Oh the food... !!

I ain't gonna lie. I love food. 

I love to cook it, look at it, and yeah- eat it!

And I'm blessed to share this love with my family:)

Feast your eyes on our Easter brunch...

We always share the cooking responsibilities

when we get together for holidays:)

My adorable niece and I put together these easy peasy lemon curd

desserts. Just a crushed graham cracker layer on the bottom, then 

layers of lemon curd and whipped creme. We added a little lemon

zest into the whipped creme for extra yumminess. Topped it with a 

thin lemon cookie and a quartered piece of kiwi:)

It just isn't a brunch without scrambled eggs!!

 My favorite roasted asparagus makes the perfect pairing for those lovely

scrambled eggs:)

Just olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Roast at 400 just until they begin to brown a bit.

Top them with some grated parm and lemon zest.

My sweet niece Jess made the most beautiful fruit salad.

It was watermelon, strawberries, blackberries and red grapes with fresh

mint and orange zest:)

Oh man! it was good!!

There was a lot of hugging...

and a whole lot of laughing:)

Is my mama the cutest or what??!!

She brought her famous shortbread. I had a piece this morning with

my coffee. One of the many perks of hosting is you get the leftovers!

Chase made these crescent rolls filled with eggs, sausage, cream cheese 

bell peppers and onions.

Delicious!!

My sister brought this beauty....

Ina Gartens Sour Cream Coffee Cake.

Yeah, pretty aand tasty! 

Oh, and those little muffin things on the right are

Pancake Souffle Muffins made by my fab sis in law:)

She even busted out the homemade Strawberry-Maple syrup!

The hubby cooked what seemed like 185 lbs. of bacon 

for what seemed like 6 hours:) 

...there wasn't a single piece left!

Because we all know that leftover bacon is criminal!

 Theeeen, we moved on to the all important egg hunt:)

Let me just shout out some love for my cousins adorable girls.

Yes, they are a sweet as they look:)

A big thank you to my sweet friend L.O. for letting us 

egg hunt in your beautiful secret garden:)

It was a wonderful day spent with the ones I love:)

Project Beautify MacDonald.... :)

Say hello to our latest completed project.

This little cutie was born sometime around 1932.

It was love at first sight for us:)

Those windows.....!!!!

And that swoopy roof!

This is how she looked in January when we happily acquired her.

And here she is today!!

Does she look happy or what??!!

Her new beautified swoopy roof:)

Let's just step inside...

Can you see the beauty??

Cove ceilings, original windows, original front door

and......wait for it.......

original hardwood floors underneath that carpet!!

I die over these windows!!

complete with the original adorable hardware!!

Looking from the front door to the dining room and the kitchen beyond....

And now! Look at that gorgeous original built in!!

Here's a better view.

And how bout that cute little space for the telephone!

I can't take it.

Down the hallway...

all original cabinetry:)

...just needed fresh white paint.

The bathroom...

original windows and medicine cabinet.

Let me just say that the shutters were behind the windows! and then 

behind them were metal bars like a jail cell. Weird..

Jail cell be gone!!

I have to say that this bathroom is what really sold me on 

this place. I just knew it could be adorable!!

And last but not least...

the kitchen! Whyyyy is that window covered up???

And now! Such a beautiful bright kitchen by the amazing

peeps over at Denovo Fine Cabinetry 

aka- our family biz:)

We had planned to have an open house so everyone could see this

amazing transformation up close, but MacDonald sold! 

Yep, she sold during demo if you can believe that!

The details:

Exterior paint- 

Body- well, it started out Briarwood by Benjamin Moore but we

wanted it to be more grey so we had it specially tinted:(

Trim- Whisper White by Sherwin Williams

Front door and shutters- French Beret by Benjamin Moore

Interior paint-

Walls- Worldly Grey by Sherwin Williams

Trim- Whisper White by Sherwin Williams

Wishing you all a very Happy and Blessed Easter! 

Check it.... !!! :)

This porch is one of our favorite places to hang out and watch 

the world go by:)

But seriously? How hideous is that floor??!?!!

I've been wanting to paint it ever since I laid eyes on it.

So paint it...we did!!

