Labor Day Weekend Project: Master Closet Updo

It seems like lately I have started to hate almost every decor item that I have. Maybe it's because I just stare at everything all the time, and then it gets old. Am I alone in this? Please tell me no. I already feel like quite the witch of a wife when I tell Cliff about all the things I want to change, and then he turns and says, "I like the way you have decorated the house." 

He's too good of a man. Just wait #iminsanelyluckythismanputsupwithme is going to start trending on Twitter because I use it so much. Which by the way I gave in and have joined the tweeting masses, @emkmcgraw. 

Anyway, we've started making strides in the home renovation department and have a pretty good timeline for the bigger stuff in the near future. But in the meantime, I have decided to start tackling more of the little issues. The first and most annoying to me was our closet. As you know from this post, the builder of my home decided that the master bathroom didn't need any doors in the useful places, like entrance or potty area. However, on some whim, he decided that the closet needed doors. Well, that's all good and great, but the fact is that Cliff and I rarely close these doors and since there are no doors at the entrance of our bathroom you can see all the way into our closet as soon as you walk into our room and the view ain't pretty.  

The reason we never close these doors is that they have never closed well over any of the carpet we've had and then when you pull hard to force them closed the builder's grade knobs are always falling off. For a while I couldn't find one of the glass balls which was scary because of the choking hazard to Macy. What am I saying, Macy was probably the one who hid it. But the point is that the one set of doors in my bathroom are completely useless and irrelevant.

We also have built-ins throughout our closet, which you would think would be a plus but they are just sad. The shelves are a weird size and have several dings and nicks in the wood and paint. All around, they are just depressing and, even more unfortunate, they are wildly visible as soon as you walk into our master bedroom. I had the great idea of putting decorative cloth bins on each shelf, but the size is so off that you can only fit one on each shelf and then there is a lot of awkward looking wasted space left over. And, I cannot tolerate wasted space, which is why my house can be so infuriating at times.

Then the cherry on top, we have this terrible lighting. My eyes are squinting and hurting just looking at this picture. A man built this house. No woman would ever commit a travesty like this. 

So I sat in my closet and thought to myself, 'How do I make this better? How do I make this pretty and something that I want to look at several times a day?' I started scouring my Pinterest boards for inspiration and decided curtains and ombré will be the solution to my problems. 

So, I went to work planning out all the logistics of how this would play out in my closet. Luckily, my mom is awesome, and agreed to help me pick out fabric and then turn that fabric into curtain panels for my bathroom. She also used the leftovers to make Euro shams for my bed. AHH! Moms are great, and everything seems to go smoother with them around, agreed?
 If not, get out, now.

Here is a closeup of the fabric we chose:

The fabulous panel my mom made for the potty room. 

And the panels on our new closet entry, also made by Mom, with a peak of my Labor Day weekend project!

So like I said, I decided Labor Day weekend would by my ombré-ing time. My mom was delivering the curtain panels on Labor Day so I wanted everything to be done! Ombré is by far one of my favorite trends right now. There are so many applications that can be made and so many ways to make it personal to your home, life and style. A win/win all around for me.

Tutorial via Little House on the Corner 

Some of the different applications and my inspiration.

Tutorial via PS- I made this

On a side note: as if I could love Erica Domesek any more after my love affair with Craft Wars, despite Tori Spelling's weird looking lips, she also posted this great DIY project giving tips on how to paint an ombre wall.

So I conned Cliff into taking me to Lowe's where I decided on the colors for my ombré shelves.

The colors I chose from darkest to lightest are:

Valspar's Summer Sparrow

Valspar's Soft Rabbit Brown

Valspar's Wool Coat

Valspar's Seagull Beach

Valspar's Warm Fog

First, I had to fill in some holes with Painter's Putty and prime the shelves with Valspar's bonding primer (my shelves required about 2 coats of primer). Thankfully this primer cuts out the need for sanding, which would've been disastrous since I am too lazy to take all our clothes out. Just FYI, Painter's Putty takes about 2 days to dry, so make sure to plan accordingly in your project timeline.  

