Snow days are good for the soul

Lucky us in South Carolina got 3 inches of snow last night and today marked my second day off from work and it was WON.DER.FUL, let me tell you. So, so wonderful!

Yesterday the snow ended up coming in a lot later than expected but here in the South we start planning WAY in advance when we even think snow is on the horizon so Murphy and I woke up slowly yesterday, sipped coffee and watched the Today show with a little bit of reading some blogs going on in between. It was just what I needed and a nice little surprise to be off of work. Josh got to come home around 3 and he had the day off today too! So our morning resembled my morning  yesterday quite a bit then we got all suited up and headed out in the snow. We had an awesome day being lazy, making trips outside to play in the snow, napping, drinking hot chocolate, sitting by the fireplace, attempting snow cream and having breakfast for dinner. Such a sweet little surprise getting to stay home with my hubby in the middle of the week.

And I just love a dusting of snow. Everything is so bright and beautiful and seems so pure and clean. Love. Did I mention how much Murphy loved the snow? We've had to drag him in multiple times today because he would just sit his little tush in the cold snow on the deck, while it was freezing out! He ran around like a crazy kid all day. Digging in the snow, chasing our snowballs, eating the snow off of the plants, he was having a blast!

Tomorrow we're on a 2 hour delay and I'm not complaining! Thanks for the snow, mother nature :)

Home Tour: Laundry Room & Hall Bath

Before we even started looking at houses I figured in our first house our washer and dryer would have to be tucked away behind a door in our kitchen somewhere...or something of the sorts. I know sometimes starter homes don't have an allotted laundry room. You can imagine I was pleasantly surprised when we looked at our house before we bought it and it had a laundry room! I'm pretty sure I heard angels singing.

As much as I try to keep this room organized, it just doesn't happen. And this might sound strange, but it kinda feels good that it's a bunch of junk. I think every house needs a room where you can just throw stuff. Although, I do occasionally get on these kicks where "I JUST CAN'T STAND THIS MESSY ROOM" and attempt to organize and rearrange...let me tell you how long that lasts...not very. Want to know why? I have two words, my husband. But that's ok, to me, laundry rooms are made for messes. I'm just thankful that our washer and dryer have a room of their own and even some cabinet space, glory glory hallelujah!

I feel like I need to mention that although it looks like we are alcoholics by how many cases of beer we are hoarding in our laundry room...we are not, ha! We had a lot left over from the wedding. 

When looking for houses we knew that 2 bathrooms were essential. That was one thing we really didn't want to compromise on and good thing we didn't have to! Our hall bath is a full and just enough space!

We have shampoo, conditioner, and a toothbrush waiting on some visitors to come see us ;) My sister-in-law gave us the monogrammed towels for our wedding and I ADORE them. Truly. As for everything else that is in the bathroom, it's just a hodge podge of stuff that I've picked up when I've been out shopping. Not really any rhyme or reason to it, but I like it! I made the print next to the sink on picmonkey and had it printed it Walgreens and I bought the South Carolina print on Etsy for $4 bucks and had it printed at Walgreens as well.

This is Murphy's favorite and least favorite room in the whole house. If you're in here you better let him in or he is going to throw a fit and sniff at the door and stick his paws under it so you'll know he is there. That kid loves to be in the bathroom with you. It's his least favorite because in the winter this is where he gets his baths once a month and anytime Josh and I are in there at the same time he starts creeping around and tries to bolt. Needless to say...I'm ready for warm weather because his baths on the back deck are much less eventful.

In the hallway we have a gallery wall, which may or may not grow in the future, our family pictures from the wedding and my bridal canvas at the end of the hall. Those adorable frames that our family pictures are in are from Hobby Lobby! We also have our  linen closet in the hallway.

That is my veil hanging behind my bridal canvas. I REALLY wanted a way to display it and had thought about framing it and putting it in our bedroom somewhere but out of the blue one day I was cleaning out the guest room, FINALLY getting it all put together and I picked up my veil to put it in a safe place and thought 'this might look pretty behind my bridal'. So there you have it. I think it's different and cute but I don't want it to get really dirty so who knows how long I'll have it there.

I so enjoy sharing our home with y'all, thanks for following along! 

The cutest little entryway

Every time I photograph a new part of the house to put on the blog, the next thing I know I've either moved it around or added new pieces. I showed you guys a FAR from complete entryway a while back when I did the tour of our living room and today I am very excited to show you our completed entryway that I am absolutely in love with.

To me, an entryway really sets a tone for the house. It's a welcoming space. Mom and I went on the hunt for a table for this space and found this beautiful piece at Kirklands...ladies, run to your nearest Kirklands, even if it's just to browse, that place is wonderful!

 

This was our very-far-from-complete entryway before...

 

 

And here she is now, in all her glory!

