appropriate

am i the only one who feels lost when it comes to what kind of art belongs in a bathroom? in my previous bathroom, I had a sort of nautical inspired thing going on and so that made it easy. but in my constant need for decor change, the nautical theme feel to the wayside when we moved.

so, my bathroom wall has been empty for almost a year now. how pathetic. well, i was finally motivated to fix my situation and it struck me how thoroughly appropriate it would be to transfer my toilet paper roll art from my office to my bathroom. so i did just that.

I also added to it a bit since I had some more tp rolls stored up.

It is just the right size for the space and even Josh commented on how he liked it. I call that a win.

party picks

i have really good intentions for planning killer parties, especially in the summertime. but somehow life always gets in the way and I end up with a cookout where people are lucky if I remembered to get out my favorite yellow gingham serving tray. but if i had all the time and money in the world, here's what i would want to do for all my parties:

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someday i'll pull it off, mark my words.

p.s. we've reached 100 followers!! as promised, keep your eyes peeled for an awesome giveaway coming very soon!

happiness booster

Do you guys have something in your life (save people and pets) that when you see it you instantly become happier?

Here is mine:

I don't know if it's the unique pale green color, the pretty little planter, the way it grows or the combination of all of these, but the sheer sight of it is a happiness booster for me.

And who couldn't use a little boost of happiness every now and then?

Celebrating 100

 Today I am celebrating my 100th post!

Since I started this blog, I have learned a lot about the blogging world, met a lot of really great people, and received a lot of kind encouragement to keep up my blogging. I want you all to know that I really appreciate each and every one of your comments - they are the fuel to my blogging fire for sure.

In honor of my 100th post, I thought I'd do a little recap of my blogging adventure thus far.

Blogger told me that my top five most popular posts were:

Labor of Love: How we built our own farmhouse table. 

(This post also received a few features on other great blogs - thanks guys!)

Inspired by knack studios: How we redid our kitchen hutch.

You had me at hello: How to make a personalized wooden sign

Serendipitious: An fun, upcycled jewelry holder

Baby girl nursery mood board: A mood board creation for my bff's baby nursery

(if you like this, you're gonna love the finished product!)

I also shared some great recipes,

 some thriftiness, 

some diy ideas,

some craft projects, 

and some home decor inspiration.

I hope you've all enjoyed reading thus far - if you have any ideas or suggestions for stuff you'd like to see more of, please leave a comment and let me know!

In other exciting 100 news, I have a fun giveaway in the works for when we reach 100 followers - so spread the word! Love and thanks to all my loyal readers! :)

cherished

I just wanted to share with you all this picture I snapped of my beautiful friend Jessica just days before Baby Brayden was born. When I saw this photo it reminded me of the cherished photo of Diane Keaton's character that is given out in the movie The Family Stone. I hope that one day this will be a photo that Brayden will cherish of his mother.

out of my system: diy moss letter

I have had this image bookedmarked forever. 

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in this case forever is 2009 in case you were wondering. i had recently gotten married and i remember wishing I had seen this image a few months earlier so that I could have used the idea. 

when I saw this image again recently, I found myself still wishing I would have made these for my wedding. i knew there was only one way the feeling would die - I either had to convince someone I know who is getting married to let me do it for their wedding or I just had to do it for myself now.

at this point it became apparent to me that I am totally out of the wedding phase of my life - I couldn't think of anyone I know that is planning a wedding! weird. am I really old enough that now all my friends are going to start having babies?!

on to plan B: do it for myself.

materials needed: cardboard letter, package of moss, hot glue

This is a very simple project - take your cardboard letter, be generous with your hot glue, and go to town attaching your moss.

It only took half a bag to cover my letter.

Then display it in the place of your choosing. I wanted to use mine to help cover up my old granny front door.

But the letter itself wasn't cutting it, so I put my huge grapevine wreath back in it's normal spot and incorporated the moss g with it.

Glad I got that out of my system. 

ironic

if you've ever wondered why i named by blog honeysuckle, i answer this question in my very first blog post. i was always a little miffed that there was no honeysuckle to be found on or around Honeysuckle Court, but we've just discovered we have wild honeysuckle growing at our current house. how ironic.

tinge of pride

I grew up admiring my thrifty and frugal mother who made sacrifices so that she could stay at home and raise her four children. Part of these sacrifices included buying things second-hand. I can remember sitting down with my mother and scouting out all the yard sales in the local paper and circling the ones we wanted to go to. I loved going to yard sales with my mom. She'd buy us clothes and things we needed for the house and I would buy stuffed monkeys. I collected stuffed monkeys back then and let me tell you, I had a pretty impressive collection. I never saw any shame in buying someone else's old stuff.

This is still true for me. I sort of wavered in high school, working as a waitress, only to spend most of my paychecks on new clothes at the mall. But I came back to my roots. My mom and I still trade stories of fun things and great deals we've gotten from yard sales and thrift stores.  Sometimes I'll look down at myself and mentally note that everything I am wearing is from the thrift store - This whole outfit only cost me $8, I'll think to myself.

I feel a tinge of pride knowing there's just one more way I'm like my mother.

saving money on vacation

It's really easy to break the bank and lose sight of your budget while on vacation. Josh and I know this about ourselves, so when we were planning our trip to Florida, we decided to do some pre-planning and set a budget of $100 for food for the week. We also wanted to make our trip special and eat out a few times, which we rarely do at home. And our room only had a partial kitchen (half size frig, stovetop, and microwave - no oven), so we were limited in making meals.

Here's how we did it:

1) Restaurant.com

We had never taken advantage of this great website because our local options are not great. But when we searched the Daytona Beach area, there were tons of great restaurants to choose from! We chose 3 restaurants that looked good and were able to get $25 gift certificates at a greatly discounted price!

