Cissy’s Style

Cissy had a special night last week. She was an emcee for her Elementary School Variety Show. There were about 12 5^th graders that were emcees. I loved watching their cute little personalities explode on stage.

Cissy and I went out shopping to get her something special to wear for her big night. Our first and only stop was Belk. We found so many adorable dresses for her to try on. She had a ball twirling and modeling all of them but we decided on this adorable dress (she especially loved it because it came with a necklace). I thought the solid color would look great on stage. The dress is an Amy Byer teal dress with a lace inset. It was originally $54.00, but with their Belk’s awesome sale I got it for $23.26 (tax included). Talk about a great deal!!

https://www.belk.com/p/amy-byer-bell-sleeve-lace-inset-dress-girls-7-16/42008142213973.html?dwvar_42008142213973_color=317301146505#pmin=0&start=1

 

I wanted to find her a cute pair of shoes to go with the dress so I went to my favorite shoe store, Payless, and found her a pair of gold shoes similar to these http://www.payless.com/girls-dress-flats-shoes/#prefn1=sizeByAge&prefv1=040-Youth for $7.00. Seriously, can you believe it!

I spend about $30. For a dress, jewelry, and shoes! The best part is, she will be wearing this outfit for her older brother’s conformation, Easter as well as her cousin’s baptism.

I thought the color of the dress was just perfect under the bright lights on the stage. I have a feeling this little girl will have many more shows under the spotlight.

Our Home – Living Room

Another room done. Another peaceful space! Welcome to our living room. This is the place where the kids watch their shows, where we have family movie night, and where we entertain. Our living room is connected to our kitchen which makes both the center of our home. This past summer we decided we needed more seating in the living room. We had a couch and two overstuffed chairs in there before. Obviously, that isn’t nearly enough seating for all of us. The final straw was when we had a family movie night to watch THE SHACK and we had people sitting on the floor, on kitchen chairs, and standing around. No one looked comfortable. That was when Eric and I started looking for better seating options for the living room. We knew we didn’t want to get anything brand new or super fancy because, well, 7 kids…enough said.  We were looking on facebook marketplace and found this Ethan Allen couch that someone was selling. It looked perfect for us. Eric and I headed over to look at the couch after work one afternoon and purchased it right away. EEK I was so excited. It wasn’t perfect, it had a few tiny marks on it but let’s be honest, in a house of 9 people and 2 dogs, nothing is perfect.

When you have a house full of people, pets, and noise I have found it nice to have less things. Another thing I have figured out is that with so many people in a house I don’t like real bright colors. For me more neutral colors work best in our house.  I found these super soft pillows at Tuesday morning and the price was so great ($14.99 per pillow) that I bough 9! I took 3 of our kids with us to Tuesday morning and we had tons of different pillows down on the floor in groups trying to pick the ones we liked the best and these were the winners. I use our leather ottoman for a coffee table to give a bit more texture to the room. It blends well with our two leather chairs we have next to our fireplace (I’ll share those in another post) . If you noticed I moved my Ikea dresser from the dining room back to our living room for storage. I have extra pillows, blankets, and puzzles hidden in the drawers. I would absolutely love to get a soft cozy rug for this room but we have a little dog that loves to go to the bathroom on anything soft so a rug will not be happening any time soon.

 

Thank you for stopping by and letting me show you part of our gathering spots in our home.

Love,

Molly

 

Friday Finds

I have so many fun finds I want to share with you but this is one of my favorites, so I chose it first!

Connor came to me a few weeks ago and said he was going to a Christmas party with his friends and they were dressing up. I will be honest, I panicked inside and thought to myself, its Christmas time, how am I going to find some extra money to get some “fancy clothes” for my son. I didn’t let on I was freaking out instead I did what any mom would do. I kissed him on the cheek and said Ok, bud we will find you something.

The first thing I did was look in our closet to see if Eric had any old suites Connor could fit into….NOPE. I then looked online, but I couldn’t find anything I liked for a good deal. Then it came to me, go to a resale store and look. I was a bit nervous, but I told Connor about this idea and he LOVED it! He is just like me and likes a good deal. I called one of my girlfriends that loves to thrift shop and asked her for all the best places to go. She gave me list of them. One by one I went down the list, looking for the perfect suite in his 29X32 size. I was feeling a bit defeated after going to the 4^th store and not having any luck, but I was on a mission and refused to give up. One evening I told the kids I was going to run up to Uptown Cheapskate to look for a suite. 4 out of the 7 wanted to go with me so we all loaded up in the car and drove over to the store. The kids had the best time, they were looking through all the clothes, shoes, and accessories. I’m pretty sure the associates thought we were a bit crazy but when you see all your kids laughing together and finding items for one another all you can do is sit back and enjoy.

