Harrington House

Pretty in Pink!

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful piglet as pink as bubble gum and twice as bouncy.  She had intelligent eyes, a winsome smile and her name was Priscilla." 

Well, we got up early this morning to head downtown to ride Priscilla the Pink Pig at Macy's!  

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was!  The pearls, the poodle skirt, the bobby socks with black and white saddle oxfords...and of course, all that pink....  

 

 

Y'all...we waited over 1.5 hours to ride her for 3.5 minutes...sooooo worth it! 

 

Plus, it was a charity event for Children's...double worth it.  :o)

 

On the pink carpet...  

 
 I had been telling Amelia Kate about her all along, but she had no idea what she was about to do until we got there.  When she saw the real deal Priscilla, she wasted no time in making a beeline towards her.

 

 

I'm not sure what Miss AK was trying to tell Priscilla, but it looked very important.  She probably was inviting her to come home with us.  :o)

  

Jack Jack was not so sure about all that pink.  

 

 

 

 

 
  

 

 

See ya next year, Priscilla!  

Ladies That Lunch

Oh my lands, the babies and I had a fun day today!  We "lunched" today with some awesome company...

Carrie and Miss Allie Claire from Mizell Mayhem

&

Annie and Miss Annabelle from Dumptrucks, Babies, and Everything Else.

 I met them through blogging a long time ago, and they were coming into town for the Pioneer Woman cookbook tour, so we all met up at the OK Cafe for some diner burgers.  They are every bit as sweet as I expected they would be!  And those little doll babies....seriously, y'all, Doll Babies.  I wanted to get my hands on them so badly!!  :o) 

Amelia Kate, who was convinced that Annie was Aunt Kiki, spent the majority of the meal on her chair singing "Jingle Bells" over and over while eating maybe three French fries and no less than 8 Tootsie Rolls (please don't judge me).  Carrie assured me they don't judge.  Thank goodness!  

Ladies, I loved having lunch with y'all today!  So much fun to finally meet!  ;o)

After bidding farewell to our new Florida friends, we headed up to Northpoint to take care of some business.  And by business, I mean shopping for Daddy and seeing Santa. 

Now according to Amelia....   she has been good and is getting presents from Santa.  In one of those presents will be a "horsey."  Jack Jack isn't getting any presents...because he pulls hair.  Bless his little pea-pickin' heart...I hope Santa changes his mind.  

Conked out before we even hit 400....

 

And Jack Jack MUST have been tired, because he apparently fell asleep mid-sock-pull.
He's usually able to rip those puppies off in 2.5 seconds after getting in the car.

 

After the babies woke up, we drove over to pick up Mike at his office so we could all go see...

 CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!!!!

Life University in Marietta has a display set up ($5 a car), and it was worth every penny.  Amelia loved it!  We all did, in fact.  There were bells chiming Christmas carols and hymns.  I loved that they included the hymns and a Nativity scene.  

 

 

 
 

 

Thankful

This year, it has been clearer than ever to me how blessed I am.  Though there have been a couple rough patches and some harder times, God always colored my gray clouds with silver linings.  To even try to start naming my blessings is an impossible and overwhelming task.  And to think that I don't even know about some of them.  God is surely good.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Thanksgiving holiday this year was wonderful....it was simple, and it was delicious.  It was simple because we made the conscious decision to keep it as stress-free as possible and focus on why we are thankful people.  I simply cannot mention Thanksgiving without mentioning the food.  Mike and I loooooooove the whole traditional Thanksgiving meal.  It is our favorite meal of the whole year, and we had all the normal fixins that you would imagine.  We ate it for days upon days upon days, and now that it is all polished off, we want to do it all over again.  (Maybe next week??  Haha...no seriously...probably next week.)

Carve it!

    

I got to use my new (to me) carving set that I found at a flea market in Kentucky for $1.

 

 
  One of the things I did do different this year was the sweet potato casserole.  I used a Southern Living recipe and did a best of both worlds topping.  LOVE this idea!!  Why hadn't I thought of this?  Someone in the test kitchens at SL just proved herself (himself?) to be a genius in my book. 

