1.30.2013

Zany for Zebra

Happy Wednesday chickies!

I am sad to report that I wasn't able to make it to Northern Virginia this past weekend.  By the time I left school at 2:30, the snow had already begun to accumulate, roads were slick, and I even saw a car in the ditch.  I didn't think it was worth the risk to drive on 95 (I hate 95 even in good weather), so AMF and I have rescheduled for a weekend in February.

I was really bummed not to get to go, but at the same time, I was really worn out and a laid-back weekend at home did me a lot of good!

Today, I'd like to share one of my passions with you:  ZEBRA.

I have ALWAYS loved zebra print.  In fact, I remember begging my parents for a hideous zebra coat when I was in third grade.  Picture cheap zebra fur complete with a hood and fake satin liner.  It was bad.  My parents resisted, but finally gave in.  I thought I was HAWT!  Looking back, I realize what a trashy fashion choice it was at a young age.

Nowadays I'd like to think my taste in zebra has matured a bit.  I especially enjoy it in home decor.  I am amazed at how a pop of zebra can transform an ordinary, traditional room to one with pizzazz!

So without further adieu, get a little wild and enjoy some of my favorite zebra rooms.  All can be found and sourced on my Pinterest Home Inspiration board!

This is currently the cover for my Home Inspiration Board and I could not be more smitten with this little bar!  Funky meets traditional in a big way here and I find it to be absolutely perfect!

My favorite touch of zebra in a room is most definitely through a zebra skin rug.
This basic foyer goes from boring to bold with the addition of the rug.

Though traditional black&white zebra is my favorite, I'm not picky!
I LOVE this blue wallpaper as a way to make laundry more bearable.

THAT CHAIR!
A combination of my bamboo obsession and zebra obsession...can it be mine?

This chair too!  Love the feminine skirt!
Looks like blue zebra might be my second favorite...

Zebra gives this romantic, frilly room a bit of edge!

What a warm, inviting office!

Though not my personal style, I love this black and white room with pops of zebra, pink, and blue!

And for the finale!
How awesome is this wall?
I love the mix of prints, color, and textures!

So far, I've only added a little bit of zebra around the apartment.  I received this adorable Nico and Lala stationery for Christmas and framed one of the cards for the gallery wall:

Isn't the zebra, mint, and red a great combination?

I wasn't thrilled with what was in that frame before and think the zebra is the perfect change!

I also ordered this wrapping paper and am saving it for a project-- I'm thinking of making it wall art or using it to decoupage something down the road...


Are you a fan of zebra?

Have you used it in your home?

What are your favorite ways to add pizzazz to a room?

Have a great day!

1.25.2013

Chapel Hill Getaway, Part 2

Yippee, it's Friday!!!

For some reason these last few weeks have seemed to drag by.  I am SO ready for the weekend.  Wishing, hoping, assuming the weather cooperates I am leaving right after school today to head up to Northern Virginia and visit AMF.  She is one of my closest friends from UVA so I cherish the time I get to spend time with her!

Today I am happy to share the rest of our Chapel Hill trip with you.  If you haven't yet read Part 1, click here!

While writing this post, I realized just how many more pics I had from the trip, so sit back and relax--this is going to be another long, picture heavy post!

After finishing our trip down Franklin Street, we enjoyed a late lunch at the Inn's bar.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Inn's special (aka spiked) lemonade!

This was the perfect way to unwind for a bit!

With full bellies, we set out on our next adventure:  Finding the Old Well and exploring campus a bit.


The old well was so pretty and reminded me a bit of Jefferson's architecture at UVA.

I'm planning to put this in the frame I bought at Peacock Alley (see Part 1)

Bryce being a goob!

After the Old Well we looked around for the arboretum but couldn't seem to find it...in the meantime, though, we found a whole other side of Franklin Street (who knew!?!) and explored that a bit!

As we approached Franklin Street we paused for a minute to enjoy the gorgeous sunset and our American flag flying!
BE-AU-TI-FUL!

East Franklin Street was full of restaurants, Tarheel shops, and fun boutiques.  

I really enjoyed looking around Clothes Hound!
They had lots of cute jewelry and fun clothes at very reasonable prices!

We also enjoyed Julian's.
This shop had all the essentials to be a Carolina lady or gent!
All the pretty Carolina blue inside almost made me wish I was a tarheel myself!

