My trips or places I would love to visit

A Historic Home Tour in Charleston

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I was really trying to visit more than one historical home but we could only seem to fit in one. The house that we visited was called the Nathaniel Russell House.

Walking up to this beautiful neoclassical home. 
The wonderful gardens. For a moment I felt like I was in England. 
I wish it was spring. I could just imagine the magnolia flowers in bloom. 
One of my favorite photos….
Once inside our tour guide began with this wonder. There were lots of details in these stairs. 
The windows….
I was fascinated with this piece. I could not remember what it was but I had to get a picture. 
As you can imagine I loved this setting. The blue and white looks so charming. 
Just look at the details in this ceiling. It’s extraordinary!
I was enamored with this room. The orange color on the walls, the drapes and how they flowed from windows, the antique blue and white chair. Not to mention the beautiful color of the original floors. 

The outdoor balcony…..
Then we entered this room. This is where the lady of the house would entertain her friends. I must admit that while our tour guide was discussing all of the details my attention to her was “in and out”. I just could not stop looking at all of the features in each room. 
One thing did happen during our tour. We were with a young family who were from the Netherlands and they were apart of our group. Once our tour guide began discussing how Mr. Russell was a slave broker their youngest daughter immediately turned to me and began staring. 
I don’t know what she expected. I guess she was waiting to see if I would get upset and have a fit or if I would just fall apart. I guess she was that curious about my reaction. She stared so much that it made our tour guide uncomfortable. She then stated in the middle of her explaining the job of Mr. Russell that “this was apart of history” and I agreed with her. I nodded to make her feel secure in what she was saying and to let the young girl know that all was well with me. Honestly, it is apart of history and African Americans were not the only slaves in history. So moving on…..
I had to get a photo of this beautiful Wedgwood piece 
Walking into the last room my daughter immediately noticed the harp. I could only imagine how much that was worth. 
Just look at the details!!!! She said it took years to restore everything. 

Just love the colors. 
It was a lovely tour and I did enjoy it. A lot of times I am inspired by the decor. It helps to come up with ideas for decor at home. Like some of the colors in this room. I would have never had thought to put pink with blue but it looks lovely. I believe the color of the furniture and the rug is pulling it all together. I hope that you enjoyed this tour and if you are ever in Charleston stop by the Russell home. 
Thanks for reading!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

Our Meander to Rainbow Row

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It has been three weeks since we have returned home from Charleston and I am still thinking of it. It was such a magical place to me. I was so content just walking around and looking at all of the homes. It was splendid….

Before getting to Rainbow Row, we decided to park the truck and walk around the neighborhood. Pink houses were everywhere and I wanted to take a picture of each one of them. 

Everyone seem to have planter boxes outside their windows. A lot of people had fresh jasmine! You could smell it down the street. 

So colorful and vibrant.
Such a gorgeous neighborhood. It is shocking to know that in 1778 a fire destroyed most of this neighborhood. 
We turned the corner and there it was…… Rainbow row. 
My daughter and I just walked up and down the street looking at all of the pretty pastel colors. 

One of my favorite snapshots from the neighborhood. I love this picture! I can’t believe that I took it!
Such a nice area and a beautiful day weather wise. I thought that it was going to rain but I am glad that it didn’t. I really enjoyed looking at these homes and sharing this moment with my family. 
Another place that we stopped by the day before was Sullivan Island beach. It was so quiet and secluded. Although we did not have much sun it was the best day to go because it was the coolest day of the week. I am glad that we were able to see it!

We really enjoyed the beach and loved the place where we had lunch. We ended up eating at Poe’s Taven for lunch and stopped and grabbed some of the best ice cream at Republic Ice Cream. On our way back to the hotel my husband was gracious enough to let me stop at a few consignment stores. I refrained and did not purchase anything but it was nice seeing and visiting these places. 
Thanks for reading!!!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

Candy Shop Vintage in Charleston

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Roaming around Charleston is the best way to see it. Exploring all the nooks and crannies of the city is the perfect way to find new stores. Like this jewel below….

