Christmas Shopping

Pretty sure the point of shopping at Christmas is for others.  But thanks to JCHOKIE I got a coupon for Banana Republic Outlet and thought I'd pop up there for a new pair of jeans few Christmas gifts.  I came home with no jeans gifts for others, but I did get some items for me....selfish much?  Maybe- deserving-sure why not.  (I can give any excuse to clothes shop-it is for WORK people!!)  Ask me to go out for a fun night on the town-I can't find anything cute to wear.  Ask me to dress for work-easy peasy.

Ok, so not so sure this goes together-but you tell me.  I'm  not great with colors that aren't matchy matchy and I know matchy matchy isn't in...so HELP

Basically it is gray with some mustard yellow and black.  I thought if I paired it up with gray pants (below) it would be pretty with a pop of pink?  Or do I have this all wrong?

I found a cute basic black shirt that I paired up with a necklace that I already owned and thought that was a staple piece (hence my excuse to buy it)

And then two cute shirts-one sweater paired up with a great Stella & Dot necklace and a navy blue shirt I thought I could wear to work or with jeans and maybe that pink sweater above-thoughts???

Here is everything put together..

SHUT-TERS

Yeah, I might have stuttered when I heard that Hammond was going to build me
S-H-U-T-T-E-R-S.  Say what?  Did I drop enough hints that he finally figured out how much I was DYING for him to build them for me?  Did I hint enough that shutters would make our house look pretty F-L-Y???? (As seen HERE)  Or was he just sick and tired of me always mentioning it was the project he would never do?  Whatever the case my nagging desire for shutters is being fullfilled as we speak peeps!

Here are a few sneak peak pictures.  While he's outside slaving away, I'm nice and warm in the house with my feet propped up dreaming about my house....(Yes, he got the short end of the stick in this marriage!)

This is the first shutter-still needs primed and painted

I'm sure he's wishing it was a beer in his hand and not a water

And b/c I am me, his shirt made me laugh...tuna fishing-really???

No shutter

What it will look like (minus black paint)

I'll try and be a better blogger and keep this updated with progress.  I'm so excited!!!  Merry Christmas to ME!

Holiday wreath-Yes or No

A few weeks back I saw this cutie pie on Pinterest and figured, "Heck, I can do that." 

Then along came Thanksgiving, and then the first week of December and I realized I hadn't even attempted to make this sucker yet.  So I ran around Charleston looking for three graduated sized wreaths.  Do you know how hard that is?  Stupid hard.  And to find them all in the same "style?"  Forget about it.  So I settled (I really hate that word) on three wreaths from the dreaded Wally World.  I also picked up some styrofoam, a scarf, gloves (I wanted mittens but couldn't find any) and some fabric glue.

After spending an hour and downing a beer (Love Blue Moons) I had had enough of trying to glue the friggin' felt to the darn styrofoam.  So I took a break and went and saw "Breaking Dawn" with my buddy Hope.  (Check out her awesome blog HERE)

I came back after being in love with Edward and decided, perhaps felt wasn't the way to go.  I would try spray painting my little top hat for frosty.  We'll see how well it will live up to the elements of outside.

So here is the final product.  I'd give myself a C+.  Not sure how you are to keep the wreaths from looking like ovals instead of circles.  And I still need to spruce up his top hat with a little red ribbon and maybe something cute like the bird on top like my inspiration picture.  If anyone has any suggestions, I am totally open to them.  Seriously...

I decided that I am much more of a buyer than a maker.  I find much more satisfaction in buying products than I do in making them myself.  Is my severe lack of patience a contributor to that?  You betcha it is.....

Looking back at this final picture and my inspiration picture I change my grade to a D.  HELP

Life is what you make of it

This weekend I finally brought myself to a point where I learned that no matter how hard you want something in life, you don't always get your way.  That I have to open my heart to something bigger and better and trust that God has my life planned out.  Now I am not going to say that my journey from here on out is going to be an easy one, but I'm going to try and and build my faith back up and put it in His hands. 

I signed the hotel and two of our great vendors up to be a part of something really great, The LowCountry Orphan Foundation's first annual auction.  Each company set up an amazing tablescape with its own theme and then people paid to walk through the ballroom, bid on auction items and enjoy the beautiful table settings.  It felt nice to be part of something so good.  (And I tried hard to get these pictures to go the right way, but they won't...sorry)

Sanctuary-Theme-Beach wedding

Love these chair covers

Close up of our tablescape

This was from a local candy store-beautiful huh?

