WHAT'S UP WEDNESDAY

What we’re eating this week…

I made Ruthie's fried chicken and rice on Monday night. I thought it was pretty decent but Matthew and my sister weren't big fans...I did use brown rice so next time I try it I will use white rice. Tacos last night...because taco Tuesday ;) and we are having pork tenderloin and spaghetti this week, too, and hopefully date night on Friday to kick off the long weekend!

What I’m reminiscing about…

Our Cookeville days...while living in Cookeville this was one of my absolute favorite times of the year. Classes are starting back up and the campus ministry that we were apart of was back in full force with activities literally almost every day. Definitely some of the best days of our lives!

What I’m loving…

Our new paint...the living room and dining room are completely finished and we are loving it! A freshly cut yard. When we first moved into our home we didn't have a lawnmower so we paid someone to cut our grass. Well we finally got a new one and it works GREAT! I love mowing and grew up helping my parents mow a lot so it's fun getting back out there and now mowing our own yard!

What we’ve been up to…

Working, house projects, visiting family, and relaxing!

What I’m dreading…

Not really dreading anything right now! We're just trying to enjoy life to the fullest :)

What I’m working on…

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was working on a new little series for my blog...well I am almost finished and I am excited to share that, hopefully next week! Last week was a busy and stressful week so blogging just took a back seat, but I am hoping to share that next week. Woo hoo!

What I’m excited about…

There is so much to look forward to right now, and we are just really thankful. Fall coming up, cooler weather, and all the fun activities that come with fall. The holidays. Our anniversary cruise (!!!!), fun house projects, decorating for fall and then eventually the holidays, spending time with family and friends, a few weekend trips, and just spending time with my sweet husband!!

What I’m watching/ reading…

Matthew just finished Scrubs and we are looking into a new show to watch. Any suggestions? I was not a fan of Scrubs and really just don't want to watch another medical show. We've tossed around a couple of ideas, but haven't nailed anything down yet. I'm saving all my reading for our cruise!

What I’m listening to…

I love the Safe Haven soundtrack!

What I’m wearing…

Lots of tank tops with cardigans, recently! That way as soon as I get in my car I can take my cardigan off to keep from melting...and when I go on walks at work I just carry my cardigan with me so I'm not a sweaty mess when I walk back into work ;)

What I’m doing this weekend…

I am so excited about our long weekend coming up. Friday night we are having a date night and then Saturday morning I am making some pictures of a friend and her cute little family, then I am picking up my sisters for the weekend! They are coming back over to stay the weekend with us and I am very excited! I see lots of pool time, some house projects and maybe a happy hour Sonic run...or two ;) I am also decorating for fall this weekend!! Even though it will be in the 90's this weekend and next week I think it's a good time to break it all out. I decorated our apartment for fall last year over Labor Day weekend and it worked out great! These next few months are some of my FAVORITE months to decorate, and I am even more excited to decorate our very first house together! 

What I’m looking forward to next month…

Basically everything I just mentioned above lol! Also, next month is my birthday, my dad's birthday and Matthew's grandmother's birthday. Lots of celebrations going on!! We are having a birthday celebration for Matthew's grandmother to celebrate her 90th birthday...so exciting!

What else is new…

Matthew is having sinus surgery next week. Prayers for him and the doctors would be greatly appreciated!

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WHAT'S UP WEDNESDAY

SIGNET SEALED - NASHVILLE PRINT

I was so excited when Sarah offered to send me this adorable Nashville print for our Tri-Star guest bedroom. Not only is it adorable but it fits in with our theme for that guest bedroom SO well. 

I love everything on it, so many details! From the hockey stick, to the Ryman, to the batman building. It is all so cute and I think it shows some of Nashville's local favorites!

Coasters // Nashville print 

Nashville print // "Home" Pillow 

Not only does Sarah have tons of different city prints, but she has adorable mugs! We have some friends over in Memphis and this would be an adorable gift for them. Christmas is coming up...116 days if you're counting ;) so go on and get your orders in now. You can never be too ahead on your Christmas shopping.

You can find Sarah on Instagram, here. Facebook, here. Etsy, here. Her website, here.

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SIGNET SEALED - NASHVILLE PRINT

CURRENTLY | AUGUST

Watching...Just like the rest of the world...the Olympics. Other than that I haven't really sat down to watch anything else recently. However, the other night while we were painting Matthew turned on Kevin Hart so that we could listen to him while we worked, and I was in tears at one point from laughing so hard. 

Listening...My summer playlist. I need to make a fall playlist soon!!

Reading...All of your blogs! I haven't sat down long enough at home to read a book in MONTHS.