 

And this year, my gravy was my best ever.  I think gravy is a lot like biscuits and pie dough.
Good gravy takes some practice.  It  took me the a full year after we got married for my biscuits to not look (and taste) like hockey pucks.  And don't even ask me about my piecrusts.  I've learned good gravy takes time...both in practice and on the stovetop.  Mmm...gotta have gravy.

  

Now, we are ready to bring on Christmas!  

A sweet, simple Christmas, long on memories and new traditions and short on stress.

And in full celebration of the birth of the King!   

 
 

Company's Comin'

Well, they've already come...and sadly said their goodbyes.  :o(  But we had a fabulous time, as always!  Momma, Kiki, and my Aunt Sue hitched a ride down with my cousin Becky who was coming to town for a wedding.   

 

Miss AKB was in hog heaven hamming it up for new audiences. 

 

 

Amelia and Becky Jo...

 

Jack Jack took up big with Aunt Kiki.  Every time she held him, he would almost immediately face plant on her shoulder and be out!  And without a binky, too.  So impressive, Kiki.  Thank you for not stealing him and taking him home in your suitcase.

On Saturday, we headed over to McDonough for some quality junkin' time. 

I took them to one of my favorite little places.... Plum Tree Antiques.

 

 

The front steps...

 

 

 

 

 

Platters...my weakness...(well, one of my weaknesses, you know...)

 

I fell in complete love with this old glass pendant.  Oh, with a super scrunched up cord sleeve...wouldn't that be sweet?  Where in the wide, wide world of my house I'd hang it, I don't know...so I had to leave it for some other lucky soul.  

 

 

 

 

I almost got this black wicker table to go beside my bed.  Wicker furniture is something that has always appealed to me.  It just seems so coastal.  And I always, always, always want to be at the beach.  I have wicker in just about every room in my house (and the porches, too), and most of it is painted something other than white.  I think black wicker just looks so chic.   

 

And I thought about using these "steamy" letters in...just kidding.  I did not think about getting those.  Haha!  ;o)

 

Cute desk for a little child's room...

 

Lunch at PJ's...total deliciousness!!

I about foundered on lobster bisque, freshly made potato chips, and a fried green tomato sandwich with a vidalia onion relish.

 

So, so, so, so good...

 

Now it could have been a case of sheer Southern hospitality...

or it coulda been that she simply feared for Jack Jack's safety when she delivered that plate of fresh hot chips, but our sweet, sweet waitress hauled Jack around the restaurant while we ate.  It was the sweetest little gesture.  :o)  Jack Jack just loves riding a hip anyways.  She got a nice tip afterwards.  That may have been her angle all along, but in the half hour that we were there, I felt like I got to know her (beings that I trusted her with my beloved second-born), and I prefer to think it was just good ol' Southern hospitality.  She was a sweetheart!  

 

Look past Kiki's hand shoveling in her po' boy, and you can see Jack politicking over at some other patrons' table.  

The unanimously voted highlight of the meal was when Amelia Kate picked up a pickle spear and held it to Chewmomma's ear like a telephone and kept saying "hello."  Oh my, that girl!!  

 

Good times!  We miss them already!

The Barbers Get Doooown ...Christmas Style

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sweet Seat

 

Photo from Country Living

My sister informed me that if she visited my blog one more time only to see me an eyepatch, she would go flat-out crazy.  And, ooh, I've seen that before, and it's ugly.  Imagine one curling iron for two junior high girls...  

So the other day, I told Mike about a chair I'd found in an antique shop, and he hauled off and got it for me!  Isn't that sweet?  He was trying to surprise me.  I love it when he surprises me.  You know... when it's something I've already picked out.     

 ;o)

I've had this bare spot in my living room that has been crying out for a chair.

 

(Please excuse how bad the lighting is in these pictures.  This room is not as dark as it looks.  It's super bright all day long.)

And here is the new chair....

Um, it's obviously getting recovered.  Not that there is anything wrong with mauve and cream sateen...  The photo from Country Living above is one of my inspiration photos.  I just don't know what fabric I want to use yet.  Neutral or fun?  I like the idea of neutral so that the piece has some versatility in other rooms, but some pieces have to have "pop," right??  And I may or may not keep the ottoman in there.  I've wanted one for Amelia's room for a "tuffet" so I may separate these pieces.  Not sure yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, I got a little carried away...I know all of that will most definitely not work.  I just like looking at beautiful things...like live oak alles...

