Beach Time With My Bud

His curls in the sun and wind might be my favorite sight ever. And a sandy mouth! 

PS- Sorry for my messy hair. That's how I roll on the beach. There is no point in trying! :)

Sunglasses / Cover Up c/o  / Weeks' Hat c/o

Recipe: Strawberry Salad

A few weeks ago I posted a picture on instagram (@missdixie30) and I promised many of you a recipe. My mom made us this salad a few times and I could not get enough. It is absolutely my new favorite salad. I love the ramen crunch and the strawberries make it so delicious for summer. The dressing is a new favorite too, you could use it for a different salad just as well. Definitely try it if you are wanting to up your salad game- let me know how you like it! 

STRAWBERRY SALAD via Trisha Yearwood

INGREDIENTS

Salad:

1 package ramen noodles, crushed, flavor packet discarded

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

1 head romaine lettuce, washed and dried

One 5-ounce bag baby spinach

1 pint strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced

1 cup grated Parmesan

Dressing:

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoons salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

For the salad: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, mix the ramen noodles, almonds, sunflower seeds and melted butter. Transfer to a baking sheet and toast in the oven, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Tear the lettuce and combine with the spinach, strawberries and cheese in a large salad bowl.

For the dressing: Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar. Combine the oil, paprika, salt and garlic and then add to the sugar-vinegar mixture. Mix well and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Just before serving, sprinkle the crunchy topping over the salad green and toss the salad with enough dressing to coat the greens.

Sunday Sale Shopping

Happy Memorial Day Weekend friends! I promise one day I will be back to a normal (or somewhat normal) posting around here. Things just aren't slowing down but maybe that will change soon. We are at the beach enjoying some absolutely gorgeous weather and of course, good company. Before you hit the beach, pool or backyard today you might what to indulge in some shopping because there are some weekend deals you do not want to miss. I've gathered up a few of my favorites to make it a little easier for ya.

I included a few cover ups here and here because I have fallen in love with wearing sleeves to the beach now. Something I never thought would happen. But these are great deals and it just seems right being a Mom now. I think they look a lot chicer than most tiny little cotton cover ups anyway. I also love my chambray sleeveless top, it looks so cute with a pair of white shorts. And how many good deals on cute sandals are there? The J.Crew pair is on my list. Did you know Factory made Rainbow flip flops? Me either. Those would also be great- durable and cuter than the ones I wore in high school! 

Enjoy your weekend and don't forget why we have this beautiful freedom! 

Weekend Selfies

Don't laugh- we rarely take selfies. In fact, I hardly have any photos of "us" these days. But my iphone camera decided to stop working in the way you generally hold it. It occasionally works in the reverse mode, the selfie cam. I just haven't had time to go by to get my phone fixed with the big move. Anyhow, I am now happy to have a few recent photos. 

{On our way to a 30th birthday party!}

{Beach Music Festival with the fam} 

{Sunday night snuggles...Weeks cracks me up!}

find my sunglasses here / love them! 

TB SALE: Five on Friday

Happy Friday y'all! Today I'm linking up with The Good Life, A. Liz Adventures,Carolina Charm, and Hello Happiness for Five on Friday. 

What's better than a Tory Burch sale when you need new shoes? That's right, not much. TB makes my favorite shoes ever. I always add in "filler shoes" but I always, always come back to my favorite old reliables. My current Millers are working on their third summer. I think I need to supplement them with a fresh, new, brighter pair....right?

CANDICE FLAT SANDAL

{I love how feminine these are for a flat!!! And in my favorite metal tone, gold}

REGGIE METALLIC FLAT

{I could see myself wearing these all the time. They are actually so much prettier than most 

gladiator-ish sandals.}

THANDIE WEDGE FLIP FLOP

{To step up your all black swimsuit and coverup. Come on, I know you have that too!}

VIV FLAT

{Hello, beautiful year round shoe. You are perfect.}

ETHEL RAFFIA PUMP

{Throw these on with black shift dress for daytime/work/lunching/church or even with a pair of jeans!}

I know I didn't need to convince you why I love TB shoes so much, but maybe my current wish list above might make you love them even more.

We have moved ALL of our stuff crap out of the old house and into the new. It's taken all week. I think we might be hoarders. And I don't know if I am coming down with something or if my allergies are really kicking in, but I am utterly exhausted. Hoping to recharge this weekend and relax a teensy bit in between all the craziness. Enjoy yours! xo.

My Best Friend's Wedding- Style Me Pretty Edition

Remember that beautiful wedding I told you about back in December? Rightfully deserved, my sweet friend Seldon and her wonderful husband Mark, were just featured on Style Me Pretty. People always talk about going to beautiful weddings- for one reason or another, a wedding will seem particularly beautiful to them- or maybe a small detail will always hold a memory for them of that night. This was one of those weddings. It definitely spoke to me not only in decor, but from the love felt in the room. By the couple and their families both. Every single moment seemed like it was years in the making- I swear. They are the cutest couple! {By the way, he is from Wales, she is from NC and they met working together on a private yacht. How amazing is that!} Anyway, I am so happy to share this joyous, special occasion. For more details, {and believe me, there are lots more!} please visit their feature here. 

I love you Seldon!

All photos via A.J. Dunlap Photography 

Be the Mom...

via

Because that's what it all really boils down to, right? I never shared in depth the personal struggles and choices when becoming a Mom for the first year...breastfeeding, sleep schedules, blah blah blah. Sometimes I feel like that is such a platform for comparison for Moms and I'm not really into that. {And if you do that, that's cool, just not my thing}. What's important is if you are being the Mom you want that sweet baby to remember. 

