November 07, 2018

Three Fun Fall Sweaters

November 07, 2018/ PJ and Thomas McKay

You already saw some of the sweaters we wore to Amsterdam, (like PJ’s pictured above) but we’re crushing on a couple more now that the weather is getting even colder here in Tennessee. Is there anything better than wrapping up in a warm sweater on a chilly night? Today, we’re picking our top three favorite sweaters of the season that we can’t get out of our minds.

This burgundy chunky waffle-knit sweater from Forever 21 is the sister to Thomas’ yellow one he wore in Amsterdam. If we love a piece of clothing, we’re sometimes guilty of buying the same thing in different colors, especially in the fall with colors like orange, brown, and burgundy.

For when you want a classic, goes-with-anything look, Gap’s crew neck sweater in dark charcoal fits the bill. Sometimes fall doesn’t have to be all about reds and oranges. Sometimes, a simple gray sweater goes a long way, especially black pants.

If you’re feeling a little bold, this striped rugby sweater by J. Crew would be a lot of fun this fall, don’t you think? We would wear this with some jeans and casual sneakers or desert boots. Bonus: it’s on sale! But they only have XL in stock.

Fall fashion is our favorite, and every year we look forward to seeing what other people are wearing. Now brb, a fire, a glass of wine, and one of these sweaters are calling our names!

November 01, 2018

Halloween 2018

November 01, 2018/ PJ and Thomas McKay

How was your Halloween? Like last year, we had a ton of people over and thousands of trick-or-treaters stop by for candy. Halloween in our little southern town is HUGE, and people go all out with their costumers and decorations. We had a blast with our family and friends, but would you believe we didn’t take a picture of not only ourselves all night, but also the trick-or-treaters/party we threw? Maybe that’s the sign of a good night: when you’re too busy having fun to whip your phone out and take pictures for later?

October 16, 2018

The Perfect Fall Day + Beef Stew Recipe

October 16, 2018/ PJ and Thomas McKay

You know those fall days you look forward to all summer long, when it starts getting chilly outside and the sunlight changes and you have nowhere to be but home? We had one of those days this weekend and it reminded us why we love this season so much.

We spent a lot of the weekend binge-watching Netflix’s new show The Haunting of Hill House. Have you seen it? It’s based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 book of the same name, though the TV adaptation differs a little from the original book. It’s also been made into two different movies, most recently the film The Haunting in 1999, though, again, the film is pretty different from the original source material.

The show is SPOOKY, and we scream/jumped so loud (twice!) that we’re pretty sure a couple of our neighbors heard us. We wouldn’t recommend watching it alone, but just know it’s sort of a family drama at heart, with chilling situations here and there, but it’s set in this gorgeous old house, so you know we were game from the start.

PJ had a taste for beef stew, so we went to the grocery store after coming back from visiting our land and stocked up on all the ingredients. He didn’t really follow a recipe, just kind of dumped it all in there. From what we can remember, it included:

Easy Beef Stew

1/2 bag of carrots
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 can of corn
1 can of green beans
1 can of peas
1 large chuck roast
7 gold potatoes, quartered
salt & pepper to taste
chopped garlic to taste
1 packet of beef stew seasoning from McCormick (though next time we plan on making this seasoning ourselves)
2 cups of beef stock

He dumped everything in the crock pot and put it on high and left it over night to really soak in all the juices and flavor and by lunch the next day, it was ready to eat.

PJ also has a love affair with corn bread so he whipped some up following the recipe on the back of the Krusteaz box. We didn’t have any milk, so he used sour cream instead and it tasted fine all the same. Does it get better than warm stew and corn bread on a chilly fall day? When there are windows to be opened and scary Netflix shows to be watched? WE THINK NOT.

Hope you had a good weekend, too, friends.

September 14, 2018

A Light-Filled Friday Night

September 14, 2018/ PJ and Thomas McKay

Tonight was kind of magical.

The trees separating our house from our neighbor’s have started to lose some of their leaves, which means natural light floods our kitchen and breakfast nook this time of year. Most of the time, those two rooms don’t get as much light as our living room (in the front of the house where the sun rises) and dining room (in the back of the house where the sun sets) do, because they’re squished in the center of our house and the tree branches are usually blocking all the sun from coming in.

But tonight was a different story. For the first time this year we could really see the first little signs of fall in our house and man, did it get us excited. The light was dancing all over the floors and walls and Alexa was playing our favorite radio station (Bossa Nova). We made some coffee to wake us up for a few more hours and took it all in for a second. We were running around all day making sure we have everything ready for our trip tomorrow and it felt nice to just relax, take a breather, and just be.

There’s nothing like the feeling of being home on a Friday night when you know you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Do you know what we mean?