Crafts + Party Time!

On Friday I talked about all my crafting plans for Shelley's baby shower. Well the day of her shower finally arrived and my house was ready to celebrate the glowing momma!

Here are the glitter lanterns along with the drinks table! They were battery operated so they twinkled during the party.

We served a cranberry + lime punch, water, and hot chocolate to go along with our winter food themed menu. We had Bailey's, Vanilla Vodka or Rum if guest wanted to spice up their hot chocolate. Bailey's and hot chocolate, yummmmm.

Here is the mantle with my moss initial. I used a variety of silver candle holders, white tappered candles, votive candles, and magnolia leaves. Pretty simple but I was thrilled with the results. The moss initial added much needed texture and another shade of green. The color scheme for the party was blue, white, and silver so I stuck with blue, white, and grey onesies.

Momma-to-be with one of her friends.

I also made some white and silver tissue pom-poms. I learned a few pom-poms lessons haha

1. Do NOT use target brand tissue paper. Too thin.
2. Michael's tissue paper works perfectly.
3. Make sure you buy tissue paper that is all the same size. Cutting tissue paper down to size is not easy.

What crafting have you done for baby showers or bridal showers?

xoxo,

Southern Gal

DIY Nightstand

This little baby has been a TV stand for the past few years. However, I've done some rearranging and decided to use the table as a nightstand on the guest side. Originally, this was a wood color. A few years ago I spray painted it black. Along with the rearranging, I wanted more color in my bedroom.

Starting....

Priming...

More priming...

Ta-da!! Cranberry nightstand...

The project took longer than I planned. I had to use two coats of primer and then three coats of paint. I still need to paint my other nightstand so they can be a matching pair. My painting schedule kept getting interrupted due to weather so I finally brought everything inside and painted in my kitchen ha. I kept having visions of cranberry paw prints appearing across my kitchen floor but thank you baby Jesus for not letting that happen.

Happy Crafting!

Southern Gal

2 Month Catch-up?! Ack!

SORRY!

Major blog fail. I am so mad at myself for letting so much time pass with no new post. I've taken pictures along the way with every intention of posting.

Let's pick up where I left off!

My first roast! Christmas Supper Club, December 2011

Here is our Christmas Supper Club spread! It was a potluck and since I did the main dish and everyone else brought the trimmings.

On Christmas Eve I made a tiramisu pie. It was AMAZING! (yes, I'm bragging ha)

Christmas and New Year's were perfect. (that's a whole separate post)

So hello 2012 and happy birthday to JB!

We did a brewery tour. Fun times! The Bull City is really talented with hops.

January continued to fly by with Alice in Wonderland at my Alma Mater. Once every college generation, the staff and professors perform this tradition for the students. Family, friends, and alumna can attend the dress rehearsal. Prior to the show, the college hosted a tea party.

Sugar Megnolia and I picked up these playing card cookies. We choose 6 from the deck because we are from the class of 2006. We are so clever!

Alice in Wonderland memorabilia the college has collected through the years.

Curtain!

"You're nothing but a pack of cards!" -Alice

Whew, I hope I didn't bore you with lots of photos and few stories. I've got a couple more posts lined up. I promise to be back tomorrow with some DIY posts!

*muah*

S.O.S.

Working on that DIY List

I promised myself that I would learn more about Blogger and look what I've done! I just figured out how to post pictures side-by-side AND centered! YAY me....I know, its the little things in life that you need to remember to celebrate. I think this is the first time that my HTML class from college finally helped me!....Obviously it didn't work! What am I doing wrong? Can anyone help a gal out?!

Personal Photos

So the adorable little one in the pictures above is my nephew. He is a hot mess that I love to pieces! He is so much fun and is ready to take on the world. We picked up some Christmas trees on Friday morning and he was ready to haul them back home for us with his Daddy. Needless to say he was not a happy camper when we took him out of the truck and strapped him into his car seat in Mommy's car.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is over for another year. This year I collected pecans from my yard (yay for pecan trees!), shelled them and made chocolate pecan pie. Its amazing how much money I saved as well as how much better the pie was with fresh pecans. The pie wasn't even around long enough for me to snap a photo! My sister-in-law and my mom have requested this pie for Christmas!

I've got a couple more DIY projects coming for the holidays! Today I collected sticks for my next project.....you'll have to stick around to see why!

Sweet Dreams,

Southern Gal

Transitioning

Hello Blog World!

I hope everyone is staying warm and dry on this chilly, damp November evening. So this is a new blog for me. I'm transitioning from an old blog so I can start fresh. I feel that a fresh start, look, and title, will empower me to make a true commitment to blogging.

