Fallen

I've fallen in love many times... always with you.

Happy Valentines Day

to my wonderful husband with whom I am fortunate enough to share my life.

I am one very blessed woman,

Gone to Seed

A lot of things have changed here in the last three months. We started the spring by planting a few annuals, hanging Boston ferns across our back porch, carefully weeding the gardens each week, and setting out herbs and a variety of vegetable plants. Everything was flourishing until May 15th. Since we brought our Baby Boy home, every moment has been dedicated to him and his care. Watering the flowers became something we thought about doing about once a week (on a good week), and I still haven't staked the tomato plants. As the old saying goes, everything has "gone to seed" -- quite literally when it comes to our property.

As the baby's schedule becomes more regulated and DH and I have caught up on some sleep, we realize that we are going to have to learn how to juggle household responsibilities with caring for our new baby. Is there a course we can take? A book we can read? A consultant we can hire? Surely other parents have experienced this same feeling of overwhelming responsibility and feeling as though they'll never get caught up on household chores again! If anyone has the answer to this dilemma, please let us know!  I'll be trying to get in a load of laundry in between the diaper changes and feedings.  :-)

Loving every moment of motherhood (even the crazy ones),

Conquering the Stuff

I hate that I have not had the opportunity to post for a week or so, but it has been for a very good reason. With the remodel finished on our master closet and art studio, we have been putting our house back together! This has meant a lot of deep cleaning and sorting and laundering and organizing. We had a great weekend and felt that we were making some progress until we opened the door to our guest bedroom and realized that we had another room full of MORE stuff. Neither of us has any idea how we accumulated so much stuff or how we had it ALL stored in our house. Looking at it now, that does not seem logically possible!

We are giving ourselves two more weekends to conquer "the stuff." What we have not found permanent homes for by then is going in the yard sale or to Good Will. We can DO this. We CAN do this. We can do THIS!

Wish us luck! ;-)

Inventing the Perfect Closet

My husband and I recently closed our historic Bed and Breakfast. The two of us had, until that point, shared a walk-in closet just off of our "innkeeper's suite." While it is a fairly good size walk-in closet, over the four years we have been married, it seems to have shrunk. After closing the B&B, we have been able to live in our entire house for the first time! That means that we have inherited a lot of extra storage space that we could never utilize before (our guests probably would not have appreciated their guestroom closets stuffed full of our personal junk!). We have been finding new homes for a lot of our "stuff," and have loved every moment of it.

When we moved our bedroom to one of our former guest rooms, we took one look at the teeny tiny closet and immediately knew it would never work. Historic homes, as you know, are not known for their abundant closet space, and I think I would be hard pressed to get my shoes in that closet, let alone my clothes, and pocketbooks and scarves and ..... (you get the idea). We finally decided to take one of the extra rooms upstairs and build a master closet. Needless to say, I am overjoyed about this! The room we have chosen is quite quaint with sloping ceilings and tons of character, but we are limited as to how far up we can hang clothes racks. I think we have come up with a fairly good solution, though, and it forced us to be a little creative with our space. I think we are going to like it!

The workers came today to begin the process. I had my sketches roughly drawn. Of course, they were not to scale. The guys began asking me questions like, "How deep do you want those shelves?" To which I replied, "Deep enough to get my shoes on them?...." and "enough height that my pocketbooks will stand up?...." Blank stares. I think in the end they understood me, though. I hope. I guess I will find out soon enough. As I was leaving them to go to work, I told them not to talk about my drawings or the way I measured the shelves after I was gone. I know they did. :-)

Anyway, this newest venture has had me considering all the possibilities this new closet will hold, and I have to say I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! I have stolen ....I mean, borrowed...a few ideas from celebrities' closets and closet sites and decorating sites and mixed them all together into something that would fit my own needs...and our room dimensions. I found so much inspiration, and below are a few that I really love.

My favorite closet designs came from Closet Tailors. Their design styles and material options are extensive. As you will see in the next five photos, their closets are to die for!

The closet below is from Affordable Closet Systems. Love it, love it, love it!

What do you think about this cutesy closet from Decorology. Isn't it adorable?! The colors are amazing and fun!

And this one, also from Decorology's blog, is Paris Hilton's closet. Isn't that the most amazing closet you have ever seen?! Check out the chandelier!
My closet may not be as flashy as Paris' or as cute or as organized as any of those above, but I do believe it will be a wonderful space! I can't wait to post the before and after photos and will do that soon!

Blessings,

Change is in the air

I didn't realize that switching a few rooms around at our house would cause as much chaos as the day I moved into our home upon my marriage to Dear Husband. This past weekend, after an hour into our bedroom move from the ground floor of the house to the second floor and the den from the second floor to the ground floor, I knew I had underestimated the would-be mess and the time it would take me to get things back into order! I am a firm believer that a move on this scale is a good thing every four or five years, as I have learned that this may be the only way that I will agree to purge items that have outstayed their welcome. I accomplished a dramatic reduction in the number of clothes that I have...some that I had not worn in over three years! Why am I so reluctant to get rid of things?! I can be such a pack rat, and Dear Husband and I have agreed that we need to switch things up a little bit every few years just to force us to reduce our "inventory." What a concept!

