Rustic Romance

Thank you everyone for reading/commenting on my last post sans photos/fluff. I was waxing philosophical and flexing some of those journalistic muscles I still use from time to time in my “professional” life. Ya’ll are just the best, really the best folks around!!!

But…back to some fun fluff. I think I’m going to start writing once a week without photos and then once or more a week with some fun stuff. But, hey…the best laid plans…I know to get a gazillion followers I need to post ALL THE TIME and sometimes I go weeks…and have gone MONTHS…between posts. But, alas, life can be crazy here in the Austin house! I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone this week and stopping by and visiting.

This tablescape (which I joyfully share with my friends at Between Naps On the Porch’s Tablescape Thursday, My Romantic Home & Courtney at French Country Cottage) is probably my favorite thus far simply because the rustic lux essence is my favorite. I am IN LOVE with these chicken wire/fleur de lis cloches I got for “a song” on One Kings Lane. There’s a fourth one, but it’s going up in Thomas’s Castle Themed Room.

This table utilizes my burlap again and everything is old except for the cloches I got a couple of months ago.

The AMAZING damask plates/napkins are the ones I purchased from Rhoda, the amazing Southern Hospitality lady herself, when she visited this fall. They’re from the Biltmore collection. Aren’t they gorgeous? I’m so happy that she’s my friend in real life…like the lovely Bonnie, too, from AL who came at Thanksgiving. I SO NEED TO EDIT AND POST THE PHOTOS FROM THESE TWO BLOG FRIEND VISITS.

Of course, I still have photos from Paris and Italy to post, too, and we’ve been home since September!!!

I was really experimenting with the photos here in Manual Mode, so some might have a little too much “noise” and be over-exposed a tad from me cranking down the F stop and cranking up the ISO. I hope I just wrote that correctly. I am NOT a technical person. This new camera I got at Christmas is super snazzy, but I need to learn everything on it. I miss my Pentax that got stolen!

These last photos were taken as I perilously dangled from the stairs so I can get a view looking down into the dining room.

I couldn’t get it straight on, so the photos aren’t following my laws of symmetry….but I still thought it was worth trying.

I also wanted you to see the top of my truly RUSTIC LUX chandelier that I bought for SUPER CHEAP on lampsplus.com when we moved in.

And, yes, when the whole world was painting their house all white, I decided to go with Tuscan colors except for the girls’ rooms.

I’m just crazy like that.

Oh, and I wanted you to see the antique, chippy column in the back corner. LOVE LOVE LOVE that column! I have another one in my bedroom!

Let’s see….whazzup at the Austin House?

Crazy times. Alexandra, my little effervescent light, continues to fly from coast to coast to audition at various conservatories and schools with great music programs. Please, please, please pray that she gets into these oh-so-competitive colleges/universities…and some scholarships would be great, too, as long as we’re on our knees!

My darling Kate has a birthday this weekend and I’m crazy enough to host a sleepover while Tom’s still deployed. She really misses her daddy, so I caved and decided to host the big event because I want her to know how grateful to God I am for the blessing of her birth and that I treasure her and want to try to bring her a tiny bit of the joy that she has brought Tom and me.

Speaking of Tom…

Tom was “stuck” in a few places in Afghanistan the past couple of weeks and finally made it “home” to Kabul safely. If you read the news, you knew there was immense unrest and some gargantuan anti-American sentiments and activities flying around Afghanistan in recent days. I praise Jesus (AMEN!) that Tom finally made it back to his main base, where I believe/hope/pray that he’s safer.

Thomas continues to be Thomas, which is just light and joy. He went through a real whining phase at Christmas but is growing out of that and is back to his perky self and is just the best little reader/math guy and he skips and sings and is FUN!!! He’s started piano now with Kate on Fridays and it’s a joy to witness his enthusiasm.

I’ve started directing an operetta at Ars Nova Productions and am crazy busy, but this will be the first and last time that all three of my kids will be in a show I’m directing at the same time. Thomas and Kate are just sheep, but they’re going to be so cute. I didn’t cast this show, but I’m overjoyed to work with the stellar cast, including my own daughter, Alexandra.

So, whazzup with YOU????

Love/Hugs/Blessings & Rustic Romance Joy,

Lana