Baby Mania

Well, I've got a big announcement....one of my closest friends is having a baby!! I couldn't be any more excited for Jess and Drew. They have a baby girl on the way, and is due for arrival on September 25th. If she is smart, she will arrive three days early to see the Auburn v LSU game. Funny enough, Jess and Drew were married on Auburn v LSU weekend.

Jess and Drew live in Tampa, and we don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like. When I heard she was preggers I just knew I had to throw her a baby shower. She would do the same for me! Her mom and dad were in town in June, so we started making plans. My mom came down with me, which added to the fun of our girls' weekend. It was so nice that Francine, Jessica's mom, could be there as well.

We rented out the clubhouse in their neighborhood, and started to get to work. Two of Jess's local Tampa friends helped me quite a bit as well. Allie and Rachel were life-savers. Not being close by, some things were difficult to do from far away.

Jess decided to do the baby's room in grey and yellow, and this gave us a great color scheme for the baby shower.

Silver tablecloths made for a great backdrop on all of the fun yellow bursts of color we planned on using. Lemons in a hurricane vase, surrounded by tulle, made a great centerpiece for the food table. A few ball jars that were covered in spray paint added a fun touch to the tables. My mom made some tissue paper flowers out of white, yellow and grey that filled those jars. The diaper cakes were Rachel originals, and really added a great touch to the room. Also, if you notice the lemonade in the top right corner, that is the Toomer's Corner Lemonade recipe. I knew we weren't throwing an orange baby shower, but had to add just a hint of Auburn somewhere!

Thanks to Pinterest on the baby onesies hanging from ribbon. Thanks to Carter's for deciding that their entire late spring line was going to be grey and yellow. Mom found a bunch of onesies that were the perfect color, and we added some tulle pom poms to the ones that didn't have anything on the front. 

Allie created the candy bar in all of the perfect colors. Jess isn't the biggest fan of cake, mostly because of the icing, so Allie decided to do something different. She made chocolate covered pretzel sticks, giant marshmallows covered in yellow chocolate, lemon heads, and lollipops. You name it, she found it. She even put out bags so you could take some home. Perfect!

I just wanted to add a picture of some of the tulle pom poms we had hanging around the room. I will add a tutorial for these at a later point, because these are so easy and so cute! I left all of them with Jess in case she wants to use any of them in the baby's room. 

Also, I didn't get a great picture, but Rachel made a chocolate covered M&M popcorn. Rachel, if you read this, leave the recipe in the comment box below so I can create a post for that. I am a HUGE popcorn fan, and I have never had anything like this. I couldn't stop eating it, and have been craving it ever since!

We had such a blast throwing this for Jess. I think, after meeting alot of her friends, Jess and Drew are some of the last ones to start having babies in their group of friends in Tampa. They are the first in mine and Jay's group of friends. I hope we were able to create something pretty special for them, I clearly haven't had alot of  practice at baby showers!

I can't wait to meet this little bundle of joy. She is already so loved by family and friends, and after this shower, she is very well dressed!!

Infiltrating the Man Trip

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend my dad's annual man trip to Indianapolis. Typically, there are a group of guys who go on Wednesday or Thursday, and spend the week shopping for classic cars at the Mecum Auto Auction and spend Saturday at the track watching they Indy 500 time trials. You may, or may not, know that I was born in Indy, and it is the only place that felt like home while I was growing up a corporate brat. (A corporate brat is very similar to an Army brat, yet the military isn't involved, just the corporate headquarters).

We have a tradition that started in our house when we moved to California, and stayed with us ever since then. My parents used to go to the race when we lived close, but California to Indy is quite the commute. We started getting Kentucky Fried Chicken and watching the race together at home. We still do this. I grew up in and around Indianapolis and had never been to the track before this year. I have watched it every year while growing up. The tradition that surrounds the race still give me chill bumps and make me teary eyed on race day. So, being able to go to the track for my first time trials was quite the treat.

