Thank Goodness its Thursday!

This week is slowly dragging by and the rainy weather does not help things. Lucky for me I had a little left over king cake with my morning coffee to warm me up a bit. =) I want to thank a "blog friend" for mentioning me on her blog. I found The Sweet Tea Diaries by perusing a few blogs. This girl is a Georgia native like me, and she is hosting an AWESOME giveaway. Her give-away has a cupcake theme, and I puffy heart cupcakes and free stuff! Check her out! Maybe I will have to do a give-away of my own, since she has inspired me.

Onto other things... last night while suffering through my weight lifting class at the gym, I was trying to distract myself from the pain and I got a couple of crafty ideas. I might be pretty busy conjuring up stuff this weekend, but hopefully I will have good pictures to show for it! Stay tuned!

Thanks Y'all!

Random Thoughts... or Random Rants

I have a lot of random thoughts today that would not make a cohesive blog... so I have decided to just list them.

#1 I'm very happy that my new Cole Haan bag came quickly and it is GORGEOUS
#2 I am annoyed with blogger/ internet explorer not letting me make comments on blogs, therefore forcing me to use Fire Fox
#3 What was Jason thinking with letting Jillian go?? She is adorable, she has a great personality, and he got all hot and heavy with her in the hot tub. "Friends" don't act like that. Plus she has awesome clothes! Hopefully she is the next bachelorette.
#4 Speaking of the bachelor and clothes... What the heck is up with Jason's ugly ties (Thanks for pointing that out Missy, now I cant stop staring!) and WHAT THE HECK WAS MELISSA THINKING WITH THAT HORRIBLE TEAL DRESS?? It looked like a square dancing dress. I realize she is from Texas, but I would have to guess that most Texans wouldn't be caught dead in that frock! Plus all of the cheap jewelry... Less is more Melissa, less is more.
#5 I have no idea how my home laptop had 1002 viruses on it... seriously 1002... I guess I wont be watching past episodes of One Tree Hill on crappy Chinese websites anymore!
#6 Greys Anatomy, I'm not sure that I can watch you anymore. You bore me. Izzy is crazy, George has disappeared, Callie stop trying to make out with any girl that stands still.
#7 Bikini girl from American Idol, how did you get new boobs so fast??
#8 I'm ready to pull out my rainbow flip flops
#9 The new butcher shop by my house is amazing. I had stuffed salmon last night that was to die for! I will be a regular from now on.
#10 I am a little sad that St. Patty's day is on a Tuesday, but I will still celebrate!
#11 Speaking of St. Patty's day, I am really digging Green right now and Im normally not a big green person. I just made a new Green pillow for my couch. See Below.
#12 The Yahoo home page has a CDC warning that beer pong has been proven to spread the flu and mono. They're really warning people about this?
#13 Stephenie Meyer please finish writing Midnight Sun (yes I am a twilight nerd)

That is all for today. Questions... Comments... Concerns??

Beauty Bargain!

I have a great beauty bargain that I wanted to share with yall. It is BeautyCrunch.com. This website has popular brands of makeup such as Stila at deep DEEP discounts! Many are over 75% off. Who doesn't love a good deal? Does anyone else have a great site to share?

My First Quilt!

This weekend was nice and relaxing. I had nowhere to be, nothing to get done, and I got to do whatever I wanted! Friday after work, I met up with two of my friends for red wine and mussels at one of our favorite restaurants. Afterwards, we went to see The Confessions of a Shopaholic. The movie was cute and entertaining, but I could have enjoyed it just as much once it came out on video than paying 9$ to see it in the theater. I may boycott the movie theater until there is a movie that I HAVE to see, because the past 3 that I have seen in theaters were honestly not that great. I do love Isla Fisher though, and a lot of her clothes in the movie were really cute! I love this jacket!
Saturday I began the final touches on my very first quilt. I am quite proud of myself and cant wait to start my next one. It will be given as a gift to a friend, so I cant divulge too much information about it on here until I give it to her!

I got the instructions for this quilt from the blog Crazy Mom Quilts. She has awesome step by step instructions for TONS of quilts! The name of this one is called "Ragged Squares quilt". When I picked it, it seemed like a very basic and beginner quilt. It was quite easy and I love the way that it turned out! I cant wait to try another one of her ideas! I decided to use Red, Black, and White for my Georgia Dawgs!

It is pretty small, probably a great size for a baby quilt. I dont think my little beginner sewing machine could handle anything much bigger!

A close up of the ragged squares.

