Up Next....The Butterbean Festival

Okay, don't laugh! Maggie's next gig is at the Butterbean Festival in Pinson on Saturday, August 30th at 2:00. She will be performing the three songs she did as the Peach Festival as well as three new songs! The new songs are "I Love this Town" by Bon Jovi, "Should Have Said No" by Taylor Swift and "Watching Airplanes" by Gary Allen. All three songs are playing on the Blog if you would like to check them out. She is playing with 59North again! We would love to see you all there!

Boat Pictures

A few months back I promised to post some pictures of the boat bedding Connie and I did for a client. Sorry it has taken me so long to get that done. My client sent them to me a while back and I simply forgot! So, here they are! I made the bedding, floor runners, recovered the cornices around the bed and some throw pillows for the seating area.

My Most Recent Installation

Here are some pictures of my latest project!
This is the kitchen of my client's home. As you can tell, she has 3 windows in the bay area. Her fabric is FiFi Godiva by TNT. It has somewhat of a haystack design which has a good
bit of texture. It looks really nice with her chocolate brown walls. I purchased the fabric from a http://www.warehousefabricsinc.com/. I highly recommend checking this company out, I ordered the fabric one day and literally had it in my hands the next! This style of window treatment is the Pull Up by Pate Meadows.

I love the leaded glass above these french doors in her keeping room. We picked an upholstery weight fabric with a nice "burlap" type texture for these roman shades. Again, roman shades are simple but elegant no matter where you place them in your home.

These dining room chairs were recovered in my client's previous home. She was given this dining room suite by her mother in law and wanted to update the cushions.
This is the Marley Valance by Pate Meadows. The fabric is a blue and brown floral which is actually reversible. I used the reverse side for the ties and jabot lining as well as piping.

The Master Bedroom is "yummy". I made ceiling to floor length simple pleated panels attached to the rod with rings. I mounted the rod high so that my client could have complete blockage from the morning sun. I used blackout lining to help conceal the sun as well.

I'll post more pictures of my next completed project within the week!

Erin Nolen Photography

Maggie and I recently had our pictures taken by Erin Nolen. She is a fabulous photographer! We had them taken at my sweet friend's home on the lake (Connie)! Thanks for a wonderful backdrop! My sister in law and her family are planning to have their pictures made by Erin in the next few weeks. I can't wait to see how she captures Sadie and Stone in pictures! I have posted the link to our slide show. www.erinnolenphotography.com/mjones

I Love Summer

We returned from the beach with my family about a week ago and it was glorious! I love waking up to God's beautiful creation, spending quality time with my family and getting away from the every day routine of life. My parents treated us to staying at the Mediterra again. Once you've stayed there it is hard to go anywhere else! It is a great place to go if you have a large family, if you are going with couples or other families. No fighting for a spot on the beach or at the pool! Things were a little different this year because my nephew, Jake, couldn't come. His usual routine at the beach is get up, eat a little something (or a lot if my Mother cooks), slater up with sunscreen and head to the beach to read under the umbrella all day! He is much like his Mother and Poppa in that aspect! I did not get the "reading" gene-would have been nice, but I didn't! Molly's boyfriend, Craig, was a regular on the trip because he is from the area. We enjoyed getting to know him better and seeing how their relationship works. He, Molly and Maggie were pretty much glued at the hip! Most of our time was spent on the beach, whether it be sunning, walking or searching for seashells. We had a lot of shoreline talks, umbrella naps, and many moments of laughter. Oh, and did I mention that I was labeled the "Jellyfish Hunter"? I think I caught up to 20 a day! Yucky! I did learn that you can pick up a Jellyfish and it will not sting you on the palms of your hands. Did I try it? NO, but several people around us did. I also became obsessed with finding sand dollars. I have memories of my Grandmother taking me on early walks at the beach looking for seashells and sand dollars and, of course, my Moma loves looking for them. They will be visiting Sanabell Island soon where seashells are plentiful. One day, I started looking for sand dollars and time got away from me. No one knew where I had gone, the family was a little worried! Oops! It was there that I marveled at the tiniest sand dollar and seashell! God's workmanship. He is amazing! I am convinced that I could easily live there! My Daddy spends most of his day under the umbrella reading and he enjoys walking with Moma on the beach. Especially now since she can walk for miles! I have never seen anyone who enjoys the ocean like my brother in law, Randy. He walks up the beach with his inner tube, against the wind so that when he gets in the water, the wind will push him back the the area we are sitting. Once in the water, he floats around, usually looking out into the vast ocean. He does this ritual at least 3 times day! You can see pure enjoyment on his face! The beach means so many different things to people, but I know that you are not alive if you can't see God's glory there!

