Home Sweet Home

Okay, so I have a lot of time on my hands as of lately! This means I have time to actually write these things. So, as mentioned in my last post, I wanted to share a little about our new home...

Making a house a home is not an easy task. I am still in the process of learning that it takes a while, even years, to make your home the way you want it. There will always be something that needs to be fixed, that needs to be worked on, that needs to be updated. It can get overwhelming! But, the best part is, William and I get to do it all together...and we are definitely making memories!

Our house had 0 color on the walls when we moved in. Naturally, I wanted color, so the painting projects began. Our kitchen/breakfast area was the.most.frutrating.task.EVER. It will never be painted again...EVER..haha! I had this grand idea to surprise William while he was out of town all weekend at our church's men retreat. I cleaned and had planned to have the entire kitchen/breakfast area painted. My sister and my dad helped me the whole day. It took five coats. That's right--FIVE! It's a deep orange color that is really pretty on the walls, but it was a headache getting it on there.

"Uptown Girl"
This is the only paint name I remember because
 Brooke and I sang it the entire time we painted.

All in all, I love it! William was very surprised and loved it too. When I picked it out, he was a little unsure at first, but he loves it now. I told him he shouldn't doubt my color instincts..hehe

On to the dining room! I'm usually not crazy about the color blue, but our friends have this color in their house and we loved it!  

It looks grey in all the pictures I tried to take, but it is definitely blue. Our dining room furniture is...that's right, you guessed it...thrifted! We bought our table and chairs from a yard sale and our china cabinet came from an estate sell. William is very particular about furniture (it has to be real wood), so I let him do all the furniture shopping.

And I do the decorating! Our chairs needed new fabric badly. Brooke and William surprised me one day and reupholstered the chairs for me.

I love it because the fabric ties in the kitchen/breakfast area paint color and the dining room.
The rooms are connected,  so it works out perfectly.

So yes, William is really into furniture. He loves to build it too. He built our coffee table and our end tables in the living room. The best part is...HE'S REALLY GOOD AT IT! He takes time to pick out the wood, cut the wood, sand it, stain it...it's amazing!

End table!

Please excuse the vacuum cleaner in the background...Lol

I am pretty crafty, but I have no idea how he does it. He always told me when we were dating that he was going to build me furniture, but I never actually believed that he could! He really proved me wrong. So, now he has a list of things that I want built :)

In the meantime, this is what our garage, "the workshop", usually looks like...

Projects, projects, projects!

Don't worry...he cleaned it up! :)

On the down side, I hear lots of saws, hammers, nails...but, that's okay! The plus side is that if he ever wanted to go into the furniture making business, he definitely could. If you are wondering, he does take orders! He's already got a few and he's definitely taking more! It makes him really happy that people want him to build their furniture :)

In the above picture, his most project was some shelves for our bathroom. He's going to give them a dark stain.

Bathroom shelves without stain

Anyways, back to paint. We originally wanted our living room grey, but we could never find a shade that we liked. The color I ended up picking was a total gamble because I thought the dark color would make the room looked closed it. It actually makes it look more cozy, which was what I was going for! I've used lots of natural colors (and of course, burlap) to decorate. I found the cute "R" pillow in the above picture when we were on our honeymoon :)

Lastly, our bedroom. We did find a grey that we liked for this room, but I cannot remember the name at all. 

The Mr. and Mrs pillows were a gift from my bestie, Brittany!

I love our bedspread! It's a map of Paris. I also love the bird :)

Our home as 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The search for a house was long and difficult, but when we found this house we knew. We also got a great deal, so that helped a lot too! There are a lot of changes that we want to make, but we know that it will take some time. William is currently in the process of staining our bathroom selves and a high-top breakfast area table. In the future, I want him to build a farm-style dining room table, a bookshelf for my office, and some shoe racks. Yes, shoe racks. I'm probably going to turn one of our bedrooms into a closet...woohoo!

