It’s in the Details

God is an amazing artist and I am so thankful that we are blessed to see this beautiful sunset and I am grateful that we are able to enjoy the beauty that he creates. 

It seems as though I am always decorating or designing something.  If I am not physically putting something together, I am picturing something in my head that would look better than it does at the present time. I can be driving and see a house, and in my head, I am adding shutters, changing paint colors and landscaping, to give it curb appeal with pizzazz.     

Ideas and influences come to me from everywhere. I love to travel and I recently took a couple of small trips, where I was able to get some great ideas. First, I went to Florida to visit my sister Lisa, to surprise her for her 50th birthday. Those of you that know me, know that I am an only child, but God blessed me with a friend that I call my sister over 20 years ago, and even though we live many miles apart, we are close as ever.

While there, I had the opportunity to visit a beautiful central Florida cattle ranch. The ranch is owned by a family that visits a few times a year and celebrates holidays by inviting family to visit and stay in one of the two Flordia cracker houses. Many people do not know that Florida is the second largest cattle state, ranked behind Texas. Florida cowboys are called crackers, from cracking their whips while herding their cattle.  Hence, the houses they live in are called cracker houses. 

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Frank and I also took a trip to Texas to visit our daughter Meredith, and to go to the Alabama vs USC football game. Roll Tide. Meredith recently moved to Fort Worth to start her dream job of working at a zoo.  She is a keeper at the Fort Worth Zoo. We are so proud that she is doing so well, and for going after her dreams. We also went down to Waco and visited Magnolia Market, that is owned by Chip and Jo Ann Gaines from the Fixer Upper show on HGTV. 

There were times, I doubted it would ever happen, but the weekend before traveling to Texas, we actually moved to the river house. We slung our clothes and some stuff in the house and then headed to the airport. Even though, we still have a long way to go, we are excited to be here now, and are trying to organize and put away. We have a bedroom, bathroom, and laundry room that are mostly finished, and are working to make improvements every day. I love to mix old with new, vintage and modern, and if I had to categorize the style of our house, I would say that it is a modern -farm/lake house – with nautical influence. Here are some of our details…

Until next time…. Keep Smiling.