DIY - easy, peasy ornament idea

The other evening after work I was at Joann's fabric when I came across a really cute yet simple ornament idea.



This ornament would be really easy and fun to recreate to match your own color scheme. It looks simple enough for kids to do it as well.


- Meg.

baby it's cold outside!

Well y'all it's darn cold outside. I know that most of the country has had the painful realization of that...oh let's see...like a month or two ago but it is finally hitting Georgia and the metro Atlanta area in full force lately. Today's high was 40! NOT including windchill...most of the day was spent hovering 27 with a windchill making it 20. Now back 'home' in Washington we would have had snow and tons of it with these sort of temperatures - but here there isn't any moisture in the air (and my static hair shows that like no other).

This was what the the neighbors saw when I dashed out to get the mail earlier this afternoon.



Please contain the jealousy that YOU aren't my neighbor :p

In other news...I have been decking the halls of MattandMegLand! I'll be giving up more deets soon!



SIDENOTE: I LOVE the battery operated tealights! They flicker like real candles but without the worry that you will burn your hair/house/cat's tail.

-Meg.

christmas treezy

We recently decorated our Christmas tree! and I LOVE it! I love decorating for the holidays...although I am readyn to rip the decorations down come December 26th.

Anyways, I was inspired by Young House Love filming their tree decorating and fast forwarding it for all to see...I was even more inspired by a commenter on that blog mentioning that they should make a video every year to document a year to year tradition. I really loved the idea. It would be a neat way to show how your family and life changes over time and just a fun little tradition that doesn't require much work (just setting up your camcorder).

Without further ado...Matt and Meg's Christmas tree 2010!




-Meg.

nifty thrifty

These beautiful napkins and napkin rings were snatched up on clearance...their totel COMBINED was less than $6 from TJ Maxx.



I love the colors. I love that I could use white napkin rings on the napkins and then use white napkins with blue rings for a table setting of 8 and it would still look cohesive. And, I love that they were on clearance. I mean come on...who doesn't love the thrill of a good deal!

-Meg.

Happy Thanksgiving...a day late

Sorry the blog has been quiet for the past week or so...Lots of things have been happening around the Matt and Meg household!

I wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving! Our day was spent cooking...playing our new Wii Donky Kong game (it brings Matt and myself back to our childhood haha) and eating with my parents. It was nice and low key - very relaxing. In years past Matt and I have had to rush around to different families and houses eating multiple meals so it was a nice change of pace to just have ONE dinner and ONE destination. We do miss all our extended family and friends though :)

..............................................................

About a month ago, I spent twenty or so minutes gathering acorns. I am sure I made a few squirrel enemies that day but I had a plan for those acorns!



I stuck those guys in to a couple small glass hurricanes I had - I stuck a candle in for good measure too. It brought some understated 'fall-ness' to our entry area.

I know it's a little too late for you all to do it...but bookmark it for next year maybe? :) OR! It might get you thinking about other found treasures you could add to your seasonal decor! It has me inspired to track down some pine cones.

-Meg.

tell me...

I am ready to pull out our boxes and deck the halls!!

-Meg.

Georgia Aquarium

WARNING: lots of pictures in this post :)

This past weekend Matt and myself went on a special behind the scenes tour of the Georgia Aquarium (the WORLD's largest by the way!)...It was beyond AMAZING. I can not stress enough how wonderful this place was. It really made you feel small standing next to whale sharks, manta rays, and grouper (that aren't even fully grown yet).



We were taken behind the scenes and got to see the world's largest tank that houses whale sharks and a multitude of animals. At the top it seriously looks like one giant swimming pool (although I am not too sure what I was expecting haha).







It is something we will never forget.





The animals were magical.





We both want to SWIM with the sharks and fish - you can buy special events that allow to you to scuba in the giant tank with all the animals.




If you are ever in Atlanta the aquarium is a MUST SEE.



-Meg.

candlestick doppelganger

About a week ago I was perusing the newest Restoration Hardware** catalog that showed up in our mailbox when I spotted something eerily similar to an item in our home...



Here is MY candlestick that sits atop our buffet in the dining room. I scored this pretty guy for $1.99 at Goodwill awhile back.



If my candlesticks had a facebook page they would have surely posted their much more expensive cousins from Restoration Hardware** as their default pic during doppelganger week...(anyone out there think it's lame I tied my candlesticks and doppelganger week to facebook on the blog? hahah)


** forgive me, because the more I think about this the more I question if the catalog I spotted them in was Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn?? I'll let you know when I return home and dig them out of the recycle bin!

-Meg.

HomeGoods Happy!

