Sea-Life Swoons

I recently discovered Thomas Paul and all of his sea-life inspired goodies. Pillows and stationary and fabric and totes and melamine...oh my! I'm in l.o.v.e with his coral inspired coasters.  Some other swoon-worthy Paul picks...

Coral Rug; Aqua Crab Pillow; Pufferfish Pouch

Sea-Life Trays; Indigo Seahorse Pillow; Seafarer Buttons

Fantastical

M-I-C...K-E-Y...M-O-U-S-E! I am a Disney fanatic..like seriously obsessed. So naturally I jumped at the opportunity to park-hop it around Disney for a day with boyfriend. We spent a HOT Florida day trekking it through Hollywood Studios (MGM), Epcot & Magic Kingdom. Some of my favorite things included Rockin' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, Epcot's World Showcase, & The Electrical Parade at Magic Kingdom! Seeing Tinkerbelle fly out of Cinderella's castle was the icing on the cake to our 14-hour day at Disney. How fantastical!

(Row 1) Tower of Terror, Singing in the Rain in MGM

(Row 2) Boyfriend with Pink PowerRanger (his idea), Mickey's Sorcerer Hat

Take Me Out 2 The Ballgame...

The College World Series is in full swing and I'm so proud of my Clemson Tigers for beating #1 ranked Arizona State yesterday! The last inning was a real nail-biter, but the Tigers pulled through with a big W. Tonight they take on Oklahoma and we're keeping our fingers crossed that they come out with another win. Goooooo Tigers!!!

Who are you pulling for in the CWS?

Scene It

On our way back from Florida, we decided to take the scenic route and drive home through St. Augustine. Did you know that St. Augustine is the oldest city in America? While boyfriend gave me a history lesson, I spotted this gorgeous lighthouse and just had to jump out and snap a few pictures. This has got to be one of my all time favorites because of the patriotic red, white & blue!

Heading South

My bags are packed...and I'm heading south!

Off to Florida for a poolside lounging, beach sunbathing, bocce ball-ing packed weekend. Anddd the best part?!? I may spot Mr. Mickey Mouse himself while I'm there. That's right, a little trip to Disney is in order for Saturday!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend filled with some quality R&R!

Chicken Fried

"You know I like my chicken fried, cold beer on a Friday night, a pair of jeans that fit just right, and the radio upppppp." On Saturday, the boyfriend and I made a last minute decision to hop in the car, head to Daniel Island, and scalp buy tickets for the Zac Brown Band concert. We met our goal of finding tickets for $20 bucks each and were soon on our way into the Family Circle Cup Stadium. This was my first trip there and it was absolutely fabulous! Zac Brown Band played for over three and a half hours and every single minute was AWESOME! My favorite part was when they did their rendition of Charlie Daniels Band, "Devil Went Down to Georgia". Among my other ZBB favorites are Chicken Fried (of course), Where the Boat Leaves From, Free & Jolene. Below is a little glimpse into the talent of ZBB...

Bocce Balling

One of my all time favorite summer activities is playing a round of bocce ball out on the beach. For those of you that don't know me, I'm extremely competitive and love a little friendly competition. Bocce ball provides a great way to pass the summer days and can be played pretty much anywhere; sand or grass required*. There's nothing I like more than bringing back those old school lawn games. Here are some of my favorite bocce ball picks...

• Indoor Bocce Ball - uncrate     (*sand or grass; not required)
• Wicker Basket Petanque/Bocce Ball Set - Chanel
• The Lighted Bocce Ball Set - Hammacher Schlemmer
• Solid Metal Bocce Ball Set - PotteryBarn

Old Blue Chair

Today I wanted to share with you a chair that I recovered for less than $50 dollars. Yep, I said fifty. I bought this chair on one my trips home a couple months ago for only $23 dollars!! I immediately fell in love with the white shabby chic details in the arms and legs. The fabric, not so much. I stripped off all the fabric and much to my surprise, found that the chair was stuffed with horse hair and hay. Ahh! I'm pretty sure this makes it an antique.

Step 1: I bought a few yards of blue fabric from the upholstery remnants table at the fabric store ($8) and some upholstery tacks ($16). Unfortunately, I do not have a "before" picture with the old fabric. Trust me, it was a sight to see! I won't go into detail about how I recovered the seat part because it was trial and error on my part. I simply tucked, tightened, and stapled the fabric up under the chair and then nailed in tacks all the way around the bottom. 

Here's the back of the chair before I recovered. This presented a dilemma because I've never done anything like this and so it sat for a few months like this while I pondered.

Step 2: Eureka! I got a poster board, traced the shape of the back of the chair, and cut it out. I covered the poster board with fabric and glued the edges down around the back. Next, I covered about 2.5 yards of very thick cording ($1.50). I used a hot glue gun to secure the cording around the poster board.

Step 3: To secure the covered poster board to the back of the chair, I used a staple gun and forcefully stapled between the crease of the cording and edge of the chair. I made sure to staple far enough down in the crease so that the cording would hide the staples. After that, I went around and used the hot glue gun to glue any unsecured places between the chair and poster board. You cannot even tell hot glue was involved in this process. See the finished product above and below.

Ta da! I usually use my little coral monogrammed pillow in the chair, but wanted to show you a picture with and without. I'll be the first to admit that this chair is by no means of professional re-upholstering quality. But for less than $50 bucks I can't complain. And besides, I was going for the shabby chic look. What do you think?!?