Our last pepper harvest of the season-

22 jalapeños and 1 lone banana pepper

The cold snap did the plants in for good I'm afraid...

In other news, Abbey got an early Christmas present (a new bed) and I think she likes it!

 

Christmas is officially in full swing at this Towler household!  The day after Thanksgiving we brought our tree home and got it decorated in no time.  It is sprinkled with ornaments from both of our Christmases past...

and beginning to hold new memories as well-

Our new stockings have been hung by the chimney (or faux fireplace) with care...

Abbey Girl got a Christmas toy since her Halloween one that carried over to Thanksgiving is on its last eye, I mean leg...

I think it's safe to say our furry friends are settling into the Christmas spirit-

And so are we!

This year's Thanksgiving break has gotten off to a great start!  It began with tickets to see the one and only Madonna!!  I guess I mentioned it enough to Dan that seeing Madonna was on my concert bucket list because he surprised me last spring with tickets for her MDNA tour that hit Atlanta on Saturday night!  I snapped a picture before the show started but the rest will have to be left up to your imagination because I was too busy vogue-ing and singing Papa Don't Preach (among others) all night.

And the fall weather that seems to finally be here for good has not kept us from spending time with Little Abb while she enjoys some of her favorite activities- frisbee with Daddy and politely posing for a picture with Mama when she's obviously desperate for the soccer ball.

I've also been waiting for time to get some paint on a little old table that was abused by my college years.  It was originally my grandmother's and it was topped with a removable glass tray.  By the time I took it with me, the tray had been lost and so had the people's manners who helped decorate it with glass-rings...

It's a great little table with some intricate detail work that rims the top, and I didn't want to cover the whole thing in paint since there were only a few imperfections in one spot.  I decided to paint just the top with Tate Olive, the runner up for our bathroom redo.  I then brushed on some weathered wood (cracking medium) and dabbed it with tulle that had been dipped in a cream color.  After drying, I took a sandpaper block to it and when that didn't distress it enough I pulled a hammer out of the toolbox.  That did the trick!  

Now I'm trying to figure out where it belongs-  I placed it as a side table between our couch and recliner to feel it out.  

This space doubles as Abbey's favorite place to drop her toy for fetch...she seems a little unsure-

Who knows where it will end up but I'm quite pleased with the final product.  I know it will land somewhere!

  

                          

What do I do every Sunday while Dan is glued to the Falcon's game for four hours you might ask?

First, I don my jersey that Dan lovingly purchased for me at the start of the season-

Then, I get down to business and tie up any loose ends to my lesson plans for the week.  When my work is finished, I can only sit for so long before I do one of two things- take a nap or wind up in the kitchen.  Today I headed into the kitchen and decided what better way to use up the rest of our Halloween candy than by topping a batch of homemade brownies.  When the warm brownies came out of the oven the chocolate candy pieces melted easily.  A quick swirl with a spatula and the brownies were covered in a tasty topping!

On another note, as the holidays approach, I have been super excited about our first Christmas card not only as a married couple but as a family with our furry friends but it has proved quite difficult to get a decent shot.  We are now going on multiple tries and various days with far more bloopers than contenders...

  

So far this weekend I have been lucky enough to cross two things off of my ever increasing home improvement list:

1.  One of our newly acquired hat stands has made itself useful as a hook for a dish towel. 

 

2. After sampling a couple of paint colors- Tate Olive (top) and Windsor Haze (bottom),

we (meaning me and Dan sweetly agreed) decided on the blue hue and got to painting the bathroom on our main floor.  I am already loving it!  It rounds out the clean white fixtures and the dark wood pieces scattered throughout the small space.   

(view walking into the bathroom)

(view from the corner by the sink)

Here is a quick before and after-

           

 

 I found this quote on a website called Inventive Home Improvement (unfortunately not that great of a site) but when I read it, I thought it was such a nice description of how we feel about our home and what we think about as we continue to establish the space between our walls.  And it doesn't hurt that I bake my own bread every few weeks...

"If nostalgia and the scent of baking bread make you feel at home, Vintage style decorating is for you.  Filled with the bright serenity and childish innocence of a distant memory, Vintage style decorating revives in us our sense of tradition and all those wonderful things that turn a house into a home."

Fall Wreath- take two.

My pretty magnolia wreath project proved not to weather the storm and had to be deconstructed today.  The leaves were curling, breaking, and the wind that has picked up lately was not helping either.  I plucked the dried leaves off and replaced them with fabric strips I cut from scraps of cloth left over from recovering chairs and pillows.  I just tied the strips around the twig wreath base until it was mostly covered.  The colors are perfect for this time of year and it was a super quick and easy fix that should get us through Thanksgiving!