Loving...My handsome HUSBAND! He is just too dang cute and literally always has me laughing. Love doing life with my guy. New recipes. That we finished painting our living room Tuesday night!!!!! Weekends with no plans. Upcoming plans/trips. DAILY CONTACT....we decided after my last eye appointment that I should try daily contacts. I tried about a weeks worth to see if I liked them from my optometrist, and I absolutely loved them. They are more expensive, but I 100% believe it is worth it. No more having to wear foggy contacts for a month at a time...woo hoo!!

Wearing....Daily contacts ;) and this adorable shirt! Any fellow Tennesseans out there?? Y'all need this shirt! More to come on it tomorrow!

Eating...I made these pork chops for dinner yesterday and they were delicious! Monday night I made my nannies dumplings and I'm pretty sure we inhaled them. Matthew and I love them.

Laughing...Does at my husband count? He is always cracking jokes or being goofy...and I love it! Also these tweets had me and Matthew cracking up....this would be something Matthew would do lol.

Working...On a new series for this little blog of mine!! Woo hoo! I am excited about it!

Travelling...We haven't been anywhere recently, which is nice for a change, but I think we are looking into going to Cookeville again....and we are PUMPED!

Planning...I'm about to get real boring here and say our meals for next week lol. #noshame in my meal planning game! I am also really motivated to cut our grocery bill in half. Not that it was crazy high or anything, but I came across a blog the other day and she had a whole post about cutting your grocery bill in half and I am always up for a new challenge lol.

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CURRENTLY | AUGUST

FRIDAY NO. 28

Matthew has been in Knoxville all week on a business trip and is, Lord Willing, coming home tonight!! Woo hoo! I am counting down the hours until I can bust out of the office to get home and see him.

My sister has been over some this week, we have gotten in plenty of girl talk and Friends binging on Netflix lol. She loves Friends like Matthew and I love How I Met Your Mother.

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Which makes me think of our Friendsgiving 2015 invitation that I created last year...

Which also makes me really excited about fall and Friendsgiving this year...

I'm not sure why, but I am way to excited to decorate for fall. Wanting fall to get here quicker is so unlike me lol, but for some reason this year I can't stop thinking about how I'll decorate our home, wearing comfy sweaters, and using our fire place! Don't get me started on fall candles...I am patiently waiting to purchase them, because I know if I buy any now they will be burning the second I get home.

I went to my parents house last night for dinner and this view just makes me HAPPY. Corn fields, hay bales and country roads...it's the road that leads me to my childhood home.

Matthew got free tickets to the Titans game this Saturday so we are heading to that tomorrow afternoon. I haven't been to a Titans game in YEARS so I am looking forward to it! Although we prefer college football to NFL, it will still be fun to go tomorrow night! We are hoping for good weather and a win! Other than the game we have some a lot of painting to do, and Sunday is homecoming at our church, so there will be different activities for that all day!

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FRIDAY NO. 28

WEEKENDING

I was a bad blogger this weekend and made 4 pictures total....two of which I am saving for the before and after of our dining room post that will come soon!

My BIL, Andrew, and his girlfriend, Christina, came into town for the weekend to help us get some stuff done around the house. We got a lot accomplished and were still able to watch a good bit of the Olympics!

Matthew and Andrew worked on hiding all the cords for our TV, Xbox and other stuff, while Christina and I painted. We primed the whole dining room, over that awful red wallpaper and then after they left I got the first coat of gray paint on it. I am in love with the color we choose to paint throughout the whole house, and each time we add it to a new room I get even more excited. We also started painting the living room. Our house is an absolute wreck right now and probably will be for the next week or so, but we are determined to get a lot of painting done! A huge thank you to Andrew and Christina for helping us so much!!

Since Matthew "saved" my blog last week when I thought I deleted it I made him his favorite....

Sausage balls. I usually have a pretty strict rule of only making these at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years but he talked me into it Sunday lol.

And that was our weekend! A lot of home projects, Home Depot/Lowe's runs, good food, and the Olympics! 

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WEEKENDING

FRIDAY NO. 27

I can't believe I am almost to 30 of these Friday posts!! So crazy and I can't believe how quick the year is going by.

