summer 2013

Since I have been an uninspired blog-keeper this summer, a general update.

This summer has been one of transition. To a new house. To a more-official floral design position. To parenting a new pup. To much-needed involvement. To a hint of normalcy.

This normalcy looks like full calendars - a personal [possibly unhealthy] love of mine. So full that is calls for mini family meetings and plenty of time spent plugging in reminders and appointments and events into the calendar. I know that this is a very normal thing in the life of the average American [and beyond]. But for the last twelve months, our weeks have been the bare minimum. When you are a new member of a church or a business or a community, involvement is limited. Read: people-time is limited. This summer I am beyond thankful for the Lord providing us with busy days filled with events that need florals, church ministry responsibilities, dinner with new friends, family that needs celebrating.

This time last year, I was going to the grocery store because it was my only source of human interaction while D was at work. I know now that that was a season with purpose. But these days I wouldn't be surprised if I saw someone I knew in the Piggly Wiggly or Publix or (dreaded) WalMart. A wonderful, welcomed change even if I'm in need of a good hair-washing.

Summer 2013 began with our move to the new house. Things are shaping up, and there may possibly be some pictures soon since I'm learning to rangle the shedding dog and mulching area rug with this and this.

Less than a week later, we headed south for Anna's [who is absolutely "the apple of our eye"] first birthday party. It was all hands on deck for decorations and favors and food. At one point, D was slicing apples and cutting tiny little hearts out of their centers for apple and peanut butter sandwiches. We're rocking his all-boy-family world one birthday party at a time.

June, and then again in August, was peak wedding season bringing plenty of design and learning time. I did my first solo wedding and had the opportunity to assist Sarah with several more beautiful events. We ended the summer with bang: a two-wedding weekend with five venues in two days. I can honestly say that I've never been more exhausted in my entire life. Granted I've never run a marathon or given birth or, you know, climbed Mt. Everest. But I was worn slap out, y'all. And thanks to a poorly-chosen maxi dress, I was shuffling my chaffed self in on my extremely sore feet. Here's to adrenaline and pure creative satisfaction for carrying us through.

A trip to Ruston brought wonderful time with family, a bittersweet cleaning-out of Mamaw Mc's house, fresh Ruston peaches, and a tearful meeting of my best friend's baby boy. The pace at which our lives are moving is overwhelming at times.

We lost D's grandmother midsummer. It was the most sudden of any of our grandparents. And it's still hard to think that she won't be there when we visit this weekend. We had, as always, a lot of sweet family time through that heartache.

August began with a trip to Florida to spend some time with my dearest Ashley before her big move to the Middle East. It was perfectly timed, perfectly planned by a God who cares about details and emotions and friendships. We spent some time on the sand, around the table, at the outlet malls, and [most importantly] in our pajamas. We talked about memories and what life will be like after the move, what is most saddening and most exciting. An unexpected but completely perfect project was taking Ash's pictures and laying out her prayer magnet. Isn't she a beauty? We completely failed in our "no tears, just say 'see you later'" plan. So we cried and hugged and cried some more. And since then, we're thankful for international texting apps and email and prayer.

To wrap up a summer full of busy weekends was Audrey's SIXTH birthday. She's SIX. Impossible. We had a tea party with enough flowers for a small wedding ceremony. That evening, the entire fam went to the birthday girl's restaurant of choice - Chick-fil-A - where it's not difficult to get a table for thirteen on Saturday nights.

Today we are headed south for the wedding of one of D's groomsmen. This weekend will usher in [in my mind] an official beginning to fall bringing with it pumpkin-flavored purchases and LSU football. Here's to looking forward to sweaters and mums and Christmas trees and filled calendars.

cookies and flowers

[hos·pi·tal·i·ty (noun): the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way]

For my entire 22 [almost 23] years, my poor dad has graciously shared a birthday week with the baby of the family [that's me]. He's been a great sport when his birthday cake always read, "Happy Birthday Meagan!" written boldly in the center with a little "and Don too!" over in the bottom corner. Amazingly, my sister married someone whose birthday falls on one of the two days that bridge mine and my dad's birthdays. What are the chances, right?

This has given us three reasons to celebrate and three reasons to be together during the last weekend of January. This year, the fam are all on their way to our little apartment!

It might be one of the last times we host a crowd for a weekend in this quaint place of ours until we pack it up and move north [though we welcome any others any time!]. With the five of them heading our way, it has me thinking on the command of hospitality. 

[...seek to show hospitality. Romans 12:13b]

I am challenged by this command, ideas I've read, ways the Lord has taught me, and how I've experienced this from others. I desire to make anyone who is here feels comfortable, to feel as though they were remembered and planned for. And when its a surprise visit, I still want to be prepared. Beyond that, I definitely don't think that hospitality requires stuff. At all. I believe the most important thing to be making them feel safe and warm and considered. I agree with Maya Angelou she said, "People may not remember what you did or what you said, but they'll always remember how you made them feel.

I love to feed people, and I love flowers. Those two passions are often how hospitality is shown tangibly on in my life. So for my fam - cookies and breakfast menus and flowers - what more could you want? More importantly, I know them, and I know they'll like it.

Remember the cookie cutters I wished for? I finally got to put them to good use. They get strong reviews in my book! They're easy to use and give those of us no longer in school a little brain teaser to be able to get all the letters in the right way so that they'll mirror correctly when cut. It was a challenge, y'all. The only change I would make is the addition of numbers and punctuation. I'm somewhat of a explanation point user. And I'm afraid my cookies read a little apathetic. I think they'll understand. 

Recipe here.

After the addition of flour and some time in the over, my turquoise and sunshine yellow cookies turned into a little more like jade and a 1970's harvest gold.

Some don't know this, but I have big big florist dreams. Flowers, more than any other non-animate worldly thing, bring me an incredible amount of happiness. Especially pink ones. 

Obviously, I need some direction. But even the practice is fun!

So here's to loving cookies and flowers. And here's to not letting the excuse of only having an extra twin bed or tight apartment or small budget dictate our hospitality. And here's to celebrating January birthdays with the greatest, God-given family!

wedding wednesday: moving and a shaking

I spent my weekend in Ruston [aka the wedding-planning mothership] for the main purpose of adding some checks to that to-do list. It was suc-cess-ful!

Over the past several years, I've saved over 1,000 photos in my "Wedding Ideas" folder. I'm a little more embarrassed of that now that I read it out loud. It's just because I've been wedding-obsessed since I was little bitty. Well, very young. I was never actually little bitty.

You can imagine that I wouldn't want to include that many ideas into one wedding, so I had to majorly scale it down into one concise vision. Which is super fun, I might add. So, I thought I'd give all you faithful readers a sneak-peek of some of the ideas we chose to incorporate. None of them will be exactly like the inspiration pictures - got to put our own vintage spin on them, of course. And it won't ruin a surprise on the big day [which is officially less than two months away...WHOA]. 

1. Lots and lots and lots of candlelight 

2. Lots of beautiful girls in a beautiful neutral platinum 

3. Blush, "ruffly" flowers, as we call them

4. Vintage hang-tag programs - really excited to get to make these!

5. Old family photos to remind family and guests of their big days

6. Bread bread bread - thankfully, our awesome caterer just spent a couple months in Italy and fell deeper in love with my favorite food

7. Door letters - the next item on the DIY list

It's also safe to say that we'll have enough mercury glass to use it on every surface of our home...for the rest of our lives.