Saturday morning was spent reflecting on where I have been this year and where I want to go.  After having a few moments, I pulled myself together, and did a little retail therapy.  Then I met my buddy Russo and we both went to church together for the first time in a long time.  (Not proud to say that, but you have to start somewhere right?)   After church, Hammond and I went to Zen and had some YUMMO sushi and of course, my favorite, a Honey Mango Mojito. 

Sunday was a great day with Hammond.  We went and walked the Cooper River Bridge which is always beautiful, walked down to waterfront park and hung out on the bench over looking the river for a while.  It was so pretty and just a perfect moment.  The sweetgrass (one of my favorite plants down here) was in full bloom.  I loved it.

Since we were over at Mt. Pleasant, we hopped over to the new Trader Joe's to see what all the hype was about.  It was P-A-C-K-D but a neat store though.  I'd like to go back when it isn't swamped with people.  I picked up a few things including this delish goat cheese with blueberries.  Hello goodnes!!

We came home and decided that we needed to pull out our spring/summer flowers that were barely hanging on and plant some fall flowers. 

There isn't much at Home Depot/Lowes that say "Stick me in the shade in your terrible clay soil and I shall bloom" so we went with full sun panseys and some cabbage.  I sure hope these little cuties do ok. 

Our "helpers"

Now I am happily in my pj's waiting on my amazing husband to finish dinner.  Grilled salmon with shitake mushrooms and asparagus.  Might be my fav meal to date.  And of course a nice glass of vino to top it off. 

I hope everyone had a great weekend.   :)  

What the hell did I get myself into.....

One of my most favorite friends, Russo, talked me into going to the Coastal Carolina Fair.   She had free tickets, so I thought why not.  I've never been, but people have said it was fun.  I thought, eh, I might find some great mullets, so why not go.   Got to say, Chad was pretty nervous about me going.  Something about my mouth that never shuts up and my facial expressions?  Not sure what he means by THAT??!!  (ha-yes, Chad, I know I am a loud mouth, say whatever I think, and my face gives away what I am thinking before I say it kind of girl....yeah, heard that before...but I'm still ME!)  So I took my sunglasses....  :)

I'm going to put this out there..Right now..on this blog...for the three two people who actually read it.  (And I love you my dear two readers, I really do...)   I am a snob.  Yep, there, I said it.  Do I feel better, yeah sort of.  So with that out of the way...let me begin my journey of the fair.

1-I had no business being there...other than my love of funnel cakes and fried pickles, there isn't much else I am going to eat.  Do I want a ten pound chicken leg?  Hell no.  Did I vomit a little in my mouth when I saw the people with no teeth shoveling them into their pie holes?  yes, I did...

Yep, 5 pounds of ooey gooeyiness...in my pie hole

This made me want to vomit...

2-I am a huge germ freak.  Was I going to ride a ride that has been set up by people who probably don't care if they follow the safety rules?  Um, no.  Is it full of germs?  Um, YEAH it is!

3-I don't think they accept my Macy's card here.....However, their retail was might I say a bit on the interesting side.  I wish I had more cash so I could have bought some of these real perdy things...

Now looking back, I wish I did get this shirt.  There's a rodeo coming to town soon...This would have been funny.

4-I didn't have to pay money to see some of the "AMAZING" exhibitions like the tiniest lady ever, or the half snake, half man because walking around was like a free, freak show.  South Carolina's best...I must say....Example One:  "The Back that Ass Up Show"

All night long I have had that terrible rap song, "Back that Ass Up" stuck playing in my head thanks to these fine folks.  I love how he accented her outfit with his gold and red jacket...Such a playa....

But my favorite free freak show was the bearded lady with no "teef" waiting in line to let her kid climb on some rope ladder to win a 40 foot stuffed animal.  I wish my camera was better or that I had more ballz to get closer and take her picture, because she was some SC wonderful.......

I think the most pathetic thing I saw all night was the "little miss" pagent show.  Stage Mom's who just thought their little "Miss" was all that, paraded them around on the "stage" showing off dresses that probably cost as much as their weekly paycheck.  Half of these little girls cried and didn't want to do it, but their Mama's just shoved them right out on stage and made them perform these terrible routines.  God bless those babies....it was darn right pathetic.  (Yep, darn right-I said it...Hey-I was at the fair all afternoon-got to get into character!)

I don't want to sound like I didn't have fun, because I really did.  Hanging out with Russo is always fun and I did shove a funnel cake (well most of a funnel cake) in my mouth...so it coudn't have been that bad.  (Editor's note-I feel like I am dying b/c of that damn cake....but it was so tasty....)   In the end, one really great thing came out of all of this.  Russo found her dream man.  Next year they are gonna get married at the top of the Ferris Wheel...Ahh...now that's love...