WHAT I WORE WEDNESDAYS [ A LINK UP ]

Hi Lovelies! I hope everyone is having a great day! It's dreary here but I kinda like it :). Today I am linking up with The Pleated Poppy for What I wore Wednesday. I love this link up because it was born out of her desire to spend a little more time on herself. 




1. I was feeling under the weather this day, and I wanted to be super comf so I threw on my oldest pair of jeans (likeee from college) and then wore a college sweat shirt from my hubby's alma mater, go Monarchs!

2. This top is another piece of clothing from my college days (you'll soon learn that I hold onto clothes for a long time- as long as they still look good). Jeans are J.Crew Matchstick (you'll also learn if you haven't already that J.Crew or J.Crew Factory is my fave place to shop. I definitely find what works for me and stick with it ) 

3. Woodstock Top- Target Men's section (yep, I went there. their shirts are cute and good for tall ladies). 

4. & 5. Top is Old Navy on clearance and jeans are  J.crew Matchsticks.  Shoes J.Crew Factory (these are my all time favorite shoes, y'all. SO comfy. You can get them very reasonably priced from the Factory stores and on sale). That day was so hot that I lasted about an hour in that outfit and change into my Reebok yoga capris.

6. Top- Target (Men's section again) and 7 for all mankind jeans. Shoes are Chuck Taylors. I have always been a little bit of a tom boy  (after age 4- I can hear my mama's eyes rolling all the way in TN as she reads this. I refused to wear anything but dresses and chuck taylor's together until I was 4 years old). 
And I love a good jean and t-shirt combo. I also have always adored cars- and I grew up going to car shows with my grandfather, so I have to have a Shelby shirt. 

Do y'all have any favorite old pieces of clothing? Any favorite uniform you wish you could wear every day? 

I hope y'all have a wonderful day! Make someone else smile! 

IN MY DREAMS

Hi there lovelies. Hope everyone is having a beautiful day! I'm starting a new series on the blog about my home. I've had a lot of requests to see the new house, so I thought that this would be the best way to share it. I'm going to do a room or two every so often and include my dreams for the rooms. 

Our home was so tiny before that I could not really do anything to decorate. We also didn't really need to because it was a cool older home in the middle of a small city and had a lot of character and neat features. We had awesome track lighting in one of our SUPER long hallways so we turned the walls into a gallery of my art and the coach's photography (sporty, smart, cute, AND artistic- he's a keeper I tell ya) . We also had exposed brick walls and suuuper high ceilings. So We basically had to do nothing to have a cool home.

Now that we have moved, we are in a home that is 2 times (YEP) the size of our old house. We had so much furniture that we actually don't need to buy any furniture. I would like to replace some of our items because they don't fit our style anymore, or don't fit our needs anylonger (or broke in the move).

My goal is to thrift or antique and/ or build a lot of what I want to replace. My goal is also to be very intentional about what we do add to the home. I really don't want to spend money on something just to have it, just to fill the spot. I have done that in the past and I felt so wasteful, and ultimately did not love what I purchased. I want our home to really reflect who we are, and our life, and I love for pieces to have meaning/ a story behind them. 

Today I'm focusing on the living room. 

This is what we are currently working with: 

We hand pictures over time because 3m strips are pricey y'all. (keepin' it real) So that is why we still have boxes. Also, we have not figured out exactly where or how to store our outdoor stereo system (pictured by the window) because it has to stay by the window. 

The plan is for the sofa and coffee table to eventually go into the man-cave. I love the sofa as it is super comf. and it is slipcovered so I can wash as needed (read: every week), but I'm not sure if I'm gonna go for a white sofa out here with the little dude running around. I am super strict about him sitting down to eat/drink not only for cleanliness, but also because he is not allowed to run around at restaurants, so why would he be allowed to do it at home? That said, his little sticky fingers leave something behind every. day. 

