it's the little things

it's the little things....

like afternoon reading with a cup of coffee / fresh blooms / and raindrops on pink flowers after a summer storm

happy friday!

Dorm Room Re-do with Pottery Barn Teen

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college was some of the greatest four years. those years were growing and challenging, held life-long friendships, and held the season i got engaged and married. so when pottery barn asked me to create my dream dorm room, i couldn't have been more excited. if i could go back and do it again, i would definitely do it differently. instead of walking the aisles of target and just grabbing things that seemed cute or necessary, i would plan out what i really needed and try to invest in timeless pieces that i could still use in other seasons of my life. with our big move coming up [tomorrow, actually...] i've gone through all of our stuff and thrown out or given away the things we no longer use or need. and i'll tell you what, my college decor and dorm supplies sure haven't hung around. 

what i love about pottery barn teen is that you can find all you need to decorate a room, and all of their items are quality and beautiful. if i could do it all again, i would definitely plan out my space and decorate my dorm room from pottery barn teen. i'm in a major gold phase right now, and i'm a sucker for anything with polka dots, so my mouth is watering over all they have in stock. so consider this my 'dorm room re-do.'

be sure to check pottery barn teen and find more decorating inspiration on their site, here.

this post is sponsored by pottery barn dorm but all opinions are 100% my own.

a little nashville video

here's a little video i put together from our trip to nashville. like i said, we had so much fun and can't wait to go back! you can see pictures from our trip here, here, and here.

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music - magic, by coldplay.

house update

well, it's finally official...we found a house!!! we close in just a few days, and we are head over heels excited! during our house hunting process, we made a lists of 'wants' and 'must-haves.' what we didn't expect was for a house to pop up in our budget with nearly all of our wants and needs...and then some!



wants:

• three bedrooms
• formal dining room
• space for a breakfast table
• nice yard with space for gardening
• brick fireplace
• office space
• large master bath (with a bathtub separate from the shower)
• large walk in closet
• older house with character
• good, safe neighborhood that is well cared for and relatively quiet
• laundry room

must haves:

• at least two bedrooms
• space to grow
• natural light!!
• hardwood floors
• bathroom connected to master bedroom
• in our budget

while this list might not sound like we are too picky.... we are. i was probably a bit of a house hunting snob. i tried to keep an open mind, but there were definitely houses i wouldn't even consider. i knew the style i wanted and i didn't want to settle - even if that meant waiting. luckily, scofield and i were on the same page, and luckily, we didn't have to wait too long. of course, there were some let downs along the way, but we couldn't be happier with the end result. 

our house is a ranch style, which wasn't at the top of my list, so i had to keep an open mind when going to visit. but i didn't have to keep an open mind for long...once we walked in, we immediately fell in love. as we were touring, we quickly found that the house covered nearly all of our needs and wants, and was well within our budget.

we were okay with just two bedrooms, but the house has three - definitely room to grow ;). for now, one of the rooms will be my office, and the other bedroom will be our guest room. there is a master bath connected to the bedroom. where we live now, we have 1 1/2 baths and have to share our bathroom with guests. i'm looking forward to this extra privacy for us, and our guests, and to be able to brush my teeth and jump right into bed! there are also all hardwood floors, a tremendous amount of natural light [eeeeeek, my favorite part!], a beautiful white brick fire place, two sitting rooms, a formal dining room, and a wonderful yard. maybe i'll try my hand at gardening!?

the neighborhood is safe, well kept, and quiet, and the house is older and has character. i didn't get my walk in closet, but we do have a few plans to expand the closet space there is.

and the best part...there is a huge, beautiful, sunroom filled with natural light. i think this is going to be our favorite room of the house. oh, the potential! considering we started out in a 350 sq. ft. garage apartment in our family friend's backyard, we are overwhelmed with joy and excitement over a house of our own and all this space. 

there's a lot of house projects to do and a lot of work to be done, so i can't wait to share the progress and post pictures here!

hope you have a wonderful weekend! we'll be busy packing! :)

photo by amy blackwell

around town || olive and sinclair chocolate co.

'around town'....nashville style!

during our trip, we visited olive and sinclair chocolate co. in east nashville. we heard it was a must-do, and we of course never give up an opportunity for chocolate! i loved the rustic, industrial look of the store. not to mention the staff was so so very kind. you could see the chocolate being made through the windows, and the store smelled heavenly. my favorite part was all of the chocolate samples lying around. after trying all of the flavors, scofield settled on dark chocolate coffee bean, and i took home the dark chocolate sea salt. naturally, those chocolate bars didn't stay around very long. they made the perfect snack for our road trip home :)

what's your favorite kind of chocolate?
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olive and sinclair chocolate co.
1628 fatherland st, nashville tn 37206

more from nashville

 i know, i know....we took a lot of pictures...

 ^ best ice cream shop i've ever visited ... wishing there was one in greenville!

 ^ i ordered dark chocolate and wildberry lavender. it was so hard to decide because they had the coolest flavors, like brown butter almond brittle and goat cheese and red cherries.

 ^ vegan dog for me! yeah!

more local spots we loved: i dream of weenie, olive and sinclair chocolate co., jeni's, loveless cafe, and crema.

national donut day!

get your donut fix on curbly with this recipe for breakfast cake donuts i shared a little while back.

hope you have a happy friday + donut day!

grand ole opry

we typically don't like to do a whole lot of touristy stuff on vacation... i like to find hidden gems and 'do what the locals do.' but a friend of ours told us we should visit grand ole opry, so we decided...why not! it was fun to walk around the grounds and snap some pictures. we didn't really plan ahead, so we didn't get to see a show. maybe another time!? it was a fun spot, and i'm so glad we checked it out.

anniversary trip to nashville

last weekend scofield and i spent the most lovely couple of days in nashville to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. we stayed at a little bed and breakfast off 12th avenue south that was absolutely adorable. we walked around, ate lots and lots of great food, and visited fun antique shops and vintage stores. there's nothing like a few days down with that guy. if only we had a few more days away...but i'm thankful for the time that we had!

 ^ can you spy tom hanks?

some of our favorite spots featured in this post: barista parlor, the pharmacy burger parlor and beer garden, the green wagon, and crema.