Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  It sure has been a busy Easter week for this lady... and I am SO thankful for a day off today. I may still have arrived at the office at 8:30 this morning, but in PJ's and no make-up - I'll take it! ...and my magazine is off to the printers, so I can breathe a little better this weekend.

I thought I would share some items that have hopped into our house this week... or that I've been wanting to hop into our house! :) 

My favorite Easter candies.... I can't wait for SUNDAY!!! 

These adorable heels from Seychelles.

These precious guest towel holder with a bird weight - perfect for Spring!

These Milk Glass jars are the perfect addition to the Easter table.  

{They are also only $6 and $8 - a steal!}

If you haven't discovered Layla Grayce - you can do some serious damage! One of my favorites are these paper place mats that add just the right pop of fun to the table! 

{Use Code SPRING for 25% today only!} 

Wishing everyone a fabulous Easter filled with lots of friendship, family and love! 

xo, Tracy

Fountain of Youth

Credit: Lilly Pulitzer

Ponce de Leon spotted the state of Florida 500 years ago today. 

Cheers to that... and his Fountain of Youth! 

Also, to my sweet Nana who turns 81 today,  I love you so very much! Thank you for your Cajun blood... good cookin', great cakes, funny jokes, good Catholic faith and so much love!!! 

PS- #17 on The March list got checked off today... Ava Katherine Jaques Entered the World today at 12:36 p.m.  It's been a good day in paradise!  Now if we could just shew this cold weather on down the road... I could finish off my March list with some pretty flowers in my beds.

Happy Wednesday!! 

Southern Bracket

Just some quick fun bracketology for those Southern Basketball fans out there... Garden & Gun is hosting a Southern Food Bracket where each week you get to select your favorite foods and see who moves on to face their next challenger.  It's mindless... and kinda fun. Thought I would share with the blogging world so you could all cast your votes!

Monday starts round 2 - so be sure to check back in!  

Thursday Thoughts

Happy. Healthy. Loving Life.  My Nieces and Nephews.

Nothing makes me happier than to see my nieces and nephews with a big smile on their faces... I know you don't usually document the "not so happy faces," but to see them so happy and healthy, makes me count my blessings.  As you have probably gathered - I am a {super proud} Aunt to 7 {soon to be 8} beautiful Elleard children... all under the age of 10.  They are all full of life, giggles and the biggest hugs a kid can give.  I don't get to see them nearly as much as I would like, but {one of the few things} I am thankful to have Facebook for is the field trips, the long Saturdays at the ballpark, cheer competitions, birthday parties, first steps, sleepy mornings and late nights. I always know what they are up to - and usually get a picture {or sometimes a video} to make me feel a part of their lives. I am so thankful for great brothers and sister-in-law's that keep me updated via Facebook and texts.  Today I just wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures of the kiddos...

Jayden - 10, Makenzie - 7, Landon - 5

Bailey - 4, Emilia Cay - 3, Elijah - 2, Lucas - 1

Garden Boxes

Happy Spring Y'all!  Who else is ecstatic that Spring is finally here?  I sure am!

With gardening season is just around the corner, today I wanted to share a fun idea for new planters. With limited space we got creative with our area and decided to make garden boxes to hang on the fence. They were really easy to make and budget friendly too.

Supplies needed:
Fence Slats {1.5 needed per box}
Saw to Cut the slats {or have them cut at the store}
Nails
Hooks & Eye holes {2/each per box - for hanging on fence}
Clear shower curtain {for lining}
Staple Gun
Black Spray Paint
Chalk {for labeling}

First, decide how big you would like your boxes and cut your boards. 

Three should be the same length and two small ends. 

{We bought a few extra to make the ends and we split a couple}

Use nails to secure the front & back. 

Then, slide in your sides and secure with more nails.

Next, we painted the boxes black with $1 can of spray paint.  

{One can covered about two boxes.}  We painted all outsides because you could see ours, but you could leave the bottom unfinished if they are going to be on the ground.

Below are the boxes in full bloom. We used 4 for herbs and 2 for flowers. 

The signs are from our wedding. My dad made them for us, so we wanted to find somewhere special to display them. We have a very festive backyard - which makes it the perfect spot for cook-outs, cocktails and long summer days... soon to be upon us! 

