A Southern Accent

Have you seen Kristen Davis collection at Belk ? It's getting great reviews and I've picked out a couple of my fave pieces here. Some of the items aren't for me (sometimes I fluctuate between a Carrie and a Charlotte) but can't wait to see where this collection goes! Women's Wear Daily reports: "The apparel line is full of A-line skirts and dresses, blouses and other pieces that easily can be taken day to night or casual to evening. The pieces include feminine details like flowers and jewels, and the fabric weights are sensitive to the South's milder climate. The line is offered in sizes 2 through 14." Davis said she used to save up her money when she was younger to go shopping at Belk, one of the reasons she agree to have this collection at the department store. And I love this: "I don't even wear a zero, so they're not allowed," Davis said.

I've been tardy in writing my thank you note to Erin at Blue-Eyed Bride for the award she gave me last week! Thank you so very much for recognizing me on your fabulous blog! Characteristics for the Smile Award: 1. Must display a cheerful attitude. 2. Must love one another. 3. Must make mistakes. 4. Must learn from others. 5. Must be a positive contributor to blog world. 6. Must love life. 7. Must love kids. These are the rules for The Smile Award: 1. The recipient must link back the the award’s creator 2. You must post these rules if you receive the award 3. You must chose 5 people to receive the award after receiving it yourself 4. You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award 5. You must post the characteristics of a recipient. 6. You must create a post sharing your win with others. 7. You must thank your giver. I'm passing this award to: Mojito Maven because her blog is fun, fashionable and her favorite food is macaroni & cheese! Life of a Southern Bel...

The local paper covered a new vendor yesterday that has created what is basically a clear raincoat for your wedding dress: The WetKnot . I think it's an interesting concept and I guess if you don't want to get your dress wet, could work. But would you order this just in case it rains on your wedding day?

I've referenced the Twilight saga in several posts now, and I finally finished the fourth book this weekend. Seems like a lot of people I've talked to my age and of the " girly " persuasion look at me funny when I say I'm reading these books, but I'm telling you, I really enjoyed them and could not put them down. I am totally not someone that is into vampires and science fiction and all that and that's what I think people think when they hear what these books are about. That's what I first thought when I heard about them, but I'm a sucker for pop culture, so thought I'd pick up a copy to see what all the fuss was about - and I got sucked in too. Contrary to what people think, these books are not gross or bloody. The first book, Twilight, is a story about the most wonderful, amazing, all-encompassing kind of love that exists and how two people from very different backgrounds and DNA, for that matter, are attracted to each other. If you've ev...

If we could all (including me) live by this mantra, the economy may not be in such bad shape these days! Print this out, put it on your fridge or in your office and do as I say, not as I do... but I'm trying to be better.

They say that every fashion trend comes back around eventually, but I really never thought I'd see the days of rolling the bottoms of jeans again. It even has a stylish new name: pegging or pegged pants. We just used to call it "rolling your jeans". I can now understand how horrified my mother was when I rolled every single pair of pants I wore in basically all of junior high. She tried to tell me how bad it was but "everyone was doing it". I know the eighties are coming back and I can deal with the music, but some of the fashion trends just need to stay there. I mean come on, legwarmers too???? Up and Coming Fashion Trends from the 80s (according to the fall fashion show reports): - Pegged pants - Legwarmers/leggings - One piece body suits - Lace - Headbands - Booties Maybe this is how our parents felt when wide-legged pants (aka bell-bottoms) and platforms shoes made a comeback.

I love to paint, but don't get much time these days to devote to it, but I always dreamed of having "original art" in my home one day. Well, instead of spending tons of money investing in someone else's dream, I decided to create my own "original art". It's the best feeling in the world when someone complements your artwork hanging in your home and you can actually take credit for it. I know most of you girls are creative, so if you're looking for a way to personalize your home and be original, try purchasing a canvas at Michael's with your 50% off coupon and picking up some acrylics (much easier to clean up after yourself than oil) and see what you can create! If if you're interested in a canvas like any of these, contact me and I can whip one up for you pretty cheap too! The bottom two are actually Christmas presents for my nieces - they make great gifts!

