Life on the Ledge Part One

I think y'all know we moved the first of June!
We LOVE our new home and are mostly settled,
however there are still a few random boxes around that need to be unpacked.
Our new home is on Ledge Circle,
so here is part one of life on the Ledge....

Disregard the dead shrub by the front door....clearly having some landscaping issues.
Visiting our local extension office Monday to diagnose the mystery disease killing our shrubs.

The summer was crazy fun and crazy busy,
and my primary goal was to get unpacked.
Now that we've been in the house for a few months,
I'm starting to get some decorating ideas.

We have a much more open floor plan than our old house,
so I feel the need for the downstairs to have a little more "flow."

This is our entry hall....I love our front door and the curved staircase.
It's currently painted a light taupe, but eventually I want to change it...
 but that's a low priority right now.

Looking to recover the slipper chair in a Chinoiserie fabric.

Looking into our formal living room from the foyer....
This room is going to be painted soon.
I'm having the ceiling painted white (currently a taupe) and the walls a butter yellow.
I love the woodwork, the bookshelves, and the window in this room.

I plan to do a plaid window treatment in the same plaid silk as the sofa pillows.



I'm looking for a large blue and white fish pot for the floor by the hall table.
Also need a large rug....there is an echo in our foyer right now!

 

 Love that my dining room is not crowded when I have all four leaves in the table.
I found the brass chandelier at a consignment shop, but I'm hoping to get a crystal one.
It needs to be lowered but it weighs a ton,
so we need Jack and Teddy home at the same time to help with that project.
Hint, hint, boys.
Looking for some chandelier shades in a french blue.

The walls are currently a light gray, 

but I'm either painting or wallpapering this room.

This was my original plan but it's out of print and I can't find the fabric ANYWHERE...

And I need at least 15 yards for draperies.

So moving past that plan....

I want the color scheme to be blue, green, and yellow, with maybe a hint of pink.

I would die to do this room in the hand painted Chinoiserie wallpaper,

but that is WAY out of my budget right now.

(unless the kids all drop out of college...lol)

Planning on draperies with trim for the window.

And here is the "before" of our powder room...

I actually love this shade of red, but not in a small and dark powder room.

This is my first decorating project.....

I will leave you with a hint of where I am going with it!

I would have loved to participate in the One Room Challenge, 

but realistically I know I can't finish this in six weeks! 

I'm so excited to get moving on my decorating projects!
 We are on the tail end a fabulous football and volleyball season,
and when the boys are finished with their sports,
I will have more time to work on our house.

Someone made the Varsity volleyball team.....

And my JV starting quarterback!

Hope y'all are having a fabulous Fall!!!!!

Summer Summary

We're half of the way through Fall but I thought I'd give you a

summary of my summer....

Started with the Boys Junior National Volleyball Championship in Dallas!

 Arrived in style!

Came home ranked 9th in the nation!

 Lots of porch sitting!

 Dollar taco nights at Rico's every Thursday!

Snuck in a few date nights!

A birthday....Caroline!

 Celebrating the 30th anniversary of when D and I met on Mackinac Island at the Grand Hotel

see our story here

 Did a lot of porch sitting while we were there....

 And the Chicago to Mackinac Sailing race came in while we were there....

that's one of the races D sailed while on the USNA sailing team 30 years ago!

 It was a perfect trip!

Another birthday....Katherine!

A visit from my BFF sorority sister Sarah.....

And her PRECIOUS daughter E.....we LOVED having a little one for the week!

Spent time at the "Rivah" in Urbanna, Virginia at my parents' new condo!

Tagging along on D's business trip to Newport, Rhode Island!

This is the exact spot we were engaged.

 FABULOUS lunch with my classy and clever blog friend Katie from Preppy Empty Nester!

And by August we FINALLY got the garage unpacked so I can park my car in it!

Clearly it's still a work in progress...hint hint honey!

Can't believe we are at the end of October!

Hope y'all had a happy summer too!

So it's been awhile.....

You know when you are not planning something and then it just happens....

Out of the blue I suggested to my husband in April that we consider moving.

We had put a fair amount of money into Hotel Chads,

(what we affectionately called our home)

but it needed a lot more money...new bathrooms, roof, back yard patio, need I go on.....

so I thought we should find a home that already had "newer" bathrooms, a little more space,

and did not need a lot of work put into it.

We talked about this decision on a Friday,

randomly looked at a house on Saturday that the girls saw online,

and bought it on Tuesday.

WOW

Was not ready for that, but sometimes these things just happen.

The house was PERFECT for our family.

