Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Honeymoon Roadtrip Video

I have officially run out of time to complete my thirty before 30 list! Although, we are celebrating my birthday on Friday so does that buy me a little more time? :)

I did get a lot done and like I mentioned in the last post about this, it has definitely encouraged me to live life more intentionally. I am in a major creative streak right now which is SO fun and unpredictable.

I finally finished editing together the little video clips from our honeymoon roadtrip last year. We drove to Chattanooga to visit Rock City, the Tennessee Aquarium, and the Chattanooga Choo Choo. The next day, we took a ride on a historic train then headed to Atlanta for the Coke museum, dinner at Houston's, Ikea, and a private tour of CNN thanks to someone I met through work. Most of the video comes from Rock City because it was so gorgeous and the aquarium because some of the critters were so intriguing!

Here is my simple little video!



I have a few more thirty before 30 updates that I will post later!


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Friday, May 25, 2012

Corner of our world: Vintage chair






Just a little corner of our room - I finally cleaned all the laundry off this chair and mopped the floors so it was time to take a new photo of this little corner. :)

Got the chair a few years ago at the Goodwill Outlet for $4! Amazing. The yellow pillow is from Urban Outfitters (a wedding gift from our friends Will & Cali), the curtains are actually tablecloths from Target.com, and the black pillow is handmade by me. The nightstand is from when I was on A&E's design show "Find and Design" yeaaaaars ago and it supposedly came from the flea market, but you never know with a reality/tv design show!

(I've probably never mentioned the show here before - when I first bought my house, my roommate and I were on the show and they re-did the extra bedroom into a "shabby chic party pad." The only thing that remains in that room from that design is the light fixture! My style has completely changed and the room is now Andy's office!)

In other chair news, if you live in the Nashville area, check out this chair that I am selling. If you're interested, please email me!



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Thursday, May 24, 2012

Bloggers at the Dress Barn!

Recently, Lisa from My Pretty Baby Cried She Was a Bird emailed a few of us local vintage bloggers because she had been invited to a bloggers' night out at our brand new Dress Barn. None of us really knew what to expect, but we were super excited for the opportunity to all meet! I had met Rae, Rae had met Eartha, and Rae and Lisa had seen each other at estate sales but never met. It was so, so fun to all hang out!

The Dress Barn ladies were super sweet and the new store at Opry Mills (our outlet mall that just re-opened after the flood of May 2010) is beautiful! We had a lot of fun hanging out in the dressing room!

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Dressing room shot! Me, Rae, Eartha, and Lisa.

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With their purchases! Eartha bought a really cute handbag, Rae got an awesome tiki-style dress, and both Lisa and I picked up some new shades.

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Here's Rae with her fun new dress!

We also got to meet Adrienne of What Lola Wants! It was so fun to hang out and be girly!

Lisa recapped our time together here and is giving away a $25 gift card to Dress Barn! Eartha, Rae and Adrienne also wrote about our blogger meet-up!

Have you had a chance to meet any of your blog friends? It's a blast!!

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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

What has been keeping me busy?

Oh, lots of things!

I have been loving plants and flowers lately and so I've been working more with them. Lucy (by way of her grandma Young) gave me a cute dog planter for mother's day and I got free* marigolds at Wal-mart the very next day, so I planted those.

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dog planter

So cute, huh? The dog looks pretty similar to Lucy and the head and tail bob, which is pretty darn cute. I put it out on our deck, which gets full sun, so the poor marigolds haven't been very happy, unfortunately!

Those aren't the only flowers I've been working with, though!

When we got married, I bartered with my hairstylist, Lauren. She did my hair and I pledged to day-of-coordinate her wedding in the future. She got married in April in a private ceremony and planned a super cute and intimate reception Sunday night at The Boundry in Nashville. My major duty was picking up the geraniums and cutting them and arranging them in tiny vases then transporting them to the venue. Lauren had everything under control and the reception was so relaxed and the Boundry staff were so amazing that I barely had any other responsibilities! I wish I could have done more for Lauren and Alex but they are definitely laid back and have the right attitude toward weddings and marriage!

Here are the beautiful geraniums I got to play with!

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And a photo of the cute vases, a blurry pic of one of my little arrangements, and another show of the whole bunch of them. It was nice to play florist in my kitchen for a little while!