For now, I will spend the next several weeks recovering from this move, but I find the prospect of a new routine in a new space a little exciting (I know, it doesn't take much to excite me these days). We will be building a new walk-in closet within the next couple of months, and I am enjoying planning the layout and flow of it and the adjoining art studio/work room. The changes taking place are exciting and give us something to look forward to...if we can only survive the decluttering stage!

Photo borrowed from http://www.alamo.edu/

The Last Time...

This special post is for my husband, the Auburn fan, from your loving wife, the Kentucky fan.

The LAST TIME, Kentucky beat Auburn in football:

Lyndon B. Johnson was president of the United States.

Mod Fashion was all the rage, and Twiggy was dubbed "The Face of Fashion."

Gasoline was .32 cents per gallon.

Simon & Garfunkel had just released their new song, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

The average annual income in the U.S. was $6,900.

The best selling car in America was the Chevrolet Impala.

Star Trek had just appeared on television for the first time.

Disposable diapers had JUST been invented.

A Man for All Seasons won the Academy Award for best film.

AND

I would not be born for another 8 months.

So...Kentucky "finally fielded a team!"

'Bout time, eh?

I think this is the beginning of a new tradition!

GO BIG BLUE!!!

Two Branches of One Tree

Grow old along with me
Two branches of one tree
Face the setting sun
When the day is done
God bless our love
God bless our love

Grow old along with me
Whatever fate decrees
We will see it through
For our love is true
God bless our love
God bless our love

Happy fourth anniversary, my Dear Husband.

Every moment of this journey with you is a blessing and a true gift, and I love you with all that I am or ever hope to be.

Couple photo courtesy of richerresourcespublications.com.

Lyrics from Grow Old with Me by John Lennon

Top Ten Moments of 2006

(Posted by Paula)

As we begin a new year full of new possibilities and adventures, we looked back at 2006 fondly, our first year of marriage, and chose some of the most special and memorable moments. We promised each other not to choose any political moments (so that means I couldn't add the Democrats winning majority) and Michael couldn't mention any "W" moments. So, here, in true Letterman fashion, is our Top Ten List.

Top Ten Moments of 2006...

10. Our Weekend in Franklin, Tennessee - (okay, this is more than a moment, but bear with us), seeing old friends, attending a play and cooking class, seeing the spectacular historic homes and staying at the Old Marshall House Bed & Breakfast.

9. Taylor Hicks Wins American Idol - Let me just say before I type any further that this is definitely a Michael and Suzanne moment...not a Paula moment. I was pulling for Chris Daughtry!

8. The End of Saddam - Okay, perhaps only one political moment that we both can agree on! 'Nuff Said.

7. Auburn Beats Florida in Football - This was a Michael and Ricky moment, as they were at the game. Michael called me from the stadium at the end of the game so I could experience the roar of the crowd. I'm sure I didn't get the same effect as Michael and Ricky and the other Auburn fans, but it was still pretty impressive over the cell phone!

6. Kentucky wins the Music City Bowl - Okay, this is higher on the list than the Auburn game only because I'm the one who is typing the entry tonight! :-) UK really stuck it to Clemson, and it was especially nice for me, as I was able to see one of my former Robinson Scholars, Durrell White, play in his last college football game. Michael and I were fortunate to get to spend the day with my brother, Todd, my dad Jay, and Michael's college buddy Darrin. GO CATS! (Ask Michael about getting kicked out of the VIP seats...and spending the second half of the game with the Clemson band!)

5. First Anniversary at Falls Creek Falls State Park - It was hard to believe that a year had gone by, but we celebrated our first year anniversary in September. We stayed at a B&B in Falls Creek Falls (and THAT was the worst part of our trip...but gave us a lot of stories to tell), but the views were spectacular, and we were able to spend a lot of quality time together over the long weekend.

4. Trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - What spectacular things we saw! And, yes, again, this encompasses more than a moment in time...actually a week, but it's our list, so we get to do it our way!! :-)~ We had a fabulous time exploring the downtown area of Vancouver, spending time at the city park, taking a dinner cruise around Vancouver Island, eating at some amazing restaurants, and seeing Cabaret on stage at a great little theatre. What fun!

3. Our Adoption of Molly - Our frolicking little puppy joined our family, and it's not been the same since!!

2. Spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with our Families - For Thanksgiving, Michael's family, the Wagars, joined us at our home in Fayetteville for quite a feast! We had a full house with Michael's mother Suzanne, his aunt and uncle Cheryl and Paul Wagar, the Wagar cousins (Wynn and his wife, Bethany; Emily and her husband Steve; and Bryan), and our friend, Connie. For Christmas, Michael and I traveled to Kentucky to spend time with the Whitaker family: My grandmother Aretta, my mom and dad Alene and Jay, and my aunt Vivian and her husband, Jerry). We were a small, but happy, bunch.

and our top moment(s) of 2006:

Spending Time Together in our Hammock in our Back Yard - This was something that we did every chance we got. Usually, Murphy, one of the cats, and later on, Molly, would join us as we enjoyed the warm weather and the serenity of our back yard from our gigantic hammock my mother bought Michael for his birthday. It's a fabulous place to talk, look at the house we've made for ourselves, and discuss all the important things and people whom we are blessed to have in our lives. It's definitely one of our favorite places and has provided us with some of our very best moments!