guests welcome (#17)

It gives me great, great pleasure to say that we are done with remodels.  Done.  Finished.  No more.  I love a good remodel as much as the next person but they are always inconvenient, especially now that we are a family of there (plus two dogs).

Our town puts on a tour of homes every Christmas to benefit a local family or charity.  There are usually four to five homes on the tour.  It's always lots of fun to see how different people decorate and to get to be a little nosey.

This year, we were asked to be on the tour.  I said no but after a family dropped out, I decided that there is no time like the present which brought us to our final remodel.  The guest room.

This is actually the second time our guest room as been remodeled.  When I first moved in, Daniel let me paint and we put down new carpet.  It is amazing to see how your style transforms over the year.  I don't know what I was smoking when I chose tar heel blue but it was definitely not fitting in with our decor.  Working with Jennifer has also given me confidence in my style and I decided to tackle the decorating alone.  It's really scary especially when you know half the town will be judging it.

We decided to keep the remodel simple since we didn't have much time.  We painted the walls a shade of white which meant we had to repaint the trim because the old color looked a little yellow.  We covered holes and really just tidied up.

The biggest job really was decorating.  I decided to go light and bright.  I chose a color palette of blues and greens since they were already being used in other rooms.  But my starting point really was my maps.  If you read my blog, it's obvious that we love to travel.  I had the idea to get maps of all the places we had travelled and to frame them.  I found maps that fit our color scheme and took it from there.

What's even more surprising is that I did the decorating on a budget.  Let me say that again.  I stuck to a budget.  My sister-in-law found the bed frame on clearance at World Market.  I bought the side tables from One Kings Lane and the lamps were on sale at Kirklands.  The credenza was a scratch and dent that I got half off but you can't even see the scratches.  The frames were on sale at Hobby Lobby and I painted them using paint that we already had.  I felt so thrifty!  I did get the bedding from Pottery Barn so that was a little expensive but you can't have it all.

So without further ado, here is our new guest room!

The bed and maps of France, NYC, Spain, Italy, and Paris

The credenza and a map of London (I have two more maps for this wall)

The view from the door

Since the tour of homes is Christmas-centric, I decided to do two trees.  We collect ornaments from our travels (if we can find one) and I thought a travel tree would be perfect in a room full of maps.

The travel tree

That is our room!  I love it and am so proud of it.  You would think I made a world-altering discovery.  I am really that proud and often find myself just standing in the room checking out my hard work.  Our guest room is officially open to the public!

the 30th birthday trip (#2)

I am a traveller. It's something I really love to do and if I could ever get Samantha Brown's job, I would snatch it up in a second (especially since she gets to stay at the really nice hotels and not the low budge ones).

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to go to Greece. More recently I've wanted to go to Greece for my 30th birthday, which is a little over seven months away.   Ew.

Well, pack your bags because we are going to Greece. Daniel and I are actually going but I'll post day by day blogs so it will be like we are all going. 

We are leaving the end of April and will be there for about 10 days. We have Mykonos, Santorini, and Athens on the agenda so if you've ever been to any of these places and have recommendations, don't be shy. 

I am so excited to cross Greece of my 30 before 30 bucket list!

Here's a couple pictures of what to expect.

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Houston road trip

My family lives twelve hours away. We knew eventually we would have to make the drive but no one said we had to be excited about it.  We decided to break the trip and half and this proved to be a wise decision.  Beckett lost it towards the end of the drive each day.  I don't think any of us were quite ready to make the drive in one trip.

Beckett just learned how far away Houston is

No one rides for free

We decided to stop in Fredericksburg on our way to Houston.  Neither of us had ever been but everyone talks about how pretty it is.  It is also close to Austin, which meant my sister got to come and meet us.

The Hill Country in Texas is beautiful.  If you've never been you should plan a trip.  I will say that we saw more wildflowers on Highway 6 than we did on 290.  

Hill Country

First hotel stay

We met Shannon and some of her friends at the Sunset Grill.  It was delicious.  I had eggs Benedict on crab cakes.  What?!  It was amazing and everything was fresh.

The breakfast menu at Sunset Grill

My breakfast

Shannon and Beckett

And again

After breakfast, we walked around main street.  There are lots of cute stores. I found the cutest kids clothing store called Beulah's.  The girl clothes looked precious, but I couldn't look too long because it makes me sad.  The good news was that they also had fab boys clothes.  Beckett got a few outfits.

We had to head to Houston after shopping but I wanted to get Beckett's picture with the state flower, bluebonnets, before leaving.  Had I known how many there would be on Highway 6, I may have waited but I don't think it is so safe to stop on the side of the road with a baby.  We went to a wildflower farm to take his picture.

Shannon and Beckett goofing around

Enjoying nature

We will definitely be going back to Fredericksburg sans baby.  It looks like a lot of fun plus there were lots of wineries and I love a good wine tour.

