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The story of 11 Magnolia Lane

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Amy

Today we are sharing the story of 11 Magnolia Lane.

I have been thinking about writing a post on the “story” behind our little blog for awhile now. I figured at some point our readers have wondered our connection or maybe the meaning behind the “11 Magnolia Lane’ title and the backstory on how we started all this. Honestly, many days when I turn on my computer and see the sweet comments and the facebook posts I marvel at how we got here too.

So, here is the “longer” version of the “About Us” tab. I started a {different} blog as part of my paper (wedding invitations, party design etc.) business in 2009. Whenever I did a project for a wedding or event, I posted it on my little blogspot blog. Most of my followers were my supportive friends. I met Terry during that time as our sons were in preschool together and since she was an event planner there was an instant connection. We started working on weddings and events with our respective businesses, quickly becoming close friends as well. We soon needed to create a website/blog to promote the wedding and charitable event work we were doing together. As we tried to think of a name for the site, we both decided we liked the southern motif and were kicking around using “Magnolia” in the name of the event business.

{Terry}

At the same time, I was reading “party/event” blogs for my business which quickly led to reading home blogs {there were fewer at that time} and I was instantly hooked, after all I love to work on my house as much as I love to entertain. It occurred to me at the time how segmented the blogs were—there wasn’t much crossover {at that time} between the party/event blogs and home décor/DIY blogs and the idea hit me to recruit some talented friends to create a magazine type blog covering all those things like-minded people want to read about. And, as I mentioned in this post on our causes, through our event work, Terry and I were hoping to launch a fun but charitable fundraising event, and we figured a blog would be a great way to spread the word down the road. And, 11 Magnolia Lane was born.

Enter Christy…I have known Christy since my first day of college when– thankfully –the computer assigned us a roommates. We couldn’t be better matched as far as our tastes {y’all probably notice similarities in our decorating, and we tend to reconvene after separating while shopping to find the exact same items in our baskets!} and have stayed close friends in the years since our college days though we haven’t lived near each other since that time. My visits to see her were always the highlight of the summer and it was easy to see how talented she was at decorating her home and entertaining her house guests.

{Christy}

As luck would have it, about the time this type of magazine type blog idea was kicking around in my head, Christy and family had just moved into this stunning home in North Carolina. Each time I visited her I felt like the world needed to see how lovely not just the home was, but the creative ideas she used to decorate and keep her family organized. Before too long, I roped her into joining up with Terry and I to start this little blog. Her pretty house became our initial “brand” and we used a {made up} address of 11 Magnolia Lane, liking the concept of the house and our readers being our welcomed guests.

We were pretty haphazard when we started, we posted whatever we were up to, and the holidays were upon us so we had plenty of stuff to write about. WordPress picked up Christy’s chalkboard post for “Freshly Pressed” and we suddenly started getting tons of comments on it and before we knew it we were off and running. We sort of played at blogging our first few months, just posting when we felt like it, making a few connections in the blog world and having fun with it. Most of our friends and families probably didn’t even know we were doing it, but it was fun for us.

Things suddenly changed for me when my husband was unexpected transferred across the state shortly after we got the blog rolling. This admittedly threw my life into upheaval with having to close my design business, halt the event work Terry and I were doing, unexpectedly sell our house, find a new house and start completely over in a new area. Terry was working on a major event about the same time and Christy was also moving, {since she is military she rolls with it better then I did!} so we all pulled away from the blog in the summer of 2011, not really thinking or knowing if we’d continue working on it. {Note: that summer was the time Christy remade her new kitchen which eventually got published in Better Homes & Gardens Kitchen & Bath Makeovers, lest you think grass grows under her feet!}.

BH&G Kitchen + Bath Makeovers--Christy's kitchen

photo courtesy Kitchen + Bath Makeovers

I suppose after awhile we all missed blogging, after all, we’re pretty type A girls so we constantly have projects going and a blog provides great motivation to keep going, going going! By fall of 2011, we got back to posting again, I had plenty to share about the house we’d just finished having built, Christy was quickly completing makeovers on her new home and Terry started the work on her “In the Kitchen series” of cooking/healthy meal plans—which I was happy to hear she is going to be bringing back soon—and pretty soon we were back in the swing of it all.

