The Coastal Belle

Men Playing Angry Birds

2012-02-04T21:41:00.000-05:00

Growing up in a household with 2 men I learned that they spent a lot more time "using the bathroom" than I did. My mom would say my Dad was in the library and he usually did have a book in there. But I've always wondered WHY? Why do men take so much longer to do their business than women.

I believe I have found my answer ladies. I work in an office with 7 women and 3 men. I notice the women coming and going pretty quickly from the bathroom but the men seem to linger. My beau also seems to stay a long time. I have found one common link with all of the men I have observed. CELL PHONES!

Where women will sit around and chit chat to take a break or relax, men prefer to go in the privacy of the bathroom and play with their phones. I know this because sometimes at my house I can hear the little words with friends noise going off in the bathroom. They check their stocks, check their emails, watch youtube videos, and yes they play Angry Birds.

I feel Angry Birds is what keeps them in their so long. Those elusive levels that you just cant pass will have them sitting for entirely too much time. So if you are on a time crunch dont let your fella take his phone to the bathroom with him.I promise I've tried it and they are in and out in a much more reasonable amount of time.

South VS North WEDDINGS

2012-02-01T11:51:00.000-05:00

I'm back! Seriously this is the year you will hear more from me and I will catch up on my blogging. I've been thinking a lot about weddings. I finally have a wonderful man who is so kind and makes me laugh everyday. We have been discussing the future and it looks bright! I'm blissfully happy and in love so of course weddings have been on the brain.

I remember the first wedding I went to, I was about 7 years old and it was a distant cousin. There was a buffet with amazing food, ice sculptures and lots of dancing and beach music. I remember having so much fun that I fell asleep at the table after my sugar rush crash.

Through the years I've been to dozens of weddings, maybe even a 100 at this point. Most all of the them were southern weddings with the same typical traditions. Short and sweet ceremony, huge buffet dinner, lots of dancing, a bridal party consisting of family and lifelong friends.

Besides the people in and at the weddings I've attended, the only real difference is the food. I've only been to a handful of sit down dinners. Most were where the bride was from the north. In the past year however I have attended 3 and about to go to my third sit down dinner southern style wedding.

I've always been against a sit down dinner.
1. It seems like a lot of work to make a seating chart and people are never happy
2. As a guest I dont like to feel I have to sit down the whole time, it makes me anxious
3. Dancing can not start until everyone has finished dinner, this takes way to long.
4. extra money spent on seating charts and place cards that could be spent on booze and food.
5. you cant snack when you are starving from all of the dancing. Those calories are quickly burned off

Those are my thoughts. I want my wedding to be FUN! I want my guests to walk into the reception and be greeted by a room of food that they can eat at their leisure. I want good food too. Fried Oysters, a very large selection of cheeses, a meat carving station, mashed potato bar, boiled peanuts, meatballs, mac and cheese, collards, and ribs. Yes we will have ribs because honey badger and I met while I was eating a rib and he fell in love with me right then and there.

This is exactly how i looked doing it.

Operation renovation

2011-08-19T11:00:00.000-04:00

You know those moments when you think, "Damn life is crazy right now"? That's how I've felt this last month. I moved a few weeks ago....Again! For the first time in my entire life I have my own place. No roommates. This means I cant accuse anyone of eating my ice cream. I have to own my Ben and Jerry's obsession. I finally get to see exactly how much toilet paper and paper towels I consume. (I've always assumed my roommates used too much of each). That mess in my living room is now my mess and I must own it. If my house is dirty its my own fault, cant blame my roommate.

I started out in college with bad roommate experiences until I moved to the ZTA house my junior year. I met Elizabeth and Jeannie who are my best friends today. The next summer we lived together and then when Jeannie left we found a less than par replacement.

When I left Winthrop and moved to Savannah my childhood best friend Katie moved in with me. We had a great apartment on a cobblestone street for 3.5 years. We decided we wanted more space so moved in with our friend Lauren. We all got along great and Katie and I got our own place when Lauren moved in with her beau.

