The Weekend Rush

Saturday was a fun-filled day for all in the Carle household! Our plate was a full one as on the agenda for the day was a promising yard-sale, a birthday party in the park, Macklin's first overnight stay with the grandparents, a trip to Tuscaloosa and a shrimp boil to wind down the evening. To start the day off right, I got up extra early Saturday morning to prep party clothes and gameday outfits, organize the car, pack an overnight bag for Macklin, reload the snack bag and have a cup of coffee. I headed out to my yard sale knowing I was on a tight schedule. The sale was set to start at 8 am and our birthday party was starting at 9:30 so I had to be extra careful with my time management and believe me, that is not my strong point. I arrived at the sale, scoped out some items but didn't see anything I couldn't live without (a rarity for me). Although I left empty handed, it was a fun early morning adventure! I decided to make a quick stop for breakfast and then drove like a mad woman to get home, eat, and change clothes so we could make our way to the park. The birthday party was the hit of the day--Jackson and Macklin had a wonderful time and played like crazy! Jackson even told me it was the "best party ever" and that he loved me for bringing him--how cute is that! After the birthday party, we headed to Tuscaloosa to drop Macklin off at Gramie's for the night and to take Jackson to campus for some football gameday fun! We got to walk around a bit to check out the vendors, the statues, the stadium and some of the tailgating festivities--the atmosphere was great but Jackson was tired and ready to go home! On our way home we decided to have a shrimp boil while enjoying the game. We made a quick stop at the grocery store and got home in time to cook and relax before the game. Check out the yummies: The day was crazy and full of non-stop activity but we had so much fun! Pin It

Recent Redos

One of my many strange tendencies is to rearrange the rooms in our home. I just can't seem to put something in a place and leave it there. Even though my madness lead to bodily hard for Ray several years ago, I cannot seem to kick the habit to move things! Bodily harm you ask, yes, bodily harm. Several years ago, I rearranged our living room after Ray went to bed one evening and when he got up early the next morning to let our dog out he broke his toe on our ottoman! Recently, we started entertaining the idea of selling our house. It's a great house, just not a great house for us. It's very spacious, has an open floor plan and sits on a great lot with an long driveway in a nice neighborhood. We have plenty of space to grow should we decide to expand our family but we think we'd be happier in a smaller, more comfy house.With these thoughts in mind, I've amped up my desire to get all the rooms finished and decorated for Fall. Now I not only face the challenge of incorporating kid-friendly design but must keep in mind that a "staged" house presents itself much better in the marketplace. Here's what I've accomplished so far: This is the small wall behind our front door as you enter our foyer. I placed a dainty table which I recently purchased at Chelsea Antique Mall. I wanted to use something in this space that wasn't overpowering but allowed for some small accent pieces.... This is the other small wall in our foyer. We used this cabinet in our previous house but I gave it a mini face-lift and added the dark brown accents. I wanted to have a mirror and lamp in this area for use in the evening and decided to keep the accents simple with my estate sale lamp which you may remember from here and some great frames I found at a few yard sales.... This is our dining room which is located just to the left of the foyer. This was one of the first rooms we painted when we moved in a few years ago. It's a fantastic shade of orange with turquoise and white accents and large, farmhouse style furniture for comfortable dining.... Our study is to the right of the foyer and has transom doors for privacy. You may recall this post which is the wall just to the left of these chairs. Currently, we are reevaluating the use of this space but this room is really comfortable and a great place to escape for some quiet time..... This is the entry hallway. I used this bookshelf from Pier One as a place to display lots of family photographs which can be easily removed before an open house.... This is the TV wall in our keeping room. The cabinet is from Z Gallery and was an excellent purchase--I wish I had another one. It neatly houses my collection of Martha Stewart magazines, design books, pottery and family photographs.... This is another view of our keeping room and it's where we spend the majority of our time. The curtains were my very first sewing project which you can read about here. I used the space underneath the couch table to organize all the boys books and toys in large baskets which provide easy access and clean-up.... This pie-safe serves as a room divider for the keeping room and eat-in kitchen area. We got this piece at Frontera and I must admit it is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. I have a set of pottery from my grandmother inside, a fore more design books and some serving pieces for entertaining.... This is a small wall in the back of our eat-in kitchen where I placed our wine table (minus the wine) and some cookbooks I use often.... And this is the space above largest wall of kitchen cabinets. It's hard to tell in this picture but the cabinets are designer cabinets with a glaze topcoat. I was the first to ever pick these cabinets at the design studio and everyone was anxious to see how they would look once installed. They are really neat and I am very happy with my choice. Hope you enjoyed the mini-tour. More decorating and space redos to come soon! Pin It

Mastering the Spoon

I can hardly to believe that Macklin is 18 months old; boy how fast time seems to fly! I remember blogging about him here and thinking it would be forever before he arrived and now it's all I can do to keep up with him. He's has grown into such a big boy--running, talking, climbing the stairs, opening cabinet doors, playing outside with Jackson, feeding himself and so many other things--he's not mommy's baby anymore and yes, I'm a bit sad but it's been so fun watching him grow! His favorite thing to do right now is feed himself with a spoon. He gets really excited when he sees me putting his food into a bowl. He thinks it's funny to hold the spoon and turn it upside down as he puts it into his month. As the bowl starts to get empty, he politely asks for more, both verbally and in sign language! Recently, I've been quick enough to capture a few of his dining faces and I couldn't wait to share. Pin It