Sunday I watched episodes of my favorite One Tree Hill online and gave my computer a virus. I guess it wasnt very smart to watch a show on a chinese site with chinese subtitles. My laptop is very sick now!

Tailgating Ladies

Southern Belle Bangles

One of the greatest things about living in the south is the tailgating! Southerners really know how to have one heck of a game day throw down! Besides the actual tailgate, I think the main thing that the tailgating ladies care about is their outfit. Game day clothes have to coordinate with college colors, and of course, they have to look good!

I have started making college inspired bangle bracelets. Perfect for showing school spirit on game days or any day for that matter! Check them out and let me know what you think! I can do any school color, but these are all I have so far. I will be adding them to my Etsy shop www.Lolaludesign.etsy.com as I have new schools and colors. I may also add a sorority line.

University of Georgia

University of Tennessee


University of Florida or Auburn University

My DIY Wedding

As of yesterday I have been married for 4 months and Im finally getting to the point where I am ready to revisit my wedding day memories. Dont get me wrong, my wedding day was amazing, I couldnt have asked for a better day! BUT, after so much time spent agonizing over every minute detail, I needed a break post honeymoon. For my entire year long engagement I spent my time crafting and creating things to make my wedding spectacular, a wedding that would be unique and different than any other to date. I feel that I was very successful in doing just that.

Initially I had planned on only hand making my save the dates, but when looking for wedding invites, I wanted something simple and classic. The prices of the invitations were ridiculously high in my opinion, and I thought my usual thought..."I could make these." My invitations were all entirely hand made.... all 215 of them. It was a long painstaking road, but in the end, they turned out perfect! I had a LOT of help from my mom, the scrapbooking queen with these. I couldnt have done it without her!

The save the dates were made in a simple postcard style. We used warm metallic white paper with gold hints through out, mounted on a black sheet of cardstock. We hand embossed maple leaves on them in bronze and silver and then ran them through the printer. Stuck a magnet on the back and VOILA!

Our invitations were printed on the same metallic white paper and mounted on black cardstock. They were very simple and elegant.I ordered plain black envelopes online and embossed the leaf design on the front of each one. They were all hand addressed in silver ink. I have always had a love for making jewelry and I decided to do just that for my bridesmaids. Their dresses were black knee length strapless silk dresses from the Ann Taylor Celebrations line. On clearance for $53! SCORE! I had silver dupioni silk sashes made for them and I wanted the jewelry to coordinate. I decided that I definitely wanted them to wear pearls, because lets face it... you cant get any classier than pearls! I made them hand knotted silver freshwater pearl necklaces and coordinating earrings from swarovski crystals and pearls. I really wish I would have made myself a set, because I LOVED them and so did my bridesmaids!I searched high and low to find the perfect comb for my hair... once again, I was disappointed because I could not find what I had invisioned. So what did I do, well I made my own! I bought a vintage crystal brooch on ebay and got to work. It is made from the crystal brooch, swarovski crystals and freshwater pearls.

I am obsessed with all things "C." My first initial is a "C" and my married last name is a "C." Both of my husbands initials are "C" as well. So I kind of have a love for the letter! I wanted to have a monogram cake topper, and those things are just too expensive to buy! I had the letter cut out of metal from Wedding Cuts. Then I painted it and glued on what seemed like thousands of tiny tiny pearls. I was happy with the result and it looked beautiful on my cake! Oh the centerpieces... I wanted a mixture of tall and low centerpieces with a lot of fall folliage. I bought 24 eiffel tower vases on ebay, and then spent a lot of time finding branches to fill them with. The leaves were all dyed and preserved sets that I bought at hobby lobby for 90% off after the previous fall. My mom and I hot glued ever leaf. Honestly, it sucked, and it took forever, but they turned out gorgeous so it was worth it!As long as I can remember, I loved the movie Father of the Bride, and I thought that Annie in the movie had the perfect wedding! I had the image of the tent from the reception in my head for my tent. Lots of twinkling lights, candle lit dinner. No one thought I would accomplish this, but I knew that I would! =) I had a lot of help with the huge tree branches strung in lights. My husband and a friend can take credit for the awesome hard work! I didnt really DIY this, but it was my idea so I think I can take credit for it! The lace around the flowers, is actually the sleeve of my grandmother's wedding dress. It was definitely something old! The dragonfly pin was my something borrowed in loving memory of my uncle.

One of my most very favorite details was my red shoes. Ever since I was a little girl I have been obsessed with red shoes! It was only natural that I would wear them under my wedding dress!
If you have any questions at all, please comment and I will answer the best I can!

