I'm a WINNER!

Thanks to Karyn over at French Charming and Brush Dance for the fab gift card of Kelly Rae Roberts wonderful artwork!! Yaye! So excited! Everyone have a great weekend and a wonderful and Happy Halloween!

First Purchase

I am happy to announce that I am now an Etsy shopper! I have officially made my first purchase from Plum Pretty Sugar's fabulous robe collection that I fell in love with a couple weeks ago! My fiance booked our honeymoon yesterday (yaye!) and I am now officially on the lookout for fab honeymoon attire I can wear in Jamaica! This item just screamed honeymoon when I saw it! Yes, no wedding dress to speak of yet but, I have a beautiful silk robe to lounge around in Jamaica. I'm a happy girl! So, again, thank you Plum Pretty Sugar for your beautiful collection! I present before you one of my newest purchases:

Depths of Despair

I'm afraid I'm In the Depths of Despair (as Anne Shirley would say). I'm in love with this J. Crew Daphne dress that has been discontinued (like 2 years ago!!) and every other dress just doesn't compare. I went looking this past Friday and no dress even came close to measuring up. I can't even find one that looks close! Oh, dear... what's a girl to do?

6 Month Countdown

This past weekend I was given a huge dose of reality (and a bit of pre-wedding paranoia) when I was kindly reminded via my fiance that there is less than 6 months to go until my glorious wedding day commences! Yikes!! And I do say yikes only in regard that I have really got to get on the ball here (and not in regard of marrying the most handsomest, wonderfulest boy of my dreams, not to get confused). Yes, my dear girl, times-a-tick'n!

So, what have I done in the last 5 months? Well...

~I do have the boy (*sigh* yes, he's wonderful)

~ I do have the ring (*another dreamy sigh*)

~ I've got the venue

I grew up living down a long dirt road with pasture land, cows, old barns, new barns, ponds and woods. It was the perfect place to grow up! And one day I hope to build my own house out there. My sister was married in my parents home (these are a few of her pics) and while my wedding ceremony will be in a different location in the yard, I'm excited to be getting married there as well. Plus it saves on the cost!

After that it gets kinda fuzzy....

Actually I'm not giving myself enough credit. I have my photographer, same girl who did my sister's wedding, I have my caterer (lucky my boy's brother owns a Capri's, an Italian restaurant that is delish! love a connection!) and my bride's maids material and pattern picked out. Yes, I'm having them made... kinda nervous a/b that.

All in all I guess I am more worried about the small details now. Yes, details. And the small detail of MY DRESS! Haven't found "the dress" yet... kinda nervous a/b it... And what a/b all my guys suits... nope, not yet! So there are a couple more big details as well. Well, I'll be optimistic, I have plenty of time! I mean... Right?

Mud Stuffing

A couple weeks ago my family and I traveled up to Saluda, NC where my grandparents retired many years ago and while neither one is able to live there now our family still frequently visits the historic "Mayberry" town and stay in their small cabin as often as we can.

During the weekend we visited nearby Hendersonville, NC where an arts festival was being held and I stumbled upon the loveliest pottery ever being displayed!! Called Mud Stuffing, created by Keith Phillips, their stuff is right up my alley!! Check out their blog too! I only wish I'd bought this 4 set of white mugs I'd seen there that I didn't see online!! I came so close. Oh, regret!

Oh! What Treasures I Did Find!

Its been a rainy couple weeks here in the Carolina's with a splattering of beautiful fresh autumn days in between. And, although many would disagree,I have to confess I haven't minded the rain one single bit. There is something very cosy and fally about snuggling in on a cool, dark, rainy day in my snug small apartment looking at magazines, reading Emma, and watching old movies (Of course with a cup of hot tea and my candles lit, of course!). This morning, although not raining, but recovering from another down-pour from yesterday is still very cool, damp and cloudy, still perfect to snuggle in! So after waking, eating my egg and goat cheese sandwich (my new fav invention), I eagerly settled myself on my couch and into my new Pottery Barn mag and ohhh, what treasures I did find!!

I'm constantly on the lookout for items that I can bring to my fiance's house after we wed in April b/c, although his small starter house has a certain charm to it currently, it definitely has the bachelor pad aroma as well and I am determined to smother that out and make it into our home after I move in.

So while flipping threw PB I fell head over heels for this Ashby Sleigh Bed, handcrafted using planks of spruce, durable wood, beautiful knots and in this golden color! Yes, I'm in love!

I also love, love, love this whole Benwritght Collection! Look at that sturdy table. It looks very hardy and big enough to feed a hungry crew...And while these items are too big really to fit into our small starter house it makes me dream about the day when we build our own home out in the country!! Oh, how fun is it to dream!

Autumn Leaves

(i love my home in the fall)

How silently they tumble down

And come to rest upon the ground

To lay a carpet, rich and rare,

Beneath the trees without a care,

Content to sleep, their work well done,

Colors gleaming in the sun.

At other times,they wildly fly

Until they nearly reach the sky.

Twisting, turning through the air

Till all the trees stand stark and bare.

Exhausted, drop to earth below

To wait, like children, for the snow.

~Elsie Brady

The Newlywed and the Nutcase

I messed up. I made my sister cry and I don't know why. Well, I do know why... because I am a cold cow... I am a selfish, mean, cold cow. My little sister who I never see anymore, who is probably the most loving and refreshingly kind person ever, came for a visit and I really let her have it. Yes, I was cold.

A little over 4 months ago, the first of my siblings "bit the dust" so to speak and tied the knot. Someone had to be the first to go, and we were thrilled and so excited she'd found a fabulous someone! Who doesn't love a wedding!! She was the most beautiful, radiant bride in the history off all brides to walk down the isle. I may be a little bias, but I know that statement to be true. I was there; I saw her glow. Yes, she was the bride of my dreams.



However, it has been an interesting few months since that glorious day. Her marriage has changed the whole dynamics of my close nit family, more than even I had bargained for. That husband of hers has taken her away from me! AWAY FROM ME! I mean, packed up, moved to another state, locked her away, and thrown away they key. Ok, so maybe I'm being a little dramatic (a little too much Jane lately?). But apparently, I'm having a hard time handling it... I've missed her.


I miss her. When she is home she changes the whole atmosphere of the house. She has this love of life and this laugh! Well, its very fascinating to see up close. So, when she came home this past weekend for our older sister's birthday I really gave it to her. I told her exactly how I felt about the whole situation, that she had best better put forth more effort to come home more often and that she was basically on the brink of being cast out forever if she didn't change her ways! And when she started to cry I didn't even blink.

It wasn't my best moments... and I wasn't sorry for about an 3.2 minutes...

And then I was... And one phone call later all was forgiven.

But it made me think. Marriage really does change things. Your family who has been number one in your life for forever is no longer the number one. Your new family is number one. That's the way of life. That's what God intended. And its so perfect and so right. It made me realize how maybe I too need to make my future number one, my own number one.

Then God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him,

The Lord God said," It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him."

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of man,

and he brought her to the man. The man said,

"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man."

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother

and be united to his wife and they will become on flesh.

~Genesis 1-2~