Hotel Matilda - AD Mexico

Hotel Matilda, interior design by McAlpine Booth & Ferrier graces the cover of Architectural Digest Mexico this month! I would say be sure to pick up a copy, but that might be a little difficult for most of you!

Calligraphy...

The mostly beautifully addressed invitation came into my office a few weeks ago. After the event was over I couldn't bear to throw away this gorgeous envelope! I'm adding learning calligraphy to my ever-growing list of ongoing projects! The green ink are my first attempts. Calligraphy is definitely a "practice makes perfect" craft! I hope you all had a restful weekend!

Not a Bad Friday Night

I'm having a fun Friday night doing some painting. Have a great weekend!

Tiny Houses!

Image found via New York Times.
Check out these tiny homemade houses in one really creative man's back yard. This one, called the Gypsy Junker is only 24 square feet! The New York Times article is really worth reading, here.

Ikea Goodies

A fabulous designer that I work with is preggo and really hoping for a baby girl! I love all of these little goodies that are SO inexpensive at Ikea! Wish we had one here in Nashville so I could shop for gifts.

Images found via Ikea.

Queen Mattress - Yes!

Yes, after three and a half years of marriage we finally have a Queen bed! It's set up and ready to go. Funny how assembling one piece of furniture can make an evening disappear really quickly! I'll post pictures once I buy new bedding...

Book Review - Wench

Image found here.

My second book finished in 2011 is Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. It's a smart, sad look at the lives of a handful of slaves during the years leading up to the civil war and the Emancipation Proclamation. For those of you who have read The Help, it has a similar feeling. I'd recommend it.

Mattress Springs...

Yes, this is mattress springs as art. Don't mind the Jesus in front of them. :) We found this today at the Tailgate Antiques Show in Nashville. I'm filing away this idea for future use...

Giveaway Winner!!

Ok everyone, we have a winner! Thanks to all of you for entering my first giveaway. It was so much fun, I think I'll do it again one of these days!

Thanks to random.org, comment number 16 is our winner. Hannah from Life as Mrs. Schreiner! You got in right under the wire! Be sure to send me your contact info so I can mail you your necklace from Spencer Morgan Designs.

Giveaway Reminder!

Everyone who's a follower, be sure to enter my first ever giveaway! It ends this Friday Feb 18. See the details here!

Great necklace by Spencer Morgan Design!

House Beautiful Feature

Image found here.

This great room is McAlpine Tankersley business manager Richard Norris' living room. It was featured recently on the House Beautiful website as an interesting opposite color combination! Aren't those custom painted screens fabulous? 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day! Did you all have at least one treat? This was mine!

My Valentine's Cupcakes

Kane's office is getting some really cute cupcakes tomorrow, if I do say so myself! And the decorations are all from Wal-Mart! (Shhh....)

Special Follower Appreciation Giveaway!

Today I'm announcing an exclusive giveaway for my 55 very special followers! With my first giveaway ever, I would like to thank all of you who have become followers and visit this blog on a regular basis. This is just for you!

For those of you who aren't followers yet, please keep visiting! I promise that my next giveaway will include everyone!

I'm happy to be giving away a beautiful necklace from Rebecca at Spencer Morgan Designs. She is a wonderfully talented jewelry designer who creates new jewelry by repurposing vintage pieces in a fresh way. Rebecca also has a fun blog that you can visit here.

This necklace is on a 14k gold chain, with gold flying bird and pale pink 1 inch faceted briolette. Approximate total length is 16.5 inches.

Giveaway Guidelines:

1) You must be one of my 55 wonderful followers to enter!

2) Visit Spencer Morgan Designs and then come back and leave one comment with the name of your favorite piece of jewelry.

3) I'll select a random winner and annouce it on Friday Feb 18!

Enjoy!

  

Great Find

Check out these great earrings I found at Target for $5!! They remind me of these Anthropologie earrings for $32. I love a bargain!

Image found here.

Book Review - Bon Courage

Bon Courage...I've needed some good luck to get through the last two days! Nashville has been blanketed by snow and it hasn't been pretty. But I'm keeping it positive! Let's just say the HOURS it took me to get home from work last night was a nuisance and the hour it took me to get to work this morning was a minor inconvenience.

Bon Courage is the first book I've finished in 2011. It's a great travel memoir by Ken McAdams about buying and renovating a house in a small French village. It's a great read for any of you who like travel memoirs.

Valentines, Plan B

I had planned on making cute little Valentines out of playing cards this year. See them here. But, unfortunately I couldn't find mini glassine envelopes anywhere and I ran out of time to order them online. So, here are my Plan B Valentines. Not quite as cute, but super inexpensive from Hallmark so they'll just have to do the trick!

  

First Fabulous Find of the Year!

I like to frequent Nashville's Habitat for Humanity HomeStore since it's convenient to my downtown office. For those of you who don't know about them, they are wonderful charity thrift stores. They only accept home related items like furniture, lighting, accessories, rugs, even slabs of granite. They also have separate locations that sell used cabinets, hardware, paint, tile and other things you would need for a home renovation.

This weekend I hit the jackpot. Someone donated multiple pieces of brand new furniture from Brocade Home, still in the boxes! I bought this Queen Silhouette Bedframe for $149. It still retails on their website for $349 plus shipping and handling.

Image found here.

It'll be a little while before I post pictures of it in our place... I still have several other pieces I need to find first!

Thank You 50 Followers!

Image found here.

I reached 50 followers today thanks to all of you wonderful readers! I appreciate each and every one of you, and the fact that you check in daily with me to hear what I have to say. Thank you!

To celebrate, I will be hosting my very first giveaway later this week. Stay tuned! 

Valentine's Day Champagne Punch

Image found here.

I made this great punch recipe when I hosted Christmas this year. It's tasty and really refreshing. And the perfect color to serve at a Valentine's Day party!

In advance, freeze 2 cups of cranberry juice and 2 cups of pineapple juice in a bundt pan to form a decorative frozen ice ring. In punch bowl, mix 3 cups of cranberry juice, 3 cups of pineapple juice, 1-1/2 tablespoons of almond extract, and 1 bottle of champagne (my champagne of choice is Martini & Rossi Asti, which is nice and sweet). Then add your frozen juice ring to keep cold, and serve!

Garlands!

As you all know, I made a bunch of paper garlands to decorate our apartment for Christmas. See the post here. Tonight I got to thinking about other types of garlands I could make next time. (Thanks Ellen!) There are some really fun ideas out there! These are a few of my favorites on Etsy right now.

Found here.

Found here.

Found here.

Embroidery on Paper

I've had these images in my files for a while now. I think it's a really neat idea to embroider on paper. I especially like the idea for cards or invitations. This embroidery was done on a page from a Moleskin journal by What Katie Does. It reads 'The Life So Short, The Craft So Long to Lerne.'

Images from What Katie Does.