party like it's my burfday

because it was! last friday! so i took the day off work and gave myself a 4-day weekend. good idea.

after dinner with some of my girls thursday evening, i was looking forward to a day of freedom and an evening dinner party at my in-laws' house with both sets of parents and some of the extended family on friday. as expected, dinner was great fun.

team stone:


mom-in-law and cousin joe bob setting the table (remember, this is tennessee):

chatting with the dads:


embarrassment of riches:


after a fulfilling birthday, i was ready to snuggle up with those big dogs on the couch. except they were not barking when we got home? and the lights were off? because SURPRISE!


captain fantastic. he rallied the handful of friends who were in town over the holiday weekend and had them waiting at the house!

with cake! (the most delicious chocolate & heath bar cake of all time, mind you)


yes, i am 28. i know, you were going to say 15. i get that a lot. but guess what? for a month? cougar. c-fan's birthday is october 4th. rawr.

anyway, my parents were there, a bunch of people i love to spend time with were there, there was pink champagne and a keg and an assortment of pictures of me hung in banner form around the house. the boys in charge of posting the pictures took the liberty of hiding them throughout the house as well, so we're still finding candids in places like the washing machine, underwear drawer and dog food containers. the gift that keeps on giving!

and i am nothing if not generous, so i'll share that gift with you. here are a sampling of the shots that graced my walls (and other household surfaces). not in chronological order.

engagement & wedding shots from j.malahy:






first married dinner on the honeymoon in belize:


reef fishing in belize:

an early date (beer pong in the guyrage):


bacheloretting at raiford's in 80s glam gear:


our first meeting at the chug-n-run:


bbq fest 2k10:

new year's eve 2k9:


first grade art class (that's me rocking the nautical and cowlick in the middle):


doing up the redneck riviera with my pops:


...in unintentional matching outfits:

camping out in the bago:


wherein it is necessary to wear one's bago hat:


lounging in the trailer-trash yard (see: bago, above):


rooting for the tigers when they aaaaalmost won the big tourney:


hiking the sewanee perimeter trail:

ditto:


this is like a third of the party decorations. i am making a ridiculous face or doing something embarrassing in almost all of them. which apparently was the point.

it was the best birthday eva, and i'm so thankful for such great family and friends who made it that way! thank y'all so much! 28 is starting out to be a great year.

still kickin'

i'm alive! no worries. please excuse my extended absence. blame summer. or me. whatev.

there has been much bbq-festing:


MUCH bbq-festing...

(homemade ice luge...does that count as a blog-worthy project?)

wedding attending (x3):


...where approximately zero decent pictures were taken at any nuptials by yours truly. obviously.

traveling:

(my alma mater in sewanee, tennessee, for one of the aforementioned weddings)

backyard hot wing cook-off blind taste-testing:

garden building:


and other such summertime tomfoolery.

progress has been made on home projects, but nothing to a blog-reveal-worthy point. so many ideas! so little time! also so many excuses. full to the brim of them. there's the ole 9 to 5, the husband & dog trio whose housekeeping skills are a combo of toddler/teenage boy/bull-in-china-shop, the fact that grandma here needs like 10 hours of sleep to function, operation run for exercise in full effect after work, eleventy-thousand other blogs to read, dinners to cook, friends to see, etcetera and so forth woe is me.

and do you want to know a secret? do you?

sometimes, when i'm not doing any of those things listed above, i'm also not doing a project...because you know what i'm doing? nothing! and it is glorious.

be back soon(ish) with the goshforsaken upholstered chair reveal (friggin finally!), completed garden built by my handy hubby and window treatments for the dining room. woohoo!

hostess with the mostest

we are officially grown-ups. on sunday, team stone hosted both sets of parents for a mother's day lunch, then had the aunts/cousins/grandma on dad's side of the family over for the afternoon. i even have photographic proof of the grown-upness of it all. thanks to my dad. because i didn't take any pictures. because i'm not grown-up enough to host a gathering AND photograph it. yet.

i bought and arranged flowers from the fresh market. even created a table centerpiece out of small vases for all the lady guests to take home as a mother's day party favor. grown-up!

we used fine china, silver and crystal. and sat at the heads of the table. and remembered to light the candles. grown-up!

(please ignore the un-grown-up lack of decor above the makeshift buffet...i do have a plan)

we cooked food! and it was all ready at the same time! (but no pictures...too busy eating)

i put flowers in the hallway:

and on the coffee table (next to our fabulous wedding album, shout out to josh malahy):

and even in the bathroom:

grown-up!

the leftover table arrangements have been beautifying our lives all week in various spots about the house:


we even hung and hastily styled the plate rack:

and i finished sewing a pair of throw pillows for the living room couch. by hand. because the fringe was too thick for my sewing machine. ugh.

here is one with some fabric i found at calico corners to reupholster a stool from my grandma's old house:


on the flip side to all the grown-uppery, this evening we'll begin a long weekend of revelry with our team at the memphis in may world championship bbq contest:

where in years past we have done this:
and this:

and this:


aaaand this:

and where i will be the only vegetarian. with a purse full of luna bars for sustenance. good times!