CJM Creates

My sweet husband is so talented. He's brilliant in so many ways, but there is a creative streak in him that comes out in the most unique ways. Besides being one of only two bagpipers I know {his precious grandfather being the other}, he's developed quite a knack for woodworking in the last few years.

He started out making coasters out of wood from his family's abandoned saw mill, and has upgraded to making larger pieces like coffee tables. We constantly dream of having our first house with a space for him to make even bigger things. We would love to build a live edge dining room table, extra long, with room for all our family and friends.

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I love the "rustic chic" look inspired in part by everyone's favorite Fixer Upper show. His talents definitely lend to that look. Here's a few pieces I've pinned to the ultimate "honey-do list" Pinterest board, CJM Creates.

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Wedding Wednesday: Pretty Papers

In honor of finally completing putting together, stuffing, sealing, and addressing my many wedding invitations, I'm highlighting a few stunning stationary designs today! These are things I've seen while spending hours searching for the perfect set for my big day. I'll be highlighting my full suite and save the date magnet in a few weeks, so stay tuned!

via Minted

Wouldn't this agate design be perfect for a coastal wedding? 

via Remember November, Inc.

I love a complete design set, and Remember November, Inc., has
everything from invitations, to welcome signs, to seating charts!
And it all coordinates! 

via Creative Market

This elegant design is a template to download and personalize--
perfect for the creative types interested in graphic design.
A lot of great templates can be found on Creative Market and Etsy!

One of my favorite sites throughout the wedding planning process has been
WeddingChicks.com. They have tons of free printables and designs, 

everything from invitation suites, monogram designs, and save
the date templates. We actually got our save the date design

here and uploaded it to the magnet designer on Vistaprint!

Love Home

I am becoming somewhat of an over-decorator {if there even is such a thing} for Christmas. What can I say? It runs in the family.

But after putting away the Christmas decorations in early January, I always get a little sad. My house just doesn't look as warm and inviting as it does filled with sparkle and lights. In the past, I've usually just hunkered down through dismal January and February, waiting until March arrives to decorate for Easter.

This year, I've taken the time to decorate just a little bit for Valentine's Day! Pink is my favorite color of course, but I really don't have a lot of it in my house as I'm trying to make everything a little more 'gender-neutral' in preparation of living with the future husband.

Luckily, Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse to bring on the pink! 

My bridal shower hostess graciously gifted me with the cutest of the event's decor, which totally inspired me in terms of V-day decorating. I crafted my dining room centerpiece using a pink serving platter and pink pearls from the shower, four crystal candlesticks from around the house in varying heights, and some pink, white and gold candlesticks from Hobby Lobby.

I updated my bar/china hutch for the holiday with a cute pink and gold vase filled with black and white paper straws, and the cutest 'CHEERS' picture frame that was a shower gifts as well. Totally appropriate at the bar!

I've become somewhat proficient in making the trendy tissue paper tassel garland I've seen on Pinterest, so I made two strands of minis from light and dark pink, and gold tissue paper. I strung them across both the TV and the china chests to add a pop of pink to the rooms.

The glittery 'XO,' ampersand, and arrow were all used as a part of the centerpieces for the shower. I love how they look in my living room! There's even a pink 'HAPPY' hanging out in my kitchen.

I actually found the glowing heart light at an after Christmas Target sale two years ago for like $7, and am just now pulling it out. It definitely gives off that warm glow like a Christmas tree! 

Happy February! 

Golden Christmas

If you've been reading this blog for a year or so, or hang out with me pretty much ever {because this is a tale that bears repeating}, you may remember the Black Christmas Tree Incident of 2014--you can read about it here. After perusing Pinterest Christmas ideas one day, I saw where a lady had spray painted her tree. That seemed do-able, and thanks to my fiance, light holder, and all-around craftiness supporter, I decided to spray paint his black Christmas tree.

The original post that inspired me used floral spray paint, but that didn't seem convenient to me. I pretty much always have a can or two of metallic gold spray paint on hand {I may or may not have a problem spray painting random stuff into golden gems}, so I thought I would try that out. Two cans later, I am thrilled with the results! I may have developed a small case of carpal tunnel after all that spraying, but we no longer have a black tree.

Halfway through the spraying.

Pre-ornaments

I've already received quite a few wedding themed Christmas ornaments. They all fall into that gold/white/metallic design category, so I thought I would display all of them here! I'm so excited to have more than one big tree in the house...I did grow up in a home that had at least seven each year. And I know...I do have "Ms" on my tree even though I'm not yet an "M." They're just too pretty to keep in their boxes for another year!

Wedding cake ornament which we received
after registering at Walker Boutique

Special Bride to Be ornament 

My signature word in gold! 

Winter Wonderland

Welcome to Statesboro, home of the 75 degree December days!

I really don't mind it though. I don't tolerate the cold very well at all. My cheery front porch has hopefully been making passersby feel rather Christmas-y over the last few weeks--it sure has been a joy to me to drive past in the evenings!

This year, I reused the garland I made for my deck last year, and hung it in the fern hooks on my porch. I love my glittery little trees from Target, which I finally got to stay with Ziploc bags of pennies tied to the bases {shhh...don't steal them!}. My best and newest addition though is Clarence. Clarence came to me by way of my most talented fiance, who not only cooks the yummiest foods, but also makes the coolest stuff out of cedar at his grandparents' house! He started out making wooden coasters for everyone, and now when I find cool wood things on Pinterest, I send them his way for ideas.

He took the wooden dear idea and made it work perfectly for my lack of storage living situation. The legs are screwed on hinges so they fold up underneath the body, and the antlers pop out of their holes so that it can all be stored safely and out of the way. Isn't he {Clarence, and of course Christopher} wonderful?!

