playing "Tennessee" by Marcel on repeat

We just returned last night from a whirlwind trip to my husband's hometown in Tennessee. His little sister got married on Saturday, and we decided to make a whole vacation out of it! We flew in to the Nashville airport last Thursday night, where my grandmother (Neenah) and step-grandfather (Daddy Jim) picked us up.

 They took us to a delicious italian restaurant for dinner, and then we stopped by the gorgeous Union Station hotel.

 It was breathtaking!

We spent the night with them at their home in Alabama, then after breakfast we headed up to spend the rest of the trip with hubby's side of the family. It was so much fun!

We took our nephew Max to feed the ducks and geese. 

My sister-in-law Michelle and I taught him to do a pretty good goose impression.

I always forget how humid it gets in the southern heat! It was actually kind of refreshing, even though I look like a sweaty mess in all these pictures. In the one below it looks like I'm trying to cool off my underarms. Ha!

I loved being able to hang out with my husband's awesome brother Philippe. He's so much fun to be around!

And even though I'd already been to my husband's old high school, I had him take me back so I could force him into posing for pictures like this one ...

And this one below, which I took at his elementary school. It's a re-creation of one of my favorite childhood pictures of him, which was taken at the same school:)

Say it with me now .... awwwwwww!

There's a LOT more about the trip I can't wait to share, like pictures from his sister's wedding and all about how we scavenged through abandoned warehouses, but that will have to wait for another post. Check back soon!

all you need is love (and flowers)

Hi everyone! Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day full of lots of xoxoxo's from your loved ones:) My day started with these gorgeous flowers from my hubby. I'm afraid this OOTD business is bringing out the worst (i.e.: vanity) in me! I decided to show off my Valentine's OOTD by "modeling" my flowers, and I got a little carried away...

Some might say that it's not very fashionable of me to wear a white dress before Easter, but I haven't worn this dress in a few years, and when I ran across it in my closet I thought it looked just like a white doily, perfect for Valentine's Day!

Maybe this is weird, but whenever I get a bouquet of flowers, I always break them up into several arrangements right away ... as you can see in the picture above. I'm no Eddie Ross, but I do enjoy pretending to be an expert in floral arrangement every now and then:)

Dress: Mango

Bracelets: Assorted bangles

Shoes: H&M

Earrings: Vintage - they belonged to my Gran:)

Here's a close-up of the shoes. 

The best part about turning one large arrangement into three smaller ones is that you get to enjoy your flowers all over the house! Here are a few of them sitting in the adorable hobnail pitcher that my little sister Lizzie gave me for Christmas:)

I saved a single rose to put on my desk.

And this little bunch has moved to the kitchen window since I took this picture. They looked so sweet and cheery in the morning sunlight today:)

HAPPY (belated) VALENTINE'S DAY!

there's someone I'd like you to meet...

Notice anything new?

There's this serious-looking gentleman, which is simply a print I found by Googling for vintage portraits, printing it off and throwing it in a frame from Goodwill.

I don't have any rights to it, so hopefully this won't get me in trouble, but I'm including it here so you can click it and print one out for yourself if you'd like.

And then of course there's "Mitzi", the lady in that portrait on the left ... 

And then, oh yeah! There's just this ABSOLUTELY PERFECT CHRISTMAS PRESENT THAT MY HUSBAND GAVE ME LAST NIGHT!!!

In case you can't tell, I'm just a little bit giddy over it. It's an original portrait painting from the early 1900's, and after he let me open it I pretty much just spent the rest of the evening staring at it in utter adoration. I love everything about this painting, from the safety pin at the top of his shirt to his bushy mustache to the way the paint has chipped and crackled over the years. It's just too good to be true:)

Now all he needs is a name! Any ideas?

home sweet home

We're back in San Diego after a lovely Christmas in my southern hometown:) We had such a great time, and I miss my family already!

Jemima accompanied us to my parent's house, and my husband snapped this picture of us passed out in the airport terminal during a lengthy layover. Jemima and I can nap pretty much anywhere!

I usually hate unpacking, but this time it's sort of fun, because I get to take a second look at all the presents Santa (with a little help from my parents) brought me! Like this adorable apron...

These gorgeous Le Creuset pots ...

and (insert the sound of angels singing here) an iPad! I asked Jemima to model it for us, but she was too busy catching up on her post-vacation sleep.

I have so many more things I want to blog about right now, but first I have to go attend to this slightly disastrous unpacking mess. Ta-ta for now!

although it's been said many times, many ways...

Merry Christmas to you!

 Me and the hubs in Banff last Christmas

The holidays are in full swing here in white waxflowerland. I'll be giving myself a bit of a Christmas vacation from blogging for a few days, but I'll be back on the 27th with a post full of fun photos, updates and more! Until then, Merry Christmas and a happy new year to my friends, family, and fellow bloggers/blog-readers:)

a vintage printable Christmas

By now you've probably noticed that I'm a big fan of vintage printable. And just for the record, they don't pay me to sing their praises, though that would be awesome;) I wanted to do a post about some of the fun Christmas and winter prints they have over there, but then I got carried away. It all started when I was clicking around in their portrait section.

With a little help from Picnik, I turned this...

into this:

And this ...

into this!

And then, when I ran across the vintage illustrations from A Christmas Carol, I started adding my own text, turning Tiny Tim from a sweet little boy into kind of a jerk.

before...

after:

And took this illustration, which reads "Scrooge sat down before the fire to take his gruel"

And reinterpreted it into text message/tweet form:

But onto the real stuff ... the stuff you might actually want to display in your home! Here are a few of my favorites, taken from their holiday/winter section:

Happy Printing!

Christmas crafts are comin' to town

At long last, here's the how-to video for the little Christmas tree! Sorry to assault you with so much Christmas-ness (my festive headband, the music, the fact that it's a Christmas craft to begin with) before Thanksgiving, but I thought I should post this in plenty of time for you guys to make one, if you want:)



I didn't include in the video the instructions on how to make the mold, since there are already lots of tutorials online about how to make a coat hanger Christmas tree mold, but you can click here to see the directions that I used.

Disclaimer: the book that I tore apart for this project came from the 99cent store, and is quite possibly the most hilariously bad book ever written. I only read a page or two, and I take no responsibility for the contents! So if you are looking at the pictures above, are able to make out what something says, and find yourself offended by it, don't go saying I didn't warn you;)

Also, speaking of book-page crafts, don't forget about Living With Lindsay's super awesome book pages wreath that took the blogging world by storm last Christmas! Click here to get the instructions ... I am obsessed with mine!