I realize this isn’t rocket science, and there are a million tutorials out there on how to make these. But, this tutorial is the cheater’s way to make this {or in other words, probably the most imperfect way of making it}.

All you need is a cardboard letter of your choice, a bag of moss and some Mod Podge.

You can adhere the moss to the letter in many different ways. I chose Mod Podge because I already had it and I knew where it was {aka it wasn’t packed up in a box somewhere}.

Start by adding a little Mod Podge to a small area of the initial.

Then break off a chunk of the moss and press it onto the Mod Podge.

You’ll keep doing this on the entire surface of the letter.

Until it looks like this. At this point you may be thinking, um that’s really ugly. And you would be right. I told you this was the imperfect way of doing it. This kind of moss though is easy to pull and cut though. So I just pulled some tufts here and tufts there and trimmed with some scissors.

Until it looked like this.

And there you have it. A pretty mossy monogram.

Next week I’ll show you guys the ‘before’ of my new dresser along with the tutorial for how I refinished it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Anybody going on any fun vacations? I’m heading back to Nash-vegas for the long weekend to do a little wedding dress shopping. Fingers crossed I find something!

Linking to: Serenity Now

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If you are new here, I’m re-telling the story of how my fiance and I met. Here’s Part 1 of our love story.

***

I gave in to my roommate’s ‘dare’ if you will and agreed to join eHarmony with her. I was super hesitant about it. In fact, I had no intention of even paying for the service. I was more or less just curious the type of people that were on it. I quickly learned though, that in order to see these people’s pictures {which, let’s be honest, that’s kind of an important factor}, you had to pay.

So me, being such a good friend, told my roommate to pay for the service so I could see what some of her matches looked like {assuming we would have some of the same} so I could decide whether I wanted to shell out the money or not. Well, one thing I forgot to mention was that I selected the whole U, S of A when it came to people I wanted to be matched with. Clearly, I wasn’t serious. If I had been smart {or maybe not given the turn of events}, I would have just done a certain number of miles from Nashville. Because let’s be real, being matched with someone from Montana probably isn’t going to work out.

{Source}

So after checking out her matches, I realized hardly any were the same because she was one of the smart ones, and selected a small radius around the Nashville area.

Darn. Back to deciding whether to fork out the money or not. Curiosity definitely got the best of me. I was being matched with people and I had no idea what they looked like. Could they potentially be really cute?

Needless to say, I bit the bullet and paid for one month’s subscription.

Soon after I was matched with a boy from Greenville, SC. I was excited about that because I went to college at Clemson and Greenville was only a short drive away. My friends and I spent a little time on the weekends in Greenville and I missed that area. I even said when I graduated that I wished there was a reason for me to stay. God definitely has a sense of humor.

We began to communicate back and forth. But I had no expectations of anything coming out of it. Little did I know that God had other plans.

To be continued…

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My bedroom closet is teeny tiny. Like small enough to only fit one season’s worth of clothes {i.e. fall/winter}. Since there was a whole other set of clothes for spring/summer that needed a home, I had to get creative.

My living room is basically one long room {I plan to show you more pictures later}. Because of the size, I really only had room to put one small couch in front of the tv. That left an awkward space behind it. So, instead of letting that space go to waste, I decided to put a dresser behind it to store all my remaining clothes and summer/spring shoes. Here it is in all its glory.

This back corner of my apartment hardly gets any sunlight, so these pictures are a little darker than I would like, but hopefully you are able to get the picture.

The dresser is actually a Habitat Restore project that I re-finished and I plan to blog all about the step by step tutorial of its transformation soon.

It’s the perfect size for the wall and the perfect size for storage. Fits all my remaining clothes perfectly. Now that it’s basically summer, I need to switch things around and put my winter clothes in it instead.

You may recognize many of the accessories I used to decorate & style the top of the dresser with. The fan, books and bottle are all from my previous bookshelves in Nashville. The window is from my old bedroom. The bird print is actually from Emily Jones Design. I bought it when they were having a 50% off sale. Was waiting to find the right place to display it.

The two pieces of wood are actually candle holders that I bought at a little indie craft fair in Greenville before I moved down. I bought the lamp from Kohls and I made the little moss monogram ‘M.’