This past weekend we started cleaning our our garage and we decided to take pictures of some things to sell. One of those things was our old table that we used at our apartment and fixed up. I wrote this post on our dining room table makeover last fall and we used it for a couple of months after we moved into our new home, but decided a round table would look best in that space. So it's been sitting in our garage every since. Matthew wanted to to just throw it away, but I knew we would be able to sell it. So I finally posted it yesterday morning to my Facebook and Instagram just to see if any of our friends would be interested. We honestly didn't think anyone would be interested and that we would eventually put it on craigslist or something. Well after an hour of posting it I had NINE people messaging me and asking to buy it. To say I was shocked would be an understatement! The first girl to message me about it decided to buy it and will hopefully pick it up this weekend! If anything falls through with them still wanting it, then we have 8 other girls interested in it lol. Matthew was just as shocked as I was. I do have to say, I am a little sad to see it go. I remember picking out this table, addressing and stamping our wedding invitations at it, eating our first cooked meal as a married couple at it just days after we got back from our honeymoon, and then spending ALL of Labor Day weekend last year giving it a makeover. The best times around this table with my sweet man!

As you all know, Instagram is now doing Instagram Stories. I thought it was a little weird at first but didn't freak out about it like a lot of people that I follow on Instagram did lol. I'm definitely still using Snap Chat (mrsshelbycoats), but I'm interested to see if people start using Instagram Stories more or not.

My BIL, Andrew, and his girlfriend are coming to stay with us this weekend and we plan on doing house projects all weekend long!!!! So excited to cross some things off of our list...our farmhouse table being one of them!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO! While the guys are working on building stuff I think Christina and I are going to paint. 

I know November is still a couple of months away, but I am really excited about hosting Friendsgiving again this year! I think I am pretty sure I know what our tablescape is going to look like, or at least what I want it to look like lol, and I designed the invitations last week! We created a Facebook event this week, just to go on and put the date on everyone's calendar and I'll send the invitations our closer to time. We are doing it potluck style again, so I'm excited to see what everyone brings! You can read about our Friendsgiving last year, here!

My two youngest sisters have their first half day of school today, so I am anxious to get a call from them this afternoon to hear who they got and all about their half day. My youngest sister is starting middle school today...sniff sniff. The youngest Kelly baby is growing up!

We had a gift card burning a hole in our pocket, so we decided to have a date night last night. I will always LOVE dating my man! Unfortunately his food wasn't too good, but we made up for it with a skillet cookie for dessert...so delicious!

Happy weekend!!

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FRIDAY NO. 27

I CONFESS VI

Time for another confession post!

I confess...my dress that I bought for our anniversary pictures is my new favorite dress, besides my wedding dress of course! It's navy with cream detailing on the shoulders, but in the pictures it has a purple tint to it. So weird!

I confess....school has started back this week in our town and that means I go back to my "school time commute" as I like to call it. I take a completely different way to work when school is in to avoid two school zones and getting stuck behind school buses and in traffic. During the summer and school breaks (fall, Christmas, and spring break) I take the interstate, but other than that I take back roads to get to work. Some days my commute is shorter with my "school time commute" but if there is one wreck or anything small going on my commute it shot and it takes over an hour to get home.

I confess...even though we aren't in school anymore or have kids in school, I get excited to see all the school supplies out. Is it just me or is it a lot cuter now days?! Target is killing it with all the cute school supplies this year!

I confess...Monday's are always the longest day of the week for us and I usually try to plan something quick and easy for dinner, because we are just really tired after work. Well, this past Monday we were in the bed a little after 8:00...it wasn't even completely dark yet lol. Matthew watched Scrubs and I blogged until around 9 and then we were both OUT! #oldpeoplestatus

I confess...Matthew has gotten into the show Scrubs....and I just can't get into it lol. I have absolutely zero interest in it and the opening theme song gets on my nerves, every.single.time. I hear it!! It's okay, he feels the same way when I re-watch One Tree Hill episodes lol.

I confess...I thought I deleted my blog yesterday and completely freaked out. Long story short, I was trying to update my email address associated with my blog and deleted admin permission from myself (lol) but Matthew figured it out (THANK THE GOOD LORD ABOVE) and now I know to never try anything by myself again when dealing with my blog. I am also looking into backing up my blog in case I ever try to do something crazy like that again. Have any of you backed up your blog?  

I confess...I think this is the first year that I am actually really excited for fall to get here. Usually I want it to stay summer time 11 months out of the year, but this year I am getting really excited for all things fall!

I confess...speaking of fall, I need this dress from Old Navy, this dress from Target, and I am on the hunt for a cute pair of ankle boots. I have never owned a pair because I just can't find any that I like. I borrowed my sisters last year and that was it. I needed a pair, but since it was so late in the winter I decided to wait until this fall. So I am finally going to buy some that I like this year.

I confess...I have been eyeing this fire pit on Amazon lately. We have the perfect patio for it and I think we could get some good use out of it this fall and probably some in the winter, considering it was 70 degrees last year on Christmas day! 

I confess...I didn't mean for this to turn into a "what's on my wish-list" post, but we had a couple of Target gift cards left and used them to buy this adorable lamp last night. It is in our guest bedroom that has the coastal theme, and we're going to fill it with sand and shells that we find at the beach over the years! I'm so excited and I love them! I mean just look at this cute idea...

