Home Search News! {Like the old black and white print}

So there's news on the home front search...
We have put another bid on a house (this now being the third) and the owner has accepted! Well it is a short sale, so the process is just starting... now we have the long wait of seeing if the bank will accept, which takes about 90 days or more. The real kicker... it comes with tenants... WONK WONK (cue the sad music). It's not as bad as it seems really because the tenants will stay until next June, and they are paying a considerable amount more in rent than what the mortgage will be, while gaining equity... so the extra money will be used in all the upgrades I want!
I have decided that within the next 10 months, I will be accumulating all the things I want to have in our new home! I'm looking for used bookshelves, a dining room table (square or rectangle) and an entire load of stuff for my CRAFT ROOM! I want to refurbish all the furniture myself. AHHH I'm so excited- my own craft room! I already know exactly how I want my craft room to look. I want one wall light gray and white stripes, 3 other walls either bright blue or sea foam. Damask curtains and chairs with all white and black furniture with a modern and sassy chandelier. Stay tuned... 10 more months tuned haha.
Although it is not according to my plan, which was to buy a house and move in immediately, this gives us time to save for the following: hard wood floors (a must), new carpet upstairs, an entire bedroom suite, all new appliances, new counter tops in the kitchen etc. I am completely giving the kitchen an overhaul before the first box gets unloaded and will be calling my mom for back up in this redecorating process (I too have this decorated completely in my head as well)!

The front picture was stolen off of the real estate website: I took a million pictures and forgot to take one of the front of the house, ridiculous!

The backyard is wonderful, it's what basically sold us on the house. It's on a pond and across from the pool. It has palm trees in the front and back yards. So keep your fingers crossed and send wishful vibes our way and hopefully the house will be ours (and we will be in it next summer... sigh). Patience is not a virtue I have ever possessed.

Sand into Pearls...

This is a good quote that I need to remember daily! Even when times are tough and stressful, they're not as bad as they seem... there is always a plan in the works.

spunky mornings.

Every now and then my Westie pup Bayla gets a spunky wild hair in the morning. Ill be fast asleep and she will jump on the bed and stare at me inches from my face, her breathing on my face usually wakes me up... who knows how long she has been laying there staring at me. Just imagine opening your eyes and seeing all white, then realizing it's an all white fur ball. Ok instead of imagining it, I have a few pictures to show.... enjoy.

White fur ball staring inches from my face. What a silly dog.

Mohawk snuggles.

Sometime she will even watch me sleep while she is upside down, crazy! How can you resist such a cute little face like that?

"Pimento Cheese with Soul"

Scott went on a grocery trip without me... lets just say we have very different ideas about shopping, especially grocery shopping. Scott is what some people call frugal, and what I call a tight ass. At grocery stores he will only buy things that are on sale or with a coupon. I on the other hand, buy what suits my taste that day...

However today at Publix, Scott finally stepped out of his coupon realm and bought the most delicious pimento cheese ever. It's called Palmetto Cheese made in Pawleys Island. There's three different types: original, with jalapenos, and with bacon. Scott bought the type with jalapenos, and if you have never tried this I encourage you to RUN literally leave right now and run to Publix and buy it. It is completely devine, and I had to make myself not eat the entire darn carton myself. We eat it with pita chips, and you can bet your fanny (I love that word ha) I am going to have parties at my new future house and act like I made it myself! hehe.

This image is stolen off their website, obviously, but the tag line is "pimento cheese with soul." Love that!

Also, the neat thing about this product, besides being made in my home state, is that it is made by one woman in her homes kitchen. I couldn't image making pimento cheese out of a home kitchen for 10 grocery stores! She must have love for cooking!

I like {BIG BOOKS}

So since I was given my Kindle Fire I have been reading more. Don't get me wrong, I have always loved books since a small child, but having so many hobbies gets in the way! I like reading girlie chick lit... a book that leaves you with a light hearted feeling where you can escape. I love the type of books where once you finish the last chapter, you are left with a sense that you know the main character well, and you will miss them as if they simply moved.


