Thank Goodness For Our Mommas!

On Friday we went to Matt's parents for a much needed visit. Katie and Danny were there too:) It's always entertaining watching all three of them fight for Mona's attention. My husband is BY FAR the worst. It's a total crack up. My mom-in-law surprised me with a couple of the best surprises ever!!!

She got me these super-duper adorable measuring cups! I'm so in love with them. I want to get something to hang them above my oven. Anyone know of anywhere that has anything like that? I bet World Market would...

She also got me this plate. Oh, how well she knows me... I don't think there is anything I love more than something that's yellow with a bird on it. Candy to my eyes! So pretty.

Today my Momma came to see us:) I was so glad. I haven't seen her for almost a month. I wish my dad could have came too... We had a great time. She treated us to our favorite Mediterranean restaurant and a movie:) We went to see Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson. We really enjoyed it. It was a good movie. It reminded me of Taken. 

And, of course, we had to take a couple pictures with my baby:)

Yah for Moms! Okay, so maybe I'm only a kitty mommy but it totally still counts!

Rainy Tuesday

There is nothing more cozy than wrapping up in your favorite quilt with a good read and a delicious cup of hot, blackberry tea...

especially when it's raining:)

Knitting a Garden

My January projects are coming along slowly but surely:) I'm working on a couple gifts and also a project for myself. I haven't knitted anything for myself in a long time. I can't tell you what I'm making because I don't want to spoil any surprises, but I thought I'd show you just a little taste! I found the patterns for these roses and leaves in Knitting Over The Edge, which I checked out at the library and fell in love with. It is full of awesome little things to add to whatever you're making to make it extra awesome and beautiful. I think my tiny knitted rose garden is purrrty! I love experimenting with different color combos!

Have a....

relaxing three day weekend!

xoxo,

Ashley

.... & Oilver :)

New Banner!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to get some feedback on my new banner! Is it better than my old one? Should I take off the little pictures and just go with the yarn background? Any criticism would be very much appreciated!

 I'm not to savvy with Photoshop so I had my lovely husband put it together for me. When I was showing him the pictures I wanted and describing to him where I wanted them he said, "Okay, let me sketch out what I think you're saying." And, here is his oh so very accurate sketch....

Hahaha! Rude! :)

Curly Curly

Lately I've been going through a lot of old pictures:) I came across these and they were all just too funny so I had to share!

This is me at about 2 years old. Don't I look ornery? Check out that hair:) Oh, it gets better...

Here is my husband! I think he is about 2 here as well. Could you die? I love this picture sooo much! Oh, the curls...

This is me when I was 4. I love that I have a juice stained mouth:)

And, here is Matty when he was 4:) I want an exact replica of this kid!

And this, believe it or not, is my momma:) Check that afro out!

The moral of the story is: Matt and I come from a long line of crazy hair! As much of a headache I'm sure it will be, I cannot wait to have children with the same crazy, blonde curls:) It will be awhile, but still, I just cannot wait!

Goodnight everyone:)

Loving Even the Little Things

Way back in my first or second semester in college, I had a very wonderful Psychology professor that told us that the key to making a home a very peaceful and happy place is to love everything in it. She said to make sure you love even the littlest things right down to dishes and towels. I never forgot that. Don't get me wrong, as much as I love pretty stuff I'm not crazy materialistic or anything. I definitely know that loving your knick-knacks isn't the key to peace and happiness in your home, but I've always thought that it couldn't hurt:) Anyways, it stuck with me and now I try to only put out things I really love. Most of the things I love the most are gifts from others. They are little tokens of affection from the people I hold dearest, and when I see them they remind me of that person and how it made me feel when I received them. Here are just a few little things I love.

This was our engagement album AND our guestbook for our wedding. Isn't that the coolest idea? It's such a perfect coffee table book. I love looking through it and reading what people wrote.

My mother-in-law gave me these two pretty yellow bowls and this wire basket. I have them all on top of my fridge just because I love the way they look together:) There's nothing quite as happy as yellow stuff full of oranges from your grandma's tree!

I think just about everyone with a flare for vintage or who is over 50 has this somewhere. My grandma and my old roommate both had the exact same one and I always admired them. Before we were even together, when we were just friends, Matt gave this to me for Valentine's Day because he knew how much I would love it.

I know I've already made a post about this floating bookshelf that Matt made, but yesterday Poppytalk had the same ones and they had little yellow cups on them so I put a little yellow cup on our's! See their version below.

I think Matt should make a couple more!

This is one of my absolute favorite things. This was another gift from Matt. It's pretty old; I think from the early 50's. I just love it so much.

This was my great-grandmother's. My Memaw gave it to my mom and my mom recently gave it to me. It's a clock and a lamp and it is so gorgeous. I love it so much and I am so proud of it every time I look at it. Doesn't it totally look like something awesome from Anthropologie?

Both of the above were gifts from my mother-in-law. I love that pretty jewelry box, and doesn't every newlywed couple need a "Do Not Disturb" sign? I think little touches like this are darling.

