Our Sunroom: From SUNNY yellow to coastal cool

We've arrived and I am so happy to have arrived in a nice freshly painted home!  Selecting colors from hundreds of miles away was no easy feat, but I was so pleased to arrive and be so happy with how the colors turned out.  Rich did a great job with the help of his dad and uncle in taking this house from dark green to coastal chic in a matter of days.  We have a few more rooms to do still but I wanted to share a bit of what he did while I was away to our sun room.


From our very first walk through in this house I knew the sun room was a really fantastic bonus to this house.  It had beautiful french doors, lots of open windows, but it also had one major issue.  It was very YELLOW.  Not peaceful calm yellow, more like sunflowers exploding everywhere yellow.  The previous owner had a very different style than us (as you can see with the sunflower curtains), but we knew at the time it was nothing a coat of paint couldn't fix.

To begin with, we knew we wanted a really cool and neutral color scheme with this house.  The previous owner was very fond of green and deep earth tones, so every room in the house was going to need fresh paint.  Being loyal to sea salt, I knew we'd be using Sherwin Williams Sea Salt in at least one room. We chose to use it in the sun room and bring it into the main living area off the sun room, since it was the focal point of our house's living area.  

Here are a few colors we tested for the sun room (notice the yellow underneath..yikes!)  The top left is Sea Salt, to the right is Jogging Path, and bottom right is Healing Aloe (Benjamin Moore).  We knew the darker Jogging Path didn't fit but we were having a hard time with the other two.  Sea Salt had a bit more green blue as a base, and Healing Aloe was more blue based. Since we have had success with Sea Salt in past, we decided that was the best bet.

So here was the before of the sun room window (with the previous owners "stuff"):

After: I think it opened up the room so much!

"The Pictures are Pretty but the Struggle is Real"

Ready for an article that's going to shake up your world? 


Thanks to the internet I stumbled upon my newest favorite article for this season of my life and I can't help but feel like it took my breath away.  You can read about it here: This is Real but I can take a wild bet and say you know exactly what it feels like to wonder if everyone else has figured it all out and has pretty little lives and you are the only one stuck in the rut of living this crazy life that has its pits and valleys. 

It's no shocker to anyone who knows me that the last month or so has been a bit of a valley.  Preparing for a move, leaving our friends, leaving a job I love, unemployment lurking, closing a house with way too many snafus, leaving a community.  It hit me this year.  In a world of pretty instagram pictures and facebook posts, there was a lot of bleh that was underneath a lot of my pretty images of happiness.  And I am ready for 2016 to usher those away! 

Many folks have mentioned to me how nice it was that we were given 4 months to plan for this move.  In more than enough ways they are right.  We were able to find a house, start looking for jobs, eat out at all our favorites places, enjoy this city that we love.  And we did that, it is actually what inspired this little blog hole of ours.  I wanted to document all the pretty pictures of this time, in this city, in this stage. But another challenge with having 4 months to prepare to leave, is there is this weird feeling of emotional and physical distance you begin to create.   You can't really advance much in your work place because you are leaving, you struggle to dig deeper with friends because you know its sorta weirdly temporary.  I struggled in how to get involved in the community, I had to turn down opportunities I may have jumped at if I knew we'd be here longer.  It was really....weird. 

But meanwhile, admist the muck of coming and going I had been dealing with the "stuff" of this move, and for the purposes of this post, I will call it what it is: sadness.  Here is a little bit of what I mean when I give you some contexts of these photos:

What You Saw: I had the chance to teach my middle neice a tennis lesson-a dream come true!  She did really great for a beginner and we had a really fun time together.

What I didn't share: When we got back to the house, she asked me if I could come back on the weekend and do it again.  SOUL CRUSHED.  Moments like that make me realize how sad it is that we are so far from our family, and likely will be until our time in the military is over.  It's tough not having any control of the when and where's of our careers and thus our life.  By the time we are able to move back home, this little gal will be 15.  I am going to guess she won't want me to play tennis with her much anymore. 

What You Saw:  Here is our crazy rush to get everything organized as we leave.  It was REALLY productive.

What I Didn't Share: This was our last Saturday in the city.  We spent it packing up..and that was really sad and totally contrary to what I wanted this blog to be about: living up our last months here. 

What You Saw:  A funny story about Ellie saying "I made my family disappear"

What I Didn't Share: I couldn't bare to take our crappy 13 dollar Target tree down.  It is a fake tree...we've never had fake trees, but this first Christmas, it was the only option if we wanted to celebrate.  This picture makes me sad!


So there is my#thisisREAL.  I am SO looking forward to replacing some sad memories with photos of our new house (closing TODAY!!!!)

