In Other News

Baby on board! 

Red Barn Living

Yep, we decided to go with RED!

What is it with barns & the color red? 

Who first decided, "Yep, barns just look better painted red"?

They were genius!

I need the history lesson.

Oh hi

i really am wanting to get back to my blogging. So this shy blogger just wanted to say hi.

(Pic taken of me & my love by my cute friend Paige)

Soooo... what happened was...

I'm actually not really sure where to begin.  But I guess the obvious fact is I stopped blogging. And it's hard but also easy to see almost a year has past since my last entry. Changes have taken place. It's only been in the last couple weeks that I've thought about picking blogging up again (well, that's not totally completely true, I've thought about it here and there)... but recently  I started to miss very much my small creative space that I called my own.  Something (usually small) would happen and I'd think: blog.  So here I am.  Back.

And here are just a few happenings that transpired over the last year!

My last blog I mentioned something or another about a rough week... that was the understatement of the century.  My family was in the middle of a full blown crisis and looking back I'm convinced it is only by the grace of Jesus that I was functioning at any level at all. (*thanks Jesus!*)

My brother was deployed to Kuwait in February and will be home (we're hoping with all our little fat hearts!) in January! Yaye! We sure do miss him.  But we are so very thankful that this first deployment hasn't been one smack in the center of danger and fighting so we don't complain.

Shane and I sold our house and have been living with my parents for the last 5 months until our little barn is finished.  It has been wonderful, a challenge, so hard sometimes, umm... actually it has been a true blessing.  We are 1 min away from where we are building (so very convenient), they are so very generous opening up the house (no rent!), we never even pay for groceries!

Shane and I took a trip to Israel in April! SO INTERESTING, DIFFERENT, AMAZING! Definitely a once in a lifetime thing!

And after a few delays our barn is underway... take a look!

*pic by me*

I'm trying to decide if I want it red or a charcoal color!  I want a rustic look! As I speak my hubby is busy finishing up walls upstairs!  He's is SO wonderful & been totally awesome through this whole process!

chocolate understands

Its been a very tough, emotional draining week.

And I've been eating out of the nutella jar by the spoonful.

And this was supposed to be the week i "got back on track"

Well, at least chocolate understands...

It's Fall Ya'll!

It's time for hearty soups,

tall boots (wishing these were in my budget!),

and hanging with friends around the bonfire!

What are you looking foward to the most?

is it fall yet?

so is fall here yet? i need cool crisp air to breath...

my best friend just found out she is having a little girl...

(her first! she has two little boys already!)

i've been a little under the weather here lately, no good!

and had to call in sick on my 2nd day of work at my new job!

(mortified! b/c i'm NEVER sick!)

don't you just love the fox and the hound...

yard sale

Wish me luck! This weekend I'm having my first every yard sale!

I've been getting ready all week! Keeping my fingers crossed for a nice time!

hang it up on the wall...

If you're going to live on a farm you have to hang some farm pictures up on the wall... and these prints are AMAZING! I'll definitely have to remeber these when the time comes.

Source: The Animal Print Shop by Sharon Monrtose

Wide Open Spaces

With the de-treeing, de-stumping, clearing and scraping of our 30 acres of heaven over the past few months, beautiful dialogue has taken place over the future layout of the Mr. & Mrs. Shane Evans family abode. The discourse conclusion: wide open spaces! Yes, my friends swing wide those heavenly gates! Wide open is on the menu: open fields, wide porches, large airy rooms, simple, clean, classic. We've definitley decided on a one story houseplan and actually loved this "U" style houseplan {toned down a bit with less rooms (music room, guest suite... theatre? really?) & more open spaces}. We've also discovered we like the idea of the courtyard {no pool} with our barn situated in a disant corner insead of a garage. This is the dreaming & imagining stage & I'm in LOVE with the process.

Images: house, entry, kitchen, kids room, bathroom .... see more of my pins & ideas here!

you fill up my senses

Source: inspirationsdeco.blogspot.com via Evie on Pinterest

When I saw this image, my home & then John Denver's song Country Roads immediately popped into mind. Yes, we all knows that song {lets sing together, shall we: "country rooooaaads take me hoooome to the plaaaace I belooong..." ok, ok, enough}. But isn't it such a great song? He definitely had some good ones. This one almost makes you wish you did live in West Virginia!

