1. My Love is Your Love. I hope all of you had a rockin’ Valentines Day! After receiving a beautiful bouquet of tulips on my doorstep {thanks, Hubs!}, I spent the rest of the day prepping for our relaxing night in, which means I cleaned the crap out of the house. Most of the house. OK maybe just the kitchen and living room. But those rooms are super clean I tell ya! When Troy got home from work {to a clean-ish house}, he fired up the grill and we cooked up a yummy steak, lobster tail, and asparagus dinner. Add some homemade mashed potatoes and a walnut and cranberry salad to the mix, paired with our new favorite bottle of wine and a cheesecake dessert, and I would say it was a Valentine’s Day for the books. The pups even got in on the love with a little feast of their own!
2. Step by Step. Remember when I shared my 101 in 1001 list with you? I am happy to announce that I have crossed a few things off that list already. Hello progress! Most recently, I crossed off #10: Finish [reading] The Lover’s Dictionary {love it}. It is an ongoing effort, but I have tackled #14 head on and am loving our quality family time, will complete #48 tomorrow with our nephew {yippee!}, am doing #77 today {check next week’s Thread for details!}, and am working with a few charities that will help me cross off #56 very soon. Wanna see how the list is progressing? Check it out here.
3. Takin’ a Chance. I saw this little snippet when browsing Pinterest the other day and I did the ‘Tess head tilt’. I totally get thinking outside of the box, and some of these non-floral boutonnieres are as unique as they come. But to my brides, what do y’all think?? Do you see a sand-dollar arrangement in your wedding future? Kudos for uber-creativity though 🙂
4. Run to You. It probably seems like TOMS pays me to rant and rave about their shoes, and heck, maybe they should {Blake Mycoskie, are you listening?}, but I can’t help myself. Being that I need some form of comfort in a shoe while I work, TOMS seems to always have my back — classics, wedges, flats — I am love them all. And while I am still {really} enjoying my recent TOMS addition, I just got an email from them this morning with their new styles, which are so darn cute. I could grab one of each, but this pair has my name written all over them: 
5. We Didn’t Know. I don’t know where I’ve been, but I recently came across a gem of a catalog in last week’s mail that had me all worked up — Ballard Designs. Have you heard of them? Have you flipped through the pages of their eye-candy catalog? I have gotten it in the mail before, but for some reason nothing really caught my eye and, after a while, they usually got tossed into the recycle bin before even making it into the house. The recent mailer seemed to sneak onto the kitchen counter this week and I became smitten with its contents. I would seriously buy every single thing in there if I could, and I soooo can’t. A girl can dream though…
6. Exhale. You may have noticed that I got this week’s Thread headings from Whitney Houston songs. I know, super cheesy, but I suppose it was my own little way of paying tribute to the songstress. To say that I am a huge fan is such an understatement — one of my first CDs was actually the Preacher’s Wife soundtrack {so good}. I even recently {embarrassingly} tackled Whitney’s mega-hit I Will Always Love You at Troy’s bday karaoke party a few months ago. Ya, epic fail. But very therapeutic 🙂 In all seriousness though, I grew up listening to her music and several of her songs were paramount to my family as we went through some very difficult times together. It’s crazy how music can have such importance. The whole thing just breaks my heart, especially for her family, and I still can’t believe that she is gone. If you watched the Grammys on Sunday, it was obvious that Whitney Houston’s death was felt by many and that her talent was celebrated. The cherry on top? Jennifer Hudson’s tribute at the end. Perfection.
I have been working long and hard over the past few weeks to share some awesome stuff with you — a floral phenomenon, two of the most talented paper pioneers in the industry, and a little project that is close to my heart. Next week will be jam-packed with stuff, so enjoy your weekend and be sure to stop by Monday morning! Happy Thursday 🙂
