tucked away

after christmas, kylie and i didn't know what we were going to do with all of caroline's books and toys.  we have a huge tv cabinet with six shelves underneath and i knew it would be a great place for storage.

luckily i remembered these great locker baskets i picked up at a show this summer.  so we headed out to my mom's house where i had stored them.  they are perfect for toys!

and the extra space to the left holds the bigger toys that can't fit in the baskets.

Merry Christmas to Caroline and to ME!   oh here's a little picture of my sweet pea.  she was too pretty not to include.

she's little, but she'll cut a bitch.

and she is one...a female dog that is. meet hazel wynette daniel.

 she's our pretty, and little, but hairy chihuahua. about a year ago, we weren't getting a dog. then kolby and tiff came over and kinda "peer pressured" us. mostly just got us looking at puppies online. we came across hazel. she was adorable and TINY. the size of a pop can actually.

we kind of wanted a chihuahua, but wanted a short haired one. well, we decided to call. next thing you know we're at wal-mart buying up dog stuff before we even looked at her! one stop through the atm and we were on our way to get our pretty pup! her name listed online was Isabella. well, that doesn't cut it in our family, so we changed it. to the beautiful name hazel. and wynette because annie's dog is claudette and abbie's was basette. so it was only fitting. we love hazel so much. she's the best snuggler and is so fun to play with. she loves most of my family except abbie's husband zac. and occasionally forgets abbie and wants to get her too. she hates strangers and is very protective over kylie, caroline, and myself.  

sometimes she's a bad dog and gets spanked, but we love her. we've tried and tried and tried to break her of her barking and aggression to strangers, but she won't have it. luckily she has small teeth, haha. yikes!

this is my favorite day.  even hazel knows when it's bed time.

a new found love

rachel ashwell...oh how i love thee. 

kylie got me her book "Shabby Chic Interiors-My rooms, Treasures, and Trinkets" for my birthday.  last night was the first time i got to look at it and i melted in to a pool on the floor.  it is absolutely beautiful.  it's a home filled with such gorgeous sparkling things, but looks absolutely cozy and comfy.  

check out this bed, it's just adorable.  she says in her book she loves a bed that looks just as inviting un-made as it does made.  and i have to agree with her totally.  i just discovered today that she is the one that designs the "shabby chic" line at target, which would explain why i love all of it.

look at this beautiful chandelier.   i've just been dying over a great chandy recently.  i have three of them in my salon and really want to add some in my trailer.  right now i'm rocking some pretty serious lighting and if i'm going to live here another 3 years, i need to spruce it up.  and nothing says beauty like a light dripping in crystals!

i also love in this book how she mixes natural woods with the soft colors and fabrics.  she also features a brown leather tufted couch in her book.  i never would have thought leather, especially brown, would fit into a shabby home.  but it was great.  it made the room masculine, but soft at the same time.  kylie even liked it!

this last picture is a amazing sunroom.  i love everything about it.  when i build, i dream of having wood planked ceiling like this.  the windows and french doors just melt me.  the chandy is perfect.  the couch looks so inviting, then the fresh blue flowers just add the perfect amount of pop to the room.  oh rachel, how you have inspired me so much.  once i finish gawking at this book, i'm looking forward to investing in the others she's had.  oh and i found her BLOG!

“in Kentucky we’re called mam-maws”

