{photo tour} my new room!

welcome to my new room! i am almost done getting it the way i want it, just a few more little projects to go. enjoy!

{anthro letters - no longer sold}

hi lola. click here for the post on how i painted my bed. and here for the post on how i painted that darling purple mirror. my bedspread is anthropologie (no longer available) and my bulldog is fat. 

{etsy purchase from studio1404}

i decided to ditch the hutch that goes on my desk and i am really glad i did. i love the window above my (target) desk. window & yellow chair came from sleepy poet. i need to find a home for the framed artwork sitting under the window, but for now, that's where it lives.

i spray painted this lantern with leftover paint from the mirror. this hand sewn heart from my friend mary anne has been through many moves with me & is one of my favorite things.

picked them gem up in a thrift store in greensboro, nc. 

i'm like, SO proud of my shelves. this is where my owl obsession starts to get creepy, so let me explain. my sorority's "mascot" is an owl and i went to college right around the time owls became trendy. which means, everyone i know (including myself) had to buy like every owl they came across. and now i'm a creepy owl lady. 

the other side. need a rug in a serious way.

oh hi. this vanity used to be in my room at my mom's old house. i never had space for it/a need for it before, but now it's the perfect addition to my room. we share a bathroom, so this allows me a space in my room to get ready. i love it & it's kind of fun to have something from your childhood in your grown up room.

i recovered the stool with some leftover fabric i had. 

love these little things. green: sleepy poet. bright blue, orange & purple: urban outfitters. little blue: michael's. clear: world market. 

my dresser & nightstand are from haverty's but have anthro knobs (here there are in other colors: i got mine on sale for $2 each). 

i told you there are a lot of owls. necklace & bracelet stands: urban outfitters.

the old polaroid was a basement find from my grandparent's house a few years ago. the old bottles came from a junk yard me and my mom found about 10 years ago.

this beautiful buffet... swoon. i got it at sleepy poet when we moved in about a month ago. i'm still just as obsessed as i was the day i first saw it. 

you know you're getting old when you start to love furniture. 

got these city prints on etsy about a year and a half ago, but looks like the shop has since moved to birdave.com. check it out - these make great gifts. i have charlotte, atlanta & columbia. 

more owls. my mom & i made that wax bottle out of a oddly shaped wine bottle she had a few years ago. 

this is my favorite room of mine yet - what do you think? 

recipe: peanut butter goodness.

this probably has a real life name. but i have no idea what it is, and my mom & i just like to call it peanut butter goodness.  there are only 4 ingredients (or 5 if you add chocolate chips) and you are going to wish i never posted this.

1 cup natural crunchy peanut butter: i use smucker's natural chunky

1.5 cups old fashion oats: i use good ole quaker oats

1 cup agave nectar light: you can find this near the artificial sweeteners in the regular grocery store

7/8 cup protein powder: i use vanilla "show me the whey" from earthfare. this is a bit pricey ($22), but will last awhile!

i add like 1/2 a cup chocolate chips because the only thing better than peanut butter, is peanut butter with chocolate. all you do is stir these things together & you have a delicious and pretty healthy treat. it would be a lot healthier if i had any sort of self control!

enjoy!

DIY: plywood sign.

a few months ago i painted the sign below for katie's room. she had leftover plywood from another project & decided to paint it yellow & i drew/painted the words. it was a great idea & one that i stole for this project.

a few weekends ago, court and i went to lowe's in search for some plywood. we got there and realized that 1. plywood is expensive and 2. we certainly didn't need a whole sheet. so we wandered back to the wood cutting area and found some employees who were loading up scrap pieces. we asked if we could have a piece & he agreed we could have it for $10. STEAL. so he cut it to the size we wanted, 34" x 34", and it was a done deal.

1. primer. i tried to just go ahead and paint it without primer and that didn't work. i also decided when i put the first bit of paint on there that i hated the color yellow we had picked. mom had some primer so i borrowed it, painted a thick coat, and let it dry overnight.

