So we closed on our new home last Monday, and we are currently in the middle of this move, and it's been...different. As a military family, we are used to having movers pack and move us (which is glorious because you don't really have to do anything); but since we are just moving down the street this time, we decided to do it ourselves. While it's been a little stressful, things have actually been going pretty well with the move. Alex will bring several boxes over, and I will immediately unpack them and put the contents away--which is much easier than being inundated with a barrage of boxes all at one time. But moving is still moving, even if it is just up the street, and it's never easy. I'm just trying to take one box at a time and keep my eyes on the prize, which is home design. So far I've come up with the color palette of the new house and the vibe I'm going for, which is pretty bohemian with a splash of eclecticism. 

rattan mirror // Capiz chandelier // venus vase

I have already chosen most of the decor for the new house, which took some time but is basically my favorite hobby, so I had fun with it. I wanted to do a lot of neutrals in fun textures with some pops of color throughout. Here's a peek at some of the things we are going with in the living room/dining room area. It's a big open floor plan, so I wanted it to flow really well. 

pendant light // jute light fixture // rattan ladder // sectional // swivel chair // tv console // rug

I can't wait to get all the furniture in and have everything put together and feel like we are really living in our new home!

Happy Saturday!

xoxo

Kitchen/Dining Inspo

Ah, I love a good clean kitchen (You should see mine right now. It's a vision straight out of Dante), so that is where I am going to start with the design inspo. Our new house needs a little lovin' in the kitchen area, so we plan to give it a little facelift with new Shaker-style cabinets, new quartz countertops, new oven and fridge, finishing off the island, installing a backsplash, and adding some open shelving in the wet bar area.

This is what we're starting with. 

I'm currently loving a taupe/greige kitchen, but white kitchens will always have my heart, so I've decided to do white cabinets on the uppers and do the bottoms and the island a taupe color. That way I'll get the best of both worlds. Top it off with some gold hardware, and I think it will be dreamy. This is what I'm envisioning when it's all said and done. 

Tile

These are some other kitchens that I'm using for inspiration:

Our new kitchen and dining room are sort of one and the same; it's a very open floor plan. So I definitely want them to flow well. Luckily it has great light in the area, which is a bonus. Here are some dining spaces I've been drooling over:

As you can see, I'm really into the white tulip tables, lighter woods, and pops of soft pinks and yellows. Anyway, that's it for now. I'll let y'all know as soon as I get my vision board drawn up. 

Until then, hope you're having a wonderful week!

xoxo

I'm Baaaack!

Hi there! Long time, no see, huh? 

The last few years in the baking biz have kept me busy, and I just never found the time to tend to this little nook of the blogosphere. But since I've closed up the bakery for Covid, I figured now was just as good a time as any to dip my toes back into writing. 

Plus, I've got news.

We are moving!

Friends and family in Atlanta--don't get excited. 

We are not moving far.

We found another home in our neighborhood that we love, just up the street from our current house, and we decided to pull the trigger and go for it. I couldn't be more excited, for a lot of reasons.

The basis of its appeal is that it's a single-story home. We are currently in a two-story house, and, while I love it, my fibromyalgia makes it difficult to go up and down the stairs day in and day out. Which means I literally never go up the stairs at all. Which means my upstairs is a perpetual shitshow.

Up there, we live by Vegas laws: 

What happens upstairs stays upstairs. 

That's my motto.

So I am thrilled to be moving to a one-story house because maybe I can actually keep this one clean. But seriously, I think that this new house will afford me so many more precious moments with my kids that I currently miss out on, like putting them to bed upstairs at night. It's the little things like that that I really don't want to miss while they're still little enough to want me in their lives.

Second reason I'm pumped is that this new house has a pool in the backyard. It's going to be awesome to have that source of entertainment on hand for the kids, especially in the summertime, which is my nemesis. (I f*cking loathe summer in Florida).

Another huge plus of the new house is that it's very close to the kids' school, so they will be able to walk there. And there's a neighborhood playground on the other side of the house, so I will be able to send them there anytime. There should literally be no excuses for "I'm bored." 

Third reason I'm excited is, um, decorating! I just love designing new spaces; it's probably my favorite hobby in the world. And I've got big plans for this place.

We are so excited!!!

