a seat on memory lane

i was catching up on some design*sponge reading and spotted this image.... and it stopped me in my tracks. not because i love it so ( although i like that green paint on those shelves), but because my high school had those chairs!!!

it was in an assembly hall, schadt hall it was called and there were rows and rows of them in multiple colors... see those silver hooks on the side that linked them all together.... kind of makes me wish i had one for my house! memories....

our 15 minutes of fame...

our local paper did an insert with stories and information about weddings... and featured lewis and i in a section about engagements! although, slightly embarrassing, it was great fun to share our two versions of the story and see it in print.... and what a great keepsake!

plaid love

since it's love week.... let's talk about something i love. have i ever told y'all i love plaid? because i do. i am always drawn to it.... check out her scarf/ blanket draped over her purse. plaid is sort of like the comfort food of patterns to me

oh and the image via the sartorialist

in other house news.....

it's been a while, so i figured a few pictures to show progress on the house and all our hardwork would be worth sharing. ( sorry, they are all from my phone!)

first of all, we retiled both bathrooms.... the guest bath below has black hex tiles (and is now much cleaner than in this photo)

and the master has white hex tile with black grout. i will post pictures of the sinks, light fixtures etc. soon.

also, my mom and i hit the road to atlanta one weekend for a little buying trip for rambling road, but made a stop at ikea. here is all our loot-- all for the new house!

one of those boxes contains these lights, which we spotted and thought were a steal for $20 and would work great until we can afford all the more expensive ones that i keep falling in love with...

and if i do say so myself, i think they look pretty good. our new appliances have since arrived and hopefully we'll have some cabinets soon!

lewis also painted the entire inside of the house, and himself.

we also installed all new outside doors-- this is the front door, and sadly i didn't take any pictures of the others! and they of course now have hardware and have been sealed.

my funny valentine!

happy day after valentines day!! hope everyone had a great day/night....

we headed to our favorite spot, snackbar, and had a yummy dinner. sorry all that was left to show was two clean plates!

and what about gifts? how about this as a gift for each other.... our new hardwood floors for our new house were delivered while we ate dinner! i can't wait to see what they look like installed!

Well, speak of the devil...

just as i was posting about how good her cookies are.... lauren has started a little business, and right in time for valentines day! she's starting with selling her cookies, both locally in nashville and she'll ship them to you. check out her post for more info on these organic and FABULOUS chocolate chip cookies! trust me, you need some of these....

so, here is the info direct from lauren's blog:

1/2 dozen - $5.00
1 dozen - $10.00
and i'm glad to make much larger orders too!

local deliveries are free.
shipping fees will apply outside of nashville.
all orders will be sent usps priority mail which takes 2 to 3 days.

for orders email me at lauren.c.hester@gmail.com.

another mk...

don't you love mary kate olsen's messy side braid? i do!

do you want a cookie?

greetings friends! i'd intended to blog about this last week, but never got around to it. my friend lauren was here for my birthday/ engagement weekend and brought the most fabulous cookies as a little birthday treat! ( i'd seen them on her blog and was hoping she'd whip some up before heading this way!)

if you like a chocolate chip cookie-- they are worth making!! i actually made some last night for the super bowl, but didn't have any turbinado, so i used just organic sugar that i had on hand....and substituted milk chocolate for the semi- sweet b/c kroger was out of semi sweet! they were so good, that we skipped dinner in favor of warm cookies and ice cold milk!

here is lauren's recipe:

chocolate chip cookies
2 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 cup organic brown sugar (firmly packed)
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1 cup softened organic butter
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs (ideally pastured eggs from the farmers market)
1 package semi sweet chocolate chips

UPDATE: as of 02.09.11 lauren has tweaked and perfected her cookie recipe and is now selling them! no need to slave away, check out her blog and order some!

a weekend full of festivities....

saturday was my birthday...i turned 29, on the 29th ( and for those that know this sort of thing, it was orpah's birthday too).... and 29 got started out right with a fun celebration of our engagement at a really fun party thrown by some of our closest friends!

my parents came down...

and there was a strawberry birthday cake.... and talk about getting all the attention, hayden even fed me cake!

lewis always loves getting his photo made!

there are lots more pictures from the night...you can view the picasa album here if you are interested.

a big thanks to all our pals, it was a really fun night!

3 very unrelated things i am loving today...

bumble and bumble hair powder.... washing your hair daily is for the birds!

brussel sprouts are finding their way into many, many dinners at my house lately. i just can't get enough.

and lastly, cinnamon apple sauce. this is helping tame my ever present sweet tooth so i can hopefully look great in my wedding dress!

what are you loving right now??? remember this post from WAY back when, where i talked about 10 things i couldn't live without?