2. spray paint. we had originally bought the same kind i have always used, but on a trip to home depot, i picked up a can of rust oleum. i did an event for rust oleum a few months ago and i was so impressed by all their props/painted items they brought along, so i felt good about switching it up. i wasn't disappointed.

 

{$8 tarp from lowe's for projects}

 

3. distressing. speaking of the rust oleum event, they had shipped some distressing tools here but they arrived a few weeks after the event. my client said to toss them, so a few of us took a set home. if i had followed the instructions, i would have used the appropriate sandpaper before using the tools. but i didn't have any, and didn't want to make another trip, so i just went ahead with banging these things on the wood. really, i think that's all there is to it.

 

 

 

 

4. quote time. we ended up going with joshua 24:15. i free handed this with a pencil first and then used regular old acrylic white paint.

 

 

5. attaching the hardware. this is actually REALLY easy. i got a pack of d-rings and a pack of picture hangers. i measured equal distance for the d-rings and just drilled them in. i used the painter's tape trick to hang the picture hangers on the wall and the wood hooked right on.

 

 

{d-ring}

 

finished product!

 

 

 

wood: $10

paint: $3.49 + $.99

hardware: around $6

 

total cost: $20

la-tea-da's & sterling events spring collection: mint museum

last night our sales & events team headed over to the mint museum for la-tea-da's & sterling events spring collection showcase. we get invited to a lot of networking events because of the industry we work in, and they're always fabulous & over the top. this was no different!

 

i have lived in charlotte for almost all my life and somehow had never been to the mint museum, so that in itself was a treat. the mint was the original branch of the united states mint - pretty cool!

 

upon arrival, they had a clear top tent, awesome lounge furniture, and a silver bar set up outside. once we checked in, we each got an envelope with an invite to a tasting time. ours was at 7:15pm, so we grabbed a few delicious hors d'oeuvres before making our way to the tasting room. my favorite small bites were the mini pimento cheese cones & the teriyaki shrimp skewers wrapped in pina colada cotton candy!

 

once inside the tasting room, they offered us drinks and started our three-course tasting. first up at our table was the surf n' turf macaroni & cheese: pimento cheese macaroni cheese topped with pulled pork bbq & pickled okra // lobster macaroni cheese.

 

 

{LOVED the pimento & bbq. the okra was also delicious!}

 

next up was the sweet tea chicken: peach tea & ginger infused chicken with a gingersnap dust. served with couscous & a sweet potato biscuit with peach chutney.

 

 

{the chicken was AMAZING}

 

our last course was the southern duet: marinated kale & pickled vegetable salad with carolina shrimp & grits skillet.

 

 

{can't ever go wrong with s&g}

 

by the time we finished up our tasting, we found a few more stations we wanted to try & then hung around while they raffled off cakes from some of charlotte's finest cake makers. and of course we couldn't leave without hitting up shutterbooth...

 

i was super impressed with la-tea-da's & the taste, style & presentation of all their food. if you're looking for a caterer in charlotte, i definitely recommend la-tea-da's!

 

DIY: gallery wall.

one of the cool things about living with your sister is that you have the same family, so you can put up family photos in the mutual living spaces in your house. after seeing this pin on pinterest, we decided to give it a go.

on friday night, we stopped at michael's to pick up the frames. we opted to get the 10x10 frames in black because they were $2 cheaper than the 12x12 and hey, $18 is a lot of money! i also bought a pack of 12x12 white card stock to use as the background.

when we got home, we cut the paper to 10x10 and decided to go ahead and figure out how to hang these suckers. obviously, the spacing of these frames was important. we figured it out like this..

• measured the entire wall side to side. we divided the side to side measurement by 4, and marked each 1/4 spot along the wall, so really, you have 5 "lines," 3 being actual lines and 2 being the walls. the 3 lines that were actually marked were the vertical lines that we placed the frames on.

