Our Christmas Mantel

My favorite season has arrived! Yaaaaay! Well, we can skip the 24th this year, but other than the minor detail that I am officially almost 30, I am so excited about Christmas!

The day after Friendsgiving, I made J drag down all of the Christmas decor, and rush to finish our DIY projects we had started (that will be a later post). We are close to finished inside, so as soon as we finish up some loose ends I will share the rest of the house with you... the outside isnt finished, and by isnt finished, I mean hasnt been started. Maybe next weekend!

Why in the world is this part of the house so dang hard for me to photograph?! Frustrating! Here we go...

In Daylight:

& in the evening with  the lighting...

More Christmas Decor and DIY posts coming soon!

You Know You are Old When...

I remember babysitting in the 90's and watching good old Nick at Nite.... and watching classic shows from my parents era...

And the other night I was flipping through the guide and THIS is what I see on Nick at Nite.... Are you Joking ME?!

How is it possible that shows from my childhood are on Nick at Nite??????? I guess this means I really truly am getting old, and I am not the age I think I am! RUDE AWAKENING, my friends, rude awakening....

Love is...

Hope Everyone Had a Wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday:

Husband Edition

((green for his preeetttyyy leettlleee eyes))

Since today is Thanksgiving, I figured that my Thankful Thursday needed to be the "mecca" edition... well, there's nothing I am more thankful for than the Hubs. I am extremely blessed to have J in my life, as my best friend, and as my partner to love and enjoy this life with.

So why don't we walk through some the reasons why I love (& am thankful for) this man...

He is handsome..

He is crazy silly..

He is a family man...

He plays a mean air guitar (and I am thankful that he kicked that nasty habit behind his ear)...

He is a great Puppy Daddy..

He puts up with my shinanigans...

He is a sweet partner to have (& helps to make pictures look good)...

He participates in all of my crazy party ideas... (& not to call him out or anything, but sometimes he gets into it even more than I do)

He is great with kids..

He wears shirts that are too small...

He is a goober...

He is a cuddle-bug...

He is trying to be becoming a handyman...

He is a heck of a kisser..

I am thankful for this man... the good, the bad, & the silly. What are you thankful for today?

An Addition to My Collection

My collection of Athlete Boyfriends, that is!


I was innocently sitting here, pinning away, watching the news, waiting for the stuffing I'm making for J's work potluck to be done (Did I mention I'm an amazing multi-tasker??), when the sports portion of the news came on. Of course,  this catches my attention every day, but even more attention grabbing you ask? THIS guy!







Hollllllyyyy Mollleeyyyyy!

Ok so maybe his locker room interview didn't look like that, but more like this:









Not really like that either, but you get the point... How had he not made the list before? Goodness, just flying under the radar... But no longer!


And even better? He's a family man, fab  COWBOYS athlete, and has a charity Foundation 56, which is a breast cancer outreach program dedicated to providing access to quality services and resources for breast cancer patients and survivors (a tribute to his momma).

My, one & only, real hubs came home, and I told him about my new BF... his response - "He's good! & Bald!" Remember THIS? I truly had no idea I loved bald men so much! :)


Ok, that's my rant for the night - Go Cowboys!

Fall DIY

Yesterday you saw our Friendsgiving... today, I am going to share my DIYs in case you want to squeeze in one this week before Thanksgiving!

Oh sweet Pinterest.. how you have elevated my DIY projects at such perfect timing!



I desperately wanted to do a take home... I think its just a good touch, and also is something a good hostess should always do... after finding these S'mores Bars Kit on Pinterst I knew I had found the right thing... We all know J's love for S'mores! - See the recipe here from Ms. Paula Deen.

We are some wine drinkers in this D-Way casa... and my husband is a hoarder.. I may have mentioned this a few times before, and if I havent this surely wont be the last time you do... so we have a few hundred wine and champagne corks in nooks and crannies around the house. We went ahead and put them to good use for placement cards and food labels by creating a slit in the top of each cork with a razorblade... watch your fingers! J almost lost one helping make these! I have always wanted to do this.. if we would have had tables at our wedding this would have been the display for sure

Next up DIY Yarn Wreath .. I found the idea on... wait for it... Pinterest (Shocking, I know). There are a million tutorials out there.. but here is one site with super elaborate wreaths... I probably shouldnt show you because they make mine look minimal
First you'll notice that my flowers are not fancy schmancy... Lets be honest, I like to DIY, but I truly dont have the time to make my own felt flowers. So thanks to Michaels, I found some already made felt flowers.