In the spring of 2012 we planned a weekend to meet up in person to get better organized and get some photography of the three of us done. {FYI for new bloggers, of all the things we’ve done, I think giving the blog the polished look with the new professional photography helped us the most.} We had a great time that weekend, and came back with renewed energy and suddenly 11 Magnolia Lane became not just a hobby but a business.

While we’re on that slightly touchy subject, after all we all just want to read blogs and see beautiful room makeovers and mouth-watering recipes, not advertisements right? Well, that spring we were accepted into the BlogHer network which has been a great relationship for us. They provide occasional sponsored opportunities which help us offset the costs of running a blog, not to mention the personal costs of craft supplies, décor supplies and even sometimes the childcare we need to actually write our posts. We are very, very careful about which opportunites we participate in, trying only to take ones that match our subject/content areas and things we actually endorse, and we appreciate our readers understanding about them.

So we’re now entering a new stage at 11 Magnolia Lane. Terry is still spending time with her gorgeous new baby boy, but she’s got a ton of ideas about healthy eating and menu planning coming up soon. Christy is getting ready for her next move and will have a new house to start making gorgeous—probably a rental home this time which will give a new perspective since many of our readers are renting as well. I am in a new home too, we were fortunate enough to be able to move back to where we lived when we started the blog {just blocks from Terry!}. We don’t know yet if we’ll be able to buy the home we’re in—we hope the owners will sell it to us—so I am also in a quasi-rental situation as well. Christy and I both think this is a great opportunity to show new projects that don’t involve major construction . We have some great new things coming up, such as offering decorating/ organizing services in our respective areas and possibly offering some of our favorite home décor items for sale via 11 Magnolia Lane. Christy and I are heading to Haven {anyone else going? We’d love to meet you!} this summer to network with other DIY bloggers. All in all, we think the future is looking bright!

Thanks to all of you who read us, and especially take time to interact with us via comments, email or on Facebook. As a blogger we all have many, many days where we think—“What am I doing posting my pantry on the internet??? This is totally nuts!” But we enjoy the relationships that we’ve built online and it’s been fun to be a part of this ‘blog-o-sphere’ as it grows.

Did I answer anything you might be wondering? If not, please leave questions in the comments. As always, thanks for stopping by!

XO,

{Amy}

{We are sharing this post at Savvy Southern Style}

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Posted in General & About Us | Tagged 11 Magnolia Lane, about us, amy, background, blog story, christy, new house, terry | 14 Comments

A new baby and a new house!

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Amy

**Our newest giveaway is up and running over on our Current Giveaways page. We’re giving away two copies of 31 Days to a Heart of Hospitality, an ebook by our friend Edie over at Life{in}Grace.**

Here is a bit of what’s been going on with the other two of us while Christy’s been covering 11 Magnolia Lane over the last two weeks! She did a great job of course She is now in the midst of preparing to move, and winding up the school year, so I told her I would jump back in and give everyone all the news.

First of all, we are SO proud to share our newest resident at Magnolia Lane. Last week Terry and her family welcomed this sweet bundle of joy to their family. I have been lucky enough to spend time with him and can attest he will just melt your heart!

Gorgeous photo by Courtney Anderson Photography. He is in his beautiful nursery, see the whole room HERE.

And we’ve completed our move! Well, at least as far as we are able to reside in our home, but we still have boxes everywhere. We really jumped back in our new area with kids’ activities, school events, sporting events and of course, that new baby pictured above to visit :) so unpacking has taken a backseat.

Our new home is very different from our former lakefront home near the beach. We traded the water view for space, space and more space. Just having a basement for ~~storage~~ the kids to play in is so nice, not to mention all this closet space I will be sure to show off more of the house once I get it more presentable but for now here is a bit of a sneak peak via my phone.