And now I've used way too many exclamation marks in one post.

Thanks for tuning back in! I will be sharing lots more details and pics and design inspo in the days to come!

xoxo

Friday Favorites: Morning Apocalypse Edition

Happy Friday, Friends! I am reporting to you live from the sixth circle of hell.

Vivi, my typically non-sick child, has had a cold for the past few days, so she's been coming down to my bedroom in tears and begging to sleep with me. Which would be fine if she would actually sleep. Instead, she brings her taxidermied cat into my bed (don't ask), flops around for a couple of hours, gets in and out of my bed, flops around some more, cries, whines, begs for waffles and Nutella at midnight, flops around some more, and then finally goes to sleep. And then she continues to wake up every thirty minutes after that with more flopping and fussing. If she weren't sick, I wouldn't even entertain the idea of letting her sleep with me, but I'm a sucker for a sick little bebe. Unfortunately, all 28 pounds of her manages to take up an entire king size bed, so I have gotten 3 hours of sleep in the past two nights combined.

When Bobby came down this morning at 7am for breakfast, I had just fallen back asleep, but I got up and made him breakfast. I sat on the sofa for a few minutes to catch up on the news while he ate, and I guess I had inadvertently fallen asleep sitting up, because I startled myself awake probably twenty minutes later to find Bobby standing on a step stool in our butler's pantry spraying everything with the sink faucet in our wet bar area. Vivi was awake by that point, too, and there were what appeared to be ripped apart carnations all over my living room floor. 

#byeflowers

Vivi was still feeling pretty puny, so she asked to watch tv in my lap on the living room sofa. We were snuggled up for about one episode of Bubble Guppies when I realized that I hadn't heard anything out of Bobby for about 20 minutes. And that's never good. 

I hollered up, "Bobby? Whatcha doing? You playing with your trains??"

"No, no, Mommy," he replied hesitantly.

Then he came downstairs only in his underpants and soaked in water, as well as some unidentified white substance, from head to toe. 

"I'm wet," he said forlornly.

"Well, I can see that, Bob. What happened?"

"I made a mess."

"Where? What kind of mess?"

"A mess in the bathroom. But I cleaned it up. It's all clean now, Mommy."

This would normally be the point that I would run upstairs to assess the damage, but Vivi was snuggled up on me and sniffling, and I didn't especially have the energy to move. 

"It's all clean?" I asked.

"All clean," he insisted.

"Okay," I said. "Go grab a towel and wipe off." 

After a few minutes, I got up to go to the restroom, and Bobby looked absolutely panic-stricken. 

"No, Mommy! Don't go upstairs and look at my mess!" he pleaded.

Oh, shit.

"I thought you said it was clean?" I asked, knowing good and well it probably wasn't.

"It's a big mess, Mommy. You're going to be mad. Please don't go look at my mess," he continued to plead.

If this guy admits he made a mess, that's gotta be one large mess.

Again, this would typically be a point where Normal Me would run upstairs to look, but I was so tired and so completely out of shits to give that I was choosing to abide by the mantra of what I don't know can't hurt me.

"Okay," I said calmly, "but please tell me what is all over you?"

"Oh, that's toothpaste," he said with a hesitant grin, just waiting to see how I would react.

I stared blankly into the vacuum of his eyes, waiting to see which one of us would crack first. 

"Toothpaste, huh?"

"Toothpaste."

"How did you get toothpaste all over your entire body, Bob?" I asked.

"It all happened so fast," he said.

Aha, he's learned a line from Mama's playbook.

That was the point that I decided I should probably go take a look at this alleged mess. It actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but it appeared that what had begun as an innocent tooth brushing incident somehow turned into toothpaste smeared all over the mirror and his body. I can only assume that he tried to clean himself up by crawling in the sink, and then things just spun out of control. But this is coming from the kid who is notorious for flooding bathrooms, so on a Bobby scale of 1-10, this was maybe a 4. 

And then I saw the pumpkin guts. 

Somehow--and I don't know how or why--he busted a pumpkin and scattered its innards all over the play room. Now this is where I began to get pissed. I went downstairs to find Bobby and discipline him and make him clean it up, but instead, I found one butt ass naked little boy whipping a Disney Princess beach towel around his head like a helicopter and a whiny little girl running around with a cut finger and smearing blood all over my nice clean living room. How? What?? Is this real life?

