Five on Friday

This week's five on Friday is a bit holiday inspired.  With all the stores bring out their holiday goodies, I can't help myself but fall in love with so awesome home goods for the holidays.  Take it away:


ONE: DIY Chick-Fil-A Sandwiches


Leave it up to my better half to find a way to make homemade chick fil-a sandwiches.  This yummy treat was the perfect dinner night in and gave us a taste of familiarity.  He even made it spicy how I like it!  You can find the recipe here:

TWO: Christmas Card Design

I'll admit I have been scheming Christmas card designs ever since we got back our wedding photos.  I cannot help but love sending and receiving these seasonal cards.  One of my favorites is this simple design from Shutterfly, who just so happens to be offering 30% off with the code: BOOYEAH

THREE: Pottery Barn Stocking Holders

 I don't know if its too early to be lusting Christmas decor the way I am, but these Pottery Barn stocking holders seem to be an awesome fit for our PB stockings we got last Christmas from my parents.  I love the thought of adding more reindeer across the mantel which is a bit better than using the "Joy" "Love" "Peace" stocking hanger options.

Four: Comfy Pajama Season

 The weather is getting cooler and the pajamas are getting comfier!  I don't know about you but receiving PJs for the holidays is one of my favorite gifts.  I love this cute style from Old Navy right now. but nothing tops my doggie pajamas I was given this past year!

Five:  Happy HOWL-o-WEEN

May you never forget the true meaning of Halloween is the ability to dress you dog up in ridiculous costumes without their consent.  Happy Trick or Treating to your pack-whether they be children or furry children.

Linking up with A. Liz Adventures for this week's Five on Friday:

Weekend Recap

It's Monday already?  I'm not sure how that happened so fast. October weather in Charleston is certainly making up for the disaster that was September rain.  We had another weekend of beautiful skies and temperatures.  I am scared for the temps to dip any lower than they are now.  My southern blood cannot always handle anything below 60.  

Our weekend was relatively calm.  Rich and I met thanks to the Cooper Bridge Run almost three years ago but since that day we have yet to run a race together so a few weeks ago we decided to sign up for the James Island Connector Run since we are missing the fateful Cooper Run this year due to our move.  Despite it being a 5k, it was tough!  The fact that I didn't train and the course had 3 hills really threw this retired runner for a loop.  But, the course was beautiful and it's always fun to get out of bed early and get some Saturday morning exercise in.

 

Following our 5k, it was only right we indulge in some French delicacies in a new French bakery we've heard so much about.  If you remember, we were supposed to be in Paris and London this week, so getting to taste some delicious French pastries was just the treat we needed.

That night we went over to Daniel Island for the island's annual Pumpkin Walk.  All the neighborhoods on the island get together and carve pumpkins all afternoon and then display them in the park lit up and with luminaries for folks to stroll through.  Despite it being a warm night, it certainly made Halloween feel so soon and so real.  I LOVE the magic of Halloween, even as an adult.  I remember how exciting trick or treating was and I am so hoping we get some at our house this Saturday.  

 

What a cute little Curious George.  It's hard to see but he even has the ears on the side.

Sunday was my traditional church time.  I got one of my favorite seats at church right next to the candles.  

 

Sunday night we had some Wake Forest friends visiting Charleston.  We had an awesome time taking them to one of our favorite spots off the peninsula, Crave, laughing and catching up.  I love living in a town where folks come through for visits or vacations!

So that was about it for this low country weekend, what all were you guys up to?

 

What I wish I Had Known Before I Planned My Own Wedding

Tip 1: Anything can be found cheaper if you are willing to put some effort into finding it.

 See that veil? I rented it for 25 dollars. 

I don't profess to being an expert DIY-er, but one thing I do know, is how to wait for or find a good deal.  People who buy full price clothes? I don't get you.  My philosophy has always been to wait on an item to go on sale.  This is no different with wedding planning.  Find a great veil in the expensive store?  Surely you can locate one very similar on a number of places like Etsy or Rent the Runway.  Don't buy something at an elevate price for convenience.  If you are wanting to watch your pennies, spend some hard earned Google time in trying to find a suitable alternative. Love a certain designer?  Try to find a dress that is a sample and call around until you can find it.  And my most favorite wedding planning take away is Netbride.  I was able to find the bridesmaids dresses I wanted at a FRACTION of the price the stores quoted me for the same dress.  All it required of me was more leg work and I saved my girls about 150 dollars. 



