My husband wants a fire pit

I doubt that this is what he had in mind (but a girl can dream).

Photographed by David Prince and featured on Desire to Inspire

Happy birthday - part II

After a late night party, the sunrise on Mr. Big's birthday had us both up by 8am (that was his birthday sunrise in the post below). We dillied, we dallied, and then we remembered that we had guests that spent the night with us! Good morning!


Kids were already swimming in the pool and the cappucinos were frothing. It was Mr. Big's birthday! More friends casually stopped by, thankfully helping us finish off the leftovers from the night before.


Before you knew it, the party hat was back on. We lounged in the pool, napped in the sun, talked to friends and family back home, continued to experiment on the pool table, watched golf...basically a whole lot of nothing.


Even our friendly famous chef popped by. Somehow the boys conned him into cooking lesson on his famous shrimp quesadillas. As if the kitchen hadn't taken enough of a beating the night before, these two at the helm was quite a sight.


While the evening before was nice, the next day was p-e-r-f-e-c-t. We did absolutely nothing but enjoy our friends and new home. Lots of great birthday smiles...party hat included.

Happy birthday - part I

Mr. Big's birthday has come and gone. We celebrated for about two weeks straight...first locally and then with a big trip to Las Vegas. It was loads of fun, but it came at a price. This household packed on a whopping 12 pounds in two weeks of indulgence! This is part I of a three post recap (covering exactly where those pounds came from).

For the local party, we celebrated with about 80 friends. Of course, yours truly couldn't just throw up a few "Happy Birthday" signs (which would have been more than Mr. Big expected). I was inspired by these votives, but couldn't come close to stomaching such a crazy price tag to create an ambience.


Instead, the lovely Martha Stewart helped create a similar feel with white paper bags, a bit of sand, and small candles. I got the bags ready and enlisted the help of four kids to help fill the sand. They methodically filled each bag with just the right amount of sand and carefully placed a candle in each one. It was a fun project, albeit completed about 15 minutes before the start of the party (in our typical style...)



We hung white Christmas lights and a few Cince de Mayo flower balls to keep the festive mood.


We even brought in a few extra tables for dining on the dock. Fortunately, the rain stayed away (despite pouring most of the day) and a mosquito couldn't be found anywhere. That's Mr. Big for you...lucky, lucky, lucky.


The margarita bar stayed busy, tequila was served in ice shot glasses, and Mexican food filled our stomachs. Unfortunately, I was having too much fun that I completely forgot to get the camera out during the party! Good lesson for next time...

Most people wandered home around 1am, but the pool table and cigars remained active until 3:30am...proving that we're not getting that old. By the end of the night, things were looking about this hazy. And yes, Mr. Big's party hat was out in full force.


Even poor little Jordan couldn't keep his eyes open at the end of the evening, even though he still needed to be the center of everyone's attention (of course).


It was a lovely evening and we were fortunate to share it with many fanstastic friends. Thanks to everyone who joined and celebrated the big guy with us!

Far too easy

Sunset.com is running a neat article on 20 fun DIY projects. How simple is this table top for a dinner party? And what an easy way to reuse champagne glasses. Love them!

Photo by Thomas J. Story, Jess Chamberlain

Perfect outdoor dinner parties

We were fortunate recently to purchase some great teak outdoor furniture at 70% off (the store obviously didn't share in our good fortune...). The good news is that our back yard is starting to feel "lived in". In fact, most of our dinners have been outside in the past two weeks...such a treat now that the weather is slightly cooler.

Yes Mom, that's the umbrella from the wedding...finally out of the box!

On a side note, when we contacted the store's recommended upholsterer, their quote was almost double what we paid for all the furniture. And after indicating that the price was out of our range (obviously...), they discounted their quote by 20% immediately. What? Why do businesses do that? Needless to say, we're still looking for a good upholsterer.

We had our first outdoor dinner party this week and it was brilliant. Although, after seeing these beauties by Pieter Stockmans, my head swirled about whether it could be that much more brilliant. His outdoor table lights are pure perfection.


It's so nice that we're finally at this point...starting to use the different spaces how we had imagined them. No, we're not "done" yet, but considerably closer. :)