baby steps-home office

This was my home office/our guest room at approximately 2:30 yesterday afternoon:

Scary. I know.

What's even worse is that this is an improvement from where it was. I've slowly been pecking away at the clutter, trash and random items that end up in this room. This is that room that you throw anything into that you don't have time to put up, or you don't know where to put it, then shut the door and never look back. Y'all know what I'm talking about?

It's about time it got organized once and for all and so I attacked it with a vengeance yesterday! One problem was a need for paper organizers since my sweet parson's desk only has one little drawer. I found one storage box I liked but I'm still on the hunt for a paper organizer. However, I also knew I wanted a bulletin board with a decent frame around it to hang near the desk too. After a shopping trip to Target and Marshall's last weekend I felt ready to start on the office.

Here is what I ended up with:

The box...I know. It's on it's way to Goodwill ;)

Love the black laquered box from Marshalls. I told y'all I was falling for geometric designs.

Hello inspiration wall!

Ugly, yes, but the dart board stays. It is good stress relief, helps with creativity ruts and is fun for the Mister and I to play on!

For all the magazines I just can't part with separated into categories: design, cooking, Christmas, inspiration. I still have two huge boxes to unpack and separate into these.

Aren't these little love birds darling?

One last look.

This, along with the rest of my house is coming along in baby steps. I'm dying to paint, add shelves, and window treatments but we're in a rental that we are looking at leaving in the next 6 months. I love our townhouse, no complaints, other than it's a rental and we are looking to buy. 

The moral of the story is: don't think you have to do a complete room makeover and end up with something in Elle Decor for it to be worth your time! Just the little bit I did in here has been making me smile from ear to ear since I completed it yesterday afternoon. There are more baby steps to be made until I am gaga over it, and this room is the furthest thing from magazine {or even blog-land} beautiful. But for now, I am quite satisfied because it is neat and functional.

What room are you making baby steps on?

 

Falling for geometric designs.

The more I look at design magazines, all of your lovely blogs and just peruse stores and catalogs I am slowly leaning more towards geometric designs. Which was a little crazy to me at first because I thought "I am not that kind of girl and I don't want a home like that." But I have come to realize I don't have to have a house full of the stuff, but just hints of it here and there make a big difference! Just check out all the ways these designs are being used!

Chairs.

Mirrors.

I'm particularly gaga over this trellis pattern!

Window treatments.

Aren't these fabrics beautiful?

Rugs.

LOVE this mirror probably because I just bought two almost identical to this last week.

Do you see that mirror and the ribbon-trimmed lamp shades in Emily's home office? To.die.for.

That last picture is from Emily A. Clark's home office, an interior designer from Charlotte, NC {woo woo for Carolina girls!} who has really helped me see how to work in these geometric patterns without turning my house into a stark modern concrete box with a rug. If y'all haven't checked her out, you'll only have to once and then you'll be hooked like me.

Also, something really, totally, wonderfully amazing happened to me yesterday....I actually won something! I always enter stuff but never win. It must have been the luck of the Irish or something because Miss Melanie from Pretties and Posies had this fabulous giveaway for a pair of Hunter Wellies and I still can't believe it...I won! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Melanie for being SO generous and congratulations on 3 successful years blogging and sharing so much inspiration with me and many others! 

I'll leave you with a picture of the Hunter Wellies that I am SO looking forward to receiving in the mail. I told Melanie I would like the yellow ones so I could look like the Morton Salt girl...haha I kid, I kid ;)

They're making me happy already.

Tattoos

As promised here are the pictures of our tattoos.

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?"

-Matthew 6:25-27 

This one is mine, it is on the small of my back, right above my jeans as you can see. I wanted it on my hip, but considering I don't have children yet and I've seen some crazy stretched out tattoos from pregnancies before, I decided to wait on any hip tattoos for a while.

I've been sure for a while now that I wanted a bird tattoo as a reminder of God's providence in my life. The past two years, before we moved to Wilson were some of the hardest...no, they were the hardest years of our marriage. Praise God that through it, we clung closer together rather than pushing each other away so even though the circumstances around us were awful we always had a strong marriage in the midst of it all. Almost every day I would look outside, find a bird and say to myself "God is providing for that little bird, He will provide for us too! He loves us more than the birds and if I can watch that bird find food then I know my needs will be met as well." Thinking of that verse from Matthew 6 helped me hold strong to my faith on days when I just cried and cried. Now it is such a happy image to me because God DID provide, everything we needed He provided! Praise the Lord!

And Daniel got the crest of the McIntosh Clan of Scotland since his ancestors came from Scotland:

His says "TOUCH NOT THE CAT BOT A GLOVE". I guess "bot" is Scottish-speak for "without". The McIntosh Clan were known as the king's fiercest warriors-you didn't mess with these guys. Daniel has always loved learning about his Scottish ancestry and just last year his cousin traced back his relatives and found out that his great grandparents were the ones to come from Scotland, which I think is neat that his family isn't so far removed from their roots unlike some who have been here for 10 generations or something like that. Anyways, I'm sure a trip to Scotland is in our lifetime at some point.


We had a great time getting tattooed together and these are such great memories. What about you guys...got any permanent ink to share?

Savannah Vacation

Disclaimer: This is a very long post, but has lots of beautiful pictures!

In case you missed my post prior to my birthday on February 25, I explained how my awesome husband planned, and surprised me with a weekend trip to Savannah, Georgia for my birthday. Yes, I know, I am very blessed. Our trip was amazing, and what we agreed as the best vacation we have ever taken together. We literally fell.in.love. with Savannah!!