Tip 2: Bridal Shows and bridal magazines are a waste of your time and money.


As a newly engaged fiance I was really excited to pour into bridal magazines dreaming of our perfect day.  What those bridal magazines need on the front is a huge label with the price tags of all those high end items to warn wide-eyed brides.  While I was able to get a lot of great ideas from those magazines, it also caused a lot of heartache realizing some of those things I loved and lusted after, were well beyond my price range.  I had a few moments where I wondered if I would ever find the type of decor that fit my tastes and the price I wanted to stay within.  In retrospect, I wish I had steered clear of getting my heart set on any of those magazines or bridal shows.

Tip 3: Photographers blogs are a great source of inspiration

 Not quite beauty magazine material but this candid shot is one of my favorite's of the day.

I had the most fun trying to decide on a wedding photographer because it meant I got to look through pictures of REAL weddings from REAL folks.  Unlike the magazines that often are staged inspiration shoots, the photo blogs of my favorite local photographers had real vendors I could use in my own area.   Once I shifted my attention away from the pretend to the tangible my imagination and my productivity flourished. 

Tip 4: Clarity is key.  Clarify expectations at the beginning.

Everyone needs a few good ladies who are willing to go up your dress for you. Right?

As a bride and groom you have a lot of latent expectations.  For yourself, your family, your friends, society.  Not getting an idea if these expectations are fair is a fertile ground for some major disappointment.  So many brides expect a certain thing from their loved ones and never share those expectations only to become disappointed when they are not met.  Sharing your expectations in a loving way also gives those close to you a chance to let you know if they cannot meet those expectations and everyone benefits! 

Tip 5: It's only as hard as you make it. 

 Not really the face of someone pleased with his first bite.  But we embrace the imperfection around here. 

In our society you hear a lot about how stressful and hard a wedding is. You won't hear much disagreement from this former bride on that one.  Weddings are a breeding ground of emotion, expectation, stress, family, and cost.  But just like anything, it is only as hard as you make it.  Share the load, outsource, lessen your expectation of "perfect" and make it "perfect for you".  At the end of the day, the only folks that need to be pleased with your wedding are you and your new spouse. After all, it is the day you will remember the rest of your life!  Chances are your friends, family may not give many after thoughts to your wedding. I would strongly encourage you to "take yourself out of the running" for perfect wedding.  You will be so glad you did. 

The Neighborhood Challenge

Take a second.  Think.  Can you name the first names of the 8 houses surrounding you?  Or the 8 neighbors who live on your apartment floor nearest to you?  Or the names of those folks in the townhouse community you currently live in?  Folks who literally wake up, raise their families, eat their meals, talk about their "life stuff", and fall asleep within feet of you.  No?  Then you are like me, getting smacked HARD by the Neighborhood Challenge.



My church just wrapped up a four week series called "Like A Good Neighborhood" that sought to take the great commandment seriously.  Love God, love your neighbor.  Your literal neighbor.  And loving your neighbor begins with learning their name.  

That's where this handy neighborhood block comes in.  How many neighbors do you know?  Could you fill in the boxes in this block with ease?

  
If you are anything like me when I started this series, I knew the names of two houses near me and vague ideas about the folks nearest to us ("He drives a Ford,"  "They have a young child.").  What would it be like if you took the time to ask your neighbor their name?  What if you came inside and wrote it down on this block and began retaining it?  Suddenly your neighbor becomes your acquaintance, and maybe a relationship in your life. 

So your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is print off the neighborhood grid, or make your own, place it on your fridge, and house by house, identify and retain your neighbors names.  Take the first steps in getting to know their unique story. 

Want to learn more about the Art of Neighboring: click here. 

Five On Friday

It's Friday!  Thank heavens for a weekend of rest.  In celebration of our new (to us) house we are finally under contract on, I'm going to make this week's Five on Friday house lusting themed.  Here are 5 things on my wish list for our new digs:

One:  Rugs USA Rug for our living room.

Rugs USA Rug

A nice new cozy rug is the first thing our new living room is missing.  We've got some big leather sofas in our space, so I think this light and airy cream rug would soften the room up a little bit and bring some warmth to our hardwood floors.  Also, RUGS USA is always running great 70% off 
deals.  