So, that's our home! I hope you have enjoyed! I will leave you with one last picture.  This hangs above our front door :)

May Your Days Be "Marry" & Bright :)

Wow! It has definitely been a while! 6 whole months since I've posted. Life got crazy busy in the months that followed, but the best part is....I'M MARRIED!!! Married life is great :) Each day is a new adventure and William and I are cherishing all the special moments.

I thought I'd do a post about the wedding since it's my most recent (big!) event. I could truly go on and on about all the details about our wedding, but I'll stick to the main things.

First things first. My ceremony was held at our church, South Aiken Church of God. We wanted a rustic venue to match our theme, so we chose The Big Red Barn. It's located off of Chime Bell Church Road. My photographer was Jennifer Druelle Photographics, florist was Dyson Designs, hair by Emily Holland, make-up by Jessica Melton, Ashley Ridgeway, and Kristal Fox. Our cake was made by Kyndra's cakes and Carolina bbq catered. We used All Star rentals and had a family friend as a DJ...thanks Jason! :)

Many, many parts of the wedding and reception were thrifted (my favorite!) or hand-made. My sister, my mom, my mother-in-law, and myself shopped at local (and not so local) thrift shops for months. At first, it was  difficult because I didn't exactly know what I was looking for...

Pinterest helped inspired many of our ideas. It sparked the idea to create each table at the reception differently, using antique knick-knacks. We used everything from Mason jars, to candle votives, old glass door knobs, wooden crates, even an old telephone (lucky find!).

There were several items we collected along the way that I was so proud of. I found the old telephone at a local thrift store for only $8. The search for an old type writer was long...and tedious! I didn't want to pay a lot for it. The most exciting thing about antiquing or thrift shopping is that, sometimes, you find items when you least expect it! William and I were out of town one weekend, and we found the type writer at a small, church sponsored consignment sale. The lady sold it to us for $15! We were both so excited! Some of the most special things to me were our altar doors and the burlap aisle runner. The doors were old church doors and were absolutely perfect. We added glass door knobs ourselves just for a special touch! They are beautiful doors. William and I plan to use them in our new home :)

My mother-in-law worked so very hard to create our aisle runner. She sewed it all, including the white ruffle down the sides. She and my father-in-law painted the large "R" at the end. It turned out perfect and I was so happy!

I feel like I'm already going on and on, so here are some interesting facts about our ceremony and reception...

Ceremony
For my something blue, I had blue stickers on the bottom of my shoes that said "I Do". My something borrowed was a pearl bracelet that belonged to a late friend of my mom's. She gave it to me to wear on my wedding day. My something old was a cameo that belonged to William's grandmother. I attached it to my wedding bouquet.

ALL the groomsmen and the groom's boutonnières were hand-made by my mother-in-law! They were incredible! We used real cotton in all the boutonnieres and throughout the wedding. The ring bearer didn't hold a pillow, but instead a old Bible that belonged to William's grandpa. It was extremely special to both of us.

The little hearts that lined the aisle were individually stamped out by myself and Brooke. We used an old devotional book because none us felt right cutting up a Bible! Many of the hearts still had scriptures on it, so it still had that special meaning behind it.

Reception
Each guest table centerpiece was different, but had the same vintage theme. We had a coffee bar that had a different variety of coffee and creamers. We even had personalized cups that said our names :) William built a "kissing booth" out of pallet wood and we used it as a photo booth. Ms. Dee made home-made jellies and jams as our favors...and man, did they go fast! They tasted delicious, I'm sure!

The wall that was behind our sweetheart table was actually built by my dad, Mr. Jay, and Troy. Thanks again, guys! I know that wasn't easy! Our getaway car was driven by a family friend...who also let us borrow it for pictures! It was perfect.

Our cake was strawberry and buttercream icing. We didn't want the traditionally yellow cake and we thought the strawberry went more with our theme. I especially loved our "love birds" cake topper that I bought offline.

There are soo many gorgeous pictures (too many to post!), so I've attached a link to an album! Hope you enjoyed hearing about our special day! :) Pictures!

Next time, I just might have to show you around our new home... :)


-Mrs. Ray

I'm Yours Forever, My Love

"You came and you rescued me

Showed me life as it's meant to be

So beautiful

You love me so differently

Chase all my fears away

I'm finally whole.."

