Your Weekend

Chattahoochee River/Columbus, GA

My friends, what are your plans this weekend? Getting into anything fun? Josh and I will be going and doing our Saturday market in Columbus, GA and hopefully getting in a nice relaxing bike ride on the river walk after we finish. I'm so excited to relax for a moment, it doesn't seem like I get much of that these days!

Whatever you may get into I hope you have a blast and a nice relaxing weekend. Don't forget to join me next week as I unveil our new website!

(Image via here)

A Tiny Victorian Cottage

Tiny Victorian Cottage [via The New York Times "Home&Garden"]

 How perfect is this lil' cottage? It just looks like the most perfect place to take a nap, read, relax or just to collect yourself for a moment.

Sandra Foster turned this hunting cabin into the romantic cottage she had always wanted, doing everything herself, down to the carpentry work. It's only accessible by crossing stones over a little stream. How inspiring!

Glasses Trend

howhipsterofyou.com

They say ( who 'they' are is still unknown) that tan glasses are the new big thing and the dark rimmed glasses like these are out. What do you say? A fan of the newest glasses trend or still trying to get used to the oversized nerdy glasses as a whole?

Just do me a favor and skip the horn-rimmed glasses with your evening dress ( like this). Yuck.

Wants.

This pretty mirror.

Tea towel (Etsy.com)

Fox Ring (Etsy.com)

Want. Want them bad. 

P.S. Head on over to Amy's blog (found HERE) for a chance to win one of my prints! Contest ends July 29th.

One more teaser {why not, right?}

I know you're supposed to wait until everything is ready to start sharing, but I've never been one for patience. I'm just so exicited I want to scream it to the world!

So for today's post I just I thought I'd share another newly photographed painting. Okay, now MUST stop or you're not going to be surprised anymore :)

New painting {a teaser!}

I'm thisclose to having my new website done and can't WAIT to show it off! Just wanted to give you a little teaser of one of my newest paintings titled Veracruz.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Our mined sapphires {wanna see?}

I was finally able to sit still enough to get some good pics of the sapphires that we mined a few months ago. How pretty are these babies?! We found around 100 carats and have many more that we can get cut. I wanted to see the lapidary's work before I got the rest done (see the leftover rough sapphires in the background of the top pic). As I thought, they turned out AH-MAZING! They're all around .5 carats and two of the oval cuts are about .75 carats.

If you are ever in the Franklin, NC area, I suggest going to Mason's Sapphire and Ruby Mine. I PROMISE that you will NOT be disappointed! The staff is very knowledgeable and helpful and you WILL leave with stones that you can have cut yourself. The area mainly produces pink and purple sapphires, which I just think are beautiful. We had the Cowee Valley Lapidary cut them; they know exactly how to handle these types of sapphires and know how to cut them to perfection.

I'm so excited to show these off and to be able to say WE found them!

Travel wish

Instead of going to work today, I'm wishing I was swimming with the manatees in a beautiful foreign country. Oh how I wish! :)

Remember me telling you about Josh and my trip to mine gemstones? I just got six of them back that I had cut and I can't wait to show you, they're GORGEOUS! I'll be sure to post pics next week.

Happy Friday friends!

(image via here)

I Married Adventure

I Married Adventure, The Perfume (oprah.com)

I saw the book, I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson, popping up in almost every interior design blog and magazine a few years ago. Mesmerized by the couples amazing love story and the beautiful vintage zebra cover, I knew I had to have one. I was finally able to track down the original 1940's version at a bookstore in North Carolina that was going out of business for a mere $8. I love this book so much, in fact, that I've decided to use it in my vignettes for my paintings on the new website.

Oprah has featured it in her June 2010 issue and since then there has been a Kate Spade purse, a perfume and even a movie coming out! It's so funny to me how things like this come about, I bet Martin and Osa would be so happy about their books new-found cult following!

Splash of summer color

Nordstrom.com

Isn't this dress just to die for? I'm loving the thick brushstroke pattern. It reminds me of some of the paintings I've been working on lately.

What are your plans this weekend? Josh and I are going camping at the river where he teaches kayaking classes for Auburn University. I'm excited to get out from behind the computer where I've been for the past month.

I hope you have a fun-filled weekend everyone!

Hot Pink Lipstick

Right now I'm loving hot pink lips for summer. Do you dare rock this color? And if so, which brand works best for you? I'm having a tough time finding a good shade that doesn't disappear on me!

(Image via here)

OKHA Coffee Table

Mercury Coffee Table by OKHA

OKHA, a South Africa-based design and interiors practice, have just recently introduced a beautiful line of furniture by a designer named Adam Court. How ah-mazing is this coffee table?

I'm Back! {And I missed you!}

My dear friends! Oh, how I've missed you! I never knew how much blogging meant to me until I took this little two week break. With that being said, I wanted to kick off my first post filling you in with what I've been doing...

This weekend we went to our house on Lake Martin for some serious R&R. I managed to dig down to my deep southern roots and pretty much drank cold ones on the river banks all day (how classy do I look by the way?).

Josh, on the other hand, managed to conquer every cliff on the river.

And the pups? Well, they just oversaw the entire operation :)

Besides our river time we've been going to downtown Columbus, Georgia's Saturday market to sell Josh's wares. A sweet lady who owns a gallery in midtown Columbus asked if he'd be interested in having a few of his creations in her shop. So now we can say that he's officially in a gallery!

All in all, this break was very much needed. Sometimes I like to think I'm Superwoman and end up spreading myself too thin. I've really enjoyed this time working hard on our new website ( I can't WAIT for you to see it!) and should have it ready to reveal in the next two weeks.

What have you been doing since I've been away? I wanna know!