If you clicked back to my old blog, you'll see that I've got a BIG list of DIY and goals. I have been working on several projects but it's too soon to share pictures. The weather has not been cooperating and I'm on the verge of taping off my kitchen and doing some projects inside. I keep hoping we'll have an Indian summer so I can get a little bit more work done outside before the chill sets in for the winter.

In other news, I spent yesterday evening and this evening at Junior League's A Shopping SPREE!

Sir Walter Raleigh is dressed for the occasion!

personal photo

If you don't know anything about SPREE! then let me take a moment to share the wonders of this once a year shopping event. So the Junior League hosts this big holiday market at the convention center for 4 days. Its overwhelming, with all its glitter, music, fun product, and interesting finds. There must be 200 vendor selling their wares. You can find everything from shoes, food, furniture, art, holiday decorations, beauty products, clothes, everything, and I mean everything there.

SPREE! has become a tradition for me and my old roommate. We always go Thursday and Friday evenings after work. Last year my mom started showing interest in going so she comes to town for the day over the weekend to enjoy my company (obviously!) and the capital city. This year she'll be here on Sunday since I have a wedding on Saturday to attend.

Speaking of weddings, I should head to bed for some beauty rest. Maybe I'll meet my future husband tomorrow night across the reception dance floor, and bags under my eyes would be devastating! A girl can dream....

xoxo,

S.O.S.

A Little of This, A Little of That

I bet you're wondering if I was able to walk on Thursday following my Pure Barre work out. Well Thursday I woke up feeling pretty good. I was much better than I expected until I was going to bed on Thursday night. Finally, I felt some major ab soreness creep in. I had a hard time sitting back up to turn the light off after reading. At least its the good kinda soreness! I still need to research an adult ballet classes. I promise I will do that this weekend!

Alright, so I have a couple things to add to my DIY wish list!

• Glitter lanterns- I'm gonna use blue glitter instead and have them as part of the decor for a baby shower that I'm co-hosting in a few months. I cannot wait to try this project!! It will be a few months before I can do it, don't want the glitter to dull before the shower, but nonetheless I'm really excited about it!

Adorable blog photo credit

• Make more time to bake/cook. I have tons of recipes that I want to try. I get Southern Living magazine and Our State magazine and both give me such inspiration each month to cook or bake but guess what?! I never make the time to try all these recipes. Also, I have a co-worker who brings the most delicious leftovers everyday and she is sweet enough to share all her recipes and tips with me. In 3 1/2 years I have never made one of her recipes. But have no fear!! I'm making her mac and cheese on Thanksgiving this year! My SIL and I already planned out Turkey Day menu and mac and cheese is on my list.

Who wants to be my taste testers?!

From Southern Living- cake, grits

• Figure out blogspot. I do not like that fact that I don't know how to put photos side-by-side. Sometimes a blog calls for that instead of this vertical layout. How do I change it? I like visual interest and I like knowing how to make things happen. Right now I am not pleased on either front.
• And finally, I can't decided if I want to tie-dye onesies or if I want varying shades of onesies to hang on the clothesline decoration. Below is my inspiration. I like how its simple, clean, sophisicated. But I'm not sure how to replicate it. On the other hand, blue and white tie-dyed onesies would be fun, energy, and 100% rough and tumble boy. If you haven't put 2 and 2 together, the babyshower is for a baby boy. What are your thoughts on these onesies?

Stay tuned...

Lift....Tone...Burn

I tried a ballet class tonight!! And, wow Pure Barre kicked my tail. We started immediately with push-ups, leg lifts, and planking. Balls, hand weights and bands were all involved, along with tucking hips and working muscles against each other. It was a major core workout and I was sweating like a pig on a stick within minutes of the class starting. The whole ordeal was 55 minutes long. Oddly, the 55 minutes flew by, thank you baby jesus; but the 30 second intervals were slooooow AND painful. Cheers to being able to walk tomorrow!!

Photo Credit

I do want to go again but it wasn't ballet enough for me. It was lots of muscle toning which I do need; however, I was hoping for a few more battements, jetes, or piques. Secretly I was hoping we would do some barre exercises, then maybe a combination across the floor, add in a few arabesques, a port de bras here and there then call it a day. (Sorry, I don't know how to do the accent mark.)

I ended up choosing this class thanks to trusty old, facebook. But it was like I was meant to take this class tonight since I had just blogged about it. While I was Elkin for the wedding, I saw on fb that a friend wanted to try the class and was looking for some friends to join her. I jumped on the opportunity to have some moral support while returning to the ballet barre after 10 years! I think we're going back next week. Thanks ERob!

Look at me! Blogging AND ballet in one night. I wonder what else the week has in store. Maybe a date?!?! Probably not, but this forever-bridesmaid still has hope.

I'll be back later to blog about the state fair and other DIY projects that I've decided to add to my list.