friendsgiving

I'll admit it. It was a somewhat selfish decision to host a friendsgiving this year. You see, we'll be out of the country (more on that later this week…eek!) next week over Thanksgiving. We were also out of the country last year, and as much as I love to travel, I couldn't go two years in a row without one of my favorite meals of the year.

To remedy this problem, we invited the lovely members of our church community group over for a Thanksgiving feast today. I made the turkey, gravy and crescent rolls and everyone else brought the side dishes and desserts. It was so much fun to celebrate Thanksgiving early with some of the people I am most thankful for. I love this group of sweet friends, and I love that they indulged my wish for a Thanksgiving meal and showed up at my house with delicious food to share.

I had so much fun setting the table. I wanted it to be casual so I used mason jars, burlap and green apples that I already had on hand. Hydrangeas are my favorite so they always make an appearance. :)

Jon has better hand-writing than me so we wrote the place cards. We added a Lindt chocolate truffle at each setting.

These are actually Christmas candles that spell out "Peace." I wrapped them in burlap & tied them with bows to repurpose them for this occasion. 

A staple at every holiday meal growing up. I love these rolls. 

Victoria laughing about the fact that she peeled 5 lbs of potatoes.
That would be roughly 1/2 lb of potatoes per person. 

The carving of the turkey. 

I took this after we were done eating, but at least I remembered to take one before we all got up from the table. 

It's not Thanksgiving without a dessert table. Yes, it must be an entire table.

In true thanksgiving fashion, we watched some football in between dinner and dessert. :)

Looking for an easy and delicious Thanksgiving cocktail?
We served apple fizzes before dinner . Apple cider and bubbly = perfection.

a weekend at salamander

What do you do when a flight cancellation leads to a trip cancellation? In our case, we hop in the car and head to a resort for the weekend.

As we sat on the couch mulling our post-trip cancellation options - our already packed bags sitting by the door just waiting to be whisked away for the weekend - Jon suggested we see if the Salamander had room. I had stumbled across the Salamander in Southern Living (they have the BEST regional travel tips) a few months ago, and it's been on our bucket list ever since. And hey, we deserved a little luck after our flight debacle. We called to say we were on the way, and by 8:30 p.m. we were checking into the hotel with complimentary glass of wine in hand. Ahhhhhhh.

view from the balcony

that bathtub…swoon

It's unlike us to show up anywhere without a plan, but I loved the spontaneity of the trip. Nothing is more depressing than unpacking a bag that you just packed 3 hours earlier. We were making the best of an annoying situation, and I'm really thankful we were able to enjoy a weekend getaway - even if it's not exactly how we planned it.

On Friday, we slept in and enjoyed room service breakfast. Ordering room service always makes me feel fancy - especially when it comes with white tablecloths and fresh flowers.

Later in the morning we headed to the spa. Spas make me feel fancy too. I got a facial and massage while Jon got a massage. It was definitely one of the nicest spas I've  ever been to. Even better, the spa had a private pool for spa patrons only. After our pampering, we spent the afternoon relaxing at the quiet, adults-only pool while the other resort-goers had to slum it down at the noisy family pool. ;)

It wasn't the most patriotic way to spend the 4th of July, but we made up for it by having BBQ for dinner, sitting by an outdoor fire, making s'mores, and watching some fireworks.

Middleburg is horse country. That's the only explanation I have for this. 

the good life

On Saturday, we sipped our way through Virginia wine country. Turns out we have some pretty decent vineyards right here in our own backyard. We've visited a few local wineries here and there, but this is the first time we devoted an entire afternoon to vineyard hopping. It was such a beautiful day.

For dinner that night, we headed to a nearby B&B called the Goodstone Inn. It was a charming little spot with lovely views and excellent food. I kind of wanted to move in and never leave.

On Sunday we headed home, but not before a delicious brunch at the resort. I was sad about leaving so I comforted myself with this little treat. These are butterscotch scones. They left them in our room each evening during turndown service (turndown service...add that to the list of things that make me feel fancy), and they had mountains of them at brunch. I thought about stuffing some in my pockets, but I went for the classier option of buying them at the local bakery on our way out of town.

