Merry Merry

 

Praying that everyone has a wonderful holiday season remembering the birth of our Savior!

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Pepin family!!!

This was supposed to be our Christmas card picture this year, but Matthew was quite embarrassed to be kneeling on this vintage retro quilt (I guess it's a little more feminine than masculine) while several cars were driving by, that I decided not to use it. So, needless to say, I haven't even made a card yet to mail out to everyone!! Sorry! (which is kind of sad because we bought a house & our old forwarding address from last Christmas has long since expired). So, instead I decided to put it up here for your enjoyment! It's ok to laugh.... Hopefully I will get a better picture out for New Year's cards!

{How to Wear Tacky Christmas Sweaters}

Hi readers! My name is April and I blog over at The Striped Flamingo. 

Can I talk to y'all for a second about tacky Christmas sweaters? 

Mmmkay. So, there's this store near where I live, which shall remain nameless, so as not to incriminate those who shop there for actual clothing. It kind of sells grandma type clothes. Well, for some reason, this store seems to be the tacky Christmas sweater mecca. For real. Every year, they come out with a fresh crop of terribad sweaters. It really makes you wonder if there really is a market for this type of clothing. 

Note to readers: apparently there is. Whilst shopping at said store for a tacky Christmas sweater to give at my work White Elephant gift exchange, there were at least 5 little old ladies animatedly combing through the tacky Christmas sweater racks, wearing, of course, tacky Christmas sweaters.

Something that has gained popularity in the last few years are tacky/ugly Christmas sweater parties. The main idea is to invicte people to wear these horrible sweaters/ensembles and revel in each other's Christmas tackiness.

Sounds fun, right?

So, besides the obligatory tacky Christmas sweater, what does one wear to this type of party? Well, I'm a firm believer that there is such a thing as over-accessorizing. And, these sweaters...well, they should be treated as an accessory. (Because, in all honesty, most of them contain no less than 7 bags of seed pearls and sequins anyway...) So, when Jamie asked how can you rock a Christmas sweater and still look "cute" (which I took as meaning "not like you shop at said old lady store on the reg") I figured others might benefit from my answer. 

As mentioned earlier, treat the sweater/vest/etc. as the accessory. You want to keep everything else you wear very basic. Obvi, the main attraction of your outfit is the sweater/vest, so don't mix a lot of other prints with it. I like the idea of a pop of color in a bag or shoes, but keep it to one color, balanced out with neutrals. 

Try to keep the rest of your outfit as modern as possible. I loved the idea of doing a tacky Christmas vest with black skinnies, a black t-shirt and red booties. The jewelry is very minimal with this outfit. For the other, more casual outfit, I like doing jeans and navy accents to balance it. (Navy Toms, um...yes?!?!)

All this to say, it IS possible to look "cute" while wearing one of these tacky sweaters. 

SO......Have you ever been to a tacky Christmas sweater party?

Thank you SO much April for the fun post for any upcoming holiday ugly sweater parties!!! I can't wait to post photos from our holiday housewarming party!! *I had previously emailed April asking her for some fashion advice before our party and that's how this guest post came about!! :) 

Please go check out her blog! I've been following April's blog and her Instagram for some time now and she writes about tons of great outfit inspiration, (this page here) crafts, photography, home decor, Christianity, and more! She also loves to sing (check out this song here)!!! Just a peek into a little more about her (how cute is this?!)......

Thanks again girl!!

Home Update: Gutters

the sunsets that week were crazy beautiful!

Last Friday, Matt and I spent the day around the house. Matt was able to take the day off of work in order to get some things done. He put up gutters in the front and I did a lot of cleaning and laundry. I wasn't so sure how the gutters would look, but they are hardly noticeable. 

Currently, the ground slopes towards the front of the house and when it rains for a long time or quickly for a short amount of time, water builds up and comes close to entering our crawl space. We wanted to put up gutters to move the water away from the front. Eventually we plan on building up the ground with new landscaping to help out even more.

I think Matt did an awesome job on the gutters and we are no longer having water problems!!

Is it really November?!

Last night was Halloween. We had ONE trick or treater come to our door. ONE!
I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing? Thankfully, we live in a very quiet neighborhood and all of our surrounding neighbors are older than us (from late 40's to late 80's) and all but one without kids at home. I would have thought that being in an older neighborhood meant that kids loved to trick or treat here to get all the candy, but clearly I was mistaken.
Fortunately, I didn't buy any candy.

Matt and I have been super busy with working on home projects. Almost every day there is something for us to be doing, or at least every weekend. We have finally unpacked every box and I am just now (currently taking a break from) finishing up our last room to put away (the office). There is still much work to be done and the list goes on and on, but we are enjoying the process!!!

A few snippets from life:

Had our 5 year anniversary of being together on October 7th :)

We celebrated with some Starbucks treats after church

I made some killer Bourbon Punch for football Game Day 

4 cans of Ale-8-One (or you can use Ginger Ale)

3 Tbsp of Bourbon (I used Knob Creek)

1 cup of OJ

1 Tbsp of lemon juice

lots of ice & stir to mix

Front Porch pumpkins and mums 

Lowes always has plants on clearance. Got a huge tub of mums (orig. 19.99) for $7!

We had our first successful yard sale

This was actually at the end when we tore it all down to take to Goodwill. 