Oh the humanity. 

After pitching a mini-hissy fit, I calmed down, wrestled Vivi to clean her up and put a band aid on her little finger cut, had a good long "talk" with Bobby, and cleaned all the affected areas of this morning's atom bomb. Then I figured out a way to intimidate my kids into good behavior, and things got significantly better after that.

But on the plus side, I did shower today. 

Now I am sitting here trying to find my personal chi or whatever, which usually involves shopping. So here are some things I've had my eye on lately:

* I am head over heels for these earrings. They have a funky, punk vibe to them, and I think they would be such a fun contrast to a conservative or neutral outfit. They aren't cheap, but isn't that what Santa is for?

* This wrap sweater gives me all the winter vibes and my be going on my wishlist, too!

* I am on the hunt for some cute matching Christmas jammies, and during my search, I stumbled across the most adorable pair of Christmas kitty pajamas that Vivi has to have. They're the sweetest! And speaking of cat-wear, I am about to snag her one of these darling little kitty sweater dresses that I know she is just going to love.

* I'm obsessed with these booties and am debating how many pairs of booties a person can have before it becomes obscene.

* I wish I had a place in my house for another mirror, because I am obsessed with this really awesome, slightly creepy antler mirror. If I actually owned it, I think I would paint the wood a different color to funk it up a little bit and make it not feel like it belongs in an 1800s Scottish manor. But I dig it either way.

* Also, I need this mug in my life because I can't drink caffeine, so mornings really do blow for me. But I'd still be willing to drink my salty, slightly shitty tap water out of it.

I hope y'all all have a wonderful, relaxing, pre-Thanksgiving weekend and that nobody scatters pumpkin guts all over your home! XO

The "Cocktail Party"

These last few days have been big for us. 

First, the GA/FL game. 

For those of you who aren't familiar with the tradition, the UGA vs. UF ballgame is always held on the last Saturday in October on neutral ground in Jacksonville. UGA used to consider it our Fall Holiday and let us out of classes a day or two before the weekend so that we could all make our way down to St. Simon's, where all the fraternities would rent out hotel rooms on the beach for a multi-day, multi-night beach bash full of beer bongs and sorority t-shirts. Then, at 6am on Saturday morning, we would all pile on chartered buses to head down to Jacksonville for the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party--a moniker so infamous that it itself was banned. We would tailgate for hours and have so much fun at the game that sometimes we forgot who even won. 

Things are a little different now as a 30 year old with two kids, and then another huge change for me was going to the game as a Jacksonville resident, versus a visitor. 

I was pumped to go to the game this year, but Alex's schedule didn't work out for him to join me. I made arrangements for my parents to watch the kids, and I was thrilled that my BFF jumped at the chance to be my date instead. She's been my best friend since childhood, and I'm not really sure that the term BFF is truly accurate. Your Starbucks barista can be your BFF these days. This gal is my Ride-or-Die. You know. The friend who can literally finish your sentences and you can talk to for hours about nothing and everything with absolutely not one iota of judgement. Every girl should have one. And I'm lucky to have one of the best. 

So I was excited when we decided to go together and tailgate with some of my fun new neighbors, even though that meant sitting with some unfortunate Florida fans. But I did my part to keep civility in check ;)

Seriously, take a second and read this scoreboard.
All this was going down while people were having a dance-off to Lil' Jon in the background.

I haven't been to a UGA game in a couple of years, and I'm pretty sure I haven't been to a GA/FL game since 2007, so you could say it's been a while. It's funny how some things change and then other things never do. The styles have changed quite a bit from even when I was in college. We would wear sundresses and dressy tops with lots of jewelry and heels. Nowadays, girls don't wear such dressy clothing as much. At one point, I literally did a double take to check out a girl wearing a jean skirt and a nude colored bra. 

"Was that a bra???" I asked my friend.

"Pretty sure that was a bra," she confirmed.

"Well, great horned spoon."

 (I'm trying to curse less, and I picked up that little gem in an antique book I recently stumbled upon. Great horned spoon. It's the equivalent of "well I'll be damned," or something of that nature, but it's so much more unexpected. )

About as unexpected as passing out next to a drunk opossum clutching a fifth of Mr. Boston.