Handbags are a Girls Best Friend!

These little Cole Haan beauties were waiting for me in my gmail inbox today. I am having a VERY hard time saying no to them! I haven't bought a new bag in YEARS. My last new bag was a graduation gift 2 years ago. I think that I deserve one... RIGHT?! Please vote on your favorite! FYI: Silver and Red are two of my favorite colors, but Im thinking the silver would coordinate with more things, but I like the hardware on the red one better. Decisions, decisions...

EDIT: I decided to go with the red bag! I was in a time crunch because I was afraid RueLaLa would sell out, got it for a sweet bargain!

Southern Belle Store

Well, my name is Mrs Southern Belle, and I LOVE all things southern or UGA. I came across this website in another blog today, and I had to make a post about it! It is called http://www.southernbellestore.com and it is AWESOME! They have really cute T's that are completely southern and are reminiscent of the days of sorority date night shirts. Here are some of my favorites. I would have a hard time picking just one!Decisions... Decisions... Im leaning towards the Georgia Peach one!

Polaroid Fun!

I have a great affection for old school polaroid photos. The kind that are virtually non-existent now. Polaroid stopped making its awesome instantaneous film and ever since its price and popularity has sky rocketed. In art school, we had to purchase polaroid film for photo projects. At the time, it just made me mad because it was so expensive, but now I have nostalgia for the old poor quality film. I remember many times getting a photo taken and shaking it until the magic picture appeared. Those days are probably over and my children will never understand nor appreciate anything that is not digital.

My friend Hayley told me about a website www.poladroid.net This website allows you to download their Poladroid program and you can easily turn your photos into the computer version of a polaroid. You can even "shake" the photo to make the picture show up.

Here are some of my favorite photos turned into polaroids. They make me smile!

My husband popping the question

My niece Reece kissing me through my veilMy parents dog John Wayne wearing a tutuMy ring bearer and flowergirl being little loversOur groomsmen giving us an unforgetable send off!

Its really fun to make your photos into polaroids. You should try it!

What a weekend!

This weekend flew by like usual! Friday I went out to Red Brick Brewery with some friends. If you have never been, I highly recommend it. It is off of Howell Mill Road in Atlanta. Its $7 and you get a glass and a couple of beer tokens for "beer tasting." A very good deal and you get to keep the glass.

Saturday my hubby and I hit up Waffle House with my parents and then I sat at home during the rainy morning catching up on my tv shows. That afternoon we had a Valentines day bonfire with friends. I spent the afternoon playing with chubby babies and bulldog puppies. I was in heaven!

The bonfire also gave me a great excuse to pull out my new koozie! This is my second edition of my special koozie because I lost my other one after a boating "adventure" last summer. An adventure that is summed up by me trying to hop off of the boat and onto the boat ramp, something that I have done many, many, MANY times. Except this time was different. My denim mini skirt got caught on the boat cleat and I ended up hanging upside down by my skirt, until it gave, and I fell flat on my face onto the cement... good times! In the midst of all of that, I lost my beloved koozie. My awesome koozie came from my friend whose blog is called GreenMagsterPie in my favorites. She is the greatest! Every great tailgater needs a monogrammed koozie. I happen to love ALL THINGS MONOGRAM!

Sunday was the first Nascar race of the season. We love Nascar and always get together on Sundays at my parents house to watch it. For those of you who may not appreciate racing or think its a redneck sport, please look at the picture below. That is my favorite driver Carl Edwards #99. He is a pretty good reason to like Nascar! If liking Nascar is wrong, then I dont want to be right! haha

Its Fabulously Friday!

I am so grateful that this week is finally coming to an end. Although the weather has been nice, and I can't complain, I would much rather enjoy it from outside, than in my office without windows. Yesterday I went home and enjoyed a nice glass of wine and a little chocolate I might add. It was quite wonderful!

I also found a few awesome deals yesterday! I LOVE a good deal, and I usually dont buy anything that isnt on sale. I have email subscriptions to all of the designer discount sites such as shop it to me, rue la la, gilt groupe, and haute look. There have been a few good finds that I have gotten from the sites, but I would much rather comb the racks at Target or TJ Maxx to find really good deals! Yesterday I scored a few sweet finds! I went to Walmart (which I loathe) to get cereal, and I came out with a really cute sun dress for $14 dollars! Then I strolled into The Dollar Tree next door to get a few cheap vases, and I found some awesome wine glasses!

I have successfully broken many of my wine glasses because they are very fragile. Lets just say that fragile and wine dont go well together... The glasses that I found are really thick glass and for a buck, you cant beat it!