• once we had the vertical lines figured out, we had to figure out how high we wanted the highest set of frames to go & how low we wanted the lowest set to go. we decided we would rather have the higher set higher, so we measured from the higher point (not the ceiling) and followed the same measuring as step 1.

i printed off two copies of each picture at rite aid. originally, we wanted to do 5x5 squares, but buying 5x7 prints was like $70 vs. the $10 i spent on the 4x6 prints. no brainer there. i trimmed the photos to make them as close to a 4x4 as i could. i simply taped the photo in the center of the white paper & inserted it into the frame. voila! 

total cost: about $60

and for a closer look at what freaks we are for 1. taking some of these pics and 2. for hanging them in our home...

{grand canyon!}

{this was taken in public. yikes.}

{in the running for my all time favorite picture}

i bought a $56 sports bra.

it's true. how ridiculous it that? i mean, $56 for a bra that you just sweat in?

well, i am here to say it is worth it. when i started running last year, i quickly learned the sports bras i had weren't gonna cut it. so i invested in some from target that were more supportive - clasp in the back - not stretchy. and those have been serving their purpose. but with how much back pain i already have, combined with my larger than average chest, i decided it was time to invest in a great running bra.

i started doing some research & a blogger who wears the same size bra as me had suggested moving comfort bras. her favorite bra style is called juno, and she swears by them. so after  her endorsement & reading the 506 positive reviews, i took the plunge and ordered it in white.

because i spent over $50, i got free shipping, so hey, there's that! when it arrived, my sister noted that it was really big. but so are my boobs. so i figured that was a good thing. after my first 4 mile run, i knew i made the right choice. so for all you big-boobed runners out there, check out moving comfort & their wide range of bras. they have different impact levels, a TON of sizes, and lots of fun colors. they also have a whole line of workout gear, not just bras.

{a sports bra for every size!}

{the juno. the straps are adjustable. her eyes are scary.}

{3 clasp closure in the back}

movingcomfort.com

also check out sierratradingpost.com - they have some great deals on select sizes. 

happy running!

weekend = productivity.

what a weekend! sometimes you have to ditch your previous scheduled plans (for me, this was a bar crawl through downtown with 16k of your closest friends) and do what you want to do with your weekend.

after work on friday, court and i headed to lowe's & michael's to pick up some things for some weekend crafts. when we got home, we started on one project & also attached the hardware & hung up her window pane. it was a real rager of a friday night!

saturday morning i woke up and quickly got my day started. it went a little something like this... whole foods, home goods, rite aid, anthropologie, michael kors, michael's (again), momma's house, uptown to get my sister, trader joe's, and marshall's. PHEW. 

{anthro finds. new splenda jar.}

{home goods finds. adore the mint candle.}

disclaimer: we have a friend who gets us 50% off retail! i bought two new pairs of sandals, my mom replaced my black flats that she stole, and surprised me with another nude pair! lucky girl!

i finally got my framed prints back! the top is a cut out of south carolina's campus that i got at the southern christmas show last year. the bottom is a david french of selwyn pub that chelsea got me for my birthday back in august. 

my step dad & i used to spend a lot of time cleaning my car over the years. it was always one of my favorite things to do with him whenever i was home from college. and even though now he has to help from his wheelchair, i think we make a pretty great team. he told me what to do every step of the way, and he took care of the tires & wheels. 3 hours later, i had a beautiful clean car!

before picking up court from the bar crawl, i finished up this project which was pretty easy & deserves it's own post.

{family gallery wall.}

saturday evening was spent hanging with/laughing at my over-served sister. she's a riot. 

sunday morning i woke up and ran the last 2.5 miles of my weekly goal before church. after church, i had lunch with my parents, and then met all my siblings while they had lunch. court & i ran to home depot to pick up some shelves for our bathroom and also picked up some paint for another project. 

{shelves finally hung after some stud/molly screw drama.}

{another project we're working on.}

i had dinner with my other parents, and spent some time with them before heading home. sunday is almost over, and i'm not sure i could have packed anything else into my weekend. i did exactly what i wanted to do all weekend, and i wouldn't have had it any other way!