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)

My Framing Project

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While we were in Charleston I found this gorgeous drawing of magnolias. Now magnolias are another favorite flower of mine. I think that they are so attractive and fragrant so finding a huge poster of them was wonderful.

I found it at the gift shop at the Magnolia Plantation. It was such a beautiful picture and a wonderful price! We only paid $10 for it! I knew that I had to have it framed and I knew that I had some wonderful frames at home.

What it looked like before framing my new artwork. 

Assessing the poster and picking out the matting. 
It took them about a week to get the project finished. They called this past Sunday afternoon while I was running errands. I was looking forward to seeing it…..
Bringing it home….
Hello Beautiful!!!! It is gorgeous! Better than expected and I love the contrast between the matting and the photo. My husband wanted the matting to match the photo but I thought having two different colors would give it a more custom look. 
I could not wait to hang it. 
And just so you guys get an idea of how big it is.
I took this photo beside it. It is a large picture. 
I am so please with how this project turned out. Michaels only charged us $50 for everything which I thought was an outstanding deal. I now have this beautiful work of art that I can saw I got it while in Charleston. I will now consider custom framing for every picture that I want at home. 
Thanks for reading!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)

July Favorites ~ 2018

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I can’t believe July is over and my kid is already back in school. I hate this balanced schedule. When they go back to school you go back to school and I don’t want to go to school yet. Anywho, I wanted to share a few of my favorite finds for this month.

Okay, so first on my list is this beauty. I learned about this beautiful wallet from one of my favorite Youtuber’s Nikki. She has a wonderful channel called Inspired by Nikki and LOVE her channel! I must admit I have been binge watching it for the last few days. This wallet is called the LC Lauren Conrad Brulee foldover wallet. You can watch Nikki’s video about it. It is absolutely beautiful and I love it! But make a decision quickly. It is on sale right now for $19.60! 

It is the perfect blush color. 
Next are these. They are called the Gilligan & O’Malley slippers and they are also the perfect pink blush color. I have been wearing them all weekend long. I had to get a new pair because my old ones had a big hole in it. I cannot have that so I purchased these. 
Next is another Inspired by Nikki purchase. I saw this tote in her closet tour (see here) if you want to watch it. I thought that this was such a wonderful tote. It is from H & M. I only found the black online. The grey is no longer available. I found my grey tote on Ebay. Happy hunting if you want the grey version. 
Moving along…. next is this wonderful jumbo blue and white Spode teacup and saucer from Wayfair. Or should I say plate! It is huge! I did not realize that this teacup was 20 oz! I probably would not have ordered it if I had known but now that I have had it for a week I can no longer live without it. 

So you get an idea of how big it is. 

Of course I have my hot water, lemon and honey but I don’t fill it to the top. 
That would be a bit much. 
Next is my new blue and white ginger vase from Homegoods for only $30! Sorry I could not find it online so you will have to visit your local Homegoods store. Happy Hunting!!! 
I also found this gorgeous peony arrangement while I was there for $30. Beautiful! 
Found these big plush pillows in the clearance section at Homegoods. 
I only paid $12 each which is a steal!
And last but certainly not least I found this vintage inspired pillow at Target. It is called a floor pillow from Opalhouse. I just loved the color and it reminded me of a pillow that my grandmother had years ago 
Well I hope that you found something that you loved and that you enjoyed this post. I also hope that you check out Nikki’s Youtube channel. It is lovely. Enjoy all the finds!!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley & Google)

A Simple Tuna Casserole

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Before leaving for our trip to Charleston, I ended up trying this tuna casserole recipe that I found on Pinterest and wanted to share it.

The ingredients were pretty simple and easy. I just picked up a can of sweet peas, 3 cans of tuna, 1 yellow onion, a bag of shredded cheese, salt, pepper, 1 can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup and some dumpling egg noodles. Everything cost no more than $20 and we had lots of leftovers. 

I cooked my noodles first….
Then just combined everything else in the pan and put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. 

It came out cheesy and tender. It was lovely. I ate it with some warm french bread and voila a wonderful dinner in minutes. I love Pinterest. I wish this existed in my twenties! It would have helped out some much.
I hope you try it!
Enjoy!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley & Pinterest)

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)