farm 2012.

How to survive winter on the farm:

a fire to balance out the cold night;

 a hat to keep your ears warm;

 coffee to warm your insides;

 a friend to hold close;

 sunshine for warm thoughts;

 a barn to quickly escape the rain;

and when all else fails…go inside, grab a book, some hot chocolate, and a cozy blanket.

Thankful for quality time spent with family this holiday season and looking forward to all the good things 2013 holds. 

Formal and Football

My wonderful roommates looking beautiful as always

Hello there blog-world.  It's been a while.  After a fairly lethargic start, this semester has taken over hurricane-style.  Last weekend was very busy ~ formal and the LSU-Auburn game.

the formal crew

Clearly, we are a very serious bunch.

typical

again - typical

At formal, a countdown camera (photo-booth style) was set up, complete with lots of fun props.  Excuse the text across the photos, I'm too lazy/frugal to pay 2 bucks for the pictures when I can just screenshot fo free.

And as for Saturday, the LSU game was quite fun.  After ESPN told Auburn to not bother showing up, we hung in there a little better than predicted.  Still an L is an L, and that's stinky.

Here, There, Everywhere

The last few weeks we have been doing a lot of traveling. 

First stop: Nashville, TN

Despite the 111 degree weather, we had so much fun at a wedding and lunch with a sweet friend!

Next stop: Knoxville, TN

The fam drove over to Mimi and Papa's house and the cloudy weather made for a perfect day for a photoshoot down on the farm. We love America, obviously. 

Last stop: Linville Ridge, NC

We had many adventures up in the mountains. Playing in the creek before going to the candy store made up one of the fun days with family friends.

This little one decided she would rather sit next to her mommy and eat chocolate than raft down the river. I like her style.

We had beautiful views and chilly weather. We spent most nights cuddled up by a fire, reading, and playing games. 

Love these girls so much and miss them already!

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

{happy birthday to my little sis}

For her big 14th birthday, I made Isabelle a high school survival guide. (Can't believe she will be a freshman next year!)

The guide is complete with a poem and pieces of advice for her upcoming time in high school.

The majority of this notebook is left blank so she can fill it up with prayers and memories.

Note: I used SMASH journals to make her scrapbook/journal.

Dear sis,

I hope your birthday is filled with lots of joy, laughter, and sweets!

Love you more than Auburn football and lazy days on the beach.

-Alex

Thanks

Well Thanksgiving FLEW by.  Here's a re-cap in pictures.

Saturday: sleep

Sunday:

Drove to Georgia for the day to see Charles.

Monday and Tuesday:  Library

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: to Abbeville

Saturday: Iron Bowl

Mentone part two

OK, I realize that there are a lot of pictures but this is nothing compared to the amount that I took...

The front of the house. You can't really tell, but the door is big enough for giants. Awe-to the-some.

Mom and Dad in the kayak. How cute.

The falls

Yes, this was my 2nd time to see Harry Potter in less than 2 weeks. Don't judge.

We made a palette in the back of the car. Obviously the best way to watch a movie.

I'm basically a pro. 

Fishing in the Little River

 

This was clearly before Isabelle "tripped" and completely submerged my shirt in the water . Thanks for that, Sis. 

 Great weekend. Now I'm in denial that summer is almost over.

From my window

Way back when I was beginning the process of applying to colleges (yeah, I'm getting old), I considered applying to Wake Forest.  But then I changed my mind when I realized that their application had about 12 essay questions consisting of really vague promps like... ~Who is the greatest intellect of our time?  ~Define cool.  ~Talk about something that outrages you.  ~What do you see when you look out your front door.

But now I have an answer... 

caption: what I see when I look out my kitchen window

The quick story:  Mouse was sighted eating Dixie's dog food, Charlie wanted to shoot the mouse, (with a BB gun), rumor is he hit it and the thing didn't die.  Believe what you want.

put on yer snake boots.

10 points if you read that title in a redneck accent.
Well this past weekend was full of mother-daughter bonding. After an afternoon at the antique store, we got inspired and decided to make some of our own creations. This required a trip to the barn, which is full of rats, bugs, and snakes. So we did what any rational person would do…
Put on snake boots and brought someone with a gun.

I know..we're a good lookin' group

All for the sake of art. And I'm glad to say that there were no injuries and we came out with lots of treasures! Basically, we should be on American Pickers.

After some thought and a little paint, we made lots of these bulletin boards:

And mom got inspired to make these cool crosses out of random stuff we found:

After seeing the idea of printing silhouettes on book pages on pinterest (I'M OBSESSED), I decided to print some of my own pictures on old sheet music. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was and thought it turned out pretty well:

Our last project of the weekend was to turn regular mason jars into vintage ones using this tutorial. If you decide to do this, my advice is to wear disposable gloves because my fingernails are still green from the paint. This is before the jars dried:

We made a couple of other goodies too, but I think this post is long enough already.

War Eagle.