Catching up

Hello there friends!  I must say, I have missed blogging!  A lot has happened since my last post in August.  I went back to Frisco, Colorado in September and it was a great trip.

 Our Thanksgiving was great.  It was a smaller gathering than past years, but wonderful nonetheless. 

Christmas was equally pleasing as well as New Year's Eve.

 I think the most pivotal point from last year, though, was finding out that we're expecting!  As I type this, we are 6 days past our due date, but we're over the moon about meeting our baby girl very soon :-)  Soooo...the Myers Maison will be filled with even more love!

As for other projects around the house, I honestly haven't done much outside of decorating the nursery which is 98% complete.  Can't wait to share it with you guys soon!  As for my online shop, Color Hug, we're in the final stages of launching our new product lines for the Summer, so keep your eyes open for that as well.

See you guys soon!

Road Trip Essentials

Hello there friends!  It's been a while, but all thanks to Katrina from Chic Little House for motivating me over the weekend to get back to blogging!  As you may know, the Haven Conference was this past weekend in Atlanta.  Though I didn't attend, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Katrina after being blog buddies for a few years.  It was one of the best days ever and I'm so happy to have met such a kind, wonderful, genuine person.  Now I have someone to visit on the west coast :)

With that being said, I have some exciting home projects lined up that I'm looking forward to starting (and sharing), but first Simon and I will be going on vacation soon and it will be a road trip.  I wanted to share a few of my road trip essentials...i.e. things that keep me sane in a car for hours at a time.  I'm not a fan of being in a car for more than four hours, so I get a little stir crazy after then.  I'm usually a passenger for the majority of the trip because Simon enjoys driving.  To keep myself calm and entertained, here are a few things that I bring with me-

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1. My phone (obviously)- Yes it's great for talking and texting on the road (and playing Candy Crush), but I have loads of music and can also listen to Pandora or Sirius XM Satellite Radio for a wide variety of music options.

2. Phone Charger- Don't want the battery to die two hours into the trip.

3. Motion sickness pills-  I get an awful headache when I try to read, write or draw in a moving vehicle.  In order for me to do any of these, I take these pills.  They tend to make me drowsy which is fine and leads me to...

4.  My pillow from home- An absolute necessity.  Trying to sleep comfortably in a car in an upright position is nearly impossible without a pillow to take the strain off of my neck.  Also, if for some reason the hotel pillows aren't as comfortable, I have my own pillow to fall back on.

5.  Reading materials- A magazine or book is great after waking up from my motion sickness pill nap.  Simon and I purchased a book of questions a few years back, so I read the questions and we answer them.  It's interesting what you learn about your partner that you may not have known from these kinds of books.

6.  Snacks and drinks- A HUGE must.  We usually pack our cooler with water bottles (of course a few sparkling ones are thrown in there), a flavored beverage whether it's Jones Soda or San Pellegrino Limonata, sandwich ingredients (usually some kind of deli meat from the deli counter and a gourmet cheese to make the sandwiches a little more special) and fruit.  As far as dry snacks, we usually pack Kettle chips, nuts, and some kind of healthier option of a dessert.

7.  Comfortable clothes-  Since we're in the car for hours at a time, I always wear comfortable clothing.  This usually consists of loose shorts, a tank top, flip flops and sunnies.  I still want to look cute since I like taking pictures along the way...

8.  My camera- It's a way to flex my creative muscles in a moving vehicle (a design challenge for sure!).  I also love state welcome signs and try to get a picture of them each time we enter a new state.  I take pictures with my cell phone as well so that I can post to my Instagram for you fine people :)

9.  Gum-  After those naps I want to freshen my breath if we're not near a rest stop.

10.  CDs-  Even though I have music on my phone, there are still a few CDs that we like to listen to along the way (Radiohead, Thom Yorke and Outkast to name a few).


So there it is, the things that keep me sane on a road trip.  What about you all?  What are your road trip necessities?  I would love some more ideas!

What My Weekend Consisted Of

Hi guys!  I hope you had a nice weekend.  Mine was packed but great!  Here is a little photo recap:

1-2// The trees are blooming all around town.  I just want to snatch one up and give it a new home in my backyard.

3// We enjoyed the fire pit since the temperatures at night have been cool.

4-6// I started an interior styling course online last week, so this weekend involved purchasing styling knick-knacks and turning my living room upside down...well, somewhat.

7//  I have been addicted to grapefruits lately.  Just typing the word makes me want to grab one right now.

8-9// We went to a b'day party for Simon's coworker's (hey girl!) son at a fun place called Glow Galaxy.  It's all neon lights and colors, bounce houses and blow up slides.

10-12//  We tried out Caribou Coffee and I LOVED my drink.  The interior was so cozy;  like a log cabin with a double-sided fireplace and all!  As we were sitting there we saw an employee posting signs on the doors saying that they will be closing in two weeks.  Like, for good.  BUMMER!!!  Apparently they are closing 18 locations in the Atlanta area and they will be replaced by Peet's Coffee.  Not feeling so great about that.  Anyone heard of Peet's?

13//  Of course since it's been nice outside we have been grilling.  Duh.

How was your weekend?

Life Lately

This is my random life lately...