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The reception was a great success! Lauren and Alex are about to move to California (agh!) and I am really going to miss her friendship and talent with my unruly hair!!

These are just a few of the things I've been working on... stay tuned for more!


*Free marigolds - ha! Funny story and also the biggest waste of 10 minutes of my life! I was checking out and was asked if I wanted to donate to Vandy Childrens' Hospital. I said sure and the cashier told me that for donating, I got a free plant. She told me to show my receipt to the person outside and they would give me my free plant. I walked outside (mind you, this whole time I am pushing a cart full of stuff) and there was no one out there. There was, however, an employee corralling carts inside. I asked him if he knew who to ask about the free plants and he had no idea what I was talking about. (red flag #1!) He said to ask in customer service, so I pushed my cart back inside and stood in line at customer service. There was only one person behind the counter and the line was growing longer and longer. When it was finally my turn, she (surprise!) had no idea what I was talking about.

I suddenly felt like everyone thought I was trying to scam them into giving me a free plan. Just at that moment, an older British lady started asking a greeter about her free "plahnt." She said "The cashier told me I get a free plahnt!" So, I officially knew that I was not alone and was not pulling a scam. The customer service rep started calling people and trying to figure out what was going on, but in a tone that definitely still conveyed that she didn't really believe us.

A manager finally came around and told us that the free plants were the hanging baskets in the black pots. The British lady and I were like "Wow, a hanging basket? That's awesome!" (She probably said "brilliant" and not awesome.) We both hauled our carts back outside and the hanging baskets were $16 each. Neither of us felt very ethical taking a $16 plant for a $1 donation, so back inside we went to clarify. The manager said, "The $1 hanging baskets," and we assured him there were no $1 hanging baskets.

So, skeptical customer service rep came outside with us and led us to the little trays of flowers and said "These." They were neither $1 nor hanging, which is why we originally passed them up. I was so done with the whole ordeal that I just grabbed the first ones I saw, which happened to be these very cute french marigolds that are now, unfortunately, dying.

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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Brownie Love

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When we were home for Mother's Day, my mom gave me my grandmother's brownie camera. I love it! I see them at sales every now and then but haven't seen one with the flash... I think the flash adds so much personality!

It has found a really cute home in our house, but I haven't had a chance to take photos yet. I have to re-hang some artwork and grab some extra accessories and then I will be ready to reveal!

I have been really bad about blogging regularly - life has been pretty busy and isn't calming down anytime soon!

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Friday, May 18, 2012

Unconventional Shopping :)

You know I love a good deal and I love how easy it can be to find amazing deals online!

Van from ThriftCore has space in her local antique mall, but she also sells via her blog and Facebook! It's fun to follow her feed and see what she has for sale every day!

A few weeks ago, she posted a light that I thought would make a great gift for Andy! I like to buy gifts in advance but the problem is that I am my mother's child and I can NOT hold onto a gift once I have it... I have to give it right away!

So, the light came and I excitedly opened the box and presented Andy with the bubble-wrapped package and gave him what I intended to be his birthday present approximately 2.5 months early. :)

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It's so cool! He hung it up in his office right away. It lights up and looks great!

And I loved the note and drawing she included in the package!

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Be sure to check out ThriftCore for lots of tips on thrifting, antique booths, and fun DIYs!

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Updates and Celebrations!

I have been so behind on blogging! We have been so, so busy. Here are some recaps and updates from the past few weeks!

First, the kitchen is coming along- I still need to take final "after" photos but here is a sneak peek:


I am loving the new color and the nice, flat walls! And I love our new microwave cart!

Andy and I celebrated our first anniversary but I never had a chance to share what he got me! Following the first anniversary "paper" tradition, Andy had one of our favorite wedding photos printed on a puzzle!! How great is that??

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Here we are the night that we had a few friends over to watch Empire Strikes Back (I had never seen it!)

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And here's me with sweet Lucy:

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And here are the cookies that me, Sylvia, and her daughter Emmy decorated for Star Wars day... can you tell who they are?? I had no idea how to decorate them since I am definitely not a Star Wars aficionado!

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This weekend, Andy and I went to Louisville to celebrate mother's day with my mom. We visited one of my favorite places, Churchill Downs:

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It has been a very fun few weeks! May won't be slowing down as my 30th birthday is in exactly 2 weeks! AHHH!!!


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