Absolutely loving life with two babies…not quite sane yet…not sure if sanity will ever return. 

We are working on 4 months of life with two kiddos and I am just beginning to see the light, I think.  I am totally in love with this little guy and he has been an easy baby.  Barrett reminds me often that Cates was “waaaay worse” than Mr. Rett is.  He weighs almost 16 pounds and will be 4 months tomorrow.  Cates weighed 16 pounds at her first birthday.  He generally sleeps through the night…Cates was over a year old before she even considered attempting that.  Needless to say, I have no reasons to complain…every moment is a gift.  I am learning quickly that they get big too quickly and that I don’t want to miss a single word or little coo that comes out of their mouths.

Cates’s newest expression as we head to Publix (and pass Starbucks) is, “Mom, you’re not going to stop at Starbucks today?”.  I wish you all could hear her sweet serious little concerned voice, as if I NEED my Starbucks.  She can totally order for me at the drive through. “Grande half caff mocha please”…she knows it by heart.  It may be a little obvious that I have needed my share of caffeine lately.

In all seriousness, I am really missing them during the day when I am not around them.  (Don’t misunderstand…the few hours of silence after everyone is asleep are glorious.)  I kind of want to go sneak in the bed with Cates and just “cuddle up” as she says.  And sweet Rett has sneaked into the big bed pretty much every morning around 5am because he and I are missing snuggling.  I am learning that there is nothing on this earth more important than family.

Even though it has only been 4 months, it is virtually impossible to picture my life without sweet Rett.  It is crazy to think how different things would have been if almost 4 years ago we would have been able to bring home healthy twin baby girls.  If we hadn’t lost Reid and McAdory, there probably wouldn’t have been a Cates.  I thank God for her little life every day for so many reasons.  Through losing babies and having babies, the sanctity of life has become so real.  Life is such a precious, precious gift.  In honor of Reid and Mc (who are hopefully getting to have pig tails in their hair and swinging so high in the biggest swings in Heaven) and my heart, my Cates, and my little love, sweet Rett, we will walk this weekend in the Sav A Life walk at the zoo.  I can’t think of any better reason to participate than to honor our 4 babies.

Please join us this Saturday for a fun walk around the zoo to honor your baby or someone you love.  Registration starts at 8:00 and the walk starts at 9:00.  It is just $10 to walk and the proceeds ALL go to saving little lives and honoring the sanctity of life.

If you can’t participate on Saturday, we covet your donations and prayers.  Both save lives daily.  Please support this amazing ministry and honor a little life that is important to you.  I am a sponsored walker this year and the link to my page for sponsorship is below, and it is very easy to donate directly through the page. I have a goal listed, but any contribution you can make would be much appreciated, even just a dollar!  The link to donate to Sav A Life is here: SAV A LIFE

Love you all!!

Here are the details:

WHERE: Our studio in Cloverdale (Montgomery, AL)

WHEN: May- August (or as your schedule allows)

SCHEDULE: 5 days per week, 10am – 5pm

REQUIREMENTS:

* Must have sincere interest in interior design and the business of design.

* Must be reasonably eloquent on the phone and over e-mail.  We have clients to impress.

* Must have a car.  There will be lots of errands to run (to the seamstress, framers, clients’ houses, etc) so you need to have a car and a valid license. I will compensate for mileage.

* Must know how to use CAD!

* Must have a cell phone. (Like I really have to say that!)

* Must be ORGANIZED, we have so much going on we need someone who is good at keeping track of details.

* Must be open to joining the team full time after your internship (if it goes well)!

DETAILS:

You’ll be a Jane/Jack of All Trades.  Must be comfortable making calls, composing charming e-mails and running errands. You’ll be needed to request samples, quotes and information about design items.  You’ll help coordinate deliveries, installations and applicable vendor and rep site visits.  You’ll help us with installs (or stay back in the office to get busy work done while we are out at installs- it will depend!)  You will help coordinate schedules and communicate with clients about their orders and designs. You’ll help with PARISH, our retail furniture store (keep up with orders, unboxing, tagging, rearranging, etc.) You will also have to do some not so amazing tasks like help clean/organize the studio, organize samples, grab coffee/ lunch and so on.