My next order of business is to recreate these little mounds of awesomeness. It was a lovely weekend full of even more reminders of why Virginia is pretty awesome. Sorry we couldn't see you this time, Arkansas, but we'll be back!

megan's visit

Megan, aka my older sister, aka Schmee, finally came to visit! We've seen each other a lot over the last several months, but it just hadn't worked out yet for her to come here. It was driving us both insane. I've been bouncing house/decorating ideas off her since we bought this house (and vice versa since she bought a house last year too), but you can only look at so many photos and inspirational Pinterest boards before you have to just see everything in person. The free decorating help aside, I was really happy to spend a whole week with her. We haven't hung out just the two of us like that in ages.

Her visit came at the perfect time. I've made a renewed effort recently to focus on house projects. If decorating a house is like writing a novel, then the last few months have been one long slog of writer's block for me. I'm not very patient. I hate having to wait for inspiration and clarity, but I think the fog has finally lifted. I recently had a lightbulb moment, and I'm starting to see how everything is going to come together, which is good because I have 6 months until we host my family for Christmas. That seems like a long time, but my to-do list begs to differ. It won't all be done by then, of course, but I'm sure everyone would at least appreciate having a place to sleep.

Here is everything we managed to squeeze into one week.

We shopped for (and found) treasures at barn sales in Frederick, Maryland. I came home with this cute little dresser. I loved the shape of it, and at $150 its was a pretty great deal considering similar pieces are going for almost $700!

We went to a baseball game and the Nats finally broke their curse against the Braves. I think Megan is good luck.

baseball selfie!

We made a strawberry rhubarb pie. This  lil' baby attended a USA soccer watch party/BBQ with us, but the pie didn't make it home.

While I was at work one day, Megan cooked a delicious dinner of spring pea & asparagus lemon risotto. I didn't mind.

Since she made me dinner, I thought the least I could do was make her a Pimm's cup. I've been obsessed with Pimm's cup cocktails lately. They are the perfect refreshing drink for a warm summer evening.

We went to dinner at Roses' Luxury - one of our favorite new places in D.C. The food is swoon-worthy. If my waistline was no object, I would eat here every day.

gnocchi, a.k.a. tiny pillows of love

megan said this dessert tasted like a meadow. it turns out meadows are delicious. 

As if cooking dinner and schlepping to barn sales and home stores wasn't enough (I'm sure she really hated all the shopping), we made Megan earn her keep. This light fixture in our entry had to go. I've hated it from day one. It was way overdo for an upgrade. 

ugly old fixture

shiny new fixture

Luckily, Megan has experience in this department. She's hung a few fixtures in her house.

Not so luckily, hanging a new light fixture in an old house can be quite complicated.

But she was determined to finish what she started. She's a lot like Dad in that way. Again, I didn't mind. It was a bit of an adventure, but after 5 hours and 3 trips to the hardware store, we had achieved success. This is what homeowners do on a Friday night. If you don't already own a home, get excited.

hanging out in some natural light before we left for work this morning.
do you see the sheet of gold dots sitting on the chest (far right)?
they are leftover from the bathroom project,  and i have big plans for them.
and that chevron entry rug? i have big plans for that too.
and those two wallpaper samples hanging out in the dining room? yep, even more plans.
so many exciting things happening. stay tuned!

It was more than worth it! I love how it turned out! It's amazing what a difference a new light fixture can make. My excitement level over this light fixture officially means I'm old & home owner boring, but I don't care. The midcentury vibe of the fixture is perfect - it works in our old house while still remaining modern & playful. The brass fixture also plays off the brass drawer pulls & gold lamp on the chest. Hiding in the backdrop of the photo is our new fireplace screen, which adds even more shimmery warmth to the house. I love how the geometric shapes in the light fixture and fireplace screen complement each other.

One of the hardest parts of decorating is making things flow from room to room. When you walk into my house, you see into the entry, stairway, living room and dining room. Making sure all of those spaces blend well is a challenge, but I'm pretty thrilled with how it's coming together. It's making me anxious to finish with some other projects and ideas I've been pondering.

a closer look at the fireplace screen

One project done, one to go. Remember that dresser we bought? You didn't think we were going to leave it like that, did you? It was in pretty good shape, but it still needed a little TLC. But you'll have to come back tomorrow to see how it turned out. How rude of me.

We really put Megan to work. I feel a little bad about that. I'm not sure it was much of a vacation for her. But we did make sure to reward her helpful efforts in a big way. On her last night here, we took her to get her very first lobster roll. I felt like a parent introducing my kid to something new and wonderful. You'll have to ask her what she thought, but I don't think it disappointed. Lobster rarely does.

mmmmmmm, lobster

Thus ended the trip. I kind of miss her already.