HomeGoods Is My Happy Place!

My friend Jacquelyn is a new first time home buyer (congrats Jac!) and knowing my recent interest in home deco,r she asked me to accompany her to HomeGoods yesterday.  I am supposed to be saving money right now until Tye and I are settled in steady jobs again, so I was reluctant at first, but it doesn't take a lot of convincing to get me to go to HomeGoods!  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with HomeGoods, a sister company of TJMaxx and Marshalls and carries a ton of home goodness!  They have everything from bedding and linens, to rugs, furniture, kitchen and cooking supplies, decor and more!  It is seriously an amazing place!  Like TJMaxx and Marshalls, you can find some amazing deals on designer products for you home and every time you go, the inventory has changed, no two stores have all the same stuff, and you never know what you may find!  It's one of those places that you can't go looking for a specific item, but if you go with a broad idea of what you need/want, you are very likely to find it, and get a heck of a deal at the same time!  I really good go on forever about how great this place is!  So yesterday within 5 seconds of walking through the door we stumbled across this amazing loveseat.

In case you can't tell from the pic, the seat is done in a leopard print fabric and the middle pillow (which came with the loveseat) is a faux fur!  I just love this piece and Jac's house just happens to have the whole Tuscan/rustic thing going for it.  Perfect right?!  The new sofa she purchased for her living room has leather and studs and we thought this would compliment it nicely.  It was priced at $799, compare to $1400, although I have found that their "compare to" prices are rather conservative and are underestimated at times.  Jac wanted to check with her significant other prior to making a larger purchase, but I will be hounding her until this little baby finds it's way into her home!  Jac did end up leaving with a gorgeous painting for her living room as well as a few accent pieces and even a little treat from the Marshalls side of the store for sweetie.  (All the better to butter him up to the new loveseat idea...wahahahaha!- my evil plot laugh)  So I know you are wondering if I was able to restrain myself and leave the store empty handed and the answer is....no, of course not.  I was restrained though, because I did not even leave with a quarter of what I wanted to leave with!  Baby steps... Anyways, so when I came across some Ralph Lauren bedding, I remembered just how much I liked my Ralph Lauren inspired engagement pictures and got the great idea to add a little Ralph to other aspects of my life, including my bedroom!  I found various pieces from the Edgefield collection and decided to go with it, how could I not at these prices?!?  I found the shams with retailed for $200 for $19.99, the bedskirt which retailed for $160 for $5.99, and some decorative pillows that retailed for $130 for $19.99!  Those are some pretty serious discounts!  Here's a pic I found on Amazon.com...

Now, I'm not gonna get the whole collection, but I am going to use a few pieces and do a slightly different take on this look.  I love this collection, but think that the total look may be a little too themed for me.  I like the classic, traditional, with a touch of equestrian feel, but I think that I need to add a little bit of glamour to make if perfect for me!  I'll let you know when I figure out what that glamour is, or if you have any ideas, I'm all ears!  Oh and check out this painting I found...

I didn't get it, but I'm thinking about it!  It's a little more modern than I would normally drift toward, but it reminded me of several painting I have seen featured in Traditional Home and House Beautiful lately and I was thinking it could work above the fireplace?  I don't know, I'm thinking this one over, what do you think?  I'll leave you with one last pic of an item I did purchase,

Isn't this such a lovely horse?  For just $19.99, I fell in love with him and just had to have him!  Check out homegoods.com to find one near you and also be sure check out some amazing finds other customers have found as well!  Bye for now!

Taylor Takes On "Ralph Lauren Inspired" Engagement Pics!

