The Day We Got Kicked Out of the Southern Living House

We didn't really get kicked out. We wanted to test out the built in stereo system, but decided the other visitors might not enjoy the same radio stations as Daddy.

So the Southern Living Idea House is out in Horseshoe Bay this year, and we went out to see it this past weekend. I took my camera just in case I could maybe sneak some pictures, but they encouraged us to take pictures so I have a TON to show you!

The house is, like, kind of a cross between Hill Country and Spanish style out in the Escondido neighborhood in Horseshoe Bay.

It is huge! The house itself is big, but there's also an enormous patio area and pool house. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

There was a formal living area in the front with a fireplace.

And a less formal one, with a built in bar area and a flat screen TV hanging on the wall.

ALOT of the furnishings and curtains and things were from Ballard Designs. They have really nice stuff and it's not too terribly high. (Plus you can almost always find a coupon code.)

The dining room was in between that kind-of den area and the kitchen.

The kitchen was pretty, but not terribly exciting.

I did like the artwork throughout the house, though. And the shelves here are kind-of neat.

What was more exciting, oddly enough, was the laundry room. It was behind the kitchen through this little tunnel thingy.

And it was waaay nicer than my laundry room! One day...

One of my favorite parts was the master suite. Gorgeous bedroom with stone on one wall:

And off of that room they had a little terrace:

A library:

And a really beautiful bathroom:

Not terribly private, though. This:

is the view from the shower. It opens onto the rest of the bathroom on one side, and out onto that little terrace on the other! I guess you can go out there and drip dry? Wouldn't take very long in the heat.

There were two other bedrooms upstairs. (decorated by IKEA, and unfortunately, not exciting enough for a picture.)

The poolhouse, however, was verrrry cute! Decorated with Ballard items again, and it would be such a fun place to stay!

I love the curtains, but I do actually think the horse is just a tad creepy. Also, I should've fluffed the pillows before taking the picture. Oh well!

Then there was alllll the outside area! There was a pool area with several sitting areas:

A grill area off the dining room:

And a little lawn area that was big enough for playing games or something:

There was also this outdoor fireplace, which would be really nice for a couple of weeks in January.

Ooh! I forgot the pretty entry way and staircase!

And surely that's all the pictures you can stand for one post! (Even if they are of a very pretty house!)

Soooo, all that to say, I love Southern Living and you should subscribe to it so that they never go out of business. I can't say goodbye to any more of my favorite magazines!

To Paris, To Paris, to Bake a Croissant!

That's what Brandi's doing. She's going to Paris to bake croissants. I think there may also be a little sightseeing involved. But they're taking a cooking class in Paris. Maybe she'll make us some croissants (you're reading that with a ridiculously heavy French accent, right? Sounds something like "Craw -sohn!" Cause that's how I mean it.) when she gets back. That would be tasty.

Perhaps she will also guest blog for me about her trip. Then my blog would be all fancy.

Although, we did find some rather fancy things to show you when we went shopping for some clothes for her to wear in Paris.

So, instead of a phrase book, Brandi bought a style book that taught her how to look like a Parisian. It specifically said "No sequins!"

So naturally, the first thing we did was find the sequined-est pieces of clothing in the place. It's not hard. They kind-of stand out.

Are you squinting at the screen and thinking, "Surely not..."

Indeed. Those are sequined pants. And whoever sewed those sequins on thought quite a lot of their handiwork, cause those suckers cost $700!! (And that was at the outlet mall!)

Personally, I think she looks quite classy.

She did buy a reallly pretty purse.

Left to Right: 1. Brandi buying her purse (after a little encouragement from her excellent shopping partner)

2. Me waiting until Brandi's all nekked in the dressing room so I can run away with her new purse.

3. Jeans shopping is hard. But it was necessary. My other skinny jeans are now very difficult to get on since my thighs have gotten bigger since I started working out. (It is not at all because of the little "dunlap" I've developed since I quit the working out. It's not a problem anymore. Found me some "big lady jeans.")

4. Brandi dancing in the dressing room. Don't know why I didn't take a picture of whatever outfit made her dance. All I took were the silly ones! She really did end up with some pretty (and very Parisian) clothes. They'll be in her guest post I'm sure. In fact, Brandi, it's a requirement. It's part of your assignment now. Pictures of what you wore in Paris.

Miss Magnolia

I started to post Magnolia's portraits last week, but then I got in a fight with my computer. It's taken us this long to make up, but we're friends again and I have a lot to blog about this week!

