Five Friday Favorites

1. Happy Fall Y'all! 

Despite the 90+ degree weather, I am so happy that it is practically Fall because it is my favorite season! Pumpkin Spice Lattes are baaack in full swing, Oktoberfest is in stock, and its almost time to wear my plaid shirts and riding boots! Plus, I am really looking forward to the cooler temperatures, hopefully sooner rather than later {fingers crossed}. I painted this cute sign the other day with leftover wood from my DIY Boat Cleat Towel Holders and I even changed out my wreath to my Fall one in an effort to push this heat and humidity out the door asap. Who's with me?!

2. Cold Brew Coffee 

If you are a fan of cold coffee, please do yourself a favor and order yourself a cold brew coffee maker. It is the easiest way to make delicious cold coffee every time! I ordered this one off of Amazon and it is just under $20. Basically you put the grounds into a reusable filter that comes with the brew pot and then pour cold water over the grounds. At first, you will only see the coffee seep a slight bit making the water a light amber color, but place the pot into the fridge (I usually make mine right before bed) and leave it for 8-12 hours to seep and when you come back the coffee will be dark and luscious. Put some ice into a mason jar with your cold brew, a splash of milk, and a cute straw and your life will be instantly better! Okay, okay maybe not instantly but you are definitely off to a great start. 

I have started getting my coffee grounds from World Market now. *If you buy coffee on Wednesdays and are part of their rewards program they will give you double points for every bag of coffee you get and once you get 6 points (bags), you get a free bag!* I've tried the French Roast and Vanilla Bean so far and I am definitely more of a fan of the darker grounds for sure. 

3. Beauty Blog

So there are two things that you will probably never read me blog about because I am eternally a newb when it comes to both of these subjects: makeup and cooking. Lucky for you, 1. I have a sister that is the all knowing when it comes to makeup and style and 2. she started her very own beauty blog called Baltimore Beautiful. (Fun fact: she also got the cooking gene from my Ma that apparently jumped right over me.) Go check it out and give her some love in the form of comments and long term readers! ;)

4. Twigs & Pinwheels

I think it's safe to say I have an addiction to Etsy. My latest handmade purchases have been this Twig necklace that I LOVE and these fabric Pinwheels that are super adorable. 

5. The World is Your Oyster 

I fell in love with this print by Rifle Paper Co. and I had the perfect place in mind for it to hang in our kitchen but I just could swing the $50 price tag. I am all for paying money for handmade products (see #4), but sometimes I just cannot fathom spending money for something I know I can create myself. Hence, why I grabbed some mat board and paint and painted my own version that resembles the poster I so loved. Just like I thought, it is the perfect addition to our kitchen and only costed me about $8. How great is that phrase too!

Real Version Via.

My Version!

Have a great weekend! 

Peace, 

Allison 

Is Fall Really Over Already?!

I can't believe how fast time is flying by now that I am not counting down to one specific event. I feel like it just turned to Fall and now it's practically gone, already being overcome by Christmas decorations and peppermint mochas. Well, now that it's already over I might as well update on what has happened these past two months.

Once we got back from our mini-moon in Southport, NC (more on that soon)...

We quickly got back to wedded reality bliss. However, before we were completely back to reality we did spend an insane (to us) amount of money requiring two carts worth (never done that before!) at Bed, Bath, and Beyond getting all of the things we really wanted off of our registry. Thankfully, we had many gift cards and coupons, so no worries! And now our kitchen is full on stocked with matching dishes, nice pots and pans, and casserole dishes. Yes, casserole dishes folks. It's like I'm really an adult now or something!  

We made it to the SC State Fair for the very last night of the season and took a ride on the Ferris Wheel. 

Later in October, while in Charlotte visiting my dad we finally made it to Scarowinds. 

I've always wanted to go and it was actually well worth it! The haunted houses throughout were actually pretty well done and I definitely jumped quite a few times. Everything was great except when we got stuck on one of the roller coasters at the very beginning of the first hill for a good 15 minutes... not my idea of a good time. Then try inching up that entire hill after the ride hasn't even been tested again! Terrifying, that's what it is. 

Yes, I had just enough time (15 whole minutes) to sneak out my phone and take a picture. Obviously, one of us wasn't very scared. 

I also picked up our wedding gift from my brother, this beautiful iron and wood shelf that he made. He makes awesome rustic furnishings and decorations in his business called Hous Furniture. I absolutely love it and already had it's spot all picked out long before we got it home. I also may or may not have picked up that lamp at Target specifically to go on this shelf a few months before, hehe. 

Finally, Halloween showed up and Rhiley surprisingly still fits in her She"ruff" costume. The costume made for some great laughs all night as she ran around with the toy gun falling out all over the house and then stood guard at the door protecting her candy bowl. Just kidding, she was locked upstairs with music on so she wouldn't bark and scare off our (whopping 15!) Trick or Treaters. The sad life of an embarrassingly loud dog mom. 

I also got around to decorating for Fall a little on the late side. I made the banner and picked up some small pumpkins and gourds to spice things up. 

