five things

{spring tulip magnolia blooms in our yard}

the first hint of spring has arrived to nashville, and we could not be more ready. we have had friends and family (who are all moving to nashville!) staying with us till this week and had the best time trying new places. work has been busy with photographing projects and the install of my commercial project this month. march 8th was also my sweet nephew’s 1st birthday! happy spring.

{a warm night at pinewood social & bocce ball}

{photographing #12thsouthreno project}

{trying nashville hot chicken at hattie b’s}

{one of my commercial projects installing}

madeline

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travel : seaside, fl

this weekend, josh and i travelled with the dogs to seaside, florida for a development conference. i tagged along to enjoy the sun and sand. seaside is a new urbanism community that was beautifully master planned in the 80’s and is the location of the filming for the truman show (love that movie!) growing up, my family visited the neighboring seagrove beach every year in august. in the offseason, seaside is shockingly quiet and calm. some evenings were chilly, but the weather was beautiful during the day. we ate great seafood, lots of snow cones, and walked for hours.

{seaside square’s quaint post office}

{their first time on the beach at sunset}

{lobster rolls at the shrimp shack}

{all houses are painted in pastel shades, like this tiny pale pink one}

{hot pink dream house}

{breakfast tacos and mimosas at cowgirl kitchen}

{sundog books at seaside square. we stayed at the bookstore owner’s rental home!}

{playtime at the beach}

{colorful walks through seaside side streets}

{pastel shutters}

{the best juice food truck}

{family walks with my guys}

{red tolix chairs at the artist’s colony}

{seaside chapel in the community}

bye seaside! we miss you already.

madeline

five things

here are a few fun snapshots from my week.

1. barcart flowers

2. barista parlor’s colorful signage

3. the best cilantro margaritas at saint anejo

4. winning $4 on powerball..oh well

5. the new five daughters bakery and cronuts

how is your week going?

madeline

josh turns 30! staycation 2015

i love to travel – the further away the better. however in a pinch, it is also surprisingly fun to be a tourist in your own city. my husband and i rarely explore our own city, because we get bogged down in the day to day or we go to our favorites places instead of trying new places. this may was joshua’s 30th birthday – i can hardly believe it! back in june, i decided to surprise him with a staycation here in nashville. we have such a fun city – come visit (i highly recommend the nashville scooter tours)!

{cork and cow – franklin}

{strolling through east nashville}

{dinner at the pharmacy}

{cream soda phosphates}

{german beer in the beer garden}

{jenis nashville, of course}

{enjoying the omni hotel}

{new omni hotel lobby}

{drinks at the fire}

{omni rooftop pool overlooking skyline}

{omni top floor views}

{kitchen notes brunch}

{nashville scooter tours – scooters named for country music legends}

{las paletas popsicles – 12th south}

{ended with nashville sounds game with our friends}

happy 30th to my favorite person!

xoxo madeline

drink : grapefruit basil paloma

 

to celebrate cinco de mayo, we made grapefruit basil paloma cocktails last night. they were so delicious that i wanted to share the recipe here with you! it’s a variation on the original paloma, “the dove.” it is a citrusy, fresh take on a gimlet or margarita and the tequila base makes it perfect for this holiday. i substituted the typical club soda for st. germaine liqueur to give the cocktail a floral tone and added my favorite summer herb, basil.

 

grapefruit basil paloma

1 part grapefuit juice

1 part blanco tequila

1 part st. germaine liqueur

squeeze of lime

muddled basil leaves

throw all off this in a shaker with ice, muddle basil and lime, and shake.

pour, garnish with basil, and enjoy!

 

this drink is equally as great with gin or vodka, so the liquor is interchangeable. let me know if you try this one.

enjoy and happy cinco de mayo!

 

 

xoxo

madeline

 

my sister’s new blog

i have the best sister. in. the. world.

{sisters, madeline and natalie circa 1987}

 

we have been so close our whole lives, but now she is halfway across the country. to stay connected, we skype, call, and read each other’s blogs. she started a new blog this month, wild communion – go check it out! she is a super talented massage therapist and health/paleo guru. she blogs about health, wellness, and he life in houston, texas with her husband (and my brother in law). she is also the prettier sister and extrovert of the family. i can’t talk her up enough….she is my favorite.

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

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