2) Gift cards

We were given a gift card to Olive Garden as a graduation present and since we already had our trip planned, we decided to save it and use it in Florida as one of our nights to eat out! This is where pre-planning come into play - if you know you're planning a trip, save your gift cards from Christmas, birthdays or other special occasions to use while you're away!

3) Eat-in when you can

We intentionally got a room with a partial kitchen so that we could save some money on food. We ate all of our breakfasts in the room and packed lunches on the beach. 

4) Meal plan & coupon

Since we knew our room would have a partial kitchen, I was able to plan out what we could easily have for breakfast and lunches and even one dinner. We did cereal, coffee, and bagels & cream cheese for breakfast | sandwiches, chips and cookies for lunches | fruit and granola bars for snacks | spinach, blue cheese and mushroom quesadillas for dinner. I was able to save coupons for these items and we used them and did a mini-shopping trip when we arrived.

5) Leftovers

Several of the restaurants that we went to served very large portions and we were able to bring part of our dinner home and eat it the next day for lunch or dinner.

6) Birthday Freebies

If you can, try to plan a trip around a family member's birthday. There are so many restaurants that give out freebies and coupons good for 2-weeks around your birthday. We celebrated my birthday while we were in Florida and were able to get coffee, ice cream and special treats for free during the week!

Here are some of my favorites:

* Auntie Anne’s: Sign up for Pretzel Perks and get a different coupon every month and a free pretzel for your birthday!

* Baskin Robbins Birthday Club: Sign up and get a coupon via email for a free 2.5 oz scoop of ice cream on your birthday.

* Ben and Jerry’s: Sign up for Chunk Mail and get a FREE Ice Cream Treat on your birthday!

* Bruegger’s: Sign up for Fresh News from Bruegger’s and you’ll snag a coupon for a free bagel with cream cheese upon sign-up and you’ll receive a little something on your birthday.

* Caribou Coffee: Sign up for their email newsletter and snag a coupon for a FREE drink on your birthday!

* Champp’s: Join the Champp’s Fan Club and get a free cheeseburger or appetizer of your choice upon sign-up and a special birthday gift.

* Coldstone Creamery: Join the Birthday Club and you’ll get a free ice cream creation on your birthday.

* Cost Plus World Market: Join the World Market Explorer Rewards Progra and get a surprise birthday gift. *This one is my favorite - they sent me a $10 coupon towards anything in the store - no minimum purchase!

* Dunkin’ Donuts: Sign up for Dunkin’ Perks and get a free medium beverage on your birthday.

* Firehouse Subs: FREE medium sub on your birthday when you show a valid I.D. that has your birthdate.

* IHOP: Sign up for the Pancake Revolution and receive a free meal on your birthday.

* Moe’s Southwest Grill: Join Moe’s e-World and get a coupon for a free entree on your birthday.

* Noodles & Company: Sign up for Noodlegrams and get a coupon for a free bowl on your birthday.

* Red Robin: Join the Red Robin e-Club and get a gift for signing up and a FREE burger on your birthday.

* Ruby Tuesday: Join the So Connected Email Club and you'll get a coupon for a free burger on your birthday.

* Starbucks: Get a FREE Handcrafted beverage of your choice on your birthday when you register a card

(Birthday freebies found via Hip2Save)

So here's the breakdown:

4 Dinners eating out + tips + restaurant.com gc = $60  

Groceries for breakfasts, lunches, snacks, 1 dinner = $30

Leftovers for other dinners = $0

Various treats = $10

Grand Total: $100 for a week of food on vacation!

I was so proud of us for being able to stick to our budget! And I hope some of these tips and tricks can help some of you the next time you go on vacation!

new territory

one thing I get really excited about when I go to new places is checking out the local thrift stores. josh knows this about me. and he's one of those people who likes to make other people really happy on/around their birthday. so one afternoon he toted me around daytona beach in search of treasures.

if I had more room in my suitcase/was able to get furniture, I probably would have picked up a lot more stuff. But here are a few of the treasures I did find in this new thrift territory.

Fun snack bowls in bright yellow: $1 for all 3 

(unfortunately the large pretzel bowl didn't survive the trip home in my suitcase - it cracked).

This funky bird wooden art for our bedroom collage: $1

(I still need to spruce up all the scratches)

Little vintage chalkboard: 30cents

A vintage perpetual calendar: $2

Beautifully patterned tin tray: $.99

Super fun, vintage wedding wrapping paper: $.20

I love it so much, I'm gonna have to force myself to use it or else I'll just hoard it.

I also picked up a few goodies for some friends, but I can't share them or else it'll ruin the surprise!

That's it for the FL finds, but I thought I'd share one of my recent yard sale finds.

I found this old beverage crate at a yard sale for $5.

Pretty good considering Pottery Barn charges $24 for their 'found' crates.

Even better - the guy threw in this old school ruler, a blue mason jar...

 ...and these pretty drinking glasses for free!

Any of you get giddy about thrifting in new places like me?

setting{s}

one of the most daunting things about having a digital SLR is learning the manual settings and then remembering how to use them to create the right picture. I've made it a point from day one of owning my camera not to use the auto setting but to actually learn to take pictures.

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while on vacation, I used our lighthouse sun-setting experience to practice learning my aperture setting.

I've been loving my new lens because it goes down to a lower aperture (lets in more light) and it takes really beautiful pictures. But in this instance, it was too much light and I wasn't able to see the sunset very well.

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I bumped it up just a bit to see if it would make a difference and I set the sun as my focal point.

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I realized if I really wanted a clear sunset, I needed to bump it up a bunch which would make Josh more of a silhouette.

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I think I like this happy medium the best.

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Practice is the best instructor.