Home Sweet Beach?

The week has finally come! We're headed to North Carolina on Thursday morning! Tomorrow Susannah and Chris will drive down from Chicago and we'll wake up bright and early to head 12 hours east in search for Wilmington and the beach! I'd be lying if I said I didn't constantly peruse PadMapper and Craigslist for little homes available in Wilmington. As nice as it would be to live in a pastel colored beach house in the Carolina/Kure Beach area, my sights have been set on the downtown Wilmington area around the RiverWalk. The feel of downtown is so much like Franklin, but less stuffy. The coffee shops, the boutiques, and the cobblestone streets lining the river of the Port City are truly beautiful. The houses in the area are eerily similar to the East Nashville area and there are many bungalows and single family homes with cute little picket fences, porch swings and rocking chairs. Yes, I am in the "decorate every home I stumble across in my imagination" phase! I know we won't be moving for half a year or more, but that doesn't stop me from fantasizing on the daily about home decor. Retro throwback black and white tile kitchen floors, or pastel tile, shabby chic decorations or modern furniture. Pinterest has really be blowing my mind with the constant stream of inspiration. I don't know which direction to go! I guess that will fully depend on the home we move into. I've been trying to avoid apartments at all cost. I'd rather rent a small home with a fenced in backyard so the girls can play at their leisure rather than toting all of our furniture up flights of stairs and dealing with noisy neighbors. I've felt spoiled the last couple of years by living in houses and townhomes. Apartment living is the worst, in my opinion! Plus they always want to take your money! I can't wait to get to Wilmington because I know the whole time we're there I will be scouring the neighborhoods for the best areas to live and what's close to what! It must be a nice neighborhood within walking distance to shops and restaurants and an area to ride our bikes and preferably close to a park! Even better if it's within walking distance to a dog park! Our pups miss their daily outings to the park so I can't wait until they can exercise in a fun way again!

♥ (all images via pinterest) ♥

I keep thinking about color combinations and prints and patterns. I've been scouring thrift shops both online and off trying to find the perfect dining table and chairs to reupholster and paint. So I have a question for you!

What is your favorite way to decorate? Are you a shabby chic, lots of white gal? Ruffles and lace? Do you prefer to thrift most things and make them new again? Or does mid-century modern furniture fill your mind? Are you a contemporary/modern/futuristic person? Does collected "clutter" (for the lack of a better term!) such as knick knacks give your home character or do you prefer to have it all stowed away and keep everything simple? I want to know! Inspire me!

Things I Love Thursday

I'm keeping this week's list short and sweet while I'm about to go finish up my last "day" of college! I stumbled across design*sponge's flickr photostream full the entire Sneak Peek series and I was hooked! I didn't want to close the tab. I browsed a few sets (including an old favorite) and I thought they'd be great interior inspirations for y'all! I feel like I'm constantly moving and I'd love to finally get a place and stay there for a while. Be able to paint and all that jazz! (With that being said, we're probably moving out of our place at the end of January! And we only got here on the first of August!). Either way, I hope you find as much inspiration in them as I do! I'll be back to regular posting with my old personal entries before you know it! Don't worry! The past 6 months won't be the way I blog forever! I will actually have a life soon! Thanks so much for sticking it out with me! xo

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Where do you look online for great home interior inspiration? What's the dream interior of your home? 

Interior Inspiration!

As we're still getting settled into our new home, we've been looking for a lot of interior inspiration (well, I have at least). The way you decorate a space can really control the way you feel and your overall happiness level. Well, I'd like to think we're pretty happy in our new place. I'd like to paint but we only signed a 6 month lease (though I think we're thinking of staying longer!) so it's not really worth it right now. Instead, I've been carefully putting things on the wall and plotting my next move. Oh, and lurking Sweet Home Style, too! Here are a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of photos I'm loving! 

And 3 of my dream homes! (or... 2.5 maybe?). The last one really takes precedence though...

(all images via Sweet Home Style)

I can't wait to show you our home! (Really.. I'm working on it! Soon!)

xoxo

So It Begins Again...

Quite possibly my dream home... sans the snow. If you know me at all, you'll know that I'm not really the cold-weather-friendly type gal. Give me sunshine and bare feet over frigid temps any day! This house is rather large but oh my stars, the color, the detail! I need matching white rockers for both Mike and myself. Something to aspire to!

