07
I've got the photos from our Southern road trip uploaded and ready to share! I realized while I was going through them that there a lot of fun places I didn't take any pictures of...and others that I have so many from. I tend to feel awkward pulling out a big camera while eating dinner at a restaurant or browsing a cute shop, plus sometimes I think that can take away from the experience of living in the moment and enjoying your time together. Like if we're at a coffee shop and I spend a bunch of time shooting my drink and the space itself, and meanwhile Ben's already finished his and mine is getting cold! But I do like having pictures to look back on afterward, and now I'm kind of wishing I'd snapped at least a couple photos from a few more places that would have been fun to share with you all. Oh well, that's something I hope I'll get better at--balancing the documenting and the doing while we're traveling. Even though these photos are far from all-inclusive, I hope you enjoy getting more of a glimpse into what we did! I also posted some photos from our phones in this post, in case you missed it.
One of our favorite places we ate in Nashville was The Loveless Cafe. Their biscuits were the best I've ever had (so flaky and buttery!), and the drive out there was really pretty as well. They had a few shops on the property so you could browse while waiting for your table to be ready. These rocking chairs were lined up outside one of them!
In Nashville we also grabbed coffee at a place called Barista Parlor. I thought it was a really cool space--a converted garage, with an indoor-outdoor feel and lots of industrial furnishings. The coffee was really good too (although Ben was a little surprised when he saw that a 12 oz drip was over $4). Oh well, no penny-pinching when you're on vacation, right?
Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC was amaaaazing. The house itself was huge--the largest privately owned home in the US, with over 65 fireplaces, an indoor pool, and an indoor bowling alley. It was the home of George Vanderbilt. We thought the gardens and grounds were really beautiful as well--and there's even a winery on the estate!
These are some of our photos from the Blue Ridge Parkway. The colorful fall trees were really stunning against the blue Smoky Mountains. We pulled off at Grandfather Rock and did a little hiking there (and crossed the mile-high swinging bridge...which was actually not scary at all). I also got interviewed by a news reporter who was doing a story on the changing colors and the government shutdown!
In Raleigh, we checked out Furbish Studio. It was super cute!
I love the dipped table legs and the rope shelf (I was just talking about making a shelf like that in this post!).
Have you been to any of these places? Check back tomorrow for part two.
04
A long time ago, I came across Ryan & Michele's wedding and thought it was pretty much the sweetest (and smartest) thing ever. They had recently purchased a home, and decided to put their wedding budget to work fixing up their own house to use as the venue. Their wedding still stands out in my mind over tons of other weddings that I've seen on wedding blogs, because I thought that concept was so unique and genius! A couple years later, they're still finding a way to put their home to work, running their Seattle-based business out of it (they buy and refinish vintage furniture). I thought I'd share a few photos from their shop, Homestead Seattle, so we can all drool over it together.
I love how they've hung different objects on their wall, like the flag above or the oars and antlers below. It's always more interesting to mix in other pieces besides just frames.
Love the idea of using vintage crocks to hold plants!
Love the idea of storing blankets on the rungs of a ladder.
I had to include this green Chesterfield sofa even though I don't think they have it anymore, because it's just dreamy. For more Chesterfield love, check out this post!
What do you guys think? Pretty gorgeous, I'd say. And you know how normally with house tours, you see tons of things you wish you could buy for your own home--but can't cuz they were vintage thrift store finds? Well, there's a good chance that if something in this post caught your eye, you can buy it online from them here. Personally, I'm wishing I had the funds for that Chesterfield armchair. What's your favorite part?
All images via the Homestead Seattle blog
01
As you could have probably predicted, my October Instagrams are basically all from my recent trip! Ben and I spent the last three weeks exploring the South by car. It was really wonderful. We saw mountains, beaches, swamps, and caves. We ate fried chicken, fried okra, fried pickles, fried green tomatoes, fried zucchini, and just about every other fried thing you can imagine. We saw a bear, deer, dolphins, alligators, raccoons, and snakes, all in the wild--even a wild boar (but it was already dead). We went to so many beautiful cities, swoon-worthy houses, and adorable shops, and ate so much amazing food!! I would highly recommend doing a road trip like this. We feel like we got to see such a variety of things and spend so much quality time together. I still haven't uploaded all my "real photos" from our camera, but these iPhone pics will give you a little sneak preview of some of the things we did. For those of you that already follow me on Instagram, I added some additional photos from my phone (and a few from Ben's) so it's not all the same stuff you've already seen.
