Home Tour | Dining

How is it August? And how did my dining room of all places become my favorite room in the house? Y'all. For reals. It's definitely been the most "work in progress" space of our home because we haven't had a formal dining room yet as somewhat recent grads/young professionals. But in searching for a home that would allow for entertaining, a formal dining room was important to me. I have quite a bit of furniture, and my mother did too, so I knew we would not have a problem filling the space. 

I wanted the room to be a darker gray that compliments the living room. After finding the perfect paint color, it became obvious to me that the curio cabinet needed to be painted bright white {before and after post soon!}, with complimentary bright upholstery on the chairs. Then I added the four white matted picture frames on one wall, and a large wedding canvas on the other between the large windows. The room was coming together, but it didn't quite feel complete. 

CJM had requested a pop of color for this room, so I began looking for a pink and gray rug to coordinate with the china in the curio. I actually found this one just last week but couldn't justify the price tag! We also tried two or three different styles of curtains but couldn't find one we loved. So the dining room kind of sat, incomplete, but pretty. 

On Saturday, we wandered into Ollie's after sushi {if you haven't been to Ollie's, it's so fun to visit and see all the absolutely random stuff they have}. They always have a ton of rugs, so we just started flipping through some of the giant stacks and this funky rug was the third one we saw! I kind of stopped and went, "Hmmm...that's interesting" and kept flipping. It was pink, and had some gray and other colors that would work with the rest of the house but it was LOUD. And just really not the style of the room at all. But it stuck with me.

 We just decided to grab it and try it out. Before it was even down fully, I knew I loved it. Both CJM and I walked around all Saturday, stopping to stare into the room, and saying "Oh, I really love it." It's so funky. And different. But it has created just the coolest vibe in that room! I love the contrast of the traditional pieces and the various patterns on the chairs and the rug. It definitely ties in all of the gray and the colors from our wedding photos. Now I'm feeling like we don't even need curtains, but may just need to upgrade to plantation shutters sometime in the future for the windows. 

Summer Fun & Date Ideas

This summer never really feels like its going to end to me. It is so hot. Like, so hot. As much as I hate the cold, the heat really does wear on me after an extended period. I know we have at least two more months before it even appears to cool off in the slightest, so I think I'll try to take advantage of the longer days and create some summer fun! Here's my short list of things to do, some that we've done, with my love and those I love.

1. Braves Game | Or any kind of local team. Savannah Bananas, anyone? It's fun to go and cheer on a team together, while enjoying each others company and some yummy stadium snacks.
   
   
   
2.  2. Sno-cone Run | Dublin loves their sno cones. There are two sno cone places in this town! One that just opened up and and is just too cute. Stop in for a treat with a friend or your sweet.
   
   
   
