Christmas Home Tour

Happy holiday season, everyone! I just wanted to pop in and share a few pictures of my Christmas decorations. It's nothing fancy, but I know that my mom wants to see what all I have done. (ha!) So here you go mom. Merry Christmas :-D

I always decorate my tree in gold, silver, bronze, and whatever color that brown ribbon is. I also love to have lots of mercury glass and winter white thrown in as well. As you can tell, I love all my little birds on the tree!

Since I didn't use a real tree, I still wanted some fresh pine in the room. I grabbed a live wreath from Lowe's and put it on my coffee table with some candles and a poinsettia.

In the foyer, I added a huge arrangement of cotton that I picked from my father's field and a reindeer. This is where I put all the Christmas cards I receive on display. I just love getting Christmas cards!

Ignore the present..it was too big to fit under the tree!

Speaking of Christmas cards, I actually got some out this year. So if you didn't receive one from me- here is your virtual one- with much love!

A few more touches around the living room include hanging my wreath over the console table and adding some garland around the tv unit.

My mom found this Christmas pillow for my couch. Love it!

It's not easy finding black and white Christmas pillows, so I'm glad she found that one.

Moving on to the kitchen, I put up the tree that contains all of my special ornaments. Granted, the tree is pretty sad and puny and I didn't decorate it at all other than the ornaments, but it is still my favorite because it has all those ornaments that are very dear.

This is my new ornament that my parents gave me for the year. 

One main thing I love about Christmas is that I get to pull out my Christmas china. I have two place settings out on display.

I also took down the thing I normally have on display on the hutch and put up a few Christmas items.

I put out another Christmas pillow on the bench and I'm totally excited that my Christmas cactus that I inherited from my grandmother is finally showing signs of blooming. My poor kitchen has turned into a greenhouse since I have pulled all my plants from outside in. However, after I took this photo I decided I was done with the ferns and took them back outside. I am soooo over sweeping up after that thing constantly! Oh- and I repainted the bench because, well yeah it needed it.

Finally, the last thing I did was put up a small table top tree in my bedroom. I've been sick, so it's been nice to lay in bed with the tree lit up. Makes me feel a little bit less bahumbug and a little more in the spirit of the season.

That's it, folks! Hope you enjoyed my mini Christmas home tour. Here's to a very Merry Christmas to you all!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life,and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

~ John1:1-18 

Playing Catch-Up

Get ready for an epic (and rare apparently) blog post today. I have lots to catch up on ! It's nothing too exciting. Just a few pictures that I had on my phone.

1.  My nephew celebrated his 6th birthday. I can't believe he is that old. Time surely does fly!

2. I never shared my Halloween decorations. Not that it is anything special, but I did add some LED stick lights to my ferns to add some extra light out there for the trick-or-treaters. 

And speaking of those massive ferns. I had to bring them in when it turned a little bit cooler and it is like a jungle in my kitchen. 

Please ignore the plates on the wall. I am missing one that I need to hang and some other stuff that needs to go up there as well to balance everything out. But seriously- look how big those ferns are and how they dwarf that bench! Thanks Miracle Grow. 

3. Oyster weather! I have really taken advantage of these cooler temperatures and the fact that it is perfect oyster weather. The other weekend, David and I went and grabbed 1/2 bushel and went to town! We set up the TV outside to watch some football and it was perfect. 

This past weekend, my brother, his wife, and Barrett came and stayed with me and we got some more oysters and watched some more football on the patio. 

In other oyster-related news: David and I were invited to an oyster roast in Savannah a couple of months back. Guess the Charleston/coastal/northern communities don't eat raw oysters, they roast them. I'll take mine raw. Thank you very much (or fried of course, I am still a southern girl!). But it was in a great place on the marsh on Wilmington Island. 

David wanted to stay on the dock forever and watch the sting rays. It was pretty fascinating to watch them. 

4. The other weekend we had a girls weekend in Destin. My mom, her sister (whom I refer to as Birdie and you can too), and my cousin Stacey had a great time soaking in some south Walton County, FL goodness. 