I got a gallon of the primer, because it's the smallest can they had, but as for the other colors I only got quarts and still have lots left over for other projects. These colors are perfect for all over my house! I also didn't want a lot of sheen in the shelves, so I went with the eggshell finish. I gave each shelf two coats of goodness, and Violà! I am extremely happy with the results!

So before and after... 

The only unresolved issue is lighting, which I'm afraid will take a little more planning. The issue is that I want a chandelier to peak down between the curtain panels, but my extra-tall husband doesn't want to hit his head on it every time he walks in the closet. Boo. You may also be wondering what I'm going to do with the set of doors we took off the closet. Well, I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I have pretty big plans for them that I will of course share once I'm done in another post! :) 

I hope that your Labor Day weekend was wonderful! I'm so thankful for my family driving down to spend the day with us and being willing to help with projects. I know Cliff enjoyed a break from all my wild shenanigans. 

In conclusion, what type of mother would I be if I didn't share a few funny pictures of my precious little daughter? My brother sent me these from his iTouch on Monday of Macy giving us her creeper face (which I know she got from Cliff) and a good shot of her two bottom teeth.

Oh happy day! Love to you all!

My Struggle and a Post Share: My Daughter's Beauty

I have been struggling for quite a while, probably since the moment that I found out I was having a girl, as to the fact that I am raising a daughter in 2012. During a time when clothing and morals seem optional. In a culture that seems to almost hate women. How will I remind her that God made her perfect and make her believe it? How will I remind her that she is always enough? How do I teach her that fleeting beauty is not most important? How will I talk her through 'the awkward years?' Of which mine were many... How will I deal with the fact that sometimes she won't put a lot of stock into what I believe to be true about her? How will I console her if a boy breaks her heart, and how will I stop Cliff from killing him? Over and over, the questions and fears, both rational and irrational, cascade through my mind. Luckily, a Facebook friend, with a daughter around the same age as Macy, posted this article today. It was written by a father about his daughter, and offers some insight on some of the issues I was writing about above. I find such solace in reading this and maybe you will too.

How do I raise my daughter to know the true definition of beauty in a culture such as ours? How do I cultivate an image in her that is rooted in the beauty of Jesus and not the allure of a distorted sexuality?

Here are three points that I have found helpful in my journey:

Our Culture’s Definition of Beauty

In most societies, feminine worth is determined by how you live up to the cultural definition of “real womanhood.” In Dallas real womanhood is largely defined by physical beauty, and beauty is determined by which men find you attractive, which means feminine worth is defined by the ability to attract men. This is a heartbreaking perversion of why God created two sexes that leaves insecurity and broken marriages in its wake.

The Biblical Foundation of Beauty

God is the definition of beauty because He is absolute holiness, which is why scriptures like 1 Samuel 16:7and Proverbs 31:30 define beauty internally and teach that God is after our hearts. Our definition of beauty should then begin with godly character flowing from the purity of heart.

We also know from Song of Solomon that God created men to find women attractive, serving as a physical representation of how the Church finds Christ desirable above all things. Thus, any exploitation of women’s bodies for the attraction or the lust of man is a distortion of God’s created intent and a product of the Fall.

