bar ‘cart’ styling

the title of this should be styling a bar cart when you don’t have a bar cart. any surface with a tray will do. this time of year is the perfect season to have a stocked bar for guests, parties, and cocktails. i like to keep the essentials around for classic drinks like a gin & tonic, a negroni (campari and vermouth), and an old fashioned (bourbon and bitters). old fashioned is my husband’s all time favorite – it was his signature drink at our wedding. mine was a st. germain cocktail with champagne. i also love showcasing local favorites like the gin from nashville’s corsair distillery and lincoln county lightning from josh’s hometown. on our bar cart i also have some sentimental items – a few nice bottles of wine from my aunt and father, my grandmother’s copper mug, and decanters that were cherished wedding gifts.

   

i mentioned in a past post that i am still looking for my dream bar cart and waiting patiently until i find one with the right price tag. in the meantime, i found this side table (with an undermount sewing machine?!) that is the right size for the lacquer tray. i love styling with these dried yellow craspedia flowers also; they add a little personality. the hilarious tequila mockingbird book is from my wonderful sister in law! when i find an actual cart, i will add another tray with favorite cocktail glasses, cloth napkins, and other cocktail making tools. what drinks are you mixing up this thanksgiving weekend?

 

sources: white lacquer tray from west elm. hemingway print from ohmydeer handmades etsy. paint color benjamin moore quiet moments. sewing table vintage. tequila mockingbird book from urban outfitters.

 

xoxo madeline

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date idea: outdoor movie night and firepit

i’m back this week after last week of no blogging. it was a crazy week. to relax during this time of year, we love to pull out our adirondack chairs and have an outdoor movie night. at the beginning of november before the leaves had fallen, instead of our typical date out at a restaurant or movie we decided to stay in.

our s’mores essentials are simple: marshmellows, graham crackers, nutella or reeses cups, fruit preserves, and roasters. when we host movie nights, we like to have options for everyone to get something they like. we recently invested in a projector screen and roku player to stream movies and have really loved it. we hung simple s hooks indoors and outdoors to mount our projector screen. all you will need is a roku player, speaker, and screen or white wall. we used a sheet with grommets for a long time to save up for the screen (which was surprisingly inexpensive). josh made these adirondacks for us to enjoy year round and they are so comfortable even for a 2 hour movie. i will be doing a tutorial on how to build your own adirondack chairs soon!

we chose the woody allen thriller, match point. we love to play thrillers or old movies; it just feels drive-in-esque. the fire is really perfect throughout the movie to keep warm and we brought cozy blankets out also. here are some essentials that we recommend…

1. stump from west elm.com. 2.cross blanket from terrain.com. 3. matchpoint movie from amazon prime. 4. marshmellow roasters from terrrain.com. 5. roku player from amazon.com. 6. firepit from terrain.com. 7. projector screen from amazon.com.

 

happy monday.

 

xoxo madeline

moving sale finds

more on the really fun weekend – this saturday we decided to check out this moving sale from the bloggers at pencil and paper co. the house they flipped was so beautiful and there were loads of incredible items for sale… like this bertoia chair that i snatched up! it was not a bad price so i could not resist. it needs a sandblasting and powder coat refinish.

we look like hoarders from our pile (yes, that’s a giraffe). i wish i had grabbed these danish beauties or the thonet below, but only had so much room in my car!

i did get the squirrel jar, the ceiling mounts, and the espresso machine. the lights were free, (i plan on painting the housing brass and using these in the entry hall) and espresso machine was only $20 – i think a deal! we enjoyed espresso this morning and am so excited to make cappuccinos and lattes this winter.

we watched the most charming movie last night and will share more about it this week on the blog. we spent today ‘fall cleaning’ the closets, making a big pot of soup for the week, and my husband drew up some plans for our closet renovation. i wish the weekend was not over!

 

if you need something to listen to on this rainy night, remember the rainy days playlist?

xoxo madeline

timberlake and other thoughts

happy sunday. this has been such a fun weekend so far. friday was the justin timberlake 20/20 experience (i have no shame about my mad love for him) with my closest friends and dinner out in nashville at tavern.  yes, i took pictures of the smore’s dessert…jt was so entertaining. he is so talented! here is a quick breeze through.

what did you do this weekend?

 

xoxo madeline

tonight

so this is happening tonight.

JT nashville 20/20 show

don’t know that i could be more excited if i was a 13 year old girl obsessed with nysnc still. it should be a raucous night. 

xoxo madeline

five things: nov 10 – 16

it has been a bit of a somber day around here as i got some sad news last night. sometimes you have to fake it because life still moves forward – you still have to go to work and act functional. here are five quick things from my week that cheer me up.

 

1. bedroom updates – new lamp and comfy faux fur blanket to cozy up our room

2. new mint mousepad – love my new mint mousepad for my desk from poppin.com

3. grilled cheese and tomato soup – it is finally the season for this classic combo

4. clearance sale at target + fur stool – i found lot of fun (nate berkus) clearance items and saw this tiny stool that i think i can make a diy version of myself

5. james blake’s overgrown album – if you don’t know him yet, you need to. especially the song retrograde, but the whole album is great

madeline

november colors

 

welcome to our yard. isn’t it beautiful? we are very blessed to live on five acres of land and to live in the rolling hills of tennessee, where we have four distinct seasons. fall is particularly beautiful here at our home. we have two soaring sugar maples that turn bright yellow throughout the fall, also gingkos and a japanese maple you will see in this post. i wanted to capture them before they are gone…the fall is both uplifting and sad because it is so finite and fleeting. i have to enjoy it while it’s here. my husband, josh, is in full no shave november mode and has a serious beard, which i love. what does your fall look like?

 

….and sampson wishes you a wonderful wednesday tomorrow!

 

 

xoxo madeline

 

return of domino

i have a case of the mondays. luckily, i have an endless supply of magazines and parks and rec episodes to keep me occupied tonight. have i mentioned how excited i am about the return of domino magazine????

here are some recent pins from the new issue including the closet makeover from the amazing jenny komenda. i love her and she will be a contributor for the magazine.

 

   

love all of it. have you checked out the new issue and website? will you be subscribing or buying off newsstands?

 

all images via domino.com and my pinterest.

madeline