On Saturday I headed out early in the AM to go visit blog friend Gretchen over at
Bird Nest Cottage. We'd never met before but picked up like we'd been friends forever. I've always thought her digs very homey and lovingly decorated, but nothing could have prepared me for actually being there in person. Lovely heirloom furniture and accessories, collections of things I adore, masterfully created vignettes, and the house itself renovated to perfection by her adoring husband, Hud. After a tour of Bird Nest Cottage (so much fun to see things in person that I've admired online!), we headed off to grandson Nicholas' football game. Sitting outside in the Fall sunshine was a perfectly relaxing way to start the day. Granddaughter Chloe captured my heart by arriving pushing her baby in a stroller (reminded me of Harleigh so much when she was little).
Then after the game we did some marathon thrifting. Gretchen has a similar style of thrifting. We, if I might brag at bit, are excellent scanners and so we can shop a store pretty quickly and feel like we've seen it all. We must have hit at least half a dozen thrift shops and there are tons more in Greenville and the small towns surrounding. And we didn't even hit the flea markets, which are everywhere you look. She was a trooper. In and out of the car, driving all over the place. We shopped and gabbed and enjoyed great girlfriend time.
Once back at the house, savored a great dinner with a salad, twice-baked potatoes and Hud's 3" thick sirloins hot off the grill. I'm grateful to have made this cyber friendship come alive. Such a great family to now count as friends.
Here's the big blackboard in her English countryside kitchen. My one request: that I make the blackboard!
Then yesterday we had our trunk or treat at church. Without Harleigh, I gotta admit it wasn't nearly as fun, but I managed to create a trunk that the kids thought was pretty neat.
I adhered a big spider to the top of a box, then ran thread from each of her 8 legs down through the box top and tied onto two different wooden dowels. With the back of the box cut out, I was able to sit on a stool and put my legs into the box and maneuver the dowels with my feet.
Take a look at these darling vinyl outdoor pillows from our thrifting adventures.
And the face of my boy, who enjoyed an afternoon of playing ball in the backyard (his ball is a deflated soccer ball and is a real mess; you can see it in my lap).
Many trick or treaters to cap-off the Fall weekend, not to mention that my weekend was further made delightful by the Christmas music that I played!! Yes I did!!!!
One of the great things about college is that you can pursue your own style without the confines of high school uniforms and restrictions AND you're surrounded by people who don't know you and therefore have no preconceived notions of what your style is and what it should be considering the "norms" of your pre-college peer groups. In other words, anything goes in the effort to express yourself, your new self, the self you're growing into, the skin you're coming to accept and be comfortable in.
