Crazy Heels

Via HERE

 

Via HERE

Via HERE

Via HERE

All I can say is O-U-C-H! Do you have any 'crazy' heels you just can't get enough of? I wanna know!

Practice makes perfect

 

How cute is this? Happy almost hump day everyone!

Rain Boots

With the downpour lately, I thought it was time to get out my trusty lil Target rain boots! Do you have rain boots? If so, where are they from?

I didn't get mine until last year and I am wondering how I ever made it without them. I even wore them gem mining recently (See HERE), they're so versatile!

Have a carefree weekend.

Flickr

Friends, what are your plans this weekend? I'm going to be a busy bee playing catch up this weekend, I'm afraid I've fallen so far behind for being away on vacay last week :(

I wanted to let you all know that I've decided to go with Jill Anish to create my custom ring from one of the sapphires we mined on our recent vacation. You can see her work at her Etsy shop by clicking HERE. So exciting! More on that next week...

P.S. A HUGE thank you to Shelly of the Daisy Diaries for the lovely pink scarf that arrived to me this week..what a sweet and thoughtful surprise Shelly!

Before & After: Our new garden!

Before (Yuck!)





After!



Lighting added to enjoy our new backyard!

As I said here, things have been very busy at the house of Wright getting ready for spring. We have baby birds singing in the backyard and the plants are growing like crazy with the warm weather we've been having.

We decided to take the few extra days I had off from work to make a butterfly garden and to plant a multitude of veggies in giant planters all over our deck. It was such a fun project and turned out much better than we had planned!

We turned on some island calypso music, made piña coladas and gardened all day in the hot sun; It was the perfect ending to our spring break vacay.

What have you been doing lately to prepare for spring? I wanna know!

Tree Homes

Redwoods Treehouse Restaurant, New Zealand (By Pacific Environments Architects)

O2 Treehouse

Kadir's Tree House/Hostel, Southern Turkey (By Jon Rawlinson, Flickr)

Kobayashi Takashi Beach Rock Resort (By Wikimedia Commons)

How AH-MAZING are these tree houses? They're definitely not something that I was found playing around in as a kid!

I must apologize for being little absent lately, we were all over the place last week and to top it off, got a wild hair to build a veggie and a butterfly garden the day we got back (insanity?!). I'll post pics in the next few days– they turned out much better than we had planned!

Gem Mining 101

Well, we didn't find the next Hope Diamond [boo], but we did manage to mine over 120 carats of Sapphires in 48 hours! I never EVER imagined how strenuous gem mining might be until this weekend.

We pulled into Mason's Sapphire and Ruby Mine just after noon on Wednesday; It was a bit overcast but quickly warmed up. Charlie, the mining expert of the bunch, quickly gave us a run down of exactly what we were looking for. As soon as we took his advice we were picking sapphires out of the flumes just as quickly as we could clear away the dirt.

By the end of the day we had managed to gather over 23 carats of sapphires. We were quite satisfied with ourselves and decided to call it a day. We decided to camp at the campsites beside the mine in order to get an early start on the next morning...

We were pro's by noon on Thursday. Patsy, one of the sweet workers at the mine, showed me how to find large carat sapphires and rubies laying on the hillside after a rain. In fact, she nabbed a 10 carat pink sapphire right off of a small hillside when she bent down to show me where they form..talk about some teaching skills!

By sunset, we had collected an additional 99.99 carats of sapphires (Seriously..could we not just say 100?), they all ranged from violet, to bright pink, to blue. Stunning. It was by far one of my most fun experiences with Josh since we've been married.

We plan on getting a few of the gems cut for the ladies in our families and I'm saving the nice large 8 carat button sapphire for the main stone in a ring I'm getting made. I'll post pics once I get it back!

Happy Sunday,

xoxo Rach

Hello, from Asheville- My hometown!

One of eight Tannenberg Organs in the US we saw in Salem today!

Hello my friends! I'm writing from the beautiful mountains of Asheville, NC! We have had such a great day today visiting the old town of Salem, NC and finally ended up here in Asheville for the night.  We're gearing up for our fun-filled day of gem mining tomorrow, stay tuned for my update on the gems we find!

The reason I'm writing is because I must tell you about Travelocity's "Top Secret Hotels" option on their site. Josh and I were in a bar downtown tonight and decided to chance it and book right on the site..now we're sitting in a 4 star hotel that we got for $50 a night (and the room is originally $120). It's the only way we're going to book now..so awesome.

I hope you have a happy hump day! I'll let you know how my gem mining goes tomorrow ;)

xoxo rach

Hello, from Virginia!

still just a country girl

 

Hello from Lexington, VA!

We've successfully made it to our friends' house and have had so much fun the past few days. Richard and Sara live on the outskirts of Lexington, VA on the most adorably quaint farm you could ever imagine. It looks as if it is straight out of a storybook!

Richard and Josh went kayaking down the Maury River, we toured his Law school, Washington and Lee University, we soaked up the history of Lexington and ended our trip with a sunset skeet shoot;)

It's been so nice to get away and enjoy the beauful rivers and rolling mountains of Virginia...

We're going to be camping tonight and are starting our journey to the gem mines tomorrow..stay tuned!

It's roadtrip time, baby.

My dear loyal readers, what do you have planned this weekend? Up to anything fun?

I wanted you all to know that, starting tomorrow, I will be taking a week-long roadtrip and will be a little sporadic on my postings, although I do plan on having a guest blogger on Wednesday and sharing photos of wherever we end up along the way!

Our plans are pretty loose, but we know that we will be camping here and there in the Blue Ridge mountains and ending up in Virginia to go kayaking with another couple. The only other plan we have is to go gem mining! When I lived in Asheville, NC, my family took a weekend trip to the mines and I brought home a  12 ct. sapphire! Here's to hoping for another big one!

Have a wonderful Friday and a wonderful weekend everyone, I'll see you next week!

xoxo Rachel

(image via here)