rise and shine....

i use to think my mom was crazy b/c she woke up at 5:30 in the AM....now i am that person. for the past week, i have been waking up at 5:48 randomly. and once my eyes open, my mind starts racing...it's crazy. i look at the clock, then at warren, then try and close my eyes and think happy thoughts like you have a whole hour to sleep uninterrupted (gosh, that use to be the best feeling...waking up and then discovering that you still had time to sleep before heading off to school or work). but my mind has another agenda...things to do. its like my to-do list is running thru my head. i'm not stressed out; if anything i am excited. i actually love my job and what i do.

so there i was in the bed thinking instead of that one hour of sleep that i use to long for, how nice it would be to get up and have an hour of peace and quite without interruptions...coffee, internet searching, doing my blog, starting my "to-do list"...and so here i am- great cup of coffee, 10 yr old faded sorority shirt, hair in a half bun/ ponytail, zit cream still plastered on my face, eyes barely open, and huge grin on my face b/c i have 30 minutes just to myself.....

happy 4th!

so today is the official start of the holiday...at least here at pinkwallpaper. taylor and i began the morning w/ a trip to ABC where we feasted on muffins and coffee (tay opted for a sippy cup). now, i have to finish packing and then the fam is off to the mountains....usually on the 4th we are at the beach but this year we decided to mix it up and go see our new addition to the family, our nephew who was born on the best day- my b'day :)...anyways, i hope y'all have a wonderful and safe 4th! i hope to get into some antique shopping- they have the best ones there! and i can't wait to eat ribs- a tradition that i have grown up doing...and maybe get in a little time at the pool...ta ta for now!! pic is MS living...who else has time to create a spread like that?

it was quite apparent he had a 'south of broad' address....

so i don't know why this man stuck out in my head so much as he was walking across the street downtown yesterday...maybe b/c of his attire, well, i know for a fact it was b/c of his attire...he was very well color coordinated...and in my head i thought "only in charleston". i swear the man's outfit came straight from ben silver, one of the classic charleston stores for fine men's (and women's) apparel. you know when you can just tell....well this man screamed ben silver...purple (yes, purple) seersucker pants, a white summer oxford shirt perfectly pressed w/ the sleeves rolled up just above the wrist, a purple and navy blue bow tie that coordinated w/ his pants perfectly, and a pair of cream suede bucks...all he needed was a pair of these tortoise shell glasses (signature style for any well dressed ben silver man) and he would have won a gold star.....isn't it funny how a town has an "attire" to it. like seersucker pants and charleston....its a guaranteed attire at any cocktail party, museum opening, or church function. if you are born and raised in charleston, i think its a right of passage that you have to own a seersucker suit. and if you are of the younger generation, you generally sport them with your rainbows. i don't know why i felt like sharing this today...i just thought its funny how a "style" can lend itself to a town....i mean, i don't know if that man would have been considered as "stylish" in say the the midwest part of the country....

the hunt for perfect bedding....

i have been looking for bedding for a client for a while now and i have several ones i'm in love with..of course, none of which come with an inexpensive price tag and most are not found locally so you deal with the problem of making sure that the colors match the palette you are working with...but none the less, they are all beautiful so i thought i would share some of my favs: i am really drawn to john robshaw... partly b/c his colors go with the project i am working on but i am also really digging his patterns, very current in my book. and how can a girl not love lulu dk....everything about her bedding collection makes me giddy. matouk- wow, their coverlets are simply beautiful and perfect for monogramming!! and last but not least, i love eileen fisher home at garnet hill....the washed linen collection is so serene and the colors are just wonderful. if you have any other suggestions of great bedding, please share!! i am always up for suggestions!! have a great day!!

maine cottage...

one thing is for sure, if you are looking for color and happiness behind your furniture design- maine cottage has definitely got you covered. we are lucky to have a store downtown and you cannot walk in there w/out being greeted w/just that. don't be afraid if you can't get yourself to commit to that much color- they do offer a great brown, a gray, and white paint options....

