A Little R&R

I'm heading off tomorrow for a little R&R.  I'm meeting a group of girlfriends at Southern Shores in Nags Head.  To me, that's the best R&R. 

                              

With just the girls, you can:

1.  Stay in your PJ's all day long if you want to.

2.  Sleep as late as you want because you don't have to tend to someone else's breakfast (or lunch if you REALLY sleep in!)

3.  Go shopping without having to tell anyone you won't buy much or the time you will be back.

4.  Depending on what you do, there's no makeup or much hair care involved.

5.  Dinner can be wine and cheese and crackers---no planning and shopping and cooking.  UNLESS you want to.

6.  No one else's laundry, towels, etc. to have to deal with.

7.  You can read, take a 'drop-down' as my friend, Hazel,  says (AKA a nap!) any time you want.

8.  You can stop anywhere, anytime, for how ever long on the trip down and back.  


Now, I love my family to pieces - and I enjoy our trips to the beach together.  Here's a throwback picture of Allison and me at Myrtle Beach many moons ago...

         

 BUT, girlfriend trips just fill a real 'rest and relax' niche.

When I get back, I will have:  

1.  My husband's office move with which I am involved.

2.  A bridal portrait bouquet.

3.  A dining room table arrangement for a party.

4.  5 centerpieces for a bridal shower.

Will be thinking about this (not) when I'm trying to decide whether to have beer, wine, or something with an umbrella.

See y'all in a few----------

                                                      Karan

Wedding flowers

Back in March we did flowers for a wedding in Williamsburg.    The ceremony was in the Wren Chapel at the College of William and Mary.  What an historic place for a wedding!

The reception was held at the Alumni House of W&M.  The bride, Meg, was a long-time family friend of Allison's husband, Jon.  The colors were blues, greens, purples and yellows.

We think they turned out well, and the bride and her mom were pleased.   That's a score in our world!

Congratulations Meg and Brian!

The Lay of the Land

When I go home to visit my mom in my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, I go  on what I call my 'morning coffee tour'.  Instead of making a pot of coffee for just me, I go to a close-by Hardees and get a large coffee.  Then, I take off on my tour.

Huntsville is a beautiful city.  The landscaping is really nice and, in many cases, different from what we are accustomed to seeing here in Virginia.  The areas that I usually cruise are the Twickenham, Five Points, and Blossomwood areas.  

This last time, Allison was home with me.  I drove and she snapped photos of landscaping that we like so we could 'de-construct' it to apply to our yards.

This one is owned by a landscaper!  The tiered stone levels with the plantings make this just lovely.  This is not a large yard at all.  In this particular neighborhood, the '50's red brick ranchers and cottages are being bought and completely re-modeled.  This was a little red brick house with white shutters and a centered front door.  Now look at it!  I am amazed at the creativity some of these folks have.

This is an older home that has more simple shrubbery design with just boxwoods.  But what makes this so great, is the similax vine growing over the entire porch.  Many of the homes have big front porches and most of those have smilax vines growing over them.  The columns, rails and colors are so well chosen.  If you look closely, you will see a lamp on a table.  Many of the porches have lamps on tables along with seating arrangements.  It looks so inviting at night to see the lamp light.

This garden had a great mix of shrubs and perrenials.
We figured out that they plant to the edge which would help  keep weeds at bay.  The bird house gives it some nice height and structure.

And, finally, the symmetry of this starting with the planters at the front door leading to the planters down the steps was just perfect.

Now, can we find the time and ability to execute any of these ideas?  Wishing, hoping, thinking and praying so!!!

                                                        Karan

Shady business

These lamps came in for consignment this week.  I fell in love with them.  However, when I put the shade on them, I fell in "maybe a little like" with them.

These lamps are a great illustration on how just changing a shade, and usually the harp, can make such a difference.  The old shades were humongous and blocked the pretty top of the base.

So, simply using a couple of consigned shades, I made a new, more up-to-date lamp.  I changed the harp to a smaller size.






Look at the difference in the size of the two!
                                 

Now, these may end up at my house---maybe.  Need to find a pair of matching shades, BUT am now thinking that the shade on the lamps I am replacing would work.

Stay tuned-------

                                                               Karan

Sweet Home Alabama Part 2

You may have noticed a little lack of blogging around here lately - but don't be afraid, we've not abandoned our effort to provide you with a glimpse into our corner of the Earth, we just traveled back to Karan's home state of Alabama.  We spent most of our time in Birmingham visiting with our dear family that we don't get to see often enough.  

We had to start out trip off with a visit to one of our all time favorite comfort food spots, The Greenbrier Resturant or as we call it "The Catfish Place." They've got simply the best hushpuppies and fried catfish on the planet. Good thing we packed the Tums.

We also spent a good deal of time visiting with the menagerie of animals that live with our family in Birmingham.  I've always wanted backyard chickens so imagine my delight at getting to meet Beyonce and Billie and check out their amazing coop!

Beyonce

Getting to know Billie

They provided us with fresh eggs every morning and a lot of entertainment! They live in a pretty posh spot if you ask me. I also got a chance to meet Lindy, the hedgehog. She's pretty cute and her quills were a beautiful ombre!

It was so fun for the animal lover in me!  Stay tuned for other ways we spent our time during our visit!

Allison