This weekend we took a short, but long drive, trip to KY to see Kylie’s family. Every Christmas we load up in the Daniel van and drive EIGHT hours to Catlettsburg. It’s a long trip but, we usually sleep and play video games or watch a movie. This year was different since Miss Caroline is in the picture. Kylie and I loaded up with Beanie and left bright and early Saturday morning. We left as soon as Caroline woke up(5:30am) and then she slept for 3.5 hours! It was awesome. We only had to stop 3 times and made it to Mam-maw and Pap-paw’s by 2:30, they are a hour ahead so it was exactly 8 hours. The rest of the family made it in that evening. Kentucky had had some winter storms so there was snow and unfortunately…no electricity! Thank goodness they had a generator, but NO hot water. I couldn’t stand not washing off and washing my hair and neither could Kylie. So, we braved an ice shower. Wow was it cold, but darn it I was clean!  Sunday morning, the Daniels from IL and Mam-maw and Pap-paw loaded up and head about an hour away to Paintsville, to see Mam-maw Kathleen(Kat) and Pap-paw Hobert(aka Hobe). Kat and Hobe are in a extremely nice nursing home, they’re Kylie’s great grandparents and Carlie’s great great! Mam-maw Kat absolutely LOVED Carlie! As soon as I walked in the door she had her hands up ready to hold her, and she never let go until we had to leave. She had Cathy take her around to her friends rooms to show her off. She was glowing from ear to ear. It was too sweet. Here’s Mam-maw and Caroline.

I love this picture. Kylie took it and it melts my heart. Because Caroline is the first 5th generation baby, we had to have a photo op of that too. So here is Great GreatPap-paw Hobe, Caroline, and Great Great Mam-maw Kat(front row) and Great Pap-paw Doug, Kylie, and Grandpa Greg(because that’s what we call them in IL!)






 This one is all of the above, but we added the other women. Great Mam-maw Easter, Grandma Cathy, and Me. After the nursing home we went back to Doug and Easter’s to relax. Later that night the rest of the family came over. Greg has two brothers. One has two daughters and the other has three daughters and four sons. So the house was packed! We had some delicious food, great grab bags, and lots of laughs. When the excitement was over, we got everything packed in the Jeep so we could, again, leave first thing in the morning. Caroline was a great traveling baby. Kylie drove 80 on the way home so it only took us 7.5 hours. I couldn’t complain, I was ready to be home too. So after a long weekend of traveling, family, and fun, I’m beat! It’s now 8:30 and it’s the first time I’ve sat down since we got home this afternoon. I usually dread this time of year because it’s so much in one week but it’s always worth it in the end. I’ve married into an excellent family and I’m so thankful to have the Millers and Daniels in my life. They love me like their family and I love them like mine. And that’s what makes it worth it.

"you smell like a hair salon"

is something i'm frequently told by my husband.  i wanted to share some pictures of my salon.  i love my shop and how everything looks.  it's not something everyone can appreciate, but i don't care.  it makes me happy.  i have a dream of a new salon some day in a building that i own and it will have a completely different look.  i'll share that inspiration in another blog. 

this is part of my waiting area

and here is the "cutting room" and my station

this is our check out counter.  i absolutely love it.  it used to be in my mom's antique shop as her register, and now i have it.  it's special and fantastically great!

up next is our lights.  i used to have old ceiling fans and i just hated them.  they were so not me and terrible to clean.  not to mention impossible to reach since we have 12' ceilings.  i got these bad boys at ikea for a whopping $30/each!  then my fabulous husband installed them for me.  he's great.

these are my fabulous chandeliers i got from delias magazine.  i get compliments on them all the time.  i do love them and so easy to clean. just unscrew the bulb and wash in the shampoo sinks!

 

these next few pictures are just some of my stuff around the shop.  a great picture i snagged from urban outfitters, a collection of antique hair stuff gifted from my mom, giant scissors from my dear friend ashley, and a wall decal that is so fitting and...

PRANCER!

and my two favorite girls.

brittany

she's the blonde in the bunch.  when she started working with me she had long blonde hair and we cut it off short and dyed it brown.  now we've turned her back in the a HOT blonde and cut her some FANTASTIC bangs.  she's an amazing stylist with lots of talent.  i am so glad to have her in my team.  not to mention i love her to death!

casey
here's the brunette!  she's so darn cute.   she's always the brunette that rocks the platinum blonde chunks.  she's had long, short, and a-symmetrical hair.  she's currently rocking the "side swipe", but you can't tell from this pic.  she's also an amazing stylist with lots of talent.  i'm so very happy to have her working with me too.  we're very similar in our styles and it's great to have a friend that loves the same things i love and understand that they're cool not weird. i also love her! 