Now living in Georgia, I really miss being able to slide over to Destin anytime. I used to sneak off to Destin during college on my breaks to do a little shopping. It was great! Or Stacey and I would meet up there to do our annual Christmas shopping together. Sigh...dang you , Georgia! :-) 

On Saturday we drove over to Seaside for lunch and ate at Bud and Alley's. It's great if for none other than the dachshund on their sign :-D

We ate up on the top deck and the weather was absolutely divine!

5. Now for the one thing I have done that I was truly the most excited about! First off, there was a whole lotta documentary watching this last couple of weeks. 

That's right!!!! SQUEAL!! The Eagles concert was this past week!

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My brother Brad and I drove up to Birmingham, AL to meet David. We stayed with David's sweet, sweet sister, Frances. We had a blast! It's always fun to be in the car with your sibling for 5+ hours, right? Ha! He's a mess for sure. I brought my ipad with me so that he could watch the Eagles documentary on the way up there (it is almost right at 4 hours long) to get him pumped up. We got to Birmingham in the middle of rush hour. I was driving. He looks up does, a little scream, tries to push his imaginary breaks and then proclaims that he is just going to focus on his movie and not look up. He didn't want to see death before him on the road. Ha! I'm not that bad a driver I assure you. 

Frances took us for a little tour of Birmingham while we were there. We went and saw the Vulcan, which was pretty neat. 

The views were absolutely stunning from up there. We had a fabulous time and I was so happy to get to see the Eagles before they break up again. Ha!

6. I decided that it wasn't too early to start getting into the Christmas spirit. I pulled out my Christmas wreath. It looks so itty bitty in this picture. Thanks iphone :-)

7. And just because it wouldn't be a post of mine until one of my little boys showed their face, here is JJ and his special friend. 

He and Brutus have fought over this stuffed dachshund more than anything else. Guess they just love him that much. 

Well- here's to the weekend! Hope it's a great one!

Health and Beauty and Other Ramblings

Doctor:  It says here on your chart that you don't exercise.
Me: Umm....well. Not really.
Doctor: You know that walking, even for just 30 minutes can be a good way to get in some exercise.
Me: Oh. I thought when she asked me if I exercised, she meant like running, biking, going to the gym or doing some sort of weird exercise class. I don't count walking as exercise. But yeah, I walk every day. Who doesn't?
Doctor:  Silence...and stares at me baffled. (*-*)

...and that my friends is how I met my new doctor. So add the no-real-exercise, to the doesn't-perform-self-breast-exams, to the doesn't-take-vitamins, the doc immediately ordered a full lab work-up on me. I have the puncture wound to prove it.

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 I say all of this because after that visit, I was like "yeah, maybe I do need to make more of an effort" to be more healthy-ish. So I went and bought some vitamins (Spoiler alert: those adult gummie chew multi vitamins are disgusting and a total let down to how delicious they appear to be), some supplemental calcium (because like doc said- I'm not that young anymore and bone density is only going down at this point ), and just for kicks I grabbed some Omega 3-6-9,  damn your fine. move it so you can sock it to me one more time. Get low. Get low. Get low. To the window \(`-`\) to the wall (/`-`)/ Sorry. Got lost with the East Side Boyz for a moment.

Granted, I do exercise. Just not as much to call it "regular" so I'm going to try and step that up as well to at least 2-3 times per week if I can get home early enough before it gets dark. Oh and I have decided to actually start eating supper instead of grazing or skipping it all together. #singlegirlproblems. So I've got some chicken to bake to add to my salads. I'm not gonna get too crazy, because I'm not gonna cook. Salads are pretty easy and quick. I even splurged and got the kale mix to ad to my regular spring mix greens. I know. Fancy.

Another thing I am trying is how I wash my face. I have decided to give the Oil Cleaning Method a try. I have done it the last 2 days and so far so good. I have never been able to use face wash because it strips my face too much and then it's bring on the acne. So I usually just scrub it with water and call it a day. However, I have had some issues with little pimples on my nose for a while now, so I decided to go ahead and give the oil a chance. I chose grapeseed oil (since that is all my ghetto Harvey's had) and of course castor oil for my face blend. I mixed things up and added a little EVOO to the mix last night. I actually find this very relaxing. You basically massage your face with the oil, wet a washcloth with really hot water, put the washcloth over your face, let the heat open your pores, and wipe off with the washcloth. It feels so good! And my face feels so soft and hydrated. I will do an update in a week to see if it has improved my skin quality. I must be really into the whole oil thing because I love using coconut oil as a deep conditioner on my hair. Mother Earth in the house, y'all.