Spring Decorating

Last night I picked up all the St. Patty's day items around the house and packed them up for the season... I miss my cute little monogrammed beer towels already - and the little leprechauns were so cute!  But, Easter is right around the corner... so out came the bunnies, eggs and baskets.  I was so happy to see our Easter baskets in the den this morning. I just get excited seeing them there with their bare Easter grass and big bows, ready to be filled to the top with candies and goodies!  I have always loved the Easter season - as a child, I loved picking out my Easter dress {and sometimes a matching hat}, loved the afternoon Easter Egg hunt that always took place at Nana & PawPaw's house... all the cousins would gather and prepare for the huge hunt that was to commence... complete with one golden egg that was always the biggest and filled with dollar bills. Man, we felt the the king of the world if you found it - such a great memory.  Easter is always one of my favorite times at church too. I love to see so many families and couples with their kids, all dressed in their best - packed in the church on Easter morning.  It just fills you with joy and reminds you of the happiness of the season!

After unpacking our Easter decor, I was disappointed to see that I really don't have much to show for it.  So, the hubs gave me permission to do a little shopping for Easter and springtime decor.  I wanted to share with you some of my favorites!

Rope Stools - these would really lighten up our kitchen stools.

Place-mats for 2 

Make simple table runners and run them ling ways on you table to create a fun new look for spring.

Crate paper birds in a tree.  Perfect for our dining room hutch!

Jazz up your candles with grass.

Who else is ready for these pretties to pop out? 

I've already got my eye on some early bloomers in town. 

Love this pillow - can anyone tell me where to find it? 

Lastly, I think it's time for a chalkboard in the Lyons' den!  Maybe this will be my weekend project... has anyone else made one? Got a tips, pointers?

Happy Spring Y'all - Excited to see warmer weather on the horizon! 

A Green Weekend

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!!  We loved being here in town and had so much fun celebrating St. Patty's day!  Friday we attended a Oyster Roast at some of our good friends house on the river... I wish I had taken pictures Suzanna's house - because it is the cutest decorated 500 sq. ft. cabin I have ever seen.  Every detail is covered and so well thought-out. For example, they have a 22 ft. crawfish hanging from the ceiling in their kitchen - and it looks just awesome!  Maybe I'll have to do a photo-shot of her cabin one day and dedicate a blog just to it, you guys would love it.

Saturday we got up nice and early to run the Windy Whirl 5K {one check off the March list} put on by our local elementary school. The morning started off very chilly and wet, but cleared up around the time we started the race and ended up being a beautiful day!

I even got a medal for placing first in my age group.  We both did the race just for fun, but had pretty good times... 26min. 4 sec. for me, I was pleased.

Saturday J did some work on one of our rental houses, so I decided to browse the aisles of Wally World for a few hours... which led to Easter goodie bags for my nieces and nephews. I just couldn't resist all the fun spring toys and candy.

Saturday night we attended a cocktail party at the Lexington Country Club with lots of friends. I am sad to say that this was the only picture we took. The Pop-Rivits kept the jams going late into the night and there was lots of green to go around!!

Sunday we made it to morning mass {check that one off the March list} and even got to bring up the gifts because we were so "festively dressed"- haha, love our little old church ladies. St. Patty's day was pretty low key. We watched Carolina play and had some green beers, played a nice sunday afternoon game of Scrabble while doing laundry and watching the bracket selections come in. We ended the night with a delicious meal, which has become a tradition this month - Sunday Suppers - we like to call them, where we cook a nice down-home southern meal to kick off the week.  I made a this super simple Parmesan Garlic {adding mushrooms} sauce to go on our steaks... so easy, healthy and delicious.

Hope everyone had a nice St. Patty's day and got their green on!! 

Friday Fun: Wedding Details

With wedding season in full-bloom and our second Anniversary just around the corner, I thought I would share some of the fun things we decided to do add to our wedding. Today I wanted to share just the ceremony details.  We are both Catholic {excited for a new Pope}, so we had a traditional full mass.  I was worried about it being long, but to tell you the truth, it went by so quickly, I barely remember it!

Programs 

We went with the traditional catholic programs and used a pineapple to match our invitations. Since I work in the communications field I deal with a lot of printers - and quickly realized that when they hear the word "wedding" the price doubles.  Instead of going with a traditional wedding printer, we used one of my vendors that I use regularly for work and he gave us a steal. He even over-nighted our programs to us two days before the wedding. Thank you John!!

We used a clean linen ivory paper with thermography printing. I wish I had had more time to think about fonts, but we just went with what they had and... they turned out beautiful!

Shells
In place of the traditional candle lighting or sand we decided that we wanted something to symbolize all of our friends and family coming together and praying for our marriage. We gave everyone a shell with their program and asked them to say a prayer for us and return it at the end of the ceremony.

Sign-In Table

On the sign-in table we framed 8x10's of both of our parents on their wedding day. It was very special to us that both our parents were married in the Catholic church and are both still married after 38 & 40 years.  So blessed!  Our attendees loved seeing our parents wedding pictures too!  I also used the mini-bouquet that I tossed at the reception to decorate the table. It worked out great and saved us some $$!