I love this little corner of the apartment and love that it’s one of the first things you see when you come inside. Plus, I love when you can make something pretty but also make it functional.

Are you using a dresser or another large piece of furniture in your home outside of your bedroom to store things?

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One of my favorite meals of the day is breakfast. I’ve never been one of those people that skips breakfast. I love having a big bowl of cereal in the morning or enjoying a Saturday morning of pancakes or french toast. Breakfast foods are so yummy to me {read: I.love.carbs and bacon}.

What makes breakfast foods even better? Having breakfast after dark {aka for dinner}. It almost feels like a special occasion when you switch up your usual dinner routine and throw in a twist. Breakfast is also a meal where you usually already have most of your ingredients so it’s a great alternative if you haven’t had a chance to go to the store.

We get a dozen eggs every other week through our CSA. I haven’t had a chance to do as much baking as I had hoped to and neither of us have really had the time to make a big breakfast either before work or on the weekends. So, instead of wasting the eggs, we thought we would make breakfast after dark one night.

For our breakfast after dark we ended up making mini frittatas and sweet potato hashbrowns {we had some sweet potatoes we also needed to use}.

For the sweet potato hashbrowns, we just adapted this recipe a bit from Martha Stewart. We substituted the olive oil for the buttery spread I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!.

For the mini frittatas, we made two different kinds. We made a few with ham, onion, green pepper and tomato and then the others we used spinach, mushroom, and tomato {a little Southwestern if you will}.

To start with you’ll need a jumbo muffin pan. To grease it we used a little I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! is great because it has 70% less saturated fat than butter, no hydrogenated oils and is made from a blend of vegetable oils. For those that are gluten free, they also have gluten free options.

For your ingredients you will need eggs, a package of shredded cheddar cheese (or cheese of your choice) and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! {you also need whole milk, but I forgot to include that in the picture}.

We diced all our veggies and our ham. You can really get creative and use any sort of combination of veggies and meat.

Next we sauteed the ham, onion and green pepper in a little I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!. Once the onions were getting a little translucent we added the tomatoes in. For the ones with mushroom we also sauteed the mushrooms in a little I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! then added the chopped up spinach and tomatoes to combine.

You’ll mix your eggs, milk and cheese together in a bowl and then pour the mixture into your jumbo muffin pan until it’s a little less than halfway full in each cup.

Next you’ll add your veggie/meat combinations. We put the ham, onion, green pepper and tomato mixture in three of the cups and then spinach, mushroom and tomato in the other three.

Top your muffin cups with the remaining egg/cheese mixture.

We also sprinkled a little chopped parsley on top before baking.

Then pop them in the oven. Voila! Here’s what you get.

If I’m being honest, I am not an egg person. I wrote about all my weird food textures here. Eggs are one of those things that have a weird texture I just can’t get past. But, I knew we needed to use up our eggs and when eggs are baked in casseroles and such, I don’t mind it as much. But these I genuinely really liked. I preferred the ones that had ham in them. I’m a meat girl. And I would definitely make these again. Maybe even switch up the ingredients a bit just to do it differently next time.

If you would like to give these a try yourself here is the official recipe you can print/save.

For another frittata recipe from the one and only Lisa Vanderpump (yes, Real Housewives) watch this Breakfast after Dark webisode.

What is your favorite breakfast meal to make for dinner?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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All that to say, that’s been taking up the bulk of my time after work {instead of blog writing}. Plus, my fiance’ put his house up for sale a little over a week ago and got an offer/contract this weekend. So now we are in a mad rush to find a house as well. Lots going on so I hope you will forgive me if I’m not able to post as much. But, I do have lots of projects in the works, just need to finish them & take pictures and I plan to do that very soon.

So today since I haven’t had a chance to finish the projects I was hoping to this weekend, I thought I would give you a glimpse into what our weekend entailed in pictures.

Downtown Greenville hosts several festivals every year. One of which is called Artisphere. Local artists set up booths and sell their wares. You’ll see jewelry, paintings & pottery plus live demonstrations like glassblowing.

Friday after work we ventured downtown to check it out.

In addition to booths, they had live music scattered around. Even though we didn’t buy anything, it was still fun to walk around and see everything.

Since I still haven’t found a venue, Saturday we drove to a couple places to check them out as possible wedding locations. One was Lake Lure in North Carolina.