Hey y'all! To celebrate the return of our favorite doctors and a hospital I'd just get sick to be admitted in, I've pulled together some great Grey's Anatomy quotes to live by... Meredith Grey: At some point, you have to make a decision. Boundaries don't keep other people out. They fence you in. Life is messy. That's how we're made. So, you can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them. Meredith Grey: At the end of the day faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don't really expect it. Its like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And its not so important happy ever after, just that its happy right now. See once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you , and once in a while people may even take your breath away. Meredith Grey: Communication. It's the first thing we really learn in life. Funny thing is, once we g...

Ok, I bought that pancake puff thing that has been advertising here on tv for the past year at (where else) Target last week. I decided to give it a whirl Sunday morning before church. Let's just say it was a huge success - he cleaned his plate (see below) and asked for more! I can't wait to try some of the other cool things you can do with it ( see ideas here ). I also picked up an extra one to give as a Christmas gift - I thought it would be something fun that someone would probably use, but most likely doesn't already have! My little man can't wait to use the "cream filler" to shoot something fun inside a puff.

We've lived in our current house about two and a half years and I've never gotten around to repainting the dark blue front door we inherited free with our home purchase. I've always wanted a red door and I know lots of people love adding this little extra flair to their home. I'm kinda superstitious , so I wasn't sure if a red door was good for my feng shui and all that jazz, so I decided to look it up just to make sure. Here's some interesting facts, legends and myths about red doors: In early America a red door was a sign of "welcome." When people had to travel by horse and buggy they had to stop often. If they came upon a house with a red door that usually meant they would be able to spend the night. In old Catholicism the doors of a church were painted red to represent the blood of Christ In Scotland when you paid off your mortgage you painted your door red. In Feng Shui the front door is considered the "Mouth of Chi" where all good e...

I received my very first award this week – thank you dearly, Magnolia Belle !The rules to accepting this award are that I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only. The questions… 1. Where is your cell phone? Car 2. Where is your significant other? Golfing 3. Your hair color? Blonde 4. Your mother? Loved 5. Your father? Surprising 6. Your favorite thing? Walkie 7. Your dream last night? Forgotten 8. Your dream/goal? Happiness 9. The room you're in? Office 10. Your hobby? Many 11. Your fear? Spiders 12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Earth 13. Where were you last night? Soccer 14. What you're not? Boring 15. One of your wish-list items? Diamonds 16. Where you grew up? Country 17. The last thing you did? Work 18. What are you wearing? Jeans 19. Your TV? Grey’s 20. Your pet? Lulu 21. Your computer? Lenovo 22. Your mood? Excited 23. Missing someone? Always 24. Your car? CRV 25. Something you're not wearing? Lunch 26. Favorite store? Cre...

Who knew this even existed? In honor of this very "special" day, I did a quick little search for some cute pirate items on etsy.com... Original pirate princess artwork by Kathy Jeffords Room Decor for a Toddler Boy (or Jimmy Buffet Fan) Customizable invites for a pirate-themed party! and for the Pink Pirates out there! Arggghhhh!!!!

My hubby and I (see right) are celebrating our seventh anniversary this Monday and I know there are a lot of newlywed/engaged bloggers out there, so thought I’d pass along some marriage advice that I try to keep in my head and in my house. The secret to a happy marriage is two TV's (no seriously, it's true) Communication is the key Never compare your marriage to others Accept that both of you are imperfect Love your husband, but do not wrap yourself up in your husband Life will get stressful. It always does. Commit to making time to do fun things together. My generation (and I think many girls) were/are raised to think that marriage is supposed to be this prince charming, whisk me away into happily ever after event, but I think it’s not that simple and extremely unrealistic. But before I get push back from that, I offer this disclaimer: I know there are some out there that may be lucky enough not to have to work at it, but most of us do! Remember, there’s no such thing as the...

