God Bless America

July 5th has been a recovery day for me! Celebrating the freedom of our great nation with friends, fireworks, and fried foods (at the Wreck and Waffle House!) left me wishing that I could hit snooze a few more times this morning.

We celebrated at the new pier out in Mount Pleasant; it's a beautiful new park underneath the Ravenel Bridge with sweeping views of downtown Charleston, Patriot's Point, the Yorktown, and the Cooper River. We could see fireworks shows from Folly Beach, Sullivan's Island, IOP, downtown, and the deck of the Yorktown. We had a great time enjoying the great view, music, dancing, and all around patriotism of the night. We even got a few pics...

Downtown Charleston is in the background! We live near such a beautiful city!

One of Bo's good friends, Kyle, and his girlfriend, Ashley, went with Bo and I to dinner and the pier

The Ravenel Bridge

 I feel pretty blessed to be able to celebrate our country in a place like this! Hope you had a wonderful fourth!

the Word.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32, NIV)

Engagement Pictures!

So Bo and I finally got our engagement pictures taken on Monday! Our photographer, Gene Ho, met us at the beautiful, historic Boone Hall Plantation and took MANY shots of us strolling around under the oaks. I have to say, I was a little nervous going into this, but he has a great sense of humor and Bo and I had so much fun posing for the camera, even while we were sweating in the 90 degree weather. (That was actually cool compared to the 100 degree days prior.)

Here is a little sneak peak of our pics!

Here comes the bride

"In a time when nothing is more certain than change, the commitment of two people to one another has become difficult and rare.  Yet, by its scarcity, the beauty and value of this exchange have only been enhanced."  ~Robert Sexton

I'm going to marry my best friend/fiance on December 10th of this year! I've never been the girl that fantasized about every detail of my wedding. Until I met Bo, I'd never given it any thought. I'd planned to go to school and get out on my own before ever considering "settling down". My, how things change. 


Now, we've been planning our wedding for the past 6 months! I have to say, I've gotten a lot more sucked into wedding planning, blogs, and magazines than I thought I would. Here are some of our inspirations for our "vision" for our Christmas time wedding...

So this pretty much sums it up...not an all-out red and green Christmas wedding. I love the idea of low lighting with white lights and candles providing most of the light in the room, and the smores/candy/hot cocoa too! I just think it will make our wedding feel warm. That is the word I would use to sum it up...lots of warmth; from being surrounded by the love of all of our family and friends at Christmas time too! We are so excited. More updates to come!

the Word

Thank God, He's got a plan.

Daily Inspiration

I want our home to be a happy place. I don't know about you, but in the winter time, when it's kinda gloomy outside, my mood changes. I think pictures like these, combined with beautifully blue-hued walls, are a good start to creating an environment to wake up in everyday. Just a little reminder about how blessed we are, because I know sometimes I forget...

How do you create your "happy place"?

P.S. That last sign is one hand-painted by my little sister, the creative one in our fam. Her blog is here: http://jenanicoleb.blogspot.com.

TGIF!

Our first home

The front porch and side yard/patio area!

That's the front door to the left, and our living room/island in kitchen. I'm hoping to paint the walls a pretty blue/grey/teal color. The patio is to the right. We are replacing the sliding glass doors with French doors ASAP! (Bo's idea :))

This is our little kitchen...should I paint these cabinets white?

Close-up of our living room area...we are getting Bo's parents old plaid couches...so we'll have to find some great slipcovers! If there are any you recommend, please post!

This is the downstairs bedroom...Bo and I want to turn this into an office area/Clemson room. Anyone that knows us knows that we are crazy Tiger fans. Bo played there and has tons of memorabilia...I think it would be so pretty to paint these walls a pretty tangerine or burnt orange, then tie it in with the living room area with some blue and tangerine printed pillows and accents!

Downstairs half-bath...this wallpaper has got to go!

Upstairs guest bedroom with bathroom

This will be our master bathroom so that we can each have our own sink :).

And, finally, our master bedroom! I'm thinking a pretty wallpapered accent wall behind the headboard?

My fiance and I have put in an offer for a town home in our hometown.  We are still anxiously waiting to hear back from the bank that owns the foreclosed property, so, TECHNICALLY, it's not ours YET! But, of course, I have the entire 3 bed, 3.5 bath home decorated in my mind already! Right now, I'm just going to post pics of the house...I'll wait til the home is officially ours before I start posting room-by-room inspirations. Pray that they accept our offer! If you've ever watched House Hunters or Property Virgins, you know that it doesn't always happen!

We are new at this and would LOVE any first-time home buying/decor advice! What are the priority projects when moving into a new home? Where can we find good slip covers? Where do you like to buy your interior paints?

Happy Wednesday everyone!