The Move

This move certainly has shown me all the work I will need to do to make the next move easier! Goodness gracious, a rough few days but its done. We are here! 

A recap. I spent the most wonderful week with my sister and little nephew (photos to come)! An excuse to do all of my favorite things in Maine before I left. The day I took her to the airport (2 days before I had to move) I started having car issues...The car was not drivable and smelled horrific. So Saturday morning (the day before the move) I had to take it to the shop and drop some money on it, but it was all taken care of and the ride down was very smooth. 

Saturday morning J picks up the Uhaul. The Uhaul people didn't know anything, were rude and gave us the wrong trailer for our car (when we had reserved a specific one they gave away that morning). J was furious and as his patience was dwindling I was waiting for the hulk to come out. I would say all is well that ends well except half way through the first day J noticed the car wasn't even attached to the trailer anymore. So it had just been sitting, untied, with little me driving right behind it for a good few hours. We were horrified! This was not negligence on our part, we checked everything every stop, this was a trailer not meant for J's car....

What was supposed to be a 16 hour drive ended up being two 11 hour days for us. This was torture for me because I usually do that drive in one day with few stops, little food, and less sleep, but poor J was driving the truck that wouldn't go above 60 on hills (the majority of our mountainous rout). 

We finally got here around 5 last night, checked into our hotel, and didn't waste anytime in driving to our future house, around the city and having a drink at a yummy little restaurant on Main street. Columbia is so pretty, our house is so darling, it is very hot, and there are lots of new noises in the trees.

 our last evening!

the morning we left.

the night we arrived!

We move into our house on Friday morning! Just in time for the 4th. More photos of our new city to come. 

Sweet Gestures

This morning I was in a funk. I could not snap out of my own snappy attitude. J was getting frustrated. I was getting frustrated because J was leaving in minutes for the week and I wasn't being pleasant. It was just one of those days. No excuse. 

I truly believe God knows about the little things. Not only does he know, he cares. Precious little things you love and have lost being found. Simple desires that seem so foolish and impossible being fulfilled. A simple sweet gesture on a rough day to make you smile. Jesus is watching out for our joyful hearts every minute. 

In the midst of my frustrating morning, I was checking out at Trader Joe's with J quietly behind me and our cashier was just the chattiest man, asking us every question you could imagine. Through his questions he discovered J and I were newlyweds. He lit up and expressed his congratulations and started to tell us how blessed we are to marry young and how rare it is these days. He started to talk about his own two daughters (older than us) who have been in relationships with "the ones" for years but will not marry. He was overflowing with joy. Not just for us but in life. After he finished ringing up our groceries, he asked if I could bag and said he had to step away for moment...well he came back with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers and gave them to me. He told us he was so happy for us and that was that. I couldn't believe it. It turned my day around and now I have the most beautiful vase of flowers to remind me how blessed I am and how sweet that was. 

When I was in Florida over spring break, my sisters, sister-in-law, and I went out for a fancy night. We dressed up, had yummy cocktails and it was wonderful. As we left we came up on the cutest pregnant women a little older than us and my sister immediately said "You just look so beautiful!" It made that ladies evening (or i think it did). She was so appreciative and admitted she was looking at us, thinking how much she missed dressing up while not being pregnant. It is such a simple thing to make people happy. It is just the sweetest simplest gesture to lifts someones spirits. So often I think how beautiful someone is, I think about how incredible a story is, I think about how much I would love to do something kind for people but usually the "thinking" outdoes the "doing". I am so thankful for the sweetest gesture given to me this morning. I am so thankful that God cares about the little things. And I just think these flowers are so pretty! 

Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. Luke 12:7

God "comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction." What good is it to be so filled up with joy if that joy never leaves our cup and overflows to others. It is my prayer that God shines his light on me so I can shine it on others and maybe brighten someones day like mister Trader Joe's man brightened mine. 

My Garden

My one day garden! 

 (thats me in the hat...)