Uptown Cheapskate was it for us! We found Connor the perfect suite. And not only that but he found some fun button-down shirts as well. The total for his suite and 2 button down shirts was $50.00. You cannot beat that!! I was over the moon excited, but more than that Connor felt so good and looked adorable.

The best part, Connor was so excited about his find that he told all his buddies to go to Uptown Cheapskate to look for clothes for their Christmas Party.

Enjoy the weekend and happy Shopping.

Love,
Molly

Our Home

I am in love with my house again. It feels so fresh and peaceful with all the Christmas decorations put away and I feel peaceful again now that  the craziness of the hustle and bustle of the holidays is gone. Don’t get me wrong, I love the holiday season. I love EVERY holiday for that matter, but it is nice to feel a sense of peace in the new year.

This is a picture of one of my favorite rooms in the house. This room isn’t completely back to preholiday but close enough to make me feel good. The black destressed dresser goes back into our living room but we just haven’t had time to move it yet. That dresser has been in every single room in almost all my houses. It is from Ikea http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90318607/ . I have used it for clothes in a bedroom, a t.v. stand in a living room, kitchen storage in a kitchen, and at Christmas time I use it as a buffet in the dining room. I distressed it by sanding down the edges and the drawers, then I put a stain and a glaze over it.

There are so many things in this room I just LOVE! To start with check out that number 9. Oh my gosh I love it!  I have been looking for a few years for a 9. Sounds silly I know but 9 is who we are. I became whole when the 9 of us found one another. That 9 was $2. Everyone knows I’m not a big spender so when I find a good deal I get super excited. I found my 9 at a holiday market my mom and I went to in Mckinney, TX. I couldn’t wait to get home and display it. Believe it or not, it took me weeks to find the perfect spot for it. I moved it from room to room and finally found the perfect place for it. If you notice, it is next to another favorite of mine, the sign. That sign was given to us by 3 wonderful friends of mine. It says: Together we make one beautiful family and it has all 9 of our names on it. Talk about the most perfect wedding gift. I absolutely love the sign and the three girls that gave it to us!

I have mixed old and new items in this room. My old door I got years ago that is warn and weathered but it reminds me a bit of who I am. I can only image how much that door has been through over the years. I am sure it has seen so much and heard so many stories and just look at the layers of paint that are coming off, it is showing its inner beauty and is slowly showing what it was first made of.

If you look closely you can see a rock that is shaped as a heart. My sweet Eric found that for me when we were at a cabin in OK. I love love and this rock was perfect for me, I just had to display it.

I have some of my Mikasa French Countryside serving pieces displayed as well. They are simple but so elegant. I have had these pieces for 20 years and use them every holiday.  http://www.mikasa.com/patterns-and-collections/french-countryside/

The newest addition to this room is the mirror. I love browsing the isles at Tuesday Morning https://www.tuesdaymorning.com/ not knowing exactly what I am looking for and then finding the perfect piece to finish off a space. I placed it across from our big window to reflect more light into the room. The undertone of the mirror is gold but has a green painted on top.

Thanks for letting me show you my dining room. It truly is one of my favorite rooms in our house.

Love,

Molly

Recipe Wednesday

Happy New Year!

Burr, it is so cold in the North Dallas area. I am from up north so I know I am supposed to be used to this kind of weather but NO! I am freezing. If it was snowing I could deal with the cold but we aren’t that lucky.

I have been craving something warm and hardy to make my insides feel good and one of my all time favorites is White Chili. We are big chili people in our family it’s one of those meals MOST of our family will eat. This White Chili is just as big of a hit. My mom has made this since I was a child so this meal brings back so many wonderful memories of eating my moms food and how it made me feel loved. I hope someday when my kids look back on their childhood, they will remember how the meals I made, made them feel.

I triple this recipe for our family and we barely have any left overs.

White Chili

1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 can white kidney beans, drained
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can white corn,drained
2 cans chopped mild green chilies
2 cans chicken broth
Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
Avocado
Tortilla chips
Chopped Jalapenos

Over medium heat, cook the onion, garlic & cumin in the hot oil, until onion is tender.

In slow cooker, combine the onion mixture with the chicken (I use frozen), beans, corn, green chilies & broth.  Cover & cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 7-8 hours.   Remove chicken & shred & return to slow cooker.

Serve with shredded cheese, sliced Avocado, tortilla chips and some of us like it a bit spicier so we add some chopped Jalapenos.

Enjoy and stay warm,
Molly