3. 3. Backyard Fun | We've really enjoyed hosting family and friends throughout the summer. It's easy to throw a shindig together with a great outdoor space complete with food, tiki torches, corn hole boards, plenty of seating, and some popsicles! 
4. Beach Trip | We're lucky enough to live just two hours from some of the closest beaches like Hilton Head or Tybee Island. But somehow, we have not made it to the beach once this summer! I think we need to head south this weekend. I love getting up early with the car all packed, picking up some cool drinks and a lunch and just worshiping the sun all day on the sand. 
5. Drive in Movie | Surprisingly, there are a couple of drive in movie theaters sprinkled throughout the state of Georgia. CJM hasn't ever been to a drive in, but I used to go with friends in high school to one in North Georgia and it was a ton of fun. We'd pack the car full of blankets, pillows, and snacks, and head out for a flick or two. 
6. Hour Away Surprise | This is something I do for work, called a "Mystery Trip," for a senior program that we have, but I thought it would be a fun date idea too! Take turns planning a surprise adventure that's only an hour or so away. Try a new restaurant, visit a museum or park, shop at an amazing boutique, and just see some new sights. 
7. Long Weekend Mini Vacay | Sometimes you need a three day weekend out of town to reset and recharge. Head out a little farther from home, maybe somewhere like Charleston, Amelia Island, or a cool mountain town for a change of scenery and fun. 
8. Lake Day | Growing up on Lake Lanier, I spent quite a few summer days in the water. Now, I'm not even really sure where the closest lake is, so I figure we should probably find that out! 
9. Make Ice Cream at Home | Did you used to make ice cream at home as a child? We would always make peach ice cream! I remember waiting what felt like forever for the creamy goodness to be ready. Why not try it as an adult? Different flavors and recipes {thanks, Pinterest!} make the options endless. 
10. Learn to cook something unique like sushi | For Christmas, I bought CJM a sushi making kit and cookbook. We never got to use it though, because almost immediately after Christmas I began packing up our house in preparation of our move! Summer is the perfect time to pull that out. I hate cooking in the summer. I feel so hot and yucky after I get home, and don't want to turn on the stove and make the house any hotter. Sushi is the perfect cool way to cook dinner for the fam. And when making it at home, you can make it low carb leaving out the rice! 
11. Be the bartender and practice making a new cocktail | With so many fresh fruits and herbs available during the summer, try your hand at a new cocktail concoction! Blackberry mojitos, raspberry margaritas, or even the tried and true Popsicle from the freezer dunked in a glass of champagne!
12. Spend evenings unwinding together on the porch | Take that cocktail and head out to the front porch or screened in deck out back to cool off during the evening after work. It's nice to slow down, spend a few moments together, and reconnect during the week. 
13. Decorate a space together | As we're still settling into our new home, there's always a project or something that needs to be done. Oh the joys of home ownership! Take some time to work on a project together like hanging pictures at just the right height, shopping for a new piece of furniture, or painting a room. 
14. Go for a drive as the sun sets |  Swing through Sonic {1/2 price milkshake after 8 p.m.!} and pick up a cool beverage before hitting the road chasing the setting sun. It's so fun to just ride through the country listening to your favorite songs with the windows down and sunroof open. It's the little things, y'all! 

Chalk Spray Paint Review | Before & After

First of all, I have absolutely loved my week and a half break in between jobs. I feel like I've been super productive, gotten more familiar with the lay of the land, and have just had a lot of fun.

Secondly, I love our house! It's beautiful, feels so much like home, and just inspires me. The fresh, bright light, clean new paint, and the open layout has made it my absolute favorite place to be.

One of my first projects to help bring everything together was painting some furniture for the master bedroom. We moved from having built-ins and three closets, to one amazing walk-in closet, and zero drawers! Luckily, I found some huge three drawer chests for a steal in Statesboro a few weeks ago, and we were able to inherit a large dresser from CJM's childhood.

As much as a I like the idea of projects and painting furniture, I also like instant results. Not the best combination, but when I saw chalk spray paint at Lowe's, I thought that this might be the perfect time to give it a try! My favorite thing about chalk paint is that it requires essentially no prep work. I painted some of my great grandmother's furniture almost four years ago with homemade chalk paint, and they still look amazing today {with the exception of a few chips from the many moves they've been through!}.

Lowe's has Valspar chalk spray paint. I chose the white color because our master bedroom is a pretty gray color, and our bedding has navy, gray, and white in it. I also love how clean and cheery the white pieces look! The Valspar spray paint covered the large chests extremely well. It was a very thick spray, and I never had any issues with any runs. Each chest required about a can and a half of chalk spray paint to cover. The only real downside about this product was that it was almost $10 a can, and when you're buying more than one can per piece, it gets a little pricey!

Before & After 

I started the dresser with the same product, but ended up running out. We don't have a Lowe's in our new town, so I ran to Home Depot {for my daily visit...#newhomeownerprobs} where they had a chalk spray paint of a different brand for about $4 less...score! Unfortunately, this white paint was a slightly different color, didn't cover quite as well, and ran really easily. I had to go over the Valspar spray painted drawers with the new color to make them match, which was fine, but had to re-spray along the sides and bottom multiple times to try and blend the running paint. Annoying!

