Sprinkling in Some Glam: Football Season

It's that time of the year, fall is quickly approaching and everyone in the south is excited about the new college football season! Matt and I as well as our families and many of our friends are very happy and excited to welcome the new season. And with the NFL season starting next week, I know that ours as well as many other's weekends will be devoted to football both days. I love college football and I am very interested in many games. I don't mind the NFL, but I do not get that involved in it...my husband does. With the next several weekends being football fulfilled I try to have as much fun with it as I can. I like to lightly decorate and have fun party food ready for the games. I have mentioned this before, but my team is Alabama and Matt's is Georgia Tech, so this post is a bit biased! Here are some ideas to spruce up your home and entertaining for college football season (many of them are available in your team of choice of course)!...

Fun wine charms so everyone knows which glass is theirs

I love this Alabama serving tray

Georgia Tech campus life tea towel

Super-cute University of Alabama burlap door hanger

This polka dot GA Tech magnetic notepad is great for the kitchen

Adorable paper party plates with some equally adorable napkins to go along...

Love this darling wooden Alabama wreath

I'm pretty sure Matt is going to want me to get this GA Tech welcome mat now

Pretty silver football dish which is great for any team, college of NFL

Charming little GA Tech cupcake toppers

Cornhole is always fun and entertaining for tailgating or football get togethers at home. We could use these Alabama boards along with these GA Tech bags to include both teams :)

Here are a couple of our personal GA Tech goods. We use those jersey salt+pepper shakers all season long and we get plenty of use out of the serving dish as well.

Matt is an alumnus of Georgia Tech and I am a big Alabama fan, but I am actually an alumnus of The University of South Alabama. South Alabama does have a football team now (which began in 2009) and they are in the Sun Belt Conference. I definitely root for my alma mater, but the football team is still new, so the product selection is not quite that broad yet. We were undefeated in 2009 and 2010 and we won our season opener last Thursday! Go Jags!

Happy football season!

oxox,
lauren

*Fun GA Tech wine charms, pretty Alabama serving tray, GA Tech tea towel, cute Alabama burlap door hanger, polka dot GA Tech notepad, adorable Alabama paper plates, GA Tech napkins, super-cute wooden wreath, GA Tech welcome mat, silver football dish, charming GA Tech cupcake toppers, Alabama cornhole board, GA Tech cornhole bags, South Alabama football t-shirt

Friends, Fun, & Football

Last weekend one of my college bff's, Catie, came up for a visit! We had a fabulous time! We had not seen each other since last October so we were excited to see one another and we had a lot of catching up to do. We went shopping, antiquing, and had a few great meals out around Nashville. Catie is such a great friend and we always have a wonderful time together. Lots of laughing was involved, which is always a great thing.

Friday night we had dinner at Virago

We dined on the rooftop and the sushi was really good.

Saturday we had lunch at Marche and then we headed to Franklin to walk around the adorable little downtown area as well as go through a few of the antique stores.

Saturday night we had a great dinner at Park Cafe. Mmmmm.

I had a really great time Catie! Come back and visit soon dear!

Well, I cannot believe Labor Day weekend is upon us. This summer flew by, but my hubby and I are ecstatic about college football starting up! Matt's team, Georgia Tech kicks off their season tonight and it feels like a national holiday around here! Needless to say, I heard "It's Gameday" more than once this morning.

Here are a few cute entertaining products great for the upcoming football season (I'll have a post with more next week)...

Cute Georgia Tech chip and dip dish

Adorable Alabama football sign

Fun football dip bowl

oxox,
lauren

*Georgia Tech chip and dip, Alabama football hanging sign, football bowl

Falling for Autumn!

Today marks the beginning of Autumn! I love every season and I enjoy living in a place where I get to experience the season changes. I am always excited for the transition into each season, so right now I am delighted to welcome fall and the weather change it will bring! I am thrilled to be watching football with my sports loving husband, loving the fall decorations I put out around our home today, and ready to bake some delicious pumpkin spice bread! I think it is a lot of fun to embrace the joys that every season has to offer :)

Time to start pulling out the outerwear! This may be a little too heavy for early fall, but I just love this coat!

 

Light and pretty scarves are perfect for early fall! I love the color palette of this one!

Love this gorgeous wreath

 

Lovely tablescape for a fall get together

I think this is the cutest pumpkin display ever!

I'm really excited to make a big pot of hot soup for those cooler fall nights that are just around the corner

I love when the leaves start to change colors!

So excited for our home to smell like fall when I bake some pumpkin bread!

 

Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere!

S'mores...traditional, or in brownie form!

 Really cute faux taxidermy arrangement

 

I love this dessert idea, it's so pretty!

Happy fall everyone!

oxox,
lauren

*Gorgeous camel coat, light & pretty scarf, leaf and gourd wreath, fall tablescape, cutest pumpkin display, pumpkin soup, lovely fall tailgate, pumpkin spice bread, rattan pumpkins, s'more brownies, adorable faux taxidermy display, pretty pumpkin dessert

Yumm...cheesecake!

About two and a half months ago I baked my first cheesecake. I baked the marvelous Barefoot Contessa's (I just love her!) Raspberry Cheesecake and I used her Raspberry Sauce recipe to top off each slice. I was intimidated by this at first, but it actually turned out really well! I made the cheesecake the day before Katie came up to visit back in June so that Matt and I could share with someone! Kidding, I really made it for Katie! The cheesecake itself is plain, but the recipe calls for one tablespoon of freshly grated lemon zest which makes it a little lemony and different! I used Mrs. Ina's raspberry sauce recipe (if you watch her show she makes this sauce all the time) which the cheesecake recipe did not include, it included another kind of raspberry sauce. Katie, Matt and I really enjoyed the cheesecake...it was a big hit!

Here is the finished crust

2 1/2 pounds of softened cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups of sugar

The creamed, light and fluffy cream cheese and sugar

After all the other ingredients have been mixed in

The finished cheesecake

The beginning of the raspberry sauce

The sauce, after being cooked down

Smoothing the sauce out in the food processor

This sauce is soooo good!

The finished product

I garnished the cheesecake with fresh raspberries and grated dark chocolate...mmmmm!

If you would like to make one here is the link to the cheesecake recipe and here's the link for the raspberry sauce. Try it...it's delicious! And surprisingly easy to make!

P.S. Well, as you may know, I am a southern girl and in the south we love our college football! Needless to say, Matt and I are soooo excited for the kickoff of college football this weekend (actually it kicks off on Thursday, but our teams (Alabama- me and Georgia Tech- him) don't play until Saturday!)) Yay! We are so ready for this long and fun-filled weekend!

oxox,
lauren