We then made our way back to the Inn to get ready for dinner!  We had made reservations for the first and last nights of our trip, but had intentionally left the second night free.  We thought it would be fun to explore and pick a place at random.  The place we chose was 411 West, an Italian restaurant on, you guessed it, Franklin Street!

I was thrilled to wear my new top and jeans from Uniquities! (see Part 1)

Doesn't the restaurant have great curb appeal?

Bryce and I are both huge pasta lovers.  The restaurant made all pastas in house so our decision for dinner was easy!

I ordered the Lemon Linguine with shrimp and scallops.  I enjoyed it, but I really loved Bryce's entree, the Spaghetti Bolognese!

After dinner, we treated ourselves to dessert at the Inn and then went to bed EARLY!  We had enjoyed such a busy day and were worn out!

The next morning we slept in a bit and actually ventured somewhere other than Franklin Street!

Leigh, from Hines Sight Blog, another UNC alum and North Carolina native, had suggested we have brunch at Weathervane inside Southern Season.  The restaurant was beautiful and SO big!  

So pretty!
I enjoyed a traditional breakfast of eggs and bacon. 
Bryce was adventuresome and ordered The Cackalacky--a combination of fried green tomatoes, ham, eggs, and Chapel Hill Cackalacky sauce!

After brunch we decided to check out the store Southern Season where Weathervane was located.  This store featuring gourmet and prepared food, coffee and tea, kitchen and home supplies, candy, gifts, and more was incredible!  Bryce and I spent nearly half the day enjoying every inch of the store.  I'm going to have to devote an entire post to the store, but I'll give you a preview by the picture of our shopping cart.

Yes...we went a little bit overboard!

By the time we finished shopping in Southern Season, we were hungry for lunch (yes...we were in Southern Season so long that our brunch had worn off!)

We decided to check out a restaurant next door called City Kitchen.
It had the coolest atmosphere and their specialty pizzas hit the spot!

Per Bryce's requested we checked out some antiques shops after lunch.

My favorite stop on the antiques circuit was Whitehall Antiques.
How can you not  love a pink store!?

The shop was filled with beautiful things.  I especially loved this plate and jar!

Our last two stops of the day were a visit to Sugarland and a trip to the Chapel Hill bookstore!

Sugarland!

This mosaic entry was incredible!

HELLO gelato!!!

After trying multiple flavors, I went with standard vanilla! 
It was so delicious and rich that I couldn't even finish it all!

On our next trip to Chapel Hill, I plan to return to Sugarland and indulge in one of these Frozen Martinis!

We hit the bookstore on our way back to the hotel and Bryce made fun of me for buying a UNC tee--who says a Wahoo can't wear Carolina Blue?!?  

I snapped this gorgeous picture of the clock tower on our way out!

We made our way back to the Inn, relaxed for a hot second, and then got ready for our last dinner of the weekend.  

We ate at Top of the Hill, a cool restaurant that overlooks all of Franklin Street and is both a brewery and distillery.

Leigh suggested I try their vodka..it did not disappoint!

I ordered their Slow Roasted Pork Mac & Cheese and have been craving it frequently ever since!

I also may have ordered a few more cocktails...Nectar of the Gods was delicious!

And just maybe a delicious dessert too...

Full Bellies = Happy People

Our last dinner was a wonderful finale to the weekend.  

I can't say just enough how much we love Chapel Hill and how nice it was to getaway!  Bryce and I spend most of our free time together, but there is just something so special about exploring a new place together and being free of all the responsibilities home brings.

I'm also already dreaming of a trip back in the near future.  In fact, below is a picture of a text I sent Bryce while writing this very post!


Have you ever been to Chapel Hill?

What are your favorite getaway spots?

Have a great weekend!

1.23.2013

Chapel Hill Getaway, Part 1

Happy Wednesday friends!

How's your week going?

After a 4 day weekend (first snow day and MLK Jr. Day), things are looking good for me!

Today I am happy to finally post about my recent getaway to Chapel Hill with you.

As I've been going through all the pictures, I've realized it probably would be best to break our trip up into 2 parts.  I have A LOT of pictures--we crammed so much into our weekend, so rather than bore you with a ridiculously long post, I figured I'll give you a little bit at a time!  Sit back and enjoy!

