My Thrifting Adventure

Hi readers! I wanted to share another project I recently fixed up. I found this little treasure at Goodwill one day for $8.

Nice and dusty. 

First, I filled in some holes with wood filler and then sanded it down. Next, I painted it with a gray primer and finished it off with a black topcoat. I probably wouldn't have painted it boring black if was for me, but it was another piece for Andrew's apartment. I had to make it look a little bit manly. 

I decided I wanted it to look scuffed up, so I sanded it again so the gray would show through.  I promise I don't usually wear pink dresses while sanding. 

Nice and scuffed up. Just the way I like it. I think I actually ended up scuffing it up more after this picture. It will make a great little end table.

Flea Market Facelift

Last week I was able to go to the Pickens flea market for the first time all summer. If you have never been to the Pickens flea market (which you probably haven't), let me tell you, it is an experience in itself. Just be prepared for anything. Even if you don't buy anything, the people watching experience makes it a worthwhile trip. Also, it is only open on Wednesday mornings, and make sure you get there early. Everyone is basically gone by noon. It opens at 5:30 a.m., but we didn't get there until about 7:30 a.m. and we were fine.

It was a very special day because it was Andrew's first time at the flea market! I've have always wanted him to experience this wonderful redneck place. We were on the hunt for a dresser for his new apartment at school. Here's what we found...

Isn't it ugly? I know, it's pretty bad. But I saw potential, and it was only $20! My mom and I were deciding whether to buy it or not while Andrew was taking some junk another great flea market find to the car. I knew we had to decide while he was gone because I was 100% positive he would not be for us buying it. He just wouldn't see the potential in this little treasure. Sure enough, he walked up and tentatively said "uh, that's not for me is it?" I smiled sweetly and told him yes, yes it was for him. I then assured him I was going to give it a complete makeover and he would never know it was the same dresser. Here is the process I went through of giving this little thing a makeover...

First, I decided the drawer pulls from the 80's needed to go. 

Next, I sanded the whole thing and filled in the holes from the drawer pulls with wood filler. 

Then I painted the dresser with one coat of light gray primer. Originally, I wanted to paint gray primer followed by a coat of black paint so that I could give it the shabby chic look by "scuffing it up." I thought it would look neat if the gray showed through. However, after painting the black, I decided not to scuff it up. 

The finished product! Not necessarily what I would have painted if it had been for me, but I tried to make it look somewhat masculine. I knew Andrew wouldn't want anything over-the-top. I wish I had gotten a close-up of the drawer pulls, but hopefully you can see them. It ended up being much more masculine and modern than I planned, but I was happy with how it turned out and really enjoyed this little project!

My Time in the Wild West

Hello blog world! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I was out of town last week and have been running around this week trying to get everything ready for school. This isn't going to be a long post, but I thought I would share some pictures from my trip last week. I got to go to Colorado with my boyfriend's family to visit his grandparents and cousins. It's beautiful out there! However, the best part about Colorado is the dry heat - no humidity! It was amazing! Here are a few pictures to show you what I did...

 Learned how to do this...

 And then hit 4 out of 5 shots on my first try! Don't worry, I just got lucky. 

 

 Got to see this beautiful sunset...

Saw a few of these...

 And then learned how to shoot some bow and arrows.

I got to do lots of new things on the trip. I also went horseback riding and climbed a mountain. Yes, I climbed a mountain.  I would normally call it hiking, but it wasn't like hiking here in SC. We literally climbed up rocks, no trail, no nothing. This little girly girl turned into outdoors girl last week.

Photo credit for these pictures goes to my boyfriend's dad!

I have some fun ideas for upcoming posts so check back soon! 

Good Eats in Greenville

I love the town I live in. No, not Clemson, although I do love Clemson too. I grew up in a town called Greenville, SC. Although I have always loved Greenville, my love for it grew when I went to college and everyone else seemed to always talk about how much they love Greenville, particularly our downtown area.

