Meet Nellie

I am thrilled to introduce to you today our new doggie, Nellie! Nellie is a shipperke/shepherd mix and we just picked her up from Angels of Assisi's yesterday. She is already making herself at home in our little apartment. We have her on loan until we can have her spayed and then she'll be all ours for ever and ever. Doesn't she have the sweetest little face? big kiss, bekuh

Ryan's Song to Me

In honor of Valentines Day being this past Tuesday I thought I'd share a song that Ryan wrote for me right before we got married in October. Ryan is an amazing musician and I love his new project On the Cooling Board, a one man band heavily influenced by pre-war blues and early alternative. I'm so proud of all the work he's been putting into this project and he will have a new album out this Spring!

I've hesitated sharing this on the blog earlier purely because the thought of someone writing a song about me terrified the ever living day lights out of me and made me extremely uncomfortable. I was mortified the first time he sang this in front of our friends because of the attention that I was receiving. But now I listen to it secretly when he's not home and love the work he put into this super special surprise for me. Heart really captures those first confusing moments in our relationship where our three year friendship suddenly felt like something more. We've both been broken but now that we're together all of that heartache makes sense because without it we wouldn't know how good we've got it now. So listen up.

You can download this and other On the Cooling Board songs for FREE at Sewn Together Records the record label that Ryan and our two good friends Austin, and Sean have been tirelessly working on to offer great Roanoke music to the masses without the record store prices. You owe it to yourself to check them out. big kiss, bekuh

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Today is my gorgeous sister Sarah's BIRTHDAY!!!! She has always been a guiding force in my life and I would not be the person I am today without her love, support, and adolescent torturing (just kidding).  I can not be with her today in person but I most certainly am in spirit. I love you big sis! You are fabulous.

Because I couldn't be with her to celebrate her birthday with balloons, a crown, and confetti, I sent her a party in a box so she could celebrate anyway. I tucked in some pretty floral coasters, two cloth garlands, a crown, and our favorite chocolate muffin mix so she can make it and share it with friends. She will look just gaw-geous I'm sure (that was in a southern accent if you didn't pick up on that).

Leave my sister a sweet comment on my blog so even far away she can feel all the love. She's worth it I promise ;) big kiss,bekuh

Paella with Friends

Paella is my most favorite Spanish dish, and last weekend Ryan and I hosted a little dinner party, serving a giant pan full of the saffron deliciousness. I was first turned on to paella while I was living in London; a wonderful Spanish friend named David made a group of us paella for dinner one night and I have been a cult follower ever since.The thing I love most about paella is that it is meant to be shared, you won't often find a Spaniard sitting alone to a dish of this. It's a perfect meal for large groups and has an everything plus the kitchen sink kind of quality. I've made many variations of paella but the chicken and seafood paella tends to be my favorite.

This was the first ever couples dinner party that Ryan and I had ever hosted. Normally we invite everybody and anybody who can make it out for a good meal but we'd finally made it to that place in adulthood where more friends than not are in couples. Sadly a bunch of people couldn't make it due to other commitments but the eight of us who could enjoyed a hearty meal with sangria and good beer to share. Martin graced us with a couple of bottles of his incredible home brew and the hard to get your hands on Bell's Hopslam.

After dinner we played a fun game of "Would You Rather..." There was a lot of laughter and the realization that among our living room knick-knacks there were all the props one needed to play Sherlock Holmes for a night (thanks Lewis and Christine). Having so many loved ones in one place made me super grateful for the friendships Ryan and I have been building together in Roanoke. I can't wait to get everybody together again soon big kiss, bekuh

Somedays are Polka Dot Days

I love when the outfit fairies sprinkle a little magic dust on my barren closet and somehow amongst the shabby cast offs a golden nugget appears. That's what happened when I pulled out this coral cropped jacket and polka dot dress totally by accident. 

serendipity. kiss meet. dumb luck. happy accident. 

Add a couple of Heidi braids, wintery tights, and a well worn pair of suede boots and what you have is a sunshiney happy me.

The dress twirls as all good dresses should and looks so dainty that I've managed to dress it up, dress it down, wear it to work, wear it to play, wear it to bed (ok maybe not to bed).

