Friday Five

What a week it has been!

S M O O T H   S A I L I N G 
Guys, you are now seeing my site on my NEW host and no one is more thrilled than me. It has been a long time coming. Though I’ve been having issues with my previous host for (literally) years, I had two instances of trying to switch to a new host with no success (when you have nearly 10 years of archives and tens of thousands of photos, that is a very large scale Cpanel migration and issues can arise).

I finally listened to my friend Ashlee and decided to use a hosting company that is not only Houston-based, but also has 24/7 phone support. My previous host only had live chat support and TBH. it’s a very generous term to actually call what they provided “customer support.” I’m eating the money I paid for my old host, but honestly, I want my website to run smoothly and be accessible to everyone and the constant outages were extremely frustrating for y’all and for me. Cheers to a new host and a more consistent experience!

 M A K I N G  A  H O U S E  A  H O M E 
You may have seen on Instagram that I’m working with Aryn of Oyster Creek Studios on our master bedroom refresh. I’m so excited to work with someone so talented to help me create a space that feels finished. We have a lot of great elements in our room – but it lacks color, texture and the layers a room needs to feel like a finished space. Aryn came to our home this week and we talked about what elements we need to add (and take away) from the space and she’s going to help me bring it all together and find the right pieces. You can view my master bedroom inspiration Pinterest board here. As you can see there is a lot of blue, blush tones, scallops, rattan and gold accents. I will share the process of putting the space together on the blog because you know I love sharing home décor content!
I love to move quite frequently (this is our third home in 10 years) and I feel like that has really prevented me from finishing rooms in our home and causes me to stall on projects. Part of me feels like it’s a “waste” to do things like wallpaper a space or hang a gallery wall or install nice lighting if we will just move in a few years. But I’ve come to realize that every home is worth finishing and investing in. I also know that the way a home is decorated does matter when it comes to selling and that buyers may pay more for a home they really love the look of/that they don’t have to make all kinds of cosmetic upgrades to. So I’m trying to adopt the attitude that it’s OK to finish all of our spaces. Even if we move in a few years (or we might not!)

D E C K  T H E  W A L L S
Speaking of our home and making progress, I’m also waiting for a sale to purchase this wallpaper for the kids bathroom and possibly this one for our powder room (still looking at options). I also want to wallpaper our water closet in our master bathroom – possibly this one. I think wallpaper is such a fun way to add personality to a small space like a powder room or laundry room. I’m also still thinking about modern white shiplap (not farmhouse, no distressing) for our office and have someone coming to give us a quote. Stay tuned!

T O  T H E  B E A C H
We leave for Seaside soon and I can’t wait to spend time at the beach and in the ocean. It’s Lincoln’s first time at the beach, so I can’t wait to see how he’ll react to the surf and sand. I got this bikini and this hat for our trip and you can see more of my fave straw bags + hats here.

H A I R  T A L K
I’m getting my hair colored and trimmed this weekend and I’ve been seeing so many gorgeous brunette balayages lately. Here is a link to my “beautiful hair” Pinterest board.

A L L  T H E  H E A R T  E Y E S  (L I T E R A L L Y)
You can literally have heart eyes now, just like the emoji. I have these sunglasses in both black and white and they’re so cute and fun (also the pink ones are amazing) – Harper wears them too! I also have these in my cart — $14 is a steal!

B E S T  D R E S S E D
My beloved striped cutout dress is 30% off with code “FRIENDS.” I’m taking it on our vacation and it’s seriously the best. More cute striped dress options here.
N O  R E F U N D  F O R  Y O U !
I hardly ever do this…but I feel the need to share this as a warning to choose your online retailers wisely. Remember that pendant light I ordered from Bellacor? It didn’t work for our dining space so we packaged it back up just like we got it and sent it back. I got an email from them a week later (with photos attached) saying that we had packed it “upside down” and due to this it was damaged and the wiring was “rubbed off.” They then asked if I wanted to pay $28 for them to ship it back to me. I was confused because we packed it back into the box exactly as we got it, Styrofoam and all, and I’m not sure how it was handled during transit (something we have no control over). So, we’re out nearly $300 and I wouldn’t order from them again. I understand that they have a business to run and that the product was damaged (unintentionally, as we felt we had done our due diligence packing it), but these kinds of things happen and companies carry insurance for things like this. On the flip side, I had a fantastic experience with Wayfair – I ordered lighting from them too and when the fixtures arrived, they were the wrong color. I called and offered to send them back to get new ones, but they actually refunded me and let me keep the lights, which I thought was very generous.

Hope you have a great weekend!