September First

 

I have always loved this living room in the Cottage Living New Orleans Idea House.  The colors  remind me of the beginning of fall.  There is a crispness in the air on September first (even here in the south!)  

I love the Bevolo lanterns in the room.

Happy Birthday Ashley!

I am truly one of the lucky ones.  I married into an amazing family!  I am so blessed to have the greatest in-laws!  I am really close to my sisters, Whitney and Ashley, and now I have two amazing sisters-in-law, Ashley and Whitney.  Yep...that's right - two Whitneys and two Ashleys.  Today is my sister-in-law Ashley's Birthday!
Ashley and I have a lot in common.  Last Christmas when I asked her what she wanted for Christmas she said, "I really wish Cottage Living was still around.  I would love a subscription!"  Well it has been over a year since Cottage Living fell by the wayside, but Ashley, since today is your Birthday, this post is for you!

Some of my favorite Cottage Living Rooms: 

via Cottage Living

I also have to give Ashley credit.  She created our blog title photo!  Happy Birthday!

Living Fireplace

My office Christmas party was last week.  Along with great food and lots of laughs, the Christmas party always offers the highly anticipated Dirty Santa (White Elephant) gift swap.  This year I could not find anything around the house to regift but I found the Living Fireplace DVD from Tuesday Morning. One of my co-workers selected the DVD.  The next morning he infomed me that he got the best gift of the evening.  They had watched it the next morning and the sound from the DVD sounded like a real wood burning fireplace.

The DVD reminded me of the article in the December 2008 issue of Cottage Living.  Lee Kleinhelter's house was featured in the magazine.  I love her style.  In her living room she had a living fireplace on the television when the room was photographed.

While on the subject of fireplaces, Britton and I tested the fireplace insert in our house last night.  While I hope that this insert will not be in our house much longer, we wanted to give it a whirl to see what all the craze was about when these were popular in the 70's.

I have to say that I much prefer being able to see the fire rather than having it behind the doors on the insert.  But there is something wonderful about a fireplace on a cold evening!

I also wouldn't mind having a fire pit like the one in the article in Cottage Living!

* Images via Cottage Living