Just wanted to drop this little tip online for all the mommies out there looking for a way to save some time (any anyone else that may not be a fan of grocery shopping). I love shopping online with Harris Teeter's Express Lane . It saves me soooo much time by letting me shop for groceries online, save past orders so I can just click to add the regulars to my basket and eliminates the "mommie, I want some candy...mommie I want this..." effect that often occurs when I take little man to the store. This actually gives me the ability to justify the $4.95 charge for this service (I would easily spend that on junk in the grocery and for first timers, this fee is waved). Another justification - all sale items are shown in one area of the site, so I can compare prices and pick the best deal! Of course, I still have the smaller trips I take, and little man comes too and we can actually enjoy ourselves and take our time looking. But times that I need to get in and out - this is th...

Did you know that Pantone (the most widely recognized color standard in the world, and is used as a tool for the fashion industry) puts out a color report each year for the most prominent colors in fashion? I had no idea! I've been seeing A LOT of purple lately and it's one of my favorite colors. In Pantone's Fall Fashion Color Report 2008 , Blue Iris, a mixture of purples and blues emerged as Pantone's color of the year. Here are some great purple shots from recent fashion shows. A summary of the top fall 2008 colors for women are: The Blue Hues Blue Iris - Pantone’s color of the year for 2008, according to their report. A rich beautiful blue with purple undertones which has been a firm favorite amongst such designers as Leger, Costello Tagliapetra, Diana Von Furstenberg and Oscar De La Renta. Combining the regal richness of purple with cool and calming aspects of blue. Royal Lilac - a combination of bluish purples and cheerful red undertones. undertones. Shady Glade ...

OMG , watched the opening of SNL last night and Tina Fey looked and sounded JUST LIKE Sarah Palin ! She totally nailed it! A video of the skit can be found here ! I was kinda looking forward to seeing Obama, but I guess he had to do the political thing and address IKE publicly. The skit was hilarious! Here's to hopefully a successful new year of SNL !

Last year it NEVER rained here - never. My grass died and all my new landscaping was ruined because we couldn't water our yards. We were in a severe drought for most of the year. In that period of time, I managed to misplace all golf umbrellas my golfing pro hubby had accumulated over the years (don't ask me where they went cause I obviously wasn't using them). Lately though, I've been in much need of an umbrella. I'm a bit tired of going through the trouble of actually fixing my hair before work in the mornings only to have it collapse on me after the walk from my car to the office. I've decided to look for something fun and more me than a golf umbrella with a big Ping golf logo on it. Did you know Rhianna has her own umbrella line , inspired by her song? I'm a sucker for polka dots , but I would die if I left this somewhere at this price point. And there's always the monogrammed option , from Monogram Me ! Or this gorgeous little goodie that would b...

I've always loved taking pictures and people tell me I have a pretty good talent of getting great shots of my little man. I do love photography and I enjoy reading photographer's blogs. One local photographer's blog that I check EVERY single day is Tamara Lackey Photography . I've learned from her blog that she has two adopted children, is trying to adopt a third, is the photographer for her husband's magazine, Endurance , and she's coming out with a book all about children's photography Nov. 1 ( available here ). She also recently had the opportunity to photograph Obama, Hillary and McCain and some local Olympians as well - all are featured on her blog. Oh and by the way, her husband is way hot too . I don't know Tamara personally, but she seems like an amazing person. I totally want her to do a portrait of little man and Lulu the pup, but she is booked until like February of next year. Check out the below examples of her work and you'll see why ....

UNC finally wins a game outside the state of North Carolina - was it the new pants? GO HEELS!!!!

I'm not sure how I came across Lauren Alane's site , but so very happy I did. She makes these cute little needle-felted (explanation to come) owls and birds and they are just adorable. If you haven't been exposed to the needle felting craze, you basically take this big fluffy pieces of wool and poke them to death until you've shaped and smoothed them into cute little creatures like these. I'll admit, I took a trip to Michaeals, bought some wool and some needles and poked my heart out, but end result looked basically like something that my dog had chewed for several hours. All the more reason to admire the beauty of these little guys, but I will admit, it is a great tension reliever. Lauren has a shop on Itsy that she updates about once a month, and she sends e-mails and notices of when the latest update will be, but I've still yet to get my hands on one of these little guys because they sell out so fast! She also makes cake toppers for weddings and can customize...