Charleston- my favorite city in America

Everyone knows my favorite place in the continental US is Charleston, SC. Erik proposed to me in Charleston. We had our wedding in Charleston. My baby moon was in Charleston. And 80% of our beach trips are to Charleston. I love everything about the city. Every time we go to Charleston we find ourselves trying to figure out a way to move there. Right now Erik is thinking about applying to MUSC. Maybe we will end up there one day!

Southern Tide is hosting an INCREDIBLE giveaway! As they approach 100,000 fans (pretty incredible right?) they are giving away three weekend trips. And guess which city is the first on their list? Yep, you guessed it! CHARLESTON!

One lucky winner will receive a weekend giveaway to the Charleston Place Hotel. We stayed there the weekend we got engaged. It is to die for! They will also receive a $500 Visa gift card towards travel expenses, a rental car for the weekend, dinner for two, and a $1,000 Southern Tide gift card to stock up on gear!

I'm pretty sure I NEED THIS and it is the BEST GIVEAWAY EVER! 

Make sure you check it out here! 

I just entered and my fingers are still crossed.

Anyone else love Charleston as much as I do?!?!

David Nail- Someone Like You

Since I’ve basically been listening to this song on repeat, I had to share it with y’all. If you’re not familiar with David Nail, he’s one of the hottest new country music stars of today, and I simply love his music.

Normally, when I hear other musicians cover Adele, I start to cringe. Nobody can quite sing like her, but somehow David Nail just pulls it off beautifully.

Oh, and I don’t just like his music. To me, he seems like a really genuine person, a country boy who loves baseball (Just like I do!) and married his long-time sweetheart. It’s hard not to pull for the good guys.

Here’s Nail performing a cover of Adele’s “Someone Like You.” Enjoy!

Giveaway on the Aestate

I just entered this giveaway on the Aestate blog. It is for a $50 gift card to Poppy Tree Frames. Fingers crossed! I really want to win some of these for our future nursery. Nope, i'm not preggers but I  already have my next nursery planned out. Haha.

Office Makeover Part I

I finally have my own SPACE! My wonderful husband and father helped my vision come to life. I am back working full-time, so I really needed my own office. I primarily work from home and working on my laptop from the couch wasn't cutting it. I had a craft room upstairs but it was a disorganized mess. I love to be super organized so I decided to start drawing out ideas for a nice organized room that I could work out of.

Most of my home has a very neutral palette. I decided to go bold and bright for this space. It's hard to stay happy and cheery when you stare at a computer screen all day. I decided to make this room a "happy" place. After spending too much time looking at craft rooms and offices on Pinterest, I made a list of my favorite design ideas. My favorite idea was converting a closet into a desk space. My dad took down the shelves and built his own. Then he cut out a desktop and secured it into the closet. It is absolutely PERFECT!! I really love the wallpaper. This part of the room is for sewing and crafts. It still has plenty of storage space for all of my crafting crap. I love the hot pink color that we used to paint the wood.

I will share the finished craft room in three parts. This is the first part of the room. Converting the closet to a work space really makes the room seem much bigger. I LOVE IT!

Weekly Recap

It's really easy to recap an entire week using Instagram photos. Photos from last week:

The Farmers Table

This past weekend our family stumbled upon a new restaurant in Spartanburg, SC. I guess it isn't that new (it opened about 4 months ago) but it is new to us. I had no idea this incredible restaurant was located a few miles from my house. It is called The Farmers Table and we absolutely LOVED it. It is located at 401 E Kennedy Street Spartanburg, SC 29302. If you live in the Upstate you have to check it out.

On Saturday we ordered sandwiches. I had the Chicken Salad sandwich and Erik had the Philly Cheese Steak. Delightful. The restaurant uses local farm produce, meats, and ingredients. I love the fact they support other local businesses.

After church on Sunday, we went back to eat lunch. It was delicious! I had eggs benedict, Erik had eggs, bacon, toast, and a yogurt parfait, and Harper had blueberry pancakes. You know the food is tasty when a 22 month old finishes off two pancakes, some of my cheese grits, and a piece of toast. That boy can eat! We washed it down with some of their fresh squeezed juice. I loved everything!

Here are a few pictures from Sunday:

Instagram Collage

I uploaded all of my 700+ photos off of my iPhone and into iPhoto. I'm pretty sure Instagram photos are the best way to document life. Here are a few of my favorite photos of my little man in 2011:

Best Educational App for Kids

One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting at home with my mom watching "Reading Rainbow." (Cue- "Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high, Take a look, It's in a book,A Reading Rainbow)
It was the show that really sparked my interest in reading. I used to love the portion of the show where the kids would give a recap of a book they just read. I wish Reading Rainbow was still on air so Harper could enjoy it too.

Growing up, I was a book worm. I stayed up late with my little book light underneath my covers and read until I fell asleep. I loved to pretend I was the characters in my book. I think I acted as "Harriet the Spy" for a good year. I am pretty sure I drove all the neighbors nuts because I liked to hide in the bushes and write down their every move. I was even convinced that one of my neighbors was a drug dealer. I had quite the imagination.

I want Harper to have the same passion for reading. I'm worried that his generation will forget about the books and will rely on television and video games for their entertainment.

When I heard about the new Reading Rainbow iPad app for children, I was thrilled! Hosted by LeVar Burton, the App offers a trusted library of books customized to your child’s interests, plus exciting video field trips to meet fascinating people and places.

All app users may select a single book and view introductory videos for free! We went ahead and did the free trial. Harper LOVED it! We downloaded "Pirate Boy" first. Harper has a new pirate hat that he  adores. He rocked the pirate hat and his diaper and played with the app for quite awhile. He seemed very engaged.

The app allows children travel to themed islands, such as Animal Kingdom, My Friends, My Family and Genius Academy, discovering quality fiction and non-fiction books. Each book comes alive with audio storytelling by celebrity actors, including spoken word Grammy winner Burton himself, and features light animations and activities to enhance the story. You can also read the book to yourself. But Harper is still too young to read so we use the storytelling option. I think that part that I was most impressed with was the amount of really incredible books that are available to download. We have a few book apps now. The only issue is eventually Harper gets tired of playing with them. This app offers 150 interactive books to read. And it will have frequent updates to expand the library.

Another great feature is the 16 video field trips. Lamar has filmed segments similar to the ones that were on Reading Rainbow.  Harper loves watching them. It also features interactive activities in every book and a reward program to motivate reading, and a parent dashboard to share a child’s reading progress.

This app works a little differently than most. To subscribe and receive unlimited access to the library, you choose either a monthly recurring subscription for $9.99 or a six-month recurring subscription for $29.99. I decided to go with the six-month subscription. Considering the fact that we have access to over 150 books, I think it is a great deal. I spent $4.99 on a single book app, so this is a much greater value for the price. Your subscription is for your iTunes account and can be used on additional iPads you own.

If you are a mom out there with an iPad be sure to check out the new Reading Rainbow app. I think it is the best educational app on the market.