Revive:

After perusing through blogs, J.Crew catalogues, and an assortment of magazines, Barbour Jackets had begun to peak my interest. While the jacket isn't a necessity, there is a charm about the jackets I just can't resist. I remember my mom having one when we lived in England and I figured it would be a fun "investment" piece: they are classic, functional, and go with everything. If my mom's Barbour jacket could last 20 years and still be in great condition, they must be a good purchase. But then I thought, wait, why get a new one when my mom's is still in great condition? It had been a while since she wore it, so I figured she wouldn't mind letting me borrow it for a season or two...or three! When I called her up to try and locate the jacket, it seemed to peak her interest as well! She found it and decided it still looked good on her! But after a little convincing she said she would be happy to see it put to use again. 

Here is the Jacket from the Barbour Website
 (http://www.barbour.com/us/womens-clothing/jackets-coats/wax/classic-womens/beaufront-jacket)

The jacket is still in wonderful condition: the zippers work perfectly, every detail is in tact, and the lapel pin remains with the jacket! Ekkk this was such a fun and special find :) 

                             

Here is a picture of mom in the jacket in 1993! Literally 20 years ago. 

And here is a side-by-side. Who do you think wore it better? 

Can't you see the charm? I tried to style myself like my mom's outfit in 1993, just a little "refreshed". I do have to say she was quite stylish (minus the fanny-pack), especially for the 90s! I added a scarf and Ray-bans on my head like my mom did,  and of course I wore the classic sweater and jeans.

Moral of the story? Buy classic, "investment" pieces.  I have never been the "trendy" girl, that is just not my style, but this confirms my style choices and makes appreciate my style even more. So next time you see that expensive black dress or beautiful purse, ask yourself, "Would my daughter wear this 20 years from now?". If this answer is yes,  I think that would classify it as a good investment! Who knows how someone will refresh your look one day? Now go rummage your mom's closet!

With Love, 

Katie M. 

A Merry Christmas:

Ok it is official, I miss college. I do not miss the exams or group projects, but I miss my winter break; 2 days of official holiday just wasn't enough. I made a last minute decision to use a day of my PTO (Paid Time Off) for Wednesday, to extend our trip just a little longer. I just couldn't bear the thought of leaving home on Christmas day. Here is a family picture we took on our last day home! Glad I stayed!

That being said, it was such a wonderful Christmas. I was worried about Phillip and I having to divide our time between families, but it honestly turned out perfect. We just bounced back and forth between events and our time naturally divided itself equally (sigh of relief). We were able to carry on our family traditions and even share them between families. We made gingerbread houses and it of course turned into a competition with my sister and her boyfriend. If you don't know my sister and me, we are very competitive! But I am proud to announce I was the winner of the 2012 Annual Gingerbread House Competition. There have been some close calls in the past years, but there was a clear winner this year ;). I swear each year they get better and better. This year Phillip and I upped the competition and decided to design our own template, rather than just the normal small house we designed a barn! I have been on a shabby chic/ farm/hunting kick lately, so this just fit perfectly! Here are a few snap shots of the Ginger Bread House Extravaganza!

Rolling the Dough:

Cut and Ready to Bake:

Note all our pieces for the barn! 

 The Decorations:

 

All Ready to Assemble:

 The Final Product:

 

We completed those on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day continued the festivities with both Families! Not only did we get 2 Christmases but it was fun seeing how other families celebrate together on Christmas morning. At my house we each open presents one at a time and watch to see what is unwrapped. On the other hand, at the Munday's residence, "Santa" passes out all the gifts and everyone opens their stack of gifts all at the same time. I guess that is the difference between a family with all girls vs. a family with all boys! I prefer to see what everyone gets and see their reactions to each present, this also allows ample time for pictures! But there was something fun about unwrapping a big pile of gifts at one time!

Side Note: I got a sewing machine! I can't wait to play this weekend :) 

As I mentioned today and in my last post we did a lot of Christmas traditions as a combined family. Phillip and I are blessed that our parents are best friends (our moms actually were friends before we even started dating)! For many years we have had Christmas Eve gumbo at the Munday Residence after our candlelight service at church! And this year we added Christmas Day Supper to list of events. We brought my family tradition of British poppers and paper hats, because the Brainerd Christmas just wouldn't be complete without those funny hats and terrible jokes. It was a hit that both families enjoyed together! It might just become a Munday Tradition too!