I loved being able to see the bricks that make it the brickyard, and being able to sit high enough to see the entire track.

You truly can't appreciate how awesome this track is without being there. Besides the fact that it is enormous, it's just so pretty. There is a golf course that runs through the back straight away, and everything is just so wide open.

We spent most of the morning and early afternoon at the track, and decided to grab lunch before heading over to the fair grounds for the auction for the rest of the day. Now, if you are ever in Indy, specifically Speedway, at any point in your life, this bit of information will change your life! I'm not kidding, it's life or death! YOU MUST EAT AT THE MUG N BUN!!! It's is Indiana's oldest drive-in. Everything on the menu is a heart attack on a plate, they make their own homemade root beer, and all the food is either fried or covered in grease. IT'S AMAZING!! I decided to go with your traditional cheeseburger, root beer, and fried mac and cheese wedges. MMM... I can't wait for another trip to Indiana just to eat there!

Then, we finally arrived at one of my favorite places. The Mecum Auto Auction. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out the speed channel this weekend. They are constantly playing re-runs from the past shows. You may even see me on Saturday afternoon up on stage checking out some of the cars! We saw some beautiful cars come across the auction block. Almost every car was selling in the $100,000+ range, and almost all of them were meticulously taken care of. It's too bad they aren't made the same way anymore. There is something so elegant about a classic car that just can't be re-done today.

I think the pink one could really make Barbie look like a Bad Ass!! All muscle!

I have been begging to go on this trip for years. I love looking at cars with dad, and loved the idea of getting to go to the track. I can't believe I was actually invited this year, and it surpassed all of the expectations I had. It's very rare I get to spend that much time with big bad dad, but it was truly a blessing.

Now, I need to figure out how to sneak in next year! *wink*

Mother's Day Treat

Finally getting my DIY back on. I feel like it's been a while, but Mother's Day seemed like the perfect excuse to bust out the paint and get to work.

BTW...big announcement...I have officially been blogging for one year now. It's kind of crazy. My first post was on May 18th, 2011. I am so glad I have gotten to share our life with so many people.

Back to Mother's Day though. My mom had gotten Jay and I this cute orange and blue frame, looks a little weathered, for our anniversary. I just love it. I have no idea where she got it, so I decided to re-create it for Jay's mom.

I used just a standard wood block and painted all over sea foam green first. After that was dried, I went back and taped off for the stripes. This part helped tremendously so pay attention. I painted all over sea foam green once more before I painted the blue. It definitely helped keep the blue from running under the tape.

Once the whole thing was dry, I took a sanding block to give it a bit of a distressed look. I found the ribbon at Michael's, and thought the grey worked well. I used a staple gun to keep it in place, next time I will use my glue gun. That was the initial plan this time, but I couldn't find it so we made do!

On the back, I simply drilled a small hole and placed a peg in there to keep it upright. 

This is a very simple project, if you are patient. Waiting for paint to dry is my toughest battle in life sometimes. I always just want to keep painting over it. I kind of like how this turned out, and want to try a couple of other variations.

I made one for Paige too, to take with her to Cape Town this summer. I didn't want her to forget what we looked like! However, since she ran out in such a rush, and spent less than a day at home between finals and Cape Town I didn't get a picture. Hers was red and black. It was the cutest frame I could make in red in black!

If you have any other suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

When One Door Closes...

It's been a while. Yikes! Jay and I finally finished our front door. We spent most of last Sunday painting this door, and sitting in our over-heated living room for 8 hours waiting for it to dry. I have to say though, I really LOVE how it turned out. The door that was here in it's place before this little remodel was impossible. If you set your purse down, and water and did a little stretching before hand, you might be able to push it into submission so it would lock. Jay was better at this than I was, I typically just refused to use it unless absolutely necessary. So, being able to turn the lock on this one with one hand and a million things in the other is AMAZING! Besides the fact that it looks quite a bit nicer. The other door also had a huge small gap underneath of it. After a long Saturday for Big Gus changing the threshold to fill the 2" gap, it was fixed, for about 2 weeks. The neighbors cat could crawl through that hole. All in all, this door is a huge improvement when it comes to functionality, and it's also a huge improvement aesthetically. YAY!