Ok, so I have not had a very good start to this whole blogging thing, well keeping up with it anyways!  I don't have a good excuse, but the one that I am going to use is that I wanted to blog about my engagement pics and had to wait for them to be developed...(I told you it wasn't good, but it is the truth)!  So about these engagement pics.  I wanted to do something different, but had no idea how to make my pics different then every other pic I was seeing.  I knew that I had an amazing photographer (brittanydawsonphotography.com) and that she had shot some beautiful pictures on farms/land in my fiance's hometown, but I was struggling to figure out what to wear, and how I could make my pictures unique.  When you think of outside pics in fields or on farms, you probably think of a sundress and boots (well if you live in Texas you do), and don't get me wrong, I love the look of a sundress with boots, but I had also seem it done so many times already and was determined to make my pictures different.  Plus, we were already going to be in a field/on a farm, which was not very "Taylor" to start, so I really didn't want to look like I was trying to be someone I wasn't by adding some cowgirl boots and going totally country western with the shoot.  I love, love, love magazines and have 16 subscriptions, so while looking through one of my many publications one night I came across an ad for Ralph Lauren Romance perfume and my creative juices started flowing.  Here was a gorgeous picture showing a couple running in a field...(note: my location)...but the woman was not wearing a sundress, she was in a full blown gown!  YAY!!!!   Inspiration found!  I have a confession, I am a girly girl and I did do a pageant or two (well 5 total actually), and I did spend three years of my life working for a boutique that specialized in formal wear as a salesperson and buyer so where I'm getting at with all of this is that I LOVE dresses, especially formal ones!  Perfect right!?!  So with that I started my search for the perfect dress for my pictures!  I had no idea how hard this would be!  I was thinking something flowy, or poufy, or well, just anything that would photograph well.  I searched high and low, in store and online, I mean, I literally spent hours looking with no luck!  I may not be very good (yet) at blogging, but I am very good at reading blogs and when it comes to weddings, it doesn't get much better than stylemepretty.com (seriously, even if you are not planning, it's worth a glance, everything they feature is just above and beyond)!  Anyways, they featured a formal engagement session one day that made me a little bummed because I did not like knowing that someone else had also had my great idea, but when I read that the bride had MADE her skirt for the pics (which actually photographed looking like a dress), I thought, "I could do that...maybe...". Mind you, I do not sew, not at all, don't own a machine, don't even own a repair kit, ZERO sewing skills, but I did not let that keep me from heading to my local fabric store and loading up on supplies, including about 25 yards of tulle!  I meant to take pictures of the process, but being the beginner that I am, I totally forgot that part...oops...oh well, it was such a disaster, I don't know if it would have even helped.  Although Tye did his best to show his support for my little project, there was no mistaking the serious doubts he had!  This is getting to be wwwaaayyy to long, so I'm gonna try and wrap it up by saying that after two very nights of trial and error, I came up with my skirt!  It was not as pretty up close, in real life, but I thought it looked pretty dang good in the pics!  I paired it with a plain black tank from Loft (one of my FAVORITE places ever!) and decided to wear my vintage black cowboy boots for something a little unexpected.  There are a few pics where the skirt got to looking a little janky, but for the most part I could not be happier with the results!  Hope you like them!

These are just a few, you can check out some more on the Brittany Dawson Photography Blog! 
http://brittanydawsonblog.com/?p=955

Taylor Takes On Blogging!

Ok, here we go!  My very first post!  Although I realize that NO ONE is reading this, as I'm sure no one even knows it exists, I'm ok with that, ya gotta start somewhere!  I am trying to do some online research (I do a lot of that) about blogging and gathering as many tips as I can but I know I have a TON to learn!  If anyone does happen to visit by chance or mistake, and you have any good blogging resources, advice, or tips, please do share!  Hopefully I have set this thing to allow people to share and post!  Haha, this is going to be a learning experience!  I decided to start blogging for several reasons, the main one being that I am online ALL the time and I really like finding new blogs to follow (I am going to try and figure out how to create a "blogs I follow" list pretty soon).  I feel like I have found some really awesome blogs, websites, deals, and interesting things that are just too good to keep to myself and what better way to share than with my very own blog!  I am also going through sooo many changes and challenges in my life right now that I thought it may be good for me to share my experiences and connect with others who can relate!  Topics you can expect to hear about:  fashion/shopping/bargains, planning my wedding, being a first time home seller (less than one year after being a first time home buyer), home decor, and my BIG move to a small town, just to name a few!  I feel silly saying bye for now to no one, but oh well so long for now and stay tuned for more very soon!