My baby is turning 26!!!!!!!

My mother tells stories of my childhood very often and I really love hearing them! Some may be embarrassing, others I wish weren't true
(ie: I used to DRINK syrup whilst sitting in the fridge. #fatkid), and most I revere as precious memories. Many of my favorites involve my sweet baby sister. (One of my all time favorite people in this ENTIRE world.)

One of the stories that I love telling and hearing is how much I wanted a baby sister. Momma says I used to begggggg for her and would say to her and my dad, "PLEASE give me a baby!". 

Well 26 years ago tomorrow, she did, and my life has been such a better one for it. 

Carlie has been my best friend, my partner in crime, my shoulder to cry on, my squeal-with-excitement side kick, and the person I can go to with anything and everything. 

A lot of siblings say that when they were younger they didn't get along well with their brothers or sisters, but later in life grew to be friends. Well not us! We were inseparable from the start.

Funny stories:

1) Well, Carlie didn't like talking. She was extremely shy for pretty much the first half of her life. 

Soooo, I did what every good big sister would do. I talked for her.
For everything. 

Like, "Awww, what's your name?!" (to Carlie)...
         " Her name's Carlie. She's 4." - (Me)

         "How are you, CARLIE?!" (to Carlie)...
         "She's fine." -(Me)

She still has a hard time calling the pizza man and makes me (or anyone else) call for her. It's quite funny.

2) We LOVED Barbies. Like, I shouldn't admit how much (or how long...) I played with them. It's a sensitive subject, I was lame, lay off.

The future hubs makes fun of me (a lot) about it.... 

ANYWAY, we wouldn't want Momma to know when we would go play, because of course she'd make us stop playing and do chores or eat supper or something terrible like that.

So we had a code name. 

Instead of, "hey, do you want to go play Barbies?" 

We'd say, "hey, do you want to go play 'Carlies'? "
Sneaky, I know right?

Needless to say, there are countless stories from our childhood that are both hilarious and sweet. (Like when Carlie killed a bucket of minnows with douche...) But that's another blog, another story.

I honestly could never imagine my life without her. We have a bond unlike most people in this life would ever get to experience and I am beyond thankful for that.
She is kind-hearted, hilarious, talented, sincere, lovable, loving, smart, and an overall gangsta.

She has made my life better in so many ways and I could never be more appreciative to my parents for "giving" her to me. She is and will always be my baby and I will always love her and take care of her.

Happy birthday my sweet baby sister.



(writer's note: I had to stop writing this blog like fifty-five times because of my tears rolling... P.s. I really love you Carlie) 

Savannah the beautiful!!

I often think to myself how lucky I am to live in such an amazing town with such beauty and history. Not long ago, the future hubs and I went to the Savannah Wildlife Refuge and I definitely had to bring the cam.

Here are a couple of the gems I walked away with that I adore!

Ps. I'm not typically a landscape artist so all of my colleagues that are, please forgive me!

Yes. This is a real snake in the road. And yes. It scared the ish outta me.

My handsome man... :)

Future hubs modeling for me.... I think he's got it down.

I hope we get our deposit back.....

I hope we get our deposit back.....

When one lives in a tiny apartment (with their amazing, yet still a man so kinda messy, fiance), one starts to day dream of a much larger, beautiful mansion of a house to live in. It surely doesn't help that I literally spend hours every week browsing Pinterest....

Well, to suffice my need for home-upgrading, creative-output, or general-reconstruction/building things... I decided that I NEEDED stripes in our, one and only, tiny bathroom! 

And they look awesome! ....so I had to share!

It was a simple process: 

1) get supplies- Painters tape and white paint.

2) measure. (I used a magazine because I'm a boss. Plus I don' need no stinkin' rulahs!)

3) make the stripes and PAINT!!

I think it really adds a lot to our little space and helps our generic apartment look a little more luxurious! But... I'm not exactly sure if we will be receiving our deposit back because of it.....

(I even left the skanky towel so that it would have a real "before" look)

Magazine measuring tool. Like a boss. 

I had to make sure and put tape where I would be painting the stripe...

Aaaaaaand drum roll please! Beautimus!

                                       

Fun times in #couplesfirsttinyapartment

Check out this COOLNESS!!

So I decided last weekend that I was in need of a fun little project that I could decorate our new little apartment with and I came across this on good ol' Pinterest!

*First step: find some cheap plastic toys that one could cut pretty easily and a plaque-type wood thing ( that's the technical term).

*Next step: pretend to be a mortition, and cut the beast in half! (kinda morbid, I know...)

*Next next step: Glue the (half)beast onto the plaquey-wood thing.

*Second to last step: Paint the entire thing (I chose gold because I'm a gangsta/balla)

*Last step: hang that motha on the wall and bask that you have new, fun, hip, wall art that will definitely be a convo-peice (because who in their right mind has a gold shark or dino hanging on their wall?)

Me. That's who.

Here are the steps in picture form for those who do not read:



Dino-beast $1



Plaquey-wood thing $.79





Glued beasts



I'm a gangsta.