{the dining room}

While we waited for our belongings to arrive, I had a few days in the empty house to make some adaptions so it would match our current cooler, light color scheme. Much of this home is decorated in warmer tones like yellow, mustard, moss green and burgundy.

{the family room}

We discovered the other day that the stripes on the fireplace wall are not what they seem–wallpaper–but actually painted on the wall. I need to find out the scoop on that from the owner, it’s just amazing to me someone could paint perfect stripes on a two-story wall.

{the front hall}

{the screened porch–I have BIG plans for this space!}

I did have a few projects right at the top of my list. First off, my oldest son is moving into the room that was a former office. I tackled removing the flowered wallpaper border, as it is not really my son’s taste. I’ll do a post on that shortly, I learned a lot of what to do and not do removing wallpaper. Here is the room previously, it was an easy fix and after the border came down, the beige walls work perfectly for a preteen boy.

I also painted the master bedroom. It was formerly dark minty green, and our bedding and accessories didn’t really match. I have been obsessed with the Sherwin Williams color ‘Blue Diamond’ since I saw it in my brother in law’s beach condo last winter. Its the perfect palest blue, with just hints of gray, and couldn’t wait to use it in my bedroom. Had I not just painted my old master bedroom, I would have redone it immediately to that color after our visit.

Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned with the color, it came out WAY more blue then I expected. Here is the repainted room, and while I like it, its obviously not the ‘palest’ blue out there. I am not sure if its the dark green behind {but I used paint with primer?} or perhaps I incorrectly remembered the color and got something else similar instead, or maybe the color was off from being mixed at Home Depot? {Thoughts?} Anyway, lesson learned but I will just live with it–or repaint the room again down the road!

I am off to go unpack, but thanks for stopping by!

XO,

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Posted in Before and After, General & About Us, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Real Spaces | Tagged baby, bedroom, before, Dining Room, master bedroom, moving, new house, Porch | 4 Comments

My Girl’s Room

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Amy

I took some pictures in my daughter’s room this weekend and thought I would share them. She is three years old so I still, luckily, have complete control of the decor.

I am enjoying it while I can.

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Her room is my favorite in the house (though My Kitchen is a close second). While I haven’t done much decorating in here, I love the simple white and pink color scheme. Having had years of only sons, I am not going to apologize for making the most of finally getting to decorate with pink!

Her room has the best view of the lake in front of our home, and anything too fancy or fussy in here I think would compromise it. I am sure she doesn’t know yet how lucky she is to wake up and have the water right outside, but hopefully she will enjoy it when she is older.

Here bed was a $30 consignment store find I painted white, and her bedding came from EBAY (the bedspread) or from sweet friends (the pillows).

Isn’t this ice cream shoppe table perfection?

Its on loan to us from Christy’s daughter who has outgrown it, and it will be returned to Christy when we are done for her future generations. For now, its the perfect “Tea Party” table.

Her dresser is covered with part of her window treatment from her former room with some other special gifts decorating the top.

This mirror is also among my favorite things, her grandmother gave it to her. Its the sweetest little mirror ever, the roses are actually ceramic (not plastic), its adorable.

This elephant picture (below) has been in each of our baby rooms. It was the first thing my husband and I bought for my oldest son’s nursery and the frame has been painted many, many times to match nursery decor. I know the time will come soon when I have to part with it, but not just yet.

Next to her bed hangs this little plate, after I bought it I decided it was too cute to use to eat off and hung it up.

These little china figurines were mine when I was young, though for now for their protection, they are kept well out of her reach.

Her chandelier came from Picadilly Ltd in Warrenton, VA. {A wonderful little store}, and its the same one in this gorgeous nursery we featured last fall.

I have aspirations to replace her closet doors with curtains, and re-do her dresser but for now I love how simple her room is, especially when its clean…

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up with~

Kelly’s Korner

Tuesdays Treasures at Uncommon Slice of Surburbia

Tell It To Me Tuesday’s at Creatively Living

Posted in Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Real Spaces | Tagged baby room, bedroom, girl's room, new house, Pink | 19 Comments

Kids Bathroom Makeover {Part 1}

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Amy

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I am calling this part 1 because I still have some small details to add to my kids’ bathroom, but I am so happy with my progress this far that I am SO ready to show it off.

