SNEAK PEEK

I am back! These past few weeks have been a whirlwind and has caused me to neglect "the good stuff." Please forgive me. I have LOTS of posts to share so don't give up on me! 

The wedding and honeymoon were a blast and I wish I could re-do them all again -- exactly as they both happened. Thanks to everyone who was a part and helped make the weekend so special. It wouldn't have been the same without you.

Over the weekend Heidi sent over a sneak peek slideshow of the wedding and I wanted to share. It is a compilation of about 50 photos that sum up the day -- more to come! Make sure your volume is turned up and open in Firefox if you can. 

click here

I am in love with all of them and I can't wait to share more! Heidi and Julia are fabulous and totally captured the atmosphere of the entire day. My family invested a lot of time and effort into the wedding and it turned out perfect. We achieved my "vision" and even the weather cooperated -- 75 degrees in February! Thanks again to all who participated. 

THE NIGHT OF...

I finally downloaded my pictures from the "birgagement" weekend and I wanted to share them with you. I know you all are dying to see and hear the story! ;)

Since neither Brandon or I had to work Thursday, July 1st, we headed down to the beach that a.m. We encountered several "bumps" on the way down - a sinkhole on 65 South that appeared overnight delaying us an hour or so from leaving Birmingham and constant rain on the way down. Brandon said that luckily he has loyal employees to cover the sinkhole issue, otherwise we would have had to stay in Birmingham to resolve the issue - yikes! 

So, we got down to the beach around 5:30ish, unloaded our stuff, and decided to go out to eat while we waited on our friends to get down. Brandon kept hinting about a sunset cruise before dinner so I went along with it - I didn't know if he was just anxious to see Black Gold, or if he really had something up his sleeve!

We got to the boat and the weather was perfect! The rain had stopped and the clouds started to clear out revealing a beautiful sunset of blues, purples, pinks, and orange. We putted out to Crab Island, took our time enjoying the beach, and eventually Brandon turned me towards him (I was in the captain's chair) and started in on the speech. It was sweet and perfect and I couldn't ask for anything more! 

Here are some pictures from the night of...

Once we got back to the dock, the sunset was even more beautiful! I couldn't stop taking pictures!

[click on pictures to enlarge]

I don't believe any of these pictures do the ring justice, but it is gorgeous! I sent Brandon a few pictures of twisted, cable bands and he took it from there. I just requested yellow gold and solitaire and he couldn't have done a better job! 

Here are some more pictures from the exciting, celebratory weekend:

[re-do!]

[My BFF/MOH and I celebrating]

[Brandon's Mom, sister, and me on the balcony overlooking the harbor]

We had such a great time celebrating with friends and family all weekend and I can't wait for all the festivities to begin! I have an inspiration board to share tomorrow so stay on the lookout. But, don't be saddened, I will still continue to post house inspiration and updates on Melrose!

PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHY

I just ordered this book and this one. Neither have come in yet, but they will immediately be on display in the den. I am trying to stay up on the trends in the design world and keep all forms of inspiration around me. Lately I have been drawn to a lot of "poster-style" block prints and layered screen prints. Here are some of my recent favs:

[all images Right Brain Terrain]

I have been trying to collect inspiration for an array of framed photography and prints in Melrose. I like a mix of beautiful photography, black and white high contrast pictures, and art prints. Rather than hanging the frames on the wall in a collage, I have been drawn to staggering the frames on shelves. Here are some inspiration images:

 

[aubrey road]

[greige]

[automatism]

But, of course I am still a fan of a hanging collage:

[morten holtum via automatism]

[automatism]

[scanned from house beautiful]

[elements of style]

I love all combinations: black frames, gold frames, white frames, matt, no matt, round, square, rectangle, big, small - everything! I even like how this last picture is not symmetrical. I am thinking a photo "shelf" above my desk in the guest bedroom and a photo "collage" above Brandon's desk in the study...but we shall see!

DAVINA + DANIEL: photographers

This morning I was skimming through one of my daily read blogs, A Life More Fabulous, and I saw an interesting post with BEAUTIFUL pictures. Lately, I have been on the search for unique, original artwork (at reasonable prices) for Melrose. These pictures stopped me in my tracks and when I realized they had their own etsy shop I was stoked. Etsy is the best place for all things original and homemade. 

Davina + Daniel are wedding photographers based out of Montreal, Canada. After a long winter, the couple decided to hit the road for a 2 month road trip hitting all the must see spots. You can check out their journey here.

Here are some of my favorite photographs for sale on their etsy shop (**hint, hint, gift ideas):

[Lighthouse along Pacific Coast]

[Hills along Pacific Coast]

[Flower Field along Pacific Coast]

[Sunset over Pacific Coast]

I would love any and all of these! I think my favorite may be the Flower Field. They also have amazing black and white pictures as well.

"WELCOME TO HOMEWOOD!"

I introduce to you, Melrose Place.

Here are a few of the first pictures of Melrose. The projects have all ready begun (and will never end) and will be detailed in future posts. All last week was spent deciding paint colors (another full post in itself), matching electrical sockets to plates, cleaning, stripping wallpaper, replacing fans and lots of trips to Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. I am adding the final touches to the Master Bathroom this week so be on the look out for that before and after post in the next few days. Until then, checkout the BEFORE pictures:

the den

the study

dining room (check out the awesome chandelier left by the previous owners)

guest room #1

guest room #2

guest bathroom

master bedroom

master bathroom