Birthday Celebration

Hey y'all! Since my last post, I have been working like crazy, but I am loving it so far! Although my work schedule is a bit hectic, that doesn't mean I haven't had plenty of time to relax and visit friends and family. Recently we celebrated my friend Jill's birthday with dinner at Taste of Asia and a delicious cake. I always love getting to hang out with her and her husband Matt. We always have a good time together! My birthday was yesterday, and I have been celebrating it the last few days LOL I was supposed to have this past weekend off of work, but Friday the scheduler called to see if I could cover for someone on Saturday. I agreed to help out, but I still got Sunday off which was my actual birthday. On Friday, Tyler came in with presents and a huge chocolate cake. He sat everything up on our kitchen table and had the candles going. He yelled for me to come into the kitchen, and when I walked out of the bedroom I saw all of the surprises. I LOVE the gifts he got for me! I got some UK blue Kendra Scott jewelry, and my personal favorite, seasons 1-3 on DVD of the Real Housewives of New Jersey. I can't wait to have a lazy day and binge watch those old shows! My sister also got me some beautiful pearl while Kendra Scott earrings. I love them! I also got to meet my mom, sister, and her boyfriend Tyler at Berry Hills for dinner on Friday. Saturday night, Tyler and I were supposed to eat at a restaurant in Charleston called Laury's, but after working all day, I decided I wanted to do a casual birthday dinner. We cancelled our reservations and headed to the local Mexican restaurant! I was so happy with my decision LOL I just didn't feel like getting all dressed up and going to a fancy restaurant that late in the evening. On Sunday, my mom had me a little get together at her house. We had a delicious dinner, and she cooked me my favorite chocolate cake. My grandparents visited for awhile after we ate, and they gave me cards and gifts. My maw maw and pawpaw gave me a camera, which I am SO excited about. I can't wait to use it to take pictures for the blog instead of my iPhone. My grandmother got me a Southern Living cookbook, and y'all know how much I love cookbooks. I enjoy looking through all the recipes and getting new dinner ideas! I had such a great weekend celebrating with everyone. 

Testing out the camera.. My cape makes this look a little awkward LOL but look at the beautiful necklace my mom got for me. It is gold, pearls, and rhinestones.. three of my favorite things! 

My cake at mom's house 

The cake Tyler got for me

As some of you may know, today was the Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale. I told Tyler that it is no coincidence that this sale occurred the day after my birthday LOL I got so many cute things! I shopped on the Lilly website as well as a website called 6pm.com. I can't wait for my packages to arrive so I can see everything in person! I was really hoping to get some leggings, but they were only marked down a little bit. I just can't bring myself to pay that much for leggings that I'm going to be laying around the house in! I did get several dresses and some pants too. I absolutely love the palazzo and beach pants. They are so comfortable but still make you look "put together." 

Here are the items I got during the sale:

The After Party Sale is a wonderful event that always gets me so excited; however, I know that this sale also indicates the closing of summer. Labor Day will be here before we know it, and that means all of our darling white pants that pair perfectly with Lilly tops will have to go into retirement until Easter. I know some people say that old southern rule of no white after Labor Day is silly, but I just can't bring myself to break it. It always seems my Lilly sale order arrives just after Labor Day, so I am forced to save those beautiful dresses for the following spring. This is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, I have all new clothes to wear for the following spring and summer, but it is so hard to not wear them when they first arrive. 

Speaking of summer ending, I made a quick stop in Hobby Lobby last week, and Oh. My. Goodness! They already have fall (Thanksgiving and Halloween) and Christmas decorations out. I absolutely LOVE fall and Christmastime, but I hate to see summer end. I took a few pictures of some of the seasonal pieces that I absolutely love! I am trying to refrain from buying any home decor until after Tyler and I settle down and buy a house of our own. I am typing this part of the post partly for you to check out the beautiful items they have at Hobby Lobby and partly for me to have record of things I want to buy in the future LOL

I love the color of this table runner.. It is sort of a sage green but also has a hint of a muted blue/grey

I'm really getting into the whites, greens, and blues for fall.

After last Christmas, I bought gold chargers and table runners to match my Christmas dishes. They were on sale at Kohl's. I love this little pumpkin plate because it would match some of the stuff I already have!

This plate would go perfectly with the table runner above and would be beautiful with those soft muted greens and blues I like. 

I absolutely love this nativity scene for Christmas. It has a white distressed look, and it even has hints of sparkle on it. I NEED this!

Currently, my Christmas decorations are traditional red and gold, and I add in a hint of leopard for some pizazz. I know this is hard to believe, but Tyler isn't a huge fan of the leopard LOL The next time I get new ornaments for our tree, I'm thinking of mixing gold, silver, and cream. I love this muted metallic color that would go perfectly with either gold or silver. 

How cute would these sleighs be if they were used as a vase. Add in some holly, pine, and poinsettias, and you would have a beautiful centerpiece for a Christmas dining table! The reindeer are cute too!

I hope y'all enjoyed this post! I am hoping to do some more cooking posts soon. Tyler and I have decided we need to do meal prep for the week from now on. I have been working a lot of evening shifts which means I'm gone from 1 or 2 in the day until 9 or 10 at night. Most of the time I don't even get to eat a meal while I'm at work, so I eat a large lunch and skip dinner completely. That isn't healthy, and Tyler hates eating out all week when I'm not home to cook. Usually I work a few days and then I have a few days off. We are hoping to prep meals for a couple of days at a time since I'm not a huge fan of "leftovers." Whenever we find time to meal prep, I'll make sure to take pictures for y'all! I'll have my new camera too, so the pictures will be much higher quality than what I've been posting! Until next time.. Take care y'all! 

