Brian's SMU Quilt

My mother makes phenomenal quilts! The more she makes, the more requests she gets. Matt has a Packer's quilt; Mark, Nathan and Shelby have LSU quilts; Amy has a quilt with all of her favorite shades of purple; she is making me a Fleur de Lis quilt; Randy has gotten a Saint's quilt (just to name a few) - and most recently Brian got an SMU quilt. 

It was hard to not steal this from him!

Wake Up & Be Awesome

Matt made this for me and it is proudly hanging in our guest room!

XOXO

I kept the Valentine Day cards simple this year and all 8 for just about $5 - including postage!

Pack of 8 for $1 - Target Dollar Section - Holla!

I love matching stamps to the cards inside!

Another Target $1 section success!

And now Matt and I are off to enjoy the evening with a homemade surf n' turf dinner watching our new favorite show Elementary!

Our Kitchen Table Got A Makeover

A few nights ago I put (most of) my ideas for "Project Lundeland" into a powerpoint presentation and sent it to Matt. What is Project Lundeland? It is my plan for putting some of my design ideas into action. I will do a separate post later on the powerpoint presentation in its entirety, but for now here is a snapshot of my first project - the kitchen table. 

We typically have some type of table runner that runs across our little kitchen table. Actually, let me back up to the history of this table. My old roommate Heather (and her old roommate before me) bought it for $75 on Craigslist. When Heather moved to Denver and Matt and I got married, she let us keep it. The table was originally blond wood, which we kept that way for the first year. When we moved into our house Matt stained it a darker wood - which I love. In fact, I am thinking we might even go darker (Matt made the mistake of telling me that was possible). So with the dark wood we usually had lighter table runners on it - with vases and fresh flowers, or a tray with tea sets, etc. I have been wanting to make it look a bit more "elegant/grown up/you know...better/newer/etc (haha)" so with Christmas money from Fred and Karen we bought two new end chairs I have been looking at (on sale) to help give it a different look. 

As far as decorating goes - I am really into that whole rustic, modern, clean, barnyard-sheek (is that even how you spell that word?) look, so that is what I was going for with the pictures below. Total cost outside of the chairs: Burlap and lace ($6.43), mason jars (already had them), sand and candles (gift card from Pier 1). I am IN.LOVE. 

The finished project! I am so happy to use the table runner that Carla and Antonio gave us as a wedding present! It is perfect with the burlap!

The Holiday Dinner Table

This year we spent Christmas in Wisconsin with Matt's family - but before we went, we had the opportunity to have some friends over for dinner. I just LOVE setting a holiday-themed table! This year I kept it simple, using mostly stuff we already had - and thought it turned out great!

Burlap ribbon ($2.99 from Michaels), Ornaments ($0.99 for two tubes), gold ribbon (had on hand) = easy, cute and budget friendly!

The finished product!

Mason jars for water glasses as well as another set wrapped with burlap ribbon for candle holders; wrapped empty boxes in Christmas wrapping paper to set the pizzas on; various tea light candles; placemats my mom made for us!

Matt's yummy, gourmet pizza (Italian sausage, fresh mozz & brocolli rab)! We went with gourmet pizzas / rustic theme!

I'd Like to be an Artist!

I love art. I love looking at it and I love making it! One of my clients had the most captivating picture in their office. The first few times I was there I just couldn't take my eyes off of it. For some reason, the painting just spoke to me. So one day, like a creeper, I snuck a picture of it. Why? Because I wanted to use it as inspriation for a painting of my own. So a few Saturday's ago I watched about an entire season of White Collar and just painted. So relaxing!

Isn't this just the most amazing painting...I have no idea why but I absolutely LOVE IT!

My version :) It just makes you realize how talented true artists are!!!

The Back-to-back Holidays

It is so fun to get three holidays in a row...Valentines, Mardi Gras & St. Patrick's Day. I don't typically go all out with holiday decor for these "Tier 2" (and I mean that in the most enduring way) holidays...but I do make sure to recognize them. 

Valentine's Day - well we had our second annual V-day party. This year was the wine tasting, per last month's blog post. We also had a few cute decorations up...quality not quantify....including the homemade wreath, the V-day menu and the cute $1 mailbox with fake valentines coming out of it! Last year we made Valentine cards for our family via Shutterfly - but this year I kept it (cheap and) simple!

Mardi Gras - While I did not get to attend in person the celebrations I ate basically an entire King Cake myself and displayed some of our favorite beads from Bacchus!

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Instagram is so fun! Are you all aware of Postagram! Check it out!!!

St. Patty's Day - I still have the beads up (just because) and this year, courtesy of the dollar store, made a $4 wreath for the front door! Nothing fancy, and yes, this was made PRIOR to my lenten commitments!!!