Noblemen Wine Festival

Yesterday my friend Amanda, from Walk a Day in My Flip Flops, and I went to the Noblemen Princess Anne Wine Classic in Pungo. It was held on a picturesque 80 acre horse farm complete with white picket fences and horses roaming the adjoining pastures as we sip fine Virginia wines and taste craft beers. I've never been to a wine festival (SHOCKER...I KNOW) but I was ready to lose my virginity. ;)

Anywho, so we went in the afternoon and it was very chilly. I was not a fan as I dressed cute in a summer dress. BIG MISTAKE! After we got through the first three tents it started to rain, like HARD. So we went to the tent with food (which was a GREAT idea b/c neither of us had eaten in about 6 hours and started feeling tipsy with the wine). We ate a little bit and decided we needed a bottle from the first tent to help occupy our time while we waited out the storm.

We are feeling no pain! ;)

That's right, an entire bottle....and we drank the whole thing! It was delicious, Chardonnay from First Colony Winery. After our last sip of the bottle the sun came out to play & we were ready to receive him! ;) First we went to go see some horses.

Hello pretty horsey.

WHOAH!

Smile pretty :)

Why  hello!

A little camera shy.

Up close and personal.

What a great name! :D

Pretty white horse.

Then we went to the rest of the tents to sample their wines. We had to finish up pretty fast because the rain took about 30 mins out of the afternoon & the vendors had to stop sampling at 5:30pm.  Unfortunately some of the vendors selling wine type gifts had to close up shop & Amanda wasn't able to get her "Its wine o'clock somewhere' koozie. Maybe next time....

I had a great time at the festival and scored a couple bottles of wine that we sampled. I look forward to drinking them in the upcoming weeks. And now that my so called "cherry" has been popped, I think I'll be a regular at some other wine festivals soon. Tis the season!

My Decor Envy

Have you  ever gone into someone's home and found something absolutely amazing? You just stare in amazement because something they've done to their home or some object is so beautiful?? Well, I have. TONS OF TIMES! Most recently it happened with a good friend of mine Jennifer, photographer at Shine with Jennifer Leigh. She has this amazing light fixture in her dining room that I just had to take a few photos of....

How cool is that?! She said she got it from Amazon (one thing to know about her, she's a crazy smart shopper online). Her dining room and living room are next to one another in a somewhat open concept, but the light fixture (although big) doesn't over power the room. It's an interesting little touch to the space that ads a sort of rustic charm. Here are some other things she's done with her home that I absolutely LOVE:

Beautiful back splash & burlap shade on her light fixture!

Um...who thinks of crates for the wall? Perfect behind the fireplace & tv.

I can't be alone on this?! Tell me you suffer the same disease of decor envy & of whom in the comment section below. We need to be supportive of one another!!! ;) PS. You should totally stop by Jenn's blog and take a look at the projects she's done on her home. She's wicked talented. Happy Saturday!

Spring Style Continues

As I mentioned in my previous post, Spring Style Series, I've decided window shopping will have to do instead of replacing my entire wardrobe for the season. (Although I did recently go on a small shopping spree at the Outlets in Williamsburg, VA. Stay tuned for fun purchases from that trip!)

Here's a couple style boards from window shopping today:

This outfit came from a couple different stores, but I really wanted to keep in mind price for a fun beach outfit. I don't go to the beach often, but when I do I want to look cute but also not spend a pretty penny to do so. So here's the breakdown:

• Straw Hat: H&M $13
• Gorgeous Yellow Bangle: H&M $6
• White Blouse: H&M $18
• Fun Green Shorts: H&M $25
• Sailor Tote: Forever 21 $20
• Yellow Locket Necklace: J.Crew $40
• Dollhouse Flats: DSW $22
• TOTAL: $144

And here's another style board I put together for an evening on the town:

• Coral Satchel, Target $30
•  Neon Lights Necklace, Ann Taylor $88
• Pointed Toe Pumps, Forever 21  $23
• Skinny Jeans, H&M $40
• Tunic, H&M $30
• TOTAL: $211

My Spring Style Series

For anyone who knows me, I'm the frugal one in my relationship. That being the case, I've decided to go online window shopping for my ideal Spring wardrobe. And for the next couple blogs I'm going to share what my personal style would be for the new season!

This outfit is pretty much from H&M, which is not typically a shop I would go to. But with the new season, fun patterns is definitely something H&M has a lot of. The shoes are from my one true love, J.Crew. A huge investment for the upcoming seasons, but worth it!

• Dress: H&M $30
• Blue Blazer: H&M $35
• Scarf: H&M $10
• Earrings: Forever 21 $4
• Yellow Tote: Forever 21 $25
• Coral/Red Wedges: J. Crew $128 (cheaper wedges at Payless for $26)
• TOTAL: $232

This outfit would be great for a weekend adventure or a casual Friday at work. Either way, the fun pattern, bright colors and comfortable dress would be wor

Design Ideas from Local Designers

As I mentioned earlier, I went to a craft show in Virginia Beach a couple weekends ago and while there, I noticed a competition they had for local designers. Value City Furniture partnered with the Mid Atlantic Home and Garden Show to help a few local designers decorate a space with $2,500 worth of Value City Furniture.