Supposedly part of Dirty Dancing was filmed here. This Inn & Spa had little cabin bungalows named after a few of the characters.

There was one for Baby and one for Johnny. I thought that was fun.

And yesterday we spent some time experimenting with some recipes using food from our CSA box.

We had a ton of eggs we still needed to use plus some sweet potatoes so we made frittatas and sweet potato hashbrowns. Planning to post the recipes for both later this week.

We also experimented and made some kale chips with the kale we had gotten in our box.

I have to say, I’m not sure I’m totally sold on the whole kale chip thing. It’s not terrible, but I’m not sure I totally love them. I brought them home and will probably bring them to work to snack on.

Have you made kale chips? If so, what recipe did you use? Maybe we should try a different one.

P.S. If anyone knows of any cool venues in the Greenville area, preferably one with a barn, let me know!

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Since you guys are probably asking the same thing, I thought I would share how my fiance’ and I met and our love story over a series of blog posts. I also want to share our story as a testament that God’s plans are bigger and better than you could ever imagine.

Here goes…

It was 4th of July weekend. I had gone to Boston to visit my college roommate. We were staying at her sister’s house outside of Boston near the beach. Her sister, who was the last person I would have thought would make this suggestion, encouraged my friend to join eHarmony. She kept going on and on about how so many of her friends met their spouses that way.

We both kept shaking our heads and said ‘no way.’ We assumed the pool of potential suitors online wouldn’t be great and at least for me being a girl, it felt a little desperate. I was only 25, right? I had plenty of time to find Mr. Right.

I left that trip and came home and told my roommate all about how my friend’s sister was telling us to join eHarmony. We laughed and then starting talking about the stigma that online dating has, but we both were a little curious. Were there totally normal guys online?

Curiosity began to get the best of us. Afterall, we hadn’t really met a whole lot of guys living in Nashville. Maybe there were some great guys but we just didn’t know where they were.

My roommate finally said, ‘if you do it I’ll do.’  I thought about it for a little while, then gave her my answer.

To be continued…

Here’s Part 2 of our love story

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I’ve mentioned before that I might be a borderline hoarder. I have a ton of stuff, I’ll be the first to admit. Most of the excess stuff that I don’t need on a daily basis I’m storing at my fiance’s house, but there are some things I needed to store at my place that I would need to use every now and then.

I do have a decent amount of kitchen cabinet space, but I also had a lot of kitchen items. After I unpacked my boxes and put everything away, I still had a few things that I didn’t have a place for. So what’s a girl to do…get creative.

Instead of using a normal table as my coffee table in my living space, I had this chest I got from Target a few years ago that I decided to use.

And here’s why.

Inside of it there is a ton of storage space. Those kitchen items I couldn’t really find a place for are now housed in here. And luckily these aren’t things I need to fish out on a daily basis. Just things I would need when baking or entertaining.

For those of you, like me, who live in small spaces, creative storage is essential. Here are a few additional creative ‘hidden’ storage solutions if you are struggling to find a place for everything.

Obviously if you were renting you couldn’t build this out. But, if you live in a small home you own, you could cut out some space within your stairs to store blankets, etc.

{Source}

This is a clever way to create some storage on your shelves while also making them look pretty. Create some hidden storage using books like Sewing Barefoot did. Great way to hide cords, remotes and other small items you don’t want to be seen.

{Source}

Skirted tables are another great storage solution. You can hide some of your larger items underneath the table and cover it up with some pretty fabric.

Here’s another great storage option that also makes your shelves look pretty. Hide a storage box behind a large picture frame and mount it on your shelves. You can store additional keepsakes or even stationary or important documents in the storage box itself.

{Design Sponge}

And why not take advantage of that space underneath your bed. Keep everything organized by using storage drawers with wheels.

{Martha Stewart}

Plan to blog about another storage solution that I finished recently as well as show you pictures of my entire living room. Stay tuned.

P.S. Don’t you just love my pretty coffee table flowers?

I took those from some of the many flowers I got on our engagement night and put them together in my new mason jar.

Have you come up with any creative storage solutions in your home? Do share!

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It happened last weekend. I had a few blog posts already scheduled, so I’m just now getting around to blogging about it. Two of my friends came in town for the weekend, and when they arrived, they secretly knew what was going to happen that night, but I was completely clueless.