A few must reads :
Mary Kay Andrews- Hissy Fit
I read Hissy Fit on vacation and am now trying to get my hands on every other book she has written. When I find an author I love, I read everything they have ever written. That being said, I am now on a Mary Kay Andrews kick.


Emily Giffin- Something Borrowed, Something Blue
You fall in love with the characters of her books and want to know more about them. She is one of my favorite authors for sure.

Todd Burpo- Heaven is for Real
A true story about a little boy who tells his parents about meeting Jesus when he was very ill and in the hospital. A very interesting read.


Plum Sykes- Berdorf Blondes
Plum is a contributing editor at Vogue and a NY socialite so perhaps that's why her books are so witty. They are a must read.


Sophie Kinsella- All of her books!
I've read every single book she has written, starting with the shopaholic phase. I have also read all of her books under her pen name Madeline Wickham. They're very light hearted and has a bit of whimsy in them.


JK Rowling- Harry Potter series
Don't judge me... they are freakin' amazing. When the Potter craze came I thought it was so childish and that fairytale land books are not my sort of thing. I also thought the same thing about the Twilight books (which are a billion times better than the Twilight movies). Harry Potter books are better than Twilight by far and the movies are very accurately portrayed to the books. I mean if they can put millions upon millions towards Harry Potters Wizarding world at Universal, then you know the books have to be at least decent.

I am almost done with another Mary Kay Andrews book "Savannah Blues" and after I am done with that, which should take a matter of hours because I cannot put it down... I am going to start The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, I have heard all good things about this book so I'm excited to start that one next! It seems to have a bit of the hunger games gore, a touch of harry potter magic and a love story all wrapped into one book so it should be awesome...

August Birch Box

I love happy mail, and the one piece of happy mail I can rely on monthly is my Birch Box subscription! I have blogged about Birch Box in the past and skipped about ohhh... I don't know 10 months of birch box posts, so here we go again! This month Birch Box sent a "beauty school" box. Side note, can you believe school starts in the next few weeks! Where has the summer gone?

In this months box they sent:

1. Caldrea- hand soap loaded with aloe vera and olive oil to soften the hands.

2. WEI- pomegranate buffing beads. You mix these beads with your favorite cleanser to create an anti-oxidant packed scrub.

3. WEI- golden root purifying mud mask.

4. Yu-Be- moisturizing skin cream that you can use to heal chapped lips, rough heels or cracked hands.

5. Stila- 10 in 1 HD beauty balm, foundation and concealer. It comes in three different shades to try.

6. Juicy Couture- viva la juicy la fleur perfume. A light fruity scent with a hint of waterlilly. This will be my next "persuaded by birch box" beauty purchase. I love this scent, its light and not too over powering. I wear Kate Spade Twirl every day, which was also discovered through birch box.

7. Schick Hydro Razor- Birch Box is making sure I don't look like a hippie during the summer. Thank you.

Favorites: Make Up Edition.

From all of my posts I'm sure you have gathered that I'm a girlie girlie. I love sparkles, dresses and make up so I thought this Friday I would do Friday Favorites: Make up Edition.
Not a day goes by that my toes are not polished, its a huge pet peeve. Feet are gross, so I want mine to be as cute as possible. I will not wear crazy bright colors on my nails, I like light classic pinks and nudes. However, for my toes any color of the rainbow will do, but mostly bright pinks! Silly right? I have been going through my polish and keep going back to the same colors this summer: Essie Ballet slipper and Essie Lovey Dovey.
Left: Ballet Slippers polish is my go to for nails. They need this in gel polish! Right: Lovey Dovey is the perfect shade for summer toes!

My new lip obsession came in my Birch box last month. It is Stainiac in Beauty Queen, which is a Sherry berry color. It looks much darker in the tube than it is on my lips. It goes on like a cool gel and you can layer it to get a darker color. I also love that it stays on for hours by "staining" my lips. The trial size is almost gone, so I will be biting the bullet and buying the larger size soon!