This was right after the door was put in. We eventually had to paint everything that was white. And, can I tell you how funny it must have been to watch us get this thing out of the truck and into the garage. I'm not even sure how our contractor got it in there. They whole thing comes together in one piece.

This was Haley's idea of helpful. I'm pretty surprised she didn't get any paint on her. Although, I would probably never know!

Right after the paint was put on.

It's Georgia...it's hot...there are mosquitos. Sorry to my neighbors for having to look at this all day, but I was being eaten alive by those dang bugs all day. This had to happen!

Finally, the finished product. I just love how much it pops against the color of the house. 

If you are thinking about starting a project like this, whether you are getting a new front door, or painting the one you have, I have a couple of tips for you.

1) Paint is everything. We bought this Trim and Door Paint from Home Depot that worked like a charm. The guy in the paint department talked me into when I was painting the quarter round trim in our bathroom, and so I stuck with it again. On the front door, we only did one coat. One coat with black paint is virtually unheard of. It's made to be outside, and it is a gel consistency instead of a thin latex paint consistency. I thought it was a little expensive at $20 for a quart, but in the end it was worth every penny. You could see some of the brush strokes when I first put it on, but they evened out as it dried and now you can't see any of them. 

2) The brush is the second most important part of this project. Buy a good brush. It seems like a waste of money, but totally worth it. It will make sure the project looks professional.

3) When they say 8 hours on the can, they really mean it. Make sure you don't have anywhere to go that day, and get some plastic sheeting in case it starts to rain or the bugs are invading.

All in all, this was a fairly easy project. It wasn't the cheapest since there was a brand new door involved. But, if you are just looking for a new color on the door you already have this is a very cheap fix.

Attitude of Gratitude: All You Need is Love

There is nothing like God pulling you out of bed on a Sunday morning for church. I know I have said this before, but it seems to be happening to me a lot lately. This Sunday, He was a little late, so I went downstairs to make coffee for Jay and bring up cereal and the couple of leftover pancakes from yesterday. We flipped on the laptop and watched Andy Stanley online. What did people do when they were lazy and before church had live sermons online? I am actually still in my PJs while I am writing this. I love Sundays! He is on the 7th installment of an 8 part series on Christian. What it means to be Christian. Buddy Hoffman at Grace has a similar attitude as Andy, and I first heard the phrase from him. "Strive to be more than a Christian, strive to be a follower of Christ". Of course, Buddy tells people he is a follower of Christ, but it was interesting to hear an entire sermon on why we should do this. The lesson today was on loopholes. Andy claimed that Christians are better at loopholes than any other religion on Earth. That was a pretty bold statement. But, when he started giving examples of how Christians try to rationalize their actions and beliefs it started to make sense.

Then, as it does on most of the Sundays that God un-willingly pulls me out of bed, I got that hit in the gut with the realization that I have been doing this with a pretty major life decision all week. I feel like God has been calling me to volunteer with the middle school girls at North Point. I can't remember if I had posted about that before, so if this is a repeat...bare with me! I truly found God when I was in middle school, due in huge part to my middle school leader LeeAnn. On another Sunday that my butt was forced into a chair on Sunday Andy was talking about how they are going to add a service in the fall and would need close to 1000 additional volunteers to make this happen. One of the biggest needs was in middle school, and there was another conviction I wouldn't have received unless God woke me up that morning. I have gone through the interviews, applications, background checks, and met with the girls coordinator to get started. We sat down and had a long conversation about what it means to be a follower of Christ, your beliefs on different hot button issues that come up in the middle school world, etc. I shared my story and was asked what seemed like a very small question at the time, but has sparked alot of self-doubt since then. Have you been baptized? Well, the answer is no. It's not that I don't want to be, it just never came up with all of our moves as kids and bouncing around churches like we did across the country. In order to serve at North Point you really need to be baptized. Kids in the middle school have their own baptisms in their own wing of the church. In order to help these kids find a life in Christ, it's important that you can share this story with them. I completely understand. But, I had all of this doubt. Maybe I'm not ready, maybe this is God's way of showing me that this isn't what he wanted from me. This isn't where He wanted me to serve. I can't be a member of this church, I just started going there. Clearly, God has other plans for me, because this is ludicrous. This is all too fast.