I confess...I tried a new recipe last week and it was a big fat fail. I took one bite and then told Matthew to pick between Sonic or McDonalds, because it was just that nasty. He chose McDonalds lol.

I confess...I tried another new recipe this week and it was a success (finally!) Cajun chicken and sausage Alfredo...I'll share it soon.

I confess...the other day I saw these in our little cafe at work and decided to try it. Well that was a mistake, now I want one every day lol. They are SO stink' good! Literally my two favorite pieces of candy mixed together, pure greatness. 

I Confess I

I Confess II

I Confess III

I Confess IV

I Confess V

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I CONFESS VI

MAILBOX DECAL

I have been eyeing these mailbox decals every since we moved into our home back in January. Not only are they adorable, but I think it adds a lot to a plain mailbox that everyone on your road has. Or at least everyone in our neighborhood has the same mailbox!

Patty from Wall Awake sent me this beautiful decal and I think it is just so cute and classy! I love how it looks on our solid black mailbox, and we have already received many compliments from our neighbors.

This decal comes in two different pieces. The top part looks like this...

and the second part is our address part. You can see them both below...

I blacked out our full address for privacy reasons, obviously, but you can get a feel for how it looks!

Patty sends detailed directions as well as something to smooth the decal out for a simple application. 

Very easy to apply and looks great after! I am so pleased with how it turned out and LOVE seeing it each time I pass our mailbox.

Patty also has some door decals that I am kind of obsessed with right now too...

Seriously, how adorable?!

To see what all Patty has to offer check out her Etsy shop, Wall Awake!

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MAILBOX DECAL

Friday Letters

This week has been one for the books! So much going on each day and each night I just want to sit down and watch a good movie, or sit down for the entire time of a movie and do nothing, either would be fine lol.

Last weekend we went to Cookeville and brought TWO full car loads of my stuff and this weekend we are doing the same. This time we are calling in for some help from our families and their trucks :) My lease is up tomorrow, so everything's gotta go! I'm a bit emotional about letting my little apartment go (I know, I'm crazy). This was my first place I had all to myself. I didn't have to ask before I decorated or moved anything around, I didn't have to make sure it was 100% spotless every single moment, it was my hiding place when I needed some alone time, and it was just mine. Now of course I love having my forever roommate and our new apartment but I'll always love my little ole Cookeville apartment :) 

Dear August, I really can't even believe you are here. Part of me wants to sob that July, our wedding month, is officially over and the other part wants to jump for joy because we started this month as a married couple. July was such a sweet, sweet month. 

Dear weekend, HEEEEEY, just a few more hours until we meet again ;) Dear feet, so sorry I've tortured you all week with different heels and wedges but they are so cute and look good with my outfits! Dear work, you.have.been.crazy. Dear Nashville home, I am so ready to have everything unpacked, in it's place, organized, and cleaned! I promise this time next week everything will be done! Dear routine, I can't wait to have you back. I live for routine and a schedule and not having one has been killing me! Dear weather, please hold off on the rain and heat this weekend as we are moving my stuff and taking it down a flight of stairs and then up three other flights of stairs (Can someone say GETTIN' MY WORKOUT IN?!?!) Dear wedding photographer, our sweet Heather, we are so excited to see our pictures and I know you did an amazing job on them. Also, can't wait to see you soon to make my bridals!! Dear HGTV, you have been playing in the background as I unpack and fold clothes every night this week. Thanks for making me want to do beach house flips now!! Dear meal planning, this is the first week we have been able to actually meal plan, and I think I like our little system we did. I think it's definitely going to work for us! Can't wait to share with y'all soon!! For now here is one of the meals we had, and no that's not chili and no that's not sour cream. I made Cheeseburger Shepard's Pie! I tried two new meals this week. We are going to tweak this one a little more to our liking, but the skinny enchiladas were a hit! 

Dear Matthew, my sweet, sweet husband, THANK YOU for all that you do for us! You have put our two console tables and bathroom cabinet together this week even though you were exhausted from work (THEY LOOK SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!). You helped out with dinner, cleaning, and unpacking all my stuff from my Cookeville apartment, and even made me the best strawberry icee. You are THE best and I am so excited to spend this whole weekend with you (we get to do that like every weekend now because we are MARRIED and live TOGETHER!!!!!!!). I promise as soon as we have a free weekend it will be all about YOU.

I failed on posting about our honeymoon, the pictures are all still on my camera lol, they haven't even made it to the computer. Soon y'all soon.

Happy Weekend!!!! :) 

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Friday Letters