Too Cool, I know...

Soon they'll be callin' me by a diff'rnt name

Well, it happened. He popped the question (for serious this time). I thought I may take a minute to let whoever in on the story (if you'd like to read it. if not, you may want to go ahead and leave this site...)

I'll try to keep it short and sweet, but I'm not promising anything.

So, just a little background; my, now fiance (Brandon), and I, have just moved in together on January first (talk about starting off a new year, huh?) and he is kinda a jokester.  He's the guy that from the very beginning of our relationship, has always said, "you're going to be my wife one day, you know that right?" and I quote.

As he would say these things, I was, to be honest, cringing a little... thinking, "I don't think so, buddy. You're nice and all, but MARRIAGE?". You see, I really loved being single there for a while, and I honestly loved dating and spending alone time in my new city (then) of Savannah. Its kinda a "single" town really. But, when I met him, I knew it was different, even though, if you know us, you've known we've had our seasons.

"Will you marry me?". I have heard that come out of Brandon's mouth more times than I can count. So when he actually asked, and was serious, I was in complete shock. Especially because exactly one week prior, he asked me on our couch while watching some dumb movie that neither one of us were really paying any attention to. As to which I replied, "is this really what you want our story to be, on a couch?? where is the ring, even??".

I'm glad that's not the story.

Here's the story: A couple of weeks ago, B asked if I would like to go have dinner with some friends on Tybee and of course, I was like, yeah. So we parked our car at the pier and decided to walk the shore all the way to Northbeach where "we would be meeting them" for dinner.

Keep in mind, this walk is about 2 miles. But I was fine with it because it was the first gorgeous day yet (about 75 and sunny, in January mind you) and I love spending time doing things like that.

So we're walking along and the sun was starting to set and we stopped at this little deserted area with a big piece of driftwood that we sat on. It was gorgeous (I wish we stole the wood to keep forever now). We joked around and laughed and took some photos, and then he asked me to dance.

Sappy alert: I LOVE old blues and jazz music from the 30's and 40's, and B likes to "play trumpet" with his mouth, which he actually does a really good job of. So, he "played trumpet" in my ear while we were slow dancing.  Another thing that he does that melts my heart and makes my die laughing all at the same time is, he sings "like Frank Sinatra" to me.  Our songs are actually "L-O-V-E" and "You make me feel so young" by Frank Sinatra because of that. So, he was singing those in my ear as well.

He asked me, "how much do you love me?" In which I replied, "to the moon and back" (cheesy, I know) and I asked him the same thing back as to which he replied with another question, "do you love me enough to spend the rest of your life with me?".

"Here we go again..." I was thinking... Another proposal joke. So I said, like always, "you know I do" then he said "if I get on my knee?" (I knew this was getting serious...) I said kinda sassily, I must admit, "if you have a ring". And sure enough if he didn't pull out the most beautiful ring and asked me FOR REAL this time!

Of course I started crying and said "YES" and we hugged and kissed and I stared at my NEW BLING!

Little did I know the surprises were still rolling.

We started walking to Northbeach to "meet our friends for dinner still", and he said, "that looks a lot like your family huh?"

And IT WAS!

I lost it.

My mom, dad, and sister were all walking up to us, crying as well, with cameras and binoculars in hand.

Surprises not over.

We went to go have dinner to celebrate, and sure enough, the little stinker invited my "Savannah friends" all out to eat as well. I was so surprised.

So there's the story. Sorry it was kinda long, but I like it and I think it is the best proposal I couldve ever asked for. And even more than the excitement of the proposal, I'm more excited to be marrying him. I never thought I would meet a man so sweet and thoughtful, caring and loving, or handsome and hilarious.  We have the best time together joking and laughing, and I cant believe I will get to do that forever with him.

He was right. The whole time.

More to come!!

That time of year!!

There's nothing more exciting than being a child and starting to see the Christmas decor begin to go up around you.

I must admit, I still get that excited. I cant help it. Dont judge.

Every year I try to get really crafty and come up with something that makes people say, "is that store bought?", "can you make me one too??", "that's what I want from you this Christmas!"...

It usually never ends up that way.

Usually, I think, "oh, thats pretty good" but never as good as I expect it.

Well this year I made something pretty spectac if I do say so myself! I even think I'll keep it for next year! (lots of others have ended up trash bound before New Year...)

Welp, hear she is! Pinterest inspired Christmas goodness!

(You can leave your "is that store bought?", "can you make me one too??", and "that's what I want from you for Christmas!".....  's in the comment box.




Dont pay attention to the random roll of TP on the ottoman... we were cursed with the plague for about a week and a half....

 

Beautiful People!

I love when I get the oppurtunity to capture couples in love!

This shoot was done a little over 2 years ago and I can gladly say, they are two of my oldest friends! They will be celebrating their 2 year aniversary in April next year and I could not be happier for them!

I am a blessed girl, to not only have people like them in my life, but to be a part of such a sweet love.