But then, He wakes me up again for another convicting service. Loopholes. I was using baptism as a loophole to not serve Christ in the manner in which He has intended for my life. What does love require of me? God is requiring me to LOVE these kids the same way I was shown LOVE at their age. It's a huge commitment. It's 3 years, following these girls through their middle school career. It's every Sunday night, it's several camps a year, it's being there when life hits these girls. But, God gave me someone who did those things for me. How can I use a loophole to deprive those girls of the same thing?

I am thankful God woke me up out of bed this morning. But, I am going to need a lot of prayer throughout this experience. Without sounding too old, kids these days are faced with so much more than we were even 15 years ago. They are surrounded by more tragedy, divorce, and forced to make much more adult decisions than we even knew existed. They need strong women in their lives. They need women who can show them a safe way through their teenage years to help them make good decisions. Pray for the leaders who will impact their lives. I thank God for giving me someone who did this for me, pray that God leads the men and women who will be guiding our next generation into adulthood. I'm grateful God woke me up this morning to put this across my path, and grateful God gave me a strong network of friends and family to help me live out His plans for my life.

Thoughts Needed

As Jay and I have just celebrated our first wedding anniversary, it has brought on many thoughts about our future. Then I started thinking as I was planning my blog post for this week. We really aren't newlyweds anymore, but I am definitely still Southern. I am officially looking to re-name the blog to something more suited for the next phase of our life and marriage. We have moved past the newness of marriage, and have since moved into a comfortable love-filled era. Any ideas would be much appreciated. And, if you don't have any thoughts, be prepared for a couple of changes at The Southern Newlywed!!

How to Hide Your TV Cords

I absolutely cannot stand disorganization in my house. It drives me crazy, just ask Jay! I think everything has a spot, and there is a spot for everything. One thing I struggled with in our living room was the TV, DVD, Cable, and all of the cords that go with them. Our TV is hanging on the wall, per request of Jay, but the cable plug isn't on the same wall. At one point, and I really wish I had a picture of this, we had the cords strewn from the back of the TV and 5' across the wall. It was horrendous. I wouldn't let Jay invite anyone over to the house until we had this figured out. We ended up buying a piece of furniture that we could place under the TV, but it really didn't conceal any of the ugly. So, I decided I was going to Hobby Lobby and was going to find a solution. Then, right there in the lamp aisle, and don't ask why I was in that aisle, there was a pretty fabric cord cover in a pretty taupe color. It hit me. I am going to move the cable box to the piece of furniture under the TV, and zip tie the cords together, and cover them with this lamp cord cover. I mean, there isn't a huge difference in a lamp cord and the cables behind the TV, right?

You can still see it, even though I put some Mason jars and Hydrangea in front of it, but it is much less offensive than the alternative. Our fireplace is on the other side of this wall, so feeding the cords through a hole in the sheetrock just wasn't an option. I love the furniture. It was a HUGE steal at Ballards Backroom that is right down the street from us. I think I only paid $85 for it, and it's brand new. The cord cover was $10, and the flowers were right around $10 as well. We had the jars, the frame and the bird cage, so it was a pretty cheap fix. It totaled right at $105. If you already have the shelving, you can do this for next to nothing. I am very excited about how it turned out. The OCD has been quieted for a little bit!!