I didn’t expect to move the kids’ bathroom to the top of my new house “To-Do” list, but an idea suddenly struck and I went with it. My inspiration was this beautiful nursery picture in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog.

Inspiration Room

Here is the very plain jane “before” picture right after we moved in.

“BEFORE”

I knew immediately that I wanted to use a gray and white color scheme in the kids’ bathroom. I originally thought I would do polka dots on the walls like in the picture, but as I have 2 boys and a girl I needed a more gender-neutral theme. So, a gray (BM Cape May Cobblestone) horizontal stripe it was.

Best way to capture the picture in a tiny bathroom–the view in the mirror.

After chatting with Christy who assured me I could handle the board & batten treatment (see hers HERE) and reading many of the great online tutorials for it, I jumped in and… well, that was about 3 weeks ago.

OK, so it’s really not an overnight project. Like many tutorials warn, putting the battens up is fairly easy, but painting and caulking (and re-painting and re-caulking) takes a little bit of time.

To accessorize the room, I already had this towel bar and hanging galvanized buckets from IKEA that I had used in my former office. I am crossing my fingers I can obtain a third bucket next time I am at IKEA so each of my 3 children will have their own bucket and then morning routines will go more smoothly. (In my fantasy world, right?)

This super cute basket (below) was a hostess present from Terry recently, and I hope she won’t mind that I sprayed it with metal spray paint to match my decor? My mom found these very cool little chalkboards at French Garden House for me for Christmas and I am using them everywhere I can these days.

I also painted (and this was the point where I realized I was getting a little crazy) my formerly white shower curtain hooks so there would be another pop of yellow in the room. It really was super-easy, just a quick spray of Zinzer spray primer, then 2 quick coats of craft paint and now I have yellow shower hooks, perfect.

I made some decorative accessories like this printable sign. {Like it? Click here {Christopher Robin Printable} and download your own copy} and this great “Wash Your Hands” sign, which was a Pinterest find from 4 Men 1 Lady. I just printed it and mounted it on a plain wood plaque which I had painted gray to match first.

So, what is left to do? Well, I am on the hunt for a yellow and white rug– preferably polka-dotted, and polka-dotted towels (which I can’t find ANYWHERE in yellow, Pottery Barn Kids will you please add yellow in again soon? or Garnet Hill? Please?) and I also plan to update the bottom of the shower curtain with some yellow ribbon (or something) to ground the room with a yellow pop too.

OH, and yes I still need to add molding to the builder-grade mirror, how could I forget that detail?

{Small bathrooms are hard to photograph, but hopefully you can get the idea}

Thanks for stopping by!

Don’t forget to follow 11 Magnolia Lane on Linky Tools (just click the Linky Tools button on sidebar) to stay up to date when Google Friend Connect sadly disappears forever on March 1.

The Best DIY Projects of the Year at Southern Hospitality

Posted in Before and After, DIY, General & About Us, Real Spaces | Tagged board and batten, diy, kids bathroom, new house, paint, Printables, projects, white | 50 Comments

Moving in…

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Amy

It’s finally here. After months (OK only four months), our new house is ready and we have moved in. And, since we have still have no internet at the new house, I have been unable to post about the house now that its done.

What a journey this has been…if you read my earlier moving posts you may remember that we were apprehensive about our move. We left a town of 6000 people and have arrived in an area with A MILLION people. We left the mountains for the coast, and our families and dear friends for an area with a very transient (military) population.

But, on the other hand I still feel a bit of “pinch me”…am I really living in this house? Waiting (and moving around all summer, and imposing on our family and friends!) to build was so worth it. Our house is far from “perfect” or even “grand”, in fact it’s smaller then our last home, but it makes me feel happy and so blessed. From each light I agonizingly picked out myself, and the white kitchen I have wanted for SO long, to the front porch I have long had on my dream house “wish list”.