i love reading how people got started and i thought that their story shows how everyone starts from the bottom and works their way up...they opened 20 yrs ago in yarmouth, maine w/ furniture samples from a carpenter named 'cookie', 5 paint colors from artist carol bass who noticed that a trend in the design mags was painted 'found' cottage pieces, and an offer from a friend to do a free brochure for the company...from there they have flourished into a colorful, coastal furniture company....wonder if 'cookie' still works for them?

i'll take the beach please.....

this weekend i realized how lucky i was to be able to roll out of bed and be at the beach 10 minutes later. my husband has a sat. morning tradition of taking barron to the beach so he can run and play in the water. for some reason, i never go...that is, until this sat. me and tay joined the boys and headed to the beach. it was one of the best 2 hrs. i have ever spent on a sat. AM. taylor loves the beach and with the dogs running around (there is a leash law on our beaches- they can only be on the beach from 8-10 am), she was just thrilled. we actually spent a lot of time on sullivan's- dinner on fri and then we went to the beach both sat. and sun. what i love most about the beach is the feeling you get when you drive up to it; it's like all of your worries go away and you just become carefree....

this week, i think i am going to devote my posts to living at the beach and so here are some things i want in my "pretend beach house":

rachel ashwell's warrenton shelf, kerry cassill's cobalt swirl fabric, laurin copen's french steel baguette trolley's ....

I've been tagged....

so it's friday and was tagged a while ago by design 59 and this seems like a perfect time to do it (b/c my kid is refusing to take a nap and is screaming in her crib)...

1. Where were you 10 yrs ago....

hummmm...i had just ended my first year of rip roaring fun at the college of knowledge (aka college of charleston), i had just signed a lease on my first "official apartment" with my best friend katy on king street (this is where many parties happen, we got eviction warnings, friends of ours set off the fire extinguisher several times, and the first of my many parking tickets/ boots came about), i had just returned from a two week trip to thailand to see my brother who moved there to teach english (we are so different...he is super smart, adventurous, and likes to read books), i had just started answering the phones at my dad's office in the AM's and in the afternoons i went back to my old highschool job of being the receptionist at the local salon (how funny is that...it was located in my city's mall- i grew up in a small town in GA so you can imagine the salon), and last but not least- i was probably going out way too much using my fake id which i obtained from a former "stylist" at the salon...i was suppose to be 23 and looked all of 19...

2. 5 items on my to-do-list today:

1. well considering one of my builders just emailed me and said he had the electrician come today instead of mon, i need to go make sure all of his lighting is labeled, and since its not mon but fri- my babysitter is in FL and i am at home w/ the kid, not showered...better find a baseball cap and get my happy butt in that garage before he pulls up...

2. i need to get a second quote for outdoor draperies that priced out mega high...

3. go to Pottery Barn to look at their outdoor fabric collection for lounge chairs to make sure it will match what we have already purchased for a client's screen porch area

4. return a skirt that my husband says "looks like something a 16 yr old would wear"...b/c i am long past the days of a 16 yr old and the body of one....so i will take my husband's words of wisdom and not be that woman w/ a kid that still thinks she is a single, club hopper!

5. take a shower and brush my teeth b/c if you reread #1 of my to-do-list, i have a client arriving very soon....

3. Snacks i enjoy.....

whole foods guacamole dip w/ the fried pita chips, cherries in the summer, ice cream w/ reese's cup smashed in it....what i usually have in my house- wheat thins w/ cheese, grapes, hummus- boring stuff

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire....

travel lots, send taylor to the best schools possible, give money to the church and lots of charities, keep working but maybe not stress out anymore if i don't know when my next client is coming, give money to my family and all my best friends, move to sullivan's island, get a new car and boat for my husband and let him quit his job that he works so hard at to keep his family afloat.....

5. Places i would live....

sullivan's island, LA in a different life, italy, and i do love cabo