One Year Anniversary Trip

Hey y'all! This may be one of my most favorite posts yet: celebrating our one year anniversary. Our actual one year anniversary was on June 27, 2016, but with both of us taking boards this summer, we had to compromise on when we took our weekend getaway. We knew we didn't have time to take a long trip, so while I was still studying and before Tyler started studying, we took a quick weekend trip to Savannah, GA. If you know me, you probably know about my love affair with Charleston, SC. I have never been to Savannah, but I knew it was another famous southern city that I MUST visit. I wanted to love Savannah, but I was afraid it just wouldn't compare to Charleston. I was excited to finally get to explore this gem of the south even if it was only for a couple of days. 

The view from our room.

Of course, Tyler planned a wonderful evening to celebrate our first year of marriage. He made reservations for the night we arrived at The Old Pink House. Y'all, I have NEVER in my life had fried chicken as good as the fried chicken there. They said their secret is putting a little bit of tabasco sauce on the chicken before they coat it in the breading and spices. It isn't hot, but there is just a bit of heat to give it so much flavor. We had chicken, collards, mac and cheese, sweet potatoes.. you name it, we ate it LOL That was seriously one of the most delicious meals I've ever had! Plus, they had a specialty drink of raspberry pink lemonade called The Pink Lady. I just had to try one! It was delicious!! The restaurant is exactly how it sounds: an old pink house. The rooms are cramped and not big open spaces like normal restaurants. They utilized the layout of the house as best as they could, and although it wasn't as functional as some of the more modern buildings, the close corridors gave it so much charm. Not to mention they had the ceilings painted haint blue. I could've died when I saw that. I WILL paint a ceiling in my house (someday) haint blue.  

That blue ceiling makes my heart skip a beat!

After dinner, we ventured down to River Street to see the views and other shops/restaurants. We caught a bike taxi back to our hotel because my poor feet couldn't walk on the cobblestone in my Jack Rogers wedges any longer LOL 

The next day we wanted to explore all that Savannah has to offer. We found a list on Pinterest of must see sights in the city, and by the end of the day, we had walked the entire historic district. We had a blast seeing all of the historic buildings, parks, and the large oaks dripping in Spanish moss. We also drove about 40 minutes and visited Tybee Island. It was spectacular. It sort of reminded me of Garden City Beach at Myrtle Beach. It was very low key and not crowded at all. There were no big hotels or high rises, so you could truly appreciate the natural beauty of the beach itself. On the inlet side, we had lunch with a view at a local restaurant. Tyler tried their gumbo, and I had loaded nachos. YUM! 

Heading to Tybee Island.

Back to Savannah for the evening...

Forsyth Park

We had dinner at Paula Deen's restaurant Lady and Sons. It was pretty good, but it seemed subpar after eating at The Old Pink House the night before. However, I did have her banana pudding for dessert, and Lord have mercy, it was phenomenal! 

Clearly, Ty liked his meal LOL

Back down to River Street for the evening.

Several years ago, my mom started a tradition with Kelly and me. Wherever we travel, we buy a Christmas ornament. It is a way to buy a keepsake to remember all of our trips that we can put out each year at Christmas. We put the ornaments from all of our travels on a "travel tree," and it is so fun looking at each ornament and remembering our experiences in that city. Tyler and I have collected several ornaments since we were first married. He thought to get this ornament at a Christmas store on River Street. How sweet! 

I can't lie to y'all. When I first arrived in Savannah I was let down a little. Charleston, in my mind, is the epitome of a southern city. Savannah is much smaller in size with less hustle and bustle; however, the longer I was there, the more I fell in love. It is so much more relaxed and low key. There is nowhere near as much traffic or tourists. I felt as if we were actually able to enjoy the quintessential  southern slow paced lifestyle while in Savannah. I was able to truly appreciate all that Savannah has to offer after I stopped comparing it to Charleston because they are not the same. You have to appreciate each for what it is. Savannah is definitely added to my list of favorite places now! 

On our way back home, we drove up to Charleston. I couldn't bear the thought of being that close to my favorite place in the world and not visiting it. We also drove to some places we hadn't visited before like Hilton Head, Daniel Island, and Palmetto Bluff. Those towns are breathtaking. Everything is clean and neat looking. All of the establishments are in very nice buildings, and they still incorporate old southern charm staples like the oil burning lamps and the mossy oak trees. I was loving life visiting these places! 

Quick stop at Hilton Head for lunch. I needed my cherry coke fix!

We made one final pit stop on our way home: The Lilly Signature Store on King Street. I couldn't resist LOL I got three of the cutest dresses (on the sale rack), and I have been wearing them almost every week. One of them is the new Sophie dress that has the built in SPF. It is my new favorite! 

It has been over a month since our actual anniversary, and as I type this post I can't help but think back to what all we've been through in a year. We have been together through births, deaths, marriages, a move, and job transitions just to name a few. I couldn't imagine going through this life with anyone but Tyler by my side. He is what I prayed for when I asked God to help me find my soulmate. I never dreamed I would end up with someone as caring, loving, and hard working as my Tyler. I don't know how I made it this far in life without him, but I'm sure glad I don't have to go another day without him by my side. It was so fun celebrating a milestone in our lives in such a beautiful place even if it was only for a couple of days. It is a trip I will never forget and will always cherish! Until next time.. Take care y'all!