In light of the flood and the loss of most of our belongings, I can finally say I've found peace. I've started to come to terms with what has happened to, not only us, but thousands of families across the mid-state area. Mother Nature showed her fury this weekend and she followed it with some bittersweet sunshine and the most gorgeous of days.

While I still remain heartbroken to have lost so many things with so much sentimental value, I can now chalk it up to Mother Nature doing my spring cleaning for me. You may recall several of my posts during finals week saying how I couldn't wait until Monday rolled around and I could start organizing EVERYTHING. Well, following Saturday's catastrophes, everything is much easier to organize now. I'm trying to have a light heart about it. But the silver lining is always there and it's there in more ways than one.

For instance:

• Mike and I can now start acquiring items for a cohesive home together. Everything will have a rhyme and reason. No sense in buying something simply because it's cheap or it will "get the job done for now"... No sir! Everything will have a purpose. Simplicity. Cohesion. Theme.
• The lease on our current (or, old?) house is broken. The landlord and I have agreed to break the lease so that we, as well as our other 3 roommates, may find other arrangements seeing as the house will not be livable for months (if EVER!). We surely loved our home, so so very much, but this has also been an answer to a prayer of ours for quite some time. Just not in the way we had envisioned.
• Petty arguments and scuffles were thrown out the window, or at least put on the backburner, so that we may fight this tragic event as friends and family. I'm happy to report that I have my best friend, Bryan, back and things with us are always better when we're not living together.
• I no longer have a plethora of things to pack and move, followed by unpacking and organizing and finding homes for them all. Now it's down to the basics.
• Once Mike and I find another home, it will be our home. He and I. No one else to answer to. No one to get upset with when they don't take out the trash. No one to leave passive aggressive notes on the fridge with. Just us. Our home. Our family.

Until then, Mike and I will be living with my parents. It's unfortunate that it is an 80+ mile drive to work for him, each way, in Brentwood, but while living here, we are responsible for no rent or utilities (what a God send!), and it gives us (and Toby) time with my wonderful parents. I'm scheduled to leave for NYC on Saturday, May 22nd, and arrive on the 23rd, but these events my hinder my plans just a little. I may leave 2 weeks later. It's of no real matter, as Erin & BUST have said to just come when I can, and my rent has been paid from May until August 7th so I can set my schedule.

However, I'll be deeply saddened to miss both the BUST Craftacular and The Renegade Craft Fairs in Brooklyn. But duty calls and I must do what I need to do. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we shall see.

I cannot wait to pick out dinnerware and paint colors with Mike. Eventually. I mean, we don't have a new place yet, but when we do! Right now the priority is on Toby and his belongings. We sadly lost all of his toys, some of his clothes, all of his diapers, etc etc etc, in the flood. We managed to save his red high-top Converse shoes though! We have him this weekend and he's being such a doll. We picked him up today and we will have him tun Saturday evening so he can spend Mothers Day with Sarah. Mike and I are going to Camden with my family to celebrate Mother's Day.

This has gotten long and I apologize. I just want to say once again, thank you so much for the kind words, comments, emails, tweets, etc. They mean so so much to me but please don't worry yourselves... we are just fine and we're confident that we will remain so. This is only a minor setback to a wonderful array of plans we have envisioned for ourselves. Everyone's gotta have a few bumps in the road, right? Morale is high, here, have no doubt about it!

Here are a few eye-candy home-interior shots found via SweetHomeStyle! (Mike is very mid-century-modern and I'm very old-world-feminine! It'll be interesting to see how our home turns out!)

What are some of your favorite home/interior-design blogs or websites?!

xoxo

PS; Mike's 21st Birthday was yesterday! On Cinco De Mayo! We met Merissa & JT for dinner at Mellow Mushroom, followed by beers at The Pond, since beer and pizza are two of Mike's favorites! Pop on over to his blog and tell him HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! (CLICK HERE to go to his blog!)

TiLT 2: Interiors

and my most favorite of all:

♥ (all images via tumblr) ♥

ps; I'm on tumblr. I rarely post (well, i've started once more) but mostly reblogs and such. Just a place to try and clear my harddrive some! follow me if you'd like. click HERE to go to my tumblr. leave your links and i'll follow back! xo