Those of you who follow me on Instagram have already had a sneak peek of my trip...but today I have even more to share!

This year, Bryce and I decided that rather than buying each other gifts, it might be fun to do a trip together instead.  We brainstormed places that would be a drivable distance that neither of us had been to before.  Anywhere up North was out (no offense to any Yankee readers), and so naturally we looked into somewhere in North Carolina.  When I thought of Chapel Hill as a potential place, I emailed Caitlin from Southern Curls & Pearls, a UNC alum, to see if she thought it would be a good location and to get ideas of fun things we could do while we were there.  Sweet Caitlin, emailed me back, assuring me it would be a wonderful place to visit and providing me with all sorts of insider scoop about where to stay, eat, shop, and go!

My last weekend of break, we packed our bags and headed to The Carolina Inn, per Catilin's suggestion!

Excuse the quality of this iPhone pic!

When we arrived, I was instantly in awe of the Inn's beauty and Southern charm.  We were immediately greeted by a staff member and quickly found the way to our room.

Our Beautiful Room
All around the inn were frames, like the ones shown above our bed, with North Carolina and Inn history!

Our bathroom was absolutely gorgeous!

Once we got settled in, we kicked back and relaxed until it was time for dinner.

Champagne and Uggs..doesn't get much better than this!
By the way, I received these cute elephant jammies as a birthday present and love them...they're on sale, so check it out:  PJ Salvage!

Dinner our first night was at Lantern and was our favorite meal of the whole trip!


We really indulged--drinks, appetizers, entrees and dessert-- it was wonderful!

I chose the scallops special and was so happy with my choice!

After we got home from dinner, we had a blast exploring the Carolina Inn a bit!

Everywhere I turned I was in awe!

This hallway might have been my favorite spot in the whole Inn!

Or...maybe this birdcage was my very favorite spot!  
I wanted to take it home!

And become friends with these doves!

We even discovered an EGG!!!


If you can't tell we were really into the birds...


We took a few mirror pics and then headed for the lobby...

I was thrilled that Christmas decorations were still up...this tree was absolutely gorg!

I also wanted to take one of these little guys home!

Gingerbread Barn!

Finally we decided to head up to our room...we couldn't turn in for the night without exploring our floor a bit though!

There were adorable seating areas around every corner!

Black and White Checkered floors are my fav!

Come in and sit a spell!

After all of our explorations, we finally called it a night!  Our first night there was a wonderful introduction to Chapel Hill and foreshadowed all the fun ahead!

Saturday morning we slept in, enjoyed a light breakfast, and then headed to Franklin Street to check out some of the shops and sites we had seen on our walk to Lantern the night before.

Our first stop was at Peacock Alley...I had seen the words "LILLY" and "SALE" in the window the night before, so you know it was on my list of places to go!

The store did not disappoint.  It was filled with furniture, home accents, art, linens, gifts, and more!

I really, really, really wish I could have brought this bar cart home!

I also would have liked that top left pink and green Lilly pillow!

And this entire bedroom, tehe!

Our next shopping stop was at Uniquities.  I knew I was in the right place when a rack of designer denim was on sale on the sidewalk.  Once I went inside though, I was even more pleased!  The store was huge and had a great selection of designers, including one I'd never heard of before and LOVED:  Daven!  Have y'all heard of Daven?  Since discovering it at Uniquities, I've tried to track it down online with no luck...

Makes me excited just looking back at this picture!

I came home with some wonderful goodies:

Daven Top & Sweater, Seven Skinny Crop & Roll Jeans, Two's Company Ikat Frame, Bamboo Spreader, Silver Napkin Holder, and Tortoise Cuff

I'm thrilled to use the the napkin holder as a catch all for jewelry and perfume!

After all this shopping (Bryce was a GREAT sport), we headed to Carolina Brewery.  Bryce is what I call a beer snob and also has gotten into making his own home brews, so this was one of his favorite parts of the trip!

They had quite the selection!

I thought the copper was so pretty!


Working hard!

Bryce enjoyed their Flagship IPA and their Oatmeal Porter.

I enjoyed their ice water with lemon (I am not a beer drinker), ha!

:)

After enjoying a few brews, we headed back to the inn, stopping at some bookshops along the way!  

And here, I will leave you waiting anxiously (hehe) to read more about the rest of our trip!  Be back Friday with Part 2!

Have a great day!