Skip to main content

Coming up for air!

OH my goodness people! It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks! I'm finally coming up for air. :) I don't think I've had a busier two weeks in my life, and it's all been amazing stuff, so I'm not complaining.  I am thrilled to be home though!

I'm a homebody who loves to travel -- it's an odd combination. I love visiting new places and those we already love, but man, I ache to get back home at the same time. I mentioned that we took our annual trip to Disney World a couple weeks ago:
Disney castle at Christmas

We like to go around Thanksgiving but this time we stayed a day later than usual -- and it kind of threw me off! I'm joining in on a blog Christmas tour later this week so I was trying to get the whole house decorated in just a few days but got sick while at it. 
Epcot ball at night

So I didn't get much done last week because of sickness and then I was off for another amazing (but quick!) trip to Georgia. Last month Delta Faucets asked if I'd like to join in on their trip to tour the 2017 HGTV Dream Home, and of course I said yes! Even though it just happened to be the day before another trip I've had planned. 

I went down to St. Simons Island for less than 24 hours and had an amazing time. I cannot wait to show you more of this beautiful home!:
2017 HGTV dream home

I'll share a ton of pics soon and I have a fun giveaway for you too. It was such an honor to get to be one of the first to walk through this gorgeous house (that will be on TV in January!). 

The backyard has a small dock on an inlet -- it was so incredibly peaceful back there: 
2017 HGTV Dream Home
I didn't get to stay long but I loved that little island and the homes there were stunning. 

I flew home that night, got home at 11:30, got three hours of sleep and then woke up early to take a weekend trip to my favorite city that we've had planned for awhile:
NYC view
Christmastime is my favorite time to visit NYC! 

Three friends and I took one kid each and I dragged them all around the city for a whirlwind tour: 
Little Italy Christmas

We checked out Rockefeller Center, saw a Rockettes show (always amazing!), did some shopping for both the kids and the moms, Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Little Italy, Grand Central, saw Aladdin (it has turned into one of our favorite Broadway shows) and walked around Central Park. 

The kids (and moms) were total troupers and we made some wonderful memories.
NYC Christmas

We've talked about this trip for at least a year now and a few months ago finally made it happen. I'm so glad we did. I LOVE to share this city with friends and love watching them fall in love with it even more. 

We had seven ladies and one man -- my little guy. He loved being the tour guide too. :) 
NYC at Christmas9/11 memorial

Christmas windows New York City

The store windows in NYC this time of year are reason enough to visit. :) 

I thank God for these women every day -- they make life so fun. It's funny how people come into your life just when you need them. 😊
Friends fountain NYC

If you're a Friends fan you may recognize this one! It's the Cherry Hill fountain in Central Park -- but little known fact (that's kind of sad for Friends fans), this isn't the fountain they actually dance around. They built a replica for the opening credits of the show. ;) It's still cool a cool spot to visit though!

I totally wore everyone out -- we are all struggling a little bit today. I'm resting up (trying not to get sick again so I'm taking a ton of Vitamin C!) and then finishing up our Christmas decor -- I'm so inspired now! I'm also finishing up some small details on the basement fireplace -- we LOVE it! I'll share both that and our Christmas tour this week!

Hope your start to your holiday season has been wonderful. I always say I'm not going to make many commitments this time of year and that NEVER happens. ;) I'm so happy to be home now nesting for the holidays and have so many things I can't wait to show you this month!

Have you been busy already? Any fun trips scheduled during the holidays? Or do you love to stay home the whole season?

P.S.  If you are considering a trip to New York City, you can see all of my posts about the city here, and my tips on how to do NYC in two days here.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DIY stacked stone fireplace (where there was none!)

Well hello! I have a BIG reveal for you today! I worked so hard on this basement fireplace and I'm so so SO thrilled it's done. I'm excited to share it with you today! I took a ridiculous amount of photos so bear with me. :)  I'll show you where we started first! We have this little bump out in our basement and from day one we knew what we wanted to do with it. When we finished the basement years ago we went ahead and bought an electric fireplace for that spot. It sat on a bench for four years. 😁 A few months ago we decided to have the fireplace built in since the whole space was torn up for the new floors anyway:  Then I was craving a little more traditional look so we had the hearth added along with a mantel:  Then it was time for me to do the rest! I knew I needed to stain the mantel and hearth before I tiled -- it would have gotten all over the tile otherwise. I sanded both down and then cleaned them really well. A wet paper towel does fine:  I ALWAYS use a pre...
Post a Comment
Read more

The bright and light mudroom makeover is complete!

As many of you know, it can take me eons to finish up a room makeover. It's usually because of two things -- we pay cash for everything so I only make updates as the budget allows. And since I try to do most of it myself, it just takes longer than it would if I hired out. I don't mind this usually because I think I make better decisions when I take my time.  I'll take even longer if it's a room we don't use often (like our guest room) or one that we use mostly (and guests don't see) so I'm not as concerned about it getting finished up quickly. I've been working on our mudroom for more than three years now -- well, even longer than that if you consider all of our changes -- but I've been making updates for a few years to get it the way I want it.  And it's FINALLY DONE. Whoot! You may have seen the most dramatic changes I shared last fall, but I wasn't calling it done till we got the storage shelf built and finished up. Now it's finished...
Post a Comment
Read more

AFTER the Konmari Purge (I'm DONE)

It's done! I've officially Konmari'd the crap  out of our house. This is a very, very good day and a long time coming -- I'm so happy to be done!  It took NINE MONTHS. I did finish a kitchen renovation in that time, but still, nine months . I started reading the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up last August:   I talked about how it started to change my mindset  here -- this book has totally changed my life. I thought I was good at letting go of things, but after reading this I realized I really wasn't good at all.  I still had this inexplicable thing holding me back from truly getting rid of all the crap. My mindset before was...I bought it to redo it, I bought it on sale, I spent a lot of money on it, someone gave it to me, someday when I finish ____ this item will be good there, it needs to be fixed and then we can use it, someday this might be back in style, I made this myself, if I can find the cord that charges it I'll be able to use it, it may ...
Post a Comment
Read more