 Can you imagine

my future jasmine plant

But until then...

I am a little overwhelmed with the idea of a garden when we move. I am just so excited! the growing season is much longer in SC and I just have so many ideas I need to rein them in and prioritize. Since we are renting, and moving often, I hope to create a system where my garden, or garden materials, can travel with me efficiently and happily. So my plan is pots and boxes. Simple and beautiful container gardening. Whenever I look for ideas in the matter, most are just over complicated, not pretty, too much work (and i am all about DIY) and just unnecessary; upside-down plastic water bottles, holes in ugly storage containers, layered and tilted pots with cut outs. Not for me. Just pretty simple pots and buckets overflowing with pretty plants. 

Pretty window boxes!

Pretty potted plants!

 This is cute. 

 Potted strawberries! Doing this.

 Love this. J wants a lemon tree. Columbia is on the border of good zoning but we will try and if its not working out, a family member will inherit a pretty potted lemon tree! 

 I have seen this done very successfully. 

 So cute! 

If i owned something like this, this would be so fun for herbs. 

We hope to have a beautiful vegetable assortment, herbs and flowers. Favorite easy vegetables: radishes, lettuces of all kinds, onions(if its not too late), cucumbers, green beans, peas, tomatoes...and maybe more. Favorite herbs: chives, scallions, mint, basil, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, parsley. Fruits we will try: strawberries, lemons, peaches (if not too late)...and maybe more! Flowers I would love to start: Hydrangeas, jasmine, roses, eucalyptus, begonias...and many other pretty ones I am sure! Cannot wait for my little garden to grow. 

Almost There!

J leaves this Sunday for his orientation in Texas! Mary Kate and Remington come on Monday to stay with me for 5 days! J comes home on the 27th, helps me pack up and off we go! I cannot believe how fast this is going. 

I have been looking for a place to live in Columbia since May (a little eager) and it has been a constant battle. We originally could not get an answer on how long we would be down there, 6 months or a year...a huge difference in the housing situation. Our initial plan was to put everything away in storage, pack my car with a few favorite things and move into a furnished apartment. This would have been fun considering we were moving every six months for the next two years but when J heard there was a chance we could be there for a year, this idea was no longer fun to me. A year is a long time to be living lightly in a furnished apartment (for me). I am a homebody, I love my house and I invest in every home I live in. So we switched gears and started looking at little bungalow houses with fenced yards and a little bigger so I could have my studio. I do this thing (not always a good thing) where I get really excited about an idea. I paint the entire picture and my heart becomes fully invested before its a reality. Example: J tells me we will be there for a year, so...I look for the cutest houses next to the prettiest parks and biking distance to the city. I imagine my little routine; room for a studio, window over my kitchen sink, back yard for gunner and all of my pretty potted plants, a screened porch where J and I can drink coffee and wine. I fall in love with this little dream. Come to find out a couple weeks later his company says just 6 months. My heart is broken. I am flexible I really am but I just get so excited too quickly that it takes me a little bit to recover and adjust. We switch gears again. Now we have to repack because our essentials are scattered in different boxes and I start looking downtown at cool loft apartments. This idea is fun for sure but hard for me and gunner. I sacrifice most garden and studio space and Gunner sacrifices 90% of his joy...being outside. However, we find a few pretty places in old beautiful buildings in the heart of everything and start to get excited. On Friday, J receives a call from his boss saying that he actually will for certain be in South Carolina for a year...good grief. 

So, enough of that! Hopefully Js work will not be this fickle the entire length of his career. In that time, all of my favorite homes had been rented so I started over and found the gem! Maybe God had his hand in it all along...We are in the process of being approved for this tiny little beauty and pray it works out. J's boss on sight took a drive with his wife and told us it is so charming, such a pretty tree-lined street, and one neighborhood over from their house. 

Isn't it just darling!

See you two cuties soon! 

