tis the season

to need really fabulous dresses


i think i would like to start with this one *swoon*



post by arre

13th colony distillery

Friday night we atttended one of the most aesthetically pleasing parties i ever been to. please don't even remind me of how heartbroken i am over not having taking any pictures by asking to see them). but that's not what this post is about.



upon my (not first) visit to the bar i noticed i didn't recognize the vodka. this was a bit alarming to me since i (am a vodka snob) had been drinking it. as i looked closer i became curious. a few people from my very own Albany had been working on a distillery in Americus I remembered... could this be the glorious result? a few minutes later i ran into one of the very men. i inquired. he confirmed. toasts were exchanged.



but here's the best part. it really is (very) good vodka. i (and i'm knocking on wood - for future consumption - as i type this) wasn't (knock knock) even (knock knock - a little lighter this time as to not draw attention to myself) hungover (KNOCK!)


learn more (but not much more) here

post by arre

Did your mom make you wear bows the size of your head?

well... mine did NOT and i'm very grateful for that. So i'm wondering what effect this will have on molly later in life......

i could not stop laughing long enough to get a lot of good pics... but for some reason i find this hilariously adorable!

post by kristen

{urban} homestead

if these people can do this surely i can grow (at least) one tomato plant this year.

post by arre

could they BE any cuter?

okay, i don't want to wear this story out but i just couldn't resist ... how much fun does having five kids look like?!

post by arre

pseudo hiatus

so i was going to schedule all of these wonderful posts to publish while i'm away but it is almost midnight, i've not even packed (or done any of the other things i "must" do before i depart) so i'm leaving you sort of hanging. unless i get bored at the beach. don't count on it.

enjoy the rest of the week!

xx

post by arre

{double} the fun!

SJP and Matthew Broderick are growing their family in a very ... pink (!) way! People.com reports that Parker and her longtime love, and husband, i know, Broderick will be giving adorable 6-year-old son James Wilkie a double dose of baby sisters this Summer with the impending arrival of twins. Don't worry SATC movie fanatics, this will in no way impact filming as the babies are being carried (no pun intended) by a surrogate! I was a bit shocked honestly (like it matters what i thought or felt - at all), but am thrilled. I always wanted Sarah Jessica to have a daughter - or two! she's just too girlie not to!

on that note - my precious friend Karyn learned today that she too will be welcoming twins later this year! of all the babies being born amongst our friends, she is the first to be blessed with multiples and i cannot calm down about it. i could not be more excited (and they COULD be born on my birthday - aaaaaah! that would make it even. better.)

post by arre

that's my girl

In true form, Jora just stole my heart. Read her kind words about MY sister here.

xx

(i know, i know - i just used a (very) similar term in a title a few posts ago. AND i know this is the third family-oriented post in. a. row. i guess i'm just feeling a little possessive (and uber proud of) of all of the fantastic people i'm related to)


post by arre

it just comes naturallyyyy, aw, the girl can't help it!

i'm not usually the one with kid stories - not on here anyway - because... i'm not the one with the kids. this is a good one though. Saturday Mary James and I went to run a few errands together (Kristen, it was only only MJ because i thought it was naptime for Mols). she always cracks me up. she really is one of the funniest people (of any age) i know. her stories are totally funny enough to stand alone - this one is no exception, but a bit of background only enhances it: her dad and his brother (my husband) are quite the salesmen. it has been said that as children they would have their sweet grandmother grow corn and onions and whatever is grows in normal backyards for them to sell to neighbors. those same brothers grew up to be roommates who would - and this is not rumored, i saw it happen (more than once) - sell any and everything right out of their house. when Matt and i were first dating i can vividly recall being at their house one evening and thinking i was quite certain there had previously been a mirror hanging in the dining room. there had been. but a friend liked it. so they sold it to her. ok, so now that you know a bit about this kid's genes humor me by continuing to read until i can actually get to the point. Saturday, on our date, Mary James was explaing to me why she had on (5 sizes too big) new shoes. it was because she got tired of her sister wearing her's all of the time. after the story i told her how kind it was for her to give Molly her old shoes and as i was driving the point home (can you imagine) she interrupted me to say "no arre, i didn't give her the shoes. i sold them to her." but of course!

post by arre

that's our boy(s)

in case we failed to mention this - we {kristen (who has the three kids) and arre (who has none)} are sisters-in-law (and, contrary to the sound of the contents of that last parenthetical statement, not the wee little pigs). our husbands are brothers. they have a (very cool, we think) millworks business, which produces the waste from which we create our frames - and, luckily a few other things. they can't quite get a web site together (yet) but that's not keeping them off the www. thanks to smitten (who we totally *heart* - by the way) for featuring our boys. we love them.

