Hello, hello! I am happy to say that WE MADE IT! 32 hours and 9 days later, we are officially Texans. We made it to our new apartment and have begun the unpacking process. Sigh. I am itching to get started decorating and making our place feel like home - stay tuned, pictures to come! . . . . . . . I wanted to keep this post short and talk a little bit about our new home, because Texas REALLY needs your help. - Keep reading below to see how you can help - As you know, Texas (specifically Houston & the surrounding areas) was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey and the area has seen unimaginable amounts of rain causing severe flooding. Houston is in a state of emergency and they need so much help right now and no matter where you are, you can help. I have read from several different people that money is the best thing that we can give right now. Supplies will be great down the road, however money really is what they need most at this point. I have put together a small list of different ways that you can donate.
- text HARVEY to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross ( You can do this multiple times) - - Go to www.samaritanspurse.org to make a credit card donation - - Magnolia by Chip & Joanna Gaines is selling t-shirts with ALL sales going to Hurricane Harvey disaster relief efforts - Click here to purchase the shirt. All The Wire is selling the cutest TX Strong gold stamped bracelets, and for every sale, they are donating $10 dollars to the Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief fund. - Click to here to buy a bracelet - JJ Watt started a donation page pledging to give %100 of the donations directly to the Hurricane Harvey Relief fund. - Click here to donate through his page - Even the smallest donation will make a BIG difference, so please consider donating and if you are unable to do that, please pray for Houston, the surrounding areas and all those affected by Hurricane Harvey. No matter what you can do, know that it will make a difference. I have seen several other posts today featuring various ways of donating. There are seriously so many ways to donate, especially for those here in Texas. Two of my favorite blogger gals, Mix & Match Mama and Sheaffer Told Me To have dedicated posts today to #hurricaneharvey and specific ways to donate your time, money, supplies & prayers. We're so happy to call this place home. #texasstrong - xo -
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Happy Wednesday, y'all! Taylor and I went to Target yesterday and like always, I go in planning to buy one thing and come out with waaaaaaaaay more. ** sigh ** So yesterday Taylor & I went to buy him two plain white t-shirts, but while he went to grab those I drifted over to the women's clothing and all the sudden I had a handful of clothes and was headed for the dressing room. #lordhelpme And bless Taylor's heart, because he was so patient with me while I sifted through all the clearance racks and dug through the clearance shoes. BUT, I am hear to tell you that it was totally, completely, 100% worth it, because check out these steals. Okay, y'all . . . how completely adorable is this dress??? AND these shoes! Dress | $9.98 Shoes | $5.98 This dress is so cute & fun! It has the cutest little cut-out in the back and it's just loose, flowy and oh so comfortable. And AGAIN, the shoes!!! I had actually been eyeing these for the last few months and just happened never to get them, but then I saw them today and I was sold. Dress | $9.98 Shoes | $7.48 My white skinny jeans are actually from GAP and the sandals are from Target, but I picked up THIS SHIRT today and it is giving me all the feels. I love the denim, the off the shoulder look, the buttons. I mean I love it all. Shirt | $7.48 I wanted to give these shoes a little more love and show them to you up close & personal, because I am simply obsessed. I love them all. And oh my goodness, I can’t wait to wear them. Black Sandals | $6.48 Black & Brown Sandals | $7.48 Black Pointed Flats | $12.48 Okay y’all, so everything was on clearance, which means that there is no guarantee that the same items will be in your store or online, however there are A TON of stellar end-of-summer deals – 30%, 50% & 70% off!!!
Happy Shopping (& Happy Wednesday!) - XO - During Taylor and I's marriage prep I vividly remember one conversation. The priest looked at us and said "do you both understand what unconditional love is?" And Taylor and I looked at each other, smiled and said "yeah!".
And the priest then said "explain it to me" and Taylor and I both responded saying something along the lines of "well you love each other unconditionally. You love each other no matter what." Then the priest went on to ask us another question. "What do you do if one of you cheats?" We both said pretty confidently that something such as that was unforgivable and that neither of us would stay. Then he said, "okay. do you still love each other unconditionally?" And as you can imagine, we were a little dumbfounded. This conversation is one that still resonates with me and will probably continue to do so for a long time. This idea of unconditional love is something that is so easy to believe in, yet it can be so difficult to act on. To be completely honest, I went back and forth when deciding if I wanted marriage to be a topic on this blog. My heart kept telling me yes, but my mind kept telling me no. It seems to me that marriage has simply stemmed so far from what it was meant to be. Today marriage is thrown around, abused, misunderstood and in my honest opinion, not appreciated, nor valued. I haven't even been married a year so I can't tell you that I am going to be filled with amazing life changing advice. We don't even have real problems yet. We get mad, we yell at each other, we cry, we say things we don't mean, we have regrets. We are far from perfect. But. We value our marriage. We take the words "unconditional love" seriously. We practice forgiveness. I am not perfect. Taylor is not perfect. We are not perfect. But it is my life long goal to love my husband in the same way that God loves us. Unconditionally. No matter how much we shut him out, disobey him, get mad at him, forget him, don't honor him and live without him, he never stops loving us as much as he did when he first created us. . . . . . . There is one quote that Taylor once put on a mug and gave to me as a gift. "Treat her like you're still trying to win her, and that's how you'll never lose her." It is easy to fall into a routine once your married. In our own ways Taylor and I have, not to say that one of is more to blame than the other. I wouldn't even say it's a problem, it is simply just how life gets. We get busy, work takes up time - for whatever reason, relationships tend to fall to the wayside. I personally love dates. I love getting dressed up and making ordinary days feel like extraordinary days. I also love doing simple things, like writing little notes, taking fun pictures, playing board games, etc. Those things are important. Dates are important. Notes are important. Whatever you do to make your spouse feel loved, appreciated and special is important. Although that quote say's"Treat her like you're still trying to win her, and that's how you'll never lose her." It goes both ways. "Treat him like you're still trying to win him, and that's how you'll never lose him." This is part of my purpose here. I really love my husband and I want to feel the same way about him in 60 years as I do right now, and as much as I did the day I met him. I want to love my husband in the best way I can, and it is my desire to share our journey with you and inspire you to love your spouse in the best way that you can. I wish that when people talk about marriage they wouldn't think "marriage is hard", I wish instead that they would think, "marriage is fun, great and amazing.", because let's be honest . . . you get to spend your life with your best friend and when you really think about it, how totally awesome is that? - xo - Whoever said "home is my favorite place to be" nailed it.