I went with the colors below-

White Cloud and Woven Willow.

We taped off the edges and rolled on 2 coats of the 

White Cloud. It's a really good creamy color, not

too bright white and not too drab either:)

After that dried, the hubby and my adorable son did the hard part.

Ok, hard for me part! I was seriously absent the day the Lord handed

out patience....

....and math skills

Then we just rolled on 2 coats of the Woven Willow in the

squares that did not have the little square tape:)

trust me, if those little helper squares weren't there this 

girl with no patience would have surely screwed up!!

and OH MY!!

LOOKY!!!!

Yes, there's chips and cracks all over this oldie of a house that

has stolen my heart....but I LOVE them!!

And how lucky that the color Woven Willow is just a tad

darker than my house color!

I've been spending a whole lot of time on that swing,

just watching the grass grow:)

See it back there?? 

Oh man I can't stop walking out there barefoot:)

I best get out there and enjoy what's left of our good weather.

The heat is just around the corner....

waaaaaaa!!!!!

Cruel Crewel.... :)

crew·el

ˈkro͞oəl/

noun

1.                                    1.  a thin, loosely twisted, worsted yarn used for tapestry and embroidery.

2. my most favorite fabric for bedding ever!

cru·el

ˈkro͞oəl/

adjective

1. The real name for the above named beautiful fabric!! :(

Seriously! I've been in love with crewel fabric forever. I think because it has so much texture with the raised embroidery? It's delicious I tell ya, but holy EXPENSIVE batman!!

Crewel is...CRUEL :(  Every stinkin time I would find a duvet that I loved,
it was always waaay more than I wanted to spend. 

Join me in a round of applause for eBay!! or should I say the place where my
daughter Rio finds everything:)

I typed in crewel bedding and...

imagine my excitement when I found this discontinued duvet from Pottery Barn. 

It was less than half of the price of some of the others I was looking at.

Score!!

I was nervous with the blue in it at first, but after adding

all my green (surprise!) pillows, I love it:)

The bedspread is Pine Cone Hill, and it just might be my favorite

thing in this room:)  I love not dealing with a bedskirt! I ordered mine

from my fab friends at FOUND:)

The pillows-

The back striped Euros were made by my son (proud mama!) from

a piece of fabric I found at SAS.

The cruel  crewel pillow came with the duvet:)

The grain sack pillow I bought in Roundtop Texas years ago, and

my mom crocheted that beautiful edge and sewed it on for me:)

The velvet green pillow is from FOUND, and after all these years

it's still one of my favorites!

I found the headboard at Home Goods. It was leaning up against a wall

hiding behind the hanging rugs.... just waiting for me to look at those

rugs (that I didn't need and had no intentions of buying) and find it!!

It was $299

Score!!

I found these fab lamps on that same trip! 

Cue choir of angels.... :)

The blackout curtains are from Pottery Barn.

And ok I lied. These curtains are absolutely my favorite thing!!

Cue choir of snoring angels.... :)

And that gorgeous antique little dresser that I'm using for a nightstand?

It came out of one of our Project Beautify houses.

I know!! It's a beaut! I'm hoping to be able to share pics

with you all next week of that adorable place:)

We're hoping to have our Project Beautify website up and running soon,

but until then you can follow us on Instagram!

We're doing a giveaway right now that ends April 4th !

@PROJECT_BEAUTIFY

Spring Break... :)

Twelve years ago we met a girl that would change our lives:)

She came to us a foreign exchange student and left as our daughter.

We all seriously adore this girl.

We've continued to keep in touch, and

this week she came for a visit and brought along her 

sweet little family.

I love this pic of my brother giving her a big ole hug

when he saw her last night:)

We've been so blessed to see this girl graduate high school, college,

become a doctor, get married and have the most

adorable little baby girl.

So I know I said I was going to post about the details of my bedroom,

but that all fell apart with this sweetness in the house:)

I get to spend my spring break with my family

planning meals...

 Cooking 'em up...

 And chowing down to the sounds of lots and

lots of laughing:)

Me sooo happy!

Oh! and guess who turns the big 8 today??

Yep, this sweet lil adorable frenchman was born on March 25. 

This guy too.... changed my life:)