Slow movin'...

I was talking to my mom this morning (our daily morning chats about nothing) and I told her my morning walk with Penny Lane took much longer than normal. The fact is I'm slow moving these days...I'm not sure if it is the hot and muggy weather or the fact that I'm 32 weeks pregnant...or both...but I'm slow doing everything. Even my blogging ability has slowed to a stop. I can't believe June has come and gone and July is about to do the same. Just plain craziness...

We have been on a couple fantastic trips since I last chatted with you. Today I will blog about our trip to Turks & Caicos. My sweet in-laws invited us on this trip and we were thrilled! A week on the ocean...yes please! We had heard many great things about Turks & Caicos from friends that had been, so we were excited to experience the island ourselves.

We arrived on a Saturday and the trip was painless. We flew from Austin to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Providenciales (aka "Provo"). We left Austin early in the morning and arrived in Turks & Caicos by 1 pm. For those of you on the East Coast...this would be such an easy trip for you! Once we landed, we headed straight to Villa Mirabelle, the house my in-laws had rented for the week. There are a few different areas of Providenciales and we stayed on Sapodilla Bay. On the way to Villa Mirabelle, things were quiet. It's the off season for the island and it was peaceful. Once we entered the Sapodilla Bay area, was saw beautiful homes everywhere with quick peeks of the magnificent turquoise water between each home. 

Villa Mirabelle was beautiful! When you entered the front door, there was a perfect view of the pool, loungers and a walkway that headed straight to the Caribbean blue water of Sapodilla Bay. We never needed to leave the house. We had a gourmet kitchen, pool, cabana, chairs, umbrellas, gazebo and the ocean right at our fingertips. It was quite a treat!

Sapodilla Bay

Aren't the flowers gorgeous??!

We cooked dinner one night and tried places around the island on other nights. My favorite restaurant was right down the street from Villa Mirabelle...Las Brisas. The food was delicious and our table was in a gazebo on a hill that overlooked the Chalk Sound. We enjoyed a lovely dinner, sipped cocktails (virgin for me!) and peered out over the beautiful, quiet sound.

One morning, the boys went bone fishing, while the girls got pampered. This was B's first time to go bone fishing and he had his new saltwater fly rod in tow. It exceeded his expectations. They had a great guide and caught many beautiful bone fish! While they were gone, my father-in-law had a couple people from a local spa come to the house and pamper the ladies. It was amazing! The ladies were so kind and it was fun talking to them about why they came to Turks & Caicos, how they like it, etc. My nieces and I got manicures and pedicures and my mother-in-law and soon-to-be sister-in-law got massages. All were lovely!!

 

I tried to walk every morning. I enjoyed this time and it was fun to look at all the beautiful, unique housing in the area, walk on the the many gorgeous stretches of beaches and see the beautiful cliffside views overlooking the Chalk Sound. 

My favorite house in the neighborhood!

My favorite part of the trip was sailing with Sail Provo. The captains were great, the views were spectacular, the snorkeling was good and the food and drinks were delicious! We stopped at Little Water Cay (aka "Iguana Island") and saw many iguanas. It's the only place in the world where you can see the endangered rock iguana in its natural habitat.Then, we sailed some more and stopped in the middle of the ocean to snorkel. The water felt great! I mostly floated around on a noodle, but did snorkel some and saw some beautiful coral and bright colored fish. Once we were all aboard, we headed to a beautiful beach where families were playing in the sand, fishing in the waves and enjoying the beginning of a beautiful sunset. As we headed back we sailed directly into the sunset for what had to be the most peaceful and serene moment of the vacation.

It was an incredibly relaxing trip with constant views of iridescent blue water like you have never seen before. The locals are kind and the beaches are beautiful. Renting a house was a great way to really enjoy the scenery and relax. To my in-laws...thank you for a great trip! We appreciate you including us on such a fun adventure and an amazing beach vacation!

Sorry for my sluggishness with blogging. I hope to bring you more posts in July. The next one will be about our 4th of July trip to Sea Island!

xoxo,
your slow-moving friend :)

It's never too late to celebrate my Mom!

I'm a little late posting about Mother's Day, but better late than never, right?? 

I enjoy Mother's Day because it's a day where we all remember how special our mothers are to us, however, I'm reminded of this every day. My mom is so much more than a mother...she's a best friend, an inspiration, a fearless leader and one of the most intelligent, driven and selfless people I know. Maya Angelou once said, "to describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power."  This can be interpreted many different ways, but in my opinion it's about a woman that is strong and has many things perfectly running at one time to create natural beauty and grace. My mom is a hurricane in it's most perfect power...she has beauty inside and out, has the amazing strength to take on, not only, any obstacle that heads her way, but also any obstacle that gets in my way, my sister's way, my dad's way or her son-in-law's way. She takes on everyone's concerns with willingness, positivity and grace and somehow comes up with a solution for each and every problem in life. I'm always floored by this talent. 

We miss you Annie!!