I love the rug but I am unsure if it will stay there or go elsewhere. as I mentioned in a previous post, the carpet in the house is grody so I'm using it to cover it as much as I can. 

Below is an inspiration board I've put together for the living room.

I love the idea of neutral furniture with sassy accessories. I also love love love funky textiles with a LOT of color. My mother is currently making me pillows from textiles that my grand parents bought while they lived in Central and South America. They are fun and brightly colored and will add a lot of sass to the room. I'd like to re-cover the red chair with a linen fabric as well. I am not sure what kind of curtains to use, and what kind of rug to use. Any thoughts or suggestions? Also, any thoughts about what to do on or above the mantle? 

I have a love affair with gold picture frames, so I'm hoping to use what we have and thrift some more. I also want to put some big fun artwork in the living room. I am in LOVE with everything about Kate Spade's whole house ( her living room shown on the right), so that is a source of inspiration for my house. I love that it is funky, and includes a lot of colors and patterns, and that she elevates her style with formal silhouettes and/or gold accents. 

I'd love to know if you all have a favorite source for furniture or textiles, and any suggestions for artwork/ and rugs/window treatments! 

Sources: 

one // two // three // four // five

HERE'S WHAT

 Today I'm linking up to talk about the things that've made my days a little brighter this week. 

1. Henry is becoming more and more independent. He has always been independent, but he can do so much more on his own, like coloring. I don't have to watch him quite so closely, and I don't have to worry quite as much that he will color on furniture. He also enjoys it so much that he asks quite often for "bapur" to color on. This makes my little artist heart so happy! 

2. Petsmart! We try to take Henry on a little adventure every week. There is not a true aquarium where we live, and his most recent favorite animals are "fitchies". I got a suggestion recently to just take him to Petsmart and it was the greatest suggestion! He was entertained for a good hour looking at the fish, birds, reptiles, and rodents (ew).  

3. We always have friends over now that we are out of school, and most recently we had pizza night with some friends. We played risk afterwards, which is the funnest game ever. We were floored when we looked up from the game and saw it was almost 2 AM. (sorry from the blurry pic). We decided that having regular game nights would be so fun. 

4. Home made breakfast sammies. Since I'm not working currently, I have time to make breakfast sammies every morning. I made cheddar chive biscuits a la Americas Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (so good), and added an egg and cheese. This is the perfect meal for a major breakfast lover (which I am) . I even figured it out so that I can make them in a jiffy when I do go back to work. These will definitely be in regular rotation around here! 

5. I have always said that I LOVE all 4 seasons, and I expected that living in FL would be hard for me. Butttt going to lunch  in October wearing shorts and a T-shirt and being able to sit outside with this view? NOT complaining. And its all the better that we found a GREAT super cheap place to get a mean po'boy.




6. One extra "Here's What". LOVING my new site design. And it did not break the bank. I'm not mad at that! Sasssyyyy.

SAYING GOODBYE PART I [A FRIDAY LINK UP]

Today I'm linking up with Casey Leigh about what's on my heart lately. I know I've talked several times about moving recently. I know it may be overkill, but we somehow managed to live in the same area for 7 years (my husbands entire Navy career thus far). 

We lived in two different cities but they were only 20 minutes apart, and I spent time in both on a weekly basis. 

In May of 2013 we moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia. And when I say we, I mean me because Robert was deployed (he deployed less than a month after we got married).  

I graduated from college on May 13, 2007 in TN, moved into my parent's house and planned on moving the next day ( because I had NO idea how moving with the military worked). After a few tearful phone calls to the personal property office with the military I quickly learned that I should have started the move process (ie: paperwork) at least 8 weeks prior to the move. whoops. So I scheduled some guys to help me pack up a  U-haul that my mom and I rented, packed up, and headed to VA with my and Robert's belongings and our dog Dakota. (Mind you, we never lived together prior to this so we didn't have a ton of stuff yet, no bed, sofa, tv, anything, all the while praying that we could some how recoup some of the costs for the labor/ gas/  rental.