Owning our low key low country last days

Well, I am just going to quickly #ownit.  We did not have the most glamorous weekend, but I guess you can only expect so much from a weekend when you have SO much going on and so little time to do it.  I absolutely under estimated how much we had to do to get ready for the packers to come today and pack up our stuff.  Preparing for so much at once as left me wondering exactly what we forgot to do or what we forgot to pack. So, that being said, it wasn't a glamorous last weekend in our lovely low country, but we got the job done and we are closer to making this next step happen and being...HOMEOWNERS.

Here is a quick recap:

FRIDAY:  We had a lot of things to settle up on base and thankfully we got it done without much issue (as far as we know).  It also gave me a chance to say goodbye to C-17s!

SATURDAY: We ate at our favorite Mt Pleasant pizza joint Steel City.  We are SO going to miss this place and even though there are so many good pizza places we've found in Charleston, this one is pretty fantastic for us and was in our backyard for a few years.

Our awesome wedding photographer sent us this ornament for our tree. Even better, it arrived just 24 hours shy of our 6 months anniversary.  How it has been six months...I have no clue!

SUNDAY: With the exception of a quick church service and driving around looking at the luminaries, our Sunday looked exactly like this...all day....long!  Did I mention we have a LOT to do this week?!

December Goals

November Goals Revisited:

Pick out paint colors for our new house: DONE!! To be revealed soon!  But I am so so so excited for what we put together! 

Order and address our Christmas Cards: DONE!!  (Also, this was my goal for all of 2015...so I basically nailed this!)  Thanks to a few really clutch additions to my calligraphy arsenal : These pens made the dream come true!  I also bought some black envelopes rather than use the ones that Vista print sent us with our cards this year. 

Make a New Dish for Thanksgiving:  DONE!! Given that we have never really done roasted veggies in this way, I am going to consider our Thanksgiving addition to mean that this goal was accomplished.  



December Goals: 

Purge our Stuff!  I am reading the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and it is making me re-evaluate our junk in the trunk.  With our move on the horizon, there is no need to be transporting stuff we haven't touched since we moved in April.

Make Room for Advent:  Since our Christmas is looking a bit different, I decided this was the perfect chance to really make room for celebrating the meaning of Christmas!  My small group ended the year with a great speaker about making room for advent and little ways we can use this season to grow and deepen in our faith.  The devotion the church gave out is a great way to make this room daily.

Bake Cookies: Pretty self explanatory on this one!  It's Christmas!  Time to indulge in homemade cookies!

 I can't get over how well done the decorations are at church this year!  I hope I can get a picture of the outside with the Woody van and a Christmas tree on top!  It absolutely put me in the spirit this past "First Wednesday".

Keeping it REAL (or fake)!

Life is teaching me a lot about expectations in the year of 2015.  I am learning I am a bit of the expectation queen, even when I don't realize I am!  I thought I was pretty low key about most things, but as it turns out, I have these lovely latent expectations and they sure are getting challenged.

Oh you think you are getting settled do you? Move to Virginia expectantly.

Oh you think you will have a holiday that looks just like what your head thinks it should look like?  Move to Virginia during the holidays.

Oh, you think the house hunt will be easy?  You have old pipes and a way too old roof!

Oh you love your job?  Time to find a new one!

All kidding aside, what a learning lesson the last few months have been on grace and just going with the flow!  That being said, we have done something I never expected: we now own a fake tree.  With the thought of moving and celebrating Christmas, I wasn't sure if we'd be getting a tree at all, so against my common sense judgement I jumped at the chance to buy this fake tree from Target and get it assembled in our house for the last few days of our tenancy.  We will transplant it from this living room to the one in Virginia. It may be the only piece of "furniture" we have in that new house for a few days.   But, it will be beautiful and blessed. And we will truly FAKE it till we make it. 

So there you have it, this is how we will trim the tree and our house in the last few days we have in Charleston, grace-filled.

Thanksgiving Holiday Recap

 

Vest (Similar in plaid)

Now that I am finally done being stuffed full of turkey and resorting back to normal meal portions, I am going to document our first married Thanksgiving!  We are VERY lucky to have family that lives in the same state, and pretty close geographically to one another, so for as long as this remains, our holidays will be a bit easier than most married couples.  Here is a quick look at how we spent our first married Thanksgiving being thankful for ALL we have and all the folks who have blessed us.  

 I'm not sure if this counts as part of my last November goal but Rich and I did manage to make roasted vegetables to have as part of my family's Thanksgiving lunch.  Other than our youngest niece, the veggies were a hit. 

 Our precious little niece was none too pleased with her dad's turkey carving noises. 

 The most spirited of little turkeys this Thanksgiving at the kids table.

