Be Our Guest Pears

Thank you all for the sweet comments on our guest room! I love it too. I can't wait to completely finish it. But honestly, I already smily every time I walk in there. It is so refreshing when a project starts to come together. I had a TON of people ask where I purchased the "Be Our Guest" pears. They are my favorite fun decorative piece in the whole room. And for $24.00 they were an ABSOLUTE STEAL.

You can find them in the SkyeArt shop on Etsy.  They come in a green or cream color. And you can get them with all sorts of sayings. I had Amy (the owner of the shop) specially make these little guys for me. I wanted them to say something that welcomed our guests. Thanks to Beauty and the Beast, I came up with, "Be Our Guest."

She also sells these adorable birds. I want to get some for our master bedroom. 

And if you are a Beatle's fan, you will love this:

So go check out her Etsy page here! And tell me what you think. She can do custom sayings on them too! Serious bargain. I LOVE ETSY! 

Guest Room Makeover

Last week we started our guest room makeover. Before the room was VERY BLAND. It consisted of the mattress and box spring on the floor and absolutely no furniture. I had adorable Lilly Bedding but it was very girly. So we started a new project. Project: Spruce up the guest bedroom.

So far, so good! I love the color palette we decided on. Erik came up with the idea of incorporating Navy. I decided to go with Navy and green. The rest is history.

In one week we changed out the light fixture, purchased and built all of the furniture, built a shelf, painted the shelf, and threw some decorations together. Let's be honest... my dad and Erik did all of the putting together, I directed and decorated. Hehehe!

We still have several other things to do. We have to pick out a photo to enlarge for the big frame on the shelf. We have to get a little table of some sort to put in front of the bed with a television on it. And I am thinking about putting together a gallery wall with friends and family photos. And I am waiting on shams that match the duvet. I also want to switch out the door knob and make it pewter to match the chandelier.

Here are photos to show our progress:

This is where I need your help. The picture below is the section of the room that I want to add something to. Should I do a gallery wall? Do you think it would be too much in such a simple room? I just love the idea of having photos of all of our friends and family in this room so when they come to visit they can reminisce about all of the fun we had together. If I do a gallery wall do you think I should do all of the same frames? Mix it up? Do canvases and no frames? Maybe incorporate some prints and art work? Or leave it simple? Any comments are MUCH APPRECIATED!! 

Pinterest Makes Me Feel....

Let's be honest. Pinterest makes me feel inadequate. The houses and decor are so perfect. The craft projects are so creative. The outfits are so well put together. How can I possible live up to my pins?

I've concluded... I can't. Until I win the lottery and have beaucoup of money, it is nearly impossible to live out my wildest pin dreams. So in the meantime there is IKEA! We made a last minute late night trip to Ikea last week and started picking out furniture and decor for the guest room. It is so affordable! The only problem is that is makes me want to sell everything I own and start all over. I use to have a more traditional taste. I loved old antique furniture and anything shabby chic. But now I lean towards a modern feel. Much more clean and simplistic. I like chevron, quatrefoil, and creek key patterns.I like organized, new, and shiny.

Harper's nursery was the first room in the new house to receive a makeover. I love the way it turned out! You can check it out here.

Next up, our guest room. And we did quite a bit of work last week. I was going to take photos of the progress but my new pillows came in so I decided to wait and take some pictures when I buy inserts tomorrow.  So far, I love it. And it has been fairly inexpensive. I took several concepts I saw on Pinterest then found the cheap way to copy them.

Here are 5 ideas that I loved and tried to use as inspiration for our room:

I love these colors together. Navy blue and as I call it "preppy green" are such a great color combination. I didn't want a ton of color in this room because I was going for a very calm and comfortable feel but I wanted enough color that it doesn't seem boring. 

I love the shelf over the bed. Actually I am obsessed with the idea. It is so much easier to lean photos against a shelf rather than to try to hang them up in a perfect arrangement. 

I love this bed spread and sheet set. I love the linen color. It looks nice and cozy. It works perfectly with the color combination I had in mind. 

I love this cream headboard and white side tables. They look great together and this room loves very warm and inviting. Exactly the feel I want for my guest room.  

I love the idea of having a little "guest basket" somewhere in the room. It is so nice to have a few chocolates and waters sitting out when your guests arrive. It makes them feel like they are in a hotel. Hotel Huffman! haha.

We still have more work to do but I am excited to share the progress with you. It is already a huge improvement. 

