Dining Room Chairs

Dining Room Chairs

Now that our dining table has been stained and broken in, we are looking for chairs to add to it.
The man who built the table was so great and made us 2 custom benches for the table for free! Although we love the benches, we want to add some more character to the table and have more comfortable options for our guests.

We've been scouring various flea markets, craigslist, and thrift stores to find the right set, but no luck just yet! We've seen some great windsor chairs, but they haven't been in great condition or they are painted various pastel colors.

I am loving the look of the chairs above, but we are trying to not spend too much. My favorite is the top-right chair with the laser-cut backs...swoon! Hopefully we'll make a decision soon.

What is your favorite dining chair style?
xo

Not Ok

This past week has been a really rough week. 

I got some really horrible news concerning a friend over a week ago and I still just feel like I'm in shock. I can't shake this heart break. I've been doing a lot of reflecting about life and how we grow up and our paths take us in different directions. We share time with people that we think we will never forget or take for granted, but before we know it, it's been years without much contact.

I guess it's true that you never know what you have until it's gone. 

I'm thankful for all of the love + support that I have in my life and it's been nice to see people come together to celebrate a life that was full of love, laughter, and the biggest smile ever seen. I will cherish the memories every single day.

I don't know that we will all recover from this, but I hope that we can all take more time to laugh, appreciate, + love each other. That's what Andy would have wanted.

♥

[Print by Scott Albrecht]

CSA Love

I am so excited to announce that J + I are renewing our membership with Farmers Fresh CSA this year! We were members back in 2010 and we loved it. Our goal this year is to make sure that we use everything we get weekly since a few years ago, we weren't always good about using all of the fruits + vegetables before they went bad.

I will bring back the "CSA Wednesday" posts (see here, here, and here) and share what we get each week. I'm excited to have this to help supplement the garden that we hope to have this Spring.

There are still some spaces left if you want to join and they deliver in various locations around the city and Georgia! The first pick up for 2013 starts March 5th.

Happy weekend y'all!

xo

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Happy People

Last night, J + I went to see Werner Herzog's newest documentary, "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga." We went with our wonderful friends Victor + Anna (truthfully, Anna + I kind of crashed a guys' night out). J + I are huge Herzog fans and we are suckers for documentaries.

This film was incredible - although not your standard Herzog film. Based on the trailer, I was expecting it to be somewhat slow but it wasn't at all. The camera basically follows these trappers/ hunters who live in Bakhtia, a village of 300 people deep in the Siberian Taiga in their daily lives. 

The way these men live off the land and the trades that they master is beautiful. They are truly unique in that their skills and traditions have not changed in centuries. Untouched by modern conveniences, they rely on their skills, each other, and their dogs. 

I definitely recommend adding this documentary to your list!

P.S. Next time I complain about how cold it is, I need to remember that the Winter in the Taiga brings temperatures of -50°!

Valentine's Day Scavenger Hunt

This month has been crazy so I felt a bit rushed when it came to Valentine's Day. Truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of this holiday (I mean it's only 6 weeks after Christmas)! Since I had been out of town the whole week leading up to Valentine's Day, the day was really just a nice way to reconnect with J.

We went to dinner (very casual - burritos) and then came home to exchange gifts. I went more practical with my gifts to J (nice button up, iTunes, and boxers). Not my most memorable gifts, but I think [hope] J was happy.

Then when I went to open my gift, I got this note with a string on it that had a keychain and clue on the bottom. J had planned a scavenger hunt! He used a poem that he wrote for the clues.

There were so many clues all over the house and some had the most thoughtful gifts with them (an amazing watch, necklace, coffee mug, waterproof notepad, [risque] candy hearts, and more).

It was such a fun night and I felt so loved.

We ended the night watching "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" at home. This Valentine's Day may even make me reconsider my thoughts of this Hallmark holiday.

So apparently I need to step it up next year, huh?

Staying with the theme, we also started a new tradition where we made the below mailbox and randomly leave each other love notes. It's so nice to find the flag raised.

What is your favorite way to surprise your partner?

♥

DIY Dining Room Table

Voila! Here is our new dining room table!

The first part of this post is a bit outdated since it's from Christmas, but it's appropriate to share now since it's finally finished. 

My sweet husband collaborated with some of our great friends to have this pine wood table commissioned. The table seats 8 people comfortably and the carpenter even threw in 2 benches to match. Leading up to the holidays, since I'm in need of nothing, I told J that I'd love to have a large dining room table to fit all of our loved ones around. I knew it wasn't 100% that it would happen and assumed it wasn't going to happen when  I knew it wasn't hidden in our house and J bought me [too many] gifts.

When we arrived at my in-laws' house for dinner it was raining so I ran to the garage ahead of J and he was convinced I'd already seen the surprise and that he'd missed my face. He was wrong. I'm not sure how I missed the huge table, but when he finally called my name and I turned around - there it was! My in-laws' were so great and helped him with the surprise by wrapping the table and benches in red bows. It's amazing how many people came together to make this happen...so lucky.

 We were able to get the table to our house a few days after the holidays and it sat, unfinished, in our dining room. We had to cover it with a huge oil cloth tablecloth to protect it. 

After some camping plans for this past weekend fell through, we decided it was the perfect time to finally finish the table. We went to Home Depot and got all of the necessary items (Varathane Dark Walnut Stain, Semi-gloss Polyurethane, tack rags (you can also use old t-shirts), and plastic drop cloth). Then it was time to apply the stain. We did 2 coats on each of the table and benches (allowing a full hour between coats). We decided to go with Varathane over Minwax since it is water-based and typically more forgiving than Minwax. Also, since it was cold outside we wanted to be able to stain indoors (with the windows open).

Once we were done staining, it was time to apply the polyurethane. 

We decided to do 3 coats (with 2 hours of drying time minimum between each coat) since this furniture will be some of the most used furniture in our house (and will hopefully last forever). We had to sand the furniture in between each coat of polyurethane and wipe down the furniture after each sanding to ensure that no particles remain in the coat of polyurethane.

It took us 1.5 days to finish the full project and tonight will be our first time eating on the fully finished table! 

Now it's time for more dinner parties!

Now I just have to figure our how to get the stain and polyurethane off my hands!

Happy Birthday Irma Jean

Today is my Nanny's birthday. She would have been 76.

We lost her 3.5 years ago and it doesn't get any easier with her gone.

I had the chance to spend a few days this week in Miami with my parents alone.

My mother and I walked the beach together and just talked about life. We spoke about our family and how much we miss Nanny and Papa. Mom says there are still days where she will think to call my Nanny - I suppose we all want to be able to call our moms. I know I call my mom every day around the same time and I can't imagine how hard it would be without her there - always there to listen and offer advice.

I know our whole family's hearts will ache today, but I know we can all be thankful for the years we were lucky enough to be able to share with our Irma Jean. 

♥

Don't Stop The Party

Hey y'all! 

Things have been out-of-control busy this week [who am I kidding? It's been an insane MONTH]. 

Jason has been out of town for work all week so it's been days full of work, taking care of Townes, and keeping everything in order. It's amazing how much we're a team - so it becomes so much more obvious when he's not at home.

I leave tomorrow for my company's annual conference. It's in Miami again this year (2011 + 2012) and the keynote and performer is Mr. Worldwide, Pitbull. I'm bummed that I'm leaving as soon as J gets home, but I'm sure the 80 degree weather will help cheer me up [the little of it I'll see from the meeting rooms]! 

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

♥

P.S. For those in the path of the epic snow storm - stay safe and stay warm!

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