Therefore, the tailgate ended up being tons of fun. It was great to get to know my neighbors a little better and spend time with, ahem, certain fans I might not otherwise spend a Fall Saturday afternoon with. But the best part was spending a hazy Fall Saturday afternoon with my best friend--sort of as a real adult, but still with some of the same twenty year old tendencies. I like to think that there are parts of me that will never grow up. 

And the best part was lying around in our pajamas afterward eating homemade mac-and-cheese and giggling until well past midnight. Sometimes you need those times, those girl times that make you feel like a human again. The times that make you feel like a real person instead of just a maid/caretaker/wife/mama/bullshit-blaster. I think it's so important to take a certain amount of time to be with your spouse and still date each other, but sometimes I forget how important it is to take the time to have a frienaissance. 

And Gators still wear jean shorts.

New House Tour: {Vivi's Cat Cave}

When it came to designing Vivi's new room, I knew that we would be making some big changes from her room at our previous house. She was finally ready to switch from her adorable round crib to a toddler bed, and I swapped out her former dresser that was way too big for her needs to a smaller, child size dresser. As far as decor went, I decided that I wanted to completely change things up (although it was terribly sad to part with the stunning Anthropologie peony watercolor wallpaper that was in her old nursery). In this new house, I had a completely blank slate to work with, which is always the most exciting because you can do anything. 

I personally have a love and fascination with birds (not real actual birds, but bird decor. I would die if I had a real bird), so I considered going that route in her room at first. I found some eclectic bird prints that had a cool vibe to them, as well as some funky feather prints. And I was planning to paint an accent wall in a deep, pretty blue, while using gold and white accents throughout, and then pops of color from the funky bird prints. The vision in my mind's eye was really lovely and fresh, although not especially little-girl-ish. I was okay with that, though, because I figured it would give her space to grow into it. 

I was initially planning something like this, with the accent wall painted Blue Danube by Benjamin Moore

But then I started thinking about whom I was designing this bird room for. I realized that I was designing it for me, not Vivi. Vivien Louise does not give a shit about birds, and it didn't really seem fair to force it on her when she has no interest in the subject matter. So I started thinking again; what would Vivi love? And then I realized how the answer was staring me right in the face. Of course--a kitty cat room. 

Marilyn cat print

I immediately got to work trying to figure out how to execute a kitty cat room that was fit for a toddler but that also wasn't completely cheesy. My first step was deciding on what furniture to use in her room. We ended up taking Bobby's original crib from Japan, which is a white Jenny Lind crib, and fashioning it into a toddler bed. You can't go wrong with white Jenny Lind anything, especially in a little girl's room. 

crib/toddler bed

We did a complete switcheroo with everyone's dressers. Alex and I confiscated Vivi's massive dresser for our own master bedroom, and Bobby got a whole new bedroom suit of refinished furniture, so Vivi ended up with Bobby's old antique dresser. It is a sweet little child-sized wardrobe that my mama found and refinished when she was pregnant with my brother, so it's been in the family for a while. It was painted blue and white when it was in Bobby's old room, so it definitely needed a facelift if it was going to have a place in Vivi's new room. I debated on color schemes for a while, but I eventually ended up using a light olive chalk paint on the body and then an ivory color on the drawers. After painting it, I antiqued it with the dark wax. I just happened to be strolling in an Anthropologie store one day and came across the most adorable kitty cat knobs, and I knew immediately that they HAD to go on the freshly refinished dresser. I only bought two for the top drawer, because I thought eight of them might be overkill. An expensive overkill. So I just placed them at the top and then used simple crystal knobs on all the other drawers. It turned out just the way I was hoping, and it couldn't be more different than how it looked before.

cat knobs // art deco tray (similar here)

In Vivi's old nursery, I had a really comfortable rocker; in our old master bedroom, I had my fabulous leopard wingback chair that my husband glared at every single day with complete and utter disdain. So, in keeping with the cat theme, I switched the two chairs when we moved to the new house. Vivi's room gained the leopard chair, and we took the neutral rocker for our own bedroom.