Escorts

We had to be very creative with our escorts. Both of my sister-in-laws were supposed to be bridesmaids and then found out they were pregnant and due within a month of the wedding. {Believe me, I know! They were super stressed about it too.} So we decided instead of being a bridesmaid, my brothers would process in with them at the beginning of the wedding with the babies.  Well, one baby came early (YAY!) and one came late (2 days before the wedding), so one was able to come - the other brother flew in the night before the wedding to surprise me and be there. His wife was at home with baby Lucas and my other flower girl. So, Roberto escorted in my grandmother and Clint escorted in Krystal - it worked out well.  But... left my Momma alone. So, we decided that my 10 year old nephew was the perfect man for the job. He was super nervous - but so cute! 

Ring Bearers

I wanted the boys to have a fun role at the wedding - they were 2 and 4 when we got married, so the perfect age! We gave them bells and they were the last to process down the aisle before me - one held the bell the whole way down and just smiled... but the other did a great job and it was a hit!

Gifts

Since Jesse is an only child, he's gaining a big ol' family on my side. I have two older brothers and they were both groomsmen in the wedding, but we wanted to give them another special role. It was perfect to have them bring up the gifts and also gave us a fun chance to see them during the ceremony. I love this picture - just wish you could see more of Roberto!

Pew Flowers

For those of you getting married, you know how quickly pew hangers can add up. But, our church was so big and open that we really needed something to brighten it up!  I found a do-it yourself pew hangers online and made 10 pew hangers that looked awesome. Each one only cost me $2. I delivered them to my florist the week of the wedding and they filled them beautifully for only $25 each! {More details on our flowers later - loved my florist!}

Our photographer did an awesome job getting some cool shots of the stained glass windows... this was one of my favorites  I wanted to share.  I wasn't really picky about my photos from the beginning, luckily I had an awesome photographer!

Gosh, I just love looking back at planning our wedding - it was so much fun!!  Attire, Food, Flowers and Reception details to come...

Church - St. Thomas by the Sea Catholic Church

Invitations - Southland Printing, Lexington,  KY

Flowers - Belle Bouquet, Saraland, AL

Photography by Mary Beth Tyson Photography. 

Thursday Thoughts

Happy Pi {3.14} Day! 

For those of you out there celebrating 3.14 - check out the 8 steps to your perfect Pi Day celebration.  Some of the things just crack me up!

For those of you not celebrating Pi day because it's lent and you gave up Sugar - not to fret, you can have a chicken pot-pie like we're having for dinner.  I know - it's a "special occasion" but let me tell you how many special occasions we've had lately. Too many to count!

Short post today - I got lots of work to do - but I wanted to share a fun quote for the week that I thought we could all appreciate. Some good friends of ours just moved to Ohio - he is a project manager for a construction company and they got the bid to build a Children's Hospital in Akron, Ohio.  Yes - you read that right. They moved from Alabama to Akron - in the middle of winter too. They are surviving pretty well... and he is getting to do some amazing work.  He shared this quote today on his Facebook and I just thought it was too good to pass up:

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

Pretty good motto for the Akron Children's "Building on the Promise" project.

How perfectly put.  I hope that every day I can keep this in mind. The work you are doing today is so much greater than what you will ever be able to see. :)

Happy Thursday, folks!

xo,
Trace

3.13.13

What a lucky day we have on our hands today!  I just left a meeting and was putting a date on my notes and realized - it's 3.13.13 - totally cool. Not just because of the numbers... but it's also my quarter birthday - but who's counting? What that really means is that I only have 3 quarters of a year left until my thirties. Wowza is right! Nothin' like makin' up for lost time... I only have 274 days left to embrace the child within and finish my 30b430 bucket list.

No... not really.  Do you really think I'm ever going to really grow up?  I will always love dying Easter eggs, carving pumpkins, puzzles, slip-in-slides, cookies, candy and Funfetti cake.  The hubs turned 34 last week - and he looked at my the night before and said, "I don't really feel 34 though" and I think that was exactly the perfect statement.  What do numbers matter anyway... when you have so many more ahead of you!

So today, I thought I would celebrate this milestone {ha} and share with you some of my favorite things. I guess I'm wishing that I did have quarterly birthday and got gifts year-round {or that the hubs will read today's post}....

Adorable Hand Embroidered State Pillows

 Fun new hair ties

Still waiting on this one... classic monogrammed necklace

Who doesn't need a Lilly Koozie? 

Or this adorable Lilly belt?

What's on your Amazon Wish List this spring?