Freedom

This morning, I woke up early thinking about what today means. I thought of all the men and women who have paid the price of our freedom. I thought of the families that are forced to be apart from their loved ones, whether it be a father, son, uncle, brother, mother, daughter, aunt or sister. I thought of the families that are forever changed by the price of war, by injury or by death. I also thought of the children that are not able to be with their Daddy or Mommy because of service to our country. The "4th" is a day for us to remember all of our fellow citizens, in the past, present and future, who have sacrificed and will sacrifice so that we may continue to live as we do. What a great country we live in-even in the midst of a recession-we are still free! So "thank you" to those who have served or are serving here on American soil or on foreign soil. May God Bless You!

The Jones Family Vacation

It just so happened that the Jones family reunion was in Fairhope this year, conveniently located about 45 minutes to an hour from the beach! So, all 14 of us loaded up and headed south (to my favorite place on earth, well... make that one of two of my favorite places on earth-Disney World being the other!) Our first stop was the family reunion at First Baptist Fairhope. We got to see family that we truly miss and I learned something new about Charlie's Grandaddy, he accepted Christ while serving in the U.S. Army at Iwa Jima. Charlie was around Maggie's age when he passed away. I would have loved to have met him. I imagine him to be a lot like his son, my father in law, very wise, loving, loyal and above all a servant and seeker of God.

After the reunion, we headed on to the Medeterra condominiums in Perdido Key. It is located on the east side of the well known FloraBama. It is a beautiful complex and we are so thankful that Grammie and Gramps treated us to a wonderful vacation. Charlie has 2 siblings, Mandi, who is married to George and Andy, who is married to Leah. We have 6 kids between the three families. As you know, we have 1, Mandi has 2 and Andy as 3. Our trip consisted of a lot of sun, swimming, eating, napping, dancing, golfing, Wii-ing, laughing and more laughing-mostly at George! What did we do without him? On our last night, Margaret came and took pictures of us on the beach, what was she thinking? We love Margaret and she loves us, no doubt!

I was reminded of several things on our family vacation: 1) How truly blessed the Jones' (and Logan's) are 2) how much I love the family I am married to 3) How much fun it is to be all together.

I Couldn't Be Prouder!

My sweet baby girl performed Friday night at the Peach Jam Jubilee in Clanton. She had a few moments during the day where I could tell she was getting a little nervous but when she walked on that stage, she was a natural. All those butterflies just flew away and she had the time of her life! She felt like a star! I do believe I cried the entire time, my heart was so happy for her. She was in her element. Her Daddy stood off to the side singing right along with her. (I found out later that she wanted him to sing every word of each song so that if she forgot, she could look at him and he could give her the words) She had a huge crowd there to support her, so thank you to Nanny, Poppa, Grammie, Gramps, Aunt Cindy, Uncle Randy, Molly, Aunt Mandi (Uncle Georgie on drums), Connie, Keith, Campbell, Caroline, Wade, Jennifer, Ryan, Vonda, Kelsey, Dave, Kristin, John, Stanley, Rachel, Amy, and Brett. Thanks to those of you who called to check on her during the day Friday. She couldn't have done it without her great guitar teacher, Mark Dunn who also played lead guitar. Thanks to Josh for playing bass and of course to B. Haskins for believing in Mags and asking her to perform! George, you rock! We are proud to have you in our family! I hope to have a video of the night soon! But in the meantime, enjoy the pictures!