Two: Outdoor Patio Dinning Table

Our new house has a great back deck.  If you know much about me and my husband, we love sitting outside and enjoying the afternoon and evening.   If Santa had some extra money lying around in his sleigh, I would absolutely be scooping up this new outdoor patio set for some Virginia dinner parties chez nous!  What do you think?

Three: Fancy Living Room Lighting

 

Lowes Orb Light

I'm guilty of falling for this lighting trend.  The orb lighting is just what our living room needs to give it a touch of modern elegance.

Four: Banquette in the kitchen

Our kitchen has a bit of an odd corner space that would perfectly lend itself to a banquette.  I can absolutely see us here for breakfast and dessert time.  We've looked into it and I don't think it'd be hard to put in ourselves. I LOVE this light.

Five:  Patio flowers against the wall

Our backyard and the back of our house would look perfect with some beautiful lattice and vines.  It would suit the colonial feel of our house and bring some gorgeous beauty to our outdoor space. 

Everything You Need To Know About Planning a Friend's Get Away

As I talked about yesterday, Rich and I just got back from a weekend away with our friends for a nice friend's reunion out of town.  Finding time for a friend's reunion is really difficult.  I wanted to pass along my tips for organizing a successful friends get away.



1) Start EARLY:
People's calendar's fill up very quickly in this season of life.  Birthdays, babies, weddings, and vacation days keep our schedules overbooked and our spirit overwhelmed.  Send out an email to all your friends who you'd think would be interested with multiple date options.  Have folks use something like surveymonkey.com to indicate which dates they prefer.  It is important to know you won't please everyone, so go with the date that works for the MOST people.

2.) Vacation Rental By Owner (VRBO)
I know a lot of folks are fans of Air B and B, but I've had great success with VRBO.  You are able to see the cabin's calendar and book well in advance.  The site is easy to navigate.  I wanted to appeal to the masses so I sent out 3 options for our friends to vote for and booked the most popular cabin.  My cabin essentials were a fire pit, hot tub, hiking trials, and driving location for folks.  Our cabin came fully equipped with linens which is not always the case, so check for that.

3.) Plan for meals:
My largest goal was to keep the trip cost friendly.  It was important we could do most of our eating and cooking at the cabin and all chip in.  This is where Google Docs is your best friend!  I set up a document that listed every item of food we would need and each of the 9 folks could sign up to bring what they wanted from the list.  For dinner we divided into two dinner teams and the groups coordinated their own meal so I wouldn't have to do that.

4.) Communicate:
Like it or not, as the organizer of the weekend it is also your job to be sure everyone is on the same page.  Be sure each person has directions, cell phone numbers, and a good idea of what they need to bring.

5.)  Enjoy:
Take a moment to enjoy that you are surrounded by friends from all over.  These moments are fleeting and time is precious.  If you get overwhelmed, delegate a task and share the load with someone in the group. 

First Annual Fall Flannel Friends Fest

Maybe I am extreme, but each passing year I miss my college friends a whole heck of a lot more.  Maybe it is that we are all getting older, moving around the country, getting married, having babies, and buying houses, but I long (desperately sometimes) for the days when we could all be a quick walk across the Quad from one another.  Friendship in adulthood takes intentionality so it was my hope I could organize a nice mountain weekend for us all to enjoy fall in the North Carolina mountains.  

Lo and behold, 9 friends were able to join up for 4 days of fun and flannel and fall and food (so many F's).  Also, of note, board games absolutely get more fun with age. Here are a few of my favorite moments from a weekend with my favorite friends:

 

 Is the Belle from Beauty and the Beast or Kristen?  Hard to tell from that awesome light holding!

 

 Wait, did someone say hot tub on deck overlooking the mountains?  Yes please!

 We didn't have enough dry firewood to make the fire pit successful, but we were able to get 'smores going in the fireplace inside.  (chemicals included!)

 

 Rise and shine with some cinnamon apple toppings for our Saturday morning pancake breakfast. 

 Fellowship y'all.  This is what life is about.  Saturday morning with my people all around one table. 

 Our house was surrounded by some hiking trails.  Word is there was a bear there a few days later.

 This weather was actually my favorite day. The clouds were all around us creating this beautiful mist in the valleys.

