My Friends Rock!!

You guys!!  I have some really talented friends.

One of them, Carrie from Dream Green DIY just teamed up with designer Khristian A. Howell to create a suuuuuper cute collection of party goodies!  They have adorable invites, stylish folded cards and a stunning acrylic tray.

My personal favorite from their collaboration is a set of reversible party coasters!

They would make the perfect statement, every day, on your bar cart or sprinkled around your next party. They are even disposable, which makes party clean up easy-peasy...although I'm not sure I'd want to part with the pretty patterns!! ;)

Head over to check out the limited edition collection and use the code KAHXDGDCOLLECTION to stock up and take 20% off now through July 31st! :)

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Next, you HAVE to go to my good friend Jesse’s page and see what she and her husband have to offer at Scout & Nimble!  

They are the geniuses behind a site that enables consumers to easily browse, discover and shop rooms that are fully curated.   Many people want well-designed homes that reflect their style, but not everyone can hire an interior designer to achieve this goal.  Thanks to Jesse, her husband and the fantastic team of designers that make up the Scout & Nimble family, people can create the home they've always dreamed of.

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Hopefully, one day, I'll have even an ounce of the talent that these ladies possess!  Go check them out now! :)

Oh Happy Day...World Market in NJ!

For my IG friends, this may be all been-there-done-that, so I apologize for the repeat...but to me, this news is totally worth hearing {or seeing} twice.  WORLD MARKET HAS COME TO NJ!!!

Yup, I just capital letter shouted at you guys, but I swear it was a fun/excited shout.  I was so thrilled to find out that I would be able to walk around in one of my favorite online stores!  Okay, so it's not a true online-only store, but the closest location for me used to be Maryland...that's a four hour drive that I couldn't ever justify.  Fortunately for our home, that distance didn't stop me from shopping online.  I've made a few purchases and I even wrote a blog post over a year ago about some of my favorite things at the time {although I'm pretty sure I need, yes need, to add these bar stools and a bed or two to that list now.}

The worst part of online shopping all the glorious goodies World Market has to offer was when I'd run into the occasional "available in-store only" message.  Thankfully, that doesn't matter anymore because World Market had their grand opening in Livingston, NJ!  Now they are just a short drive away...woot woooooot!

Hubby and I were so excited to go to the grand opening celebration because they had the Scott brothers in attendance!

Yup that's right, all three were there...not just the amazing Property Brothers themselves, but J.D. Scott too! It was a ton of fun to see our favorite HGTV personalities in real life!

After we got our pictures snapped with them, I was off to ogle the eye candy.  No matter what you are looking for, head to World Market.  They literally have it all...from furniture, to rugs, to home decor, to gifts, to food, to coffee and jewelry.

I snapped a few pictures of my favorite things as I toured the new store.

I'm pretty sure my hubby had to peel me out of this chair.  It's. So. Pretty!!

I love the color and variety this store has to offer!  There is just so much awesomeness {yup, totally a word} in one place.  All you locals, run...don't walk...to check it out!! ;)

***I was not compensated in any way for writing this post.  I'm just super excited and wanted to share my opinions with you guys.  You know I'll always be 100% honest and keep it real!*** 

TV Gallery Wall. 99% Complete.

Even though my blog has been admittedly slow, my instagram feed never is.  It’s definitely my favorite form of social media.  It allows me to stay in contact with everyone and even acts as a mini-blog, documenting the things I’m working on and loving on.

If you follow along with me, you probably saw that I started making over our bedroom {for the millionth time} almost a year ago.  The reason for it?  Well there’s two reasons actually…

1) I l-o-v-e to rearrange and redecorate.  It’s a problem, but I’m confident I’m not the only blogger who suffers from this affliction. ;)  I remember, as a kid, I was constantly rearranging my bedroom furniture all. the. time.  I love to switch things up and gain new perspective on a space. 

And most importantly, 2) our bedroom has never felt “right” to me.  I’ve switched things up quite a few times, and afterwards I always feel a little better, but I’m never 100% about the space.  Having an unsettled master bedroom is not ideal.  It’s the space you are supposed to retreat to...a place to quiet your mind and relax.  Our bedroom does nothing of the sort for me because when I’m in there, I’m constantly brainstorming about a space that will finally feel finished.