Outfit Details:

Dress// Urban Outfitters

Jacket// JCrew Warehouse Store

Tights// HUE

Boots// Vintage

Ryan was kind enough to take these pictures for me, even though he was feeling under the weather, and I snapped two of him being pitiful. He's pretty great, as if I haven't mentioned that a million times. wink wink. big kiss, bekuh

Game Night with the Kleiners

After getting back from our holiday travels we had the chance to meet up with two of our good friends, Lewis and Christine Kleiner. We had a delicious meal of soup and crusty bread and then sat down two a game of Pictionary and Risk. We have a few pictures of sorts capturing the evenings raucous festivities.

First off let's meet the players:

The first game we played was Pictionary, which the Kleiners hands down whopped our butts. Thats not to say we both didn't have our highlights, like my rustic drawing of a french man (baguette and all), or Ryan's flossing man, Lewis' belcher and turkey gobble, and of course let's not forget the serious game faces exchanged by each group. This was a game of epic proportions.

After Pictionary was won (by the Kleiners) and over we decided to try our hand at a little game of Risk, again in teams. Neither Christine or I had played Risk before and are loving husband were willing to take it easy so we could learn from their mastery. It was a hard played game and as luck would have it the dice rolled in the Browning's favor and black conquered yellow in world domination. 

A hand shake was exchanged and in good spirits all around the Kleiners left into the night. This is one couple we'd play a game with any day of the week. big kiss, bekuh

Our Before and After Bedroom

One of the biggest projects Ryan and I have tackled together since getting married is decorating our bedroom. I thought I'd show you the before and after progress of the room as we've hung all but one picture on the wall and everything happily has a home in our room now. 

Before:

When my roommate Lauren and I moved into the apartment we had three rooms to choose from as our bedrooms. I decided on the "bonus room" which wasn't technically a bedroom because it doesn't have a closet, but thankfully our apartment has a plethora of closets so I was able to choose another and have a room with lots of windows. Two of the walls are entirely made of windows and I have beautiful french doors leading into my space, and a door close to the bathroom as well. An ideal situation if I do say so myself.

After Ryan and I got married we decided it was time for a major facelift as we were already going to have a "new" bed that was Ryan's bed growing up. We painted the walls a dusty blueish gray and got straight to work decorating. I'm quite pleased with the results.

After:

It was fun choosing, combining, mixing and matching our two styles into one cohesive feeling room. I love the screen printed show posters of Ryan's hung with a drawing I bought in Italy and the embroidery I made for our wedding. I'm especially found of the old college pennant trashcan that was in my Papaw's den all of my childhood. I think our bedroom is the perfect reflection of the two of us and we love it! What do you think of our bedroom transformation? big kiss, bekuh

A Year of Dreaming Big

Hello, there. Can you believe it's two thousand and twelve already? Every time I say what year it is out loud I find my mind wandering to flying cars and alien best friends, it sounds so sci-fi for some reason. But that's not what I'm here to talk about, I'm here to talk about all the adventures that are to be had in 2012. You're probably going to be seeing a lot of posts like this across the web from websites to bloggers and you're probably thinking not another goals post!? 

Well, I'm here to tell you that yes this is another goals post and it probably isn't the most original one you'll read on the internet but these goals are a BIG deal to me. Why you may ask? Well I have a lot of big plans for this year and solid goals to get me to where I need to be at the end of it. I even have a goal so big it has to be kept a secret until I reach this goal. I tried to be super realistic with my goals, but also reach a little in hopes of big things happening. The past was yesterday and today is the start of something fresh and new and the year ahead looks bright.

I have so many goals for myself this year I had to split them up into four categories: Life, the Button Factory, Blog, and Home. Each list has around 26 goals because, well, that's how many lines were on the paper. Some goals are really big like "complete the Button Factory business plan," and some goals are really small like "laugh until I cry, often." I wanted my goals to fill every part of my life so that I'm always pushing myself to move forward, to grow, to change, to be better than I was last year. If all of these were easy I'd never fill fulfilled but if all of them were hard I'd feel defeated when they were not reached at all. You have to find your balance in goal making.

I'm not going to share every goal I have with you today, that would be a little tedious for both of us. I will however share some of my goal highlights from each category so you can get an idea of my progress throughout the year.

