A Southern Accent

I thought I'd share with you all a couple of pictures of my Christmas decorations, to give you some ideas of what you could do in your home! Ok, so maybe this really isn't my house...maybe it's a fabulous sport shop I stopped at on the way back from the beach yesterday. It is the Nuese Sport Shop in Kinston, NC and they have the most fabulous Christmas trees - I was so in love I asked if I could take pictures! I love the look of a Christmas tree dripping with ornaments - and these certainly were! I really had a hard time picking out my favorite, but I loved the black top hat on the snowman-themed tree! I try to theme my tree around snowmen, so I think I'm going to attempt to make my own out of black paper and ribbon! I'll show you results! I think the tree topper is always the hardest piece - but these trees may give you some great inspiration! I was certainly inspired!

Right after my earlier blog posting about my Christmas card dilemma I received an e-mail from Paperspring about their card site. I immediately checked it out and loved their designs - and their prices even better! If you're looking for some fresh, new designs - and environmentally-conscious cards, then check out Paperspring - they even have a special running right now: Enter code “holidaycard” and receive 20% of all holiday card orders though 12/6/09. All of Paperspring's matte cards are printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled thick cardstock and they use chemistry-free and waterless printing processes. They print in-house - so you know you'll order will be received fast! (They even offer free shipping!!!!) Paperspring also offers personalized stationery, baby announcements and invitations! One of the really cool things that Paperspring has to offer is Sticky Stock - it's like a post-it, you can decorate your fridge or other surfaces and leave no residue behind!

My mother-in-law has the perfect turkey for Thanksgiving. Her secret? Go online, order an inflatable turkey from McPhee's, take it to the local gas station to have it blown up, and place on a platter on the buffet. Walahhh!

Because I am thankful for you, my readers, this Thanksgiving I've decided to have a giveaway! Just leave a comment, telling me what you're thankful for! I'll announce the winners next Monday, after we've all recovered from too much turkey and pumpkin pie! Happy Thanksgiving Yall!

It's this time of year again, where I'm left with dead flowers, moldy pumpkins and a yard full of leaves. Not that I'm not grateful for my home, don't get me wrong - but when we had a townhouse, it was so nice to just write that monthly homeowners check and hear the leaf blowers and lawnmowers outside and know that everything was being magically swept or blown away and we'd walk outside to a pristine leaf-free yard. Since Mike doesn't really like manual labor and would prefer to pay someone to do everything for us, and I'm trying to be a do-it-yourselfer and money-conscious, I end up doing at least part of the yard work and leaving a honey-do list for his part on his days off. This past weekend was evidently the unofficial yard clean-up event of the year. Everyone was out in full force, with our rakes, blowers and brooms. Yes, I love the fact that our neighborhood has gorgeous trees vs. the newer neighborhoods, but I could do without the pine needles and de

I wanted to update on a previous post about my uncle ( you can read it here ). In September, he was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. He has undergone numerous rounds of chemo and radiation and received results back from his latest PET scan this Monday. Of chief concern was the tumor in the lower lobe of the right lung and the lymph nodes in the center of his chest. The scan showed that there was NO cancer activity in the lymph nodes! All in all, it was a great report! My aunt and uncle, with their grandkids. My prayer list is long for friends and family members struggling with disease and lately, I hear of so many children struggling as well. It's so hard not to question God during these times, but to put complete faith in him - which is much easier said than done! Isaiah 40:31 But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Another wonderful praise that happened last

I go through this every year, obsessing over which Christmas card to order, which photo to use, which outfit to put my little man in. Should I include the dog? Should it be a family pic? By chance do I try to capture the cat (because before children, he was the star of my annual Christmas card). I know, in the whole scheme of things, it's probably pretty silly to spend so much time thinking about a Christmas card, but I personally love to get them and get so excited about opening each and every one! So I figure maybe there are other people out there like me, right? To start with, there are so many different designs out there to choose from? There's minted, shutterfly, snapfish, tinyprints...Or, do I design and print my own? Do I go with a nicer, folded card, or a single card? Should the photo be in black and white, or color? I did manage to get a couple of cute shots of my little man this weekend in his cute Christmas pants (that he hates and I had to bribe him with a hockey ga

When he's seventeen, and he's had his heart broken for the first time by the girl of his dreams... or enamoured by the homecoming queen.... or head-over-heels in love with his first college sweetheart... I'll show him these pictures, and remind him that at one point in his life, he thought boys were cool and girls drooled.