Before & After

To finish the pieces off, I sprayed the hardware with a metallic silver paint. Easy, and looks great, especially with drawer pulls can get expensive quickly! I used Minwax Finishing Wax on all of the furniture to seal in the paint and prevent any color damage or water rings from cups. I've used this on all of my chalk paint products, and it really makes such a difference in the life and luster of the paint.

Once in the room, you can't tell that the colors are slightly different, and the pieces really bring the whole room together. We need to add one more chest in a corner by the closet because we have too many t-shirts, but then our bedroom will be ready for some real decorating.

Weekend Recap | Moving to the DUB

Amazing art by my bestie

Everything hurts...

my hands from carrying boxes, my legs from going up and down our stairs, and my back from the never-ending packing that happened all last week. But it's done, we've moved! I've still got a week left in Statesboro to finish up work and clean out the house, but we loaded up the biggest U-Haul I've ever seen on Saturday morning and drove to Dublin that afternoon.

Dublin's own Villa Blanca {RHOBH anyone?}

After unloading, eating the most delicious pizza ever {probably due to moving-induced starvation}, and taking by far the most amazing shower of my life, I slept in our new house! Sunday was filled with coffee on the back porch with the pups, picking out Round 2 of paint for the living room {who knew there were so many grays!}, and being blessed once again by the TJ Maxx gods with enough matching curtains and curtain rods that match our look!

Side story: our first night in the house was supposed to be Valentine's Day, but we moved in a week early. My gift to CJM was this shiplap sign with our name and the house's coordinates on it, similar to how my wedding jewelry from him had important coordinates, too! I got it on Etsy, and it looks so good! 

Without any Internet or TV, and phone data in my case, CJM and I had sushi on the coffee table while watching a movie last night to celebrate a successful weekend. We are so grateful for all of our supportive friends and family who helped us move; it's truly a labor of love to help someone move. It's so nice to plan on not moving for a really long time.

Can't resist the fun holiday decor!

After I finish up work next week, I'll have a couple of weeks to unpack and get everything settled before starting my new job. I'm looking forward to getting to know the neighborhood and area much better, and relaxing while working on some fun projects throughout the house and on the blog--I can't wait to share!

Prepare 2017

Well hello, 2017. Ten days later, and finally getting around to a "new year" blog post. Oops. No excuses other than an amazingly busy start to the year which is clearly going to be setting the tone for the months to come.

I spent a lot of time the week before January 1 thinking about this next year. It'll see us celebrating our first year of marriage, Christopher's first full year as a pharmacist, and many more milestones. In some ways I was worried that after the wedding, things would just become kind of blah. That's definitely not going to be the case!

Instead of setting resolutions for the new year, I know a lot of people focus on an all-encompassing word the focus their minds and actions, which seemed right up my ally. I'm very futuristic, and focus a lot of my time on planning...everything. From what I'm going to wear each day of the week, to when I'm taking my next trip, or going to work on the blog, it's a never ending calendar and checklist of things going through my head.

Sometimes that can seem negative, but I'm trying to focus that energy into something positive. That introduces my word for 2017: prepare. I love being prepared. I hate being caught off guard. As much as I enjoy surprises, I don't like to be surprised by a problem or a situation that I don't feel comfortable tackling immediately. This part of myself, this resistance or fear or whatever it is, can be refined through preparation.

I also want to prepare my heart and my family. Christopher and I don't see each other every day, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to prepare to be the best wife, housekeeper, cook, laundry person, etc. I want to prepare my home to be ready for guests, and to be enjoyable for us to spend time together. I want to prepare my heart to love my husband and my family in the most Christ-like way I can. I need to prepare time for friends and investing in relationships around me. I pray for a warmth and acceptance to flow from me to all those around me.

Yes, yes, this is probably the most "safe for a Type A person" word of the year. But it's practical and attainable. And is something that my heart craves. I'm so thankful for those of you coming on this ride of a lifetime with me in 2017!

"Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be brave and strong." -- 1 Corinthians 16:13

Ornament Review Round Two

In my dining room, I have a gold tree that I spray painted last year {you can read more about that experience, and the why, here} and decorate with white, gold, and silver ornaments. Also kind of known as my "marriage" tree, I have a lot of "M" ornaments, our engagement ornaments, and now first Christmas ornaments on display!

These gold mirrored personalized pet ornaments from Moon & Lola are my absolute favorite new additions. I gave them as gifts to a bunch of people for Christmas last year, and am doing it again this year! Almost everyone has a pet that they love, and you can pick from a variety of dog breeds, gold or silver, and script or block font to make it perfect for each person on your gift list. 

I spotted this Mud Pie "First Christmas" ornament at Walker Boutique a few months ago and had to buy it! Besides coordinating perfectly with my tree, it also coordinates with a lot of the look from our wedding and serves as a great token from the year. This is the perfect gift for the newlyweds on your list!

My mom gave me this ornament as a birthday gift because as she said, it's the most perfect shoe for me! 

One of my sweet Phi Mu friends spotted two boxes of Shiny Brites in a store last Christmas that were all silver and gold and graciously thought of me! I'm so glad to have such a classic addition to my themed tree. 

November Recipe Review | Thanksgiving Favorites

I think I broke my newlywed resolution last month. I can't remember cooking a single new recipe! We were just so busy all month that the nights we cooked, it was just easy favorites.

This past weekend when I was home overnight, my grandmother cooked Thanksgiving for us so I thought I'd share a couple of our favorite Thanksgiving recipes! I'll be cooking the mac & cheese for Christopher's family's Thanksgiving next week like I did last year, and it was a big crowd pleaser along with the yummy green bean casserole.

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 I  love green bean casserole. I love green beans, but I especially LOVE the french fried onions. The hubs thinks it's super gross, but I'll snack on them straight from the bag while making this dish, so I always buy the extra large bag. I usually follow the recipe straight on the back of the bag, but if it ever calls for soy sauce, I substitute it for Worcestershire instead, and add an extra pinch of black pepper. I also like to mix this dish up ahead of time to give it plenty of time to soak up all the flavors in the fridge prior to baking.

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 Our family is a marshmallow and crunchy topping kind of family. We want our diagonal rows of flavors so we can get a mix of both toppings in each bite. Just marshmallows, and your sweet potato casserole is too mushy. Just crunchy topping, and you're left missing the sticky goodness of the mallows. You shouldn't have to choose on Thanksgiving!! But we have come to one decision: no nuts, please!

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This is by far the absolute best macaroni and cheese recipe I've ever had, but what else do you expect when it comes from Paula Deen? Creamy in the middle with a crunchy top {we like our crunchy/creamy mix, okay?!} if you bake it in the oven, but this recipe also works in the crock pot, which is what I do for the large crowd at Christopher's family gathering. Also, don't skip on the dry mustard and black pepper. It really makes this dish a savory one to remember. 

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No meal at my grandmother's would be complete without her chocolate pie. An easy but so delicious recipe, I like including this on my holiday recipe list because it can be made the day before, and "iced" with Cool Whip right before serving. I think it's my favorite because it kind of is a s'mores pie, which is one of my favorite desserts.

I hope these recipes might make your holiday meal planning a little bit easier. They're definitely tried and true, and I'm incredibly thankful for each one of you!

Newlywed Christmas Card Pictures

In honor of this sweet guy's birthday today, I thought I'd share the pictures we took a few weeks ago for our Christmas cards! I'm still trying to decide which card design I like...there are so many, and it brings back the anxieties from picking a save the date.

Big thanks to my "forever maid of honor" for snapping these quickly with my camera!

Outfit details
CJM: Shirt/belt from Cotton Brothers
PDM: Dress from Red Dress Boutique | Cotton Boll earrings & bracelet from John Wind | Leather quilted riding boots from Talbots, similar.