what a summer!

Labor Day has come and gone, as well as the summer. Except for the heat. But what I love is that fall is on the horizon. And y'all. I love the fall. But with the end of summer I can't help but think back to all the shenanigans and adventures.

1) Purchasing our very first home. Our house hunt started at the end of March, and at the beginning of June we closed. This all coming a few weeks after we thought about waiting to buy a home. Such a crazy, fun, sometimes frustrating experience. But well worth it. Definitely an unexpected blessing!

2) Traveling to Scotland & England! Have I mentioned why I wanted to travel to Scotland? Oh, I have? :) What an incredible trip that was. SO fun and got to see and do so many things. The best part? Getting to experience it with my hubby. And while in London I visited some of Kate's (the Duchess, that is) fave stores which was fun. I even purchased some Zara tops. Now I feel like we should be friends.

3) Completed lots of DIY projects! Our living room is finally complete, and since it's where we do most of our living, it's nice to have everything in its place. (Don't be deceived, there are still plenty of projects I'd like to complete :) )

4) Finding out I'd be an AUNT!!! My brother, Michael, and his wife, Gena are expecting their first child-a boy! I. Can't. Wait!

5) My mom, Gena, and I went to St. Augustine for a girls trip. We stayed at an awesome B&B and had so much fun.

6) Had a reunion with my BFFs.  Talk about shenanigans. Just kidding. Sort of. Gotta love cornhole tourneys and girl talk :)

7) A great Labor Day weekend in Hilton Head with the Burnett crew. Talk about a relaxing way to end the summer! And I just love the beach.

So thankful for such a fun summer. Now I'm looking forward to cooler weather, trips to the mountains, changing/falling leaves, boots, cardigans, scarves-the list could go on!

lamp facelift

I've had this floor lamp for a while.  It's a nice lamp, but it needed a facelift.  This project was so darn easy. All you need is a can of spray paint, tape, and a couple grocery bags.

First I got a grocery bag, covered the top of the lamp and the cord, and used the tape to secure them.  I read a lot of different techniques on prepping the lamp, sanding, using adhesive spray paint first, etc. Yeah, I didn't do any of that. I just chose what color and what finish to paint with and sprayed away.

I intended to head over to Marshall's or TJMaxx and look for a new lamp shade, BUT, why spend the money when I have some jute left over from a previous project that I could use to spruce this one up. So that's what I did.

There you have it. A very simple and affordable way to spice up a new lamp! Toodles.

diy burlap curtains

Oh, how I love our new curtains! A few weeks ago, I searched Pinterest tutorials on how to make your own burlap curtains. So with a lot of help from my wonderful mother (thanks, Mom!) I now have them hanging in our den. It's pretty darn easy. And burlap is very inexpensive. So here we go!

First, purchase burlap! I would say get more than enough just to be safe. You can always cut any excess off. Also, get your burlap according to how long/wide you want your curtains to be. Next, my mom sewed a hem on the top of the curtain, probably about a half an inch. We bought a curtain rod and my favorite part- rings with clips on them! All you need to do is simply clip the curtains onto the rings and put the rings through the rod. We frayed the bottom of the curtains slightly as well.

There you have it! DIY burlap curtains. It adds a lovely rustic touch to our living room and I find them to be pretty awesome :)

diy pallet coffee table

Since my husband and I moved into our new home, I've been wanting to make a new coffee table. Our previous coffee table-while a cool idea in theory-not so practical in real life. I'd found an old window that had been made into a coffee table and painted it red. I thought it was really unique, it just didn't work as a coffee table.

I loved the idea of using pallets as a coffee table. I'd seen all kinds of ideas on Pinterest and finally came across this tutorial. My parents and I set to work on this project but had to tweak it a little, or a lot, whatevs. We started with four pallets (which you can ask for at Lowe's or Home Depot) but they did not have the wood boards all the way across. We chose the two best-one as the base and one as the top, the leftovers in case we messed up. The plan was for my dad to pull some of the boards off from one of the spares to fill in the gaps for the top pallet (you following?). Turns out, the wood split whenever he tried to do that. Back to the store we went and bought some boards that my dad cut according to size and nailed them straight across on the top of one of the pallets.

After lightly sanding them, we stained both pieces. I used Dark Walnut stain made by Minwax. One coat was all we needed. To give the table some height, my dad cut some 4x4s (which we stained as well) and put four in the middle and four as the legs. My husband even pitched in and varnished it for me :) Definitely make sure you varnish! I added some felt on the bottom of the legs just to be safe it wouldn't get on the carpet.

And there you have it. Sorry I don't have any pictures for the 'during' process. It was really hot that day so that's my excuse. But I do have a pic of the final product!

bff reunion

I just got home from an awesome weekend with my very best friends. These girls are like my sisters and I love it when we can all get together. We are scattered throughout a few different cities and a couple of states. Some of us see each other throughout the year, but we try and have reunions where we all get out of town and hang out together. One of our best friends has a lake house on Lake Sinclair and that's where we went! Friday night we met in Milledgeville which is about 25 minutes from the lake. It also happens to be where we all went to college. I hadn't been back to Milledgeville or GCSU since I graduated three years ago. It was so cool to walk on front campus again and the second I got out of my car I felt nostalgic.  

After dinner we headed to the lake for a weekend of rest, relaxation, girl time, girl talk, food, being lazy, and in the spirit of the Olympics-our very own Cornhole Olympics. It was pretty hilarious.

My team took home the bronze, and we're proud of it! Tins and Erika took home silver and Caroline and Dana took home the gold. Just saying, Dana made the cornhole sets. Unfair advantage? :)

What an awesome weekend spending time with my people. Love them!

antiquing finds.

I love finding one of a kind pieces to put into my living space, even more so now since we've bought a house. I especially love to find rustic pieces. I'm inspired by looks of old, southern, farmhouse charm. And the best part is it's actually pretty simple to find those pieces and put them into your home! You can spot awesome finds at the antique store. All you have to do is look.

Sometimes when you go into an antique store it can be overwhelming. There are things everywhere! But the more you look, the more you'll find. Here are some pieces I've found the past few months.

I love old windows. And the best part is, about 99% of the time you can find them antiquing. They add character to a room and make a great focal point above a bed.

I found these old books at one of my favorite shops, Savvy Shopper (go find them on Facebook!). I made these bottles by covering them with jute. They make a great mantel decoration!

This artwork I also found at Savvy Shopper.  It's a set of four prints and each one says something different. What I loved about these are how old they look, plus I had my eye on them for months!

I just found this yesterday and looooved it. My mom and I went antiquing in North Augusta and found an awesome booth with this shelf.  The detail was so unique-you just don't find these things everywhere.

So, if you're looking for one-of-a-kind pieces check out your local antique stores. Chances are you'll find some great things and pay a lot less than something mass produced. Or, find something you like, and try and recreate it yourself!

Back Home

Yesterday morning we made the long trek back home. What an incredible trip we had! It was such a blessing to see another part of the world and we're both very thankful we had the opportunity.  I absolutely loved every part of the trip, but Scotland definitely has a piece of my heart.

Our travels yesterday involved an 8 1/2 hour flight back to Charlotte (where I got to watch The Hunger Games-yes!) and a delayed/bumpy/no AC flight from Charlotte back to Augusta.  Needless to say, it felt good to be back, safely, on land. This week also happens to be the week my workplace is closed for vacation. So it's kind of an added bonus (except for the lack of paycheck) that I have this week off too. I did catch a cold at the tail end of our trip, so this week shall consist of getting well (my apologies to those on the flight yesterday while I coughed up a lung). And hopefully finishing up some odds and ends that comes with moving into a new house!