Weekend To Do List: Drink wine, make a heart shaped strawberry shortcake for my husband, Valentines Bonfire, clean the house, upholster my ottoman, finish my quilt, possibly refinish our inherited buffet table, and who knows what else?

I will probably only accomplish the first three! HAHA

Blog Makeover!

I decided that my blog needed a little face lift! The background that I was using was making the page load incorrectly and it took forever. After wasting much of the morning looking for images to use for my custom header, I came across the one above. When I saw the girl holding the boston terrier, I was in blog heaven! I debated whether or not it was a little trashy, but decided that it was more fun and flirty! Putting my hard earned art degree to good use, I spent hours today designing the perfect header and making the dog's face look more like my Lola's. Voila!

My mid-week reason for why I love my husband, is because he loves my dog! (Eventhough he pretends that he doesnt!)

What do I do at work?

Well I blog and stalk other people's blogs... of course! Today I came across this blog, and it has moved up to one of my favorites! This woman has the best ideas I have ever seen! Many of her finds come from thrift stores and garage sales. She does easy drapes with scrap fabric and a hot glue gun! Talk about creativity! I am tempted to skip out on work right now just to try some of them, but unfortunately, I guess that will have to wait until 5 o'clock. Check her out, she is amazing!

http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/

"Love" Songs

Music has been a big part of my relationship with my husband ever since we first became friends. We both share a love of country music and we used to share our new downloaded music, or text message each other when a good song was on the radio. One time I remember he sent me a text to turn on a particular radio station and claimed that "it was his song to me." I turned on the radio, and I was really confused by the song. We were at our "what are we" phase in our relationship, so the song he wanted me to hear really made things more confusing! The song was "Cant you see" by the Marshall Tucker Band. The lyrics are as follows...............................

I'm gonna take a freight train, down at the station, Lord I don't care where it goes.
Gonna climb me a mountain, the highest mountain, Lord, Gonna jump off, nobody gonna know Can't you see, can't you see, what that woman, Lord, been doin' to me
Can't you see, can't you see, what that woman she been doin' to me
I'm gonna find me a hole in the wall, gonna crawl inside and die
That lady, mean ol' woman Lord, never told me goodbye
Can't you see, can't you see, what that woman. Lord, she been doin' to me
Can't you see, can't you see, what that woman been doin' to me
Gonna buy me a ticket now, as far as I can, ain't never comin' back
Take me Southbound, all the way to Georgia now, till the train run out of track
Can't you see, can't you see, what that woman, Lord, she been doin' to me
Can't you see, can't you see, what that woman been doin' to me

When I asked him what the song was supposed to mean he was confused by my question. He legitimately thought this was a nice song about a girl driving a guy crazy (in a good way). I can't imagine why I was confused with lyrics like "gonna crawl inside and die" or "mean ol' woman", but somehow it was still endearing because he meant it in a nice way! We still get a good laugh about it.

The next time he told me that a song reminded him of me, he did a much better job. It is was our song "Baby You Save Me" by Brad Paisley.

Conversation Hearts

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before, but I am a sucker for seasonal food/ candy. I have no idea why I love these chalky little hearts the way that I do... but I look forward to them every year! Brad and I have eaten a whole bag of them!

Although Valentines day is completely for the benefit of large corporations that make millions from candy, flower, and card sales... I secretly love it. Its nice that there is a day for expressing your love, which doesn't have to be in the form of flowers or chocolate, but could be a nice note or anything else thoughtful. This year we have decided to host a large valentines day bonfire. Not exactly the Valentine's Day norm, but a good excuse for a party!

Brad loves a good fire, he is pretty much a pyro, like most guys. It's in their nature! Having bonfires is one of his favorite things to do. He gets out on the tractor and gets the big burn pile ready, before dousing it in something highly flameable, and watching it light up like the Griswold's Christmas tree!

One reason I love Brad is that he takes joy in the small things. Put that boy on the tailgate of his truck, next to a roaring fire, or on a John Deere tractor, and he is in true heaven! He teaches me things that I wouldn't do on my own, and helps me to appreciate things that I normally wouldn't like. Because of him I can now drive a tractor!
He doesn't make a little camp fire... as my dad would say he likes a "Rip roaring Roy Rogers fire" whatever that means!? This is one of our past bonfires. He is the one holding the big log.

Its a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!