Downtown Greenville has grown exponentially over the past 10 years. The renovation of Falls Park and the addition of the Liberty Bridge in 2004 opened the door for growth, and downtown quickly became the city's center of business, culture and entertainment. I could spend a whole day (and have) walking around the park, browsing through the stores and eating at the wonderful restaurants downtown. Greenville has become quite the culinary community.

I had the opportunity to work downtown this summer, and it has made me love the city even more. I recently walked to The Chocolate Moose to grab a cupcake and was stopped by a couple visiting the area. They asked if I was from Greenville and were hoping to get some restaurant suggestions for lunch. I was a little caught off guard and gave them a few options, but of course thought of 10 other places I could have told them after I left.

Although I didn't try as many new restaurants as I would have liked to this summer, I did have the chance to try a few and thought I would share a few with you.

• Soby's New South Cuisine. Soby's infuses food and Southern traditions, with a particular focus on coastal Carolina. The atmosphere is rustic and very warm and inviting, with exposed wooden beams and wooden floors and walls. If you sit upstairs, you can watch the chef prepare the food below in Soby's open kitchen. I had the pork tenderloin and the bf had their famous Gullah Shrimp and Grits. Both dishes were delish.
• The Lazy Goat. The Lazy Goat is a Mediterranean-themed restaurant that sits along the banks of the Reedy River. We chose to sit outside on the patio, and I am so glad we did. Unlike some restaurants downtown, their patio does not sit along Main Street where passerby's squeeze by your table and nosily glance what you're eating as they walk by. Instead, their patio is very peaceful and private. The Lazy Goat has an impressive tapas menu, but I was with the bf and tapas plates are never an option when I'm with him, as the thought of smaller portions scares him to death. So I had the Risotto Primavera pasta and he had the Steak Frites. We both loved our meals and the homemade ketchup is to die for (and I'm usually not a ketchup fan). 

Both of these restaurants are owned and operated by Table 301, which is an establishment that owns a group of restaurants downtown including Soby's, Soby's on the Side, The Lazy Goat, Devereaux's and Nose Dive. I recently ate at Soby's on the Side and Nose Dive too, but will share those in another post. So far, I have been extremely impressed with the Table 301 restaurants I have eaten at and would recommend them to anyone wanting to try something new. 

Dorm Room Decorating 101

Since it's almost time for school to start, I thought I would do a post about my freshman year dorm room. It seems like yesterday that I was going shopping for all the dorm room essentials, and now I am going into my senior year of college!

Because you typically don't have much to work with, decorating a dorm room is an ultimate makeover project. I remember walking into my room for the first time thinking "I thought it was bigger than this..." or "how in the world are we going to make this look good?" It was possible. But here is what I started with:

I wish I had taken pictures of the space before I moved anything in. These pictures have a few of my things in them, but as you can see, everything looks pretty bare and yucky- notice the water stains coming from the ceiling. There was a flood the year before I moved in because of a water pipe breaking. Girls were running around the hall in their rainboots - so glad that didn't happen when I lived there. 

Here is what we transformed the room to look like:

I loved my desk area. We covered up the wall here with simple curtains made from two tension rods and fun fabric. The curtains made a huge difference in the room and really made our room stand out. In fact, we were finalists for the "Best Room on Campus" competition. 

Another shot with the curtains. The middle curtain is another simple curtain made from a tension rod and fun fabric. The fabric is literally just sewed around the rod and we then draped ribbons over the curtain and tied them to create the "balloon" effect. 

The space under my bed is my least favorite part of the room, but I know you have to have somewhere to store a TV, micro-fridge, etc. 

Another shot. The patterned rug also made a big difference in the room. Trust me, you want a big rug so you will feel somewhat sanitary when you sit on your floor. Also, the two small brown ottomans not only acted as footrests, but also came in handy as a storage space since they open up. These are $17 at Target and come in lots of fun colors. 

I loved my futon! The throw pillows were so fun to pick out and added a personal touch to the room. They also added comfort and came in handy when people ended up sitting on the floor for movie night. 

Of course I had to have some pillows on my bed too :)

Hope you have enjoyed looking at my former dorm room! We had a lot of fun decorating it and you will find that the little details go a long way in a tiny space. Make sure you like how the room looks because you will be spending a whole lot of time in it. This doesn't mean you have to go spend a ton of money - get creative! I got a ton of my stuff at places like Marshall's and TJ Maxx. Target also has a huge selection of dorm room decor to choose from. 