My momma got me this while we were antique shopping one day and I think I will keep it for the rest of my life. It is so pretty. I love the color of the leaves and obviously I am quite the fan of yellow roses. I think this whole post may prove that I fall in love with just about anything that has flowers and/or yellow on it:)

This is such a cute story:) So while we were engaged Matt and I were out and about when I saw this bracelet in an antique shop. I wanted it really bad but it was really pricey so I decided it would be wasteful. At this particular shop everything in the store is 50% off on Superbowl Sunday so all the women can come spend their husbands' money while they are watching the game:) Clever huh? Of course I was living 2 hours away and had to work the Superbowl night so I had no idea Matt missed some of the game just to go buy this for me. It had been such a long time since we had seen the bracelet so I don't know how he remembered it.... But, that's why I married him! He is so sweet and thoughtful sometimes I can't even believe it. He gave it to me on Valentine's Day last year. I couldn't seem to get a photo that does it justice... It is really beautiful in person:)

And last but not least is our wedding invitation. I looked at hundreds and hundreds and these were the only ones that we both loved. I especially like the love birds:) I think every married couple should have their invitations somewhere in their home. I will always have ours out as a reminder of the excitement of that time in our lives!

What special little things do you love that make where you live home?

My Sleepy Boys

This weekend we drove about six hours combined and went to bed after 3:00am two nights in a row. We had a great weekend but man were we tired today! When we got home Matt and Oliver fell right to sleep. I just had to sneak in and snap a photo to share with you:) They are just too cute...

Hope you are all having a relaxing and happy Sunday:)

xoxo

Dinner and a Movie

Last night Matt and I had a bottle of French wine to go with our Italian dinner:) Matt found this at Nugget Market on sale and I have to say it was one of the best wines I've ever tried. I don't even know if I've ever had an imported wine... It wasn't aged in a barrel so it didn't have the oak taste, just the sweet and tart flavor of the grapes. Delicious. While we finished off the bottle we watched 500 Days of Summer. Have any of you seen it? It was adorable and refreshing. I loved the story, the way it was shot, everything. I appreciated the sort of honest way it ended, a nice touch. Needless to say, it was an enjoyable night. Just my honey, my kitty, a good flick and a good glass of yumminess... Who said Tuesdays had to be lame?

Shopping for Pretty Stuff:)

Earlier today I was giving myself a heavy dose of self-torture by admiring things I can't afford on Anthropologie's website. I decided to ditch the dream and go to Urban Outfitter's website and I was pleasantly surprised to find that presently I'm digging Urban's stuff way more! Hooray! Here are just a few things I found that I'm considering buying. Did you know that their things for your home are really affordable? Well they are!

I already have a really pretty shower curtain but I am obsessed with this one! I have to have it. I'll just save my current shower curtain for that very blessed day when I have more than one bathroom:)

What do you think of this? I thought it was really cute:) I don't really know where I'd put it though...

I want this to hang necklaces on:) It's purrrty! I love minty colors.

I love this pillow. I even love the colors, but they aren't quite right for my home so I want to make one like it. Has anyone seen a pattern for something like this? If so can you please tell me where I could find it? Thank you!

Okay, so Matt and I have been planning on buying a new bed ever since we got married. We found this great one that we love but we can only fit a queen into our apartment and I'd rather buy a king if we are going to buy a bed... I thought a great alternative until we have a bigger place would be to just get a frame and then buy a pretty headboard like this one, which would end up costing half of what we would spend on a new bed! I love this headboard. We could probably even make a cool one similar to it. Does anyone else think this is a good or bad idea? The only reason I have reservations about it is because one, I hate bed-skirts, and two, bed frames can make an already uncomfortable mattress even worse.... Any thoughts to help me out?

Pillow Talk

The other night Matt and I cleaned out our hall closet, which was completely filled to the ceiling with boxes and tons of junk. We had to make room for more junk so we got rid of a bunch of it and consolidated boxes. I found so many treasures in there that I didn't know I even had. I had a box of awesome fabric that I had completely forgot about! I decided to makeover two existing throw pillows and make one brand new pillow:) I love pillows because they add so much to a room and they're so easy to make!

I covered a throw pillow that I already had on my couch with this new pillow cover I made. Aren't these fabrics to die for?! I'm so excited I found them! I think I might make a purse out of the scraps from these two fabrics as well. Ahh, I love you yellow...

I got this pillow at Target a while back. I liked the neutral color and the cool detail. I have, until now, been trying to keep our bedroom nice and plain and ungirlie. Matt said he doesn't care how girlie the house or our bedroom is so I've decided I'm girling it up all the way!

I got out a vintage doily and some old lace scraps that my grandma gave me and just super glued them on with my new awesome glue gun Mona got me for Christmas. It looks a hundred times better.

I made this one to add some color to the mix!

I was going to applique these little birds I cut out of one of Matt's t-shirts he never wears, but they didn't look right... I'm really terrible at applique. After I cut the birds off Matt said he thought the shirt looked better and he put it on for the day... It was really sexy:) See for yourself...

Before...

And after! Better right?

And to end today's post I'd like to show you some new photos of my baby cat:)

I took this of him last night while I was sewing the pillows. He stared at me like this the whole time I worked. He cracks me up with his cute little curious face:) He loves to watch his momma!