 

 

Shy Little Kitten pillow // leopard chair (sort of similar here)

There were also several things from her old room that I did want to keep and work into her toddler bedroom. We kept the gold and white art deco style rug, the gold vintage chandelier, the gold iron flower wreath, and her vintage chalkboard. I felt pretty confident that I could find a way to make those fit into the new space. 

toy kitchen

When I began hunting for new bedding, I fell in love with the most perfect kitten sheets from Land of Nod. They feature the Little Golden Book hero, The Shy Little Kitten. You may or may not remember that book from childhood (I definitely did). Land of Nod just happened to be using the retro book in a Shy Little Kitten line they were featuring at just the right time, so I picked up the sheets and throw pillow and decided that those pieces would be the major anchor of the room. I then repurposed our custom-made wedding cake tablecloth from our wedding reception and, with a little safety pinning here and there, made it a whimsical little crib skirt. 

Shy Little Kitten sheets // pom pom comforter // cat pillow // ruffle pillow (similar here)

It's harder than you'd think to find a toddler bed (aka crib size) comforter, but I finally found one I loved from Target's Pillowfort collection. While shopping in that collection, I also ran across a stuffed kitty cat head to hang on the wall, and I squealed because I knew Vivi would love it so much. Whenever I hung it up, Alex said, "That's really creepy." But I completely disagreed, since I believe that every room should have some form of taxidermy in it ;)
Plus, I knew Viv would dig it so hard. She can be a little creepy like her mama. 

 

stuffed cat head // rug 

One of my favorite pieces in Vivi's room is the Paw-drey Hepburn print that is in her reading nook. Sure, maybe it's questionable to put a picture of a cat smoking a cigarette in your small child's bedroom, but it's Audrey, people. She can do no wrong. And I just couldn't pass it up. 

Pawdrey Hepburn print

I also felt like we needed some greenery in her room, and I knew I wanted to do a fiddle leaf fig tree. The debate was whether to go for a real one or a faux version. I am a self-admitted plant murderer, so that was my biggest concern until someone else reminded me about Vivi's penchant for eating dirt. That pushed me over the edge, and I decided it made way more sense to just go faux. And I'm not gonna lie to you; I LOVE this fake tree. It was totally worth it, and I'd highly recommend trying one of these out if you are in a similar situation with kids and/or black thumbs. 

faux fiddle leaf fig tree

Everything in the room was slowly coming together, but something still felt a bit blah, like something just wasn't quite right. I couldn't put my finger on it for a little while, but I eventually realized it was the plain grey walls. They weren't doing anything for anybody. I decided to paint three of her walls the palest shade of pink that I could find. Now paint is hard to pick; you think you're good until you get it on the wall, and it's about three shades too bright. That's what I ran into in her last room. I thought I'd chosen a pale pink last time, and then it ended up being much more intense than I had originally wanted. So this time I knew better, and I chose the pinkest shade of white that I could find. Even when they did the little finger swipe on the top of the paint can, the color looked pretty darn white. But as soon as I got it onto the walls, it was inarguably pale pink. (It's actually quite a bit more pink in person than in the photographs).

The pink was pretty on the three walls, but something still wasn't just right. So I started trying to figure out what to do with the accent wall that her window and bed are on. I found a black and white wallpaper that I really liked, but it was almost impossible to track down and was going to run about $800 for one wall. I was so bummed, but I knew there was no way I could justify that cost on a wall in a toddler's room that she may get sick of in three years. Unfortunately, I was so obsessed with the wallpaper that I couldn't get it out of my head. So I decided to really test the limits of my artistic abilities and paint that shit instead. It only took about six days of slowly plucking away at it, but I finally finished painting the entire wall by hand, and I really love it so much. 

The kids were at my parents' house in Georgia while Alex and I were moving in and putting the kids' rooms together. We wanted to finish their rooms first so that they had a "wow" moment when they walked into their new home for the first time. 

 

When Vivi walked in her room, she shrieked with glee: "KITTIES!!!!!" 
Then she went around looking at every single cat detail, cooing "awwwww," at each one. She loves her room so much (to the point that she sleeps with no fewer than 15 stuffed cats at any given time), and I love it because she loves it. So I'll consider that a win for now. Let's just see how long the kitty phase lasts. ;)

Hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for Bob's man cave sometime soon!