Rammer Jammer

What a WONDERFUL weekend! It was so nice to welcome the month of September with glorious Fall weather and some college football! For the first time in a very long time, Ray and I attended an Alabama football game together and enjoyed the game without having to run around like crazy. If you didn't know this about us, Ray and I meet through college football. I was the collegiate sales manager for a great company in Tuscaloosa and an athletic hostess at Alabama. Ray worked for a company out of Birmingham that specialized in sports marketing. Our bosses introduced us in the Fall of 1998 and here we are, ten years later! Since we were both involved in sports marketing before we were married, it was nice to recall those days but not be living in them--no pregame equipment to set-up, no mics to check, no skyboxes to get in order, no inventory checks and no complaints to have to smooth out! It was nice and refreshing! We began our trip to Tuscaloosa at 2pm and were on campus by 3pm; we were both shocked and excited! We parked pretty close to the stadium and decided to walk around and take in the pregame festivities. The new stadium expansion and facilities are quiet impressive! While we'd checked the stadium map and knew our seats were in the new section of the stadium, we weren't exactly sure of their location so we wanted to get inside and get settled before it was too crowded. We opted out of the elevator and walked the ramp--8 levels worth--and the view at the top was amazing! We watched the players take the field for warm up and enjoyed meeting some of the great fans around us. Everyone was so excited that college football was finally here and it was funny to listen to all the speculation from everyone about the game and the season. I enjoyed taking it all in--the pregame cheers, the videos on the big-screen and the playing of "Sweet Home Alabama"--it all gives me goosebumps! Once the band took the field, I knew were were that much closer to kickoff and the undefeated Crimson Tide! The game was great--we won 48-3 and enjoyed a whopping six hours away from the boys which I am quiet certain is a record for us. We decided that since we continuously said to each other that we wished the boys were with us or how Jackson would love this or that, we will definitely have to make a trip back with them--they would have had a blast! Pin It

Red to Orange to Red

I have always LOVED football. I began cheering at a very young age and something about the game itself just stuck with me. Maybe it was the wonderful Fall weather, or maybe the screaming fans or possibly just the atmosphere and excitement of it all that got me--it's just magical. While I loved cheering and did it for quiet some time, I knew I wasn't the girl that was destined to go on to cheer in college although I wanted to so badly. I was more the girl that needed to have her feet on the ground because I was dreadfully terrified of being the one thrown to-and-fro! I envied those girls a bit because they seemed fearless and they were so trusting--somehow they just knew they'd be caught and not hit the ground! Growing up, I was an Alabama fan for a while, then an Auburn fan in high school. I'm not exactly sure what brought about the switch but I've always thought it was because orange is my favorite color. I think too it could have been most of my friends were Alabama fans and I always tended to be the different one so Auburn seemed like a good choice, at least for a while. It was until I started college at the University of Alabama and was chosen as a Tide Pride Athletic Hostess that I decided I should readdress my loyalties. It seemed somewhat foolish to spend my Saturday's with thousands of screaming fans enjoying some of the most exciting moments in my life while secretly cheering for the cross-state rival. I admit, I didn't immediately switch back to being an Alabama fan. It took me a bit but I have now willingly embraced my school and returned to my first love, the University of Alabama. SO, with the start of the college football season and our first trip to Tuscaloosa to enjoy some wonderful Alabama football with 101,000 screaming fans, I post these precious pictures of Jackson and Macklin sporting their elephant costume at Halloween! Welcome back Fall and Alabama football--ROLL TIDE ROLL! Pin It

Yard Sale Chair

I've admitted before that I have a weakness when it comes to chairs and I'm not sure when or how it developed. I just LOVE chairs. I have too many to count all over my house and Ray thinks we should focus on larger seating elements to go with them. While I agree, I couldn't resist the temptation to add this one to my collection. I stumbled across this charmer at a yard sale in my neighborhood for $15. It had been painted black (with cushion still in tack) and had a rosy pink pillow thrown in as a seat cushion. I've decided that for now, I like it black. So far, I've only managed to threw away the rosy pink pillow and remove the orange cushion so I could touch up the paint. I plan to beef-up the mistreated cushion and recover it so I can use it in our master bedroom. I think it'll make a nice place to sit and look at a magazine while enjoying a glass of wine at the end of the day! Pin It

Saying Goodbye to August

We decided that the best way to say goodbye to the month of August, and the summer at our house was with our very first bout with an ear infection. Although our boys attend daycare full-time, we've been blessed with very little sickness. I try to tell myself it's due to the fact that I was militant about breastfeeding for at least six months with both and that our eating habits are pretty healthy [most of the time]. Because we haven't dealt with a lot of sickness, we're not very good when it comes to "diagnosing" symptoms. Thus, our poor little Mackie suffered with an ear infection over the weekend and we couldn't feel worse! My mom was at our house for the weekend for a nice visit. She continually told me that he kept pulling on his ears to which I said, "he does that all the time." He does, but this time he was doing it for a reason--they were hurting! After a weekend of crying and very little sleep, we decided a trip to see the doctor was in order. Macklin had a blast tearing up the examination table paper while we waited to see the doctor. After a quick exam, a huge, stinky diaper, and a prescription for amoxicilan, he was finally able to get a bit of much needed sleep! Pin It