Each entrants picked a space they wanted to decorate, there was a living room, a mom cave, scrapbook room and a teenage bedroom. Here are some ideas they came up with:

The winners room

I LOVE this ottoman

How pretty, the stripes & the damask looks beautiful together

Scrape book room

Great for storing items for ladies nights

Mom cave

Can you imagine doing that stencil?

Desk is great, but chair is a bit too large. Don't you think?

Teenager's bedroom

Very fun!

I'm Famous!

Not really.....but I was interviewed by a writer over at Ragan.com, a  leading publisher of corporate communications, public relations, marketing and social media regarding Homes.com Pinterest efforts and the Pinterest white paper I published. And today I saw the interview in written form over on their website: 'Brand reveal strategies that work best on Pinterest.'

Here's a fun quote from the interview (just in case you don't rush over to Ragan.com to read it immediately):

"Take a quick look through Homes.com's 23 Pinterest boards and you'll notice not everything is about the house itself. One board is full of pet photos. Another is for dessert treats. There's also one about organizing closets. Luce says it's all about "writing your home story," to show the lives people live in their homes are as important to the brand as the building.


"Even if it's not the envelope of the home itself, we want to be a part of that story," she says."

How smart do I sound?! I'm usually my toughest critic, but I have to admit I'm pretty proud at how well I did. I love that I'm not just apart of some amazing things over at Homes.com, but really paving the way into new social media sites for our brand. SMILE. :D

Dr. Seuss Party Alert

Is it wrong to want to throw a Dr. Seuss party or have one thrown for me? I love Dr. Seuss; I think it would be a fantastic nursery "theme" for a future baby Luce. His books are colorful and whimsical, exactly what I'd want my child's room to be. The things incorporated in this party would be amazing for a little nursery or a Dr. Seuss themed party of mine (cough, cough baby shower) in the future. Take a look...

Tablescape for the birthday party

I love the play on words

The Lorax trees made from Styrofoam glued with a feather boa

So what do you think? Wouldn't this theme be an awesome celebration for the future baby Luce? I know I would have fun assembling some of these items, and of course eating all the delicious goodies. :) YUM! 

You can see all the details and extra photos from this party over at Hostess with the Mostess and be sure to check out this awesome dessert table. This Esty shop has even more amazing Dr. Seuss party items: Modern Bebe.

Day 5 #AprilPhotoaDay Something Tiny

Here's something fun for everyone, something that is tiny but also BIG. Give up? It's a photo from my home energy audit on Monday with Dynamic Infrared Inspections.

One color scan

Another color, the "red" is the cold air coming into our house!

And this is the seemingly innocent outlet....oh how I hate you!

Something so small such as an outlet, is still pretty big as far as impact on the energy efficiency of my home! Crazy right. :)

What Color Do You See?

Take a look at this photo....what color do you see??

If you said RED, you'd be partly right. Really the color is GREEN. Why you ask? Well let me tell you! ;) Today I had an energy audit done to my  home. This photo shows the fan that was used to suck all the air out of our house. This was done to see where we might have air leaks in our house. In addition to the fan for air leakage, we also had an infrared scan completed to see areas where cold air is coming in our house by ways of cracks or lack of insulation (major culprits? attic and fireplace). In addition to detecting areas for improvement in our home, we were also able to locate a LEAK from our upstairs bathroom to our kitchen. EEK!

So how am I seeing GREEN when the photo is clearly RED? Simply because the energy audit is going to help our house become more energy efficient (i.e. GOING GREEN) as well as save us some MONEY (which is also GREEN)! ;)

I want to give a HUGE thanks to Ed from Dynamic Infrared for educating me on my home and improvements I can make to help it become a more comfortable place.

Let's try this again

So we're not going to talk about my epic failure at the Feb-Photo-a-Day challenge because that would just be rude. But what I would like to focus on is that while I didn't finish the challenge for the entire month, I did accomplish about 2 weeks worth of posts.

So in that spirit, I'm going to post the April photo a day challenge and we'll see if I can keep up with that! So here are the topics for each day...

 

And following the calendar, April 1st (Fools Day) is REFLECTION. I had so much fun shooting my reflection that I had to take multiple photos...EnJoY! ;) 

 

So there you have it, my multiple personalities reflections! Stay tuned for color tomorrow.

Craft Show SCORE!

Two weeks ago I went to a craft show at the Virginia Beach Convention Center with my lovely husband, who came kicking and screaming, and my in-laws. There were several vendors that I found interesting, but one in particular that I really liked was the whimsical handmade button queen of One Delightful Button.

Not only was this entrepreneur, Kate, super friendly and sweet, but her table display was beautifully decorated with her earrings, necklaces and more! Here are some photos of the earrings I scored:

Here are my new FUN earrings. :)

Another angle

Her contact information!

Here is a photo of me rocking one of the awesome earrings...

How lovely.

As you can see, Kate is really talented and you won't be disappointed by the accessories she creates. I would totally recommend checking out her shopping and picking up a few things for summer! :)

Here are some other fun things I saw at the craft show:

Solid chocolate

Use mason jars filled with ice & waters to cool dip on top

Repurpose silverware for hangers