong the Witch is dead!".

We're still eating lollipops :). 

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Donated Bar Stool Refashion

I've really been amazed at the generosity of our friends and family as Lucas and I have started our lives together.  As he was building our house, people cheerfully volunteered their time and expertise.  After the house was completed, friends and family came through again with all kinds of odds and ends for our house. 

Just before the wedding, our officiant came out to our house to meet with us before the wedding and was forced to sit on a stool too short for our tall bar.  He told us he thought he had some stools that he wasn't using and would be glad to let us have, and they were perfect.  No more standing up and eating meals!  A huge thank you goes out to the Motes family.

To make our new stools stand out, I decided to cover the seat cushions.  I visited Ely's Fabric Warehouse in Mobile, AL to find the right fabric.  With football season coming up, it was hard to pass up a fabric that made me think of one of my favorite teams, the NO Saints.  After a mere $13 for the yard of fabric, I was well on my way to a barstool refashion.  Here's how it went down.

Before

I cut the fabric to be close to the size of the cushion.

Then, pulling the fabric very tight across the cushion, I stapled it to the underside of the cushion with a small stapler that I picked up at Wal-Mart.

Voila!  After

Lucas gets points for the assist - he detached and attached the cushions from the stools.  Teamwork!

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again

I attempted a wedding blog, but unfortunately I wasn't able to devote as much time as I'd like to My Itty Bitty Southern Wedding.  Since then I've gotten hitched, and hopefully I'll have some more time on my hands to share some of my favorite things with the whole wide web. 

Posts to come:
- Donated Chair Refashion
- Follow the Yellow Brick Road to an Open House
- Teacup baby shower

I'm also open to suggestion.  I hope that you'll let me know what you think.