 



I am in love with these canvases of us leaving our wedding! Is it sad that even before our wedding day I knew that we HAD to get a great shot of us leaving our wedding because I wanted to hang it in our house?! Haha! I got an AWESOME deal on these canvases...regular $276 for all 3 and I got them for $56 for all 3 from this website called Fabness. Have you used them before? If not, I HIGHLY recommend it. They send you tons and tons of great coupons to use on their canvases and I am in awe of the quality and fast shipping! I used them for this canvas, my bridal canvas, and the wedding canvas above our bed. If you need canvases, definitely check out Fabness! I have been nothing but pleased with their work.



All of the items on the table came from Marshalls. Mom and I ALWAYS forget about that store but we happened to be passing by it the same weekend that we were out looking for the table and I suggest we go in...I'm so glad we did! I am obsessed with the red ball in the middle. Josh is a huge fan of red and wanted to incorporate so more of it in the house so that I did...he was mighty pleased when he got home from his football game that day and walked in to see this table! I snagged that beautiful pillow from the clearance section and I love where I have it now, but the colors are so beautiful in it that I almost want to put it where it can really be seen.

We got lucky when we bought it because it was the very last one so we got to take home the display...aka no assembly! Waaaahoooo!! The frame above the table I use to change out prints for each season of the year, it's housing our Valentine print right now. I make all of our prints using picmonkey and print them in 8 x 10 at Walgreens and am very pleased with how it always turns out!

I feel like our entryway is a big mix of antique (the table) and modern (everything else)! And the style is actually kind of different than the rest of the house, but somehow ties everything together all at the same time.

Do you have a love for entryways?
 

"I want to wear my tinkerbell wings..."

Just popping in today to tell you one of the sweetest little stories that I've heard in a long time. I think it will bring a smile to your face and might even draw a tear.

My mom told me this story about one of her co-worker's little girl, lets call her Abby (for safety and privacy). Abby is 4 years old. Her family had to put their dog of 14 years down last week, her name was Sally. Abby's mom told her that Sally was going to doggie heaven to be with Jesus and play with all the other dogs in heaven.

Abby and her dad were riding down the road a few days after Sally went to meet Jesus and Abby asked her dad "Daddy, did you meet Jesus?" Her dad was obviously a little confused and said "What do you mean?" Abby said, "When he came to get Sally and take her to doggie heaven, did you meet him?" Her dad replied "No sweetie, Jesus didn't come get Sally. Sally went up to heaven to Jesus." Abby said "So Jesus had to give her wings right? So she could fly to heaven to be with him?" Her dad said "Yeah, that's right. Jesus gave her wings to fly to heaven." Then Abby replied "I want to wear my tinker bell wings when I fly to heaven to meet Jesus one day."

She was tinker bell this past Halloween.

My heart just smiled when my mom told me this story. So sweet, so innocent, and the faith of a little child.


via



Happy Thursday, sweet friends! One more wake-up until the weekend!

Dreaming of Spring

I'm not a huge fan of wishing time away too quickly...but January and February are hard months to make it through without wishing for it to be Spring time. I am especially excited for Spring this year because it's the first chance Josh and I are going to have to get in our yard and do some serious yard work! When we bought the house in late August we were really busy with the wedding and winter was right around the corner so my dad did basic yard clean up for us but there wasn't really a point in doing too much work...because everything was just about to shrivel up and die in a few months any ways.

Well, with Spring on the horizon Josh and I have been dreaming and planning about what we'd like to do to our yard! We got pretty lucky that we have a nice sized front and back yard to work with and I can't wait to start trimming bushes and shrubs, planting all sorts of flowers and working on making our yard look beautiful!

Here is a little snippet of what we'd like to work on in the front of the house this Spring...

 

I am seriously perplexed as to why there are two trees right next to each other in front of the house. When you get close to them, they are actually both very pretty trees and the one in the front blooms so much color. But they're too close and look like a big glob in front of the house. I would like to just axe the shorter, fuller tree in the back but I've still got some convincing of Josh for that...he wants to just trim it up a little and make it more of like a shrub. So we'll see...either way, I just want that space to not look so cluttered...with trees. haha! We'd like to put that kind of plastic or wrought iron edging around both sides of the front of the house and add new mulch...not sure what color yet. Probably more of an orange-ish/red color, to really make it pop! We also want to work on the little bushes on either side of the house and trim them up and I'd like to put some sort of flower on each side too, something with some color. There is also a HUGE and HEAVY concrete flower box on the stoop that I am going to fill with lots and lots of pretty flowers...that I hope and pray I can keep alive ;)

It looks like we're going to be pretty fortunate in the grass department and its going to be pretty lush and green...keep your fingers crossed it stays that way!

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head that we want to do with the front yard as of right now. We've got a bit of an undertaking with the backyard because it resembles...how should I say it...a JUNGLE haha! But it's beautiful and once we get it under control it will be even more beautiful.

All of this to say, it's going to take some time and hard work to get our yard exactly how we like it but we're in no rush and are just thankful that we have such a fun project to look forward to this Spring...Josh is so proud to have a yard, as he's always been in apartments, and can't wait to make it his pride and joy.

