Scott & Shelby got married!!

I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate my brother Scott and his beautiful new wife Shelby on getting married!!! The wedding was in London, Ontario on Saturday. We weren't able to go, but my parents went, and from what I saw in pictures, it looked beautiful and so sweet. An interesting side note: Apparently, the O'Steen kids get married in twos... John got married nine months after me, and Natalie's wedding is nine months after Scott's. :) Look how happy they are! Congrats to Scott and Shelby! We are so happy for you guys!!

gray & yellow bridal shower

Yesterday, Ginna and I hosted a bridal shower for our friend Emily! I love planning and decorating for showers. Making things look perfect and pretty makes me so happy. I can't wait until I have a house with enough space to host showers and parties in my own space. Dorothy's house is the perfect place for showers. We have had quite a few... I have sketched out her house multiple times, planning for the placement of decorations. She is gracious enough to let us completely take over- hanging things everywhere, and cooking in her beautiful newly renovated kitchen! We decided to go with a gray and yellow theme for Emily's shower, and I think it was a success. 

My mom and I made this pom pom wreath together. It definitely went a lot quicker with two people working on it! 

When Natalie came to visit this summer, I made this burlap banner. I ended up having to sew around the edges to keep it from fraying. I painted the letters free hand- next time, I will buy stencils! I love the way the crepe paper dots add a little bit of color without taking away from the simplicity of the banner. 

All of this natural light makes for the perfect party room! 

This gift banner is made from card stock, felt letters, and twine. The best thing was I had all of the materials on hand. 

I sewed this table runner from fabric I had left over from the duvet cover in our guest room. It added the gray touch to the yellow from the lemons and lemonade. 

I'm obsessed with striped straws. You will see them at any party/shower I'm involved with if at all possible. :)

Fabric strip banners are cute, but take a lot of time. Ginna made this banner out of scrap pieces of fabric I had saved from previous projects. 

Of course we had cupcakes! This was the first time I had used my cupcake tower. These served as the centerpiece of our table! 

Rainbow fruit skewers added lots of color to the table.

The shower was at 11am, so we served brunch food. Our menu consisted of quiche lorraine, spinich feta quiche, mini frittatas, hash browns, cinnamon mini muffins, sausage balls, and of course, cupcakes. 

the bride!!

The shower was a success, and we can't wait for the wedding which is only a few months away! 

a weekend with the old roomie!

I lived with Ginna the last two years of college and for a year in Maryland before I got married. She was the best roommate ever. Every Saturday morning, we'd wake up slowly with coffee, watch Gilmore Girls, go for a run, and explore different parts of our town.. We'd hit the Eastern Market, farmer's markets, downtown Silver Spring, shopping in Georgetown... We'd grocery shop and cook dinner for friends or bake something fabulous. I transitioned from living with Ginna to living with Brian. While I loved the first year of marriage more than anything, it was an adjustment to live with someone who had a different idea of how to spend the weekends... I've adjusted now, and Brian and I have a new weekend routine. But it was so fun having Ginna here this weekend and re-creating our old weekends together! 

She got here on Friday evening.. I always like to have the house really clean when we have company, but with Ginna, it didn't have to be perfect. It's like having a family member visit. :) We kicked off the weekend with homemade guacamole and enchiladas, and then hit the mall for tax free weekend! 

Saturday, we went to the Farmer's Market and got fruit and veggies for the week. 

Then we drove over to the Suwanee Greenway for a 4 mile run. Have I mentioned that I'm training for a FULL marathon? I was sort of roped into doing it... Our friend Christen asked Ginna and I if we wanted to run a full with her. I must have missed something in the email and just assumed that it was a half. I agreed only to find out later that they want to run a full! So we'll see how it goes. We're supposed to run the Charleston marathon in January. I'm on board so far.. training is going well, but we have a long way to go.

Then, the crafting began. We are throwing a wedding shower for our friend, Emily in two weeks. We spent most of the day on Saturday and that night until midnight working on decorations and watching classic movies like "Steel Magnolias." It was delightful.

We took a break that afternoon to run over to my favorite antique store. We both walked away with a few treasures! I fell in love with this antique 1920's-1930's lamp. I'm pretty sure Dorothy has one in her house somewhere, and I've always admired it. It came with a shade, but I'm going to replace it. I don't have a spot for it right now, but one day I will.

I also got some old wooden crates! I love them in the corner of my kitchen. 

 they give some height to my basil plant.

 Toby still has enough space to look out the window. :)

 And one more for the top of the fridge. I love this one with the metal on the edges.

And then after waking up today to surprisingly cool weather (63 degrees!!), Brian cooked us breakfast, and we said goodbye. Thanks so much for making the drive down here, Ginna! It was so fun being roomies again! 

a weekend of friends

Sadly, the excitement around here has calmed down a bit as my summer break has officially ended. I went back to work full time this past Monday... I am thankful to have a job with the summers off, but it is hard to go back! Luckily, I had this weekend to look forward to as we had two sets of friends passing through town. 

Angie, Selassie, and their sweet pup Marley came to stay with us on Friday night! We had dinner at our place and stayed up late talking, laughing, and watching the Olympics. Toby was so excited to have Marley over! They are perfect together. 

 Up early on Saturday morning for wrestle time in the back yard.

On Saturday morning we left the dogs at home and went to the Westside/Home Park area of Atlanta for brunch at the West Egg. I had been there once before, but not on a weekend. It was busy! We killed our 45 minute wait by walking around to the shops close by. Angie and I picked this restaurant because Anthropologie was across the street. We told the guys it was just a coincidence, but they knew better. I should have taken a picture of our food. The pimento cheese grits and fried green tomatoes were SO GOOD.

It's always fun having my SLP friends around.. the husbands are such good sports when we throw out speech pathology jargon. Wish we lived closer and could work together!!

Angie and Selassie drove to Smyrna to visit some other friends on Saturday afternoon, and we got to keep Marley for the night! They stayed close by in the kitchen as I was slicing sausage for dinner that night.

This is my favorite picture ever. Look how sweet they are! And I totally didn't arrange them on Toby's bed for this shot.

Carrie and Andrew were in town for their niece's birthday party and their nephew's church dedication, so they stopped by for dinner on Saturday night! We had a great time together... I am thankful we live relatively close so we can get together often. 

 Group shot attempt number one. Toby didn't cooperate.

 And again...

We are thankful for the Amanas and Days! It was a great weekend. And now we really want another dog.