Practical Steps for Shepherding

Abandoning our city to avoid the realities of a fallen world won’t reverse the effects of sin in our families. The only solution is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But how do we pursue this? Here are a few practical ways:

• Teach your daughter early and often that God loves her. The Lord designed her exactly as He wanted her. Speak truth to her before she hears the lie.
• Affirm this truth. Tell your daughter she is beautiful and that you love being her father or mother. I cannot say this enough to my daughter, Eisley, and I’m determined by the grace of God to not have her grow up searching for the affirmation she was designed to get from her father.
• Teach her early that sexuality is designed by God and meant to flourish inside of marriage.
• Guard her environment. You cannot avoid all images, but don’t be foolish in what you let your daughter see.
• Take her on dates. Model the unconditional love of the Father through uninterrupted time with her father.
• Develop a family mantra about beauty: “Where does beauty come from? The heart. Why? Because God looks there.”
• Be aware of the schemes of Satan in your daughter’s life. Ex: The mall is not evil in and of itself, but there is a strong pull there to worldly passions. When we leave the mall, I want to tell Eisley repeatedly that I love her, she is beautiful, I love being her daddy and that Jesus loves her.
• Be aware of the schemes of Satan in your life. Satan hates your daughter and wants her worship and destruction. The best way to get to her is through her headship. For the sake of God’s glory in the joy of your children, pursue holiness.
• Pray, beg, plead. Our best laid plans are feeble compared to the craftiness of Satan, and we are desperately dependent on the Spirit to do what only the Spirit can do: open her eyes to Jesus.

As a father with many parenting mistakes in my future, I am still learning. And I know that, more than anything, I need the grace of God as I seek to raise up my daughter in the ways of the Lord.

It comes with such relief that other Christians struggle with this same battle. I have said it before and I will say it again, I think Satan's biggest victory is if he can make us truly believe that we are alone in our struggles. I know that Cliff will be an incredible father and we have already spent many hours in conversation and strategy planning on this subject alone. I think my biggest worry is me. This past year and a half, I have desperately been trying to work on me and trying to make myself un-believe the lie that I am not enough or unworthy of unconditional love. Because I have to believe it before I can make Macy believe it. This is one of the reasons, of which there are many, that I am so thankful to be rooted in faith in Christ and to believe that he has made and will continue to make everything perfect. His plans are masterful and he knows what he's doing.

Sorry for the heavy topics the past few days! In lighter news, the week is half over and Labor Day is next week! It still feels somewhat like summer to me since I didn't go back to school for the first time in twenty years, but I sure am enjoying all the family time I have been getting these past two weeks. Pure bliss! 

So much love to you and yours, and may you be encouraged today by the unending love of our Father in Heaven who cares for us in a way that we could never hope for or imagine.

Macy the 'ONE-derful''s First Birthday Party

First of all, you should know that I have been planning this since before Macy was born. Themes and colors changed several times, but there were some things that I knew I had to have. I wanted it to be big. I wanted lots of fun, personal details that made this party all Macy's own. And last, but certainly not least, I wanted to serve lots of good food. In the end, the vintage circus theme with bright red and turquoise colors won out against all others. 

We decided to have the party at a fabulous, local restaurant, Railway Cafe, in our city Athens, TX. Macy came to her first lunch at Railway when she was only two days old. Many times she is referred to as 'the Railway baby' and waitresses can often be seen carrying her around as they refill drinks. We literally love everything about Railway Cafe from the waitresses, to the atmosphere, to the food, to the owners. I guess the only things we could complain about is that they are only open for lunch and we can't eat there for all three meals in a day. 

Macy was so excited when her friends started coming in. She really loved getting to see all of her buddies.

Guests were asked to write a special note to Macy on red and turquoise tickets.

Since it was Macy's first birthday, we didn't plan much entertainment, but we did plan lunch! We decided to serve all of Macy's favorite things, but it seems a few of Mommy and Daddy's favorite things snuck in there too... 

The menu included: Sweet potato fries, petite grilled cheese sandwiches, yeast rolls, puffs, animal crackers, goldfish, BLT sandwiches with chips, pimento cheese sandwiches with chips, flatbread pizzas, heirloom tomato salad with goat cheese and balsamic dressing, and edamame.

But we can't forget all the sweets! We also had homemade banana nut bread, a fruit tray (to make us feel better about everything else we were eating), homemade pear and peach fruit sauces made and sold by local farmers at the Athens' Farmers Market, and family-tradition sugar cookies made using Macy's great-grandmother, Granana's recipe. 

