Perfect Day

This morning as I did my routine of waking up, check e-mails, instagram and Pinterest, I found {and repinned} the above list. Believe it or not, that little list pushed me to hop in the shower and start my day off right, instead of being lazy. I'm sure my co- workers were unknowingly thankful!

Hopefully it will give you an idea on how to have a perfect day!

xoxo bd

Throwback Thursday: 3 Years Old

Its throwback Thursday and I thought I might show you a few pictures my mom found in the attic.

To be honest, I don’t remember having ever seen these pictures which makes them all the more special. As you can see, celebrating my 3^rd birthday with family in North Carolina in my velvet green dress and white tights, I was very 1991!

 Me and me Brother Josh getting ready to chow down apparently…and poor guy, he has a black eye! We were wild ones when we were younger; always outside, running, playing, kicking…each other, hanging off of monkey bars, we could have been considered mini acrobats.

Here I am with my mom rocking the Peter Pan collar! I bet she had no idea that 21 years later it would be considered quite hip! Minus the rose stitching, of course and added blue ruffle.

Now it’s me and my Gramma Harvill….or Betty {Semi namesake}

She was the woman responsible for teaching me how to apply peach lipstick! A lady in love with cosmetics and jewelry, I can only imagine why I turned out the way I did.

Sadly enough today marks the 15^th anniversary of her death. It came as quite a shock to all of us but I’ve had a couple of confirmations growing up that she is doing just fine.

April 19^th has always been a memorable day in the lives of my family members aside from the passing of my grandmother.

I do enjoy reminiscing about when I was younger...everything was much simpler and sweeter. But for now, that is it for Throwback Thursday. I hope you have a wonderful day and I will talk to you soon!

xoxo bd.

Little Lovelies and Lamps

Sometimes it's the little things that make your day sweet...

On an impromptu trip to TJ Maxx during my lunch break, I made a fun purchase for a great deal: Originally $125, I was able to grab the lamp below for only $25! 

In perfectly good shape, the warm golden lamp has made me a happy lady.

After arriving home from work I found out my husband had a slow day with only a few cases and decided to clean the house! How amazing is he?! *Clean floors, freshly washed towels, candles burning*

Once the heels came off and I slouched into the couch he handed me my latest Birchbox that came in the mail .

It still never gets old- a lovely treat in the mail every month! I couldn't believe the amount of goodies I received from body scrubs to lip gloss, hair serums, herbal tea and moisturizers! Looks like a pampering night is in my future.

Later on in the evening we decided to run out for a bottle of wine and check on the TJ Maxx that's a little closer to our home. My thought was, if I can find the twin to the lamp I just bought for the same price, my love of symmetry will come to life in our living room! Lo-and-behold, we saw two others that were slightly lighter in color but only discounted to $49...not $25. I was frustrated that they weren't cheaper as I had found earlier in the day, but with Adam being such a great negotiator, he got the guy to give us 50% off on both! 

We ended up placing them in our bedroom and I love how chic they are. 

As you can see in the close up it almost resembles the inside of a shell! So beautiful in person, I am quite happy with our purchase(s).

I guess today's lesson is, "You never know what good negotiating and great customer service will get you until you try".

I hope you all have a lovely day, I'll talk to you soon...

xoxo bd

East and Eventful

Hi friends, I hope you are doing well! Can you believe we are already in the middle of April? Where did these past couple of weeks go? C'est la vie...

It’s funny to me when I recount our times in Memphis and our daily activities one year ago to now.

Often Adam and I will talk about how almost boring our life was with his constant studying and a general lack of activities. I kid you not; we would push off a run to Walgreens for toilet paper so that we could have something to do the next day. Sad…very sad.

But all of that to say, our lives now are filled with so much to do and many plans to sort out.

I honestly cannot remember the last time we spent lazily around the house with nothing to do…I’ll count that as a blessing!

This weekend was spent in the same manner with friendly get-togethers and aquatic outings.

As I am always on instagram (a photo taking and hosting program on the iphone) I tend to take at least a picture a day. Acutally, if you don’t have instragram readily available you can easily follow me on instagrid!

Here is our weekend in pictures:

Saturday night, after spending the day with my in-laws, we met up with our friends Zack and Kira who recently moved to Nashville for dinner and catch up time! Sadly I forgot to take pictures of our outing but we walked to a local restaurant called 'Battered and Fried' for fish and chips then grabbed an ice cream cone around the corner at The Pied Piper. I had the Rosewater Pistachio Saffron...so unique and delicious!

Below is a view near our friends home with downtown Nashville in the distance.

Sunday we ran lots of errands :)

If you know my husband well at all you will know that he has a great love for animals...especially fish.

Let's just say we went to Pet Smart and Aquatic Critters to gain ideas on a future aquarium! 

I hope that you all had a lovely weekend! 

