Crave: Anthropologie Capri Blue Candle

I received this candle as a gift from a dear friend when I moved into my house and I fell immediately in love with the scent.  The Anthropologie Capri Blue Jar Candle is the perfect hostess or house-warming gift!

The scent is a lovely mix of tropical and citrus; it just fills the house!  I have received tons of compliments on mine. What are you waiting for?  Go get one for yourself!

You and I.

Whenever I get anxious about the state of my finances, this song always makes me feel a little better.  Maybe someday I will just pick up and move to the south of France...

Crave: Vera Bradley

During my years in South Carolina, I learned one thing:  Southerners are obsessed with Vera Bradley.  It took me two years, but eventually I caved and picked out a pattern.  Every girl always remembers her first Vera pattern.  Mine was Picadilly Plum.  

I still use the small and large duffel bags all the time.  But my favorite piece was the Large Cosmetic bag.  It holds everything I need.  Unfortunately, after 6 years of use, my Picadilly Plum cosmetic bag needed to be laid to rest.

Enter my new pattern:  Rhythym and Blues.

I just love it!  It's bright and fun and the color just pops.  And who doesn't need a splash of color early in the morning?!

What's your Vera Bradley pattern of choice?  

Cleaning.

Confession:  I hate to clean.  It always falls on the bottom on my priority list.  But I love hosting parties and having people over and a dirty house is never welcome during those occasions.  It never fails that I end up scrambling to quick clean the house before people arrive.  Well, no more.  This week, I'm on Spring Break (!!!) and my goal is to get on a cleaning schedule.  That way my quick cleans will be even quicker!  


This week, I'm combining my deep spring cleaning with this awesome cleaning schedule via Jenny Komenda at Little Green Notebook:

So, according to the schedule, tomorrow is a deep vacuum, along with the daily tasks.  Pretty exciting, right?  Hey, I'm trying here. 


Do you have any tricks to keeping your house clean during a busy week? 

Garage Shelves

I've got some big news.  Ready? In April, Kurtis is moving in.  I am so excited!  This is a huge step for us and we could not be happier.  So this blog is going to change a bit.  K is going to have more of a presence and we are going to feature more of the projects we tackle together in turning my house into our home.


Here's the first one: Garage Shelves.  With K moving in, the first step is to make sure both our vehicles fit in the garage.  The garage came with a built-in cabinet that I didn't use.  I just stacked everything on top since I didn't have much.  But we decided that those cabinets had to go so we'd have more room on the right side.  Here's the before:

A quick run to Home Depot and we had a plan.  We purchased 2 white shelves, 4 brackets, and 2 packets of screws.  And a drill.

After measuring where we wanted the shelves to go, K and I took turns drilling the brackets into the wall.   

 Once both brackets for the first shelf were on the wall, K put the shelf up to check if it was level.  In a moment of chaos, the shelf fell to the ground.  And that's when we realized we had a problem.


We screwed the brackets on upside down.  Rookie mistake.  But a quick fix!

 Now we're in business!  And we're level!

Once the shelves were up, we loaded them up.  They look great!  

Our next step is to rip the cabinet out and dispose of it.  But that's a project for another day...

Cabin Painting Party

Last weekend, K and I ran up north to Hackensack for a painting party.  My folks are building their dream cabin and it is simply gorgeous.  I cannot wait for summer to be here!

Our welcome note from the mama.

Blurry shot of A & K, guest painters extraordinaire.

Kitchen cabinets are in!

Shots of the living room and all of our finished painting!

Tackling the stairwell on Sunday. 

If you look very closely, you'll see a deer friend came to visit.  Pun intended.

Painting is always so much easier when there is good tunes, good drinks, and good people involved!  What have you painted lately?