First order of business is to introduce you to Miss Magnolia! We took these six months portraits a few weeks ago. It was the first time I'd gotten to meet her and we had so much fun! She was so sweet and such a trooper for the whoooole portrait session! And as you can see, she's pretty cute, too.

She thought her momma was pretty funny.

Thanks for playing pictures with me, Magnolia! It was wonderful to meet you! See you soon!

To book a portrait session for your six-month old, email me at jenni@jennirobertsphotography.com



Welcome, Christian!

Baby Christian was such a good sport taking his portraits outside in the heat! He just slept the whole time and let us scoot him around however we needed. Thanks Christian! We're so glad you're here!



Three Months Later...

I'm finally getting Kelly's wedding posted! There were sooo many pictures from this one, that it was a little overwhelming to choose just a few for the blog. So I chose a lot instead. Enjoy!

It was a beautiful, sweet wedding for a beautiful, sweet couple! Congratulations y'all!

Progress!

Okay! I've worked for three days on all my different projects and this is what I've come up with so far:

Turquoise paint for the wrought iron wall art:

Done! I'm very pleased with it.

Recovering the lamp shade with the yellow fabric:

Done! Love this, too, as you can tell by the dumb smile on my face. I'm pretty proud of how this one turned out and I can't wait to see it hanging in my office!

Recovering seats and painting office chairs black:

Half done! The seats are recovered and the chair is sanded down, but I haven't started painting either one.

This is because of the dang swing.

The dang swing is all sanded and painted quite beautifully. I followed the instructions to attach the arms and that worked. Then the very last step was to attach the back and that is where we went wrong. Well, not "we" so much as whoever was responsible for drilling the holes in the right places. That's where that person went wrong. So now I have a call to make to my porch swing supplier. I'll let you know how that goes.

Oh yeah! I took a short break from all my project-ing yesterday to shoot a wedding! It'll be a little while before I get those pictures up, but I do want to say congratulations to Mark and Diane! The wedding was beautiful and y'all are such a sweet couple! Thanks for letting me part of your day!



Projects!

They tend to pile up at my house. So I decided that a week off is a perfect time to get some of them done. Or at least started. Here's what I've been working on today and yesterday.

All these and then some!! So the wrought iron wall decoration in the front is getting a coat of turquoise paint to match the accents in my guest bedroom. It'll go over the bed. That spots always been a little blank for me.

The big white drum shade is going to be the light fixture in my office and it is getting covered with the yellow and white fabric slung over the chair there.

I think out of this picture the chairs will be the most time consuming because I have to sand them down before I paint them black. These are going to go in my Jenni Roberts Photography office. Like I said, they'll be painted black and the seats are getting recovered with that gray and white patterned fabric next to the yellow fabric. (It happens to be the same pattern that is on my logo girl's dress!)

Okay, but that's actually not all! We actually got the patio done this week! (Pictures to come after it's been "styled".) So this means that I need to get on the ball with that porch swing I ordered! I finally decided that I would paint it black and use black and white fabric for the cushion. But when I pulled the swing parts out of the box, they were a little rough. They didn't exactly look inviting. More like you would definitely get a splinter in your rear if you tried to swing on it.

So I asked Michael to show me how to use the sander, and I smoothed it all out for you.

Now you can sit on it without injury. You're welcome.

The swing parts are now laying on my garage floor waiting for their last coat of black paint. Then I'll get it together and hopefully hung up before I go back to work next week! Yay! (The cushion will take a little bit longer. But we'll get there!)

I think I'll put pictures up of my progress at the end of the weekend no matter if they're finished or not. See you then!



Mmmm Yum!

So we got back yesterday around lunch time. I can't remember what we did for lunch, but for dinner we headed down to Driftwood - not for BBQ like you might think, but for Italian food.

The owner of Carabba's also owns a winery down close to the Salt Lick and he has a great little restaurant down there, too. It's called Trattoria Lisina.

It's beautiful outside with views of the vineyard and the hills beyond that. There's also a nice little courtyard with a fountain outside. (And I noticed a new play area for kids, too.)

The inside is also beautiful. It's a good spot for a date or (like the two groups around us) a party. Looks like they could actually accomodate fairly large groups.

Oh yeah - you should get the cheesecake. Fo sho.

And look at me!

I even remembered my leftovers! (I usually leave them on the table.) Mmm - leftover lasagna for lunch. It was good!

Come to town and we'll go get some lasagna and cheesecake!