Sun & Sunflowers around the house

 One thing I love about Trader Joe's is their cheap flowers. Bunch of 6 for $3.99

Hope everyone is having a wonderful fall season. The weather is gorgeous here in Charleston. Except not everyone is enjoying warm, crisp air, sunshine, and hot apple cider...... my prayers are with all those affected by Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast. Have y'all seen the reports and photos? Crazy.

Ways to Help:  Trinity Grace East Village    Redeemer   Hope for NY

Jessica & Connor's Wedding

...continuation from HERE


Saturday afternoon after lunch, Haley and I drove to Louisville to get ready at the hotel where the wedding reception would be. Adam and Matt would meet us there (they had gone earlier in the day to check out the Bourbon Trail). The boys made it just in time to change into their suits (in the car) before the ceremony!

   old mix CDs, windows down, laughter, & singing at the top of our lungs 

(to this song) along the beautiful KY countryside

Jessica & Connor's Wedding

September 29, 2012

at the ceremony

The reception was absolutely beautiful!!

us girls with the new Mr. & Mr.s

College roomies forever

It was SO fun to catch up with friends 

Jessica, you were such a beautiful bride and
we couldn't be happier to now have Connor "in the family"!!
We pray that the Lord would richly bless
your marriage :) Congrats y'all!!!! 

Guest Post: Jessica from Happy Girls

Hey y'all! 

I'd like to introduce a friend of mine from college today here on the blog for a lil guest post!

Jessica and I shared the same major at UK and even had a few classes together over the years! She has a sweet husband, a large dog, and a precious new baby boy!!! Her blog is super cute and full of photos (which I love). She blogs about being a wife, a new mom, her new job with Rodan & Fields, home decor, and much much MORE.

The title to her blog is none other than an Audrey Hepburn quote :) Enjoy....

Hi!

My name is Jessica and I blog at

  Happy Girls are the Prettiest Girls

Since Jamie is in the process of fixing up her gorgeous new house,

 I thought I'd share something I like to do in our home decorating.

We really like to have pieces in our home that have special 

meaning or a cool story behind them.

We have our initials throughout the house (Joey and Jessica, so same initials!) and these here in our living room and bedroom were also used as decorations at our wedding!

These two prints I picked up at a small frame shop in my hometown.  The top left is a print of the bridge in my hometown, and the bottom right is from the restaurant of a hotel that used to be downtown. I also have always had the tradition of putting a horseshoe above the door in every place I've lived since college, and here it is above our front door.  

Horseshoes are supposed to = good luck!

I love the story behind this ship painting.  It is actually a paint by numbers and when my grandparents were first married they painted this for fun.  How times have changed ;)

I love these frames hanging on the left.  At our wedding we wrote our own vows (check back to my blog soon to read them).  The pictures on the right are of us each saying them to each other.  On our wedding day we wrote them in a little blue book to use for "something blue."  Last year on Valentine's Day, I decided I wanted to have them on display,
so we each wrote them out again and framed them.

My husband is what I call a "plant hoarder."
And I would never admit this to him, because it would make him think he should go out
and buy more plants, but they do make the house warmer.

I know no matter where we live, these owls will always go with us.  When I was in college, Joey found these at the Peddlers Mall in Danville and bought them for me.  When I moved apartments that year they got packed up and put into storage.  A year later Joey was helping me move and we were going through boxes, and he found these.  

He pretended to be so offended that I had packed them up and forgotten about them.  

So now they live on our key rack and I know we'll never get rid of them!

Another piece in our home that might not be the "prettiest" thing we own, but I don't think we'll ever get rid of it.  Joey painted this for me for my 21st birthday.  

I like it because I like things that are in someone's handwriting

 and also because it is the lyrics to our song, "Until You" by Dave Barnes.

My dad's side of the family is super artistic and creative,
and this print was given to us as a wedding gift from my cousin, Morgan.
She has even had her prints for sale at Urban Outfitters, which I think is so cool!

These prints are hanging in our bathroom.  

The left is of our Bassett Hound, Blue, and the bottom right is of our St. Bernard, Chauncey.  

To make it even better, they were painted by one of our friends!

Hopefully these will give some inspiration!

Thanks for having me, Jamie!

Kentucky is My Land

Matt and I left late Wednesday to start our trek to Lexington for an extended weekend. On the drive there I enjoyed the mountain views and signs of fall. I loved seeing all of the leaves turn colors (they haven't yet in South Carolina).
Kentucky is just so beautiful to me.

 

 

We are staying with my aunt and uncle at their "farm" in Nicholasville along with my best friend Haley and her husband. We will have the chance to hang out together and catch up. Matt and I plan to visit some of my (our) favorite spots. On Friday, we are getting together with the boys I used to nanny during college. The oldest is definitely now taller than me! Haley and I will sneak in some time at 'Feather your Nest' antiques and also see the precious children of our dear friend Brooke (after a 6am coffee date at Starbucks)!!! :)

On Saturday, we are having another reunion of sorts as we gather together to celebrate our dear friend Jessica & her husband-to-be Connor's wedding on Saturday in Louisville. I met Jessica towards the end of our freshman year (2003) of college in Bible study, but we really became friends during our sophomore year of college. I can't tell you how much of a blessing she is to me and how the Lord has used her as an example of being genuine and compassionate. Plus, she is one of the funniest people I know (that "everything" just happens to! ex: I mean who gets robbed 3 different times while working at the same bank?!)!!! 

LOVE this girl so much!

Wedding post to come.....