two year anniversary trip: Charleston, SC

I have always wanted to go to the South (well, in all honesty I want to wear big hats and drink mint juleps on a beautiful porch), and specifically go to Charleston to see the incredible architecture. So, my sweet hubby took me there to celebrate our two year anniversary.

We swam in the Atlantic Ocean at dinnertime, walked and walked and walked around the beautifully residential city, bought art from a local photographer, ate toasted coconut gelato while strolling through the open air markets, took a historical architecture tour (believe it or not) where we stopped to have tea on the porch of the Palmer House, ate incredibly delicious and dangerous food (by the third day all I wanted to eat was vegetables) and, if we weren't already married I would say that I found where we should get married: The Lowndes Plantation. On the water, and completely magical... Daniel's family must have had something to do with that!

Everytime...

Everytime I hear these songs (the live version is by far my favorite):

I am reminded of this magical day...

{P.S. Stay tuned for our two year anniversary pictures from our trip to Charleston, SC!}

If only...

...I still had my employee discount, and a bigger than city-living kitchen... I would purchase this perfect wallpaper to quite possibly frame above a lovely banquette dining area:

A lesson on beautiful banquettes:

(The gorgeous banquette above was featured in Traditional Home, designer: Tobi Fairley)

As many of you know, I have quite of love for banquettes of all sorts. Reading nooks, kitchen seating, glamorous dining rooms... my heart flutters when I see them. Did you know, that when they were first introduced in the 1600's in France, they were reserved for royalty? Some even were used as disguises for secret passage ways (yet another reason to love them!). I love the transformation that has taken place, as now they are used in many tight spaces and can be made incredibly affordable. Recently, I've been working on a project which incorporates a great corner banquette in a kitchen and wanted to share the images that have inspired me with this project.

Thank you Elle Decor for the extra storage ideas:

Great idea for tight spaces, or kid spaces:

I would love to curl up with a good magazine here:

Dear Amanda Nisbet,

Dear Amanda,


Can I please intern for you? I'd quite like to learn your ways. And be around the beautiful things you create in hopes that the creativity would rub off on me.

Sincerely,

Laurie Beth Lowndes

Can I move in?

I would quite like to live here (found on here) and have those amazing leaf prints too:

The Office

Daniel and I spent the weekend finally unpacking my three gigantic art stuff boxes that were neatly stacked below, above and beside the office desk (I was hoping this was good enough of organization, but alas, after almost three months it was time, and I dearly missed my collection of vintage buttons)... which might be one reason there are no pictures posted of the new condo (the fact that I cannot find my camera charger is beside the point). I managed to find too many clippy things (see above picture) from college projects, and am totally inspired to use this idea from the picture above (found on Design Sponge months ago).

We spent the ENTIRE day on Friday organizing (aside from a quick break to catch up on episodes of The Office), cleaning and throwing away a lot of items that could have been donated (D was however, all too willing to make recycling runs for me down to the third floor parking, so I went with it!) and me fighting to keep precious treasures (i.e. too many 3" pieces of different ribbon that I've promised to use & keep organized this time, a thousand mismatched buttons and scrapes of fabric for the Onesies I intend to make someday). Zero dollars spent, and I finally have regained a space to be creative.

I even considered making "Happy New Year's" cards, but I think my camera is hidden somewhere with the charger that has all of our cute Fall/Birthday etc. pictures on it. Can't I just use a wedding picture from two years ago? I never made Christmas cards the year we got married, so it counts right? Am I too late to make cards? We'll see what this weekend brings, and if I can squeeze a couple hours in to make them. I am helping The Husband's BFF decorate his new place, and Lord knows how long that will take :)

Back to The Office (which is actually a little nook in our bedroom). Now that we can see the window, I've decided we desperately need curtains (the window was previously obstructed by my massive boxes). Here is what I was given permission to purchase before he'd actually seen them (I promised they weren't too ruffly) from Urban Outfitters:

Promise to post pictures of the new place and updates when I find the necessary means (i.e. time, camera, charger). For now, I am thankfully inspired to create again, which is so good for my soul while missing my glue gun for three months.