After a day of driving, two flat tires, and a subsequent over night stay, we pulled into our first little apartment. 

Our apartment was on the bottom floor, the two windows to the left of that door. It was 900 sq. ft. Hugely expensive to us, and a huge dump. And we loved it. It was there that I learned how to make any space into a home- no matter whether you could paint or not (we couldn't), no matter the size of the home, and on any budget. 

We have grown a ton in our selves and in our marriage since we have been together, but I will say that this was where we learned not only how to live together, but how to be "grown ups". I got my first job out of college, and we adopted Lady, our second dog while we lived there. 

We moved out after our year lease was up to this little gem:

This little place was not much bigger, and not much better, but again we really loved this place. We lived on the left, where the fence was. This neighborhood was so awful and unsafe. A gang that roamed the streets there, and a brothel got shut down just down the street [we like to keep it classy]. 

 Robert and his dad built a nice deck off the side, and I built an enormous garden, full of vegetables and flowers. We loved our neighbors, and we learned how to be a part of a community. Our neighbors across the street and next door would all come sit on that tiny front porch and we would order pizza and wings and sit and talk and laugh and listen to music. Customers of the place I worked lived down the street from me, and we lived close to all of the places we frequented.

I began to discern what I wanted for my life and career in that home. Two and a half years after beginning my first job, I quit and began going to school to fulfill requirements for graduate school. It was in that little house that I gained the courage to follow my dreams. 

Stay tuned next Friday for the second part of this series. 

My life according to Instagram

1. Three of my favorite things lately. 

2. Henny's new anywhere chair from pottery barn kids. He uses it more like a tumbling obstacle, this is a rare photo of him actually sitting in it. [or sitting, period.]

3. Very french eating a Batard, grapes, and cheese

4. Playing around with hand lettering for the ladies in my bible study. I recently opened an etsy shop of my hand lettered prints.

5. I celebrated october with an orange hair tie. (I live on the edge).  brickyard buffalo has some cute halloween ones right now. I stocked up on some earlier this summer when they had a big hair tie grab bag sale. 

6. Home made guac & chips. Love my new Joe Patti's koozie. Joe Patti's is a P-cola institution.

7. We snuck away for a super casual [read: cheap] date lunch one day on Perdido Key and this was our view. I'm not mad at that.

8. I cannot wait to finally fulfill my dream of having a meyer lemon tree on my pattio. They sell these at Lowes [ a novelty for a mid-atlantic/east coast lady]

9. The Simplified Planer is hands down the best thing I've ever purchased - it kept our family scheduled while R and I were both in school/ trying to be awesome parents/ trying to have a life. I am for sure a life time customer. 

10. Wine margie from cactus flower cafe. Also a P-cola institution 

11. This guy. I don't know why I even bothered baby proofing. Both his father and I got around all things baby proofing when we were little. H handed me this after taking it off of a cabinet and said "THANK YOU!" 

ON PURPOSE [ A LINK UP ]

Hi Lovelies! I hope everyone is having a great day! It's dreary here but I kinda like it :). Today I am linking up with The Pleated Poppy for What I wore Wednesday. I love this link up because it was born out of her desire to spend a little more time on herself. 

I can definitely identify with wanting to step things up lately. Between staying home with H this summer and the move, I've been in yoga pants and running shorts   jeans and t-shirts for a little over a month. Don't get me wrong, I love a good yoga pant and I've always identified as a jeans and T kind of gal, but I am a visual person and I am a big believer that we should "begin each day as if it were on purpose" (from Hitch- remember that movie?).

 I don't really have an excuse now since I put myself together every day that I was (SUPERRR) pregnant with my gigantor baby boy, and when I was in grad school and doing an internship basically 60-70 hours a week between the two (and being a wife and mama). 