I've been so fortunate to have my mom by my side for the past 29 years. She impacts my life in a positive way each and every day. She challenges me to grow emotionally and intellectually, she inspires me to be a better person and urges me to make a positive impact on this world, she encourages me to always give back to those who need it and to our community and she encourages me to talk about anything, question things and most of all she listens intently any time I call. My mom will always be a very large part of who I am and, for that, I'm forever grateful. I'm a better person because of her and I pray every day that I can be half the mother to my sweet daughter that my mom has been to me. Her friendship, love and support is indescribable. Thank you mom for being an incredible role model, listener, comforter, inspiration, teacher and most of all best friend. 


So, now that you know how wonderful my mother is, we can talk about our fabulous mother's day weekend at CINNAMON SHORES!

My mom had a conference in Port Aransas the week after Mother's Day, so we packed our bags and headed to Cinnamon Shores for the weekend. Instead of renting a house, we rented a 2 bedroom condo. It did not disappoint! There was ample room, a great kitchen, washer and dryer, beautiful sunset views and the decor was perfect (at least in my opinion).

We did a lot of relaxing...laying on the beach, hanging out poolside, reading magazines and catching up on some chick-flick beach reads. B had one great day of surfing and we even browsed a few of the cute, coastal stores in town. We ate at the restaurant in Cinnamon Shores the 1st night. The food was delicious, but they could use a little help with service. The place was packed with people and that was great to see! The second night, we went into town and ate at Virginia's overlooking the bay. 

It's always wonderful to get down to Port A, especially when we get to stay at Cinnamon Shores! It was a wonderfully peaceful and relaxing mother's day. I even got a special gift...I felt my little girl kick for the 1st time! 

 

I hope all of you Mother's out there were spoiled rotten on Mother's Day! Not everyone has a mother to comfort them each day, so please know how thankful we are for a Mother's love.

Chalkboard Paint

I feel like it's time for a new project. One would think that a nursery would be on my mind...getting it ready for the little one that is coming soon, but no...I can't seem to get a chalkboard paint out of my head.

I love the idea of a chalkboard wall and have been debating painting a wall in our laundry room for months. I would do the magnetic primer and chalkboard paint, so we could use magnets to stick invitations, reminders, etc on the wall. I can see myself writing grocery lists, reminders, appointment dates, etc on the chalkboard wall. Not only is it fun...it's useful!

There are so many fun ways to use chalkboard paint, but I'm having trouble deciding...do I paint the entire panel or do I frame a particular area of the wall? Who has experience with this? Send me some tips! I love how people have creatively used chalkboard paint in small ways...

...and in larger ways...

I'll keep browsing and hopefully my vision will come to life very soon. This should be an easy project, but I want to make sure I now exactly what I want before jumping in. Thank you pinterest for all of your chalkboard paint inspiration!

My new love...Privet House

I'm sure by now all of you heard about The Shops at Target. Well, have you checked them out yet? My favorite is Privet House! They have the cutest collection at Target. There are a few things I couldn't live without...

A couple of these candles...

and this lovely canvas tote that I will bring along on every beach trip!

I really had to control myself because I could have bought everything in the "Privet House" shop! Some other things I loved include;

Double Old Fashioned Glasses

Coral Napkins

Outdoor Rug

Rope Pouf

Coral Cane Serving Tray

White storage box

What do you think? Do you love it as much as I do? Guess I will need to sign up for updates from the actual Privet House store. The other shops are great as well! We bought a bone for Penny Lane from Polka Dog Bakery and it has lasted over 2 weeks...which is amazing! Also, if you are headed to the beach in the near future, definitely check out The Webster...great dresses, sun hats, jewelry, etc.

Target, thank you for being a genius and thinking outside the box. We appreciate you sharing these great finds with us!

Vieques Wedding

Wow...right?? Well this was our view from the VERY small airplane we flew from San Juan, Puerto Rico to the Island of Vieques! Our good friends, Jon & MJ, chose Vieques as their wedding location last year and tied the knot in this beautiful place close to a month ago. We were some of the very lucky guests that attended the incredible wedding and toured the beautiful island of Vieques.

I had personally never heard of Vieques until they chose it as their wedding location. Well, now I've been and I can tell you first hand to put it on your list of beaches to visit! It has so many beautiful beaches with absolutely no development surrounding them. It's incredible! The beaches are not easy to get to (i.e. need 4-wheel drive), but from what we heard, the locals like it this way to keep people from coming in and developing around the beaches. After going...I'm with the locals...don't mess with the surroundings!

View from the balcony of our house

Once we arrived in Vieques, we met up with some friends to get our car to drive the house we were sharing for the weekend. As we picked up the car, they warned us about the many horses that stroll the island at all times of the day and to watch our gas because they run out on the island. We had never been told these things before when picking up a car, so we already knew there was something special about this place.