This is Candy Shop Vintage. It is a wonderful store if you enjoy vintage earrings and jewelry like me. I wanted so many pieces from the store but I refrained and only purchased one pair. 

Splendid aren’t they?

I felt like Marella Agnelli wearing this. It just felt iconic!
The sales associate there was so nice. She allowed me to try on as many pieces as I wanted. She was superb. 

Macaron trinket boxes… a perfect gift. 

I actually own one of those golden swans! I didn’t realize that it was vintage!

So many marvelous pieces…..

Of course I had to purchase a pair of vintage earrings. 

I adore these. I paid about $40 for them and they are clip-on earrings. They are a wonderful size and are comfortable. The sales associate said that they do ship! So if you see something online go ahead and order it. It’s a great way to get an outstanding vintage piece that no one else will have. 

It was so wonderful walking around in this area. We found a great bakery called the Sugar Bakeshop. It smelled wonderful as soon as you walked in. I was not able to get any treats because it was so hot and I did not want it to melt. I did end up going to Mac & Murphy. It was a nice little shop but I did not see anything that I wanted. 
We also did stumble onto a place called the Flowershop. It was closed but they did let us look around. It was beautiful and bijou. 
I really did enjoy my visit to these stores and hope that one day in the near future I can visit again. 
Thanks for reading!!!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

An Elegant Boutique in Charleston

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After roaming around downtown Charleston on our first day my husband wanted to get in the truck and drive around a bit more and I am glad that we did. We ended up finding this wonderful little boutique not far from all of the beautiful historic Charleston homes.

The Boutique Charleston provides home furnishings, gifts for showers, anniversaries and birthdays. They also provide items for your bedrooms, bathrooms, and I also saw beautiful lingerie. 

I wanted to stay longer and look around but we were headed to the Magnolia Plantation and didn’t want to be late. 

There were beautiful faux flower arrangements everywhere. 
Beautiful linens

Sferra cocktails napkins and linens. 
The store was just beautiful!

And of course I had to pick up something.
And of course, I had them gift wrap it for myself. 
I wanted to have a wonderful surprise when I returned home.

I could not pass up those beautiful Sferra linen napkins. 

They are stunning and I am going to use them at home and work. I really loved this store and I guess it is a good thing that my husband was there because I would have seriously did some damage. 


(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

Exploring Charleston

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We have returned home and I am sad. I have not stopped thinking about Charleston since we left. It has only been a few days and I MISS it desperately. I am serious. I really loved the homes, the gardens, the details in all the architecture, but mainly the historic homes.

I am so glad that my husband finally agreed to visit Charleston. It was so worth it to me.

Most of you may have already seen a lot of these photos on my Instagram account. At first I thought maybe I should not write any posts about the trip since some of it was documented on Instagram but I thought that there maybe some people who don’t have social media accounts and just read blogs. 

This was our first day in Charleston. The area is called Colonial Lake. It was a suggestion from Julia and what a great suggestion. We walked around the entire area and looked at all the homes for free!!!

There were beautiful flowering trees everywhere! I could not believe how much was still in bloom. Especially since it was so horribly HOT!!! I have to admit that the heat was merciless to us but I still enjoyed it. 

I don’t know about you but I could not get enough of the pink houses. They were my favorite!

I also wanted to be careful taking pictures of people’s homes. I was so afraid that one of them would come out and scream their head off. 

This was my absolute favorite photo! I loved this door and was going to walk by it but thought there is no way I am not going to take a picture of this!

These are the homes in the South of Broad area. There were lots of people walking around doing the same thing we were doing. Take pictures and savoring in all the beauty around them. 

Huge magnolia trees everywhere…. 

Vines growing on everyone’s homes and garage areas.

