Christmas in my New Home

The Christmas season is in full swing, and I thought I'd give you all a peek into my home this Christmas - perfect timing, since we just recently acquired living room furniture courtesy of my very generous in-laws! I certainly wasn't going to show my living room with all of our movies and decorations in boxes ;)

My mantle makes me so happy. I love my animal portraits. I love my CB2 candlesticks. I love the colorful mess of melted candles in the fireplace.

Our stockings have thus far been for decoration only. One reason is that the stocking holders we have are rendered completely ineffective once anything is actually placed inside the stockings - they just fall right off of the mantle. The other reason is simple neglect. We need to get the stocking tradition started in our house!!

Here is our tree. (Kindly ignore our Guitar Hero drum set.) ;) People seem to be all about the white lights, but I love colored. They're just so cheerful and nostalgic for me. I've always loved lots of color, and I think it's the perfect way to celebrate. Credit goes to Buddy the Elf for the paper garland and snowflakes. He was my inspiration.

Our new entertainment center. We drove to IKEA in Atlanta and back the Sunday after Thanksgiving to get it. We even assembled it when we got back. It was a rather fun adventure :o) The vintage Christmas tree and bell decorations (on either side of the TV) are courtesy of my BFF, Josey. She's known for finding awesome things at thrift stores and antique malls and sending them to me out of the blue. I pretty much couldn't ask for more awesomeness in our friendship (just a little more geographical proximity).

I love my adorable felt trees from CB2 - not only are they a delight to look at, but they remind me of our wonderful trip to New York City last Thanksgiving, where I purchased them.

I made this wall art - no, it is not crooked on my wall; I just framed the photo crookedly ;)

Our new couch. I LOVE IT. The throw pillows make it, I think. The colors look so great at Christmastime and will look awesome all throughout the year. Love love love.

Someone decided he had to get into the picture and be all cute.

This is my sweet little hutch in the kitchen - all decorated for Christmas!

The gnome potholders came from Etsy. I love them so.

I picked up my mischievous Elf on the Shelf and some cute tins from a local antique store. I LOVE old Christmas decorations and knickknacks. It's so fun to be reminded that people have been getting excited about Christmas for years and years and years.

And there you have it! :o)

Facebreak

Perhaps you've noticed and perhaps not that I'm no longer on Facebook. I thought I owed an explanation to those who might come by this blog seeking one out.

Without getting too personal, I realized that, for whatever reason, the things that I post on Facebook paint inaccurate pictures of who I am to people. The strange thing is that there seem to be different specific pictures to different people. For example, some people have said, "Sarah, you seem to only post negative things on Facebook. I'm worried about you." Then there's, "Why do you only post pictures of things you want or talk about what you 'need' on Facebook? It makes you sound pretty ungrateful." On a brighter note, I've gotten many, "I love reading your updates! You are so funny!" comments as well.

Funnily enough, the fact that there ARE these three "categories" and more disproves all of the "how come ALL you post is (fill in the blank)?" concerns, but because of people's various sensitivities to certain kinds of posts and my desire to not be viewed as a Debbie Downer or discontent, I've decided to step out for the time being.

But that's not the only reason.

Right now, I don't have a job, and since I'm fairly new to this city, I don't have many geographically-near, in-the-flesh friends. As a result, I was spending WAY too much time on Facebook, sharing things I wouldn't necessarily feel a need to share if I had "real-life" people to talk to about them, letting silly little things bother me when I shouldn't have given them a second thought, etc. Yes, Facebook is wonderful for keeping in touch with family and friends, but I am hoping that this will challenge me (and those people as well) to pick up the phone a bit more often.

My sister and I were talking today about how the longer the world goes on, the more people seem to think that certain things can be substituted - in this case, Facebook communication for real conversation, affection, etc. I want to do what I can to stop this in its tracks, at least in my life. I do not think Facebook is bad, but I also do not think money or Cap'n Crunch is bad. It's just the abuse of it that leads down a road that would be best not to travel. (I need to remind myself of that daily, especially when it comes to Cap'n Crunch.)

Finally, my hope is that people will still stop by my blog to see what's going on with me. I am still on Twitter but like to keep a much tighter circle there than I did on Facebook, and I will still read my "must-read" blogs on a daily basis ;) I hope that we can keep in touch there.

Love,

Sarah

A Blustery Fall Day

My friend Gloria and I are both semi-new to middle Tennessee (she more than I). We are both currently unemployed and thus have time on our hands for adventure. Today we went exploring a bit. We had a grand old time despite nearly freezing our hands off!

First she took me to a fantastic old graveyard out by where she lives.

The fall foliage here in Tennessee just amazes me.

In the afternoon, we went to a great junkyard/antique shop.

We each found some treasures and can't wait to go exploring together again!

A Sunset Wedding

My great friends Dustin and Gloria tied the knot this past weekend in Oklahoma. They were married at my in-laws' beautiful ranch just before sunset. I was so honored when Gloria asked me to help take pictures of her big day. I'm warning you all of the oncoming photo overload!

Look at that beautiful girl.

Gloria wore Dustin's grandmother's pearls.

I absolutely love this picture. She looks so hopeful for her future :o)

We had Dustin turn around so Gloria could approach him from behind and we could capture his first glimpse of his bride. Here he is patiently waiting.

The lady approaches...

I'd say he was pleased :o)

Getting married :o)

What a kiss!

Ze cake!

Bekah (or Fred, to a lot of us), the bride's sister and maid of honor, joyfully introduces the couple at the reception. (My mother-in-law, friend Raven and I made the gourd candle holders! Eek!)

I love this! They had a table with pictures of both families, complete with cameos of the bride and groom in the middle (which I also made! Okay, okay, I'll stop bragging; I'm just so pleased with how they turned out!)

They had guests write wedding wishes on quilt squares. Love it!

Glo and her new father-in-law. Precious.

Preparing for the sparkler sendoff!

Gloria and Dustin, thank you so much again for allowing me to play a part in your beautiful day! I'm so grateful to have you as friends and I wish you every happiness!

Oh, let's be honest. I'm just as happy for myself since y'all live in Nashville now! ;)

What I Saw

I was finished with work early in the afternoon yesterday, so I celebrated the significantly lower temperature by throwing on a cardigan and going on a drive around my area of Nashville with my camera in tow. This is what I saw.

I am in love with where I live.