Stainiac shown in Beauty Queen. It also comes in prom queen which is a Sherry rosy pink and homecoming queen which is a sheer soft peach. Try one yourself!
Scott has bought me eye shadows (with a lot of help from the make up artist at clinique) for my stocking stuffers. I love make up as a gift and I may have told him that "hint" a dozen or so times. He bought an eyeshadow duet for me for Christmas that has became my very favorite.For eyes I love Strawberry fudge by Clinique. I have green eyes so the pink makes the color bolder. I love that he picked this out (with a little help) and it is the perfect shade for me!

Since I can remember I have used Mac Studio Fix as my powder. I love it because it goes on and it stays all day looking fresh. My friend in Greenvile would beg me to do their make up before we would go out, they'd call it "fresh face" because I like make up to look natural and clean.
Top: Mac Studio Fix. Bottom: Mac Bronzer and Mac Blush... Mac came out with a Hey Sailor! nautical edition for summer and I couldn't resist buying the bronzer and blush. Since I lay out every Saturday I had to buy a bronzer to even my skin out. They're both great.
For concealer I use Merle Norman Cover Up. I have dark circles under my eyes and it works great. Sometimes Ill switch out to Mary Kays concealer, it works well too for cover ups!

Well that is what I wear pretty much every day. I love Mac up and my collection keeps getting bigger and bigger thanks to birch box! As you can tell I have no allegiance to one type of make up. Mac is my favorite, but I love all types, and I have discovered you get what you pay for when it comes to concealer and powders! Happy "fresh face"!

Favorite Things.

While on vacation I had gone to several outlets, and had seen many trends that I am adopting into my wardrobe.

One of my favorites are all the high to low hem dresses that are out. I have bought a few and they're great, however since I'm so short heels are an absolute must! We can call this the mullet dress, business in the front and party in the back...

I found this dress on pintrest and I LOVE and NEED it! The color and silver shine are two of my favorites combined into one dress! I believe this was made for me! Well unfortunately it is out of stock, but I keep checking to see when it comes back up again... one day... one day... I bought this from express, the back of the dress is what sold me! I don't usually like polka dots, but 80% of the time when Scott picks out an article of clothing for me it has polka dots! Crazy. So I bought this for him... or that's what I told myself while purchasing another dress I didn't need! ha.

I also have a rediscovered love for all things Kate Spade. I love everything they have from their purses and jewelry to their clothing and china. It has a timeless and classy look, love it.

Top left: The "spade" ring that Scott talked me out of on vacation... tsk tsk. Top right: I have decided that I'm going to buy Kate Spade China, I love the pattern, it looks like a celebration! Bottom left: I wear her perfume "Twirl" every single day. it has the softest most delicious and calming smell. Bottom right: A Kate Spade purse is in my future very soon!


ps. this was actually published on Friday, hence "fridays favorite things" but blogger apparently has it's days backwards...

Chicken Picata

I was going through my pantry and found some capers and started to crave chicken picata. I've never made it before so I searched on Pintrest, recipe.com and foodnetwork.com and decided on a simple version from food network. I feel foodnetwork is always on point with delicious recipes.
What you need:

4 (4-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Salt and ground black pepper
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, quartered
1/4 cup drained capers
1 box of cous cous or 1 cup quick-cooking brown rice

What to do:

Place chicken in zip-top bags and pound with a meat mallet or rolling pin until 1/4-inch thick. Remove chicken from bag and season all over with salt and black pepper. In a shallow dish (or plastic bag), combine flour, lemon zest, paprika, and garlic powder. Mix well. Add chicken and turn to coat. Remove chicken from flour mixture and shake off excess flour.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute 2 minutes per side, until golden brown and cooked through. Add lemon juice, wine and chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer 5 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and sauce thickens. Add artichoke hearts and capers and simmer 1 minute to heat through.
Cook cous cous according to package directions. Serve chicken and sauce with cous cous.