(and no, we are not even about to start weekend posts - i am just so excited about this one i couldn't wait to publish it!)


post by arre

have a lovely weekend

and if you live anywhere around here the Tour of Homes would be a fabulous way to spend your Sunday afternoon! There are some great homes on the tour this year (see above for a taste). If you are interested leave a comment and I'll get the deets to you!
xx

post by arre

how cute is....

Sarah?!

She and her precious boys (one husband, one son) live outside of Athens, Georgia on a gorgeous farm in a lovely farmhouse where our frames are right at home.

is it me or do these frames and this stray dog lamp appear to made for one another?!

it probably helps that she has such a beautiful family

and takes gorgeous pictures!

it's {Talisman Hammered Gold} Love {Knot Earrings }

in a perfect world i would be ordering these for dessert... (in the world where i actually live, i will be having a bowl of milk-and-extra-crunchy-peanut-butter-laced ice cream) hey, a girl can dream.

post by arre

whew!

i was starting to wonder when (if ever) we were going to get some confirmation on this. looks like we're a little over a year away from getting to see our girls again. be careful when you google though - i think i already know everything that could possibly happen from the three minutes i just spent looking for this ;( and just for the record, i am excited about (yet) another movie though i am accuetly aware that not everyone agrees.


post by arre

la la land

in case i don't already love (read: love) sleep enough, i can only imagine how much more indulgent it would be if my bed were outfitted in these lovelies... and i don't even like monograms (that much)

and yes, i understand that things like this have absolutely no bearings on actual sleep

post by arre

what you CAN do

Earth Day is drawing to a close on this side of the world (does it even exist elsewhere... anyone? Court?) but that doesn't mean we have to close our eyes on the reality and necessity of everyone doing their part. My neighbor is an environmental rockstar. She makes all of her own cleaning supplies, composts with the best of them and recycles everything. I try to be inspired by her. I don't do so well. But i really want to. I do really well with tangibles so in honor of Earth day I cleaned up and out my laundry/mud room to make room for cute blue recycling bins! For more inspiration visit JMB here and here! oh yeh - and here (the girl can't stop!)

post by arre

Happy Earth Day

let's take care of the planet and not let this happen okay? okay.

post by arre

(more) lizzie fortunato love

ny mag featured an interview with them a couple of weeks ago. see what they learned here!

post by arre

yessss! ... NO.

so, when lipstick jungle and cashmere mafia debuted (in sync, i might add) i was certainly of the camp proclaiming they were (BOTH!) going to suck! i started watching both. before i could determine which one sucked less, abc decided for me. i really got into lipstick jungle until they moved to Friday nights. Then, or perhaps it was before, its cancellation was announced. between the Friday night airings and the inevitable end coming soon, i gave up on it. i then heard nbc had re-evaluated their decision, rediscovered it on hulu and got re-hooked. just to learn last night that it has in fact been cancelled. does nbc just not want girls to watch their network at night? ugh.


post by arre

{wish} we were here

i started writing this post randomly but with Courtney cyber-jaunting a few weeks ago (and for real next) and Cassandra style (e)scaping i got inspired and am going to re-live a few (sort of) recent vaycays of my own over the next few weeks. starting here:

last March Kristen, her husband, my husband and me spent some time in Mexico (and it should be noted that Kristen's oldest (2-year-old at the time) daughter sincerely thought we were at the local Mexican restaurant the whole time).


day 1















the view - seriously. and i was drinking champgne while taking this picture. doesn't that just make it that much better?


day 2

dinner on the beach (i know it sounds cheesy, and it was - but it was lovely too. just try to tell Jim that, right Kristen?!)





