After a not-so-great Tuesday I decided to stop in to HomeGoods after work before I headed home. I am always in search of inspiration ESPECIALLY since my parents just closed on a new house (they don't know it yet but I am decorating their house haha!). Glorious photos courtesy of my iPhone...who is nicknamed IFINN!

I came across this industrial table that jumped out at me. It would be gorgeous as a sofa table or even a bar/side console table for a dining room.






I also came across this print...I debated snatching it up for our living room but ended up talking myself out of it because I have a TON of picture frames and I need to really formulate my plan for the gallery wall in our living room before I buy anymore pieces.



And here I am! Saying 'HI!' to all you lovelies out there!



-Meg.

halloweenie

Being new to town we were originally unsure of what our Halloween was going to look like. Sure I decorated the house and all but we did not know if we were going to adorn OURSELVES in Halloween decor...aka costumes.

But then my lovely coworker/friend(who was a kick butt Cat in the Hat!) invited us out down to Buckhead. We ran around like crazy people pulling together last minute costumes. Matt had this crazy idea (well to be honest, I thought it was crazy) to be a Christmas tree. I was an {unoriginal} butterfly. Matt was a hit. Everyone stopped him and asked for pictures. He taught me to not doubt his costume ideas in the future, haha!

HAPPY BELATED HALLOWEEN!
HOPE YOU HAD A SPOOKTACULAR TIME!

-Meg.

take a peak...

I am always curious to see the places in a home that people don't normally post in blogs...for example the pantry. Pantries are never that pretty and fairly hard to organize. Soooo, ya wanna see what I do to keep it [somewhat] neat?

I keep our sugar, flour, whole wheat flour, pasta, etc in these glass jars from Walmart (you can find the jars at Target too - they just cost a few more bucks there).

Photobucket src="http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/zz167/mattandmegbraskett/pantry1.jpg">

I organized all the 'loose' bags of snacks in to baskets/

Photobucket src="http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/zz167/mattandmegbraskett/pantry2.jpg">

Something else I have in our pantry which was done during a pure moment of genius (I was in the accelerated/gifted program through of all grade school you know...). Well I got those handy dandy pop can holders. You know...those racks that roll a new can down to you? Well I bought 4 and have them in our pantry to store canned goods! It helps me know what we have on hand and keeps it all neat.

-Meg.

sorry-i'm tardy for the party

37 points to the first person who can guess where the title comes from.

Sorry I've been absent from posting in BlogLand for a week and a half... I missed out on posting about all the Halloween festivities! I have some pics of our Halloween decor that I may or may not post...because honestly I am ready to start decorating for Christmas already!

We had another important day happen while I was not posting...Matt's birthday!

It was his first birthday EVER away from his childhood friends or family. He had to work and the night before he got very little sleep due to faulty gutters...but minus those things he agreed the day turned out well. I started his morning with a series of hidden presents around the house with the first one being in the bathroom when he woke up to shower. After work he came home to a decorated house and his 'big' present. I also made him his beloved baked mac and cheese.

I am so blessed to have such an amazing, supportive, funny, caring, HOT, loving partner to share my life with and I can not wait to keep ringing in all the future birthdays together!

I snapped away like a crazed soccer mom.


Look! You can see me too! :)

-Meg.

ps: apparently blogger and photobucket are in a fight as they won't upload my photos together...hence the small blogger photos.

office rug

I am slowly trying to pull together a re-do for our office space. This space is jammed packed with totes because we are living in a much smaller (albeit that temporary) space so the re-do won't be perfect and ALL pretty. When we moved across country here to Atlanta we had already signed our lease sight unseen in order to have a place to move in right away. So, to say the least this place is not what we want in the long haul until we buy our house...but we're making do (until our lease expires).

One of the decisions I am facing when creating a decor board for our office is the rug. Matt is the one who primarily uses the office - for recording songs, editing fliers, etc. I do have my craft items stored in there but it's mainly 'his' room. Ultimately this place serves a multitude of uses (but doesn't every one's spare room??).

Two extremely inexpensive rugs I am considering are from Ikea:





Matt has no real preference in what I do with the space as long as he can play his music in it :)

-Meg.

some girls...

some girls love flowers from their men...



I, on the other hand, love it when my man hangs up curtain rods/pictures/shelves/etc.



he indulges my requests quite often :)

-Meg.

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exploring

Matt and I have been in the Atlanta area for all of...7 weeks now. We are really enjoying our time here and are glad we made the decision to move from soggy northwest to the warm southeast so far.

The 2nd night we were in town we just drove around for a couple hours enjoying the perfect warm evening and exploring our new area. It was perfect...just me, matt, our gps, and the radio. We talked and rolled down the windows and just drove.







-Meg.