 

 After Thanksgiving lunch with my parents we headed to celebrate with Rich's family in Raleigh!  The food and company must have been too yummy because this is the only shot I got from that dinner celebration but the table was gorgeous!

 Black Friday took a different spin this year since we ended up at Lowes buying a few things we need for our new house.  See that ladder right there? That's the ladder that's going to help the menfolk paint our new house in less than two weeks! 

 The grandkiddos put on a Christmas play, complete with costumes.  Afterwards they grabbed all their suitcases and coats and said the play was so good they are going to Hollywood. Imagination is a real thing in elementary school y'all. 

Mark me at the very top of the list of people excited my middle niece has shown an interest in the sport of tennis.  I got to hang out with her and teach her a few things. 

 Saturday meant I got to spend some time watching my Deacs take on my Duke fellas in a bit of football.  Duke won but it was a great game till the end.  Also, you couldn't beat the weather for late November in North Carolina. 

 Most importantly I got to see my best best friend and her sweet baby boy.  We haven't seen him since he was 6 weeks old on our honeymoon so it was great to see all of them. 

But there is no questioning who enjoyed the holiday season the MOST.  This little lady just loves playing ball in her poppy's backyard.  She also doesn't hate the crunch of real fall leaves underneath her either.  She rolled in the grass for hours, tail wagging. 

A Whole Lotta Thankful

 It's Thanksgiving 2015 and my cup overflows!   We've taken some time this Thanksgiving to close our day with the thing we are thankful for that day.  Here's to a great week with the ones we love remember all we have been blessed with...immeasurably. 

• My husband!  2015 is the year we got married  and what a year it was.  I am thankful!

• Our new house that we are so close to closing and calling ours.
• The cutest dogs who live in my house and we are lucky enough to get to play with and cuddle with.
• Our church for doing so many amazing things in our community, our world, and my heart.
• I can't believe I have the family I have.  I am not sure how I could've struck it anymore rich with these folks.
• My friends for whom I am so blessed by and with.
• Our freedom as a country and for all the people and families who have protected it over the years.  We are lucky to live in a country where we can do things freely, despite what the news wants us to believe.
• I have had the best two years at my current job.  It kills me to have to leave it.  This job was an awesome life blessing and I am so thankful.
• Living in Charleston for these last two years
• The celebration of advent and Christmas and all things wonderful this time of year! 
• Pajamas and matching family pajamas. 
• RUGS USA 80% off sale (I am thankful for this because it is no doubt my favorite sale of the year) and you best believe Santa mom was ALL over that.  
• Our church's new Christmas CD that is officially my hostess gift this Thanksgiving season. 

I Quit: On Giving Up and Gaining Margin

Image: Naptime Diaries

I feel a lot of different very personal reasons for writing this blog post.  Many of them originate from years of trying to reach a certain level of perfection, my own insecruities, or the burning desire all women seem to have to maintain the illision of being able to do it all.

My small group and I just completed a life alterting 6 week series on The Best Yes.  I've spent much of the last few months marinating, praying, struggling, and worrying what this means for my life.  I've always loved being busy and overwhlemed.  I've worked jobs that make sure my work responbilities bleed well past 5pm and I always find a way to fill my calendar up and leave no margin for much else.  The free seconds I do have I find myself wasting away on my iphone or endless, fruitless internet scrolling that leads my overwhelmed soul to no relief. 

I've pinterested to my hearts content worrying about our new house and making it fit all the ideals I have in my head.  I've dreamt about what our first married Christmas would look like only to come to the realization with this move it won't look a thing like that (and that's ok).  Of the crime of too high expectations for certain superficial areas of my life, I am guilty as charged.

But I am taking myself out of the running.  I quit.

This quitting will be the biggest gift I can give myself.  I quit trying to make it perfect, or beautiful, or yummy, or measure up to someone else.  I quit worrying myself over things that don't matter.

I am taking myself out of the running.  I'm going to let someone else run the race of perfection, as fleeting and impossible at this race is.  No one has won yet as far as I am concerned and I am not going to bear myself the burden of trying to win anymore. 


This Novemeber and Thanksgiving season, I've very intentionally tried to make room for peace, leave margin for retreat and reflection.  At night we've been sharing the things of which we are thankful for this year, the Lord knows my heart, there are an abundance of blessings given to us in 2015.  One of my biggest blessings is giving up. 

Birthday Week Adventures: Savannah

My Birthday celebration lasted three day this year thanks to my awesome husband who attempted to keep the party rolling well past my actual day.  Unfortunately I got a pretty nasty bug and wasn't able to celebrate much more than two days.  Nevertheless we got to celebrate my birthday with my favorite things: food and adventure!

