The Gentrys

So I keep seeing this photo of a dining room on different decorating blogs that I absolutely love and I am wondering if I should have gone with my urge to imitate it in my dining room instead of paint the room the trusty color I have used for years "sagebrush" as seen in the previous post. I am going to use sagebrush in the living room and the entry (I painted the entry this weekend along with the dining room) and I was worried if I went with this blue in the dining room, it wouldn't flow since it is so open to the entry.

We just got back from a great weekend visiting my in-laws and working on the house. We took my parents and little sister to see our house for the first time and help us paint the first room. We painted the dining room and entry and a few pieces of furniture are in temporarily. Here's a look at our progress:

Before:









After:




We also made several discoveries! My little sister found blackberries growing near the edge of the pond and we all had a great time picking and eating them.



We also found out that there are apple trees, peach trees and a plum tree in the side yard as well as lots of blueberry, scuppernong and muscadine vines...I'm hoping we will get to eat some before the deer get them all! While we were painting in the dining room, we saw 5 deer eating in
the front yard!



I've never lived in the country and I just loved that they came right up to the house like that. Before we left, my father in law took Aimee and a little boy from the town for a ride on the tractor.



It was a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and hopefully the start to a great summer!

Phil and I just got back from a wonderful vacation at the beach with our awesome friend Amy Morriss! She is a drug rep and had to work a booth at a conference at Panama City Beach and invited us to come and stay with her. It was wonderful! We left late Wednesday night and came back yesterday and I didn't realize how much I needed a break! Thanks Amy! It made me realize what a blessing it is to have people in your life that really know you and love you and how important it is to keep in touch with your real friends no matter where your lives take you. That is something I have not been so great at since college. I get so busy with the day to day that I don't make time to pick up the phone and call my friends. That is why I wish all of them would start a blog!!!

Then last night we went to Sunday School party to say goodbye to some of our new friends (I say new, but I guess I mean post college). Several couples we have become close to in the last 2 years are moving away for new jobs or moving back to their home town and it is so hard to see friends move away even though we know we'll be doing the same thing in 11 short months. When all of our college friends moved off two years ago, Phil and I felt so alone here in Auburn - it just wasn't the same without all those people we had spent the last 4 years with and it was a hard transition for us. Then we joined a Sunday School class at First Baptist Opelika. These couples have been such a blessing in our lives and we already realize how much we are going to miss our church and the friends we've made when we move.

I'll stop rambling, but I guess what I mean is although change is never easy, God is always faithful to bring friends into our lives when we need them most!

Last night 7 girls from our Bible Study drove to Montgomery to spend the evening at Corks and Canvas painting geraniums (this picture is the one from their website of what it was supposed to look like). They post the painting they will do each night on their website so you can pick which one you want to paint and sign up for that night. The instructor walks you though the painting and encourages you go move pretty fast so you won't worry so much about it being perfect. We had a great time even though our paintings didn't turn out perfect (at least mine didn't, but I plan to work on it a little more at home!) In our defense, they did say it was not a painting for beginners so I think we did pretty good. It was such a great idea though for a group of women to do together (good job Brooke!) and I will definitely be going back!

My grandfather is an amazing carpenter and has built several beautiful pieces of furniture. Both my sister and my mom have asked him to build specific pieces for them in the last few years and I really wanted to have a piece he built as well. I was talking to my mom about it one day and she told me about a beautiful dining room table he had built a few years back. I didn't really have furniture for the dining room so we mentioned it to him and he gave it to us. It is beautiful and so special because he built it! The picture here was one he took at his house...it is a drop leaf table and he was just using it as a side table for photos. There are three leaves that go in the middle and make it huge...he said it will seat 14 people comfortably, but I haven't had the room to put it all together yet. I am trying to decide what kind of chairs I need to go with it...on a limited budget! I really want the table to be the focus, so the chairs should be simple. Here are some of the options I was looking at...any thoughts?