Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Home Styling Inspiration Photos

I think my new thing lately when it comes to looking up home design inspirations is how the room is styled. I truly believe that styling is a type of art form and it is way harder than it looks. When I take pictures of my home what I really like to do is look at them and see if the styling of each room is optimized and if not what can I change. Sometimes it is just the smallest things, like rearranging some vases or removing some items to make it look less cluttered. I find that styling my home is something that constantly changes as my moods and style change through the years, but the challenge is always fun as I continue to learn and improve. The areas I tend to focus the most on styling are open shelving and accent coffee/side tables. I would love to continue to collect art and hopefully we could do some really cool art piece arrangements like in some of the inspiration photos below. Oh and I love hats and I would love to create a cool focal hat art on a wall in our home instead of keeping my hats hidden in my closet. So here are my latest inspiration photos and y'all can see more on my pinterest board, here

//via//

Thursday, August 25, 2016

House Life Lately...

With the weekend just right around the corner, which I cannot wait for, I am continually gearing up the house and now my wardrobe to accommodate for baby "P." I recently picked up these cuties for the baby room, see here and here. I also got this lamp, from Target, for our main family room (you can see pictures below).  I am continually blown away by Target's Threshold collection, especially in the lighting department. This will make like my sixth lamp I have in our home from Target. I love having all the levels of lighting from recessed, to floor lamps, to table lamps to accommodate the level of brightness for each room at all times of the day. I hope y'all have a lovely rest of the week and fantastic weekend! 

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Our Honeymoon: Mediterranean Cruise - Day 7 In Mykonos

Day 7 of our honeymoon itinerary had us coming up to one of the Greek Islands, Mykonos. I had spent some time here briefly when I took my Greece Trip back in 2008. The biggest difference, besides Amos being with me, was the time of year I went. Back in 2008 when I went in November it got dark rather quickly in the evenings so we had a limited amount of daylight when we explored the island and took pictures. So this time around we had beautiful skies and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. I honestly could vacation here for months and eat my weight in feta. Every nook and corner has something beautiful to offer and I tried to capture as much of it as possible with my camera. These pictures are by far some of my favorite pictures from our honeymoon. I am over here swooning and wishing I was back there just looking at these pictures. Hope ya'll enjoy them!

Friday, August 19, 2016

Dining Items I Am Currently Craving!

I am obsessed with kitchen and dining items, especially when they are from Anthropologie (which they are having an additional 40% off their sale items right now so go check that out!). You may remember a post I did with some of my Anthropologie goodies I have purchased over the years. Well there are a few new glassware items that I have my eye on and would go great with some of the pieces I already have. I don't really need anymore kitchen stuff, but it is hard not to just stare at all of these beauties. So here are a few of the items I am currently craving y'all!

These glasses are soooo pretty. 

Picture and Purchase Info

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Baby Room Progress & Updates

Amos and I are starting to make some progress in the baby room. A few weeks ago I shared some baby room decor ideas in a post here. Now that I have an idea of the direction I want to go in, I decided to make a list of what needs to be done (Ha total type A person with my lists): 
  1. Clear out furniture that is not staying in the room (This was everything except the "futon".  - Completed
  2. Paint the non-brick walls white. - Completed
  3. Buy the crib and assemble it.  - Completed (The crib we bought you can see here)
  4. Get a crib mattress and cute accessories. (I am in love with this bison quilt, seen here, and I would love to design around this for the crib.)
  5. Buy a glider/rocker & small dresser with changing table. (See ideas of rockers here and here and ideas of dressers here and here.)
  6. Get artwork framed and hung. (Here is a photo I took of some of the artwork we got at an art festival earlier this year here that I plan to use in the room.)
  7. Buy acrylic book frames and hang. (See which ones I have my eyes on here and the inspirational photo here.)
  8. Make a feather mobile. (I am loving these here, here, and here.)
  9. Maybe replace curtains and the rug? I will have to see once more artwork and furniture is in the room. 
  10. Figure out how I am going to organize and design the closet space for baby clothes. 

I am sure some of the items may change or the list may grow, but I think it is pretty solid list so far and we have done great with our progress. I can't wait to see how this room comes together in the end. 

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Our Honeymoon: Mediterranean Cruise - Day 6 In Istanbul

Day 6 of our honeymoon itinerary led us to Istanbul, Turkey. It was really surreal pulling up because as most people know Istanbul is divided with a portion of the city being in Asia and a portion being in Europe. Both sides are greatly different, culturally and in the architecture, and it was visible as the cruise ship was docking.

We didn't book an excursion in Istanbul, but bought a hop on hop off pass to get us around the city. It was really nice at first visiting the city like this, we got to see a lot of places at our own pace, like the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, but towards the end we were really pushing our time, where we almost missed the ship departing. Yikes! For the exception of the very pressing time limit we had, Amos and I did get to see some of the Grand Bazaar (I wish I had more time, I could probably spend days there), eat amazing food at a cute little hidden spot, walk around the city, and see a few mosque. So in all I would say we had a very successful time in Istanbul; especially since it was my first time there. For a first time visitor though I would recommend booking with a tour group just so you know that you have reliable and trustworthy transportation to get you to and from wherever you are staying.  Hope y'all enjoy the pictures!


Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Life Lately & Real Talk...

Below are a few updated pictures of some of the rooms in our house that were taken after rearranging some of our furniture to make room for Baby P. I don't know if y'all remember the post I did about all the house projects I had for 2016. While I admitted it was a pretty intense list; I don't think we will be able to tackle all of the items with a baby on the way. I have done a few of the small items, for example: 
  • paint the middle guest bedroom walls white
  • organize and declutter the two guest closets
  • organize the pantry 
  • I am in the process of getting a quote for the kitchen phase 2 remodel 
  • I have a quote on adding trim work in the dining room and master bedroom with a new paint of coat 
While the kitchen redo is still at the top of the list and if all works out well and in our timeframe it might get accomplished this year. The trim details and utility room will most likely not get done this year. This doesn't discourage me it actually makes me sit back and think of where I see Amos and myself in the next 3-5 years and if all of these changes are necessary for our home.

We have already been in our house 2-1/2 years and accomplished a lot and love our house and area, but with a baby on the way we don't really know about the schools in our area or if this is our "forever" house. If our family continues to grow we will surely outgrow our current home. This gets me daydreaming and contemplating of other areas and houses that I think would be right for us in the future.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Pregnancy Post: Monthly Update - July

I regularly follow this blogger, Emily author/creator of "Cupcakes and Cashmere,"and I was totally inspired by her pregnancy post and updates that I thought I would do one as well. I am not really the girl who likes to post pictures of herself, especially full body pictures when my body is constantly changing so I think post like these are a good compromise. I also think post like these are a really cool way to look back during my pregnancy and hopefully be happy and satisfied with my overall experience. 

Here I start my regular monthly updates with the month of July having just wrapped up, which means the end of my first trimester and the beginning of my second trimester.