We ended the night with salads from Chopt and Cappello’s grain-free pizza. Cappello’s is hands down the best pizza from a box. I’m not supposed to eat cheese and scraped it off the best I could, but I’d disobey the doctor for this! I have a feeling I’ll get flooded with questions about why I “can’t” eat cheese, but it was recommended by my doctor to help with endometriosis pain. Cheese doesn’t make me bloat or uncomfortable, and I’m not lactose (that I know of), but I still stay away from dairy whenever I can.

My chopt salad had kale, romaine, sweet potatoes, falafel, brussels sprouts, avocado, cranberries, cucumber, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and a house balsamic vinaigrette. It’s always my go-to!
We had most of the lights installed on Tuesday. Remember when I mentioned that Kichler was providing the lights for our home? Well, they’re looking so good. I will be doing a separate post with ALL the lighting details throughout the house. It has transformed the spaces!

We still didn’t have our fridge here (just a mini one in the garage), so I had some leftover Chopt salad with sparkling water for breakfast. I’ve been waking up at 5 am, so breakfast time feels like lunch.

I spent ALL day outside planting while the lights were being installed. I finished up a big garden bed in the front, along with a fun bulb planting project. I picked up some bags from Lowes. I’ve heard that people haven’t had much luck planting Lowe’s bulbs, but I’m going to give it a try anyway! I’m taking one for the team I suppose I do have Peony roots coming from Robertas Garden this week! I cannot wait. I need to get those in the ground immediately. I had a ton of people asking about my collapsible gardening toolset on Instagram. I’m linking it HERE if you’re interested. I do LOVE it. I will say the shovel is a little flimsy, but the rest of the tools are perfect for yard work around the house. Whenever I’m deadheading a plant or cutting a bush, I just put the pieces in the middle and transfer them to the trash.

We picked up sushi for dinner on Tuesday night and finished a few more episodes of Outer Banks! I’m really into this show right now! For sushi, we always order the spicy tuna and spicy salmon with gluten-free chicken lettuce wraps. Akahana is our favorite spot in Fort Mill.

I was up bright and early on Wednesday. The sun rises in our backyard, so waking up to the natural sunlight is a game-changer. At night, watching the airplanes fly by in the sky helps me fall asleep. It’s kind of like counting sheep.

I had my coffee, and then Kyle and I headed to the old house to grab a few things, touch up holes, paint, and clean before closing on Thursday morning.
After spending hours cleaning and touching up paint, we stopped at Firehouse subs to get a quick lunch. There’s nothing worse than cleaning when you’re super hungry. I had their tuna salad over their house salad and a bag of jalapeno chips!

We ended up finishing late afternoon and said farewell! It was a bittersweet moment.
I had avocado toast for dinner. It had two toasted slices of gluten-free bread, earth balance vegan butter, mashed avocado on top, and everything but the bagel seasoning. This is another excellent go-to when you don’t have a refrigerator!

We had our stair runner and our washer and dryer delivered on Thursday! I was so excited for the stair runner because my older dog, Grumples, couldn’t get up and down the stairs. He was so afraid, and I didn’t want him to fall. It was a main priority for the house! I went with a taupe herringbone pattern, and I love how it turned out. I was also excited to have the washer and dryer here! The laundry room is going to be such a fun project to do!

For dinner, we ordered Hobo’s salads. I used to go here all the time with Becca and order the same thing. This had chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, egg, candied pecans, and avocado! The best part about Hobo’s is the prices for the quality of food. This salad was only $10.

On Friday, Kyle and I finished unpacking ALL the boxes. It felt SO good to get it all done. Having the house clutter-free made my heart so happy. After looking around and seeing all the space, we decided to keep our home pretty minimal. We don’t want to clutter it up with extra furniture but do things like painting, wallpaper, and light fixtures to give it style. I just feel so much better with less stuff. But I will be getting my new rugs and barstools!
Ignore how tired and scary I look in this photo, and the fact that a roll of toilet paper is holding up our toothbrushes, but I did get a few new outfits from Loft in the mail. Just so you know they’re having a 40 to 60% off sale. Loft is my FAVORITE store and they have a ton of eyelet and linen options (both my favorite.)I’ll try to do a mini try on haul later this afternoon! Oh, and I’m starting that Poshmark

I finally tried the cheese everyone has been talking about from Good Foods. I was shocked because it was delicious! But, I will say the cashew queso from Fresh Cravings is still better

I picked this up at Target on Tuesday.

Something really scary happened to me at Target in the middle of the day on Tuesday and I’m going to make a post or some kind of video talking about it. I think it’s really important to address, and I can’t just let it go. I need to spend an afternoon putting what happened into words, and I’m still in a bit of shock. Long story short, but I was being stalked by two men for a good hour. My adrenaline was in full force and it took me a while to come up with a plan on how I was going to get out of the situation, but it could have ended a lot worse. I think it’s so important to share and talk about, but I need to do it at a time where I can go into that headspace and share my experience. But for now, please please be careful when going to stores alone and it doesn’t matter what day or what time it is. It was in the middle of the day on a Tuesday, I wasn’t wearing any makeup, my hair hadn’t been brushed, I wasn’t dressed up, and I didn’t stand out. But none of that mattered because I was somehow still a Target. I wasn’t going to bring it up or talk about what happened, but I feel as if that would be a disservice to my audience. It could have been anyone. Just PLEASE pay attention to your surroundings no matter what. And I have to mention that I’m incredibly impressed with Target’s response to what was happening. They had the situation under control within minutes.
There’s no easy way to transition on a blog after sharing that, so I won’t even try.

I took the dogs out for their miles on Friday afternoon, and I think they love all the new streets and smells. At first, they were scared of everything, but now they love it.

For lunch, we made a Cappello’s gluten-free almond flour spinach and caramelized onion pizza. It tasted like the Applebees spinach and artichoke dip. Again, THE BEST pizza from a box! Whenever I make it to Wholefoods (wow, it’s been four months!), I am going to pick up as many boxes as I can.

Oh, and our fridge was delivered on Friday!

For dinner, we had our ALL-TIME FAVORITE breakfast sandwich. We’ve been having a ton of these lately.

It’s toasted gluten-free bread with vegan butter, mashed avocado, everything but the bagel seasoning, Applegate maple chicken sausage, and a fried egg on top. You HAVE to try it.

I spent Saturday morning catching up on laundry, organizing the pantry, and planting a few new rose bushes on the side of the house.

My hydrangeas are LOVING the backyard. They get their morning sun and shade the rest of the day. I love the color! I planted pink (I’ll feed them with lime to help them keep their color), purple, and white! I also have two white Azealia bushes planted in the back with them. Once we get our fence up on Saturday, I’m going to plant some azaleas along the edges. If you have any other favorite privacy bushes you love, let me know! I just don’t want anything with pines. 
For lunch on Saturday, we had that favorite breakfast sandwich! I think I know what I’m having for lunch today!
I’m back on my Matcha latte game! I love making my own iced matcha lattes vs the Starbucks one because theirs are full of sugar, like 32g to be exact! For mine, I mix together 1 tbsp of unsweetened ceremonial grade matcha with unsweetened almond milk and stevia! It tastes the EXACT same without all the extra sugar. I’ve been doing this in the afternoons when I need a pick-me-up!

And then sometimes I eat like a five-year-old for lunch I had gluten-free chicken nuggets and crinkled french fries with ketchup!
You know the boys feel at home when they’re finally stepping into the kitchen! They wouldn’t even go near it when we first moved in, not even for a treat!
We ordered Hobo’s again for dinner on Saturday night. I had the same salad, and Kyle ordered the buffalo chicken lettuce wrap. The food is always so good!

It only took a few days for my pink hydrangeas to come out! I’m hoping by this time next week my white ones will bloom.

This is going to sound so cheesy, but I look forward to the mornings walking around the house with my coffee checking up on the plants They just make me so happy.

Yesterday, the pulls I ordered from Amazon arrived! I’m finally getting them changed and I think they change up the whole look of the kitchen. The pulls we had are very pretty but didn’t fit the modern vibe we were going for. These pulls on Amazon are super inexpensive and they came in multiple sizes We are going to put them in the bathroom as well. I had a lot of people asking for the link to them on Instagram, so here it is! We finally filled up the fridge on Sunday!

For lunch, I had a banana and pineapple spinach smoothie! It had unsweetened almond milk, frozen pineapples, frozen strawberries, vanilla plant-based protein powder, and spinach!

My hanging flower baskets arrived this weekend! I’m going to assemble them and Kyle is going to hang them for me today! I’ll make sure to post on Cottage Story once they’re up! By the way, I’ve been doing daily updates on that account, so make sure to give it a follow to stay up to date in real-time!
After spending the evening chatting with our new neighbors, which I love and feel so grateful to live next to, I came inside and finished up cooking homemade mashed potatoes and turkey meatloaf. I am shooting the recipe this afternoon and that will be up this week! I do have several meatloaf recipes on the blog, but this is our GO-TO!  The mashed potatoes had boiled red potatoes, unsweetened almond milk, vegan butter, sea salt, and black pepper.
YUM! We could eat this every single night.

We had a little side salad with onion and shallot vinaigrette for the dressing. We finished watching The Assistant, and then headed to bed!

It’s time for me to get up, walk the pups, and go finish another project! By the way, Kyle and I got rid of cable and I think that’s made all the difference in actually doing things around the house! I can’t believe how much more active I’ve been as well. You know me and my bad reality shows!

My new Dahlias are almost open!   
Have an amazing week everyone and thank you for stopping by!

Questions for you!

1. What is one recipe you could make for dinner every night and never get sick of it?
2. I need a new coffee maker. Any recommendations?
3. Any suggestions for privacy bushes that flower and stay green all year?

I headed to Starbucks to grab our order for packing fuel and they accidentally doubled our order. Although I could have easily tackled the coffee on my own, I texted a neighbor and left it for them. When it’s hot out, I usually drink a tall almond milk iced latte with an extra shot of espresso. And if it’s cold, it’s the same but hot. Kyle has been getting the almond milk caramel macchiato. After four years with Kyle, I never thought I’d ever see him drink coffee!

I turned Naked and Afraid of (one of my favorite shows) and started packing up the closet. I thought I’d share this photo for a packing hack that has helped me the past few years. I’ve also decided to (maybe) start a Posh Mark with all the clothes I have that I haven’t worn. Let me know what you think! On Friday morning, I had my smoothie bowl which had almond milk, frozen banana, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, plant-based vanilla protein powder, and topped with granola, coconut, banana, and blueberries!

At eleven, we headed to the office to close!  
Kyle had a super busy day at work on Friday, so I decided to start working on a front yard project. I had a few things that I wanted to get done before the sod rooted to the ground. I am going to share a HUGE landscaping blog post on everything I did so far, so you can look out for that one. Honestly, it’s been the best part of this move so far!
I can’t wait to see all of these plants get big and colorful! If you want to see more on this flower project and what this area used to look like, check out this post right here!
We had the sweetest welcoming gifts from new neighbors.
On Saturday, we had our couches delivered! The picture doesn’t do them justice. I’ll share more about them when I do the living room reveal Right now, I’m on the hunt for a new rug, coffee table, and barstools. It’s so hard to pick these things out online!

One of the FIRST things I wanted to do was get rid of the front door. With our builders, we chose an outdoor color scheme. Since we wanted to have a white house, that meant that we were stuck with a red door. The reason they do the color schemes is to make sure the homes in the neighborhoods don’t have the same colors next to each other. Luckily, since we don’t have any neighbors yet, we were able to get the door approved and painted immediately. I’ve always wanted a black door, especially since we are going to be painting the garage door black as well. I think it’s important for those to match. I also thought it would look nice with the black gooseneck light getting installed above it. I will share a blog post all about the painting projects as soon as I’m finished painting the rest of the doors.

We ordered take-out from Jasmine Grill for the past few nights while moving. We get the chicken shawarma with side salads. I’m shocked it took me this long to order food from here because it was delicious and the people working in the store were the sweetest. This meal had chicken, rice, delicious sauces, and a few vegetables thrown in there. After moving all day, this meal was exactly what we needed. The best part was that it’s only $9.
Sunday was the big day!

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. We packed everything up into the Uhaul with the help of my incredible parents and left the townhome behind! It was a bittersweet moment. I truly loved living in that neighborhood and my townhome felt like home. I know the new house will soon have that familiarity.
It took about three trips with the UHaul but finally finished packing the last load around 9 pm. Moving is a never-ending thing though because that just meant unpacking and assembling beds was next. 
The best part was that the dogs seem to LOVE their new home! 
My parent’s brought us a bottle of champagne to toast to. The hardest part was done!

Cheers to the next chapter!

I sat outside on the back patio after our first sleep in the new house. I had my coffee and watched the sunrise. I could have cried I felt so happy at that moment. I can’t wait until the fence is up so the boys can run around in the mornings while I have my coffee. We are waiting for the sod to root before letting them wrestle all over it.

I planted seven new rose bushes on Monday!

For lunch, I picked up a Chopt salad. We had our lights getting installed all day throughout the house, and I decided to spend my day outside working on the front yard project. My chopt salad had kale, romaine, sweet potatoes, falafel, brussels sprouts, avocado, cranberries, cucumber, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and a house balsamic vinaigrette.

I will blog about this soon! Our front hard was 70% mulch, and I wanted to get rid of the mulch and replace it with sod before the sod in the back rooted. I took about four feet off the mulch in the big garden bed up by the house and replaced it with sod from where I planted my hydrangeas and where enemy gardenia trees will be going. I planted about 25 plants that will grow big and luscious too make it look like a cottage-style garden. I can’t wait to see it all grow! I took photos throughout the day for a blog post on this project.
I also planted four hydrangea bushes and white azalea bushes!

Hydrangeas are my absolute favorite! I can’t wait for them to get big and luscious so I can see them from my kitchen window. Today, I’m going to work on planting a few more Shasta daisies, a rose bush near the garage and bulbs. We have more lights being installed today and our fridge delivered, but stay tuned for more! If you love the house content, I’m posting daily on the Cottage Story Instagram! And since our refrigerator is coming today, I’ll get back to recipe content! I promise

Hope you have the best weekend! Thank you all for all the sweet messages about the move and all the great advice and suggestions. You’re all the best!

Questions for you!

1. What is your favorite summer flower?
2. Where is your favorite place to buy rugs? barstools? drapes?
3. What kind of home content do you want to see?

We are supposed to close on the new house this Friday at 11 am. That is insane with the amount of work that is left to do on the house, again I’ll explain more of the hiccups later (hoping it gets resolved first!) I didn’t get to blog much this week because I had a lot going on and was running all over the place, or working on backend work with the blog. The best parts of my week have been sitting on the porch with my coffee to decompress and try to start the day on a good note. Most mornings, I had gluten-free toast with vegan butter and jam, and most of my meals were grab and eat at the countertops. I managed to grab a few photos of things going on this week, but I promise next Monday’s recap blog will be much better. It’s a moving blog, my favorite.

I’ve also been playing the eat everything in the fridge, even if it’s not appetizing because we don’t want to transfer a ton of groceries to the new house. Plus, our fridge won’t be delivered up to a week after we move in. Frozen fruit smoothies have been a delicious go-to for lunch along with avocado toast! I use frozen bananas, almond milk, vanilla protein powder, and top it with granola and coconut.

My dinner salads have been pretty tasty! I’ve had romaine lettuce with sprouts, roasted potatoes, sunflower seeds, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, and cashew garlic dip for the dressing.

The pups have helped with my stress levels. I love my boys so much! Honestly, whenever I feel bad, they always shave a way of making me feel calm and happy. Dogs are the best.
I had a salad and headed to bed early on Thursday night. I had to drop the dogs off at my parent’s house because we had a home appraisal for the current house, and everything had to be clean, and the house had to be empty. Kyle and I had our blue tap walkthrough in the morning, and we knew it would be at least five hours.

We were wrong. The walkthrough was eight hours. Again, I’ll explain everything about this day once we close ps, this will be the last time you see that red door. It’s getting painted along with the garage door. 
Friday was one of the most stressful and draining days.

When stress and adrenaline are high, your body wants just to shut down. When we got home, I had a slice of toast, sat on the couch, and fell asleep for about two hours. I’m not a napper, so it’s rare for me to nap like that out of the blue.

We picked up sushi for dinner at one of my favorite spots, Akahana, and then I went straight to bed!
The weekend was filled with movies, blogging recipes, and making phone calls to set up things for the move. This is when I miss being able to go into stores to purchase things.

I prepped some turkey burgers, roasted potatoes, and grilled chicken for the weekend, and that’s what we ate off of. My breakfasts consisted of toast, maple chicken sausage, and hard-boiled eggs.

Before tackling my closet cleanout, I had one of my favorite smoothie combos. It had frozen raspberries, pineapples, mango, water, vanilla protein, and a tablespoon of almond butter.

Last week was such a blur, and I have a feeling this week will go by even faster. Since it’s Monday, I’m going to try to stay positive and get out for more walks to help with my stress and anxiety. I know this blog was much different than my upbeat recap posts, but I want to keep it real with you all. Any words of encouragement you have, if you’ve been through a similar situation, would be so comforting to hear! My life kind of looks like this overcrowded pot of wildflowers right now I’ve never been able to relate more to anything.

Saturday night must have been my low point. I cried for a good hour with Grumples cuddled up on my lap because I hate that his birthday is coming up, and the thought of him getting older just destroys me. You all know that he’s been my rock through my darkest years, and he’s been my sidekick through everything. He’s slowing down a bit, and my heart feels like it’s being stabbed every time I see it. It’s safe to say my hormones may have been a bit out of control from the stress this past week. I need a good mental health check. 
I hope you have a GREAT week, and I’ll make sure to keep you all updated on social media with the move and everything! Follow me on my main account and my home account! I’ll try to squeeze in another blog post this week as well! xo

Questions for you!

1. Tell me something positive about your week!
2. Have you watched any good movies lately?
3. Do you want me to film an empty home tour or wait until it’s furnished?

As someone who naturally loves staying home and can easily say “no” quickly to invites, I’m officially stir crazy. The secluded trails and tennis helped a bit, but like most of you, I’m ready to wake up from this bad dream. I know this too shall pass. I hope you’re all staying safe and getting through this uneasy time. And as I promised, even though my recaps are a little uninteresting, I will continue to share my week

Seas the day!

One thing I’ve been loving is taking my dogs for an early morning stroll, sitting down with my coffee, and getting a slow start to my morning. I mean, what’s the rush? If anything, these past few weeks have taught me to be more still. I used to get antsy and want to drive here or drive there just to distract myself, but I’ve learned to get up and do productive things like fold the laundry, sweep the porch, unload the dishes, you know…actual responsibilities.
Since we’re back in the upper 70’s smoothies have been making their way back into my life again. I usually stick to frozen fruits like bananas, mango, blueberries, pineapple, strawberries, and raspberries. I add a vanilla plant-based protein powder, cashew or almond milk, and blend! I love topping it with granola, honey, and coconut flakes.  
Monday night tacos were one of my favorite parts of the week!

These corn tortillas were filled with chicken, taco seasoning, jalapenos, black beans, onions, tomatoes, dairy-free cheese, black pepper, fresh lime, and topped with a garlic aioli sauce. I’ve been experimenting with recipes this week because once I get moved into the new home, I want to start filming recipe videos for YouTube as well as putting together recipe print outs to go along with it. It’s been a project I’ve been working on, and I cannot wait to get started. I’m hoping to have the first video go live in early June! The good thing about this extra time at home is working on projects I’ve been putting off. 
I had these tacos for lunch on Tuesday as well. I made Kyle’s with the flour tortillas and used corn tortillas for mine.  
Something I really miss is seeing Becca We haven’t seen each other since March 1st. We decided to do FaceTime workouts together a few times a week, and I actually loved it! I think we’ll be doing this even when this social distancing is lifted. We are going to be doing a leg day today! Let me know if you’d like me to keep sharing what we do.
Another recipe you can look forward to is honey & spiced salmon! All of you salmon lovers are going to have to try this one out! I had baked broccoli and potatoes on the side. I bought a giant bag of broccoli a few weeks ago, and it’s lasted me a long time. I think I’ll make a mini broccoli salad for lunch today.

I spent Wednesday putting together the travel blog for Malibu! If you haven’t seen that one yet, make sure to check it out! I have a few more blogs from California ,and then I’ll be all caught up on the road trip down the coast series. 
On Thursday morning, I spent the day outside with the dogs while we had several home inspections. It’s such a weird time to be selling your home because you have to be out of your house and away from inspectors, but there’s literally nowhere to go since we’re all social distancing, so outside it was!
Breakfast called for another smoothie bowl (PS I always share my smoothie recipes on my Instagram throughout the week, so make sure to follow me over there! ) And for lunch, I had leftover potatoes, avocado with everything but the bagel seasoning, and a fried egg.
It had been a while since I made zucchini pizzas, which is unfortunate because they are SO DARN GOOD! Even vegetable haters would love these. I bake the zucchini for about 15-minutes at 425, then add the sauce, vegan cheese, and bake for another ten minutes. I finished it off with some vegan parmesan, and it hit the spot!

These two caused some trouble on Friday night.

Kyle and I headed to the grocery store to pick up my parent’s groceries. When we got back, we took them out to the bathroom, and Grumples darted deep into the woods behind my house. He must have seen a bunny and he snapped out of the leash. It was the scariest thing because it was pitch black outside and he took off so fast that I would never be able to catch up, especially since I was wearing flip flops. Well, just our luck, Leo got out of his leash and took off into the woods to run after Grumples. After screaming as loud as I could for them, they finally both ran back. Grumples must have sprained his leg because he’s limping and refuses to walk more than a foot. Losing them is honestly my worse nightmare, and even though they were safe and in bed sleeping with us, I couldn’t fall asleep because my adrenaline was so high. I had the “what if’s” playing in my head over and over. I’m soo blessed because in 18 more days, these boys are going to have a FENCED in the backyard! No chasing bunnies into the deep dark woods. I’ve had Grumples for nine years, and he’s NEVER run away, so it was definitely a shock.

I made some impromptu banana nut muffins on Friday night (before the dog fiasco!) and HOLY MOLY were they delicious!!!!! I was going to make my banana brownies but didn’t have any cocoa powder left, so these delicious muffins were created instead.
I kept them in the fridge and we ate them up in two-days. They’re perfect for morning coffee or a late-night sweet tooth. 
This is the new Saturday night in. 
I treated myself to some crab legs on Saturday night while we watched Ozark. Since our grocery store is always out of meat, crab legs it is!
I decided to try Kristin Ess signature gloss and toner because my hair has been looking so copper! This always happens, but it was looking especially red because of the blonde I had in my hair last summer. I had so many people messaging me about how it worked, and I was super happy with the results!
I have the type of hair that holds onto hair dye so fast that it can go completely black just by dying it brown. I didn’t want to dye my hair, just tone it down a bit, and it did exactly what I wanted! I love how light my hair is, just not the red tones. I will say that leaving it in longer helps! I ordered the box from Target online and it shipped in two days. Worth giving it a shot! 
On Sunday morning, Kyle and I watched Ozark while drinking coffee. I had a cinnamon raisin toast with peanut butter and strawberry jelly

Of course, I have to update you on my wildflowers! I took out the ranunculus and transferred them to a different pot so I could plant some seeds in their place. It’s funny because three days later, I had baby sprouts coming up! And today (I’ll have to share a photo on Instagram later) they are almost taller than the other sprouts that are 20-days old! I’ve had a lot of people asking where I get my seeds from so I am going to write a blog post this week about all the places I find my seeds and some fun seeding ideas for the summer. Just looking at photos of flowers puts me in a good mood, so I’m hoping it’ll do the same for others in that blog post. 
Look at that thickness! I’m going to try to transplant these into the ground when we move.  
Look at the baby sprouts that were planted in three days! They’re in the middle. 
Later in the afternoon, Kyle and I headed to the tennis courts for a few hours to hit the ball around. It was a much-needed tennis session. It’s the little things like this that make things feel normal. 
After tennis, I had protein yogurt (protein powder mixed with coconut milk yogurt) topped with honey, coconut, and granola!

One thing I have to share is this Fresh Craving’s cashew queso! I don’t know how they did it, but it tastes like that jalapeno melted cheese you get at baseball games all over your nachos! It’s the BEST vegan cheese I have ever had. I found it at my local grocery store, but their store locator may help on their site. Ahhhh, I can’t wait for you all to try it and report back! IT’S SO GOOD!!!
I did a little recipe testing last night for dinner, which meant delicious air-fried rice wraps and egg rolls! I filled some with chicken, guacamole, kite hill, and fried them in the air fryer. I also topped them with the Fresh Cravings Cashew Queso! MMM dinner was so delicious, and of course, we watched American Idol to end the night!
And now, a house update!

We close in 18 days…I can’t believe it. I made an update on my Instagram yesterday with my thoughts, but this is just a crazy time to be going through this.

There is still so much to do before we move in, which is nuts. They have to do the landscaping, finish the exterior painting and siding, finish our trim, have a few mistakes taken care of, and then in eleven days we go through and do a blue tape inspection and mark everything that looks “off.”  I’m a bit stressed and nervous, but crossing my fingers, it all works out. I wish I could say everything as been a pleasant experience, but I’d be lying. I’m crossing my fingers everything gets resolved, and after we move in, I’ll do more of a sit-down video and chat a bit about the process. I’ll share things we did wrong and things we did right, along with what we wish we would have known and what we’ll do next time.

We have some projects we can’t wait to get done. The fencing company is coming on our closing day to install the fence for the backyard (yay, no runaway pups!) doors will be painted (garage and front door), we will have a carpet runner for our stairs installed, our piano delivered, cabinet hardware being replaced, all new lights and fans installed (we didn’t purchase from the builder) and our couches being delivered! This is why we are taking an entire week to slowly move in since there will be a lot of hubbub going around the house. And after the first week, you’ll be able to find me in the garden!

I’m excited to share the home with all the changes! I’m really leaning towards painting the brick white. I think it’ll look cleaner.
Leo was excited to see his new backyard and he can’t wait for all the wrestling matches with Grumples! Make sure to follow my home’s Instagram for all the latest updates for the next 18 days before we move in!

Questions for you

1. What have the past few weeks taught you?
2. What have you been cooking at home?
3. Have you finished any projects you’ve been putting off?

A big shoutout to all the front line workers and everyone else going into work to keep this country and world afloat. You all are amazing and I’m keeping you in my prayers

I finished up my work on Monday, made some of my favorite scrambled eggs (spinach, eggs, bell peppers, tomatoes, Applegate chicken maple sausage, everything but the bagel seasoning, and Tessame’s habanero ranch.) I took the boys for their walk, and then cleaned up the house. I’ve slowly been packing each week because we move out of the house in thirty days. That is going to fly by, so I want to be ahead of it all. I’ve been a little worried about how things will go during this time with building, closing, and home selling, but I have a feeling it’ll all work out. And if it doesn’t, that’s OK too.

For dinner, I made a Purple Carrot’s Gochujang Veggie Bowls. They were fabulous, and the perfect way to end the night while watching American Idol! Kyle and I have been watching this show ever since it returned to ABC and it’s something we really look forward to. The talent this year is incredible! So far, Arthur Gunn is my favorite, although others are creeping in! Jonny West is my second.

Things took a bit of a turn during the beginning of this week. I’m not someone who gets fevers, EVER. I woke up around 1 am on Tuesday feeling a bit nauseous but thought it was just my cycle since that’s something I experience often. I woke up feeling fine, walked the dogs, but I was SO tired. Again, I thought it was my cycle. I went upstairs to take a nap, something I NEVER do. An hour later I had the chills, extreme headache, body aches, sore throat, and a fever. We called the doctor to see what they recommended and they sent me over to a virtual doctor visit. The fever started at 101 and crept up to 103.7 within four hours. We never got through after waiting t six hours. The next morning, I had an appointment with a doctor online, and she “treated” (not diagnosed, since you can’t do that without a test) me for strep throat. My throat was blood red, hurt so bad, and I didn’t have any shortness of breath, no sneezing, prolonged fever, cough, or other Covid-19 symptoms. After three days of taking the antibiotics, my throat has healed, and I’m feeling 99% better. Of course, I’m staying FAR away from people just in case it wasn’t strep. Testing is so limited in our area and it’s hard to get seen, so I’d rather stay home and heal than risk the wellbeing of others. I finally felt 100% by Thursday.

After three day of chicken soup and Pedialyte, I was ready to get outside and get some fresh air finally. My parent’s neighborhood has a pond, so I drove out their and walked it with Grumples. 
On Thursday, when I made my grocery order online, they were entirely out of chicken or turkey at the store. I decided to get a rotisserie chicken and make my homemade chicken salad to enjoy for the week (it lasted 24-hours.) It’s always a delicious go-to! You can make the same recipe with tuna or chickpeas. I have another Purple Carrot box coming, so I’m looking forward to some creative recipes this week. 
It was so lovely to have the sun shining on Friday morning. For some reason, the sun with a side of singing birds makes me feel like everything in the world is good. I often go outside with my coffee in the morning just to meditate and listen to the birds. You should try it. I had two slices of cinnamon raisin bread with honey and cinnamon and two eggs. The perfect weather called for a coffee and dog walk.

It’s crazy to think that we move in 30 days. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was telling you all the news about the new house. This week they are going to finish doing the upstairs floors, exterior,  painting, staining, and tiles. Yesterday, Kyle and I made it official and purchased our new couches. I cannot WAIT to see them in the house. We went back and forth between a few brands and decided to go with our gut and get the ones we kept going back to.

One of my favorite parts about our lot is that it sits up high from the road. It’s going to be fun sitting on the porch with coffee too because the sunrises and sunsets in this neighborhood look unreal.

There’s been so much done since I’ve updated you last. Make sure you’re following @cottagestory for all the instant updates! Many of you have been asking about when my vlogs will start up again, and I know it’s been since December! I will start them up in April, and a home tour will definitely be included.

I can’t wait for the bedroom views! This is where the sun will rise The trees are starting to bloom, and the fullness of the trees makes me so happy. Eventually, it’ll be all green when I look out the window.

And another thing I’m really excited about is our backyard, mostly for the dogs! They so deserve a big backyard to run around in We have the fence company coming to install our fence on day one because it’s a priority for us. I may end up crying when I see the boys run around for the first time.
One of the cool things about our backyard is that it’s all flat and level, but towards the end of the yard, it has a huge hill that drops down to the creek. You would never know unless you walked over to the edge. I’ve slowly been starting a wildflower meadow. I didn’t think it would actually work when I planted the seeds a month ago, but they’re sprouting everywhere! If this works and my wildflower meadow is a success, you’ll see me crying again. You can’t see the hill from the back yard, but you can from the bedroom window. It would be like a secret flower meadow, which is goals! I have a two-pound bag of perennial native species wildflower seeds coming in the mail this week and I’m going to go plant them all. I just use a spoon to dig about an inch and then add a few seeds into the hole. Try to do it if it’s going to rain that day or a few days after. I know some people just throw seed and they grow, but you’ll face the chances of birds eating the seeds, which wouldn’t be any good. Plus, when your flowers do grow, they help bees with nutrition!

These were the first few packs I bought that started the whole thing. You can get these at almost any garden center like Lowes, Home Depot, or Walmart.
The cool thing about wildflower seeds is that they do well in poor soil. Most of the soil in South Carolina is red and rocky dirt, so perfect for wildflowers.
I was happy to see how many people messaged me about the wildflowers and how invested they were in this! I think it’s a fun little experiment, so I’ll keep you updated weekly. While being in quarantine, it may be a fun idea to order some seeds on Amazon and plant a few.

I found some reputable sellers on eBay for a few, look for thousands of reviews + photos. I bought an entire bundle for $10, and I can’t wait to see them grow. I decided to plant them in some pots to see how they grow in organic potting soil. 
Since my ranunculus won’t last after early summer, I planted them in the pot with it. I lightly covered them with soil, watered them, and…

They started sprouting up a week later! I was so excited!  
And they’ve been growing each day slightly In about 90 days we may see a flower!
And my other camellias and ranunculus are doing well Going out to check on them with my coffee in the morning has become a favorite part of my routine. The small things we appreciate during social distancing  
It had six new buds this morning and five big blooms. 
And another one of my recent wildflower purchases has arrived. I think I’m going to plant these in the flower tins I bought. 
On Sunday morning, I made my homemade gluten-free pancakes with blueberry syrup. They were incredible! Super fluffy on the inside and crispy around the edges. I could eat this every day We ended up watching Little Women, and it was amazing! You have to watch it if you haven’t already.
We had to get out of the house on Sunday so we took the boys for a long dog walk. It was weird seeing no one around, but they loved it! I think Grumples was disappointed that he had no one to bark at. 
For dinner, we did a gluten-free turkey burger from Smashburger, Smashfries, and brussels sprouts. We had dinner, finished up a few things for the house, and then headed to the couch to watch American Idol!

Luckily, we have our health. We will all get through this, even though things don’t look so promising right now. Remember to help your community and just stay away from people. Stay curled up on the couch, get outside for a walk, drive around the neighborhood if you feel like you need to go somewhere, get projects done around the house you’ve been putting off, read a book, watch so many shows, eat anything you want, and do everything in your power to stay home. Stay safe!

Questions for you!

1. How are you feeling right now?
2. How are you keeping busy?
3. What is your favorite positive quote?

Less than 20 days until the official start of Spring, although it sure felt like spring the past few days. I hope you all had a relaxing weekend and did something fun to celebrate leap day. Saturday was a fun day, but Kyle got sick Sunday morning, Leo was sick in the middle of the night, and it’s been a little hectic around here! Let’s just get started with this recap, and I’ll catch you up on all of it.
I didn’t have my headstart this morning. I’m usually out of bed by six and already on the couch blogging with coffee and two walked dogs before 7 am. I decided to sleep on the couch last night since Kyle was so sick. I didn’t want to put myself close enough to catch whatever he has. After sleeping on the most comfortable bed in the world (yes, still LOVE my Leesa) I forgot how awful couch sleeping was. And to top it off, I heard Leo getting sick from the top of the stairs all the way to the bottom. It was around 3:30, so I hurried and cleaned everything up, and then took him out for a walk just in case he needed to, well, you know.

Luckily, he woke up this morning feeling fine, and was acting normal on the walk and ate his food just as fast as he does every morning. But after I hit publish on this recap, I’m heading to CVS to pick up a few things for the sick men in this house.

On Thursday (I’ll go back to the full weekend-recap posts in the spring!), I cleaned and staged the entire house for the listing photos. I’ll share all the photos from that in a few weeks since I’ve never done a house tour. I was pretty happy with how they turned out, but it was WORK

For my breakfast, I had my avocado toast on gluten-free bread, an over-medium egg, and plum with honey. After finishing up the house project, I had a frozen raspberry smoothie! I used unsweetened cashew milk, frozen raspberries, and chocolate Orgain protein powder. This was the first smoothie I’ve had in a long time, and it was delicious! I ended up having multiples of these throughout the week. 
For dinner, I made roasted cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and mixed it in with my enchilada and chicken rice from the night before. I’m officially back on that cauliflower kick. 
After dinner, I made MY FAVORITE oatmeal cream pie recipe. I always use the bob’s red mill gluten-free flour and earth balance butter to make them gluten & dairy-free, and you can’t even tell the difference. I made them for Kyle to bring into work, and they were a big hit These are my go-to recipe for impressing anyone! You can find the recipe here.

On Friday morning, I had my last avocado (refusing to buy more so I can force myself to eat something different ) with my gluten-free toast and some fresh fruit with honey. Friday night was so relaxing. We made chicken wings and salad and then watched our show. I was so tired on Friday that I was counting down the minutes until I could crawl into bed. And of course, once I got into bed, I got hooked on a dateline and didn’t get to sleep until way later.
We met with a contractor on Saturday morning to get some quotes for some future projects we want to be done once we move in. We love the look for the industrial black wrought iron glass doors, so we are looking to get a few of them on the closets, my office door, and a large one into the loft. We are also getting a quote to change the stair railings. We aren’t set on changing them because I kind of like the traditional railings right now, but we are getting a quote just in case.

On Saturday, they finished more sanding, added a few more doors, and are continuing to put up the trim. We had our phone meeting this morning and we were told that the tile would be installed this week, the countertops have been ordered, and the paint will be completed by Saturday. I can’t wait to recheck the house this weekend.

I just shared my ideas for what we’ll do with these french doors and what we are doing with this room on my home-build Instagram account. Most people use this room for an office, but we are going to make it our piano and reading room. I can’t wait to add the bold colors and warmth to this room! 
It’s also a tradition to bring the new contractors donuts on the weekends!  
We headed to Spice for a late-lunch Saturday afternoon, and it was delicious! I love all the new businesses coming to Fort Mill!

I ordered the salmon salad and the vegan spring rolls. I can’t wait to go back when I’m super hungry and order their pad thai!

After lunch, we headed to the movie theater to see The Invisible Man. It was a 10/10, and you HAVE to see it! Sometimes movies like that can be a real let down, but not this one.

I had to share this necklace. My brother’s girlfriend got me for my birthday! It has the date Kyle and I got engaged on it So so so so sweet of her!
I spent Saturday morning putting together the photos for our realtor and then met up with Becca uptown for a project we’ve been working on. We had some extra time and decided to split some delicious fries from Be Good. French fries are never a bad idea.  
FINALLY FEELING LIKE SPRING!  
We finished up around 5 pm, headed to Whole Foods, and then headed back home!

I picked up sparkling water at Caribou and had my Vanilla Almond RXBAR on my way home. It’s the new flavor they sent me, and IT’S SO GOOD!!! They keep crushing it with these new flavors.

For dinner, I had cauliflower pizza and brussels sprouts

Well, it’s time for me to run to CVS to help take care of Kyle! poor guy! I hope you all have the BEST week!!!

Questions for you!

1. Did you have spring weather this weekend?
2. What is the last movie you went to see?
3. Did you do anything to celebrate leap day?

also—- if you watch The Bachelor! TALK BACHELOR with me!! Let me know who you want to win or your ending theories!!

Before I begin with this week’s recap, I wanted to say thank you for all the support on Monday’s post. I wasn’t sure how to put my thoughts into words with that subject, but you all seemed to understand. I was also surprised to learn that many of you were having the same thoughts, and I loved hearing your opinions on the whole art of blogging vs. social media world.

Anyways, I hope you all had a fantastic week and even better weekend, and let’s get this recap started!

Like last week, I didn’t blog much of my weekdays, but I do have a few photos to share!

After finishing up my blogs, I had some avocado toast and tried to finish up a painting of the new house with cottage style flowers. I regret starting this project because it’s taking forever, but I refuse to leave it unfinished. I may try to knock it out while watching Bachelor tonight.
For dinner, I finally decided to try out Hello Fresh. I had a $50 coupon in the mail, and that meant a week’s worth of meals for $20 bucks! This was their stuffed poblano peppers! I used Daiya cheese and Kite-Hill for the replacements to make it dairy-free, and the recipe was phenomenal. Kyle and I both loved it. There was a ton of extra filling, so I added a couple of bell peppers in there to make it last longer. The leftovers were a nice treat the next day.
We had a snow day on Thursday!

The snow is always prettier and more enjoyable when it’s rare, which is the case down here. I didn’t feel the same when I was living in the midwest. It only stuck onto our cars, but it was nice while it lasted.
I am going to try to change up my breakfasts soon. I haven’t gotten sick of my avocado toast and fresh fruit yet, but I think it’s time. Once the ingredients run out, I’ll try something new It’s pretty much the same thing every day, remember how long it took me to kick my protein oats breakfast? 
On Friday, I took a trip to the mall with my mom, so we could get out of the house for a while. It was cold and rainy all week, the perfect excuse to hang out and get our steps in at the mall.

The only thing we ended up purchasing was Chipotle! I couldn’t believe it, but this was her very first time trying Chipotle! She’s a fan (I mean…who isn’t?)

Friday evening, I made rice, shrimp, and zucchini from Hello Fresh for Kyle and I. Another win at dinner with their meal service.
The house is coming along so quickly. Every time I come here to blog, something has changed, and that is why we visit so often. It’s also important because sometimes we’ll notice things they did wrong, and we’re able to have them fix it before it’s too late. Last week, we saw they installed a few solid doors, but we had glass doors, so they made sure to get the correct ones installed

Our railings went up, the crown molding, trim, cabinets, doors, brick, and a few more things! It’s so amazing to see it look like an actual house.

We are eventually going to change the white railing posts for black wrought iron ones. We weren’t fans of the ones the builders had as an option, and they were super pricy, so we will have those installed later in the year along with the wrought iron door that leads into the loft. I think that’s the fun part about building a house; we get to continue to add our personal touches once you move in as well. The only problem is being patient and not trying to do it all at once!
But one of the first things I’ll do is change out the hardware pulls on the cabinets. They do not go well in my kitchen, and I need something a bit more modern. I think they’ll look fabulous in a kitchen with more of a farmhouse feel, but that’s not the look I’m trying to do. One of my neighbors has them installed in her kitchen, and they look really fancy and fitting in there, but with my kitchen being SO WHITE, they stand out too much. The ones I have in my hands here will be the replacements  
On Saturday, we headed to a few home stores to check out stair runners. We think we know which ones we are going to go with, and we love that they come from a local store! We are going to try to shop local for decor pieces as much as we can. The store is called Main & Gray, and it’s in Fort Mill SC if you’re local and want to stop in there! They have some amazing decor and fun pieces to add to your living space.
I love the Dash & Albert black and ivory rug for our stairs. They’ll be able to custom cut the rug for us to have installed, which is going to be a must since we have two dogs that like to spring down the stairs! Safety first
We love bringing the contractors Krispy Kremes on Saturday mornings. There are always new contractors working on the house, so it’s fun to meet them and give them a treat for working so dang hard. 
On Saturday afternoon, I picked up a few dahlia tubers to put in pots to kickstart for my garden. In a few months, I’ll be able to plant them in the yard!

Saturday night, Kyle and I headed to my friend, Emily’s housewarming party. It was nice seeing the girls, and finally getting out of the house to be social. The end of February is always a hard one for me. I feel like cuddling up and going to bed at 7 pm and waking up when it’s spring. I still have to force myself to be social, but once I’m out, I have a good time. I know for a fact some of you can relate lol

Sunday morning called for gluten-free french toast, fresh strawberries, sautéed blueberries, and maple chicken sausage.
We usually wouldn’t stop by two days in a row (wait, yes we would!), but we had to see what the front looked like since they were putting the siding and board and batten up! I wanted to cry when we pulled up to the house because it finally looked like a home. I still want to white-wash the brick, but that will be another thing added to my to-do list. I’m hoping that my flowers will cover it all and then I won’t have to worry about it right away.

Oh, and did I tell you…WE GOT OUR CLOSING DATE!

We will be moving into our home on April 24th! That’s 59 days, and it’ll be here before we know it. We are going to try to have all the lights installed, and a few more projects done before officially moving in. We decided to take our time with selling our current house, and we most likely won’t put it on the market until April.
When we got home Sunday morning, Kyle finished up some work, and I finished up a blog post from my potted herb garden, I did a few years back. I thought I lost those photos, but finally found them in a random album on my lightroom! I was so happy and finished writing up that blog, and I’ll have that go live Wednesday!

I made some vegan & gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies! I want to perfect the recipe a bit more (thinking coconut oil will do the trick), and then I’ll share that recipe with you all. They were delicious, but I want to work on the texture
Kyle made dinner for us last night, and we ended our evening watching American Idol. I’m so happy it’s back because it’s our favorite Sunday tradition. I don’t crave chicken wings, but Kyle is the ULTIMATE at making them. I still need him to write out his recipe for the blog.

It’s time for me to head out on a dog walk before the rain starts and get back in with some coffee and catch up on emails and your comments! Have an incredible week, and I’ll catch up with you in the next blog post!

Questions for you!

1. Do you ever find yourself trying to tackle too many things at once?
2. What Spring activity are you most looking forward to?
3. Describe your weekend in one word.

If you are here reading today, come and say “hi” in the comments. I’d love to meet the silent readers, and connect with those stopping by! It always makes my Monday’s a whole lot better when I see your comments and get the opportunity to meet you. I mentioned this briefly on twitter the other day, but it feels like so many people have stopped commenting on blogs and have moved towards reaching out via Instagram or direct messages. Even though that’s great, and I love seeing you there, blogging becomes a little less fun when most of my time is spent connecting on Instagram. It’s a great platform, but I put more of my heart over here. I get about 30+ DM’s a day on Instagram and don’t get to read all of them. Comments on my blog? I see every single one of them and will always reply back. I fear that the art of blogging is going to be taken over by other platforms, and the content you once read will mold into evergreen content that is better for Google searches. I truly love this space, but the art of blogging is slowly fading in the shadow of social media platforms, and I just wanted to put this message out there.

now on to the recap
I know I said I wasn’t going to blog much on the weekdays, but this last-minute french toast decision was picture-worthy.

I used the Canyon Bakehouse gluten-free bread with egg, sprinkled cinnamon and syrup on top, and then cooked the blueberries and bananas with a little maple syrup and vegan butter to give them a crispy finish.  

After working on Monday, I spent my evening eating leftovers and watching the Bachelor. I hate this season, but can’t look away. 
I haven’t had the chance to share this recipe yet, but it’s all Kyle and I have been eating. I usually cook half of the batch and roll the other half up into balls to freeze for cookie dough treats. I promised myself this would be the last time I make them because we cannot stop eating them. They’re delicious, especially in the afternoon with coffee. 
Fast forward to Valentine’s Day! How awesome that it fell on a Friday this year?

After finishing up work early, I had my avocado toast and chicken maple sausage from Applegate with breakfast. And yes, I do eat the kiwi skin. It’s the best and healthiest part of the fruit. I had this exact breakfast Tue through Sun, and now I need to go to the store to pick up the same ingredients! I’m waiting for the day to come where I get sick of Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel Seasoning, but it’ hasn’t arrived yet. It honestly makes anything taste amazing.

I spent Valentine’s day out at my parent’s house. Even though it was super cold out, the sun was shining, and I thought it would be great to let the dogs run around in the backyard. My mom made the cutest valentine’s day gingersnap hearts, and we watched a movie together. If you haven’t seen Instant Family yet, you need to. It’s one of my favorite movies, and it’ll have you crying and laughing off and on for two hours.
When I got home, a gorgeous bouquet from Kyle was on the porch. The pink roses had me excited for spring, and I couldn’t stop staring at the perfect blooms.

I gave him his Valentine’s Daybook, the one I make for him every single year! He loves it, and it’s so neat to have these memories from our year put together in a book. They take a while to make, but it’s so worth it. The quality is incredible, and Mixbook always has excellent discount codes. A lot of you asked for me to do a blog post on how I put the books together, and I definitely will do that soon! 
Kyle and I headed to Crate and Barrel to pick out a few things for the house followed by Reids in Southpark for one of our favorite meals, chicken caesar salad with truffle fries and brussels sprouts! We come here a lot because the food is so darn good, there’s always seating, and we like picking up a gluten-free cake on the way out. We ended up watching a movie on the couch and cuddling up with the pups.

On Saturday morning, I couldn’t stop staring at the gold lamps on the table. They have been so out of place, especially since I’m changing the color of the gold mirror above the couch. I thought about buying new ones but then decided to paint them black and see if that would help. Well, this fifteen-minute makeover turned out pretty good! I didn’t have to buy new lamps, and the paint from my table project did the trick! They look much better since we currently have black kitchen cabinets.

On a side note: I had a lot of people asking why Kyle and I are looking for a new couch when we just purchased this sectional a year and a half ago. We are not going to get rid of this couch; it’s just going to be going upstairs in our loft. Our downstairs is set up completely different than our living room now, and this couch will not work in the room. We have to get two 7 ft couches to fill the space, so that’s why we’ve been on the hunt.
Lunch on Saturday was a turkey sandwich and a La Croix! Yes, Grumples got a bite.

We headed over to the house to look at the backyard with my dad. He’s going to be helping us with some leveling and landscaping, so we needed his opinion on a few things. I brought over our new floors so I could see what it would look like in the lighting, and it’s safe to say that I’m obsessed! 
When we got there, we were so excited to see that our cabinets had arrived!

Sometimes cabinets get delayed, and it was awesome to see ours had been shipped early. They will be getting installed today, and we’ll have our exact closing date by the end of this week!

Keep up to date on the home build and get the latest news first here —> @cottagestory
I hope you’re ready for some cooking tutorials in this kitchen! The lighting in here has been a dream for me. The kitchen we have now is super dark, so I never want to shoot photography in there. This is going to make my job so much easier I won’t have to carry all of my ingredients over to the window.
Here is what our floors look like in the model house. We went with the Durham white cabinets, white backsplash, and white quartz. It’ll be pretty blinding, but with the black hardware, black doors, and other decor pieces, I have a feeling it’ll look pretty good!
We decided to grab dinner with my parents at Napa in Kingsley. There’s a new spot in Fort Mill, SC (right outside of Charlotte) that has grown so fast, and it’s awesome to see all the businesses added to the city. When I first moved to Charlotte, Fort Mill was almost all woods, but that’s not the case anymore. It still has a warm small-town feel, though. My dad and Kyle split a sausage and pepper flatbread pizza while my mom and I enjoyed a glass of malbec.
I ordered the pan-seared salmon with roasted carrots, broccoli, a parsnip puree, and fingerling potatoes. I knew it was going to be dangerous living only six minutes from this spot because HOLY MOLY was this meal delicious. I look forward to coming here in the summer and having lunch outside by the water.
We headed to my parent’s house on Saturday night to have popcorn and play Fibbage. These are the perfect activities for cold February nights.
On Saturday morning, I don’t know what got into me, but I decided to make a vanilla gluten-free cake (came from a box) with vanilla vegan frosting! I added some roses to the top, some edible pearls, and put it on a cute floral antique plate I bought at a thrift store a few years ago. I saw a rose garden cake on Instagram, and I think it definitely inspired my Saturday morning cake baking. 
On Saturday afternoon, I picked up an almond milk cappuccino and headed to Dolce Lusso to get my hair done. I’m so happy they opened a location in my new town! I won’t have to drive 30-minutes to get there anymore. I had two inches cut off, and a few layers added. I want to get the red tint out of my hair, but I’m trying my hardest not to die it for a while. The blonde from last summer is coming thought, making it red, but I’m going to try to embrace it for a while.

And if you thought baking a garden cake was out of character, I ended up pulling out the paints and started painting our new house. I want to paint the house and surround it with all kinds of flowers. I’m going to put it in the downstairs guest room in the new house. Cross your fingers it turns out! I have about nine more layers of details to do. Cheers to trying new things, I guess!

Questions for you!

1. Did you do anything special for Valentine’s Day?
2. How do you spend your cold winter nights on the weekend?
3. Have you tried anything lately that was entirely out of your character?

Thank you for stopping by today! xo xo

After a crazy weekend of tornados, snowstorms, and rain, I’m so glad to have the sun shining through my windows this morning. Of course, I expected the wild weather would happen eventually. Spring isn’t officially allowed to start in the south without a random blizzard followed by 60-degree weather. I’m just glad we got that one out of the way. I think most states had some crazy weather over the weekend, so I hope you’re all getting a little dose of sunshine, too.

Today’s recap is super short. I decided to spend the week mostly phoneless and only blogged about a few highlights of my weekend. 
My computer was being strange this morning and wouldn’t charge. I’m pretty sure it’s the cord, but I decided to shut it down and allow it to charge for an hour before I gave up. Luckily, it worked. While my computer charged, I relaxed in bed with my coffee and started reading through my new flower book. I’ve watched so many YouTube videos that there was none left, and now I’m turning to the books. Gardening has been my recent obsession, and I’ve been learning all about plants, which ones will work best in my area, and how to go about growing them. In a few weeks, I’m going to start planting seeds in pots to take to the new house this spring. I think it’s really neat to see flowers that you’ve grown from seeds come to life. They’re going to be a bit more special. I plan on planting a ton of perennials so that they come back each year bigger and better. For the side windows of my house, I have big plans for climbing roses and camellia trees! 
Leo is more into using the book as a pillow. 
Most of Charlotte was closed from the Thursday tornados and bad weather. I was happy to have Kyle home working with me, so I made him an extra plate of my go-to breakfast, avocado egg toast, and fresh fruit. I seriously never get sick of this breakfast.

Friday evening, I attempted to bake some homemade waffle fries, but they turned out pretty awful. They were chewy and tasted like potatoes chips, so I’m going back to the air fryer next time! I finally have the chick-fil-a sauce down right, but making the fries has been a struggle. I know I could easily do them in a frying pan, but I’m trying to avoid that method.
I ended up eating roasted brussels sprouts, a few of the salvaged potatoes, a honey mustard cabbage salad (a store-mix), and lemon pepper chicken breast. We started watching The Pharmacist on Netflix, and it was a fantastic documentary. 
And out of nowhere on Saturday afternoon, it started snowing! It wasn’t a light flurry either; it was a full-on blizzard! Of course, it melted as soon as it hit the ground, which made for a mess, but it was fun to see.

It was the perfect excuse to cozy up on the couch and have a bowl of spaghetti squash and gluten-free toast for lunch!  
It snowed for a good two hours on Saturday. We decided to drive by the house to see it in the snow, and it was pretty neat. The backyard view with the snow falling gave me goosebumps, and not only because I was cold!

Also, LOL at my outfit.
Seeing the drywall up made it all feel so real. 
On Sunday morning, I met up with my girlfriends at Labelle Helene in Uptown. I’ve wanted to go to this spot for so long, so I was happy we finally did it.
I ordered their two farm-fresh over-medium eggs, roasted fingerling potatoes, and fresh fruit. Everything was delicious! 
The atmosphere in this place is probably one of the best in Charlotte. It’s stunning! It actually looks a lot like how we decorated our master bathroom
On Sunday night, we did our home check-up. We love doing this together on Sunday nights, even if we already went the day before! Can you tell we are just super excited and anxious to get in there? We got fortunate because we ended up visiting at the same time our next-door neighbors were visiting their house. It was so lovely to be able to meet them, and I think we got pretty darn lucky. They were awesome!
I know I’ve been rocking crazy hair and wild eyebrows lately, but I loved this photo Kyle took of me during sunset at the house. Also, these cotton linen overalls from Amazon are all I want to wear lately! I bought them in almost every color because of how comfortable they are. I originally bought them because they were lightweight with pockets for yard work, but now I’m living in them  
Can’t wait! 

We tried Starbuck’s new Almond milk honey flat whites yesterday but wasn’t a fan at all. It sounded delicious, but I’ll stick to the stronger drinks! This is why I never try things out of my norm.

Dinner it was delicious. I made gluten-free tacos with ground turkey, peppers, onions, and baked the tortilla. I watched a bit of the Oscars last night but fell asleep shortly after. I can never stay awake for those things!

Time to walk the dogs, finish up my work list, and then get ready for Bachelor Monday tonight! I hope you all have the best week

Questions for you!

1. If you love a clothing item, do you buy it in every color?
2. Do you ever try new drinks at Starbucks (or your favorite coffee shop?)
3. Did you have any crazy weather this weekend?

We love doing our weekly check-ups at the house. It’s crazy how much they change within a week. I’ve been trying to take as many photos of the process as I can so I can put together a fun timeline blog post once it’s done. And don’t forget to follow my home’s account on Instagram for all the updates (follow here)

Last week, the electrition had all the outlets, lighting hookups, and more installed. We had them pre-wire a ton of unique places for fun lights! I’m most excited about sharing that process.

The next time you see a house update, the outside will be painted all white! We will eventually have the brick painted white, and the garage doors painted black.
On Sunday night, I made the best dairy-free and gluten-free fettuccine alfredo! It was fantastic, and I had to blog it right away because I knew you all would love it. Make sure to check out the recipe here! I had been craving fettuccine for so long, and this hit the spot.
I spent most of my week behind the computer working and in the kitchen recipe testing. On Monday, I had to have a part replaced on the furnace, so that was a fun ordeal.

Peaches, gluten-free bread, and avocado for Wednesday’s breakfast!

On Wednesday, we had a walk-thru with our builder, which was so neat. He showed us all the updates, things to look out for in the walls, and went over light locations and outlet locations to make sure they were installed correctly.
For breakfast on Thursday, I had gluten-free toast, avocados, everything but the bagel seasoning, eggs, banana, homemade granola, and blueberries! I was so excited because I headed up to Raleigh to take some newborn photos. Photography is something I’ve been diving into lately as a hobby, and it’s fun when I get to capture special moments.

Here are some fun shoots I did this past month.

Before driving home after the shoot, I stopped into Blaze pizza. I had wanted to try this place out forever, and I was hungry enough to do it. I did build your gluten-free pizza with vegan cheese, peppers, onions, pineapple, and spinach. IT WAS AMAZING, and the cost was unreal. I had half for lunch before driving home and ended up eating the other half for dinner. Luckily, we have a Blaze in Charlotte, so I’ll be picking up pizzas from there more often.
I turned 29 on Friday! I spent the rainy day with Becca antique shopping, and then we had lunch together at Cava! It was so sweet of her to take the day off of work just to hang out with me on my Birthday. She’s truly the best.

I had the salad bowl at Cava. It came with their super green mix, brown rice, carrots, brussels sprouts, harissa hummus, classic hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes, chicken, and garlic dressing. 
And what’s a birthday for me without a dinner at The Garden Cafe!

I spent the evening with my family at my favorite spot. I love this little gem and have been coming here for the past six years. I ordered the citrus lime salmon with aioli and sweet potato hash.

Saturday was our EXTREME cleanout day.

I didn’t wait to dirty up the house before we had a showing on Sunday, so I had a smoothie for breakfast at Clean Eatz in Fort Mill and a delicious salad from Panera bread for lunch. I had the other half with chili the night before.

Remember when I said things happen fast? Well, a few days after our builder’s meeting, the drywall has begun!
I cannnnnnot wait!! Make sure to follow the account for my Q & A I’m doing today!! You can head over there and ask me anything.
I still have not gone grocery shopping, so I was eating whatever was in the house. After I hit publish, that’s where I’m going! I ended up making a homemade vegan cheese sauce that is absolutely incredible! I mixed it in with my baked cauliflower gnocchi, and it was the best dinner while watching the Superbowl.

All I did for the sauce was bring about 1 cup of unsweetened cashew milk to a boil, mixed in one tablespoon of gluten-free flour, two tablespoons of nutritional yeast, a splash of black pepper, onion salt, garlic powder, and olive oil! You can add extra spices to fit your taste, but I think I’ll add jalapenos next time! It was a quick sauce to make and tasted just like cheese.

And then we treated ourselves to my 3-ingredient brownies while watching the football game! It was cool seeing the Cheifs win! Anyways, I hope you all have the best week, and get some beautiful weather your way! Only 46 more days until Spring!

Questions for you!

1. Did you stay up and watch the Superbowl?
2. Do you have a secret hobby?
3. What is one thing you always have on your grocery list?