It is a quick and easy meal that took about 25 minutes from start to finish. I chose cous cous instead of rice, simply because I like cous cous better! I will definitly be making this again! YUM!

It works!

I'm an avid follower on pintrest. I love searching through all the home decor ideas, the DIY projects, and fashion ideas, but most of all I love finding and trying new recipes.

A few weeks back I stumbled upon a SKINNY cupcake recipe. Skinny cupcakes probably tastes like dog food, right? Well I decided to try them. I bought my favorite (fast- couple ingredients and nothing fancy) type, Funfetti with funfetti icing. The good thing about this recipe is you can get any boxed cake mix you want and it works.

1. All you do is get your cake mix and pour 12 oz. of DIET cherry 7 up.

It must be diet or it will explode. I have read that other people have used other clear diet drinks and it worked just fine.

2. Use a mixer and thoroughly blend getting out all of the lumps.

3. I put them in cupcake liners and then put them in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes.

Of course all ovens are different, so the toothpick method works every time.

4. Ice those babies!

So I used full sugar loaded out of the jar icing, but if you mix fat free vanilla pudding with half of a container of whip cream it makes the whole cup cakes 1.5 in weight watcher points (if you're into that kinda thing hehe).

The result?

Amazingly moist and SKINNY cupcakes that are so light and fluffy! No dog food skinny taste and it's less ingredients to buy than the regular kind of cup cakes. Skinny, yummy and cheaper? Don't mind if I do!

August brings...

Eerr...FALL?!?!

Last week happened to be tax free weekend, which I usually avoid at all cost. However, I had to buy a birthday gift so I ventured into one of my favorite places, Marshalls Home Goods! Deals and home decor are my two favorite things so it's the perfect place. Anyway as I was walking around with my nephew, who was visiting for the weekend, we saw some of the cutest dog costumes... which is a sure sign that FALL and HALLOWEEN is right around the corner! Fall happens to be my very most favorite time of the year for several reasons:

First, I love pumpkin EVERYTHING,(except the face peels- refer to previous post : pilgrim hats, indian feathers and bad pumpkins), from Yankee candles to Starbucks pumpkin spiced lattes. A pumpkin candle is my favorite house hold scent. Lets hope we buy a new house before fall is over so it will smell like pumpkin spice! Also, I love carving pumpkins! I will have to out do my last one...

I really like the top middle pumpkin of the witch! I may carve that one this year!

Second, I love Halloween! Halloween costumes, decorations and parties are just so cute and fun! Scott is hoping we have a house before Halloween because he wanted to have trick -or- treaters this year! haha. After our Marshalls shopping trip we found Bayla some costume options, a penguin is the front runner! I love decorating the house for Halloween, my fall decorations are getting almost as plentiful as my Christmas ones! haha.

This may be Bayla's Halloween costume, but of course she will look even cuter in it!!!

Third reason is because my birthday is also in fall! Since this is my first birthday actually celebrated in Charleston, I'm sure it will be so much fun. Hmm... maybe I'll start planning that now!

Fourth, the comfort. Fall to me just brings comfort: comfort food, cold nights and warm blankets, layered clothes and soups! I love soups! The layered look of clothing seems more stylish than just a summer dress. I also have a small obsession with jackets and coats, which makes zero sense because I live where it rarely gets cold and hardly ever snows!

Fifth reason is all the scary movies! I have loved scary movies since I was small. I remember watching Ernest Scared Stupid during Halloween as a child, does anyone else remember those Ernest movies? I still watch the kiddie Halloween movies like Halloween Town, however I also watch all the super scary Stephen King movies every year too!
And finally, the gorgeous picturesque leaves. I have always loved the beautiful jeweled colored leaves that fall brings. Driving from my parents house in Columbia to Greenville to see all of the leaves change during the fall has always been one of my most favorite beautiful drives.

For now I will enjoy the rest of summer and my Saturdays on the beach, but it's always nice to have something to look forward to...