Hi everyone! Well, it certainly has been awhile! I just wanted to share a few of mine and William's engagement pictures and tell you a few special things about the props we used.

On our very first date, William took me on a picnic. So, I wanted to recreate that special moment in our engagement pictures. While we were on that very first date, some random lady that we didn't even know, came up to us and told us that we'd remember moments like these forever. I had no idea then that she was exactly right! 

The quilt is William's grandmother's that was a gift to his parents and it is absolutely beautiful. I love the colors and I love the way they photographed. It was exactly how I imagined! And it was a special way for her to share this moment with us.  Several of the other props actually belong to William's mom! The fresh flowers came from her yard, as well as the crate and picnic basket. My sister, Brooke, let us borrow a few vintage books and candle sticks. The bridal magazine was also a nice touch :)

I love this pillow so much! William and I love Savannah, GA. We went there a couple weeks ago and I found this pillow and HAD to have it. My grandmother, my MeMa, used to sing this to me when I was little. I remember her rocking me in her rocking chair, just singing away. I also wanted her to be apart of this very special, exciting time!

For the other pictures, I just wanted to incorporate color and soft touches. I had a few creative ideas with the Mr. and Mrs balloons, scrabble tiles, and the burlap banner. 

Our photographer was Jennifer Druelle, from Jennifer Druelle Photographics. She did an excellent job! She always does. She made us feel very comfortable and she gave me EXACTLY what I wanted. I have looked through these pictures for days now and I love them even more every time I look at them.

Here are just a few more!

And of course, we had to use some kind of plaid. William loves it, he wears it all the time, and I thought it would make a cute picture! And it did! :)

Well, that's it for now! I am currently finishing up my first six months of teaching and so ready for summertime! I can't wait for the summertime so I can make some final touches on our wedding planning. Stay tuned for updates and exciting news from the newly Rays :)

-Mrs Ray ;)

Tis the season!

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

The best season is upon us! CHRISTMAS! Time for a break from work and school, family, yummy food, shopping, presents...and most importantly celebrating the birth of  Jesus Christ, who changed this world forever.

One of my absolutely favorite things about Christmas is the decorations. Love! Every year, I have the responsibility of decorating our family tree. For the past 3 years, I've decorated it with a "peacock theme" It has lots of bright colors in it, like hot pink, turquoise, purple, etc. It's not your traditional Christmas theme, but I love it! There are few ornaments on there that are really special to me. My sister bought me a few peacock ornaments a few years ago and I just love them. I always put them right in the front of the tree where everyone can see!

I wanted to do a little something different for my room this year.  I was inspired by a BEAUTIFUL home I saw on the Christmas tour of homes. If you know me, you know I love owls. In this house, every tree was owl themed. It was great! It was also very vintage and rustic...so perfect! So, I decided this was what I wanted to do for my room. I have a mini tree that I set up in my room that I usually do in hot pink and zebra, but not this year!

I bought all of the decorations at Hobby Lobby except for the cute little owl at the top. He was a gift from William :) He also inspired the color theme for the tree! Reds, browns, and teals!

Another Christmas favorite this year is burlap and DYI projects :) I've had about 2 yards of red burlap around the house that I'd never used. I thought it was the perfect season to finally use it. I cut two long strips and used it as garland on my tree.

I also used it to make a wreath. I used a foam wreath for the basic shape. I covered the foam in burlap first. Then, I cut 5 in. squares out of the burlap and folded them in half twice. I cut the bottom off so it was kind of flat and hot glued it to the wreath. It was a long process, but the end product is so pretty! I used the same brown ribbon I used on my tree to make a bow and hang the wreath.