Blog Updates//
You may (or may not) have noticed that I made a few changes to the blog!  I changed the header, the layout and simplified the side bar.  I also added more social media icons.  Hey, I did pretty good considering my last update was in January.  At the end of that post I asked myself how long the layout would last.  Ha!

Nails//
For the last couple of months I have been on a "one glitter nail" kick.  I give myself a manicure and pedicure every Sunday evening (one of the things I look forward to the most in my week), and after seeing an image of one glitter nail on the internet one day, I fell in love with it.  It took about a year for me to try it though.  Here are some of the combinations.

Culinary//
I haven't been cooking as much lately.  This is mainly because Simon has been grilling just about every week for the last five months.  Every now and then I sneak a meal in.  I love making homemade meatballs for my spaghetti.  I made this last week.

Graphic Design//
I designed a baby shower invitation.  The sex of the baby has not been revealed to anyone, the parent's are keeping it a secret.  That meant that the invitations had to be unisex.  Throw in a little non-traditional and this is what you get.

Around the house//
You remember that Spring Forward Project List?  It's almost the end of summer and I haven't completed much of it.  It will probably be extended into Autumn.  Actually yes...it will be.  No probably's about it (I just made up a word).  I do have a fun reveal from the list coming up this week though, so stay tuned!  In the meantime, I finally have narrowed down paint colors for my bedroom/bathroom.  Now I have to decide what walls get what color.  Here are the samples on my bathroom wall.

Reading//
Simon has a Kindle but he hasn't been using it lately.  I ended up "borrowing" it.  Ever since reading the 50 Shades trilogy, I have been on a reading spree.  I've read 7 books in the last month and a half.

Family Reunion//
My Dad's side of the family has a family reunion each year in July.  This year my Dad, sister and I hosted in Georgia.  The last time I saw most of my relatives was last year at my Grandfather's funeral.  This was the first time seeing them in a while for a happy occasion. Before the funeral I hadn't seen them in four years since I generally don't go to the reunions that are out of town.

Birthday//
We celebrated my Mom's birthday over the weekend.  The actual day is today though, so Happy Birthday, Mom! That's a red velvet cake martini that she's drinking :)

What's been keeping me busy lately

If you've noticed my lack of posting as of late, it's due to this...

I've been working on the event branding for a wedding that will be this autumn.  So far I've completed the invitations and thank you cards.  The second half of the job will be later this month which will include the programs and favor tags.

It's proving to be a productive summer already!

May events: Changes around the house + new items

So I've made a few changes around the house, and I bought a few things.

First, I decided that I wasn't really feeling this painting above the TV.  There's something about it that I just don't love.  I'll be painting something over it.  Thank goodness for acrylic paint!

I traded out the painting for my Seasons prints (available here).  I enjoy the colors and the look of this much better!  I'm going to add something to the top of the TV to fill in the small empty area.

Next, I went to Home Goods (naturally!) and purchased some impromptu items.

Can't wait to get this all set up on my tray of feminine loveliness :)

These cups are a part of my outdoor dining gear.

These plates are a part of the outdoor dining gear as well.

Before I turned 30, I made a small list of things that I wanted to start doing so that I could burst into a new decade feeling great!  One of the things on my list was to get a bike.  Lets face it, the older you get the slower your metabolism gets :-\

I did some research and settled on this bike.

Unfortunately a couple of weeks later we got into a fight with a sand patch and a big hole.  Yeah, she's totaled.  So I got this bike as a replacement.  Here's praying that there will be no more altercations!

I have a long term goal to have only wooden hangers in my closet.  In the meantime, I'm getting rid of my wire hangers.  This looks crazy right?

Well I threw as much as I could of these out...

...and replaced them with these (thanks to my Grandma).

Much better!

Happenings Around Our Way

Hey guys!  I realized that I haven't really posted much on the house happenings around here in a bit.  So here goes:

To start off, I finally purchased a dslr, and have been having so much fun learning all of the functions on it!  Now I may become a "professional blogger" because of the better quality images (after this post)!  If you follow me on twitter you may have seen the tweets about it.

Next, I went on a slight shopping spree at Home Goods.  I haven't shopped there that much since I got another car last August, so a week after we got our tax refund I high tailed straight to Home Goods.  As I stated last month, I have been on a cooking kick.  This trip wasn't so much about home decor (well, just a couple of things), but more so about upgrading cookware and the like (we had rusty baking sheets, sub-par pasta forks, and a pan with a missing handle to name a few).  I also was planning to cook all of the meals that were on The Everygirl for the week, and to be enthused about it I knew I needed to upgrade.  (Side note...if you haven't checked out The Everygirl yet, go there as soon as you finish reading and commenting on this post!)

Here's a photo of everything that I purchased:

• A set of knives
• A high quality pan
• A durable baking sheet
• A pasta holder
• A glass gold-dipped vase
• A small metallic bowl (decor)
• Pasta fork
• Tongs
• Set of mixing bowls
• Decorative cup (decor)
• Salt shaker and pepper grinder set (not shown)

This is where some of these items now reside and/or closeups of them (taken with the new cam!):

(placed the shakers on top of candle holders that I already had)

Here are a few photos of my recent culinary masterpieces :-D

Puffed pancakes (recipe from Naomi at Rockstar Diaries)

Veggie pizza



Chicken lettuce wraps with peanut sesame noodles

So what's been happening at your crib?