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I am blogging from kentucky today. i am so excited to be home for the next few days! A and I have come up for a wedding this weekend. He is staying until Sunday and I get to stay until Wednesday (oh so lucky!).

Plans for this weekend include...

-attend the wedding (which will include lots of dancing till my hearts content)

-hanging out with all of my besties

-helping my sister move into the dorm

-drinking some Ale-8 (a wonderful kentucky beverage)

-enjoying a wonderful weekend in Kentucky

A and I will also get to stay with one of above mentioned besties, Rachel and her sweet hubby. They have a little piece of my heart and I am so excited to spend time with them. Also, they have a pup (my sweet stella). I call her my niece. She really loves me the most and they just got her before I could get my hands on her. (just kidding Rach). But seriously...I love that sweet pup.

I'll be back soon with some pictures (while I am there I am going to try to find my missing camera cord). Everyone enjoy the weekend. I will try to blog if I have the time!

above picture is triangle park in downtown lexington. so pretty!

photo linked to owner.

martha martha martha

martha stewart. i just love all of her crafty and homemaker ways. i love her magazine. i love her wedding magazine. i love browsing her website and her wedding website (i don't pick anything out..i just like to get fun ideas for someday!)

i love her craft supplies at wal-mart (they have a pack of like 20 glitters through her line at wal-mart. everytime i go to wal-mart...oh like once every year...i go look at that pack. i want it. not sure what i would use it for but my girly eyes are drawn to the sparkle) sorry. tangent.

anywho...i don't necessarily love the woman martha. sometimes i think she comes across as kind of mean and know-it-all ish. i won't judge. she might be super nice IRL. but i love her ways.

she has three books out. i have one (the cookbook). i can't wait to have a house with A someday. then i have an excuse to get the homemaker one. i don't really have/need an excuse to ask for the craft one. i just want it.


oh and we can just throw this one in there for good measure. i love cupcakes. it will be useful when i want to bake cupcakes and polish off all of them in 48 hours time.


these will all be mine someday. it is just fun to dream about decorating and baking and crafting someday....

a preview

so i want so badly to show you some pictures of the weekend before last. one of my besties, purdy, came down for a quick visit to SC. Her time here was short but sweet.

however, i realize that my cord to connect my camera to my computer is packed away. among all my stuff. technically, it could be in my car (doubtful), in A's room (don't think so) or in one of two cities in kentucky (most likely). until i get said cord, the pictures will have to wait.

but i did take two pictures on my blackberry. we only remembered to take pictures on one night. it happened to be the night where we went to Greenville and did lots of walking around and eating.

these two pictures have no one in them. just scenery.
so consider these a preview. a preview of what's to come.

antsy

lately, i have become so antsy. I am so ready to move into my own place. I love the girls that I am staying with now. They are sweet as pie and have been so incredibly welcoming and wonderful by letting me stay on their couch for the past 2 weeks.

I thought about this yesterday. I have not slept in my own bed in 2 months. i have slept in beds, on couches, on an air mattress and on a futon. None of them being mine. I have been on my own "couch tour" of sorts for the past 2 months. All the while, my bed has been packed up and sitting in storage until i have a place to put it down here in SC.

I am ready to put it into a room. I am so excited to unpack. I am so excited to organize all my stuff and not have my car, A's room, and rachel's upstairs packed full of all my stuff. oh gosh. i am so ready.

so please please pray. I am trusting in the Lord as he will provide a place for me. I just need to find it. I am going apartment hunting tomorrow with a girl that a family friend knows down here in Greenville. Please pray that I find something (something cheap).

I'll take pictures and post them here when i have found a place. I can't wait. I hope it happens tomorrow. It would be perfect.

