a zoo of a day.

Since Travis was out of town a few days this week for work, the little guy and I stayed busy to keep our minds off of how lonely it can be without hubby/daddy around to make us crazy. ;)

Tuesday we spent the afternoon having lunch with my sister-in-law and scoping out the house they're buying closer to us! Yesterday we left home early to make the two hour drive south and spend the day at the zoo with my girlfriend, sister, her boyfriend, and my neice. After filling our bellies on our packed lunches we braved the heat, humidity, and threatening gray clouds to catch a glimpse of "wild animals". Little did we know we'd do more than catch a glimpse of a few.

Jack thought it was so cool to feed the giraffe although I doubt he'll realize how exciting that really is until he's older. I was jealous. ;)

My neice Alivia exclaimed the giraffe hurt her already existing thumb "boo boo". Oh, little girls. :)

By mid afternoon the heat, crowd, and lack of nap started taking it's toll. Point in case:

*notice the clenched fists in complete aggravation? I've said it before, "It's a good thing he's so cute!"

All was calm again once we entered the petting zoo!

Jack found the one and only goat not interested in the feeding frenzy and nearly force fed him.

Once the poor goat accepted, it was game over. Alivia even got in on the action and it was two persistent toddlers against one exhausted goat. We all know who won here.

Adorable moment: Jack trying to help a sweet little sheep get more food from the dispenser.

 A quick stop by the Polar Bears made us want to take a dip of our own to cool off.

And off to the (indoor) pool we were headed.

*sorry for the poor cell phone photo quality

An amazing day it was with people I love the most, memorable experiences with the kids, and just the reminder I needed that even cloudy days can produce smiles.

*Sidenote: With a good nights sleep behind me I was able to put a real effort and clear headed thought into the blog design today and am quite pleased with how it turned out. Sorry for the mess while it was "under construction". :)

late night nonsense.

I'm home with just the little guy, it's late, I can't sleep and I decide to work on my blog layout??? Worst.Decision.Ever.

I have no idea what I've done, how I did it, or how to fix it and I'm quite certain I will lose sleep over it tonight. Don't judge me. I'm a self admitted perfectionist and can't stand something being "off". It looks like a jumbled mess and as I sit here freaking out over something that should be alot less important to me, I realize it's later than I thought and I have a little boy who will be eager to get going to the zoo in the morning so I should be in bed or I'll look like a wild animal myself tomorrow.

Anyone have any clue how to "fix" my late night, foggy headed, efforts?

Until I get this figured out... please excuse my mess while I perform (clueless) maintenance.

fabulous for sure!

Don't you just love coming across a giveaway that you swoon over? Well ladies, be sure to go say hello to fabulous k today because she has an UH-mazing stella & dot giveaway for a $50 shopping credit. AND, you can enter up to SEVEN times. We all know 7 is supposed to be the luckiest of numbers so best of luck my lovely friends.

My favorite piece (although it's nearly impossible to pick just ONE) is the Clover Key Necklace.

Share your favorites, and of course let me know if you win so I can swoon over your pick! :)

take a seat.

Maybe you all remember the days when I used to post regularly, and, maybe you're new to the blog and are disappointed in how infrequent my posts are. Either way, you must know I don't like it either but life takes over these things sometimes ya know. I'm working on it... ;)

Well, back in the days of regular posts our "sitting area", which is actually just an akward extra section off of the living room, looked like THIS.

That first shot with the toy box and animals... I cannot even believe I ever let it look like that. But, the little baby pretty much ran this house at that time. :) And, although the second shot was muuuuuch better, I just knew that dresser was one that wouldn't stay for long. Although lovely, I envisioned something else. Something along these lines....

Now if you don't mind I'd like to go over the exact changes in this space because the littlest things made the biggest difference.

Notice old white blinds and heavy (ugly) drapes were replaced with flatstick roman shades, new drapery hardware and lovely linen curtains. The refinished dresser was replaced with a storage cabinet I found on Craigslist for $20!!! Gave it a fresh coat of "summer gray" paint and new hardware (sorry I forgot the before picture but lets just say huge brass eagle heads served as hardware, UGH!), adorned it with some of my favorite accessories and voila'. Flanking the cabinet are two chairs I picked up at Goodwill for $6 each. They once looked like this...