Weekend Wrap-Up

We had a wonderful weekend. On most weekends we have a LONG to-do list. We rarely relax. This weekend was refreshing. On Saturday we slept in, even Harper! We took Harper to visit Mimi and Papi's house and left him there for the afternoon. Erik and I went shopping at Trader Joe's (and that is a FUN chore, I am in love with that place) and went home and watched a bit of the Senior Bowl. 

Then we met back up with Harper and the Huffman's at California Dreaming. It was delicious. It was nice having an entire day without a set agenda!

Today we met up with Brooke and Brice. It was so good to see the sweet engaged couple. Then Harper had a play date with his beautiful buddy, Saylor. Isn't Saylor the cutest name for a little girl!? I just love it. She is a doll and is so good with Harper. She would hold his hand and walk him around the park. Harper was overwhelmed with excitement. He wanted to run around like a crazy man. He managed to climb up the stairs and cross the bridge on the playground all by himself. I was impressed yet scared to death. The kid has no fear! 

After the park we headed straight to a birthday celebration. Our friend Octavious has two gorgeous twin daughters. They turned two today! They are identical and I really couldn't tell them apart. We had such a good time. I think Harper loves to be around children, especially kids that are older than him. Here are some photos:

Overall, it was a very successful weekend! It is nice to have some time to just enjoy ourselves. But next weekend, I am determined to finish some of my projects. Our guest room is very close to being complete. I will share some photos tomorrow! I love it so far.

Capital One Bowl

Erik and I made it to the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Florida. As soon as we heard the Gamecocks were playing in Orlando, we knew we wanted to make the trip. We went back and forth trying to decide if it was really feasible. In the end, we decided we couldn't miss out on such a fun opportunity. Mimi, Papi, and Jenna offered to watch Harper for the long weekend. I was sad to leave him but I know he had a blast and he was spoiled rotten while we were gone.

We are so glad we made the trip. The Gamecocks won and it was one heck of a game. We had such a fun time. We met up with some of our good friends and ended up tailgating with some complete strangers after the game. The strangers were Carolina fans and showed us true southern hospitality when they offered us Crown & Coke and lots of snacks.

After the tailgate we met up with a bunch of USC alumni at the Renaissance hotel. And we had a wonderful dinner with the Elmores. Overall, it was a great day to be a Gamecock.

And if you love Erik's shirt, it is from Southern Tide. They started making collegiate polos. They have Carolina, Clemson, and Alabama ones! Check them out here!   This is Erik's new favorite polo! 

With USC quarterback, Connor Shaw.

New Year's Weekend

Obviously the post is a little late but I wanted to put up some pictures from our fun weekend in Orlando. We spent a few days in Florida over the New Year's Eve weekend. And yes, we made it to DISNEY WORLD. I actually felt a little guilty because we didn't take Harper with us. I was advised by several mamas to wait a little while longer until I bring him with us. I was beyond surprised by the large amount of babies I saw at the theme parks that day! We even saw a few newborns.  It made me miss my little munchkin.

We happened to go on a VERY CHILLY day. I didn't realize it got down in the 40's in Orlando but it does and it did on the day we decided to park hopping. The great thing about cold weather in Orlando, apparently it keeps more people out of the parks. We didn't have to wait in line at all! We could walk right on to any and every ride. So we were able to try them all out and it was worth dealing with the cold.

We started off at Animal Kingdom. I grew up in Florida but never made it to Animal Kingdom... we always ended up at Magic Kingdom, Universal, or Busch Gardens. I am so glad we decided to go. It was INCREDIBLE. We really had the best time. There were a ton of great shows, fun rides, and even one awesome roller-coaster "Everest."

One of my favorite attractions was the safari ride. Here are a few photos from the adventure:

Then we headed to Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is my absolute favorite! It was still FREEZING when we arrived but once again... NO LINES! Yes, we even managed to go on Splash Mountain when it was 42 degrees outside. Not the smartest idea but I couldn't go to Disney and not ride Splash Mountain. So I persuaded Erik to go with me and we had a log all to ourselves. We got splashed but it wasn't too bad and I think it was worth it. The people that worked at Disney thought we were crazy! Erik had a photo shoot in Greenville the next day. He was a little stressed because he didn't have a chance to get his hair trimmed before we left for our trip. We would have never guessed that Disney has a barber shop! But we spotted it right when we walked in the park so Erik went in and got a nice trim! 

We ended the night with Space Mountain, hot chocolate, and cinnamon buns. It was just as magical as it was when I was 10 years old. I can't wait to take Harper one day!