We arrived Thursday evening at the East Bay Inn, checked in and immediately set out for some dinner on foot {one of the best things about Savannah is we walked everywhere!}. 

Churchill's was recommended to us as a local's favorite. It was a great, cozy pub on Bay St. with yummy food. On the way to dinner we walked past a tattoo shop and I said excitedly and slightly off-hand, "We should get another tattoo while we're here!" Boy, you never have to talk my husband into a tattoo. From that moment we made plans to do just that. The shop was closed when we left dinner so we went back the next day and made an appointment for our last day in Savannah.

The next morning I sat in the window a while and enjoyed our view of Bay St., prayed, and waited for some of the rain to pass so we could explore Savannah. My Mr. shot a few pictures of me there. Our first stop was one of the whole reasons I was there....The Lady and Sons-Paula Deen's Restaurant!!

Luckily, when we walked up to make reservations they could take us right then so we walked right on in! Of course they have you enter through the Paula Deen Store so you get suckered into all the gifts but that was fine with me because I knew I was going to be purchasing quite a few things while I was there. Also, guess who we bumped into inside?!!?!!!!!! THE Paula Deen!!!!

I wish!! I was devastated earlier that morning when watching the Today Show in bed they showed Paula Deen....in Miami! I was in the depths of despair...just ask Daniel. All my schemes of stalking her were ruined unless I was going to hop a flight to Miami. Anyways, her restaurant was delicious-and how could it not be? It's Paula Deen! Daniel got the crab cakes and I got the BBQ pulled pork sandwich. When you sit down you are served garlic, cheddar and herb biscuits and hoe cakes. It was all to-die-for and the sweet tea was super sweet, just the way it should be in the south! They served us so much food that we just couldn't eat even half of it. As my husband would say, we left fat and happy.

From there we hopped on one of these trolley's and toured Savannah! If you ever go, definitely do the trolley tours. It was a great way for us to see the city quickly then decide what we wanted to go back to and what places weren't worth the extra foot work.

After a ride on the trolley we went back to the room to drop off a few things and I shot a few pictures in the daytime light. The ceiling was extremely high-probably 15-18 feet! It had this beautiful exposed brick from floor to ceiling on two walls and the others were painted a light blue. It was a fun place to stay for a few nights,

Side note: Does anybody else love wearing the robes they give you in a hotel or inn?

I'm not going to detail every single thing on our trip and share every picture-but I would if I could-but I do have to say that Savannah is magical. Every street was breathtaking, the historic homes were dreamy and there was character, history, a story on every cobblestone street. Just take a look at these pictures:

This cathedral was so beautiful from the outside but we had no idea the beauty it held inside.

 

Yes, it was even more gorgeous in person. We didn't even plan to go in, we just saw it and said hey, let's see if we can go inside. Isn't that cool? That evening we got ready and headed just outside Forsyth Park to 700 Drayton for dinner. It was an old mansion they made into an inn, a restaurant, cooking school, spa and several lounges. Crazy, I know! We passed it walking around and I could see through one of the windows of the restaurant and was sure that's where I wanted to go. I didn't take pictures inside-I always hate to do that in a nicer place-just one when I asked the waiter and said pretty please since it was my birthday. 

Yes, I know, we have red eyes and look possessed but I wish more of the decor could have been shown. There were modern crystal chandeliers in orange and pink, a 12'x12' painting of a leopard lounging on a tree branch, a huge animal head mounted on the wall that looked like a giant gazelle and all the chairs were tufted crocodile with nail heads. It was a designers dream. Modern artwork hung from the halls {even in the bathrooms!} and some tables in private rooms were lit from underneath. All I can say is wow. The food was equally stunning and satisfying. Daniel said it was absolutely the best salmon he has ever had, and I do not eat ANY THING from water, ever, and I took a bite and I liked it! Yeah, Daniel had to pick himself off the floor after I said yum. 

The next day we drove out to Tybee Island off the recommendation of a friend who used to live there. We were going out there to eat at the North Shore Grill, just a little beach shack but a cool place to spend some time. We walked on the beach, actually, we froze our butts off on the beach and saw a few of the sights, including a couple getting married on the beach!

 

Then, it was time to get our tattoos!! We drove back to Savannah to The Butcher custom tattoo shop. Jimmy Butcher is the artist and owner of the shop, and he is truly that, an artist. The front of his shop is a gallery of his work all over the walls, and since it is a custom shop there aren't racks of stacks to go through, you have to know what you want when you arrive. Jimmy was definitely the coolest tattooer I have ever met. A lot of them are moody and not that friendly, but we had the best time talking music, movies and life. It was a really fun afternoon and now we have great memories of our trip to Savannah.The picture of me getting tattooed is fuzzy because it's hard to take steady pictures with your feet, but here is one of us at the shop.

What a cool memory. I'll have to post what we got once I take pictures of them. I've got them on my phone but I'm too technology impaired to get it on here. That will be another day :) We ended out last day strolling the river walk, perusing candy shops, and oohing and ahhing over the massive container ships.

I fell head over heels in love with Savannah and could definitely see myself living there one day. All the history and character was so charming. Spanish Moss draping from the trees above the streets creates a romantic atmosphere. Especially if you happen to be strolling through one of the 20+ squares scattered in the city, well named the Jewels of the City.

If you like Charleston, SC but want a little more easy romance then this is the city for you...and me!

Thank you, Love, for making this a birthday and a weekend I will never forget. I love you so much for knowing me so well. 

Thanks for sticking around and reading today, I know it was long, but it was so beautiful I wanted to share it all!