feeling like fall in tennessee….like everyone else, it is my favorite season. we just celebrated my 29th birthday this week, visited a pumpkin patch, drank apple cider, and huddled around a bonfire.
{pumpkins at the gentry farm}
{gentry farm pumpkin patch}
{birthday dinner at margot}
{pumpkin branches and homemade psl syrup}
xoxo madeline
readers may not know much about my husband, but he is an architect and really talented craftsman. he has returned to his love of woodworking in his spare time and is making adirondack chairs this fall! the chairs are incredible – a custom design, handmade from solid cedar like our personal pair. they age beautifully in weather and smell amazing! he is selling them as singles ($300) or a pair ($550). i love these chairs so much – they are incredibly comfortable. local pickup would be easiest here in nashville, but we can arrange shipping for additional cost. comment or reach out if interested! these are perfect for all the fall firepits in our futures. thanks for reading ❤
madeline
today is my 28th birthday! i will have to wait for the birthday festivities till this weekend, as i have another exam in three days, but i am excited for a birthday drink, gone girl with my best friend, celebrating with family, and of course planning for hawaii! i have always loved having a birthday in october as this month is full of all the best fall activities – pumpkin patches, leaves changing, crisp cool weather, and halloween parties.
what are you up to this weekend? here’s to hoping 28 is going to be WAAAAY better than 27 was 🙂 this year has been a hot mess.
xoxo
MADELINE
i am so excited….we finally planned our much-needed vacation this year and our destination is…HAWAII! we plan to go to maui and spend most of our time there. we want to experience both the western ‘desert’ side in wailea and eastern ‘tropical’ side of the island in hana. my parents often tell me about how they visited maui when my mom was pregnant with me and now i will be returning again. it is hard for me not to plan a lot of things to do and see, but i know we both need time to recharge; so i will do my best not to type out an itinerary….
do you have any hawaii recommendations? i would love to hear what islands you recommend, where you stayed, beaches to visit, or any other tips you might have!
images kauai 1 / lanai 2 / maui 3
MADELINE
i have only been gone three months. no big deal. there is much to make up for in the area of updates, but my most exciting news is that i am going to be aunt. my only sibling, sister and one of my best friends, natalie and her sweet husband matthew are having a baby boy, due march 6th! i am so happy for them and cannot wait to meet this little guy! the other thing i can offer is the most beautiful fall we have had in tennessee. here are some snapshots of our fall skies.
{bright pink skies on our anniversary}
{sunsets over franklin}
{last green on the trees}
{franklin in friday night lights sunset}
{magical clouds the night of my exam}
{firepits on cool nights}
{pumpkin tree branches for fall}
{my desk for the past 3 months}
we celebrated our three year anniversary this week, it’s my birthday month, and josh and i are both finishing up our exams {which explains the long absence). lots more to share soon. much love.
MADELINE
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
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
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
madeline made 