 

 My birthday dinner was at Fish House this year which is the same restaurant that has been the backdrop of a few great celebrations for us in Charleston, namely where we celebrated Rich coming home from overseas, our engagement, and now my birthday!  They have my favorite shrimp and grits recipe in all of Charleston.

For dessert we were served the most delicious molten chocolate cake to share. Chocolate is a food group for me.

 After dinner we partook in my most favorite activities these days, binge watching our new favorite show Parenthood in our pajamas.  This is 31 y'all...

 

We were supposed to go our with friends  Friday to celebrate my birthday but unfortunately I was way too sick to go out. We stayed in Friday night watching the news on the awful Paris attacks.

 Saturday took us on a bucket list item of a day trip to Savannah. We had a perfect day to go visit, great weather, and a wonderful chance to just walk around and see the city.  We loved all the little parks and squares and walking around into little stores.  While we enjoyed the city, we still vote Charleston as our #1 Low country City, but we may be a bit biased.

31 Life Lessons for 31

I can't believe I am 31!  Did you know 80% of your life's most transformative experiences happen by the age of 30, most of which we don't realize are as transformative as they are at the time!  I've been lucky to do a lot of neat things in my 31 years: play sports, have an amazing family, gain an education and a Masters Degree, work a number of fulfilling jobs, make mistakes, study abroad, fall in love, get my heart broken, get married, own a dog, travel for pleasure, travel for work, move 9 times, own a house (soon!), make best friends, see every musciain I've ever dreamed of seeing in concert, meet famous people, attend weddings, funerals, welcomed nieces and nephews, sister in laws, and extended family.  All of these life events have had profound impact on making me who I am today and I am a firm believe that you learn as much from failure and heartbreak as you do success.  For as long as as shall live I will be a firm believer in Ephesians 3:20, God can do immeasurably more than we can ever ask or imagine......and I have been abundantly blessed by Him!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

31 Life Lessons by 31:

1.  Find a job that brings you great happiness.  You'll spend more time at work and with your work peers than many of your friends and your family.

2.  It's never too late to learn new hobbies and explore new interests. 

3. The things you enjoy in childhood often can be the same things you enjoy as you get older.  You may even like them more (I'm talking to you Disney movies and great 90's music!)

4.  Your friends can be as close as family.  It is worth going through hard times with your friends because it will strengthen your love for them.

5.   Getting a dog in your twenties can be a great choice, assuming you are ready for the commitment and yes, sacrifice.

6.  Learn to write a good thank you note.  Thanks Mom.

7. Learn the importance of sticking up for yourself, but make sure you do so in a tactful and well thought-out manner. Thanks Dad.

8.  You can learn a lot about forgiveness from your dog.  She's never held any of my failures and mistakes against me and loves me all the same.

9.  Having great older brothers taught me what a real man looks like, even if it meant I had a rough few years in childhood! 

10.  Music can heal your heart! 

11.  Life will take you places you never thought you'd go, but its never by accident.

12.  Drink 64 oz of water a day.....your skin and your body will thank you!

13. Always make time for exercise, even its a 30 minute walk around at lunch.  Getting in shape is much harder than staying in shape...

14.  Along those lines, marathon training is a full time job.  Tackle this only with that knowledge. There is a reason so few people do it!  Know it will take a toll on your body-is it worth the risk?

15.  It's never to late to learn to eat a food you hated for the first 30 years...(I'm talking to you tomatoes!)

16.  As you get older it will be harder and harder to maintain your friendships.  Fight for them, make time for them, and prioritize the people you love the most!

17.  Know your weaknesses....

18.  Utilize your strengths.  Both professionally and personally. 

19.  When you say "yes" to something, you are inherently saying "no" to something else, make sure its something you are willing to say no to.  (Thanks The Best Yes study!)

20.  Invest in some really great sheets.  You'll feel like you are sleeping in a luxe hotel each night when you crawl in bed.

21.  There will be places you travel that you may not like at the time but would give anything to go back to years later.  Treasure every experience.

22.  If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.  God gave you a "gut feeling" for a reason, follow that instinct.

23.  It is better to be a good listener than a good talker.  This world needs better listeners.

24.  Just because you have a thought, doesn't mean you have to think it!  (Thanks Max Lucado)

25.  Take Vitamins. Daily. 

26.  Making your bed each day is one way to begin the day being productive.  Try to do it everyday!

27.  Comparing yourself to others will only make you insecure. 

28.  Kindness begets kindness.  When you put kindness out into the world, you will have kindness surround you.  There is no sense in being grumpy each day.

29.  Know why items and purchases you can get at a lower cost, and which you need to splurge on.  This will save you thousands in the end. 

30.  Protect your heart.  There are billions of people in this world.  You will find love again!

31.  If some one shows you who they are, believe them. All credit to Maya Angelou on this mantra, but its never lead me wrong.