$5 Jewelry? Yes Please!

Hey everyone! I'm sure y'all are busy getting ready for Christmas. Can you believe it's almost here? Only 2 days left!

While I'm still not quite finished with my Christmas shopping, I was able to get a little bit done (for myself) at a Masquerade Jewelry fundraiser!  Neils mom went to one last weekend and said it was great, so of course, I had to tag along this weekend! What did I find? Jewelry, scarves, collegiate apparel and accessories and more!  This isn't the kind of stuff you would expect to find for $5! 

Who is Masquerade? "Masquerade Fundraising is, by far, the largest $5 Jewelry Fundraising Company in the Nation. We currently have over 40 representatives throughout the continental United States each fully backed by a strong and reputable National Corporation based in beautiful Knoxville, TN. We are dedicated to the Hospital Community and to helping our Volunteer and Auxiliary sponsors meet their fundraising goals." - Masquerades website

Here are a few pictures I took while I was there. (sorry for the phone pictures)

This was from the website. The one I took like this was too blurry :(

These were so cute! It is an earring and broach/pendant set! The "pendant" can be worn on a necklace, but also has a pin on the back so you can wear it as a broach!

These bracelets caught my eye, so I just had to take a picture! The blue and red bracelets hanging in the far box at the top were rope and diamonds. They definitely had a very nautical look, and I kind of hate now that I didn't get one!

Here's what I got!

This is one of the earring and broach/pendant sets. These guys were too cute to pass up!

This Pashmina scarf is just beautiful and feels amazing! I also got a set of small pearl studs.

How cute is he!?  It clips into your purse and holds your keys.

I highly recommend checking their website for an event near you! Every event is different though, as we found out this weekend. Some will have alot more than others and might have different items here and there, but over all they are all about the same. And remember, any purchase you make goes to help fund the hospital where the event is held! There's nothing like buying jewelry at great prices while helping the community at the same time!

Have any of y'all attended a Masquerade Fundraiser before? What did you think?

xo Julia

Dreaming of a White Christmas!

Hey everyone! I hope y'all had a great weekend!

As Christmas gets closer,  find myself praying more and more for a white Christmas! I love to wake up on Christmas morning to a fresh blanket of snow.  If you live up North, snow on Christmas is pretty much a guarantee, but here in Alabama, it's hit or miss.

This is a picture of our house from last year. I'm hoping it looks like that this year too! Just think...our house is a plantation home built in 1820, so it has seen 192 Christmas's! Wow, if walls could talk!

Now on to the Christmas Tree!

This year the tree theme was fruit and berries!  It has a classic, old timey look which I love. It reminds me of the way a tree would have been decorated in our home's time period. Simple and elegant!

Are any of you wishing for snow on Christmas morning?

xo Julia

Moms Christmas Gift

Hey y'all! I hope everyone had a wonderful week! 

On Tuesday morning, Neil and I headed up to Indy to visit my family for 2 days and got back last night. More to come about our trip in the next couple days, but for now, I wanted to share with you a gift I made my mom for Christmas! I made her a recipe book!  It took me about two months to finish it, but mom LOVED it!

I called it "Sugar Maples: A Collection of Family Recipes". My maiden name is Maples and my mom always wanted a bakery called Sugar Maples, so since I couldn't give her that, I decided to make her this!

I used a simple black binder and covered it with scrapbook paper. A Cricut would have come in really handy for cutting out the letters and leaves!

My dad past away last year, and he was the best Chef I knew. This was the little dedication page I put in there for him. The car at the top is a car that he had since he was 16 years old. It's been through everything with him, so how could I not include it!?

I typed out every single recipe, since the book was made up of all the special recipes Dad used to fix, as well as Neil's family recipes and of course some of Moms famous desserts!  I like the book so much, I think I'll make one for myself!

What do you think!?  Did you make any gifts for Christmas? 

xo Julia

Q&A Time!!

Hey y'all! I'm so sorry I've been MIA the past week! I have been SO busy! We had our Christmas sale over at the shop, and it went great!  While I'm working on catching up with your blogs, as well as my own, I thought I would fill out this little questionnaire I found on Jackie's blog. Jackie's blog is one of my daily MUST reads, so if you haven't yet, check her out! 