I also broke down and ordered my favorite foundation from Sephora- purely because I am too sorry to drive downtown to Sephora and pick it up.

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I love Dior Nude. It is a dream and makes your face look so flawless. I've been using a BB cream, because I don't like real heavy foundation, but it is time to move back to my beloved Dior. It is just so pricey. But oh-so worth those extra dolla bills y'all.

So if you have any recommendations on what vitamins I should be taking, or quick and easy healthy recipes, or makeup that you love. Or anything in general, let me know!

The City of Roses

Thomasville, GA may be called the City of Roses, but it should really be nicknamed the City of Pine Trees. This is because it was these majestic pine trees that essentially put Thomasville on the map. Thousands of tourists flocked to Thomasville in the Victorian era to winter here. They came to breathe in the "pine-scented" air for it's health benefits. These northerners saved this former sleepy plantation town from ruin like so many other southern agriculture towns after the War between the States.

Thomasville has such a unique character. The city is gorgeous and looks like it is right out of a magazine. Beautiful antebellum plantation homes, magnolia and great oak trees, and majestic Victorian mansions line the streets of this southern city. The county boasts of the oldest stand of original long-leafed pine trees in the nation. And I can testify that there is nothing prettier than a grand long-leaf pine.

That's why when Shaye contacted me to write a little something about Thomasville, I immediately knew I wanted to have the dogs take a picture underneath a gorgeous pine tree. It sums up what Thomasville is all about- plantations, quail hunting, front porch sitting, and everything Southern.

If you are ever on your way down to the beaches of NW Florida and need a place to stop on the way there, be sure to check out Thomasville. We have a lovely downtown filled with all kinds of neat and interesting shops. And the food! We have some awesome restaurants downtown as well. My favorite being George and Louie's. Of course Jonah's and Liam's are great options as well.

With that said, if you are traveling and need to do something with your pets, a good pet sitter is always one click away! If you are in the Thomasville area, here are some options for you, through Dog Vacay.

Savannah Wiener Dog Races

Picture this: 150 dachshunds running around downtown Savannah, GA

In your mind's eye, I'm sure you can picture the chaos. But I lived the reality. This past weekend, the annual Wiener Dog Race was held for Oktoberfest in downtown Savannah. I entered the boys for fun. To say that I did it. To check it off my "bucket" list. But to be honest, it was quite overwhelming for both me and the boys! They aren't used to being out and about too much and there were so many people and so many other dogs. But the good news is that most everyone were doxie owners, so they know their temperament and didn't get offended when Brutus or JR went postal on them or their dog. They were slightly stressed to say the least. But I tried my best to keep them in "competition mode" (haha!).

We had to be downtown at 8:30 to register for the 10:00 am race. So we had plenty of time to sit by the river and get some good people and dachshund  watching in. I can honestly say, I have now seen every shape, size, and color of dachshunds there are.

Headed downtown and to get their run on

The dog track

After what seemed an eternity of me worrying about my dogs biting random little kids and dreaming of the impending lawsuits that would in turn follow, it was finally time to run in their heat.

Runners 30 & 31

My main man/dog wrangler getting ready

In the shoot they go!

David may have given them a little push out the gate :-)

And they are off! Look at my boys go. JR is in the purple bandanna and Brutus is in the light blue one.

Photo Courtesy of The Savannah Morning News

Across the finish line they go! And straight to the lady next to me with the treat bag, Go figure!

And how did they do??? Well, my predictions were correct. JR CAME IN 1ST and Brutus was a close second!! 

I am so proud of them!! Because JR won his heat, that meant we had to stick around until the finals. And this is where JR got robbed. There were 150 dogs entered and there were 15 heats and only 10 can run for the trophy and guess what?  His time wasn't fast enough to qualify for the final championship run, so he didn't get to run again. I was so disappointed! I knew that if he would have ran, he totally would have won. He is still the champion in my heart.

All in all, it was a fun experience and I may do it again next year- but with only one dog to chase around and not two. 

As you can see, the ride home was much different that then ride there! I had two tired little pups that raced their hearts out.