2012 Goals for Life:

1. Complete the Button Factory business plan

2. Buy an old bike and fix it up

3. Take at least three weekend trips alone with Ryan

4. Host a craft night or all of my girl friends

5. Learn how to fully use the manual setting on my camera

6. Take a class

7. Sew a Summer dress

8. Find a new mixed drink I like

9. Redecorate my studio

10. Start a family tradition with Ryan

2012 Goals for the Button Factory:

1. Launch the Button Factory online

2. Finish the first jewelry line for the store

3. Create our branding

4. Do a photo shoot with Katie

5. Incorporate

6. Build our website

7. Organize our inventory

8. Go to at least one estate sale each month

9. Buy some display pieces to store

10. Get our social networking organized

2012 Goals for the Blog:

1. Work towards a clearer writing voice

2. Get a post featured on a bigger blog

3. Hit 1,000 views per day for a week

4. Advertise on at least one blog per month

5. Consistently link and share Friend's content

6. Feature more DIY projects in new ways

7. Try a hair tutorial

8. Plan out posts a month in advance

9. Create more in depth posts about things I'm passionate about

10. Share my goals and their progress more often.

2012 Goals for the Home:

1. Recover the chair in my studio

2. Fix the paint spots in the bedroom

3. Buy a piece of art

4. Finish the living room redecoration

5. Find a new dresser for our bedroom

6. Buy shelving units for all of our storage closets

7. Redecorate the kitchen

8. Finish hanging art in the Dining Room

9. Print more pictures to hang around the house

10. Buy rugs for the living room, bedroom, and studio

As you can see my goals are all over the place and some of the goals almost act as gifts, or rewards for other harder bigger goals. For example, I'm not going to be able to hang more pictures in the Dining room until I have more pictures printed out, or that new piece of artwork I hope to buy etc. As you can see in the blog category I plan on continuing to share my goals with you and the progress I'm making throughout the year. Would it be wonderful if at the end of the year I can look back with you at all the big dreams coming to reality? I think so. What are your goals for the new year? If you have a post you'd like to share about your big dreams please leave it in the comments below. big kiss, bekuh

Happy New Years

Oh New Years, always a joyous evening full of fun and mischief. We're headed out to and with friends and I hope you are as well. I thought these silly pictures from last New Years might tide you over until I can share what we're doing tonight. I have lots to planned for you tomorrow and in the coming weeks so prepare yourself for an awesome intro into the newest year. Happy 2012 everybody!

Kiss someone sweet, I know I will (wink wink). big kiss, bekuh

A Tale of Many Christmases

I mentioned in yesterday's post that Ryan and I have four Christmases this year, let me explain. We have his parents', my mom's, my dad's, and we decided to have our own private little Christmas at home too. Easy enough, but when you add traveling, holiday schedules, people's availability etc. you've got pure Christmas chaos. 

This year we decided to go to Ohio for the actual Christmas holiday and spend it with my Dad and his family. We went to Ryan's parents' on the Thursday before, and had our little celebration together that night too. That leaves my mom, we have celebrated Christmas with her on New Years since my parent's divorce, a tradition that carries on even today. So you can guess where I'll be tomorrow. I wanted to give you a pictorial representation of three of our four Christmases today, so hold onto to your seat belts because this was one wild ride. 

This is a very picture heavy post, you know you love it.

These four pictures are perfect examples of or holiday madness, our families are so loving and giving and I'm pretty sure Ryan and I both got almost every item off our Christmas wishlists. The bottom two pictures are our Dads, JB is Ryan's Dad on the left and Greg is my Dad on the right. They're both as jolly as Christmas elves in these pictures.

We'll start with the Browning Christmas. We had lasagna for dinner, laughter for dessert and a whole lot of gifts exchanged. JB got new art supplies and everyone got pictures from the wedding to hang at home.

Layla was so worn out by our gift giving she just passed out at Ryan's feet, and on his new drum sticks.

Next up Ryan and I decided to have a private little Christmas celebration at home and each exchanged one gift. We left the rest of our gifts unopened until Christmas day.

We both decided to give each other clothes to open which was total coincidence and kind of cute. I love my new red wool skirt!

Finally we headed north, to rain and not snow, but had a merry little Christmas with the Powers clan. We ate way too much, hugged a lot and opened presents until we were all blue in the face. We all received so much! I felt very blessed.

After all was said and done I have to say I'm super thankful for all of the holiday madness. We've gotten to spend a great deal of time with family in the last week or so and we'll get to spend more time with family tomorrow. All the gifts are just icing on the cake, but what would icing be without the cake to put it on? big kiss, bekuh