My Bed

My bed is my favorite spot in my house. I love my bed. I love a clean crips bed. I love down everything all year long. I love lots of pillows. I love white bedding, linen or just cotton. I love above all my collection of beautiful, antique iron beds. There is just nothing more charming. What I do not love are my husbands long legs that do not fit in any of my iron beds and therefor he is insisting on a king sized bed. I am sure most people would not complain about having to get a king but I am little and get lost in a king, J seems so far away. J used to be able to sleep anywhere; on a rock, the water, the floor, any bed. Since we got married our bed has been an endless complaint. I own two full sized iron beds, one of which is my childhood bed which I have always used. The other, a treasure I bought for pennies on the side of the road that I had planned to paint a fun color and use in Columbia. I also have the tiniest "doll bed" (as J calls it) which we use for a day bed or my one day little child. But now I have to find an alternative. Ill do it for J because he is the sweetest and I am tired of the not so sweet, angry morning comments about how uncomfortable our bed is (for him). 

Idea #1: A Mantel.

love this bright mantel but not really anything else in the photo. 

 can you imagine this behind a bed 

Idea #2: Art

 This is my forte, i could do this simply at home and it is one of my favorite ideas. I need this painting. 

Idea #3: Just pure simplicity

Idea #4: a simple high shelf with pretty things.

or...If only i had this window to make it simple. 

I guess we will start with the simplest form and go from there. The up-side of having to get an entirely new bed...i get to shop for new bedding. 

Books

If you ask me the question, "Have you ever read...", just stop right there because most likely the answer will be no. When I was little, my spare time did not consist of picking up a beautiful, classic book and getting lost in the story, rather it was getting lost in the woods or playing with my dog (much better company than a book in my opinion). 

I laugh at myself because sometimes it can take up to a couple years for me to finish a book (by this time I have started the book over at least once), even books I love! I just simply never have time to read, if I am reading it means I am neglecting some other responsibility like painting or cleaning. Reading for me usually is on a plane or vacation. Those occasions usually go hand and hand and do not come very often. Hopefully in this time to come I will have more time to read and I plan to start The Empty Shelf Challenge my sister blogged about here...but my bookshelf really is empty. 

It's only recently that my love of reading a good book (nothing worse than reading a bad book, I simply do not have the patience) has bloomed and now my mind is hungry. My heart is hungry too and since I clearly missed out on the essential classics that every little child should ready, I have some catching up to do. 

The favorites (I should have read when I was younger) thus far: 

 I don't think I have ever loved a little story so much. I want to borrow every lesson 

from this story and apply it when raising my own little men. 

 I do not know how I ever got away with not reading these little treasures 

because it is my soul. 

 My mom had me read this in early college years because she was horrified I hadn't. 

A treasure.

A depiction of my love for simple joys and tiny treasures. 

Now some that I still need to read:

I have read some but not all so J and I are going to read them together. 

I have already read this book but I have not finished the entire series and so I am starting over. 

My grandmother gave me a beautiful old copy of the second book but I will have to buy this 

beauty by Anna Rifle to start...oh darn

Some of my favorite age appropriate books:

If ever there was a character I related to it is Mima. I absolutely love this story, 

it is my soul in a book. 

My sister gave me this book years ago and wrote inside that I make paintings 

like Howard Roark makes buildings...She was exaggerating. I just finished this 

book (a new record for me...one month!) and any desire to read again is spoiled 

because I don't want to corrupt the image left in my mind, to lose the characters 

I love, to forget Roark's buildings. I am ruined. 

Age appropriate books I still need to read:

I went from reading the Little House Books (which I haven't finished the series yet) to The Fountain Head (brain shocker) and now I am reading.....

Mainly because I want this Rifle Paper collection but have to read every book to justify 

buying them...but also I loved Little Men so much that I hope to love 

this one equally considering I have 3 sisters too!

Now I am open to recommendations of truly wonderful books that I absolutely must read. My bookshelf is lonely and needs to be filled with pretty treasures.