We had the BEST realtor, Skye Bruce, with Skye Bruce Properties,

and she sold our home in less than a week once we listed it.

Cannot say enough good things about Skye....she kept my sanity through this entire process.

Here we are the last night we were the owners of Hotel Chadsworth.

We will cherish the memories but are looking forward to....

Living life on The Ledge....our new home.

We literally moved just two miles away...so no school changes or carpool changes!

Amid chaos, we moved in three weeks ago.

It was actually kind of comical....

Katherine came home from Tech, Caroline graduated from VCU with her Bachelors, we had a graduation party in the old house for 40 people, Grace came home from Boarding School, Jack played in a three day volleyball tournament, Laura took the SAT, 

and we closed on Ledge (our new street) all within about a week.

A pic from graduation day....just to brag a little,

she graduated with honors and Caroline was one of 22 people out of 800 applicants who was

accepted into Virginia Commonwealth University's Advanced Standing Masters Program.

She will complete her Masters of Social Work within one year.

We are fairly settled

(if you call not being able to find most things)

into our new home and are loving the space...

We have six of our eight children home full time this summer,

and I am beyond excited to have everyone home!

We are blessed.

A Sandal Scandal Part III

OK so if you were a regular reader,
(back when I used to post regularly....)

you are well aware of the Steven Bonanno Sandal Scandal I have posted about here and here. 

Almost identical to the Jack Rogers, this is their Palm Beach Sandal.

So a few weeks ago I went out to get the mail and there was a package crammed in the mail box.

Strange, I didn't order anything.

Well....at least not anything that would have fit in my mailbox.

I tried to read where it was from.

I don't carry my "cheater" reading glasses to the mail box so I couldn't make it out.

Came inside and....

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

Could it really be my sandals?????

Why yes, it was one of the two pair I ordered!

Sadly, it's the platinum pair that came.

I already bought a replacement pair of Jack Rogers platinum sandals.

Two years ago.

I had ordered a pair of pink and green monogrammed sandals from Stephen Bonnano,

and was REALLY hoping those were going to be in the box.

So I'll save the platinum ones for when my Jack's wear out.

Dare I hope that in another year the pink and green monogrammed ones will show up?

I will keep you posted on the continuing Stephen Bonanno sandle scandal!

Barbour or Bust

I will be honest.
I find it somewhat annoying when what I've been wearing for years becomes a "trend."

I have dressed the same way since I was able to pick out my own clothes.

So when Lilly became wildly popular a few year ago,

I didn't have to look for white label Lilly on eBay because I already owned it.

And when the Jack Rogers craze started, I had already worn out at least a dozen pair.

So has anyone noticed there is a Barbour jacket epidemic?

I bought my first Barbour jacket about sixteen years ago.

Ladies Barbour Tennant Jacket

Here's a little story that separates the people with TRUE classic style

from the people who claim to be preppy and classic.

My first Barbour jacket was a black quilted Eskdale.

Last fall we were at a USNA football game and I let Caroline borrow it for the day.

The two women sitting behind us started a conversation about my jacket.

They were openly mocking my "fake" Barbour jacket.

They were discussing the fact that Barbour does not even make a coat in that style,

and if I was going to have a "fake" then this was a bad fake one.

This is what my old Barbour looks like...

These women are the kind of people that annoy me.

If they had ANY class,
they wouldn't be talking trash about what my daughter happened to be wearing right in front of her,

and they would recognize an older style Barbour jacket.

I don't buy for labels.

I buy because I love something...the style, the way the fabric feels, the way it's made, the color...

I am a believer in wardrobe staples and investment dressing.

Caroline in her Barbour jacket....

I have to admit that I'm quite happy 

that my daughters have chosen to adopt my wardrobe philosophy.

So for the two women at the USNA game mocking my daughter,

talking about being "fake"

you think you're classy....but you're busted.

Isn't it S'well?

If you are like our family,

you have about 2,845 water bottles of various types 

taking up a lot of precious real estate in the kitchen.

We have the Terves water bottles, the Camelbaks, and everything in-between.

Well here's the new frontrunner....

The S'well Bottle

They come in a zillion colors....

And of COURSE you can monogram them....

I have to say these are AWESOME water bottles.

They keep cold drinks COLD for 24 hours,

as in "there is still ice in your water the next day"

and they keep hot beverages hot for 12 hours.

PERFECT when I'm dying for a hot cocoa at the November USNA tailgates!

My girls all have at least one of these SWELL S'well bottles

and you should too.

Here's the website....

S'well

And they also happen to sell them at Tweed, 

a darling shop in Richmond, Virginia where Caroline and Katherine work.

Check them out!