Sundays

I have a confession to make...I am a crazy coupon lady. My Sundays always involve these bad boys:



All the newspaper drives Matt nuts but the savings are oh-so worth it.

So next time you're at Kroger or Publix...you might see me with my coupon organizers getting groceries for pennies on the dollar :)

-Meg.

fabric heaven

Today, Matt and I met up with my parents to have lunch at an Atlanta area classic italian restaurant. Afterwards I coaxed Matt to a new fabric store I had been wanting to check out. I had a specific project in mind and was really bored with the fabric options at your basic craft/quilt store.

It was fabric heaven. Rolls and rolls of beautiful prints, patterns, and colors everywhere I turned.



This color/pattern combo is perfect:



Matt was pretty bored with the whole thing but was a good sport.



Fabric will play a large role in following my passion and building up my side project...stay tuned :)

I was happy as a clam.




And I do believe you'll be seeing this beaut soon.


-Meg.

support...revisited

In the last post I mentioned that we were attending an outdoor concert in someones backyard this past weekend...I also mentioned that I have been thinking a lot about what I want out of life. Well the two sort of converged in more than one way. Part of what I want to continue to do is really soak up life, not get stuck in a rut where I look back when I am old and wish I had done more. Because really, when you are nearing the end of your life you are not going to look back and remember the days you spent sitting in front of the TV (don't get me wrong - I love 'my' shows IE Modern Family, Always Sunny, etc) but you are going to remember the days spent being present in the moment.

I know this post might be rambling and semi-chaotic, haha. Anyways...where I was going with the concert and take the leap to do what you want to do to create the life you love was that Matt and I don't really think there are coincidences - there are signs (whewwww that was a run-on sentence). During the concert one of the songwriters began talking about how he left a 'successful' career (successful in the world's eyes) and followed his passion. He prayed and prayed even though admitting that he desired something different for his life when he had been so incredibly blessed. But he kept at is his goal, working towards it day in and day out and eventually God presented an opportunity and songwriter took the leap of faith. The songwriter presented his story in order to urge those in the crowds to move towards the life they desire - and it was just what I wanted and needed to hear. And it was a sign to hear the same, reassuring message just hours after I posted the last blog expressing what I have been thinking about.

All of this has led me to really pursue some of my passions on a bigger scale. Time will tell how these really manifest themselves but we'll see!

Anyways - we had an amazing (super jammed packed) weekend last weekend and I will share that soon.

-Meg.

support.

Since I am finally done with college and have started a corporate career and we've settled in after our cross country move I've been really thinking about the future. As in, what is really important to me in life...What I want our life to look like, to feel like now and also when we have kids. Ideas for side ventures and following our passions have been weighing on my mind. This move has shown Matt and myself that we are an amazing team, we are stronger than we once maybe believed and it just inspires us to go after this life with a new zeal. Anyways, I guess what I am getting at is this morning I found this image and completely supports my thinking and what's been going on in my head lately. And, I love it.

{via}

Happy Saturday! We're off to outdoor concert and six flags!

-Meg.

pillow perfection.

I've been on the search for new pillows for our living room.

I am quite the pillow junky. I just can't seem to stop myself from buying decorative pillows...especially when they are clearance pillows from Tar-jay (Target).
Like this little gem I picked up for $3 (!!) recently at Target.

I love greys - in fact grey is part of our wedding color combo. Shhh - more on the wedding later :)

I really want to LOVE the new pillows so I am taking my time and not just buying whatever. Etsy has tons a cute pillows. BUT I am also debating about making/sewing my own pillow covers. But here are a few pillows that have caught my eye recently:

{here}

{here}

{here}

See any theme here? haha - maybe the geometric print is my thang nowadays.

I will keep you posted on what happens on the pillow front. for. sure.

-Meg.

good jeans.

The other night Matt and I took a quick trip to the mall...I was in search of a non tacky yet - oh - so - comfy pair of jeggings. I tried on a few pairs of jegging but ended up leaving the mall with these bad boys:

{the AE artist jean}

I haven't bought a pair of jeans in at least 2 or 3 years so it was about time to add a new pair in to the rotation. And, let me tell you one of the pairs of jeans that have been in heavy rotation the past 4 years or so has been a pair of Artist jeans from AE. I got the super dark wash and they were a steal and oh so comfy.


-Meg.

new blog!

HELLO there!

If you followed the link from our old blog I want to say 'welcome!'

I decided I wanted to have a blog that was more open to all sorts of things...like decorating, fashion, recipes, AND our lives. It was also slightly embarassing to tell people that the blog site was called meglovesmatt.com :)

I still intend to post about our adventures but this way it will be a more of a well rounded blog.

-Meg.

hi

tesssting!