 If you haven't played the game of Quelf, you may be a bit confused by all these upcoming photos. If you haven't played Quelf, I can say that is your next addition to your holiday/birthday present list!  Hilarious game.

Fabulous fall leaves in Blowing Rock, NC for the day.  

Our cabin escape for the weekend-YES y'all, God is GOOD.

The Great House Search Flood

Water, water, water! The month of September brought new meaning to the phrase "It's raining, it's pouring."  Our town in Charleston alone received 26 inches of rain in a span of a few days.  Neighborhoods are flooded and schools were closed.  Never in my life have I seen so much rain.


We spent most of the great flood in Norfolk, where we ALSO were suffering a great flood.  You want to know stress?  Stress is driving around a city you don't know in a 1000 year flood trying to buy a house and interview for jobs.  It was....stressful.  But, praises, we had a good trip and felt a bit better about calling this part of the world home.    


Back in Charleston the flooding has mostly dried up and we are counting ourselves lucky as some of the few who did not have any flood damage. 


 
 
After two days of travel, we finally made it!

 
 
 
This is the river is one of the neighborhoods we were seriously looking. Nothing tests your flood insurance like buying a home in a major flood.  And yes, if you look closely, those are street lights indicating that is a ROAD! (what?!)

 

 That little speck is a duck who was floating in this house's front yard.


 The pier is under there somewhere...did I mention this (may) be our new neighborhood?


We stayed in a base hotel and made the most of this historical flood.  Here is the summation of our trip: pizza on an ironing board while watching countless hours of CNN and local tv.

October Goals: Better Late Than Never!

A historical flood, buying our first home, and general life travels has got me considerably behind on updating and setting my October goals.  So if I may, here it goes, one week late.   But first, a recap of my September goals:

September Goals Revisted:

1. Book our trip to Virginia: DONE! Not only was this booked, we were able to complete our visit to Virginia and come back under contract on our first home.  Now, when I set this goal, I had no way of knowing we would be buying this house and traveling back to SC all under the struggle of a historical flooding event and a possible hurricane, so I can emphatically pronounce this goal achieved! 

2. Enjoy our porch:  DONE! We had the rainiest September and an ugly start to fall, but I was pleased with how often we were able to eat in our porch or just enjoy our porch.  Thankfully our new house has a back deck, so I don't have to fear as much losing this slice of backyard heaven, but we absolutely made the most of our fall nights on our current porch.     

 

3. Find more hairstyles: DONE!  I played with my hair all month and ended the month dying it...so I can say I achived this goal pretty well for the month.


4. Find quiet time: WORK IN PROGRESS:  I did the best I could.  I will continue to work on this-this may be a lifetime goal really, not just a monthly goal.  We also had one of the busiest months I can remember, so the fact that I can say I did this even to the smallest degree I shall count a success.

October Goals:

1.  Take a Hike:  We are headed to the mountains with a friends-giving of sorts (9 friends, in the mountains, from three states, this is a win for friendship everywhere y'all)  I want to "take a hike" in the mountains and see first hand the beauty of fall. 

2.  Throw things away/donate things we don't need:  We will have moved twice within the last year and even though I felt like we threw so much away and donated a ton to GoodWill, we still have so much stuff.  Our new house doesn't have as much storage so if it doesn't fit in our current house, no chance it is going to fit in the new digs.  It's time to minimize so I can maximize my happiness!  Things are just things.

3.  Do something scary: It's Halloween!  I want to do something scary.  Maybe its a Haunted House, a corn maze, or trying to tackle our wedding photos in an album.  I want to do something that scares me.  And no, taking the dogs out at night during snake season is not on the table as an option.

Kelly's Baby Shower

A few weekends ago my mom and I hosted a Sunday afternoon baby shower for my friend Kelly.  Kelly is expecting her first baby (a girl!) in a few months, and since I was in town for homecoming, we wanted to shower this new little love with lots of extra love!  Here are some snaps from the shower to share:

 

Sunday afternoon showers call for mimosas to sip.

Printables for showers are all over the internet.  I found this one in lieu of a baby shower game and it was very fun to share our wishes for the baby as Kelly opened gifts.  You can find this one and more here!

 

The very colorful loot.  This baby girl is pampered already.

 

Future Grandmothers and Aunts!