Friendsgiving

Happy Monday! Not something I can usually say, but this week is short and sweet for us teachers, so basically today is a Thursday!

Anyways, it's finally the holiday season and I couldn't be more excited. I love any excuse to decorate my house, spend a small fortune at TJ MAX & Michaels, and have people over to celebrate. 

Yesterday we had our first annual Friendsgiving at our house and it was a huge success! I think mine and John's absolute favorite thing to do is have our friends and family over for food and drinks. John absolutely loves to smoke or cook any kind of meat. He and our neighbor, Austin, are the "meat men" on the street and are always cooking something. It gets a little ridiculous, because all they do is stand out on our driveway and stare at the smoke coming out of the smoker. They tell me its a delicate process that needs to be watched, but I've caught on that they do this to get out of going anywhere with their wives & cleaning the house.

I'll take it though because that means I don't have to cook. :)

So while John "smokes the meat" I am usually inside decorating and cleaning, which is fine by me!  I use any excuse to decorate, and having people over is the best one. I, of course, got some inspiration from Pinterest and combined a couple of my favorite looks to create my mantel and my table! Here are a few pictures of our Friendsgiving! We had the BEST time and all of the food was incredible.

I get all of my old books from Habitat for Humanity and they are always super cheap there! I have also found good ones at GoodWill also! The window and gates over the fireplace were found at CowGirl's attic in Lexington.... the pumpkins, flowers and pitcher are from Michael's and I made the banner out of card stock! 

Bulleit's favorite spot while waiting for our guests to arrive. Too bad he's too crazy to be around that many people, so he had to go in the garage for the evening!  Mostly all of my Thanksgiving decor was bought at Michael's (wood slices, candles, cardstock for "I am Thankful For" place settings, gold chargers, etc.) & I got the eucalyptus and pumpkins at Trader Joe's! The gold silverware is from John's Grandma, Memo, but I'm not sure where its from... Target has a beautiful set of gold silverware right now though! Chandelier is a custom design by Kim Schwab. Table & furniture from Universal Furniture, upholstery is from Rowe Furniture, dining room chairs are from Overstock.com!

The table could easily be switched around to be used for Christmas too (minus the pumpkins obviously)!