Home really is my absolute favorite place to be. Even in its most disastrous, messy, unorganized, hectic, sometimes not relaxing state. I love it regardless, because it is home. Don't get me wrong, I love being away from my house too. Honestly, most of us probably spend more time away from our homes than we do inside them. Perhaps that's why we cherish them like we do. Growing up I remember asking my mom over and over again if I could decorate the house. It didn't even matter to me which room she'd let me decorate, if any. I mean, I would have been THRILLED to decorate the laundry room. Being the fantastic mom that she is, she let me decorate my room and boy, I had everything from outer space theme to a calming grey, baby blues and white theme. Recently I saw a funny post about the show Trading Spaces and I went to show my husband and was shocked when he told me that he never watched the show, so he didn't get it. I thought everybody watched TLC and HGTV. But no, while other kids my age were watching shows like Boy Meets World or Lizzie McGuire (I watched those too!) I was watching home design shows. So to keep a long story short, this has clearly been a love of mine for quite some time now. For years I have been looking forward to the day that I owned my home and could make it my "own". Up until this year I have lived either with my parents or in college housing (dorms, apartments, etc.) and this was the first year that Taylor and I got our own, non-college, real apartment. And I loved it. I had the chance to decorate every room and make it my "own" and it was just so fun. There is something you should know about me. I never (okay only on very rare occasions) buy anything full price. I try so hard to find bargains, and you can probably ask anyone that knows me, I do a darn good job at it. Whether it's clothes, food, shoes, home decor, etc. I have gotten some crazy deals. I love home design. Even more than that though, I love to find old forgotten things and turn them into something beautiful. I have a real passion for DIY projects and those, along with home decor/style, are what I hope to share with you all. I have some really cool projects up my sleeve and I just ask that you be patient with me, because we're in the process of moving cross country and y'all, that is just so much work. But I'm itching to get started and get to showing you what I'm up to. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I hope that y'all have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday with a post on MARRIAGE! Thanks for reading! xo. Hello!
If you are here and are reading this, THANK YOU! I have been anticipating this day for so long, and I AM SO EXCITED. I have put so much love into this blog and I can only hope that it shows and that in time, my readers will come to love it as much as I do. My hope is that I can fill this blog with a lot of love. Love for yourself. Love for your home. And love for your spouse. If you know me personally than you know that for the past two years I have been working as a nanny. And let me first say that I loved it. I mean, I don't know how you can't love a job where you literally get to hang out with really, really cute kids all day, everyday. Honestly, most of the time it didn't feel like work. But, as much fun as the job was, it took an unexpected "toll" on me. I went from college, where I did my makeup and hair, picked out cute outfits day after day, just to do it all over again for that night out on the town to . . . nannying, where I went to the same place day after day, saw the same people every day and honestly hung out with messy kids all day. My mindset did a complete 360, because I began to think what is the point in trying to look nice, doing my makeup, hair and all that jazz only for the kids to accidentally splatter bright red spaghetti sauce on my cute white shirt? So, for the last two years this has been my mindset and like I said, it took a toll on me. A toll that I didn't really expect, nor did I recognize for some time. To be blatantly honest here, I feel like I lost this love for myself that I once had and that I believe everyone should really have. As Taylor and I prepare for this move to Texas (for those who don't know, we're moving to Texas! YAY!) I have a lot of changes that I plan to make - plans that will make me "me" again. I have sort of broken this blog up into 3 sections: lifestyle, home and marriage. Three topics that I happen to really love. It is my plan & goal to share our lifestyle with you and this could involve just about anything and everything. I happen to love clothes and fashion, make-up, travel, cooking (mostly baking, let's be honest), reading, exercising, holidays, shopping and so much more. Plus I have some really amazing family members who have really good style, life changing hair tips, major photography skills, crazy art talent - oh and did I mention that they all have REALLY cute kids. So every once in a while, you might see some of their stuff on here. I really want this blog to be about finding and creating a lifestyle that you LOVE. I'm excited to continue finding and creating my lifestyle, especially in our new home, and I hope that you follow me in this journey and that somewhere along the way you find and begin to live the lifestyle that you have dreamed of. Thanks for reading! I love y'all. xo. Stay tuned to check out my first "home" post coming this FRIDAY! |
I'm Emilee. 26. Homebody. Believer in a simple + intentional life. Daughter of the King. Living in Austin with my hubs. S O C I A L
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