Finally, we made it to the Clinton Sease Farm Corn Maze for our 3rd year together! Of course we had to do our annual corn people photo. Check out the photos from our previous years below. 

Fall 2013:

Marriage is doing well for us, can't you tell? All in good fun people. Don't worry no husbands were harmed in the making of this photo. 

 Fall 2012:

Brandon with the our friends the Broders who we've gone to the Corn Maze every year with. 

Fall 2011:

What are you going to miss most about Fall?? 

Peace,

Allison

Fall Craftiness!

.....And I'm back! For good, I promise. It has been over two months since I last posted if you can believe it. Life took me on a wild ride these past two months and I am joyful to finally have the time and energy to blog again. In other news, we are MARRIED! Our wedding went so well and it was such a beautiful day. We couldn't have asked for better weather, venue, and people to celebrate with. 

I will be posting a ton of wedding related posts very soon but for now I will give you a sneak peek with a picture one of our friends took during the ceremony. 

Photo Credit: Jen Reyes

Isn't the venue just spectacular?! And this was just the upstairs of the barn. 

Anywhoooo, despite being MIA the last two months on here, I have been crafting like a crazy woman and since the wedding we have made a ton of progress in the house. 

This last weekend, we finally purchased a full sized kitchen table with some of our wedding gift money!! We used to have this miniature specimen if you may recall...

And now we have this beautiful wonder of wood from World Market that can actually seat 6+ people with their plates unlike our old table where we could only hardly seat four people let along their plates of food. We do have a bench for one of the long sides as well (to seat 6 people), but we grabbed the wrong color at first so we still need to exchange it. The best part about our first big furniture buy for the new house is that World Market was running their friends and family sale so it was all 25% off!! Gotta love a bargain! Also, it is the Verona Dining Table Set if anyone was wondering. 

And we finally got to break in the new table this past Sunday when we had our friends the Reyes' come over for the first annual Friendsgiving! 

We prepared our stomachs for Thanksgiving with some turkey and all the fixings, carved pumpkins with their daughter Bella, and played some corn hole on our Wedding Corn Hole Set (a project I will be updating you all on with the wedding posts that are in the works). 

So needless to say, I am in full swing for Fall. In fact, I had my first Pumpkin Spiced Latte of the season from Starbucks today which definitely got me in the Fall mood. 

Okay, I know I promised some fall crafts! 

Last weekend I updated a set of antlers I had gotten at a flea market on our Mini-Moon in Southport, NC. I had been looking for antlers for the LONGEST time and so when I finally found them, I jumped on it and bought 'em. I have seen some really nice looking painted antlers and some really NOT so nice ones (ie. tacky paint jobs). So I was set on making them look classic and chic. I used gold, light blue, and white to make this happen in a very similar style to one of my favorite bloggers, The Jolly James'. Here's my end result and I'm pretty psyched about how they turned out. 

For now here are the antlers' new home on the window sill between the kitchen and living room. Once my brother brings the industrial style bookshelf he made us as a wedding gift they will have a permanent home below this window but until then I will continue to admire them here. 

I also updated a tin container I bought originally for the wedding photo booth props. My goal with all of the wedding projects was to buy and create things that could be used or re-purposed in our home once the wedding was over. So while I bought this tin with the purpose of holding the photo booth props in mind, I also had the idea to use it as a s'more stick holder as well after the wedding! Especially now that it is finally getting cooler out at night, I am sure we will be using our firepit a lot more and this little bucket will come in handy! 

Another wedding craft I am reusing is one of the chalkboard picture frames I had made for the Bar Menu at the wedding. Basically, I just added a Fall quote I found on Pinterest and am using it above the kitchen cabinets to bring some appeal to that boring area. Pretty simple I know, but I think it brings a little more Fall into our home. 

Although I did this weeks before the wedding, I also have upgraded the front door from just the painted "F" to a full on Fall (or really any season for that matter) wreath. 

It was actually very cheap to make, costing just around $10 to make. I got the vine wreath at Walmart for about $5. Then I got the flower stems at Michael's on sale for about $2 a piece. The burlap ribbon I already had on hand for wedding projects so all in all it was a cheap update that makes the front door look much more approachable. 

Finally, since gold and chevron are some of the current trends, I updated the lamp shade next to our TV using an idea I found on Pinterest. Amy from The Blissful Bee had shared this cheap and easy way to update a boring lampshade here. So when I looked up at our tripod lamp from Lowe's with the boring off-white shade, I knew exactly what to use this idea on. 

BEFORE: 

AFTER:

No, it's not the most "finished" looking project I have made to date, but I do like the hand painted aspect of it and I have to say even though I was skeptical at first when I completed the lamp shade, it definitely has grown on me since.

Okay, well maybe they're not quite all "Fall crafts" so much as "crafts made in the Fall" but I think they are making our house look a lot more like a home.
It feels so good to finally have posted again and I can't wait to share our Wedding detes as well as a few room makeovers we have been working on. In fact, our laundry room is actually FINISHED so I will be revealing the before and after very soon. 

Peace, 

Allison