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!

Better late than never....March Goals!

Wow, it's late, like ridiculously, I-can't-believe-I'm-even-bothering-it-is-so-embarrassing late. Yes,today is March the 7th and I am posting my monthly goals. I hate that, but this is the guilt I always feel with my blog. It is something I am interested in, I always have great ideas and dreams for it, but because I work a full time job and lead a very busy life with my husband helping out with our youth group, church activities and traveling, I don't get to post the way I would love to on here. I really do look forward to the day when I can stay at home with our children and find at least half an hour during the day at some point to sit down here and blog a little. 


All of our "busyness" has become a little overwhelming lately. It has been so bad that the laundry was about to attack me it was so tall and all the clutter began to look acceptable because it had sat there for so long. I was letting my duties at home fall behind because of all this other stuff going on in my life. 

This weekend it was so refreshing to have one of those talks with the Mister that comes up usually once or twice a year for us. The talk that comes when we find ourselves really busy and I find myself feeling spread to thin. Daniel once again reminded me that I do not have to attend everything at church-he is hired by them, not me and {here's the best part} my job is at home. I know for many women in our society today that stirs up many feminist feelings of anger and women being suppressed, but that ladies, is music to my ears! Probably because I have a loving husband who doesn't force me into that position, he knows it is my calling and my passion and he helps me be the best I can at it. Just as I want to support him in his calling. 


By being reminded of that, and it was just that, a quick simple reminder I regained focus and joy in my place within our home. That night I didn't go to church with Daniel. Instead, I stayed home and did 3 loads of laundry, cleaned the office, cut and organized coupons, finally unpacked my suitcase and changed the sheets on the bed. I felt SO much better after getting my house back in order. 


As you might guess, my first goal will have to do with this...

{March Goals}

Sincerely work on time management and saying "no" to some things.

 Buy organizers for office.

Finish organizing office the way I want it.

Buy canvas and paint large scale print for Daniel's office.

Take youth group to a Carolina Hurricane's Game.

Post pictures from Savannah.

Finalize a plan for making slipcovers for sofa and loveseat.

Use my new food processor.

Start training for my second 5k run!

Move banks.

Get taxes done.

See financial planner.

Stick to our new 20 minute clutter clean up every evening.

 I hope you all have jumped right into March with some great aspirations of your own and plans how to make them happen! I can't wait to share with you all my pictures from our trip to Savannah, GA. It was the best vacation we've ever taken and anyone who loves the south will love the pictures....stay tuned!

 

Baby Nursery Wall Letters

Right now I have close to 20 friends that are pregnant right now...I know, that's a LOT! Talk about a baby boom. In my Sunday school class everyone is also pregnant except for me and the girl who is engaged. The church calls our class "the Breeders" because we are repopulating the church! HA! I know, so when one of those super sweet, and super preggo friends of mine asked if I would help her with a project for the nursery I was SO excited!!

Karen is expecting a baby girl in like....1 day! I'm not kidding, the latest update sounds like her little bundle of joy will be here either tomorrow or Friday {I'm hoping Friday so we'll have the same birthday}. The project at hand was for wall letters to spell out her name above the crib in the nursery. So, what do you do first ladies? SHOP! Yes, we met each other at Michael's after work one day and shopped for the paint, letters and ribbon. With some of the letters missing we had a minor panic but were saved by her sweet sister who visited another Michael's the next day and found them all. Can we say, super sister? Yes!

I was so excited to get started on the letters that I forgot to take a before photo, forgive me. But the letters were just painted plain old white....but we wanted a yummy chocolate brown. So, I started spray painting away. And then, there was another minor disaster that I might have thrown a little tantrum over. This happened to the letters:

Eek! The horror! The paint pooled in some places and ran right off in others. And as you can tell it just went plain old funky in some other places! Of all the things I have spray painted this has never happened to me.

So, I went back to Michael's and bought sandpaper, acrylic brown paint and got out my paintbrushes for a redo. I prayed really hard that it wouldn't be screwed up.

And I'm pleased to say after the sanding and re-painting that round two looked nice and clean like this:

Now it's time for the fun stuff...decorating with polka dots and ribbon!!

