Day before Derby!

Derby time is always an exciting time of year! As a life-long horse enthusiast, it's fun to see non-horse folks get excited about horses and horse racing. Also, it's a time where horses and decor MUST go together, so it's a win win situation for me!

There will be 20 contenders running in the race tomorrow. I do not think there is a favorite picked to win, so I picked the best looking. Below is Paddy O'Prado. This is a good looking horse.

This is Super Saver. He will be ridden by jocky, Calvin Borel. Calvin won last year's Derby on Mine That Bird. It was quite an emotional win for him. We'll see how Calvin & Super Saver do!

What is the most important thing besides the horses....Hats!
I have a new black hat. Still need to decorate it, so here are some good inspiring pictures.

I will be wearing a new white dress, so these looks really work! All I need is some new ribbon and faux flowers.

I'll show you the final result when complete.

Today and tomorrow we will begin decorating the Bailey-Tebault house for our party tomorrow.

You know the Griffin Historical Society will be having the best Derby party in town! Come join us if you can. We will have some fabulous food, and this year official Kentucky Derby souvenir cups!

Party pics to follow next week. Hope everyone has a great Derby Day!

baby shower & some staging

This past Saturday we hosted a baby shower for Amanda. She is having a little girl in June! Jennifer hosted the shower at her house. While they have made much progress on their home, Jennifer still wants to do some things inside. I will have to get her to email me an exterior shot. They recently painted the outside, and it looks great. Another big thing they tackled was ripping up carpet and refinishing the hardwood floors through-out.

Luckily, her walls and furniture are a neutral canvas. We added some pillows that I brought from home. It will look familiar to some of you!

Jennifer's husband, Philip, did a little furniture rearranging for us as well.

The lamps are a new purchase from TJ Maxx in Newnan. They will find permanent residence in my master bedroom. Don't they look great in her house though!

Now on to the baby shower! We used white hydrangea type flowers and pink roses.

Of course with a baby girl, lots of pink and green. Amanda's nursery is also going to have pink and green.

We labeled the drinks. Not in order of importance...

The bibs on the mantle were an idea I got from Shannon's shower a few months back.

Robyn was a great gift helper!

Amanda got lots of great stuff!

L2R: Lisa, Robyn, Me, & Jennifer
Robyn & Lisa. Of course we forgot to get a group shot with the guest of honor!!

It was a fun shower, and good to see my Newnan pals as always!

gallery wall reveal!

I finally hung all six of my egg prints. In my previous post, I told you I was working on an inexpensive gallery wall option for our master bedroom. You will find the link for the egg prints there.

I chose 6 to use on our wall.

The frames were a big score at Wal-mart. $3 each! That's a total of $18 for our art! Remember, the egg prints are free! All you need is a printer.

I am not great with the camera, flash, etc. so pardon the glare.

Here are some close ups.

I think they turned out pretty good for $18. The $3 frames included the mats.

These are the images I used.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Let me know if you create any gallery wall art!

gallery walls

In my last post I told you about our new bench. This picture doesn't show the huge wall space above it. As soon as the bench was in place, I began racking my brain for art ideas.

Then, I realized this gallery wall look would be perfecto!

{via things that inspire}

{via susanne kassler decorpad}

But how do I do this affordably? Similar botonical prints can run around $50-60 each!

{via decorpad}

I have done this once before on a budget. This is our mantel below. The coral prints were around $9.99 from art.com, and the frames are ikea. I think they were $10-15. Not too bad for 4 prints.
However, I need to do at least 6 prints. There are so many other things I need to be spending money on for our bedroom, so still don't want to go the art.com and ikea route.

{via decorpad}

{via decorpad}


Then, it hit me. I found some of these vintage egg prints online. THEY ARE FREE! All you need is a computer and a printer. You can see more vintage prints here!

I have been liking the vintage egg prints. You see them at Scott's or around the blogosphere. The colors really work with our bedroom wall colors and fabrics.

So, with my free art, I went on the hunt for el' cheapo frames. Found some. Will post pictures once my wall is complete. I have a few hung, and will finish this weekend.

We are getting closer to a master bedroom reveal! You can see some progress pics here.

the napping bench...

This was a stop on our same north GA weekend trip that was in my previous post. I'll admit, there's not a lot to do in Young Harris. It is a college town {has a college in it}, but does not remind me of the college town I know and love {Athens,GA}.

Lucky for me, Charles doesn't mind going into antique stores. He prefers to browse, whereas I prefer to buy.

This place didn't look like much, but it turned out to be larger than we thought.
Different vendors similar to the Antique Griffin. This booth below had painted furniture.

I carried this table runner around with me for awhile. It is terrible picture, remember no camera, just phone pics. Anyway, it is a muslin/linen type fabric. The pleats on the ends got me....After much measuring and discussion, we decided it was too long for our table. {And I really think the color was wrong}. Maybe this will be a project one day. Break out the old sewing machine from hibernation.

LOVED this bench! Just no place for it.

We did come to terms on another bench.

I never thought we'd agree on an old church pew.
Just the other day, I thought we needed a bench in our bedroom. Charles said this was a good idea. Growing up, we always had furniture that was not large and slouchy. I would tell my mom that I couldn't wait to have big comfy pieces of furniture. Now I am married to someone who goes with the belief of "less is more." When we got it in the room, I told him I was going to take a nap on it. Then Savannah actually jumped up there with me. {I didn't take a nap on the pew}

As I am typing, I am thinking of all the people I have seen napping in church on Sunday mornings. Maybe this thing really is good for a quick nap....

I still have to decide what type of pillows to accent. Maybe one large seat cushion with a monogram in the center? I don't want too many throw pillows, since the seat isn't very deep.

The pillow is the one that stays on our bed, just on the bench to get ideas. I don't mind the paint finish, but that doesn't mean this thing still won't get painted...

I still have a few things to do before I post a final reveal of our master bedroom. It has come a LONG way. New paint, headboard, and now a new bench.