Turns out the girls were stalling me the entire night to allow him more time to set up {case in point this spur of the moment photo opp}.

They were able to capture the moment and take pictures for us afterwards which was super fun. And of course we went shopping for bridal magazines the following day.

I couldn’t be happier to marry my best friend and the love of my life. I consider myself one lucky lady.

So, I am officially in full on wedding planning mode. We are looking to get married this Fall, so I am in the thick of trying to secure a venue and photographer.

I plan to blog about some wedding projects, since of course there will be lots of diy and handmade touches. I also plan to share the story of how we met at some point. But, I promise not to turn this into a wedding blog. I still plan to blog about lots of home decor projects and inspiration, which has always been the main focus of this little space on the internet.

If anyone has any wedding advice, what you wished you would have done or wouldn’t have done, would love to hear it. Taking all suggestions/tips I can get.

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Are you familiar with The Novogratz? If not, you are seriously missing out. The Novogratz are a husband and wife design duo that have taken the design world by storm.

{Source: HGTV}

I first heard about them from their show on HGTV called ‘Home by Novogratz.’ After one episode I was completely sucked in. The rooms they design are bold, colorful and full of personality. They definitely push the design boundaries which is fun to watch.

Here are a few rooms they’ve designed just to show you what I’m talking about.

{Source: HGTV}

{Source: HGTV}

{Source: HGTV}

They even helped transform The Pioneer Woman’s previous attic/storage space into a bedroom for her two daughters complete with hanging beds and a knitting work station.

Now that I’ve proven these folks have an eye for design, I have some exciting news. Now you can incorporate The Novogratz’ funky and bold style into your very own home. The Novogratz have teamed up with CB2 to create a unique colleciton of home decor items. The CB2 and Novogratz Collection is inspired by their vacation home in Brazil and features items that have pops of hot color mixed into warm wood as well as items that range from whimsical to sophisticated and modern.

The new collection debuts May 2nd. One of my favorite items from the new collection is this stick around arm chair.

Love the color and the curves. And it could fit into any type of style, whether traditional or modern.

In honor of the collection launching, CB2 and The Novogratz are giving away a trip to Brazil. That’s right, Brazil people!

Details for the CB2 and Novogratz Brasil Sweepstakes::

- You and 3 friends could win the trip of a lifetime! Win a one week stay at the vacation home of CB2 collaborators Bob and Courtney Novogratz in beautiful Trancoso, Brazil.

- 10 other lucky winners will receive a CB2 giftcard worth $100 along with a personally signed copy of the book “Home by Novogratz”.

-Enter via cb2.com/sweeps. Sweepstakes to run from May 2nd through June 3rd.

Not only do you get a chance to go to Brazil, but you would be staying at The Novogratz’ personal vacation home. Sign me up! Here are just a few pictures from their Brazil vacation home to further entice you.

I want to be in that swing right about now, don’t you?

Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor {sorry I couldn’t help myself}.

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This is seriously the easiest wreath to make.

Judging by last year’s wreath, I apparently gravitate towards green and purple for wreaths. That was totally unintentional, but now they can be twinsies.

For supplies, I bought a round twig wreath base and several floral stems from Michaels.

The floral stems came in bunches, so the first thing I did was clip them apart with wire cutters.

Then I just started adding in the stems around the wreath. I started with the purple and pink stems since I had the most of those.

Then you’ll just keep adding stems all around. Don’t worry too much about placement just yet. Once you get the whole wreath filled in, you can go back and add more stems to the places that are more bare than others.

Once I had the whole wreath covered and made sure there weren’t any bare spots, I then went on to add the white floral stems.

These were also in bunches and I clipped them apart first.

Just wanted to break up the color a bit with some white so I just added them throughout the wreath here and there.

And that’s literally it. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the best floral arranger, but this is seriously the easiest wreath to make ever. Anyone can do it!

And now it’s hanging pretty from the BF’s fiance’s front door {more on that later }.

Between a coupon I had and the sale on the floral stems, I think I spent around $20 for everything. Not too shabby.

What do you think? Since both of my spring wreaths I have made have the same colors, which one is your favorite?

Linking up to: Shabby Creek Cottage, Liz Marie, Uncommon Designs, Home Stories A to Z

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