Which Door?

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Pretty doors beckon you to enter.

Last week was busy and crazy at our house. My little man was injured on the playground and required stitches. It's on the chin so it's been hard for him to even eat. He's doing better today. In addition to taking care of him, I cleaned out 3 closets and reorganized my pantry.  Guess I was saving it for now.

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Waiting to see which door was going to open. Now I can dream about my new front door. I've always wanted a vivid color but couldn't due to HOA restrictions.  Maybe we can at our next place. 
Time for a little "Dream with B" post. Here's a collection of some favorites.  All of these can be found on my Pinterest door board.  Follow me on Pinterest and I'll follow you back!

The blues.

Two of my favorite blogging friends have blue doors. I've always loved Sonya's turquoise door. You can check out her tutorial here.

 And Ann has a navy blue one. It is stunning! The perfect shade for an exterior.  You can read about it here.

The greens.

The yellows.

The reds and pinks.

And in honor of Valentine's.

Table Decor in a Pinch

This is what you do when you're asked to decorate a banquet in 3 short days.  
Raid your home decor stash.

This was the same day as our match day.  Talking about a wild and crazy day!  Our church hosted a dinner/meeting for ministers and at the last minute decided to move it from a smaller dining area to the gym due to number of guests.  Besides being a gym, the facilities are not yet complete so it was a challenge.

The roses, ribbon and vases were the only purchases. We managed to decorate for around $100. 

I decided to go with a gentleman's theme and keep it warm for winter.  The most laborious part was washing, rinsing and peeling labels off 40+ vegetable cans. We worked with the caterers to use small cans of green beans so we could use them as candle holders.

We also made a hot cocoa bar, a big hit on this cold rainy night!

Sorry I don't remember who gave this idea of wrapping the cans of whipped cream in pretty paper but it is a great idea to fancy it up!

Who can have hot cocoa without a cookie?

The plates were held in a treasure chest type box while a croc tray held napkins and a vintage trophy filled with clear flatware.

The best part for me was a dessert that I didn't make.

Banana pudding. It was delicious. The cook told me the super easy recipe is from Southern Living and has sour cream in it. I haven't located it yet. 

Thanks for all the well wishes on our news and upcoming move in May. I really appreciate it.

Please take time to visit this blog, Quilt Confessions, and read Danielle's story.  She could use lots of prayers.

I'd also like to thank Nita from Mod Vintage Life  and Kim from Savvy Southern Style for featuring my dining room!  Thanks so much ladies!!


Now on to the big task of getting my house ready to sell. I may be scarce the rest of the week.
Have a great weekend!


Posting to 
Table Top Tuesdays A Stroll Thru Life
Wow Us Wednesday Savvy Southern Style
Treasure Hunt Thursday From My Front Porch To Yours

Jackson,

Mississippi.

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The city where the Doc matched for residency. 
It will be our place of abode for the next 5 years.

Mississippi Mud Cake Via

Yesterday was match day, supposedly at 9 a.m. The Doc stepped out of class and called me. Beginning at 8:50 a.m., we both sat, ears glued to phones and eyes glued to computers.

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Time stood still. It was the longest 10 minutes. We barely spoke. Our anxiety turned to disbelief when at 9:03 the email still hadn't arrived. I started laughing hysterically, probably out of nervousness, thinking about hundreds of students across the U.S. sitting in front of their computers, biting nails with no email in sight. Of course, the Doc's phone was buzzing with texts. "Did I send my email address to the right place? Have you heard anything? Does this mean we didn't match?"  And the fears kept growing. 

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 Around 9:15 the Doc had to go back to class. It then became my job to stare. I wanted to go blogging but with every blog I opened, my heart skipped a beat thinking the email may arrive. My phone was buzzing with texts too. Isn't it strange how 1 minute can seem like 1 hour when waiting on news?

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And there it was. 9:30 a.m. "Congratulations, you have matched to..."  A real cliff hanger.  It was all I could do to not click on that unfinished sentence but we had agreed on finding out together. Part team work and part fear of reading our fate.  I hurriedly sent a text to him saying, "it's here."  (What did we do before technology?)
He called. "OPEN IT!" 

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Now we know. And the number one question asked over and over by friends was, "Are you happy?"  
Yes, I am. Yes, we are.

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And just fyi, most medical students do not receive their match via email. The national match day is in March. A few highly competitive programs, such as urology, go early so those who don't match can compete in March. Thankful that Doc was one of 274 who matched out of 600+ applicants. 

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Thank you so much to all who have encouraged me and sent prayers along the journey.  I value our friendship.

Window Treating

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We all know about using drop cloth for window treatments by now, right?
I couldn't wait to jump on the bargain train and make a pair for my dining room.  

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The above look is what I wanted.  I would use my left over SW paint to paint stripes on the edges of the drop cloth. 140" drapes for under $25! Wow.
Somehow I missed the tutorial on painting drop cloth. 

The Yellow Cape Cod

Most tutorials, like The Yellow Cape Cod's, are about using regular curtains. Maybe that's the difference. Let's just say, I went through half a can of paint on one stripe. Could it be that drop cloths are used for soaking up paint? hmm...Not to mention the paint was dark navy.  I didn't have the patience nor the paint to finish so on to plan B.
Some type of blue floral print like one of these-

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I really love the bamboo shades too, which I hope to have eventually.

Found this fabric at Hancocks' on the clearance bin. $6 per yd.

Don't you love the color codes on the edges of fabrics? 

To be honest, I wasn't sold out on the fabric at first. But at that price and knowing it'd be a temporary fix, I could live with it for now. 
They turned out better than I imagined.

A little iron on hemming tape on all sides and up they go. No lining since they'll stay pulled back.

 Sometimes ignorance turns to bliss.