Lately I've been yearning for home. I mean really craving it. And wanting to go back as much as possible. I dream of rising early in the morning when there's just a bit of light out, putting on my old tennis shoes and walking the edge of the fields, still damp with the morning dew. Maybe I'll walk across to the pond, over the dam, into the "coastal" field. I yearn to lounge lazily in a hammock in the soft shade, one of my mom's old Victoria magazines in my lap. There is something sacred about coming home sometimes. The idea gets into my blood until I think I'll go crazy if I don't just go home. So when my car finally does pull into the long dirt road at dusk, all I want to do is let the warm evening air soak into my senses. I am home.

Annie's Song: John Denver

Take me to The Prairie

So I was browsing through my September Southern Living magazine this morning & came across this fabulous bed & breakfast {i love a great b&b} by Rachel Ashwell called The Prairie! I'm probably the last southerner to know about it{who knew and didn't tell me!} since opening earlier this year, but I got so excited anyway & I'm ready to plan a trip with my sisters and mom ASAP! The place is beautifully designed with her Shabby Chic collections and is the perfect combination between rustic and lush elegance. Plus its in the heart of a Texan town's antique utopia! Uhh, perfect!

{sigh!!!}

And check out these amazing cottages too!!

Sunday Quiet Time

Source: etsy.com via Evie on Pinterest

Proverbs 31.21

good thing to remember

Source: healthylivingforyou.tumblr.com via Evie on Pinterest

Source: the-girl-who-ate-everything.com via Evie on Pinterest

Aww, Shucks! :0)

around the corner

Source: lizawithaz.tumblr.com via Julia on Pinterest

There is one thing that gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of somthing around the corner. ~G.K. Chesterton

long, hot, summer

Jimmy Rodgers: Long Hot Summer

August has arrived, with it brings one long, hot summer her in the Carolinas. In some ways I wouldn't mind just skipping this month, ya know? Kids go back to school {near the beginning!}, summer vacation is over, people start shopping for fall wear... yet it is still hot as BLAZES! And so all I can think about is lounging near cool water instead of being productive. With that said, I vote to skip August this year and go straight to September. All in favor say Aye! :o)

all things Paris

Source: pinterest.com via Amelia on Pinterest

Yes, well said Mr. Darcy... uh, I mean Mr. Firth. I have been a bit MIA on the blog seen. I've been vacationing at the beach, working, reading, dreaming, looking at everything through a different prism... you know, the usual.

As I mentioned before, I've been on a little Paris obsessed lately, ever since watching the movie Midnight in Paris. & so I dived into my current fixation with gusto, reading The Paris Wife & The Last Time I Saw Paris {by Lynn Sheene} while lounging on the beaches of Edisto Island all last week. It was heaven! My favorite of the two? Hands down the latter. And I should have known too, for the Paris wife which tells the story of Hemingway's first {of 4} wife & couldn't end anyway but tragic. But it was still a glimpse into a young married American couple living in Paris in the 1920s so was interesting enough if not a bit of a "debbie downer". But Lynn Sheene's novel had a bit of romance, adventure, history, & mystery. I enjoyed it very much. {Then I watched the movie, The Last Time I Saw Paris {1954}, with Elizabeth Taylor which was nothing like the book by the way.}

Also if you haven't check out O Happy Day's blog, do! About a young party planner for San Francisco who moves with her family to the city of lights! Its very lovely as well.

cute kid

Source: blogger.com via Evie on Pinterest

i interrupt this program to introduce you to the cutest kid ever...

his name is Sawyer...

and i want to just squeeze him sometimes...

and that's his beautiful mother, my best friend...

she's going to be a mommy of 3 soon...

she's my hero too...

just because

Source: 9gag.com via Evie on Pinterest

i need all the help i can {especially trying to tie a scarf}

i dream of paris...

Source: dressdesigndecor.blogspot.com via Lauren on Pinterest

So i can't get enough of Paris... I dragged Shane to the movies a couple days ago to see Midnight in Paris & it was totally worth seeing if not for just the beautiful Paris itself. The city played a huge and beautiful character in this movie & deserves an academy award for it's performance.. it was breathtakingly beautiful! I about died... and now I am reading a novel I picked up today at B&N called The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain that tells the story of Ernest Hemingway's first {of 4} marriage which is set in Paris in the 1920s! Love it! {actually i'm only on chapter 4 & its a little slow going} but i'm a bit obsessed with that current time and place because the movie touches during that time as well. Have you seen it? or read this book? what did ya'll think?