We used popcorn buckets filled with animal crackers and anchoring balloons, as centerpieces. The kids also enjoyed eating all the red and blue candies out of the Mason jars that held the food markers. 

Oh, the wonderful high chair. The only one Macy has actually wanted to sit it. Maybe I should create decorations for her high chair at home?

Tutu That* made Macy's over-the-top birthday outfit. Everything that company makes is fabulous and Macy's outfit was no exception.

This detail was the crowning jewel for me. Railway Cafe is already a very picturesque setting with the exposed ceilings and brick walls, but I wanted a very eye-catching element right in the middle. I asked for a chandelier of some sorts, with lots of color and pop, and they delivered!

Macy Water! Macy loved these little bottles, and she carried one around with her most of the party.

Adorable and very yummy red velvet cake balls, with a tutu cake stand? How could a girl refuse?

After a little help from Mommy, Macy was able to dig in to her cake ball. 

Macy seemed more interested in feeding Mommy pieces of cake ball, but I couldn't refuse. They were delicious! Then somehow whipped cream got involved... 

There's a good Daddy who stares lovingly at such a mess!

A little washing up before returning to the party.

Guests took home bubbles, with a precious tag that said, "Thank you for making me feel ONE-derful on my special day!"

After all was said and done, we hole-punched all the tickets and birthday cards and put them on a ring with the oh-so fabulous invitation.

This is one of my favorites, written by my 13-year old brother, Noah.

Sadly, these were the only things left. NOT! We made it home with so many fabulous treats and eats to last us until dinner, which was also catered by Railway Cafe but served in our home 

(see Macy's Birthday Phase Two).

Overall, it was exactly what I had always hoped for our little daughter. The party was so fun and beautiful, and we were surrounded by those we love as we celebrated a full year with our precious blessing.

 Credits:

Tutu That*: Birthday Girl's Outfit and Headpiece

Amylu Photography: Invitation and Photography

Railway Cafe: Party Planning Help, Chandelier Construction, Food and Service

BushelandPeckPaper: Water Bottle Labels

Mary Had a Little Party: Door Signs, Food Markers, Gift Bag Tags, Toothpicks

DKDeleKtables: Straws

Treehouse Cupcakes: Cake Balls

Macy's Birthday Phase Two

So, I knew what I wanted when it came to Macy's Birthday weekend. I knew that we would be leaving the next day for another camp, I knew that I would have lots of out-of-town guests, and I knew we would be hungry! I knew that Cliff and I wouldn't be able to really hang out with our friends, or actually sit down and enjoy food at Macy's actual birthday party, so I planned phase 2, dinner at our house for family, out-of-town guests, and close Athens friends. It was catered by the fabulous Railway Cafe, and they brought it to our house in disposable trays to cut down on dishes (God bless them). The food was so fabulous and I had some fun creating all the decor that we used. 

We had a fabulous meal, mixed green salad, homemade meatloaf and chicken pot pie, homemade mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese, with some leftover yumminess from the afternoon party. Overall, it was exactly what I wanted. I literally wore my swimsuit and coverup, because I had been laying out by our pool with my best friend all afternoon. It was totally chill, full of great friends and family, and just so much fun! 

Hope you enjoy the photos! EM

P.S.: I just got the pictures from Macy's afternoon party, and am starting to work on blogging those now!

Hiatus... Over

So as you can tell, I took quite a long hiatus for the past several months. There have been so many changes here in the McGraw house. I changed jobs to work at our local country club planning member events, basically party planning. It's pretty much the dream job. Then to add more 'dream' to the dream job, it's still just part time so I can be home with my precious, now 1-year old daughter. We had a big 1st birthday, more on that in later posts, but I wanted this post to be all about catching up from the past few months. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past few months...