Until tomorrow my sweets....

photo {flickr}
isn't it so pretty? I hope to have a big comfy white couch like that in my house someday!

bathing beauties

ok so i have a confession. i have an obsession. not kidding.

i am obsessed with Anthropologie. Especially with the furniture/kitchen/bedding stuff. But that all will be saved for another post. I was playing online tonight and i just like to tempt myself by looking on the Anthropologie website. I clicked on the swimsuit sale. I didn't think I would find so many favorites.

I am a victoria's secret BRAT when it comes to buying my bathing suits. It's fine. I totally admit that VS has a loyal buyer right here. But Anthro...man oh man. You have my heart tonight. I wish I could add all of you to my collection.

All on sale but I don't need any of them. But I decided that they will make my blog prettier. And I want all of my sweets to see the bathing beauties in all their glory...

back to school

the end of august means back to school for a lot of my friends and the start of college for my little sister. i love back to school time...kind of. now that i think about it, there is really only one reason why i like back to school time. that would be shopping for school supplies. oh how i love getting new pencils and pens, notebooks and especially a new planner!

even though i am not in school any longer (i don't miss it at all), doesn't mean i can't go get some "school supplies". and by "school supplies" i mean...

some brand new sharpie pens,


a sweet new calendar


and my favorite, a new planner ready to hold all of my plans for the year


maybe they are no longer school supplies for me. Maybe i can call them "new job" supplies. that's right...on friday i got a job offer in greenville. starts in september. the Lord is so good and faithful! so i think that calls for a celebration...with sharpies, a calendar and a planner.

photos above from flickr and etsy. linked to owners.

a girly girl

i love dainty things. i love pretty colors and soft clothes. i love being extremely girly. therefore, i love j crew. i feel like they are just so...me.

i get the catalog and mark my favorites. there are a lot of favorites. j crew knows my style. my style doesn't include the animals embroidered on the pants or the graphic t-shirts (not knocking on anybody who loves those things though). my heart belongs to the ruffles, the bows, the pretty prints and the bold jewelry.

many times i feel sad because i think they are just too expensive. i understand the cashmere prices. i don't understand the regular cotton t-shirts that are $30-$50 bucks. so i wait and wait for my faves to go on sale. or go get my fix at the local j crew outlet.

lately, i have seen lots of things that my heart wants. i think these things belong in my closet and in my jewelry box. i will wait for the sales.

jenna from j crew gets to pick out her favorites in every catalog. she gets my style. so i thought it was about high time to pick out my favorites. hard to narrow down but here it is.
shannon's picks...


a girl can dream right???

how much i have missed you...

oh project runway. it has been too long. but i am so glad you are back.
tonight, at 10:00, i will be sitting in front of the tv (at A's house...kicking all of his roommates out of the tv room for an hour.)

it's gonna be great.

photo provided by accesshollywood.com

eye candy

drink it up...

all photos linked to their flickr creator.

a week of learning

so my first week in South Carolina has come and gone. It was definitely hard. SUPER hard. still have no job and no permanent place to stay. it can be extremely frustrating, aggravating, stressing (insert any adjective for difficult here). but I feel like this past week the Lord has taught me a lot of things. A lot. So i thought I would share a little...

1.) He is ENOUGH. He is all I need. I am a very selfish person. I think we all are in our own ways. I would love it if my plans and timelines worked themselves out perfectly. They rarely do. Because they are MY plans and MY timelines. I have learned this the hard way because, like I said, I am selfish (and admittingly stubborn too). This past week, I have really learned what it looks like to completely trust in the Lord. So many things have yet to work themselves out here is SC. But I completely believe that the Lord is at work and has it all planned out for me. I need to continue to surrender my stubborn ways to him and let him work through my life.

2.) He is my ONLY. Don't get me wrong...I love my family and friends and A more than anything. But I have learned this past week that the Lord needs to become and remain my one and only. He needs to be the one I go to first. I am slowly learning...

Two very big teachings in the past week. All while trying to settle here in SC. I have learned to just give it all up to the Lord. He will bless me with a place to live, a job and friends in SC. I just need to put 100% of my faith in Him and have no doubts that His plans are bigger and better than my own.