I took a few leaps in the right direction quite some time ago when I swapped out our furniture, installed my DIY lucite curtain rods and went darker on the walls.

When I completed that painting project, hubby removed our mounted TV {which I hated due to it’s placement}, and I decided the TV would live on our long dresser.  Once that decision was made, I immediately knew I wanted to put together a mini-gallery wall to tone down the “hey, look at the big TV” vibe we had going.

I didn’t want to spend much on the gallery wall, and luckily I didn’t have to.  I was able to shop our home and garbage pick from our neighbors {yup, I was that girl picking through a junk pile at the curb} for everything I put up on the wall.

Once I collected a bunch of things, I traced their forms onto rosin paper left over from refinishing our floors. {Pardon the grainy instgram pictures....they are all I could find from when I started this project. #bloggerfail}

After that, I taped the shapes onto the wall and played around with the arrangement.  

Once I liked what I saw, I busted out my handy, dandy 3M command strips {I do not hang a thing without them} to secure everything onto the wall.

And thennn, in true-to-me form, I let about three months pass while we stared at empty and/or ugly frames each day.  Finally I had enough and prettied things up.  I painted the garbage picked frames and even some of the mats.  

I used some of my Spoonflower wallpaper samples to add a little pop to a few pieces.

I gave two frames extra special treatment by adding the Besos print from The Smitten Collection and the Zebra Love print from Parima Studio.  You should check both ladies out because their stuff is uh-mazinggg...as in, I want it all!!

And done!!

Okay, well, 99% done.  I have a bit more twerking, errrr I mean tweaking, to do. My DIY radiant orchid art is replacing the empty gold frame, and that shiny thing will be replacing the empty black frame.  I'm also planning to fill the oval mat up with something better than my two-second-hack-job of a "Z".

Slowly but surely, I'm piecing this room together.  I don't care how long it takes, I won't stop until the room truly feels like us. :)

A Post Without Pictures.

So it’s pretty clear the blog has been super quiet for a while now.  I used to carry around maaaaajor blogger guilt {it’s totally a real thing...I’m assuming it’s similar to “mom guilt”, just on a much smaller scale} about it, but I’ve come to terms with the pace of my blog.  I wish I could be a blogger with a set number of posts a week.  I’d love to promise you guys amazing new projects, multiple times a week, and inspire people every day.  But let’s be serious...with a full-time day job and trying to be somewhat present in my non-Internet life, it’s not a possibility.  Do I find that disappointing?  Of course!!  But I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll post when I have time and have something worthy of posting.

In this sometimes-crazy-competitive-world-of-blogging it can be very easy to get caught up with feeling inadequate.  I don’t post enough.  I didn’t pin enough.  My pictures aren’t professional enough.  My image isn’t pin-worthy.  I don’t have enough followers.  I need to join that new social media platform.  I need to catch up on my blog reading.  I need to respond to comments.  I need to answer my emails. 

I found myself feeling like I was always falling short.  My day job was draining and the pressure to “keep up with the Joneses” of the blogging world was starting to build...so my inspiration went right out the window.  Things that used to come so easily and freely just stopped.  I found myself doing things because I felt like I had to, not because I wanted to.  I lost my focus and needed to step back.  So I did.

I never announced I was taking a blogging break.  I never set a date when I’d start posting again.  I just stopped.  If something inspired me to write, I did, but for the most part…I just backed off from the blogging world and it. was. awesome.

Removing the “pressure” and the “have to” felt fantastic.  It even refreshed my inspiration and motivation for the stuff I used to love.  I’ve got a million and one ideas stirring around in my head, and I want to tackle and post about each and every single one.  Will that happen?  HA, no way!  But the fact that I even feel that way is a big deal.

I’ve accepted that blogging is not my job.  It doesn’t pay my bills.  I cannot keep up with bloggers who do this for a living.  I cannot post regularly.  I do not post stellar pictures worthy of a thousand pins.  I’m just me.  I love to share our home and my passion for pretty things.  I want to inspire others to create a home they love.  I will always keep this space honest and real.  And I’m thankful for amazing people this outlet has brought into my life.

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To visually keep up with life happenings…follow me on Instagram.  I have noooo problem posting there. ;)