My brand new kitchen (its not this clean anymore!)

It is also, most magnificently, on the shore of a beautiful and very peaceful lake.

The view from the front porch (one side)

Already living here brings me such a sense of peace. Our family vacations each summer on the most beautiful spot on a beautiful lake in Maine every year, so while I think the beach is nice (and its just 5 minutes away) I find having the lake to be worth the trade-off of less space for this incredible view.

So, when the cable company shows up to finally connect my house to the cable box at the street, I will begin posting better interior pictures. Promise! In the meantime, here is a gratuitous shot of my daughter in her new room (for some reason it looks very large here, but its actually quite small).

She keeps asking when her room will be "pink"?

In the meantime, you can find me unpacking boxes!

Posted in General & About Us, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Real Spaces | Tagged building, lake, moving, new house | 1 Comment

Let there be Light (s)!

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Amy

Before I run on about the drama of lighting selection in my new house, I wanted to say a huge Thank You to Shelli at A La Mode for the feature as part of her Roomspiration Nursery series of our “Princess Nursery“. A la Mode is one of my favorite blogs (she finds the most gorgeous homes to share!) and she could not have been sweeter about our little nursery feature. Did you see all the great nursery’s she had this week? It just makes you want to have a new little one to decorate a special room for…

While I don’t have a room with a crib and changing table in my new home as my children are growing older. But, hands down, the hardest part of building our new house has been making the lighting selections. We opted not to take our builder’s standard lighting “package”, and instead take an allowance to select our lights ourselves. Had the allowance gone much further then it actually did, making these selections would have been very fun. The light fixtures for our main rooms (dining room, kitchen, foyer) quickly used up most of the credit we had so for the less “public” rooms (like the laundry room), its been a bit of a challenge to find a light fixture that works with the decor ideas I have but within almost NO budget.

Thankfully, I have a wonderful friend who knows lighting and design. She has been tireless in helping me make selections, even when we were up against a 24-hour deadline and my brain was fried from all the last-minute craziness. (I shared about it here). I wanted to share these beautiful lighting boards she made for me which really helped me refine my ideas. You will see soon that I incorporated much of what she pulled together in my new home.

Kitchen Ideas

laundry room ideaskitchen ideas

kitchen ideas

So…we are finally (fingers crossed!) less then a week from closing. The house has come together beautifully, beyond what I hoped for. What did I pick for lights? Here is a sneak peak of my kitchen lighting! Stay tuned, I hope to post pictures next week of the interior.

Kitchen Sneak Peak!

Posted in General & About Us, Home Inspiration, Inspiration Boards, Real Spaces | Tagged building, home building, Inspiration Board, kitchen, lighting, moving, new house | Leave a comment

Things I have learned from building a house…

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Amy

I admit that I am a bit house-obsessed. I am not afraid to say it. I like things in my house to be neat, and look how I want them to. I have often said, I want visitors to feel welcome and comfortable and my children to grow up in a home with a sense of peace and security.

A gorgeous kitchen from Country Living via Pinterest

{I write this, I am looking around my parent’s beautiful and welcoming home where I am (still) staying and feel certain that some things are hard-wired.}

So, when we unexpectedly had the opportunity to build our next home in our relocation process, its sort of a dream come true for someone “like me”. Rather then remaking an existing home into what I would want it to be, I could literally start from the ground up and make it exactly what I wanted. Let’s just say this right now, that Site Agent at the model home probably should have just started running when she saw me coming her way. I am sure she is ready to have my house done and closed after all my “crazy” requests.