Once my family and I started walking around and looking at all of the homes the more they got into it. They began to read some of the information that was available on the outside of the homes. It became a wonderful day. In fact one of the neighbors did spot us taking a picture of her home and was very flattered. I was relieved. I did not want to offend her. She ended up telling us the process of how she purchased her home and gave us a free parking pass for the area! Fantastic right?
Well I hope that you enjoyed this post and I will continue with my Charleston adventure for the next few weeks to come. 

(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

To Charleston We Go!!!

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Well, next week I will be on vacation. This year we are headed to Charleston, South Carolina. I have been wanting to visit this place for some time now but I am a little nervous about the weather.

I heard about a hurricane being nearby so I am saying my prayers to the Lord and asking for nice weather while we are there. I want to be able to walk around and just enjoy our time there. I don’t want to rush. I would like at least one beach day but we will see.

I found Julia Engel’s Charleston guide to be superb! Most of the places that she listed on her guide we are going to try to visit. I found a hotel nearby. It is only about 15 minutes from all of these places.





I would like to walk around the South of Broad. Julia said that there are a lot of historic residential homes and gardens. I am hoping to see one of those pretty pink houses with flowering trees around it. 


I would like to walk around Hampton Park. 







I would like to see the houses on Rainbow Row. 





Next on my list is to take a tour at Boone Hall Plantation. Apparently, it is still a working plantation that does tours, sells their strawberries and tomatoes, and has a butterfly museum. Sounds like a wonderful day to me. 

The Magnolia Plantation is another place that I would love to visit. I checked their website and during the month of July they are having $5 tour days! That sounds great! I would love to take the house tour, the nature boat tour, and the nature train tour. 

They said that during the spring is the best time to come. You can see the azaleas in bloom. Oh, I wish they were still blooming. 




Now of course my trip could not be complete without some shopping. Julia mentioned a store called Lily Charleston. I checked their website and it looks lovely. I am hoping to get a bottle of Antica Farmacista. Their bottles are so pretty and the names of the scents always capture me. 



There are a few museums I would like to visit, some art galleries and this cute little stationery store called Mac & Murphy.




She also mentioned Palmetto Bluff, Savannah (I would love to take another visit there), and Sullivan’s Island. I checked their website and that looked like a beautiful beach to visit. Then she mentioned all of the restaurants. 







I would love to try Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits, Butcher and Bee, and  Hominy Grill.






Doesn’t that look delish! Oh I am looking forward to this trip. I am just hoping for good weather. Please Lord! I will let you guys know how it goes. See you in another week!


My Visit to Laduree in Washington

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If you have been reading my blog then you know that visiting Laduree is one of the favorite things to do while on vacation. If there is a store near by you can believe that I will be making a visit.

But I did not know that there were two locations in Washington! There is a small store front at the Union Station and my husband found a lovely store in Georgetown. We went on a great day. The weather was nice and the evening was gorgeous!

Now this store was not as big as the one in Soho, New York last year (read my post here if you missed it) but it was just as glamorous! 

Such a beautiful store.

Love all the pastels.
The candies and candles always look stunning!

Picking out macaroons….
Love the details in the walls. 
Pure elegance…
Of course I left with wonderful treats.

They were wrapped in this beautiful box and of course I kept it! I keep all of my bags, boxes, and ribbons from Laduree. I mean just look at this who wouldn’t? 
After picking out sweet treats at Laduree we walked about a little more and found this gorgeous Ralph Lauren store in Georgetown. 
Isn’t it stunning?
Then we went to Banana Republic….
I walked up to the third floor and what do I find? This glitter block heels that I talked about on my blog months ago. They sold out so quickly but I ended up finding them in the clearance section for $34! Oh gosh! I couldn’t believe it! So fantastic!
I also found these lovelies. They are called the beaded floral statement earring and they are gorgeous on.
We had a wonderful time in Georgetown. I know that if we do return to D.C. Georgetown is definitely on the list again! 
If you wish to read about my very first trip to Laduree you may see it here.
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)