 i hope you like my salon.  it's totally me and it's out there, but hey i love it.  i love my job and the girls i work with.  i'm so blessed to have found the job i love and the people that  make everyday fun.  my favorite part of the day is when i spin the chair around and my client says "i LOVE it!  thanks maggie!"  not only do i make them look great, but i turn their average day into a day where they are confident in themselves.  and that's what it's all about.

beautiful blessing

i can't believe it's been almost a year since we found out we were going to become parents, and now our baby girl is 4 months old! last year on the 17th we took the test and it was positive.  it was the best birthday gift i've ever had and it was two days early!  who can beat that, an early gift and a baby?!  we were so excited, but held it in until christmas.  except i had to tell someone so i called my best friend, hillary that night.  but other than her it was mums the word till christmas day.  talk about a hard secret to keep!  but we kept it and totally suprised our families.  mostly because on the 14th we went to dinner with my parent and in-laws and told them we were trying, but no success yet.  little did we know 3 days later our minds would be blown.  anyway,  here's our first sonogram of our little bean.

ten weeks and very tiny!

now here's our chunky beautiful baby girl.

look at those gorgeous blue eyes.  just like her daddy's.  i just can't believe she's four months old.  i can't imagine my life without her anymore.  she's the best little baby.  she rarely cries and if she does, she calms down very easily.  she's a wonderful sleeper and a just such a sweet happy girl.  she's starting to laugh and it's the best thing in the world.  she truly lights up my days and ALWAYS puts a smile on my face. we have an amazing family full of love and support for her.  we are so thankful for them.  looking at her makes me wonder how people can look at babies and not believe there is a God that created them.  they are just some of the best miracles He blesses us with.  i AM so thankful for her.

words can't describe

but i'm going to try!  today, i stepped into a store in dectur and it felt like a dream.  my dear dear friend casey (www.caseydavis.etsy.com)  sells her handmade jewelry there and told me i would love it.  after weeks of wanting to go i finally made it!  unfortunately i only had 10 mins to look.  i was dying over it.  it truly is my dream.  i want to have a store like this with my sister annie.  abbie too, but she's a chiropractor, so that won't happen.  i absolutely love my job, but i think this is my dream.  mostly because i grew up helping my mom with shows and her shop and i just would LOVE to have a cute store like that.  a store that everyone goes to and talks about and always comes to to pick up a gift for their family and friends.  a store that people travel from other towns to come and shop.  oh my how i want this so bad.  ok, so you want to know the store right?  it's called tournesol.  it's a mother and daughter.  they used to have separate shops but now they are combined.  it's adorable.  they're website is www.tournesolretold.com  it doesn't even do the store justice.  they had the cutest things from garden to jewelry to candles to papers to baby items.  in the words of rachel zoe "ba-nan-as!" "i die."  oh goodness.  i wish i had my camera to take pictures and share.  but believe me it's beautiful.

my big dream on the prairie

Here it is, my dream home!  Kylie and I have plans to build this beauty in 2011.  We'd love to build now, but we want a mortgage we can afford and that would be impossible right now.  There are a few changes that need to be made like changing the car port into a garage and adding a half bath in the downstairs, but other than that it's perfect.  I've searched and searched and searched, but after TWO years I believe I found it.  It's the cottage house I've always wanted.  I wanted a two story house that looked small but was actually really spacious inside.  And look at all that character!  Not to mention the beautiful spot we have picked out for it it.  The back yard will be lined with gorgeous yellow trees in the fall AND my sister will live just through the trees!  I can't wait to live in "Fox Creek" or "Fox Crick" We're starting the lane in the summer!  I don't know how we'll stop there and not keep going with the house.  We got a renter for our mobile home, so maybe we'll just save it all for the house, or use it to pay off our car!  Looks like the second option!

Here's the inside:

The Upstairs: