SOLD!!!!

Well, friends... it is done and SOLD!!!  11 days on the market and we had an offer!  Offer negotiated and accepted and sold on day 13!  I am still in shock.  The biggest kicker is they want to close in the middle of April!  We are moving out much sooner than I expected.  It is all happening so fast, but I am so grateful that it happened.  We are so blessed!

I am so behind on my blog reading and hope to catch up with all of you very soon!  We are going to Minnesota for a look/see visit in the next few weeks.  I will keep you posted!

We also had our best friends come for their annual spring break visit and had a blast!  We love them and just enjoy being with them.  They stayed a full week and could have stayed longer!  Our favorite day was the boat ride out to Morris Island Lighthouse.  It is a gorgeous ride out and the best part is that we always see dolphins.  I love dolphins!  I always wanted to be a marine biologist and work with dolphins, but the whole don't-live-near-any-ocean thing always played a roll!  To watch these gorgeous creatures swim back and forth under the boat is such an amazing experience!  They were riding the wake created under the boat.    Our boat captain said they love to do it!  At one point, they all wanted to get by us and they came as a pack speeding by.  I swear they were going about 35 miles an hour!  It was incredible!

My water baby

Fiddler crab

Horseshoe crabs that were getting a little busy!  They were so caught up they missed the whole tide thing and were too far inland.  We had to move them so they wouldn't die!  The female is the large one in the front and the male is the smaller one.  This female was huge!!!

They were not letting go!  This is to show you how darn big they were!

This is the Morris Island Lighthouse.  It was originally a brick tower with a light constructed by the Colony of South Carolina in 1767.  In 1861 the Confederates blew up the lighthouse so the northern troops could not use it.   After the Civil War, Congress approved a new lighthouse and it was completed in 1876.  Due to jetties being built to protect Charleston Harbor, the tidal currents have changed and it has caused severe erosion to the island.  Today the lighthouse stands alone and is completely surrounded by water.  Hurricane Irene that came through last year caused a huge amount of erosion from even our trip there last year.  The change was amazing.  In 1962, the lighthouse was decommissioned but local residents fought to save the structure.  It is now privately owned and efforts are made to preserve this beautiful lighthouse.  

The slight tilt to the left happened as the foundation shifted after the earthquake of 1886.  Charleston sits on a fault line that is larger than the San Andreas Fault!

He popped up and looked right at us!

Then came right over to say hi!

Just a perfect day in the Lowcountry!

My Blue Hour Shot

Hi everyone!  You know how I love to take pictures and so I convinced the realtor that I could do my own pictures of the house.  He is our neighbor and was all for it.  We talked about what we wanted and we agreed that a blue hour shot would be really cool and different.  I was able to capture it and it looks awesome on the MLS.  It really stands out and makes you take notice.

We had a showing on Sunday and it went well.  We know the people so it is a bit tricky, but I know we will find the right buyer who will love this house.  It is now spotless (for the most part) and show ready at all times.  I am reading essays again, and I feel like I have washed 700 loads of laundry.  We have company coming next week then going to Minnesota to search for a house for a week.  Then I have company coming that weekend we get back, a Founders Day event that I am planning, and company coming that week to visit.  I think I may have bit off more than I can chew!!!  Oh well, I am so excited to have my friends come and enjoy our last bit of Charleston!  

Have a great week everyone!

Hello all!!!

I have been MIA for a while now!!!  Wow did February fly by!  We had company come from the 19th through the 22nd.  I will post some of our adventures soon!  My MIL came on the 22nd and I headed to Disney for my 3rd annual girls trip/race!  We had so much fun and let me tell you... I didn't even take a camera!!  My girlfriend is sending me some pictures so I will share that soon too!

The house is on the market and I am going into cleaning purging mode!  I thought I would share a few more shots of the house.  Isn't it sad that I haven't done anything to the house?  I am a three year kind of gal.  I live in it for about three years, get a feel and then make my decorating moves!  I had so many plans but now I will just use them in a new place!

Our Living Room

We had the cabinets and mantle custom made to make the room more user friendly!  

A Second Guest Bedroom a.ka. another playroom for Jemma

Jemma's Playroom

I want to go on record as saying this room has been staged!!  It is not normally this neat by any stretch of the imagination!

Downstairs Bath

This is where I have many of my prints that I collected throughout Europe.  I know the bathroom is a weird place for them, but we see them in there all the time and enjoy them!  :-)  

Our Master Bedroom

This poor bedroom is always the last one to be decorated!  I was going to work on it this year in the whites and blues.   I wanted white bedding with a blue duvet at the end of the bed.  Light walls and white drapes. I am going to still do it in our new home.  

We will have the beachiest bedroom in Minnesota!

Our Master Bathroom

I was going to paint it the blue color from the Master Bedroom.  Now I am glad it is very neutral!

I am off to clean so wish us luck!  We leave in a few weeks for Minnesota to look around and find a house.  Say a prayer that we sell ours quickly and can find what we love there!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with love!   Not only is this Valentine's Day, but this is the day that 18 years ago my sweet husband asked me to marry him.  He had worked at the bowling alley all night, and I was in a nightgown with a cow on it that said Love Me Tender watching an I Love Lucy marathon.  He came by to bring me my present.  He told me to close my eyes and when I opened them he was on one knee with the ring box opened in his hand.  He said, "I didn't even get you a card, but if I did, it would say, "I love you Kathryn Anne.  Will you marry me?"  I was so shocked I couldn't speak!  He looked at me and said, "Are you going to say "yes"?"  I then said yes about 1,000 times!  I have never regretted saying YES.  I love you BHW with all my heart.  Thank you for everything!  Happy Valentine's Day!

This was Jemma's Valentine to pass out at school.  Beth from Home Stories A2Z did these last year and I knew I wanted to do them!  They turned out so cute and all the other moms were very impressed!  Thank you Beth!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!!!

Cleaning up

I have been going through the house and just starting the process of cleaning out and straightening everything up.  I had so many ideas that I was going to do this year and now we will be moving!  We have lived here for almost three years and I have said that it seems at three years is when I feel like I "know" my house and know what I want to do.  Oh well, I already have lots of ideas for a new house!  I thought I would show you a few pictures of our house now as I am cleaning and photographing for our sale!  Yes, I am taking my own pictures of my house!! 

Want to know what is crazy?  Now that I am about to leave, I am getting calls about my photography.  I was asked by my realtor to do photos for other realtors of their homes for a set price.   Then I was contacted by a children's clothing boutique to shoot their clothes on kids for their advertising!   Of all the luck... well, it just makes me more determined to start of on the right foot in Minnesota!  Hello, my name is Kathryn and I am a photographer.  Thank you very much!

To kick of the house tour, we will start at the front door.  I haven't edited anything so beware!

I love the C shape to our staircase.  The office is to the right.  I refuse to show it.  We have a lot of furniture in there that is too big for the room.  We just aren't ready to give it up so in my office it went!  I will be rearranging and cleaning out this room next week!

To the left of the foyer is the dining room.  This set is very special to me.  My mom passed away in 1997 and she didn't really have much of anything in the sense of "hand it down".  When she passed, she had a small life insurance policy that was mine and her husband's to split.  I decided I wanted to buy my dining room set with the money so I would have some to give to my children from their grandmother.  Every time I look at it, I think of my mama and it makes me happy to know that Jemma will have this little bit of her too.  

I love my big fancy schmancy picture!  At first glance, I was like "that is a big ol' picture of fruit!", but the more I looked at it, the more I liked it.  It was from a store that was going out of business.  It was priced at $975 but I got it for $300!  I know that is still a lot, but I figured I couldn't even frame something that big (and this baby is big!) for that price.  It was one of those pieces that I knew I would regret if I didn't get it and I just love it!

Through the dining room is our kitchen.  I thought I would love the cooktop on the island so I could talk to the family and all that jazz... I hate it.  I hate that it interferes with my space on my island which is where everyone congregates.  I feel compelled to clean and scrape the sucker all the time because I can't stand for any spots or marks on it.  I definitely won't have an island cooktop next house.  That is for sure!

This picture is for all my rooster loving ladies!  Do you spy him?  He is nestled in the fake (gasp and egad!!!) greenery.  The greenery was on top of the cabinets which didn't look as bad, but I moved it for Christmas and never put it back!  I hope my next house has double ovens.  I love those bad boys!!!  

I am out of here for now and going to bed!  I will share the rest as I take pictures for the realtor!  

I still can't believe I am moving!!!!  Thank you for all your sweet comments and words of encouragement.  It really means a lot to me!  Just know that I am dragging all of you through this with me so get ready!

A New Chapter...

Hello everyone!

I have some news to share today.

We are moving to...

Am I excited?  Ummm... not yet.  It is really cold there.  Really, really, really cold.  It is 61 here today in Charleston and I am wearing a jacket in the house.  It is going to take some adjustment that is for sure.  

I love Charleston.  I love the South and all things southern.  It is who I am.  I love my palm trees and my ocean.  Will I miss it?  Absolutely.  I am so much closer to family here than I have been in a long time and Minnesota is so FAR away from family, but hey... that is what planes are for.  Right?  

Am I so proud of the BHW that I can hardly stand it?  ABSOLUTELY!!!!  He will be a director at his work and one of 6 that will sort of be running the place!  How cool is that?  He has worked so hard to be a director and when the automotive industry tanked, he was unable to reach this level as quickly as he should have, but he never gave up.  Through his dedication and work ethic, he has made a great name for himself, and he has always persevered  to achieve his goals.  I am very proud of this man who sets his sights for the stars and works hard to reach them.  

It is a new chapter in our lives and I am happy/scared/excited/sad and already cold!  It is a great opportunity for the BHW, great schools, and a new home to decorate!

I adore Terry (I feel like I have known her my whole life!) from La Bella Vie and she said this when I was bemoaning my fate one day to her...

"I can sure understand not wanting to move to Minnesota especially after living in beautiful Charleston. A place on my bucket list; a picturesque, charming town that they write about in novels, but imagine this..."On Golden Pond" which is kind of what Minnesota is like from what my in-laws tell me and just as lovely and picturesque in its own way...you know I've heard it called "the land of 10,000 lakes" so there must be a reason for that :o)

Also, you'll have all four seasons including a snowy white Christmas, perfect for baking cookies, cozy little girl sleep-over's and family snuggling in front of a warm fireplace that won't cook you out of the house because its 100 degrees outside :o) One thing is for sure like you said, where ever the three of you are will be home..."

Debbie from Debbiedoos said,  ""God puts you where you are meant to be."  

She is so right!  Now I just have to wrap my head around it!

I have always said that as long as the three of us are together, we are home.  So it is time to buy winter wear and a snow blower because we are on our way!  We are looking in the towns of Lakeville and Prior Lake.  The BHW will probably leave in May but Jemma and I will stay until June so she can graduate from her Kindergarten class.  I will drag all of you along with me during this time so stay tuned!

I am joining Suzanne from Privet and Holly at her Monday Moments chat at the water cooler!

A Valentine Mantle

Hi everyone!  I just wanted to join Beth at Home Stories A2Z for her Valentine Mantle party so here she is all gussied up and ready!  I have actually had this mantle up since January!  I figured after Christmas the little mantle was sad to have all her bling go and she needed a little love!  

I bought the frames at Walmart for $3 and $5.  I used a typewriter font for the letters.  This is how the BHW and I have always written I love you to each other.  It is even engraved in our wedding bands!

Jemma's sweet handprint

This is a tiny vignette on our end table.  A lady came to a local store to do silhouettes of children.  She whipped this out in about 10 minutes!  It was amazing to watch her and I couldn't get over how much it looks just like Jemma!  I love it!

We are feeling the love around her and getting ready for Valentine's Day!

I am also linking up to Jenni at Dear Lillie!  This is her first ever linky party!