 

...and happy baby faces...

  

I Should Be Doing Laundry

But we're having way too much fun...  ;o)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Powder Room Sink Skirt

I've had this sink skirt done for months, but I'm just now getting around to posting it.  I know I have shown pictures of the fabric but I don't think I had shown pictures of it actually hanging.  (Did I, y'all??  If so, let me blame it on mommy brain.)

I am a fabric girl.  I looove fabric, and this one is one of my favorites I've ever used.  It's silk-like but it has some weight to it, so it hangs great!  And it's a check.  And black.  Two of my faves.  :o)

This powder room is just off the garage entry before you get to the kitchen.  Eventually, when we redo our kitchen (way on down the line), this room will be redone along with it.  The kitchen and family room and this powder room all have gray tile flooring.  We are going to put hardwoods down there like in the rest of the house.  Until then, I'm working with what I have.  

To dress up the builders' grade cabinet, I decided to hang a skirt.  I removed the doors and drawers from the base cabinet, and then used a plain old shower curtain tension rod to hang the fabric.  As you can see, I just sewed a simple rod pocket, but I wanted a huge header on top so that it flips outward from under the counter.  Initially, I wondered if it would annoy me to have fabric covering the cabinet instead of doors, but I've had this up for over 6 months now, and I still love it.  Since this is just the powder room, I only keep things like extra toilet paper, some cleaning supplies (all non-toxic), and some stuff like that under there.  But I did make sure the rod pocket is extra roomy so that I can easily slide the fabric away to the side, and also so that it covers the rubber stoppers at each end of the rod.

 

Hanging on the wall....

I adore this old set of pictures of these two little girls.  Aren't they precious?  I love their dresses and their hairdos and that big ol' slice of watermelon.  Sweet summer sisters!  :o)  I have some other B&Ws to hang with this one but I took them back down.  I just couldn't get it right yet.

 

Still hunting for something perfect for this tiny shelf...

 

 

The fabric on the window is a black and tan toile that I found at Old Time Pottery for $5.  I sewed it into a faux Roman shade.  

 

 

 

My $2 trash basket junkin' find...

 

Another new flusher to match the faucet...

 

...the faucet that I love...

 

Now Don't Make Her Start Counting

What I see:  

Amelia standing at the top of the stairs, all dressed up and ready to go, waiting on her Daddy to finish getting ready for church.

What I hear:

"C'mon Daddy!  Let's go!  Daddy....Daddy...c'mon!  Let's go!"

Then, Amelia's fingers go up.

"ONE.....TWO...............Daddy, I'm at TWO!......"

Mike and I both about fell out in the floor!  Hahaha!

(I sorta wondered what would've happened if she'd have made it to THREE.)

(I probably don't want to know....)

A Little Bit of Life

We've been a whole lotta busy lately with a little bit of everything!  It always seems like the start of each season is crazy, then it thankfully settles down.  This time of year, for me, is fall coming up on holidays.  So I am always busy, both in body and mind, trying to plan out everything....pumpkin patch, hayrides, carving pumpkins, birthdays, Thanksgiving meal (oh, my favorite meal ever), the Advent season (my favorite), Christmas stuff, and so on and so on and so on...

Today is one of those special events... 

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKE!!  

 

He spent the weekend with his good friend John at a Detroit Lions game.  He sent me the above picture from his seat on the front row (because he knows how excited I get over football stuff....hahaha!)  Anyway, here is the fun part....  As Mike was sitting there watching the game, he looked beside him and recognized one of his camp counselors from church camp when he was a boy!!!!  Of all the games of the season, in a stadium that seats that many people...really and truly...what are those odds?!?! 

 

Amelia, Jack, and I have been getting ready for his birthday for a couple weeks now.  Yesterday, we ventured out in the rain to get some final stuff at Wal-Mart. 

 

Jack Jack still isn't used to me taking pictures all the time -HAHA!  I love that look!  Bless him's heart.

 

 

Amelia is very accustomed to Momma's photo sessions... ("Uh, hurry up, Momma...")

 

(How precious is her new "yady-bug" raincoat?  Thanks, Aunt Kiki!!  We love it!)

 

Well, I'm fixing to go wrap some presents and bake a cake that Amelia will be certain is hers.  :o)