& a jalapeno martini


day 3




















the beach beds. lying out in the sun will never be the same (until i one day convince my husband we need a concrete pool with such beds in our backyard - but not this backyard, it's much too shady ;) )















oh yeh, and the swim-up bar...


day 4

tulum (thanks joanna!)

and the best authentic mexican food. ever. (my stomach is growling just looking at these)

and the cutest souvenirs (the dresses, not the girls)

day 5















the beach. i have a thing for beaches anyway but this one was particularly serene.















with the coral, which i seriously considered risking my re-entry into the United States by taking (thank you to Kristen and Matt who sternly advised me against such a stunt)


did i appreciate how lovely this place and this time with this company was while i was actually experiencing it? i've got to do better about stuff like that. hopefully doing this will help. xx


post by arre

s i s t e r s

I'm so happy life gave my children sisters. I wouldn't have it any other way. I am one of three sisters and now my girls are (so was my mother by the way and her mother). It is a fun girly world we live in! When Jim and i told Mary James and Molly that they were going to be having another sibling, we really had no idea of the reaction - but we couldn't have asked for a better one out of mj and couldn't have expected anything else out of Molly (she really didn't care either way).

And if there were any question, there won't be after you watch the video - we are from south Georgia and yes, we sound like it. Also-sorry for the bumpy video..i don't know what was going on there!

luckily, that excitement was carried over once Mills joined us and her sisters love her (now, each other that's another story..but with Mills, they are smitten)

taco bar

a few weeks ago (during the emergency beach trip) i finally had an opportunity to dine here. love. it. and the best friend i got to enjoy it with - whose birthday is today! happy, happy MEG! xo

post by arre

have a lovely weekend

...and try to find a view like this



post by arre

Smiling Faces

First of all, my mother sometimes brings us dinner. No, we did not just have a baby. No, neither of us are sick. And no, she is not any sort of culinary legend. She just does it. Okay, so now that we've cleared that up, the other day she brought dinner and as I was putting the salad out she could not stop laughing. she said "i just couldn't help myself." this is what i looked down at:


post by arre

how cute is...

Harper?!

at only five and half weeks old this baby girl may be one of the biggest supporters we've got!
(or maybe that would be her sweet Mama...)

though we know it's not true, it would be easy to believe Harper's nursery was decorated around our frames!

Her Mama just happened to come to us at the perfect time to get frames that really do look like they were made for this room (timing matters because our frames' finishes vary depending on the wood we have at our disposal)

this last one is one of my favorite frames and i think it has the perfect picture to make it even cuter!

no diapers for me tonight!

and more importantly, no waking up!! Yep - that's right, i get to sleep ALL ....night....long. (AND on my stomach - which I had been unable to do for at least past 7 months) I'm not sure if I have ever been so excited about anything in my life. My mother-in-law is spending the night over here and taking care of Mills. AND i just noticed that it's close to 4:00 so I can have a glass of wine now. AND a friend brought dinner so i don't have to even think about (cooking another frozen pizza for) dinner. life doesn't get any better :)

sleep
wine
real food

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

post by kristen

in one piece

though i currently lack the figure (and in the case of these babies, the funds) to really pull off actually wearing a one-piece swimsuit, i totally dig them. (as an example of how true my adoration for this style of swimwear is, let me share this: one year, when i was IN COLLEGE, i bought three. for Spring Break).


(sorry for the image with the (hot) girl - i tried to find a bodiless image of the same suit but was unsuccessful)

top two suits from here; bottom one from her


post by arre

{it's} in the bag

so, apparently i carry a purse so heavy it can quite literally pull a (it's worth mentioning, tiny) woman halfway to the ground - which begs the question, what qualifies as "normal" contents of one's handbag?

oh - and i should note, i did not even carry a purse at all until i was about 21 years old. only then did i carry one because upon starting my first internship my adorable Nana insisted on taking me shopping to purchase both a pair of shoes and handbag proper for a young professional (it should also be noted that this precious lady both lives on a farm, in the house she was born in and has not ever left the country - neither figuratively nor literally). anyway, about the pair of shoes and the handbag, i still have both. i think i had a few "purses" (read: of the ones I can recall one was a pink patent cat face with a mouse-as-a-change-purse attachment the other, a hemp pouch) before then - but would leave them places like Pizza Hut (when i was young enough to like Pizza Hut) and then just gave up on them all together. so, you can imagine my surprise when last week it is revealed to me that I, do, in fact, keep the heaviest handbag of anyone I know. I always noticed it was inconveniently heavy and uncomfortable to tote around but just thought this was the price we all paid to have everything we could ever "need" at an arm's length. I lived the majority of my life without having it ever even occur to me that i needed a bag at all and now i've got the biggest one around. go figure.

seriously readers (if there are in fact any of you...) what's in your bag?

post by arre

one of these days

i will have a piece of art by steve hinton.


post by arre