window flower boxes

Yippee! For Christmas, Stuart's parents gave me two window boxes to put on our front porch. I am really excited about them...but fingers crossed that I can keep the flowers alive :)

Our house is green, and we have a lot of "greenery" around the front of the house, so this is a great way to add some color. Stuart and I went to Home Depot after Christmas...we didn't find the best options (it is winter after all) for flowers but decided on some lovely purple and yellow pansies with a pop of cabbage. (I have been warned that the cabbage may smell at some point).

Here is an empty flower box that Stuart already hung for me. I love the iron.

Next, here are my tools....

The flowers

The dirt/soil

I added some plastic bags and cut holes in them to let the water through.
I also added some leftover pine that I used around the house to decorate for Christmas.

Gloves? check.
Gardening trowel? check.

Here's my first box finished. And my mess...

Ta-da! Here is the finished product. Hopefully, the flowers will bloom more and add some more color.

Now for my next project...remember to water them :)

Thanks Mrs. D!

-Anna Claire

Day Out.

Christmas Craft - Wedding Invitation Ornament

This is my last craft for the holiday season :)

My sister-in-law showed me this idea of taking a leftover wedding invitation and making an ornament out of it. I loved that idea especially since I do have a few extras left from the wedding.

This is the blog she showed me.

I decided to use both my invitations and Save the Dates for this project. I loved them both and have extras so I might as well!

It was very easy, and I made two while watching TV one night (I gave one to my mom too).

Steps:
-Cut up 2 to 3 invitations in strips along each line of the invitations
-Curl the strips with scissors like you would with ribbon
-Fill a clear glass or plastic ornament (I got mine from Michael's) with the curled strips

Here's a close up of how mine turned out.

Thanks K! :)

Christmas Craft - Burlap Stockings

Day In.

I was on the hunt for some new stockings for Stuart and I since we don't have a set together. The ones I liked were pretty expensive. I have always looked the look of (pretty much anything) burlap. I decided to make them. It ended up being easier than I thought.

I had Stuart print this pattern at 200%. I ignored the details and just used the basic shape. Along with the burlap, I also bought a light tan twill fabric...I wanted the stockings to be simple. Here are a couple of steps along the way.

I pinned down the pattern to my burlap....

...and cut 2 for each stocking.

I also cut out 2 of the stocking pattern in the twill. I decided to add an extra 4" past the end of the stocking, so that I could  fold over the top of the stocking.

Anyways...an hour or two later, here they are.

Stuart's is on the left with the manly ruffles. I have the flower :)

This blog has great step-by-step instructions for very similar stockings to ours.

Stuart wanted to add a picture of the living room with the stockings. Here you go.

Day Out.

-Anna Claire

Christmas Craft - Front Door Wreath

Day In.

Earlier in the fall, some friends and I wanted to do something crafty. So we found this wreath idea using brown coffee filters. It was so easy and fun! 

You need:

-glue gun

-glue sticks

-package of brown coffee filters (This would also be really pretty with white filters. I might have to try that next year)

-any size twig wreath (I got mine from Michael's)

Just put a dime-size ball of hot glue on the bottom of a coffee filter. Scrunch it together and place on the wreath. (Be careful! One friend of mine kept burning her fingers :) )

Continue until the front of the wreath is covered. Add a ribbon of your choice.

Here is my finished product:

I really like how it turned out. I added a sparkly ribbon to finish it off. It's perfect for Fall as well.

Day Out.

Christmas Craft - Brown Paper Packages

Day In.

Stuart and I both love Christmas time. I am loving this first year together and getting to decorate our house.

We bought our first tree together at Home Depot. We don't have a ton of space so we tried to find a tree that wasn't too wide. We had to move a side table that was between our two chairs. Its's a little squished but I love how it turned out.

I also wanted to keep our wrapping simple...so I bought brown packaging paper. It's about $4 and you get 10 yards! That's perfect for a budget and if any is left over, I can use it through out the year as well. I also bought a set of lowercase alphabet stamps instead of finding tags I liked. Plus, I'm sure to use these again. (Note: These aren't the exact ones I found. I got mine at Michael's for about $5.) They also had a stamp on sale for $1 that said "Oh Happy Day". I couldn't resist it :)

Last, I picked up some simple raffia ribbon to tie the look together.

Here's how they turned out!

Day Out.

Day Two - The Honeymoon (aka Bora Bora!)

When we woke up at Union Station, there was no time to waste.  We had to drive down to Atlanta in our nicely decorated car to get on plane to LA (not the final destination).

(Special shout out to Lauren, Terilyn and Rebecca for decorating!)

The honeymoon route went a little something like this: 

Nashville to Atlanta (driving - 4 hours), Atlanta to Los Angeles (flying - 5 hours), Los Angeles to Papeete, Tahiti (flying - 8 hours), Papeete to Bora Bora (flying - 45 minutes), and Bora Bora Airport to our hotel (boat ride - 20 minutes). It was quite the adventure!

Our view from the plane 

Our greeting at the Tahiti airport...it was 4am at this point!

Our tiny plane to take us from Papeete to Bora Bora.

Can you say stunning?

A view of our resort from the air - the Hilton Bora Bora Nui Resort.

We are excited to be here! Only one more mode of transportation to go...the Hilton yacht (tough life).

Part of the resort....look at that water!

The Villa de Day! # 337

Yes, we could see fish swimming under the villa. Please don't hate us :)

This is the first place we relaxed at. It's also the first place I (Anna Claire) got terribly burned. No surprise there...

Snuggle toes!

We kayaked.

We snorkeled.

We read.
(What? Stuart is reading? I know, my thoughts exactly. Thus, the photo)

We drank. We ate. (Passion Fruit marg for me!)

We danced with the natives.

We rode a Hobie Cat.

We biked the main island.

We took a Jeep safari...thought we were going to possibly die at some points, but it was great! :)

We found a World War II cannon.

We made it to the top!

We visited a pearl farm.

And then we said goodbye....

Amazing! A trip of a lifetime. Now back to reality...

-Anna Claire

Day One - The Wedding

We were married on Friday, October 7, 2011 in Nashville, TN.

The rehearsal dinner at The Bound'ry was awesome.  The steak and crab cakes were amazing!

The service was at the Wightman Chapel at Scarritt Bennett and the reception at aVenue. The wedding ceremony and reception were everything we could hope for!  We hope our guests had a fun time exploring Nashville.  We know a few of the younger crowd really enjoyed the nightlife, while others enjoyed shopping for boots and sightseeing. It all went by so fast, but the pictures remind us how fun it was!

It's official! We are now Mr. and Mrs. Day.

-Stu