I wasn't so much for the chipped yellow paint and Navajo type print fabric. So, more white paint and clearance navy pinstriped fabric and these two beauties seriously make me swoon. Last but certainly not least, that builders light fixture that once barely lit the space has been replaced with a brand new $30 chandelier I found at *wait for it* JC Penney Furniture Outlet.

Other than changing out the photos, adding more books, and making tags for our photo boxes, I'd say this area will look like this permanently. Eventually a table will be added for use as a desk but details on that will come with the updated living room post. ;)

be our guest.

In my absence of blogging on a regular basis lately, we have had guests quite often here at the house which makes my heart happy. Thankfully, I have (over many many weeks, ok, months) managed to make the guest room a serene, calm, welcoming space. Unlike the dark empty space it once was...

Along with a few coats of fresh creamy white paint, a made-over armoire, new bedding essentials, and a few thrifty accessories, I also found a lovely headboard on Craigslist that had pretty features with a not so pretty color/finish. Nothing a little paint can't fix, right?

See all that potential?

Of course it's not finished, no room ever really is. I'd like to distress the crisp white armoire, and that little side table ($3.99 from goodwill by the way!) needs it stripes to be more turquoise than gray/blue I think. And I'm thinking there should be an old chippy sign above the bed.

But, for the next week I'm off to find a cure from saltwater in the form of the sea. It's been a busy, rough couple of months and we're off to enjoy a much needed family week at the beach in Ocean Isle, NC. But be prepared, because I've already 'googled' mulitple flea markets in the area. :)

I hope you lovelies are enjoying tons of summer festivities and more laughter than your stomach can handle.

my wolfpack.

Ok ladies, bare with me on getting to the home side of things. I will post about something home related this week. I'm determined to.

For now I thought I'd share some photos of a trip Travis and I just took to Vegas with our best of friends. We stayed at Mandalay Bay, and our biggest events were the UFC fan expo and weigh in's for UFC 114 as well as dinner and a Cirque Du Soleil show at Bellagio courtesy of some generous friends. I'm hoping all of you have seen "The Hangover" at this point because 1. it is hilarious, and 2. we made quite the number of references to that movie throughout our trip. In fact, we've now dubbed ourselves the new "wolfpack". :)

We refer to the friends we went with as our "favorites", and, that's no joke. Ashley and Austin, we sure do love you guys and had the time of our lives in Vegas with you. Do it all over again next year? ;)

*Travis' birthday night at Ghost Bar at The Palms. Uh-mazing view.

*sunbathing VIP style. (lucky fellas) ;)

*Travis and I on the Bellagio dinner and a show night.

2 sweet smiles + 2 badasses = one fun group

*Getting wild at the UFC 114 weigh-ins.

My wolfpack. :) Don't judge us.

*Travis, Austin & Me crushing "yard dogs". Yard Dogs: ridiculously large daquiris that should require an "I'm not responsible for my actions" sign to be worn after consuming.

*Ran into Dana White (President of the UFC) at 3a.m. in our hotel. Coolest.Guy.Ever.

*This, my friends, is what a dream come true looks like. The lovely little blonde in the photo is my bestest, and the fella to her right? Well, that's Tito Ortiz, aka man of her dreams. The nice and naughty ones. ;)

Can't wait to do it all again! See you lovelies soon with some photos of updates and changes around the house.

heartbreaker.

I know I should start with an apology to the few of you darlings who are so eager to see the changes I've made around our home. And, just as soon as the sunshine graces our home with her beauty again, I'll go photograph crazy with my new camera (gotta love birthdays and hubbies) and share the plethera of changes we've made around here.

In the meantime, the most recent change has been a bittersweet one.

We went from "Bieber look-a-like":

To "total toddler rock star":

Along with a new haircut came a new attitude:

I mean, I can't even handle this level of cuteness. :)