Good luck! Would love to see other ideas!

The Look for Less

I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but it is HOT here. I love living in SC, but it gets too hot to do anything outside unless you are in a body of water. So, when I was trying to figure out plans for the weekend, I thought shopping would be a good idea. My boyfriend mentioned going to some outlets earlier this summer, so it was a perfect time to do this.

Then my wheels started turning. Why not do a closet overhaul for him while we are at it? I mean, he hasn't cleaned out his closet in...well, a very long time. It was time. I clean my closet every year when I move home for the summer. But, once again, we aren't exactly a lot a like in that area. You might remember that from this post. I thought it would be a fun little activity for us to do together. You know, bonding time. And I would get to play Stacey London in real life.

We purged. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought. I realized he had way more t-shirts and collared shirts than he needed. We only got rid of a few collared shirts that had stains or didn't fit anymore. I talked him into getting rid of quite a few t-shirts. Did we really need to keep the homemade basketball jersey/undershirt that had the number "88" written on the back in Sharpie? I didn't think so. He thought so. We talked it over and agreed it could go.

He also has quite a few t-shirts that have shrunk up to where they are almost midriff shirts. Those needed to go too. The only way he let go of some of them is by me assuring him that his mom could make a t-shirt quilt out of them, that way they aren't really gone forever.

I also went through and made a list of what tops matched his pants. This may seem a little extreme/controlling, but I have gotten texts multiple times that say things like "I am wearing navy blue and black together today...does that match?" Hopefully you know the answer to that.

We hit the outlets Saturday morning. J. Crew was our first stop. Since he doesn't really love their clothes, we didn't find too much there. I should tell you that he is a man's man. He does not do anything artsy. That means no v-necks (although he surprised me by trying on a few), no skinny jeans, no cardigans, no skinny ties, no button-ups with fading or graphics, etc. He likes the plain and straightforward clothes.

 Gap was our next stop, and we hit the jack pot. Here's what we got:

• 1 dress
• 1 clutch
• 1 button-up for him
• 3 solid t-shirts that can be worn alone or as an undershirt
• 1 pair of leather flip flops for him

Our grand total added up to a whopping $62! You can't beat that. After going in a few other stores, we found some more great deals at Banana Republic. Between the two of us we bought:

• 2 dresses
• White shorts for me
• NICE gray dress pants for him
• 3 pairs of boxers

Our combined total was $82. A little more expensive, but Banana Republic is more expensive than Gap to begin with. It was still a great deal. His dress pants alone would have normally cost that much. 

Bargain hunting pays off. We got some nice clothes at a great price. It helped that we knew what we were looking for before we went. Well, we knew what we were looking for for him. In my defense, I have been looking for some white shorts, and one of the dresses I bought is orange and will be perfect for those hot football games in September. 

Right now, a lot of retailers have their summer inventory marked way down. Even if you buy something and can't wear it much this year, it's always fun to pull something brand new out of your closet at the beginning of next year. 

We left happy campers. After our little "What Not to Wear" session, we both ended up with a few new things and hopefully I will not be receiving any more texts about navy blue and black combinations :)

Hostess with the Mostess

A few weeks ago, I shared a wonderful new blog I found. If you enjoyed Sweet Designs, then you are going to love Hostess with the Mostess. Hostess with the Mostess (HWTM) is an online resource for "hip, modern, and unique entertaining ideas." While Sweet Designs' specialty is dessert tables, HWTM offers ideas for all occasions. You can check out their website to find out everything you need to know about entertaining, from themes and inspiration to recipes and centerpieces. You can also follow their daily blog  to get updates about all the latest events. The website and the blog both have great DIY resources to use. I seriously could stalk both the website and blog for hours. You should probably consider checking it out. When I say probably consider, I mean you should check it out.

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what you're in for :)

Carnation Centerpieces

Extremely creative suspended cupcake tower

Leopard princess party