Guest Room Revamped

Thanks to some pretty, brightly-colored Pottery Barn patchwork quilt bedding that is on loan from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, our guest room has a new and improved look! 


I generally prefer more neutral and cool colors in our decor, but our home has little bits of bright colors in various places, so the warmer colors are great for our guest room.  It looks much more inviting, and the quilt is sooo soft and comfortable!!  Plus, with the multitude of colors in the quilt, basically anything goes as far as accessories, art, etc.  And, now that our computer is in that room (it's a laptop but can no longer hold a charge :( ), it makes it a nice, cheery office space for us! 


So, here is a before pic of the guest room from an older blog post ...

we also had a duvet cover matching the pillows on the bed at some point, but that's the same as our master bedroom bedding, so as much as i LOVE our bedding, it's nice to have a little variety

And our finished (for now) product!

goes perfectly with my gary bukovnik print (formerly had a home above our bed)...

...and the oil painting billy did in high school (which i still need to frame)!

jefferson seems to enjoy the bedding and has developed an affinity for my baby blanket that resides in the guest room as well

Next project, replace the dated (and noisy) fan with a new white one.  Also, I'll try and remember to take a picture of the office area, now that I have removed all of the clutter from the desk and post that when we get our new fan, as well as our bedroom with the art switch I made this summer to go with the new guest room decor as well as to give our bedroom a fresh look.  Nothing better than a new look for free!!

Beach Vacay 2010

we just got back from a great week with billy's extended family in isle of palms...we had great weather, got lots of fun, exercised a lot, ate some good seafood, and spent some nice time with family.  and, i am happy to say i came back much tanner and blonder than before, which i love...prolonging the visit to mark & brent for a little root touchup, and i feel like i always look and feel a little better when i'm tan :)

here's what the week looked like...

saturday - drive down in HORRIBLE rain and accompanying traffic for about half of the trip, which ended up taking around 7.5 hours rather than the 6 we had planned on
drop the terrier off at the charleston doghouse, where he stayed for the week (i would definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting charleston and wanting their puppies to join them...only complaint was that we asked multiple times for jefe to get to play with the big dogs, but they never moved him into that pen)
head to the grocery store for the big shop (i don't think billy had ever seen a grocery bill that high, but he's never shopped with my mom when preparing for a party :))
get to our gorgeous oceanfront beachhouse in time to settle in a bit and head to a late dinner at "the boathouse"

view from our room

sunday - our only rainy day
went running in the rain, visited the terrier on a quick trip to the outlets, read, hung out, drank margaritas
billy and i cooked fajitas for dinner for everyone (at that point, his parents, kendall, christy, and dave)

monday - first of many great beach days

went on a quick run, laid out on the beach, read, did a little party planning for bryan and kristin's engagement party, dave left and hunter and mika arrived
went to dinner at seewee restaurant, which was great - definitely a dive but excellent food, and we always love the atmosphere of dives :)  not sure if guy fieri has been there, but i think he would enjoy it immensely

went to wet willie's in charleston that night for "metal monday" where a band plays bon jovi, poison, billy idol, and the like while people who've been served one to many "call a cab"s attempt to sing along on stage

  

home of fried goodness (except all of us went the "healthy" route and ordered grilled fish with fried sides :))

tuesday - lots of reading and beach/pool time, ran/walked, the girls planned a cookout meal for us, which hunter cooked, more margaritas and hangout time on the porch

billy's dad took a group picture at basically every dinner

wednesday - billy and i went into charleston in the morning in search of an air-conditioned place to workout and ended up settling on the medical school's wellness center, where billy found a treadmill and i went to a pilates class (the best one i've been to so far - i was sooo sore on thursday!), we did a little exploring around town (LOVE all of the historic homes, parks, shops, etc - so cute!!)

tommy and bj got there later on, so we were glad they were able to make it after a good report from the doctor

we had some beach/pool time that afternoon and went to dinner at the marina restaurant on the island

outside the marina restaurant

the whole family

thursday - more of the same, beach/pool time, running on the beach, sitting on the porch with a drink

went into charleston for dinner at the charleston crab house and the back to wet willie's with kendall and christy, since they didn't come with us before (kendall unfortunately got the "call a cab", which no one should ever drink - i had one a few nights before that but mixed it with something else, and it still tasted like cough syrup...so, this time i tried a white russian frozen drink, which was wonderful...on a side note, my husband got a medium "call a cab" our previous outing there and enjoyed it more than any normal person should)

dinner at the crab house

 

friday - went into charleston somewhat early in order to possibly go on a carriage ride (which didn't end up happening b/c of time constraints), walked around the downtown waterfront area, dropped billy off at the gym and headed to north charleston to pick up the dogs

we brought the dogs back to our house for a bit before billy and i headed out, so jefferson LOVED getting to go swimming both in the pool and ocean...if we go back there (or anywhere) next year, we're definitely opting for a pet-friendly place!!

HUGE house on east battery

another mansion south of broad

sea wall

attempt to get a good picture using the camera timer

enjoying the last few minutes of beach time before the storm

wave riding dog (it was really cute...jefferson would swim up and over the waves, no fear at all!)

cousins (and terrier)

our little family

that evening, billy and i headed to ATL for a quick weekend with my family to celebrate bryan and kristin's engagement with a mexican fiesta party that was a great success!

we headed back home on sunday afternoon, and while we loved being away for the week and getting to spend time with family, it was very nice to get settled back into our house and our routine.  we do miss this view though!

on a side note, it was really cute how much billy missed jefferson...i enjoyed getting to sleep a little more comfortably without the little guy cuddled up next to me, preventing any movement on my part, but there was definitely a void without having him for the week.  i know that when we do have kids, billy will be such a wonderful dad if he loves them half as much as he does the terrier :)

J-Terrier is 3!!

Jefferson turned three this weekend, so I baked him some doggy cupcakes to celebrate.  We also both walked him (usually it's just me), sprayed him with the hose, and gave him a "Busybone" instead of his usual plain cookie before bed.  He wasn't quite sure what to do with the cupcakes - or maybe was concerned that he shouldn't be eating them or would get in trouble - but after he figured out that it was ok for him to eat, he loved it.  And hung out in the kitchen right below the plate of them.  So, it was a good day for Jefferson, and we were thankful to celebrate another year with sweet little buddy! 

For the cupcakes, I sort of followed a recipe I had found online for a dog cake but made it smaller and left out some ingredients.  This is what I did...mix together 2/3 cup flour, 1 egg, little bit of EVOO, jar of chicken baby food (recipe said beef, but beef baby food is more expensive than chicken, and I figured he wouldn't be to picky :)).  The recipe also called for bacon bits, but we didn't have any, so I left those off.  Maybe next time!  Then, I greased a mini muffin tin and baked the "cupcakes" at 350 for around 20-25 minutes.  Easy and cheap dog treats for a special occasion!!

This past weekend, our friends from Richmond came to visit, so we had lots of fun catching up and hanging out with them!  Friday night, we took them to our favorite Mexican place in town, and then Saturday, we went to the beach for the day.  We played putt-putt, laid out on the beach, grabbed dinner at one of the restaurants on the boardwalk, and listened to some live music at one of the boardwalk stages.  It was a perfect beach day!  And a great time with our sweet friends! 

 Pretty beach day!

Greg & Erin

Billy and Greg being silly :)