It appears that spring has started to come out of hiding and I cant complain! This weekend the weather was gorgeous! We enjoyed hanging out with friends and family and spending a lot of time outdoors. Maybe the groundhog was wrong or maybe they were just asking the wrong ground hog? The other day, Brad saw a ground hog perched in the middle of the road, sitting in the sun. Obviously he was enjoying the nice weather as well! Hopefully winter will stay away because I am over it!

Since this Saturday is the Hallmark holiday known as "Valentines Day" I have decided that I will be blogging about my husband all week... Sorry if that's too mushy for you to follow, but that's love for ya!

Please send some house selling prayers our way!

We have our fifth home viewing this weekend. I'm crossing my fingers (yet again) that this will be the one! Hopefully with congress approving a 15k tax break for ANYONE buying a house, that will instigate someone to buy mine! Our dream house is just waiting on us, and the price has been lowered again. Our house is adorable, who wouldnt want to buy it!?

Anyone have any good home selling tricks? I've baked cookies, had nice music in the back ground, candles lit, fire roaring... what else can I do to make someone think "I HAVE TO HAVE THIS HOUSE!"?? I think I will have fresh flowers out this time as well. Who doesnt like fresh flowers?

The Letter "L"

So my friend Missy tagged me with this in her blog and I have to compile a list of things I love that start with the letter "L"

1). LOVE- I LOVE being in love! I have the best husband that I could ever ask for and he loves me unconditionally.

2). Lake- My family spends our weekends during the summer at our lake house. It is what I love most about summer!

3). Lola - My boston terrier. She is the best!

4). Louisiana - Thats where Im from and where most of my family lives.

5). Lipstick - I have a million tubes that I never use and I always find reasons to buy more!

6). Lasagna - One of my favorite meals to cook!\

7). Lady Antebellum - I love their music

8). Lord - Jesus my redeemer

9). Laughing - Who doesnt like to laugh?

10). Living - The best gift of all!!

Comment me if you want to play and I will pass you a letter!

Cookies Make a Great Breakfast!

Seriously, my Kitchenaid mixer is going to make me fat. Its always there, tempting me, taunting me... telling me that I need to bake cookies! I have convinced myself that homemade cookies are much better for me than store bought ones. Atleast I know the ingredients are sugar, flour, butter, vanilla, chocolate chips, and more sugar! Its much better than Thiamine Mononitrate, whatever the heck that stuff is!

I admit, the past few times I have pulled it out in an attempt to make my favorite cookies, has been somewhat of a disaster. I decided that I would try to make them a bit healthier and substitute the 2 sticks of butter for Smart Balance which is "great for baking." I ended up with pancake flat, rock hard, cookies. DO NOT use Smart Balance for baking... they lie! Last night however, I used real, delicious, full fat butter, and they turned out DIVINE!!! So great that I ate 4 for breakfast with my morning coffee. I have no regrets! MMMMM

Southern by the Grace of God!

What makes me southern? Well, since my name is "Mrs Southern Belle," I thought that I would include a few things "Southern" that I truly love.

G.R.I.T.S. is the abbreviation for "girls raised in the south" but it also is a type of delicious goodness that many people outside of the south don't even know exists. Grits are ground from corn and can be served as a breakfast, lunch, or dinner food. There are southern cook books full of recipes and I've never had a serving of grits that I didnt like! My favorite are parmesan cheese grits! Yum!

Dont let their looks deceive you, they are a true southern delicacy!


When I say that I'm "southern as sweet tea" I think that says a lot. No where else in the country or world for that matter, can you go to a restaurant and ask for sweet tea, except in the south. Why in the world would you ever want iced tea without sugar anyways? Sweet tea is like nectar from the gods!

I have a serious affection for southern plantations. Part of living in the south, is taking a random road and seeing old plantations. Thank you Sherman for not burning all of them... jerk! My idea of a dream house is a big white house with tall columns and a long alley of oaks in front of it. Realistically, I realize that this will most likely never happen, considering the majority of these homes are now museums or national monuments. But a girl can dream cant she?? So here it goes...This is Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana. It is by far, one of the most beautiful houses I have ever seen! I spent a memorable day here with my family before my uncle passed away. It will always remind me of him.

What true southerner doesnt like Gone With the Wind? The movie, the book, I don't care I love them both! It has grace, charm, war, scandal, and most of all history. Like it or not, it happened, no use sweeping it under the rug. (This also goes back to my love of big white plantations)

Pralines, which I pronounce Praw-leans are one of my favorites! Usually made from brown sugar, evaporated milk and pecans, which the south is famous for. MMMM GOOD!

That is all for now... maybe I will make a Southern by the Grace of God Part II