I hope that all makes sense. I thought my family and friends would like a little update on my life. (ahem...spiritual life) I still feel stressed a lot but I have complete faith in my Father.

That is all for now. Had a great past few days with a bestie from Kentucky. Will post all the details on that soon!

above image...dev null

sweet little buys

a few weeks ago before i left lexington, some wonderful and dear friends of mine went on a trip to the lexington farmers market. there were all sorts of wonderful things....fruit and veggies (yum), pretty locally grown flowers, puppies everywhere (i really love pups!) and a little stall dedicated to that winsome girl.

that winsome girl is a lexingtonian named amy. she makes her own jewelry and had a sweet little booth at the farmers market. i immediately fell in love with her precious, dainty jewelry. I wanted one of everything! but i was drawn to a pair of flower studs.

well a week later, right before i moved down to SC, i was still thinking about those little flower studs. So that Saturday morning, i adventured to the farmers market just to snag myself a pair (ok...two pairs) of these wonderful earrings. i didn't want to leave kentucky without them! aren't they just precious???


both pairs have this flower on them. one pair has larger flowers and are a muted pink. the other are smaller flowers that are a shiny mint green. they are both so pretty. and i have already gotten compliments.

go visit that winsome girl over at her etsy store and buy a new pair of little earrings. and if you live in the lexington area, go visit her sweet little booth at the farmers market. you won't regret it....

more pretty pieces from that winsome girl....
soak in the dainty pretty jewelry...

unexpected inspiration

yesterday was a long and hard day. i needed some peace and some starbucks. A took me to starbucks to get a drink and read some for the day. a quiet time. not so quiet since everyone in clemson decided it was the night to hang out at starbucks. but that was fine by me. i tuned out and focused on the Lord for a bit. i got some internal peace if anything (which was exactly what i needed.) starbucks hot chocolate didn't let me down either....

as we decided on a place to sit (the only place available both inside and out) were some big comfy red chairs stuck in a corner. little did i know how much I would become obsessed with that corner. as i sat down, i looked up. what did i see? some design inspiration sitting right next to me at starbucks.

lets see....
1. mint green walls? CHECK
2. splash of color in the form of a big red chair? CHECK
3. an amazing and simple piece of artwork? CHECK



i am sold.

arrived

late last night i arrived in south carolina. it was so bittersweet. i was so excited. and i was also so sad to leave Lexington. I have come down here to look for a job and a place to live. So no precious apartment pictures to show yet. Some wonderful friends of A have given me a place to stay temporarily.

greenville is such a pretty little city. it looks so fresh and new. it truly is so pretty. i can't wait for all of my wonderful kentucky friends to come down and visit me. once i get an apartment i hope they come by the truck loads. over and over again.

a little tribute to my new sweet city, greenville.

come visit me...

all photos from flickr.

1 & 2 {jefferson davis}

3 & 4 {dustin phillips}

going away (for now)

I have lived in Lexington for the past 5 years and in those 5 wonderful years, a lot of people have gotten so close to my heart. SO CLOSE. A week ago, those wonderful friends came together to celebrate our friendship. (technically, a going away party...but I like to say "celebrate our 5 years of friendship" party)

It was absolutely perfect. So many of my friends stopped by to send their love, best wishes and smiles with me a few days before I made my way to sweet south carolina. Among those friends were a group of sisters. My besties. My loves. They were there. So special to me. Also, my real sister made the trip down too. It was the best.

The Lord has blessed me with an amazing community here in Lexington. He has also blessed me with a sisterhood of loves. I pray a lot that these friendships will remain the same. Some of these girls I have known since the beginning of high school. Some have been in college. But all of them are so dear to me. I will miss each of them. But I pray and make them promise that our friendship will remain the best. I have faith that they will. Like I said, these are my loves....I would hate for our friendships to change.

And so we celebrated our friendships last week. And it was PERFECT.