And a sneak peek of the next post, BIRTHDAY! What a difference just one year can make...

Again, I am so sorry for the hiatus. Thank you so much to all of you who have loved and supported us throughout this last year. We are in a state of bliss that we never knew possible as we experience life as three, rather than two. Love you all, EM

Week of firsts...

Good evening everyone!

This was a week of firsts for the McGraw family. Monday, August 22nd, Emily started her third year of teaching at Athens Christian Prep. Tuesday, August 23rd, Macy got her first set of shots. She was such a trooper, and it was honestly harder on Emily than Macy. Macy really took it like a champ, but Tuesday night was a little more difficult than normal probably because she just couldn't get comfortable (Bless her heart!). This is definitely one of my favorite pictures of Macy so far...

Wednesday, August 24th, Macy had her first day of Angel Keepers. She did really well and Mommy and Daddy did alright too, probably because we were all in the same building. She looked so cute her first morning, but Mommy was surprised when she picked Macy up in totally different clothes. Apparently, Macy had spit up all over her original outfit and the extra outfit Mommy had packed. So for tomorrow's day of Angel Keepers, Mommy packed four extra outfits...
The very best thing that has happened this week is that Macy has now started responding with a smile while you are smiling at her! She has been smiling and laughing all the time! Overall, it has been such a wonderful week for us, McGraws. It has been so nice to get into a routine, but also nice that Macy and Mommy still have Tuesdays and Thursdays together. All day today we just cuddled under the covers, slept late and smiled and laughed a lot! Such a wonderful day!

Hope your week was this good! So much love!

5 generations

So we all know that the beginning of the school year is always hectic. Well, this year let's add a precious little girl to the mix and the only thing that equals is more crazy. We have really been enjoying our little girl, and the past four weeks have really flown by. I swear I mean to get better at blogging, but time just goes so fast! Anyway, I guess with each post I will continue to promise to get better at it. The biggest thing that we have done these past few weeks is visit Midland for the first time. This is where she met most of the McGraws for the first time, including her great-great-grandmother, Ruth a.k.a. Monnie.

From left to right: Molly McGraw (Cliff's sister), Wanda McGraw (Cliff's grandmother), Tim McGraw (Cliff's dad), Ruth Gunter (sitting, Cliff's great-grandmother), Cliff McGraw, Macy McGraw, me, and Terri McGraw (Cliff's mom)

My poor baby girl was in quite the mood that day because she kept on getting passed around and was just beyond tired!

Our little family!

Macy and her Uncle Kenneth!

(Technically he is Cliff's cousin, but we granted him "uncle-hood")

Macy and Bevers (who isn't technically family, but who are we kidding- he's family)

Other than that, we haven't done much different. We enjoy our cuddle days, and being together. She has become so much more alert in the past few weeks, and when she's looking at you it actually looks like she sees you. Every once in a while you will catch her smiling and laughing to herself, which always makes me wonder what's so funny! A new Macy favorite is bath time! She is beyond funny in the bath tub, and I will have to post a video soon! Some of my favorite photos from the past few weeks!

Coming up on the blog:

• My first day of school, and first day working out again!
• Macy's first set of shots (sad day!)
• Macy's first day of "school"
• Beginning some home redecorating
• Cooking! I have felt the need to start cooking. (There are several reasons for this: the need to feel more domestic now that I am a mother, limited restaurant choices in our home town, as well as obvious health and cost reasons) I have found several recipes off of other people's blogs, and Pinterest (oh how I love Pinterest), so I will keep you updated on what we are eating here in the McGraw household! Tonight was outstanding! Cliff grilled chicken seasoned only with lemon and cayenne and I made broccoli from the recipe I found on Pinterest here. Yes, I know next week is the start of school, and yes I know that I am crazy for aspiring to cook every night next week...

So, for all of these these things I will have a reason to blog and so therefore you should be hearing from me a lot more in the coming weeks!

So much love to all of you!