Before and After

Please join me on a short tour of our home. Although most of you would enter through the backdoor as family and friends are most welcome, I'll start with the front door for the sake of our tour.

The Foyer, Before:

Wallpaper everywhere.

The Foyer, After:

The next item here is a new light fixture (Tommy, suggestions?). We'd also like a new front door, but we will apparently be saving for that for a few years!

Immediately to the left is Scott's study. I do not have any pictures of it from before or after. We haven't really done anything in there yet. To the right is the dining room. These are the 2 rooms in the main living area that we have not painted. We liked the red color and thought rather than fight painting it (does anyone remember when I thought it would be a good idea to paint our tiny bathroom r-e-d?!?! Nightmare!), we decided to keep it as it was. We still need to paint the trim white....maybe tomorrow, as my 4-year-old nephew is fond of saying.

Dining Room, Before:

The only "new" touch is the light fixture that we traded out from this one...

to this one....

(We took the brass chandelier from the kitchen, spray painted it black and then rehung it in the dining room. It looks fantastic, and will not be coming down any time soon. I was so impressed with Scott and his patience! This was not the simple 10 minute project that HGTV makes it out to be! But the price was right...)

*There used to be a door between the dining room and kitchen.

Kitchen, Before:

Our kitchen has been and will continue to be a work in progress. Before you can say anything, the next items on our list are those darn flourscent lights! Or maybe a new refrigerator. Or counter tops. Oh well, we've done a lot and I love how our kitchen is coming together!

Lots of Mary Engelbreit border paper!

Kitchen, After:

The brown above the sink is going to be a wine rack. Maybe tomorrow.

You can't really see my new art on this wall, but I LOVE it. One is an eggplant and one is a pear, and they have some funky abstract elements to them. Pretty cool.

Here's one:

Our main hallway, Before:

Was covered in this wallpaper! Yikes!

We painted the walls a light khaki color and I've hung black/white photos and mementos from our families along 1 wall. The hallway used to have FIVE doors in it--2 closets, 1 to the master bedroom, 1 to the kitchen, and 1 to the foyer. We took 2 out and now have a more "open floorplan."

These were the light fixtures:

And now we have these:

Our Master Bedroom, Before:

Well, in transition. I do not have a picture from when we bought it. It was gray and brown. Really. It was.

I think some of my "before" pictures are on the blog somewhere else. If I can figure out how to link it I will....

Our Master Bedroom, After:

Still have a few things to do before I'm "done." But for now, I love it. It feels so luxurious and grown-up!

The Den, Before:

The Den, After:

We LOVE our home and hope that you do too! We have 3 bedrooms that are ready for visitors! As long as you don't mind the 1980s decor in those rooms, we won't make you work ;)

We have had fun working on our house, and have even more fun dreaming about what to do next and what to do in the years to come. This is our forever home, and that is so exciting to think about!

Come see us!

Home Improvement Projects...

...we're still working around here. I promise I'll post pictures soon--maybe tomorrow. I wanted to show this one to you, because it made me laugh. As with most of our projects, something always goes wrong and we end up having to clean up, redo, patch up, or regroup. Scott was hanging the cornice boxes that I made and had to take a break to clean up his beer. The funny thing about this set-back was that the actual project went smoothly....however, the mantle had some nails on it, and the beer didn't set evenly on it. When it fell, it took a couple of my newly framed photographs with it, and made quite a mess. At least it was a cheap cleanup!

Double Decker 2010

Double Decker was once again an eventful weekend. It seems that every year the weather brings challenges to the event planners...and this year was no different. Due to strong winds and threats of thunderstorms/hail/tornadoes, they decided to split the festival into 2 days. Lots of people were upset (mostly bar owners who couldn't sell beer on Sunday), but truthfully, I thought it was much more enjoyable. The crowds were spread out and you could actually walk around without feeling like you were in the mash pit. As in years past, I went early and took Mo. I like to walk around and look at the art and pottery, and Mo likes to sniff around the crowd. When it starts to warm up, I take Mo home and usually meet Scott for music and mingling.

This year my aunt and uncle came down from Collierville to visit. We went to dinner at Taylor and then hit the streets the next morning. I only took a few pictures this year (and they are quite random)

My Aunt Anita and Momma, waiting and waiting and waiting on dinner. I don't know why we continue to go to Taylor expecting to eat within the hour....but, as Daddy always says, the reason we go to Taylor is to watch the people.

Oxford's newest addition to the Police Department

Pets of all kind came to the festival!

We named this little dog "Tina"---Mo might have enjoyed meeting her!

My dad and my Uncle Bobby, with Mo (who was quite tired at this point!)

It was a fun, relaxing weekend--too bad we didn't get any pictures of Scott!

Spring time = Ole Miss Baseball

Scott and I have season tickets to Ole Miss baseball (well, and football and basketball...) and we enjoy going to as many games as we can. This year we were a little off schedule since Scott had 2 classes. When he couldn't go, we'd invite family and friends. After just 1 game we realized Hayes is a true baseball fan! Here are a few pictures from some random games:

Ole Miss hosted #5 LSU....and after giving a lead to LSU, the Rebels tied things up in the 8th inning. Back and forth, back and forth....before long we were in extra innings!

11th inning...LSU pitches to Miles Hamblin

Nice base hit!

So, LSU regroups.

And THIS is what they come up with:

WHAT is this?!? They pulled everyone into the infield! They only left 2 players in the outfield. Not quite the strategy I would have used, but as Scott often reminds me, I'm not the coach.

Kevin Mort (who came and spoke to my middle school students in the Fall, so I naturally cheer for him!) came to the plate...

And hit a walk-off homerun!! Rebels win!

At another game..,

Hayes loved watching the "ba" and was babbling so loudly it was as if he was heckling the batter!

This gentleman is known for the "Sweet Caroline" dance that he conducts for his entire section. A few years ago, this was a b-i-g deal. Now, I think the fans have moved on to the new trend (started by the baseball players). However, this super fan keeps on conducting...

Hotty Toddy Rebels!