The good news is that from spending too much time reading blogs, decorating magazines and now making great use of Pinterest, I pretty much knew just what I wanted in my new home. However, most of these things didn’t really fall into the builder’s standard packages, so they agreeably gave me an allowance to pick my own lights and appliances, and let me redraw the cabinet layout to better serve our family. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

Cabinet plan in process

Well, here is what I have learned…NOT hearing from your builder for 2 months is NOT a good sign. Now, don’t misunderstand, I think incredibly highly of the builder of my new home and do believe this is one of those things that just happened. Due to a long crazy set of circumstances I won’t bore you with, nothing that we had selected (back in June) was ever ordered for our home. And, due to this crazy economy and constantly changing loan regulations, our house MUST close in September before some things change that will drastically effect our loan. So, I spent last Thursday, after a frantic phone call from the builder, making every selection for my home over again based on availability (and of course, cost) while trying to still get exactly what I want. Sounds fun, right? Nope, really, not that fun.

So, what I learned is that if you build, renovate or anything (especially long-distance as we are), you must check and double check everything is being taken care of. Thankfully we managed to pull out just about everything we hoped for after a long day with much running around to lighting stores, granite warehouses etc. I will say I never loved my husband more then at the moment when I was told that there was no way I could get the countertops I had my heart set on in less then 30 days, and he glared looked at the saleswoman told her she better figure out another supplier because I was going to get what I wanted. {Sigh, I love him…} And, yes, it does look like they were able to find another supplier.

I have also learned to dig my heels in, especially in dealing with men in the contracting business. Not to show gender-bias, but there are things in my home that are definitely making the builder’s scratch their heads and say, “What is this woman thinking?” The looks on their faces as I tried to explain that No, I didn’t want light pendants, but rather would like a chandelier in the middle of the kitchen which sounds perfectly logical to us in blogland, right? You would have thought I had suddenly grown 3 heads– those men just could not understand it! And interestingly, they kept telling me what I wanted instead…?

Our soon to be front door and foyer

I have also learned that No doesnt mean No. Sometimes in building it just means “I dont really want to” but with enough determination and frantic work last week, we are hopeful the house will be done as we had planned. My husband (who really, could care less about anything other then having a ceiling fan in the master bedroom and his outdoor shower) did a phenomenal job of not letting me give in as we were repeatedly being told “No, we couldn’t get this or that in time.” He continually reminded me that we have waited for this house (to the discomfort of our family, and even more to the discomfort of my parents and friends who have let us stay with them during the construction process) and we hope to be able to stay in it for a very long time. So, fingers crossed, in just a few weeks we will have our new home…unless of course, Hurricane Irene which is, as I write, barreling toward the coastal community where we are moving has her own plan, but let’s just not think of that just yet…

our future family room

Stay tuned, this could get even more interesting!

Posted in General & About Us, Home Inspiration, Real Spaces, Uncategorized | Tagged home building, home construction, moving, new house | Leave a comment

Moving On…

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Amy

I have been absent from blogging for awhile. I forgot (or blocked out!) how difficult it is to move. This time just about pushed me to the brink, between packing, finding a new house, the school year ending and working on a major project all in about a month. I think I am still mentally recovering from the stress of it all even now, several weeks later. And, because I like to make sure to do things in a very complicated fashion, we decided to build our next home. So, at this point, my children and I are staying with my very gracious family and visiting any (also very gracious) friends who will take us until our new house is ready.

Here is what will soon be our new home.

Moving, while an unexpected for us, has been an interesting journey even thus far. Only in my dreams did I expect to have the chance to “design” my next house. The sacrifice of temporary homelessness will hopefully be worth it! I spend entirely too many hours now searching for inspiration for lights, countertops, appliances all over blogland and have developed a serious Pinterest habit. (See my boards HERE, and please leave me a comment as I would love to see your pins as well). As fun as it sounds to pick all the interior options, we have a limited budget and had limited time to make major decisions about the house so we are crossing our fingers that it all comes out as we hope.

But, outside of that its been wonderful to be able to spend this time with family and friends.. Change in inevitable in life and so we are accepting this is God’s plan for us, even when leaving a place we love has been hard.

So in the meantime, I don’t have much going as far as projects, but check back because as soon as the house is done, I will have more then enough to keep me busy. Let’s just hope it won’t be too much longer

Hope you are enjoying your summer.