We have a super fun studio atmosphere (with the occasional visit from a few of our favorite little ones: Cates, Rett, and Charlie… so you have to be good around children). This is a pretty cool job so most of all it is important that you are excited and eager to learn!  It’ll be a ton of hard work, but also a great experience and very valuable if you are interested in this field.

**Please send all resumes to Emi who will collect them for review: emi@afgid.com**

We look forward to hearing from you!

Check out Ashley in Southern Living here!!

I love how the front of the magazine says “Curb Appeal Made Easy”…. I’m pretty sure Ashley would say it wasn’t THAT easy.  This house took A LOT of loving!  I will say their suggestions are awesome ideas for quick and easy updates!

Here are some more before and after shots:

And some of the inside for those of you who are curious…

You can see more pictures of Ashley’s house here!

Happy Friday!

Zinc Chalkboard with Jute Ribbon (3): $40 each

2 Drawer Writing Desk (2): $310 each.
(34.5″W x 16.25″D x 30.5″H)
Large Green Glass Bottle with Cork (2): $83 each
Small Green Glass Bottle with Cork (2): $60 each

Assorted Trays – Prices vary so call if interested!

Britton Bowls: Small $40, Large $58

Cameron Side Chair: $525

Caroline Chest: $1498
42″ W X 19.25″ D X 36″ H

Colina Club Chair – Warm Grey (2): $625 each

Crown Votive: $17 each

8 X 11 GEOMETRIC WOOL RUG “FALLION”: $1000

8 x 11 STRIPED WOOL RUG: $930

Godwin Bowl: $98

Large Standing 2 sided chalk board: $98

Layton Wing Chair (6): $500 each

Miranda Floor Lamp (2): $598 each

Nailhead Dining Chair – Armchair (2): $815 each
Nailhead Dining Chair – Armless (4): $740 each

Scroll Accent Table with Mirror Top: $475

Thaddeus Side Table (2): $598 each

Buoy Lantern (2): $182 each

Cream Wooden Floor Lamp: $750.00

Cream Wooden Table Lamp: $498.00

Gray Architectural Lamp with Rectangular Shade (2): $498.00 each

Grey Wooden Floor Lamp: $750.00

Recycled Blue Glass Cylinder Lamp (2): $250.00

Sling Magazine Rack: $68

Willow Basket Weave Pillows in Marine, Cream, & Ash. 2 in each color. Back is flax with buttons. $95 each

Wine Jug Lamp with Pleated Linen Shade: $525

Cream Porcelain Lamp: $250

One of a kind painting by Lauren Foshee: $1000

Hope you guys like the new items! Please feel free to email or call with questions!! 334.356.8661

Here are a few do’s and don’ts we try to live by and a few pretties to check out.

The Lining:

Absolutely, always, without a doubt, either line and inner line or black out line drapery unless its a sheer.  A simple lining without the “insides” doesn’t quite cut it.  You do not want to see any light from the window through your drapey unless it is a sheer.  If you are going to pay the money to have drapery, do it right.  (No, Pottery Barn drapery does not come inner lined or with black out lining.  But there is no shame in buying them and taking them to you local seamstress and having her add the inner lining. )

The lining sounds like a minor detail…but it is actually pretty  major.  This is what you will see from the outside of your house when you look at your windows.  Unless you have a bright white exterior, you don’t want your lining to be white.  There are few things worse than seeing a dark painted house and you miss the beauty of the house because the white lining of the drapery in the windows is all you see.  Go with a cream, taupe, grey or even brown lining to keep it from stealing all the attention from your curb appeal.

Drapery hardware:

It makes all the difference in the world…  A major pet peeve of mine are expandable rods.  Not only does the rod sag, but it is virtually impossible to open or close a drapery panel with this type of rod.  Measure correctly and get a solid wooden or iron rod that fits exactly.

Where to hang your drapery:

Please don’t put your rod at the top of your window molding unless the window molding touches your ceiling.  Raise that thing up as high as you can get it. It adds height to your room.  A good rule of thumb if you don’t take the rod to the ceiling is to split the distance between the top of the casing and the crown and put the rod in the center.  Also, mount the brackets at least 6″ wider than your window (where possible) to make your windows look larger and to keep from blocking the daylight.