After all this, I still had some burlap left over. I decided to make some garland to hang on my dresser. I used a threading needle, a thick ribbon, and 3 long strips of burlap. This project was so simple! I just threaded the ribbon through the burlap and scrunched it as I went. It took a lot of burlap, but the more you use the fluffier it looks! The next part is my favorite. I wanted to add a banner of some sort. I have a ton of scrap booking paper, so I looked through my collection and found a sheet that had tiny woodland creatures all over it (OWLS!!). It matched my tree perfectly! I cut three little triangles, glued the triangles to poster board for support, and used a gold marker to color the word "JOY" onto my banner :) I think the final results are so cute!

Lastly, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without all the wonderful fragrances. I've got a new candle that I'm absolutely addicted to. It's called Frasier Fir by Woodwick...love it!

So, that's my most recent update on Christmas decor...hope yall enjoyed! Who knows, maybe you can whip up a few creative decorations with some things you have just lying around the house. You never know!

Merry Christmas!

Carolina Football

Hi! I know it's been awhile, buttttttttt...I have returned just in time! The best time of year is among us :) Fall, college football, my birthday.... :)

So, college football is a big deal in the south, especially on game day. It's a must to look your best, even more so if you are a Carolina fan. Gamecock fans know what to do!

I love going to the games and seeing what everyone wears. The typical outfit is a little black dress and cowboy boots, but I usually like to try something different.

Here's what I wore yesterday:

garnet skinny jeans: Cato $21

black cut-out tank: TJ Maxx $7

polka dot tank: Old Navy $6

silver sandals: Walmart $7

black dangle earrings: Body Shop $4.00

(My aviators came from Wal-Mart...$5!! OMG!)

Okay, so yesterday was a beautiful day, but it was hot. Whew! I barely made it, haha. Jeans may not have been the best choice because of the weather, but hey, we all make sacrifices for fashion right? 

My hair is getting longer by the second. I love it and I hate it. Our relationship is definitely love/hate right now haha! I knew that it was going to drive me crazy yesterday, so I put it into a side braid. Even with all my layers, it stayed put all day for the most part. My ombre looked pretty cool all braided :)

So, what do you wear on game day? I say go all out, no matter what team you are cheering for. I love Carolina colors because it is (usually) easy to shop for. Black is always a good choice. Just a add a pop of garnet and you are set. Colored jeans are still in, so don't be afraid to rock the garnet or black skinnies!

I love custom made items. I met a wonderful lady in Mrytle Beach that has made me several dresses and a shirt. She makes super cute collegiate items :)

I made a few pictures of some accessories I think would be super cute on game day. These pieces would be sure to spice any outfit up!

Carolina

Clemson

Georgia

Florida

Alabama

That's all I got, folks! Hope you enjoyed! With that said...goooo cocks! :)

#twoshoetuesday

Hi all! Hope everyone is having a fabulous week. So, I've decided that Tuesdays are definitely worse than Mondays. They just drag on by. I was thinking of a way to spice of my Tuesdays and I thought...why not share my shoes! My friend Mariah, from the Yellow Ribbon Blog, does something similar called wardrobe Wednesday. I look forward to it every week!

If you know me, I have tons of shoes. Tons. In fact, I think I have a shoe obsession. Starting today, I'm going to share the shoes I wear every Tuesday and tell you all about them :)

multi-colored gladiator sandal

I bought this pair of shoes a few weeks ago at the Rainbow in North Augusta. I saw all the colors and instantly fell in love! I was unsure about the gladiator style, but then I thought...why not. I'll at least try it. Then, I ended up loving the style and now I own two pairs of gladiators. I like to call them my "Jesus sandals" haha!

I wore these with boyfriend fit jeans and a blank tank top.  But, of course, you can wear them with anything because they have every color in the rainbow in them. They are pretty comfy too.

my newest love <3

This finally came in today! I felt like I've waited forever. I saw a similar bracelet on Pinterest and had to have it. I searched and searched and never found the right price...until I laid my eyes on this beauty! I plan on wearing it everyday.

On a final note...

Do you ever just have those days where you don't feel like looking "cute"? You just want to bum it? Oh yes. Me too. I have those often.

BUT, I have discovered that there are simple ways to make yourself look and feel cute without even really trying.

I bummed it on Monday.

