WINE & CHEESE PARTY

Between work and my boys, I was in desperate need for a girls night. So I decided to host a holiday wine and cheese party. I asked all the girls to bring a bottle of wine to share for a wine tasting competition. We numbered brown paper bags and did a blind taste test, ranking each bottle on these little score cards I made. Winner got a surprise little gift from me.

RUSTIC BENCH

Our bedroom has been a work in progress and we still have quite a bit left to do. One of the first things I wanted to add (after the bed, of course) was a rustic bench. We have a pretty large master bedroom and the bench could really help fill the space...and of course provide a place to put on our shoes. I put my husband to work.

MERRY MAIL SIGN

Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit quicker than receiving holiday cards from friends and family near and far. I just absolutely love them! Last year, I taped all of our cards to the refrigerator (since we didn't have enough magnets) and it ended up looking pretty cluttered. So this year, I wanted to hang them someplace I could enjoy them throughout the whole season.

KITCHEN HUTCH

We have a strange layout in our kitchen. I love our kitchen, but it's strange. We have plenty of cabinet space, but we don't really have any drawers. We also have a pretty big empty wall in the middle of it. The previous owners had a tiny 2-person table and chairs, but it seemed like a waste of space given we have a bar top and stools.

HALLOWEEN TREATS

With Halloween approaching, I wanted to give Joe's daycare teachers a little something special to show how much we appreciate them. I found these little Halloween dishes at Hobby Lobby, filled them with an assortment of candy and wrapped them in cellophane.

TO 30 YEARS!

My best friend's 30th birthday is right around the corner and I want to send her something extra special in the mail. We've been friends since Kindergarten and lived together for 6 years, so it's crazy to think about how many great memories over the past 30 years have been spent together. Now that I live in Nashville and she's in Chicago, it's been tough not having her here for every little get-together or Saturday night cocktail...but obviously distance won't stop us from still being best friends!

KISSES FROM JOE

With 2 sets of first-time grandparents, I wanted to make them feel extra special on their very first Grandparent's Day. And yes, there is such a thing as Grandparent's Day. It's always the first Sunday after Labor Day, and I didn't really hear about it until I met my husband.

PICNIC THEMED FAMILY PICTURES

I can't believe 6 months has already passed. Wow, did that fly. We decided to do professional pictures with an outdoor summer picnic theme, using a family quilt and some of my old childhood books. Our photographer, Sarah-Marie Photography, did an awesome job capturing all of his different faces!

DIY HERB GARDEN

I finally have the space to garden! It's exciting and scary all at the same time. I don't have a ton of knowledge other than what I know from helping my parents when I was younger. So I'll have to be patient with myself and learn as I go.

GENDER NEUTRAL NURSERY: POLKA DOTS & CHEVRON

I wanted to make our nursery comfortable and inviting because I knew I was going to be spending a lot of time in there over the next year. James and I decided early on that we wanted our first born's gender to be a surprise the day of delivery. But decorating a gender neutral nursery proved to be harder than I thought. Everything I ended up finding tended to lean boy or girl, so I decided to do a more generic sky theme and really play up patterns.