B surfing

As we drove through the town to get to our house, we saw old buildings, an old fort, dancers in the square, but otherwise the town seemed quiet and quaint. We pulled up to our house and went straight for the deck. The views of the ocean were incredible and we were ready to have a drink on the deck while the breeze cooled us off. B woke up most mornings and walked down the hill behind our house to surf (see picture above). He was in paradise! The night we arrived there were small bachelor/bachelorette events planned. We drove to the area of town with fun bars and restaurants and met up with everyone that had made it to the island already. I loved it! Everyone was in vacation mode, laid-back and ready to celebrate the wonderful couple. We celebrated for many hours that night...there was lots of dancing and a "painkiller" was the most wanted item on the menu. A "painkiller" is a drink and I'm not sure what is in it, but that weekend those bartenders must have made at least 1,000 of them!

We spent the next day at Blue Beach. Gorgeous! White sand, clear water and the water only came as high as your waist for what seemed like a mile. A washers game was going on, a football was thrown, beach hats were worn and beers were cracked open. Both the bride and grooms families came to join us and it was great to meet everyone and hang out in such a lovely setting. That night they hosted a welcome party where we got to meet even more people! Again, the vibe was perfect. Just think of a bunch of Jimmy Buffets hanging out...laid-back and happy.

Jon & MJ had a beach party for their rehearsal. It was on Sun Bay, where they were to get married the next day and there were tents, beach games, umbrellas, chairs and once again...crystal clear water! They roasted a pig and the bride kissed it for good luck. A few entertaining speeches were given and it was so fun to look around at the people. Everyone had come a ways to celebrate this beautiful couple and there we were...sitting on a breath-taking beach, soaking in the sun and listening to great stories about these two precious people that we all know and love. It was pretty darn special. That night we all had trips out to the bioluminescent bay. We were on the boat and it was quite spectacular to see the water light up when a fish went by or when you stuck your hand or feet in the water. Jon & MJ even got to jump in!

Bride kissing the pig

It's wedding day and once again...the weather was perfect! While the wedding party got ready, we went to Secret Beach. I think this was my favorite. It was a small cove, surrounded by trees and the water was the perfect blue. It was a great way to start the day. It was hard to leave, but we all knew it was time to get ready for the wedding. We arrived at Sun Bay and chairs were set out directly on the beach. You couldn't ask for a more picturesque setting! The groom took his place and he and groomsmen wore khaki suits with Vineyard Vines ties...perfection. Then came the beautiful bridesmaids in their gorgeous J. Crew coral-colored dresses. Even the ring bearer and flower girl were dressed to a tee and made quite an entrance on their long walk to the beach. Then it was time for the beautiful bride to walk down the sandy isle sprinkled with flower petals. She was gorgeous!! So happy and so calm. They said their own vows and did an amazing job. They were heartfelt and funny which is not easy to do. They were pronounced husband and wife and we all headed to the reception!

There is no way I can put the beauty of the reception into words. They had stayed at this house the week before the wedding and once I got there, I thought to myself that I never wanted to leave. The outside was brought inside with doors that open completely to a very large balcony that over-looked the ocean. There was a pool to the left and more spectacular views to the right. There were twinkling lights everywhere, torches that made the perfect, romantic setting for a wedding and beautiful tables set in white. The centerpieces...oh, the centerpieces! My favorite! They were birchwood with touches of green flowers and votives surrounded each centerpiece. It was coastal, elegant, beautiful and yet simple...exactly what I strive to do with my decorating on a daily basis...but, unfortunately, it doesn't turn out this good:). The wedding was personal, fun, had delicious food and...again...the views. Anywhere you went in the house or deck...your view was of the gorgeous ocean! A really special moment was their first dance. Chad, one of Jon's good friends learned to play, "Can't help falling in love with you" on the ukulele and we all sang while they danced. It was a moment they will never forget.

In my opinion, this is the way to do a wedding! We got to meet everyone early, so by the time the wedding came around, we all felt like family. It was fun had by all and everyone was just in the best mood...vacation-mode!!

Jon and MJ...we love you and thank you for inviting us to such a special occasion. You two are perfect for each other and we wish you years and years of love, happiness and lots of laughter!

On Sunday, B and I missed our connecting flight in San Juan and couldn't get a flight home until the next day. I was so tired and grumpy about this at first, but sweet B had the best attitude. It was my birthday, so we headed to the hotel, walked around Old San Juan, ate a delicious dinner and had the best time! Amazing how things can turnaround! Here are some pics of our San Juan adventure. It's a beautiful city...enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed this special journey to Vieques...wish I was headed to some place similar this weekend!!

Kiawah=Happiness

You all know my love for Kiawah, SC and Coastal Living agrees with me! Coastal Living voted Kiawah America's Happiest Seaside Town and I couldn't agree more!

I know, I know...I went too long without blogging again, but I have a lot to catch you up on this week and next including; an amazing seaside wedding in Vieques, Puerto Rico and an incredible mother's day spent in our favorite place...Cinnamon Shores! I'll update you soon and hope you are all doing well!

xoxo,
Liz