Living with my best friends was always great. Katie and I joked we would have a common law marriage if we stayed together a few more years. We could share groceries, bills, and blame each other for our mess. There was always someone to get sucked into a tv show with and always someone to go out with you or to the chinese super buffet.

The only downside to living with your besties is that sometimes you get sick of seeing that person all the time. I guess this is good preparation for marriage. When Katie left I decided I wanted to live with strangers. I found 2 girls and decided to live with strangers so that I didnt have to be friends with them. All of my friends were married, living with significant others, or enjoyed living alone. It wasnt the worst idea I ever had. We didnt all get along though so we decided to go our separate ways.

Living in a great area of downtown Savannah is expensive. Luckily, I'm a property manager and have access to lots of houses. I manage properties for someone who had a carriage house unit that was in desperate need of a rehab. I worked out a deal and agreed to do all of the work. Here is the before of the living room/kitchen. There was no fridge, the stove was disgusting and a kitchen counter was pretty much non existent.

This is the bedroom before. The little room with white walls would later be my closet. the bathroom was caution cone orange!

Here is the bathroom floor before. We had already removed the sink and paneling at this point and painted the brick white.

Bathroom floor after, my sink is going in today.

We put laminate hardwood over the old parquet peel and stick vinyl. It was a lot of work and my boyfriend and I tested our relationship but in the end we were both very proud of what we accomplished.

The living room after. All new lights, it was just bulbs before. I got rid of the heinous shelving, yellow walls, and finally had counter space.

Thanks to pinterest I had some great ideas for little things. Every house needs a chalkboard wall. My kitchen now has one.

Every girl also needs a chic pink chandelier in her closet also!

And every good little dog needs his own little corner

So thats my new place. I couldnt have done it without the help of my boyfriend. I never knew he was handy. I am very impressed with his skills. We learned so much about each other through this process. I know to keep my mouth shut and let him figure out a problem before I offer my advice. He learned to keep his mouth shut when I get frustrated and just give me space. We are a stronger team thanks to this project. He is so proud of what we have accomplished as am I. He tells everyone we see and wants to show the photos of the rehab. There are still a few things to be done and I will post more photos of the living room and bedroom when they are finished.

2011-06-24T10:48:00.000-04:00

I hope most of you have already discovered the amazingness that is Pinterest. Its a website that is essentially your virtual bulletin board for all things Fashion, crafts, home decor, food, quotes, humor... etc. Everything links to a website and I've gotten so many great ideas for my new apartment. Here are a few of my favorite pinterest finds that I am hoping to recreate very soon.

I think I can easily make these pillows from burlap and use a stencil and some black paint for the lettering!

I LOVE mercury glass but it is SO expensive. This is from Martha Stewart and apparently you can buy a special paint called "Looking Glass" by Krylon and it gives the look of mercury. I'm hesitant to paint inside of a votive because isnt paint flammable? Maybe I can use battery operated tea lights.

With all of the trips my beau and I have planned I think this is a cute way to remember them. Buy a map when you travel and use it to mat a picture frame.

If I try this it will probably look trashy because my plants will die. I will still try it however. Might be great on my window sill for my herbs. Cute and cheap idea

I have a lot of my grandmothers old teacups in a box under my bed. I have been unsure what to do with them seeing as how I dont have tea parties. This idea lets you recycle old candles and melt them down into teacups for new and very cute new candles. I can see my grandmother rolling over in her grave now.

Going with my grow herbs on the window sill idea, I LOVE this. Unsure where to buy tea tins though. I will get busy on that right away.

And last but not least. I love candles hanging from trees. This is a great idea to re purpose baby food jars (I know people with babies). Looks simple enough!

Once I get moved in to the new place, end of July. I will be posting photos of my new crafts. I've decided the fall will be my crafting time in preparation for the holidays. I am excited to see how these ideas pan out. Let me know if you have any unique crafting ideas for me to try. This should get interesting.