If you are trying to step it up a little bit, an easy way to start is to pick one day a week to really sass it up ( I used to do red-lipstick Fridays when I worked for a credit union that required a extremely boring very conservative dress code). OR just pick one thing to focus on every day. I love that Lara has really prioritized what is important to her and forgoes fancy hair and makeup for a cute outfit every day, and lays it out the night before. 

The following outfits are not all from the past week, more like the past couple, but I gotta start somewhere :). I also see a slow progression into being more put together.  

I call this WIWW: Moving Edition.

Aww old house photo. Also, I love this tank. Its from Tarjay. I had 2 others and got rid of them for who knows why. Jeans 7 For all Mankind

Top: Tarjay

Shorts: Jcrew Factory

Necklace : Tiffany

Bracelet: J.Crew Factory

Side note: I totally look like I'm attempting to do a pageant pose in this photo. 

Sunnies: Ray Ban

Top: J.Crew

Skirt: Target (old)

Flips: Rainbow

Hat: J.Crew

Dress: Target

Ring: The Silver Goose 

Shoes: Target (LOVE!)

Top: J.Crew Factory

Jeans: J.Crew matchstick 

Shoes: Target (old old)

Close up of Lipstick (So excited to be back in the lipstick game. Such an easy/ inexpensive way to sass things up) This one is from Sephora 

What are some things that make you feel like you're put together? 

THE WORLDS EASIEST (AND MAYBE YUMMIEST) DIY

Probably one of my favorite things to read on a blog is a DIY. And HELLO Pinterest. Its totally one of my favorite things in the whole world. ever. But when it comes to the DOING part of the DIY... I...don't. I have a hard time mustering up the patience to DIY even though I always want to save money, I hate to pay full price for anything, and I love creating (hello, I am an artist after all). But I do have a mean lazy streak. I'm trying to cure myself of that with our new home, I made a goal/pact with myself that I would DIY as much as I could and I'd buy minimal furniture that was actually new for the house. 

Anyway, I don't even know if you could call this a DIY so much as a recipe...but even THAT is pushing it. This is THAT easy. 

I know. Chocolate. You could put chocolate on just about anything and it would be A. MAZING. Kind of like those booths at the fair that fry everything. Fried Butter? Fried PBJ? Totally weird. Totally good.  I digress...

As a rule, I purchase one pack of semi-sweet chocolate morsels every single week when I buy groceries. Its basically just as important as buying bread in this house. Bread... Milk...Eggs...Chocolate. And I we use the entire package every week. What does that say about us? I don't know. And I'm okay with it. Any who. I was craving something salty and sweet the other day and I knew Henry was going to want a late afternoon snack. We rarely let him have junky food so I figured he'd get a kick out of chocolate covered pretzels.

Here's what you need:
A Handful of Chocolate Morsels (whatever type suits you best)
Pretzels
Cream or Milk (Optional)
Sprinkles (Optional)

Here's what you do:

Put your handful of morsels in a microwave safe container. I usually use a mason jar or glass pyrex dish  that comes with a top so that I can just pop any leftovers into the fridge. 

If you want creamier chocolate, or a softer covering for the pretzel then add enough milk or cream to JUST cover the morsels. Should be 1/8 to 1/4 cup at most. If you chose to do this, then you will have to keep the covered pretzels in the fridge to keep them solid-ish. 

If you skip the milk/cream then you still want to put the covered pretzels into the fridge to temper the chocolate so it hardens, but they should stay hard out of the fridge, but wont keep as long.

Basically, do whatever you want to do :). 

Microwave the morsels for a minute, and let sit for a few minutes in the microwave before stirring.

This prevents the chocolate from cooling too fast and becoming grainy (again- this step is nitpicky, you can stir right away if you're like me and don't want to wait :) ). Stir the mixture until smooth. 

Dip those bad boys into the chocolate and lay onto a cookie tray. I added some sprinkles for a little sass and additional crunch. Enjoy! 

And you're welcome. 

What's your favorite thing to combine with chocolate?