P.S. This is my 100th blog post! How exciting is that? I love being able to look back on all the ups and downs of the last two years and see how far I've come. 

Bucket List Recap

It really feels like summer is over. I'm definitely looking forward to upcoming fun fall weekends, and cooler weather of course, but I know that when Christopher starts school again in two weeks it's all over. I've got two really big work weeks coming up as well which are making me focus on a different sort of "To Do" list. 

As a sort of goodbye to summer, last night Christopher and I went and ate at Tequila's in Savannah, and walked down to Leopold's Ice Cream. It was hot and humid, but the streets of Savannah were quiet, and it was a good time for the two of us to reflect on such a fun season together. That got me thinking about my Summer 2014 Bucket List...

First off, don't 'they' say that it's the most creative types that can never finish anything? Then that must be me. I didn't finish me list {not even close} and the few projects within the list that I started are definitely not finished. Oops! So here's where I stand, and what's up ahead. 

1. Weekend Getaway to Charleston--nope. After moving at the beginning of summer, that became my vacation. Next...
2. Vanity for bedroom--CHECK-ish! And it's moved, twice. I've attempted to recover it and failed miserably. So it's definitely a work in progress.
3. Learn to play tennis--CHECK! I took a month of lessons in June, and Christopher and I have both gotten into it. We haven't played in a few weeks due to the heat, but it's on the schedule for this weekend.
4. Throw a white party--maybe next summer. I do have a very promising Pinterest board dedicated to it though. 
5. Build a sandcastle--okay, I honestly forgot about that one. 
6. Watch the sunrise on Tybee--CHECK-ish! Do you know how early the sun comes up? While I couldn't make that happen, we did walk out on the pier one night under the full moon. How romantic!
7. Unsubscribe from pointless emails--CHECK! This is a long process, that I'm diligently working on. I attempted to use the rolling unsubscribe me service, but it didn't seem to work. Maybe I'll try again. 
8. Read--I read "The Fault in Our Stars." And I attempted to read Mary Kay Andrew's "Save the Date," but couldn't really get in to it. I still need to make reading a regular priority. 
9. Watch all of FNL--nope. Not even close on that one. But I did watch all of Parks and Rec, and am working through Ghost Whisperer...
10. Take the boat out--nope.
11. Watch fireworks with my love--CHECK! We were able to do that at First Friday in Savannah in August. Can't wait to do that again soon. 
12. Go to Six Flags--CHECK!
13. Late Night Milkshakes--CHECK! Of course...that was easy. We've become regulars at the DQ this summer.
14. Get organized--always a work in progress! My new house is in pretty good shape, although the front bedroom aka my staging area, is a disaster. But at least I keep it contained, right?

I guess I didn't really do too bad. There's no shame in being overly ambitious for sure! What did you do this summer, or wish you had done? 

Making Plans

Happy May! I love May, it's probably my favorite month. Everything has bloomed and looks so lush and beautiful, the weather starts to become {somewhat} more reliable, and you can see summer just around the corner.

This summer I really want to do some crafting. After doing all of my pieces of my apartment in essentially a two week time span last year {check them out here, here, and here}, I hung up my paint brushes and took a break. Unfortunately, life got in the way, and I have been pretty un-creative during the past year. So this summer, I want to work on some projects that I've never gotten around to.

Thrifty Chair Makeover by artsychicksrule 

I have this pink chair in my living room that I bought for $20 two years ago with hopes of learning how to recover furniture. Well that is intimidating as all get out. I've toyed with the idea of just painting it, and this chalk paint tutorial has encouraged me in that direction! I figured out a good at-home chalk paint recipe last year, so I'm excited to turn my sad, pink chair into something new...or blue...or gray...or white...

I also have three rugs from TJ Maxx a few years ago, blue with a brown flower pattern on them, that I have throughout my house in the kitchen, living room, and laundry. They work great with my decor, but I'm really wanting a new rug so I may try this chalk paint tutorial from Stellar Junk on one or all of them. I love the Moroccan stencil look on just about everything, and think I would really like it as a focal piece, especially in the kitchen. 

by stellar junk: rug redo with chalk pain

Other projects on my list:

• Restore the cabinet/side table that my jewelry chest sits on
• Re-learn how to sew!

What's on your summer to-do list? 

What I'm Pin To

I've noticed a theme lately: pink. While this may not be surprising to anyone who knows me, this springy weather that has popped up lately is forcing me to love pink even more than usual. Here are a few of my favorite pink pins from Pinterest recently: 

Pink Jewels

Pink Raspberry Macaroons 

Pretty Pink Amoire 

Pink Pots

Pink Vintage Elegance

Pop of Pink 

Happy Spring!

"I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face." --Langston Hughes

I hope you enjoy the first day of spring; here are a few of the springtime 

decorations in my house! 

Handmade Easter wreath with glitter eggs from Wal-Mart

Please excuse the teeth marks--eggs are Layla's favorite

There's No Place like Home for the Holidays

The accidental vintage vibe that has become of my Christmas decor inside is absolutely delightful! I love snowflakes, silver, pink and blue, and those three things were the basis behind the overall look. I was really excited to find some really cute "Let it Snow" items in the Target dollar section over the past few weeks to carry the theme throughout the house.

Don't you just love the silver glitter wrapping paper?! $4 from Walmart!

Pack of three silver brush trees from Home Depot, $10

Thank you, Nana, for the beautiful vintage ceramic tree!

If only somewhere sold chalk--after three stores I gave up,
and have no idea how many days until Christmas!

Glittered pine cones may become my new favorite thing. 

Mini pink tree that was in a college care package has
brought Christmas to my bathroom. 

Not actually a Christmas item, this heart photo tree was something
I won at a gift swap last year--another family's name is even
engraved in the top heart!

Snowflake garland to keep the cheer alive even after the tree comes down!