I dotted them all in varying sizes with the opposite end of a large paintbrush. After I used the white paint as a primer I went back over every dot with a pearl finish so it would shimmer in the light....very girlie.

The ribbon is a pretty pale pink with tiny white polka dots as well {we've got a theme, can you tell?}. As you can see I broke out the trusty hot glue gun {it works on everything} and once I measured all the ribbons so they would roughly be the same length I hot-glued them to the back of the letter and made a bow at the top. We chose a wired ribbon which turned out to be really handy in re-fluffing {so not a word, but it works here} the bows after tying them. 

After all of that was completed there was only one thing left to do before I delivered them...a photo-shoot on the kitchen floor! Also, have I driven you nuts by not telling you the baby's name? Here it is:

And I don't know what was up with Phoenix but he must have thought he was Julianne or something because he just wanted to sit next to those letters the whole time I was doing this!

So, that was it! The pictures changed from day to night in here, sorry for that but I had to allow time for the layers of paint to dry. It was such a fun project to do for such sweet and generous friends of ours.

Brad and Karen, it was so much fun for me to help decorate your baby girl's nursery, thank you, it was an honor. Julianne will be here before you know it and big brother Jaxson will be such a great help to you. Daniel and I love you both!

Today I...

- Had the best day at work that I've had all year long.
- Dropped off a project {that I'll feature on here} to a sweet friend.
- Had a nice lunch with some really nice ladies I got to know better.
- Kissed my little dog a whole lot {he's curled up next to me sleeping on my pillow right now}.
- Daydreamed about my upcoming trip to Savannah.
- Laughed and smiled a lot....and cried just once.
- Went to a new woman's bible study, "Stepping Up" by Beth Moore and I'm really excited about it and how God is going to grow me through it in the coming weeks.
- Went grocery shopping at Harris Teeter with all my coupons for Super Doubles week and saved over $86!
- Snuggled with my Mister on the couch and had a nice evening together.
- Enjoyed the warm air and thought a lot about easy summer days and warm summer nights and particularly about some of those spent on Topsail Island.

What did you do today?

Happy Valentine's Day-All the Single Ladies!!

Hello, Lovelies! Happy Valentines Day to each and every one of you! Mine has been splendid thus far. I woke up the Mister with breakfast in bed, gave him his love letter made by moi, and have returned home to a sweet letter for me and a lovely gift that was very thoughtful. It has been a swell day. 

Although, now I play for the married team on this day, I totally have full empathy on all my single friends out there. I remember aching over this day as a great big stamp of my singleness-in case I wasn't already aware. So, just to let all my single ladies know just how much they are loved and cared for I made love letters for them this year as well and wanted to share them with y'all.  

All the single ladies, all the single ladies!!!

FYI, I just drew the designs with my favorite pens ever: Pilot G-2 10mm. The envelopes were done with a silver metallic Sharpie marker and the gorgeous card-stock and envelopes were from one of my favorite whimsical little stores, Swoozie's.

I'm really tickled at how these little beauties turned out but I wish I could have spent more time on them. They were done at like, 10:00 at night before bed one night. You know how it is, once you complete a project you always think of every way you would or could do it differently. Ugh, sometimes it's so self-defeating to be an artist...ha ha ha, just kidding people! 

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's night and that my sweet friends get their cards today! And honestly, if I were single, I would do EVERYTHING that I wanted to do tonight, such as:

-no cleaning

-no cooking-take out at home or order some delicious and expensive meal for me or some friends too.

-get a mani/pedi

-rent all those movies I've been wanting to see

-read all those magazines that have been piling up

-buy myself beautiful flowers and a present for me, just because I wanna!

And that is just the beginning of my list! Love y'all!

 

Big Plans!

Well, I mentioned on here for my February goals that my birthday is this month! I have been getting less and less excitable over my birthday the last few years and not because I'm depressed about aging or anything, it's just not the same as when you were a kid. It tends to be just another day that you have to wake up, go to work, do the dishes, yada, yada, yada, with a birthday cake or dinner thrown into the mix. No biggie, that's just life, most people don't throw huge birthday parties for themselves every year as an adult unless you are one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills {not-that-I-watch-every-single-episode-including-the-two-reunions-and-the-two-upcoming-lost-footage-specials-starting-Tuesday-night or anything}.

