ribbit

This little cutie has been lovin' our front porch.  Just thought I'd share. :)

On a side note, I know I've neglected the blog!  I have a few updates on the house coming soon, I promise.  Wedding season is almost over, so I'll be in full swing by late fall.  Happy Thursday!

Shut The Front Door

I need to live on the coast.  They're not afraid of color there.  I've been going back and forth about whether it would be a good idea to paint my front door and shutters or not.  I want to so so so bad, but I'm afraid we're gonna be the odd ones out in our neighborhood as no one has anything but neutrals or traditional red on their front doors.  

I doubt I'd ever be crazy enough to try one of these...

...but what do you think about a really really dark purple eggplant color?  Yay?  Nay?

...and we're back!

I had the most amazing time with my hubby touring the Eastern Caribbean, but it's all over now and I'm definitely feeling sad about it.  What could be better than a new ocean view every day from our balcony, touring distant lands by day and being entertained by blue men by night?  Nothing, I tell you!  Nothing!  It was by far the best vacation of our lives and quite possibly one of the best weeks of our lives.  Here are a few images from the amazing trip.

We toured with Norwegian on their new cruise ship, the Epic.  Even the stairways were beautiful.

They had the tackiest club called the Bliss Lounge!  Hilarious!

We saw so many great shows on board.  Blue Man Group, Cirque Dreams, Second City, a comedy magician who reminded me of a gay Steve Martin, Bernie Martini the piano man, a murder mystery lunch, Howl At the Moon dueling piano bar, Fat Cats Blues and Jazz, the list goes on and on.  They also had an ice skating rink, two bowling alleys, rock walls, three water slides and eleven restaurants on board.

Andrew was a little nervous about getting sea sick, but he did great. ;)  This was our balcony view.

This was also our balcony view.  I love the net of white here.

Every day and every night I made sure to take a picture of the skyline from the balcony.  This was our view of night one sailing to St Maarten.  I love that you can see the moon in the corner!

The first port day was in St Maarten.  We took a tour of the entire island, the Dutch side and the French.  A couple we met on the tour was nice enough to take this picture of us with my camera.  This is the ONLY decent shot of the both of us we got on the trip.

But I got lots of good ones of Andrew!  We took a break half way through the tour to go to a restaurant.  I was expecting authentic French cuisine there, but low and behold we found a creole restaurant instead.  I had my hopes on French, but it was GREAT food (Andrew is at the restaurant on the left) and we also got to go to an amazing French restaurant on the ship.  I even tried escargo for the first time.  Snails are YUM.

St Maarten is known for some of the most beautiful beaches in the entire world.  We wanted to show how excited we were in a pic, but Andrew was having wardrobe malfunction. :)

Favorite shot all week.

We toured with a Jewish family who practically begged me to take pictures of their daughter after finding out I was a pro photographer.  She is adorable isn't she?

That evening, we were out on the balcony and noticed a tiny  boat pulling up to the side of the ship.  After seeing people hoisted onto the cruise ship we realized they had been late getting back on board and had to get the coast guard to escort them.  Oops.

St Thomas from the balcony.  I didn't go out of the ship this time.  Andrew did a helmet tour and I got a much needed massage.

Nassau, Bahamas.  This was the last day of the trip.  This strip of land in between two sects of the ocean blew me away.  I would die to live here.

Atlantis was very cool.  We did the aquarium tour and then the "aquaventure" which is their amazing amazing water park.  Holy cow that was an awesome day.

The foyer in Atlantis's largest tower.  Crazy, right?

Hope you enjoyed looking through these almost as much as we enjoyed being there!

...and, we're off!

Andrew and I are headed to tour the Bahamas for a much needed vacation.  We'll be back soon (too soon, if you ask me)!

Get Inspired: Photography Part 2

I spoke before about photography providing color inspiration.  I feel like it can also inspire me into a style or feel.  Of course, the first reason I loved this photograph by Our Labor Of Love was because of the yellow.  I'm a total sucker for anything yellow.  But it also gives me a sense of peace, space, and rural community.  If I thought I could buy this photograph and blow it up as wallpaper for my master bedroom, I totally would.

There is not a drop of yellow in the next pictures, but the country feel of this buffet totally reminds me of the feel of the field flowers.  It is my dream to have an organized kitchen or buffet just like this.

Speaking of dreams.  This next picture makes my heart stop.  If I had a kitchen like this, I would never leave.  My favorite things about it is the natural wood used on the bookshelves, the carrera marble countertops (my dream countertop) and the crisp white cabinets.  That huge pedestal table is pretty fantastic as well.  OK, I like everything about this room.  One day, I WILL have a kitchen/dining room like this.  *dream*

A Colorful Runner

Saw these amazing and colorful runners on Coco & Kelley where she talks about colorful rugs replacing the pop of color often found in pillows and other small textiles.  I must have a runner like this for my kitchen!!  Anyone know where I can find something like this?