Then I've found your fix. If you haven't yet heard of Lonny Magazine , I'm going to make your day - it made mine when I found out about it. Written up in this month's Vanity Fair, Lonny Magazine is the first true online magazine - that goes as far as having you flip the pages to move through the publication. The premier issue is up at http://www.lonnymag.com/ and was started by a lot of the talented people that used to be at Domino - so you know it's good! And if you're wondering where the name came from, it's a combination of London and NY! You can flip through the pages online, click on items right from the magazine pages and be taken right to a site where you can buy them! Even the ads are interactive! And, if you still need to look at it on a plane or in the car, you can print it out too! What do you guys think of it? It will certainly be interesting to watch how it goes and if other publications follow their lead!

Hollywood week may be over, but I have one more story to tell about a guy and his truck - a southern food truck, to be exact. I've known Chris since Jr. high but I never knew he had a passion for cooking. I honestly hadn't seen him in years, but had heard updates here and there of his adventures in Hollywood from mutual friends. We recently reconnected via Facebook and I told him I'd be coming out to LA soon, so he offered to show me around and do the tourist thing. We had a fun night, ending up at a great little Italian place, and I finally got to hear about his cool new venture: Mattie's Southern Kitchen. In LA (and here in NC too) one of the newest trends is food trucks. - kitchens on wheels, that pull up to the curb during lunch or dinner and serve fabulous, freshly cooked food. This one just happens to be the first southern food truck in LA - and it's getting rave reviews. (It was even featured as the truck of the week on Zagats a couple of weeks ago!) Unfort

I think I've seen the movie Pretty Woman about 100 times and it will always be my favorite. My husband thinks it's the cheesiest movie he has ever seen, but hey, he's not the target audience. So, my tour of Rodeo Dr started at the Reg Bev Will (Pretty Woman fans, you know what I'm talking about). Walking through it, the lobby looked so much smaller than in the movie. We ended up at the back entrance, and plopped down on a bench and acted like we owned the place for a bit while watching for anyone famous. We saw numerous $100 thousand+ cars, and one chick with long blonde hair (only from the back) that had to be famous, but we didn't see her face. Then, we walked down Rodeo, into a couple of stores that I couldn't afford to buy a keychain in, tried on a $1,200 pair of shoes, and walked right into a celebrity sighting. One of my goals while in LA was to see someone famous. And, she may not be on the A-list, but it was still pretty cool. Meet the beautiful Camila A

Dear Santa, Since we are just now recovering from a recession, I thought I would only ask for one thing for Christmas this year. It really doesn't come in that large of a box, so shouldn't be too tough for you to carry. I can even tell you the store to buy it at, it's called Chanel and this particular item is at the store on Rodeo Dr in Beverly Hills, CA (trying to be specific so you won't have to spend any of your valuable time trying to find it). You may be familiar with it. So thanks Santa, I'm going to bake some really special cookies for you this year, and tell Rudolph I've got organic carrots for him too. Oh, and I've really been a good girl this year. Here's a picture of my little request below. Me ***Yall know this is sarcasm, right?

Monday was my first full day in L.A. and I think I squealed twice. Once, when I saw the Hollywood sign the first time out of my room window, and two, when I saw my first Pinkberry . I woke up at 4:30 am, worked out, ate breakfast, worked on my laptop a bit and then had to go kick off the tradeshow we're out here for. Mid afternoon, walked around downtown a bit and had a Hollywood encounter: walked right through a shooting of 24! It was pretty exciting, but it didn't get a squeal because I don't watch that show. On the other hand, my mom squealed pretty high when I told her about it. After a couple of more hours on the laptop, I met up with a sweet friend of mine from high school that lives here and he showed us around. We drove down Sunset, saw the official Beverly Hills sign, parked on Hollywood and walked around on the stars. We stood in front of the Chinese theatre, and saw a real red carpet. Unfortunately, it was being rolled away because we had just missed the world p

I'm in LA this week with work and I brought my BFF out here with me so we could have some fun in the evenings! Hoping to do some touring tonight, so I'll have some pics of the town to share with you guys tomorrow! "Welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream? Everybody comes here; this is Hollywood, land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don't; but keep on dreamin' - this is Hollywood. Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin."

We were sitting on the couch last night watching the little guy play Wii (which is actually pretty entertaining) and I realized we hadn't received an issue of Garden in Gun in a while. Mike (I'm not calling him hubs anymore, just never liked the term) said,"Well, you know, they may have gone under too!" I said, "Noooooo!!! I hadn't thought about that! I hope they don't go under because that is one of my favorites!" And it's a magazine Mike and I actually both like to read. So I visited the Garden and Gun site today, and saw this. Here's hoping skipping an issue will keep this pub afloat! And to you readers out there who have never read an issue, you should totally consider a subscription or giving a gift subscription for Christmas! Hanging Tough Dear G&G Friends, Fans, Subscribers, and Club Members, I don’t have to tell you that this has been a tough year for magazines and media companies. We have seen some great ones go down, including G

So, do you think this kid gets his picture taken a lot? He's my little punkin poser...