But I digress. This year, however, is exciting, because I will be 25 years old on the 25th of February!! Ever since I was little I always thought that would be my coolest birthday ever. I used to wonder where I would be and who would I be when I was turning 25? Married? Children? Dolphin trainer at Sea World? Some of those have panned out, some will, and sorry Flipper, it's not you, it's me. 

With all that said, I always knew I wanted to have a party for that birthday. Well, after giving my husband reminders of this infamous party he was going to have to throw for the past 6 years my tune kind of changed this year. We have so many friends scattered far and wide and I knew it would be complicated for him to find places for all of those people to stay so I just told him that we could either have a party or we could do something just us, but still special. My sweet husband loves his time alone with me {we have a weekly date night that we don't miss} so he opted out of the party. 

It started out with him letting me know I would be going away with him on a trip for 3 days and to not book anything on those particular days. But where was I going?! He wouldn't tell me, for weeks! Oh, but he teased me. Finally, after my excellent skills of coercion-I should have been a lawyer-he told me. He's taking me somewhere I've always wanted to go. I am going on a surprise trip to Savannah, Georgia!!!

We will take turns about Forsyth Park {seen above}, tour the historic district, walk the streets filled with gorgeous southern, historic architecture and eat really good food! I cannot wait to see all the homes and streets covered with that sleepy, romantic Spanish Moss.

And I cannot tell you how happy I am that I get to go to The Lady and Sons restaurant-a Savannah landmark now.

I probably won't bump into her there, but I will be stalking keeping an eye out for Paula Deen all over Savannah! It sure would make my whole birthday if I got to meet this sweet, sassy, southern lady that I love.

So, I do not write this whole post to boast about my trip, but to ask for suggestions. Daniel nor I have ever been to Savannah and while he has a few things planned that he won't tell me about-yet-I was wondering if any of you my lovely readers have any suggestions? Hole in the wall restaurants, activities, shopping, hidden nooks in town somewhere, a place for a romantic stroll after dinner, anything! So please, if you do, leave it in the comments and I will be eternally grateful. 


Now, I'm off to make some potato skins for our Sunday school class' Superbowl party.

February Goals-The Love Month

Happy February!! It's the month of LOOOVVEEE! February is also my birthday month {I'll be 25 on the 25th this year by the way....it's a big deal, just sayin'.}. January began well and then was a whirlwind the last half which is why I was essentially non-existent on here. I'll try to do a better job this month.

As always, the first day of a new month I always post my monthly goals. Sometimes they get accomplished and sometimes they don't. But I don't beat myself up over it, there are enough days that we feel like a failure at one thing or another and I'm not about to add more pressure to myself. These goals simply keep me focus, give me a guide as to what I'm aiming for that month and are here to reference anytime I feel myself becoming unproductive.

If you don't make goals for yourself I know one we can ALL do this month. Tell the people that you love exactly how much you love them on Valentine's Day! Start thinking of really sweet ways right now that you could surprise someone with a kind card or letter, maybe you want to bake something or buy them a fabulous gift? Whatever it is, we all have somebody to love and we all have something to give. So, since I started your goals for you this month {you can thank me later....or with a Starbucks gift card} go ahead and finish them then leave a comment saying you made a post about it. Onto the goals.......

{February Goals}

Replicate a home accessory from Pottery Barn and post on it.

Finish my book that I didn't finish last month ;)

Continue to motivate myself to work out on these cold days at least 3 days a week.

Finalize a cleaning routine and then do it!

Plan a sweet DIY Valentine's card for my sweet single girlfriends.

Attend the Art of Marriage-our church's marriage weekend.

Celebrate my 25th birthday on February 25th in gorgeous Savannah, GA!!!!! 

Practice guitar more than ever to help out with worship-at least 45 minutes a day.

Read ebook on making slipcovers and at least gather a plan how to make my own.

Plan something really sweet for my Mister for Valentine's Day!

Pick out a book for Daniel and I to read together.

Well, that's all folks!