 Our Paper hats! 

And that is the Christmas Update! I will try to move on now... but hey who doesn't love Christmas?!?

With Love,

Katie M.

A Christmas Tablescape:

This was the first year Phillip and I celebrated Christmas as a married couple and it was perfect! We are both from the same small town, which makes Christmas much easier because we are able to celebrate with both of our families. To join our families and our traditions together, we all shared in a beautiful Christmas Dinner. In total all of our grandparents were there, both of our parents, and almost all the siblings with their significant others. We were only missing one brother and his wife!  

My Mother-in-Law asked me to decorate the table (after raising 3 boys she doesn't do much decorating). I ,of course, jumped at the request! I love any kind of decorating! So I shopped around my parents house christmas morning finding candles from the wedding, pine cones from an old project, and a few gold ornaments off the tree! 

After getting married in August, my mother has the best collection of odds and in. We have tea lights, lanterns, a plethora of candles, burlap everything, ribbon... the list could go on! So I took a trip to the wedding headquarters (our family garage) and picked up the rest of the decorations. I did a mock-up on poly-vore of items you would need to recreate the look:

I love that this tablescape is traditional, but not green and red. Like I mentioned when decorating my Christmas tree,  show your personality and use what you have and love. We love burlap (they do say it is the new velvet), it might just be a phase, but burlap is so natural and rustic. It brings a casual comfort to the table. My Mother-in-Law had the green glasses and they were the perfect touch of color! Here is the final table:

I hope your Christmas was filled with family, love, and many blessings!


With Love,

Katie M. 

A Gift that Keeps Giving:

I am finally on my holiday break and back in my home town. Oh, what a wonderful feeling! Coming home during my college years was great, but I think it might be even better now that I am working (especially after working out of town and a 65 hour work week).  Lucky for us, Phillip and I planned ahead knowing I would be out of town and did all of our Christmas shopping early! We even had the gifts wrapped before our travels, quite the accomplishment!

As we grow up it really is getting harder to buy present for our loved ones!  My sister is always easy to shop for; I just pick something on my wish list and buy it for her (normally buying one for me too, oops!) But the real problem Phillip and I have run into is what to buy our parents. His parents tell us not to buy them anything and my parents just wanted all the kids to be home! …Too bad it is not actually that easy to mark them off the to-do list. So we have been thinking outside the box. Last year, was one of our best years for original gifts. We bought and planted my mom a Meyer lemon tree. It has been a fun gift to watch grow and flourish. It has taken almost a year to produce lemons that are big enough to use. Every time we come home we check the lemon tree, and what a surprise it was to come home this week: 3 lemons!

The pictures above are a timeline of the lemon tree.

1^st picture: Christmas 2011, on December 25^th we planted the tree. I know we are wearing shorts and t-shirts, but I promise it was Christmas! That's Florida for you!

2^nd picture: This one was right after Christmas. Those blooms had the sweetest smell.  

3^rd  picture: Christmas 2012, we finally picked 3 beautiful lemons.

 Side note: We actually picked a little lemon that was too heavy for a branch in August and put in a shrimp boil we shared with family after the wedding!

So if you are looking for a gift for someone who seemingly has everything, a lemon tree just might be the perfect gift. They are low maintenance and a gift that keeps giving!

Look for a lemon pie recipe to come.

With Love,

Katie M.

Casual Saturday:

The Husband left early this morning for a hunting trip with the boys, so I will take full advantage of this free Saturday for some girl time, shopping, and reading!

On the schedule today:

1. Lunch @ Hopkins with one of my Best Friends
2. Finishing Touches on Christmas Shopping
3. Loft 50% off sale...this girl loves a bargain (especially at Loft)!
4. Baking some cookies. For it being almost a week until Christmas I have not had nearly enough sweets! I had to resort to Oreos last night.