1. What time did you get up this morning? 10:30am

2. How do you like your steak? Well done, I can't do pink meat!

3. What was the last movie you saw at the theater? I think Toy Story 3 in 3D

4. What is your favorite TV show? I was really into Storage Wars, but all they show is re-runs now, so it's kind of annoying. I like Toddlers and Tiaras...their such little DIVAS!

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Honestly, where I live now or Florida...I'll never leave the south tho.

6. What did you have for breakfast? Well....I guess I had tortilla chips and salsa..great breakfast huh?

7. Do you wear glasses or contacts? Neither. I wore reading glasses when I was a kid, but not anymore!

8. What food do you despise? Brussell Sprouts...is that how you spell it? They are gross. 

9. Favorite Place to Eat? Either the Mexican restaurant, Rancho Veijo, or the new Chinese place, not sure what it's called.

10. Favorite dressing? Ranch, it goes great with anything. Honey mustard too.

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? A Dodge Durango 

12. What are your favorite clothes? Jeans, sweaters and scarves for winter. Dresses for summer.

13. Where would you visit, this weekend, if you had the chance? The Beach!

14. How many tattoos do you have?  None...my mom would have killed me! I'm too scared anyway.

15. Where would you want to retire? The beach. St. Augustine, to be exact!

16. What is your desktop photo? Neil's mustang! Can you tell we share a computer ;)

17. Where were you born? Jacksonville, FL!

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? None really!

19. How many siblings? 3. Allison, 20. Charles, 17 and Katy (SIL) 18. Love them all!

20. Favorite pastime/hobby? Crafting, baking, blogging, and boating!

21. Coffee Drinker? Not really. I prefer my fake, instant cappuccino!

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Night, definitely! I hate waking up, but I can stay up for days!

24. Do you have any pets? Yes, Kiki the kitty!

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I'm going to visit my family in a few days! I'm really excited!

26. What did you want to be when you were little? I wanted to be a marine archaeologist and dive on ship wreaks!

27.  What is your favorite color? Navy and pink...I can't decide!

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Both! 

29. Are you married? Yes! For a year and 4 months!

30. Always wear your seat belt? Yes! Safety first kids!

31. Been in a car accident? No sir, this girl has a clean driving record!

32. Any pet peeves? Dirty fingernails, long fingernails on guys and the sound of Velcro! UGH!

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Pepperoni!

34. Favorite Flower? Lillies or Roses

35. Favorite ice cream? Ben & Jerrys chocolate with chocolate chunks and brownies!

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Zaxbys!

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? None 

38. From whom did you get your last email? LL Bean telling me Neil's sweater was on it's way!

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Oh, I can't choose just one!

40. Like your job? Yes! I couldn't have asked for a better job! I get to do all the things I like...office work (which is OK sometimes...), Graphic Design, Wedding Design and Retail!

I really hope y'all do this too! I love finding out new and interesting facts about y'all! Let me know if you do so I can read!

xo Julia

New Product! What do you think?

Hey y'all!  I hope everyone is having a Fantastic Friday!  Today is our big Christmas Sale at work (If any of you live in the area, make sure to stop by! Check out www.thirddayseed.com for more info!)  We've all been working really hard to get ready for it! I am SO excited that we have live Christmas trees for sale this year too!

For any of you who don't know, Neil's family owns their own company called Third Day Seed (the name comes from Genesis 1:11-13.) It's so much rolled into one business: Greenhouse, gift shop, interior/exterior plant design, and we also do weddings and special events (any of you ladies planning a wedding, if you ever need advice on something, let me know! I'd be more than happy to help!). About a year ago I started making candles and bath products for the gift shop, and I've been going ever since!

That brings me to the reason for my post!  I wanted to add some type of men's products to the ever-growing bath and body line.  It took me a while, but I finally decided on a men's shaving soap! So after about a month of planning, testing, designing and more testing, I made these 3 testers.

What do you think?  Does it look like something you would buy for the/a man in your life?

xo Julia