Flavor of the week: Tea

I love that my flavor of the week actually comes in flavors! I have long had an obsession with tea. Since Ireland drinks the most tea per capita of any place in the world, I must come by this genetically. When I was younger, I liked black tea with milk and sugar, and I didn't care if I drank it out of a chipped mug or a beautiful tea cup. Now, I like a ton of different tea varieties, drink most without any sweetener, and get a little giddy over beautiful tea accessories. Here are a few tea items that make my heart sing.

Duchess Grey tea from Trader Joe's has been my favorite tea of the summer. It's light and a little fruity and a little bit spicy, but not nearly as much as a true earl grey. I like it plain or with a little bit of honey. It would probably be good iced as well, but as long as the AC works, I'm content to down steaming cups of tea in the middle of a heat wave!

I love my red fiesta ware mugs, but this picture has me ready to find a navy mug and attach paper anchors to all my tea bags. Yes, that is silly and unnecessary, but silly and unnecessary things are some of the most fun - just ask any two-year-old with a bubble wand.

I drink a lot of tea by myself, but tea parties are also fun. I think this is a lovely way to throw together a casual and elegant tea tray.

If I was having my sister over for tea, she would love to be served some dragon black tea out of an adorable owl teapot.

My love for tea goes so far, that I made sure part of our Charleston vacation included a trip to the only tea plantation in North America.

We saw how the tea leaves are prepared and took a trolley ride through the tea fields.

This crazy machine, called the green monster, is driven through the fields and harvests the new leaves from the tops of the bushes.

They had an amazing gift shop that did a very good job of parting me from my money. I came home with five boxes of tea, including this delicious southern variety.

I think this fancy paper cutting sums up my feelings about tea to a T!

What's your flavor of the week?

<3
Hattie

Dream House: Week Two

Here's what happened this week in dream house construction,

The mason started work on Wednesday. When I saw those first low walls, I couldn't get over how small the space looked. "This is supposed to be a two car garage and a man cave/basement?"

I knew in my head that it was a much larger spaced than it looked  like, but my eyes couldn't quite believe it. Once I walked around the space, I felt relived that it was in fact larger than a garden shed.

The mixer was so loud!

Thursday we got to see our brick in action. We'd only seen a one foot square of it in the showroom, so we were glad we liked it just as much on a larger scale.

The foundation on the side of the house is brick, but the foundation on the front will be a similarly toned stone.

By Friday, the right side was completed. Look how small Brad looks next to our wonderfully tall basement!

We can't wait to see what next week brings,

<3
Hattie

Two sisters fashion friday: Nautical

Fashion Friday is back, with a twist! This time around, I'm bringing in my sister. We are eight years apart but share a love of fabric, design, and of course clothes. We thought it would be fun to show you two takes on the same fashion trend. Before we show you what we came up with, this is where I take a page from Sarah's book and ask all blog trolls to please leave the building. Hannah and I do not claim to be models or fashion experts. We are simply two sisters who love to play dress up!

This week we are both in love with the nautical trend.

Hannah's whistle necklace mixed with blue, brown, and white is a casual and subtle take on the trend and really fits her personality.

I went with a bit more of a classic take with my navy and white sailor style tank, but tried to update the look with a darker, tobacco colored skirt.

Hannah is wearing:
Shirt - Target
Whistle necklace - Mod Cloth
Skirt - Homemade by us from a men's shirt (gotta love sister sewing dates)
Belt - Target
Shoes - Steve Madden by way of Ross

Hattie is wearing:
Tank - h&m
Belt and skirt - h&m
Shoes - Target
Red bangle - Vintage

Hannah and I did a little photo shoot and have six of these posts ready to roll. If you like these posts, we'll be happy to have another sister fashion day!

Out takes

oops! let me move my hair!

Sleepy blinky eyes

<3
Hattie

Welcome home map

To spread my love of maps to the masses, I made a little welcome home map art as a housewarming gift for my friend Andy. He recently purchased his first home, so a non-girly gift was in order.

I was inspired by this map that I found on Pinterest. The heart was a bit too girly, so I had to change things up to make it suitable for Andy.

I started by typing his address into Google maps. I used the snipping tool (Thank you, Windows 7) to take a screen shot of the part of the map I wanted.

Next, I inserted the image into Word and layered shape art and text boxes to create a "Home, first, home" bubble, complete with his new address. I blurred it in this photo to protect Andy's privacy.

I added a mat and a frame and his personalized housewarming gift was done!

linking here:






&lt;3
Hattie

Flavor of the week: maps!

Hello, lovely blog friends! I decided to start a new weekly feature around these parts: flavor of the week. The plan is to highlight something different that I'm loving once a week. It could be related to design, fashion, food, life, etc. This week I'm loving maps! They deserve the exclamation point because I am crazy for them.

I love maps on furniture.

I love free maps to print and play with.

I love globes all in a neat row.

I love globes in a big colorful mish-mash.

I love the globes I've collected over time.

Some for free or cheap.

and some that were not so cheap - but I had to have. I'm talking to you, beautiful medium globe, second from the left.

I love that they are all wonderful shades of aqua. I love that they show this wonderful world that God gave to us to explore. I love that they are educational sculptures. I just love all things map/globe!

Are you on this bandwagon with me? What's your flavor of the week?

<3

Hattie

Dream house: week one

I decided it would be fun to do a weekly recap of our construction process - sort of a virtual scrapbook for Brad and I to look back on when the house is done. I have no idea when these events happened last week, because Brad and I were in Charleston for a week of vacation. Hence, my lack of postings last week. Hopefully, I can make it up to you with lots of lovely historic architecture pictures later this week!

Here's what happened last week at our construction site:

The big equipment rolled in.

And they opened their jaws wide,

and took a big bite of red clay.

and spit it out.

Now we have a big hole in the ground.

Time to dig the footings.

and lay the rebarbish stuff.

The week finished up with the pouring of the concrete.

We officially have footings! The mason is coming on Monday to get the foundation going.

Our time in Charleston was wonderful, but it was just as much fun to come home and stare at our hole in the ground! Thanks to my Dad for documenting the progress while we were gone.

<3
Hattie

Breaking Ground

Our house journey started two years ago when we came home, giddy, from the courthouse and stood in our weedy field with this sign.

We were land owners! Over the next two years we lived on one teacher's salary - saving the other for our dream house and Brad's Master's program tuition. We dreamed. We cried (OK, I cried) when we learned we simply could not afford the house we planned to build. So we set aside those blueprints and created new plans. I googled, my dad and Brad drew, and an architect turned our ideas into home plans made just for us. We went to a bank and had green lights all the way to a crushing appraisal. I cried some more. We started the loan process over again with a new bank, and the appraisal came in higher than we dared to hope. We waited for a nail biting month for the paperwork and underwriting to come back. And yesterday, after two years of highs and lows, penny pinching and prayers, we closed on our construction loan. We came home, giddy, and stood in our weedy field with a shovel.

With thankful hearts we dug into the hard, red clay...

And broke ground.

On Monday, the real ground breaking equipment will move in, and the excavation will begin! I know to some a house is just a place to live, but to me this is already a home. This is the place where I grew up and skinned my knees and dreamed of falling in love. This is where, God willing, we will be blessed enough to start a family and raise children a stone's throw from their grandparents. This is where we will plant trees and build snowmen and celebrate the grand adventures of life.

This is home.

<3
Hattie