Speaking of Spring, call me crazy but I am literally ITCHING for the first warm Saturday in a few months where I can put up all of the windows and go to town deep cleaning and scrubbing my house. Nothing is better to me than a sparkling clean house. I'm sure I'll be writing a blog post in a few months about how much I despise spring cleaning...haha!

If anyone has a green thumb I would appreciate any gardening tips!

Husband has a birthday!

Today is my so very sweet and so very handsome husband's birthday!! It's his very last year to be in his twenties...I remind him ALL THE TIME that he is almost 30 ;) All in good fun of course!

This is the first birthday of either of ours that we're getting to spend together as married people. This morning Josh woke up to an obxniously decorated house and last night I whipped up his favorite birthday food, funfetti cupcakes with funfetti icing, I even splurged and got the aqua blue vanilla frosting ;)

I truly feel like the year of 29 is going to be Josh's best year yet. Don't tell him I said this but his twenties have been ridiculous...in a mostly not very good way, except for the marrying me part, duh! But I just have this feeling that 29 is going to take the cake for his best and favorite year yet and I'm excited that I get to spend all of this year with him, as his wife.

Dear Josh,

The first of many birthday has come that we get to spend as married people! I am one lucky lady. I think your year of 29 has some truly awesome and wonderful things in store and I am so excited to watch you and be with you as you experience whatever this year may hold. I am so proud to be your wife. Your love for me and our little family overwhelms me day in and day out. I hope not a day goes by where you ever wonder how much I love you. Everyone that knows you, loves you and I think that speaks volumes for your personality and attitude towards others. Every day when I catch a little glimpse of that wedding ring on your finger my heart does a little pitter patter. Life with you is so, so sweet. I hope that today holds nothing but greatness for you and I'm humbled that I get to spend another year with you. I thank God every day for giving you to me as my husband and today I especially thank him for the 29 years of life that He has granted you with and pray that many, many more years of birthdays are to come. You are so special to me. My main squeeze...and a darn cute one at that!

 

I love you more than you will ever, ever know.

Love,

Your wife xoxo

 

Our morning looked a little something like this...

 

Then I went home to hang out with Murphy at lunch and I walked in and he was COVERED in blue icing...making my way to the kitchen I am praying that he didn't get the cupcakes. Which luckily, he didn't. He just retrieved the can of icing from the trash can and licked it CLEAN...all probably less than 1/4 of the icing that was left in the can and yet STILL seemed to get it all over his head, ears, snout, and entire face. I can imagine he was probably bouncing off the walls after I left...dog on a sugar high.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday babe!

 

Southern Charm, Class & Elegance: It's all in the details

Last but not least, the details of our wedding day will round our the recaps of the best day of my life!

I wanted the details of our big day to be beautiful and as close to perfect as possible! I LOVE looking at the details of other peoples wedding when I go and see the bride and grooms personality displayed throughout so I knew I wanted to focus a lot on our décor and the details. As you've seen, the house we got married at is massive and gorgeous! We wouldn't have had to put up anything in that house and it still would have been stunning!

 

One of the first visits I went to at the house the owner, Wanda, told me...a good idea when thinking about decorating the house is to make it feel like YOUR house, like you and your soon-to-be-husband live here. And I thought, oh my gosh, that's perfect! There were fireplaces in the house and gorgeous furniture that, if played right, you could make your guests truly feel like they were in your house. So I started buying and collecting from family members all sorts of picture frames. I decorated the mantels and side tables scattered throughout the house with engagement pictures and bridal portraits. I also put a lot of candles around, elephant figurines (because we love elephants!), little wooden signs with our names on them, and a canvas describing marriage.

 

The ballroom is off of the main house (connected by the most gorgeous doors you've ever seen) so in the house portion I really played up the theme of it being our house, and not sticking to any certain colors but instead matching each room in the house with my décor but in the ballroom is where I played up the elegance and class aspect that Josh (and me too!) so badly wanted displayed at our wedding. This is where the deep purples came into play, which were our wedding colors, and each table was adorned with flower arrangements and candles. It had much more of a wedding feel, which I really like but when you stepped through the doors into the rest of the house, you felt like you were at our home. It was the PERFECT combination for us!

 

On one of the fireplace mantels we did a collage of our families wedding photos, which I loved! For our favors the chalkboard by them said "Hugs and kisses from the new Mr & Mrs" and inside each box was a Hershey hug and kiss. I saw this on Etsy and immediately knew I wanted to do those for our favors...I think that was one of the very first things I had picked out!

 

You'll also notice that we had a few touches of burlap around and that is because we wanted our wedding to have a bit of a "southern charm" feel and we felt like the burlap was the perfect thing to do that! We had little touches here and there but nothing overwhelming. You'll notice that we got married under a HUGE oak tree with lanterns hanging from it...that is where I first got my idea for southern charm and you'll notice that our runner was burlap with satin lining each side, to really tie together the southern feel. Josh expressed to me many times that he wanted our ceremony to be very elegant and timeless, I incorporated this by the big balls of flowers lining the isle...I seriously SWOON over those, so gorgeous!!

 

Ok, now where is the wedding fairy to transport me back to this day and let me do it all over again?!