I love to pull my hair back and wear earrings. For some reason, that instantly makes me feel better. Strange? Probably. I'm wearing rhinestone studs from Rue 21 ($4) and my hair is pulled back in the elastic headband updo. I talked about it in my headband post a couple weeks ago.

Secondly, I love a good tank top. Comfy and cute. I bought this one at Rue 21 for $3. Yes, I have pretty much every color. I got the grey tank from Old Navy several years ago. I don't remember the price, but it wasn't very expensive...you know me!

Foundation and Bronzer can be your best friend. On the days you don't feel like doing your makeup, just moisturize, put on foundation, and a little bronzer and you're set. Sometimes I'll add mascara if I feel daring, haha

Lastly, sunglasses are instant glam. I got this pair at Walmart a couple years ago from $5. I love these things. They have been so faithful! They are kinda falling apart, but I refuse to get rid of them. Cheap sunglasses make me happy. But, expensive pairs are always nice, too. I own a pair of Ray Ban Wayfarers and I will always love those things. They are just a classic. 

So, I hope you guys have enjoyed #twoshoetuesday! Take it easy the rest of the week...maybe even take a bum day? I know I will.

Red

Happy Friday!! (technically) The weekend is near! Yeah!


So, I'd like to dedicate this post to the color red. I think I have a new found love, maybe even obsession, with this color. Who can have too much RED? :)


It all started when I found the perfect pair of red skinnies at Rue 21.

black tank top: TJ Maxx, $7

polka dot scarf: Kroger (weird, right?) $10-but I used a gift card!

red skinnies: Rue 21, $12

black sandals: Target, $5

I wore this outfit on a Wednesday night to church, which seemed perfect because our youth group is called CodeRED! They were a hit :) They are the destroyed skinnies, so they are ripped all over, but I love them.

Then, this past weekend, I saw The Dark Knight Rises. Absolutely amazing. Not to mention I fell in love with Catwoman's lipstick...which was red! I literally leaned over to my friend Mariah and said I have got to do a blog on her lipstick, haha!

Anne Hathaway did an amazing job! Best Catwoman ever! And if you haven't seen TDKR, go see it pronto. 

So, what's the deal with red lipstick? Who can wear it and who cant? Well, you'll never know until you give it a try. I never in a million years thought I would like it, but I bought a shade that I absolutely loved and I was sold. 

This shade is Cherry Tart by Revlon's LipButter. Love love love. They also had a shade called Candy Apple and I LOVED it, but I already had three tubes in my hand so I had to fight the urge!

MAC also has wonderful shades of red lipstick. My close friend Jennifer Druelle, who is the wonderful photographer of Jennifer Druelle Photographics (JDP), go figure, uses this on her clients and it looks amazing. Check out her pictures to catch it in action ;)

So, don't be scared to wear bold color on your lips. Just make sure to wear something simple when you do. When I wear red lips, I love to wear black. Pair red lips with a sparkly top, boyfriend blazer, and some dark skinnies...you'll be set to go!

polka dot shirt: Rue 21, $3 (OMG!)

white skirt: Old Navy $7

red rosette: Hobby Lobby $4

Silver sandals: Old Navy $13 

This Wednesday night, I discovered that red also looks good as an accessory! I pinned a red rosette to my shirt and loved it. It gave my outfit the perfect pop of color. I also discovered the beauty of the sock bun. I, now, truly believe that socks were created for buns, not for feet. It was so simple and cute! I'll definitely be doing it again.

On a final note, I made a change to my hair this week. I wanted to try out the "ombre" look that the Kardashian's have. So, I went to Emily this evening and she gave me the hook up. I LOVE IT. We were both screaming in excitement the whole time. Who knows, I may go even more lighter next time...

I love it :)

I'll leave you with a line that I cannot stop listening too. Jesus at the Center by Israel Houghton. Check it out! You won't regret it!

"From beginning to the end, it will always be, it's always been you, Jesus. Nothing else matters. Nothing in this world will do. Jesus, you're the center. Everything revolves around you."




:) Have a great weekend! I've got weddings, shopping trips, and fun fun fun planned for mine!