We also realized that it was hard to continuously put a whole ball of yarn through the wreath a million times, so my brilliant hubs gave me a cigar holder and I would wrap a good amount of yarm around it to then wrap the wreath. It was so much more manageable and made the process go by quickly.

As soon as I found out we were going to do Friendsgiving, I started to think about the table and all of the things we would need. Napkin Rings were a must... however for $5 a pop at my fav, Crate & Barrel, x24 = husband saying HELLLLLLLL NO. :) So I did some googling and stumbled upon this - perfect!

One of the hardest parts about this project was finding acorns with the caps still on, but we managed. & I LOVED the outcome and they were practically free - we had all of the supplies here at the house..

I'm so excited about our Christmas finds on Pinterest... I'll update you with those soon too!

Happy DIY-ing!

Friendsgiving

Friendsgiving:
The celebration of Thanksgiving dinner with your friends. This usually occurs on the Wednesday before or the Friday after Thanksgiving Day, since Thanksgiving is usually reserved for family gatherings.

Thank you, Urban Dictionary, for your definition, of perhaps my new, favorite celebration with my friends. We did our Friendsgiving the weekend before Thanksgiving... its way too hard to coordinate almost 20 people around the holidays.

J&I had been preparing the house for about a week - we moved all of our furniture out of the kitchen and living room.. Yes, somehow THIS damn thing ended up not only in our bedroom, but directly next to my side of the bed... Clearly I am being punished for something.

But it was worth it - we were able to have a table long enough for all of our friends to sit at together.

So... here we go - ((please forgive the quality of the photos... hopeful that I will be a proud owner of an amazing camera sometime soon!))

Welcome to Friendsgiving!

Some of the tablescape and Bar room details...

I had everyone choose an appetizer, side dish or dessert to bring. J&I took care of the main dish - Panko Crusted Chicken Breast with Stuffing. It was my first time to make my mom's stuffing - it turned out pretty dang well considering my family doesnt use recipes.. ask for a recipe, my parents give you ingredients and tell me to just eye it... realllll helpful! haha!

We ended up with the below cheese, crackers and veggie spread, (I have no other food pictures... FAIL!)swedish meatballs, spinach artichok dip, deviled eggs, cucumber tomato salad, caesar salad, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, aspargus, broccoli cheese casserole, cranberries, bread with spreads, gravy & the chicken! WHAT A FEAST!

((If only I had a little paint on the walls!))

Putting all of our wine corks to good use..

Pre-party pic... yes, this is the only picture of us together for the entire night..
And yes, I am aware we look weird/terrible here.

J said the blessing:

Thank You for

The Food Before Us,

The Friends Beside Us,

& the Love Between Us.

& all of our amazing guests


H&Steven

Powlo, Philip & Jenna

Raquel, Diana, J & Chris ((J with his host gift from Philip - love it))

Steven, Branden, Whit and Allison

Courtney, Christina, Ricky & Heather

Ricky & his ladyfriend, Christina

Diana!

Love these 2

Sweets time!

Busting out the Giant Jenga Scotty Potty made us!

& no Dunaway party is complete without flip cup

Whitney, Heather, Christina, Allison, Jenna, Diana, me, Courtney and Raquel

& before we can close up shop for the night, dance party must happen, complete with "Thriller"

Dont forget your take home! (S'mores Bar Kit)

My Saturday morning Facebook status, you ask?


Ashley Dunaway:
Dear Future Self,
If you are going to host grown up parties, that inevitably turn into college drinking games, it would be wise to start actually eating the dinners you make for everyone.
Thank you,
Dying Today SelfIts Saturday afternoon (around 1ish) and my status already has 9 likes and 6 comments. But my favorite comment was from Allison... "Casually having a glass of wine then all the sudden Jarrett comes yelling Flip Cup time and without question we all run into the garage!!! Then of course that turns into dance party....just another party at The Dunaways!"

Obviously a success and will definitely a new tradition among our friends. We are so blessed to surround ourselves with such great, fun people - we love yall! xoxo

Next up: Cleaning up (the not so fun part) & Christmas Decor... pics to come!