One thing I have come to love about being married, is always having a friend to watch a movie with, grab dinner, or just goof off with. Honestly, it is easy to become exclusive. That being said, our goal as a young married couple is to stay connected with our friends, remain independent, and just enjoy being young! We are blessed to have tons of great friends in a town we love. So while Phillip is able to hunt with the boys, I am able to shop with the girls!

Here is a little mock up of what I will be wearing around town today:

Casual shopping by kbmunday featuring ray-ban eyewear

J.Crew tall pants
jcrew.com

Boots
llbean.com

Longchamp tote bag
nordstrom.com

Ray ban eyewear
shopbop.com

Tops 2-pk. Mini Composition Books 4.5"x3.25"x.5"
target.com

Happy Saturday!

With Love, 

Katie M.  

Christmas in 1,2,3:

It is finally beginning to feel like Christmas in North Florida (rainy, and 50 degrees)! While the weather is just now getting in the Christmas spirit, I have been a little Christmas elf since the weekend after Thanksgiving. 

This being my first year to put up my own Christmas Tree, my husband kindly drove to the closest Christmas Tree farm about 30 minutes outside of Tallahassee. Little did we Floridians know traditional Christmas trees don't grow in Florida (this seems quite obvious now)! The cute little farm only grew cyprus trees and something like a fuzzy pine tree. While the experience of cutting down our own tree was quite tempting, those little flexible branches would have never held all of our ornaments! So we both decided we would stick with the classic Fraser, the smell alone is worth it. Lucky for us the farm also carried Frasers and very fresh ones at that! It was easy to pick our tree because when I make up my mind...I make up my mind! 

 (The Cyprus) 

(The lucky tree that came home with us.)

 It wasn't more than 30 minutes before the tree was in the house that we had begun the decoration process! Last year after Christmas I sorted all of my ornaments from my parents because I knew I would be decorating my own tree soon. As a kid growing up I always received ornaments as presents. While it wasn't exciting to open yet another ornament year after year, boy am I thankful now. Every ornament has a memory and I think I reminded my husband of every story as I placed each ornament on the tree!

Ok, So the process may not have been as fast as "1,2,3" but it was fun and having a decorated a tree in your home is such a wonderful reminder of Christmas. It automatically lightens your mood the moment those twinkling light flicker on. From my "experience" here are a few tips to help decorate your tree (if it your first or 100th) and make it an enjoyable experience:

1. Go into the process knowing putting up (and detangling) the lights is the most tedious part, after that the rest is fun! 

2. Write your memories and dates on the bottom/back of your ornament. Like I mentioned each ornament has a story. While I don't remember some of those stories perfectly, a simple reminder of the year or event serves as a fun reminder. 

3. Don't attempt the decorating by yourself! 

4. A Christmas tree doesn't have to be red and green! I love the fact that our tree matches our living room and shows our personality (lots of owls, burlap, fish, and FSU)

4. Always remember the reason for the season!     

                                          

The Final Product:          

With Love,

Katie M. 

An Introduction:

Let's begin with an introduction, it seems like the perfect place to start! My name is Katie M. and I am currently living in Tallahassee, FL; not as a college student (as many here are), but as a young professional, newlywed, and pretend decorator! Like everyone, I am learning to balance work, family, and a million hobbies. So just to add another hobby, I decided to blog!  I like to carry around a notebook with me and write down ideas, inspirations, or quotes that I come across in my daily life, so I figured this would be a fun way to carry out those notebooks full of ideas.

 A common thread that runs through my numerous, half used notebooks is my love for all things southern: recipes, antique finds, parties/showers, and bible studies. To help me blog all things southern, I have asked my Mom, Sharon, and my Sister, Johna, to help! We are all a little different, but together make up the "new" southern! Sharon is the traditionalist, Johna is the city-southern belle, and then there is me stuck somewhere in the middle! 

Above all we hold God, Family, and friends as top priorities, but up there are good meals, stylish

 outfits, and hard work. I found this Kate Spade poster recently and who couldn't love it? No matter what region of the country you live in, everyone loves to travel, celebrate, and just enjoy life! We hope this blog will replenish your soul, refresh your ideas, and revive some fun in your life.

With love,

Katie M.