I'll talk to you soon,

xoxo bd

A Weekend Away in Kentucky

Sometimes you need a little time away from your busy life to get perspective and this past weekend we did exactly that! My best girlfriend of 15 years and her fiance (Congrats Holli and Justin!) invited us to his family's country home in rural Kentucky. The land is sprawling with beautifully blooming trees, a large creek edging the property, goats, turtles, donkeys, chickens, a cat named Callie, an 1800's log cabin...oh there was so much...I wish you could have been there!

We arrived late Friday night to put on some old clothes and take a tour of the property on an ATV. Trudging through rocky creeks and muddy hills we even got a few glimpses of deer running about!

Saturday morning the boys woke to get breakfast at a local pool hall while us girls stayed back to lounge around. I took a few pictures of the land during the wee hours (ahem...ahem 9 am)...as I stepped outside all I could hear was the rushing water and the rooster crowing. I kid you not. Surreal.

Once the boys came back and we all filled up with some much needed coffee, we took the ATV's out for another run about the land. With the sun shining and a warm breeze blowing, it couldn't have been a more picturesque day. I found a new friend in one of their donkey's named Herman while Adam took a liking to Big Mamma, their massive turtle. There is a scientific name for that turtle but unfortunately, I'm not the one to ask. Moving on!

We had a bite to eat at a local bar-b-q restaurant then headed back to the house for some outdoorsy fun!

Let's just say we got a little dirty....okay...really really muddy! Actually, while the boys were shooting at targets us girls went "mudding" then jumped in a mud puddle for an added bonus. We were covered and the boys seemed to toe the line between shocked and impressed.

After much needed showers and scrub downs we settled in for the night. We had a big bonfire planned and even bought s'more stuff but we were rained out and turned it into an indoor party. 

Note that there were board games and wine included :)

Our final day was the laziest of them all as we woke up ate, had some lunch, visited a local marina and headed back home.

Justin and Holli in their matching cuteness...

No makeup hotness and the hubby!

I hope you enjoyed your weekend and have started this week off with a bang!

Hopefully we'll be able to visit again, but until then, I'll talk to you soon...

xoxo bd

St. Pattys Rainbows

Seeing as St.Patricks Day is around the corner I thought it was very serendipitous that we saw 3 rainbows last night! We have been bombarded with thunderstorms over the past week but it was nice to see how beautiful things can become once everything is calm.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Birthday, Moving and Reminiscing...

So as you can see through my obsession with Instagram, I had quite a busy yet fun weekend.

We arrived in NC at 3 am on Friday and only slept for a few (literally) hours until we had to buck up and start packing. It was so sweet to be with all of my family to reminisce about the smell of Papa’s home or how we couldn’t ever go in the front room to the bowls we would eat cereal out of. Also, I found it very apparent who I got my jewelery obsession from, my grandma. That lady had boxes and boxes and boxes of necklaces, rings, bracelets, watches, earrings, baubles…you name it, the stash was over flowing.  

It may not have been the most typical birthday but it sure has become one of my favorites as we will never be able to celebrate there again.

On Friday night we went out to my favorite Mexican restaurant in Forest City called Mi Pueblitos. Don’t get it twisted, hands down the best fajita quesadilla on the planet.

We stayed up late packing and woke up the next morning to have many, many helping hands from the church weused to attend. They have a team called ‘Hearts with Hands’ that rocked out the entire moving process. All of the furniture and boxes (for the most part) were in both moving vans within one and a half hours of them arriving. What?! We were so blessed by their help and would not have been able to get it done as quickly had they not been there. Thank you, Cornerstone!

Saturday night we drove to Spartanburg, SC–about a 30 minute drive- for dinner at the famous Beacon restaurant. Double burgers slathered in onions, cole-slaw by the pound and a heart attack not to mention piles of french-fries.I hadn’t been to the Beacon since I was little and seeing as I got 2 days worth of calories in ½ of a burger…it might be a few years before I decide to revisit.

More reminiscing was had, jokes were told and the rest of the dust was swept from the corners. It is sad knowing that I will never be able to go back to that house and have it look the same or even that town. I will forever remember learning to put on makeup with my grandma for the first time, having Christmas in the basement, being scared of the storage room, “hiking” in the backyard, the creepy doll that sat atop the dresser in the kids room for all those years, the uncomfortable waterbed….the list goes on. Frankly, unless you’ve been there this entire post is probably boring but it's good to put my thoughts somewhere. Thank you for actually reading!

The drive home on Sunday was interesting as Adam drove the large moving van through the mountains before the sun even came up! Our view from the cab was amazing and we even saw a few snow flurries! We unloaded all of our things that morning and have gotten back to the hustle and bustle of the week. I think I need to recuperate!
 Have a wonderful hump day...can you believe it's already Wednesday???
I'll talk to you soon!
xoxo bd