In Nashville, we went to Monell's for dinner our first night. It was adorable, and we loved the family-style arrangement--we were seated a table with about 10 other strangers, and they brought us dish after dish of Southern food that we passed around the table. It was a great way to get a taste of so many different dishes that we might not have ever ordered otherwise, from corn pone to fried catfish to fried pickled green tomatoes. We also visited Opryland, Antique Archaeology (owned by Mike from the show American Pickers), the famous Loveless Cafe (which did not disappoint!), and the Barista Parlor...to name a few. Of course, we also walked around downtown (so much good live music, it's overwhelming--and we like country too, so we were loving it). We came back to Nashville at the end of our trip, and we got to see the Mammoth Caves during that time, which was awesome. I'd never been in a cave before, and we took a three hour tour lit only by lantern light, which was really cool. I also loved Jeni's ice cream--the brown butter almond brittle was sooo good.
We zipped through North Carolina really fast--next time we go to the South, I'd like to spend more time along the coast there and see the wild horses in the Outer Banks! Our favorite spot might have been the Biltmore House. It was incredible. I wish I could have taken photos inside too--the servant's quarters (and the whole thing, really) reminded me of Downton Abbey. The grounds were huge and really lovely...and I found a frame that had chicken wire stretched across it with airplants tucked in! After that, we drove through the Blue Ridge Parkway. The leaves were just starting to turn, and it was beautiful--one of Ben's favorite parts of our trip. In Raleigh, we went to a darling design store, ate Carolina barbeque, and visited a cute chocolate factory that was across the street. Then we were on to Charleston!
Charleston was my favorite city of the whole trip. I loved it. All the houses downtown were so cute, I had to stop taking photos of every one I liked because I would have been taking photos constantly! The food was really yummy too. Our favorite dinner was at Poogan's Porch, which ended with a dessert of chocolate pecan pie & bacon ice cream (y'all know I love bacon) ;) We also visited the Boone Hall Plantation, which was in The Notebook. It's driveway was lined with oaks dripping with Spanish moss (breathtaking) and we also got to tour the inside of the house and the grounds--it's still an operating plantation. We tried to get coffee at local places during our trip, instead of just going to Starbucks all the time...this lavender latte I got from Black Tap was one of my favorites. We also did a harbor tour in Charleston, which is where we saw the dolphins!
After Charleston, we headed down to Savannah, going to Hilton Head along the way. In Savannah, we checked out Forsyth Park, River Street and City Market (where we bought lots of pralines)! We also saw Antonio Banderas right by our hotel, filming for an upcoming Spongebob movie. The next day, we went to Tybee Island, which has a really adorable lighthouse, and checked out some antique stores that were really awesome. I loved this antler wreath and the staircase lined with frames upon frames, and I found a whole box full of vintage spools--perfect for this DIY I shared last month! Pensacola was more beautiful than I'd expected. The sand was soooo nice and the water was really blue and warm enough to swim in! We rented jet skis, ate some good seafood, and went to a cute design store called duh! But most of all, we just lounged on the beach and soaked in some sun.
The last stop on our trip was New Orleans. We had beignets and cafe au lait for breakfast every day while we were there, and we may or may not have gotten them to go in the afternoon too (the photo on the bottom right can neither confirm nor deny this. Okay, it confirms it). We also visited the stunning Oak Alley Plantation and did a swamp tour, which was one of my favorite things we did! We saw tons of alligators, and I thought the cypress trees growing out of the water were just beautiful. We also crossed the longest bridge in the world! And of course, we checked out the French Quarter, Jackson Square, and the Garden District, where we saw Sandra Bullock's house and a huge above-ground cemetery.
All in all, we had a blast. But I did miss you guys, and I missed blogging!! I'm excited to share my camera photos with you all soon--so stay tuned for that. How have you all been??? How did your month go?
29
I, Ashley, the blogger behind the DIY's and desserts Sugar & Cloth, am so excited to be able to whip up a quick Halloween treat for all of you At Home In Love readers!
Even though we just met, I think we can all agree that candy corn is totally the staple candy when you think of Halloween. The only catch is there not exactly as tasty as they are cute, but these DIY candy corn inspired treats are a good compromise for both.
Food baster or syringe
First, divide three batches of vanilla pudding, and mix in the orange and yellow food coloring with two of them.
Lastly, cap each tube and place them out for grabbing. Hanging cute labeled tags is always my favorite!
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