Saturday, October 23, 2010

SOUTHERN LIVING: Football and the SL Idea House

Evie went to her very first football game on Thursday night. She slept on Gabba Gabba's shoulder for the first half and came alive after a power nap for the second half. Although the Lovett Lions lost the game, I think we created a little football fan in Evie.  She really got into the action and cheered and yelled right along with us.

"Go Bluuuuuuuue!"



On Friday, Momma Peach and Miss Priss played hooky from work and school and drove down to Senoia to go with Gabba Gabba to sneak a peak at the Southern Living Idea House that was recently finished and open to the public. 

This visit made Momma Peach realize a few things:

(1) I would LOVE to be an interior designer. What a fun and fabulous job - your responsibility is to make things beautiful... and then SELL that to other people. Paints, textures, fabrics and furniture - what more could a girl ask for?

(2) I could never actually BE an interior designer. On the tour, there was a middle age woman that had at least one grouchy complaint about every room. Details she didn't like. Patterns she thought clashed. Didn't like the furniture arrangement...
By the end of the tour, I  could barely hold my tongue towards the nasty woman. It would be clients like that who would make being an interior designer a painful job.   I wish Jamie McPherson had been there to defend his beautiful work (a la Walther Matthau to Barbara Streisand: "Look lady, I have more talent in my smallest fart than you do in your entire body.")

(3) Finally, I have a moral/personal/financial/conscientious (and sometimes physical) objection to paying an amount greater than our monthly mortgage for a piece of furniture.  That will NEVER EVER not-in-a-million years happen. I don't care how very rich or how very poor we get in life. Many of the pieces were afforable - everything from Ikea, to Ballard Design, to more expensive pieces from Henredon (whose furniture Ralph Lauren sells and uses)... but I could never justify paying that much for a piece of furniture.

Yes, I understand collectors who pay for historical pieces that are hundreds of years old and have a story to them --- but for a BRAND NEW piece of furniture? If it costs more than $5,000 -- it better be as important/prestigious as the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and have just as many cute kids playing under it!!

Momma Peach took lots of pictures during the visit to share. The whole house was beautiful, but the two rooms that were designed as the kids' rooms were absolutely adorable.  If you didn't catch the initial SLIH article where they revealed the finished product, you can see a slide show HERE. (<-- and check out some non-amateur pictures of the house!)


The SILH is the corner lot-
a four story townhouse that  is
"reminiscent of elegant row houses
found in Savannah and Charleston."

Evie was sad when the dogs didn't appreciate her petting them.



The "crafting room" on the top floor. Momma Peach gave herself a little pat on the back when she saw a map of Paris tacked to the wall - since it's the same "vintage" map that we have framed in our guest room.  We's got some of 'dat nice style too, y'all!


So, how many women saw this and then went home and told their husbands, "Honey, I'm thinking about building a walk-in closet that will be entirely devoted to wrapping presents."   Can you hear those husbands laughing from here?Actually, I'm not one to talk, since I recently turned a closet into a wine cellar.


One of the adorable kids bedrooms.

See the green stool? Recognize that pattern from anywhere?
Check it out
HERE

That's TWO design points for Momma Peach!




It's not the Sistine Chapel - but it  probably was still a pain the neck to get a giraffe head on the ceiling.



Master Bedroom





Honeycomb print fabric!
Tech fans rejoice!





I loved the wallpaper in the
downstairs powder room
.





Evie's favorite: the "Original Charleston Bedswing" on the patio.







By the way: the whole house can be yours for a measly $1.2 Million dollars. And it will come fully furnished for an additional $700,000 of pocket change. 

Go ahead, make a bid on it. If you win, Evie and I will come visit every weekend! =O)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

OCTOBERFEST

Momma, Baby, Dadda and the pups made a trip to the Neal grandparents on Friday evening... and stayed and played the whole weekend.

Momma + Baby were the ones who actually played, while Dadda hunted. He didn't kill anything, but we think "hunting" was his excuse to go for a walk in the pretty woods early in the morning, take a nap in the hunting blind, all while saying he was "looking for deer." (That's our theory anyways.)

We played with lots of goats, horses (big and small!), kitty cats, doggies, swung on rope swings, rode on four-wheelers, played in waterfalls, and did all kinds of fun stuff.  If only every weekend could be like this one!

When can we do it again?
One of the pygmy goats











Our contortionist under the bed, chasing those frisky kittens

You gonna eat that?

"Angelina Goat-ie" and friends.

The Pied Piper and her new acquisitions... mini horses!



Just my size, Gabba Gabba!

Hello, new friend


BLUE boy!












Swinging Monkey!


Showing off her new molars...
or just acting like a baboon.

Saturday night we helped Gabba-Gabba host an Octoberfest celebration at the Boddie Range in Mountville - and of course we just had to dress up for the occasion.
A Frau and Frauline all dressed up

Miss Priss had a big helping of sausages, breads and cheeses, German potatoes and sauerkraut. Can you believe she ate (and actually liked!) every bit of it?

Many of the Octoberfest party-goers mentioned to me that they love looking at pictures of Evie on Facebook and on this blog. I was so glad to hear it, as I'm probably a bit overzealous in the picture posting of Evie.

Evie has had no less than a million pictures taken of her by now. It's very nice to know you guys like it! (Either that, or you were humoring me by saying so.)


Both of the girls sported pigtails for the event

Evie and her dadda

It's a German tradition to make the youngest party-goer drink an entire yard of beer.
(it was just a little bit of water, y'all, I promise!)

Back off you guys, this is MY chair!




We also took Evie to her very first pumpkin patch. The Greenville UMC is holding their "Family Fun Days" throughout the month of October and we decided to go check it out!

It was hard work picking out the PERFECT pumpkin to take home, but I think we got some good ones.



Hmmm...


Our little pop-up prairie dog pumpkin picker

Like mother, like daughter... wow, such ladylike poses!


We are now the proud owners of the pinkest,
wartiest, bumpiest, quite possibly the ugliest-in-a-good-way
pumpkin in the whole patch!




OOH  Oh oh!  I can spot the best
pumpkin from up here!


On Sunday night we took the little lady to a dinner hosted by the intrepid-and-always-so-interesting Dr. David Allen.

Dr. Allen is an avid hunter and his country house has a remarkable display of creatures from all over the world - with some of the most impressive being from the African continent. Evie loved it!



Can I pet it?!

Evie got to see the world's 5th largest African Cape water buffalo ever shot!   He was  quite a beast.


We even got to have dinner with Georgia's
next governor,
Mr. Nathan Deal

It was all going just peachy - at least until Miss Priss decided that she was hungry and only the food on Mr. Deal's plate would do for her.

Sorry about that, Guv'nor! Mind if my child takes a bite out of your dinner?
And we'll be heading to the children's section now...

That's okay. She's still a supporter.