Beckett's first official wildflower picture.  He is smizing, people.

The road trip was definitely long but it was worth it to see my family.  I think next time we'll be flying.  Beckett screamed every time he saw a car seat for about two days.

We're going on a trip

I have said it once and I will say it again, I love to travel.  It is probably one of my favorite things.  I love getting to see places I have never been and trying new foods.  I also love to learn, which makes me a little bit of a nerd.

I haven't had a trip to plan since we went to Savannah in July and I have been having withdrawals.  Daniel and I decided before the baby came that we were going on a five-year anniversary trip come hell or high water.  I love Beckett, but I know that I am much happier if I get to plan and go on at least one vacation a year and I am sure that he wants a happy mom.  Plus, my parents are dying to watch him and they live in a major hub city for a certain airline.  Everyone is happy happy happy.

So we finally sat down and decided where we will be going on our next big vacation.  I'll give you a couple hints.

Maybe you guessed or maybe you didn't.  Either way, we are going to Italy!  I am so excited.  We have both been to Italy once before but I was there for a day and Daniel went in December.  We are spending a week in Capri and the Amalfi coast.  I have always wanted to go to Southern Italy and I couldn't think of a better place to go for our anniversary.  Even though we won't be going for another nine months, I am already planning and booking hotels.  I really should have been a travel agent.

Savannah

It was important to both my husband and I to go on one last trip before Baby Brown arrived.  If you know me, you know that I am constantly planning my next vacation and will use just about any excuse to take one.  Having a baby seemed like the perfect reason.  This was our last trip where we could be completely worry-free and we decided to take full advantage.

My husband chose our destination.  We had been talking about taking a trip to Savannah for a while but I was actually leaning towards going to Chicago.  However, we wanted to go somewhere where we could relax and not feel like we were missing anything so Savannah seemed like the better fit.

It wouldn't be a Brown family trip without a horrible travel story.  Maybe it has more to do with the airline we always fly than us?  Our first flight was delayed and our flight from Houston to Savannah was cancelled.  By some miracle we got booked on the last flight of the day to Savannah.  Originally they told us that we would have to stay overnight in Houston.  Our new flight to Savannah was delayed and when we got there, we had no bags.  The lovely gate agents had forgotten to remark our bags for our new flight.  Oh and the flight our bags were supposed to be on the next day got cancelled.

So we arrived to Savannah feeling exhausted, gross, and we didn't have any of our belongings.  We went to Walmart to try and find a few things and the next day had to go to Target to get some clothes.  Nothing like being 20 weeks pregnant and not having all your stuff.  Needless to say, there were tears.
Thankfully the trip did get better.  We stayed at a bed and breakfast, which was a first for us, called the Hamilton-Turner Inn.  Each room is named after a famous citizen of Savannah and we were in the room named after Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts.  The home was beautiful and breakfast was amazing.  They made a different dish every day and they were all good.

The Inn

Our room

Our view

The church across the street

Savannah is just as beautiful as you think it will be.  I loved the old trees and architecture.  My only complaint was that it was hot.  And not just hot, hot and humid.  Pregnant and sweaty was not a good look.  We went on a trolley tour of the city, which I highly recommend.  It helped us figure out what we wanted to see and it was hop on and off, so it helped us get around the city.

Tree-lined streets

Cute shops

Juliette Gordon Low's house

The old Cotton Exchange

Leopold's, which has some of the best ice cream in the country

There are lots of graveyards

Sadly, we did not see Paula

I loved this home

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

Lafayette Square

The film set for the movie CBGB

We decided to go to Tybee Island since we had a rental car and Daniel loves the beach.  I imagine the beach is usually super nice, but it was very windy the day we went.  We saw lots of people being taken down by the waves.  We also saw a man who didn't quite understand the concept of boogie boarding.

It was a little rough

Whiteness

One of my favorite things about traveling is the food and since I was pregnant I decided that I could eat as much as I wanted.  So we ate a lot.  We had the best salad ever at Alligator Soul.  The croutons were grits that were breaded and fried.  Amazing.  We also had a lot of seafood which made me so happy.

I think we did a pretty good job of eating at all the top restaurants.  We waited in line for an hour or so to eat at Mrs. Wilkes' Boarding House.  Supposedly they have the best fried chicken in the South.  Now, I know fried chicken and while it was good, it needed a little more flavor.  However, all the sides made the wait (and the sweating) worth while.  On a side note, just because you are pregnant does not mean anyone will offer you a place to sit while waiting in said line.  We also had ice cream at Leopold's.  The pistachio ice cream was delish.    

Lunch at the Crystal Beer Parlor

I love a BLT

Scallops at the Olde Pink House

Huge slices of pizza at Vinnie Van Go-Go's

He was excited

I should have taken a picture of the hellacious line

We loved Savannah!

I think Daniel made an excellent choice for our baby moon but I would like to go back in the fall when it isn't quite so hot and humid.