It's funny...once I became a Mom my excitement for celebrating my own Mother on Mother's Day did not change. I am ready and eager to celebrate her {and of course my wonderful MIL}. But celebrate me? I just want to hold that sweet boy and I am so thankful that God gave me the gift of being able to do that. 

Cheers to all the Moms out there!

And thanks Mom. I love you! 

Design Idea: Wood Framed Windows

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Before we completely paint everything white in the new house, I stopped myself short of a few windows. I vaguely remembered seeing an inspiration photo with a dark wood frame window that added so much character to the room. I'm considering leaving parts of this window and casing the natural oak. What are your thoughts? I think it looks pretty fabulous in the above photos.

 before priming walls and paneling...

after priming walls and paneling...

Sorry for the poor lighting. I'm definitely not hauling the good camera over to the house right now with all the dust and paint everywhere. As you can see, the actual windows themselves are new and white, so it won't be quite the same as the inspiration photos. So the options are 1. Paint all of the window casing and trim white 2. Leave natural as seen in second photo 3. Paint window casing white and leave interior wood. 

There are also two windows in the adjoining den that could be done in the same manner.

Weigh in on your thoughts!!

New House Renovation Progress: The Beginning

Well hello again! Yes, still here. It has been quite a week in the house renovation progress. Stephen and I have had so much help from our parents, whether it is watching Weeks, spraying round up, bringing dinners, buying new plants or powerwashing the house. We are so thankful for all of that help! In reality, so much has been accomplished. But since all of our efforts have been so wide spread it hasn't been easy to see the quick results we are all used to. When you think about taking on a project of painting a bedroom, perhaps...you see that transformation pretty quickly and boom- done. This is an entirely different ballgame, I have learned. There are many, many steps to get us to where we want to be and those steps mean they have to have an order. The basic game plan for us was to first remove all existing flooring and resurface the ceilings, and subsequently paint all trim and walls, ceilings, paneling, cabinets. That is quite a daunting task itself, but as expected there are always more bumps in the road, especially with an older house. But, today I am just going to highlight some progress and focus in on other areas later. 

If you missed the original home tour, see here for comparison photos. Once they closer to completion I will post them side by side.

KITCHEN

Our sweet little wooden kitchen is looking better by the minute after getting painted inside and out and three times from Friday. Pretty much every surface will be refinished. We removed all the doors and I have been refinishing those at our current home when time allows. As seen below, we are in the priming stage. Cannot wait to see her all sparkly. We of course want to update the heinous countertops, but that is not as critical to me right now as other things. I even considered a concrete fix, which might happen if we can't find the right countertop for the budget right now. I got a lot of feedback about painting tile- still a possibility but we might jump for re-doing them completely as well. I will keep you posted.

ENTRYWAY

Our entryway is getting a surprising makeover from that slate flooring I mentioned in the home tour. The slate was SO heavy it was actually causing a slight sag in the middle of the floor. No bueno. After further inspection we found out that the floor needed to be replaced under that slate {along with some crawl space stuff I can't even describe}. Demo day below...

We are so happy that we made the right choice to go ahead and get these things fixed now, even though they weren't absolutely necessary at this point. We don't want to get moved in and recreate a big mess in a few years. You can also see below that the banisters and wonky steps were removed and we are working on a new step that is up to code.

WOOD FLOORS

Everything seemed to feel better once we started to see the wood floor go into place. After tons of thought and back and forth we decided on this hickory hardwood. Our hardwoods are actual hardwoods, but engineered, meaning the layers underneath the top layer of wood are made up of different woods. This is actually really important in our area being so close to the water. Solid hardwoods might buckle or warp. I am so pleased with the way they are coming along! PS- imagine this photo with white paneling, no wallpaper peeling :)

PAINT

I have literally been crouched down on the floor painting baseboards or standing on a ladder every night this week. Of course, we do not have to have all of this done by the time we move in. But, we are doing everything we can to get as much done as possible. First of all, it's so easy to paint pre-flooring without worrying about drop cloths. Second of all, once we move in we would rather focus on some projects that are a little more fun than painting baseboards. I took this photo of the difference in the trim color. Old color/left and new/right. These people actually had all their trim painted a "painters tape blue" at some point. They have convinced me to never be trendy on trim colors {if blue was ever big in the 70's}. Even after white paint you can still see residual blue/black on the left. So gross. By the way, I am using White Dove by Benjamin Moore on our trim. It seems slightly yellow in the picture but in reality is not at all. 

LANDSCAPING AND OUTDOORS

Tons of progress has been made outside! We have the most charming little patio on the front/side of the house that was covered in leaves and dirt. Literally, covered so much so that we didn't even see the patio until our third or fourth visit to the house. Here you can see the stones that were powerwashed by my Dad, and one of our many azaleas. Since this photo, we have added more landscaping, mulch and sand between pavers. It's gorgeous and the perfect place for an afternoon cocktail watching the water.

This is another in progress shot. This bed was full of miscellaneous bulbs, weeds, rose bushes etc. It was screaming for some order. We yanked everything and are working on a boxwood border all around. I'm in love. 

We also didn't realize our beach access until last week. What a wonderful surprise. I took Tucker down there on Saturday and he loved it. I enjoyed the pretty walk almost as much as the water itself. Can't wait for more trips like this with the rest of the fam! 

We ended last weekend with our very first happy hour at the new house, on the new patio. The first of many to come and I can't wait. 

Thanks for bearing with me y'all! Have a happy weekend.