Pleats, rod pockets, grommets, etc.:

All are acceptable in the right application.  99% of the time we go for the pleated look.  It just looks tailored and finished.  Goblet pleats, euro pleats, pinch pleats…love them all.

Drapery returns:

Majorly important in the installation process.  Unless your husband hangs drapery for a living, hire out the installation to someone who knows how to hang drapery correctly.  Barrett can walk into a room and whisper to me, “uh, Steve obviously didn’t hang their drapery.  They didn’t get the return right.”  I’ve taught him a little too well.  Ha!  A return is the part of the drapery at the end of the rod that attaches to the wall.  It prevents the daylight from coming in through the outside of the drapery.  Generally your last drapery ring goes between the bracket and finial on your rod and then you pin the corner of the drapery to the wall right by the bracket to seal the deal.

To puddle or not to puddle:

I actually am okay with both looks.  In the right setting, a puddled drapery adds a little drama.  If you don’t sweep often or don’t have a gem of a housekeeper, you aren’t going to want to puddle your drapery.  Talk about a dust trap.  I prefer the drapery barely kissing the floor.

One last trick of the trade I all learned from our fabulous installer:

On the lead ring of the drape, twist the pin so you are pinning the drape to the ring almost backwards.  This keeps you from seeing the lining on the lead panel.

Hope this helped you out a little when designing drapery.  If you have any questions or want a little help, feel free to give us a call.  Hope y’all had a great Valentine’s Day!

Remember the renovation we did last year – 704 Felder?! Well we were flipping through the pages of Country Living and stumbled upon a picture of our labor of love.

If you are new to the blog, check out the final renovation pictures here! You’ll find links to all the work-in-progress photos as well.

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

GO Home carries great furniture and accessories and they asked us for a photo of one of the ways we use their products! We couldn’t just give send them a picture of something right off the shelf, so we got creative! We chose one of their wine jugs that we’d had made into a lamp!

Check out our GO Home Blog feature here!

Lamps can be made out of almost anything… Get creative!

Check out Meredith’s post on lamp making for a little DIY help!

Hope y’all have a wonderful weekend!

Ashley’s little boy Barrett Lee “Rett”  Gilbreath, Jr. was born on New Year’s Eve at 8 lbs 10 oz. He is healthy and got to go home 2 days later! I could not be happier for them! This is a much deserved happy ending for their sweet family!

Thanks, once again, to Holland Williams Photography for these adorable pictures!

Cates is going to be the greatest big sister!

Such a cute Mommy/Son shot!

Hope y’all enjoyed this quick update! More coming soon!

OH…. and to all you Alabama fans, I’ll let Amanda’s sweet little boy, Charlie, do the congratulating….

He is already a rather intense (yet precious)  football fan!

All I will say in regards to the National Championship is “Yay SEC!”

Cates got to make gingerbread cookies at Gigi’s house with cousin Rane.  “Sprinkles” have become something Cates asks for now on everything. 

Santa came early to our house and even delivered his elves to help set up Cates’s swing set.  She and WEB had a lot of fun playing.  We had the fire pit going and hot chocolate and loved watching Cates and WEB get so excited.  Gran actually got inside the fort with them.  Major kiddo points. 

Christmas Eve service at FBC was perfect. These are from after the service.

Gran and Buddy brought Cates a water table and WEB a tractor.  Minutes into Santa they were both soaked and having a blast.  The tractor was a huge hit for WEB as you can see. 

Hope Christmas was as much fun for y’all as it was for us.  It was a little bitter sweet as these are our last few days with Cates by herself.  Monday morning her new baby brother is set to arrive.  Happy New Year!!  We will be toasting at the hospital. 

xoxo,

Last week was our final giveaway so it is time to announce the winners!

The winner of this blue and red striped lumbar pillow is Neely Cooper!

And this set of 2 place mats and 2 napkins is going to Cameron Norris!

We are giving ourselves a vacation until New Year’s Eve so please call us after the new year to claim your giveaways! 334.262.3231

Thank you all so much for participating in our 10 weeks of giveaways!! We have had tons of fun reading your sweet comments and seeing all of your happy faces!